Cherokee Baby Part 9

"The green suitcase?"

She managed a smile. Her lucky suitcase. "It hasn't failed me yet."

He smiled, too. "If you say so."

When he came forward, she knew he was going to kiss her. A gentle kiss. A goodbye.

Suddenly she wanted to cry. His lips touched hers, as magical as moonlight, as tender as the rose he'd given her. She would never forget him.

"Be good," he told her.

"You, too."

He didn't offer to stop by in the morning to see her off, but she hadn't expected him to.

He reached for herhair, let it slip through his fingers. "You better get some sleep."

"I will."

She wanted to release his hair from the braid, but somehow that seemed an invasive thing to do, so she curled her fingers into his shirt instead. If only he would ask for her phone number, offer to keep in touch, make some sort of promise.

A second later he kissed her again.

And then left her room, and her life, without another word.

Chapter 5.

Amonth later Julianne paced her apartment inClearville,Pennsylvania. She'd been fighting a debilitating illness for nearly a week. Only now she knew it wasn't a virus or bacterial infection that had been upsetting her stomach every day.

It was a baby.

Julianne McKenzie, the woman who couldn't conceive a child, was pregnant.

"Is the doctor sure?" Kay asked.

Julianne stopped pacing to acknowledge her cousin. Kay sat on the printed sofa, wearing a pair of jeans

and an oversize T-shirt. Her dark hair was clipped in a rooster-style ponytail, making her look younger

than her thirty-two years. "Yes, the doctor is sure." She'd seen him two days ago and she'd argued with him then, insisting his diagnosis was wrong, that the nurse must have mixed up her urine sample with someone else's. But a blood test indicated the same results.

She was pregnant.

Kay picked up her soda. "Has Bobby called you back?"

"No." Julianne glanced out the window. The weather was hot and muggy, stifling. "But I didn't leave urgent messages." All she'd done was give her name and phone number to the receptionist at the lodge. Twice.

"Urgent or not, he should still give you the courtesy of returning your calls."

But he hadn't, which meant he wasn't interested in talking to her. Yet she couldn't let it go. She was carrying his child and she had to tell him.

She sat next to her cousin. "I hope he doesn't think I tricked him. He is a wealthy man and I'm-" Nervous, she thought. Worried about his reaction. She couldn't bear for Bobby to think that she'd gotten pregnant on purpose, that she was trying to manipulate some money out of him.

Kay reached for hand. "Don't do this. Don't blame yourself."

"But I told him I couldn't have kids."

"You didn't lie, Jul. That's what you believed at the time."

"What if he never returns my calls? What am I supposed to do then? Fly toTexasand confront him?"

"Sounds like a plan to me."

Julianne fought the tears gathering in her eyes. "I've always wanted a baby. But why did it happen now?

And why with Bobby?" A man she barely knew. A man who still wore the wedding band his dead wife had given him.

Kay squeezed her hand. "I don't know. But just think of it as G.o.d's plan. As something that was meant to be."

Would Bobby accept that reasoning? Or would he see this as Julianne's trick? Would he be angry with her? Or infuriated withhimself for sleeping with her? "I should have mentioned the condoms. I should have said something."

"So you made a mistake. A judgment in error. It happens."

"But the condoms were right there. Just a few feet away." She'd even had a foil packet in her purse.

"And you considered them. Rationalized why you didn't need them."

Maybe, but that didn't alleviate her stress. Or the stress Bobby would endure. "How long should I wait for him to call me back before I head toTexas? A few days? A few weeks?"

"I'd leave another message,then opt for a few days. A few weeks are too long, Jul. You've got to get this settled before then. Besides, I know you haven't quit thinking about him."

That was true. Even before she'd discovered she was pregnant, she'd lain awake each night, recalling every moment she'd spent with him. His voice. His smile. His touch.

"I'm so scared, Kay."

"About having a baby? Or about telling Bobby?" "Both." After all, she was a forty-year-old who'd conceived a child out of wedlock. A child with a man who haunted her dreams. A man who hadn't even bothered to return her phone calls. * * *

Bobby checked his watch. As usual, his nephew was late. They'd scheduled a meeting at the barn, but Bobby had gotten tired of waiting, so he'd stepped outside to watch the horses in pasture.

A man couldn't have too much money or too many horses, he thought, admiring a young gelding he'd recently purchased.

Bobby had grown up dirt poor, first shoveling manure on other people's ranches and then breaking and training other people's horses, scrimping and saving for enough money to follow his dream. To chase the rodeo from town to town, to kick a.s.s on the professional circuit, the way his older brother had done.

Cameron Elk, his dead brother.

Michael's wayward father.

Bobby glanced at his watch again, and when he heard footsteps, he looked up, ready to give his rebellious nephew h.e.l.l for being late. The boy was too d.a.m.n much likeCam.

But it wasn't Michael heading down the path that led to the barn.

It was a woman.

Her watery outline didn't spark familiarity, but even in the distance her hair looked like a fire-tinged halo, blazing in the July sun.

He knew instantly it was Julianne.

His stomach knotted with nerves, with a s.e.xual pull he'd been trying to forget.

He started toward her, meeting her halfway.

They stopped beneath a flowering tree and stared at each other. She didn't look well. Her skin was pale and her eyes lacked their usual l.u.s.ter.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

She adjusted the strap on her handbag, and he noticed the bracelet he'd given her, glinting on her wrist.

"You never returned my phone calls, Bobby."

So she came all the way toTexas? Arrived on his doorstep unannounced? "I've been busy." And avoiding her purposely. They hadn't agreed to keep in touch, to catch up on each other's lives, to pretend they would remain life-long friends. For Bobby, it was easier to lock her away in his memory.

She pushed a strand of her vibrant hair away from her ashen face. "I have something really important to discuss with you."

"Okay. I'm listening."

"Can we go someplace cooler? It's so hot out here."

He supposed it was hot, even in the shade. But he'd gotten used to being outdoors. He preferred working in the sun to being cooped up indoors.

"We can go to the barn. To the office."

"That's fine." She glanced down at the ground, released a shaky-sounding breath.

"Are you sick, Julianne?"

She lifted her gaze. "Sort of."

Once they were inside, he offered her a seat. The office he shared with Michael presented two st.u.r.dy

desks, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a grouping of custom-crafted chairs. Bobby's desk was spotless and Michael's was a mess, cluttered with Lord knew what.

"Can I get you something to drink?" he asked. "A soda? A cup of coffee?"

Julianne folded her hands on her lap. "I'd prefer water, if that's all right."

"Sure." He went to theminifridge , removed a plastic bottle and handed it to her. She seemed tense and he wondered how serious her illness was. How could someone be sort-of sick?

She sipped the water sparingly, as if she was afraid to put too much into her stomach at once.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

She closed her eyes, opened them,then shifted her gaze to the floor. "I'm pregnant."

His hand slipped off the desk. He didn't need to ask if the baby in question was his. If it wasn't, she

wouldn't be here.

Another Elk b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Another illegitimate mixed blood.

Suddenly he felt like Cameron, like the irresponsible brother, the love-'em-and-leave-'em cowboy who

didn't have the good sense to use a condom. "I thought you were sterile."

She blinked and he feared she might cry. She looked so d.a.m.ned vulnerable, so frail. Like a broken-winged fairy. He prayed she wouldn't shatter, crumble right in front of his eyes. He could barely hold himself up, let alone keep her together. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound so accusatory, but you told me you couldn't have children."

"I didn't trick you, Bobby. I didn't do this on purpose."

"I didn't say you did."

"But that's what you're thinking."