Baby, Oh Baby! (15 page)

The doctor laughed jovially. "I remember those days from when my own children were small." He glanced down at the chart.

Jake reseated himself beside Annie on the bed, close enough that she could smell the shaving cream scent on his skin.

"Your wife had a close call," the doctor remarked, still reading the chart.

"I'm not...." Annie began again.

Jake gripped her hand and squeezed hard. Annie was so surprised she stopped in mid-sentence and stared at him. His brow creased as he shot her a warning look. He obviously didn't want the doctor to know they weren't married.

"A hour or two later, and that appendix would have ruptured." The doctor finally closed the file. "Good thing you got her here when you did."

"It was hard to convince her to come."

The doctor set the chart on a chair and advanced toward the bed. "Well, let's take a look and see how you're doing this morning."

Jake rose from the bed and swung Madeline down, too. To Annie's alarm, the doctor seemed prepared to lift her gown and examine her right in front of him.

Jake cleared his throat and looked away. "I'll, uh, take the baby out in the hall."

"Oh, no need," the doctor replied. "This will just take a moment."

Annie's heart pounded. She couldn't very well tell thedoctor she didn't want Jake in the room while he examined her. Trying to correct his assumption that they were married would be more embarrassing than enduring the current situation.

To Annie's relief, Jake turned his back and lifted Madeline to look out the window. Annie kept her eyes on his broad shoulders as the doctor examined the small incision on her right side. "Looks like you're doing just fine."

He gently felt her abdomen, then pulled down her gown. Annie covered herself with the sheet as fast as she could.

The doctor picked up the chart. "If you promise to take it easy, you can go home this afternoon." He pulled a pen from his pocket and made a notation on it.

Jake turned back around. The doctor looked up and shot him a grin. "Of course, you'll have to wait on her hand and foot. She's not to do any heavy lifting. That includes the little one here."

Jake nodded. "I'll see to it."

"I want to see her in my office in three days, and we'll take out those sutures."

"I'll have her there."

The doctor jotted a final note, then closed the file. "Looks like you're in good hands, Annie. I'll sign the release papers, and you two can get out of here in an hour or so."

"Thank you," she said.

The doctor shook Jake's hand. "Take good care of her." With a final wave at Annie, he headed out the door. She stared at Jake. "Why did you do that?"

"Do what?"'

"Pretend we were married. Say you'd take care of me.”

"I didn't pretend anything. I just didn't think a long, convoluted explanation of our relationship was called for." He jammed his fingers through his thick hair. "And as for saying I'd take care of you and Madeline, well, I intend to do just that."

He sounded so darned confident, so damned in control. Dadblast it, she didn't want this man controlling anything about her or her child. She eyed him dubiously. "You're just going to drop everything and play nursemaid?"

Jake shrugged. "I have my laptop with me. I can work from your house."

The situation was appalling. Letting this man into her house and life while she was disabled was like letting a fox into a hen house full of crippled chickens.

But she needed help. She couldn't care for an active baby alone the day after major surgery.

She scanned the room for Madeline and spotted her beside the long window, still peering out. Annie followed the child's gaze to a large billboard across the street. It was an ad for a loan company, placed near a busy intersection for everyone in the town to see, but the message seemed solely aimed at Annie. Her grandfather's soft drawl reverberated in her head as she gazed at the words: "Sometimes we all need a little help."

The words seemed to grow larger as she gazed at the sign, and they transported her back in time, back to a warm April afternoon when she was six years old. She'd bought a kite with her own money and wanted to put it together by herself. The only problem was, she couldn't read the directions. She'd struggled and struggled, but only succeeded in making a mess. She'd finally burst into tears when it all seemed a hopeless tangle.

Her grandfather's hands bad been gentle and sure as he'd unsnarled it for her, and his voice had been the same way. "Sometimes we all need a little help, girl. There's no shame in taking it when we do."

He'd been right then, and he was no doubt right now. Annie closed her eyes, then breathed out a deep sigh. "Okay.”

"Okay, what?"

Annie jerked her eyes open, surprised to discover she'd spoken aloud. "Okay. You can stay." Oh, dear—that certainly wasn't a very gracious way to thank someone who was going to put his life on hold to tend to her and her baby for the next few days. She swallowed back all of her uncharitable feelings and forced herself to look him in the eye, which gave her the oddest, funniest feeling in the pit of her stomach. "And—and thank you."

Jake pulled his eyes from the hilly road just outside of Bartlesville and glanced over at Annie. Her head was turned toward the passenger window and he couldn't see her face. She was being awfully quiet on the drive home. She'd hardly said a word since he had helped her out of the wheelchair the hospital had insisted she ride to the exit and into his car.

Madeline was quiet, too, but that was because she'd fallen asleep almost as soon as the car had left the hospital parking lot. Jake looked in the rearview mirror and saw the baby dozing in her car seat, her head drooping forward at an uncomfortable-looking angle.

Maybe Annie was sleeping, too. Jake glanced at her again. She evidently felt his eyes on her, because she met his gaze, then quickly looked away.

"Are you feeling all right?"

"Not too bad. I'm sore and a little woozy from the pain medicine."

Now was obviously not a good time to get into a discussion about child custody. He was chomping at the bit to talk about it, but she wasn't in any condition to make decisions. He needed to bide his time.        

She winced as she shifted on the seat, angling her body more towards him. "You know, I really don't know anything about you."

"You knew enough to select me as the father of your child."

Annie's head abruptly turned away.

Damn. He was supposed to be gaining her trust; not ticking her off. "Hey—I'm sorry. I have a bad habit of shooting off my mouth. I'm working on it."

It was his turn to feel her gaze on him. "I take it you don't approve of single motherhood."

"I've never really thought about it. What I don't approve of, I guess, is someone having my child without my knowledge or permission."

"I didn't know you didn't know. I thought you were a regular donor" Annie stared straight ahead. "You act like I stole something from you."

"Well, I guess I kind of feel like you did."

"I'm as much of a victim of this situation as you are," Annie said stiffly. "I thought my donor had signed an agreement to stay out of my life."

"How did you choose me?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, how does it work? Do they just give you a list of donor profiles and tell you to pick one?"

"Pretty much. But none of the ones on the list fit what I was looking for. Dr. Borden asked me to describe what I wanted. When I did, he said he had just the right person in mind. He mailed me your profile, and, well, he was right."

"So—what made you want me?"

Annie shrugged. "You had a good family health history. And your educational level and profession indicated a likelihood you were somewhat intelligent."

            The dubious tone in her voice made him grin.

"... And your physical description fit what I wanted." Jake glanced over at her. "And what, exactly, was that?"

Annie looked down at her hands. "Someone tall, with dark hair and eyes."

"Why was that part of your criteria?"

Annie continued to study her manicure. Jake wasn't sure, but he thought her cheeks looked a little redder than before. She lifted one shoulder. "I don't know. I guess I just find it attractive."

Did that meant she found him attractive? Jake silently cursed himself for caring. She no doubt had some other guy in mind, some guy she was carrying a torch for. He bet he could even guess who it was. "I suppose your exbusband fits that description."

Her eyes flew wide open. "Nate? Oh, no! Nate has light hair and blue eyes."

"Ah. So you were looking for his opposite"

"He had nothing to do with it. We'd been divorced for years."

"You just wanted a dark-haired child?"

"Oh, that wasn't really the issue."

"So what was?" He glanced at her curiously.

Annie lifted her shoulders and looked away. "Fantasy, I suppose."

"Fantasy?"

She nodded. He couldn't keep from pressing for additional information. "You mean the sexual kind?"

Her color heightened. "You're getting into a pretty personal topic here."

"The fact that we've had a child together is already pretty personal, if you ask me."

            Jake was right. The thought that this man's sperm had been inside her was enough to make Annie break a sweat. There was something intensely primal about him anyway, despite his outward polish.

Why did he have to be so good-looking? It was impossible to look at him and not think about sex.

It had been a long time since she'd had any, Annie thought ruefully—too long, judging from the effect this man was having on her. What was wrong with her, having this kind of reaction to a man who posed such a threat to Madeline?

Well, maybe the threat wasn't really to Madeline, she mentally amended. He posed more of a threat to her—a threat to take away the life she'd envisioned and built, a life that contained only her and her child.

The thought put her on the offensive. "You have an unfair advantage over me in the personal information department. After all, I didn't pretend to be somebody else when we first met."

His right eyebrow shot up. "I didn't pretend anything. You assumed I was your friend's grandson and I just played along."

"Uh-huh. And you did the same thing with the doctor, I noticed. Too bad there wasn't a line on the donor form that described your ethics."

A nerve ticked in his jaw. The observation gave Annie a great deal of satisfaction.

"I don't like to play games." He spoke without taking his eyes from the road. "If you want to know anything about me, all you have to do is ask."

"All right. What happened to your wife?" Good heavens, what had made her start with that question? It sounded like she thought he'd bumped her off.

He was silent for so long that she thought he wasn't going to answer. "She died in a car crash, along with my parents."

Annie's heart constricted. "Oh, how awful! Was it recent?’

"It happened a little over two years ago."

"Where?"

"Just outside the airport in Tulsa. A drunk driver ran a red light."

"Had you been married long?"

"Seven years"

"And ... you were undergoing fertility treatments?"

Jake nodded. "Dr. Borden was her physician."

"Mine, too."

Jake shot her a dry look. "So I gathered."

Annie hesitated. "You said the mix-up at the fertility center was deliberate."

Jake nodded grimly. "According to the clinic's director, Dr. Borden was forced into retirement because he was caught doing the same thing with another couple. In that case, though, no pregnancy resulted."

"It's hard to believe he'd do something so unethical." Annie shook her head. "He seemed so nice—so intent on giving people just what they wanted."

Jake's lip curled in a mirthless smile. "That appears to be the problem."

"Can he be prosecuted?"

"Sure. If we bring charges."

"Do you think we should?"

Jake sighed. "That was my first reaction. My second, really. My first was to go to Florida and beat the guy to a pulp."

She looked at him curiously. "Sounds like you had a third reaction."

"Yeah." He gazed straight ahead through the windshield. "I thought about Madeline."

"And?"

He hissed out a harsh blast of air. "And this is the sort of thing that would get a lot of media play. I don't want her existence to be labeled a mistake."

I thought about Madeline. Dear Lord, he sounded like a father—a real father, the kind who put his child's best interests first. Annie didn't know if was the effect of the pain pills or the shock of the whole thing, but her throat grew thick with emotion.

As Jake steered the car into the drive of the ranch, Annie realized she had one more question, a question that was burning inside of her, although she didn't know why. She swallowed hard and asked just as he pulled the car up to the house, "What was your wife's name?"

His response was wary. "Why do you want to know?"

"I don't know. I just do."

He turned the key in the ignition. The motor died. "Rachel. Her name was Rachel."

His voice was hushed, as reverent as if in prayer.

Annie's throat grew thicker. He'd answered her underlying question, the one she had really wanted to know.

He'd loved his wife. He loved her still. She could see it in the fine lines of pain around his eyes, in the softening of his lips at speaking her name. Annie's heart ached in an odd, undefinable way.

She'd been a lucky woman, his Rachel. Not every woman got to be loved like that.

Madeline could be, her mind prompted. A man who could love that deeply had the makings of a wonderful father.

It should have been a comforting thought, but it wasn't. Everything about this man was unsettling. Jake made her want to run, yet at the same time, he held a dark fascination—a fascination that was as strong as it was disturbing.

Chapter Nine

"Steady, now." Jake tightened his grip on Annie's arm, but she still wobbled as he helped her up the steps to the porch.