BROKEN (21 page)

“Guess you just bring out the best in him,” Del said to Mitch.

Jessie thought she
had
just about seen it all that evening, but Del teasing Mitch was the icing on the cake.
 
The two men looked at each other and seemed to come to some silent agreement about mutual respect.
 
Del stuck out his hand and Mitch stepped forward to shake it.
 
An honest to God truce at last, she thought happily.

“I’ve wanted to deck that arrogant ass for ages,” Del confessed.

“If he comes around again, you’re welcome to the first shot.”
 
Mitch
turned to the other men, who were still milling around in front of the porch.
 
“I don’t want Wilkinson anywhere near Jessie again, is that understood?
 
From now on, at least one man will stick close to the house unless I’m home.
 
You’ll see to scheduling that, won’t you Del?”

“No problem.
 
The boys and I were going into town tonight, but we’d be happy to hang around if you want.”

“No, you go ahead and enjoy your Saturday night as usual.
 
I doubt he’ll be back any time soon.”

“Oh, he’ll keep his distance for awhile,” Hank said, “but don’t make the mistake of thinking he’ll give up.
 
He’ll find some way to get even, you can be sure of that.”

“You think he’ll do something violent, Hank?”

“Naw, Jud’s not the type.
 
I know he got a bit rough with you, Jessie, and I’m mighty sorry about that
,
but I don’t think he meant to hurt you.”

Jessie nodded, but she wasn’t nearly as confident as Hank was.
 
She’d felt small and helpless when Jud grabbed her
,
but when he’d made the remark about taking her inside and showing her what a real man was like, she’d been genuinely afraid of him.
 
She and Mitch had both stolen some of Jud’s power and dignity, the two things he prized most in this world.
 
It wasn’t likely he was going to forget that any time soon.
 

After the men had gone, she and Mitch went back inside and had a light dinner then settled down on the sofa to watch an old movie.
 
She snuggled up close to his side, the hard muscular contours of his body reminding her of how easily he’d dropped Jud.
 
Kincaid
had never stood up against Jud because she’d told him it would only cause more trouble
,
and she didn’t think any less of him for it.
 
After all, he’d only been complying with her wishes.
 
But somehow Jessie knew Mitch never would have put up
with Jud’s continual visits and pressure to sell the ranch.
 
And that, she thought, was the difference between the depth of Adam’s love for her and the depth of Mitch’s.
 

Kincaid
had left it alone because he knew he wouldn’t be around to handle the situation if he allowed it to escalate.
 
But Mitch had put a choke hold on Jud by purchasing the Sinclair ranch without giving it a second thought
.  A
nd when he’d seen Jud grab her, he charged in like a raging bull to protect her.
 
As much as Jessie hated violence, she felt a rush of love for the way he’d come to her rescue.
 

She also found a great deal of comfort in knowing he
had
been able to control his anger regardless of his obvious desire to do even more bodily harm to Jud.
 
Jessie stifled a yawn.
 
It had been a long day and she was tired.
 
She was just about to suggest they go to bed when she remembered her visit with Liz earlier.
 
With everything that had gone on, she hadn’t gotten the chance to tell Mitch about it.

“I forgot to tell you I had another ultrasound today.”

“An ultrasound?”
 
He muted the sound on the television.
 
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to have one
? 
I would have come with you.”
 

Jessie sat up, attempting to keep her face expressionless.
 
“It wasn’t planned.
 
After Liz did the examination and listened to the baby’s heartbeat, she decided I needed an ultrasound.”

Mitch’s mouth went dry.
 
“Why would she do that?
 
There’s not a problem with the baby’s heart is there?”

“No, there’s no problem.
 
She just heard something…unusual and wanted to verify her suspicions.”

“Jessie, you’re really starting to scare me.”

Feeling guilty for making him worry, Jessie wound her arms around his neck and kissed him softly on the lips.
 
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound so ominous.
 
What I’m trying to say is that when we start furnishing the nursery
…
we’ll need to buy everything in duplicate.”

“Twins?”
 
He blinked once, swallowed the boulder that had lodged in his throat, and asked again, “You’re carrying twins?”

She laughed at the shell-shocked expression he wore.
 
“You look scared to death.”

Mitch pulled her onto his lap.
 
“Not scared, happy.
 
Life with you just gets better and better with each day that passes.
 
Did th
e
ultrasound tell you if they were boys or girls?”

“Liz wasn’t sure.
 
She wants me to come back next week for another one.
 
I’m supposed to drink something with a little sugar in it before I go to make the babies more active.
 
She couldn’t tell because of the position they were in
,
but if I can get them moving around a bit it
will
be easier to determine the gender.
 
You’ll come with me, won’t you?”

“Nothing on earth could keep me from being there.”
 
He drew her closer.
 
“You know this means you’ll have to marry me now.”

“Oh, really?”

“Of course.
 
It was hard enough to think of having one child out of wedlock, but having two kids before we’re married could scar me for life.”

“I’ll take that into consideration and get back to you,” she teased.

“Come on, Jess.
 
We love each other, we’ve made two babies together.
 
We should get married.”

God, how she wanted to say yes.
 
But she couldn’t, not until he came to her with the truth.
 
Or admitted it to himself.
 
She still wasn’t entirely certain Mitch knew who he really was.
 
Jessie looked into his eyes, wishing with all her heart she could take away the pain she saw hidden in their depths.
 
She wanted to say his name when
she
told him she loved him, wanted to speak it out loud when she agreed to be his wife.
 
She was glad now that
she’d
always
referred to
Adam by his last name beca
use she felt it w
ould
only compound the lie, embed it even deeper inside of
Mitch if she called
him Adam.
 
 
 

She put her palm against his cheek.
 
“Can we talk about this later?
 
I’m too happy about the babies right now to let anything spoil it.
 
I just want to go to bed, make wild, passionate love with you, and fall asleep in your arms.”

Disappointment was shoved to the back of his mind when she drew him down for a hungry kiss that promised so much more.
 
The battle of wills could wait; tonight he wanted nothing more than to give her what she asked for.
 
Leaning forward, he grabbed
the remote and shut off the television then stood up with Jessie in his arms and headed for the stairs.

Jessie nuzzled her nose against his neck.
 
“What about the lights?”
 
 
 
 
 
 

“I’ll get them later.”

“I thought we were going to bed for the night.”

“We are,” he said with a sexy grin, “but I’ll come down and turn them off in between rounds.”

The muscles in her abdomen clenched.
 
“So it’s going to be one of those nights,” she purred.

Oh
,
yeah, it was definitely going to be one of those nights, he thought as he lowered Jessie to her feet beside the bed and tugged her shirt over her head.
 
Just like their first night together when he’d been drunk from the taste of her lips, his hunger practically insatiable as their bodies moved in perfect rhythm.
 
He
would
take his time touching and caressing and kissing until she was so hot for him she’d climax on the first penetrating thrust and no doubt take him with her.
 

And he
would
fall in love with her all over again,
just
as he always did when they shared their bodies so intimately with each other.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                          
***

Del helped Mitch carry the last large box into the nursery while Jessie sat in the brand new rocker desperately
trying
not to cry.
 
As soon as they found out she was carrying two baby boys, they’d raced into town and poured through ordering catalogs to pick out just the right furniture for the nursery.
 
Once the cribs and changing stations and about a hundred other accessories had been ordered, they stopped by the paint store and picked out a soft blue for the walls and she’d spent the next few weeks scraping off the old paint and putting on the new.
 

She’d been excited this morning when Mitch told her the furniture had arrived and that he and Del were going into town to pick it up, but she hadn’t known about the rocker.
 
Apparently he
had
ordered it on the sly and her heart all but melted when they returned and Mitch raced into the house and ordered her to keep her eyes closed while Del hauled it in.

Eyeing the two men now as they rubbed their chins and debated the wisdom of buying so many things where assembly was required, it was hard to believe they
had
once felt nothing but animosity towards each other.
 
All of the men seemed to have a new found respect for Mitch
,
and even the people in town had warmed up to him.
 

She thought it had a lot to do with the way the boys bragged about how he
had
put Jud in his place, but it was also because they saw the change in him too.
 
Well, she couldn’t exactly call it a change when Mitch was just being himself, but since they all still believed he was Adam
,
it was the differences between the two brothers they saw and liked.
 

“You know,” Del said as he stared at the instructions for one of the cribs, “Hank has been pissing and moaning because you wouldn’t let him climb up on the barn roof when it needed repairs last week.”

Mitch was already nodding his head.
 
“He said it made him feel old and useless.
 
Putting all this stuff together might help build his self-esteem back up.”

“It just might curb the cantankerous mood he’s been in lately too.”

Mitch arched a brow.
 
“You think so?”

“No,” Del chuckled, “but at least we wouldn’t be the ones trying force slot A into Slot B and wondering why we had parts left over in the end.”

From her corner, Jessie ventured to suggest doing it by herself.
 
“I’m not completely inept, you know
. 
Liz said I can do everything I did before except lift anything heavy.”
 

“No,” the men said in unison.

Jessie rose to her feet and planted her hands on her hips.
 
“I can’t just mill around the house doing nothing for the next six months!
 
I’m perfectly capable of…”

“No,” came back in stereo.
 

The two men exchanged glances, obviously quite pleased with themselves for providing a united front in this.
 
She stomped her foot like a spoiled child.
 

“I will
not
be treated like an invalid!
 
I’m going to put this nursery together by myself whether you two over protective ogres like it or not.”
 
She lifted her chin, daring them to challenge her.

“I had a feeling you
would
put up a fuss about it,” Mitch said with a sigh.
 
“That’s why Del and I came up with plan B.”

Jessie’s eyes narrowed. 
“Plan B?
 
What’s plan B?”

He dug in his pocket, pulled out a key and dropped it into Del’s hand.
 
Then he strode across the room, whipped her up into his arms and carried her out of the nursery.
 
Jessie tried to wriggle free, all the while being quite vocal about how the pair of them
were nothing but big bullies, but he didn’t set her down until after Del had locked the nursery door and secured the key in his own pocket.

“Hank will open the door when he comes up in the morning to help you put everything together,” Del said.
 
“We don’t want to take any chances you’ll get hurt.”

“Those are my babies too,” Mitch added, “and I’m going to make sure both you and them are safe while I’m not around.”

Incensed by his insinuation, Jessie glared up at him.
 
“Do you honestly think I
would
do anything to endanger my babies?”

Mitch caressed the side of her face lovingly.
 
“Of course not, honey.
 
But sometimes you get a notion in your head about fixing something and you don’t even think about the possibility of getting hurt.”

Jessie brushed his hand away irritably.
 
“I hardly think putting a few cribs and changing stations together constitutes a major health risk.”

His smile was indulgent.
 
“Nonetheless, Hank will be here to do all the lifting or any climbing that needs to be done.”

With a frustrated grunt, Jessie
whirled around
and tromped down the hall to their bedroom, making a point of slamming the door behind her.
 
Now she knew how Hank felt when they wouldn’t let him help fix the roof.
 
At the thought of the older man, Jessie’s anger began to recede.
 

Maybe Mitch and Del were right about letting him set up the cribs and whatever else needed to be put together.
 
He was getting on in years and couldn’t do some of the things he used to.
 
That had to be hard for him to accept.
 
The very least she could do was make sure he felt needed.
 
With determination, she left the bedroom and approached the men and stuck out her hand.
 

“I want the key.”

Mitch was just as determined to hold his ground.
 
“I’m sorry, Jess, but I can’t trust you not to overdo it.”

“Fine, I accept that, but how do you think Hank will feel knowing the only reason he was asked to do this was to keep me out of trouble?”
 
She stretched her hand out further.
 
“Give me the key.
 
I’m going to take it to Hank and tell him he’s the only one I trust to help put the cribs together right.
 
Judging by the vacant looks you both had when you pulled out the instructions, I wouldn’t be lying.”

Mitch had to concede the point.
 
He was impatient when it came to things like this
,
so it was entirely possible his impatience would lead to missing a screw or two.
 
What would
he do then, take the whole thing apart and start all over again?
 
He nodded to Del and wisely held back his laughter
 
when Jessie snatched the key from his hand and hurried down the stairs with a haughty little toss of her head.
 
Del waited until he heard the slamming of the door to speak.
 

“You know, there was a time when I imagined Jessie and I would make a good couple.
 
I had these visions of her cooking and cleaning, taking care of my children, being the demure little housewife.”