Rough Ride (12 page)

She finished her biscuit and juice with a heavy weight sitting on her chest. That fun glow had dimmed. “Thanks for breakfast. I have to get to the house and catch up on bills before Lane gets back.” When she started to leave, she stopped. “Do you think it’s odd he’s weirded out in my bedroom?” At Tonya’s raised brow, Gretchen explained that night after the diner. How sweet he’d been, attentive. And then he’d found the picture and left. “I just, I don’t know. I never thought about it before. What it would be like for someone else. It’s not like I broke up with Paul. I still love him just as much as before.”

Chapter
Thirteen

“Late again, bro?”

Lane pulled his gloves from the toolbox out of the back of his truck. “How come I’m late when I get here at the same time as you?”

Trent smirked. “Because ever since you got here, you were working at daylight and now you’re dragging your ass in at nine and later.”

Well, before he wasn’t waking up to a beautiful woman sleeping against him. “So I can’t sleep in?”

“Sleeping, my ass.” Trent lifted a gas jug from his truck bed with one hand and a container of oil with the other. “Is your chainsaw empty?”

Lane shook his head and lifted his own fuel and oil out. “I’m good to go.”

“Where the hell is Grant?”

“And Jacob?”

“Well, Jacob could be with Flora for all I know.”

Lane lifted a brow and couldn’t help his shit-eating grin. He’d had it all week and didn’t care. “Same for Grant—with Rebecca.”

Trent shook his head. “Smug bastards. All of y’all are getting laid.”

“I didn’t say anything about what I was doing.”

“Right. I’m sure they’re just ‘sleeping in’ too.”

Lane laughed. “Dude, you just did air quotes.”

“Fuck off.”

Lane started off, but stopped at the sound of Trent’s cell phone.

“There’s Grant.” He lifted the phone and answered. After no less than two seconds, Trent dropped his gas and oil and was pulling his keys out of his pockets while doing a bunch of
uh-huh’ing
.

Lane followed and waited by his truck as Trent hung up the phone. “Rebecca’s in labor.”

“But she’s not due for another two weeks.”

Trent shrugged. “They’re already at the hospital now. Jacob was there early and drove them in.”

“See you there.” Lane climbed into his truck and followed Trent to the nearby hospital. It was in the next town, but still just a thirty-minute drive. The parking was tight for their big diesel trucks and by the looks of the place, everyone had decided to have a baby today.

Trent looked up from his phone as he walked. “They’re on the second floor. Room twenty-eight.”

“Is she having any problems?”

“Not that Jacob said. I think it’s just been slow going.” Trent punched the elevator button and shoved his hands in his pockets. “So this thing with Gretchen?”

“Is none of your business.”

“Touchy.” Trent shrugged. “I’m just asking what’s happening there.”

Lane swore and sighed. “Nothing is happening there.”

“She seems like a nice girl.”

“She is.”

“And funny.”

“She is.” How long does it take for the damn elevator? It’s a three story building.

“Smart too. Decent.”

He groaned. “She is.”

“I don’t see the problem.”

“What problem?”

Trent shrugged a shoulder. “For why there’s nothing there.”

“I don’t know, maybe because we just started seeing each other?” And thank god, the elevator arrived. The doors slid open.

That didn’t stop Trent. “Yeah, but you’ve known her for months.”

They were at a hospital, so if he broke his brother’s nose, it wouldn’t take long to get help to stop the bleeding, get it fixed and stitched.

They were walking down the hall, passing people, but Trent still wasn’t done. “I don’t know what the big deal is. You know the odds are that we’ll find oil, we’ll sell it and stay here. Even if the oil is sparse, there’s going to be natural gas. Even still, a couple refineries and chemical companies are packed into this area. It’s a nice town, pretty area. Friendly people. Far enough away for privacy, close enough for things you need. I would think you’d love this place.”

Lane mashed his teeth together. He did love this place. Loved it for all the reasons Trent just stated. Loved it because when Trent had the flu, two near strangers had delivered him soup. Because Gretchen had two best friends who would drop anything to help one another. Because the people here were friendly and nice to them when their ancestors had left them high and dry and nearly destroyed the place. Then of all things, he had Gretchen herself. Beautiful, perfect Gretchen. With that grin she flashed him in the mornings. The naughty way her eyes lowered as he covered her.

That didn’t take away from the fact that he couldn’t stay here.

He followed the signs around and stepped in a large room. Rebecca was in a bed, strapped to some monitors. Grant was at her side in a chair, Jacob in a corner with his feet up, flipping through his phone.

Trent walked in and stood by Rebecca’s bed. “Did we miss any good parts yet?”

Grant sat up and scrubbed over his face with a yawn. “Not too much.”

Lane walked in farther and crashed in a corner chair and listened to the steady beeping in the room. A monitor showed some lines across a screen. “What are the doctors saying?”

Grant kept his hand over Rebecca’s. “Everything looks fine. It’ll take time. She’s at a three and needs to be at a ten to have the baby.”

“Seven more numbers.” Lane stretched and settled in the chair. “That doesn’t sound so bad.”

Rebecca laughed from the bed. “If I could get up, I’d walk over there and smack you myself, Lane.”

He grinned. “You’ll be fine.”

Jacob smacked him across the back of his head. “Did it for you, Sis.”

Lane narrowed his eyes. “Jackass.”

Grant’s gaze landed on them and Lane straightened in his chair, Jacob returned to his phone and that looked like a good idea. Lane pulled out his phone and didn’t hesitate. He went straight to text messages and sent one to Gretchen.

At the hospital. Rebecca went into labor.

He closed his phone, put it in his pocket and the moment he sat back, it vibrated in his pocket.

How far is she dilated? How long has she been there? Is she in a lot of pain?

He stared at the message for a bit then tried to remember it all to answer.
A three. She’s been here an hour or two and she looks fine. Like she’s half-asleep.

He sent the message and it didn’t take but another few seconds for his phone to vibrate and come back to him.
Good to hear. Tonya and Flora just stopped by. We’re going to make some sandwiches and snacks for you boys. Sounds like y’all might be there a while.

Nice. He sent back his thanks and relaxed in his chair and watched some TV show about a bride and her nightmare mom as they tried on wedding dresses. Had to be the worst show ever created, but at least it was a distraction from everything around him. Being back in a hospital for one, and then just why he was here, for another.

One episode went off, another came on. Then another. Lane was dying here. He glanced to Jacob. “Will this never go off?”

“Heard her say this morning at the house it’s an all-day marathon. She’d planned to watch it. And lucky for us, I heard the nurse say we can stay in this labor room all day with her right up until the moment she’s ready to deliver.”

He glanced up to see Rebecca with her eyes closed, hand across her belly. “Do you think she’d notice if we changed the channel.”

Jacob chuckled low. “Dude, have you never seen a pregnant woman before? You don’t give them any shit and you damn sure don’t do
anything
while they’re in labor. Walk on eggshells, dumbass. She wants this show, so it’s on.”

He checked his watch. Two and half-hours now. “I can’t believe she’s still at a three.”

“Sometimes this can be like a twenty-four hour thing.”

His phone vibrated and saved him for a moment.

We’re here. Y’all hungry now or should we leave it in the car?

“Thank God.”
Bring it up.

Jacob leaned closer. “What is it?”

He kept the volume of his reply down. Way down. “Gretchen and her friends brought some sandwiches and stuff.”

“Love those women a lot right now.”

His phone buzzed again.
Bring it up? You must be joking. You do know Rebecca can’t eat, right? You want food, come downstairs for it.

Lane pushed out of his chair. At the attention of his brothers, he rubbed the back of his neck. “Bathroom break.”

“Me too.” Jacob followed him.

Grant gestured to a door in the room. “Right there.”

Trent smirked. “Are you going in together too, maybe hold each other’s hands?”

Lane walked out in the hall anyway, Jacob at his side. “First we eat, then we can let them know what’s up with leftovers.”

Jacob grinned. “Agreed.”

Chapter
Fourteen

Gretchen sat on the arm of the chair Flora was kicked back watching the brothers sit around one another. The last hour or so, the guys had rallied around Grant while Rebecca’s labor very slowly progressed. But since, instead of talking and good-natured ribbing to relax their younger brother’s mind, there was silence.

Flora turned her head up to her. “They look like they’re about to walk the plank.”

Gretchen snorted and gained looks from the men. She cleared her throat and turned her head back down to Flora. “They must not know that sometimes this takes a while.”

“Clearly.”

She lifted her gaze again to Lane. He wasn’t watching her, but instead staring at his hands and occasionally whispering to his brothers. For the past week he’d been with her in the evenings, all night and again in the mornings. Her entire day had surrounded the question of when would she see him again. It was dangerous. She didn’t need Tonya or Flora telling her that, no matter how often they tried. They were only looking out for her, but she couldn’t stop.

At the slow rate Rebecca was progressing, they’d more than likely have a late night here and that would be the end of today. Didn’t mean she could stop dreaming about a normal day though.

On a usual day, they’d probably end up in his shower. She’d wash his back. And then he would wash hers before putting his hand between her thighs, push her against the wall and have his way with her in the small space.

She couldn’t stop the shudder that slid over her skin. One part anticipation. Another part fear of him leaving…whenever that would be. She no longer asked about his work or the progress or how many more weeks or months before he was done. She knew Grant was stalling to keep his brothers here longer and now with the new baby, that would buy her even more time.

With a wild hair of a thought, she pulled out her phone and sent him a quick text.
Are you wearing underwear?

She closed her phone. An itch started over her neck as Lane shifted and pulled his phone from the clip on his belt. His head was angled down, but she could still see how his brow was pulled with confusion. As he started to lift his gaze, she stared at the floor and waited. Watched the screen of her phone to see if it would light up.

And then it did.
Why wouldn’t I be?

She stopped a breath before it snorted out of her.
What color?

Again there was another, longer pause as she waited, but wouldn’t look up. Couldn’t meet his gaze across the hospital room. Another text came again.
Hell if I know. Blue?

Laughter bubbled up her throat. She tried holding it in, but it was too much. The chuckle escaped her mouth, but she didn’t look up. Only tapped across the small keyboard.
I’m thinking of taking them off you.

After a couple seconds he called out to her in that serious voice of his. “Gretchen.”

She glanced up, smiling as big as she could and found his gaze. His lips parted, but he must have thought better of what he was going to say and returned to furiously tapping across his keyboard.

Giddiness welled up as her phone buzzed and she accessed the message.
Not now.

She didn’t wait.
Usually we would be right now. Maybe this time we wouldn’t make it to your bedroom. But just to the kitchen counter instead.

Vibrations hummed in her hand.
Probably to just in the front door.

A laugh shook out of her and Flora’s hand bumped her arm. “What are you giggling about?”

She typed first.
With your boots on? Please?
“Don’t look up, you’ll give me away, but I’m sexting Lane.”

“You are not.”

“Am too.” Her phone shook.
You have a thing for my boots?
She sent a quick message back.
They’re manly.
“We’re discussing the hotness of his boots.”

Gretchen dared a look to her friend who was staring up at her. Her brows were pulled in. Mouth opened. “
His boots
? That’s the best you can do?”

Gretchen just shrugged a shoulder. “We’re just getting started.”

“Tell him you want to unzip his pants with your teeth.”

Gretchen blinked. “Is that even possible?”

Flora shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. Just do it.”

Her phone buzzed his response.
You wear a pair of sexy heels and I’ll wear my boots next time.

Gretchen took another glance to Flora and went for it. When it came to sex and all things related, Flora was the go-to girl for advice.
Or maybe forget the boots and I’ll unzip your pants with my teeth. To start with.

She pressed send and glanced up, through her lashes, and waited. The corner of his lips tipped up as he tapped the screen. The muscles running up his arms and into his shoulders stiffened under his tight t-shirt. The phone fell out of his hands and clattered to the floor. Gretchen whispered under her breath. “I think maybe I moved too fast with the zipper.”