Texas Lullaby (Texas Montgomery Mavericks Book 7) (16 page)

“Yeah. Every morning.”

“Let me ask you something else. Have you had a semen analysis done?”

“Jeez, Caroline.” Heat soared up Travis’s neck to his face.

Caroline looked at her husband. “Shoo. I think your brother and I need some alone time.”

Travis leapt to his feet, the relief to be leaving evident on his face. “Yeah. I’ll, um, go on the back deck and, um, do something.” He charged for the door as if being chased by a bull.

As soon as the deck door clicked shut, Caroline turned back to Jason. “Okay. It’s just me and you. Semen analysis?” She arched an eyebrow.

“Yes. Of course I did. I’m not an idiot, Caroline.” He wiped his hands down his face. “This is embarrassing.”

“Not for me,” she stated matter-of-factly.

“Fine, then. For me.”

“Jason, didn’t your doctor explain that the infertility can often be reversed over time if your thyroid problem is treated? We need to get another semen analysis and find out.”

“Can you stop saying semen?”

She chuckled. “Fine. Not sure what I’ll call it instead. How about your man juice?”

Jason snorted. “Not much better.”

“Here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to call a doctor I know in Dallas. You are going to go see him and we are going to get a definitive answer.”

“Okay, I guess.”

She stood and he rose. “I’ll call Dr. Sherman first thing Monday morning. Be ready to go see him.” She kissed his cheek. “And you might want to think about how you are going to apologize to Lydia.”

“We’ll see.”

“Jason. Do you honestly believe for one second that Lydia has been with another man?” She waved her hand when he opened his mouth. “And exactly when would she have had time to have an affair with another man? On her lunch break? Hard to do since we almost never leave the office, and when we do, it’s lunch together.” She tapped the side of his head. “You’ve got a brain. Use it. From what I could gather through her crying is that you were pretty harsh with her today.”

“I know, I know. She caught me off-guard with that pregnancy bomb. I was so jealous at the idea that she’d been with another man, I lost it.”

“We’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise.”

The next two days comprised the weekend from hell. On Sunday, after a million false starts, he called Lydia. After ten rings, her answering service picked up, but he didn’t leave a message. After all, he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to say.

After a couple of beers, and a few more false starts, he rang her cell. There was a click and then he heard, “The number dialed has call restrictions in place that prevent the completion of this call.” After that, the phone disconnected. Stunned, he held out the phone and stared at it. Lydia had blocked his cell phone number. Calls from his house phone resulted in the same message. All his personal phone numbers had been blocked.

He stretched out on the couch, pissed at her for cutting him off and angry at himself for being such an ass. Thanks to his sister-in-law, he’d know this week one way or the other if he was shooting blanks or firing live ammo.

If blanks, then there was no way for him to be the father of Lydia’s baby. Oh, he hadn’t bothered to question if she was sure she was pregnant. If Lydia said she was, then she was. But if it wasn’t his baby, then who was the sonofabitch he was going to kill with his bare hands?

If he found out he’d been wrong all these years and wasn’t sterile and the baby was his…then what? He’d done a damn fine job destroying any chance he might have had to get Lydia back.

He draped his forearm over his eyes. What he should have done two days ago was throw his arms around the woman he loved when she said she was pregnant and shout, “Thank you, Jesus.”

Instead, he’d kicked her out of his office, his boot firmly planted in her ass.

Yeah, he was the ass in this story.

As he drifted off to sleep, he knew exactly what he needed to do. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he refused to spend the rest of his life without Lydia no matter what the sperm test revealed.

Chapter Thirteen

Ida and Larry Henson wasted no time in getting set up in their rental house down the street from Lydia. Since they had decided to keep their Florida house as a second home, relocating to Texas basically involved moving clothing. Lydia was trying to give them space while also giving them all the time they wanted with their grandchildren. And they wanted a lot of time. On Friday afternoon, they took Ellery and Annie to their house for the weekend. The plan was for Lydia to come on Sunday for lunch.

Sunday morning, Lydia woke with a dull throb in her chest. She rubbed at the pain, but no amount of finger massaging could reach the sting she still felt from Jason’s rebuke. Of course she’d known he would probably be surprised––and maybe a little upset––at the unplanned pregnancy. However, never in her wildest fantasies had she imagined that he would accuse her of being with another man.

And the “I’m sterile” had been a bombshell she hadn’t seen coming. All those years together and he hadn’t trusted her enough to mention he might be sterile. She was a doctor, damnit. Not only would she have understood, but there were tests she could have done to figure out the extent of his problem. He obviously wasn’t sterile. She bore the evidence of that in her uterus.

Her hand dropped to her abdomen and she pressed. In the hustle and confusion of her sister and brother-in-law’s deaths, their funerals and dealing with all the details of the estate, she’d missed some birth control pills. Many birth control pills. But she hadn’t given the skipped pills much thought. She had so many other things to worry about. Even after their night together at his house in May, she hadn’t been concerned about getting pregnant. There’d been no other man for her since Jason had entered her life. She’d never wanted anyone else.

When she’d first missed a period, she’d shrugged it off as stress. Lord knew, she’d been carrying her load of it. When she’d missed her second period, she’d almost blown it off too. Instead, she’d done a pregnancy test, almost fainting when it came back positive.

The only person she’d confided in was Caroline. Pregnancies could be unpredictable in the first trimester. Miscarriages early in pregnancies were not uncommon. She wouldn’t have told Jason, but Caroline had insisted––and Lydia agreed––that he had a right to know.

She heard cooing and babbling coming from her old bedroom. She smiled. Levi was awake. Man, she loved that kid. He made her laugh every day with his attempts at talking and his natural curiosity. Keeping him safe, as in tiny fingers out of electrical outlets, was a daily challenge.

But there was a definite lack of noise in the house without Ellery and Annie. She glanced at the clock. Almost eight. If the girls had been home, they’d have been up by seven. She missed those two.

It was impossible for her to imagine her life now without children. She would have missed so much. Sure, raising kids was as hard––no, harder––then she’d ever imagined. But the rewards outweighed the stress tenfold. How could Jason have not wanted children?

Was it that he didn’t want children, or had he only said that because he believed himself sterile? A million dollar question that she’d never have the answer to.

Pushing her arms over her head, she stretched and yawned. Having her own bedroom and bathroom was a blessing. She climbed out of bed and headed to her old room. Levi must have heard her coming. He was standing and bouncing when she walked in.

“Morning, big guy.”

Drool ran down his chin as he laughed.

Her heart swelled with love as she lifted Levi into her arms. The depth of love she felt for these three kids was like nothing she’d ever experienced before.

And before long, she’d be having her own baby.

Four children. All under the age of five. She had no idea how she would cope, but they’d make it.

Levi rubbed his face on her nightshirt, leaving a glob of mucus. She hugged him tight. Yeah, she would have missed a lot without having children.

* * * * *

Monday brought heavy rain and an even heavier patient schedule.

“You’d think some of these people would have canceled because of the weather,” she grumbled to Caroline as they passed in the hall.

“Nah. They all want to see your smiling face and sparkling personality.”

Lydia snorted. “I’m hiding in my office for five minutes to put my feet up.”

“No problem. Enjoy.”

Lydia dropped into her desk chair moments before their receptionist knocked on her office door. “Look what came for you.” She set a bouquet of two dozen red roses with baby’s breath and fresh greenery on Lydia’s desk. “They are beautiful.”

Lydia pulled the card from the holder.

Love, Jason

She tore the small white card into tiny pieces and dropped them into her waste basket. Screw him.

“Care you take these with you?” Lydia gestured to the floral arrangement. “Maybe put them at the front desk so our patients can enjoy them.”

The receptionist nodded. “Sure,” She swept up the vase and left, wise enough to leave her questions unasked.

Caroline took the chair in front of Lydia’s desk. “Pretty roses.”

“Hmm.”

“Did he call this weekend?”

“I don’t know. I blocked his phone numbers.”

Caroline scoffed. “Serves him right. But on the other hand, it’s going to be hard for him to grovel his way back into your good graces if you block his calls.”

Lydia leaned back in her chair with a long exhale. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I can’t tell you. I wish I could, but Travis and I blundered our way along until we figured it out.”

“Did Travis talk to Jason this weekend?”

Caroline shrugged. “Travis worked all day Saturday and Sunday. They might have talked, but if they did, he didn’t share the conversation. Look, Lydia, Jason screwed up. I know that. You know that. Hell, I’m sure Jason knows that. But jealousy can produce some very strong reactions.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember Memorial Day when you walked into the barn and found Lisa Billings millimeters from kissing Jason?”

Lydia scoffed. “I wanted to snatch every strand of hair from her head.”

“Exactly. Now, think of how Jason must have felt on Friday. He believes he’s sterile. You walk in and announce that not only are you pregnant, but he’s the father. He can’t see how that’s possible. You must have been with another man. You don’t think he wouldn’t be crazy with jealousy?”

Lydia chewed on her nail. “Maybe.” She winced. “Okay. I grant you that it’s possible that he was jealous, but you didn’t hear all the horrible things he said.”

Caroline nodded. “Yeah. Men can be asses.”

“No argument from me.”

“The only advice I have is give him some time.”

“And then?”

“And then make him grovel.”

“What if I don’t want him back?”

Caroline arched an eyebrow. “Really? Have you thought about how it’s going to feel when you see him with another woman? Lisa Billings maybe?”

Lydia’s stomach tumbled like a dryer. “I… It will kill me.”

“So don’t do anything drastic.”

“Unblock his number?”

“Oh, hell no. Not yet. Let him suffer.”

“You do realize that I was the one who called off our engagement, right?”

Caroline shrugged. “Things change.”

Lydia sighed. “Exactly why I called off our wedding.”

“I bit my tongue when you told me about that.” Caroline leaned forward. “You did to him basically what he did to you. You each made rash decisions without talking. You decided for him that he wouldn’t be happy with your kids. Did you even ask him?”

“But he’d always had been so adamant about not wanting children.”

“Let me plant this idea. What if his hard stance about children was based on his belief that he was sterile more than his lack of desire for a family? What if he said all that to protect his ego? He’s a man. It’d be easier to say he didn’t want kids than to tell the world he couldn’t have them, don’t you think?”

“You can deny it, but you’ve talked to him. I know it. One of the things I admire about you is your ability to keep confidential conversations confidential. But right now, I hate that about you. And, yes, I’ve thought about what you just suggested.”

Caroline chuckled and stood. “I’d better get back to it. I’ve got a new patient with a toenail fungus. And they say medicine isn’t glamorous.”

* * * * *

Jason knew his face had to be the color of a fresh summer tomato as he exited the exam room at Dr. Sherman’s office. His sister-in-law had come through as promised and gotten him in for a semen analysis on Monday afternoon. The staff could not have been more professional. No odd stares or grins. For them, this was another day at the office, but for him? The most embarrassing thing he’d done in a long time.

One of his concerns had been an inability to perform in Dr. Sherman’s office. But that hadn’t been an issue. The exam room had just about anything a man could want to get in the mood from porn magazines to dirty movies.

His second concern had been about walking out of the room carrying his cup-o-sperm. No worry there. The room backed up to the lab. There was a small door in the wall where he could simply place the specimen cup and leave. Simple.

Except that everyone outside the room knew he’d been playing the slide trombone, so to speak.

Lydia was worth it. A future with her was worth anything he had to go through, even the most embarrassing day of his life.

He wondered if Lydia had gotten his roses yet. Since he had a long drive back from Dallas, he hit the call button on his cell. The blue-tooth connection rang over the car speakers.

“The number dialed has call restrictions in place that prevent the completion of this call.”

He hit disconnect. Still blocked, but maybe she just hasn’t had time to unblock him.

He rang her office.

“Whispering Springs Medical Clinic. This is Jessica.”

“Hi, Jessica. This is Jason Montgomery. Is Dr. Henson available?”

“Hold on, Mr. Montgomery. I’ll check.”

On-hold music filtered out of the speakers, music that went much longer than he’d expected.

“Sorry for the hold, Mr. Montgomery,” Lydia’s receptionist said. “I’m sorry, but Dr. Henson isn’t available and…um…she asked that I…um…”

“Spit it out, Jessica. What did she say?”

“Something about hell and freezing over.”

“Got it. Thanks. Hey, before you hang up, did a vase of roses for Dr. Henson arrive today?”

There was a slight pause and then, “Yeah. Red ones. Very pretty.”

“Great. Do you know if she saw them?”

“Um, yeah. Hold on.”

He waited.

“She got the roses,” Jessica said in a whisper. “But she tore up the note and dropped it in the garbage.”

He snorted. “She’s a little upset at me.”

“Don’t tell her I told you, okay? But ever since y’all broke up, she’s been cranky.”

“Really?” He chuckled to himself. “I won’t say a word. And thanks, Jessica.”

He disconnected. Cranky since the breakup. Yeah, he liked hearing that since he wasn’t the one who’d done the original dumping. That would be her. He needed to find a way to get a message to her that she couldn’t rip up and toss.

Dr. Sherman’s office had told him it would be a few days before they had the results of his test, but that didn’t stop his heart from sputtering every time he got a phone call. By the end of Tuesday, concentrating on the will he was preparing was impossible. He’d actually typed sperm once and semen twice. After saving what little work he’d done, he shut down his computer and packed up.

“I’m going home,” he told Margie, who immediately looked at her watch.

“At four?”

“Yep. At four.”

“Got a date?”

“Not hardly.”

“Oh. Too bad. I had hoped that Lydia had decided to take your grumpy ass back.”

“Grumpy ass?”

Margie shrugged, not nervous about losing her job. She knew she was as vital to the office as he was, and frankly, he knew it too.

“I call ’em like I see ’em,” she said.

He scoffed. “That you do. See you tomorrow.”

“Get some rest,” she shouted at his back. “You look awful.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Yes, Mom.”

Instead of heading straight home, he turned into Leo’s Bar and Grill lot and grabbed a parking spot at the front door. He chuckled. Old people dinner time. He wondered if Leo had a senior menu with discount prices he could take advantage of.

“Good evening, Mr. Montgomery,” the hostess in the restaurant said. “Would you like a table?”

“Thanks, Holly. I think I’ll eat at the bar.”

She nodded and went back to rolling silverware into cloth napkins for the evening.

He slid into a booth and a waitress came over almost immediately.

“Hi,” she drawled in a true Texas accent. “I’m Shelly. What can I get cha?”

“Bring me a draft and a menu.”

“Sure thang, honey.”

As there were only two other patrons in the bar, she was back with his beer and a menu almost immediately.

“There ya go,” she said, setting down the beer. “Need some time with the menu?”

He glanced at the steaks. “Rib eye. Rare. Baked potato.”

“Sure thang. Be up in a jiffy.”

‘Sure thang’ must be her standard answer to any request. He chuckled. God, he loved Texas folk.

He leaned back in the booth. The test results hung over his head like a boulder ready to drop. What-ifs rang through his brain. What if he wasn’t sterile? What if he was? What if the baby Lydia was carrying was his? What if it wasn’t?

And the answer hit him so hard he would have staggered if he hadn’t been sitting down. None of that mattered. The test results were no longer of any significance. All that mattered was being with Lydia and loving the family she’d given him.

Had he not fallen totally in love with Ellery, Annie and Levi? Was that not evidence that he had the ability to love and care for children who were not from him? If Lydia’s baby was his, wonderful. If not, he didn’t care. It was part of Lydia, and there was nothing about her he didn’t love.

He would welcome this new child into his life as its father, parentage be damned.