One Night, Two Babies / Valente's Baby

Chapter Two

Zach steered his SUV out of the school parking lot and onto the street. After giving him her address, Arielle plastered herself to the passenger-side door and clutched the front of her oversize raincoat like a security blanket. He’d also noticed she’d become quite pale.

His earlier irritation with her stubbornness quickly turned to concern. The woman he’d known in Aspen had been vibrant, outgoing and exuded good health. But Arielle’s demeanor and the disturbing pallor of her complexion gave him every reason to believe that she was coming down with something.

“Are you all right?” he asked, glancing over at her again.

“I’m fine.”

Stopping at the red light on the corner, he turned to face her. “I don’t think so. You make a ghost look colorful.”

She shook her head. “I’ll be a lot better if you’ll just take me home. Once I have something to eat, I’ll be okay.”

When the light changed, he gave serious consideration to taking her to her apartment, bidding her farewell, then leaving town as he’d planned. But his conscience nagged at him and he just couldn’t do it.

Arielle was new to town, had no family in the area that he knew of and he’d bet his last dime that her only acquaintances were the people she worked with. How could he possibly leave her to fend for herself when she was obviously ill?

Making a snap decision, he headed straight for the interstate. She might not like it, but she needed someone with her until her illness passed. And the way he saw it, he was about the only choice she had.

“What are you doing?” she asked, raising her head from where it had rested against the passenger window. “Why did you pass up my street?”

“It’s obvious you’re sick and I don’t think you need to be left alone.”

“I told you, I’m fine,” she insisted. “Now turn this truck around and take me home.”

“No.” He changed lanes to avoid a huge amount of water covering the road ahead. “I’m taking you to my weekend place north of the city.”

“I’m not going anywhere with…you.” Her voice sounded a bit shaky and her pale complexion had taken on a sickly, greenish hue. “All I need is something to…eat and I’ll be…good as new.”

“I’ll let my housekeeper, Mattie, be the judge of that.” He’d feel a lot better having her oversee Arielle’s care. Mattie had been like a grandmother to him and Lana and nursed them through every one of their childhood illnesses with a jar of VapoRub in one hand and a bowl of homemade chicken soup in the other. “Her home remedies are as effective as any prescription medication.”

“I’m sure they are. But my apartment is a lot closer and…I told you, I’ll be fine as soon as I—” She stopped suddenly. “Pull over. I think…I’m going to be…sick.”

Zach had the SUV stopped before she could finish the thought. Throwing open the driver’s door, he rushed around the front of the truck to help her out. Putting his arm around her shoulders, he supported her while she was sick, and if he wasn’t sure before that he’d made the right decision, he was now. The last thing she needed was to be left alone to contend with a very bad case of the flu.

“I think I’ll be…all right now,” she finally said, raising her head.

After helping her back into the truck, Zach got in behind the steering wheel and turned on the heater. “Let’s get you out of your raincoat,” he proposed, reaching over to help her. The garment was completely soaked. “I’m sure you’re cold and uncomfortable in that thing.”

“I’d rather keep it on,” she objected, shaking her head as she clutched the folds of the coat. “It’s waterresistant and the inside is still warm and dry.”

Had that been a flash of panic he’d seen in her expressive hazel eyes? Why the hell would she be afraid to take off her wet coat?

“I’m not absolutely certain that’s a good idea, darlin’.”

“I am.” As she leaned her head back against the headrest, he watched her close her eyes as if it was too much of an effort to keep them open. “Now, will you please stop telling me what to do and listen to me? I want to go home to my apartment.”

“I’m sorry, Arielle, but I just can’t do that. Try to rest. We’ll be at my ranch before you know it.”

“This could easily be considered a kidnapping,” she relayed, sounding extremely tired.

“Not if the alleged kidnapper is only trying to do what’s best for the alleged kidnappee,” he elaborated, shifting the SUV into gear and merging back into the busy rush-hour traffic.

“Best in…whose opinion?” she argued, delicately hiding a yawn behind her hand.

“The only one that counts right now—mine.” He smiled at the long-suffering expression on her pretty face. “Now, try to take a little nap. I’ll wake you once we get to the ranch.”

When she felt herself being gathered into strong, capable arms, Arielle’s eyes snapped open. “Wh-what on earth do you think you’re doing, Zach?”

Lifting her to him, he gave her a grin that curled her toes inside her soggy shoes. “You’re not feeling well, so I’m helping you—”

“Just because I’m not one hundred percent doesn’t mean I can’t get out of the truck on my own,” she interrupted, desperate to put some distance between them. What if he felt the bulge of her stomach?

“You need to conserve your energy to fight whatever bug you have,” he explained, setting her on her feet. When he shut the SUV’s door, he placed his arm around her shoulders, tucked her to his side and guided her from the garage across the covered breezeway into the house. “Besides, I’m not running the risk of you passing out and possibly adding a concussion to your other ailments.”

His secure hold caused her heart to thump even harder. “H-how many times do I have to tell you? All I need is something to eat and I’ll be fine.”

He stopped ushering her along when they entered the kitchen. “Mattie?”

“Stop your hollerin’, Zachary. I’m old, but I ain’t deaf.” A gray-haired woman in her late sixties walked out of a pantry and stopped short at the sight of Zach holding her. “Did I forget about you bringin’ company for the weekend?”

He shook his head. “No, but Arielle’s sick and can’t be left alone. Probably coming down with a bad cold or maybe even the flu and requires your expert care.”

Arielle tried to push away from him. “I don’t have the—”

“Hush, darlin’,” he said close to her ear, causing a shiver to course through her. “Mattie Carnahan, this is Arielle Garnier. She’s in need of some dry clothes. See if you can find something of Lana’s for her to put on while I take her to the guest room.”

He led her down a hall and opened the door to a beautifully decorated room. When he reached to help her out of her coat, Arielle shook her head and took a step back. “I don’t need your help.”

“You need to take that coat off,” he insisted, moving toward her. “It’s soaked.”

She took a few steps backward. “The only thing I want from you is to be left alone. But if you feel you have to do something, find me something to eat and then take me back to my apartment. What part of that don’t you understand? And exactly how can I make it any clearer for you?”

As they stood glaring at each other, Mattie walked into the room to place a set of gray sweats and a heavy pair of socks on the bed. “Honey, he can be as stubborn as a jackass when he gets something in his head.” She motioned for Zach to leave. “You go get your things out of the car and I’ll have supper on the table by the time you get unpacked.”

Zach didn’t appear to be all that happy with his housekeeper taking over the situation. “I can do that later. I need to make sure Arielle is—”

“Go,” Arielle and the older woman both said at the same time.

Muttering a curse, he finally turned and walked from the room.

Mattie started to follow him. “If there’s anything else you need, just let me know.”

“Thank you,” Arielle said, meaning it. At least the housekeeper had given her a bit of a reprieve from Zach’s overpowering masculinity. “And for the record, I don’t have the flu.”

Mattie nodded as she stepped back into the room and closed the door. “Zachary means well, but he doesn’t have any idea you’re pregnant, does he?”

A cold sense of dread spread throughout Arielle’s body. “I…Uh, no, he doesn’t.”

“How far along are you, child?” Mattie asked, her voice so kind and understanding it chased away some of Arielle’s apprehension.

There was no use denying what the housekeeper had guessed, although Arielle didn’t have any idea how the woman could have possibly figured it out. “I’m only three and a half months pregnant, but I’m already starting to get a nice little bulge.”

Mattie nodded. “I thought you must be showing some since you were so determined to keep your coat on and kept holding it together. That’s why I brought some of Zachary’s sweatshirts and pants, instead of his sister’s. You’ll have to roll up the legs and push up the sleeves, but I thought you might need the extra room.”

“But how did you know?” Arielle was thoroughly amazed by the woman’s intuitiveness.

“Some women have a look about them when they’re pregnant and if ever a woman had that glow, you do,” Mattie revealed, shrugging. “And if that wasn’t enough, Zachary telling me that you got sick on the drive up here and your insistence that all you needed was something to eat was. I always had to keep something on my stomach when I was carrying both of my boys.” She smiled. “Now, get changed and come to the kitchen. I’ll make sure you get something to eat before you get sick again. Then I’m going home so that you and Zachary can talk things over in private.”

When Mattie closed the door behind her, Arielle at last took off her soggy raincoat and sank down on the bed. There hadn’t been the slightest bit of condemnation in the older woman’s voice, but she had to have strong suspicions that Zach was the baby’s father. Why else would she leave them alone?

As Arielle started taking off her damp clothes to put on the dry fleece, she sighed heavily. It appeared that the time had come to tell Zach about the baby and discuss how they would handle the issues of custody and visitation.

She wasn’t looking forward to it, but it would almost be a relief to finally have her pregnancy out in the open. Other than her new sister-in-law, Haley, and her newfound grandmother, no one—not even her brothers, Jake and Luke—had a clue that she was going to have a baby.

And although she loved her brothers with all of her heart, just the thought of telling them about her pregnancy made her want to take off for parts unknown. She was no longer the ten-year-old girl they’d raised after their mother’s death, but they still insisted on meddling in her life. Although she’d learned to stand up to them, if they knew, they would tell her what they thought was best for her and the baby. No doubt they’d even convince her to move closer to one of them.

But thankfully they wouldn’t have the opportunity to once again play the overly protective older brothers. Now that she’d found Zach, she fully intended to handle things on her own terms. By the time she told Jake and Luke about her pregnancy, she and Zach would have hopefully made all of the important decisions.

She finished pulling the thick, warm socks on her feet then stood to go into the kitchen. In theory, her plan sounded logical and should work out. But something told her that if telling Zach he was going to be a father went like the rest of her day, she’d better brace herself for life to become more complicated instead of simpler.

When Zach walked into the kitchen, Arielle was already seated at the table with a plate in front of her piled high with mashed potatoes, vegetables and a country-fried steak smothered in milk gravy. “Shouldn’t you be eating something a little lighter than that?” He frowned when he watched her take a big bite of the steak. “Chicken soup would be a much better choice for someone with the flu.”

He watched her close her eyes for a moment, obviously savoring the taste of the beef. For someone with an upset stomach, she certainly had a hearty enough appetite.

“We’ll talk about the reason I got sick after we eat,” she replied, reaching for a slice of homemade bread. “But maybe now you’ll believe me when I say I don’t have the flu.”

“Leave her be and have a seat, Zachary.” Mattie had always called him by his given name, and although he preferred the shortened version, he’d long ago stopped trying to get her to change. “That little gal is going to be just fine.”

“If Arielle doesn’t have the flu, what’s wrong with her?” he demanded, getting the distinct impression that the two women knew something he didn’t.

Ignoring his question, Mattie set a plate of food at his usual place at the big, round oak table. “I’m gonna cross the yard to my house before the ground gets so mushy I end up sinkin’ to my knees in mud. And if you need me for anything, it had better involve somebody bleedin’ or somethin’ bein’ on fire before you call me to come back over here.”

“Is it still raining hard?” Arielle asked a moment before he watched a forkful of mashed potatoes disappear into her mouth.

He couldn’t get over the change in her. The more she ate, the less sickly she appeared.

“It’s supposed to keep rainin’ like this all weekend,” Mattie informed, nodding. “And if it does, y’all will be on your own tomorrow and Sunday because I’m too old to be gettin’ out in weather like this.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Arielle responded, taking a big drink of milk. “I won’t be here. I’m going to have Zach take me back to the city after dinner. But it was very nice meeting you, Mattie.” When neither he nor Mattie commented, she frowned. “Is there something I should know?”

“Do you want to tell her or should I?” Mattie offered, turning her full attention on him.

“I will,” he conceded, seating himself at the table.

When his gaze clashed with hers, he watched Arielle slowly put her fork on the edge of her plate, her expression guarded. “Tell me what?”

“We probably won’t be going back to Dallas before the middle of next week at the earliest.”

She didn’t look as if she believed him. “You’re joking, right?”

“I’ll let you kids work this out,” Mattie remarked, quickly removing her jacket from a peg by the door. “I’m goin’ home before all hell breaks loose.”

He heard the back door close as he and Arielle sat, staring at each other over the table. “When it rains like this, the Elm Fork of the Trinity River backs up into the tributaries and the creek between here and the main road floods out,” he described. “You were asleep when we drove over the bridge, but we barely made it across. By now I’m sure it and the road are under several feet of water.”

“In other words, you’re telling me we’re trapped?” She made it sound more like an accusation than a question.

“You could look at it as being on a minivacation,” he suggested, turning his attention to his own plate.

“But I have things at school to take care of and an important appointment to keep.”

He nodded. “I’ve got things I need to do, too. But that doesn’t change the fact that I can’t drive you back to Dallas until the water recedes.”

Arielle’s ravenous appetite suddenly disappeared. “Isn’t there another road that’s not flooded?”

“Not really.” He shifted in his seat. “The way the creek winds around, it makes this part of the ranch a peninsula. Then, when rains are heavy, like now, the dry wash cutting through the middle of the property floods and this section becomes an island.”

“That’s kind of poor planning, don’t you think?” she asked, raising one perfectly shaped eyebrow.

Laughing, he shrugged. “I suppose it seems that way now, but when my great-great-grandfather settled here over a hundred years ago, it wasn’t. Back then, a natural water source was essential to a ranch’s survival. Besides, we’re two miles from the creek and there’s a couple hundred acres between here and the dry wash. Not exactly a threat of being flooded out here on higher ground.”

“But you knew this would happen and you still insisted on bringing me here?” If the heightened color on her face was any indication, Arielle was more than a little upset with him. “Why, Zach? Why did you do that when you knew full well how much I wanted to go home?”

“You were ill and needed someone to watch over you,” he noted, stating what he saw to be obvious. “And since you don’t have family close by, I was the only available choice.”

She shook her head. “You’re unbelievable. If I had been sick and did need someone to care for me, it would have made more sense to take me to my apartment. It was closer to the school and at least in the city, there are doctors and hospitals close by. And none of this was necessary because I’m not ill.”

Truthfully, he wasn’t entirely certain why he’d brought her to the ranch. Maybe it had been a way to make things up to her for leaving her in Aspen without so much as a simple goodbye. But whatever the reason, when he’d seen she was in need, he just hadn’t been able to walk away.

“If you weren’t sick, then why did you look like you were at death’s door?” he observed, his own irritation beginning to rise. “And why did we have to stop on the way here for you to throw up?”

He watched her take a deep breath, then, as if coming to a decision, meet his questioning gaze head-on. “Do you know why I get sick if I don’t eat? Or when I do eat, why I put food away like a starving lumberjack?”

The back of his neck began to tingle the longer they stared at each other. He had a feeling he was about to learn something that he wasn’t prepared to hear and might not like.

“No.”

“Because that’s what happens to some women when they become pregnant,” she said defiantly.

Silence reigned while he tried to process what she’d said. “You’re pregnant?”

“Yes.”

“Just how far along are you?” he prompted, his heart beginning to thump inside his chest like an out-of-control jackhammer.

Her gaze never wavered from his when she answered. “Three and a half months.”

He immediately glanced at the front of the sweatshirt she wore, but it was big on her and a little too early to notice any telltale thickening of her stomach. Unable to sit still, Zach rose to his feet and began to pace the length of the kitchen. It didn’t take a math degree to figure out that the baby she was carrying was most likely his.