The Lawman's Convenient Bride

Chapter Two

Jody Bravo stared at the shiny badge pinned to the starched khaki dress shirt right above Seth Yancy’s heart and tried to decide what to say next.

Unlike Nick, who’d been lean and wiry, of medium height, Seth was a tall man, imposing, built broad and tough. Not as handsome as Nick, but a good-looking man if you liked them strong-jawed and dripping testosterone. He was one of those guys who looked like a cop in or out of his uniform, as if he’d been born to protect and serve and would do so whether you wanted him to or not. He wore his brown hair clipped short and his posture was ramrod-straight.

His anger with her? It came off him in waves.

Yes, she should have told him about the baby earlier. She supposed. In hindsight. But she found him so...forbidding. At the funeral, when she’d offered her condolences, he’d narrowed his eyes at her and muttered a grudging thank you. She’d read his attitude loud and clear; he couldn’t wait for her to move on. So, yeah, she’d kept putting off telling him, kept asking herself why it even mattered if the step-uncle knew about Nick’s baby or not? At the same time, she’d had some vague plan to go see him, have a little talk with him, eventually, when the moment felt right.

But the moment never felt right. Also, she really had wondered if he knew about the baby already and simply didn’t care. So, yeah, she’d been struggling with a powerful desire never to have to deal with the guy in any way, shape or form.

But right now she just felt sorry for him. So what if he was acting like a first-class douche canoe with his judgmental attitude and insensitive accusations?

The man missed his baby brother. And he was hurt that Nick hadn’t confided in him.

As for the marriage question, she didn’t even want to get into that with him. But still. He was here and clearly he cared. She gave him the truth. “Nick did ask me to marry him. I turned him down.”

“Why?”

She did know what he meant by the curtly uttered question, but she was feeling just snarky enough to ask for clarification anyway. “Why did he ask me, you mean?”

“Why did you turn him down?” He barked that one at her.

Stay calm, she reminded herself. “Nick was a wonderful guy. He deserved a woman who loved him with all of her heart.”

His lip curled in a sneer. “And you didn’t.”

“You should stop talking,” she said with excruciating sweetness. “Because I have to tell you, Seth. Every time you open your mouth, you give me a new reason not to be nice to you. I’m sorry Nick didn’t tell you. But I was only three months pregnant when he died. I’m sure he thought he had plenty of time.”

“Plenty of time. My God. Plenty of...” Seth shook his head. His upper lip was sweating.

Again, her exasperation with him faded.

Nick had told her all about the big brother he admired so much. He’d said Seth was the kind of man you wanted at your back in a tough situation, always cool and even-tempered, a man who kept command of himself and his emotions no matter how bad things got.

But right now, Seth Yancy was far from cool. He stared at a point somewhere beyond her left shoulder. It seemed to her he hovered on the brink of losing it completely.

Jody stepped forward and wrapped her fingers around his rock-hard forearm. “Seth.”

He flinched and blinked down at her hand. “What?”

“It’s okay.”

“I don’t...”

“Shh. Come on.” She pulled him to a bentwood chair by the window, an old one she’d decorated by painting it with twining vines and little flowers. “Sit right here. Let me get you some water...” She gently pushed him down.

He resisted. “No. No, I’m all right.”

“Humor me?” she coaxed.

Slowly, he sank into the chair. She let go of his arm—and he grabbed her hand. “Look. Honestly. I don’t know what my problem is. I shouldn’t have been so hard on you...”

“It’s okay,” she soothed.

“I apologize. I didn’t know you were having Nicky’s baby. I really didn’t know.”

“It’s okay...”

He blinked and frowned up at her. “You keep saying that.”

“Because I have this feeling that you’re not hearing me.”

He kept hold of her fingers with one hand and scrubbed the other one down his face. “I heard you.”

Gently, she pulled free of his grip. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

* * *

Seth did what she asked of him. He sat there in that spindly chair until she returned with a bottled water. “Here you go. Drink.” She pressed it into his hand.

He stared up at her, at her worried eyes and her serious mouth. “I’m not usually such a jackass.”

Her mouth twitched in the beginnings of a smile she didn’t quite let happen. “I really do understand. I’m sure it’s a shock.”

“I...”

She tapped the sweating water bottle. “It’s nice and cold. Drink.”

It wasn’t a bad suggestion, especially given that his mouth felt like he’d just swallowed a bucket of sand. So he unscrewed the lid and put the bottle to his lips. He drank it down in one go.

“Better?” she asked.

“Yeah. Thanks—and I am sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”

“You’re forgiven.” She spoke softly. Her eyes were kind now.

He had a thousand questions to ask her. He hardly knew where to start. But what he did know was that he would be a part of Nick’s baby’s life. “I want to help. Any way I can.”

“Well, thank you...” The words were right. Her expression wasn’t. She bit the corner of her lip and fell back a step.

He wanted to grab her arm and pull her in close again. “What’s wrong with my wanting to help?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. It’s very kind of you, and I appreciate the offer. Right now, though, there’s nothing to help me with. I’m all set.”

“Set? How’s that?”

“Honestly, there’s nothing more to do at this point. I’ve got everything handled. I have excellent insurance and I’m getting great prenatal care. I’m watching my diet, taking my vitamins. The baby and I are both in good health. The baby’s room is ready. My sisters are all three helping out, planning to be with me through labor and delivery. I have full-time backup here at the store for those first weeks after the birth. My due date is a month and a half away, and I’m all ready to go.”

“Well, great,” he replied, though to him it was anything but. He needed to help her, and how could he do that if she had everything under control?

She added too brightly, “But I promise I’ll be in touch as soon as she’s born.”

“It’s a she?” he parroted blankly, remembering that Monique had said the baby would be a girl.

“Yes.” Jody did manage a smile then. “Her name is Marybeth.”

Marybeth. Nicky’s little girl will be named Marybeth. “I still want to help.”

“And you can.”

“Tell me what to do.”

A nervous laugh escaped her. “As I said, I can’t think of anything right now, but you never know...” The way she was looking at him? Not good. Like she wished he would leave, and the sooner the better.

And he couldn’t blame her for wanting him gone. He’d jumped down her throat, done a first-class imitation of an overbearing ass, when he should have been gentle and coaxing and kind.

He really ought to go. He should retreat and regroup—and do a better job of acting like a civilized human being the next time he talked to her.

So all right. Next time would be better. He bent to set the water bottle on the floor, lifted the flap on his right breast pocket and pulled out one of the business cards the county provided for him. “Got a pen?”

“Uh. Sure.” She zipped over to the counter with the register on it and came back with a Bic.

He took it and jotted his private numbers on the back of the card. “Call me at the justice center anytime, for anything. And you can reach my cell and the phone at the ranch with the numbers on the back.”

“I... Great. Thanks.” She accepted the card and the return of her pen and looked down at him expectantly, waiting for him to get up and get out.

And he would. Soon. But first there were things he had to tell her, stuff she needed to know. “After we lost Nicky, I moved to the ranch.”

“Ah. That’s right. You used to live in...?”

“Prideville.” The former county seat was a forty-mile drive from Justice Creek. “With the justice center here now, I wanted to be nearby anyway. And my dad retired to Florida a few years back. We’ve got a great couple, Mae and Roman Califano, out at the Bar-Y. They’re good people. And they can run the place with their hands tied behind their backs. But I think it’s important to have someone in the family living there.”

“Yes. Yes, I can see that.”

“You know how to get to the Bar-Y, right? You’ve been there, haven’t you?”

“Yes. I have, a few times, actually—last fall, after Nick and I became friends. And I’ve met the Califanos, too. I liked them.”

He tried not to stare at her belly. He had a yen to touch it, to see if the baby might give a little kick, provide him with tangible proof that Nicky’s child lived.

But he knew he’d blown his chances for any belly-feeling today. “Just in case, I can jot down the address for you...”

“No. Really, I know how to get to the Bar-Y—I mean, if I need to get there.” Her gaze shifted toward the door and then right back to him, as though she could hustle him out with the flick of a glance. He took another card from his pocket and held it out to her.

He watched a dimple tucking itself in at the corner of her mouth. “Seth.” She held up the first card. “I already have one.”

“Jody, I would really appreciate having your numbers, too.” He said it hopefully, pouring on the sincerity, though as sheriff, he would have no trouble getting his hands on just about anything he needed to know about her. But it was better if she volunteered her contact information. That way when he called, it would be because she’d given him tacit permission to do so.

“Oh. Well, sure.” She accepted the card, scribbled on the back of it and returned it to him.

“Great.” He stuck the card back in his pocket. And then, reluctantly, he stood.

She flew to the door, turned the lock and pulled it open. “Thanks, Seth. I’m...glad you came by.”

No, she wasn’t. But it was nice of her to say so. “Call me. I mean it. Anytime.”

“Yes. All right. I will.”

He didn’t believe her. But that was okay. If she didn’t get in touch with him, he would be contacting her.

He was helping out whether she wanted him to or not.

* * *

“So will you call him?” Elise asked the next morning at the bakery. Three or four days a week, they shared breakfast at a small table tucked away in a corner. Bravo Catering and Bakery was already open. Jody would open Bloom in half an hour.

Jody leaned toward her sister across the table. “I have zero reason to call that man.” She kept her voice low in order not to share her private business with every customer in the place.

Elise fiddled with her ginormous engagement diamond. She did that a lot, usually while smiling dreamily. She and Jed Walsh, the famous thriller writer, were getting married at the end of June. And actually, she was looking more thoughtful than dreamy right at the moment. “He’s the baby’s uncle, right? And he really wants to help. You said so yourself.”

“There’s nothing to help with. I’m so completely on top of this whole situation. You guys threw me three showers. There’s nothing left to buy. The baby could come tomorrow. I’m ready to go. I mean, I have three birth coaches, present company included.”

Elise gave a little snort. “You are so efficient I can’t stand it. I get it. You’ve got this. It’s all under control.”

“As a matter of fact, it is. And I do.”

“Kids do need family, though.”

“Handled. We’re Bravos. There are too many of us to count.”

“Seth Yancy is your baby’s family, too—and I can’t believe I even have to remind you of that.”

Jody stared into her steaming cup of rooibos tea. “Okay, Leesie. I get it. And I know you’re right.” She took a thoughtful sip. “I’ll...reach out to him.”

“You do realize you shudder when you say that?”

“I find him intimidating, okay? And the way he looks at me.” She couldn’t suppress another shiver. “Like I need a good talking-to, you know? Like I wasn’t brought up properly and my moral compass is all out of whack.”

Loyal to the core, Elise jumped right to Jody’s defense. “Well, that’s just rude. Maybe I should have a word with him.”

Jody snorted a laugh. “Don’t you dare—and really, he’s not that bad. He was upset that I hadn’t told him about the baby. And he was curt with me at Nick’s funeral, but that’s understandable. Nobody’s at their best after losing a brother out of nowhere in a tractor accident.”

“So. You’ll give him a chance, then?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I will.” But not until later. She had it all together this time around. She didn’t need Seth Yancy’s help.

True, he had a right to know his niece. And he would. After Marybeth was born, she would give him a call.

Elise said, “A week from Saturday Jed has to fly to New York for some publicity thing. He wants me to go.”

“Can you afford to be away? Don’t we have two parties that weekend?” Jody used the word we loosely. Her part would be minimal. Bloom would provide floral centerpieces for both events.

“They’re just small dinner parties. Danielle can run them.” Danielle was Elise’s second in command at Bravo Catering.

“So go.”

“I don’t know. I want to be here for you, in case you need me.”

Jody groaned. “Oh, please. I’m in perfect health. The baby is doing great, and I’m not due till the end of May. And if anything happened—which it won’t—Nellie and Clara are a phone call away.” Nell Bravo and Clara Ames were their other two sisters.

Elise fiddled with her ring some more. “I would be gone for four days, Saturday through Tuesday.”

“Not a problem.”

“It seems like a long time.”

“Elise. Stop worrying.”

“I’m trying.”

“I’ve had no cramping, no spotting, not a single sign that the baby might be early.”

“And besides, first babies usually come late, right?”

“Right.” Jody tried not to look guilty.

Okay, so she had a few secrets. And somehow, she’d never gotten around to sharing them with her sisters, or anyone else in the family, for that matter—well, except for her mother. Somehow, Willow Bravo, of all people, had figured it out and shown up on her doorstep when Jody was six months along. As far as Jody knew, though, her mother had never told another soul.

And, no, Jody wasn’t ashamed that she’d given her first baby up for adoption. All things considered, her choice had been the right one. And no one was going to judge her, anyway. She really ought to stop lying by omission and tell Elise and the rest of them the real reason she’d suddenly decided to spend several months in Sacramento at the age of eighteen.

But come on. It was thirteen years ago, which definitely put it into the category of old news. And she just didn’t feel up to going into it now.

Kind of like she didn’t feel up to reaching out to Seth Yancy...

On second thought, maybe there had been a little damage to her moral compass, after all.

“Jody?” Elise was watching her through suddenly worried eyes. “You okay?”

Jody pulled it together. “I am just fine. And you’re going to New York with Jed.”

* * *

The following Tuesday, Jody stood at the design station at Bloom. She was shaving the corners off a cube of floral foam when in walked the sheriff. Again.

Jody put down her knife with care. “Hello, Seth.”

He took off his aviator sunglasses and his County Mounty hat and came right for her. “You never called.” He set the hat on the counter and the glasses beside it.

Careful not to let anything spill on his hat, she brushed the shaved bits of foam from her hands. “There was no reason to call you. Everything is fine.”

“You’re sure?” He regarded her solemnly, with bleak concentration, as though if he stared hard enough, he could see inside her head and discover all the ways she wasn’t taking proper care of herself.

Jody had a burning need to let out a long, exasperated sigh. Somehow, she quelled that. “I’m sure.”

“Should you be on your feet so much?”

She was suddenly glad for the deep counter between them. He couldn’t look down and see her slightly swollen ankles—which were nothing out of the ordinary for a woman in her third trimester. “Honestly. I’m taking excellent care of myself.”

He sent a suspicious glance around the shop. “Those tubs of flowers outside are heavy. You should have help carrying them in at night.”

She had a good answer for that one. “And I do have help. Plenty of it.”

“How so?”

What? He had to have specifics as to her employees and the hours they worked? Fine. She would give him specifics. “I hired an extra assistant. I already have one who comes in to work with me on Saturday, runs the shop on Sunday by herself and picks up the slack whenever I need her. The new one comes in at two and stays through closing, Monday through Friday. And when the baby’s born, she’ll be here full-time for as long as I need her, and my original assistant will be working more, too.” Was that enough information to end this interrogation?

Apparently not. “You were here on your own a week ago when we talked.” It came out as an accusation with How could you be so irresponsible? implied at the end of it.

No way I have to explain myself to you. But then she went ahead and did it anyway. “The new girl called in sick that day. But she hasn’t missed a day since. And if she can’t make it, and the other clerk is busy, I have more people I can call.”

“What about when you open up in the morning?”

“What about it?”

“Who carries all those tubs of flowers outside then?”

Seriously. Was this in any way his business? No. But if she told him to butt out, he might just decide to stick around and explain in detail all the reasons he had a right to cross-examine her. And what she really wanted was for him to go away. “For weeks now, my sister Elise or one of her clerks has been helping me open up every morning that I’m here on my own.”

“I’d be happy to come by and pitch in.”

“I... Thank you. I’ll remember that.”

“You still have my card with my numbers?”

Where had she put that? “I do. Yes. Of course.”

“Jody.” He gave her that laser-eyed stare again. “Did you lose my card?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Show it to me.”

She stood very still and reminded herself sternly that she was not going to start yelling at him. “I don’t have it handy. Sorry.”

The sheriff was not pleased. He pulled out a cell phone and punched some numbers into it. Her cell, in the pocket of her bib apron, blooped. “I’ve sent you my numbers. Again.”

“Thanks.” She knew she didn’t sound the least appreciative, and by then, she didn’t even care.

He took another of his cards from his breast pocket, grabbed a pen from the jar on the corner of the counter and wrote down all his private numbers all over again. “Just to make sure you don’t lose them this time.” He held it out to her.

She didn’t take it. “Seth, come on. You already put them in my phone.”

“What if you lose your phone?”

“I won’t.” She folded her arms and rested them on her protruding stomach. “And anyway, I still have the first card you gave me. It’s around. Somewhere.” They glared at each other.

“I just want to help.” He said it gently, but there was no mistaking the disapproval in his eyes.

And then the shop bell over the door jingled, saving her from saying something she shouldn’t. Two well-dressed middle-aged women came in. “I have customers,” she said with a blatantly unfriendly smile. “If you’ll excuse me.” She sidled out from behind the counter and made for the newcomers. “Hello, ladies. How may I help you?”

By the time she’d sold the women a mixed bouquet each, Seth had given up and left. She found the card he’d been trying to hand her on the design counter next to the partially shaved cube of foam. Shaking her head, she stuck it in her apron pocket.

And then she banished Seth Yancy from her thoughts.

Humming softly to herself, she went back to work arranging peonies, roses, green hydrangeas, maidenhair ferns and two gorgeous green-tipped purple Fiesole artichokes in a mercury glass compote bowl.

* * *

On Friday, Seth called her at home. He wanted to know how she was doing. She said she felt great.

He said, “If you need anything, you’ll call me?”

“Absolutely,” she replied and refused to think too deeply as to whether or not that was true.

A few minutes after she hung up, she got another call—this time on her cell. It was her sister Nell, who ran a construction business with their brother Garrett. Nellie wanted to fly to Phoenix that weekend for a home show. “Just checking in to be sure you’re doing all right before I even think about deserting you.”

“You’re not deserting me. Nothing is happening here. Go.”

“I might stay over until Tuesday or Wednesday. Visit with an...old friend.”

“You know you sort of paused before the ‘old friend’ part, right?”

“What can I say? It’s a business-with-pleasure kind of situation.”

“Nellie.”

“Um?”

“Have a fabulous time.”

“I will—and you would tell me if there were any signs you’re going into labor, right? Any spotting or weird cramping or if the baby had dropped?”

“Of course I would. My due date is four weeks out, and there’s nothing to worry about.”

Nellie started waffling. “You know, the more I think about it, four weeks isn’t that far off. Anything could happen in the meantime.”

“Nellie. Stop. There is nothing for you to worry about. And anyway, Clara’s here if I need her.”

“And also Elise,” Nellie added helpfully.

Jody hesitated. She really didn’t want Nell to talk herself out of the trip.

“Jo-Jo, you’re too quiet.”

So she confessed, “Elise is taking a quick trip to New York with Jed for some publicity event.”

“You didn’t tell me that Elise took off.” Nellie said it in a chiding tone.

“She didn’t. Yet. She’s leaving tomorrow and will be back Tuesday and you’ll be back Wednesday, and how many times do I have to tell you that I’m experiencing no signs of approaching labor, but if anything happens, I can call Clara. Or Rory.” Rory McKellan was their cousin. “Or one of the guys if it comes down to it.” They had five brothers and all of them lived in the area. Four of those brothers were either married or engaged to women Jody counted as friends. “There is no shortage of people I can call in an emergency.”

Nell made a humming sound. “You really are sure about this?”

“How many times do I have to say it?”

Nell blew out an audible breath. “Sorry I got so freaky.”

“Not complaining. I love that you care.”

“I mean, you’ve had a textbook pregnancy, and you’re healthy as a horse.”

“Is this where I make a neighing sound?”

“Har-har. And it is your first baby and first babies—”