Bound By Marriage(19)

       

"Congratulations." It would have taken a harder heart than hers to stop from breaking into a smile. "Have you named her?"

"Kayla's thinking it over."

"What about you?"

A few seconds of silence. "Will you come visit? Kayla said she'd like that."

Jess paused, then forged ahead. Gabe could believe what he liked-she  knew what was in her heart. "Sure, I'll drive down tomorrow." It'd be an  exhausting round trip, but she could use the time alone to clear her  head.

"I'll be waiting."

Disturbed by the tone of that last statement, she pressed the end button  and put the receiver beside her plate. "Kayla gave birth. A healthy  girl."

"I'll fly you. It'll be quicker."

She focused deliberately on the peas on her plate. "You don't have to visit."

"We'll leave at around seven."

"Fine." She chewed with single-minded focus, knowing full well why he  was accompanying her. He didn't trust her even in this most innocent of  situations.

Mid-morning the next day found them in the back seat of a taxi going from airport to hospital.

"You're spending a lot of time away from the station." And Angel was the most important thing in Gabriel Dumont's life.

"It's necessary."

"I wouldn't say that."

"Jess, we're not having this conversation here."

Cheeks flushing at the sharp rebuke, she turned to glance at the passing  city scenery, but saw nothing. "I talked to Richard again this morning.  He's thinking about scheduling the show for a month from now."

The taxi rolled to a smooth stop in front of the hospital as she  finished speaking. Getting out with the flowers she'd bought at the  airport, she waited for Gabe to pay the driver and walk around to join  her.

"That should keep you busy," he said as they headed toward the entrance.

Her fingers squeezed the flower stems. "Like a child with a toy?"  Glancing at a signboard inside the doorway, she made her way toward the  elevators.

"A child is exactly what you're acting like right now." He pressed the button to go up.

The elevator opened immediately.

She stepped inside and punched the button for Kayla's floor. "Why?  Because I want you to treat me and my work with some respect?"

"Respect has to be earned."

"Yes, it does."

Getting off the elevator several excruciating seconds later, they  covered the remaining distance without further speech. When they entered  the room, it was to discover Damon sitting beside Kayla's bed, his  mouth pursed shut. So was hers.

And from the looks on their faces, the silence wasn't a good one.

Jess felt like an intruder but the couple brightened at the sight of visitors.

She had the disturbing feeling they'd have welcomed any interruption.

"How are you?" she asked Kayla, putting the flowers on the bedside table. "And your baby?"

The brunette's lips curved into a true smile. "She's a darling. Do you want to hold her?"

"Can I?"

"I'll bring her over," Damon offered, looking genuinely happy.

Jess's heart cried a tear of sorrow when she saw him gather the baby  from the crib. As a teen, she'd dreamed such dreams-it had been Damon's  child she'd expected to carry, his name she'd expected to bear.

A hand closed over her shoulder, a silent reminder of who she now belonged to.

Taking a deep breath, she let Damon put his child into her arms. "Oh, she's beautiful."

"A wrinkled little nut," he said, "but she's our nut, aren't you, Cecily?"

Kayla laughed. "That's what we're calling her, Cecily Elizabeth Hart."

"I love it." Jess ran her finger over Cecily's tender skin and that  quickly, her pregnancy became real in the most emotional sense of the  word. In a few months' time, she too would be the nervous parent of a  tiny son or daughter. Perhaps that child would have Gabriel's green eyes  and her red hair. Wouldn't that be something?

Feeling a sense of intimacy with Gabe that overcame all their  disagreements, she turned to him with a smile. "Would you like to hold  her?"

His jaw set in a hard line. "No." It was a quiet but brutal denial that  didn't reach Cecily's parents, both of whom were involved in resettling a  pillow that had slipped from Kayla's back.

Her eyes widened. She couldn't believe Gabe had turned so cold over this  blameless child. She'd always believed that while her husband might be  harsh, he'd never be needlessly cruel.                       
       
           



       

But now she had evidence otherwise.

Attempting to come to grips with this unexpected and unwelcome facet of  his personality, she put Cecily into her mother's waiting arms. "She's  perfect." A touch of nausea hit her as she rose from handing over the  baby. She had to take several deep breaths to get past it.

Kayla gave her a measuring look before turning to Damon. "Do you think  you could get me one of those fizzy orange juices from the vending  machine down the hall?"

"Yeah, okay." Damon glanced across at Gabriel. "I owe you for the other night.

Let me buy you a coffee." His voice was tense but polite. "I think the machine does a less than awful imitation."

To her surprise, Gabriel accepted the offer. Kayla waited only until the  men's footsteps had died away to blurt out, "You're pregnant, aren't  you?"

"Do you have radar?" Jess gaped.

"Must be the hormones." She kissed Cecily's forehead. "How do you feel?"

"In love with him or her, already." That had become truth mere minutes  ago. And it caused a new worry to loom large-if Gabe truly was heartless  enough to react so negatively to an infant, what kind of a father would  he be? Too late she came to the awful realization that she'd put her  baby's happiness on the line along with her own when she'd walked into  this marriage.

"I was the same." Kayla paused, her smile slipping. "Can we be friends, Jess?"

Surprised at the non-sequitor, Jess nodded. "We already are."

"No, you don't understand." Sighing, the brunette hugged Cecily to her  chest. "I don't know if I can save my marriage with you around."

The implied accusation hit her like a punch to the jaw. "I'd never break my marriage vows or ask Damon to break his."

"I know. I don't think that of you. Really. But seeing you reminds him  of … of what he gave up." Her eyes were huge. "I've asked him to move away  from Kowhai, maybe up to Hawkes Bay. I have family there and he could  easily find work, what with the orchards and all."

Jess hated that she was the cause of another woman's unhappiness, even  if that same woman had once driven a stake right through her heart.  Things had changed since then, become far less black and white. "I hope  you two make it."

Damon walked in the very next second. He put the can of juice beside the  flowers on the beside table. "Here you go. Gabe's grabbing you a  coffee, too," he told Jess, an edge to his voice that she understood all  too well and which made her incredibly angry. He was speaking in front  of his wife for God's sake.

"So, what have you two been talking about?"

Kayla smiled. "It looks like congratulations are in order for Jess and Gabe."

Jess felt her stomach drop but the other woman was too excited at sharing the news to notice anything wrong.

"She's going to have a baby, too!"

Damon's face went blank for a frozen second before he recovered. "Hey, that's really something."

"What is?" Gabe's voice came from the doorway. "Jess." He held out a cup of takeout coffee. "It's not too bad."

She walked over and took the coffee, hoping against hope that something  would happen to interrupt the inevitable. "Oh it's-" she began, but  Damon was already speaking.

"The baby." He smiled and Jess could tell it was forced. And if she  could tell, then so could her husband. "You must be really happy."





Chapter 12





Jess knew the second Gabe understood. She'd been leaning slightly into  him and now felt the muscles in his body go as taut as high-tension  wire. But when he spoke, there was no indication of surprise in his  tone. "Nothing in the world quite like it. But you'd know that."

Damon nodded. "Yeah."

"We'd better get going." Jess needed to get out of here and fix this  mess. If it could be fixed. The single good thing that could be said was  that neither Kayla nor Damon appeared to have any inkling of what had  really just happened. "Things are getting busy at the station."

"Thanks for coming." Kayla smiled, but her eyes were on Damon as he came to hug Jess.

"If you ever need me," he took the chance to whisper.

Calling on his strength was no longer her right. Nor did she covet it. "Take care of your family, Damon."

And then she turned and walked away with the man who was now supposed to  be her strength. Except that he was far too hard, far too untouchable.