Righteous Lies (Book 1: Dancing Moon Ranch Series) (15 page)

...actually about thirty seconds...
he'd
said, when she'd commented on the insignificant part he played in her pregnancy
and the ease of simply depositing sperm into a cup.

She also
remembered his smile after he'd said it. She loved that smile. Tonight, she'd
give him the minute he needed to take care of the problem. Or however long it
took to put that smile on his face. But they'd both be smiling by then. It had
been three years since she'd pleasured a man that way, and the thought of
bringing that kind of gratification to Jack made her restless and eager for the
day when doing it right would become a reality...

From her stance
on the porch, she looked across the drive at Sam and Susan's house and was
tempted to walk over and see how Ricky was doing. They'd stayed the night at
the hospital, where Ricky had been given another transfusion, but they returned
around mid-morning. But as she contemplated whether to inquire about Ricky or
not, she heard angry voices coming from inside the house. Sam and Susan going
at it for some reason. She could understand Sam finally snapping. Susan was
completely self-centered, and Sam catered to her completely. But he wasn't
catering to her now. And then the front door flew open and Sam came out, and
Susan followed behind. Grace stepped back in the shadows of the porch, and
listened. It was none of her business, but Susan was pregnant with Marc's child
and the irrational woman was on the verge of aborting the baby...

Susan flailed a
hand at Sam, eyes sharp with anger. "When we got married we both agreed,
no kids, and you promised we'd start a fitness center," she said to Sam's
broad back, in a curt, angry voice, "and now you're talking about putting
in a damn winery!"

Sam turned to
confront her. "The fitness center was never my idea," he fired back.
"And you knew from the beginning I planned to put in a vineyard and start a
winery."

"After my fitness center!"
Susan snapped. "But then you got me pregnant!"

"You're
the one who went off the pill."

"
Only because they made me sick!"
Susan barked. "You ever heard of condoms?"

Sam glanced
around to see if anyone was nearby, then turned back to Susan, and said, "Yeah,
I've heard of condoms. I've spent my entire married life wearing them. When you
got pregnant with Ricky was the
only
time I didn't." He let out a short snort of derision. "I never
thought when I got cancer in my balls you'd be cheering because after getting
them zapped you wouldn't have to worry about getting pregnant again."

Susan folded
her arms and glared at Sam. "Well, you got the child you wanted from that
one time," she said, her voice rising with her anger, "and I've
devoted my life to him, and now I'm stuck with this—" she shoved a stiff
finger against her protruding belly "—because you talked me into it. Well,
I'm tired of you running my life."

"Running your life!"
Sam
bellowed. "Hell, Susan, no one runs your life. The whole damn ranch
revolves around it. It's all about you." He stomped down the porch steps
and got in his SUV, and Susan turned into the house and slammed the door.

Grace turned
into the house, heart pounding, worries about what Susan might do to Marc's
baby foremost on her mind. As soon as Jack got back she'd insist he approach
Sam about adopting the baby, if Susan would agree to carry him to full term.
She'd also talk to Jack about flying to New Jersey to have their baby. Ricky
might have a shrew for a mother, but he had a saint for a father, and that
father loved Ricky enough for two. And she was determined to make Sam's only
child well, if it were in her power.

Feeling drained
after witnessing the angry exchange between Susan and Sam, Grace lowered
herself into a chair near the fireplace, close to where Jack put Mei Ling's box
with her kittens. Picking up her knitting, she returned to her latest project,
which was a large pair of red wool socks to go inside a large pair of boots.
She hoped to finish them, complete with heels, before the baby came. Reaching
into the knitting bag Maureen insisted on buying, she picked up where she'd
left off, and continued knitting from one circular needle to the other, pulling
the yarn tight on the first stitch on each needle so the stitches would be as
uniform as she could make them.

...up to this point you've just been
knitting a tube, the directions said...

About fourteen
inches of red wool tube, Grace figured, as she held up the thing...

...but now it is time to shape the heel. As
you work, stitch more and more stitches until you have worked the whole row and
the heel is turned...

She stopped
knitting to study the series of photos in the book, hoping they'd shed light on
the written directions, when a knock on the front door startled her. Before she
could get up, the door opened slightly and Maureen poked her head inside. "Come
on in," Grace said.

Maureen took a
chair from the dining table and positioned it near where Grace sat, and said, "My
brother, Greg, just called. He's coming to Portland for a meeting and he'll be
staying at the ranch for one night. He'll be arriving in a couple of days. How
are you doing?"

"I'm
fine," Grace replied, wondering if she should tell Maureen about Susan and
Sam, or assume Maureen knew. Jack had said nothing about problems in the
marriage, and maybe it was in no danger of ending. Some couples went on for
years fighting and bickering. But she'd seen too much venom coming from Susan
to think the marriage could hold up much longer, especially with Susan blaming Sam
for Ricky, and now for Marc's baby...

"Honey?"
Maureen said, when Grace found herself staring at the sock in her hand, while
mulling over the situation with Sam and Susan.

"Silly
me," Grace said. "Sometimes my mind's in a fog. I'm trying to figure
out how to do a heel." She held up what she'd knitted. "The
directions aren't clear, and I can't put off knitting the heel much longer or
Jack will have socks up to his ying yang."

Maureen
laughed. "Whatever you do, he'll love."

"I don't
know about that," Grace said, "my stitches aren't very uniform."

"Doesn't
matter," Maureen replied. "He'll be happy you knitted something just
for him. Beneath that rugged, masculine exterior of his he's really just a
hearth-and-home kind of guy. He's just forgotten what it's like."

Grace gave a
wistful sigh. Bringing hearth-and-home back to Jack seemed an impossible task.
"He hasn't given that impression," she said. "He's barely
noticed anything I've done with the house."

"He has a
lot on his mind right now," Maureen replied. Then her face grew hard, and
she added, "I can't forgive Lauren for destroying a good man like Jack by
killing the most precious thing she'd given him. A complete betrayal."

"Do you
think he'll ever come to terms with it?" Grace asked.

"I think
he will after the baby's born." Maureen covered Grace's hand with her own.
"I also think Jack cares about you more than he realizes."

"I know he
cares about our baby," Grace said. "I even get a little jealous
sometime. Then I ask myself how many expectant fathers would go to birthing
classes, or want to deliver their babies, or treat the mothers of their babies
like she was the greatest gift to mankind since Eve. That's so much more than I
had before the mix-up."

Maureen smiled.
"It's odd how things work out. If I had been able to choose a wife for
Jack and a mother for my next grandchild, it would have been you."

Grace felt warm
and cushy inside. Looking at Maureen, she said, "I think I would have
picked you too for a grandmother for my son… and a mother-in-law," then wondered
if it was a good idea to be so open with Maureen about her feelings for Jack.
She didn't want to put pressure on him. But she did want
him
.

Maureen gave
her hand a little squeeze. "Enough of this maudlin stuff. Greg's an
attorney, and when he gets here he wants to meet with you and Jack and Sam and
talk about the lawsuit against the clinic, but we'll leave Susan out. She's too
unstable."

Unstable was
not the word Grace would use to describe Susan. Selfish. Egotistical. Completely
self-centered. The list could go on and on. She wondered how much of Susan's
theatrics, emotional outbursts, and bouts of crying were simply a way to get
Sam to jump through her hoops. And right now, Susan was carrying a child she
didn't want, and was living in a state where abortions were legal up to the
moment before a full-term baby took its first breath, and there wasn't a thing anyone
could do to stop her if she decided to terminate the pregnancy.

Grace felt a
knot in her stomach with the thought of Susan making that decision.
"You've known Susan for some time now," she said to Maureen. "Do
you think she's capable of ending the pregnancy at this late date?"

"Susan can
be impulsive," Maureen replied. An evasive answer, Grace knew, but an
answer no less. "Sam wants this child. He never agreed with Susan about
not having kids, just went along with it hoping she'd change over time. And I've
never believed Ricky was a mistake. It might have been for Susan, but I don't
think it was for Sam. I think he knew exactly what he was doing the night Ricky
was conceived. I was also surprised when Susan agreed to go along with the
artificial insemination cord blood transplant thing. I'm not surprised with the
way she's behaving, knowing the baby's of no use to them now."

Grace felt a
rush of adrenaline with Maureen's words.

...the baby's of no use...

"Sam and
Susan had a fight a little while ago," Grace said, deciding the time was
right to draw Maureen into the situation.

Maureen arched
a brow. "They bicker. Susan wants things her way and sometimes Sam
disagrees." There was a touch of venom in Maureen's tone, and Grace
suspected her feelings for Susan were far from motherly. But Maureen was not
one to stir things up by denigrating her daughter-in-law, regardless how she
felt.

"Actually,
it was more than bickering," Grace said. "They were having a
fight."

"Where
were they?" Maureen asked.

"On their
front porch," Grace replied. "I shouldn't have listened, but I've
been worried about Susan getting rid of my husband's baby so I couldn't turn
away. Initially, I thought that's what the argument was about, but it wasn't.
Well it was. But it seemed to be more about Sam wanting to start a
winery."

"Sam was
planning to put in grapes before he and Susan married," Maureen said,
"but with the problems with Ricky, Sam put it off, and now Susan's putting
pressure on him to turn his back on the ranch and start a fitness center."

"That was
part of the fight too," Grace said. "They were pretty angry at each
other."

"Sam too?"
Maureen asked.

"Oh yes.
He walked away from her and got in his SUV and drove off, which was right after
Susan accused him of talking her into having the second baby, which was right
after she accused him of getting her pregnant with the first."

"Well, Susan
doesn't have to worry about that anymore." Maureen pursed her lips.
"I don't know what it is with my boys. They're the most honorable men I
know, and I couldn't be any more proud of them, but they managed to find wives
who..." she stopped.

"That's
okay," Grace said. "I understand."

"I do have
one more thing to add to that," Maureen said. "If you and Jack got
married, I'd be a very happy woman."

Grace gave
Maureen a wistful smile, and replied, "I'd be happy too."

"Then
maybe it's time I became an interfering mother," Maureen said, in a tone
that made Grace wonder if she might be serious.

"No,
please don't," Grace said. "I don't want to put pressure on Jack. If
he ever decides to marry me, it has be entirely his decision. I can wait. Maybe
I'll know how to knit heels by then."

Maureen
chuckled. "Jack will love the socks, with or without heels." She gave
Grace a hug, and let herself out. Grace held up the sock, with all its
irregular stitches, and sighed...

...he's really a hearth-and-home kind of
guy...

Which meant,
Lauren probably knew how to knit heels and cross-stitch scenes without having
every stitch end up a different length. And Lauren was strikingly-beautiful,
and could ride horses, and probably made flaky pie crusts, and baked perfect
bread. Women like that seemed to be able to do anything well without effort...

And then she
killed Jack's son...

...I can't forgive her for destroying a good
man like Jack...

Nor could
Grace. She only hoped she'd never meet Lauren Hansen face-to-face, or she might
not be responsible for her actions.

***

Jack moved
Grace's furniture into the old nursery, and while Grace was putting her things
away, Jack painted the interior walls of the back bedroom then moved the new
nursery furniture in and left to work with the horses. But before he left, he
took Grace by the shoulders and kissed her on the forehead. It was such a
sweet, affectionate thing, like a husband kissing his wife, that it left Grace
feeling giddy. She even found herself humming while she busied herself putting
baby clothes away. She was in the process of arranging tiny clothes in the
drawers of the new dresser when Flo came to the front door to tell her there
was a call for her on the lodge phone.

Grace walked to
the lodge with Flo, and when she took the call, she was disturbed to find her
mother on the other end of the line.

"Grace?
Are you there?" her mother asked, during the long pause while Grace was
attempting to concoct a reason why she couldn't talk right now. Her mother had
barely adjusted to the sperm mix up, which followed on the heels of Grace’s
being pregnant with the baby of a dead man, all of which had erupted in a
diatribe about Grace’s lack of good sense with the whole artificial
insemination idea. Her mother also knew nothing about
the baby's father
, or that he was part owner of the Dancing Moon
Ranch, where she was staying because of premature labor.