Righteous Lies (Book 1: Dancing Moon Ranch Series) (19 page)

"Except
his son," Grace said. "You can never give Jack back his son. And I
will never give my son to you to raise with Jack, regardless of what Jack
decides to do about you."

Susan, who had
been standing in the hallway, walked back into the room, and said to Grace,
"If I agree to carry the baby to full term, would I have to give him to
you?"

Grace looked at
Susan with misgiving. After hearing what Lauren said about postpartum
depression, she knew the threat to Marc's baby after he was born was very real.
Especially
because he was Marc's
baby, a baby Susan hadn't wanted from the instant she learned she was pregnant
with him, in spite of what she'd just implied. But for the moment, stopping a
late-term abortion took precedence over speculation about what would happen
after the birth.

"I'm only
asking you to carry him to full term," Grace said. "You can decide
whether to keep him or not after he's born. If you abort him at this late date
it would be outright mur—"

"We'll do
it," Sam cut Grace off before she could say the word. He walked up to
Susan and put his hands on her shoulders, and said, "Honey, I'll call the
airlines and see what needs to be done to get you aboard. It's our best chance
for Ricky."

Grace looked
from Susan to Sam, and said, "All you need is to have her doctor fill out
a certificate that says she's okay to fly. But I'm sure he'd only do it if we
plan to leave right away."

Sam released
Susan's shoulders and went up to Grace and gave her a hug. "Thank you for
doing this for us," he said. "We can never make it up to you."

Grace looked at
Sam, and replied, "I'm doing it for Ricky," then turned to leave,
only to find Jack standing in the doorway. But he wasn't looking at her, he was
looking at Lauren, and from the expression on his face, Grace knew he'd heard
Lauren's pitiable defense for what she'd done, and was taking it into account. He
started to walk up to Grace, but Lauren quickly moved from the sofa and
intercepted him. "Jack, you vowed to love me in sickness and in health. I
was sick at the time and now I feel like I have a hole in my heart that I put
there, but what's worse, I put a hole in your heart. I can never forgive myself
for that." She ran her hands up Jack's chest and around his neck. "I
love you and I always will."

Jack wrestled
her arms from around him. "Save it," he said. "The hole in my
heart is for Jackie. I feel nothing for you." He took Grace's arm.
"Come on, let's go. You've said what you needed to say." He ushered
Grace toward the door.

Once outside,
Grace tugged her arm from his grasp, crossed the driveway ahead of him and
hurried up the porch steps and into the house, not stopping until she reached
her bedroom. But before she could rush in and slam the door, Jack caught up with
her and grabbed her arm. Grace turned to him before he could speak, and said,
"I'm sorry I asked you to help me raise Marc's son. I had no right to do
that. If Susan will give him up he'll be my responsibility. I only expect you
to help with Adam. And I don't want to live in a house on the ranch. I want to
live in my own house. And now I intend to finish packing. The sooner I get away
from here, the better."

She snatched
her arm away, turned into the bedroom and shut the door. She could think of
nothing she'd rather not do than live in a house on the ranch and be forced to
see the woman who killed Jack's son going in and out of Susan's house, while
also wondering if she was sleeping with Jack. That was not an option. But for
now, she had to set everything else aside and prepare her state of mind for
flying on an airplane, when the thought of it terrified her.

Grace looked at
Jack, stunned. "You want to do what?"

"Be
married when Adam arrives," Jack said. "There's a three-day wait for
the license, so if we go to the courthouse now we can be married before we
leave."

…maybe it's time I become an interfering
mother...

Although Grace
was fond of Maureen, she knew Maureen was behind this, and that Jack felt
obligated to
do right by her
, not
because he might grow to love her, or having her in his house made him realize
what he'd missed in a wife, but because he didn't want his son to be a bastard.
Nor did she. The only difference was, she'd be marrying Jack because she loved
him. But maybe someday he'd grow to love her too. Someday when his memory of
Lauren began to fade...

Jack placed his
hands on her shoulders, and said, while looking closely at her, "You told
me it seemed right for you to wear the rings your husband gave you since you
were having his child. Well, you're having mine now, so it's right for you to
wear the wedding ring I have for you." He reached in his pocket and pulled
out a little box and flipped the lid, displaying a plain gold band. "It's
not much," he said, "but it'll give you something to wear until we
find what you want. We need to do this, Grace. We need to do it for Adam."

Grace looked up
from the ring and held Jack's gaze. He was ready to make a life-long commitment
to the mother of his child, when he could be done with her in eighteen years.
But the fact that Jack seemed so sure of his decision, even though love had not
entered the picture, prompted her to reply, "I suppose you're right. I
don't want Adam to grow up with the insecurity of having unmarried parents.
Where would we get married?"

"Either at
the courthouse or here at the ranch. It doesn't matter."

...it doesn't matter...

Those words
stung. It did matter. It mattered that she was about to make a life-long
commitment, and five minutes in front of a nameless judge, with a couple of
court clerks for witnesses was tantamount to taking a number and waiting in
line. "I'd rather it be at the ranch," she said. "Maybe you
could find a minister to come out here."

"So the
ring is okay?" Jack asked, still holding out the box.

"It's
fine," Grace said. She pulled the ring out from its slit in the insert in
the box and put it on her finger and held out her hand and looked at it. Plain
gold, for a plain woman...

"I'll get
you something better later," Jack said, as if reading her thoughts.

"It's
fine, really," Grace replied, feeling a stab of guilt. She'd have Jack as
her husband and he'd be faithful no matter how he felt about Lauren. And they'd
raise their son together, and have others. Giving Jack a faltering smile, she
said, "I'll need to get you a ring too."

Jack dug in his
pocket and pulled out another plain gold band, and as Grace looked at it, for
one dreadful moment she wondered if it was the ring he'd worn when he was
married to Lauren. He relieved her mind, when he said, "I got the rings
from a jewelry store near the courthouse. I took a chance you'd agree to marry
me. We can have them engraved when we get back."

Grace pulled
the gold band off her finger and returned it to Jack. "Yes, that would be
nice," she said. Pleasantries. A cordial agreement to marry. No
declarations of love, or passionate kisses, or even hugs of affection leading
up to the decision. Just one unexpected kiss on the lips a couple of weeks ago,
and Jack coming to her bedroom and laying in bed with her, fully clothed,
because she wanted him to make her feel like a woman again, and one more kiss
the night Lauren arrived… And now, he was
doing
right by her
, even though he had not impregnated her, but instead she'd
been impregnated by a laboratory technician using a needleless syringe filled
with Jack's semen. But the child that was created by accident deserved to come
into the world to legally wed parents. And maybe, over time, Jack would learn
to love her, and in the years between, they'd be busy raising their family. "Then
let's go to the courthouse and fill out the license application," she
said. And it was decided. For all the wrong reasons.

***

Four days
later, Jack arrived at the ranch with a man dressed in a black suit and wearing
a white Roman collar, along with the marriage license, stamped by the court.
Jack went to the house and collected Grace and walked her over to the lodge and
introduced her to the man.

"This is
Pastor Roberts," he said. "He's ready to marry us."

"Now?"
Grace replied, saddened that she'd be getting married in a plain plum-colored
maternity top and purple pants, with her hair a mess of disorganized waves, and
no one in her family present. But time was running out, and although every
other plan she'd made concerning having Marc's baby had failed, she did want
Jack's name on Adam's birth certificate.

But to get
married right now, with no preliminaries, not even a chance to fix her hair, or
change into something other than a worn maternity top and mismatched pants, or
have a little procession with music and some flowers, and maybe someone to walk
her down the aisle, it wasn't much better than getting married in front of the
judge.

"It's the
only time the pastor can work us in," Jack explained. "Susan and Sam
aren't here, but Mom and Flo will stand in as witnesses."

Grace felt a
little twang of regret. Would this hasty wedding come back to haunt her? Would
Jack one day get restless and wonder why he insisted they do it? And would she
really be able to make him happy, and keep him that way? Did she really want to
be Mrs. Jack Hansen?

...my boys are the most honorable men I know...

"Grace?"
Jack said, recapturing her attention. "I won't let you down."

Grace looked at
him and knew the words came from his heart. "I need to comb my hair and
polish my fingernails first," she said, a silly thing to think important—polishing
her fingernails—before making a lifelong commitment. But she was nine months
pregnant, so she allowed herself a moment of illogical reasoning. She also
wanted to change out of the ugly plum-colored top and purple pants. The top
still had jam down the front from breakfast, where she'd dropped a biscuit
upside down and tried to scrub the residue of butter and jam off.

"Honey,"
Jack said, as she turned to leave, "you look pretty the way you are."

Grace looked at
Jack, stunned. He'd never told her she was pretty. He'd never told her anything
beyond the implication that she was built right for motherhood. But Jack had
been married to Miss Teen Oregon, and the woman was still staying with Sam and
Susan. At least Grace would have a ring on her finger and be Mrs. Jack Hansen
before Lauren left. Grace found a whole lot of satisfaction in that.

After she'd hastily
finished her hair and nails and changed into a rose colored maternity top and
black pants, she returned to the lodge to find Maureen and Flo standing and
waiting for her. Maureen handed her a bouquet of silk flowers, and said,
"A bride needs a bouquet."

"Thank
you," Grace replied, feeling a little twinge of regret that the color of
the flowers clashed with her maternity top. But it did make her feel a little
more like a bride.

"And
something old," Maureen added. She draped a pendant around Grace's neck.

Grace lifted
the round disk and studied the intricate design cut in its satiny silver surface.
"Is it the sun?" she asked, seeing what looked like fiery rays radiating
from a deeply excised circle.

"No,"
Maureen replied, "it's the moon. The night of a harvest moon, Adam and I
rode the horses up to the ridge to see it, and while we stood watching, Adam asked
me to marry him. About that time a cloud formation moved in, and I commented
that the moon looked like it was dancing. Adam laughed and said it was because
I'd just agreed to marry him, and that's how the Dancing Moon Ranch got its
name. We honeymooned in Arizona, so while we were there, Adam commissioned a
Hopi silversmith to make the pendant and several other pieces of jewelry with
the dancing moon on it. This is an especially beautiful piece of silver overlay.
You can pass it on to one of your children someday."

Grace was
touched that Maureen would entrust her with such a special piece. "It's
wonderful, and I'll treasure it always," she said, and wondered which of
her six children it would go to. She glanced at Jack, who had an anxious look
on his face. Regret? Resolve? She couldn't decide which. But it wasn't elation.
But then, she knew her own face showed uncertainty. Jack had to have noticed
it...

"Borrowed
and blue," Flo said, offering a hanky with blue embroidery. "It's
part of my trousseau. Never got to use it."

Grace smiled
weakly, and took her place beside Jack, who stood with his hands clasped lightly
in front of him. She wanted to pass the bouquet back to Maureen and hold Jack's
hand instead because she wanted some acknowledgement that theirs was more than
a marriage of convenience. But they stood together, not touching, and listened
as the pastor passed on words of advice about couples growing to love each
other over time, and weathering the ups and downs in life. Then he asked Jack
to take her hand, which he did, and had them repeat words that joined them in
holy matrimony. She looked at Jack and repeated the words that barely
registered in her mind, and Jack looked at her and repeated the same words,
then the pastor asked them to slip the rings on each other's fingers, which
they did, and pronounced them husband and wife. The pastor's final words were
to Jack, "You may now kiss the bride."

Jack curved his
finger beneath Grace's chin, and bending over, kissed her on the lips.
"Thank you, Mrs. Hansen," he said. "You may give birth to my son
any time now."

It was odd
hearing Jack call her Mrs. Hansen, and seeing a ring on his finger, knowing he
was her husband. He was also the legal father of her son. No more talk of joint
custody. Maybe
that
was the real
reason Jack wanted to marry her before the baby came...