Righteous Lies (Book 1: Dancing Moon Ranch Series) (8 page)

Some time
later, Grace awakened feeling something on her belly. She opened her eyes to
find a boy, about three, staring at her. From his features, he could be Jack's
son, though she knew it was Ricky. As she looked at the silent boy, she could
imagine the face of the child growing inside her. A very appealing face, with
the biggest, blackest eyes she'd ever seen, a perfect button nose, lips with a
slight droop, and a crop of dark wavy hair, like Jack's.

His small hand
patted her tummy, as he said, "My baby."

The two words
uttered by this small boy gave Grace a start. Did he know she was carrying a
baby that could make him well? But surely no one told him such a thing. She
took his hand in hers, and said, "This is my baby, but you'll be getting a
baby brother soon. He's growing inside your Mommy." She immediately wanted
to retract her words. If Susan didn't want to keep Marc's baby after he was
born, Ricky would never understand what happened to him. Or worse, if Susan
decided to abort the baby... She was a very troubled woman, and there was no
question, the mother-child bond severed when she learned she wasn't carrying
Jack's child.

The boy
snatched his hand away and patted her tummy again. "No, my baby," he
insisted.

As if sensing a
need to intervene, Mei Ling left her bed and walked over to where the boy
stood, and rubbed up against him. Ricky smiled. It was the same endearing smile
she'd seen on Jack's lips when he'd stood in the doorway watching her knitting
the ridiculous heelless sock. Ricky seemed baffled as to what he should do,
with a cat doing figure-eights against him, so he stood with his arms raised, and
his head following Mei Ling's to-and-fro movements. Then Mei Ling flopped onto
her back with her feet up, and Ricky let out a giggle and sat down beside her.

Grace looked
around, wondering where Ricky's parents were, when she heard Flo calling,
"Ricky? Where are you?" before entering the room.

Ricky removed
his hand from Mei Ling and waited for Flo to come to him.

Flo looked down
at Mei Ling, who immediately rolled onto her feet and went to do her
figure-eight thing between Flo's legs.

"I'm
sorry," Grace said. "Mei Ling slipped out of my room when the men
came with the wheelchair. I'll take her back."

She started to rise,
but Flo put her hand on her shoulder. "You're not supposed to walk," she
said. "I'll figure out a way to get her back." She went to the
kitchen and came back with a broom.

"No,
please," Grace said, horrified that the woman would take a broom to Mei
Ling. "She's pregnant and mustn't be traumatized."

Flo stared at
Grace as if she were mad. "Well, she can't be loose in the lodge. I'll
call Jack." She rushed through the front door of the lodge, and a moment
later, Grace heard the rapid gongs of a big brass bell she'd noticed mounted on
the log wall outside the door. "Jack can come deal with this," she
said, on returning to the room. She looked at Ricky, who was rubbing Mei Ling's
tummy. "I guess he's okay until Jack comes."

"Where is
Susan?" Grace asked.

"Sam took
her to the doctor," Flo replied. "She was crying and carrying on
again this morning, and Sam wants the doctor to give her something to calm her
down. This baby mix-up is a mess. But I guess I don't have to tell you that,
with you carrying Jack's baby and not even knowing him. It must be pretty
upsetting."

Grace put her
hands on her belly. "It was at first," she said, "but I'm slowly
adjusting. Jack's an interesting man. And he's happy about having a son."

"There's
no question about that," Flo replied. "It'll be good for him, having
a boy around. He's a lonely man." She gripped the broom and turned away.
"Yell if Ricky's any trouble," she said, her words trailing off as
she headed towards the kitchen.

Grace pondered
Flo's words. Why was Jack lonely? He was handsome, eligible, well-off. And
caring. Finding a wife should not be a problem. But he showed no sign of
wanting to fill his loneliness with anything but a son.

She glanced at
Ricky, who was giggling as Mei Ling turned round and round in circles in
preparation for lying down. While Ricky sat petting Mei Ling, Grace motored to
one of the front windows. Outside was a sitting area with rustic lawn chairs
and a couple of wooden tables, all covered with snow. A double-wide wooden
swing, also covered in snow, hung by chains from an oak tree, and an assortment
of bird and squirrel feeders, filled with seed were arranged near the sitting
area. But in the distance beyond the stables, she saw Jack galloping toward the
lodge at what looked to be a full run. Moments later, he brought the horse to an
abrupt halt and dismounted, dropping the reins to the ground. The horse stayed
put while Jack rushed toward the lodge and burst through the front door. "Flo!
What's the problem?" he called out in a frantic voice. Then he caught
sight of Grace in the wheelchair. He looked at her, baffled. "You
okay?"

"Yes.
Why?"

"Flo rang
the bell."

Grace couldn't
help noticing Jack's chaps. With the leather side panels covering his hips, and
the leg leathers snapped around the top of his thighs, and a leather strap
cinched low on his belly, all that showed of his jeans was his crotch, which
was noticeably displayed, as if framed by surrounding leather. "They're
designed for easy access when nature calls," Jack said, catching the focus
of her attention.

"Actually,
I was looking at your belt buckle," Grace lied.

"Yeah,
it's pretty different," Jack said, with irony. The buckle was absolutely
plain. He looked at Mei Ling, curled in the cat bed by the fire, purring
contentedly while Ricky stroked her, and said, "What's Mei Ling doing in
here?"

"She got
bored in the bedroom and decided to look over the place," Grace replied,
realizing it was the first time Jack referred to Mei Ling by her name instead
of
the cat
. She had no idea why it
pleased her so, but it did.

"She has
to go back to the bedroom," Jack said. "That's why Flo rang the bell,
and the way she did meant she was pissed. The last thing I need is her packing
up and leaving."

"Fine
then. Pick up Mei Ling and take her to the bedroom."

"Right."
When Jack crouched to pick up Mei Ling, Ricky shoved his hand away, and said,
"My cat. You go."

"Oh
shit," Jack said. He stood, and with his hands on his hips, looked down at
Ricky and Mei Ling as if he hadn't a clue what to do next.

"Shit,"
Ricky repeated, looking up at Jack.

"No...
you're not supposed to say that—" Jack clamped his jaws shut and glared at
Grace, who shrugged, and said, "Mei Ling's happy with her bed by the fire,
and if you put her sky room by the front window she won't roam around the place,
at least not much. She has no fleas, and she uses her scratching posts, and she
likes sitting on the mantle."

Jack looked
down at Ricky, who continued to pet Mei Ling, and said, "I'll talk to
Flo."

"Thank you,"
Grace replied. "You'll make a little boy very happy, as well as the mother
of your son."

That seemed to
catch Jack's attention. "Then you're resigned to it?"

"I have no
choice," Grace said. "It's fairly obvious you're his father since the
baby I'm carrying is the size of a young Titan." She smiled.

Jack didn't
smile back. "That's not what I meant. I'm talking about you allowing the
petition I filed to go unchallenged so I'll get my paternity rights and joint
custody."

Grace looked at
Jack, whose face was dead sober, and said, "If I give you joint custody
you'll have him half the time and he'll be constantly moved back and forth
between my place and yours. I'm not sure I can live with that."

"You're
not getting him all to yourself," Jack said. "That's not an option.
I'll fight you to the bitter end to get the right to have my son half the time.
He's going to learn to ride and shoot a rifle and run this ranch so someday it
will be half his."

"That's
what terrifies me about letting you have joint custody," Grace said.
"You're already planning his life. What if he doesn't want to run this
ranch? What if he wants to live in the city? Or be a businessman? You're so set
in your ways, your ways being the only ways, he won't have any choice but to do
what you lay out for him. You're not a man a boy would challenge, at least not
until he's as big as you, and even then he'll more than likely avoid it. I want
our son to grow up to be a decent, morally upstanding man, but to be able to
choose his own goals in life. It's not just about him being Jack Hansen
Junior."

Jack stared at
her, the look on his face grim. Then he swallowed hard, and said, "He'll
never be Jack Hansen Junior, but I will have joint custody."

Grace glared at
Jack. "Yes, I suppose you will," she clipped, "because I don’t
have the money or the fight in me to go up against you." She turned the
wheelchair and motored into the bedroom, slamming the door.

Whatever pipe
dreams she'd had about being Jack's wife had vanished. She had no desire to be
the wife of a man who would run her life as well as the life of their son. But
there was no way she could stop Jack from getting joint custody because he'd
fight as long as it took to succeed. He had the money, the resolve, and the
determination to do it. And she felt exhausted just thinking about trying to
stop him.

The
cross-stitching on the bedstand caught her eye. She'd placed it there when the
men arrived with the wheelchair. She'd already stitched the building blocks and
alphabet letters, but when she came to the line for the name, the name Marc was
out. She wasn't carrying a Marc. She was carrying a Jack. She'd even stitched a
"J" in anticipation of telling Jack she thought they should name
their child after him since Jack would be the one welcoming his son into the
world. But Jack made it clear, for whatever reason, that his child would not be
named after him. But when she tried to think of another name for an overly large
baby, who doggedly remained lying on her bladder, and whose big baby foot was
determined to kick her navel out, the only name that seemed to fit was Jack.

The rest of the
week was a flurry of activity at the lodge. Sam and Jack were having some work
done on their mother's house, and since Grace was in the room Maureen Hansen
would have stayed in, Flo and Carlie, one of the kitchen help during the guest
season, spent the week making ready a bedroom suite down the hallway from Grace,
which had become a catchall over time. Grace tried to imagine what the woman
who'd raised two such opposite twins would be like. If she was like Sam, she'd
be adaptable and reasonable. But if she was like Jack, she could be difficult.
Grace hadn't brought up the subject of returning to her house at the end of the
week because Jack had been busy, but she would, before the day was done.

Jack had been
working horses or doing maintenance on the ranch until late each day, but
stopped in at night to visit for a few minutes. During that time, Grace found
herself chattering about her family, and her childhood, and every milestone in
her life, but after Jack left each night, she realized he'd deflected any
questions she'd asked about his personal life. He'd talked about growing up on
the ranch, and about losing his father in a private-plane crash five years
before. But after almost two weeks, Grace still had no idea why, at age thirty-three,
Jack wasn't married, and he'd made it clear the subject wasn't open for
discussion.

But today was
Sunday, Flo and Carlie were gone, and after having no contractions for well
over a week, Grace had her fill of sitting in bed or motoring around the lodge
in the wheelchair. The snow had melted off the sidewalks, the day was sunny,
and she'd never seen Jack's house.

After changing
into her maternity sweats and a flannel top, she put on her down jacket and
left through the front door of the lodge. She followed a concrete walkway to
Jack's house, which was a short distance from the lodge and directly across a
gravel drive from Sam's house. Like Sam's house, Jack's was made of logs, but
unlike Sam's, with its curtained windows and planter boxes and nice porch
furniture, Jack's house showed no sign of a woman's touch. The windows were
bare of curtains, and on the porch, beside a scuffed toolbox, were a couple pairs
of boots that had been kicked off near the front door. She knocked, and when
there was no response, she cupped her hands around her eyes and peered through
the window at a stark room with sparse furnishings, and saw a house both
cheerless, and gloomy...

...It'll be good for him, having a boy
around. He's a lonely man...

But why? Grace
wondered, and made a promise to herself to find out.

Hearing nothing
inside, she followed the wrap-around porch to the back of the house and saw, a
little distance from the house, Jack crouched inside an area enclosed by an
iron picket fence, which appeared from where she stood, to be a private
cemetery. Jack's father would be buried there. She didn't call to Jack, but
waited. After a few more minutes, he stood and let himself out through a small
iron gate, then started toward the house. She had a few seconds to watch before
he looked up and saw her. His face was sad, and she was tempted to ask what was
wrong. Then the sadness turned to concern, and he said, "Is everything
alright?"

"Yes,"
she replied. "I was shack happy and had to get out. What were you doing
out there?"

"Go back
to the lodge," Jack said, ignoring her question. "I'll come fix you
lunch."

"I want to
see your house," Grace replied.

"Not now.
It's a mess."

"I
know," Grace said. "I looked in the window. But I want to see how the
father of my unborn son lives."