“Jed, I’m not going to keep arguing with you. You should have told me.” Diana sat on the edge of Jed’s hospital bed. The metal rail lowered as his hand rested across her thigh and his dark eyes flared with a fire she hadn’t seen before.
“Diana, stop. I’ll take care of the bank when I get out of here. You’re not going to work. You’ve got Danny to look after. Don’t you think he deserves a mother at home? Haven’t I looked after everything? It’s my responsibility to look after you and Danny.”
She knew he wasn’t hearing her. He pressed the power button to raise the bed at the head until he was almost sitting up. Diana glanced at the closed door, where Brad waited on the other side.
“Jed, I’m your wife. You’re supposed to share everything with me, and you’re hiding things. I knew you weren’t sleeping and something was bothering you. I had no idea the state pulled the grant. I never would have pushed for the therapeutic riding. I thought we had the grant, the money. You stepped onto that ladder, exhausted, busting your butt for me, and could have been killed, and then where would Danny and I be?”
“Diana, nothing’s going to happen to me. Doc says I can get out of here by the end of the week. I already told you I’ll handle it.” He rubbed her leg with his large, chafed hand.
She rested her hand over his and pressed it to her stomach. “I’m pregnant again, Jed. I knew I was late. I picked up a pregnancy test in the hospital gift shop a few days ago, and it was positive. Jed, I can work from home, handle small estate stuff, and still look after Danny. We’re supposed to be a team, Jed, working together. So let me help, because I don’t ever want to be standing, watching you fall and lying hurt, not knowing if you’re dead or alive.”
Jed wiped the tear sliding down her cheek. “You’re pregnant, really?” He smiled when he asked it, but he wasn’t fooling her. She could see the shadow of worry dimming the brightness in eyes.
A knock on the door had her looking up, and Brad stepped in. “Am I interrupting?”
Jed looked over, but Diana was irritated because she could sense Jed’s relief.
“Diana, can you run down to the cafeteria and grab me a slice of pie?”
“What? Why on earth would you want pie from the hospital? If you wanted pie, I could have made you one at home.” She didn’t move from her spot, but he nudged her hand, giving her one of his crooked smiles.
“Please, honey.”
“Fine, I’ll get you your pie.” She started toward the door, glanced at Brad, and didn’t miss the look he gave Jed.
“Apple, Diana, please,” Jed called out before she stepped out the door.
***
“Pie in a hospital? That’s pretty lame.” Brad yanked the vinyl-covered chair from the corner and slid it closer to the bed, lowering his large frame down and stretching out his long legs. “So, out with it. What don’t you want Diana to hear?”
“You drove her all the way to Seattle tonight. What did she tell you?” Jed stared at his big brother, a brother he’d always looked up to, even after the lies Crystal told. She had been a sexy, deceitful woman who fooled Jed at first, but the rift she set between him and Brad seemed to be a scar that hadn’t quite healed, even now.
Brad clasped his hands together and rested them on his large brass buckle. “If you’re fishing around, trying to find out whether Diana told us about your financial trouble, we know. And don’t go blaming her. Mom answered the phone. Diana was mighty thrown when the bank called. Mom called me—she’s worried about how you’ll react. Dad knows, too, and Neil.”
Jed shut his eyes as a wave of shame washed over him. He hated when anyone got in his business, any part of it, and for his parents and brothers to think he couldn’t look after his wife and kid, with another on the way, he couldn’t stand it.
“Knock it off, Jed. No one’s thinking less of you. How could we? You’re the only one of us who struck out on your own. You never took anything from Daddy, even what he set aside for you, as he’d done for each of us. I got the ranch handed to me, and Neil’s with dad and that big ranching venture they’ve started down on the Yucatan peninsula. And you… don’t think I’m not a little envious of your guts to build something from the dirt, from nothing,” Brad growled.
Jed turned his head a little too fast and was hit by a wave of dizziness.
“You okay?” The chair scraped back, and Brad leaned over Jed. “I’ll go grab the doctor.”
“No, I’m fine. Just moved a little too fast.” Brad seemed to hesitate and glanced at the door. “Really, Brad, I’m fine. Listen, I want to talk to you before Diana gets back. I don’t want her worrying about anyone taking anything from us, like our home. She had a rough time as a kid, and that kind of hurt, of having everything ripped away, sticks. I still see it sometimes, a thoughtless comment from someone who should know better. She hides it, all those painful shadows that still haunt her.”
Brad said nothing, just stared at Jed, rubbing his thumb over his lip, then slowly nodded. “I saw the letters. Diana went through your papers, the letter from the bank, the state taking the grant. You’re in arrears big time. We only want to help. If I tried to give you money, you wouldn’t take it, would you?”
Jed had a lot to consider. “I’ll think about it.”
That must have surprised Brad, as his eyes widened and he started to say something when the door pushed open, and in walked Diana, carrying a plate with piece of pie wrapped in plastic.
She set the pie on the bedside table with the fork. “There was no apple, so I got you cherry.”
Jed reached for her hand and pulled her toward him until she sat on the bed beside him. “Diana’s pregnant.” He rested his hand on her stomach.
“Jed, it’s too soon to tell anyone,” Diana admonished.
Brad grinned. “That’s great news.”
Jed swallowed and stared at his wife, who watched him in a way that bared her heart to him. She trusted him. She loved him with a fiery passion that left no doubt she’d walk through fire for him. However, the financial mess they were in was the least of his worries. What she still didn’t know, and what he couldn’t tell her, would break her heart, and Jed also knew she would never forgive him.