Late Friday morning, Grady swiped the grooming brush over one of the horses—Avalanche—glancing Francesca’s way. Her cell phone beeped, echoing in the stone and wood barn. She’d been restless and, he supposed, feeling cooped up, so he’d suggested she come out to the barn for a little while. She was ensconced in an old captain’s chair, a saddle blanket tucked around her for additional warmth, Shadow on a hay bale close by.
Avalanche sidestepped in his stall as her cell phone beeped again.
Grady was glad for the interruption. Having her watch him work had become distracting!
She managed to pull the phone from her pocket and checked the ID. “It’s the hospital,” she explained.
He unabashedly listened as she answered the call. “What’s up, Josie? Give me the details,” Francesca requested a few moments later.
Grady realized Francesca was now in doctor mode.
As she listened, he finished grooming Avalanche and left his stall.
Francesca checked her watch. “I’ll find a way to get there. Call me on my cell if anything changes.”
“How are you going to get there?” Grady asked as soon as she closed her phone.
“Can I use your truck? If not, maybe you could drop me at Tessa’s and she can drive me. I’ll call her—”
Suddenly he was worried and stopped her before she could call her friend. “You can’t drive the truck. What if your control with one hand isn’t as good as you think it is?”
“Grady, they need me there. The doctor who’s covering for me can’t be there. His wife is sick and his daughters need him. But there’s a preemie with jaundice who’s also having breathing problems. What if that were our baby?”
“That’s not fair,” he grumbled.
“Life isn’t fair. But I want to make it just a little better for this boy and his family.”
“You are one stubborn woman,” he announced, half in frustration and half in admiration.
Francesca drew herself up to her full height, letting the blanket fall. “If I were a man, you’d be calling me confident rather than stubborn.” She turned and headed for the barn door, Shadow jumping off the bale to follow her, before Grady could make further objections.
If she thought he was going to let her drive herself, she was mistaken. He strode after her and caught up to her as she was putting her cell phone to her ear. “I’ll drive you to the hospital.”
She closed her phone and stared at him a few seconds, obviously gauging what she wanted to do. Without her cap her hair blew in the wind. The urge to run his fingers through it, to take her to his bedroom and keep her there was so strong that he clenched his hands at his sides.
Finally, she asked, “There’s no point in my saying you don’t have to drive me, is there?”
“Nope. No point at all.”
“Thank you,” she acquiesced, giving him a soft smile that aroused him so fast he felt as if his blood was on fire.
He was suddenly grateful winter had come early.
Grady cut a glance at Francesca as he drove her to Lubbock. His overwhelming desire to take care of her was making him crazy. He’d never felt quite this way about a woman before.
He couldn’t forget watching her at the fence with the mustang yesterday. She hadn’t been around horses much, yet she’d understood the type of stillness that was needed to encourage the wild horse to come close. Most people wanted to reach out to the wilder ones and thought the animals should understand their eagerness to be friends. But Francesca had apparently realized that no amount of reaching could entice such a creature to her. Only stillness and time and patience could establish a bond.
Francesca had been patient with the mustang. And he had to be patient with her. She was very much like that wild horse, although he hadn’t realized it the first night he’d met her. She put on a good show, but underneath she was afraid of getting close.
He eyed her again. She was staring out the side window, a distracted look on her face.
“Do you worry about each of your patients this much?”
She glanced at him. “I have to. I have to give them a chance to take their next breath, or beat an infection or develop normally so they can live a full, healthy life. The infant mortality rate in this country is way too high. I try to do everything I can to bring it down.”
Infant mortality rate. That phrase sent a chill through him. He knew he’d taken this pregnancy way too lightly up until now. Maybe it was time he faced reality and the risks, along with what he and Francesca had to do to parent this child together. He’d thought taking one day at a time was enough. But maybe it wasn’t.
He was as distracted as she was on the rest of the drive to the hospital.
Ten minutes later he pulled up under the portico, quickly got out and went around to her side to help her down.
Before she took his hand, however, she said, “You don’t have to stick around. This could take a while. I’m sure I can get a ride back with someone.”
“I’ll wait.”
“Grady, it could take hours!”
“I’ll give my dad a call. He can drive over and maybe we can have coffee. As a member of the hospital board, he’s here on and off. Don’t worry about me. I won’t get bored.”
She eyed him as if she didn’t believe him. Then, apparently deciding there was no point in arguing, she placed her hand in his and let him support her until she stepped to the ground.
They were very close…within kissing distance. Heat spread through him again. Their interlude together on the sofa in his office flashed in his mind. Something about this woman sparked his libido.
In Chicago, his ex-fiancée had been all about her career. She’d been so passionate about it, she’d been unfaithful to him. Not only unfaithful, but she’d betrayed him. She’d slept with their boss to get a promotion Grady had been working for for two years. The worst part of it had been she’d expected him to take it all in stride. As if what she’d done was a matter of course. That’s when he’d known he wanted to return to Sagebrush and its small-town values, to a family that was loyal no matter what. He’d suddenly gotten a different perspective on his high-powered career. Sexual attraction had led him to believe there was a connection between him and Susan. But they hadn’t put any time into the relationship. They’d just conveniently slept over at each other’s places. They hadn’t faced life—the low points and the high points—together. Their lives had been mutually exclusive.
It hadn’t been easy to leave Chicago without looking back. And now, five years later, at age forty-four, he’d gotten his priorities straight. But that didn’t mean he’d forgotten how deceptive a woman could be. That didn’t mean he’d forgotten how all-consuming a woman’s career could be.
Although he was so tempted to pull Francesca closer and kiss her, he restrained that impulse. Stepping back, he said, “I’ll come up to the neonatal unit in about an hour to see how you’re doing.”
Her cheeks flushed a bit—as if she’d been as aware of him as he was of her—and she nodded. “Just stop at the nurses’ station. They’ll tell you where I am.”
When Francesca disappeared through the sliding glass doors into the lobby of the hospital, Grady stared after her in turmoil about the path ahead of them both.
Grady had been at the hospital for two hours when he spotted Tessa at the NICU nurses’ station. “Are you back to work?” he asked, surprised, because Vince had told him his wife wasn’t going to return until February.
“Not officially,” she replied with a smile, pushing her long, blond hair over her shoulder. “But the doc who’s taking my place had some questions about one of my patients who has recurring problems. I stopped in to look over the chart.”
“And ended up here?” Pediatrics was in another wing.
“The mom of one of my other patients just had a preemie.”
“You doctors are addicted to work, aren’t you?” He was beginning to see how Francesca’s work could have an effect on their child’s life.
Tessa frowned. “No, we’re not addicted to work. My children are at home. Mrs. Zappa returned from her visit to her son’s, and now she’ll be there when I need her to help me with them.”
Rhonda Zappa had been Vince’s housekeeper before he married Tessa. She’d taken care of his little boy. Grady knew the couple trusted her implicitly.
“I guess I can’t compare this to an investment banking job,” Grady admitted.
Tessa laid her hand on his arm. “I don’t know. How much did you care about your clients? There are doctors who put in their hours, go home and don’t think about their patients. But Francesca and I aren’t like that.”
Both of their gazes shifted to the double doors of the NICU.
Tessa added, “Francesca cares about each one of those babies as if they were her own. She saves their lives, Grady. Each one of those infants has a hold on her heart.”
“She’s supposed to be resting,” he grumbled.
“I think she’s had enough of resting. I spoke with her last night and she’s restless to go home.”
“She doesn’t realize how difficult that will be with her arm casted.”
“I think she does. She’s already arranged for a ride to the hospital on Monday with Gina Rigoletti.”
After a long pause that became awkward, Tessa asked, “How much do you want to be a dad?”
“I think I’ve been waiting my whole life to be a dad. I called my father this morning. He came over and we had coffee. He talked about raising us, the difference between raising boys and girls. He’s been a great role model. I’ve also watched my brother and sister with their kids. I’ve got to admit I’ve been a bit envious at times.”
Tessa’s blue eyes twinkled. “So now you’ll have your chance at it.”
“I hope so. Francesca and I have to work that out.”
“You will, especially if you put your baby first. It will help if you and Francesca can agree on the basics.”
“We haven’t really settled on the kind of custody we’ll have.”
“Then there are all the little things, too. Can you stop in whenever you’d like or are you going to adhere to a strict visitation schedule? If you have the baby, can she call and ask if she can put him to bed with you? Do you want to start a college fund? Will she consult you if your little boy needs braces?”
He had to admit he hadn’t thought of any of the concerns Tessa had mentioned. “I guess a lot of what we do depends on what kind of relationship we have.”
“I guess it does.”
Tessa was studying him curiously and he felt uncomfortable. He wasn’t sure himself what kind of relationship he and Francesca had.
Suddenly the doors to the NICU slid open and Francesca stepped out. Spying the two of them, she crossed to the desk. She and Tessa embraced and Grady could again sense the strong bond between the two women as they began to chat animatedly.
“I can leave now,” Francesca said. “Dr. Saxby will be here shortly. And Dr. Martin will be back from his vacation tonight.”
“Did everything go okay?” Grady wanted to know.
“For now, but it’s still touch and go.”
“How about some lunch at the Yellow Rose Diner before we go back to the ranch? Tessa, you’re welcome to join us.” He thought it might be interesting to hear what the two women had to say when they were together.
Tessa shook her head. “No, thanks. I promised the kids I’d watch a Christmas movie with them. I’ll be heading home, too.” Tessa returned the chart in her hand to the stand behind the desk. “I’ll see you two around. Have a good lunch.”
After Tessa headed down the hall, Francesca asked Grady, “Did you get hold of your dad?”
“Yep. We were in the coffee shop for about an hour. He was going to drop in on the chief of staff.”
“He knows Dr. Gutieras?”
“They went to school together. I think that’s how Dr. Gutieras corralled Dad to be on the board. He wanted a commonsense person.”
“That’s your dad?”
“Most of the time.”
They walked down the hall together to the elevator. When they reached it, Francesca pressed the button for the lobby.
“So, what about lunch?” Grady asked again.
“You really don’t need to be anywhere?” she asked, looking worried.
“The saddle shop’s doing fine. Christmas orders have come in so everyone’s working steadily. I’ll have time to exercise the horses and do some chores this afternoon. A half hour for lunch won’t throw a wrench into those plans.”
She studied him for a few seconds.
“What?” he asked, feeling a bit unsettled.
“Do you always take everything in stride?”
“I had about fourteen years of running like a rat in a maze. When I returned to Sagebrush, I decided I was never going to live my life like that again.”
“That was one huge life change.”
“Yes, it was, but it was worth it. I’m always going to make time to be a dad, Francesca. You should know that.”
He wasn’t sure if that statement pleased her or worried her as the elevator doors opened and they stepped in. He still didn’t know Francesca, did he?
Maybe he never would.
The Yellow Rose Diner was a Sagebrush landmark. When Francesca had moved in with Tessa, she’d found it a gathering place for everyone, from the town’s lawyer to its patrol officers. The restaurant bustled as usual as Grady escorted her inside. Christmas wreaths heaped in a stack by the row of windows threatened to topple onto the pile of red ribbon rolls in the corner.
Grady hung his Stetson on one of the hat holders on the wall, then helped Francesca out of her jacket and pushed her chair in for her. She looked up over her shoulder to murmur thank you and found her face very close to his. She swallowed hard.
After a moment of heart-stopping awareness, he straightened and went around to his seat. He ran his hand through his hair before he settled in across the table.
Francesca remembered running her fingers through his hair. What had happened to her that night? What had happened to Grady? Why had they felt free to be that intimate with each other? Now the tension was ratcheted to such a level between them she could hardly catch her breath. Maybe because the stakes were much higher.
“It looks as if they’re decorating for Christmas,” Grady observed, obviously trying to make conversation. “I usually put up a tree.”
“Do you?” That surprised her. Most bachelors wouldn’t bother.
“My nieces and nephews tell me it’s not Christmas without a tree. They believe Santa might not stop by if he doesn’t have a place to put the presents.”
She laughed. “Christmas is all about children, isn’t it? And the stars in their eyes. Tessa and Vince will have a wonderful Christmas this year with Natalie and Sean. Emily showed me the Cinderella coach ornaments she bought for their twins when they were at Disney World for their honeymoon. Courtney and Amy are going to love them.”
Grady gave a crooked smile. “Children do make it special. My dad still reads The Christmas Story every Christmas Eve. It’s a tradition. With his grandchildren gathered around him, it seems to have an even deeper meaning.”
Francesca wondered if she’d see Grady over the Christmas holidays. Maybe when she left his ranch, they’d go their separate ways again until the baby was born. Wasn’t that what she wanted?
Francesca’s favorite waitress came hurrying over to them then, looking harried. Mindy lifted her pencil from its perch in her auburn hair and stood poised to take their order. “Hi, Francesca. Grady. What can I get for you?”
Francesca realized that today the waitress didn’t have spare minutes to make small talk. She ordered turkey salad and a glass of milk. Grady ordered a beef club and cheddar cheese fries.
As Mindy rushed off, he studied Francesca for a few moments, then asked, “When you were growing up, did your family decorate much?”
She knew he was trying to see into her past and in a certain sense, she was still ashamed of it. That scared little girl inside would never forget the weight of her father’s disapproval, the resounding harshness of his yelling, her mother’s cowering fear.
Chatter in the busy restaurant swirled all around them. Maybe Grady thought conversation would be easier here than when they were alone together somewhere. But her past wasn’t easy conversation no matter where they were.
“We had one of those electric candles you could plug in and set in the window. Mom put that out every year.”
“You said your parents separated?”
“My mother left my father. They never actually divorced.”
“Did you see him after you left?”
“No.”
Grady stayed quiet as if he were attempting to get a handle on her childhood.
To keep him distracted from the subject of her past, she offered, “I decorated for Christmas with Tessa. That was a lot of fun in the Victorian. We even hung strings of lights outside.”
His gaze told her he knew her change of subject was deliberate. He took their conversation in a different direction. “I know you’ll be going home Sunday. But how would you like to have dinner with my family first? When I had coffee with Dad today, he said he’d like to meet you.”
Dinner with Grady’s family. Her curiosity about them, about the dynamics between brothers and sisters and parents had only swelled in the wake of his sister’s visit. “Who will be there?”
“Everyone,” he answered with a grin.
Everyone. Did she have the courage to take on the Fitzgerald clan?
Sure she did. “What can I bring?”
“Just yourself.”
Somehow she’d manage to make a cherry cobbler. She should be able to handle that.
Much easier than she might be able to handle Grady’s family!
On Sunday, Francesca’s heart thumped hard as she walked into the Fitzgerald one-story condo attached to another on the side street of a fairly new development in Lubbock. Cars spilled from the driveway along the curb.
When Grady opened the door, the aroma of baked goods wafted out ahead of a wave of chatter from the inside.
Francesca glanced at Grady. How many Fitzgeralds were there?
He leaned close and whispered in her ear, “None of them will bite. I promise.”
She’d tried to hide the fact that family made her jittery, but wasn’t very good at it. In fact, with Grady she couldn’t seem to hide much at all.
There were three women in the kitchen, all involved in some aspect of the baking process. Maureen was rolling out cookie dough on a pastry cloth. Laurie was removing cookie sheets from the oven. Another woman, pleasantly plump, her hair styled in a pixie cut, was mixing water and confectioner’s sugar in a small bowl.
Grady’s father, a ruddy-faced, tall man with black hair like Grady’s but with silver at his temples, pushed himself up from his recliner and came to greet them. “You must be Francesca,” he said with a hint of gruffness in his tone.
“Yes, I am.”
Two little boys ran from the hallway and wrapped their arms around their grandfather. Francesca wondered if they were Mark and Seth, Laurie’s sons.
“Hey, everyone. This is Francesca.” Grady waved a hand at her and pointed to the man at the left side of the sofa. “That’s John.” He pointed to a younger man at the other side of the sofa. “And that’s Liam. Jenna, John’s wife, is stirring the icing.”
Everyone gave Francesca a nod or smile except Liam. He sort of shrugged and cocked his head, examining her as if she were an alien. At least that’s the way Francesca saw it. Grady’s brothers hadn’t stopped by to see the mustang as he’d expected. Because they didn’t want to intrude?
Maureen called from the kitchen, “Come help us with this last batch.”
“Let her get her coat off, Mom, before you put her to work,” Grady teased.
His mother took it in stride and just gave him a grin and a wink. “Put her jacket in on the guest-room bed with everyone else’s.”
Francesca felt like a deer in headlights. She handed Grady the cherry cobbler, shrugged out of her jacket, then traded with him.
A little girl of about five, who had been drawing at the coffee table, came over to Francesca now and looked up at her expectantly. “Are you Uncle Grady’s girlfriend?”
Francesca dropped down to her eye level. “I’m your uncle’s friend. What’s your name?”
“Marly.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Marly.”
The small child eyed Francesca’s rounding figure. “Daddy told Mommy you’re going to have a baby.”
“Yes, I am…at the end of February.” Francesca smiled at the blue icing on Marly’s chin and a streak of yellow on the front of her T-shirt. “Were you helping to make the cookies?”
“Yep. But I got tired of doing that. But maybe I can show you how to do the angels’ wings.”
“Maybe you can. Let’s go ask your grandma.” Francesca stood and followed Marly into the kitchen.
There she handed Maureen the cherry cobbler. While Grady had spent most of the day at the saddle shop yesterday, she’d baked. “I wanted to contribute.”
Maureen said, “Thank you. We can always use more dessert. Beef barbecue is simmering in the slow cooker. I didn’t add brown sugar since you were coming. We thought we’d be further along with the cookies by now, but cookie-making can’t be rushed.”
Francesca felt awkward, unsure of what to do or say. But then Laurie piped up, “Francesca lives in Sagebrush in an old Victorian. Tessa Rossi used to be her housemate.”
Laurie went on to explain, “Tessa was on call at the hospital one time when Mark Jr. fell off his skateboard. I liked her and started taking the kids to her.” Turning to Francesca again, she added, “My Mark and Seth were the two hooligans who ran to Gramps when you came in. Marly belongs to Jenna and John. Their two boys are in the garage trying to fix an old bike.”
Jenna offered Francesca a bottle of food coloring. “Do you want to mix the colors?”
“Pink for the angels,” Marly piped up. “White for their wings, blue for the bells and yellow for the stars.”
“She has it all planned,” Jenna said with a smile. “Life’s choices are a lot less difficult when you’re five.”
Francesca smiled back. “I suppose that’s true.” She picked up one of the small dishes of icing and shook in a couple of drops of blue food coloring. She’d never decorated cookies before. This might even be fun.
After a few minutes of silent work, Maureen commented, “Grady said you went into the hospital on Friday. How did that go?”
Francesca decided if Laurie and Mrs. Fitzgerald had been bluntly honest with her, she could be with them, too. “It felt great to be back. But it was frustrating. Without two hands, I couldn’t do what I usually do.”
“I can only imagine,” Jenna sympathized. “I broke my arm in a biking accident two years ago. I work in the office at the denim factory, nothing like you do. But it was such a relief when I had that cast off and I could feel useful again. I hated not being able to button the kids’ shirts or tie Marly’s shoes. I can only imagine how you felt at the hospital.”
“What do you do at the denim factory?” Francesca asked, eager to move the conversation from her to Grady’s family.
“I’m an account manager.”
The conversation seemed to roll easily after that. Francesca found she liked decorating Christmas cookies with Marly’s help. Maybe Christmas traditions were something to think about planning for the future.
When Francesca glanced into the living room, Grady was cross-legged on the floor with his two nephews, playing some kind of board game. He looked up and his gaze met hers. Was he thinking about how she fit into the Fitzgeralds’s Christmas traditions?
Dinner itself was noisy and informal. Mr. Fitzgerald set up a card table for the kids in the living room. Francesca had never experienced anything like this. The adults just fit around the dining-room table. They all held hands and said a prayer before they ate.
She did notice the only one who didn’t participate as much in the conversation and laughter was Liam. Grady had told her he’d been divorced recently and she wondered if that was why. Grady definitely favored his father. Liam, with his reddish-brown hair and freckles, favored Maureen.
Since Grady’s dad was on the board at the hospital, he and Francesca had much to converse about. They were just discussing the merits of an expanded cardiac rehab facility when Liam asked Grady, “So when are you and Francesca getting married?”
Silence blanketed the table. Even the children in the living room were quiet for the moment.
Not for the first time since she’d met Grady, Francesca wasn’t sure what to do. Maybe the best thing would be to let Grady discuss whatever he wanted to discuss with his family without her present. Marriage wasn’t on the table. Her father had forced her mother into marriage when she’d told him she was pregnant. Francesca had vowed that would never happen to her—no man would ever control her life.
Pushing back her chair, she stood. “Please excuse me. I need to use the ladies’ room.”
She left the dining room and went down the hall, knowing that the powder room would be her sanctuary for at least ten minutes. That should be enough time for Grady to deal with his brother.
When Francesca did emerge from the powder room, Grady was standing right there outside the door. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. I wanted to make sure I didn’t interrupt anything when I came back in.”
“There was nothing to interrupt two minutes after you left.”
She told him the truth. “This family stuff is foreign territory for me, Grady. I just didn’t want to interfere.”
Grady stood toe-to-toe with her, his voice low. “I’m not making excuses for Liam’s rudeness, but he isn’t in the best of moods these days. When his wife asked for a divorce, he didn’t see it coming. She didn’t want to try counseling because she’d met someone else. He’s still licking his wounds and that’s why he’s…bristly.”
“I understand,” she said quickly.
“No, I don’t think you do. I love my family. I wanted them to meet you. But what happens between you and me, that’s private.”
She wasn’t sure why, but she did feel some relief at his words. “What did you tell your brother?”
“I told Liam my relationship with you is none of his business.”
“I don’t want to come between you.”
“You won’t. He and I have had healthy disagreements all our lives. He’s the youngest. There’s twelve years between us. He’s never wanted to take my advice.”
“But you’ve always wanted to give it?” she asked with a small smile.
“For the past few years I’ve finally learned to keep my mouth shut. Anyway, I know you’ve probably had enough of my clan for now. I just happen to have a Christmas tree in the barn. Would you decorate it with me?”
“Tonight?”
“Sure. We’ve got all evening. I’ll get you home in plenty of time to turn in early. What do you think?”
Her hand went to her tummy. This was her last evening with Grady. Decorating a Christmas tree with him could become a tradition with their son.
A tradition. She hadn’t experienced many of those. “Yes, I’d like to decorate a tree with you.”
Grady’s blue eyes darkened. His woodsy cologne invited her closer. A burst of laughter came from the living room and he shifted that way.
No matter what Grady said, his family was important to his life. Would they be important to hers?