Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Dana Mentink (e books free to read TXT) 📖

heart. All this protectiveness now was too late. The throb of tenderness turned bitter.

He’d quit on their marriage, quit on her. She stepped back, freeing herself from his grasp.

She blinked furiously, snatched up another cotton ball and finished disinfecting the wound in silence, applying antibiotic ointment as a final step. “That should heal up okay now. You won’t even have a scar.”

“Thank you.” He sat back in the chair. “There’s something else. I found out Rita has been asking in town about me.”

Laney jerked. “Our guest Rita? Why would she do that?”

“I don’t know, but I am going to find out. She’s not what she seems to be. I don’t want you around her.”

Laney bit back her irritation but some leaked into her words anyway. “That’s all well and good for you to make pronouncements like that, but there are commitments that need keeping, tours that were paid for. Like I told you, I have to take her and the Timmons family into the park in a couple of hours. This is supposed to be our busy season. We aren’t in a position to issue refunds or withstand the angry reviews they will post on Yelp if we cancel on them.”

“I’ll drive them.”

“Which will leave me here alone, since Levi is leading the horse tour.”

“Herm…?”

“Is on his way to get lumber to fix the chicken coop. He’s already cooked the roast for the couple of families who we are blessed enough to have staying here still. It’s in the warming oven for me to put out.”

Beckett considered, standing and staring through the cheerful checked curtains. “All right,” he said finally. “We’ll go together, then.”

Together. That was occurring entirely too much in the last few days. With her emotions zinging around the place like dust in a whirlwind, it did not seem to her a very wise idea to spend hours in close contact with Beckett. But there was no help for it. She bent to toss the cotton in the wastebasket, staggering a little when she straightened until he bolted over and pulled her close.

“What is it? Are you all right? Sit down. I’ll get water. Should I call the doctor?” The stream of panicked questions continued until she pressed a finger to his lips.

“Shush. It’s okay. I just get dizzy sometimes if I stand too quickly. Irene says it’s perfectly normal. Everything is fine. I just haven’t had enough water lately probably…”

In a flash, he was pressing her into the chair he’d vacated and striding to the sink. In ten seconds she had a large glass of water in her hand. “Drink.”

She sipped, figuring compliance was the best way to get him to leave.

“Drink more.”

She complied with an eye roll.

“I think you should finish the whole thing.”

“My bladder isn’t that big and I’ve got a baby taking up real estate in there too, so ease up, would you?”

To her surprise, he laughed. The sound was rich and sonorous, and it momentarily took her breath away. There had been so much laughter in this very kitchen… The time he’d baked her a birthday cake and dropped it, the day they’d rescued a squirrel that had been hit by a car and promptly revived in time to lead them on a merry chase. There had been a bounty of blessings that she’d thought would be hers forever…until the moment Pauline’s body was found. Again she felt the tears threaten, and she forced them back.

Beckett’s laughter died away, but his smile was still in full force. “How about just a few small sips, until little Muffin simmers down?”

She arched a brow. “Muffin? Does that work for both genders?”

He gulped. “It just, you know, popped into my mind. Do you…? I mean, do you have a guess about the gender?”

Why did the question stab right to her heart? “If the Lord gives me a healthy baby, it doesn’t matter to me.”

He looked pained. “Me too. I…” He trailed off.

“What?”

He looked down, and she was startled to catch the glimmer of moisture in his eyes. “Nothing.”

Something inside made her whisper. “Tell me.”

“I know the baby will have the best mother in the world…” he choked out. “But why me for a father?”

The moment stretched taut as a wire between them. She’d spent four months wondering what God was up to, granting her heart’s desire at the moment her life cracked into millions of jagged pieces.

“I don’t know why, Beckett, why now, why us, but I can tell you there is no part of this baby that isn’t God breathed and God blessed. If I can just…” Her voice caught, and she clamped her lips shut. What had happened to her ability to control her tongue?

He was quiet for several seconds. “If you can carry the baby to term?” he finished for her.

How could he still read her so easily? It was not fair.

She squeezed her hands together. “I made bad choices in the past, but I know God has forgiven me. He’s blessed me beyond measure with this pregnancy and I trust Him. It’s just that sometimes when I consider all that’s happened, with us, and Pauline, it reminds me how easily blessings can be stripped away.”

He nodded. “It must have been a shock to find out that you were pregnant.”

“It was the second-best day of my life,” she said.

And the first? He didn’t ask because he already knew. As a matter of fact, it was engraved inside the wedding ring she no longer wore. Our wedding day, our future. It was written in his too, and she noticed he still wore his. She was unsure how she should feel about that.

He cleared his throat and walked to the door. “I, uh… I’m going to go check on some things.”

She nodded, relieved that he would leave her in peace to deal with a stomach suddenly gone unsettled.

“What room is Rita’s?” he asked.

“It’s…” Shock slammed into her.

“What’s wrong?”

She felt cold all over. “Something just occurred to me.”

He waited.

“Rita Brown.”

“What about her?”

“She’s staying in Room 205,”