Committed to the Baby: Claiming King's Baby / The Doctor's Secret Baby

What did that say about him?

Jonas laughed and Justice turned his attention to Maggie, who was watching them both with tears in her eyes. His heart turned over in his chest, and just for an instant he let himself believe it was real. That he and Maggie were together again. That Jonas was his son.

Then the sound of a car engine out front shattered the quiet. A moment later that engine was shut off and the solid slam of a car door followed. Before he could wonder who had arrived, Mrs. Carey shouted from inside, “Jesse and Bella are here!”

Justice stared up at Maggie, the moment over. “Take the baby.”

Chapter Seven

“I can’t tell you how glad I’ll be to finally have this baby,” Bella said with a groan as she eased back into one of the comfy chairs in the great room. Her long, dark hair lay across her shoulder in a thick braid and silver hoops winked from her ears. A wry smile curved her mouth as she ran one hand over her belly. “It’s not all about wanting to sleep on my stomach again, though. I’m just so anxious to meet whoever’s in there.”

“You didn’t find out the baby’s sex?” Mrs. Carey asked.

“No,” Bella said. “We decided to be surprised.”

Maggie grinned. She’d felt the same way. She hadn’t wanted to know the sex of her baby before she saw him for the first time. And she remembered all too clearly what the last couple of weeks of pregnancy were like. No wonder Bella was fidgety. There was the discomfort, of course. But more than that, there was a sense of breathless expectation that clung to every moment.

“And,” Bella was saying, “I don’t think Jesse can take much more of this. The man’s on a constant red alert. Every time I breathe too deeply, he bolts for the phone, ready to call 911. He’s so nervous that he’s awake every couple of hours during the night, waking me up to make sure I’m all right.”

“That’s just as it should be,” Mrs. Carey said, from her seat on the couch, where she held Jonas in the crook of her arm and fed him his afternoon bottle. “A man should be wrapped up in the birth of his child.” She sniffed. “Some men, at least, know what to do.”

It was really nice having the King family housekeeper on her side, Maggie mused, but at the same time, she felt she owed Justice some sort of defense.

“To be fair,” Maggie said, “Justice didn’t know I was pregnant.”

“Would have if he hadn’t been too stubborn to go after you in the first place,” she countered with a sharp nod that said, that’s all there is to it. “If he had, then you would have been here, at home while you were carrying this little sweetheart. And I wouldn’t have had to wait so long to meet him.”

It would have been nice, Maggie thought, to have been here, surrounded by love and concern during her pregnancy. Instead, she’d lived alone, in her apartment a half hour away in Long Beach. Thank God she’d had her own family for support.

“I can’t believe you went through your whole pregnancy on your own,” Bella said softly, her hands still moving restlessly over the mound of her belly. “I don’t know what I would have done without Jesse.”

“It wasn’t easy,” Maggie admitted, pouring Bella another glass of lemonade before slumping back into her own chair. She shot a quick look at her baby, happily ensconced in Mrs. Carey’s arms, and remembered those months of loneliness. She’d missed Justice so much then and had nearly called him dozens of times. But her own pride had discounted that notion every time it presented itself. “I had my family,” she said, reminding herself that she’d never really been completely alone. Besides, she didn’t want these women feeling sorry for her. She hadn’t had Justice with her, but she hadn’t been miserable the whole time, either.

“That’s good,” Bella said softly, as if she understood exactly what Maggie was trying to do.

“My parents live in Arizona, but they were on the phone all the time and were really supportive. Both of my sisters were fabulous.” Maggie grinned suddenly with a memory. “My sister Mary Theresa was even in the delivery room with me. Matrice was great, really. Don’t know what I would have done without her there.”

“I’m glad you weren’t alone,” Mrs. Carey said quietly, “but a woman should have her man at her side when her children are born.”

In a perfect world, Maggie thought but didn’t say. Instead, she sighed and said, “I wanted to tell him. I really did. But at the same time, Justice had already told me that he didn’t want children.”

Mrs. Carey snorted. “Darn fool. Don’t know why he’d say that raised in this family, one of four kids. Why wouldn’t he want children? Especially,” she added, bending to kiss Jonas’s forehead, “this little darling.”

Maggie gave her a smile, delighted that Jonas had an honorary grandmother to dote on him. “I didn’t understand why, either, but he’d made himself clear. So I couldn’t very well show up here pregnant knowing how he felt about it. And besides…”

“You wanted him to want you for you, not for the baby,” Bella said for her.

“Exactly,” Maggie said on another sigh. She may have just met Bella King, but she had a feeling the two of them could be very close friends. But that wasn’t likely to happen either, since the minute Justice recovered, she’d be leaving again—and this time she knew it would be for good. There’d be no coming back here, not if Justice could turn his back on his son.

With a heavy heart, Maggie glanced around the room and idly noted the splash of sunshine lying across polished floors and gleaming tables. The scent of freshly cut flowers hung in the air, and the only sounds were those made by her hungry son as he devoted himself to his snack.

“I understand that completely,” Bella told her. “If I’d been in your situation, I would have done the same thing. You know, Jesse told me how happy you and his brother were together. And I can tell you he was really surprised when you two split up.”

Mrs. Carey huffed out a disgusted breath.

“He wasn’t the only one.” Maggie felt a quick sting of tears behind her eyes, and she blinked fiercely to keep them at bay. The time for tears was long past. “I would never have believed that Justice and I wouldn’t be together forever. But he’s just so darn…”

“Stubborn. Bullheaded,” Mrs. Carey supplied.

“That about covers it,” Maggie said with a laugh, relieved to feel her emotions settle again.

“So is Jesse,” Bella said, then went on to describe life with a husband who rarely let her walk across the room without an escort. She started in by telling them how her office at King Beach had been outfitted with a resting chaise and that Jesse made sure she took a nap every afternoon.

While Maggie listened, she tried to hide the pain she felt. The envy, wrapping itself around her heart, for what Bella shared with her husband. Jesse had already come into the room twice in the past hour, ordering his wife to put her feet up, getting her a pillow for her aching back.

It was easy to imagine that Bella’s whole pregnancy had been like that. With her eager, loving husband dancing attendance on her. And Maggie couldn’t help but remember what her own pregnancy had been like. Sure, she’d had her parents and her sisters, but she hadn’t had Justice. She hadn’t had the luxury of lying in bed beside the father of her child while they spun daydreams about their baby’s future. She hadn’t been able to share the excitement of a new ultrasound photo. Hadn’t been able to hold Justice’s hand to her belly so that he could feel Jonas moving around inside her.

They’d both missed so much. Maybe she should have come to Justice immediately on finding out she was pregnant. Maybe she should have given him the chance then to acknowledge their child, to let them both into his life. But she’d been so sure she wouldn’t be welcome. And frankly, his actions over the past few days supported her decision.

But then she remembered the look in Justice’s eyes just an hour or so ago when she’d dropped Jonas into his lap. There had been an unexpected tenderness on his face, underlying the surprise and wariness. Maybe, she thought wistfully, if she’d just stood her ground long ago, things might have been different. Now, though, she’d never know for sure.

“You all right, honey?”

Mrs. Carey’s concerned voice brought Maggie out of her thoughts to focus on what was happening. She shot a look at Bella in time to see a quick flash of pain dart over her features. “Bella?”

“I’m okay,” she said, taking a deep breath. “It’s just that my back’s been bothering me all day. Probably just spasms from carrying around all this extra weight.”

“A backache?” Maggie asked.

“All day?” Mrs. Carey added.

Bella grimaced, then said, “I probably just need another cookie.”

“Um,” Maggie started, “just when exactly are you due, Bella?”

“Oh, not for two weeks yet.” She groaned a little as she pushed herself forward to reach for the plate on the table in front of her.

Maggie and Mrs. Carey exchanged a long, knowing look.

* * *

“You’re crazy, you know that, right?” Jesse took a long pull of his beer and stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankle.

Justice shot a look at his younger brother in time to see him shaking his head in disgust. The sun was hot, the breeze was cool and the patio was empty except for him and Jesse.

Maggie, Bella and Mrs. Carey were all in the house cooing over Jonas and talking about Bella’s due-any-minute baby. He scowled to himself and took a drink of his own beer. Justice and Maggie had already legally separated by the time Bella and Jesse got together, but you wouldn’t have known it from the way Maggie and Bella had instantly bonded. They were like two old friends already, and their chatter had eventually chased Jesse and Justice out to the patio for some quiet.

At least, that had been the plan.

“Crazy? Me?” Justice laughed shortly. “I’m not the one hauling my extremely pregnant wife around when she should be at home.”

“Bella gets antsy sitting around the house. Besides, we’re only forty minutes from the hospital—and you’re changing the subject.”

“Damn straight. Take the hint.”

Jesse grinned, completely unfazed by Justice’s snarl. “Why should I?”

“Because it’s none of your business.”

“When’s that ever stopped a King?”

True, Justice thought. Never had a King been born who knew enough to keep his nose out of his brother’s business.

“Look,” Jesse said, “Jeff called, told me he’d hired Maggie, so I thought I’d bring Bella over to meet her sister-in-law. Nobody told me you had a son.”

“I don’t.”

Laughing shortly, Jesse said, “You’re so busy being a tight ass you don’t even see it, do you?”

“I’m not talking about this with you, Jesse.”

“Fine. Then I’ll talk. You listen.”

A cloud scudded across the sun, tossing the patio into shadow and dropping the temperature suddenly. Justice frowned at his brother, but Jesse paid no attention. He sat up, braced his forearms on his thighs and held his beer bottle between his palms. “I thought your leg was hurt, not your eyes.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, you dumb jerk, that Jonas looks just like you and you’d have to be blind not to see it.”

“Black hair and blue eyes doesn’t make him mine.”

“It’s more than that and you know it. The shape of his face. His nose. His hands. Damn it, Justice, he’s a carbon copy of you.”

“He can’t be.”

“Why the hell not?” Jesse’s voice dropped and his gaze narrowed. “Why can’t he be your son?”

Irritated beyond measure, pushed beyond endurance, Justice awkwardly got out of his chair and grabbed for his hated cane. Then he walked a few uneasy steps away from Jesse, stared out at the rose garden and told his brother what he’d never told another living soul before.

“Because I can’t have kids.”

“Says who?”

Justice choked out a laugh. Figured Jesse wouldn’t react with any kind of tact. Just accept what his brother said and let it go. “A doctor. Right after the accident that killed Mom and Dad and laid me up for weeks.”

“You never said anything.”

He laughed again, a sound that was harsh and miserable even to his own ears. “Would you have?”

“No,” Jesse said, standing up to walk to his side. “I guess not. But, Justice, doctors make mistakes.”

He took a drink of his beer, letting the frothy cold liquid coat his insides and put out the fires of humiliation and regret burning within. “Not about that.”

“God, you’re an idiot.”

“I’m getting awful tired of people calling me names,” Justice muttered.

“You deserve it. How do you know that doctor wasn’t wrong?” Jesse stepped out in front of him, forcing Justice to meet his gaze. “Did you ever get a second opinion?”

“You think I liked getting that news? Why would I go to someone else to hear the same damn thing again?”

Shaking his head wildly as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard, Jesse blinked at his brother and said, “I don’t know, to make sure the guy was right? Justice, you get a second opinion from vets on your cattle! Why wouldn’t you do that for yourself?”

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