Sunset Seduction - By Charlene Sands Page 0,45
reality of what that test would reveal. But just in case, she hadn’t sipped any alcohol tonight. She’d planned on having only one drop of champagne before she’d almost been knocked to the ground.
The spill could’ve been a premonition, a warning not to imbibe.
She was too mentally exhausted to ponder that. She changed out of her gown and into her jeans. She pulled her hair back in a ponytail and plopped her hat on her head. “Come on, Jewel.” She lifted her lazy cat up and tiptoed out of her bedroom, past Luke’s room, where she heard the shower going. She hoped he needed three cold showers tonight. She continued on and walked out of the house. When she reached the barn with the cat snuggled tight to her chest, she whispered, “Just behave, Jewel.”
The cat mewled softly as they approached Trib’s paddock. Quietly, Audrey opened the split door. She found Trib asleep on the ground, looking innocent and gentle.
“Hi, lonely boy,” she whispered.
He lifted his head.
“I brought a friend to visit you.”
Bringing Jewel to the paddock had a profound effect on the horse. Not that Audrey trusted Trib enough to allow Jewel inside the stall. Heavens, both animals were too unpredictable for that, but she held Jewel in her arms and spoke sweet words of encouragement until the curious horse wandered over. The two animals stared at each other. When Jewel made a playful swat at the horse’s snout, Trib didn’t react, except to blink his eyes.
For the next three nights, Jewel was Audrey’s accomplice. They would wait until the ranch was tucked in for the night to visit Tribute. On some animal level, Trib began to bond with Jewel. Enough so that on the fourth night, Audrey placed Jewel on the eight-inch ledge of the split door, keeping one hand on the cat. Jewel sat there in a regal pose, watching the horse. And Trib, just like all the other times, wandered over to stare at Jewel. Each night they visited, Audrey noticed Trib taking less and less time to decide to make his approach.
Progress. A bond of trust was developing. During the day, she’d visit the paddock without Jewel, and Trib would respond to her, taking treats from her hand now. Audrey felt she was moving ahead, succeeding in her attempt to tame the wildness out of the horse, yet her own personal life was at a standstill. She’d avoided Luke whenever she could and any I might be pregnant notions were shuffled out of her brain.
But on the fifth day that week, she took a hard fall off a stepladder, landing smack on her butt in the barn.
“Oh, no!” A jarring jolt reverberated through her body. But the pain was secondary. Fear engulfed her. What if she was pregnant and she’d injured the baby? The wake-up call rang loud in her head like the shrill alarm of a police siren. Find out, coward. What are you waiting for? You don’t want to endanger the baby, if there is a baby. You need to protect that child and keep it safe.
That night, after work, she opened the home pregnancy test box, read the instructions and then peed on the stick.
And immediately, Audrey’s life changed forever.
She was going to be a mother.
Luke, the man she’d barely spoken to for the entire week except for ranch matters, was going to be the father of her child.
A shudder worked through her system. She gripped her stomach as cautious joy swelled in her heart. She stood there, motionless and quiet. Blood pulsed through her veins rapidly, her heartbeats going a little wild. She shouldn’t be surprised. She’d fooled herself into believing it wasn’t so. But she’d had all the symptoms. She’d been more tired than ever lately. She couldn’t explain her slight bouts of dizziness, that one ill-timed fainting spell or the nausea that seemed to come and go. Then there was the teensy-weensy little fact that she’d been late. By at least a week.
“Goodness,” she whispered.
She closed her eyes and images appeared of Luke in those early rodeo days. The flashbacks played in her head like a moving picture. Luke sending her a big smile after a nine-second ride. Luke taking her side when Casey was too hard on her. Luke giving her a sweet kiss on the cheek on her birthday. Images played on and on until her legs became wobbly and weak. She made her way over to the bed to lie down. There was no sense fighting