When the Bough Breaks (Rose Gardner Investigations #6) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,76

come to her senses, because she said, “Oh, Rose. I’m sorry! I’m sure you don’t want to rehash what she told us, but I just need to process.”

“Go on,” I said through gritted teeth. “Get it out of your system. Talking about it will help me too. It’s bound to give me nightmares if I just bury it.”

We spent the next ten minutes of the twenty-minute drive back to Henryetta repeating what we’d heard while Neely Kate assured me that the woman had been exaggerating, because it seemed physically impossible for you to push out your uterus with your baby still partially inside. I spent the remaining ten minutes silently turning over the vision I’d had of Neely Kate.

Something bad had happened, but it could have been anything. For all I knew, it was something as innocuous as a family member pulling a no-show at the wedding.

But I also couldn’t ignore the murky darkness that had answered my previous two questions. There was a possibility we wouldn’t find Ashley and Mikey, as hard as that was to accept, and one of us could also end up dead.

I pressed my hand on my belly. All the more reason to leave the investigation to Joe and Jed.

But should I tell anyone what I’d seen? Would it do any good? Or would it be better to keep it to myself? Who was the one person who could shoulder the possibility of heartache with me?

Joe.

I’d been wrong to keep the issue with the paternity papers from him, and I was sure he’d be a comfort and help with this worry. Maybe he could help avert whatever sadness Jed had referred to, although that seemed like a stretch. I’d tell him tonight, but the rest of the afternoon still loomed in front of me. Spending it alone wasn’t so appealing.

“Hey,” I said as we were about to reach the Henryetta city limits. “Want to get lunch before I drop you off at the nursery?”

“Sure, but I want to go to Merrilee’s,” she said. “I heard they added a cream cheese French toast to the menu.”

“Sounds good to me.”

When we reached downtown, I parked in an empty spot a few spaces from the landscaping office. Then we walked across the street to the diner. It was late enough that we got a table right away. We’d just placed our orders and I was about to excuse myself to the restroom when Carter Hale walked in.

Neely Kate’s eyes narrowed as her gaze zoomed in on him. “I want to give that man a piece of my mind.”

It took me a second to figure out she was likely talking about the paternity papers. While I’d known about them for about two months, she’d only known of their existence since yesterday. “It’s not his fault, Neely Kate. Carter wants him to sign them as much as I do.”

“He could try harder.”

“Please,” I said with a sigh. “Carter’s the one man who still has sway over him, but we both know there’s no makin’ that man do anything he doesn’t want to do. Leave Carter be.”

She shot the attorney a scowl. “I will, but only because we’re in public.”

Carter took Neely Kate’s irritation as a welcome sign, which wasn’t all that surprising since he spent a good portion of his life dealing with—and reveling in—conflict. He walked straight to our table with a bright smile. “Good afternoon, ladies. Mind if I join you?”

“Yes, we do mind,” Neely Kate snapped.

“Of course,” I said, gesturing to the chair he was standing in front of. One thing was for certain—Carter Hale wasn’t a stupid man and he didn’t provoke unnecessarily. If he wanted to sit with us, he had a purpose.

Neely Kate shot me a glare, but I ignored her.

“Your pregnancy seems to be progressing,” Carter said in a congenial tone, but I heard some tension in his voice as he gestured toward my stomach.

“I’m due in two weeks, and I’d love to deliver with the peace of mind that our future is bright and rosy and unencumbered.”

“That’s what I’d like to speak to you about.” He lowered his voice. “My client contacted me a short bit ago.”

My heart skipped a beat. “And?”

“He says he’s considerin’ a change of heart…but there are conditions.”

I tempered my reaction when I heard the word conditions. “What sort of conditions?”

He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “They’re written down here. You think on it and get back to me. Just