Len laughed. “You mean awful. But as long as I keep icing and stay upright for another day or so, I’ll be fine.”
“I hope so. Lord knows, I can’t be worrying about two of you at the same time.”
As Raney followed them into the house, she decided only her family could turn something as simple as an impending birth into such a clusterfuck. She just hoped her little sister’s antics didn’t send Grady shrieking into the night before Mama could convince Joss to accept his proposal and the new parents could go live happily ever after somewhere else. Far away.
After much discussion it was decided that they would leave in the morning. Grady would drive Mama and Joss to Lubbock in the Expedition, since the three of them would be staying for the duration. Len and Raney would remain at the ranch until Joss met with the hospital obstetrician, Dr. Jamison, and they had a better idea of Joss’s condition and whether she would be admitted right away to University Medical. Len would continue to ice and sleep upright. Raney would continue to manage the ranch, and if she and Len had to leave, Hicks and Dalton would take charge. Meanwhile, Dalton would move back into the house to keep an eye on Mama’s precious girls.
Raney didn’t dare look at Dalton when that last pronouncement was made. This morning, she’d decided that with Mama back in the house, and Dalton back in the dormitory, she would have a better chance of tamping down her rampaging libido. But now . . . just thinking about Dalton being in the room below hers sent all sorts of weird pulses running through her body.
* * *
Dinner on the veranda was a festive occasion. Joss lay stretched out on a chaise like a Roman empress while Grady attended her every need and Mama entertained them in dramatic fashion with every detail of her various adventures. Who knew grizzles could eat so much salmon? Especially with a mob of people only yards away with cameras recording their every mouthful? And who cared, anyway?
Neither Alejandro nor Hicks attended, no doubt terrified that Joss’s water would break in front of them. Raney was a bit concerned, herself. Luckily the veranda floor was tile, rather than carpet.
She spent most of the meal trying not to look at Dalton, or think about running her hands over his amazing body, or having his hands running over hers, and wondering how soon she could show up at his door in the middle of the night, horny and half-dressed again. She hardly recognized herself. She had always thought she had total control of her emotions. But now . . .
Was lust an emotion? Or a character flaw? Either way, she was shocked at how anxious she was for Mama and Joss to leave.
She couldn’t tell if Dalton fought the same battle. Throughout dinner, he never once looked up from his plate and stayed only long enough to gobble two helpings of everything before making a hurried escape to the barn. The coward. Which left Raney fretting on her own about all the changes ahead with her all-seeing mama back, Len having needless surgery, a new baby on the way, and Joss and Grady struggling to come to terms with each other and the miracle they had wrought.
That, and how soon could she get to Dalton’s room again?
Fun times.
CHAPTER 20
The next morning, Dalton stood in the open doorway of the barn, his gaze fixed on the two figures waving after the Expedition as it left the parking area. When the car turned though the main gate, one figure went back inside. The other stayed.
Raney.
As soon as the door closed behind her sister, she turned and looked at the barn.
At him. He felt it. Like an unseen hand brushing his cheek. A whisper in his ear. Even after she followed her sister inside, he stood staring at the closed door, his blood running hot and thick, his nerves pulsing. Wanting. Remembering.
After a while, distant voices caught his attention. With a last glance at the house, he went back into the barn and tried to remember what he’d been doing.
He was an idiot to think compartmentalizing would work with Raney. As soon as he heard he’d be back in the house after Mama left, his mind had exploded with possibilities. He thought once he’d breached Raney’s armor the first time, he’d be able to get his mind—and his obsession with her—under control.
But, hell no. It was even worse. Thoughts of his night with her chased him from dawn to dusk, then invaded his dreams. And he didn’t think it was only because he’d gone so long without sex.
It was Raney.
She might not want to hear him say it yet, but he was in love with her. Had been, ever since the evening on the porch when she’d told him about her father. He’d had to force himself to walk away from her that night, and he’d been fighting and losing that battle ever since. Now with Mrs. Whitcomb gone . . .
God help him.
* * *
Later that afternoon, Raney and Len were putting finishing touches in the nursery when Mama called. Raney put her cell phone on speaker and asked how Joss was doing and what the Lubbock doctor said.
“Joss is well. Tired and a bit of a backache, but that’s to be expected this late in the pregnancy. Dr. Jamison isn’t admitting her yet, but feels it won’t be long. I really like this doctor. She has a very calm way about her.”
“She’ll need it with Joss as a patient,” Raney muttered to Len.
Len waved her to silence. “Is the baby breech?” she asked. “The obstetrician in Aspenmont thought she might be.”
“No, she’s head-down, although faced the wrong way, toward Joss’s spine. The doctor called it posterior, or back-to-back position. It’s not uncommon, and she assured us many babies move into the head-to-front anterior position during labor.”
It all sounded ghastly to
