“Hold on a second. You always were impatient,” said Dave as he froze an image on the screen. “See this little part that looks kind of like a hamburger?”
Cole nodded, even though the blob looked nothing like a hamburger.
“That means… Are you sure you want me to tell you?”
“Yes!” they shouted in unison, chuckling afterward. Cole grasped Brooke’s hand and squeezed tight.
“It’s a girl!”
CHAPTER 19
“I sure hope Brooke is okay about this surprise baby shower,” said Steph, as she arranged the plates and forks on the table. “She didn’t really strike me as the surprise-loving type.”
Cole glanced around the ranch dining room, with floating pink ribbons hanging from dozens of pink helium balloons. His sister had made short work of transforming the place to suit her vision.
“It was Mariah’s idea, and you know how that goes.”
“Right,” Steph said. “Like trying to stop a freight train.”
“Exactly.”
“I’m glad Brooke’s having a girl,” Steph said. “I think it’s easier to raise a girl as a single mom. My years alone with my daughter were really special. Not that it wasn’t way better after Bran came into our lives.”
“Right.” Cole tasted bile in his throat, which seemed to happen every time he thought about Brooke leaving to raise the baby on her own.
“Have you felt the baby kick?” Steph asked.
“I have. It’s crazy!”
He remembered the first time it happened. They’d been sitting on the couch together, with a sappy romance movie on the television. Brooke was holding his hand on her exposed belly, in hopes that the baby would move. Though he’d pretended he wasn’t interested in the movie, in reality, he’d been caught up in the corny story. So when something kicked his hand, he’d sucked in an audible gasp of surprise. From that moment on, the movie was forgotten as he felt and watched for more ripples and bumps on her abdomen.
In that intimate encounter, something changed inside him. He realized he would readily lay down his life to protect that unborn child. And though he intended to keep his promise and distance himself from their lives, it was going to be more painful than he’d ever imagined. At last, he understood why Brooke had been so fearful. His money gave him immense power and, for the first time, he’d felt the temptation to use it.
“How far along is she, now?” Laurie’s question brought him back to the present, as she carried a pitcher of punch to the table and poured it into the large, crystal bowl.
“Just over thirty weeks. The baby is the size of a zucchini.”
“And how do you know this?” asked Finn, who appeared at his elbow and snatched a piece of cheese from the elaborate array of snacks.
“I’m listening to an audiobook, Forty Weeks to a Brand New Life.”
Finn popped the cheese in his mouth and spoke around it. “Oh man! You’ve got it bad!”
“What are you implying?”
Finn merely chuckled as he walked away to rejoin the other men watching a football game on the television.
“Okay!” Mariah burst through the front door, her arms full of brightly wrapped packages. “Mom and Dad will be here in ten minutes. Brooke doesn’t get back from shopping with her mom and sister for at least another thirty, so the timing should be perfect.”
“Anything left in the car?” asked Jarrett, who’d come from the family room to refill his water.
“There’s one heavy package in the back of my car—but Mack is bringing it inside for me.”
“Mack? I told him to take the day off,” said Cole. “His people have everything under control. And we’re perfectly safe out here.”
“Maybe he has a strong work ethic,” Mariah said, as roses bloomed on her cheeks. “Anyway, we need to hide the rental cars before she gets back.”
Cole’s buddies and their wives had flown into the small private airstrip nearby. Normally Cole would’ve driven over to pick them up, but today they’d simply rented cars.
“That sounds like a job for the men,” said Laurie, who promptly went into the family room to make a request that sounded more like an order.
Everyone had gone to so much trouble to make this happen, but it suddenly occurred to Cole that Brook might be upset. What if she hated the attention and the added pressure of pretending they were going to parent the baby together?
“What’s wrong with you?” Mariah murmured as she pulled Cole into the utility room. “You look like you ate something sour.”
“We shouldn’t have done this.” He crossed his arms, feeling like something might explode from his chest if he didn’t. “This whole shower thing is dumb.”
“What’s got your panties in a wad?”
“She doesn’t want this. Brooke isn’t going to want a bunch of gifts from people who won’t even be a permanent part of her life.”
Mariah’s mouth flattened, as if she were contemplating a kick to the shin. “Just because you and she are getting a divorce doesn’t mean I can’t still be the baby’s aunt.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” It hardly seemed fair for Mariah to have equal status with him, when he’d been so much more a part of the pregnancy. “She said she wanted a clean break.”
“You told me she changed her mind.” Her hands planted on her hips. “You told me you were going to be the baby’s uncle after you split up. And you said how great it would be for Mom, because she could still see the baby.”
