A Baby of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #1)(27)
Author: Brenda Novak

“No.”

“Good.” Rebecca turned her head and blew out a stream of smoke. “No one knows about the baby, right?”

“Just Aunt Millie and Uncle Ralph. I told them last week.”

Rebecca looked stricken. “You did?”

Delaney nodded.

“Why didn’t you mention it?”

“I don’t know. I guess I didn’t want to relive the experience.” She’d simply pushed that painful confrontation to the back of her mind and tried to concentrate on the more immediate problem of a job.

“So how’d it go?” Rebecca asked.

Delaney shrugged. “Pretty much as I’d expected.”

“That bad, huh?”

“They’re still not talking to me. Millie called once, but only to tell me not to let word of the baby get out. She’s afraid the city will fire me instead of putting me on half pay, and I won’t be able to find another job.”

“This is the twenty-first century, for crying out loud,” Rebecca said. “The city isn’t going to fire you. Having an illegitimate baby has nothing to do with how well you perform your job.”

“We live in a small town,” Delaney reminded her. “Getting fired over something like this is a very real possibility.”

“But you were a virgin, for Pete’s sake! They can’t fry you for making one mistake.”

Delaney felt she could certainly argue that point, but a tug of apprehension led her thoughts in a different direction. “How did you know?” she asked.

Rebecca scowled at her. “How’d I know what?”

“That I was a virgin.”

Her friend gazed off into space, her strange reaction, as much as the way she’d been behaving all night, telling Delaney that something significant was wrong. “What’s going on with you?” she demanded. “How’d you know I was a virgin?”

More silence.

The telephone rang, and Rebecca got to her feet and tossed her cigarette onto the cement steps, then ground it out. “There’s Buddy,” she said. “Thank God.”

But Delaney grabbed her by the arm before she could disappear into the house. “Call him back,” she said. “Something’s going on, and I want to know what it is.”

Rebecca surprised Delaney by not arguing. “I have bad news,” she said simply, turning to face her.

“I’m getting used to bad news.”

“I mean, this is really bad news.”

How could anything be worse than what had happened already? “What is it?” Delaney asked.

“Remember Conner?”

Delaney gave her a “get real” look. “Of course I remember Conner. He’s only the father of my baby.”

“Well…”

An expression crossed Rebecca’s face that said this was definitely going to hurt, and Delaney sucked in a breath to brace herself.

“He’s here,” she said.

“He’s where?”

“In Dundee, at the Running Y Ranch.”

Delaney grabbed the railing to steady herself. “He’s what?”

“You heard me.”

“What’s he doing there?”

“He’s Clive Armstrong’s grandson.”

The blood rushed to Delaney’s head, and she bent over to combat the sudden dizziness so she wouldn’t pass out. “Conner’s the snot-nosed brat Roy mentioned?”

“One and the same.”

Closing her eyes, Delaney shook her head, trying to make some sense of the cataclysmic events of the past six weeks. One mistake and the rest of her life was falling down like dominoes…. “And you weren’t going to let me know?” she said.

“I didn’t want you running over there to tell him about the baby. You heard what Roy said that day he came for the pie. He said Conner won’t last. That he’s no good. He’ll probably head back to California before you even start to show.” She squeezed Delaney’s hand. “I think you should keep your mouth shut and just let him go.”

Delaney didn’t know what to think. She felt as though she’d just been leveled by a two-by-four. “Where did you see him?”

“At the beauty shop.”

“Did he see you?”

Rebecca raised her eyebrows. “He recognized me right away. But don’t worry. I don’t think he’ll bother you.”

“Why not?”

“I told him you need your privacy because you’re dying of cancer.”

“You what?”

“I needed to come up with something,” she said, a defensive note creeping into her voice. “He was angry about all the lies you already told him and was going straight to the library to confront you.”

“So you told him I’ve got cancer?”

“Yeah.”

“How long did you give me to live?”

“A year.”

“Great,” Delaney said. “Now the whole town can start planning my funeral. That should solve everything.”

CHAPTER NINE

WHAT IF DELANEY did have cancer? Conner wondered, scanning both sides of the road as he rumbled into town in the old pickup he drove everywhere. Then he’d feel terrible—worse than terrible—for not treating the situation with the proper gravity. But no matter how hard he tried to believe Rebecca, he just couldn’t convince himself that the woman he’d held in his arms was only months away from the end of her life. Delaney had seemed nervous, yes, but she’d also seemed healthy, passionate and unencumbered by anything so emotionally devastating.

Still, what better explanation did he have for all the lies? When he’d spoken to Stephen last night and mentioned meeting Delaney Lawson, the name hadn’t evoked any response. He’d even called Dwight and Jonathan and received similar reactions from both of them. He highly doubted the three Super Egos would miss the chance to taunt him about falling so neatly into their trap, even if it hadn’t achieved the results they were hoping for. Which led him to believe that his uncles weren’t involved. But if they weren’t involved, something else had to account for Delaney’s and Rebecca’s strange behavior. And the thought of what that “something else” might be made him uneasy.

She could’ve been doing exactly what she’d said—dispensing with her virginity. Or she could’ve heard from someone at the ranch that he was coming to town, that Roy was picking him up at the Bellemont, and purposely intercepted him. Since Delaney lived in Dundee, she knew his grandfather had money, and would probably assume he did, too.