Triplets for the Texan (Texas Cattleman's Club: Blackmail 5)

Simone watched him walk around the side of the house and disappear. The hollow feeling in her chest would get better. It had to. She was done with tears for now.

As she headed back inside, she didn’t feel sleepy yet. Watching television wasn’t appealing. Instead, she decided to measure one of the guest rooms. Upstairs, she had three guest rooms. The main level of the house included her master suite and a fourth guest room. That might make the best nursery.

She made a few notes and pursed her lips. How did one handle triplets? Did all three babies share? Three cribs in one space? What if one kid woke up in the middle of the nigh

t and started crying? Wouldn’t that bother the other two?

Abandoning her architectural conundrum, she went in search of the box of books Hutch had dropped by earlier in the week. She planned to start with something simple, perhaps one of the parenting guides. The medical books would be too scary. She didn’t want to think about complications, even in a theoretical sense.

With a cup of decaf coffee and a cozy lap blanket, she curled up in her favorite chair in the bedroom and started to read. It wasn’t only the advice about being a mom of multiples she needed, it was advice about everything. She felt woefully unprepared for motherhood.

At the end of a chapter, she closed the book and stared out the window. It was dark now, that time when problems grew bigger and optimism winnowed away. What would have happened if Hutch had come home a year sooner? Would she have pursued the same course? Her grandfather’s death had rattled her...that and his will.

For now, the circumstances of the will were private, but Maverick seemed to know something about it. Perhaps she should go to the police. A cybercrimes expert might be able to use her laptop and trace the blackmailer’s IP address.

Still, that would involve exposing her secrets, and she was scared. How would Hutch look at Simone if he learned the truth? It wasn’t about the money, not really. She wanted to be recognized as a full-fledged member of the Parker family. Her father had made no secret of his disappointment that he had no son. Her grandfather had felt the same way about having only a granddaughter. Simone, as successful and ambitious as she was, was a poor substitute for two men who should have known better.

It was a skirmish she had fought her entire life. Unfortunately, in the heat of battle sometimes a person made mistakes. Simone’s was a whopper. Only time would tell if she could survive the fallout.

* * *

The following morning, she made it to work more or less on time. She had set her alarm earlier than usual in order to give herself time to be sick. It was a ghastly way to start the day. Still, she counted it a victory that she had to dash to the bathroom only twice. Maybe she would be one of the lucky ones and this nausea business would eventually subside.

Her two key employees were back from the conference, so the three of them dug into the campaign for Cecelia’s business. Candace must have given them some kind of report on her health, but Simone’s associates were too professional and kind to grill her. Until she started showing, she hoped to be able to conceal her pregnancy and carry on as usual.

Unfortunately, even though the nausea was no longer as severe, her energy level was nonexistent. She had many, many months to go, but already these babies were impacting her life. It must have been sheer naïveté that made her think the adjustments would happen only after the birth.

For ten days, she had no contact with Hutch at all. Even when she visited Dr. Fetter’s office at the hospital, there was no sign of the man who had returned from Africa...the man who recently shared her bed for one incredible night. Even at her lowest point, being intimate with Hutch again had made her feel like a desirable woman.

She told herself his absence from her life was for the best, and she almost believed it.

Fortunately, she was able to roll out the last of the campaign for Luna Fine Furnishings without incident and right on time. Cecelia was ecstatic. Deacon treated the three friends to dinner to celebrate. He probably enjoyed being out on the town with a trio of attractive women, but in truth, he had eyes only for Cecelia.

Simone laughed and talked during the meal, but it was hard to keep up a celebratory front. Though she was thrilled for Cecelia, it hurt to see the way Deacon looked at his bride-to-be. Simone had practically guaranteed that she would never have that kind of relationship. What kind of man would want to take on an instant family, including babies that weren’t his?

She picked at her salmon, pushing the meal around on her plate so her friends would think she was eating. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, she was still losing weight rather than gaining. Many pregnant women would love to have her problem, but it wasn’t good for the babies.

April came to an end. May dawned with blue skies and balmy temperatures. Simone missed Hutch terribly. Knowing he was living in Royal was somehow worse than when he had been on the other side of the world.

Work became her salvation. She managed to keep her pregnancy under wraps from most of Royal, but she decided to tell her parents, come what may. She spent an uncomfortable afternoon at their house trying to explain convincingly why she’d taken the route she did.

She suspected that both her mother and her father knew she was going out of her way to fulfill the conditions of her grandfather’s will, but they didn’t press her. Perhaps her father was willing to overlook an indiscretion or poor judgment if he finally got the boy he’d always wanted.

What if all three babies were girls? What then? In that situation, Simone would have satisfied the letter of the law, but would her father still be disappointed? That would be hard to bear.

After the first few days of the month, spring began to feel like summer. The higher temperatures made Simone’s nausea worse. She lived off decaf iced tea and fresh-squeezed lemonade. On the hottest days, even the mention of food was enough to make her ill.

Though she tried her best to eat, she wasn’t keeping up. She grew weak and listless, and one morning she couldn’t convince herself to crawl out of bed. Naomi was at a convention on the West Coast. Cecelia and Deacon had flown off to Bermuda for a quick holiday.

Simone was alone in her misery.

Around noon she knew she had to eat something. When she sat up on the side of the bed, the room spun around her. Hutch’s number was programmed into her phone. All she had to do was call him.

Did he really care? Was it the doctor in him who had made the offer, or the lover? Had Simone alienated him? She never had issued the official thank-you dinner invitation, mostly because she hadn’t been well enough to cook.

Stumbling to the kitchen, she held on to the walls for support. She felt terrible. This was more than simple nausea. She had a pain in her left side, and a terrible sense of foreboding. When the cramping started low in her abdomen, she panicked.

She had forgotten to bring her phone to the kitchen. It was an agonizing trip back to the bedroom to retrieve it. With fumbling fingers, she found Hutch’s name and hit the call button.