She sighed, squelching the temptation to look out the window again. It wouldnt make her brother appear any faster.
Ritchie probably forgot, she thought. Shed asked him to take her to the doctor just this one time, because it was so hard for her to find a comfortable position behind the steering wheel these last few weeks. Two weeks overdue, she was painfully aware of every second that went by beyond her delivery date.
Hed promised to be here.
But Ritchies promises were always the samemade quickly, with enthusiasm, and then forgotten. Not from any malice, but just because that was Ritchie. He had the attention span of a gnat.
Lucy nibbled on her lower lip, debating whether or not to call a cab. She didnt want to be late for her appointment.
However, by the time the cab finally arrived, she would probably miss it altogether.
Still, if he wasnt here Lucy picked up the receiver and began to dial.
The sound of the doorbell ringing had her hanging up the telephone. Ritchie was here. Finally. The fact that he was ringing the doorbell instead of unlocking the door himself didnt strike her as particularly odd. Hed probably forgotten his key. Ritchie wouldve misplaced his head if it hadnt been attached.
Someday, he was going to drive whatever poor woman he made his wife crazy. Until then, he was hers to look after. Moving awkwardly, Lucy made her way to the front door. The doorbell rang once more.
Whats the matter, Ritchie, lose your key again, not to mention your watch? Youre late
Flipping open the lock, Lucy began to launch into a lecture she knew would do no more good than any of the others shed given him over the course of the last few years. Her tolerant smile faded as
she abruptly stopped and stared at the man standing in her doorway. Her heart leaped up, and then down, lodging itself somewhere, uncomfortably, halfway in between.
For just the briefest of seconds, she thought she was hallucinating.
But she was wide awake and he was here, filling out her doorway with his dark good looks the way he had once filled out her entire life.
Dylan.
Funny how much smarter you can become in just nine months.
Her hand on the door, she kept it where it was, half opened, half closed, a barrier to keep him out. The way he had kept her out.
Pressing her lips together, she raised herself on her toes to look over his shoulder, hoping to see the broken-down car her brother drove coming up the street. But it wasnt in sight.
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Dylan. What are you doing here? If youre here to see Ritchie, hes not home. Im waiting for him myself.
Dylans mind went blank as he stared at her. At the one woman who had managed to somehow get past his defenses.
She was pregnant.
Not huge, the way Hathaways wife had been just before shed given birth to their twins, but Lucy was pregnant, carrying a life inside of her, there was no missing that.
Shed said shed love him, no matter what.
This, he guessed, was what.
A wild, hot jealousy rippled through Dylan, born years before he had been, a seed his father had passed down to him and his father before him. For one horrid second, it felt as if that jealousy, that seed, had taken him over, changing the very world that was around him, sending it into tints of red and closing off his air.
Dylan struggled to banish the feeling the way hed banished his father from his life.
This wasnt why he was here. Lucys life was her own. Hed given it back to her when hed withdrawn from it, leaving her alone.
Whose baby was it?
The question throbbed through his brain like a bad migraine.
Did you hear me? Lucy demanded, her voice rising. I said Ritchies not home. Hes working. Ill tell him you stopped by.
Because it hurt just to look at Dylan, she began to close the door. But his hand went out, stopping her. She hadnt the strength to oppose it.
What? she demanded, trying to hang on to her temper, on to the angry tears that had suddenly sprung up inside of her, demanding a release. Why was he back now, after all this time? She was just getting her life back in order. She didnt need this. And why was he looking at her like that?
This is about Ritchie, Dylan said.
She turned pale right before his eyes, holding the door now not so much to block him as for support, to keep from sinking down like a balloon that had suddenly lost all its air. His hand went out to steady her, but she ignored it, stiffening with her last available ounce of dignity. The message was clear. She didnt need him to touch her.
Lucy felt herself getting light-headed. What about Ritchie? she asked, holding on to the door for support.
Lucy, lets go inside.
She didnt budge. She didnt have the strength to budge. Ritchie was her older brother, but she had always felt responsible for him. Especially after their parents had died in a train derailment the summer she turned eighteen. Ritchie was the one who could laugh, who could see the bright side of everything even when the chips were down. She was the strength that helped them go on.
She didnt feel very strong now.