In a Cowboy's Arms (Hitting Rocks Cowboys) (14 page)

All three men chuckled.

Jarod’s white smile shone through the grime left by the fire. “You mean you don’t like me just the way I am?”

Her eyes smarted. “You know better than to ask me that question, but I’m thinking of your comfort. Please come right back. I’ll be counting the seconds.”

“Watch me.” He gave her a hard kiss without touching her anywhere but on the mouth.

She walked them to the door. “Thank you,” she whispered to Connor. “You and Jarod saved my life.”

Connor kissed her cheek. “Any time, ma’am.”

After they left, she closed the door and turned to Zane with such a heavy heart, she didn’t know where to begin.

“There’s something I have to tell you.”

His mouth tightened. “Did Ned do something you didn’t want Jarod to know about?”

“No. I told him everything. But while Ned had me cornered, he blurted that someone else’s bid for the ranch came in higher than his.” His ludicrous assumption that Jarod was the one who’d bought it revealed Ned’s sickness.

Zane jumped to his feet. “Then that means we’ve lost the ranch.”

“I’m afraid so. It’s clear the bad news sent Ned’s rage over the top, so he came after me.” She could see the pain in Zane’s eyes. “I know Jarod promised we’d get the ranch, but he’s not in control of everything, so I have an idea. After we hear from Mr. Bree in the morning and know the fate of the Hensons, we’ll go find us another place.”

He shook his dark brown head. “You’re getting married. You and Ryan will be living with Jarod.
I’ll
find me a piece of property.”

“I want to help. Bring your laptop into the kitchen. Let’s start looking.”

“Not tonight.”

“Yes, tonight! It’s not time for bed. We have nothing else to do. I’m anxious to see what’s for sale around here. Tomorrow we’ll make appointments and go check the places out with Ryan. When Jarod comes back, we’ll ask him if he knows of an opportunity for us.”

She thought a moment. “Keep in mind it could be a month, maybe longer, before the owner wants to move in. That’ll give us time to get resettled. If the Hensons no longer have a job, we’ll take them with us.”

He frowned. “What do you mean
us?
When Jarod gets back, you’ll be making plans for your wedding.”

“I’m not doing anything until I know there’s a satisfactory solution for all of us.”

* * *

A
FTER
A
MEAL
and a shower, Jarod took off for Sadie’s ranch. With the threat of Ned gone for good, he had news for her and Zane they needed to hear. It couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

Once he’d parked the truck, he hurried to the front porch and rapped on the door, thankful the last obstacle to their happiness had been removed and they could start planning their wedding.

The second Sadie opened the door, he pulled her into his arms. “I got here as fast as I could,” he whispered against her mouth before devouring it. Her response was everything he could have asked for, but he sensed something was wrong. When he finally lifted his head, he saw a sadness in her eyes that had turned them a darker blue. He intended to remedy that situation right now.

“Where’s Zane?”

“In the kitchen.”

He brushed his mouth against hers once more. “Lead me to him. I’ve got news for both of you.”

Her eyes misted over. “We already know what it is,” she said in a quiet voice.

Surprised, Jarod shook his head. “You couldn’t possibly know what I’m about to tell you.”

“Ned told me while we were in the barn.”

He frowned. “Told you what?”

“That Bree phoned him this afternoon and notified him an unknown buyer had purchased the ranch.”

“So that
was
the final blow that sent my cousin on the rampage.”

“I’m sure of it.”

“Come on.” He grasped her hand and walked her through to the kitchen. Zane looked up from the table where he’d set his laptop. Jarod saw the same sadness in his eyes. “Before another minute passes, I have an announcement to make.”

Sadie clung to the back of one of the kitchen chairs. He could tell she was fighting not to break down. Jarod had seen that look too many times in their lives. He planned to wipe it away for good.

“The ranch and everything else on the property is yours, Zane.”

Sadie looked as if she was going to faint. “Ned said you were the buyer, but I didn’t believe him.”

A dazed Zane got to his feet. “What’s all this about?”

“We’re not the buyers, and we aren’t out any money. But Ralph and I didn’t want Ned to get the ranch, so our attorney acted as the straw buyer to make certain you were able to purchase it before he did. Your offer was accepted, Zane.”

“Jarod—”
The emotion in that one word caught at his heart.

“Bree will be calling to set up a time for you to drive to Billings and sign everything. He’ll give you the deed, and that will be it.”

Zane cleared his throat. “I don’t know what to say. ‘Thank you’ could never cover it.” He walked over and gave him a long hug.

Jarod was moved by the other man’s gratitude. “I’m the one who’s in your debt. No amount of money could compensate for what you’ve done to help take care of Sadie and Ryan. We should have been married eight years ago, but that was not our path until now.” He darted Sadie a speaking glance. “There’s nothing else to prevent us from planning our future.”

Zane’s eyes had gone suspiciously bright. “I’m going to leave you two alone to get started on those plans.”

“Did you hear all that?” Jarod whispered after Zane disappeared. Sadie was still clinging to the chair. He’d been waiting for her to run to him, but she hadn’t moved. He reached for her. “What’s wrong?”

Tears welled in her eyes. “How do you thank someone who’s just given you the world? Tell me how you do that.” Her voice shook. “I love you so desperately, Jarod, you just don’t know. That’s why I’m so worried to tell you something that has to be said before we talk about the wedding.”

“What’s happened?” He sounded anxious.

She put her hands on his chest. “This is about the children you want to have with me.”

He saw fear in her eyes. “Go on.”

“There’s no easy way to say this. I have a heart condition you need to know about.”

His own heart almost failed him. “Since when?”

“At my last rodeo two weeks before graduation, I developed palpitations. My heartbeat accelerated abnormally during the barrel racing. Mac drove me to White Lodge to see the general practitioner at the hospital. He put me on birth control and a medication that really helped, but I had to stop the barrel racing. Then he advised me to see a cardiac specialist in Billings.”

“
That
was the reason I couldn’t find you after your performance that night?”

She nodded. Jarod was dumbfounded. “Since we were making plans to get married and I felt all right on the medicine, I decided not to tell you about it until after we were married. But three days later you had your accident.”

“Sadie—” Fear caused him to break out in a cold sweat. He gripped her shoulders. “Your mother died of a bad heart having Ryan.”

“That’s true, but in her case there were extenuating circumstances.”

He couldn’t throw this off. “How serious is your condition?”

“Don’t worry. It’s not fatal. As you can see I’m still alive and have been doing just fine on the medication.”

“You haven’t answered my question. What’s wrong with you exactly?”

“Once I arrived in California and told Mother what had happened, she took me to see her heart specialist. I was diagnosed with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia.”

“Explain that to me.”

“It’s called PSVT and occurs when any structure above the ventrical produces a regular, rapid electrical impulse resulting in a rapid heartbeat. The technique to fix it has been perfected and involves placing small probes in the heart that can destroy tissue and then are removed once the tissue is altered.

“The procedure is called catheter ablation. The doctor inserts a tube into a blood vessel and it’s guided to your heart. A special machine sends energy through the tube. It finds and destroys small areas of heart tissue where abnormal heart rhythms may start. You have to go to the hospital to have it done.”

“Did your mother undergo this procedure?”

“Yes, but it didn’t work. Sadly, in her case, the arrhythmia brought on cardiac arrest, something very rare. Her older age and stress played a big factor in what happened to her. I’m thinking of having the procedure done before we’re married. Otherwise I won’t be getting pregnant because the medicine I take can cause a miscarriage. I’ll have to stay on birth control and won’t be able to give you a baby.”

“I don’t like it, Sadie. I don’t want you to do anything that will put your life in more jeopardy than it already is.”

“I’m not in jeopardy. Listen to me, Jarod. Today I talked to my heart doctor in California. He gave me the name of a specialist in Billings named Dr. Harvey who does this kind of procedure. I’m going to call tomorrow for an appointment. We’ll go together. If I find out I’m a good candidate, I’d like to have it done right away.”

He struggled for breath. “What if it isn’t successful?”

“Then my other doctor told me they’d put in a pacemaker. But think how wonderful it would be if I could plan to get pregnant without the fear of something going wrong.”

“I’d rather we adopted children.”

“If it comes to that, then I’ll get my tubes tied and we’ll go in that direction. But more than anything in the world I want to try the procedure so I can have your baby and give it a good Crow name.”

Jarod wrapped his arms all the way around her and buried his face in her hair. “More than anything in the world, the only thing I want is for you to be in my bed for the rest our lives. We have Ryan. Let’s let that be enough for now. Later on we’ll consider adoption.”

“Will you at least be willing to go to the doctor with me?”

His eyes closed tightly. “You’re asking too much. We almost lost each other before. I can’t go through that again.”

She eased herself away from him. “Do you really mean that?”

“I do. My mother died after she had me. Your mother died after Ryan was born. Now you’re asking me to live through more torture while you undergo some procedure that could go wrong and you’d need a pacemaker to keep you alive?”

Her face was a study in pain, but he couldn’t stop.

“What if that fails? Then it would mean another procedure and another until...” He shuddered. “I can’t go along with it.”

Sadie’s complexion lost color. “What if I told you I’ve always wanted to have your baby and will do anything to make it possible?”

“Even chance death?”

“That won’t happen! I want to do this for us. Remember what you told me a few nights ago? You said, ‘
The dreams I’ve dreamed, Sadie. My grandfather’s health has to hold out long enough to see our first baby come into the world. I can hardly wait to feel movement inside you.’”

He searched her eyes, gutted by this conversation. “I said that before I knew about your heart problem. Don’t put me in this position, Sadie.”

She looked at him with a pained expression. “I won’t, because I can see your mind is made up.” Her chin lifted in that unique way of hers. “You deserve to have your own baby. You’ll make the most wonderful father on earth. So I’m going to do you a favor and release you from your commitment to me.”

He stared at her, incredulous she would go this far.

“I shouldn’t have accepted your proposal without telling you of my condition, but the night we got back together I wasn’t thinking about babies. I was very selfish, only thinking about myself and my happiness. But let’s be frank. There are many women out there like Leslie Weston who’d give anything to meet a man like you, and they don’t have my heart ailment.

“I’ve always been a problem for you and it hasn’t stopped. One day when you have a wife and several children of your own, you’ll thank me. I love you, Jarod. I’ll love you till my dying breath, but you shouldn’t have to sacrifice every part of your life because of me. You did enough of that while my father was alive and it simply isn’t fair to you. It’s your turn to find happiness.”

“You really want us to be over?”

“No. I want us to have our own baby, and the only way we can do that is for me to go to the doctor to see if he can do that procedure on me. If you’re too afraid to even accompany me to the appointment to find out my options, then we shouldn’t be together because I don’t want to put you through that kind of agony. I’m a liability and have always been.”

An overwhelming sadness filled her eyes, but Jarod knew she was determined.

“I—I think you should go,” she said. “After fighting a fire and subduing Ned, you must be feeling worse than exhausted.”

This just couldn’t be happening, but it was....

With the blackness descending upon him, Jarod left the kitchen and headed for his truck.

* * *

“S
ADIE
C
ORKIN
,
YOU
’
VE
just done the only terrible thing in your whole life.”

Shocked at the tone of Zane’s voice, she wheeled around white-faced.

“Because your voices carried, I didn’t have to eavesdrop. Don’t let him go like this or you’ll never get him back. You’re the woman he’s always wanted, but you just threw everything he ever did for you back in his face. Sadie... You don’t tell a man it’s either my way or nothing. Not a man like Jarod. You’re talking about your lives here!

“The poor man hasn’t had two seconds to digest all this new information. He’s terrified you might die. Forget having a baby right now. Even if you didn’t have a heart problem, how do you know you can get pregnant? And Jarod
might not be able to give you children. You’re only twenty-six. You’ve got years to worry about that. Jarod wants marriage. He wants to live with you. You’ve put having a baby before
him!
”

Sadie had never seen Zane so impassioned.

“If your positions were reversed,” he went on, “and he’d given you an either/or proposition, I can guarantee you’d be in such horrendous pain I don’t even want to think about it. Take my car. It’s all gassed up. Go find him!”