Page 12 of The Devil in Blue Jeans
She screamed, her face pinching. “He’s coming.”
“Don’t push, Isabella,” Jaxon said firmly. “Don’t push.”
She began shoving her pants down. “He’s coming. He’s coming.”
Not even a few seconds later, Jaxon found himself holding a newborn in his hands while a wave of emotion rushed over him. He wrapped the infant in the sweater Gunner handed him just before emergency services arrived and took over from there.
He stepped back, accepting the wipes the paramedic offered him, and cleaned himself up.
By the time he was done, they were loading Isabella onto the stretcher. She reached for Jaxon’s hand. “Thank you, Jaxon. Thank you.”
“Congratulations,” he replied, squeezing her hand tight. “You did great, Mama.”
She gave him a teary smile, before her eyes darted to the baby nestled in her arms. He felt a strange tightness in his chest before accepting Lee’s embrace. The happiness radiating from them only reminded him how dark his days had been since his father had passed away.
He missed that feeling of a family. If he didn’t have Gunner and Eli, he knew facing that truth would likely drown him.
Once Lee hopped into the ambulance, it took off with sirens blaring toward the hospital, and Gunner drove off with Lee’s car while Jaxon followed closely behind them.
Images of Isabella and Lee looking at each other with love on their faces filled his head, something which made his chest tighten. He’d never felt love like that with any woman, so blindly clear to anyone who saw it, and so powerful it could make a man weak at the knees.
After Gunner left Lee’s car in the hospital’s parking lot, with the keys hidden above the visor, they hit the road again. He hoped Charly forgave him once she understood why he was forty minutes late. But when he entered the bar—Charly waiting near the entrance and casting him a stern look—he knew that was doubtful.
“You’re late,” she stated, folding her arms across her chest.
“I know, I’m sorry.” He drew closer in awe of her unyielding stare. Men twice his age weren’t half as fierce. Even with the annoyance in her eyes, she looked more radiant than the previous day. She was wearing a lacy white dress with high heels and had done her hair straight with extra makeup to emphasize her beautiful eyes. “Can you forgive me?” he asked.
She scrutinized him before asking suspiciously, “Depends. Why were you late?”
“He just delivered a baby on the side of the road,” Eli said flatly.
Charly blinked in surprise at him. “You delivered a baby?”
Gunner encouraged her further, nudging her arm with his. “Don’t be too hard on him, Charly. He did good tonight.”
Jaxon couldn’t break away from her gaze as her entire demeanor shifted from puzzlement to something else entirely. “How about we drop this topic and move on to that drink you promised me tonight?” he asked her.
His only goal tonight was getting her to soften toward him and to show her what this bar meant to everyone in town. His dream,his bar, was burning to the ground around him and he had to put out the fire.
Her shoulders tensed slightly. “Listen, I feel terrible about this now since you’ve obviously had a difficult night so far...but you should understand that I thought...well... I heard you like to play games with women...so, um...” She heaved out a sigh and stepped back slightly. “I was annoyed with you after yesterday, so I intended to teach you a lesson about playing games.”
The moment she stepped out of the way, thunderous applause erupted from the throng of women filling the bar. Jaxon glanced up to see a banner strung over the bar reading Forget your crappy ex-boyfriend. Win yourself a date with a real cowboy!
Eli drawled, “Oh, hell.”
Gunner howled with laughter.
Jaxon couldn’t believe his eyes. Obviously, they had expected his arrival tonight. He then focused on the woman who had played him like a fool. “Rather than having drinks with me tonight, you actually planned to auction me off?”
Charly flinched, her face turning pink. “I was just playing the game before you did. You can say no. I won’t hold it against you, and I’ll find another cowboy for the date.”
He stared at her incredulously, amazed by her boldness even as he noted the banner was raising money for Haley’s Place—a shelter for women who had been abused. He had never taken part in anything like this before, but as he looked into Charly’s bright eyes, he wondered if maybe he should have. The cause was a good one. Doing this for charity was one thing, but having an opportunity to even the score against Charly was too tempting to pass up.
“Damn,” he muttered with a grin. “Looks like I’ve been outplayed.” Turning to her fully, he added, “I’ll do this, but starting tomorrow, stock some craft beer for the regulars who supported this place before you took it over.”
She frowned. “Why do you care about having beer here so much?”
“Because I owned this place before you.”
