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Knowing the house was filled with curious guests, people who would stop him from going up to see Simon so they could ask a million nosy questions, Jared slipped up the back stairs. His first inclination was to talk to his brother, but he found himself outside of Beth's bedroom door instead. Thanks to her appearance on the balcony, he knew what room she was using.
He rapped on the door with his knuckles; she didn't respond. She was probably still on the balcony and couldn't hear him knocking. He pushed the door open a few inches and started to call out to her. That's when he saw it: a game changer. There was a pregnancy test in the wastebasket.
Jared plucked a tissue from a nearby Kleenex box and picked the test out of the trash. He stared at the plus sign in horror. It was the last thing he expected to see today. Beth wasn't marrying his brother to get her hands on the ranch. They had a bigger, more important reason to tie the knot. She was pregnant with his brother's child. Little Beth really had grown up.
His stomach muscles clenched until they ached. He closed her door behind him with a soft click before charging down the hallway to his brother's bedroom. Too angry to knock, he stormed inside and found Simon sitting on the bed, head in his hands. His jacket was beside him on the mattress; his tie was undone and only half the buttons on his pressed shirt were in their designated holes.
Simon's head jerked up. He looked both surprised and pleased to see Jared. Then he noticed the pregnancy test in his hand. Simon's expression caved, and Jared wanted to beat him senseless. Of all the stupid...
Jared shook the test at him. “Seriously? You're twenty-six years old, Simon. Haven't you figured out how condoms work yet?”
“Funny. Ha-ha.” Simon jumped to his feet. “For your information, I always use a condom, but they are not a hundred percent effective. As a doctor, you should know that.”
“That's why you always need to have a second line of defense. Isn't she on the pill?”
“How should I know?”
Jared's lips compressed into a tight line. He dropped the pregnancy test in the trash near the bed and made a mental note to wash his hands as soon as possible. His brother's room was a mess, clothes strewn everywhere, just like when they were kids. The disturbing sight underlined his belief that Simon hadn’t matured in the slightest.
Simon groaned. “I am not ready to be a father.”
“It doesn't matter if you're ready or not.” Jared had a bad feeling in his gut that his younger brother was ready to make a run for it. “You've spent your whole life avoiding responsibility, Simon. It's time to step up. Think about your child, and do the right thing.”
Simon sighed. “But I don't love her.”
“You should have thought of that before you had sex with her.”
“It was just the one time.”
“That's all it takes, bud.”
“She just told me a few minutes ago, and I haven't had time to deal yet. Okay? I can't believe this is happening to me.”
Beth had only just told him about the baby? That threw Jared's shotgun wedding theory to the wayside. He returned to his original conclusion. They were tying the knot to get their hands on the ranch; he wasn't going to offer it to her now. Whether Simon liked it or not, he needed to marry Beth and give their child the life he or she deserved.
“You are not leaving that baby without a father,” he said. “I mean it, Simon. It's time for you to grow up.”
You're right.” Simon crossed the room on legs that visibly wobbled, and he looked like he might vomit any second. “Dad would want me to be a man about it.”
Jared's jaw tightened at the mention of their father. Big Jim Wilder had possessed the Midas touch when it came to breeding, raising, and selling top-of-the-line thoroughbred horses. Unfortunately, that special touch hadn’t helped with raising a family. When Big Jim spoke, he’d expected everyone to jump to it. That included his sons. Some called him a born leader, while others said he was just a bully.
Jared couldn't count the number of times he had been pushed to blindly follow his father's orders or the numerous fights they'd had over medical school. He was supposed to stay on the ranch and take over the family business.
He clamped his lips together, determined not to argue with Simon over their father and what he would have wanted. As long as Simon did the right thing by Beth, it didn't matter why.
Jared ducked into Simon's private bathroom and scrubbed his hands for a full two minutes. When he returned to the bedroom, he found Simon staring down at the floor, deep in thought. “What are you thinking about?” Jared asked.
“I can't stop shaking,” Simon said. “Can you ask Beth to come in here so I can talk to her privately?”
“Isn't that bad luck?”
“I'm about to have a baby with a woman I don't love, so I think that ship has sailed. Can you just tell her, please?”
Jared clapped his brother on the back. “It's going to work out. Trust me. I will help you in any way that I can.”
“I appreciate that, bro. Thanks.”
Jared reluctantly went down the hallway, retracing his earlier steps to Beth's bedroom. He froze with his hand halfway to the brass knob. A bad feeling threatened to burn a hole in his gut. Simon had given in way too easily. Stories about runaway brides returned to the front of Jared's mind with shocking clarity, and he wondered. Was there a such thing as runaway grooms?
