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“Oh, Bobby...” Jolie rested a hand on his shoulder. “You’re awfully young for this sort of decision.”
“And she’s awfully young to be a mom, but she doesn’t have a choice anymore.”
“Do youloveher?”
He set his jaw. “She shouldn’t go through all of this alone. Not now, and when she’s raising our baby.”
Not exactly the answer she’d hoped for.
Neither Bobby nor Mandy was as mature as they ought to be for such a big decision, but it wasn’t Jolie’s choice, she realized as she took Bobby into Mandy’s room. It was up to them.
They found Irene coaching Mandy through a contraction, Mandy’s face sheened with perspiration, her eyes squeezed tight in concentration. Bobby’s confident stride faltered just inside the door.
Jolie rested a hand on his shoulder. “Just wait, Bobby. She’ll be able to talk to you in a minute.”
When Mandy relaxed, she opened her eyes. “Whew. This ishard.”
“Still five to seven minutes apart,” Irene murmured. “Did you see you have a visitor?”
Mandy rolled her head against the pillow. Her eyes widened.“Bobby?”
He looked at Jolie uncertainly, and she urged him to Mandy’s side. “He wants to be with you. Matt and the kids are out in the waiting room, plus both Thea and Beth.”
“I just wish my mom could be here.” Mandy’s lower lip trembled.
“I told my family about us, Mandy.” Bobby reached out, warily avoiding the IV line and the other paraphernalia, and took her hand. “I’m sorry about everything—for lying to my dad about you. Everything.”
He shifted uncomfortably, then slid a glance between Irene and Jolie. “Could I talk to her alone?”
Irene pursed her lips. “Mandy?”
“Yes—it’s okay.”
A few minutes later he stepped outside and nodded to Irene, who went back in to stand at Mandy’s side. “Guess that didn’t go so well,” he muttered.
“You asked her?”
He shoved his hands in his hip pockets. “She didn’t believe I loved her. She said neither of us were ready for marriage and that both of us should go on to school and do some growing up. She sounded just likeyou.”
A feeling of pride warmed Jolie’s heart.Good girl.“What next, then?”
Bobby set his jaw in an expression so determined, soRobert Maxwell,that she had to hold back a smile. “I’m going back in. I’m going to stick with her.” A weak smile lifted a corner of his mouth. “Maybe someday Mandy will decide I’m worth the gamble.”
Jolie wrapped him in a quick bear hug. “I love you, Bobby. You’re going to make us all proud.”
He started for the door to Mandy’s room, then pivoted back to face Jolie and lowered his voice. “Maybe it doesn’t matter since I heard you aren’t seeing Dawson anymore, but—what can I say? Garrett Bluff is a small town.”
Reaching for his inside jacket pocket, he pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “I found this fax in Dad’s office at home while he was in the hospital.”
Jolie slowly unfolded it and read the name of a private-investigation firm at the top. Then in bold print below, the name Matthew James Dawson. A chill settled around her heart. “What is this?”
“I figured you should know. Dad’s always been real suspicious about any guys who dated you girls—I think he ordered background checks on every last one of them. This is what he got on Matt.”
Background checks?She stared blankly at the sheet of paper. Beside her, Bobby fidgeted. “I should get back to Mandy.”
She watched as he slipped into Mandy’s room with the cautious expression of someone entering a dragon’s lair.
Then she found a chair in a quiet area and sat down to read the document in her hands.
