Very Private Duty Read Online Free Page A

shaft of light coming through the blinds glinted off the band on his finger. He’d married the resident schoolteacher last summer, and now he and Kelly awaited the birth of their first child together. Ryan had a five-year-old son, Sean, from a prior marriage.
    “It can’t be that bad, little brother.”
    Jeremy grimaced. “Worse.”
    Ryan raised his eyebrows. “You better follow your nurse’s orders and get your butt out of that bed as soon as possible.”
    Jeremy swallowed two more spoonfuls. “Why?”
    “Kelly woke up this morning with contractions. They’re not that strong, about twenty minutes apart, but there’s a good chance she’ll have the baby either today or tomorrow, and I know when I bring your niece home you don’t want her to see her uncle flat on his back.”
    Jeremy managed a smile, but it looked more like a grimace. “I thought Kelly wasn’t due until the end of the month.” It was now the second week in July.
    “She’s farther along than was first predicted. Babies are smarter than we are. They know exactly when to make their grand entrance. Don’t you agree, Tricia?”
    She nodded. The words she wanted to say were locked in her constricted throat. She wanted to tell Ryan that she had given Sheldon Blackstone his first granddaughter. A little girl she’d named Juliet to honor the memory of Jeremy’s mother Julia—a little girl who’d been undeniably a Blackstone.
    Tricia wanted to run out of the room, leaving the brothers to discuss the upcoming birth of Kelly’s daughter. She drew a deep breath, forbidding herself to cry. Not in front of Jeremy.
    “Ryan, could you please finish feeding your brother? I’d like to look in on my grandfather for afew minutes.” She had to escape before she broke down.
    She’d left Gus earlier that morning after Sheldon had come to the bungalow asking her help in caring for Jeremy. The look on the older man’s face spoke volumes. It was fear. There was no doubt he was afraid she would become involved with Jeremy again; she wanted to reassure her grandfather that would not happen a second time.
    Ryan stood up, exchanging seats with Tricia. “Take your time with Gus. If I have to leave, then I’ll call my father to come and sit.”
    She took a quick glance at her patient. His chest rose and fell in a measured rhythm. He had fallen asleep. Her gaze softened as she studied his face in repose. Juliet had been a miniature, feminine version of her father.
    A shudder shook her as the import of what had become a reality for three short months struck her. She and Jeremy had been parents of a little girl who had righted all of the wrongs—a baby she loved with all of her heart.
     
    Tricia found Gus sitting on the porch, rocking in his favorite chair, eyes closed. She stood on the lower step and stared at her grandfather. Tall and slender, there wasn’t an extra ounce of flesh on his spare frame and for the first time she saw him as an old man. He had celebrated his seventy-seventh birthdaythat spring. She mounted the steps slowly, and he opened his eyes to stare up at her.
    “How is he?”
    “ He does have a name, Grandpa.”
    “Okay. How is Jeremy?”
    “He’s going to live.” Smiling, she pulled over a rattan chair, facing her grandfather.
    Gus returned her smile. The gesture took years off his face. “That’s good.”
    “Is it, Grandpa?”
    His smile vanished. “I’ve always liked Jeremy.”
    “You liked him, but not for me.”
    “I was trying to protect you, Tricia.”
    “Protect me from what or whom?” she asked, leaning forward on the cushioned seat.
    “I just didn’t want you to end up like your mother.”
    Gus had attempted to protect Tricia, but she did end up like her mother. She’d gotten pregnant and had become a teenage mother. But unlike Patricia, she had not abandoned her baby.
    “She could’ve aborted me, but she didn’t.”
    “I’m thankful she didn’t, because who else would I have in my old age.”
    “You’re not