“Says who?”
Justice choked out a laugh. Figured Jesse wouldn’t react with any kind of tact. Just accept what his brother said and let it go. “A doctor. Right after the accident that killed Mom and Dad and laid me up for weeks.”
“You never said anything.”
He laughed again, a sound that was harsh and miserable even to his own ears. “Would you have?”
“No,” Jesse said, standing up to walk to his side. “I guess not. But, Justice, doctors make mistakes.”
He took a drink of his beer, letting the frothy cold liquid coat his insides and put out the fires of humiliation and regret burning within. “Not about that.”
“God, you’re an idiot.”
“I’m getting awful tired of people calling me names,” Justice muttered.
“You deserve it. How do you know that doctor wasn’t wrong?” Jesse stepped out in front of him, forcing Justice to meet his gaze. “Did you ever get a second opinion?”
“You think I liked getting that news? Why would I go to someone else to hear the same damn thing again?”
Shaking his head wildly as if he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard, Jesse blinked at his brother and said, “I don’t know, to make sure the guy was right? Justice, you get a second opinion from vets on your cattle! Why wouldn’t you do that for yourself?”
Justice wiped one hand across his face, then took another long swallow of his beer. He didn’t like defending himself and liked even less the vague notion that his younger brother might be right. What if that doctor had been wrong? What if it had all been a mistake?
His heartbeat thundered in his chest and his mouth went dry. If that were true, then he’d let Maggie walk out of his life for no reason at all. And worse, he had a son he’d only just met.
“No, he wasn’t wrong,” Justice muttered, refusing to accept the possibility. “He couldn’t have been.”
“Why?” Jesse demanded. “Because if he was wrong, that means you’ve wasted time with Maggie, neglected your son and are the Grand Poobah of Idiots?”
Grinding his back teeth together, Justice barely managed to mutter, “Pretty much.”
“Well, here’s something else for you to think about, your majesty. Even if he was right at the time, things change. But you never bothered to find out, did you? Damn, Justice. You really are—”
“—an idiot. Yeah, I know. Thanks for not saying it again.”
“Give me time,” Jesse told him with a half grin. “I’ll get around to it.”
“I’m sure. Y’know, I just told Jeff that I should have been born an only child.”
“Like you could have made it through life without us!” Jesse laughed and clapped Justice on the shoulder. “Now, you know what you’ve got to do, right?”
“I have a feeling you’re about to tell me.”
“As you like to say, damn straight. Get a paternity test, Justice. It’s easy. It’s fast. And it’ll tell you flat out if the doctor was wrong or not.”
Paternity test. It would be easier, he thought, than finding another doctor and going through testing again himself. And he’d have his answer. One way or the other. A thread of worry snaked its way through his system, reminding him that if the results came back as negative, then he’d have to acknowledge that Maggie had lied to him. And that she had another man in her life. He ignored that worry completely.
“Maybe you’re right,” he murmured.
Jesse laughed. “Hell, it was worth the drive to the ranch just to hear you say that.”
“Funny. That’s really funny.”
“This isn’t.” Jesse’s smile faded and his voice dropped a notch. “Get this straightened out, Justice. Because if you don’t, you’re going to lose Maggie, your son, everything. Then you’ll be a miserable bastard for the rest of your life and speaking as one of the people who’d have to put up with it, we’d rather not see that.”
“You made your point.” Justice had had more advice from people in the past couple of weeks than he’d had in the past five years. And he was damn tired of it.
“Glad to hear it. Now, how about another beer?”
“What the hell—”
“Justice!”
Maggie’s shout had him spinning around and nearly toppling over but for Jesse’s hand on his arm steadying him. She stood in the open doorway leading to the kitchen, and the wind swept her fiery hair into a dancing tangle around her head. “What is it?”
“It’s Bella,” Maggie called back, her gaze sliding from Justice to Jesse, who was already sprinting for the house. “It’s time.”
“How much longer?”
Maggie looked up at Justice and smiled. They’d been at the hospital for nearly five hours already and it felt like days. Funny, but when she herself had been in labor, it had seemed that time was rushing by, breathlessly. Now that she was expected to do nothing but sit and wait, time was at a crawl.
“No way to tell,” she told him, tossing aside a six-month-old magazine she hadn’t been reading anyway. “First-time babies can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days to make their appearance.”
Justice looked horrified and Maggie stifled a laugh. He’d been a nervous wreck since they first bundled Jesse and Bella into the ranch SUV and hit the freeway. Neither of them had trusted Jesse to drive. He’d been practically vibrating with nerves when he called Bella’s doctor to tell her they were headed to the hospital. Leaving Jonas with Mrs. Carey, Maggie had ridden shotgun while Justice drove and Jesse hovered over Bella on the backseat.
As soon as they had arrived at the sprawling medical center in Irvine, Jesse and Bella had been taken off to Maternity. Justice and Maggie, meanwhile, had been directed to the waiting room, which boasted the most uncomfortable chairs in the world. Short backs, narrow seats and hardwood arms made getting comfy a nearly impossible feat.
But, she supposed, comfort wasn’t a real issue, since mostly the people waiting for news from the delivery room were too nervous to sit anyway. Still, she kept giving it a shot. “Justice, sit down and give your leg a rest, why don’t you?”
“My leg’s fine,” he said, but his tight-lipped expression told the real truth. She knew he was in pain, but the man would never admit it.
“Okay, then sit down because you’re making me nervous,” she said.