Tycoon Cowboy's Baby Surprise

“Damned straight,” Nate said. “I’ve never had any problems turning drinks into something more.”

“None of us have,” Ethan said. “Can you believe Hunter is getting married? I thought...well, I guess we all thought that he was never going to find a woman who’d trust him.”

“I know,” Nate said. He didn’t like to think about how many times he’d defended his brother in places like the Bull Pit and in boardrooms whenever someone had brought up Hunter’s past. Gossip had it that their family had bought Hunter’s freedom, but the truth was the cops never had enough evidence to charge him with murder. Not that that had made any difference in the court of public opinion. “I’m glad to see him so happy. Damned if I could have ever seen any of us as married, but being engaged looks good on him.”

“It does. Ferrin seems to be an important part of his new life. And I’m going to deny saying this if you bring it up, but he seems like a new man now.”

Nate had to laugh at that. Hunter was a new man. A man freed from the past and the guilt that he’d carried for ten years.

“Guilt did weigh on him. That’s why I lead a free and easy life. The only thing that weighs on me is the family business, and to be honest I like a good tussle in the boardroom, so that’s not really a big deal.”

Ethan laughed. “You said it, brother. Speaking of a business, Dylan Gallagher has a Cessna he wants to sell us. He’s thinking of buying a big jet.”

“What does he need a jet for?”

“Apparently, he has a lady friend on the East Coast he wants to visit,” Ethan said. “I’ll drive over and look at it this afternoon. It would be nice to have it as a backup for the older one we’ve been thinking of getting rid of.”

“It would be. Ranch assets are your domain, so if you think we should buy it, I’ll agree with you.”

“Wish all things with you were this easy to settle,” Ethan said.

Before Nate could respond, his phone beeped and he glanced down at the screen to see he had a text message from Kinley. Nate finished his beer and stood up. “I’m easy to get along with. You’re the troublemaker.”

Ethan’s laughter followed him out the door. He left his pickup in the parking lot at the Bull Pit and walked across town to the restaurant where Kinley was waiting for him. The sun was setting as he came around the corner and he saw her standing to the left of the entrance. She was backlit by the sun, which silhouetted her curves and seemed to highlight her reddish-brown hair. He stopped for a minute as he realized that he didn’t want to screw this up.

He’d hurt her with the way he’d behaved when she’d called him from Vegas, and this was a fresh start. The kind of thing that he needed with her, because no matter what he’d said to her on the phone, one weekend hadn’t been enough to get her out of his system.

Three (#u55e4c8d5-265a-5fe6-87bf-092fc4ad1ebd)

Kinley had a rushed dinner with Penny and her nanny before leaving to meet Nate. Tonight was important, and she needed to be stronger than she’d ever been before. She’d dressed carefully, choosing a gray cap-sleeve dress that nipped in at the waist before ending at the knees. She’d paired it with a piece of costume jewelry she’d purchased at a vintage shop in Melrose the year before her mom had died.

Wearing it always made Kinley think of her mom. She touched it like a talisman, trying to glean a little of her mom’s courage before Nate showed up. She was scared.

She’d made the only choice she felt she could make when she’d decided to have Penny and to raise her daughter on her own. But circumstances had changed, and it was time to make another choice.

She pulled her phone out of her purse for the tenth time since she’d texted Nate that she was waiting for him at the Peace Creek Steak House, not because she expected him to respond, but because she felt so vulnerable just standing there waiting for him.

She heard a group of people approaching the entrance and looked up to see Bianca Velasquez walking toward her. Her mom had cleaned the Velasquez home way back when, and Bianca and Kinley had been really good friends. She smiled when she noticed Kinley, waved her friends on and came over to give her a hug.

Her friend had thick black hair that she wore long and falling around her shoulders and olive skin Kinley had always envied. She was wearing a pair of slim-fitting white jeans and a flowy navy-colored blouse.

“I didn’t know you were back in town,” Bianca said.

“I didn’t know you were, either. I thought you were still in Spain,” Kinley said. Bianca’s young husband had recently died in a fiery car crash, leaving the window with an eighteen-month-old son to raise. Kinley and Bianca kept in touch by email and had a lot to share since they both were single moms.

“I recently moved back. Mom and Dad were really persistent. And I missed Texas,” Bianca said. “Do you have plans tonight? You can join us.”

“I’m only back for a few months to plan Hunter’s wedding,” Kinley said. “I’m meeting someone but I’d love to catch up sometime.”

“Me, too. I’m looking for a job, believe it or not,” Bianca said in a sort of self-effacing tone. “I have your number, so I’ll text you and we can find some time to meet up with our kiddos.”

“Sounds great,” Kinley said, hugging her friend and realizing how nice it was to see Bianca. The combination of secrets and guilt had been weighing on her, but seeing a friendly face, making some normal plans, made her feel better.

Bianca waved goodbye before going into the restaurant. Kinley felt someone watching her and glanced up to see Nate at the end of the driveway, walking toward her. He hadn’t changed since their earlier meeting; he still wore dark jeans paired with what she knew was a designer shirt and hand-tooled, custom-made leather boots. He walked like a man who knew his place in the world. He was confident and sure, and a part of her truly resented him for it.

She’d been struggling to figure out her place her entire life. She might not have been aware of it when she’d been younger, but these days it felt like a yoke around her neck. Like she’d been carrying it for too long. Part of it, she knew, was the burden of what she had to tell him and her own uncertainty about how to do it, but she knew another part was the fact that she felt like she was always running to catch up.

Probably that could be traced back to living two different lives for most of her upbringing: the weeks in town with her mom at the Velasquez home and the weekends on the ranch with her father.

“Nate, I’m glad you could make it,” Kinley said. To her own ears, her voice sounded too bright. Like she was trying to force out a happiness she didn’t feel. But she put a smile on her face, determined to keep it in place until she actually could smile around him.

“It was my idea, so I wasn’t about to say no.” He winked at her as he reached her, putting his hand at the small of her back to turn her toward the entrance.

She moved forward, trying to ignore the pulsing that had started as soon as she felt his hand on the small of her back. His hands were big and hot and made her very aware of the last time he’d touched her there.

They’d both been naked and he’d rolled her onto her stomach in that big king-size bed to give her a massage, which had ended with him deep inside her as she’d climaxed again and again. A shiver of pure sexual need went through her.

It had been a long time since any man had touched her save for her ob-gyn, and Kinley, who had been too tired to think of dating before this, now thought that might have been a huge mistake.

She wished she’d had at least one other man since Nate so she’d have some sort of buffer. He reached around her to hold open the door, and she was both elated and disappointed that he broke contact.

She stepped inside, waiting a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim interior. She was losing control of herself, which would mean loss of control of the situation if she didn’t pull herself together.

She skimmed the bar and spotted a booth in the back that looked like it would give them some privacy from the other patrons in the steak house.

“I see a spot,” Kinley said, walking toward it quickly, not giving Nate a chance to touch her back again.

* * *

Touching her had been a mistake, because as he watched her walk through the bar, images of the last time he’d touched her back ran through his mind. He remembered the afternoon sunlight shining into their room and how creamy her skin had looked against the white hotel sheets. She had freckles on her back, and he’d taken his time to touch and caress each of them before he made love to her.

A jolt of need went through him, and he knew whatever lie he’d been telling himself about meeting up with Kinley to clear the air was paper-thin. He wanted her. And pretending that there was anything other than that motivating him would be a mistake.

She slid into the booth she’d spotted in the corner. It was darker back here, lit only with an electric fixture mounted on the wall that was made to look like a gas lamp. The bulb flickered like a live flame. They had more privacy than he’d expected.

He started to slide in next to her, but she shook her head and gestured for him to sit across from her. He sat down on the hard wooden bench, hoping it would cool him down, but it didn’t. Instead his legs brushed against hers under the table, and every time he inhaled all he could smell was her perfume. It was some kind of flowery, summery scent that made him more determined that they should spend the summer together.

He was a temporary guy and she was here temporarily; it should be easy enough for both of them. But his gut warned it wouldn’t be. It couldn’t be. First of all, her job was going to bring her into contact with his family—a lot. Second, her dad was his foreman, and Nate didn’t want to do anything to compromise that relationship. Plus—and this was the big one—he was pretty sure that Kinley had already written him off.

So he was going to have to figure out how to convince her that he was more than a wealthy playboy. Was she worth it?

Even as he asked himself that question, he knew the answer was yes. There was something in her big chocolate-brown eyes that made him determined to figure out what he needed to say or do to claim her as his own.

“What are you drinking?” he asked. His voice sounded almost too loud in the quiet intimacy of the booth.

“Sparkling water with a twist of lime,” she said.

“I can’t order that at the bar or they will laugh me out of here,” he said.