The Cowboy's Surprise Baby

Had she gotten pregnant? That seemed like an odd reason for her to run from him, since she would have known, even at that young age, that he would be more than happy to raise a child with her. They had been talking about having a family together nearly the entire time they were together.

His mind flitted back to illness. What if she was sick? Deathly sick? And he didn’t know?

He waited, the pit of his stomach tense, for what the doctor might have told her that had made her disappear from his life.

“I found out that I can’t have kids, Jack. Ever. I left because you deserved to be with someone who could give you the family you’ve always wanted.”

Jack felt a combination of pain and relief. He turned to look carefully at Amy. “But you’re not sick or anything?” he asked.

“Except for not being able to have children, I’m fine—”

“It’s you I cared about, Amy, not whether or not you can make babies. Hell, you’re adopted. You know better than anyone that there are other options, if we wanted kids.”

Jack had never felt so relieved, yet at the same time he was sad for all the years together they had lost. Sure, he’d wanted kids, but this was Amy. What he’d always wanted, more than anything, was her.

Amy still looked somber. “You say that now, Jack, and I know you would’ve said that then, but the years would have gone by and you’d have wished we could have children. Your children. Even if you didn’t, I’d always wonder if you did. I didn’t want that to fester underneath the surface, ruining our relationship.”

“So you left?” Jack asked, searching her face.

Amy looked away from his eyes. She seemed embarrassed. “I couldn’t break up with you. I know I never would’ve been able to make myself say the words to you. And since I couldn’t let myself stay with you, leaving felt like my only option. I’m sorry for doing that to you, Jack. I was a coward. You deserved better.”

At last, a great weight disappeared from Jack’s shoulders. After years of wondering, at least he knew the answers to all his unanswered questions. Now there still seemed to be one question left: Where did he go from there?

* * *

AMY SAT ON the tailgate, chilled by the early-morning breeze and by her own thoughts. She waited for him to say something that would give her a clue as to what he was thinking. If he despised her cowardice, wanted nothing to do with her, she deserved it. She wouldn’t run from it anymore. She patted the mare’s soft muzzle absentmindedly, waiting.

Finally, he spoke. “We should get your horse back to the barn,” he said, hopping off the tailgate and holding out his hand to her. “How about we walk there? I can come back for the truck.”

She was speechless for a moment. The unexpected friendliness, the opening of a door she thought long closed, surprised her. When she took his hand, however, its warmth and steadiness rushed through her, and the spark of recognition and comfort that flowed through the link made her smile. Her hand felt right nestled in his, like they had never been apart.

“Your hands are freezing,” Jack commented, pressing hers in both of his.

She was warmed by more than his palms as he helped her stand, and their fingers lingered together for an extra moment before he let go to close his tailgate and pull his keys from the ignition.

They began walking side by side toward her parents’ ranch along the road, the mare walking along behind them and occasionally batting Amy with her nose, as if anxious to move faster. Amy, though, wasn’t in any rush to finish the half mile or so walk. She didn’t want this intimate moment to be over too quickly.

“I can’t believe you still have that old truck,” she told Jack, glancing back at the vehicle parked beside the field. “After all the times it broke down in high school, I never would have imagined it would last so long.”

“I had to put a lot of work into it over the years, and it still has a few quirks,” Jack said, giving her a sidelong smile that went straight to her heart, “but I’ve loved it since I was a teenager. I could never just give up on it.”

Amy blushed, feeling the words resonate through her, sure he was talking about more than just the truck.

But no. Even if they did, the facts of the situation had not changed. She still couldn’t have children, and he still deserved the chance to find a woman who could give him the family he’d always wanted.

He had the chance, and it seems he never took it, she thought to herself. She couldn’t stop the heat from blossoming in her chest. It turned to ice as she put back up the walls she’d built around her heart in the past few days. She knew now better than ever that she couldn’t let herself get carried away with a man. Even if it was Jack.

He stopped walking and turned toward her, and she did the same. Suddenly, she felt as if he was much too close, and at the same time too far away, and she longed to move closer. To touch his lips with hers. She took a step back.

She was sure the feel of their lips, their bodies, together would also be on the list of things that hadn’t changed, and it scared her.

“Will you go out with me tonight?” he asked, his voice low and deep.

The word yes was on her tongue, but Amy balked. She couldn’t let them fall right back into the relationship she’d run away from, could she? What about all that had happened since? Would there just be too much between them? And she had no idea who he was now. He could be every bit as despicable as Armand, the person she least wanted to think about.

Jack seemed to realize her indecision, because he turned and started walking toward her house again. After a moment, she pulled herself out of her shock and hustled to catch up with him. When he spoke, he sounded lighthearted, confident. Exactly the Jack she knew from high school. “How about this—we go out tonight just to get to know each other. We start fresh. No expectations. No baggage. No past. Just us, two twentysomethings who met while I was out for a drive and you were going for a ride on your horse.”

She had to smile at his antics. “No past? So you saw a random woman riding a horse in the middle of nowhere and stopped to ask her out?”

His eyes danced with laughter. “When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so great. How about I was driving along when I saw a beautiful woman and a beautiful horse, and I felt compelled to speak to her. The woman, not the horse.”

Amy wasn’t sure if she was amused or panicked. For a moment he sounded just like Armand. Charming, flattering...but this was Jack. He was being sincere.

Wasn’t he?

They grew quiet and walked a little longer, until her childhood home appeared down the street.

“So I’ll pick you up tonight at seven?” he said, his voice serious as he turned toward her again.

Amy nodded, though a large part of her yelled that it was too much, too soon. Jack’s face lit with a smile, and he turned his attention back to the house that loomed before them. She was glad he wasn’t looking at her any longer, so he wouldn’t see just how torn and confused she was.

She tried to tell herself she was being stupid, worrying over nothing. She’d known Jack almost as long as she’d been alive. Armand was—well, he was a blip on the radar of her life, not worth thinking about. So she would just stop.

The likelihood of that was so far-fetched that Amy couldn’t stop a snort from escaping.

“What’re you thinking about over there?” Jack asked, the gleam in his eye making him so devilishly handsome she wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss him or run away.

“That wasn’t me, that was the horse,” she said, turning away so he wouldn’t see the flow of emotions she couldn’t control.

He snorted skeptically in response, and she felt the tension inside her break as a laugh broke from her throat. She’d forgotten how easily he could make her laugh, regardless of her mood. She had missed that.

They arrived at the house, and even though the mare was pulling Amy toward the barn, she couldn’t pull herself away from Jack, as if something magnetic about him forced her to stay close to him now that she’d found him again.

He looked in her eyes again, making her stomach drop somewhere near her toes. “Seven, right?” he asked.

The note of insecurity in his voice sent a pang through her heart. It reminded her again of how much she must have hurt him. She nodded. “Seven.”

He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, sending a shock wave of hormones rushing through her body. Her mind recoiled at the feeling, and she almost called the date off right then and there. The idea of being vulnerable again so soon, even with Jack, made her more than nervous.

Jack seemed to realize he’d crossed the line. He tilted his hat and said, “I don’t normally kiss ladies I just met. I assure you, I’ll be a perfect gentleman on our date.”

He turned back toward the road and began walking away, but she wasn’t ready for him to disappear. Not quite yet.

“You haven’t even asked my name,” she called to him, desperate to see his face again for a few more seconds.

He looked at her with a smile and bowed. “Where are my manners? Name’s Jack, miss. And you are...?” he asked.

God, he was so cute she could hardly speak. “Amelia. Friends call me Amy.”