The Cowboy's Forever Family

“I don’t understand. You didn’t even look pregnant at the funeral, and now you just show up in Serendipity out of nowhere.” A statement of fact, even if it resembled an indictment. “What’s your angle, Laney? Why are you really here?”

* * *

What was her angle? What was her angle?

How dare he?

Laney pulled in a deep breath through her nose in an unsuccessful attempt to force herself into a state of calm she didn’t feel—not so much for her sake but for the baby’s. If it wasn’t for the little one growing inside her, she might very well have launched herself at Slade and really given him the what-for he clearly deserved. She had the notion he’d never been walloped by a woman before, and it was high time he was taken down a notch or two.

Or ten.

Despite her best efforts, her heartbeat roared in her ears and her pulse skyrocketed. If real smoke could blow from her ears she’d be steaming like a kettle right now.

“I wasn’t yet showing at the funeral, but I knew I was carrying Brody’s baby.”

His piercing blue eyes narrowed on her and he stepped forward, looming over her and puffing out his chest like a rooster. As if that would intimidate her. She was exactly right in saying he was nothing but a schoolyard bully.

“How did this happen?” His voice was low and icy.

“Excuse me?” Both of her eyebrows arched, disappearing under her hairline. If Slade didn’t know the facts of life she certainly wasn’t going to be the one to explain them to him. The very idea was laughable.

“You and Brody were having a baby together, when I know for a fact you two were separated well before his—” He paused and his voice deepened and turned gruff “—accident happened.”

“Obviously, we spent some time together trying to work things out,” she retorted, clipping her words. “He was my husband,” she reminded him again.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”

Wow. He might as well have slapped her. She could give and take as well as the next woman, but it wasn’t only her character he was maligning. It was Brody’s. And Slade was casting a shadow over their beloved baby, as if the unborn Beckett was some kind of mistake.

“You can’t imagine how I felt when I discovered I was pregnant,” she informed him coldly. “I was so happy. So angry. And horribly, horribly saddened by it all. I’m responsible for raising Brody’s baby all on my own. He or she is all I have left of my husband.”

He shrugged. “But you sure didn’t take any time after his death to grieve for him, did you? You ran away to—wherever—instead of sticking around.”

“Take that back.” She shoved at his chest and he immediately raised his arms in surrender.

“I’m only saying how it looked to me.”

“Then maybe you need to get glasses. Not to mention giving me—and Brody—a little more credit.”

He jerked his chin. She wasn’t sure whether he was agreeing with her or merely acknowledging what she’d said.

“I had my reasons for leaving town after the funeral. And Brody and I were trying to work it out,” she reiterated, in case there was any doubt whatsoever in the big oaf’s mind. “Brody is the only man I’ve ever loved. But it didn’t help that you put ideas in his head, did it? Led him away from his family obligations without a care for how it affected me. Don’t you have a conscience?”

He had the good grace to flinch, but the way he was eyeing her rounded middle, as if weighing her words for truth, made her want to cover her belly with her arms to protect the child within.

“Why were you crying?”

His question caught her off guard, not only the words themselves, but the muted tone in which they were asked. Surely he hadn’t picked now to decide to control that wicked tongue of his. He’d already done too much damage to go back now.

“I—” She started to deny she’d been crying at all, but that would have been a lie. She had been crying. He’d caught her with tears pouring down her cheeks. She couldn’t very well deny it now. “Sometimes my emotions catch up with me. I try to keep them in check, but every so often, something reminds me of Brody and it’s just too much of a burden for me to bear.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, sifting his finger through his thick black hair. “I know what you mean.”

He probably did, at least to some degree. For all his faults, Slade had been Brody’s best friend and had known him from childhood. He had to be hurting, too, she supposed, in his own ill-mannered way. Maybe that was part of the reason he was acting like such a Neanderthal. Not that that was any excuse for the way he’d treated her when Brody was still alive...

“Where are you parked?” he asked gruffly.

“Back at Brody’s folks’ house.” She glanced around her but saw only grassland in every direction. It all looked the same to her. She hadn’t realized she’d wandered so far from the homestead. Not only could she not see the house from here—she didn’t even know from which direction she’d come.

She was lost.

Not that she’d admit that particular fact to Slade.

“You walked all the way from their house in your condition?” He looked her up and down, disbelief in his gaze. “Do you know how many miles that is? What were you thinking? You could have hurt yourself or the baby.”

“I’m pregnant, not ill. It’s perfectly acceptable for me to walk. If anything, it’s a good thing for me to get all this fresh air and exercise.” Maybe she shouldn’t have wandered quite so far off onto the range, but she hadn’t been thinking.

Or maybe she’d been thinking too much.

He didn’t look the least bit convinced she wasn’t taking unnecessary risks. Well, too bad for him.

“You’ll never make it back to the house before dark on foot.” How did the man make every single statement out of his mouth sound like an accusation? Then again, she had to concede that he did have a point.

Heat flushed her cheeks. She’d left midafternoon. It had never occurred to her that she might be caught with the sun setting on her. She might be fine now, but she’d be completely helpless in the dark. Of course, she hadn’t planned to walk quite this far.

Or to get lost.

“You don’t even know where you are, do you?”

As much as she’d hated the accusatory tone he’d used on her earlier, at least she’d known how to respond to it. What she heard now was sympathy, with a note of kindness. Where had that come from?

She didn’t answer, shifting her gaze to somewhere over his left shoulder.

“You don’t.”

He didn’t have to sound so satisfied.

“It’s settled, then. You’re coming with me.”

She ignored his dictatorial attitude. She would argue all night about his high-handedness if it was just her at risk in the dark with no clear route home, but she had the baby to consider, and pride only took a pregnant woman so far. “All right, I guess. You’ve got your truck parked somewhere nearby?”

He laughed, a deep, rich rumble from low in his chest. “Something like that.”

“Why do I feel like I should be worried?”

He chuckled again and took her hand to steady her as they walked over the uneven soil. She allowed it, but only because the increase in her waistline made her steps ungainly. Laney might not be a country girl, but she was a native Texan and she knew the wild terrain was filled with treacherous bumps and hollows along the way.

As they crested the hill she saw why Slade was hedging. His mode of transportation was a horse, not a truck, contentedly grazing on the grassy knoll.