The Cowboy's Secret Baby

“I wanted to have it sided or something more permanent, but Unc wouldn’t hear of that.”

“Did you say you won the biggest purse of your life the night of the accident?”

“Accident is a nice way of putting it,” he said wryly. “But yes, I did, and most of the other winnings I’d socked away in the bank. After all, I didn’t have many expenses on the road, or much I wanted to buy. When I was recuperating, I put most of it into building up the Cozy C and paying back taxes. Unc didn’t tell me he was in trouble before that, or I would have helped sooner. He can be stubborn.”

She cleared her throat. “And his nephew didn’t inherit that fine quality.”

Now Ty laughed and reached to open the barn door.

When she passed by him up the step into the barn, Jordan reached out and grabbed her cotton blouse. His little fist clamped on her sleeve. Her hand reached for Jordan’s at the same time Ty’s did. As their skin touched, Marissa felt a tremble the whole way through her body. Something about Ty Conroy shook her up, attracted her, made her feel so much like a woman.

She dropped her hand as Ty gently pried Jordan’s fingers away from her sleeve.

“He likes me close by,” she commented, trying to hide her reaction to Ty.

“He’s not the only one.” Ty’s voice was low, almost a thought rather than a statement. He went on to say, “You always smell so good.”

She tried not to take in his scent along with the smells of new wood, hay and horses. She didn’t know what to say so she said nothing and moved forward.

The barn was part new, part old. Some of the stall doors were new lumber. Others were worn, dark and well grained. She noticed an enclosure that appeared new. The door stood open and she glimpsed tack inside.

“It looks as if you’ve done a lot of repairs and made some changes.”

“We never had a tack room before, but we need one now if we’re going to take parties out on trail rides. I have to go into town or to an auction and pick up new saddles.”

“So many details.”

“You bet. The guest cabins are almost finished. I mostly have just staining to do there.”

She motioned around the barn. “Did you do some of this work yourself?”

“I did. I often worked construction jobs in between rodeo gigs when there was a time lag.”

Marissa thought about how long Ty had been bull riding, the places he’d seen and the people he’d met. She tried not to think about the women he’d met.

“You’ve been all over the country, and I’ve never been out of California,” she mused aloud.

“Do you want to get out of California?” he asked with a tilt of his head.

She had once dreamed of visiting faraway places. But that was before she’d become a mom. “I like Fawn Grove. It’s always been my home. But I would like to see some sights other than photos on my smartphone.”

Jordan was leaning toward the horses, and Ty walked over to one of the stalls. “I imagine you’d like Jordan to see them, too.”

“Of course. I want him to see the world. But not too soon,” she added in a teasing tone.

When Ty let Jordan get close to the horse, Marissa was concerned. Glancing at her, he must have seen that.

“Goldie is gentle,” he assured her. “She doesn’t move suddenly and not much rattles her. It will be safe for him to touch her.”

“What kind of horse is she?”

“A Tennessee walker. A gaited horse. That makes riding easier for me. She and I have gotten along like best friends since I brought her here.”

Marissa stepped up beside Ty, not knowing what to expect from a horse, either. “Are you sure she won’t bite or anything?”

She could tell Ty was trying to keep from laughing. “She won’t bite,” he assured her. “I guess you haven’t been around horses much, either.”

“Never been around them.” They really were magnificent creatures, but so magnificent they scared her.

“We don’t want Jordan to be afraid of them, right?”

“Right,” she agreed, but without much enthusiasm. A little fear could be a healthy thing.

Ty took Jordan’s little hand and guided it toward Goldie’s nose. When the boy’s fingers smoothed over the softness, he giggled and gave an excited sound of glee.

“Try it again,” Ty said. “Anything that causes that reaction should be tried more than once.”

Marissa’s quick glance at him made her breath catch. There was something in Ty’s eyes that said he remembered their night together as vividly as she did. Was there some message in what he’d said to Jordan?

“Now your turn,” Ty told her. “Just run your hand down her nose and pat her neck. She likes that.”

He made it all sound so sensual, like so much more than learning to know a horse.

When she reached out her hand, Ty advised her, “Slowly. Never move too fast around them. They’re just like people, really. They don’t like to be startled.”

As she moved her hand over Goldie’s nose, she could see why Jordan had giggled. It was a kind of softness she hadn’t felt before.

Remembering what Ty had said, she slipped her hand around to the horse’s neck. Her coat was coarse but pleasant to the touch. Her mane was silkier than the rest of her coat as it fell over Marissa’s hand.

Although the horse had fascinated Jordan when they’d begun, now he was tired of being held and tired of touching Goldie’s nose. He began shifting away from Ty.

“Is it okay if I put him down over near those hay bales? There’s nothing he can get into and nothing that will hurt him there.”

“Unless he starts eating the hay,” Marissa said wryly.

Ty lowered Jordan to the floor.

The toddler looked around as if he’d just been placed in a whole new world. Then he staggered toward a hay bale, eager to touch it.

As they stood at the stall together, Ty’s elbow brushed Marissa’s. That quickening in her breath was back. He was so tall, so elementally male.

As they watched Jordan hold on to one bale and then toddle to another, Ty said, “That apartment building you’re living in is getting run-down. What happens when you need a repair?”

Marissa wrinkled her nose. “It takes a couple of weeks till the landlord gets around to it. I had a leaky sink and Kaitlyn’s husband, Adam, fixed it for me. I either do it myself or find a way around it.”

“A child needs some space to move around, needs to see something other than the inside of an apartment, don’t you think?”

Uh-oh. She should have left before the tour. “What are you getting at, Ty?”