Tycoon Cowboy's Baby Surprise

If she was going to figure out how and if to tell Nate, they were going to have spend more time together, and dinner seemed like a safe enough way to start.

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

Nate normally would have gone to the country club for a midweek dinner and then played a few games of pool with Derek before hitting the Bull Pit for more drinking and carousing before heading home. Instead he was seated across from Kinley eating a steak and listening to her talk about the latest book she’d read.

He didn’t want to dwell on the fact that this was shaping up to be one of his best weeknights in a long time. She was animated when she talked, and now that he’d put the brakes on anything too sexy, she’d relaxed. Her hands moved as she explained a part of the book she really liked, and then she laughed and his gut clenched and his blood seemed to flow a little heavier in his veins.

“It’s just the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time and I thought while I was reading it, this girl could be me. Have you ever felt that way?” she asked.

He hadn’t. “Not really, but then, I’ve always had Dad to show me the kind of man I wanted to be.”

“Your dad is the best,” she said.

There was a note in her voice that made him wonder if Marcus hadn’t been the same kind of dad as his was. His father lived for his sons and made sure they knew it. They’d all been very certain that he had a strong moral code for them to live up to and he expected a lot from them. But he’d always treated them with love.

“Was your dad?” Nate asked.

“He wasn’t horrible or anything like that. But he did tend to work a lot on the weekend when I was out there. Mostly I think I saw your dad more than I saw my own.”

Nate hadn’t realized that and now wondered if he was keeping any of his employees from seeing their kids as often as they liked. He never really thought about the ranch children. His life was very different from his employees’, since his days of working the ranch were long gone. He spent most of his time in his high-rise office building here in Cole’s Hill doing deals and managing the business that the Rockin’ C had blossomed into.

“I didn’t know that,” he said, at last understanding that there was a lot to Kinley that he didn’t know.

In his mind he always imagined that she’d had the same sort of upbringing he had. He remembered Kinley being on the ranch on the weekends. He’d thought of her as a sort of girl version of himself.

“Why would you?” she asked. “It would be weird if you had. Besides, my dad and I have a pretty good relationship now. It’s just different than yours is with your parents.”

Nate shook his head. “I was very glad to move them into their own home, not that I forced them out. But as much as I like having my town house in the Five Families area, I do prefer to be out on the ranch.”

“Couldn’t you have lived there with your parents?” she asked.

“Of course, but if I did, then Mom wanted to meet any of the women I brought home, and sometimes that could get awkward.”

“I bet,” she said. “Are you still mostly keeping it casual?”

“Mostly. But I am here with you tonight.”

“Tonight? Should I just be thinking of this as temporary... What am I talking about? We’re having dinner to clear the air and give us a friendly base so that we don’t make Hunter and your family aware of what happened between us.”

He should have been very happy that she understood the kind of man he was.

But...

He didn’t want her to dismiss him so easily. Yeah, he was a temporary cowboy, the kind of man who knew how to show a woman a good time for a short stretch, but he might change for the right woman.

That was a big ask, though. And Kinley was perfectly within her rights to friend zone him the way she had.

“Fair enough. But for the record, you’re not like everyone else,” he said.

She paused for a second, her eyes widened, and he realized that a part of her wanted him to be Mr. Right. He could see it there in her gaze, and he’d never been anything close to that.

“Really?”

There was so much hope in her tone that it was almost painful to listen to it. He was afraid of hurting her and before this moment hadn’t been aware of how likely it was that he could. He’d thought she was like him. The female version. Party girl to his party boy and that like him she’d segue into the next phase of her life as a successful businesswoman. But in her eyes was a hope that he hadn’t counted on or ever seen before.

She wanted him to be a hero.

Not a bad boy.

Could he do it? Could he be the man she wanted?

The selfish part of him wanted to pretend he hadn’t noticed and maybe just go with it. But he had always prided himself on being honest in all of his relationships, and pretending was a form of lying. Some would say the worst form.

“Yes. You are very special,” he said at last.

She fumbled for her water glass and took a sip before placing it carefully back on the table.

“You’re kind of unforgettable, too,” she said.

Just like that he knew he could have Kinley again if he wanted to. If he kept his mouth shut and acted the part. But he’d already decided that would be the kind of low-down behavior he wouldn’t indulge in. But, oh, he was very tempted.

Her mouth was full and peach colored in the ambient lighting of the restaurant, and he was so tempted to just lean across the table and kiss her. To stop talking before he did anything that would ruin whatever it was she thought she saw in him.

* * *

Kinley was teetering on the edge. There had been a flash of something in Nate that made her want to believe he could be the kind of man who would spend the rest of his life with her. And though she was killing it—or at least managing it—as a single mom, there were times when she fantasized about having the perfect family that she’d always dreamed of having as a child. Growing up her family hadn’t been perfect, and she’d believed when she finally had kids she’d do it the right way. Have that perfect family from television and magazine ads that she’d always craved.

And now Nate was here sitting across from her saying things about how she was different from other women and looking at her...like he might have changed in the last two years. But she couldn’t just take a chance on that being the truth. She needed to be logical with this man whom she’d never been able to be logical about.

He’d always fascinated her. When she was younger, Nate had been the Caruthers who’d always looked out for her when she’d been on the ranch for the weekend. Then when she’d grown into her awkward preteen self, she had crushed on him—hard.

Now he tempted her again. Not with his easy charm and good looks, but with the slightest hint that he might be the partner she lacked. The father Penny needed.

She reached for her wineglass and took a sip. She was riding the crazy train straight to some sort of dreamlike existence that she knew didn’t exist. She knew that Nate was a great guy, sexy as hell and able to make any woman feel like she was the center of his world. And there were times when Kinley was able to make herself believe that she had been the center of it for that weekend in Vegas. But then he’d moved on.

A new business interest caught his attention, probably a new woman and a new expensive toy. She had to keep her wits about her.

But she liked him.

She’d always liked him. And it had been a really long time since a man—any man—had looked at her the way Nate was now.

And she’d left herself the slightest bit vulnerable when she’d just gone with her gut and told him he was unforgettable. He was. Even if she hadn’t had Penny to remind her of him every day, she doubted she would have been able to stop thinking about him.

“So...?” she said at last. Yeah, she was great at conversation, she thought. She could handle a full-on bridezilla on the warpath trying to make her special day the most fantastic ever, but put her across the table from this man and her verbal skills suddenly dropped to nothing.

“How do you feel about getting out of here and taking a walk around the plaza? The city commission is sponsoring a light show on the side of city hall that I’ve heard is pretty amazing,” he said.

It sounded so nice and normal. Like a real date. Except, was this a date? She wasn’t about to ask him and make herself look silly. But they’d said drinks, and now it had turned into dinner. She was holding a secret she needed to share and no closer to actually figuring out how to do it. And he had invited her to do something that sounded so normal.