The Double Heart Ranch

It took a moment for Elise’s eyes to adjust from the bright sunlight to the dimness inside the house. Then her mouth opened with surprise. The entryway was wide and spacious—nothing fancy, but homey in a country-fashioned way, with warm colors of wheat fields and sunlit green pastures.

“Make yourself at home. I’ll go throw on a shirt.” He gave her a sheepish expression that caused a new heat wave to roll through her. “I wasn’t expecting company. I was working down at the barn when I saw you drive up in…was that Chuck’s Ford?”

Unable to formulate an answer, much less speak, she nodded. Her boss had let her borrow his truck a couple of times when she’d had doctor appointments. And he’d let her borrow it again today. No questions asked.

“I’ll be right back.” He turned and then pointed. “The kitchen’s right through there.”

Trying to forget the sight of his muscled back and the width of his shoulders, Elise turned in the way he’d pointed. She walked through a wood-paneled living area, complete with a beige sofa and television console. She glimpsed a wall of photographs but resisted the temptation to study them closely and went on, into the kitchen.

It was a sunny, cozy nook, with white-painted cabinets, clean counters and colorful pictures that Cole’s daughter must have drawn stuck on the refrigerator. He’d described his home accurately—nothing elaborate, but tastefully decorated and downright homey. Her chest clenched with need and hope.

When she heard the sound of Cole’s approaching footsteps, his boots clomping against the hardwood floors, she greeted him with a smile and a cold glass of ice water. “Since you’ve been working, I thought you might be thirsty.”

“Thanks,” he said, offering her a restrained smile in return. He downed the water in a few greedy gulps. The muscles along his throat mesmerized her. She had to shake off his effect on her. She wasn’t interested in marrying Cole because of his obvious good looks. She simply wanted a home. Needed one. And if it came with a handsome husband, well, so much the better.

Together, they settled at the kitchen table. Cole straddled a chair and rested his elbows on the wooden table’s edge. Elise sat demurely across from him, crossing her ankles, folding her hands tightly in her lap.

After he downed a second glass of water, he scratched his brow thoughtfully. “Did you think of something else we should add?”

Panic arched through her. Oh, God! What if he doesn’t think I’m the right type to be a wife? Like Rusty. What if Cole doesn’t believe I’m good enough to be a mother to his daughter?

Her heart pounded with dread. But she ignored the doubts spinning through her head. She wasn’t going to sit back and wait as she’d done her whole life. She had to take the bull by the horns, so to speak, and get on with her life, make a future for herself. Here was an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

“No, I think the copy for the ad was just right. In fact, it was so perfect, that I started thinking…” She swallowed the hard lump in her throat.

“About…?” His steady gaze made her stomach flutter.

“About…” Her voice squeaked. Clearing her throat, she tried again. “That I might…that maybe you’d consider…” Oh, God, she was bungling this for sure. “I’d like to volunteer—” she gritted her teeth and forced herself to say the words that were sticking in her throat “—to be your mail-order bride.”

Elise could hear the blood pumping through her veins, echoing in her ears. Her face burned. She wished she could sink right through the floor. She felt like she was seven years old again, standing before a couple who’d come to look her over—who’d given the slight shake of their heads that she didn’t measure up. She wasn’t good enough to be their daughter.

A sharp need sliced through her heart. She wanted to bolt right out of her chair and race for Chuck’s pickup before she suffered the same humiliation by Cole. But she planted her feet firmly on the floor. Not this time. This time it was too important. This time it wasn’t just her pride, it was her life on the line. She clenched her hands into fists and lifted her chin, defying him to laugh at her.

But he didn’t. Instead, Cole eased back in his chair, clasping his hands over his taut abdomen. His blue eyes narrowed to slits. “Why?”

“Why?” she repeated, uncertainty invading her once again. She shifted in her seat, recrossed her ankles, clutched her hands together, trying to stop the trembling inside her.

He tapped his thumbs together with a slow, deliberate beat, as if counting the seconds, making her heart race. “Why would you be interested in living here, way out in the country, mothering a child you don’t know? Marrying a man you don’t love?”

She found her voice and a new strength inside her that she hadn’t known existed before now. “It’s simple.” Or so she’d thought at one time. “I’m pregnant.”

Chapter Two

If a rabbit had hopped out of his Stetson, Cole wouldn’t have been more surprised. He blinked once, twice, letting Elise’s statement sink in. Then he slid his gaze over her slim figure as she sat at his kitchen table. He noticed her full breasts beneath the lightweight cotton top, her flat stomach and her narrow, almost boyish, hips beneath the full, flowing skirt.

She didn’t look pregnant. But then he wasn’t an expert on women. Especially pregnant ones. He certainly didn’t relish the idea of having another pregnant woman in his house. His ex-wife had been a nightmare to live with while she’d carried Haley. He couldn’t—wouldn’t—go through that again.

But Elise’s confession piqued his curiosity and made him wonder what she truly wanted. Was it to marry him, have her baby, and then leave him with another burden, another responsibility, like his ex-wife had? The memory twisted his insides.

“How far along are you?” he asked, his shoulders hunched forward as kinks formed along the tightening ridge of his spine.

“Three and a half months.” She pressed her hand against her lower abdomen and a soft smile curled her lips, making his insides tighten with an interest he didn’t want or need. “I haven’t started to show much yet. But I can’t wait to be big and round and start wearing maternity clothes.”

His eyebrows arched with disbelief. His ex-wife certainly hadn’t been thrilled with the prospect of gaining weight, having swollen feet or accumulating stretch marks. He’d taken the brunt of her anger as her body had changed over the long nine—actually nine and a half—months.

He stared at Elise for a full minute, pondering her statement, questioning whether he believed her or not. “You don’t mind being pregnant?”

A smile bloomed across her face, transforming her ordinary freckled features into a work of art, worthy of a museum. It made her even more beautiful, more radiant than before. He had a hard time concentrating on his need to give her a resounding “no.”

A tightness twisted his chest, and a lump formed in his throat. Damn. He could picture her in his mind’s eye with a softly rounded belly, her auburn hair teasing her shoulders and that same heart-warming smile that reached her eyes and his heart. He imagined what it would be like to hold her, to feel her soft curves melt against him and taste her full lips.

Whoa! What the hell am I doing? Putting the cart way ahead of the horse. She’s pregnant, for God’s sake! He reminded himself again and again until the appealing image vanished beneath an onslaught of painful memories.

It didn’t matter if he was attracted to her. When she’d first admitted her reason for coming to his ranch today, he’d felt a quickening of his pulse. He’d thought his luck was turning. He had hoped the woman who volunteered to be his mail-order bride would be attractive. But it wasn’t a requirement. It was a bonus. And he’d felt damn lucky all of a sudden.

Then she’d hit him with news that was like a donkey kick to the gut. He felt the impact shattering his hope like glass. It did matter that Elise was pregnant. It mattered a lot.

Now what the hell was he going to do about her proposal?

“Oh, yes!” she exclaimed. “I love being pregnant. I don’t even mind the nausea.” She smoothed her hand over her abdomen in a protective gesture, as if guarding the baby growing inside her. Paula had never acted maternal during or after her pregnancy. Nothing could have prepared Cole for the remarkable difference he saw in Elise. And the response it provoked inside him.

“But I never thought,” she added, “I’d be single and pregnant. That wasn’t in my plans.”

He knew all about failed plans. Watching Elise, he had an urge to move closer to her, to wrap a protective arm around her, to…He stopped himself again. His mind spun with questions, not only aimed at Elise but also at himself. If he were to marry her, and that was a big if, then he’d have more than the added responsibility of a wife. He’d have another child. Another mouth to feed. A truckload of new responsibilities.

My God, what am I doing? Was he actually contemplating the possibility of marrying this unwed mother-to-be?

Drawing in a steadying breath, he asked, “Do you know who the father is?”

Her shoulders jerked, and a spark ignited in her hazel eyes, making them blaze with defiance. “Of course! What kind of a woman do you think I am?”

He shrugged. Hell, he didn’t know her past, her character, morals or even her plans for the future. He certainly didn’t know if she was the type of woman he wanted influencing his impressionable daughter. Why, the father of her baby might be any one of a dozen men! “I don’t know.”

Her mouth opened and then closed abruptly into a thin, disapproving line. She lowered her eyes and smoothed her palms over her skirt. Her hands trembled.

“I suppose that’s true.” An inner strength fortified her voice, making it stronger and steadier than she looked. “I had an opportunity to question you the other day. I guess it’s your turn. You have a right to know what you’re getting yourself into. So go ahead. Ask any question you’d like.”

Given the okay to pry into her personal life, he asked, “Where is the father?”

“I’m not sure at the moment. Rusty wasn’t interested in being a father or in settling down so he moved on.” She shook her head slightly, dismayed by her own circumstances. “He’s on the rodeo circuit.” She gave a soft, disbelieving chuckle. “I thought that sounded romantic once. I thought it was a traditional kind of profession. You know, handed down from father to son, cowboy to cowboy, through the generations.”

She sucked in a harsh breath. “Boy, was I wrong.” Her hands twisted in her lap, her fingers tightening on each other. “I also thought I was in love.” Her voice softened, but the tension in her coiled like a steel spring, making her features look stark and pale. “Maybe I was in love with the idea of love. I naively followed him to a few rodeos. We were headed to Amarillo when I discovered I was pregnant. That’s how I ended up in Desert Springs.”

“He just left you here?” Cole asked, his blood pressure spiking with disbelief.

Elise nodded. “Without a cent or a way to—”

She stopped herself and her lashes shuttered her eyes, hiding her emotions from Cole. A bright red hue stole up her neck and deepened the color on her cheeks.