The Maverick's Secret Baby

“Um.” Avery blinked like an owl. “How did you—”

Finn shrugged. “Everyone in town is talking about it. There’s nothing quite as cute as a baby goat.”

“The goat. Right.” Avery swallowed, and he traced the movement up and down the graceful column of her throat.

Was it his imagination, or did she seem nervous?

“The goat’s cute, but she’s a handful. I don’t know what Old Gene was thinking.” Melba rolled her eyes. “She has to be bottle-fed every four to five hours, round the clock. It’s almost like having a real baby again, but maybe a little less noisy.”

Avery turned toward Melba with an incredulous stare. “Less noisy?”

Melba shrugged. “Sure. You know how babies are.”

Avery shifted from one foot to the other as she glanced at Finn and then quickly looked away.

Melba’s eyes narrowed. “How exactly do you two know each other?”

Why did the question feel like a test of some sort?

Finn gave her an easy smile. He had nothing to hide. “Avery and I are both in the beef business.”

“Really?” Melba looked him and up down.

“Absolutely. Our paths used to cross every so often, but we haven’t bumped into each other since my family relocated to Montana.” A pity, really. “I’d love to take you out while you’re in town, Avery.”

She bit the swell of her lush bottom lip. “Oh…um, well…”

Not exactly the reaction he was going for. Avery looked as scared as a rabbit, and Melba was once again scrutinizing him as if he were giving off serial killer vibes.

Was he missing something?

His thoughts drifted back to the night they’d spent together in Oklahoma City. It didn’t take much effort. The entire encounter was seared in his memory—every perfect, porcelain inch of Avery’s skin, every tender brush of her lips.

They’d been in town for a gala dinner of cattle executives, and Finn would be lying if he’d said he hadn’t been hoping to run into her. Through their overlapping business connections and a handful of mutual friends, Finn and Avery had been moving in the same orbit for quite a few years. He’d wanted her for every single one of them. How could he not? She was lovely. And smart, too. It took a special kind of woman to hold her own as the vice president of a major company in a business dominated by men. Finn considered himself a Southern gentleman, but that wasn’t true of everyone in the beef business. Avery had run into her fair share of chauvinists and good old boys, but she never failed to rise above their nonsense with her head held high.

As much as she fascinated him, he’d respected her too much to make a real move. Their interactions had been limited to a low-key flirtation that he found immensely enjoyable, if somewhat torturous.

But the night in Oklahoma had been different. June in the Sooner State was always a nightmare of blazing heat and suffocating humidity, but that particular weekend had been especially brutal. A heat wave swept through the area, causing widespread power outages as the temperature soared. The gala’s luxury hotel was plunged into darkness. Even after they got the generator up and running, the crystal chandeliers were barely illuminated, and heady, scented candles were scattered over every available surface.

He remembered Avery saying something about the animosity between their families, and true, his father had never uttered a kind word about Oscar Ellington. Quite the opposite, actually. There was definitely bad blood between the Crawford and Ellington patriarchs. But Finn and Avery had always managed to get along. And something about the darkness made their little flirtation seem not so low-key anymore, so over laugher and dry martinis at the bar, they’d agreed to set aside any familial difficulty.

She’d looked so damned beautiful in the candlelight, all soft curves and wide, luminous eyes. He’d taken a chance and leaned in…

He swallowed hard at the memory of what came next. It had been like something out of a dream. A perfect night—so perfect he hadn’t taken another woman to bed since, despite his popularity in Montana. And now Avery was right here, less than an arm’s length away, when he’d thought he’d never see her again.

“Please,” he said. “Dinner, or even just coffee? For old times’ sake.”

He’d been neck-deep in women for the past three months, and now he was begging for an hour of Avery Ellington’s time. Wonderful.

Melba cut in again before she could give him an answer. “Look at the time! Sorry to interrupt, but we simply must be going. Avery, how could you let me forget? We have to stop over at the Dalton Law Office to pick up those papers for Gene.”

Avery’s expression went blank. “What papers?”

“Those very important papers. You know the ones.” Melba took the flannel shirts from Avery and handed them to Nina, who shoved them into a bag.

Avery crossed her arms, uncrossed them and crossed them again. Finn’s gaze snagged on her oversize blue button-down. Was that a man’s shirt she was wearing?

His jaw clenched. They hadn’t even spoken since that simmering night in June, but Finn didn’t like the thought of her with another man. Not one bit.

Overreacting much? It was one night, not an actual relationship. Maybe he wasn’t such a fine Southern gentleman, after all.

“Come on, now. We don’t want to keep Ben Dalton waiting.” Melba shoved one of her five shopping bags at Avery and then linked elbows with her.

“Right. Of course we don’t.” Avery glanced at him one last time as Melba practically dragged her out of the store. “It was good seeing you, Finn. Goodbye.”

He stared after them, wondering what in the hell had just happened.

“Can I help you find anything, Mr. Crawford?” Nina said from behind the counter.

Finn dragged his gaze away from the scene beyond the shop window and Avery’s chocolate-hued hair, whipping around her angelic face in the wind like a dark halo.

He smiled, but his heart wasn’t in it. “No, thank you.”

For some strange reason, he almost felt like he’d already found what he needed. And now he’d just watched her walk away.

Again.

“Where are we going, exactly?” Avery gripped her shopping bag until her knuckles turned white and did her best to resist the overwhelming urge to glance over her shoulder for another glimpse of the general store.

Of Finn.

She almost wanted to believe she’d imagined their entire awkward encounter just now. Since the moment she’d first spotted the two tiny pink lines on the drugstore pregnancy test she’d taken in her posh executive washroom at Ellington Meats, she’d tried to imagine what she’d say to Finn the next time she saw him. Somehow she always imagined she’d be able to utter more than two stuttered words.

Had she managed to string a whole sentence together at all? Nope, she was pretty sure she hadn’t. So much for being a strong, independent woman and facing the situation head-on.

“We’re not going anywhere, dear. I thought you were going to faint when you saw Finn Crawford. I made something up to get you out of there.” Melba gave her hand a comforting pat.

So her panic had been that obvious? Fabulous.

“Oh, thank you. But I was surprised, that’s all.” Shocked to her core was more like it.

Which was really kind of ridiculous, since the whole reason she’d come to Rust Creek Falls was to tell him about the baby. Get in, drop the baby bomb and get out. That had been the plan. It was just so much harder than she’d imagined. And now here she was, a couple weeks later, still secretly pregnant.

“Finn is an old friend.” She stared straight ahead as they walked back to the boarding house. What had just transpired at the general store was a minor setback, not a total disaster. It’s not like she could have told him she was pregnant right then and there.

Hey, so great to see you. FYI, I’m having your baby, and I’m planning to raise it on my own. Just wanted to let you know. I’ve got to pay for my pile of flannel now. Have a nice life.

Beside her, Melba snorted. “Well. He seems to have a lot of friends, if you know what I mean.”