An Honorable Texan

He’d had about the same expression on his face when he’d braced himself above her, their bodies hot and naked. She shook off the memory and started walking away. “I need to change the baby, and then Toni and I will finish up. Why don’t we schedule something later.”

“Let’s settle it now.”

“Oh, hello, Cal,” Toni said from the doorway of her office. “Welcome home. Can I help you with something?”

“No. I need to talk to Christie.”

Toni looked very surprised. “Oh. Christie, do you want a little privacy?”

Actually, she didn’t want to have this conversation at all. “Cal, I think we should talk later.”

He braced his hands on his hips. “I don’t even know how to get in touch with you, Christie. How are we going to talk?”

“I’ll call you.”

“Christie, are you okay?” Toni asked.

“I’m fine. I’m sorry for the intrusion.” She’d barged into Cal’s life; now he was apparently doing the same in hers.

She turned back to Cal. “I said I’d call you, and I will.”

“I’ll be in my office if you need me,” Toni said. “Cal Crawford, you behave yourself.”

Cal completely ignored Toni. He drilled Christie with his blue-gray eyes. “Like you called me eighteen months ago?”

“You don’t need to be sarcastic,” she said, feeling herself flush with anger…and maybe a little bit of guilt. Should she have called him? Her rationale had seemed so reasonable while she was pregnant, and immediately after Peter’s birth. And by then, Cal’s return was imminent. Of course, he’d been delayed, then wounded.

“Sorry for my bad attitude, but it’s not every day a man finds out he has a son!” he said, stepping closer.

“You’re lucky to have Peter,” she said in an angry whisper, unwilling to tell the world their private business. “I can’t believe how angry you’ve become from the time we left the restaurant to now.”

“I’m not angry. I’m…perturbed.”

“That’s just another word for angry.”

“Okay! I’m disappointed you didn’t tell me, and I’m concerned the baby doesn’t have my full name, as he should, and I’m angry Leo Casale was telling his customers at the hardware store that a beautiful blonde and her baby have come to stay in town!”

“He said I was beautiful? How nice.” Christie focused on that word and ignored the rest of Cal’s rant as she spread the changing pad on the end of the table. She grabbed a diaper and the baby wipes from the diaper bag.

“He’s not right for you, and you should just stay away from men who talk too much!” Cal wasn’t trying to be quiet or reasonable.

“Hey, that’s my brother you’re bad-mouthing,” Toni’s voice admonished from the other side of her almost-closed door.

“You’re jealous!” Christie exclaimed as she stripped the wet diaper off Peter. She quickly wiped his baby parts and efficiently secured the tabs on the new diaper before he squirmed away.

“I’m not jealous of Leo Casale.”

She held the baby with one hand on his tummy while she placed the baby wipes in the diaper bag. “Sounds like it to me.”

“Well, if I am, it’s because he doesn’t have a right to talk about you as if you’re single and looking.”

“I’m definitely single, but you’re right—I’m not looking.” Looking for a nanny, maybe, but not a man.

“See, this is exactly what I came over here to talk to you about, but we got all sidetracked. You’re single, and you’re a mother. The mother of my baby. It took me a few minutes to figure this out because I was really surprised at Dewey’s. Now I know there’s only one thing we can do.”

“Oh? I can see a lot of ways this could turn out.”

“No. We have to do what’s best for the baby, and there’s only one solution.”

She had a horrible feeling that Cal’s “solution” would be even worse than his idea of her moving to the ranch.

“We need to get married. Now. As soon as possible.”

Chapter Three

“I will not marry you for the sake of the baby. That’s a terrible reason to get married!” Christie picked up Peter from the desk and stuffed the pad into the diaper bag.

“People do it all the time. It’s the right thing to do.”

She patted Peter on the back and looked up into Cal’s eyes. His eyebrows were drawn into a straight line and his expression was determined. He was one single-minded man. “Cal, this may come as a shock, but for me, doing what makes me—and Peter, of course—happy is a huge consideration. Marrying for the wrong reasons is as wrong as—”

“Our weekend fling that included unprotected sex?”

At least he’d had the courtesy, if she could call it that, to keep his voice down so Toni didn’t hear that little goodie. “That might have been irresponsible of us, but I don’t regret what came out of that weekend for anything. I’ve never been happier than the moment Peter was born.”

“Yeah, I would have liked to be there, too,” he said. “But happiness isn’t everything. There’s a right and a wrong way to approach things, and I—”

“I’m not going to listen to this. We are not getting married for the sake of the baby, and if you keep this up, I will not even consider moving to your ranch.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I’m telling you that I won’t be bullied into marriage or making a decision. Back off the cave-man tactics or I’ll leave Brody’s Crossing so fast I’ll make your head spin.”

“I have a right to see my son.”

She shifted the baby to her other shoulder. “Only when and if a court gives you that right. And believe me, Cal, you don’t want to continue with the threats. I have excellent attorneys.” She turned and walked away before he noticed how truly angry and upset she was.

Why had she thought telling this man about their child would be easy?

Because you don’t really know him, a little voice inside her head answered. Because the only thing you know about him is that he kissed you like you were the only woman in the world, and you didn’t want to know anything about him because he was leaving. You just wanted that weekend. Really wanted it.

Shaking, she handed Peter to Toni. Without a word, she grabbed a card from her purse and wrote her cell-phone number on it. Cal was still standing inside the conference room, breathing deeply as if he were trying to control his anger.

“Here,” she said, handing him the card. “That’s my cell phone if you feel the need to call me before I make a decision. I’m not trying to threaten you, Cal, but I won’t be bullied. I don’t know what type of woman you’re used to, but I’m not weak-minded or easily intimidated.”

Her father had been a master of manipulation, and she’d learned all the tricks.

“You dropped a damned bombshell on me. I’m sorry if I’m not reacting well.”