Pregnant With The Rancher's Baby
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“You said you wanted to work out custody and visitation?” she asked, picking up the fork on the tray to take a bite of the fluffy scrambled eggs.
He shook his head, then took a deep breath as if what he was about to say was extremely difficult for him. “None of that will be necessary once we’re married.”
She stopped with the fork halfway to her mouth. “Excuse me?”
“We’ll do the right thing and get married,” he repeated as if it was the answer to all of their problems.
Her appetite deserting her, Jessie slowly placed the fork full of eggs back on the plate and shook her head. “No, we won’t.”
“Sure we will,” he said, reaching to take her hand in his. “I’ve already qualified for the National Finals. I’ll skip the rodeo this coming weekend and we can have the wedding here. Or if you prefer, we can fly to Vegas and have a reception for family and friends at a later date.”
Jerking her hand from his, she stood up to pace the length of the room. “Have you lost your ever-loving mind? I’m not going to marry you.”
He rose to his feet and, walking over to her, placed his hands on her shoulders to stare down at her from his much taller height. “I didn’t mean to upset you, darlin’. I’m pretty sure it’s not good for you or the baby.”
“How would you know?” she demanded, glaring up into his incredible blue eyes. “How many times have you been pregnant?”
He gave her a sheepish grin. “This is a first for both of us.”
“Never mind. It doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t get the point, even if I explained it to you.” She shook her head. “I didn’t come here to tell you that I’m having a baby because I wanted you to marry me. I simply thought you should know that you’d fathered a child. Period. If you want to be part of the baby’s life, I won’t try to stop you. But I’m not part of the deal, Nate. We can work something out so that we’re both involved with raising this baby, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be involved with each other.”
He took a deep breath. “I realize that’s what we could do, Jessie. But making you my wife is what I want.”
“No, it’s not, Nate.” She had hoped to hear him say those words for over two years, but she knew better than to believe he really wanted to get married. He’d broken up with her too many times for her to believe any such thing. “You might think that now. But we both know you’ll lose interest within a few weeks and then you’d not only resent me and the baby for trapping you into doing something you didn’t want to do, we’d be facing the heartbreak of a divorce.”
“That’s not going to happen, Jessie. When I make that commitment, it’s for life.” He ran his hand through his thick, straight hair. “I know I’ve let you down before, but—”
“Stop right there,” she said, holding up her hand. “That’s something else we need to get straight right here and now. I’m a big girl and I have no one else to blame but myself for allowing you to come and go in my life the way you’ve done. But the stakes are higher now, Nate. Disappointing me is one thing, but I refuse to allow you to upset our son or daughter. This is our child—my child—we’re discussing and I swear I’ll fight you with everything that’s in me if you don’t grow up and be there when he or she needs you. Being a parent isn’t a game or something you run from whenever you get tired of playing the devoted daddy. It means you’re there twenty-four/seven, no matter how tough it gets. If you can’t handle that, then I’d rather you don’t even bother.”
“Jessie, I give you my word that from now on, you and the baby are my top priority,” he said, sounding sincere. He slid his hands from her shoulders down her arms to catch her hands in his. “I want us to get married and be a family. And I swear I will never cause you another minute of heartache.”
“Then why did you make it sound as if you were going to be accepting responsibility for a crime instead of asking me to marry you?” she asked bluntly. “Did you even listen to yourself?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, looking bewildered.
“No woman wants to enter into a marriage with a man knowing that she was ‘the right thing’ for him to do,” she said, shaking her head. “Besides, you had to take a deep breath before you could even get out that you want to make me your wife.”
He stared at her for several long seconds before he finally spoke again. “Just give us a chance—give me a chance—darlin’. This is all new to me.”
“Nate, I’ve already given you more chances than you deserve,” she said, refusing to believe that this time would be any different than the others. He was only offering marriage because of the baby, not because he loved her and wanted them to build a life together.
“Do you have some vacation time you can take?” he asked suddenly.
“Yes, but I’m saving it for after the baby is born so that I can extend my maternity leave,” she explained, wondering why he wanted to know.
“When is your next doctor’s appointment?” he continued to question her.
“I have an ultrasound scheduled in two weeks,” she answered. “Why are you asking about all of this?”
“I’d like for you to be here for the party tonight, then stay with me for the next couple of weeks,” he said. He paused for a moment as if catching his breath. “Let me prove to you that getting married is what I want.”
“I don’t see how that’s going to work,” she pointed out. “You normally take a few more weeks than that to lose interest. Besides, you had to take a deep breath before you could tell me you wanted to prove how much you want us to get married. That doesn’t instill a lot of confidence for the case you’re trying to make. And all I’m hearing is what you want. Have you even considered what I want?”
He gave her a short nod before he asked, “What do you want, Jessie?”
“I want you to be a good father and love our child,” she said slowly. “That’s more important to me than anything else.”
“I already love the baby and I give you my word that I’ll be the best daddy I can possibly be.”
She noticed that he failed to include her with his declaration. If she hadn’t known before that the only reason he was offering marriage was because of the baby, she certainly did now.
“That’s all I want from you,” she said, when he continued to look at her expectantly.
“All I’m asking is to let me prove to you that being a good dad isn’t the only thing I want. Stay with me until after Thanksgiving,” he countered.
“Nate, I don’t see how my staying here for a month or even two weeks will prove anything,” she said, shaking her head. He didn’t love her and that was that. There was no sense wasting her vacation time on something that, in the end, wouldn’t change that fact.
“What do you have to lose?” he asked.
“The vacation I intended to take after the baby is born,” she answered. As well as what’s left of my heart after you broke it the last time.
“If I can’t convince you that I’m completely sincere about our being a family, then we’ll call the lawyers and let them work out an agreement,” he said, oblivious to her inner turmoil.
“I can’t go to the party,” she stalled. “I don’t have anything to wear.”
If she went along with his request and stayed for any length of time, she was afraid she would be tempted to fall back into their old pattern of him charming her into his bed. That was the last thing she wanted to happen. There was simply too much at stake now. The baby was counting on her to stay strong and resist the temptation Nate posed.
“I’ve already taken care of something for you to wear to the party,” he said, looking quite pleased with himself. “I called Sam’s wife, Bria. She and her sister, Mariah, were going to pick up their outfits at the costume shop up in Fort Worth. I asked her to pick out something for you and stop by one of the women’s shops to get you a full change of clothes for tomorrow.”
“Please tell me you didn’t let her know about my pregnancy,” she said, reaching up to rub at the sudden pounding in her temples.
“No, I thought we could tell everyone together tonight at the party,” he said. “I just told Bria that you’re about the size of our other sister-in-law Summer and that you liked your clothes nice and loose.” He glanced down at her stomach. “I figured you might need a little extra room for the baby.”
“I haven’t said I would go to the party,” she reminded him.
“You haven’t said you wouldn’t.” His sexy grin told her he knew he was wearing her down.
She supposed that if she did stay, it would be as good a time as any to tell his family about the baby. And if she was present she would have a little more control over what he told them. As persistent as he was about convincing her to marry him, he’d probably tell his family that they were planning a trip down the aisle as well as about her pregnancy.
Being there to stop him from misleading his family would be the wisest choice. She wasn’t going to marry him and set herself and the baby up for the heartbreak of watching him leave when he got bored.
“If I stay for the party, that doesn’t mean I would be here for an extended period of time,” she reminded him.
He stared at her for several long seconds before he cupped her face with his hands. “Jessie, you’ve experienced all of this from the moment you learned you were pregnant. But I’ve missed out on a lot these last four and a half months and I really don’t want to miss any more. I promise that if you’ll stay with me for the next month, I won’t push for anything more than you’re willing to give. This time will not only give us the opportunity to explore every option and be sure we’re making the right decisions, it will give me the chance to feel like I’m really a part of this and get used to the idea of being a dad.”
The sincerity in his voice and the heartfelt look on his face produced the results she was certain he had been going for. Now if she didn’t stay, she’d feel so guilty about it she’d probably never be able to sleep again.
She’d had almost five months to get used to the idea of becoming a mother. Nate had had less than twenty-four hours to come to terms with being a father and she was sure it was still pretty unreal for him. And he did have a point about making decisions concerning how they raised their child. Their baby deserved to have its parents making the choices instead of stuffy lawyers spouting out legalese. She was going to have to figure out how to deal with Nate for the next eighteen or so years anyway. She might as well start now.
“I would have to go back home to get some clothes,” she warned. Between now and the trip back to her apartment, she would hopefully be able to harden her resolve and shore up her defenses against his charismatic charm. In the past, she’d had about as much backbone as a jellyfish when it came to resisting Nate, and spending a month with him would be a true test of her willpower. But she could understand his wanting to take an active role in the pregnancy. It would be a good start to his bonding with the baby and that was something she wanted for her child.
“We can go to your place tomorrow and get whatever you need.” His expression turned serious. “I really want this opportunity for us, Jessie. Please say you’ll stay.”
She might have had a chance if he had been demanding or insistent. But the sincere tone of his voice and the hopeful look in his eyes were impossible to resist. Maybe she needed this test to prove to herself that they could raise their child together without her falling into bed with him again.
“All right, I’ll arrange to take the time off and stay until the weekend after Thanksgiving,” she heard herself say. “But only on one condition.”
“What’s that, darlin’?” he asked, lowering his head to brush her lips with his.
“I don’t want any pressure from you about getting married,” she stated flatly as she backed away from him.
“I promise.”
“I’m only here for you to prove to me that you’re sincere about wanting this baby as much as I do and to work out custody and visitation.” As an afterthought, she added, “And just for the record, at night I’ll be staying in one room and you’ll be staying in another.”
Two
Standing with his brothers at the makeshift bar his hired men had constructed for the party, Nate was only half listening to the conversation about his brother’s rodeo stock company and the bucking bulls he owned that had been selected for the National Finals Rodeo. He was too busy watching Jessie. She was as cute as a button in the girl garden-gnome costume that Bria had picked up for her to wear to the party. She’d had to leave the vest off because it was too formfitting, but the white apron over her full red skirt hid her rounded stomach just fine.
Seated on a bale of hay, Jessie was listening attentively to his two nephews Seth and little Hank jabber about their new ponies. He could tell by the way she smiled at the little boys going on about riding their “horsies” that she loved kids. When his niece Katie toddled over to her, Jessie picked up the baby girl to sit on her lap without a moment’s hesitation. She was going to be a great mom, and he could only hope to be half as good of a dad.
His heart stuttered and he had to take a deep breath to chase away the fear tightening his chest. Just the thought of being a daddy scared the living spit out of him. What if he couldn’t live up to the responsibility? He was a fantastic uncle to his niece and nephews. But that role didn’t carry nearly as much responsibility as being a father. What kind of dad would he be?
His biggest fear had always been that he would turn out to be as negligent and undependable as his and Sam’s father had been. That’s why he’d never really thought about having kids. Hell, he hadn’t even thought about having a wife because of it. But it was all he’d been able to think about for the past twenty-four hours. Could he live up to his responsibilities?
Of the six men he called his brothers, Sam was his only biological sibling and had turned out to be as solid as a rock. He was the exact opposite of their old man, and it gave Nate hope that he would be just as reliable as Sam. But how would he know for sure?
“So what’s up with you, Nate?” T. J. Malloy asked, interrupting Nate’s disturbing thoughts.
“Yeah, this is the first time you’ve asked the little blond to join one of our family get-togethers,” Ryder McClain added, grinning from ear to ear.
“Maybe now that he owns the Twin Oaks Ranch, Nate is finally ready to settle down,” Lane Donaldson speculated as he cradled his infant son in the crook of his arm.
“I’ve got a hundred bucks that says he and Jessie are married by spring,” Sam said, glancing from Nate to Jessie and back. “Yesterday when she called to ask me where she could find you, she sounded pretty determined.”
“Jessie called you and you didn’t tell me?” Nate demanded, glaring at his older brother.
Sam shrugged. “She asked me not to and I told her I wouldn’t. And you know as well as the rest of us about Hank’s number-one rule.”
“Yeah,” Nate said, his irritation fading at the mention of their foster father and the personal code of ethics he had taught the boys in his care. “Break a bone if you have to before you break your word.”
His brothers all nodded in agreement.
Jaron Lambert pulled his wallet from the hip pocket of his jeans, got out a hundred-dollar bill and plunked it down on the top of the bar. “I say Nate and Jessie will be hitched by the middle of this coming summer.”
“I’ve got Christmas,” T.J. said, adding his money to the pool.
“I’ll take Valentine’s Day,” Lane spoke up, putting his hundred with the rest.
Ryder pulled his wallet from the hip pocket of his jeans, then looked him up and down before he slapped Nate on the shoulder. “I’m betting they’ll be married by Thanksgiving.”
Nate shook his head as he listened to his brothers bet on when he and Jessie took a trip down the aisle. It had always been this way with the brothers. From the time they were all placed into the care of their foster father, Hank Calvert on the Last Chance Ranch, the six of them had a betting pool going on just about everything. Of course back then they had all been dirt poor and had nothing better to do than speculate on the next time it rained or which one of them would be the first to win a buckle at one of the junior rodeos they all competed in.
Now that they were all self-made millionaires, instead of betting fifty cents or a dollar, the stakes were a lot higher. These days it was nothing for them to bet a hundred dollars or more on who would be the next one to tie the knot or add to the family with the birth of a baby. But up until yesterday, he hadn’t even considered the possibility that he would be the next one they speculated on or that they would all be right in doing so.
Every time one of them mentioned him getting hitched he felt a twitch at the corner of his left eye. He still couldn’t believe that he was finally willing to take the plunge and get married. It scared the living hell out of him that he might let Jessie and their baby down. But he had a responsibility to both of them and he was going to do everything in his power to live up to what a good husband and father should be.
Focusing on the pile of money on the bar to keep himself from dwelling on all of the what-ifs, Nate shook his head. “While you all waste your time and money, I’m going to ask Jessie to dance.” The kids had abandoned her in favor of playing with a cardboard box someone had left over by the refreshment table, and he decided now might be a good time to find out when she wanted to tell his family about the baby.
He threw his empty beer bottle in the recycling bin at the end of the bar and walked away. He was in enough trouble with her. He didn’t want to add more by telling the guys about her pregnancy before she was ready. And if he stuck around much longer, there was a real possibility of him accidently tipping them off that something was up. If that happened, they would needle him until hell froze over trying to get him to tell them what was going on.
Hiding things from the people who knew you best wasn’t all that easy. That was the only downside he could see about being so close and knowing each other so well. But he wouldn’t have it any other way. He knew he could count on his brothers being there for him no matter what, just as he would be there for them.
“Are you having a good time, darlin’?” he asked, walking up to where Jessie still sat on the bale of straw.
With her attention on the kids, she smiled. “I’m having a wonderful time. But I’m apparently not nearly as interesting as a cardboard box.”
Nate took her hands in his to pull her to her feet. “Just wait until you see the kids at Christmas. They get all kinds of excited and can’t wait for us to remove the toys from the boxes. Then they toss the toy aside and sit down to play with the box.”
Her light laughter made his insides vibrate with a tension he knew all too well. He wanted her. Hell, even during the times when he’d broken things off with her and gone his own way, he’d still wanted her. Maybe that was the reason he hadn’t been able to stay away from her. He had a feeling the reasons went much deeper, but he wasn’t going to think about that now. He wanted to hold her in his arms without having her remind him that she wasn’t there to rekindle their romance.
“Would you like to dance, darlin’?” She loved kicking up her heels on the dance floor and he wanted her to enjoy herself. If she had a good time, it might remind her of what they had shared in the past.
“I think I would, sheriff,” she said, referring to the tin badge he had pinned to his shirt.
He nodded to the frontman in the band he’d hired and, right on cue, they ended the song they had been playing and immediately launched into a popular slow country song. When the group had first arrived, he’d told the man the title of the song he wanted them to play and to be watching for his signal. It was the song he and Jessie had danced to the first time he’d taken her out for a night on the town.
“You had that planned,” she accused.
Grinning, he took her into his arms and swept her out onto the dance floor. “Yup.” He leaned close to whisper in her ear. “You didn’t tell me I wasn’t allowed to remind you of the first date we went on or how good we are together.” He wisely refrained from mentioning that was true for other things besides dancing.
He felt her tremble against him a moment before she put a little space between them. “Nate, the first thing we’re going to do after this party is to set down some ground rules. Otherwise, I’ll be going home tomorrow and I won’t be back.”
“Sure thing, darlin’,” he said agreeably as they swayed in time with the music.
She could lay down all the rules she wanted, but that little shiver was all the indication he needed to know that she wasn’t impervious to him. And he had every intention of reminding her of that fact every chance he got.
He waited until the song ended before he asked, “When do you want to make the announcement about the baby?”
She sighed. “I suppose now is as good of a time as any. But don’t you dare mislead your family into believing that we’re getting married because we’re not.”
“I give you my word,” he said, nodding. He wasn’t about to do anything that would send her running back to Waco before the end of the month they had agreed on. And that was exactly what would happen if he so much as hinted to his family that marriage was a possibility. Besides, he had until just after Thanksgiving to figure out how he was going to accomplish that goal. He was determined not to fail. He wanted her to agree to be his wife and for them to be married before the baby was born.
Putting his arm around her shoulders to guide her, they walked over to Bria and her sister, Mariah, chatting with some of their friends by the refreshment table. “Bria, could you get the family together and meet Jessie and I outside for a few minutes? We have something we’d like to tell everyone.”
“Of course, Nate.” Smiling, his sister-in-law turned to Mariah. “Go tell the men to meet us outside while I find Summer, Taylor and Heather.”
Within a few minutes Nate and Jessie stood just outside of the big barn doors, surrounded by his family. He knew his sisters-in-law would be excited by their news and would start making plans for baby showers and whatever else women did to welcome a new baby into the family. But his brothers were going to give him hell when they learned that marriage wasn’t a sure thing.
Their foster father had raised them with a clear sense of what was right and wrong. From the time they had been old enough to start dating, Hank Calvert had told them it was their responsibility to protect a woman. And in the case of an accidental pregnancy, a man had a moral obligation to do what was right and give the woman and child his name.
Nate knew that in this day and time, that way of thinking might be considered antiquated, but there was no man he respected more than his late foster father. Hank’s teachings had served him and his brothers well over the years and turned them from rebellious young hell-raisers into honest, upstanding adults. As far as he was concerned, that kind of guidance shouldn’t be ignored. Besides, the thought of having Jessie at his side every day and in his bed every night was a very appealing aspect of marriage, even if it did scare the hell out of him.
“So what’s up, bro?” Jaron asked with one of his rare smiles. The quiet, brooding one of his brothers, Jaron was the only one that Nate knew for certain hadn’t completely rid himself of the ghosts of his past. They all had had a few residual hang-ups from their lives before being sent to the Last Chance Ranch. But Jaron’s ran deeper than the rest of them.
“Yeah, spill the beans, hotshot,” T.J. chimed in.
Nate glanced at Jessie as he reached for her hand. “We just wanted to let you know that we’ll be adding another member to the family in a few months. We’re going to have a baby.”
There was a stunned silence that followed his announcement and one look at the expression on Sam’s face let Nate know his failure to mention a wedding had not gone unnoticed. With a slight shake of his head, he let his brothers know not to ask about it until later. He knew they would respect his wishes and remain silent—for now. But as soon as the opportunity presented itself, he was going to have some explaining to do.