Merry Christmas, Baby Maverick!

Chapter Three

Kayla gazed critically at her reflection in the mirror and sighed as she tugged her favorite Henley-style shirt over her head again and relegated it to the too-tight pile. The nine pounds she’d gained were wreaking havoc with her wardrobe.

Of course, it didn’t help that most of the styles were slim-fitting and she was no longer slim. Not that she was fat or even visibly pregnant, but it was apparent that she’d put on some weight, and covering her body in oversize garments at least let her disguise the fact that the weight was all in her belly.

She picked up the Henley again, pulled it on, then put on a burgundy-and-navy plaid shirt over the top. Deciding that would work, she fixed her ponytail, dabbed on some lip gloss and grabbed her keys.

“Where are you going tonight?” her mother asked when Kayla came down the stairs.

She’d mentioned her plans at dinner—when she’d asked her dad if she could take his truck into town—but her mother obviously hadn’t been paying attention. Ever since Ryan put a ring on Kristen’s finger, her mother had been daydreaming about the wedding.

“I’m meeting Natalie at the high school,” she said again. “We’re going to see A Christmas Story tonight.”

“Is it just the two of you going?” her mother pressed.

“No, I’m sure there will be lots of other people there.”

“Really, Kayla, I don’t know why you can’t just give a simple answer to a simple question,” Rita chided.

“Sorry,” she said automatically. “And yes—it’s just me and Natalie tonight. We’re not sneaking out to meet boys behind the school.”

“Your turn will come.”

“My turn for what?” She was baffled by the uncharacteristically gentle tone as much as the words.

“To meet somebody.”

“I’m not worried about meeting somebody or not meeting somebody,” she assured her mother.

“I had sisters, too,” Rita said. “I know it’s hard when exciting things are happening in their lives and not your own.”

“I’m happy for Kristen, Mom. Genuinely and sincerely.”

“Well, of course you are,” she agreed. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t be a little envious, too.” A career wife and mother, Rita couldn’t imagine her daughters wanting anything else.

She’d been appalled by Kristen’s desire to study theater—worried about her daughter associating with unsavory movie people. She’d been so relieved when her youngest child graduated and moved back home to teach drama. Unfortunately, Kristen had faced numerous roadblocks in her efforts to get a high school production off the ground, causing her to turn her attention to the community theater in Kalispell.

Kayla was actually surprised their mother had approved of Kristen’s engagement to a Hollywood lawyer. But Ryan had fallen in love with Montana as well as Kristen and was planning to give up his LA practice—as his sister, Maggie, had done just last year when she moved to Rust Creek Falls to marry Jesse Crawford.

But, of course, now that Kristen and Ryan were engaged, it was only natural—to Rita’s way of thinking—that Kayla would want the same thing. Her mother would be shocked to learn that her other daughter’s life was already winding down a very different path.

“Getting out tonight will be good for you,” Rita said to Kayla now. “Who knows? You might even meet someone at the movies.”

Meet someone? Ha! She already knew everyone in Rust Creek Falls, and even if she did meet someone new and interesting who actually asked her to go out on a date with him, there was no way she could say yes. Because there was no way she could start a romance with another man while she was carrying Trey’s baby.

And no way could she be interested in anyone else when she was still hopelessly infatuated with the father of her child.

“I’m meeting Natalie,” she said again. Then, before her mother could say anything else to continue the excruciating conversation, Kayla kissed her cheek. “Don’t wait up.”

* * *

When Kayla arrived, Natalie was standing outside the main doors, her hands stuffed into the pockets of her coat, her feet—tucked into a sleek pair of high-heeled boots that looked more fashionable than warm—kicking the soft snow.

“Am I late?” Kayla asked.

“No, I was probably early,” Natalie admitted. “I needed to get out of the house and away from all the talk about weddings.”

She nodded her understanding as she reached for the door handle. Natalie’s brother had also recently gotten engaged. “When are Brad and Margot getting married?”

“That was one of the topics of discussion. Of course, Brad was married before, so he just wants whatever Margot wants. But Margot lost her mother almost three years ago, and her father’s been AWOL since the infamous poker game, so as much as she’s excited about starting a life with my brother, I think it’s hard for her to be excited about the wedding, and I don’t think my mother’s being very sensitive about that.”

“Believe me, I understand about insensitive mothers,” Kayla told her friend.

They paid their admission at the table set up in the foyer for that purpose then made their way toward the gymnasium.

“I always get such a creepy feeling of déjà vu when I’m in here,” her friend admitted.

“I know what you mean,” Kayla agreed. “It doesn’t help that Mrs. Newman—” their freshman physical education teacher “—works at the concession stand.”

Natalie nodded her agreement. “Even when I count out the exact change for her, she gives me that perpetual look of disapproval, like I’ve just told her I forgot my gym clothes.”

Kayla laughed. She was glad she’d let her friend drag her out tonight. Not that much dragging was required. Kayla had been feeling in a bit of a funk and had happily accepted Natalie’s invitation. Of course, it didn’t hurt that A Christmas Story was one of her all-time favorite holiday movies.

“Oh, look,” she said, pointing to the poster advertising a different feature for Saturday night. “We could come back tomorrow for The Santa Clause.”

“Well, I’m free,” Natalie admitted. “Which tells a pretty sad tale about my life.”

“Actually, I’m not,” Kayla realized.

“Hot date?”

“Ha. I’m helping out at the theater in Kalispell tomorrow night.”

“Well, even working in the city has to be more exciting than a night off in this town,” Natalie said. Then she stopped dead in her tracks. “Oh. My. God.”

“What?” Kayla demanded, as alarmed by her friend’s whispered exclamation as the way Natalie’s fingers dug into her arm.

“Trey Strickland is here.”

Her heart leaped and crashed against her ribs as she turned in the direction her friend was looking.

Yep, it was him.

Not that she really believed Natalie might have been mistaken, but she’d hoped. After a four-month absence, she’d now run into him twice within hours of his return to town. Whether his appearance here was a coincidence or bad luck, it was an obvious sign to Kayla that she wouldn’t be able to avoid him while he was in Rust Creek Falls.

Natalie waved a hand in front of her face, fanning herself as she kept her attention fixed on the ginger-haired, broad-shouldered cowboy. “That man is so incredibly yummy.”

Kayla had always thought so, too—even before she’d experienced the joy of being held in his arms, kissed by his lips, pleasured by his body. But she had no intention of sharing any of that with her friend, who she hadn’t realized harbored her own crush on the same man. “Should we get popcorn?” she asked instead.

“I’d rather have man candy,” Natalie said dreamily.

Kayla pulled a ten-dollar bill out of the pocket of her too-tight jeans and tried to ignore the reason her favorite denim—and all of her other clothes—were fitting so snugly in recent days. “I’m going for popcorn.”

“Can you grab me a soda, too?” Natalie asked, her gaze still riveted on the sexy cowboy as he made his way toward the gym doors.

“Sure.”

“I’ll go find seats,” her friend said, following Trey.

Kayla just sighed and joined the line for concessions. She couldn’t blame her friend for being interested, especially when she’d never told Natalie what had happened with Trey on the Fourth of July, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be around while the other woman made a play for him.

When she entered the gymnasium with the drinks and popcorn, she found Natalie in conversation with Trey. Though her instinct was to turn in the opposite direction, she forced her feet to move toward them.

Trey’s gaze shifted to her and his lips curved. “Hi, again.”

“Hi,” she echoed his greeting, glancing around. “Are you here with someone?”

Please, let him be here with someone.

But the universe ignored her plea, and Trey shook his head.

“Why don’t you join us?” Natalie invited, patting the empty chair on her left.

“I think I will,” he said, just as an elderly couple moved toward the two vacant seats beside Natalie.

Trey stepped back, relinquishing the spot she had offered to him. Kayla didn’t even have time to exhale a sigh of relief before he moved to the empty seat on the other side of her.

She was secretly relieved that her friend’s obvious maneuverings had been thwarted, but she didn’t know how she would manage to focus on the screen and forget that he was sitting right beside her for the next ninety-four minutes.

In fact, she didn’t even make it through four minutes, because she couldn’t take a breath without inhaling his clean, masculine scent. She couldn’t shift in her seat without brushing against him. And she couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that her naked body had been entwined with his.

She forced her attention back to the screen, to the crowd gathered around the window of Higbee’s Department Store to marvel at the display of mechanized electronic joy and, of course, Ralphie, wide-eyed and slack-jawed as he fixated on “the holy grail of Christmas gifts—the Red Ryder two hundred shot range model air rifle.”

“Are you going to share that popcorn?” Trey whispered close to her ear.

“I am sharing it,” she said. “With Natalie.”

But deeply ingrained good manners had her shifting the bag to offer it to him.

“Thanks.” He dipped his hand inside.

She tried to keep her attention on the movie, but it was no use. Even Ralphie’s entertaining antics weren’t capable of distracting her from Trey’s presence. It was as if every nerve ending in her body was attuned to his nearness.

It probably didn’t help that they were in the high school—the setting of so many of her youthful fantasies. So many times she’d stood at her locker and watched him walk past with a group of friends, her heart racing as she waited for him to turn and look at her. So many times she’d witnessed him snuggled up to a cheerleader on the bleachers, and she’d imagined that she was that cheerleader.

Back then, she would have given almost anything to be in the circle of his arms. She would have given almost anything to have him just smile at her. She’d been so seriously and pathetically infatuated that just an acknowledgment of her presence would have fueled her fantasies for days, weeks, months.

When his family had moved away from Rust Creek Falls, she’d cried her heart out. But even then, she’d continued to daydream, imagining that he would come back one day, unable to live without her. She might have been shy and quiet, but deep inside, she was capable of all the usual teenage melodrama—and more.

Sitting beside him now, in the darkened gym, was a schoolgirl fantasy come to life. But he wasn’t just sitting in the chair beside her, he was so close that his thigh was pressed against hers. And when he reached into the bag of popcorn she was holding, his fingertips trailed deliberately over the back of her hand.

At least she assumed it was deliberate, because he didn’t pull his hand away, even when her breath made an audible catch in her throat.

Natalie glanced at her questioningly.

She cleared her throat, as if there was something stuck in it, and picked up her soda.

She felt a flutter in her tummy that she dismissed as butterflies—a far too usual occurrence when she was around Trey. Then she realized it was their baby—the baby he didn’t know about—and her eyes inexplicably filled with tears.

You have to tell him.

The words echoed in the back of her mind, an unending reel of admonishment, the voice of her own conscience in tandem with her sister’s.

He has a right to know.

You-have-to-tell-him-he-has-a-right-to-know-you-have-to-tell-him-he-has-a-right-to-know-you-have-to—

“Excuse me,” she whispered, thrusting the bag of popcorn at Trey and slipping out of her seat to escape from the gymnasium.

The bright lights of the hallway blinded her for a moment, so that she didn’t know which way to turn. She’d spent four years in these halls, but suddenly she couldn’t remember the way to the girls’ bathroom.

She leaned back against the wall for a minute to get her bearings, then made her way across the hall. Thankfully, the facility was empty, and she slipped into the nearest stall, locked the door, sat down on the closed toilet seat and let the tears fall.

In recent weeks, her emotions had been out of control. She’d been tearing up over the silliest things—a quick glimpse of an elderly couple holding hands, the sight of a mother pushing her child in a stroller, even coffee commercials on TV could start the waterworks. Crying in public bathrooms hadn’t exactly become a habit, but this wasn’t the first time for her, either.

No, the first time had been three months earlier. After purchasing a pregnancy test from an out-of-the-way pharmacy in Kalispell, she’d driven to the shopping center and taken her package into the bathroom. Because no way could she risk taking the test home, into her parents’ house, and then disposing of it—regardless of the result—with the rest of the family’s trash.

She remembered every minute of that day clearly. The way her fingers had trembled as she tore open the box, how the words had blurred in front of her eyes as she read and re-read the instructions to make sure she did everything correctly.

After she’d managed to perform the test as indicated, she’d put the stick aside—on the back of the toilet—and counted down the seconds on her watch. When the time was up, she picked up the stick again and looked in the little window, the tears no longer blurring her eyes but sliding freely down her cheeks.

She hadn’t bothered to brush them away. She couldn’t have stopped them if she’d tried. Never, in all of her twenty-five years, had she imagined being in this situation. Pregnant. Unmarried.

Alone.

She was stunned and scared and completely overwhelmed.

And she was angry. At both herself and Trey for being careless. She didn’t know what he’d been thinking, but she’d been so caught up in the moment that she’d forgotten all about protection until he was inside of her. Realization seemed to have dawned on him at the same time, because he’d immediately pulled out of her, apologizing to her, promising that he didn’t have unprotected sex—ever.

Then he’d found a condom and covered himself with it before he joined their bodies together again. She didn’t know if it was that brief moment of unprotected penetration that had resulted in her pregnancy, or if it was just a statistical reality—if she was one of the two percent of women who was going to be a mommy because condoms were only ninety-eight percent effective in preventing pregnancy.

Of course, the reason didn’t matter as much as the reality: she was pregnant. She didn’t tell anyone because she didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know how she felt about the situation—because it was easier to think about her pregnancy as a situation than a baby.

She found an obstetrician in Kalispell—because there was no way she could risk seeing a local doctor—and then, eighteen weeks into her pregnancy, she had an ultrasound.

Everything changed for her then. Looking at the monitor, seeing the image of her unborn child inside of her, made the existence of that child suddenly and undeniably real. That was when she finally accepted that she wasn’t just pregnant—the unexpected consequence of an impulsive night in Trey’s bed—she was going to have a baby.

Trey’s baby.

And in that moment, when she first saw the tiny heart beating, she fell in love with their child.

But he still didn’t have a clue about the consequences of the night they’d spent together—or possibly even that they had spent the night together—and she’d resolved to tell him as soon as possible. He had a right to know about their baby. She didn’t know how he would respond to the news, but she knew that he needed to hear it.

Of course, at the time of her ultrasound, he’d been in Thunder Canyon, three hundred miles away. So she’d decided to wait until he came back to Rust Creek Falls. And another three-and-a-half weeks had passed. Now he was here—not just in town but in the same building. And she had no more excuses.

She had to tell him about their baby.

She pulled a handful of toilet paper from the roll and wiped at the wet streaks on her cheeks. The tiny life inside her stirred again. She laid a hand on the slight curve of her tummy.

I’ve always tried to do what I think is best for you, even when I don’t know what that is. And I’m scared, because I don’t know how your daddy’s going to react to the news that he’s going to be a daddy. I will tell him. I promise, I will. But I’m not going to walk into the high school gym in the middle of movie night and make a public announcement, so you’re going to have to be patient a little longer.

Of course, there was no way the baby could hear the words of reassurance that were audible only inside of her head, but the flutters inside her belly settled.

“Everything okay?” Natalie whispered, when Kayla had returned to her seat inside the darkened gym.

She nodded. “My phone was vibrating, so I went outside to take the call.”

Lying didn’t come easily to her, but it was easier with her gaze riveted on the movie screen. Thankfully, Natalie accepted her explanation without any further questions.

When the credits finally rolled, people began to stand up and stack their chairs. Trey solicitously took both Kayla’s and Natalie’s along with his own.

“I’m sorry,” Kayla said to her friend, taking advantage of his absence to apologize—although she wasn’t really sorry.

“For what?”

“Because I know you wanted to sit next to him.”

Natalie waved away the apology. “I should be sorry,” she said. “When I invited him to join us, I completely forgot that you two were together at the wedding—”

“We weren’t together,” Kayla was quick to interject.

“Even the Rust Creek Rambler saw the two of you on the dance floor.”

“One dance doesn’t equal together.”

“Well, even if that’s true—” and her friend’s tone warned Kayla that she wasn’t convinced it was “—I’m getting the impression that Trey is hoping for something more.”

She shook her head. “You’re imagining things.”

“I am not imagining the way he’s looking at you,” Natalie said, her gaze shifting beyond her friend.

Kayla didn’t know what to say to that. She didn’t know how—or even if—Trey was looking at her because she was deliberately avoiding looking at him, afraid that any kind of eye contact would somehow give away all of her secrets to him.

“Which means I have to find myself a different cowboy,” Natalie decided.

“Do you have anyone specific in mind?” Kayla asked, happy to shift the conversation away from Trey—and especially talk of the two of them being together at the wedding.

“I’m willing to consider all possibilities,” Natalie said. “And since it’s still pretty early, why don’t we go to the Ace in the Hole to grab a drink?”

She shuddered at the thought. “Because that place on a Friday night is a bad idea.”

The local bar and grill was more than a little rough around the edges at the best of times—and a Friday night was never the best of times as the cowboys who worked so hard during the week on the local ranches believed in partying just as hard on the weekends. As a result, it wasn’t unusual for tempers to flare and fists to fly, and Kayla had no interest in that kind of drama tonight.

Natalie sighed. “You’re right—how about a hot chocolate instead?”

That offer was definitely more tempting. Though Kayla hadn’t experienced many cravings, and thankfully nothing too unusual, the baby had definitely shown signs in recent weeks of having a sweet tooth, and she knew that hot chocolate would satisfy that craving. But, “I thought you had to open up the store in the morning.”

Natalie waved a hand dismissively. “Morning is a long time away.”

“Hot chocolate sounds good,” she admitted.

“It tastes even better,” Trey said from behind her.

Kayla thought he’d left the gym after helping to stack the chairs, but apparently that had been wishful thinking on her part.

“But where can you get hot chocolate in town at this time of night?” he asked.

“Daisy’s,” Natalie told him. “It’s open late now, with an expanded beverage menu and pastries to encourage people to stay in town rather than heading to the city.”

“I always did like their hot chocolate,” Trey said. “Do you mind if I join you?”

“Of course not,” Natalie said, buttoning up her coat as they exited the gym.

They said “hello” to various townspeople as they passed them in the halls, stopping on the way to chat with some other friends from high school. A few guys invited Trey to go for a beer at the Ace in the Hole, but he told them that he already had plans. When they finally made their escape, Natalie pulled her phone out of her pocket and frowned at the time displayed on the screen. “I didn’t realize it was getting to be so late.”

Kayla narrowed her gaze on her friend, wondering how it had gone from “still pretty early” to “so late” in the space of ten minutes.

“I think I should skip the hot chocolate tonight,” Natalie decided. “I have to be up early to open the store in the morning.”

“You were the one who suggested it,” Kayla pointed out.

“I know,” her friend agreed. “And I hate to bail, but there’s no reason that you and Trey can’t go without me.”

Kayla glanced at Trey. “Wouldn’t you rather go to the Ace in the Hole with your friends than to Daisy’s with me?”

“Let me see—reminiscing about high school football with a bunch of washed-up jocks or making conversation with a pretty girl?” He winked at her. “It seems like a no-brainer to me.”

“Great,” Natalie said, a little too enthusiastically.

Then she leaned in to give Kayla a quick hug and whisper in her ear. “I’ll call you tomorrow to hear all of the juicy details, so make sure there are some juicy details.”