The Cowboy and His Baby

by Jessica Clare

  “It’s pretty, isn’t it, Spidey?”

  The dog ignored her, gazing at his now-empty Kong, hoping for a peanut butter refill.

  “You can have that later,” she promised him. She drove up to the house itself, wondering if there was an appropriate place to park, and then laughed at herself. What was the appropriate sort of parking etiquette for showing up on someone’s doorstep pregnant with their baby? Parallel? Crossways? Cut off any exits just in case of a runner? Chuckling to herself at the joke, Annie got out of the car and wrapped her sweater tightly around her bulky midriff, then moved around to the back to get Spidey out of his seatbelt harness and into a leash harness. Once that was on, she put on his little winter coat and booties, because it was rather cold outside, the wind tearing through her clothing. Definitely colder than California, that was for sure. Shivering, she let Spidey climb down out of the car—she wasn’t really able to carry him at this point—and then they waddled up to the door together.

  The house had a covered front porch, with a couple of wooden rocking chairs. Off in the distance, she could hear the sound of chickens, and she thought she saw a horse on the horizon. Was Dustin here? Goose bumps covered her arms and she felt a prickle of dread.

  She’d never done this before—confronting an ex-boyfriend. She had a feeling it was going to go badly. Really badly. For a moment, she wanted to turn around and get back into the car. Hesitant, Annie put a hand on her stomach. “Give me a sign if you want this, baby. If not, I’ll turn around and leave and no one needs to know.”

  The baby kicked, just under her hand.

  Drat.

  With a sigh, she headed for the house, Spidey at her heels.

  Annie headed up the steps, glancing at the trucks nearby. There were several under a carport off behind the house, and she caught sight of Dustin’s familiar red monster of a truck. Yeah, this was where he lived. She didn’t know if that made her feel better or worse. It didn’t matter. It was something she had to do. Steeling herself, Annie took a deep breath and then tapped the doorbell.

  “Coming,” a female voice called out. Annie waited on the porch, trying not to fidget. It seemed to take the woman a long time to get to the door, and she started to wonder if there was a problem. Finally, the door opened and the woman gave her a confused look. “Hello? Can I help you?”

  If possible, the woman in front of her was even more pregnant than Annie was. She had dark, curly hair that she wore in a tail over one shoulder and had on a man’s plaid shirt over a long skirt, her belly straining the buttons. At her side, a big white dog wagged its tail happily.

  “Hi, um, does Dustin Worthington live here?” Annie touched her belly.

  The woman’s eyes went wide. “Oh. Oh, you’re Annie. Oh my goodness.” She sagged, and Annie immediately moved forward to try and help her.

  “Wait!” Annie cried out, trying to hold her up. She was in danger of falling over herself. “I don’t think I can carry you!”

  “No, I’m fine,” the woman panted, and they somehow managed to wobble over to the nearby couch together before both of them collapsed.

  Wheezing, Annie rolled onto her back, her hands supporting her stomach. The other woman did the same. “That . . . was a close one,” Annie told her. “If you’d gone to the floor, I don’t think I could have helped you up.”

  “Like a turtle on its back,” the woman said, still panting.

  “Or two beached whales,” Annie agreed, picturing it. A horrified giggle burst in her throat.

  The other woman looked over at her. Giggle-snorted.

  And then they were both laughing. It was just too funny and horrific, two helpless pregnant women depending on each other for support and hoping the other had the strength. Once she started laughing, Annie couldn’t stop, either. She just kept picturing it and how funny they must have looked.

  “Stop, stop,” the dark-haired woman howled. “I’m peeing my pants. My . . . bladder . . . baby’s right on it . . .”

  Annie wiped tears from her eyes. “Mine too,” she giggled. “So awful.”

  “The worst. Pregnancy sucks. They all lied to me,” the brunette managed, and then burst into a fresh round of laughter.

  “I don’t know why I keep laughing,” Annie said, unable to stop. She just kept giggling, as if it was the funniest thing on earth.

  “Hormones,” the other woman agreed between chuckles. “It’s either that or weeping.”

  Oh gosh, and Annie really wanted to weep, too. Suddenly the laughter turned to tears and she started to cry.

  “S’okay,” the other woman managed, staggering to her feet. “If you wet your pants, I have some extras.”

  “This is a nightmare,” Annie said. She pressed her hands to her face. “All of this.”

  “Oh, honey.” A moment later, a tissue was pressed into her hand and the other woman gave her shoulder a squeeze. “If you want to leave, I won’t tell Dustin you were here. It’ll be a secret between us beached whales.”

  A hysterical laugh bubbled inside her again. “How did you know I’m Annie?”

  “The red hair and freckles.” The woman patted her stomach and then eased herself onto the couch next to Annie again. “Though I admit the baby bump is a bit of a surprise.”

  “More like a baby mountain,” Annie admitted. “We’re practically the same size and I’m only at thirty weeks.”

  “Thirty-seven here,” the other woman said, her hand going to the small of her back. “Ready for this to be over. I’m Cass, by the way. Eli’s my husband.”

  Annie swiped at her face. “I remember Dustin mentioning you. Hi. Annie.”

  “Movie girl. Dog girl. I know.” She leaned back on the sofa and closed her eyes. “That was enough cardio for me today. If you don’t mind, I’m going to sit here for a moment longer so my stomach settles.”

  “Is there anything I can get you?”

  Cass waved a hand in the air. “I’m all right. I just get winded easily. Huge baby crushing my lungs and all.”

  Gosh, Annie understood how that felt. She waited a few moments and then said, “Thank you.”

  “For?”

  “For offering to not tell Dustin I was here. I wasn’t sure if I should come.”

  “I get that, considering you broke his heart and all.”

  Annie frowned, toying with her tissue. At a slight jingle, she looked over and Spidey was politely sniffing the room, exploring an enormous dog bed that was near the fireplace. Right. They had a lot of dogs here. The white fluff monster that was Cass’s dog was busy sniffing Spidey’s hindquarters, but her dog was ignoring him, used to strange animals. She should call off the other dog so Spidey didn’t get nervous, but then she realized what the other woman said. “I’m sorry, did you say that I broke Dustin’s heart?”

  “Well, yeah. Told us all about you for a week and then said nothing at all for the next six months. Eli and I connected the dots. It’s not like Dustin to be silent, you know. We figured you hurt him pretty bad.”

  Something didn’t make sense. She tore at the tissue, anxious. “You mean he hurt me,” Annie gently corrected. “By not telling me that he had a girlfriend.”

  Cass opened her eyes and squinted at Annie. “What girlfriend?”

  “I know he has a girlfriend.” Her stomach was starting to hurt, and the baby did a somersault inside her, adding to the dizzy, spinning sensation.

  “Dustin? Dustin Worthington? Mister Flirt And That’s It?” Cass shook her head, her curls sticking to her sweaty brow. “Dustin never sees a girl more than once. That’s why we all knew your name. He wouldn’t shut up about you. Well. At first.” Cass gave a little grimace.

  Annie was pretty sure she was going to be sick. “The woman in town told me she was his girlfriend.”

  “What? Who?”

  “The blonde in the pharmacy. Red lips. Really pretty. Big ha
ir. I forget her name—”

  “Theresa?” When Annie nodded, Cass rolled her eyes. “She’s a one-woman crazy train. Also known as ‘stalker.’ He dated her once, I think, but she decided she deserved more. Dustin didn’t agree. She makes herself a pain in the ass every now and then and reminds him that she’s alive, but he’s not interested. Never really has been.”

  “Oh no,” Annie moaned. Now she was the one that needed to lie down on the couch. She leaned back and pressed a hand to her forehead, feeling faint. “This is even worse than I thought.” No girlfriend? No wife? Just a crazy ex-lover? Or shoot, if they’d only gone out once, that didn’t even mean they were lovers. Not really. A vivid memory flashed through Annie’s mind—of Dustin checking the expiration date on the condoms. You never know, he’d said.

  Because he’d had them for so long?

  That meant . . . there was no other woman. He’d really wanted to be with Annie.

  And she’d ghosted him. Acted like a jerk for seven months, convinced she’d been wronged.

  Now she was the bad guy.

  “I’m going to throw up,” Annie whispered.

  “Please don’t puke or I will, too.”

  She wanted to say it was too late, but she couldn’t, because lunch was coming up and she barely had time to lean over the couch and lose the contents of her stomach. A moment later, Cass heaved, and then both women were sick.

  It would have been funny if it wasn’t happening to her.

  Instead, she just started to cry again.

  Stupid hormones.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Dustin chewed a toothpick and gazed up at the sky. Despite the fact that it was cold outside and a fresh dusting of snow lay on the ground, it was a nice day. The sky was blue, the cattle were healthy and behaving. The fences were mended and his horse was in a high-spirited mood.

  Should have been a good day. He should have been thinking about the upcoming winter, of all the things around the ranch that would need doing as the cattle got fatter, readying to have their calves in the spring. Thinking about how much hay they had, and if it would last them the winter or if they’d need to purchase some from a neighbor. If they were going to breed one of the horses this year or wait until next year. If the farm equipment needed a tune-up. A cowboy had to do a dozen tasks a day of any and every kind, and normally his head was full of a to-do list that kept him busy but never bored.

  He was bored now, though. He looked at the mountains in the distance and didn’t feel pleasure at the sight of them. Instead, he wondered if he should cash out his savings and buy that boat he’d been thinking about. He had a call in to a salesman down in Florida, but he hadn’t pulled the trigger yet. Hadn’t felt like the right time, but as every day crawled past and Dustin couldn’t concentrate, he figured that time was getting closer and closer.

  Eli rode up next to him, eyeing the cattle that were churning up the thin layer of snow. “You look like you’re a million miles away.”

  He only nodded. “Just thinking about the spring.”

  “Gonna be a busy one. Herd’s bigger than ever.” He held his reins lightly, watching the cattle.

  “I know.” They’d talked with the owner of the ranch last spring, held back some of the heifers from sale because with four cowboys on the ranch—Dustin, Eli, Jordy, and Old Clyde—they could handle more, bring up profits. Price told them that if they got the ranch in the black, there’d be a healthy bonus for them come next summer, and it was something they were all looking forward to, even if it meant they were edging close to five hundred head of cattle right now.

  “Meant to talk to you,” Eli said slowly, guiding his horse alongside Dustin’s high-stepping one. “Jordy wants to go into the navy after calving in the spring. Said he wants to see the world.”

  Dustin grunted. “He’s a good kid.”

  “He is. But that’s going to put us short one trained ranch hand, and you’ve had a restless look in your eyes. I’m wondering if I need to make plans for both of you leaving.” Eli gave him a piercing look. “Me and Clyde can manage if we have to. Hire one of the local boys to help out if we need, for a time. Just letting you know so you don’t feel trapped.”

  “I haven’t decided,” he admitted. But he’d called about the boat last week, and he’d been looking up beaches in Florida for a while. He wasn’t quite decided . . . not entirely. “I’ll let you know.”

  Eli nodded and rode away. That was Eli. Didn’t mince words, didn’t ask a friend to stay. Didn’t complain that they’d be shorthanded. He just told things how they were, and if it meant more work for him, then he’d just knuckle down and handle it. He didn’t mention that Cass would also have a new baby and that would eat into his time. Eli would just handle it, like he did everything else.

  Still, Dustin wasn’t sure if he wanted to stick around if the only people at the ranch were him, Old Clyde, and the loving couple and their new baby. Be damn awkward, especially because Dustin suspected Old Clyde didn’t have many more years of ranching in him. Clyde knew everything forward and backward, of course, but he ached most mornings (even if he wouldn’t admit it) and was slower to mount and dismount his horse.

  Dustin knew he was needed on the ranch . . . didn’t mean that Florida wasn’t mighty tempting, though.

  Might be time for him to move out. Wyoming didn’t hold much for him anymore.

  * * *

  • • •

  They were heading in at sunset when Eli checked his phone and then kicked his horse into a gallop, dashing toward the house. Uh-oh. Dustin followed behind at a swift trot, worried. Eli usually ignored his phone, but the closer Cass got to her due date, the more he checked it just to make sure that his wife was all right.

  Either Cass was in labor, or something was wrong.

  When he rode in, he saw that Eli had abandoned his horse at the hitching post in front of the barn, and Dustin took both horses inside, then unsaddled and brushed them down. If Eli needed help, he reckoned that he’d call or text, or at least come out to the barn. If Cass was having her baby, he’d let them have a few minutes alone. Once the horses were taken care of, he glanced down at the empty stalls. Jordy and Old Clyde were still out, most of the dogs with them, but they’d be coming in soon for dinner.

  Well, if Cass was feeling poorly, Dustin supposed he could make dinner, too.

  He headed inside, and took off his boots in the mudroom, then hung his hat. From the living room, he could hear Cass sobbing, and Eli calming her. “No, baby, it’s all right. I won’t let her eat it.”

  “She’s a dog!” Cass wailed. “That’s what dogs do when someone’s sick! I’m sorry!”

  “Ain’t your fault. Now, stop crying and hush,” Eli comforted. “I’ll clean it up.”

  Ugh. Dustin could guess what that was about and he didn’t want to picture it. Eli had the patience of a saint with all of Cass’s crying lately. He said it was just hormones, and he took it all like a champ. Dustin, well . . .

  Wait.

  There was more than one woman crying in the living room?

  Puzzled, he headed out of the kitchen and poked his head out.

  Cass stood in the middle of the living room, her face blotchy from crying as she wrung her hands. Joy—Cass’s big dog—wagged her tail happily at her owners’ feet, and Eli had his hands on his wife’s shoulders, trying to calm her. Watching Dustin from the middle of the room, a blue harness on him, was a familiar-looking white Boston terrier.

  That meant . . .

  His heart squeezed in his chest. He stepped out of the kitchen and into the sprawling living area, looking for familiar red hair. There, by the window. He’d been unable to see her from the kitchen itself, and right now she had her back turned to him, her face practically pressed against the glass of the front window as she held on to the curtain. She wore an ugly, bulky brown sweater that she practically swam in, but he
didn’t care.

  She’d come back.

  And . . . she was crying?

  His heart squeezed in his chest again as he stepped forward—and Eli put a hand out. “Watch it, man. There’s been . . . ah, an accident.”

  Dustin glanced down. It looked like there had been several accidents all over the rug, which explained why Cass was crying. It was hard being sick and pregnant. He sidestepped the worst of it and moved to the window. “Annie?” This had to be a dream, he thought. He was imagining the soft red hair that fell in waves to her shoulders, the pale, freckled skin.

  But then she turned around and looked at him.

  It was her—and he drank in the sight of her face as if he’d never seen a woman before. He drank in every freckle, every pale eyelash, the full pink lips, the sad green eyes. She’d been crying, too, and he wanted to hug her and let her know that everything was all right.

  It didn’t matter that she’d abandoned him, had cut him off without a word.

  She was back. She was going to explain everything, and then it would all be okay. He could forgive and forget.

  But as he moved forward, she shifted. She turned to face him and her hand went on top of her sweater, outlining a very large stomach.

  A pregnant stomach.

  Dustin stopped. Stared.

  Annie burst into fresh tears.

  Oh, hell. “Hey, hey,” he murmured, moving to her side. “If you’re not happy to see me, just say so.” He hoped the joke would earn him a smile.

  Instead, she only sobbed harder, her hands covering her face.