The Cowboy and His Baby

by Jessica Clare

  Could she?

  He felt the baby move for a bit longer, then slipped his hand away. “I should let you sleep.”

  She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t all that tired, that she wanted him to keep touching her, to caress her and kiss her and tell her that he still found her beautiful, that nothing had changed from that kiss-filled week back in the spring.

  But all she said was, “Good night.”

  * * *

  • • •

  All right, people, that’s a wrap.” Sloane waved a finger in the air, indicating that they were done.

  People cheered. Some clapped. Annie yawned. Not that she wasn’t grateful for the movie to be done, more or less, but the baby made her sleepy in the afternoons, and today was surprisingly warm for Wyoming in the fall, and with the sun shining down on them, it made her think of naps more than anything.

  At her side, Katherine elbowed her, clapping. “Show a little enthusiasm, the boss is looking this way.”

  Annie clapped excitedly at that, and she beamed at Sloane as he looked in their direction. She didn’t miss Katherine’s little snort of amusement. “Thanks for the warning.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re already in the dog house, no pun intended. Didn’t want you to make things worse for yourself.”

  “It’s the baby,” Annie admitted, glancing over at her friend. “That and I haven’t been sleeping so well.”

  “Only nine hours a night?” Katherine teased, bending down to pick up a stray piece of equipment. “Your ability to sleep through anything is legendary.”

  “I found something that causes me to stay awake,” Annie said. “A big cowboy sleeping next to me.”

  “Oooh, spill.”

  Around them, people were packing up. Annie began to stuff Spidey’s toys into her bag. “Not much to tell. We share his bed and he sleeps and I don’t.”

  “That’s . . . boring.”

  “Isn’t it?” She grimaced. “I mean, we’re getting along. That’s wonderful. I really like him and he says he wants to be in the baby’s life. He says he wants me to stay for a while longer so we can get to know each other.”

  “Are you?” Katherine looked curious.

  Annie sighed, wiping down a slobbered-on Kong bone with a cloth. Spidey immediately ran to her side, thinking they were going to play, and she handed it down to him, instead. “I don’t know. I like the ranch and no one has made me feel unwelcome.”

  “But?”

  “But . . .” She licked her lips, thinking. “So when we first got together, Katherine, we kissed all the damn time. Every time we saw each other, it was instant attraction. It was like we couldn’t stay apart from one another.”

  “Ah. And now you’re fat and pregnant and he’s not kissing you?”

  “Ouch.” Annie gave her friend a hurt look. “You go right for the jugular.”

  “Sorry. I mean, you’re not really fat. You’re Hollywood fat. That’s like what, a size four?” She winked at Annie. “Besides, all of your fat is around the middle with that baby. What I should have said if I had a polite bone in my body was that you look different now and because of that, he won’t touch you, right?”

  “Right.” Annie sighed again, gazing down at Spidey. The Boston made happy little grunts, chewing on the end of his favorite toy as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “I know it’s small in the scheme of things, but I wish he’d give me a kiss like he did before to show me that he still likes me. That he’s not just tolerating me to get near the baby.”

  Katherine frowned at her then said sarcastically, “Yeah, because guys are totally more into babies than boobies. That sounds like a dude thing.”

  “Oh, be quiet.”

  “Look, I’m just saying, if you want him to kiss you like he did before, you have to remind him that pregnant women have needs, too. Maybe he doesn’t want to push you into anything because you’re tired all the time.” She shrugged. “Guys are guys. I’m not entirely sure that they don’t think pregnant women are aliens. My sister Laila? Her husband kept saying he didn’t want kids. When she got pregnant, he was devastated. Turns out the dumbass thought that it meant no sex until she stopped breast-feeding.” She rolled her eyes. “Men can be dumb. Tell him you need to get laid.”

  Annie’s cheeks grew hot as she zipped up the bag, focusing on it. “I can’t say that!”

  “Why not? You have needs. Just because you have a baby in your uterus doesn’t mean you’re dead. You want your friend to send him an anonymous text message? Give me his phone number and I’ll do it.”

  “No, it’s okay. I’ll talk to him tonight.” It couldn’t hurt, after all. They needed to get everything out in the open. If Dustin wasn’t interested in her anymore, she wouldn’t blame him . . . but she also wouldn’t be sticking around for her heart to get broken, either.

  She’d go back to LA and lick her wounds. Again.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Saying she was going to confront Dustin was easier than actually doing said confrontation, Annie decided.

  She tried to seem calm, but her heart was fluttering a mile a minute in her breast, and she couldn’t concentrate. She was distracted all through dinner, absently smiling when the cowboys teased one another or Cass tried to engage her in conversation. It wasn’t their fault she was just completely out of it. They were trying to make her welcome.

  She was trying to figure out the best way to broach the subject of “Do you still like me” with Dustin.

  To be fair, he wasn’t making things any easier. He was affectionate, sure. He’d touch her back or pull her chair out for her and make her feel doted on, but then he’d charge to his feet to get the door for Cass, or offer to take over a chore for Old Clyde and she’d wonder if he was just kind and giving to everyone and she was misreading it.

  Really, the man wasn’t all that easy to make out. If he’d just grab her and kiss her hard, she’d be able to blurt out all the things she was feeling. As it was, she picked at her dinner and worried.

  “So . . . have you decided if you’re staying?” Cass asked her as they cleared the dinner plates from the table. The men had to go out and take care of the horses before calling it a night, and Cass said they usually used this time to repair the equipment and fix saddles. In Annie’s mind, it was probably a big bro-fest in the barn, but that was all right. It gave her and Cass time to chitchat while cleaning up the kitchen. Girly work, sure, but it was something she could do easily and with how pregnant she was, she didn’t plan on fighting anyone over the right to oil a saddle.

  “Not yet,” Annie admitted. “The shoot wrapped today but . . . I don’t know.”

  Cass made a noise that might have been agreement.

  “Do you think the dogs really need training or do you think Dustin’s just trying to come up with stuff to make me stay for a while longer?”

  Cass smiled and looked pointedly over her shoulder. There, behind them in the kitchen, was every single one of the ranch dogs except Moose. Cass’s Joy, Jim, Gable, Leigh, and Bandit were all sitting waiting for scraps, their tails wagging, eyes hopeful. Spidey was there, too—he loved being part of the pack—but Annie could have sworn the look on his face was confusion. She never gave him scraps so he didn’t understand the begging. “It drives Eli crazy that I ‘ruined’ them,” she told Annie. “We have to put everything away now or they counter-surf, and they never did before. So training them to break those habits would definitely be welcome. Is it all a ploy to get you to stay longer? I can’t say that it’s not. Would it be the worst thing, though?”

  “No. I like it here.” Annie picked up a towel and a wet plate and began to dry it. “But . . . it’s complicated.”

  “It always is,” Cass said softly. “I’ll support whatever decision you make, you know. It doesn’t mean we can’t be friends.”

  Her eyes pricked with tears. “You’re going
to make me cry.”

  “You’re pregnant. That’s all we do. Cry and pee and cry some more,” Cass teased. “Plus, it’s nice having around someone else that knows what I’m going through. Sometimes I swear Eli looks at me like I’m a space alien inhabiting his wife’s body.”

  Annie giggled at that.

  * * *

  • • •

  She and Cass had hot cocoas and talked babies and pregnancy while waiting for the men to return. Cass showed her the nursery and they oohed and ahhed over the little onesies and swaddling blankets she’d received from distant family so far. All of her stuff was blue—she was having a boy and both her and Eli were terribly excited. It made Annie anxious for her own baby to arrive. Sometimes the waiting was the hardest part of being pregnant. Of course, then she’d have to pee for the ninetieth time that day and realized she was lying to herself.

  The back door thudded, letting them know the others were returning, and Annie’s anxiety hitched up a notch. They left the nursery, and Eli found his wife and immediately gave her a kiss on the lips. “You want to watch some TV with the boys? Jordy got a war movie from that newfangled thing in town.”

  “Redbox?” Cass just shook her head at him. “I swear you’re an eighty-year-old trapped in a hot thirty-something body. But I’ll watch a movie if I get popcorn.”

  “One popcorn for my woman, coming right up.” He kissed her again and then headed to the kitchen.

  Annie could hear the others in the kitchen, too, arguing about John Wayne versus Russell Crowe. A moment later, Dustin emerged and gave Annie a polite kiss on the forehead. “You up for a movie with the crew or you want to call it a night?”

  “I’m tired,” she told him, and it wasn’t entirely a lie. She was making herself completely on edge with worry, and the kiss on the forehead hadn’t helped things. Sure, it was a kiss, but it was the kind of kiss you gave your granny, not your pregnant girlfriend.

  But maybe she wasn’t a girlfriend. The thought made her stomach clench miserably.

  “All right. I’ll grab a quick drink in the kitchen and then join you for some early bedtime.” Dustin gave her arm an affectionate squeeze.

  “You don’t have to,” Annie told him. “You can watch the movie—”

  “I can watch a movie anytime,” Dustin said, then winked at her before sauntering away. “Quality time with you is important.”

  Okay, that had to be a good sign, right? She hoped? More confused than ever, Annie murmured her good nights to the others and then slipped away down the hall to Dustin’s room. She didn’t have sexy clothes, so she went to the bathroom and gave her hair a quick combing and brushed her teeth, just in case. Then, she slowly crawled into bed and squeezed pillows around her belly, getting comfortable.

  Then, she got up, because she couldn’t exactly seem sexy with a pillow fort around her, could she? No wonder he didn’t want to do more than hug her. Annie went to the rocking chair, instead, and adjusted her clothing, waiting.

  Dustin entered the room a moment later with a bottle of water in hand. “One for you, too. I know you get thirsty.”

  She smiled at him. “Thank you. That’s very thoughtful.”

  He paused at the sight of her sitting in a chair instead of in bed. “Everything all right? Your back hurting?”

  “No, I’m fine.” Boy, it was going to be difficult to make him see her as sexy if he thought she was constantly hurting. This was so tricky, damn it.

  Annie resisted the urge to wring her hands like a damsel. “Don’t look at me like that.”

  “Like what?” An amused smile curved his gorgeous face.

  “Like I’m going to break if you look at me sideways.” She scowled at him. “I’m not that fragile.”

  “I know you’re not. What brought this on?” He gave her a curious look, then pulled off his flannel overshirt, revealing a sweaty T-shirt underneath and the equally sweaty chest it clung to.

  Her mouth went dry. “I just . . . I’m tired of being treated like a china doll. I’m pregnant. That’s all. Lots of people are pregnant all the time and they don’t snap like twigs.”

  “I know that. I’ve been around Cass for the last year and seen every stage she went through. If I’m hovering too much, I’m sorry.” He shrugged. “It’s just . . . different for you.”

  “Because it’s your baby?”

  “Because you’re Annie.” Dustin’s beautiful mouth quirked with amusement, as if that explained everything.

  It made her flush with pleasure and also left her confused. She was even more confused when he gave her a wink and then stripped off his belt, heading toward the shower as he did every night. Part of her wanted to push the bathroom door open and fling herself at him, to lick the beads of sweat off his chest like the wanton she was feeling like . . .

  But what if he didn’t want that?

  She thought about what Katherine had said—how men didn’t know how to treat a pregnant woman. Her funny story about her sister and her sister’s husband. Maybe Dustin didn’t know and she did have to tell him how she felt. How she ached every day because she wanted more than just a chaste kiss or two. She wanted to lick him all over and she wanted him to lick her all over, too. Heck, she’d settle for just some quick sex. It didn’t have to be earth-shattering, it just had to ease this itch in her body.

  And it had to ease the worry in her head that he didn’t find her attractive anymore.

  If she was going to say something, it had to be tonight, she realized. The movie reshoot was over. If he told her that he really didn’t like her that way anymore, then she could pack her bags and be gone in the morning. There’d be no reason to stay. But if he did like her, then everything changed.

  She just needed to be brave enough to take the first step.

  Sucking in a breath, Annie rose from the rocking chair and crept toward the bathroom door. The sound of running water told her that he was in the shower, and thoughts of him naked and gorgeous were enough to propel her into action. She’d open the door and join him in the shower. She’d soap his lean, tanned body up and tell him all about how she felt and he’d give her one of those passionate kisses that made everything in the world tip upside down in the best way.

  Annie put her hand on the doorknob and turned.

  Locked.

  Well, shoot. There went that idea. Flustered, she retreated to the bed. She sat down on the edge, wiping her sweaty palms. The urge to just crawl under the covers and ignore it for another day was strong, but no. If she was going to confess her feelings, it had to be tonight.

  Time for a new battle plan. She eyed the blankets and the mountain of soft pillows that were on her side of the bed. She looked down at her floral, unsexy nightie and stripped it off. The panties went, too, and so did the bra. Naked, she crawled into bed, adjusted the pillows, pulled the blankets up to her chin, and waited.

  When he pulled her against him, he’d feel her naked body against his and . . . well, hopefully he’d be overcome with desire and kiss the heck out of her. Yeah, that sounded good.

  So she waited.

  And waited.

  Gosh, the man could take a long shower. She wondered if the door was locked because he was touching himself in there, and then she wanted to cry because she wanted to be the one doing that. Unfair, unfair, unfair.

  The door finally opened, and Annie tensed. She could smell the warm steam in the air and the scent of his soap as he moved into the room and she heard the rustle of clothing as he dressed for sleep. She wanted to tell him not to bother, to come lie next to her completely naked, but all she managed was an awkward squeak.

  “Annie?”

  She cleared her throat. “I’m fine. Sorry.” Gosh, why was she so very shy around him? She’d known him in every sense, even the biblical one, and yet now that she was pregnant with his baby, she couldn’t seem to string two words together when the
y were alone. It was like her brain short-circuited around him.

  The bed creaked in the dark and she felt it sag under his larger weight. He reached for her, and Annie held her breath. His hand encountered bare skin, and she felt him hesitate.

  “Are you too warm?” he asked, ever solicitous.

  “No.”

  A long pause. “Uh.”

  “I want to have sex,” Annie blurted. “Like we did before. But only if you want to.” And then, to her horror, she burst into tears.

  “Whoa, whoa, hey,” Dustin murmured, shoving the fortress of pillows aside and pulling her against him. “What is it? Are you all right?”

  Sobbing, she punched his arm lightly. “Are you deaf?” She managed to choke out. “I want to have sex. Please.”

  “Then why are you crying?” His voice was full of tender amusement and that just was all the more infuriating. He stroked her hair, and she was torn between cuddling against him like a greedy kitten and smacking him in the chest with her fist for being so freaking hard to read.

  “I’m crying because I’m pregnant and emotional,” Annie snapped at him. “And because I don’t know if you like me anymore.”

  Dustin was quiet for a long moment. “You think I don’t like you?”

  “I don’t know.” She dug her fingernails into her palms because she was doing her best to stop crying. Crying never led to sex, she was pretty sure, especially not pregnant crying. “You don’t act like it.”

  “Don’t I?”

  “No,” she wailed. “You kiss my forehead when you should be giving me French kisses! You hold my hand when you should be grabbing my butt. You’re nice and kind and polite but you’re like that to everyone. I don’t know how you feel about me because all you do is treat me like I’m your grandmother instead of your girlfriend and I don’t know what I am to you.”

  He was silent. The only sound in the room was her sniffling.

  “Say something,” she hiccup-demanded after a tense moment.