“I know I hurt you when I said I was still planning to take the baby and run around the globe.” She squeezed his hand tighter and stepped closer, her belly brushing against him. A tiny smile kicked up the corner of his mouth and his blue eyes widened.
“I’ve been on my own for most of my life.” She turned her gaze away from his for a moment as shame of some sort washed over her. “And my model is a woman who never let anyone or anything in. Her entire life, she has been completely autonomous. And if you’re her child, you’d better get to be autonomous real fast, too.”
Scout nodded as if he understood.
“But I also had a grandfather who cared, who wanted nothing more than to be with me from the day I was born.” Tears welled up in her eyes, and her voice quavered for just a moment before she got herself back under control. “I left George. I left him alone because I thought I was supposed to be alone. And now he’s gone, so I really am alone.”
Scout started to argue, but she pressed her fingers against his lips, shushing him, a soft smile on her face. “But I’ve been given a second chance. A chance at being with my baby, and a chance at giving him you, too.”
Scout grabbed the fingers she had over his lips and kissed them before wrapping an arm around her and pulling her closer.
“I understand now that I can’t just take the baby and head off to foreign countries. I’m not sure I can live in Gopher Springs full-time, either. But I’m willing to look at all the options and find one that we can both live with.”
Scout lowered his mouth to hers until their lips were the merest whisper apart.
“Thank you,” he murmured before kissing her.
And as he moved his mouth over hers, softly sweeping one moment, playfully nipping the next, Stella knew she’d made the right decision. It wasn’t going to be easy, and it would mean the biggest changes she’d ever made in her life, but it was the right thing for the baby, it was the right thing for Scout, and she had to believe it would be the right thing for her.
15
Scout looked down at Stella as she slept, the moonlight draped across her face and chest, her round belly covered by the quilt her grandmother had sewn. He rested his head in his hand, propped on his side in the bed, as he softly stroked a finger down her neck, over her collarbone, into her soft cleavage.
When she’d told him she was willing to look at other options for her job and where to raise the baby, his entire soul had lifted. Not since he’d first started working for George, decided that this farm was the one he wanted to own, had he wanted something like he wanted Stella and the baby. And the idea that he could have the farm and the two of them? That was something truly amazing. Something he’d be grateful for forever.
Stella shifted, and her eyes drifted open. He smiled at her sleepy expression.
“Sshh,” he coaxed. “I’m sorry I woke you. Go back to sleep.”
She shook her head and rolled to her side so she was facing him. He lay back down, cupping her jaw in his palm as he gazed at her.
“You need your sleep,” he whispered.
“I need you more,” she answered. Blood pulsed to his groin as he felt her fingers skim across his abs and dip under the waistband of his boxers.
He couldn’t help the smile that began to spread across his face. “The doctor did say sex was okay again, didn’t she?”
She gave his cock a squeeze, and he was lost. He pulled her face to his and kissed her like his very life depended on it. He consumed, he cherished, he burned with need. His tongue tangled with hers, and soon their breaths were coming fast and rough.
As his lips skated over her bare skin, she arched her back and dug her fingers into his hair, pulling just hard enough to keep his mind from short circuiting from the heat they produced together.
He slid his hand down over her belly and found the soft core of her. She was hot, and so wet.
Stella moaned with desire, so he stroked her again.
“Oh, God,” she gasped.
“There is truly something divine about the way you feel,” he whispered to her before he slid two fingers inside and began to pump.
Stella cried out, her hips thrusting in time with his hand. His cock ached like nothing he’d ever felt in his life, but he refused to give in to his own needs. He wanted to see Stella in all her glory, wanted to watch her face as she came.
And then she was, pulsing around his fingers in waves of gorgeous pleasure. She said his name over and over, and he thought it was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. When she finally came back to earth, he slid his fingers free and then she suddenly gasped again.
“Are you okay?” he asked, seeing her lips press together.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. Then she grabbed his hand and held it to her belly.
Beneath his palm, he felt a roll that started below her belly button and worked its way up.
“What the…”
She gave a throaty laugh as it happened again.
“Well, hot damn,” he said, his voice reverent.
“There he is,” she said as her belly bulged for a moment on one side and then the other.
“There he is,” Scout agreed. Then he leaned down and pressed his lips to the taut skin of her middle. “Hey. I’m sorry, did we wake you?”
Stella laughed. “You have to admit, that would have woken the dead.”
Scout couldn’t help but feel proud of himself. “But it’s not like the contractions you were having after the accident?”
“No, this is completely different. Those felt like cramps. This is…I don’t know, but it feels like something’s rolling around inside.”
Scout waited until another bulge appeared, this time right in the center of her belly.
“Soccer player? Or football?” he asked around a grin he couldn’t seem to stop.
“I’m thinking a swimmer because I can’t tell if that’s a head or an elbow or a heel.”
They lay together, his hand on her middle until the movements subsided.
“Think he’s going back to sleep,” Scout said quietly.
“It’s past his bedtime,” she answered before turning her head and kissing him lightly on the lips.
“Well, you both need your sleep.”
“But you need something else,” she said, rolling away from him onto her side and shimmying her butt up against his cock. It instantly woke back up, and his hardened length slid between her soft thighs.
“It’s okay,” he said, trying to pull away. But she reached behind and wrapped a hand around his firm glute. Her fingernails digging into his muscle sent his thoughts to very good places.
“I want more,” she announced, thrusting back toward him. “It’s fine, I promise.”
He pressed his lips against the back of her neck, smelling the lemon of her shampoo. “Then c’mere,” he murmured, reaching down and pulling her top leg over his hip. He stroked his cock back and forth a few times, coating it with her slick heat, then he plunged in and began to pump gently, his head full of sparks and dreams and something so painfully sweet, he had no words for it. It was simply the most beautiful thing he’d ever felt, and it washed through him like liquid gold until he was so filled with it, he groaned into the dark, into Stella’s long soft hair, into the future he finally knew he could have.
16
“So, I’m thinking I could design the procedures, then hire less expensive subcontractors to do the on-site work that I used to do. It wouldn’t cost the agency any more than what they would have given me to do both parts of the project in the past.”
Kit nodded, her gaze on Stella across the table at Nadine’s. Lunch with Kit and Ava had become a weekly ritual, and Stella was especially happy this week to run some of her ideas by friends before she presented them to Scout.
“So you could do all that without any travel?” Ava asked as she stuffed a spoonful of mashed potato into baby Janelle’s plump lips.
“Yes, it’s all the research and planning work I normally do before
I leave for a project anyway. I’ll give the plans to the other consultant, they’ll travel to the site to implement it, and if they run into problems, I’m on call and ready to troubleshoot from here.”
Kit grinned. “I think you’re a genius, Stella.”
Stella smiled back as she reached for her iced tea. She was pretty proud of the idea.
“So you’ll be taking a pay cut, but that won’t matter since you have your granddad’s house free and clear, right?” Ava asked.
Kit reached out and moved the salt shaker from Janelle’s reach, then handed the baby a cracker instead. Janelle shoved the saltine in the general vicinity of her mouth and began cooing as she slobbered on it.
Stella watched with a look of intense interest, then shook her head slightly as if to clear it. “That’s the part of the plan I need your advice on,” she said, looking first at Kit, then at Ava. “You know Scout’s always wanted to buy the farm. And I had promised him I’d sell it to him, but that was before we knew I was pregnant.”
She paused and put her finger out toward Janelle, who grabbed it and gummed it, abandoning the cracker. Stella broke into a smile as wide as the Texas sky.
“So now, if I’m going to stay here and raise the baby, I’ll need to keep the farm—for a place to live. I want the baby to grow up in our family house. It’s been a Steadman home for three generations, and this little guy—” she patted her belly, “will be the fourth.”
“Why am I sensing there’s some sort of problem here, but I can’t figure out what it is?” Kit mused.
Stella shrugged. “I don’t know how much the farm brings in and how much of that I get to keep. I won’t know if I can afford to give away a good portion of my consulting fees to a subconsultant until I find out how much revenue the farm nets. I don’t even know what Scout’s salary is. I haven’t paid any attention to all that because I assumed I’d be selling it. Now I’m not.”
“Well, I’m sure Scout has all that information,” Ava said absentmindedly, wiping off Janelle’s face with a napkin. “Just ask him.”
Kit studied Stella. “It’s a little awkward though, isn’t it?”
Stella had to admit that it was. “I’ve helped out with some projects around the farm, sort of stood in for Scout when he was busy, but we haven’t discussed the nitty-gritty. I’ve assumed if Grandpa trusted him, then I could, too, and I left it at that.”
“Oh, hon.” Ava finally turned away from Janelle. “You’re going to be partners in all this. Raising the baby, managing the business. You need to be able to talk about it. It’s what grownups do.”
Stella nodded. “You’re right. There’s no reason to think he’ll have a problem with it. He’s the one who wanted me to stay and raise the baby here. He knows this is complicated for me. Surely he’s going to want to help however he can?”
Kit agreed. “Exactly. And when I agreed to move back here with Hunter, we had to have some of those same talks. I didn’t want to work for him, I wanted to be equals, so he let me buy into the practice so it was mine too. But we had to agree on installments and salaries. We had to have grownup discussions, and it’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it.”
“Don’t listen to her. She never did finish buying her half of the practice, Hunter just up and proposed.”
Kit slapped Ava on the arm, and Stella laughed.
“We haven’t even officially agreed that Scout’s living in the main house yet,” Stella said before leaning over and kissing little Janelle on her soft cheek. “We’ll start by talking about how much my new farm earns.”
“If it’s a lot, you can buy lunch next week.” Ava lifted Janelle out of her high chair. “That’s right,” she cooed. “Aunty Stella’s going to buy us all a big fancy steak lunch.”
* * *
“Well, congratulations,” Bran said as Scout raked out a stall in the barn on Bran’s ranch.
“Thanks,” Scout said, a smile working its way across his face. “I’m pretty happy.”
Bran lifted a bale of straw from the stack at the end of the barn aisle and dropped it into the freshly cleaned stall. Then he pulled a fork from the wall and began to break up the bedding.
“So dare I ask if you’re going to propose now that she’s agreed to stay?”
Scout rolled his eyes. “Let’s just take things one step at a time.”
Bran chuckled. “If you’re not getting married, how’s it going to work?”
Scout began to rake out the next stall, and as usual, Bran was killing his buzz. “We’re not sure yet. She’s figuring out her stuff, and my stuff’s…” He shrugged. “It’s the same as my stuff always is.”
Bran barked out a loud laugh. “Oh, little brother, you really don’t know what the hell you’re doing, do you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Scout looked at the clock on the barn wall and wondered if he could get out of there in the next five minutes before Bran completely ruined his mood.
“You’re going to have a baby and live with its mama. Your ‘stuff’ will never be the same again.”
Scout raked a pile of horse manure just a touch too zealously and watched as it hit Bran’s boots. He smirked though Bran didn’t give any indication of noticing.
“Okay, Mr. I know everything, explain to me what’s going to change? I’ll buy the farm, run the farm, and live at the farm. See? All the same.”
Bran stopped spreading straw and leaned on the handle of the fork. “So she’s still going to sell you the farm even though she’s staying?” His brow knit in confusion.
Scout felt something beneath his ribs twist just a touch. “We have an agreement, so yes.”
“But she’s giving up her job and her place in New York…”
“And she’ll live on the farm just like she is now. I’m not going to let her starve.”
“But you’re not going to marry her, either.”
Scout dug a hand into his hair in frustration. “What damn difference does it make?”
“A hell of a lot,” Bran snapped. “You’re leaving her with nothing but your goodwill. She will have sold her only asset, given up her job and her apartment—what’s to say you won’t get tired of the whole thing and kick her out?”
Scout’s temper flared then, his face heating at the mere suggestion. “I would never, and you know it.” His voice was low and angry.
Bran gazed at him steadily. “I might know that, but does Stella?”
“And besides,” Scout added. “She won’t be without assets, she’ll have the proceeds from the sale of the farm. Same as she would have if she’d taken the baby and headed back to New York.”
“Except then she would have had a job and an apartment.”
Scout wanted to scream. “But here she’ll have me.”
“Not legally,” Bran murmured. “And if it’s not legal, then she’s lost her family home, the business that could support her and the baby, and her job.” He gave Scout a hard look. “It doesn’t sound like a great bargain to me.”
Scout leaned the rake against the wall very carefully and turned toward the door of the barn. “This is why I didn’t come to work for you when I graduated,” he said quietly. “You don’t think I’m a ‘great bargain.’ It’s taken me years to prove myself to you and Hunter but you still find fault in me. You don’t respect what I do or how I do it or why. You think just because I haven’t asked her to marry me, I’ll leave her and the baby high and dry. And you think she’s a fool to wind up with me.”
“Scout, you know that’s not—”
Scout sliced a hand through the air, silencing his older brother.
“You don’t understand me, and after all these years, after everything I’ve accomplished at that farm, you still don’t think I’m worth a damn.” He turned back then, facing Bran. “But it doesn’t matter what you think because Stella and I are going to be fine. She trusts me, and I’ll take care of her, wedding ring or no.”
His words floated in the air of the barn as he walked to his tru
ck and cranked the engine.
Bran didn’t understand. But Scout knew Stella would. They’d be just fine. The three of them didn’t need anyone but each other. That was all that mattered.
17
Stella set the platter of ribs on the table and smiled at Scout before she sat down.
“It looks great,” he told her with a grin. “I hope you didn’t push yourself too hard cooking all this.”
“I feel great, actually. I think this last trimester is going to be really smooth. I’m going to start doing a few things at Crops for Kids again tomorrow, and I’ve had a good idea about how to handle my job once the baby’s born.”
Scout stopped, a rib midway to his mouth. “That’s fantastic. Tell me all about it.”
Stella explained the idea of subcontracting the parts of the job that required travel. She’d still be the prime contractor, the agencies she worked with would be assured of her know-how and experience, but she’d send younger, less encumbered hires to do the on-site work.
“I think that’s a fantastic idea,” he told her, his eyes shining with pride. “I knew your smarts would figure it out. And you could take on more than one contract at a time this way, too. Maybe have a couple or three subs out doing the work you coordinate.”
Stella’s heart swelled at Scout’s faith in her. He really believed she could do this, and that made all the difference in the world.
Then she decided to broach the rest of the plans.
“I’d like that. I think I’m going to have to try it a few times first to see how it all works. And I’d like to get a few people who I know can be trusted to do a good job before I attempt more than one project at a time.”
She paused, taking a sip of her water before moving on. “But since I won’t have my full income anymore, I’d like to take a look at the farm revenues so I can see how much I really have to live on and budget for the baby’s expenses.”
Scout’s brow furrowed and he cocked his head in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Wrangling His Pregnant Cowgirl: Beckett Brothers Book Three Page 9