by Donna Alward
“You looked like you were going to pass out back there. Let’s get you something to eat, okay? You can eat while I drive.”
She should protest, say they were wasting time, but the truth was she was hungry and she knew from bitter experience the last week or so that if she let herself get too famished, she got ill. “Just a roast beef sandwich and a milk for me, please.”
He pulled up to the window and ordered two sandwiches, a milk and a Coke. She took out a twenty to pay for the meal, but he gave her a long stare and levered his hip, reaching for his wallet in his back pocket. “I think I can buy my kid a sandwich,” he said quietly, taking out a couple of bills and handing them to the teenager at the window in exchange for the food.
She put her money away. So the man had his pride after all.
He didn’t waste any time getting to the highway, headed toward Dallas and her family. It was strange seeing someone else in the driver’s seat of her car, and surreal to think that he was the father of the baby growing inside her. None of it felt like it was truly possible; rather the situation was like a weird dream and she’d wake up with a great sense of relief. But it wasn’t. She’d made a mistake. And now she had to deal with it, the way she’d always dealt with changing situations in her life. With logic.
The sandwich was delicious, a bit warm with tangy mustard and lettuce and tomato and she ate neatly, self-conscious the whole time. While she drank from her carton of milk, Chris manhandled his sandwich with one hand while driving and when the first half was gone, he reached for his soda and took a long pull. “Feel better?” he asked, looking over at her.
“I do, thank you.” She tried a smile. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she started eating. “You were right. I needed some fuel. Especially since I don’t know when I’ll eat again once I get to the hospital.”
“You’re close with your family?” He glanced over at her and then back at the road again.
“Mostly.” It was a complicated question. “My mom left when we were pretty small—me and Savannah and Carly and Jet. When my dad remarried, he adopted Peggy’s boys, Jacob and Daniel. Then Peggy died.... I think we’re the new ‘typical’ American family.” She smiled. “Blended a couple of times. Dad’s current wife has a five-year-old son from a previous relationship. We get along pretty well—considering. Even though we’ve all grown, things are still centered out at the ranch. We’ve got the farm and Dad built the ring for rodeo training.”
Chris nodded. “I don’t come from a big family like that. Only child.”
“Trouble sharing?” She grinned at him and he laughed a little.
“Not so much. Just a bit of pressure is all. All the expectations on the shoulders of one kid, you know?”
“That’s not necessarily untrue in a big family. I’ve always felt like more was expected of me because I’m oldest. Even though Jacob and Daniel are pretty close to me in age, there was a difference as we grew up.” She didn’t say that it was partly because Brock treated the adopted boys just a little differently. She couldn’t prove it, after all. And yet she was sure the boys sensed it just the same.
She put her head back against the seat rest. “Anyway, you know quite a bit about me now. How about you?”
His fingers gripped the wheel. “Not much to say, really. I grew up outside the city, had a pretty normal childhood. My dad was foreman on a ranch and the owner got me into rodeo.”
“I saw that you were a junior champ a long time ago, but then it’s like you dropped off the earth. Where’ve you been in the meantime? With rodeo being big in our family, I’m sure I would have heard your name before.”
She wasn’t sure why or if she’d touched a nerve, but Chris’s jaw tightened. “I quit for a while.”
“Injury?” Curious, she studied his profile.
“Obligations,” he responded cryptically.
She let that sit for a few minutes, wondering if he’d expand on that terse statement. When he didn’t, she asked. “What sort of obligations?”
“Does it matter?”
She nodded. “If I’m keeping this baby, and you’re determined to do your duty, then we’re going to be tied to each other for a very long time. I’d like to know what sort of guy is going to be my child’s father, that’s all.”
His jaw ticked, but after a few moments he relented. “Look, my parents scrimped and saved to put me through university. No one else in my family had ever gone past high school. I took engineering at A&M and I’ve been working ever since. Until this year, I was an engineer at AB Windpower.”
“Really? That’s cool. I don’t know a lot about them, but I’ve seen some write-ups about some of their energy initiatives. It’s neat stuff. So why’d you leave?”
“This year is just a leave of absence.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why the leave of absence?” She turned in the seat a little, tucking her left foot under her right leg and adjusting the seat belt on her shoulder.
“I missed competing,” he said simply. “I’ve been working long hours for years now, cooped up inside for the most part. I wanted one year. Just one, to do what I wanted to do. To have some fun. So I asked my boss for a leave and I got it.”
“You don’t like being an engineer?”
“It’s not that. Or at least... Hell, it’s complicated.”
Lizzie wasn’t sure what to think about that. She had one brother who seemed allergic to responsibility and there were lots of times she’d had the thought that he needed to grow up. For some reason it had been easier to accept that Chris was a bronc rider when she didn’t know he had a perfectly good, respectable career that he’d abandoned for a “year of fun.” Then there was the fact that she, apparently, was part of that year of irresponsibility.
“It’s always complicated,” she responded, feeling the comment was a bit useless but not knowing what else to say.
The resulting silence was awkward. Lizzie had thought company for the drive would be good, but hadn’t thought about how awkward it could be being shut up in a car for hours with no escape. Thankfully it was only a few minutes and Lizzie’s phone rang again. Rather than put it through the Bluetooth, she took it from her purse and answered it. She’d rather not have family business on speaker.
“Lizzie, it’s Julieta. I wanted to give you an update.”
Lizzie’s stomach tightened nervously. “Is he okay?”
“Your father’s just gone into surgery for his leg. The concussion seems minor, no bleeding or anything so they decided to go ahead.”
“I’m getting there as fast as I can.”
“Just get here safely. He’ll be in surgery for a few hours yet.”
“Thanks.”
“Ask at the desk at Emergency and they should be able to tell you where we are, okay?”
“Sounds good.” Lizzie hesitated and then felt the need to ask. “Does anyone need anything?”
Julieta’s voice was warm over the line. “We’re fine. You don’t need to look after us, Lizzie. Now drive safe and we’ll see you soon.”
Lizzie hung up, knowing she’d had the perfect opportunity to say she wasn’t alone but for some reason hadn’t. She didn’t want Chris to be a dirty little secret, but in her mind he was. She was going to have to get over that. Her family was going to find out sometime. Hiding Chris in a closet wasn’t going to help anything.
“Anything wrong?” Chris asked, his voice concerned.
“They’ve taken my father into surgery.” She frowned. “I know Julieta didn’t say it, but he’s not a spring chicken anymore. I’m worried about how hard this is going to be on his body.”
“From everything I’ve heard, he’s in great shape. I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Chris smiled encouragingly.
“I hope you’re right,” she said, si
ghing and leaning her head against the window.
He reached over and patted her leg, once, twice, and then put his hand back on the wheel.
But the gesture had given her more comfort than she’d expected, and when she closed her eyes she could see him standing before her in his apartment, claiming that he was going to take responsibility for their child. And as her breathing deepened, she pictured him as he’d been not even two months ago, his dark gaze boring into hers as they made love in the lamplight of the motel. The night her baby had been conceived...
* * *
CHRIS LOOKED OVER at Lizzie and frowned. She looked so peaceful now that she was sleeping, the lines of stress gone from her eyes and her lips slightly open as she took slow breaths.
Pregnant. Once he’d heard the word and absorbed the initial shock of the news, he’d done a pretty good job of holding it together. Of saying the right things. But that was nothing more than reaction in the very simplest terms. It was done and couldn’t be changed. And it went without saying that he’d step up and do what was right. It was how he’d been raised.
But now that the reality was sinking in, he was freaking out a bit. A father! Sure, he’d have several months to get used to the idea, but it didn’t alter the fact that his life was going to change. He was going to be tied to Lizzie Baron...forever.
A delicate snore came from the passenger seat and he looked over, unable to stop the wave of tenderness that washed over him. Maybe he was freaking out but he wasn’t oblivious to the fact that she was facing the greatest changes right now. Heck, she’d turned a strange shade of whitish-green earlier and had needed to eat, and now she was sound asleep in the middle of the afternoon. He’d been right to drive her back to Dallas.
One night. One single night he hadn’t been able to resist the temptation of her. One night when careful hadn’t been careful enough...and now he could see his one year of freedom slipping further and further away.
She was beautiful. She’d been fair with him today and she was going to be the mother of his child. What a thing to have to wrap his head around.
But as he thought about his plans and how they’d suddenly been rendered irrelevant, he couldn’t help but resent her just a little bit.
Chapter Three
Lizzie opened her eyes, instinctively putting her hand to the muscles in her neck that had tightened from the awkward angle in which she’d slept. A quick check showed they were nearly at the city limits. It wouldn’t be long now and they’d be at the hospital. Good heavens, how long had she slept?
“Feel better?”
Chris’s voice came from beside her and she turned her attention away from the view out the window. “I do. I didn’t realize how tired I was.”
“You probably work pretty long hours.”
She snorted a little. Pretty long? Twelve-hour days were the norm. Her heart caught a little. What would happen now if her dad couldn’t resume his place at Baron? There’s no way she wanted Mark Baker at the helm. He was younger and a real go-getter, but he was also a part of that boys’ club that made her feel as if she was going to get a pat on the head rather than the respect she’d earned. Especially since he seemed to hold a bit of a grudge where she was concerned.
Baron Energies should have a Baron at the head of the table. And the only Baron on the board right now was her.
And she was pregnant.
What a mess.
“My hours are probably about to get longer, with Dad away from the office for a while. Hopefully it’ll just be a few weeks.”
Hopefully.
“So when are you planning on telling them?”
Right, there was that, too. “I want my dad to let me run Baron while he’s out of the office. If I tell him I’m pregnant...there’s no way he’ll agree.” She sighed, looked over at Chris and wondered if they were becoming friends now, what with all this confiding. It seemed ludicrous. “This will be the first grandchild. I’m the oldest. He’s a bit old school. I’ll be fighting him tooth and nail even if I stay in my current position.”
“So not for a while, then.”
“Are you kidding? Add to that the fact that I’m single, and it’s going to be one stressful conversation.”
Single. Because they had had a one-night stand, not a relationship.
Could things be in a bigger mess?
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
She laughed a little. “Rewind eight weeks and not walk into the bar?”
And then she felt instantly sorry she’d said it. That wasn’t fair. She’d been as willing a participant as he had. “Sorry,” she murmured, looking away. “You’re not to blame.”
“Clearly I’m half to blame,” he returned, slowing down to take an exit, but she could sense he was annoyed.
“You said you’re going to take a bus back to San Antonio?”
“It makes the most sense.”
“Maybe one of the boys can run you to the station.”
“Wouldn’t that require an explanation?”
Damn it. And yet asking him to walk or take public transit seemed cold. Like she was...ashamed. Determined to keep him out of sight, and that didn’t sit well with her. She wasn’t brought up to sneak around. Besides, he’d given up hours of his day to drive her here when he didn’t have to.
Traffic slowed as they neared the city center and Lizzie tapped her fingers on her knee. At some point her family would meet Chris. Heck, Jacob and Jet already knew him, at least a little. What if he came inside rather than being pushed aside, invisible? She had a sudden flash of inspiration. What if Lizzie could bring the family around to this gradually, so it wasn’t such a shock?
“I was thinking...rather than disappear to the station, maybe you’d like to come in? Just because we show up together doesn’t mean we have to tell my family everything, does it?”
He stopped at a traffic light and looked over at her, his dark eyes piercing. “You’re scheming, aren’t you?”
She tried a small smile. “Not scheming, planning. Planning is what I do best. I get fewer surprises that way.”
Lizzie wasn’t a fan of surprises. Several had come her way over the years that she couldn’t control, but she tried to keep them to a minimum in her own life. Now that she was pregnant, she realized she hadn’t done such a stellar job.
“What if I introduce you and just, I don’t know, say that we were together when I got the call and you offered to drive?”
“Together? In San Antonio?”
She bit down on her lip. “Oh. Right. Well, we could always say that we’ve been seeing each other a little, but we weren’t saying anything because it was early days.”
“You mean lie.”
“It’s not technically a lie. We have seen each other a little...”
“It’s deliberately misleading them, so yeah, in my books that’s a lie.”
The light changed and he moved through the intersection. On one hand, his stubborn stance annoyed her but on the other, she admired his honesty. “So what, you just want to walk in and say ‘hey, I’m Chris, and I knocked up Lizzie?’”
Now it was his turn to look perturbed. “I didn’t say that.”
“So what if they think we’ve been seeing each other? It’ll make breaking the news easier.”
“What you mean is it’ll make it look better, right? I mean, getting accidentally pregnant by your boyfriend looks marginally better than picking up some guy in a bar.”
“You don’t have to make it sound so crude.” Yes, they’d hooked up. But it hadn’t been... Lizzie swallowed thickly. That night it had seemed as though they’d known each other forever. He hadn’t felt like a stranger. Perhaps that’s why she’d truly let go with him. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, being beside him now caused the same sort of stirrings she’d felt that
night. She wasn’t as immune as she’d like to pretend.
Chris pulled into the hospital parking lot. “Sorry. It wasn’t crude.” He slid the car into a vacant space and looked over at her. “It was awesome.”
And just like that the air in the car seemed to get heavier. Full of promise and caution all at the same time.
His gaze held hers for far too long as the engine idled. In the space of those moments, Lizzie recalled so many things about that night. The way he smiled, the warmth in his eyes, replaced by a heat so scorching she thought she might be singed by it as his hands touched her body. The sound of his voice in the dark, the low, rich chuckle in the shadows. How he’d opened his arms and let her curl up against him rather than looking for an escape route.
Chris Miller was no more the bad guy here than she was. And because of it she was compelled to agree with him. “You’re right,” she answered shyly. “It was awesome.”
Silence filled the car once more.
“Look,” she said quietly. “I’m not ready to come right out and tell everyone the news, especially now. I want to wait for the dust to settle. But I don’t want to treat you like some dirty little secret, either. I went to find you today to start us talking. To give us a chance to make some decisions before having to deal with my family. The Barons aren’t exactly...subtle.”
She undid her seat belt and turned in the seat until she was facing him completely. “Chris, when I go in there they’re going to ask questions anyway, about what I was doing over three hours away from Dallas on a workday. If I say I was taking care of some personal business they won’t let it drop. I was willing to face that before, but now I’m thinking...if we went in there together, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for them to come to their own conclusions. It could buy us some time to figure this all out. Plus...”
Her voice faltered and she looked down at her hands. Her nails were precisely painted and beautifully manicured. Where had the outdoor-loving, ranch-riding girl gone? She was lost behind a power suit and a pair of heels.
“Plus what, Lizzie?”