Summer Texas Bride

by Katie Lane

  “You’re right,” she said in barely a whisper. “I’m going to make a horrible mother. I can’t even change a diaper.”

  He rubbed her back. “Now that’s not true. You changed their diapers just fine.”

  She shook her head. “Only because you helped me. But you won’t always be around. And how am I going to make it on my own?”

  Her words were like a hard punch in his chest. Probably because he’d heard them before. He’d heard them the night his mother had decided to leave his father. Her sobs had woken Ryker up and he’d walked out of his bedroom to find his mom sitting on the couch sobbing and asking herself the same question over and over again.

  How am I going to make it on my own?

  She had managed, but Ryker knew it hadn’t been easy. He wasn’t about to let Summer suffer the same fate. He might be terrified of becoming a father, but that didn’t mean he could ignore his duty and let Summer be completely responsible for raising their child. His father had done that. Ryker refused to.

  He took her shoulders and drew back so he could look her in the eyes. “You’re not going to do it alone, Summer. If you’re pregnant, I’m going to be there for you—financially and physically.”

  She sniffed. “But how is that going to be possible, Ryker? You live in Dallas and I live in Houston.”

  He should’ve told her right then about her siblings closing her store. But he knew how upset that would make her, and she already had enough to deal with. “I’ll move to Houston.”

  She blinked. “You’d do that? But what about your company?”

  “Another company wants to buy Headhunters. If you’re pregnant, I’ll sell and move to Houston.”

  She studied him intently. “Don’t say things just to make me feel better, Ryker. That’s what my daddy used to do. To keep us from crying when he left, he’d always say he was coming right back. He never did. Of course, I never believed him. I’m not a sucker like my sisters.”

  He read the lie in the deep blue of her eyes. She had believed her father just like her siblings had. She’d just hidden her disappointment better. Like she tried to hide all her emotions. Except she wasn’t hiding them now. She trusted him enough to let him see her true feelings. And he didn’t take that lightly.

  He ran his thumb over her cheek, wiping the last of the tears away. “I’m not lying to placate you, Summer. You can trust me. If you’re pregnant, I’m not going anywhere.” He took a Cheerio from her hair. “I’ll be there to deflect the Cheerios our son throws at you or turn his backwards diapers around.”

  Her eyebrows lifted. “A son?”

  He shrugged. “I’m hoping boy babies are better behaved than—”

  Lucinda’s scream cut him off. “Wy-ka!”

  He lifted his gaze to the ceiling. “God help us if it’s a girl.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Don’t even try to act like you two haven’t been avoiding me.” Summer sat cross-legged on the swing with her cellphone resting on a pillow and Watson resting on her lap amid her knitting, which had gone from a wide scarf to a skinny afghan.

  “I’ve just been busy . . . taking care of the shop.” Autumn’s voice came out of the phone speaker. The hesitation in the middle of the sentence made Summer wonder if her sister had been busy with the shop or something else. Autumn had always been a bad liar. But before Summer could ask her sister what was up, Spring jumped in. That was the problem with three-way calling with her sisters. There was always someone jumping in.

  “And I haven’t called you because there’s not always good phone reception where Waylon and I have been camping.” Spring paused, and Summer could almost see her sister’s dreamy smile. “Not to mention I’ve been a little busy.”

  Summer rolled her eyes as she continued to knit. “Please, no honeymoon details. Although how you have sex with your big sheriff in that little bitty trailer is beyond me.”

  Spring giggled. “It can be difficult at times. So how are Watson and Sherlock doing? I can’t tell you how thankful I am that you’re staying there to keep an eye on them. I felt so bad about asking Joanna Daily and Ms. Marble when they’re already so busy. Especially Ms. Marble. I’ve been a little worried about her lately. She looks so tired.”

  “Join the club. Everyone in town seems to be worried about Ms. Marble and I think I’ve figured out a way to help her.” She quickly ran through her bakery plan. As usual, her sisters weren’t as excited about her plan as she was.

  “Does she want a bakery?” Spring asked.

  “Of course she wants a bakery. Who wouldn’t want a bakery?”

  “I don’t want a bakery,” Autumn said. “I can’t bake to save my soul.”

  “Well, Ms. Marble can bake. And commercial ovens and appliances will make her job a lot easier. So I’m sure she’s going to love it.”

  “You mean you haven’t told her?” Spring said.

  “I plan to surprise her. And before you start bitching at me for being controlling, it’s not just me who thinks a surprise is a good idea. Once I started telling people about my plan, they’ve all wanted to chip in and help. And Ryker is investing the money and working on a website.”

  She smiled. Ryker had looked like such a little nerd last night, sitting at the kitchen table working on his laptop. A sexy nerd. With his glasses, he’d look like a bearded Jude Law in the movie The Holiday. But it was the intensity he had focused on his laptop screen that made her knees weak. Probably because she remembered that same intensity and focus the night they’d made love.

  Made love? She blinked. When had that night switched from tequila sex to making love? She stopped knitting and placed a hand on her stomach. Maybe when she realized they might’ve made a baby together.

  She suddenly had the strong desire to tell her sisters about the baby. She was used to sharing everything with them, and it was hard keeping it a secret. But if she told them, she knew they would come racing back to Bliss. And she refused to ruin Spring’s honeymoon. Especially for a false alarm. No, she would wait until she knew for sure.

  “It sounds like you’ve gotten fairly involved with the town,” Autumn said. “You wouldn’t be thinking about moving to Bliss . . . would you?”

  Summer realized what was making her sister sound so hesitant. Autumn was worried Summer had gotten attached to Bliss like Spring had and wasn’t coming back to Houston. “Oh, Audie,” she said. “I’m not going to desert you. As soon as the doc takes my stitches out at the end of this week, I’ll be on my way home.”

  She thought the prospect of going back to Houston would make her feel happy. But surprisingly she felt a little depressed. She’d enjoyed her time in Bliss. She’d enjoyed sleeping in, gardening, reading, and knitting. She’d enjoyed helping Ms. Marble with baking and decorating. But mostly, she’d enjoyed spending time with Ryker. He was different from any man she’d ever met. Most men either tried to take control of her or let her bully them. Ryker did neither. He didn’t want the upper hand, nor did he let her have it. She liked the equality of their relationship. It was comfortable. She also liked the way he listened when she talked.

  She knew she was stubborn at times—that once she got an idea, she had trouble letting go of it. Her family got sick of listening to her go on and on about her plans. But Ryker seemed to understand her need to talk about them. He listened intently as she spoke. He offered his opinion, but still treated her ideas with respect.

  Respect. That’s what had been missing from her other relationships. She’d never been with a man she’d thought respected her. But Ryker did. He respected her enough to listen to her ideas. He respected her enough to stay after finding out about her pregnancy. And he respected her enough not to tease her about turning into a crybaby when they were watching her nieces.

  “There’s no need to hurry back to Houston.” Autumn cut into her thoughts. “I think it’s much more important that you get completely rested up from your accident.”

  “I agree,” Spring chimed in. “You need to stay righ
t where you are. Autumn can handle the store. Besides, Waylon and I won’t be back by then, and Sherlock and Watson need you.”

  Summer glanced down at the sleeping kitten in her lap and the dog napping on the floor. It would be hard to leave the animals. She’d gotten attached to them while she’d been here. Maybe an extra few days wouldn’t hurt anything.

  “Okay,” she said. “But when I get back to Houston, I’m going to hit the ground running. After talking with Ryker, I know that adding a personal shopper website is going to make Seasons a success.”

  Neither of her sisters said anything.

  “I better go,” Spring said. “Waylon and I are going on a hike.” A kissing sound came through the speaker. “Love you both.”

  “Love you too,” Summer said. “Remember to take plenty of water and wear sunscreen and a hat.”

  Spring giggled. “Always the mama.” The phone clicked.

  When Spring was off, Autumn said her goodbye. “I’ll talk to you soon. Love you.”

  After hanging up with her sisters, Summer knitted for a little while longer before she got up and headed to the garden to do some weeding before it got too hot. Unfortunately, by the time she got to the garden, it was already hot. The sun beat down like a death ray as she tugged out the weeds that seemed to grow overnight. The back door slammed, and Sherlock released a welcoming bark as Ryker came around the corner of the house wearing jeans and a straw cowboy hat.

  That was all. Just faded jeans that rode low on his trim hips and Dirk’s straw cowboy hat that shaded his face.

  She’d thought she was hot before, but it was nothing compared to the heat that filled her at the sight of Ryker’s tanned, muscled chest. He stopped only a few feet away. His bare toes sank into the soil she’d just been weeding. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized how sexy bare feet could be.

  “What the hell are you doing, Summer?” he asked. “It’s hotter than blue blazes out here. You shouldn’t be weeding in heat like this.”

  She pulled her gaze away from his feet and plucked another weed. “I’m fine. What are you doing here? I thought you had work to catch up on this morning.”

  “I thought I did, but it seems your brother has taken care of most of it.” He paused. “Which makes me feel guilty as hell. He’s busy doing my work while I’m here . . .” He let the sentence drift off, but she finished it for him.

  “Entertaining his sister that you might’ve impregnated.”

  He rested his hands on his hips and blew out his breath. “I’ll be lucky if he doesn’t kick my ass from one side of town to the other when he finds out.”

  She sent him a sassy smile. “I won’t let him beat you up too badly.”

  “Gee, thanks.” He took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his brow with his forearm. For the first time, she noticed that he’d shaved his beard.

  “Your beard?”

  He ran a hand over his smooth jaw. “Oh yeah, I shaved it. It was too hot.”

  What was hot was his face without the beard. He had a strong jaw and nice upper lip that shouldn’t be hidden behind facial hair. She tried to go back to weeding, but it was hard to weed when her gaze kept wandering to Ryker.

  He walked over to the hose that was rolled up next to the side of the house. He turned on the spigot, then lifted the hose and took a drink from the nozzle. The sight of his lips pursing as he sucked water into his mouth caused her to suck in a breath. It got stuck in her lungs when he turned the hose on himself.

  He drenched his head and shoulders before shaking like a dog after a bath. Water droplets flew, but there were still enough droplets left to run in little rivers over the hills and valleys of his hard chest and stomach before disappearing into the waistband of his jeans.

  Summer was no longer hot. She was burning up. And if she didn’t look away, she was going to do something extremely stupid. Like tackle Ryker to the ground and have her way with him. She pulled her gaze from him, then took off her gardening hat and fanned herself with it. Just then, a spray of icy cold water hit her in the face. She shrieked and jumped to her feet.

  “Ryker!” She wiped the water from her eyes to see him standing there holding the hose and grinning.

  “You looked hot, so I thought I’d cool you off.”

  “How sweet of you.” Her eyes narrowed as she moved closer. “And I think turnabout is only fair play.” She made a grab for the hose, but he held tight. They fought for it for a few seconds until she gave up and put her thumb over the nozzle instead. Water sprayed everywhere and doused them both.

  “Why, you little minx,” he said with laughter in his voice. He pulled her over to the spigot and turned off the water.

  She released the hose and smiled triumphantly at his soaked jeans. “I won. You’re wetter than I am.”

  His gaze lowered to her shirt. “I wouldn’t say that.”

  She glanced down. Her white t-shirt and bra were completely soaked and transparent. Before she could cover herself, she was pulled against Ryker’s hard chest. The heat in his eyes was hotter than the overhead sun.

  “I win.” He lowered his head and kissed her.

  His lips were chilled from the cold water, but as soon as he opened his mouth, there was a flood of wet heat. He cuffed her wrists in his hands and held them above her head as he walked her back against the house. She had never liked feeling trapped, but with Ryker, she didn’t feel trapped. She felt secure. Like his hands encircling her wrists was the only thing keeping her from falling off the earth.

  He deepened the kiss, his tongue teasing the inside of her mouth as his lips pulled and tugged on hers. He spread his legs wide on either side of hers, matching the fly of his wet jeans to the wet fly of her shorts. Then he gently rocked his hips, brushing her pulsing center and pulling needy moans from deep within her.

  After a few minutes of pure torture, he drew back from the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. “I don’t have a condom, so we can’t have sex, but I can still make you happy. You want to be happy, Summer?”

  At the moment, it seemed like a foolish question. “Yes. Oh God, yes.”

  He released her wrists and knelt in front of her. He had just flipped open the button of her shorts when he froze. “Summer?”

  “Hmm?”

  “You’re bleeding.”

  Her eyes flashed open, and she glanced down to see a bright red spot staining the center seam of her shorts. She stared at it in confusion for a second before the truth sank in. Without saying a word, she pushed away from him and ran inside.

  Upstairs, she found a tampon in Spring and Waylon’s bathroom, and then changed her shorts. She didn’t know why she suddenly felt so sad. She should be happy. She wasn’t ready to be a single parent. And yet, there was a part of her that had become attached to the idea of a little baby with dark hair and pretty brown eyes.

  When she came downstairs, she saw the front door was open and heard the squeak of the porch swing. She stepped out and found Ryker sitting on the swing with his arms resting on his knees and his hat cradled between his hands.

  “I guess you’re not pregnant,” he said.

  She pinned on a smile. “Nope.”

  He stared at her for a moment before he nodded his head. “That’s . . . that’s great.”

  She should’ve sat down in the chair across from him, but she suddenly felt awkward, so she remained standing. “Isn’t it? I mean now you can go back to Dallas and I can go back to Houston and everything is . . . great.”

  He studied his hat. “What about Ms. Marble’s bakery?”

  “There’s not a lot to do. Everyone has volunteered to help. And I’ll be here to spearhead things until I head back to Houston.”

  He glanced up. “So the store is still up and running?”

  “Of course it is. Autumn’s not going to let my store close while I’m gone.”

  He hesitated. “Of course not.”

  He stared at her as if he was struggling with what to say next. Summer didn’t know why she fe
lt disappointed. Maybe because she didn’t want him struggling with what to say. Maybe because she wanted him to say something sweet and kind like he was sorry that they weren’t going to have a baby together. Just like she was sorry they weren’t having a baby together. Which was just plain crazy. She wasn’t ready to have a baby. Babysitting the triplets should’ve proven that to her.

  But it hadn’t. It had been exhausting and hard, but it had also started an ache deep inside her. An ache not just for sweet little babies, but for a man who would love those babies as much as she did. And watching Ryker with the triplets, she knew he was that kind of man. Not a man like her daddy, but a man who would be a good father and husband.

  Husband? What was wrong with her? Had watching Ryker with the triplets scrambled her brains? She didn’t love Ryker. And he didn’t love her. They were just friends. And friends didn’t have babies together. But they did let each other off the hook.

  “It’s okay, Ryker,” she said. “You can go without having to make some big speech. It’s not like we were in a serious relationship. We were just two people who made a mistake and got caught in a . . . situation. And now that the situation is over, we can move on with our lives.”

  His eyes looked confused. “Is that what this is? A situation?”

  “What would you call it?”

  He got up and walked over to the railing and ran a hand through his hair. “Hell, I don’t know. All I know is that for the last few days I’ve felt like I’ve been on a roller coaster ride that I can’t seem to get off of.”

  The analogy annoyed her. She hated roller coasters with a passion. And as worried as she had been about being pregnant, she hadn’t hated being with Ryker. She’d liked it. “Well, you can get off now,” she said.

  He turned and studied her for a moment. “I guess I can.” He tapped his cowboy hat on his thigh. “Well, goodbye, Summer.”