by Kim Loraine
"Define a bit of."
"I think, well, they say you slept with every girl in town and half the sisters of the ranch hands."
I laughed out loud. “Wow. It’s true, I’ve had more than my share of single women in this town, but definitely not every single one of them. In fact, I haven't had sex in nearly five months."
Her eyes went wide, and a little gasp escaped her. "You mean?"
"You were the last woman I slept with, Hazel. I just didn't want anybody else after you."
Her breath caught in her throat, the sound louder than it should have been in the car, but hell if I wasn't paying way too much attention to her. "You were only the second guy I'd ever been with. And you’re the only one who has ever successfully gotten me pregnant."
"Well…lucky me?"
"I'm older than you, you know?" She wasn't looking at me. Instead, she continued to stare at the fence line like her life depended on it.
I wanted to stop the truck and make her look at me because we had so much to talk about. Not just about the baby. We needed to talk about that night we were together. The night I realized my brothers were right. Once you find someone you connect with, why would you ever want to let go?
"How old are you?"
“Thirty. I'll be thirty-one in a couple of weeks."
I chuckled. "It's not that much older than me, darlin’. Besides, it doesn't bother me. Do you have a problem with it?"
She sat up straighter, cheeks turning pink. "It shouldn't matter. I’m not dating you anyway."
"You might not be dating me, but you're having a baby with me."
“True.”
I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to think of what to say next. We didn't have that much time until she was gonna head home. "So, you're a nurse. Don't you have, like patients or something waiting for you?"
“I’m a nurse practitioner. But I don't have a practice anymore. I lost my space when I got divorced."
"How did that happen?"
"It's a long story."
"I've got nothing better to do."
"My ex owns a wellness center. He’s a chiropractor. I rented my office space from him, but he never made me a partner, even after we were married. So, when we got divorced, he took it all. I had, well, I had everything, and then I had nothing."
Anger boiled in me. Who the hell did that to someone? That asshole stole everything from her, and why? Because he was tired of being married to someone like her, a beautiful, gentle woman. "So you didn't want to get divorced?"
“Not at first. Until I realized he was cheating on me. It blindsided me. But then, I saw the signs that I had been ignoring. Things hadn’t been right between us for quite a few years. It needed to happen. I just wouldn’t admit it."
"Well, I'm glad that he's out of your life. That leaves room for…other people."
She smiled then, the curve of her lips lighting up something inside me.
"And what about you? Anyone ever shatter your heart into a thousand pieces?"
I swallowed hard. "Not yet. But there's time."
Hazel
“I hope it never happens to you. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.” I needed to stop twisting my hair around my finger. I was going to break it off. “I bet you’ve been the breaker of hearts plenty of times, though.”
He shrugged. “If I was, I’m a real fuckin’ asshole.”
Looking at him, I couldn’t agree with that. All I saw was a man who was determined to be there for his child without question. There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation once the reality sank in for him. Tristan was all in.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“What?”
I followed his gaze out front and saw a lone horse limping along slowly. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She shouldn’t be out this far. I don’t know how she got out of her paddock.”
“Do I need to call the vet?” I asked, pulling my phone from my pocket.
“Nah. I’ll call in first. Poor girl has been dealing with an abscess in her hoof from a puncture wound. She won’t get better if she’s way out here walking all over creation on it.”
He grabbed his phone from his pocket after pulling to a stop. “Clint, I got Bailey out here way out of bounds. No, I don’t know how she got out of her paddock. Yeah. Okay, great. I’m in the truck with a guest. Yeah, if you could send one of the hands to help bring her in. Thanks.”
He hung up and sighed. “Bailey, girl, you gotta take it easy until that hoof is healed.”
“You really love those horses, don’t you?”
“Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? They’re amazing animals.”
My heart fluttered, my belly flipping in that bubbly way I noticed this morning. I pressed my palm to my bump and must’ve tensed, because his gaze locked on me.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. It’s the baby moving. Kind of a weird tickle.”
His fingers flexed and curled into a fist.
“You won’t be able to feel it yet. But if you want to touch, you can.”
Reaching out slowly, hesitantly, he placed his palm over the swell. The warmth of his touch made me smile, and as he ran his hand over the place our baby was safely growing, I wondered what this would’ve been like if things had been different for us. If we’d just exchanged contact information, or if we’d met in a different way.
“I’ve never been around a pregnant woman before. Not like this.”
“Does it freak you out?”
He laughed. “The impending fatherhood does. Pregnancy doesn’t. That’s just part of life.”
“I’m terrified to be a mom,” I admitted.
“We can be scared together. Okay?”
Nodding. I placed my hand on top of his. “Tristan?”
“Yeah?”
“Can we go back to the house?”
He smirked. “Technically, we’ve still got a lot of fence to check.”
“Okay, well, I’m sorry to break it to you, but the pregnant lady needs to pee, and I’d really rather use a bathroom and not the pasture.”
A ranch hand rode up on a russet-colored horse and waved at us. “Perfect timing. Let’s get you to the lodge. I can finish this on my own. Mama will want to make sure you meet Sera anyway. I’m sure there are plenty of embarrassing stories they can tell you about me too.”
“I can’t wait.”
By the time we pulled up to the house, I was equal parts desperate to get inside and sad I wasn’t going to be near him for the rest of the day. Was I really so easily charmed? He opened my door for me and helped me down from the tall truck, his warm hand on mine sending tingles up my arm.
“You all right?” he asked.
I pulled my fingers out of his grip and nodded. “Fine. Thanks for the help down. It’s a big truck.”
“It has to be to cover the kind of ground we have.”
“At least you’re not one of those guys who has a big ass truck with nothing to haul.”
He laughed. “It’s rare when I’m not pulling a horse trailer or carrying a full truck bed of hay. One time, my brother took his girl out to the drive-in movie and used his truck for that. I think it was the first time I saw him try to make anything pretty.”
“That sounds nice, though. A movie under the stars with someone you love.”
Striking blue irises locked with mine, and for an intense moment, I wondered what it would be like to be someone he loved. Then he blinked and looked away, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. “Too cold for that now. But we’ve got plenty of things to do for fun around here, I promise.”
We walked together into the house through the kitchen door, Tristan taking his boots off and leaving them outside, me struggling to bend down and get a good grip on mine. Already my pregnancy was making things more difficult. He placed his palms on my hips to stop me. “Come on, sit down. I’ll help you with your boots.”
“I can take off my own boots.”
Smirking, he cocked a bro
w. “I know you can, but I can help make it easier.”
I sat on the bench near the door and let him slide my boots from my feet. He looked up at me from under the brim of his hat, and my heart fluttered.
Standing, he took off his hat and reached over me to place it on the hook. “Bathroom’s down the hall, second door on the left.”
I rushed as gracefully as possible in the direction of the bathroom, very aware of his gaze on me until I was out of his view. After using the restroom and washing my hands, I stared at myself in the mirror. My eyes were bright and filled with a light I hadn’t seen in them for a long time. I felt…free. I may have gotten myself into a situation that was far from the ideal normal, but I didn’t feel desperate or hopeless. Not like I had in my marriage, not like I had after Quinn asked for a divorce. For the first time, I could do whatever the hell I wanted.
Walking through the hall slowly on my way back to the kitchen, I let my gaze linger on the multitude of photos lining the walls. Smiling faces, cowboys hard at work, Mama in a wedding dress next to a devastatingly handsome man who must’ve been Tristan’s dad. God, she’d been a staggering beauty. Not that she wasn’t now, but she’d softened over the years, and that intense beauty turned to gentle loveliness. I wondered if that was what having children did.
“You get lost?” Tristan’s voice caught me off guard, making me jump.
“Oh! You startled me.”
He chuckled and came up beside me. “My favorite is this one.” He pointed to a picture of a man who was clearly his dad sitting on a big black stallion with a chubby baby on his lap. The child was wearing the smallest cowboy hat I’d ever seen.
“Is that you?”
“Yeah. My first ride.”
I giggled. “You were a fat little baby.”
He nudged me with his elbow. “Aren’t all babies fat?”
“If they’re well-fed, absolutely.”
I could feel the heat of his body next to mine. It was intoxicating. He turned toward me and reached up as though he was going to touch my face, but he brushed a lock of my hair behind my ear instead. “What are you doing?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” He bit his lower lip and leaned in. “Do you think about that night?”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “It’s kinda hard not to.”
His palm slid over my belly. “I don’t mean just because of this. Do you lie in bed and remember what it felt like to be with me the way I remember what it was like to touch you?”
“Stop. I’m not here for…this.”
Immediately, he stopped touching me, his eyes going hard. “Sorry. Fuck, I’m sorry.” He walked away but turned and came back. “I don’t know how to do this, Hazel. How to forget about the night we had.”
“You don’t have to forget. But I don’t want that night to be the reason you make this more than it is. One drunken time together doesn’t make a forever.”
“But what if it’s a start?”
I shook my head. “It’s not, and you know that.”
“Tristan? Are you in here?” Mama’s voice filled the hall. “I could use some help with the firewood if you’ve got time. Cold front’s movin’ in, and we’re running low.”
“Sure, Mama.” He and I came around the corner to find her standing in the living room, bundled in a flannel coat with her curly dark hair held back by a red bandana.
“Oh, Hazel, I didn’t realize you were here too.” Her smile was warm and bright.
“We were out checking the fences, but nature called.” I cocked my head toward the bathroom.
“Sounds about right for a woman in your condition.” She gave her son a stern stare. “Tristan, you should be prepared for that kind of thing. She needs to stick closer to the house.”
“Sorry, Mama. I thought maybe for the rest of the day she could hang out with Sera and meet the horses.”
“I’m sure Sera would love that. She’s giving a lesson right now but should be back for lunch in a few minutes. Are you hungry, Hazel? I’ve got all the stuff for BLTs.”
Truthfully, I was ravenous. “That sounds delicious.”
“Tristan, go on, now. That wood ain’t gonna chop itself. I’ll bring you some lunch in a bit.”
Nodding, Tristan strode toward the back door. He stopped and pulled on his boots, then grabbed his hat and put it on. With a tip of his cap and a sexy smile at me, he left.
“I don’t know if you’ve realized this, honey, but my boy is sweet on you,” Mama said.
“He’s just caught up in everything that’s happened in the last few days. We barely know each other.”
She walked to the cupboard and pulled out two mugs before filling a kettle with water and starting it to boil. “So far I’ve been two for two on my boys and their women. I’m not wrong this time either. Just be careful with him. Rykers love hard. But that means sometimes they fall hard too.”
“No one’s falling. We made a mistake one night, and now we’re linked forever. We’re trying to be friends for the sake of this baby. I don’t want anything else from him.”
Mama grinned and nodded as she popped two tea bags in the mugs. “We’ll see.”
Tristan
The ax came down hard and split the wood over and over, a mesmerizing rhythm that we’d all perfected from the time we were teens. Sure, we could’ve gotten the house set up with pellet stoves or even a heat pump, but there was something about a roaring fire that just did it for me. Maybe it was how I’d been raised or who my family was. I didn’t know.
I pulled my shirt over my head and wiped the sweat from my brow before tossing the fabric aside and getting to work on more of the large pile of logs that needed splittin’. A soft little gasp from behind me had me lodging the ax in the woodblock and turning toward the sound.
Hazel stood with her eyes wide and trained on my shirtless torso. She had a plate in one hand and a bottle of pop in the other. “Mama sent me to bring you some lunch. I didn’t…uh…didn’t realize there’d be a free show with my meal.”
I laughed. “Is wood chopping considered entertainment where you’re from?”
Her cheeks flushed. “When the person chopping said wood looks like you, yeah.”
“Hazel, are you flirting with me?”
She shook her head, striding forward and handing me the plate. “Just making an observation.”
“Well, the show’s gonna start again in ten minutes, if you want to stick around.” I bit into the sandwich and waited for her response.
“Thanks, but I’m meeting your sister in the arena in five. Keep up the good work.”
Offering her a mock salute, I popped the top on my Coke and took a long swig. “Have fun. Don’t you get any crazy ideas about going on a ride.”
“I think your mother would hang me up by my toes if I did something like that. If I wasn’t pregnant, I’d be out on the trails right now.”
If she wasn’t pregnant, I’d never have seen her again. I couldn’t tell her that, but it was the God’s honest truth.
“You’ll have to come back after the baby. Come for a ride whenever you want.”
She gave me a sad smile. “We’ll see.” Then she walked away from me, her round ass swaying with each step as she headed toward the stables.
My dick thickened in my jeans, uncomfortable and heavy as I remembered what it felt like to hold that ass in my palms as I’d driven inside her up against the wall of the hotel room. Shit. I couldn’t keep sporting wood every time she was around. If I did, I’d never survive this week.
A flash of red hair caught my eye as Penny, Buck’s fiancée, walked by on her way to the spa. Her little dog, Peanut, ran alongside her, happily stopping every few paces to mark his territory. “Hey, Tristan. Buck told me the news. How are you handling it?”
Handling it? Why did everyone assume I was gonna go off the deep end? “Better than everyone expects, I guess.”
“Well, that’s good. I’d be a wreck. A baby is a big deal. Life-altering. It would change everything be
tween Buck and me.”
My gut clenched. She didn’t know Buck had told me what was going on between them. “I suppose, to me, and I think to everyone in our family, a baby is another person to love. No one in our crew will ever have to go through change like that alone.”
A soft, wistful smile turned up her lips. “Good point. So, is your girl staying here for good?”
“No. Hazel’s not my girl. We’re doing this together, figuring things out, but it’s not gonna be without complications.”
“I’m impressed, Tristan. I thought for sure you’d run.”
“Glad I could surprise you.”
“Well, I do prenatal massage. Not that I ever get the chance here. We don’t get a lot of pregnant guests. Send her over anytime. She should get at least one while she’s visiting.”
I offered her a smile and nodded. “I’ll let her know.” Placing another log on the block, I took my stance. “Anything else?”
“Is she coming to supper tonight?”
“Yes. She and her sister will be there.”
“Great. I can’t wait to meet the woman who tamed you.”
I shook my head, grabbed the ax, and swung it high over my head before bringing the blade down in the center of the wood and splitting it in two. If I hadn’t scared Hazel off, my family might.
Hazel
“What do you want with my brother?” Sera Ryker asked as I helped her brush a beautiful horse named Arlo.
“Want?”
“Yeah, I mean, you show up here, knocked up and looking for him. Obviously you know who we are, what we do. There’s a lot in it for you. He’s in the public eye. I mean, his fan page on social media has over two million followers. It’s just a little…convenient.”
My stomach churned. “Excuse me?”
“Your sister has a YouTube channel. She’s trying to break out, get noticed. Hitching herself to Tristan Ryker after you spent the night with him sounds like a pretty risk-free way for her to get some success.”
Unease twisted my heart. I didn’t want any of them to think I was using Tristan. “I hadn’t even watched Saddle Up until just before we booked our visit.”