A Cowboy's Secret Baby

by Savannah McCarthy

  “You’re not alone,” he assured her with a squeeze. “And I’m going to make sure you never are again. I know I have to prove it with my actions, but until I can, I want you to hear it from my mouth. I’m here for you and Bindi and I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

  Liz sunk into his grip for a moment before tensing up again. “... Until next season,” she sighed.

  That was like a punch to Wyatt’s gut.

  “Who knows if there will even be a next season...” he blurted out. His eyes went wide at the confession. He hadn’t wanted to tell anyone about his doubts for next year, in case news got out. The last thing we wanted to deal with was a gaggle of inquisitive reporters asking him about retirement.

  He figured Liz wasn’t just anyone though. If he was going to take a real plunge with her, he’d have to trust her.

  After an unsure silence, Liz broke the stalemate. “What does that mean?” she asked, genuinely filled with curiosity.

  Wyatt kept his arm wrapped around her as they turned past a quiet stream. Water ran peacefully beside them. The two followed the current, downstream.

  “It means, since my injury, I’ve had serious thoughts about retirement.” Wyatt let that statement hang in the air. It was a weighty one and he didn’t want to diminish it with further explanation.

  Liz was more than aware of how much it meant; she didn’t respond right away.

  “How long have you been thinking about it?” she finally asked. Her voice was quiet, like she was worried that if she spoke any louder, she might shatter the wild dream rising on the horizon.

  “Casually? For the past month or so. Seriously? Since yesterday... since we started hanging out again.” Wyatt’s chest heaved and sunk with great power. He hadn’t had anyone to confess to in so long—he had stopped going to church altogether shortly after his parents had passed—and the act of finally doing something so revealing again filled him with a mixture of emotions that he wasn’t sure he was ready to handle.

  He felt his usually stoic hand start to tremble, then he felt Liz take control. She squeezed his fingers and filled him with warmth—his tremors slowly faded.

  “That’s a big step,” Liz responded. Wyatt could tell she was choosing her words with the utmost care. “The game means so much to you...”

  Wyatt nodded. He watched the gentle water beside them babble over rocks and fallen branches. His head was clear but a heavy weight kept him from floating off the manicured ground. “You mean so much to me,” he said.

  Liz suddenly pulled away from him. Wyatt turned to her with tented brows, unsure of what he had done wrong. Liz’s eyes were wide and filled with intent.

  “Don’t you dare stop playing hockey because of me,” she pointed a finger at him, far less tranquil than she had been just moments before. “That’s a one-way ticket to resentment and a bad relationship.”

  Wyatt couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s not like that,” he assured her, reaching for her shoulders again. Liz hesitantly let him pull her back towards her and soon enough they were back on their path, side by side and arm in arm.

  “I know you don’t like it when I say it,” he started again. “But I’m getting up there for a hockey player. Sure, some guys play until their late 30s, but most of those players don’t have anyone to settle down with. They only have one love: hockey, and so they play until they physically can’t play anymore. I’ve always been terrified of being one of those guys—retiring at 38, having zero outside prospects and still over half my life left. The smart one’s stay with their girls, don’t let the fame get to their heads, and then ride off into the sunset when the time feels right... and I’m thinking the time’s starting to feel about right for me.”

  “And what if we don’t work out?” Liz asked, after a moment of hesitation.

  Wyatt smiled, unable to think about such a dreadful future. “Well, then I’ll still be young and healthy and have plenty of time and energy to wallow in my misery.”

  “You won’t go back to hockey?” she wasn’t so light-hearted about the prospect.

  Wyatt sighed. “I love the game; it’s given so much to me, and not just fame and money. It’s given me a reason to keep going, it’s given me an escape—and you know as well as anyone how much I’ve needed a good escape in the past—but I’ve also realized something over the past few months. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting older, or maybe I’ve spent enough time away from Watford to get my mind straight, but I’ve realized there are other sanctuaries out there. I don’t have to desperately cling to the ice like I always feared... I have options, but that’s only because of you.”

  Liz rubbed her cheek against Wyatt’s shoulder. They wandered deeper into the wilderness and away from the bright lights of the Ranch. “That’s a lot of pressure on me,” she said, after giving herself some time to think about her response.

  “No,” Wyatt insisted. “You’ve already done all the hard work. From the day we became friends to our very first date, then to our second very first date and now on our third try, you’ve done me an irreplaceable service that just might have saved me from myself—you’ve made me realize I can be normal. I don’t need all the frills that have been dropped on me, all the pressure of greatness. You make me feel like I can have a piece of that enigmatic American dream—ain’t that funny? It wasn’t the money or the fame, not the land or the admiration; it was you; it’s always been you.”

  Wyatt felt his heart racing at the long-awaited confession. These thoughts had existed on the tip of his mind for years before today. Ever since their last go at a real relationship, just over 5 years ago, he had bottled up all of this inside. It was terrifying to finally let it all out, but also oh-so satisfying. He wanted to let Liz know what she meant to him; how she had saved him with nothing more than her presence and her charm; how he loved hockey, but he was in love with her.

  He could work his hardest at anything just to build up a sanctuary around himself that might keep the bad thoughts out, but he knew that the only true relief he would ever really get would come from when he was working with her. Whether that was working to re-build their relationship or working to protect her from an unsure danger, he had meaning when he was with Liz. She was his meaning, and he needed her to know that.

  He leaned down and kissed her forehead. She didn’t pull away. Despite all his troubles, everything suddenly felt right with world.

  Chapter 11

  Elizabeth

  A kaleidoscope of butterflies exploded inside of Liz’s belly.

  She hadn’t known…

  It had never crossed her mind that she had been a sanctuary for Wyatt to find peace in. Through the haze of her own insecurities, she had always managed to dwindle herself down to a nuisance, a leash keeping the ever-so talented Mr. Wyatt Sounder from truly gracing the world with the full extent of his talents.

  It was part of the reason she hadn’t fought harder to stay with him in the past. She had felt like dead weight, a fallen tree trunk blocking off a gorgeous stream from reaching the ocean. But now, suddenly, she knew differently….

  A soft breeze lifted the bottom curl of her long brown hair. It washed against Wyatt’s forearm. He had his sleeves rolled up, still ever the cowboy.

  The wetness of his lips lingered on her forehead. She squeezed his strong arm and let herself succumb to his presence, to happiness.

  Wyatt’s phone buzzed and he quickly checked a message. He stuffed the phone back in his wranglers and the budding couple walked serenely through the wilderness.

  They talked on and off, mostly about the lighter side of life, until Wyatt made a proposition for dinner at one of the fancier restaurants on the ranch.

  “Bindi can eat at the daycare. We’ll check up on her on our way there.” He assured Liz that Bindi would love eating with her new friends. Plus, the daycare menu was pretty much Sanderella’s 2.0.

  Liz wanted so badly to give in. But she always had her barrel full of excuses...

  “I’m not dressed nearly appro
priately enough for something like that,” she noted, looking down at her casual clothes that were spotted with subtle sweat stains from all the playing and walking.

  “First off, you look stunning,” Wyatt smiled at her.

  There went those butterflies again, fluttering around in her stomach. “Oh you,” she playfully swatted at him. “Go on...”

  “Second, we can easily get you a new outfit. How about a dress from Landon’s? Something western. I want to dress you up like my cowgirl.”

  Liz rolled her eyes. “You have such a thing for all this ranch stuff,” she teased.

  “Sure do, count yourself lucky I was better at hockey than bull riding, otherwise I’d probably be on my 5th concussion already— I might have even forgotten you.”

  “Oh, what horrors. I have to say though, I always liked watching you play hockey better—I hated watching you bull ride. It’s such a different animal, literally,” she giggled. “The only good part of it was seeing you fit into your cowboy uniform,” Liz bit her lip, “so much better than you hiding that body of yours under all that hockey equipment.”

  Wyatt chuckled. His laugh was deep and hearty and sent warm rumblings through Liz’s insides.

  He looked down at her with glimmering eyes. “So, how about it? Dinner?”

  Liz sighed. She knew she couldn’t resist. “If Bindi’s okay with eating at daycare.”

  “Let’s go find out!” Wyatt pulled Liz in and tickled her sides. She laughed and screamed and squirmed under his touch, hardly trying to escape. By the time they made it back to the daycare center, they were pretty much kids themselves and Liz’s stomach was sore from all the laughing.

  Sure enough, Bindi didn’t want to go anywhere. Liz felt a rumble in her gut when her daughter said she had made two more friends. She felt guilty for not being completely overjoyed, but she did feel better now that she had plans of her own. This was good for Bindi and good for her.

  Wyatt busied himself with some business on the phone while Liz made sure to tell Bindi and the staff where they would be having dinner, just in case they needed to contact them. She also gave her cell number. Liz felt a slight tinge of self-pity when she took out her phone and realized she hadn’t received a single message all day.

  There was no school, so she didn’t get any work emails, and the few friends she had managed to make while raising Bindi alone were either out of town or working jobs that didn’t have the summer off.

  Liz hadn’t always been the most social person, and she had long since come to terms with that, but seeing half the world trying to get in contact with Wyatt during an ordinary day made her feel a little more isolated than she was used to.

  Oh well, she thought as Wyatt finished up with his call, at least I have his attention.

  She wasn’t sure how comfortable she was with letting Wyatt buy her a dress, but she was in sore need of one. The classiest events she had been to in the past few years were all school related functions, and no one got all dolled up for those. She was jonesing for something a little more stylish, and she figured now was as good a time as any.

  Still, she was determined to find something in her price range, so she could at least make an honest attempt to pay.

  She was quickly rid of that naïve mentality.

  Wyatt whisked her away to Landon’s and she almost had a panic attack when she took a peak at the price tag on the first cute little black lace dress she checked out. She then hesitantly checked the price tag of a neighbouring outfit and nearly fainted.

  Who was buying this stuff? she thought incredulously.

  Watford was a small town filled with mostly working-class people. Sure, the oil boom of the last decade had brought grand old fortunes to some—Wyatt included—but were there really enough barons out there to keep this place in business?

  “How about this one?” Wyatt asked, holding up a stunning red floral button front.

  Liz shuddered to think what it cost. Still, the soft material looked awfully inviting. “Let me give it a try,” she offered, taking the dress into the backrooms.

  Wyatt waited as she changed out of her tired, sweaty outfit and into the fresh new dress. It fit her like a glove. She was checking herself out, daydreaming about her upcoming date, when her phone buzzed alive for the first time all day.

  She nearly jumped out of the new garment. She ruffled through her jean pocket and saw a message from her mother awaiting her eyes. She almost sheathed the phone back into her pants before pausing and thinking about how much her mom must miss her. Sure, she had Dad to keep her company, but there was nothing quite like hearing from your daughter. Liz felt a tinge of sadness as she thought of a grown Bindi not responding to her texts.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t love her mom, it was just that she had her own stuff going on, and her mom had a habit of going on and on...

  That’s because she doesn’t want to let you go, Liz thought to herself. Sound familiar?

  Liz sighed and opened up the message from her mom.

  You’re back with Wyatt!? was sprawled across her screen.

  How in the world...? Liz thought, before texting back immediately, Where’d you hear that?

  After a short moment, three dots appeared on the bottom left of the exchange. Her mom was writing back. Liz waited, but the three dots stood strong. She rolled her eyes. Her mom wasn’t the best with phones—this might take a while.

  She put the phone down and admired her dress one last time. It was stunning. She couldn’t help but wonder how she compared to the women Wyatt was probably used to dealing with.

  They must throw themselves at him, she sighed as she judged her contours in the mirror.

  She quickly shook her head clear of that thought. Liz didn’t want to get lost in that quagmire again. She’d been down that road before, and it had ended disastrously—she had barely made it out with her sanity…

  When Wyatt and her had broken up the first time, just before her 19th birthday, she hadn’t been quite mature enough to make it a clean break. If she had been smarter, she would have instantly unfollowed him on all social media accounts and stopped watching hockey altogether. Instead, she only avoided his games and continued to follow the rising star on every single service she possibly could have. It was a huge mistake that nearly drove her crazy.

  There she was, a lonely middle-class girl trying to live up to a full-ride academic scholarship in another state, completely broke, scrolling through her ex’s pictures and posts that seemed to be coming from a dream world.

  Upon being drafted to the biggest hockey city in the world, Wyatt had instantly become not only super famous but also relatively rich. With his immense talent, natural good looks and country charm, he lit the sports world on fire from day one. No one could get enough of him, not even a lonely young Liz.

  She spent many a sad night alone in her dorm, practically in tears as she watched Wyatt live a fantasy that she could never have even imagined. TV appearances, celebrity meet ups, commercials, the constant thirsty messages from girls all over the world on every single picture he ever posted. It drove her desperately mad.

  Wyatt was living his best life and Liz felt like she was hardly living at all. She had tried to go to a few college parties by then, but none of them lived up to expectations. She was a geek, through and through, and so she either felt out of place at some frat or sorority jam, or was disappointed by the level of energy at a fellow nerd gathering. In retrospect, she was sure she would have loved some of those nerd gatherings, if only she hadn’t been trying to live up to the life Wyatt was projecting on social media.

  She was all in her own head, and so was Wyatt. It made her miserable.

  It only got worse when oil was discovered on his parents’ land. All of a sudden, Wyatt wasn’t just rich, athletic, charming, famous and talented, he was a billionaire.

  That was a dark time for Liz. Her parents weren’t poor but they could only afford to support her so much financially. They never owned any property that turned up oi
l; so, they were left to their regular life, which hadn’t seemed so bad until it was forced next to a giant.

  Liz didn’t think things could get any worse, until the unthinkable happened.

  News came in slowly at first. She was in class when the story broke. Her phone was buzzing off the hook for the last 15 minutes of the lecture, but when she saw it was her mom calling, she’d just figured she’d call her back when the lesson was over.

  It didn’t take long for her to overhear someone sullenly whisper Wyatt’s name as everyone packed up to leave—then her phone buzzed again. A text.

  Have you heard from Wyatt? her mother messaged.

  Liz opened up her phone to respond when she caught a hashtag on her side feed that made her heart drop.

  #PrayForWyatt was trending.

  She put off responding to her mother and instead dove straight into social media. It wasn’t clear at first what had happened and Liz had instantly feared the worst for her former friend.

  It turned out to be somehow even worse than that.

  Wyatt’s parents had died. Killed in a car crash.

  Liz had gone numb. The busy lecture hall, filled with buzzing students packing up to leave, drifted away around her. She had known Wyatt’s parents well. They were lovely people who had been almost as proud of Liz for getting her academic scholarship as her own parents had been of her. She had been to their house countless times, gobbled up Mrs. Sounder’s famous peach cobbler, snuck in their window to visit Wyatt at night, chatted with his dad about hockey and school. They supported Wyatt through thick and thin. Drove him to early morning hockey practices, paid for all of his equipment—despite the fact that they weren’t quite doing as financially well as Liz’s parents—and loved their son with all the warmth anyone could ever ask for. They had even considered selling their ancestral ranch, Stony Brook, to help pay the fee for Wyatt’s national team berth, until the golden boy performed so well in tryouts and exhibition games that the organization offered to pay for him themselves, just so they could reap the benefits of his immense talent.