A Cowboy's Secret Baby

by Savannah McCarthy

  He played his heart out and was on a record-breaking tear when a commotion occurred outside one of his games in Boston.

  Wyatt scored a hat-trick, and when he stepped off the ice that night, he was informed that Alec Garland had been captured outside with a gun and two knives.

  The search was over, Wyatt was safe—the feds had finally tracked Alec down by following the location of his social media postings. His last message had been from a coffee shop near the arena saying, Tonight’s the night, buddy. Time to end it all.

  Wyatt felt little relief. He had been so focused on hockey, as a way to avoid his pain, that the danger he was in had always seemed more like a distant nightmare than a harsh reality.

  Still, Alec’s capture allowed Wyatt to take a much-needed long, deep breath. He was finally given a moment to properly grieve, but without anyone’s shoulder to lean on, he still felt as empty as ever…

  Wyatt woke up to chirping birds and soft sunbeams slipping through his bedroom curtains. His sheets were soaked from sweat and his head ached, but he forced himself up. His first worry wasn’t himself; it was Liz and Bindi.

  He quickly got dressed and checked his phone on the way out of his cabin. He stopped in the doorway when he saw an email from one of his private detectives on the screen.

  His gut tightened and his chest thumped at the title of the subject line:

  UPDATE ON ALEC GARLAND.

  Chapter 15

  Elizabeth

  Liz would never let anyone know it, but she’d slept unexpectedly well in the luxurious Gold River Ranch cabin.

  It comforted her to have Bindi so close by. She’d slept in the bed next to her daughter and felt a calming reassurance from hearing her little girl’s soft breaths. She watched Bindi sleep for a while when she first woke up, then rolled over and checked the clock on her nightstand. It was still early, but she felt well-rested.

  She tiptoed out of the room and towards the kitchen. She felt like having some tea. Her nerves were frayed but her mind was surprisingly clear. As she passed by the ceiling-high windows of the living room, she gazed out onto the shimmering golden sea outside and felt a wave of relaxation come over her.

  The sweet endless prairie waved good morning to her and she smiled back.

  Liz rummaged through the cupboards and thought about how she might like living here. There was so much open space and natural peace at Gold River; it was a perfect place to start a life—or re-start it.

  She sipped on a steaming mug and got lost in the view. All of her problems seemed to fade into the background as Liz allowed herself to sink into the big center couch and daydream.

  She thought about how nice it would be to finally tell Wyatt her big secret. The truth weighed so heavily on her mind—how would he react? She had tried to ignore the inevitable for so long, but now that they were back in each other’s lives, it was becoming almost unbearable.

  Wyatt was Bindi’s biological father and Liz had no idea how to tell him.

  Yesterday had been so wonderful. The time alone with Wyatt had been almost as amazing as their time together with Bindi. They felt like a family; it was all so natural—but Liz’s own cowardice was keeping them from reaching their full potential.

  She shuddered to think about how things could go wrong. Alec Garland barely even crossed her mind. What if Wyatt got so angry at the truth that he could never forgive her? Liz had deprived him of over 5 years of his own daughter’s life—how would she react if she was in his shoes?

  She closed her eyes and tried to think. There had to be a way to tell Wyatt in a way that didn’t put their relationship in jeopardy. He clearly still loved her, and he had shown nothing but grace and care towards Bindi. They were all a perfect match, but would Wyatt be able to see that through the shock?

  Liz took another sip of her tea and pictured herself telling him. She ignored the bad and focused on the good. He’d be overjoyed, she convinced herself. He hadn’t had any real family in years; a daughter would be the greatest gift she could ever give him.

  Still, she knew that there were reasons why she hadn’t told him before.

  Liz had given birth to Bindi about 9 months after the end of their last encounter as a couple. Wyatt and her had given their relationship a second chance, five years after their first go had ended in disappointment. They had gone slow at first—Wyatt was still trying to heal his shattered soul, after all—but things quickly heated up. It was summer and there wasn’t much else to do but each other.

  It felt like old times and it was exactly what Wyatt had needed. He was able to recover some good memories from his hometown and Liz had been there to help him along the way.

  She had even stuck around when he went back to Toronto for training camp. She was in her second full year of teaching by then, so she felt secure enough in her own independence to let him spoil her a little. She flew into the big northern city whenever he had a weekend off and she’d watch exhibition games from the girlfriends’ booth. Things were going well—until the school year started again.

  Liz suddenly found herself too busy to consistently come visit. They tried the long-distance thing for a while, but it wasn’t working out. They were both too drained by their demanding jobs to keep up with each other’s emotional needs.

  Things fizzled, and before she knew it, Liz hadn’t seen Wyatt in-person for almost a month.

  They hadn’t talked in a week when she started getting nauseous in the mornings. Their last conversation had been tense and disjointed. Wyatt had seemed distracted and though Liz didn’t know she was pregnant yet, she was feeling weird too. At the time, she had just chalked it up to sadness. She wanted to make it work, but it was becoming clear to her that Wyatt’s true love was hockey, not her.

  So, when she did find out she was pregnant—and knew that no one else but him could be the father—she decided not to tell him.

  How could she?

  Liz still cared about Wyatt enough to know she’d always be in second place—she also knew him well enough to know that if she told him the news, the duty-bound cowboy wouldn’t hesitate to come home. He was raised right; family was always most important, but could he handle being torn away from his true love?

  Liz didn’t think so.

  Wyatt was still reeling from his parents’ death. As much as he had been trying to mend himself over the summer, his wounds were still too fresh and he was still too young to properly grieve. Liz understood how much he needed the escape that hockey provided him, and, at the same time, she appreciated how her presence was only a reminder of his dark past.

  Wyatt still wasn’t over what had happened in Watford, and Liz wasn’t going to leave her hometown anytime soon—she was too close to finally setting up her own life there. It didn’t take a genius to see how fraught with resentment their relationship might become if she told him the truth.

  So, she decided to put it off. She didn’t call him and he didn’t call her. Eventually, she gave birth, a single mother, with only her parents present for support.

  By then it felt too late to tell him. He had already missed her birth; wouldn’t that devastate him even more than being pulled away from the game he loved?

  Liz filled her mind with excuses, until she was so weighed down by them that it seemed impossible to ever lift them.

  Then, Wyatt returned.

  Over the past 48 hours, Wyatt had shown Liz just how much he had grown as a person. She saw him as a man who was finally coming to terms with his past and she was proud of him for that, but also terrified of destroying all his progress.

  The truth would either bring them together for good or separate them forever.

  Liz didn’t know if she was ready to make that decision.

  Still, the excuses were slowly evaporating from Liz’s mind. She had never stopped being in love with Wyatt, and through their conversations yesterday, she was finally starting to understand how wrong she had been all those years ago.

  Hockey wasn’t Wyatt’s one true love. Hock
ey had just been the easiest way for him to shield himself from the pain. When Wyatt had come back to Watford that first time, he wasn’t trying to escape his dark past; for the first time since the tragedy, he was trying to confront it head on. But he failed. It was all too much. So, he shrunk back to hockey and the mindless sanctuary that the game provided for him.

  It wasn’t love that made Wyatt choose hockey over her, it was fear.

  This time was different though. He had grown. She had grown. A beautiful baby girl had graced the world and provided a shining beacon to all those whose lives she touched. Liz could only hope that Wyatt saw Bindi in the same light that she did: a saving grace; a reason for pushing towards a better life.

  Liz was so lost in her thoughts that she hardly heard the first knocks at the front door.

  “They found him,” was the first thing Wyatt said.

  He pushed past Liz and paced in the hallway to the living room. She could tell he was stressed about the whole thing.

  “Where is he?” she asked, instinctively walking past Wyatt towards the bedroom where Bindi still slept. Wyatt followed.

  “He’s in Bismarck... or at least, he was.”

  Liz saw her little girl curled up in a ball on her messy bed. Her covers were splayed out beneath her like a hurricane had just passed through. She rolled over and stretched out without opening her eyes.

  “What does that mean?” Liz questioned him.

  They stepped back outside of the bedroom. “It means that Alec had been regularly checking in with his probation officer since his release... until yesterday,” Wyatt explained.

  Liz made a beeline for her cooling mug of tea. The two leaned on the back of the big living room couch and stared ahead.

  “The mandatory check-up was supposed to happen in the afternoon—about 3 hours after that article about us came out—but he never showed,” Wyatt continued.

  Liz felt her heart sink. “You think...?” she started, but didn’t finish.

  Wyatt didn’t flinch. “I don’t know. What I do know though is that it’s safest to always assume the worst. Let’s assume he’s coming for us. Let’s assume he saw that picture of the three of us. Let’s assume he hasn’t gotten better and that he’s still consumed by his warped need for some kind of revenge. Let’s assume we have to deal with that.”

  Liz ground her teeth. She played with her lip and gazed intensely out at nothing at all. The sun rose in the sky behind them and beams of light inched across the varnish floorboards ahead. “So, let’s assume all that is true,” she finally said. “What do we do?”

  Wyatt’s phone buzzed and he checked it quickly. He typed a response then shoved it back in his pocket. For the first time since he had arrived that morning, he looked Liz straight in the eyes.

  “I have a plan,” he said, his voice teetering on the edge of certainty, “but I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

  Chapter 16

  Wyatt

  “For how long?” Liz asked, concern drawn on her stubborn face.

  Wyatt shrugged, “Until they catch Alec again. He got out of prison on a technicality—something about unfair representation—but there are other charges that can be used to put him away once he’s recaptured, including violating his probation.”

  Wyatt watched as Liz played with her lip. He had known she wouldn’t like his idea, but he also knew she’d never agree to the only other option.

  He’d thought it up on his way over to her place, then conferred with his security team and the feds working his case. They’d all agreed. It seemed over the top, but it was the only way to keep the both of them safe while not taking away any of Liz’s independence.

  The basic idea was that they would have a big, fake and very public ‘break-up’. Wyatt would call his contacts in the media and have his agent set up a few rumours about how the two of them now hated each other’s guts, then he’d go back to Toronto, where Alec couldn’t get to him, and leave Liz to go about her life in Watford. He’d leave behind a large task force of special operatives that would keep a 24/7 watch on Liz and Bindi, just in case Alec wasn’t getting the hint, but otherwise, he’d be the bait in the scenario.

  The hope was that Alec would try to cross the Canadian border in order to get at Wyatt. As someone with a criminal record, he’d automatically be detained, even if the presiding officers weren’t aware of his intentions. Officials on both sides had been briefed about the situation and put on high alert. Wyatt was a beloved figure in both Canada and America, and he had had no trouble getting the attention of the required higher-ups.

  The plan was ready to be put into action, if Liz agreed.

  “Why can’t I just come with you to Toronto?” she asked, after a moment of silence.

  Wyatt raised his left eyebrow playfully. For the first time since he saw the gossip article the other night, a sly smile crossed his lips. “You can if you want,” he offered, hoping beyond hope that she would. He didn’t want to be apart from Liz—after all the years of separation and everything they’d missed out on together, he only wanted to stay by her side from now until the end of time—but he also knew her well enough to know how she’d have reacted if he had offered that solution first.

  “Bindi would love Toronto...” her finger found her lip again, “but we have no idea how long we’d be there, right? What if they don’t catch Alec before school starts again? I can’t just give up my job.”

  Wyatt nodded. “I know,” he said solemnly. “You have your own life here and I don’t want to tear you away from it because of my own problems.”

  Liz stopped him. She found his hand and softly began to rub his fingers. “This is our problem,” she declared. “If we’re really going to make this work, we have to be willing to share our problems, no matter how dangerous.”

  “What about Bindi?” Wyatt asked. “She doesn’t deserve to get stuck in the middle of all this.”

  “Bindi will be fine,” Liz announced. She sounded like she was trying very hard to be brave even if she wasn’t feeling entirely certain or particularly strong. Wyatt figured it was her mother’s instinct kicking in. He squeezed her hand back and took a deep breath.

  “You’ll have the best security if you stay here. I don’t want you to think that you have to come with me. I know that’s a problem we’ve had in the past.” Wyatt rubbed the back of Liz’s hand and watched as her pretty eyes darted back and forth. He shuddered at the thought of being away from her again. He had gotten so good at protecting himself from his feelings for her, but the moment they had come across each other again, all of his walls had crumbled.

  He was laid bare for her, but he also knew he had to do the right thing, and the right thing was to keep her and Bindi safe. Toronto would be safest, but forcing her to uproot her life like that would test their relationship in a way that hadn’t survived the first two rounds.

  “Maybe you’re right...” Liz sighed. “I can’t just up and leave Watford like that. What do I even tell the school? Oh, by the way, I may or may not show up for work on the first day back. How long will I be away? I have no idea! That’s a quick way to get fired. Plus, Bindi will be starting first grade. She needs some stability in her life. God knows I’ve tried my best to give it to her.”

  Wyatt felt his heart clench at Liz’s thought process. He knew where this was going. She was agreeing with him. He knew it was for the best, but still, not knowing when he’d see her again was going to be hard—it was already hard.

  He made it easy on Liz though. “You two need to stay here. It’s not fair to ask you to do anything else.” He let his hand fall from hers. “Just, you know, try to act sad and stuff, in case anyone’s watching.”

  That made Liz giggle. She playfully rubbed her eyes with balled up fists. “Boo-hoo,” she cried.

  Wyatt’s heart fluttered and he leaned down and gave her a quick, soft kiss on the lips. He pulled back and stared into his love’s light brown eyes. Liz wasn’t done with him just yet though. She grabbed the collar on his
plaid shirt and pulled him back in for more.

  They kissed again, more passionately this time. Their lips released all the longing they had pent up from before, and all the longing they were about to experience. It was going to be hard, but at least they’d always have this moment together.

  Suddenly, Wyatt heard something stir from down the hall.

  Liz and him both jumped away from each other like surprised barn cats. Understandably on edge, Wyatt immediately stepped back in front of Liz for protection and faced towards the would-be threat.

  A well-rested Bindi turned the corner out of her bedroom, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

  Wyatt’s shoulders slunk in relief and Liz brushed by him to go see her daughter. The little girl yawned and stretched and then gave Wyatt the most wonderful good morning smile. He smiled back and felt his heart grow immeasurably. The little girl was special and he knew that he wasn’t just in this game for Liz anymore. Bindi came included and he couldn’t have been happier about it.

  “Let’s make some breakfast,” Liz suggested.

  Wyatt nodded. As crazy as things were right now, he knew they needed to keep calm for Bindi’s sake. Something as simple as cooking breakfast could make all the difference in the world.

  “What’ll it be, little lady?” he asked Bindi.

  “Do you have pancakes here?” she asked, as sweet as sugar.

  Wyatt nodded and Bindi reached for him to pick her up. He obliged and the three of them moved into the kitchen like a single unit.

  The ranch was surrounded by security, they were safe for now. Wyatt let his problems fall to the wayside as he turned on the stove and checked the pantry for pancake batter. His life had been such a whirlwind over the past decade, but in this little moment, making breakfast with two people he deeply cared about, he was at peace.