Wild Western Nights

by Sara Orwig

  It was noon before they had food delivered. She had dressed in jeans and a blue T-shirt. Gabe wore jeans and a navy knit shirt. They sat on the balcony to eat, having a spread of both breakfast and lunch items.

  She gazed at the platter of fruit, another of sandwiches, scrambled eggs, bacon, hot rolls.

  “Gabe, this is as decadent as making love for hours on end. We can’t possibly eat all this.”

  “One of us may come close. I’m starving. It’s been a long time since that steak last night.”

  She laughed and helped herself to a bowl of fruit. “Well, the fruit looks luscious.”

  “I’ll tell you what looks luscious,” he said, gazing intently at her.

  She smiled. “Don’t start until we eat a bite.”

  “I’ll try to restrain myself, but when the most beautiful blonde in Texas is sitting only a few feet away and has let me make love to her all night—”

  “Will you stop!” she exclaimed. “Eat something while you can.”

  “Want coffee?” he asked.

  “No thanks. I’ll have milk. I love milk.”

  “So I noticed.” He poured a cup of steaming coffee.

  They lingered over brunch, but within the hour they were back in bed and in each other’s arms.

  They spent Saturday and Sunday making love. On Monday morning, while Gabe dozed, she shifted to look at him. She had put off telling him about Rebecca. But It was time to get back to the real world. This afternoon she would tell him the truth.

  Later that morning as they ate breakfast inside, she toyed with her glass of orange juice. “Gabe, I need to get back to the ranch today. I’ve put things off so we could have this weekend, but I should return and get ready for tomorrow.”

  “I don’t want to, but sure. We’ll fly home.” He pulled out his cell phone and called his pilot. “All done. I’ll have you back at the ranch by four.”

  “Thanks,” she said as her cell phone rang. She answered and heard Rebecca’s high-pitched voice. She stood, glancing across the table at Gabe, who came to his feet when she did.

  She motioned to her phone and left him, walking out on the balcony to talk to her daughter and then her mother.

  When she said goodbye and ended the call, she turned to face Gabe. He had stepped out onto the balcony and stood by the door. His tan knit shirt fluttered slightly with the summer breeze. He was in his jeans and boots and looked relaxed, except his blue eyes were focused intently on her.

  Her heart thudded, and she couldn’t get her breath.

  “What did you hear?” she blurted out, shocked to find him standing there.

  “Sorry, Maddie, to intrude, but we’ve spent more than twenty-four hours in intimacy. As close as I’ve always felt to you, I know there’s something you’re hiding from me. Is there some kind of problem at home? If you’re in any trouble, if you need money, you know I’ll help any way I can.”

  She let out her breath the minute she learned that he thought she needed money. “So you didn’t hear my conversation?”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  Her breathing returned to normal, but her nerves prickled. It really wouldn’t have mattered whether he had heard her end of the call or not. He would never have figured out who she had spoken to.

  “I’m not in any trouble. I definitely don’t need money,” she said, picking her words carefully. “I do need to talk to you, and I’ve put off doing so.”

  “Whenever you want,” he said quietly, still studying her as if he had never seen her before.

  “Let’s go inside where there aren’t distractions,” she said, trying to compose herself.

  “Sure,” he said, holding the door for her. As soon as they were inside, he turned her to face him, resting both hands on her shoulders.

  “Maddie, we’ve known each other a long time. Whatever is bothering you, you can tell me.”

  “I hope you feel that way after we talk. This isn’t going to be easy. Let’s sit, Gabe,” she said, still trying to buy some time. She had decided to tell Gabe, but she hadn’t given a lot of thought to how to go about it.

  When she sat in a wing chair, he sat close to her on the sofa.

  “Gabe, this could make a difference in our friendship.”

  “No, it won’t. Nothing can.”

  “How I wish,” she said. “But I don’t think you’ll feel that way shortly,” she added, and his eyes narrowed.

  Leaning forward, she locked her fingers together. “There’s no easy way to do this.”

  Seven

  Gabe sat waiting, unable to imagine what disturbed her so much He couldn’t conceive of anything that would end their friendship, particularly after this weekend together, yet her apprehension showed in her brown eyes and in the slight frown that furrowed her brow. Her knuckles were white—something he had never seen on Maddie before. Through all their childhood scrapes, the arguments that last summer, he had never seen her as tense as she appeared to be this moment.

  “Maddie, relax. It’s me, Gabe.”

  “First, I want you to understand that I did what I thought was best.”

  “I can understand that,” he said, wondering what she had done that made her think he would be so critical. He felt relaxed and curious, unable to guess what could possibly be the problem.

  “I did what I thought would save us both. Promise me that you’ll try to remember that,” she repeated.

  “This is something that concerns me?” he asked, startled. His puzzlement grew because he couldn’t imagine one thing that Maddie was involved in that also concerned him.

  “Yes, it does,” she said, taking a deep breath.

  “Say it, Maddie. We’ll still be friends,” he said, now anxious to have her spit it out. He was totally at a loss. How could all those phone calls concern something that involved him? He could not imagine what tie he would have to Maddie and whoever she had talked to, much less talked to in that caring, low-voiced tone.

  “Gabe, I have a daughter, Rebecca. That’s who I’ve been talking to on the phone.”

  Stunned, he stared at her. “A daughter? Why didn’t you tell me? You said you’re not married. And what does that have to do with me?” he asked. The minute the words spilled out of his mouth, he stared at her in shock. “You have a daughter and this concerns me?” he said, unable to get his breath.

  Maddie’s face had paled, and her hands were locked even more tightly together. She bit her lower lip.

  He felt like ice. “How old is your daughter?” he asked quietly, thinking there could be only one possible, incredible, tie here.

  “Rebecca is five years old now. Her birthday was in April. Gabe, Rebecca is your daughter.”

  Feeling as if he’d received a blow to his midsection, he lost his breath. He came to his feet, raking his hand through his hair, stunned by her news and equally shocked that Maddie had never told him.

  “I have a daughter. You got pregnant that summer. Is that why you wanted me to stay so badly? Is that why you left and wouldn’t talk to me?” The questions poured out. He stared at her as if he were looking at a stranger.

  “To answer your questions—at first that was not why I wanted you to stay. At first, I didn’t know I was pregnant. I didn’t want you leaving the country when I didn’t think you really needed to go.”

  “I have a five-year-old daughter. Five years, Maddie. This is my daughter?”

  “Yes, Gabe. Rebecca is your daughter.”

  “Why in hell didn’t you tell me?” he asked, and she flinched.

  “I debated with myself for hours, days, upon end. I moved away for both our sakes.”

  “I don’t understand how you can say that,” he said, stunned, trying to think back to that summer. “Why didn’t you give me some choices here? I’ve lost five years of her life.” He paced the room without waiting for Maddie’s answers. He was the father of a little girl. His child. His baby. He turned to stare at Maddie, who wiped away tears. He tried to control his anger, which simmered and threate
ned to erupt. Why hadn’t she told him?

  “Maddie, you kept the most important event of my life from me.” He couldn’t hold back his remarks about what she’d done. He hurt, and anger shook him beyond anything he had ever experienced. “How could you?”

  “I know I kept it from you,” she said, coming to her feet to stare at him. “But, back then, would you have said that her birth was the most important event of your life? Would you have wanted the responsibility of a baby? Or of marriage?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. If I had known I was going to be a father, I would have done the right thing. I would have married you and taken responsibility. Why didn’t you give me that chance?”

  “Because I thought I was saving us both. I knew you so well. Whether you wanted marriage or not, I knew you’d ask me to marry you. At that time, Gabe, you had made it clear that you were not ready for commitment. You know you weren’t,” she said, clenching her fists, her arms stiffly at her sides. “You would have felt duty bound to propose. I was young and inexperienced, and I would have felt duty bound to accept your proposal.”

  “What would have been so bad about that?” he asked.

  “You weren’t ready for marriage, and I wanted to leave here. I wanted college and a career and to live in a city. You didn’t want to be tied down.”

  “It didn’t mean I wouldn’t have done it. Maddie, if we’d married we both might have matured and worked things out.”

  “Maybe, but Gabe, you left. You let me go on my way when you went yours.”

  He sucked in his breath as his stomach knotted. “You’re right about that, but if I’d known… I could have changed. You owed it to me to tell me,” he said, glaring at her, for the first time in his life angry with her. “I’m a father, Maddie. Legally, I had a right to know. Didn’t you know that?”

  “Yes, I knew you had rights, but I did what I thought best for the reasons I just told you,” she said, her chin jutting out stubbornly.

  “I think the legal reasons outweigh your immature judgment on the matter.”

  “Maybe in retrospect it does, but every time I thought it over, I came back to the same conclusion. You weren’t ready for responsibility and marriage. I wasn’t ready to give up college and the career I had dreamed about.”

  He felt a tight knot of anger that he was trying to curb. “Do you have a picture of her?”

  “Yes, I do,” she said, her voice softening. “Rebecca has your blue eyes and brown hair, but she looks like my baby pictures.”

  “I’m a father. That takes some getting used to,” he said to no one in particular, while Maddie got her purse and pulled out her cell phone. He walked over to take the phone from her and looked at a little girl with big blue eyes. His insides clenched as he stared at the picture. “My baby. This is her.” After a moment he looked up. “Can we print this out?”

  “I have pictures on my laptop. I can print one of those out,” Maddie replied. “I don’t have it with me.”

  Gabe took it and felt shaken, staring at the picture of a pretty, blue-eyed little girl smiling at the camera. “She’s beautiful,” he said, filled with amazement to think she was his. He was a father. “She’s so pretty,” he said, wishing he had known her from birth.

  “I think so. She’s sweet, Gabe.” Maddie looked at him, and he stared back, still unable to comprehend how she could have kept his baby from him. From his whole family.

  “Damn, Maddie,” he said quietly, still trying to hang on to his temper. “My folks are so excited over Jake’s news that Caitlin is expecting a baby. They’ve both called me. Now I have to break the news to them that they have a grandchild they’ve never seen.”

  “Gabe, I’m sorry,” Maddie stated, turning away from him to wipe her eyes. “I keep telling you that I did what I thought was best for all of us.”

  “Your family had to know.”

  “Yes, they knew. Since you had left for Nigeria, they agreed with me,” she said. He knew she was crying, but all he could feel was anger for being cut out of his daughter’s life for all these years.

  “I didn’t get to see my baby.”

  “Gabe, I don’t think you would have felt this way about her then.” She spun around to face him. “That’s why I’m telling you now. You’ve changed. We both have. We’ve grown up. You told me about working with those boys. You told me how you liked the little kids you worked with. Six years ago you wouldn’t have felt that way. Take an honest and long look back at that summer and how you felt about commitment then.”

  He clamped his mouth closed tightly, thinking back. Raking his fingers through his hair, he shook his head. “I don’t know how I would have felt then if you’d told me you were pregnant. I know I would have asked you to marry me.”

  “I know you would have, too, whether you wanted to or not. You’ve always had a high sense of honor and duty. You would have pressured me to marry you. I would have married you and sacrificed my education, my legal career.”

  “Even so, I still think you should have let me know,” he persisted, trying to absorb her shocking news. “It wasn’t right, Maddie. I’ve lost years.”

  “I haven’t told my family yet that you know. I told Rebecca that her father went away and didn’t come back. She’s little and she accepted that.”

  “Dammit, Maddie,” he repeated. “You should have shared this with me.” He looked again at the picture. “I want to meet her. I want to fly you home and meet her.”

  “I figured you would.”

  “Legally, I don’t know what I can do. I’ll contact my lawyer and find out.”

  “Gabe, don’t try to take her from me. I plan to share her with you. Please don’t rush into something.”

  “At this point, Maddie, I don’t think you have a right to ask me for any favors,” he snapped, aware he was giving her a harsh answer, but she had kept his baby from him all these years! “You didn’t think about hurting me.”

  Her eyes widened, and she bit her lip, looking uncertain and worried. He couldn’t take back what he said because he had meant it. He wanted to meet his daughter. “I’ll tell you, I intend to be part of her life from now on.”

  “I expected you to. Gabe, I’ve thought this over these past few days. I knew telling you meant I’d have to give her up part of the time. Just remember that.”

  “I’ve given her up for five years. I would never have left the country if I’d known. We should have married and stayed a family. We both would have grown up. I’ll make arrangements to fly to Florida. How soon can you get away from here for a short trip?”

  “I think the earliest would be Thursday.”

  “No. We’re going before then. You can come back. We’ll take the company jet. Also, I want to tell my family. Whatever we do, Maddie, we should marry and give her my name. If you don’t want to be married, we can divorce or separate, but she’ll have my name and legally be my responsibility and my heir.”

  “Gabe, this is a huge change in our lives for both of us. Take some time to think things through.”

  “I don’t have to think through wanting to meet her. I don’t have to think through wanting her to have my name and be my legal heir.”

  “Even if you marry someone else later and have a family?”

  He looked at the picture once more. “She’s my daughter. She’ll be part of my life from now on, and I’ll be part of hers.”

  “You aren’t in love with me and weren’t thinking about marriage. Be careful what you do. At least, don’t try to rush into an unwanted marriage. Meet her and get to know her and then we’ll talk about the future.”

  He nodded. “We’ll see. I’ll think about the options and what we should do. She’s with your mother now?”

  “Yes. Mom keeps her while I’m away or at work. I’ve rarely been out of town and never away from her overnight. She loves to go to Mom’s house. My grandparents love her, and she loves them. She’s a joy, Gabe.”

  He kept staring at the picture, thinking of the years he hadn’t kno
wn her. He would meet her this week. His child. “What’s her full name?”

  “Actually, I didn’t give her a middle name. It’s Rebecca Halliday.”

  “Then I want to give her a middle name.”

  Maddie nodded without saying anything.

  He couldn’t look at Rebecca’s picture enough, and it still shocked him to know this little girl was his. He wanted to share the news with Jake, and he had to tell his family, but when he told them, he wanted to have things lined up so he could inform them what he would do and when they would see her. He didn’t want his dad stepping in and trying to take charge of the situation.

  Still shocked, he stared at the picture. All these years. Florida was a long way from Texas. He would have to forgive Maddie, but right now, he couldn’t. He believed what she had told him—she had thought she was doing what was best for all. What she should have seen was that it hadn’t been her decision alone. She should have shared this with him.

  He walked to a window to stare outside without seeing any of the view. He was lost in his thoughts, running plans and possibilities through his mind.

  Finally, he went to his bedroom to change and get ready to take Maddie back to her ranch.

  When he returned to the front room, she waited with her things collected and ready to go.

  “Maddie, I’ve been thinking about all of this. I postponed the flight home today by a couple of hours. I’m going to see Jake and tell him. Then he’ll understand why you’re changing your appointment.”

  “That’s fine, Gabe,” she replied quietly. Looking solemn and worried, she sounded subdued.

  “While I’m out, I want to pick up some gifts to take to Rebecca. What does she like? I don’t know anything about her! What size does she wear?”

  “She’s dainty, very small-boned. She wears a Toddler Five. Sometimes even a Toddler Four. She’s into princess toys right now. She likes dolls, teddy bears, books, play makeup and toy jewelry. She likes to paint, and she has a small toy computer she thinks is fun. She can read. She’s bright and quick. I’m taking her paints that I’ve already bought.”