A Texas-Sized Secret

by Maureen Child

  Cool, gray-veined white marble tile stretched from the entry all through the house. Paintings, in soothing pastel colors, hung in white frames on ecru walls, their muted hues the only splash of brightness in the decorating scheme. A Waterford crystal vase on the entry table held a huge bouquet of exotic flowers, all in varying shades of white, and the silence in the house was museum quality.

  Idly, Naomi remembered being a child in this house and how she’d struggled to find her place. She never really did, which was why, she supposed, she still felt uncomfortable just being here.

  Toby squeezed her hand as Matilda stepped into the hall and motioned for them to come ahead. Apparently, Naomi told herself, the king and queen were receiving today. The minute that thought entered her mind, she felt a quick stab of guilt. Her parents weren’t evil people. They didn’t deserve the mental barbs from their only child and wouldn’t understand them if they knew how she really felt.

  But at the same time, Naomi couldn’t help wishing things were different. She wished, not for the first time, that she was able to just open the front door and sail in without being announced. She wished that her parents would be happy to see her. That she and her mom could curl up on the couch and talk about anything and everything. That her dad would sweep her up into a bear hug and call her “princess.” That she wouldn’t feel so tightly strung at the very thought of entering the formal parlor to face them.

  But if wishes were real, she’d be sitting on a beach sipping a margarita right now.

  Her parents were seated in matching Victorian chairs, with a tea table directly in front of them. The rest of the room was just as fussily decorated, looking like a curator’s display of Louis XIV furniture. Nothing in the house invited people to settle in or, God forbid, put their feet on a table.

  The windows allowed a wide swath of sunlight to spear into the room, illuminating the beige-and eggshell-colored furniture, the gold leaf edging the desk on the far wall, the white shades on crystal lamps and the complete lack of welcome in her parents’ eyes. It was eleven thirty. They still had fifteen minutes of teatime left, and Naomi had just ruined it.

  She was about to ruin a lot more.

  “Hello, Mom, Dad.” She smiled, steeled herself and released Toby’s hand to cross the room. She bent down to kiss the cheek her mother offered, and then when her father stood up to greet Toby, she kissed her dad’s cheek, too.

  “Hello, dear,” Vanessa Price said. “This is a surprise. Toby, it’s nice to see you. Would you like to join us for tea? I can have Matilda brew fresh.”

  “No, ma’am, thank you,” Toby said after shaking Franklin’s hand and stepping back to range himself at Naomi’s side.

  Franklin Price was a handsome man in his seventies. He wore a perfectly tailored suit and his silver hair was swept back from a high, wide forehead. His blue eyes were sharp but curious as they landed on his daughter. Vanessa was petite, and though in her seventies, she presented, as always, a perfect picture. Her startlingly white hair was trimmed into a modern but flattering cut, and her figure was trim, since she had spent most of her life dieting to ensure it. Her jewel-bright blue summer dress looked casually elegant and at the same time served to make Naomi feel like a hag.

  “Is there something wrong, dear?” Vanessa set her Limoges china teacup down onto the table and then folded her hands neatly in her lap.

  There was her opening, Naomi thought, and braced herself to jump right in.

  “Actually, yes, there is,” she admitted, and glanced at her father to see his concerned frown. “You’ve both heard about this Maverick who’s been contacting people in Royal for the last several months?”

  “Distasteful,” Vanessa said primly with a mild shake of her head.

  “I’ll agree with your mother. Whoever it is needs to be apprehended and charged,” her father said. “Prying into people’s private lives is despicable.”

  “He’s caused a lot of trouble,” Toby said and took Naomi’s hand to give it a squeeze.

  Her mother caught the gesture, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

  “Maverick contacted me this morning,” Naomi blurted out before she could lose her dwindling nerve entirely.

  “You?” Vanessa lifted one hand to the base of her throat, her fingers sliding through a string of pearls. “Whatever could he do to you?”

  Still frowning, Franklin Price looked from Naomi to Toby and back again. “What is it, girl?”

  Oh, here it comes, she told herself. And once the words were said, everything would change forever. There was no choice. Toby was right—she couldn’t keep hiding her baby bump with loose clothing. There would come a time when the truth just wouldn’t remain hidden.

  “I’m pregnant,” she said flatly, “and Maverick is about to send a video out onto the internet telling everyone.”

  “Pregnant?” Vanessa slumped back against her chair, and now her hand tightened at the base of her throat as if she were trying to massage air into her lungs.

  “Who’s the father?” Franklin’s demand was quiet but no less fierce.

  “Oh, Naomi,” her mother said on a defeated sigh. “How could you let this happen?”

  “Who did this to you?” her father asked again.

  As if she’d been held down against her will, Naomi thought on an internal groan. Oh, she couldn’t tell them about Gio. About how stupid she’d been. How careless. How could she say that the baby’s father was an Italian gigolo with whom she’d spent a single night? But what else could she say?

  They were waiting expectantly, her mother just a little horrified, her father leaning more toward cold anger. She’d proven a disappointment. Again. And it was only going to get worse.

  “I’m the father,” Toby said when she opened her mouth to speak.

  “What?” she whispered, horrified.

  Toby gave her a quick smile, then fixed his gaze on her father. “That’s why I came here with Naomi today. We wanted to tell you together that we’re having a baby and we’re going to be married.”

  Naomi could only stare at him in stunned silence. She hadn’t expected him to do this. And she didn’t know what to do about it now. A ribbon of relief shot whiplike through her, and even as it did, Naomi knew she couldn’t let him do this. As much as she appreciated the chivalry, this was her mess and she’d find a way to—

  “We wanted to tell you before anyone else,” Toby went on smoothly. “Naomi’s going to be living with me at my ranch.”

  “Toby—”

  He didn’t even glance at her. “No point in her staying at her condo in town, so she’s moving to Paradise Ranch in a few days.”

  “But—” She tried to speak again. To correct him. To argue. To say something, but her mother spoke up, effectively keeping Naomi quiet.

  “Living together isn’t something I would usually approve,” she said primly, “but as you’re engaged, I think propriety has been taken care of.”

  Propriety. Naomi had often thought her mother would have been happier living in the Regency period. Where manners were all and society followed strict rules.

  “Engaged.” Her mother said the word again, as if savoring it. “Oh, Naomi, you’re marrying Toby McKittrick. It’s just wonderful.”

  Vanessa rose quickly, moved to stand beside her husband and then actually beamed her pleasure.

  Naomi had never been on the receiving end of that smile before, so it threw her a little. Then she realized exactly what her mother had said. She wasn’t thrilled about the baby, but about her daughter marrying Toby. Handsome. Stable. Wealthy Toby McKittrick. That was the kind of announcement Vanessa Price could get behind.

  And that realization only made Naomi furious. At Toby. She hadn’t expected her parents to be supportive, but having Toby ride to the rescue felt, after that first burst of relief, more than a little annoying. Sh
e’d only wanted him here for moral support. Not to sweep in and lie to save her. The whole purpose of coming here to tell her parents the truth was to get it over with.

  Now not only had the moment of truth been postponed, but Toby had added to the mess with a lie she’d eventually have to answer for.

  “Toby—”

  He looked down at her, gave her a smile, then surprised her into being quiet with a quick, hard kiss that left her lips buzzing. Shock rattled her. He’d never kissed her before, and though it hadn’t been a lover’s kiss, it wasn’t exactly a brotherly kiss, either.

  When he was sure she was shocked speechless, he turned to face her parents. “Naomi’s a little upset. She wanted to be the one to tell you about us getting married, but I just couldn’t help myself. And we’re heading over to her place today to start packing for the move, so we wanted to see you first.”

  “Understandable,” Franklin said with an approving nod at Toby, followed by a worried glance at Naomi. “I’ll say, you worried me there for a moment with news of a pregnancy. But since you’re marrying, I’m sure it’s fine.”

  Great. All it had taken to win her parents’ approval was the right marriage. God. Maybe they were in the Regency period.

  “I don’t see your ring,” Vanessa pointed out with a deliberate look at Naomi’s left hand.

  Naomi sighed, then lifted her gaze to Toby as if to demand, this was your idea—fix it.

  Then he did. His way.

  “We’re going right into town to see about that. And if I can’t find what I want there,” Toby announced, “we’ll drive into Houston.” He dropped one arm around Naomi’s shoulders and pulled her up close to him. “But we wanted you to know our news before you heard about Maverick’s video.”

  “No one pays attention to people of that sort,” Vanessa said with assuredness.

  Naomi wondered how she could say it, since the whole town of Royal had been talking about nothing else but Maverick for months. But Vanessa didn’t care to see what she considered ugliness, and it was amazingly easy for her to close her eyes to anything that might disrupt her orderly world.

  “Now, Naomi, don’t you worry over this Maverick person,” her mother said firmly. “You and Toby have done nothing wrong. Perhaps you haven’t done things in the proper order—”

  Meaning, Naomi thought, courtship, engagement, marriage and then a baby. Still, her mother was willing to overlook all that for the happy news that her daughter would finally be settled, with a more than socially acceptable husband. Which meant that when she had to tell them that she absolutely was not going to marry Toby, the fallout would be epic.

  “We should be going now. We need to get Naomi all moved in and settled at the ranch. Sorry for interrupting your tea,” Toby was saying, and Naomi told herself to snap out of her thoughts.

  He was going to hurry her out of the house before she could tell her parents the truth. And she was going to let him. Sure, she’d have to confess eventually, but right this minute? Naomi just wanted to be far, far away.

  “Nonsense,” Franklin said. “You’re always welcome here, Toby. Especially now.”

  Naomi muffled a sigh. All it had taken was the promise of a “good” marriage to fling the Price family doors wide-open. She could only imagine how fast they would slam shut once they knew the truth.

  “I appreciate that, Mr. Price.”

  “Franklin, boy. You call me Franklin.”

  “Yes, sir, I will,” Toby promised, but didn’t. “Now if you’ll excuse us, I think we’ll just go get Naomi’s things and find that ring we talked about before Naomi changes her mind and leaves me heartbroken.”

  Vanessa’s eyes widened. “Oh, she wouldn’t!”

  Toby winked at Naomi, completely ignoring how tense she’d gone beside him. To her parents, this suddenly imagined marriage was very real. She knew Toby thought he’d made things better, but in reality, he’d only made the whole situation more...complicated.

  “You two enjoy yourselves, and, Naomi, we’ll talk about a lovely wedding real soon,” her mother called after her. “We’ll want to have the ceremony before you start...showing.”

  “Oh, God,” Naomi whispered.

  Toby squeezed her hand and hurried her out of the house. Once outside, he bundled her into his truck before she could say anything, so it wasn’t until he was in the truck himself, firing the engine, that Naomi was able to demand, “What were you thinking?”

  He blew out a breath, squinted into the sun and steered the truck away from the front door and back down the flower-lined drive. “I was thinking that I didn’t like the way your folks were looking at you.”

  His profile was stern, his mouth tight and a muscle in his jaw flexing, telling her he was grinding his teeth together. Naomi sighed a little. She hadn’t thought he’d take her parents’ reaction so personally on her behalf, though in retrospect, she should have. He’d always been the kind of man to stand up for someone being bullied. He took the side of the underdog because that was just who Toby was. But she didn’t want to be one of his mercy rescues.

  “I appreciate the misguided chivalry,” she said, striving for patience. “But it just makes everything harder, Toby. Now I’m going to have to tell them that I’m not moving in with you, our engagement is off and make up some reason for it—which my mother will never accept—and then I’ll still be a single mother and they’ll be even more disappointed in me than ever.”

  “They don’t have to be.” He shot her one fast look. “We move you out to Paradise today. We get married. Just like I said.”

  Naomi just stared at him. Since he was driving, he didn’t take his eyes off the road again, so she couldn’t see if he was joking or not. But he had to be joking. “You’re not serious.”

  “Dead serious.”

  “Toby,” she argued, “that’s nuts. I mean, it was a sweet thing to do—”

  “Screw sweet,” he snapped with a shake of his head. “I wasn’t doing it to be sweet and, okay, fine, I didn’t really think about it before saying it, but once the words were out, they made sense.”

  “In a crazy, upside-down world, maybe. Here? Not so much.”

  “Think about it, Naomi.”

  She lifted one hand to rub her forehead, hoping to ease the throbbing headache centered there. “Haven’t been able to do much else since you blurted out all that.”

  “Then think about this. There’s no point in you raising a baby on your own when I’m standing right here.”

  “It’s not your baby,” she pointed out.

  “It could be,” he countered just as quickly. “I’d be a good father. A good husband.”

  “That’s not the point.”

  “Then what is?”

  She lifted both hands and tugged hard on her own hair. Nope, she wasn’t dreaming any of this, which meant she had to get through to him. What he’d just said had touched her. Deeply. To know that he was willing to throw himself on a metaphorical grenade for her meant more than she could say. But that didn’t mean she would actually allow him to claim another man’s child as his own. It wouldn’t be fair to him.

  “There are many, many points to be made, but the main one is, I’m not your responsibility,” she said, keeping her voice calm and firm.

  “Never said you were,” he said. “You are my friend, though.”

  “Best friend,” she corrected, still looking at his profile. “Absolutely.”

  “Then accept that as your friend I want to help you.”

  “Toby, I can’t let you do that.”

  “You’re not letting me, I’m just doing it.” He stopped at a four-way intersection and, when it was clear, drove on toward Royal. “It makes sense, Naomi. For all of us, the baby included. You really want to be all alone in that snazzy condo in Royal? Or would you rather be with me out at t
he ranch? If we’re living together, that baby has two parents to look out for it. And, big plus, you can stop tying yourself into knots over your folks.”

  “So you’re trying to save me.” Just as she’d suspected. “This is all some grand gesture for my sake.”

  “And my own,” he said, then muttered something under his breath and pulled the truck over to the side of the road. He parked, turned off the engine, then shifted in his seat to face her.

  His eyes, the clear, cool aqua of a tropical sea, fixed on her, and Naomi read steely determination in that stare. She’d seen him this way before. Whenever he had an idea for one of his inventions, he got that I will not be stopped look on his face, in his eyes. If someone told him no about something, he took it as a personal challenge. Once Toby decided on a course of action, it was nearly impossible to get him to change his mind. This time, she told herself, it had to be different.

  “I’m not a saint, and I’m not trying to rescue you.”

  “Could have fooled me,” she murmured.

  He sighed heavily, turned his gaze out on the road stretched out in front of them for a long second or two, then looked back at her. “Hell, Naomi, we’re best friends. We’re both single, and we can raise the baby together. Helping each other. This could work, if you’ll let it.”

  A part of her, she was ashamed to admit, wanted to say yes and accept the offer he shouldn’t be making. But he was her friend, so she couldn’t take advantage of him like that. “I don’t need a husband, Toby. I can raise my child on my own.”

  Now he sent her a cool, hard stare. “You forget, my mother was a single mom after my dad died. I watched how hard it was for her to be mother and father to me and my sister. To work and take care of the house. To run around after me and Scarlett with no one to help out. You really think I want to sit by and watch you go through the same damn thing?”

  She bit her lip. She had forgotten about Toby’s family. His mother, Joyce, was a smart, capable, lovely woman who had worked hard to raise her kids on her own. Now Toby was not just a successful rancher, but a wealthy inventor, and his younger sister, Scarlett, was a veterinarian. “Your mother did a great job with both of you.”