Six Weeks to Catch a Cowboy

by Brenda Harlen

  He had no regrets about the way he’d lived the last five years of his life. It was what he’d wanted to do. He’d loved the excitement, the glory, the adulation. But even while he’d been basking in the sound of the crowd chanting his name, he’d known he couldn’t live like that forever.

  Still, he’d never thought he’d want to come home. He’d been so happy to ride out of town and yet, when his life had gone to hell, he’d felt drawn back here, as if pulled by invisible strings.

  Or maybe the draw wasn’t the town. Maybe it was—and had always been—Kenzie. Lord knows, of all the women he’d been with through the years, she was the one he’d never been able to get out of his mind.

  Of course, he’d never actually been with Kenzie before he left Haven. The brief interlude in the hayloft when she was only sixteen had not ended the way either of them had intended—for which he could only be grateful. He could imagine the fallout if he’d actually taken the innocence of his little sister’s best friend. Maybe she hadn’t been untouched when he left, but she’d still been a virgin.

  She wasn’t that anymore. She was the woman he loved, the one he wanted to spend his life and share his family with.

  “I don’t give a damn what the report says.” He took the envelope from her and tore it in half, then the halves into quarters, to prove it.

  Kenzie watched, not saying a word, as he tossed the four pieces into the wastebasket under the sink.

  “When I decided to have the test done, I had some doubts,” he confided. “And I wanted to be certain.”

  “And now?” she prompted.

  “Now I know the results don’t matter.”

  She didn’t look convinced.

  And her skepticism was both frustrating and infuriating. Hadn’t he proven that he’d changed? How long was she going to make him pay for the mistakes of his past? Mistakes that weren’t even his own. Because he sensed it was her personal history that was as much to blame for her distrust as anything he’d ever done.

  “Dani is my daughter,” he said to her now.

  “Do you really believe that? Or are you just saying that because you think it’s what I want you to say?”

  “It’s what I know, in my heart,” he said. “Maybe, when Brett first suggested that I have the test done, I was still reeling from the news that I was a father. And maybe there was a part of me that wondered if it was true—and even hoped that it wasn’t. Because I didn’t know the first thing about raising a child and I was terrified that I would screw up and hey, wouldn’t it be so much easier if it turned out that I wasn’t her father then I could walk away and let someone else worry about screwing it up?

  “But Emily chose me to raise Dani. No matter what that piece of paper says, she is my daughter. Over the past few weeks, I’ve realized that blood isn’t everything. It’s not even the most important thing. Linda’s willingness to give up her granddaughter proves that.

  “It’s love that makes a family,” he said, imploring her to understand. “It’s love that matters. And even if that paper said I wasn’t her father, I’d fight to keep her with me. Because I love her and she’s mine in every way that matters.

  “I’d fight to keep her,” he said again. “And I’m going to fight to keep you, too.”

  Then he picked up the cup of water and took it to his daughter.

  * * *

  Kenzie suspected that she might have overreacted.

  By the next morning, when the shock had worn off and the sense of betrayal had faded, she could acknowledge that Spencer’s actions hadn’t been unreasonable. But even if he hadn’t done anything wrong, he hadn’t been honest with her, and there were too many secrets in her life for her to readily forgive his deception.

  But she wasn’t going to let her anger and frustration get in the way of planning Dani’s birthday celebration, and she was researching party games on the internet the following afternoon when her mother stopped by.

  “Mom—what are you doing here?”

  “I brought you a vanilla latte.” Cheryl held up two cups bearing The Daily Grind logo.

  Though Kenzie hadn’t completely forgiven her mother for her determined silence on the issue of her father, she stepped away from the door to allow her entry. After twenty-three years, she felt that she was entitled to some answers, but she could hardly force Cheryl to give them.

  “I thought you were working tonight,” she said.

  “Jacqui agreed to cover my shift.”

  “Why?” she wondered aloud.

  “Because I thought we should talk.” Cheryl perched on the edge of the sofa, her cup cradled in her hands. “Actually, Spencer called me this morning and suggested we talk.”

  Kenzie peeled back the lid on her latte. “I’d really rather not talk about Spencer.”

  “Okay,” her mother agreed. “Then let’s talk about your father.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “He wasn’t a rodeo cowboy—he was a rancher,” Cheryl began her story. “Actually, his father owned a ranch in Wyoming on which my dad—your grandfather—was the foreman.”

  Kenzie realized then that as tight-lipped as her mother had been on the subject of her daughter’s father, she’d been just as silent on the topic of her own family—until now.

  “We might have been friends growing up, except that his parents disapproved of us spending time together,” Cheryl continued. “Of course, as we got older, Cody was less willing to abide by their wishes.”

  “Cody,” Kenzie echoed, testing the sound. “That’s his name?”

  Her mother’s eyes were filled with tears and regrets when she looked at Kenzie now. “I never even gave you that much, did I?”

  She shook her head. “You never wanted to talk about him at all. And I understand that he broke your heart when he walked out on you—abandoning his pregnant wife to have and raise their child on her own.”

  “His name was Cody Dunham, and he did break my heart,” Cheryl confirmed. “But the truth is...we were never married.” She lifted her cup to her lips while she let Kenzie absorb that revelation. “It probably seems silly to you now, but twenty-four years ago, having a baby out of wedlock was a much bigger deal.

  “A pregnant woman without a ring on her finger would be talked about, judged,” her mother explained. “An expectant wife abandoned by her husband would be talked about, too, but in a different way. She would more likely be the subject of sympathy than scandalous gossip.”

  “So you lied about being married—even to me?”

  “I didn’t intend—” Cheryl shook her head, cutting off her own explanation. “No, I’m done making excuses. And yes, I lied to you. I lied to everyone.

  “Cody did offer to marry me,” she continued. “When I told him I was pregnant, he immediately suggested that we get married. And I immediately said yes, not just because I was pregnant but because I loved him.

  “It wasn’t until we went together to tell his parents about our plans that I found out he was already engaged.”

  “Oh, Mom.” Kenzie didn’t know what else to say.

  “I was such a fool,” Cheryl admitted softly. “I thought we were sneaking around because his parents disapproved of our relationship. I had no idea that we were sneaking around because he was planning to marry someone else.

  “And when he told his parents that he’d proposed to me...they were furious and accused me of getting pregnant on purpose to trap their son into a marriage that, they assured me, they would never allow to happen.

  “Cody tried to stand up to them. He pointed out that we were both over eighteen and didn’t need their permission or approval. His defiance surprised them, and they immediately backtracked—suggesting that they would support our plans to be together if we promised to keep the news of my pregnancy quiet for a while longer, until they figured out the best way to end his engagement.”

 
; “Why do I get the feeling they weren’t nearly as supportive as they pretended to be?” Kenzie wondered aloud.

  Her mom managed a smile. “Because you’re a lot smarter than I was.”

  “So what happened next?”

  “Mrs. Dunham came to have a private chat with me,” Cheryl confided. “And she promised that if I followed through on my plan to ruin her son’s future, she’d see that my father was fired and my entire family evicted from their home.”

  “That’s a lot to put on the shoulders of a teenager,” Kenzie acknowledged.

  “She obviously felt that she had a lot at stake—and she offered me a deal.”

  “What kind of deal?” Kenzie asked uneasily.

  “They would provide a home for me and my baby if I agreed to leave Wyoming before anyone knew—and without even telling my parents—that I was pregnant.”

  “Is that how you ended up in Nevada?”

  Cheryl nodded. “I didn’t immediately agree to her terms, though. I didn’t want to leave my family, so I promised I would never identify the father of my baby if I could stay. But my proposal was rejected out-of-hand, probably because they were worried my child might bear some family resemblance, and then how would they deny the truth?”

  “Do I...look anything like...him?” Kenzie asked.

  Her mother shook her head. “You’re almost a carbon copy of your maternal grandmother when she was your age.”

  The grandmother she’d never known, because her father’s mother had taken that option away from her.

  “I’m so sorry, Mom,” she said, her throat thick with tears.

  “Don’t,” Cheryl said firmly. “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for.”

  “But...you gave up your family for me.”

  Her mother touched a hand to her arm. “You are my family.”

  Kenzie set her forgotten latte aside to put her arms around her mother. “I love you, Mom. Always and forever.”

  “I love you, too,” Cheryl said. “Because you are, always and forever, the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  * * *

  Spencer had conscripted Kenzie to help with Dani’s birthday party because he figured it would ensure ongoing contact leading up to the big day. His plan was thwarted by her determination to take over the planning—and by his own secrets. So he decided to give her some of the space she said she wanted, in the hope that she would miss him...and maybe eventually forgive him, too.

  He was surprised when she called early on the morning of Dani’s party and asked him to stop by Crooked Creek, where she was setting up for the party. She was filling pink balloons with helium when he walked in.

  “I’m not sure if I should tell you to butt out of my life or say thank you,” she said in lieu of a greeting.

  “Then how can I know if I should say ‘not likely’ or ‘you’re welcome’?”

  She pulled the balloon off the nozzle and handed it to him to tie. “My mother finally told me about my father.”

  “Ah.” He looped ribbon onto the knotted end of the balloon, to secure it to the weight.

  She continued to fill balloons while she summarized her mother’s revelations—probably a lot more balloons than were needed, but he sensed it was easier for Kenzie to talk while her hands were busy.

  “So my mother cut herself off from her entire family because she believed it was the only way she could give me a decent life.”

  “What about your father?” he asked. “You’d think he would wonder why she suddenly disappeared.”

  She nodded. “About a year later, he tracked her down. He’d been married for several months already by then and had just discovered that his wife was pregnant. Apparently that got him thinking about the other girl he’d knocked up, and he decided to find her, to tell her how sorry he was that she’d miscarried their baby.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah, he was surprised, too, when he discovered a six-month-old crawling around on the floor and realized his parents had lied to him.”

  “You know this story has more plot twists than The Light of Dawn,” he noted.

  She managed a smile. “I thought the same thing when my mom was telling it to me.”

  “So what happened when he realized you were his daughter?” he prompted gently.

  “Cheryl said he cried and he apologized and he begged her to forgive him. But, of course, he didn’t offer to leave his now-pregnant wife to marry my mother, so she firmly but politely asked him to leave.

  “Six months later, on my first birthday, he showed up again and confided that his wife had miscarried. So Cheryl invited him to come in for a piece of cake.” She abandoned her task for a moment to retrieve a photo from her handbag.

  He studied the image of the little girl sitting on a man’s knee, then he looked at Kenzie, and back at the photo again. “You don’t look anything like him.”

  She smiled. “I know. Apparently I’m a carbon copy of my maternal grandmother.”

  “And after your birthday...did you ever see him again?”

  She shook her head. “But surprisingly, his parents honored the terms of the agreement they’d made with my mother, and on my eighteenth birthday, they sent the deed to the house. The next day, she went to the bank to mortgage the property so that I could go to college.”

  He tied up the last balloon. “How do you feel about all of this?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” she confided. “Everything just seems to be a tangle of emotions. I’m glad I know, of course. Maybe the answers aren’t what I’d hoped for, but at least I know.

  “And that’s my life story.”

  “That’s only part of your history,” he told her. “Your life story is still being written, and I have some pretty good ideas for the next chapter.”

  “What kind of ideas?” Having emptied the tank of helium, she started to group the balloons into clusters.

  “Well, I was thinking the heroine might enjoy a sizzling hot romance with a sexy bull rider.”

  “She probably would,” Kenzie agreed. “But I think she pretty much blew her chance at that.” She looked at him, all the emotion she refused to acknowledge shining in her eyes. “Didn’t she?”

  He shook his head. “You didn’t blow anything, Kenzie.”

  “I came down on you pretty hard about the paternity test,” she acknowledged.

  “You were disappointed in me,” he noted. “Probably because, from the beginning, you’ve been my biggest cheerleader with respect to my relationship with Dani. You had faith in me even when I didn’t have faith in myself. And I should have trusted you enough to share my doubts and fears with you.”

  “I had faith in you because it was obvious to me, right from the beginning, how much she means to you,” Kenzie said. “Because you stepped up for her, to be the father that she needed.”

  “Because I love her,” he said simply.

  “I know.”

  “So you believe that I love Dani?”

  “Of course, I believe it,” she said, eager to reassure him. “Your feelings would be obvious to anyone who sees you with her.”

  He nodded slowly. “Then I guess the question is—if you can believe that I love Dani, why can’t you believe that I love you, too?”

  * * *

  Spencer decided that if Kenzie ever wanted to make a career change, she had a promising future as a party planner. Dani was absolutely thrilled with every part of the celebration at Crooked Creek, where the birthday girl and her young guests could enjoy pony rides in the corral in addition to games and crafts in the house.

  He hadn’t been sure Gramps would accede to the request to hold the party at the ranch—and especially inside the house that he’d moved out of three years earlier, after his wife’s passing. But the old man had surprised Spencer, saying the house had been too quiet for too long
, and maybe it was time for some new life around the place.

  Kenzie had transformed the main floor living room into party central. In addition to the balloons, there were streamers and Happy Birthday banners, party hats and noisy horns, lots of snacks and drinks and an enormous cake—with layers of chocolate and vanilla and sprinkles on top. In addition to taking care of all those details, Kenzie had supplemented the guest list he’d provided so that Dani was able to celebrate her special day with kids her own age—including her new BFF, Paris.

  But those weren’t the only unexpected guests in attendance.

  “You were surprised to see us,” his mother commented, stealing him away from the party for a private word in the den.

  “A little,” he admitted.

  “Because your father and me were never at any of your birthday parties?”

  And because, for that reason, he hadn’t even put their names on the guest list. Obviously Kenzie had corrected that oversight. Without telling him.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” he said, and realized he meant it. “But...a pony? Don’t you think that’s a little over the top?”

  He hadn’t known about their extravagant gift until Gramps brought Daisy out of the barn for the pony rides and the animal was adorned with a big pink bow around her neck and an oversized tag that read, To Dani—Love Grandma & Grandpa. It had taken some explaining to make Dani understand that it meant that Daisy was actually her pony now and would stay at Crooked Creek Ranch forever.

  “It didn’t seem like so much,” Margaret said, “considering all the birthdays and Christmases we’ve missed.”

  And then he got it. “Sixteen T-shirts.”

  His mother looked understandably baffled by his remark. “I’m sorry?”

  “It was something that Kenzie once pointed out to me,” he told her.

  “So...you and Kenzie?” she prompted.

  “I’m working on it.”

  “I know it’s a little late in the game to be offering any kind of motherly advice,” she told him. “But whatever it takes—do it.”