The Cowgirl Who Loved Horses, Queens of Montana Bonus Book

by Vanessa Bartal

  Chapter 15

  The next morning Cecily started her period. She almost cried with relief. The day after that her package from the online drugstore arrived. She stowed the pregnancy tests under the bathroom sink of her house and stuffed her pockets with the birth control she’d purchased. As she was doing that her phone rang. She winced when she recognized the ringtone. It was her father making his weekly phone call from prison.

  “Hello, Daddy,” she said breathlessly when she answered. She had sprinted to the kitchen to reach her phone.

  “Hey, little girl, what are you doing?”

  She felt her full pockets and thought it best not to tell him. “Nothing, just getting ready to go to work.”

  “How’s our ranch?” She could tell he was smiling and she felt guilty. She had yet to tell him that she had traded out their cows for horses.

  “It’s good, Dad.” Her secrets were piling up on her, and she decided to tell him at least one of them. “Listen, Dad, I don’t know quite how to tell you this.”

  “What?” Alarm rang in his tone.

  “I got married.”

  Dead silence.

  “What?” he finally choked.

  “I’m married, but don’t worry; you know the guy.”

  “Radley? That nerdy friend of your brother?”

  She smiled. “No, someone a little closer to home. I married Marcus Henshaw.”

  Silence again, and then his hearty laughter rang over the line. “Well, don’t that beat all. One of mine marrying into the Henshaws. That’s funny. Listen, don’t let them take over our land. Henshaws like to acquire, and that ranch is still mine until I die.”

  “He didn’t marry me for my ranch, Dad,” she said irritably.

  “All the same, you make sure and keep what’s ours. I’m not going to let four generations of cattle ranching go down the drain just because you fell in love.” He paused. “You do love him, don’t you?” His tone was softer now, and she smiled.

  “Yes, Daddy. I love him very much. He’s a wonderful man and a wonderful husband.”

  “Well that’s good. I can’t believe your mother didn’t tell me this. I just talked to her last night.”

  “Um, I sort of haven’t told Mom yet.”

  Her father blew out a breath. “Cecily, this isn’t the kind of secret you can keep from your own mother.”

  “I haven’t been keeping it from her, I’ve just been busy.”

  “You’re never too busy to tell your own mother you got married. I’m going to hang up right now so you can call her.” He paused. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for it.”

  “Me too,” she whispered, brushing the tears from her eyes. “But it was nice, nonetheless. I’ll send you a picture when we get them back.”

  “Sounds good. You take care, honey, and make sure that Henshaw treats you right.”

  “I will, Daddy. I love you.”

  “I love you too, little one.”

  They disconnected and she took a deep breath before dialing her mother. She had always been a daddy’s girl, and that had caused friction with her mother. Cecily had always felt a little like a pawn between them, and she resented that fact. It wasn’t her fault her father favored her, and she didn’t understand why her mother acted as if it was.

  “Mom,” Cecily began.

  “What is it?” Her mother’s immediate panic probably had more to do with the fact that Cecily never called than it did with anything she read in Cecily’s tone.

  “Nothing,” Cecily said. “I’m just calling to talk.”

  “Oh.”

  Silence.

  “How are you?” Cecily tried.

  “Good. Lonely. I miss Dante. I’m used to having him here with me.”

  But I don’t miss you, isn’t that what you’re trying to say, Mom? She decided to skip the painful small talk and get right to it. “I’m married.”

  The clunking noise was probably her mother dropping the phone. “You’re what?”

  “I’m married. I went to Las Vegas and got married a few days ago.”

  There was silence and then a dial tone.

  That went well. Her eyes filled with tears and she dashed them away. Now not only did Marcus’s mother hate her, but her own mother did, too.

  Once again she threw herself into her work with gusto. A rancher from the other side of town came to inspect her horses and ended up making a large purchase with plans to buy more, but even that good news couldn’t lift her flagging spirits.

  Marcus noticed her blue mood and downcast eyes at supper, but didn’t comment until they were alone in their room.

  “What’s wrong with you?” he asked. “Did something happen at the ranch?”

  “Yes, something very good happened at the ranch today.”

  “You look happy about it,” he said sarcastically.

  She gave him a small smile. “I am, but I had a spat with my mother when I called to tell her about us. Not a spat, really, there wasn’t time for that. Instead she just hung up on me.”

  His mouth was hanging open in shock.

  “That’s not so unusual,” she explained, taking in his astonishment. “We don’t get along the greatest.”

  He shook his head and pointed to her. While she was talking she had absently emptied her pockets and now he stood staring at the birth control.

  “Oh,” she said, looking down at the colorful assortment on the bed.

  He blinked at her. “Tell me again what it is you do at your ranch.”

  She giggled. “You stop that.” She sat on the bed and motioned for him to join her. “I should have had this discussion with you a few days ago. I’m not on any sort of birth control.”

  His eyes bugged. “But we…”

  “Yes, I know. I was there. I just didn’t think about it until after. I’ve been going out of my head with worry, thinking I might be pregnant. But I’m not, so I bought these to use.”

  “You didn’t have to buy those, I have a drawer full.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

  He winced. “That was probably the wrong thing to tell you.”

  She continued to stare at him in silence.

  “What can I tell you, honey, I wasn’t a monk before we got together. I dated my last girlfriend for four years.”

  She grimaced, not enjoying the reminder of Lacey. “And what about the girls before her? How many have there been?”

  He licked his lips nervously. “You really want to know this?”

  She nodded.

  “There were two other girls, but they weren’t serious, and I was always careful.”

  She studied her fingernails. “Was one of them Libby?”

  “No,” he said adamantly. “Libby was like you, a good girl. I never would have suggested such a thing to her.”

  She was more relieved than she could say. She smiled. “Apparently someone did. She’s going to have a baby.”

  “Libby’s pregnant?” he exclaimed.

  “Yes.” She couldn’t read his expression. Was it regret? Was he sad the baby wasn’t his?

  He reached across the bed and laid his hand gently on her stomach. “Were you a little bit sad when you found out you weren’t pregnant?”

  “A little,” she admitted. “But now doesn’t seem like a good time.” He was staring at her stomach. “Are you disappointed?”

  “A little,” he admitted.

  Was his disappointment because she wasn’t pregnant with his child, or because Libby wasn’t? It was hard to tell, and she hated not knowing.

  He smiled. “We have plenty of time to make you that way.”

  “Do you think your parents are starting to wonder why we play the radio so much?”

  He reached for her, and she never got an answer to her question.