The Cowboy's Triple Surprise

by Barbara White Daille

  Cole had no inkling of that, though. Still grinning, he reached for Tyler’s hand. They shook, and the other man said, “Tina told me you were here.”

  “How did she know?” Tyler frowned in confusion.

  “No, not here at the Dipper. I meant, in Cowboy Creek. We talked earlier today, but she was tied up getting ready for the wedding reception at the Hitching Post, and we didn’t have time to get into much detail.”

  “Then what brings you to the Big Dipper?”

  “Ice cream, what else? Hey, Shay!”

  She had returned from the back room and looked over at their booth. Reluctantly, it seemed to Tyler, she headed their way. “A pint of the usual?” she asked Cole.

  “You’ve got it. I’m surprising Tina. She gets cravings,” he said to Tyler, then turned back to Shay. “How about you? Working right here in an ice cream shop, you ought to be able to get your fill of any flavor you like.”

  She shook her head. “No, I see it so much every day, ice cream’s not on my list.”

  Tyler wondered what she did crave, but she didn’t say.

  “Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll get your order together.” She walked away to greet an elderly pair who had come in and taken seats near the counter. As she stood beside their table, chatting, her hand went to her lower back.

  Tyler frowned. With the weight she was carrying up front, she probably ought to be sitting once in a while, taking a break. Taking it easy.

  “She’s due even before Tina,” Cole said, as if he’d watched Tyler watching Shay.

  He nodded, but didn’t comment. Right now, he didn’t want to talk about due dates with anyone but Shay.

  He sure couldn’t escape the irony of this situation. All his life, his parents had nagged him about making something of himself. About acting like a responsible adult. Maybe they’d been right. Because, even unconfirmed, his suspicions regarding Shay had sent him on the run out at the ranch this afternoon.

  Only the knowledge that he had to find out the truth had kept him from leaving Cowboy Creek altogether and brought him here tonight.

  Deliberately, he changed the subject. “How’s it feel to be on the verge of becoming a daddy again?” he asked Cole.

  “Great. I highly recommend it. You ought to give it a try sometime.”

  He blinked. Could there be a chance he had jumped to the wrong conclusion about Shay’s pregnancy? Was he going to make a fool of himself with his question to her?

  “Are you planning to stick around for a while?” Cole asked. “Tina didn’t say.”

  “That’s because I haven’t decided yet.”

  “Well, we’ll have to make sure you stay longer than you did last time. I barely got to see you.”

  Last summer after meeting Shay, Tyler had spent most of his free time during the short visit hanging around the Big Dipper. Guilt made him cringe—until he recalled the circumstances. His buddy couldn’t have had a clue about anything he’d gotten up to. “Not my fault, man. You took off on your honeymoon, remember?”

  “That’s not something I’ll ever forget. But that’s exactly my point.”

  “I don’t plan to stay very long,” he said truthfully.

  Cole nodded. Normally, he could talk the ears off a donkey. But to Tyler’s surprise, the other man stood abruptly, ready to depart. “We’ll catch up when you get out to the ranch. Time for me to go home to my family.”

  He said those last two words with unmistakable pride. Pride and family—a combination Tyler didn’t know much about.

  Cole went to the counter to get his order, then waved farewell as he left the shop. Most of the other customers soon followed him, except the older couple near the counter.

  When they finally made their slow way across the room, Tyler was about at the end of his patience. Shay seemed to miss that fact completely. After walking the pair to the door and waving goodbye, she turned the open sign to closed. She wiped down the couple’s table and tucked their chairs neatly beneath it. She closed out the register and straightened up the counter. Then she disappeared into the back room and didn’t return.

  It felt too much like yesterday afternoon when she’d run off from the Hitching Post. He wouldn’t put it past her to have slipped out a back door.

  Frowning, he tossed his ice cream dish into a nearby trash container and stalked across the tile floor to the doorway behind the counter.

  In the workroom, Shay stood with her back to him, leaning over an industrial-size dishwasher while she loaded ice cream scoops and metal milk shake containers into the compartment inside. As he watched, she paused to rest her hand against the washer’s door. With her free hand, she rubbed her lower back. He felt another momentary pang of concern.

  “Come take a load off.” At the sound of his voice, she shied like a startled rabbit. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “But insults don’t require an apology?”

  “Who insulted you?”

  “You did. Is that what you think about pregnant women—they’re just carrying a load?”

  He ground his teeth together. So much for his show of concern. “It was a turn of phrase.”

  “One that turned in the wrong direction.”

  “Jed said the same thing to me this afternoon, and I didn’t take offense. Maybe you’re being overly sensitive.” Or maybe that sensitivity came along with pregnancy. Suddenly, he felt as if he were walking on eggshells in the middle of a henhouse—a helluva place to be. “Let me rephrase it, then. Come and take a seat. We might as well both be comfortable, because there’s no way I’m leaving until we’re done talking.”

  “What if I have nothing to say?”

  He laughed without humor. “You’ve said plenty already, even if you haven’t run off at the mouth. Leaving the Hitching Post yesterday was only the first of a long list of clues.”

  She raised her chin belligerently, but he stared her down, waiting her out. He’d stay here all night, if necessary.

  As if she could read that thought in his expression, she finally sighed and closed the dishwasher door. She crossed the workroom warily, the way a horse accustomed to mistreatment approached someone she feared would deliver more of it. A pang of regret flowed through him. Only his need to hear the truth from her kept him standing there.

  When she came nearer, the light scent of her perfume surrounded him, unsettled him, bringing back a time he didn’t want to think about.

  “Have a seat,” he said as pleasantly as he could. He gestured to the booth where he’d been sitting. “I’ve kept it waiting for you.”

  She slipped onto the bench and tried to slide behind the tabletop. Her belly, nearly pressed against the table’s edge, made her movements awkward. The sight made him swallow hard. He took the seat across from her and knocked back the cup of water she’d given him along with his triple dip of ice cream.

  She folded her hands on the tabletop in front of her.

  Suddenly, his palms began to sweat. He wiped them on his jeans, rested his hands on his thighs and waited. Let her make the first move.

  “Well, obviously,” she said at last, “you’re not here just because you had a sudden desire for my company. Or for ice cream.”

  “And obviously, you’ve got something you don’t want to tell me.”

  She looked away. The pale green shirt she wore rose and fell with her deep breath. Her reaction didn’t come as a shock. He knew what it meant. No matter what he’d tried to tell himself, or what that brief uncertainty he’d felt a few minutes ago tried to tell him, he had known the truth the moment she’d turned pale in the Hitching Post’s dining room.

  She turned back to him, her green eyes glittering. “I’m sure you’ve already guessed. I got pregnant the night we slept together.”

  “And you didn’t think to tell me?”

  “Why would I?”
/>   He stared at her, not trusting himself to speak.

  After a moment, she lifted her chin again as if it bolstered her courage to attack. “How exactly was I supposed to tell you? You didn’t leave a forwarding address. And you never got in touch with me. What was I supposed to do, tell the Garlands I needed to contact you about a little something you left behind?”

  “There’s nobody else?” Again her face drained of color, and he realized how she had taken what he’d said—because he’d phrased it like a fool. “I mean, is there anybody else in the picture now?”

  “Why is that important?”

  “It’s not, I guess.” Or was it? He needed to get his head together and focus on what did matter. “When are you due?”

  “In about three weeks.”

  He eyed what he could see of her over the tabletop. “Are you sure? You look as though you’re...ready right now.”

  “I feel ready right now. But my doctors say otherwise. At least, at the moment. But they also say anything could happen.”

  The words acted like a kick to his gut. “Is something wrong?”

  “No. But first babies can come early—”

  He rubbed his palms against his jeans again.

  “—especially when there’s more than one of them.”

  “More than—? Are you telling me you’re having twins?”

  “No. Triplets.”

  His jaw dropped. He clamped his teeth together and stared at her until he could find his voice again. “You’re saying you’re having three babies?”

  “That’s usually what triplets means.”

  His ears rang, the way they had that time he’d been tossed from the back of a bull and jarred his skull against the hard-packed dirt. Three babies...?

  Just as he had that day, he shook his head, as if he could throw off the noise and the blurred vision and bring himself back to normal. But he doubted he’d ever return to normal again.

  She had tightened her jaw and crossed her arms high over her belly. He didn’t appreciate the defensive position or her suddenly narrowed eyes. He sure didn’t like the panic running though his entire system. This time, when he tried to speak, he could only gulp a mouthful of air. Cold sweat dotted his forehead. His fingers trembled so badly, he had to mimic her body language and tuck his hands under his arms.

  How in hell was he going to deal with this?

  * * *

  SHAY TOOK ONE look at the terror in Tyler’s eyes and, despite her anger at him, couldn’t keep from feeling a rush of sympathy.

  Seeing the results of the home pregnancy test had shocked her, too, but as she had already missed her period, she had suspected the indicator would turn blue. Dr. Grayden’s announcement of the multiple babies had stunned her, but at least by then she had known for certain she was expecting.

  For Tyler, all this had come...well...out of the blue.

  Still, considering both how he had treated her and what she planned to say to him, she couldn’t let sympathy get in the way. She tightened her arms across her chest and forced herself to keep her expression neutral. “Don’t worry,” she said evenly, “you’re off the hook.”

  He looked even more shell-shocked. “Off the hook for what?”

  Did he look relieved? She said nothing, letting a beat of silence go by.

  “Are you telling me I’m not the dad, after all?”

  The hope in his expression crushed her. In the two days she had agonized over informing him about her pregnancy, she had envisioned him happy at hearing she wasn’t holding him responsible, ecstatic once he’d realized he wouldn’t owe her anything. Somehow she hadn’t realized she had still held on to the tiniest hope, too, that he would be glad to hear he was becoming a daddy.

  “No,” she said flatly. “I’m not telling you that. I’m just saying, as far as I’m concerned, that night with you never happened.”

  To her surprise, he gave a strangled laugh. “Kind of hard to get away with that story, isn’t it, when no one can miss the obvious?”

  “It’s not so obvious. At least, not that you...were the one who got me pregnant. People will speculate all they want, and I can’t stop them. But unless I make an announcement, nobody can know for sure who fathered my babies. I certainly don’t intend to breathe a word. And I don’t want you stepping up and acknowledging the fact it was you.”

  “Wait a minute...let me get this straight. You’re saying you don’t want anything from me?”

  “Exactly.”

  His forehead creased in a frown. The skin around his eyes tightened. His mouth settled into a hard line. These were all responses she had never in a million years expected to see.

  “And you’re not planning to tell people?” he asked.

  “No.” It wasn’t a lie. Other than Layne, who already knew, she didn’t plan to discuss Tyler with anyone.

  “That’s not right.”

  In the pit of her stomach, she felt a butterfly flicker of fear. “It’s not up to you who I tell and who I don’t.”

  “Fine. Do what you want with that. But I’m not walking away without taking some responsibility for the situation.”

  Eight months of anger and resentment at him bubbled up inside her and overflowed. “We’re not talking about a situation. They’re three lives, three babies. They might not have been conceived in love—” Her voice cracked. She stopped, swallowed hard, went on. “But they’re loved now. They’ll come into this world knowing they’re loved by me, and that’s enough. They’ll have me and my grandmother and our friends and each other, and none of us—especially me—needs you tagging along for the ride.”

  He reared back against his seat as if she’d slapped him. Sympathy flared inside her again but was quickly doused by another wave of the anger she had been forced to hide for so long. Getting carried away by these feelings couldn’t be good for the babies. She took another deep breath, willing her temper and blood pressure to subside.

  “You can forget trying to cut me out,” he snapped. “I don’t walk away from my obligations, no matter what anyone thinks.”

  “I don’t think anything. I’m just telling you how it’s going to be—”

  “And I’m telling you I won’t—”

  “Shay!”

  At the sound of a woman shouting her name, Shay froze. So did Tyler. They had both leaned forward across the tabletop to stare each other down. Now they turned abruptly in the direction of the shout.

  The clerk from the convenience store adjacent to the Big Dipper stood by the door in the far corner of the room, her hands fisted by her sides. “Are you all right? What’s going on? Do you need me to call the sheriff?”

  “No, no—everything’s all right. Sorry, Beth. We were just...arguing a point. And with no one else in the shop, I guess we got a little carried away.”

  The other woman looked unconvinced.

  Quickly, Shay made introductions, being careful to add, “Tyler is friends with Cole Slater and the Garlands.”

  “Uh-huh.” And not a friend of yours, Beth’s tone seemed to say. “Are we still planning to head out together?”

  “Of course.” Hiding her sigh of relief at this chance to escape, Shay edged out of the booth. “I’m almost ready to leave. You, too?”

  “Yes.”

  “And Tyler was just about to go.” She glanced his way, daring him to disagree. He had returned to leaning back against the booth, but he slid from his seat, then rose to tower over her.

  “I’ll leave through the store with Beth,” she told him. “You can go out the front door.” She crossed the room ahead of him, attempting to seem relaxed but feeling acutely conscious of her awkward gait, Beth’s wary expression, and the lingering anger she had seen in Tyler’s dark blue eyes.

  She held open the door. Without uttering a word, he resettled his Stetson.

  “I’ll say
good-night here, then,” she told him brightly, hoping her tone would convince Beth this was simply the end of a casual chat.

  After a long moment of silence, he muttered, “I’ll say this conversation is to be continued.”

  Chapter Six

  A short while later, in the small house she shared with her grandmother, Shay collapsed onto the couch. Her confrontation with Tyler had left her body trembling with rage and her head swirling with emotions she didn’t want to name. It was only when she was halfway home that she had finally stopped shaking.

  She struggled to raise one tired leg and then the other, stretching them out on the couch cushion.

  “Relax while you can, lass. The time will soon be here when you won’t have a moment to yourself.”

  Shay smiled. Grandma Mo, as almost everyone in Cowboy Creek called her, had never lost the Irish lilt she’d picked up from her own parents and grandparents. The added flavor to her voice somehow made everything she said sound special to Shay.

  “Can I get you something to eat?” Grandma asked now.

  “No, thanks. I had some of the leftovers I took along with me tonight.”

  “That’s good.” As far back as Shay could remember, Grandma had had the full head of snow-white hair that somehow fit with her unlined peaches-and-cream complexion. She had the same green eyes she had passed down to her son and then to Shay. Those eyes twinkled as she glanced at Shay’s stomach. “You don’t want to go hungry. You’re eating for a family now.”

  Though she had never named her babies’ father, from the moment Shay had revealed she was pregnant, Grandma had stood by her, no questions asked. She had sat by her, too, in her rocking chair just a few feet from the couch. Over the winter months, while Shay’s need to rest her feet grew at about the same rate as her middle, Grandma had knitted sweater after sweater, bootie after bootie, blanket after blanket, all meant for the impending arrival of her great-grandbabies. Shay’s heart swelled every time she looked at the neat stacks already filling a shelf in her bedroom closet.

  “Was the shop busy tonight?” Mo asked.

  “Yes, especially in the first few hours. The Walcotts were in with both kids. And the Shaeffers stopped by, too.”