“Del surely wasn’t eating ice cream, with his sugar levels?”
There was no hiding anything in this town. “Sugar-free frozen yogurt,” Shay reported.
“Good. I hope you didn’t overdo it tonight. You look worn out.”
“I’m tired,” she admitted.
“That must be so. You’re home early. Wasn’t Layne in?”
When she and Layne worked the same nights, Shay would stop by SugarPie’s to see her friend and stay for a cup of tea and a snack. Sometimes Beth came along and, afterward, Shay would often drop Beth at her apartment before heading home herself.
Tonight, the atmosphere in Shay’s old car had felt heavy with questions Beth wasn’t asking and Shay didn’t want to answer. When the other woman had yawned and said she was ready for an early night, Shay had nearly sighed in relief.
“Layne was in,” she said. “But Beth and I decided to skip SugarPie’s tonight.”
“Sugar mentioned you hadn’t been by.”
Shay shot her grandmother a look. Grandma sat focusing on the bootie she was currently knitting—which was a dead giveaway that she was attempting to appear innocent. Mo could knit an entire wardrobe almost without looking at her needles.
Shay laughed. “I guess the gossip mill wasn’t a bit tired this evening, was it?”
Along with Jed Garland, Grandma and Sugar were the biggest storehouses of gossip in Cowboy Creek. And Shay didn’t doubt there was plenty of that floating around concerning her pregnancy. But really, with Tyler gone from town so soon after she had met him, folks couldn’t have any definite knowledge that he was her babies’ father. As she had told him, they might wonder, but they couldn’t know.
Suddenly she sobered. Word about Tyler’s return could easily have made it into town by now. But neither Grandma nor Sugar could have learned about his visit to the Big Dipper tonight...could they?
The memory of his statement about continuing their conversation made her shudder. She pulled the afghan from the arm of the couch and wrapped it around her. If either of the women had any inkling she and Tyler had talked about her pregnancy, that she had told him he was the father of her children...
Another shiver ran through her.
Sugar and Grandma would gang up on her—out of concern for her and her babies, of course. Sugar had never had children and Grandma had lost her only son when he had gotten hooked on following the rodeo. Yet they both strongly believed a family should stay together. They would try to help fix things between her and Tyler.
But she and Tyler never would be a family. And what was wrong between them could never be fixed.
* * *
AFTER BEING THROWN out of the Big Dipper, Tyler had tossed and turned for most of the night, wasting valuable sleep time in his comfortable bed at the Hitching Post. He had risen early, dressed and gone straight to saddle up Freedom. It being Sunday and too early for the hotel guests even to have had breakfast, the corral was deserted.
From a distance, he saw Jed’s ranch manager headed toward the barn, but he simply waved at the man and turned Freedom toward the trail beyond the corral.
The morning air was cool enough for him to want a jacket, but not cold enough to help clear his head.
As it turned out, his path and Cole’s had never crossed again last night, and by the time he returned to the barn, he was glad to find his buddy inside. Cole stood at a workbench where he was cleaning tack, a job that could never be set aside on a working ranch.
When Freedom was back in his stall, Tyler grabbed a bucket of water and joined Cole.
“You looking for work?” Cole asked. Unlike at their meeting at the Big Dipper, this morning he seemed more than ready to talk. “If you’re job hunting, I hate to tell you, but Pete’s gone back to his house already, and Jed hasn’t been out yet to make his morning rounds. Don’t bother trying to impress me. I’m just one of the hired hands.”
“And Jed’s first new grandson-in-law.”
Cole snorted. “First in a line, which also doesn’t impress anybody. And if he comes after you, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Don’t get me wrong, Jed’s happy for the additions to the family and more than pleased about the baby Tina and I have on the way. He’s all about adding to his list of great-grandkids. But I really might’ve won a special place in his heart if I’d managed to get his granddaughter pregnant with a few of those kids at once.”
Down on one knee, Tyler froze with his hand clenched around the sponge. Cole knew. How could he not, considering the crack he’d just made?
So much for believing what Shay had said last night.
I certainly don’t intend to breathe a word.
His stomach churned in a slow boil. His face grew hot from discomfort and anger. Did she really think she could get away with her lie? That no one would say anything to him before he left town?
He stood and met Cole’s eyes. “Who told you?”
“Tina.”
“You could have said something, man.”
“I didn’t hear about it until I got home last night. I don’t think anybody knew for sure until they saw you and Shay together again. And even I’m not supposed to know everything.”
“What’s that mean? Shay swore the whole damned town to secrecy so I wouldn’t find out?”
“Whoa.” Cole dropped his sponge into the bucket beside him. Arms crossed, he stared. “You’re saying this is a surprise to you?”
“Damn right it is. All of it. Including the fact Shay’s carrying more than one baby.”
Cole gave a long, low whistle. “That’s what you get for not returning my calls for the past few months. I’d hassle you more about that, except it looks like you’ve got enough to deal with at the moment. Anyhow, my point is, if you had replied to my messages—or come by for Christmas, like I asked—you and I might have figured it out sooner. I had my suspicions about you two once Shay started showing, but Tina finally confirmed my thoughts last night.”
“You didn’t know before then?”
“Nope. Scout’s honor. I wasn’t about to bring up your name around here until we talked. I imagine Jed and Paz and the rest of the women suspected the truth from the beginning, but they didn’t let me in on the news. The Garland family can play their hands close to the vest when they want to.” He shook his head and whistled again. “I’m getting nervy over one baby on the way, and you’re having three at once.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“Somebody has to. Those kids are going to be here before you can turn around.”
“What did you mean, that you’re not supposed to know everything?”
For the first time, Cole hesitated. Then he shrugged. “What the heck. Friends have to stick together—even if they don’t always return phone calls. The thing is, you already know Jed decided to try a little matchmaking when he brought me and Tina together. He hasn’t let up since, not with any of his granddaughters or even my sister, Layne. Nobody’s said anything definite to me, but I’m betting you’re next on the list.”
When he could catch his breath again, Tyler gave a hollow laugh. “Considering the way Shay and I left things last night, Jed won’t have any chance of playing matchmaker. I doubt I’ll be seeing her again.”
“I wouldn’t count on that one, buddy.”
Tyler narrowed his eyes and said flatly, “What.”
“She’s coming out to the hotel this afternoon.”
He’d forgotten Paz had said that yesterday. Maybe it was for the best. What had sounded then like a long time away now seemed much too soon. But like it or not, he would have to see Shay. He would have to get a few things straightened out with her. Finish their conversation, the way he’d promised her last night.
A heavy lump dragged him down, the same weight he’d felt since the moment she had made her announcement about the babies—the weight of responsibilities he hadn�
�t expected or intended to have.
Life with his folks had cured him of the idea of ever getting married or raising a family. With his parents as role models, he wouldn’t know the first thing about raising a kid. But now he was facing becoming the father of not one, not two, but three babies—in only a few weeks!
He could imagine his father’s scorn at hearing he’d been irresponsible enough to sleep with Shay without using protection. That was the least of his worries now. He had to do the right thing for these kids, financially, at least, both to prove to his parents he was a responsible man and for his own peace of mind.
Of course, the real right thing was to be a real daddy. He wasn’t going there. He wasn’t cut out for the role. And, as Shay had made sure to stress last night, he wasn’t the man she’d choose for the job.
* * *
BY MIDAFTERNOON SUNDAY, Shay had changed her mind a half dozen times about whether or not to keep her appointment with Jed. At the moment, she wasn’t up to talking to her boss or any of the Garlands—and most especially not to Tyler. If she hadn’t so badly needed the extra income from her job at the Hitching Post, she would have canceled the meeting without a second thought.
Of course, the minute she drove into the parking area behind the hotel, the first person she saw was the one she didn’t want to see. Tyler stood in the barn doorway with a couple of the ranch’s cowhands. When he spied her car, he appeared to break off his conversation and strode in her direction.
She clutched the steering wheel for a moment, took a deep breath and let it out again. “Brace yourselves, babies,” she said, looking down at her stomach. “This could get ugly.”
As he approached, she considered simply rolling down the window and waiting. Let him bend down from his great height to talk with her. She could rest her back and legs. On the other hand, she would also be caught without a way to make her escape.
That thought had her out of the car and slamming the door shut before he could reach her.
He came to a halt in front of her. “I told you our conversation would be continued.”
“Not for very long. Jed’s waiting for me. But we might as well finish what we have to say right here and be done with it.”
She exhaled heavily. She had practiced her part in this talk over and over in her mind all morning. She could say what she had to say now. For the sake of her babies. Yes, they needed a daddy, but not one who claimed that relationship simply by right of their birth. They needed someone who would love them and care about them as much as she already did.
“I let my temper get away from me when we talked last night,” she admitted. “But I meant what I told you about being off the hook.”
“What if I don’t choose to be? Don’t I have a say?”
“Why would you?”
“Because those kids you’re carrying are mine, too.”
His eyes glittered in the sunshine, more from repressed anger than concern, she was sure. Again, she had to remind herself of the responses she had rehearsed. “And are you planning to be their daddy? Planning to...to be a family with us?”
“Whoa.” He raised his hands and backed up a step, as if she were a horse that had suddenly gone wild. “I never said either of those things. Neither one of them was ever in my plans.”
“I thought not.” Clearly, he had also never considered the word that wouldn’t leave her lips, either. The M word. “Well, it doesn’t matter. When it comes down to it, we barely know each other, do we? And we obviously seem to care about each other even less.”
She waited a beat, but he said nothing, which only reinforced what she had feared all along. He had never cared about her. How could she believe he would feel anything for her babies?
Unable to look at him, she began walking toward the hotel.
She had cared about him, at least in those days he’d spent in Cowboy Creek. She had just lied about that.
When he fell into step beside her, she swallowed a bitter laugh, admitting she had also failed dismally at fooling herself. She knew many things about him. How he held a woman when he slow danced. How he liked to flirt. How he liked to kiss. How he went after what he wanted.
Right down to her bones, she had known he would follow her now, that he wouldn’t give up. As if he planned to prevent her from getting away, he walked close beside her, close enough that she picked up the scents of his aftershave and his freshly washed cotton shirt. His boots were free of dust and scuff marks, as if he’d worn his Sunday best. For her?
The thought left her swallowing another laugh. Even she couldn’t fool herself about that.
A quick glance around the stable yard and ahead toward the Hitching Post showed her they were alone. Once they went inside the hotel, they would lose any chance of a conversation without witnesses.
She stopped abruptly, then waited until he turned to face her. “They’re not your children, Tyler. Not the way that’s supposed to mean. I don’t understand why you believe you even have the right to a say.”
“They’re my responsibility, that’s why. At least until they’re of legal age.”
Her breath caught in her chest. Even knowing how little he cared, that dry, flat statement hit like a slap to her face. To her senses. “Just how do you think this parenting thing works? You support your children all through childhood, then dump them when they become adults?”
“By that age, they need to learn to accept responsibility for themselves.”
“You brought up that word last night. You said they were your responsibility. Your obligation.” She shook her head. “To you, they’re a temporary investment, but to me, they’re the children I’ll love for the rest of my life. Don’t you see the difference?”
Chapter Seven
Even as Shay asked the question, she knew in her heart Tyler wouldn’t understand. How could he? He had already admitted to her he had never wanted to be a daddy or to have a family. And as much as it hurt to acknowledge it to herself, she had been right. All those months ago, he had only been looking for a good time, not a relationship that could lead to a lifetime commitment.
A few yards away from them, the door of the Hitching Post opened. Her boss stepped out onto the back porch, his face creased in a familiar smile, and her spirits lifted. Immediately, she lost her reluctance to meet with Jed. Now, she wanted only to thank him for the rescue.
“Looking for me?” she asked as cheerfully as she could. “Here I am.” Carefully holding the wooden railing, she climbed the steps and, at Jed’s sweeping gesture, let him usher her into the hotel.
She walked beside him down the long hallway to the Hitching Post’s banquet room, her ears tuned to the sound of boots on the hardwood floor behind her. A sound that never came.
“What’s your hurry, girl?” he asked. “Take it slow, or else you’ll be giving those babies a bumpy ride.”
Smiling for his benefit, she stroked her stomach and slowed her pace. She had been hurrying, for once not caring who noticed her ungainly stride. She had been trying to put more distance between herself and Tyler. And yet she couldn’t help wondering why he hadn’t followed them into the hotel.
“Bet you’re curious about why I wanted to see you today,” Jed said.
“I am, actually. Very curious.” She envisioned crossing her fingers on both hands, hoping he had found some additional hours for her. From the ballroom up ahead, she heard a burst of laugher, which helped to reinforce her wish. “I guess Tina and the rest of the girls are working overtime this afternoon, too.”
“You might say that.” His blue eyes twinkling, he grinned at her and stopped short of the wide doorway. Again, he gallantly ushered her in ahead of him.
Immediately, the air was filled with the sounds of women clapping and yelling, “Surprise!”
Through a sudden blur, Shay looked around the crowded ballroom to see the face of almost every adult woman she
knew in Cowboy Creek.
Jed gave her a hug. “I’ll leave you and the ladies to it. Have fun!”
“Thanks.” Quickly, she kissed his cheek.
Tina stood at the head of the room, waving to Shay from beside a comfortably padded lounge chair draped with ribbons. “It’s all yours,” she called.
“It’s even got a footrest,” Tina’s best friend, Ally, added.
Shay laughed. “That sounds perfect.” She stopped at a table to hug her grandmother and Sugar. “Grandma, I can’t believe you didn’t breathe a word of this to me last night.”
“And where would the surprise have been in that?” Grandma asked archly.
“Don’t worry,” Sugar said, “I kept her busy on the phone so she wouldn’t have too much time to chat.”
“And so I could fall asleep,” Shay guessed.
“So the babies could fall asleep,” Grandma said with a smile.
Shay continued to the front of the banquet hall. The room had been decorated with pale blue streamers and pink balloons. Pastel paper umbrellas dangled from the chandeliers. A long table off to one side of the room held a row of metal chafing dishes and a large pink-and-blue-frosted sheet cake. Another table was piled high with packages tied with pastel ribbons and adorned with baby rattles, booties and other small gifts.
“How did you manage all this so quickly after the reception in here?” she asked Tina as she settled herself in the lounger. Maybe today’s surprise explained why Jed had told her she wasn’t needed to work last night. They didn’t want to risk her finding out about the shower.
Jed was very good at arranging people’s lives. She recalled what Tyler had said about Jed’s claim he would be busy at the reception. At the time, she had found that odd. Now she wondered if her boss had had a reason for deliberately leaving Tyler on his own last night. But he couldn’t have suspected Tyler would track her down at the Big Dipper...could he?
“We had no trouble getting everything ready,” Tina said. “Abuelo rounded up some willing helpers to give us a hand.”
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