by Pepper Swan
I had no idea what I would do once I stepped outside, but on my way out, I spotted Meg again, dropping off drinks to a table of rowdy cowboys who acted as though they wanted a lot more than just drinks. The other waitress never garnered this much attention. No one would dare approach her. She was Big Bart’s wife.
“I’ll give you a thousand dollars if you’ll step outside with me and soothe this baby,” I told her. She couldn’t possibly turn down a thousand dollars.
She gazed over at me, then at the cowboys. “Sorry, but I’ll lose my job.”
“Fifteen hundred and I’ll bribe Chris to give you your job back in the morning.”
“I’m not going home with you,” she balked, while still putting drinks down.
“Who said anything about coming home with me?” I told her. “Although, if you did, I’d make the proposition even more lucrative, strictly as a nanny. Nothing else. I know nothing about babies.”
She smiled and if this baby wasn’t causing such a fuss, I’d tell her how beautiful she looked when she smiled. I was always a sucker for a woman’s smile, one of those amazing smiles that lit up her entire face, and Meg had one of the very best I’d ever seen.
Unfortunately, there was no time for that now. I had a screaming baby to tend to.
“We need another round,” one of the cowboys said, then he smacked her ass.
Almost on instinct, she grabbed the shot of whiskey that she’d just put down in front of him and splashed it in his face. The cowboy jumped up, coughing and yelling about his eyes burning.
“Keep your damn hands to yourself, you skinny sack of shit,” Meg warned. “Be thankful I didn’t call Bart over to deal with you.”
When the rest of the table looked as though they would pounce, I stepped in front of her, still holding onto the screaming baby ready to take them on, but instead, they all backed down.
I didn’t know why, but to use a local term, we hightailed it out of there before either of us could figure out why they backed down so easily. Meg quickly grabbed her purse from under the bar at the wait staff’s station and we took off, together.
When I found my SUV and beeped the doors open, I put Belle down on the backseat, Meg unstrapped her and pulled her out of her car seat. Something fell on the ground, and when I retrieved it, I realized it was a full bottle of milk.
The nipple had a plastic cover over it, so I pulled it off and handed the bottle to Meg who was already working her charms on Belle who had quieted. Belle looked even smaller than I thought she might be in Meg’s arms.
“We should get out of here. The Covington brothers can get mighty ornery when they’ve been slighted, especially if they’ve been drinking,” she said. “Can you hold her while I strap the car seat into your backseat?”
I didn’t have any idea how to hold a baby that small and had no intention of finding out.
“How about if I strap in the car seat, and you hold her,” I suggested.
“Okay, but it can be tricky, and we need to get out of here, fast.”
I slid the car seat in place, grabbing the appropriate seatbelt. Then I proceeded to figure it out when Meg said, “Are you done? The Covingtons just walked out the backdoor.”
When I looked up, I saw the biggest brother scoping out the parking lot, and my throat tightened. I hadn’t been in a fistfight since I was thirteen years old, and I’d lost. I might look tough from all the weights I lift at the gym, but throwing a good solid punch was something that only happened in my daydreams.
“You’re right. I can’t figure this out fast enough. I’ll take Belle, and you strap this thing in.”
Meg carefully placed tiny Belle in my arms. She felt as light as air, and as squirmy as Jell-O.
“Keep the bottle in her mouth or she’ll start up again, and those Covington brothers will know exactly where we are,” Meg said, as I cradled tiny Belle in one arm and held the bottle to her mouth with my other hand. I finally got a good look at her as she stared up at me, eyes as blue as the ocean on a cloudy day, and a nose the size of a button. Her cheeks were a soft pink and her tiny fingers grasped my pinky as if she was holding on with every ounce of her being.
“Hey Belle,” I cooed, trying to keep my normally gruff voice soft and pleasing so she wouldn’t cry again.
And that’s when it happened: she smiled at me.
What the hell?
“Oh no you don’t,” I told her. “I’m not falling for this. Not a chance. You can smile all you want, but it won’t change anything. I’m calling the sheriff as soon as we get home and he’s going to locate your mama and get you back where you belong.”
She stopped drinking and smiled again, jerking her little body in the process. This time her whole face lit up, and I knew right then and there that I was a goner!
“Awe, shit,” I said, knowing this whole baby thing just got that much harder.
“What’s wrong?” Meg asked as she held out her arms to take Belle from me so she could put her back in the car seat and strap her in.
I looked up then and saw the Covington brothers heading right for us.
“We have to go,” I said. “Now!”
Meg tumbled into the backseat of my SUV, and I slammed the door shut right before I jumped into the front seat, pressed the button for the ignition, jammed the gears into reverse and pulled out of there faster than a hound dog runnin’ from a bear.
The good thing about it was I didn’t see the Covingtons in my rearview.
The bad thing about it, I was stone sober, had a baby in the backseat that could potentially belong to either Vince or Tucker… I couldn’t possibly be the dad; I always wore a condom… and I’d just offered to pay a woman I barely knew to take care of said baby.
And as if that wasn’t enough bad news, little Belle had already captured my heathen heart…
Get a fucking grip!
Meg 3
I held the bottle for Belle as I sat next to her in the backseat. She sucked down the milk as if she’d been starving, never stopping for a rest, poor little thing. I ran my fingers over her smooth cheek and tucked the blanket in tight all around her. I knew babies liked to feel all warm and cozy when they ate. If I couldn’t hold her while we were driving, at least I could make her feel swaddled. I wondered how long it had been since she last ate. I also wondered how the hell her mom could’ve left her with Boone, a man who normally would’ve been roaring drunk by now. Even if he was the father, what kind of a dad could he possibly be?
“I guess we’re going to find out,” I whispered as Belle kicked her legs, messing up my handiwork with her blanket, tiny feet now poking out from the bottom. Apparently, she didn’t like being all covered up and snug. She had a mind of her own, much like her father… if he was her father.
I’d seen Boone Gentry in Last Call every Saturday night for the past three weeks… I’d only been working there for three weeks, so I didn’t know how long he’d been making Last Call his Saturday night home… and I’d always thought he was a waste of a good-looking face and a muscled body.
He’d arrive around nine thirty and two hours later, he could barely walk to the Men’s room. I had a hard time believing he could even hold his own cock to piss.
Yet, this Saturday night, well past his drunken hour, he was stone-cold sober, and, as it turned out, a guy with a moral compass, which was more than I could say for most of the other cowboys in this rough-neck bar.
I was relatively new to Silver Springs, Colorado, the small town I’d decided to stake my claim in for a few months after Lakeside, Idaho. About eight months ago, I packed up all my crap, at least the crap I thought I should keep, put some of it in storage, donated what might be useful to somebody else, and dumped the rest in the nearest garbage container. Then I packed a couple of suitcases and took off in a car that was still very serviceable.
I’d decided to check out America. Hoping to find people who still cared about each other and the only time they lived in a tent was when they were camping in one of the man
y national parks.
So once again, I packed up and moved on, this time to Colorado, and found Silver Springs, a town similar to trendy Boulder, Colorado, but much smaller and less expensive. My one-bedroom Airbnb only cost five hundred dollars a month, rather than two times that amount in Boulder. Plus, I was able to get a job quickly in Silver Springs, something that could be tougher to do in Boulder with so many college students vying for part-time work.
Of course, my job was in jeopardy now that I walked out with Boone and his baby girl… if she was, in fact, his baby girl.
Still, his fifteen-hundred-dollar bribe would go a long way in keeping me in food and rent money. Of course, I had to trust that he would actually pay me. I knew he owned a sizable spread not too far from town that was worth more money than I could even count, so I figured he was good for it.
Fact was I had no idea why I’d done it. Why I just left with him, other than I had a soft spot for babies and wasn’t ready to give up on Boone, at least not yet. I decided that my attraction to him must have been stronger than I’d first thought.
After all, he had the absolute sexiest gaze I’d ever seen, extra-long dark eyelashes, and eyes the color of Amaretto. I’d never seen eyes like his before, and from the first day I’d noticed what was hidden under those thick lashes, I’d been curious about the man. Of course, once he’d shown his true colors by getting so drunk, I’d grown skeptical of him… but those intriguing eyes of his still managed to capture my imagination, my bedroom imagination. I often wondered what it would be like to have that gorgeous face and those amazing eyes staring down at me, as I lay under him… completely and totally naked.
But could he keep up with me? He’d have to be sober for that, and I didn’t know if that was possible… especially on a Saturday night.
“I think we’re good,” he said, shocking me out of my fantasy.
“Umm, good with what?” I asked, confused.
“We’ve given the Covington brothers the slip. We can relax now.”
I let out the breath I’d pulled deep into my lungs and put baby Belle in the forefront of my wicked thoughts.
“We have a baby to take care of, relaxing isn’t part of the equation. We’ll need to stop at Walmart. I think they’re open until midnight or eleven. We need to pick up a few supplies for Belle,” I told him as I still held the bottle for Belle who had almost finished it.
“I won’t have her long enough for supplies,” he said, sounding cold and distant as he glanced at me through the rearview.
For a moment, I thought that I’d possibly made the wrong decision about his character.
“You really are a shit, aren’t you?” I said, calling him out on his heartless statement. “You’re serious about turning her over to the sheriff tonight, aren’t you?” I asked.
“The sooner, the better,” he quipped.
Oh yeah, a real son of a bitch to his core.
“She’s just a baby, and she might even be your baby. How can you do that? Are you so full of yourself that you have no compassion for someone else? If you don’t, you can just turn this damn expensive car around and drop Belle and me off back at Last Call, and I’ll take it from there.”
I was so angry I was shaking. Belle started to fuss. I guessed she could feel my anger. I took a couple of deep breaths while I waited for his decision. Whatever it was, I was already preparing myself.
He didn’t say anything. Then, when he turned down Durham Road for the Walmart, I knew the selfish prick must have softened.
“Fine, but let me make one thing clear,” he began, glancing back at me once again. Damn, but he was adorable with those long dark eyelashes, that perfect nose, and those kissable lips… not that I had any intention of kissing him anytime soon. Not with his shit attitude, but the fantasy never left me. “She might be Vince’s baby or Tucker’s, but she’s certainly not mine.”
I didn’t know who he was talking about, but I assumed they were the other two investors in the ranch. I’d heard there were three of them.
I knew he didn’t work his ranch, even though I could picture him perched up on a huge black stallion, racing like the wind. Men like Boone seldom did any physical ranch work. They’d hire all that out. He lived on a luxury ranch, not a working ranch, at least that was the word in Last Call.
Still, I couldn’t help noticing how sexy he looked in his torn jeans, a shirt that clung to every defined muscle on his shoulders and chest, expensive-looking boots and that amazing black cowboy hat he wore low on his forehead like a bad guy in an old Western.
“Who are Vince and Tucker? I don’t think I’ve ever met them.”
“Cousins. We’re also business partners. We own the Triple Mercy, that’s our ranch, together, but I can’t believe they could be that dumb to not use protection.”
“Was this some kind of kinky threesome?” I had to know. I’d heard of women taking on multiple lovers at once, but I’d never met anyone who’d participated. I’d been intrigued by the idea of it, so much so that I’d fantasized several times about having three or four lovers at one time, thinking that might satisfy my sexual cravings. Of course, I could never understand the guys’ motivation to agree to share one woman with all that testosterone surging through their veins and egos the size of Texas. Usually, men didn’t want to share a meal, let alone the same woman… at the same time.
Still, I held out hope that I might find these willing guys somewhere across this great nation.
“What?” His voice caught in his throat, as he threw me a disgusted look. “No! Absolutely not! We didn’t know she’d been sleeping with all three of us at the same time… not at the same physical time… I mean, not at once.” He took a deep breath and let it out. “What I mean is, I had no idea she’d been having an affair with Tucker and Vince the same time she’d been having sex with me. Plus, the little schemer worked for us during this time, which made it even worse.”
“So, you and your cousins aren’t very close, then?”
“We’re very close. Like brothers.”
“Huh, brothers with secrets?”
“No. It wasn’t like that. We just… you sure do ask a lot of questions?”
“Just trying to sort this thing out for little Belle’s sake.”
“Nothing’s going to sort this out but a paternity test.”
“Might be a good idea, but even if you and your cousins take the test tomorrow, it’ll still take a few days or even a week to get the results. You might be able to pick up a test kit along with everything else we need.”
“At Walmart?”
“Yep!”
He pulled into the parking lot just as Belle finished her bottle.
I picked Belle up out of her car seat and rested her on my shoulder so I could burp her. Her little arms stretched out as soon as I lifted her. She was such a tiny little thing. I rubbed her and patted her back, thinking how much I loved babies and how badly I wanted children. Always had, since I was a kid. I didn’t know much else about what I wanted out of life, but I always knew I wanted to be a mom to at least three, maybe even four children.
But right now, Belle was not my responsibility. She was Boone’s, and he needed to take charge of the situation. I was merely the escort.
“Not so fast. Which one of us takes Belle?” I asked.
“You do, of course.”
Not the answer I was looking for.
“So you can abandon me here? Oh no. We do everything together,” I told him without hesitation. If he was thinking he could simply leave us here, he’d picked up the wrong girl.
“I would never abandon you in a Walmart,” he said once he opened my door.
“Oh, but you’d abandon me someplace else?”
“No. That’s not what I meant. I have no intention of abandoning you,” he said, looking somewhat sincere. I still didn’t trust him. I’d seen him drunk more than sober, so my perspective on his honesty wasn’t very good.
“There’s no way for me to know that. We do this together
or no deal.” Belle let out a loud couple of burbs, then she cooed. “Good girl.” I rubbed her tiny back.
“Fine,” he said.
“Fine,” I said, as I placed Belle back in her seat, strapped her in and covered her with the thin blanket.
Once inside the store, we secured Belle inside the shopping cart and headed for the baby section. To my surprise, Boone pushed the cart and even smiled down at Belle who kicked her feet and smiled right back at him.
“She likes you,” I told him.
“It’s probably gas,” he said.
“If that makes you feel better about calling the sheriff…”
“I’m only calling the sheriff so he can get Rosie back here to pick up her baby.”
“From what I heard and saw, Rosie doesn’t want her baby.”
He shook his head. “That’s not possible. She’s Belle’s mother. A mother always loves her baby.”
“She may love her, but she doesn’t want to raise her. Big difference.”
“You know something about that do you?”
I hated talking about my past, but he needed to hear the truth. “Yes. My mom left me with my dad when I was three, and except for one time when I was a teen, she didn’t want anything to do with me. So yeah, I know a little bit about a mom not wanting to raise her baby.”
I was in no mood to rehash my past with a guy who more than likely had one of those perfect families where everyone succeeds and dinners were a family affair with everyone sitting around the table, chatting about current events and what they’d learned in school that day.
I would rather focus on the real people of Walmart.
Even though it was ten thirty at night, the massive store swarmed with people, teens mostly, looking for a place to hang out on a Saturday night in rural America.
“This feels weird,” Boone said after a few minutes, ignoring what I’d just told him. Making me feel like he hadn’t wanted to hear anything personal about me or my past. After all, I was merely the hired help… which I was.
“Like we’re a family?” I teased as my boots clicked on the vinyl floor.