The Rancher's Baby

by Maisey Yates

  He walked toward her, took her hands. “I called Cassandra. Drunk off my ass. She said something to me... She was right. She said you have to love the person you find more than you love your life together. What Cassandra and I had felt perfect. But only as long as it was perfect. Once that fractured, we couldn’t put it back together. We didn’t want to. We loved what we had more than we loved each other. But when I fell in love with you, Selena, we had nothing. Nothing but those broken pieces. And what you said... I think it’s the way forward. That we put these broken pieces together and we make something new. I can’t go back. I can never be who I was. But I can try to be something new. To be something different. I can try to be the man you deserve.”

  She said nothing. Instead she sobbed as she threw her arms around his neck and clung to him, her tears soaking into his shirt. “Seriously?” she asked, the word watery.

  “What seriously?”

  “You really want to do this?”

  “I need to,” he said. “I need you. I realized something today, walking around the property. Winter and spring exist side by side here. It’s been winter inside of me for a long time. And there’s a part of me that’s afraid of what letting go of that means. That it means I don’t love Ellie enough. Or that I didn’t.”

  “Of course you loved her enough,” Selena said. “Of course you do. I know that in our lives together I want to honor that. This baby, this child, is never going to replace what you lost.”

  “I know,” he said. “That was what I realized. I can make room in my heart for both of them.” He reached into his pocket and removed the yellow flower, holding it out for her. “This is us. This spring. New life. A new season. I want to make room inside of me for that. I want less cold. Less fear. More of this.”

  “Please,” she said, smiling and taking the flower from his hand. “Yes, please. More spring. A lot more.”

  “I love you,” he said. “I love you knowing that love is the most powerful thing on earth. That having it makes everything brighter, that losing it can destroy your whole world. I love you knowing what it might cost. And maybe that’s a strange declaration, but it’s the most powerful one I’ve got.”

  He cupped her chin, lifted her face to meet his. “When you’re young, you get to dive into things headlong. You get to embrace those big, scary feelings not knowing what might wait for you on the other side. I know. But I want to choose a life with you. More than anything, I want to love you. If you want to love me.” He let out a long, slow breath. “You know, if you still can love me.”

  “I do love you,” she said. She held on to his face, met his eyes. “I love you so much, Knox. And the thing is, I could never tumble headlong into it when I was younger because I was scared. But I’ve grown up. I trust you. And trust has always been the key. I know what kind of man you are. I was afraid of love for a long time, but I was never afraid of you.”

  “But I hurt you.”

  “Yes,” she said. “You did. But you were hurting, too. You didn’t hurt me because you were a bully or because you enjoyed causing me pain. You did it because you were running scared. I get that. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to make you pay for it later.”

  “Oh, are you?”

  “I am.” She smiled. “I’m going to make you give my skin-care line preferential shelving in your supermarkets.”

  “Corporate blackmail.”

  “Yes,” she said, “corporate blackmail. But it could be worse. It could be sexual blackmail.”

  He wrapped his arm around her waist and drew her up against his body. “Honey,” he said, “you couldn’t stick to sexual blackmail.”

  “I sure as hell could,” she said, wiggling her hips against him. “And you would suffer.”

  He leaned forward and nipped her lower lip. “You would suffer.”

  “Okay,” she said, her cheeks turning pink. “Maybe I would.”

  “Will you marry me, Selena? Marry me and make a new life with me? I’ll never be the man that I was. But I hope the man I am now is the one for you.”

  Her smile turned soft. “He is. Believe me,” she said, “he is.”

  “So that’s a yes?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I never thought I would walk down the aisle for real. But, Knox, if ever I was going to, it had to be with you.”

  He looked down at Selena, at the woman he had known for so many years, the woman he’d gone on such a long journey to be with.

  “Right now,” he said, “this moment... It can only ever be you. You’re the one worth being brave for. You’re the one who made me want to start a new life. And I’m so damned glad that you did.”

  “Me, too,” she said and then squeaked when he picked her up off the ground and held her to his chest.

  “I’m also glad that you saved me a flight,” he said, heading back toward the house with her in his arms.

  “Well, I’m glad to be so convenient.”

  “You’re more than convenient,” he said. “You’re inconvenient. You made me change. Nobody likes that.”

  “Oh dear,” she said, “however will you punish me?”

  He smiled. “I’ll think of something.”

  “You’ve always been my best friend,” she said, hours later when they were lying in bed together, thoroughly sated by the previous hour’s activities. “And now you’re more. Now you’re everything.”

  “I’m happy to be your everything, Selena Jacobs. I’m damned happy that you’re mine.”

  He kissed her, a kiss full of promise. A kiss full of hope for the future.

  And he smiled, so happy that for the first time in an awfully long time he had both of those things.

  And more important, he had love.

  Epilogue

  A child’s laughter floated on the wind, and Selena ran to keep up with the little figure running ahead of her. She had long, dark hair like her mother, and it was currently bouncing with each stride.

  She had her father’s eyes.

  Selena’s husband was lingering behind her, his speed slowed by the fact he was holding their new son.

  Selena turned to look at them both. Knox was clutching the five-month-old baby to his chest, his large hand cradling the downy head. Knox was such a good father.

  He was caring, and he was concerned, and he had a tendency to want to rush to the doctor at the very first sniffle, but she couldn’t blame him. And watching the ways in which their children had opened him up...it made her heart expand until she couldn’t breathe.

  “Carmela!” Selena shouted. “Slow down.”

  Their daughter stopped and turned to look at them, an impish grin on her three-year-old face. She stopped, in the field of yellow-and-purple flowers, with the snow-covered mountains high and imposing behind her.

  Selena turned back and saw that Knox had stopped walking. That he was just standing there, staring at Carmela.

  Selena took two steps back toward him and put her hand on his forearm. “Are you okay? Do you need me to take Alejandro?”

  “No,” he said, his voice rough.

  Carmela was turning in a circle, spinning, careless and free out in the open.

  Knox couldn’t take his eyes off her. He was frozen, his expression full of awe.

  “What is it?” Selena asked.

  “I just can’t believe it,” he responded. “That I have this again. This chance to love again. To love her. To love him.” He brushed his hand over baby Alejandro’s head. And then he turned those gray eyes to her. His desire for her was hot, open. It made her shiver. “To love you.”

  He leaned in and kissed her, and she shivered down to her toes.

  “I remember feeling like I had nothing,” he said. “Nothing to hope for. Nothing to hold. And now...I have hope. I have a future. And my arms are full.”

  Selena wrapped her arms around him and rested he
r head on his chest. “My best friend knocked me up on accident,” she said. “And all I got was...this whole wonderful life.”

  He kissed her one more time, and when they parted she was breathless. Then the two of them walked on toward their daughter, toward the future. Together.

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss a single installment of the

  TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: THE IMPOSTER.

  Will the scandal of the century lead to love for

  these rich ranchers?

  THE RANCHER’S BABY

  by New York Times bestselling author

  Maisey Yates.

  RICH RANCHER’S REDEMPTION

  by USA TODAY bestselling author

  Maureen Child.

  A CONVENIENT TEXAS WEDDING

  by Sheri WhiteFeather.

  EXPECTING A SCANDAL by Joanne Rock.

  REUNITED...WITH BABY

  by USA TODAY bestselling author Sara Orwig.

  THE NANNY PROPOSAL by Joss Wood.

  SECRET TWINS FOR THE TEXAN

  by Karen Booth.

  LONE STAR SECRETS by Cat Schield.

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  Keep reading for an excerpt from TAMING THE TEXAN by Jules Bennett.

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  Taming the Texan

  by Jules Bennett

  One

  “What are you doing here, Ma’am?”

  Alexa Rodriguez spun around, her hand to her heart. The low, gravelly voice had shocked her, but not as much as seeing the man strut toward her.

  Well, he had a cowboy swagger with a slight limp, so she wouldn’t quite call it a strut. Regardless of the label, the man held her attention and there was nowhere to go…not when she was pinned in place by that dark-as-night stare.

  When she first stepped into the impressive stables on Pebblebrook Ranch, she hadn’t seen a soul. And now this sexy cowboy stood only feet away, staring at her from beneath the wide brim of his black hat. Her heart shouldn’t be beating so fast, so hard. But…yeah, he was one sexy stable hand.

  Was she trespassing? The owner of the bed-­and-breakfast next door had told Alexa the stables were open to B and B guests, but maybe there was some disconnect because this man did not look happy to have a visitor.

  “I’m a guest next door,” she explained as she tried to keep eye contact and not fidget. “I was told I could come ride and that someone would be here to assist me.”

  The stable hand grunted, but never took his eyes off her. Well, this was awkward.

  Stepping out of her comfort zone was the theme of the weekend. Her meddling yet well-meaning best friend had bought Alexa a package for a three-night stay at the B and B, stating Alexa was an overworked single mom who deserved some alone time.

  Alexa had just registered next door and put her bag in her room when she decided to check out the outdoor amenities before the predicted storm moved in. She hadn’t been on a horse since she was five. Yeah, she was so far outside her comfort zone she didn’t even know where comfort was anymore.

  But if the horse came equipped with a captivating cowboy, maybe doing something different wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Her best friend would definitely be thrilled Alexa was showing signs of life in the lust department, that was for sure.

  This stable hand had sultry written all over him, from the dusty boots to the fitted denim over narrow hips to the black hat. And the way he drawled out the word ma’am had her stomach tingling.

  Clearly, it had been too long since she’d had interaction with someone outside her preschool special education classroom and her fourteen-month-old son.

  “You ever ridden before?” he finally asked.

  “Once,” she admitted, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jeans. “I was five and at a cousin’s birthday party.”

  He took a step closer, minimizing the gap between them, and all the breath in Alexa’s lungs seemed to vanish. How could one man be so striking, so bold? The deep eyes with long, dark lashes and a stubbled jaw outlining the most perfectly shaped lips…and that was all just his face.

  Broad shoulders stretched his button-up black shirt in the most glorious way, one that had her imagining what excellent muscle tone he must have beneath the fabric. Those lean hips covered with well-worn denim could make any woman beg…but not her. She’d sworn off men who made her tingle—they were nothing but a hindrance in the life she’d carved out for her and her son.

  And this man? He looked like pure trouble. The kind of trouble that could make a woman forget all common sense, the kind that would have a woman crying out his name over and over, the kind—

  No. Her days of flirting or dating or anything else with a man were over—at least until her son got older and she could focus on her own life. For now, Mason was her everything and all that mattered.

  Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t look and

  appreciate…and there was so much to appreciate with this cowboy.

  “Do you work here?” She had to assume so, but now she wondered if he was a guest, too.

  He held out his hand. “Hayes Elliott.”

  Elliott. She wasn’t just ogling any stable hand or random guest. Hayes was the elusive, mysterious war-veteran Elliott brother. Living in Stone River, she’d heard rumors about how he never left the ranch and the term PTSD had circulated nearly every time she’d heard his name.

  Also what had cropped up along with his name was how he’d saved several children in a small village overseas and then been left severely injured, and how some of his friends had died in the same battle.

  Something like that alone would make waves across a small town like Stone River, but couple the rumors with the fact that Hayes was a member of the prestigious Elliott family, well…it was difficult not to have gossip.

  So where were his employees? A spread this large surely had several workers so the owners didn’t have to lift a finger. She knew the Elliott brothers were gearing up to open a dude ranch on their five-thousand-acre spread. What she didn’t know was why this brother, the sibling scarcely seen since he’d returned home, was the only one around.

  “Alexa Rodriguez.”

  She gripped his hand and, though it was cliché, she felt… Well, she felt legitimate sparks. Sparks she hadn’t experienced for years, and never at just the simple touch of a man’s hand. How did that even happen?

  “You’re
staying at my sister-in-law’s bed-­and-breakfast?” he asked, still holding on to her hand and looking her over.

  Alexa nodded, impressed that he knew the

  goings-­on of the B and B—but even more impressed at how her entire body responded to a handshake and a heavy-lidded stare. “I arrived this morning and thought I’d venture out before the storm.”

  And because she missed Mason. Alexa had already texted Sadie three times and requested a picture of him.

  “My sister-in-law has the best B and B in Texas.”

  The low tone combined with a dimple that appeared when he spoke drew her attention to his mouth…a place she should not be looking. Granted, the rest of him was just as impressive. So where was a girl supposed to look when presented with such an intriguing man? Even his dusty boots were intriguing. They instantly sparked fantasies of him doing manual labor around the ranch…shirtless, to show off those sweaty, tanned muscles.

  “The stable hands are all gone for the day. How long will you be staying next door?”

  Well, that pulled her right from her glorious daydream.

  “I’m here through the weekend,” she replied, nerves swirling through her belly. “I, um… I didn’t know they were gone, and I wanted to check things out before the weather turned. Sorry if I disturbed you.”

  The horse behind her stomped its foot as if protesting. She sort of felt like doing the same. She’d talked herself into taking a ride even though she wasn’t completely comfortable, because she wanted to do something for herself and she didn’t want to feel guilty about her friend paying for this getaway.

  When Hayes continued to stare at her without a word, she got the impression he didn’t want to be having this conversation any more than she did at this point. He obviously hadn’t expected to find someone in his stable, especially when he thought his workers were gone.

  The awkward silence had her offering a feeble smile before she turned. No need to stay where she obviously wasn’t wanted.

  “Wait.” Hayes muttered a curse beneath his breath that had her cringing. “I’ll take you out if you really want to go.”