The Maverick's Baby-In-Waiting

by Melissa Senate

Walker shook his head. “You’re overestimating them, li’l bro.”

  “Nah,” Jensen said, in full confidence. He ate the last of his risotto. “God, this is good. This place should have a Michelin star.”

  “Jensen, seriously,” Hudson said. “We’re talking about Mom and Dad. Walker the Second and Patricia Jones. You think they’re going to come to Rust Creek Falls on some pretext? They barely showed up for our weddings.”

  Jensen almost snorted at that one. “They’ll show. Trust me.”

  “How are you so sure?” Walker asked, leaning back and sipping his scotch.

  “Because the night before the surprise party, I’m going to call Dad and tell him I decided to move to Rust Creek Falls, that I’ve fallen head over heels in love with a local woman and, sorry, I’m following in my brothers’ footsteps. They’ll be on their private plane so fast the earth will move.”

  Hudson smiled. “I have to hand it to you, Jensen. Brilliant.”

  “And so simple, yet scarily effective,” Walker added. He tipped his scotch at Jensen.

  It would definitely work. Jensen knew his parents. Particularly his father. “It’s too bad I have to resort to that, but hey, we’re getting Mom and Dad here, we’re celebrating forty years, Autry and Gideon have both agreed to fly in, and you can guys can show them what a great town this is and change their minds about Rust Creek Falls.”

  Hudson raised an eyebrow. “Since when are you a champion of Rust Creek Falls, Jensen?”

  “Since he started kissing pregnant women at barbecues,” Walker suggested.

  Hudson frowned. “You’re going to scare Mom and Dad into jetting here by telling them you’ve fallen for a single woman who’s seven months pregnant? That’ll work for sure, but I don’t like the idea of using Mikayla that way.”

  Now it was Jensen’s turn to frown. “Whoa—hold up. Who said anything about Mikayla? I’m just telling them I fell for someone. Not mentioning names.”

  “So you did fall for someone?” Walker asked, challenge in his intense eyes.

  Jensen felt his cheeks burn. “It’s a ruse. And the ruse has nothing to do with Mikayla Brown. So lay off.”

  Hudson leaned forward. “But you did kiss her—the very pregnant woman—at Luke and Eva’s barbecue?”

  “We got caught up in a moment, that’s all,” Jensen said, slugging his beer. Did older brothers ever get less annoying? These two were like a freight train barreling toward him at 150 miles per hour.

  “Well, don’t try to turn a moment into two moments. Or five minutes. Or a week,” Hudson said. “Mikayla’s been hired at Just Us Kids, and she’s starting next Monday. She’s an employee now, and that makes her part of the Jones business family. So back off.”

  Jensen rolled his eyes. “Mikayla and I are friends. That’s it. And I happen to like her. She happens to be gorgeous and ridiculously sexy despite—”

  Walker and Hudson shook their heads slowly and in unison. “Don’t even think about it, Jensen,” Walker said. “She’s about to have a baby. You did notice that, right?”

  “I think that’s quite evident,” Jensen said.

  And yes, that made things a bit more complicated than if she were not expecting. Nothing about the situation was standard operating procedure. Including why he was so drawn to her. That he couldn’t quite figure out.

  “So take a giant step back,” Hudson said. “You have to, Jensen.”

  Walker nodded. “Listen to your elders.”

  Huh. His brothers were just looking out for him. Getting ensnared in the life of a heavily pregnant single woman was crazy for a guy like Jensen. His brothers knew it, and hell, he was actually kind of touched.

  “Because let’s face it, Jensen,” Walker said. “You’re not the stuff dads are made of.”

  “Jensen, someone’s father,” Hudson said on a snort. “Nope, can’t see it. Ever.”

  Wait. They wanted him to back off from Mikayla because they didn’t think he was up to the task of being her man? Of being a father figure? Of being a father, period?

  Walker sipped his scotch and looked over the dessert menu. “If Mikayla Brown needs a man, she needs a stand-up guy who’ll see her through these last weeks of her pregnancy, be her Lamaze coach and marry her. He’ll be her husband and the father of her child.”

  Hudson nodded. “The last thing she needs is a jet-setting playboy out for a weeklong challenge or a first—sleeping with a hot pregnant woman and then walking away.”

  Jensen sat back, his gut twisting. What the hell? Who did Walker and Hudson think they were? Know-it-all jerks.

  Though he was well-known in Oklahoma for his long list of ex-lovers, high turnover rate and refusal to commit. And he’d never opened up to these jackals known as his brothers about Adrienne and how she’d changed him—and then changed him back and for the worse. He’d been willing to commit. He’d wanted to. Until she reminded him what his parents had instilled in him since birth. People would always say yes to him because of his name and money. Most of them—ninety-eight percent, his mother had said often—couldn’t care less about him.

  He thought of Adrienne and her gorgeous long blond hair and how he’d buried his face in those silky strands during sex, her nails raking down his back, whispering one untrue bittersweet nothing after the next. Those big, angelic blue eyes, hiding a lying, conniving, greedy gold digger who’d stolen so much from him, and he wasn’t talking about the almost million dollars.

  Actually, he should thank his brothers for reminding him who he was. Who he had to be. He wasn’t daddy material. He wasn’t even husband material. And women couldn’t he trusted. Come on. He knew that. Mikayla was a sweet, smart, beautiful woman with her own mind and her own thing going on. She hadn’t slapped him across the face for suggesting a short no-strings affair. She was sleeping on it.

  Thinking about it right now, most likely. In bed. Naked.

  Did pregnant women sleep naked? He had no idea. Why would he?

  Based on what he knew about her, she seemed to want to take care of herself; she wasn’t looking for a white knight. Then again, how different could she be? Especially in her...condition. She needed.

  Yeah, it was a damned good thing his brothers had unwittingly knocked some sense into him. For a minute there, maybe he’d been getting a little soft in the heart area where Mikayla was concerned. He’d romance her. He’d treat her like a queen. He’d give her everything she wanted, everything her baby needed, and then he’d fly home.

  A brief affair really was perfect for them both. He was sure Mikayla was coming to that conclusion right this minute. His attraction to her was very likely just about forbidden fruit. That was all. How could it be anything more?

  Meanwhile, she’d get a rich boyfriend for the next two weeks—he’d leave right after the anniversary party. Hell, maybe through the end of August if it took that long to convince Barnes to sell or for Jensen to find a new site for the distribution center.

  And what would Jensen get? To look at her beautiful face and hear her laughter and interesting take on things. And hopefully to get her in bed every night until he left. He’d work her out of his system and he’d leave town, his heart intact.

  Win-win for both.

  * * *

  Toss. Turn. Toss. Turn.

  As if Mikayla could get comfortable when she hadn’t been up all night contemplating whether to have a red-hot fling with a gorgeous, sexy millionaire.

  She sat up, fluffed her top pillow for the tenth time and glanced at the bedside clock—5:47 a.m. Maybe what she needed was a mind-clearing cup of herbal tea and a bracing walk in the fields. A quick shower helped wake her up, and she headed downstairs to the kitchen, surprised to hear voices.

  Eva and Amy Wainwright were sitting at the table, both in workout clothes, sipping coffee and talking quietly.

  So as not to wake her, she figured. And
Luke, who was likely still in bed, the way they all should be.

  “Morning,” Mikayla whispered, and they whipped their heads to her.

  “You’re up early,” Amy said. “Feeling okay?”

  “Absolutely fine. Just couldn’t sleep. But why are you two so wide-awake?”

  “Sunrise yoga at six fifteen in the park,” Eva explained. “It supposedly helps usher in a day of equilibrium.”

  “Equil-what-brium?” Luke asked with a smile as he came in and poured himself a mug of coffee, his hair cutely mussed.

  “It’s a term we use in the childcare business, too,” Mikayla said, making herself a cup of chamomile tea. “Like when three-year-olds want to push their plate of vegetables off the table but know they shouldn’t and often do it anyway. Forces competing in your mind and body for balance.”

  “Wow, Bella Jones is sure going to be glad she hired you at Just Us Kids,” Amy said, clinking Mikayla’s teacup with her coffee mug. “You know your stuff.”

  “Oh, trust me, I’m having some issues with competing forces myself,” she said, adding cream to her cup.

  “See you ladies later,” Luke said with a nod and a kiss on his wife’s cheek. “Hope you find that equil-what-brium,” he added with a devilish smile before leaving through the side door.

  “I’ll bet it has something to do with the hot kiss I saw at the barbecue yesterday,” Eva said, wiggling her eyebrows. “Am I right?”

  “Wait—what? What hot kiss?” Amy asked, whipping her head from Eva to Mikayla.

  Yikes, who else had seen that kiss? Was she the talk of the town? God, she hoped not.

  Mikayla sighed, sat down at the table and took a sip of her tea. No mind clearing yet. “Well, there I’d been, thinking the usual about Jensen Jones—world-class millionaire flirt—and then little Henry Stockton ran off with the pie and Jensen saved the day in such a sweet, touching way that I saw him differently. In those moments, instead of a too-confident, too-smooth, too-diamond-encrusted gorgeous millionaire used to getting what he wants when he wants it, I saw a good, kind man. A gorgeous, sexy, good, kind man. And we were talking for real about this and that, and I just leaned right over and kissed him.” She shook her head. “I still can’t believe I did it.”

  Amy broke into a grin and clapped. “Love it! Bet he did, too.”

  Mikayla thought of Jensen’s expression when she’d pulled her face away from his, the surprise and delight in his blue eyes. The desire. “I think he did. To the point that he asked me to have a wild no-strings affair until he leaves town.”

  “An affair?” Eva repeated, eyes wide. “Like a no-holds-barred hot, temporary romance?”

  “Exactly that,” Mikayla said. “Crazy, right? I’m seven months pregnant!”

  Amy raised her mug. “Exactly why you should go for it. If you don’t, two months from now, you’ll kick yourself. You won’t have a minute to yourself to pee, let alone to do anything you’re used to doing. But a week or two of being wined and dined by a single and available Jones? Do it, do it, do it,” she added on a chant.

  Eva laughed. “Sorry, Mik, but I agree with Amy. Motherhood will completely change your life. Sleepless nights. Sole responsibility for someone else. So yes, grab this crazy chance to be Cinderella for a few weeks.”

  Amy glanced at her phone on the table. “Oh, gosh, it’s after six already. We’d better hit the road to get our equil-what-briums back,” she added, popping up with a grin.

  Eva put their mugs in the sink and the two headed to the door with their orange yoga mats slung across their torsos.

  “Wait,” Mikayla said, “you guys can’t leave until you give me the flip side. Why any sane single pregnant woman wouldn’t have a whirlwind no-strings affair with Jensen.”

  “Sorry, hon,” Eva said. “But there is no flip side. You and Jensen are so different that it’s highly unlikely you’ll get attached to him, right?”

  Amy nodded. “He’s hot and rich with one hell of a smile. Enjoy yourself. Then he leaves and you both go back to your lives with some great memories.”

  “Got it,” Mikayla said. “No flip side. Okay, go bend your bodies into positions I haven’t been able to do in months.”

  They laughed and headed out.

  As Mikayla sat there, she realized that they might not be right about the no-flip-side thing. She was already a little attached to Jensen. More than a little. Last night wasn’t the first time she’d tossed and turned because of him, and not because of her giant belly getting in the way of comfort. And now she really did like him as a person. Too much. There was a lot more to Jensen Jones than his bank balance.

  She had way too much going on to fall in love. So she’d never go so far as to have her heart involved. A little piece of it, sure. But like Eva said, she and Jensen were very different, from two polar-opposite worlds. He wasn’t going to fall in love with her and she wasn’t going to fall for him.

  So why not be treated like a princess for the first time in her life for a week or two before her universe became changing diapers and waking up every couple of hours and worrying every two minutes that she was doing this motherhood thing wrong? A send-off. Yes. That was what a hot, brief affair with Jensen would be. A send-off, a last hurrah.

  By the time she heard his pickup truck pull up, Mikayla was one thousand percent sure of her decision.

  Chapter Eight

  “Um, Jensen, when you said you wanted to take me out to breakfast, I thought you meant to Daisy’s Donuts.”

  Jensen smiled at his new paramour and held open the door to Kalispell’s four-star hotel, which, according to Walker, had the best breakfast chef in the state. “We’re celebrating,” he said. “And besides, you can go to Daisy’s any day.”

  She smiled and glanced around the opulent lobby with its marble floors and ornate chandeliers. “So this is what it’s like to be a Jones woman—temporary woman,” she quickly added. “I like it.”

  Temporary Jones woman. That sounded weird. Even to him. But the wonder and delight in Mikayla’s eyes as they entered the restaurant and followed the hostess through the elegant space to the outdoor patio had him quickly forgetting anything but her happiness.

  They were seated in front of a long patch of wildflowers. In moments, Mikayla had been served her decaf, which she described as heavenly.

  “I’m getting the pregnant-lady special,” she said, scanning the menu. “Otherwise known as eggs, bacon and pancakes.”

  Jensen grinned. “Walker says the pancakes here melt on the tongue.”

  And Walker turned out to know what he was talking about. Breakfast was delicious. Coffees were topped off before they could even think of going lukewarm. And Mikayla made sounds of utter happiness with most bites. Jensen forked a bite of his Western omelet and held it up to Mikayla’s mouth.

  “Don’t mind if I do,” she said, slipping those pink lips around the fork. He could stare at her all day. And night.

  As she took a sip of her decaf, though, her expression changed. Then a second later, it was back to a pleasant smile.

  “Mik? You okay?” he asked.

  She glanced away for a moment, then looked straight at him. “We’ve been a temporary no-strings couple for all of an hour and a half, and every five minutes or so, I rethink the whole idea.”

  Temporary no-strings couple sounded a lot better than temporary Jones woman. “Because you keep forgetting that we each get what we need?” he asked, sipping his orange juice. Ah, fresh squeezed, of course.

  “What if what we want changes, though?” she asked.

  How could it possibly? Nothing would change. They each had their own lives to go back to—well, for Mikayla a life just starting. “Like what? We’ve been honest with each other, right? You know I’m incapable of anything more than this. And I know you deserve the world. So I’m going to give you the world as far as I can.”
/>   “I’m still not clear on what you’re getting out of this arrangement, Jensen. Hot pregnancy sex?” She snorted.

  He smiled. “Your company, Mikayla. Whatever that encompasses. Picnics, the opera, a weekend in Paris, strolls to Daisy’s Donuts for the Boston cream.”

  She shook her head, but a grin was forming. “You’re crazy.”

  “Crazy hot, right?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

  “That, too,” she said, giving him a playful punch on the arm. “But, seriously,” she added, sliding a look at him. “What if you got more emotionally involved than you expected?”

  “What if you did?” he countered.

  “I guess we’d cross that bridge if we came to it.”

  “Exactly. But, Mikayla, I should explicitly state right now that I’m going home in two weeks tops. You’re having a baby. We’re on separate paths. There’s no future intersection.”

  She took a long sip of her decaf, then nodded. “Except we’re sitting here together. Our paths have crossed to the point that we’re a temporary couple.”

  Yes, a temporary couple. “So what are you saying?”

  She put down her cup and seemed to struggle to put into words what she was thinking. “I don’t know. That something about all this feels...wrong? I’m not looking for a white knight. I think I’ve made that clear. But I’m letting you wine and dine me.”

  “You’re letting me be me,” Jensen said. “This is who I am.”

  She laughed. “So you’re saying I’m doing you a favor? I’m letting you do you?”

  He grinned. “Exactly.”

  She shook her head. “You are crazy.”

  “Crazy right, though,” he said.

  She gave him another playful sock on the arm. “I guess,” she conceded as they stood up and made their way out of the restaurant.

  By a huge potted fruit tree outside, Mikayla stopped and kissed Jensen on the cheek.

  “Thank you, again, for that feast. Hit every one of my cravings.”

  “Good. That’s the plan.” He linked arms with her and turned left, loving the feel of her even slightly connected to his body. “For the next two weeks, we fulfill each other’s cravings.”