A Baby on the Ranch

by Stella Bagwell

  For the outing she dressed David in a pair of tiny denim overalls and a red-and-blue-striped T-shirt. As for herself, she really didn’t care what she looked like. However, she didn’t want to embarrass Althea by wearing a pair of old jeans and a grungy sweatshirt, so she dressed in a pair of winter-white slacks and a matching sweater. And in an effort to be festive for the coming holiday, she pinned a striped candy cane to her shoulder and pulled her dark hair back with a red scarf.

  After wasting several minutes in an effort to find a parking spot near the courthouse, Katherine wished she’d told Althea she would meet her at the mall. But at the last moment someone pulled out of a slot less than a block away and she nabbed it before another driver took the opportunity.

  Inside the main corridor of the courthouse, she hurried toward the annex where Althea’s office was located. The last thing on her mind was running into Richard Marek. He was normally gone from the building at this time of day. Something out of the ordinary must have kept him in the office, she decided, as she spotted him striding straight toward her. Since the closest door to her opened into a janitor’s closet, she could hardly dive through it. So she stood her ground and waited for him to approach her.

  The tall, blond man was dressed impeccably in a gray suit and burgundy striped tie. His straight hair was smoothed perfectly to one side and though his features couldn’t be classified as handsome, they would appear strong and appealing to most anyone who took the time to look at him. At the moment there was a wide smile on his face, yet Katherine didn’t feel one speck of excitement at the sight of his greeting.

  “Hello, Katherine. I didn’t realize you were out and about yet,” he said warmly as he reached for her hand. “What are you doing here at the courthouse?”

  She tried to smile back, but she knew the effort was lukewarm at best. “I’m meeting a friend for lunch.” She pulled her hand from his grip while thinking his soft, manicured hand felt nothing like Lonnie’s strong, rough palm and long fingers. “In fact, if you’ll excuse me, Mr. Marek, I’m running a little late.”

  “How many times have I told you to call me Richard? And don’t be so hasty to get away,” he said pleasantly. “You haven’t shown the baby to me yet.”

  Flustered, and trying her best not to show it, Katherine pulled the blanket back from David, while Richard moved closer. As he bent over the baby, she noticed he smelled like a forest of fir trees, instead of like the subtle scents of a man.

  “Well, he looks like you, Katherine. You must be proud.”

  Katherine glanced furtively beyond his shoulder. Hopefully Althea would show up in a moment or two and save her. “Enormously.”

  “What did you name him?”

  She looked at the tax assessor and thought how very opposite he was from the man she loved. “David. Lonnie David.”

  His brows puckered slightly. “Lonnie. Hmm. That’s an…uncommon name. From your family?”

  If Lonnie wanted to call his name redneck that was one thing, he had the right. But if Richard Marek tried it, she was going to put him in his place.

  Lifting her chin, she said, “No. From a friend. A very close friend.” Who wanted to be more, she thought silently. So what was she doing here? Why wasn’t she back in Hereford, getting ready for Lonnie to come home from work? That was where she wanted to be. Where every particle in her body had ached to be for the past three weeks.

  “So when are you planning on coming back to work? You really don’t look as if you need your whole six weeks of maternity leave to recuperate. In fact, you look great.”

  She could feel her expression turning frosty, but she couldn’t help it. He wasn’t man enough to admit that his attitude was purely selfish. And suddenly she was thinking just how unselfish, how very giving and thoughtful, Lonnie had been to her. How could she have walked away from him when he’d been everything she’d ever dreamed about?

  Because she’d been scared. So very scared of loving him and then losing him.

  “My maternity leave isn’t just about my physical health, Mr. Marek. It’s also about the baby and the opportunity to spend time with him, bond with him. In case you didn’t realize it, that’s important to both of us.”

  His face reddened slightly, and he glanced at the people coming and going in the wide corridor. “Oh, I didn’t mean it that way, Katherine. I—well, Rena just can’t handle things in the office the way you do.” Moving a step closer, he placed his hand on her arm and lowered his head toward hers to whisper, “I’ve missed you, Katherine. Really missed you. And now that you’ve had the baby, I think you and I need to have a long talk. It isn’t good for the boy to be without a father.”

  Infuriated by his forward behavior, she snatched her arm away from his grasp. “The ‘boy’ has a name. It’s David. And now that you’ve brought this up, I’m happy that I’ve run into you like this, because you’re right. We do need to have a talk. But as far as I’m concerned, the talk needs to be just long enough to tell you that you might as well keep Rena on permanently. I won’t be coming back. Now if you’ll excuse me, my friend is waiting.”

  His eyes bulged and his jaw dropped, but whatever he was going to say he could say to the wall, because Katherine hurriedly stepped around him and rushed down to the end of the corridor where Althea was waiting patiently.

  “Hi, honey! Gee, you look beautiful. Except for that glower on your face.” Her features puckered with a comical frown. “What did Marek say to you, anyway?”

  Not daring to glance back, Katherine took Althea by the upper arm and urged her toward the nearest exit. “Come on. I’ll tell you about it in the car.”

  Five minutes later Althea was zipping in and out of lunch hour traffic while Katherine tried to explain what had just taken place between her and the tax assessor.

  “You told him you quit? Just like that?” Althea exclaimed as a driver suddenly stopped in front of her, forcing her to jam on the brakes.

  Nodding stiffly, Katherine looked at her friend. “I realize it all sounds impulsive, Althea. But you should have heard the man! He had this assuming attitude that he and I…that we had a future together. And I’ve never encouraged him one whit! Why, he even had the gall to suggest that David needed a father. As if I didn’t know that. And just as though he was the man for the job! I can’t put up with it any longer, Althea. Good salary or not, I can’t work under that sort of strain.”

  Althea darted her a concerned look. “What are you going to do?”

  With a long sigh Katherine dropped her forehead into her hand. “Find another job. That’s all I can do. David and I have to eat. We have to have a roof over our heads and what savings I have won’t last long. Do you have any ideas?”

  “Yeah, I have one great idea. Go back to that cowboy you’ve fallen in love with.”

  Katherine’s head jerked up and she stared at Althea’s profile as the woman continued to negotiate the busy traffic. “How do you—-”

  Swatting a hand through the air, Althea interrupted, “Oh, don’t bother to deny it. Since you’ve come back home, he’s all you’ve talked about. You’re crazy about the man and you’re miserable without him. What I can’t figure is why you left him in the first place.”

  Katherine swallowed as the tears that were always nearby began to burn her eyes. “I guess I do love Lonnie,” she quietly admitted. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean I should have stayed out there.”

  Althea surprised her by chuckling. “Why? You don’t love someone by running off from them.”

  Katherine drew in a ragged breath and let it out. “You do when you’re scared, Althea. And I’m plenty scared. Over and over I keep picturing myself telling Lonnie how I feel—that I love him—and then later, after he’s tired of me…well, he tells me it’s over.”

  Whipping the economy car into the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant, Althea left the motor and the heater running.

  “Honey, I’m not an expert on romance. Tom and I have been together since high school. If I didn
’t have him I wouldn’t know the first thing about finding a man to love or having him find me. But I can sure as heck see that there’s no difference between losing your sheriff later and being here in Fort Worth and not having him in your life now.” She reached for Katherine’s hands and squeezed them with encouragement. “Katherine, you’ve had a lot to think about lately. This thing with your mother—”

  Katherine released something between a sob and a laugh. “Oh God, Althea, don’t call her my mother. She wasn’t my mother. She lied to me all those years. And my father—the one who I thought ran out on her and me—he never existed. Everything I’ve ever believed in, my mother, my father, even Walt—they were all phonies. I don’t know what or who to believe in anymore,” she mumbled with anguish.

  “You believed in Lonnie enough to name your child after him.”

  Katherine thought about that for long moments, and as she did she realized she’d believed in him from the very start. She’d fallen in love with him that night he drank that horrible instant coffee with her and ate vanilla wafers as though she’d served him a delicious slice of chocolate cake.

  I’m a sucker for sweets. Especially two-crust pies. You ever make those, Miss Katherine?

  Lonnie’s simple words from that night suddenly came back to her again and, as they did, tears flowed into her eyes. He wasn’t suave, but he was straightforward and true. He was the only man she could ever love. Seeing Richard and having him come on to her had brought that fact home to her even more.

  “You know, Althea, Lonnie’s not had an easy life. First his father was killed and then his mother snapped and just ran off and left him with the neighbors. And then there was a woman he thought he wanted to marry—she walked out on him. But in spite of all of that he wants to have a family. He wants David and me to be his family. Where is his courage coming from? From being a lawman?”

  Althea gave her a knowing smile. “Love. It gives us the courage to do things we’d otherwise never be capable of doing. You love Lonnie. That’s all the courage you need to go to him.”

  As Katherine considered her friend’s advice, a heavy weight began to lift from her shoulders. Hope tried to flicker in her heart, but doubt quickly stepped in and she bit worriedly on her lip as she looked at Althea.

  “You’re right. I have to find the courage to go to him,” Katherine told her. “But what if it’s too late? I walked away from him. He might not welcome me back. He might think I’m no better than the woman who dumped him before. And I couldn’t blame him if he did.”

  “You’ll never know until you try,” Althea gently suggested. “But something tells me he’ll be very glad to see you.”

  A week passed before Katherine could complete her packing, close out her lease on the apartment and utilities, plus have her car tuned up for the seven-or eight-hour trip to Hereford. Since she’d made her decision to go to Lonnie, she hadn’t looked back, and today, as she pushed her little car westward into the vast Texas plains, she felt elated and fearful at the same time.

  She’d not talked to Lonnie once since she’d driven his old Ford into town and caught the bus back to Fort Worth. Several times she’d asked herself why he hadn’t attempted to call her, but each time she stopped herself from analyzing the question. She didn’t want to think, even for a moment, that her leaving had killed all of Lonnie’s feelings for her. She didn’t want to believe that her own cowardice had ruined something so precious.

  Thankfully the weather was clear and relatively mild for December in West Texas. She pushed the little car to drive the speed limit on the interstate and stopped only when David needed feeding or attending to. Even so, it was nearly dark when she entered Deaf Smith County, and she quickly made the decision to avoid Lonnie’s office in Hereford. Barring an emergency somewhere in the county, he would more than likely be home now.

  With that in mind, she turned her car onto the farm-to-market road that would take her to the Rafter C. And as she drove, she fervently prayed.

  “Mitch, I told you not to be talking to Lester about me taking off a few days!” Lonnie barked into the telephone. “Why in tarnation did you disobey me?”

  Unaffected by his boss’s outburst, the young deputy said, “Because you needed to be disobeyed. If you’re going to Fort Worth to see Katherine, someone needs to take over for you. Lester is next in line to you.”

  “Lester has his hands full already. His wife has been ill, and he’s been having trouble with that disc in his back again. He needs time off himself.”

  “Guess that leaves me to fill in, then, doesn’t it?” Mitch didn’t hesitate to suggest.

  In spite of himself, Lonnie had to smile. For some reason, Mitch reminded him of himself about ten years ago when he’d been a fresh young deputy raring to go.

  “I don’t know about that, Mitch. I’m not sure I want to leave the whole department in your hands. The bank could be completely cleaned out while you were down at the diner charming the waitresses.”

  “Oh, shoot, Lonnie—I mean, Sheriff—I wouldn’t be doing any womanizing. At least, not while you were away. And—”

  All of a sudden Lonnie caught the faint sound of a car driving toward the house. “Just a minute, Mitch. I think I hear someone outside. I’ll call you back later.”

  Curious, Lonnie glanced out the windows at the beam of headlights sweeping the front yard. Who in heck would be coming to visit him at this hour? If this was about some damn stolen goat, he was going to send the caller packing, and quick.

  Snatching up a denim jacket, he shrugged it on and stepped out into the pool of the porch light. As he did, he saw a woman emerging from the shadows. A woman with a baby in her arms.

  His heart stopped, then began to pound like a drum. “Katherine! Is that you?”

  She didn’t answer until she reached the porch, and by then he could see clearly for himself that it was her, the very woman his heart had been aching for.

  “Hello, Lonnie.”

  Stunned, he stepped slowly toward her and reached for the baby. “What…how did you get here?”

  Katherine made a motion over her shoulder at the car parked near the yard fence. “I drove.”

  His eyes grew wide. “From Fort Worth? Alone?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Just David and me. Were you expecting me to bring someone with me?”

  He cuddled the baby into the crook of his left arm and as he did, he decided he’d never held a more precious bundle in his life. “I wasn’t expecting you, period,” he said.

  As soon as his words were out, her head dropped with regret. “No,” she mumbled quietly, “I don’t expect you were.”

  Still stunned, his mind spinning at her unexpected appearance, Lonnie took her by the upper arm and led her toward the door. “Come on, it’s cold out here, and you and the baby must be tired.”

  She looked up at him, her eyes both wary and hopeful. “You mean—I’m still welcome?”

  He stared at her as joy, disbelief and hope all swept through him in one amazing rush. “Oh, Katherine! Did you honestly think you wouldn’t be?”

  Not waiting for an answer, he opened the door and ushered her inside the warm room. After he’d shut the door behind him, he carried David to the couch and placed him carefully on the cushion nearest the warmth of the fireplace.

  Sinking down beside the baby, Lonnie momentarily ignored Katherine and pulled the blanket back for a better look at the boy. “Oh, he’s grown since you’ve been gone! Really grown. But what’s happened to all that dark hair he had? He looks like a plucked chicken.”

  Smiling nervously, she approached the couch and stood near Lonnie’s knee. The urge to reach out and touch his shoulder was so great she had to make a fist at her side to stop herself.

  “He lost most of it,” she said huskily. “That was just baby hair. He’ll get it back and more.”

  “Has he been well?”

  His concern for David caused love to pour from her heart like an ever-flowing fountain. “The pediatrician says h
e’s the picture of health.”

  “That’s good. I’ve been wondering about him. Trying to imagine what he looked like now. He’s going to make you a fine son, Katherine.”

  She drew in a deep, bracing breath as he pulled the blanket carefully up over the baby’s shoulders. “I was hoping you’d say our son, Lonnie.”

  A pregnant silence lasted for what seemed like an eternity before he finally glanced up at her. When he did, the incredulous look on his face caused her throat to choke with emotion.

  “Our son? Is that what you said?”

  Smiling tearfully, she nodded and then she said in a choked, broken voice, “Oh, Lonnie. I’ve been…so stupid. Forgive me. Please, forgive me.”

  Instantly he was on his feet and dragging her into his arms. Burying his face in her hair, he said, “I don’t know what’s brought about this change. And right now it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except that you’re here.”

  She flung her arms around his waist and clung to him tightly as joy beat inside her like a wild bird soaring through a golden sky. “Oh Lonnie, I’ve been miserable without you. Absolutely miserable,” she mumbled against his chest. “I don’t want to live without you. Please tell me I don’t have to.”

  These past weeks without Katherine and the baby, Lonnie had wondered if he would ever feel happiness again. Now it bubbled up in him like an effervescent drink, fizzing inside his head until he could hardly speak, much less think.

  “As if I’d ever turn you away,” he growled.

  Bringing his hands beneath her jaw, he used his thumbs to tilt her face up to his.

  Instantly Katherine went up on tiptoe to greet his lips with hers. The result was a deep, hungry kiss that left her moaning and clinging to his shoulders as her legs threatened to buckle beneath her.

  Over and over he kissed her lips and then her cheeks, her forehead, her chin, until eventually his mouth moved back to her lips to hover there. “Will David be all right where he is?” he whispered.