HER SECRET, HIS BABY

by Tanya Michaels

  He swore under his breath. “I’m not made of steel. We agreed to date, and I want to do this right. You pointed out the steps we’ve skipped, how we’ve done everything out of order up until now, and I think it’s too important to be rushed. I want to send you roses tomorrow to thank you for a great time, start planning where I can take you next, call you during the week to let you know I’m thinking about you. I want to court you. You deserve that.”

  She let out a dreamy sigh. “That is the most romantic rejection I have ever heard in my life.”

  * * *

  TRUE TO HIS WORD, Garrett did call her all during the next week—often right around bedtime. It quickly became her favorite part of the day. Hearing from him always gave her that little rush of exhilaration, but it was different at night, more intimate, less hurried. She curled up in the dark, closed her eyes and lost herself in his voice, pretending he was there with her.

  He wasn’t able to come to Cielo Peak the following weekend because he was managing the ranch while his parents were in Denver. Caroline was shopping in the city while Brandon attended a conference on winter grazing. Who knew there were such things? Arden had always pictured ranchers giving each other sage advice over fence lines, not holed up in the conference room of a Denver hotel, reviewing PowerPoint presentations about sod, rye and clover.

  “But next weekend, when I come to town for the shower, I’ll make it up to you by staying several nights,” Garrett promised.

  The Friday night before the shower, he called to tell her he couldn’t wait to see her the next day. “I miss you.”

  “Want to prove it? When you stay in town this weekend, stay with me,” she pleaded. “I don’t want to be alone after the shower. I’ll be all weepy over cute little outfits, and there will be nursery equipment I’ll be impatient to assemble. I know you don’t want me attempting to build furniture on my own.”

  He chuckled. “That’s blackmail.”

  “Mmm, actually I think it’s coercion,” she said unrepentantly. Then, more seriously, she asked, “Will you at least think about it? Spending the night here could be your shower present to me.”

  “What makes you think I don’t already have a present?”

  “Really?” She spent a few minutes trying to wheedle clues out of him while he taunted her in classic juvenile I-know-something-you-don’t-know fashion.

  “So tell me again who’s on the guest list for this shower?” he asked. “It feels surreal that I’ll be celebrating the arrival of our baby with some people I’ve never even met.”

  “But you’ll know the Connors and Layla, plus my brothers will be there.” She got momentarily sidetracked. “I wanted to invite Elisabeth Donnelly. She’s Justin’s ex-girlfriend. They were great together, but she was the godmother for her college roommate’s daughter. When her former roommate passed away, Elisabeth got custody of the little girl. The situation was too intense for my brother. I adore Justin, but he needs to grow up. If he had any sense at all, he’d get her back. I asked him if I could invite Elisabeth but he refused. I should have just asked her to come and not told him.”

  “You would’ve blindsided him? In the middle of our shower?”

  “For his own good. You don’t understand. He makes jokes all the time, but his happiness is superficial. Deep down, in his own way, I think he’s nearly as miserable as Colin. He could benefit from someone scheming on his behalf.”

  “But not telling him she was coming would be the same as lying to him.” Garrett’s tone had taken on an edge. “You can’t deceive someone just because you think you know what’s best!”

  She inhaled sharply, stung by his anger.

  “If we’re going to be in a relationship, Arden, I have to know you aren’t going to rationalize away my right to the truth whenever it suits you.”

  “And I have to know that you can get past this!” She could only apologize so many times. “You had every right to be upset that I kept the pregnancy a secret, but I can’t change that. And we weren’t even discussing us, we were talking about my brother. I know my family a lot better than you do.”

  “Oh, really? Because you keep trying to pin Colin down and make him stay put. You don’t seem as interested in what he needs as you do in keeping him close because it’s what you need.”

  The implication that she was selfish sent her reeling. She adored her brothers and wanted the very best for them. Especially Colin! How many eighteen-year-old boys put their lives on hold to raise an annoying kid sister?

  “You don’t understand what it’s like to have brothers or sisters,” she shot back. “And you sure as hell don’t seem to understand me.”

  With a muttered “Guess not,” he told her he’d see her at the shower and ended the call.

  * * *

  “OH, HOW I WISH the punch was spiked,” Arden lamented.

  “If it was,” Layla reminded her, “you couldn’t have any.”

  “Maybe we could use it to sedate Garrett. Assuming he’s even coming.”

  Layla paused in the middle of removing a plastic baby bottle from its packaging. “He’ll be here. You guys had a fight—it happens. You’re pregnant, with a hormonal probability of turning cranky, and it was late at night. He could’ve been tired and overreacted. Honestly, it was one argument. That’s nothing compared to the kinds of things the two of you have endured. Together and separately.”

  “Lord, I hope you’re right.” Arden had lain awake for hours last night, rotating between crying jags, righteous fury and the almost visceral need to call him back.

  “Of course I’m right! Now help me open the rest of these bottles.”

  “Why are there so many?” Arden asked. “Don’t tell me these are what the guests will be drinking out of.”

  “Ha! No, these are for baby bottle bowling. Because yours truly is a genius, I planned all games where the equipment needed is actually extra baby supplies for you guys. Once I’ve got these all opened, where can I set up my lanes?”

  They’d discussed having the shower at Layla’s house, since she was the hostess and didn’t want to create any extra work or cleaning for the mommy-to-be. But they’d decided it was silly to have everyone bring presents to her house when Arden and Garrett would simply have to load them back up for transport home. So Layla had come over bright and early to help Arden tidy up—and to listen to her vent about last night’s catastrophic phone call.

  “It started off so well,” Arden said in disbelief. “He was as happy to be talking with me as I was with him. How did we make such a mess of it?”

  “Sometimes phone conversations are more difficult than face-to-face. Long distance is hard, but you guys will get the hang of it.”

  How? After the baby was born, she’d be exhausted from middle-of-the-night feedings and barely be able to stay awake for their nocturnal chats—and that was assuming that a crying infant didn’t make it impossible to hear. She’d adored her nephew, Danny, but when he’d been an infant, some of his ear-splitting crying spells had gone on for thirty minutes straight. Even if she and Garrett eventually mastered long-distance dating...to what end? What was their ultimate goal here? That she’d live in Cielo Peak, he’d work the ranch all week and they’d only be a family on weekends? Her memories of her own parents were faded with time, but she remembered two people very much in love.

  Family was the most important thing in the world. Didn’t her child deserve more than parents who were in a part-time relationship?

  “Hey!” Layla snapped her fingers. “I know that look. Guests will be here within the hour. This is not a good time to fall apart. Besides, you know that if Justin and Colin get here and find you red-eyed over Garrett, they’ll use it as an excuse to pick a fight with him.”

  “Good point.” Telling herself that Layla had gone to a lot of trouble to make today special, Arden got busy slicing up cucu
mbers for the cucumber-and-cream-cheese appetizers. The whack whack whack of the knife against the cutting board was cathartic, and by the time the doorbell rang, she no longer wanted to cry. Much.

  She found Garrett at her front door, holding an armful of gold bags—her favorite chocolate and caramel medallions.

  “I bought out three different stores,” he told her. “Can you forgive me? I know you love your brothers, and you were only speaking hypothetically.”

  “Only if you’ll forgive me, too. I should’ve been more tolerant of your point of view.” She threw her arms around him, although he was holding too much candy to return the hug. “I’m so glad you’re here. I was afraid you’d change your mind.”

  “And miss today? This is our first real family event. Wild horses couldn’t have kept me away. Now, would you like to relieve me of some of this chocolate? Because I still have to unload all the real gifts from the truck.”

  As he brought in prettily wrapped pastel packages and gift bags, Layla mouthed a gloating told you so in Arden’s direction. Arden merely laughed. She’d never been so elated to be wrong.

  Shortly thereafter, Justin arrived, asking if there was anything he could do to help. He made jokes with Layla and Arden and was even passably friendly to Garrett. But when he and Arden were alone in the kitchen, his good-humored mask fell away, revealing sorrow.

  “Don’t shoot the messenger,” he said. “But I bring tidings from our brother.”

  “He isn’t coming?” She was as unsurprised as she was disappointed.

  “I tried for over an hour to talk him into it, telling him it’s what our parents would have wanted—for him to be here since they can’t—but nothing worked.”

  “Thanks for making the effort. Maybe...maybe it is better for him not to be here.” She didn’t want to flaunt her burgeoning new happiness in front of Colin, and the baby shower she had once thrown for him and Natalie would probably have been etched in his mind all day. Replaying Garrett’s words from the night before, she tried to focus on what her brother needed for his mental well-being. Maybe some men were like wounded animals, needing to skulk off on their own before they could heal. She resolved to stop smothering him with her worry.

  The Connors’ arrival was a welcome distraction. As it turned out, Darcy was nearly as besotted with babies as she was with birds. She cooed over the decorations, the planned games, the adorable gift tags on the presents that were piling up in front of the fireplace. And she kept reminding Arden and Garrett that after the baby was born, they had a ready and waiting babysitter.

  “And that is officially the last time I say the B-word,” Darcy vowed as she handed a diaper pin over to Layla. One of the ongoing shower games was that everyone fastened a diaper pin to their clothes, and if they were heard saying the word baby, another guest could claim the pin. Whoever had collected the most by the end of the party won a mystery door prize.

  The final guests showed up, including Vivian Pike and Nurse Sonja from the hospital. As with all parties since the beginning of time, everyone ended up gathered around the snack table.

  Justin grinned at the nurse he’d briefly dated. “Good to know that if this shindig gets too wild, we have a medical professional on the premises in case of emergency.”

  When Sonja asked Arden if she was sticking to her guns about not learning the gender ahead of time, Darcy followed up by saying, “Are you making lists of potential girls’ names and potential boys’ names?”

  “I can help with that,” Justin volunteered. “The name Justin, for example, is majestic and traditional. Teachers won’t misspell it, kids won’t pick on it. Also good are Justine and Justina for girls.”

  Garrett made a show of leaning toward Arden and whispering much too loudly, “Remind me why we invited him.”

  “Because we feel sorry for him.” She smirked. “He’s alienated all the women in a hundred-mile radius and thus has no social life.”

  “That is patently untrue,” Justin argued. He turned to Vivian, who fell into the rare category of both being single and having never dated him. “For instance, have I alienated you yet? Justin Cade, nice to meet you.”

  They followed bottle bowling with an entertainingly ridiculous scavenger hunt and a baby-changing relay race where team members had to strip one outfit off of a baby doll and get a completely different one all snapped into place as quickly as possible.

  “And Arden gets to keep all these clothes,” Layla added. “I went with gender-neutral colors like yellow, which is just as easily masculine as feminine.”

  “The hell it is,” Garrett whispered for Arden’s ears only. He obviously didn’t think buttercup-yellow would be suitable attire for a son.

  From across the room, Justin gave them a thumbs-up, as if he knew what Garrett had said and agreed whole-heartedly. It was the first sign of real bonding Arden had witnessed between the men, and it was heartening to think they might not kill each other, after all.

  Layla sliced up the decadent cake she’d ordered from Arden’s favorite local bakery, and the guests found spots in the cramped living room to enjoy dessert while watching her open gifts.

  The Connors had purchased an adorable play mat labeled a “baby gym,” and Arden laughed. “Did Garrett tell you our child is already an Olympian in training?” Garrett’s parents went overboard with their gifts, which included both the stroller and the playpen from the registry. Arden rolled her eyes at Justin’s present, infant shirts with slogans like Cuteness Runs in the Family. You Should Meet My Uncle.

  “You are not using my kid to scam women,” she said.

  He laughed, then handed her a card with Colin’s handwriting on it. “He asked me to deliver this.” He lowered his voice. “I know he hates himself for not being here. He just couldn’t.”

  Oh, what she wouldn’t give to wave a magic wand and erase Colin’s pain. If Colin needed to go somewhere else in order to eventually find his way back to them, she would support that. As she read the card he’d signed, sentimental tears welled in her eyes, then she gasped when she saw the amount of the gift card he’d placed in the envelope.

  Garrett was equally startled. “Whoa. Is this to help pay for newborn provisions, or is he single-handedly trying to put the kid through college?”

  After everyone else’s presents had been unwrapped, Garrett handed her a gift bag that he said was from him. “Nothing off the registry,” he said. “Just a little something all kids should have.”

  She reached inside and pulled out a baby-size supersoft, red cowboy hat that inexplicably made her cry. It would be adorable on either a little boy or girl. There was also a chocolate-brown floppy plush cow.

  “These are the sweetest things I’ve ever seen.” She sniffled. She hugged the plush stuffed animal to her chest.

  “Took me a while to find one that wasn’t black-and-white. They shouldn’t all be Holsteins!” Garrett complained. The man was serious about his cows.

  She thanked him with a hug, but had other ideas about how she wanted to thank him once they were alone. It was Darcy Connor who seemed to guess Arden’s feelings and subtly began directing guests to leave. Justin left with Vivian, and Arden didn’t know whether to be amused or irritated. Finally, only Layla was left.

  As the two of them straightened the kitchen, Arden told her, “You outdid yourself with the food. No one who was here will need to cook dinner tonight.”

  In between his trips carrying all the gifts to the eventual nursery, Garrett thanked Layla with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, flustering her.

  “Sorry,” Layla whispered to Arden. “I know he’s yours, but damn, he’s hot.”

  Finally, finally, it was just Arden and Garrett. Alone at last after she hadn’t seen him for two weeks. Taking his hand, she led him to the couch but didn’t sit with him.

  “You never actually gave me a straight answer
when I asked you on the phone. Are you staying tonight?” she asked shyly.

  He nodded, his gray eyes intense. “The entire drive to Cielo Peak, I worried that I’d lost my chance to build something with you. I need to hold you, feel you with me.”

  Leaning forward, she kissed him tenderly. “Then we’re definitely on the same page. Wait here?” she murmured near his ear.

  Battling the impulse to race to her closet in an undignified sprint, she sauntered out of the room, giving him a sassy wink over her shoulder.

  As often as she thought about him during the days and nights when he wasn’t in town, she’d had ample time to play this out in her mind. While she didn’t think of herself as specifically vain, any woman seducing a man wanted to look her best. No way in hell was she letting him peel industrial-strength maternity undergarments off of her. At least, not for their first time.

  And, in a way, this would be their first time.

  What seemed like a lifetime ago, she’d had sex with a good-looking and very kind cowboy who’d changed her life forever. But now, she was about to make love to Garrett, the man she’d come to know over the past month, the man who worked hard and knew how to make her laugh, the man who cherished family as much as she did, the man who acted as if he’d do battle to defend her honor but looked completely at home holding a snuggly stuffed cow.

  She’d purchased a very simple nightgown. The silky material was midnight-blue and fell from spaghetti straps to hit right above her knees. It wasn’t ornate or lacy or sheer, but it made her feel sexier than she had in months.

  Wearing nothing but the nightgown, she returned to the living room. Her senses were so heightened that the mere brush of satiny fabric against bare skin was arousing.

  Garrett sat bolt upright, shock and pure masculine hunger playing across his face. “This may have been a strategic mistake on your part,” he cautioned. “If this is what I get after we argue...well, I may be picking a lot of fights.”

  She smiled but didn’t say anything as she continued her unhurried approach.