The Cowboy's Family Plan

by Duarte, Judy

  That unexpected kiss had linked them in a way she hadn’t anticipated and set off a slew of romantic thoughts and yearnings, which was too bad.

  The last thing in the world she needed to do was to imagine herself playing house with a handsome cowboy who was still in love with his late wife.

  Chapter Four

  After leaving the wellness center, Selena arrived at her new two-bedroom digs on Hawthorne Lane, one of the older neighborhoods in Brighton Valley. She checked her voice mail, took a quick shower and dressed for the day. While tempted to grab something she could eat on the run, she took time for a good breakfast—a veggie omelet, a fruit cup and a blueberry muffin—to fuel her body and keep her going until noon.

  It was almost seven-thirty when she made the fifteen-minute drive to the medical center, which was just a few blocks down the street from her office.

  Because she still had an hour before her first patient would arrive, she decided to swing by the hospital so she could check on Shannon and her baby.

  Her first stop was at the neonatal intensive care unit, where little Michael slept in a heated isolette. He wasn’t the tiniest baby in the NICU, but at just over four pounds, he was still smaller than a full-term newborn.

  Last night, while Shannon had been in labor, his heart rate had dropped, indicating he was in distress, so Dr. Chin had decided upon an immediate C-section. His initial Apgar score had been a little low, but Roger Parnell, the neonatologist at the delivery, hadn’t been too concerned. And thank goodness Michael’s subsequent scores had improved.

  His color looked good today, Selena decided, as she studied the sleeping newborn. Her medical assessment soon took a maternal shift, and she found herself taking note of his little fingers and toes. He was a beautiful baby, with dark tufts of hair.... And look at that sweet little grimace on his face.

  “Good morning, Dr. Ramirez.”

  Tearing her gaze from the newborn, Selena turned to Margie Kaufman, the charge nurse, and offered her a smile. “Good morning, Margie. I stopped by to check on Baby Bedford before visiting his mother. How’s he doing?”

  “So far, so good. He doesn’t seem to have any major issues, although we’re watching him closely. We’ll probably bring his mom in to visit later this morning.”

  “I’ll let her know. I’m sure she’s eager to see him.” Still, Selena made no immediate move to leave. Instead, she continued to watch little Michael and to imagine having a baby like him someday. But longing for something that wasn’t meant to be wasn’t doing her any good, so she forced herself to leave the NICU and head for the maternity floor. When she reached the nurses’ station, she learned that Shannon Bedford was in room 407.

  Moments later, she found her sitting up in bed, her breakfast tray in front of her.

  “Good morning,” Selena said. “How are you feeling?”

  “Sore, but I guess that’s to be expected.”

  “I’m afraid so. Dr. Chin should have ordered pain meds for you.”

  “He did. I had a shot a few minutes ago. Well, an injection into my IV. I hate it, though, because it makes me feel loopy and weird.” Shannon pushed her half-eaten tray aside. “How are the kids?”

  “They’re fine.”

  “Did you have any trouble finding my mother’s house?”

  “No, not at all. The drive was easy. Alex, my...friend, went with me to Oakville.”

  “I don’t know how to thank you. Would you please let Alex know how grateful I am? He’s a darn good friend in my book.”

  Selena suspected that Shannon was right, although she was still trying to wrap her mind around the whole “friend” idea.

  Somehow, as the evening wore on, they’d become more than acquaintances, that’s for sure. And that goodnight kiss had her wondering if they’d become even more than friends, at least in his eyes. But rather than ponder that possibility, she decided to chalk the whole thing up to exhaustion and relief that the ordeal was over.

  “Where did you meet him?” Shannon asked.

  The question struck Selena as being unusual, but the events that had unfolded last night had all been a little dreamlike. And she found herself saying, “At the wellness center down the street. He took a class I offered.”

  No need to mention anything about the topic of the class. Or the fact that Alex was determined to find a woman to carry his and his late wife’s unborn children. But maybe Selena would be wise to make a note of that, to keep in mind that Alex and his wife must have had a good and loving marriage.

  Would Selena ever find a man who cared that deeply for her, even if she died?

  “Are you dating him?” Shannon asked. “Not that it’s any of my business, of course. It’s just that... Well, I don’t know why I even asked. I’m sorry. I’ve always been a little too nosy for my own good. And a little impulsive.” She blew out a ragged breath and clucked her tongue. “Just look where that impulsiveness landed me.”

  Now it was Selena’s turn to be nosy. “I’m not sure I’m following you.”

  “I met this guy—Joey Delgado—in a bar one night. I’m a little embarrassed to admit this but I went home with him. We dated a week or so, then called it quits. He was about five years younger than I was. And I had kids. I should have known something solid wouldn’t have worked out.”

  Selena met her first love, a graduate student, in college. And that hadn’t worked out so well either. Sometimes the whole dating thing was a complete crapshoot, if you asked her.

  “Do you plan to tell him about the baby?” Selena asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Silence stretched between them for a moment. Then Selena said, “I stopped by the NICU earlier.”

  “How’s the baby doing?” Shannon asked.

  The fact that she’d asked about Michael as a second thought struck Selena as a little unusual. Most mothers in her situation would have been more...

  No, it was wrong to make those kinds of assumptions. After all, Shannon probably had a lot of other things on her mind, like two children who’d been transported by strangers to stay with her mother, bills to pay, a new day care dilemma and probably a lot more than that. Besides, she’d just been given an injection for pain, which she claimed made her feel “loopy.”

  “I thought being a single mom with two kids was tough,” Shannon added. “But now look at me. I’m still single and have three.”

  Selena wondered if Shannon would consider adoption as a solution to her problems. At that rogue thought, a seed of hope surged through her, but she didn’t dare let it take root and blossom.

  After all, when someone finally wheeled Shannon to the NICU to see that precious little boy for the very first time, she was going to bond with him. And where would that leave Selena and her dream of instant motherhood?

  Disappointed yet again.

  So she put it all behind her—Shannon and her newborn, Alex and the unexpected kiss—then went back to the office to focus on her practice and her patients.

  And it worked beautifully—until Tuesday night, when Selena arrived to teach the second class.

  Once again, she found Alex sitting front and center, his Stetson resting on the chair next to him.

  She hadn’t seen him for five days, since the night Shannon’s baby was born. Of course, there’d been a good reason for that. She’d avoided going to the wellness center, hoping she wouldn’t run across him there. Instead, she’d exercised at home and jogged in the neighborhood.

  But now here she was, trying to focus on her notes and her presentation, which was even more difficult to do this evening than it had been last week before they’d spent time together.

  And before he’d kissed her.

  She tried her best to pretend it had never happened and that he wasn’t back in full force—a cowboy to be reckoned with. So while she
did cast an occasional glance his way during her lecture, she kept her focus on the others in the room, on their questions.

  And just like he’d done last week, he’d waited until the room had begun to clear before walking up to the podium.

  “Hey,” he said, flashing a heart-thumping grin her way. “Did you catch up on your sleep the other day?”

  “Eventually.” She returned his smile with one of her own. “How about you?”

  “I didn’t get a nap like I’d planned, so I made it an early night.” As she gathered her notes, she paused, her lips parting. “Oh, I nearly forgot. I brought that list of agencies for you.” She reached for a sheet of paper at the back of her stack and handed it to him.

  “Thank you.” He glanced at it for a moment, then rolled it up and placed it in his hip pocket.

  She supposed he had no place else to put it, but he seemed to discard it without much fanfare. Was that a sign that his plan to have his wife’s children was fading?

  As she closed her file of notes, she caught a hint of his musky scent and, when added to the rather intoxicating sound of a slight southern drawl, the whole effect was entirely too sexy to ignore.

  “Have you eaten dinner yet?” he asked.

  Her movements froze. Was he asking her out?

  Oh, for Pete’s sake. Joining him for a bite to eat wouldn’t be a date. If he’d had a romantic interest in her, he would have said or done something on the night they’d driven the kids to Oakville.

  Okay, so he’d kissed her at sunrise, which had been surprisingly sweet and romantic. But that could have been his way to end their unexpected nocturnal adventure. Right?

  So she said, “No, I haven’t eaten yet. But I have some leftover chicken vegetable soup I’m going to warm up when I get home.”

  As he took a step closer, that arousing cowboy scent, all musky and manly, played havoc with her senses, making her wonder just what he was really thinking.

  “Why don’t you save that for lunch tomorrow,” he said. “I’d like to take you to Emilio’s tonight. I’ve been craving some Italian food, and that’s the best place in town to get it.”

  His suggestion was tempting—and for a lot more reasons than an empty stomach. Yet instead of coming up with a polite way to decline, she said, “Okay. Why not?”

  “Good. I hate eating alone.”

  All right, then. He’d only suggested they dine together as a friendly offer. She was relieved to know she’d been right about his motive.

  Yet being right was a little unsettling, too—and maybe even disappointing. So why was that?

  Probably because if things were different, if they’d met elsewhere, if he wasn’t determined to see his late-wife live on by having the family they’d once planned...

  Enough of that. The compulsion to analyze everything was going to drive her crazy, so she slipped her notes into her purse, determined to let it all go. But when she glanced up and spotted a glimmer in his eyes, her heart skittered to a stop, and she found herself trying to read into his expression, his smile.

  Maybe going out to dinner with him wasn’t such a good idea, after all.

  Still, she followed the handsome and mesmerizing cowboy out of the wellness center and to his truck.

  As she walked beside him, she couldn’t help noting that he seemed to have lost his limp in favor of a sexy swagger. A girl could really lose her head around a man like him. She just hoped that wouldn’t be her fate.

  * * *

  Alex had no idea why he’d suggested they eat at Emilio’s, one of the newest restaurants in town—and one of the more romantic. He’d told Selena that he liked Italian food, which was true. But there’d been better, more casual places he could have suggested, like Pistol Pete’s Pizzeria and Mama Mia’s Italian Kitchen, both of which were located in nearby Wexler and not that far away.

  Instead, here they were, sitting across from each other at a white linen-draped table for two, which had been adorned with a candle and a single red rose in a bud vase. As they sipped glasses of Chianti, a crooner in the adjacent lounge sang “That’s Amore.”

  A dinner didn’t get much more romantic than that, Alex supposed. Not that he minded. He was a bit too dazzled by the lovely woman sitting across from him.

  Selena Ramirez might be a respected doctor, but right now, with the candlelight providing a warm and cozy glow, the wine offering just enough of a buzz to lower one’s guard, she was everything a man might want in a woman: petite and shapely, with soulful brown eyes the color of fine Tennessee bourbon and lush dark hair that cascaded over her shoulders.

  Of course, he’d best keep reminding himself that she was merely a dinner companion and not a date. But the longer they sat here, the more difficult it was to keep things casual between them.

  Just moments ago, the waiter had taken their dinner order, leaving them to chat. Alex had done his best not to ask everything there was to know about her, thinking it would be pushy and out of line if he did. But that didn’t quash his mounting curiosity.

  Who was Selena Ramirez—the woman, not just the doctor?

  “This bread is delicious,” she said. “I could make a meal of it. In fact, I probably shouldn’t have ordered pasta. The salad would have been plenty.”

  “You can always take the leftovers home.”

  “That’s true. I can eat it for lunch tomorrow, along with the chicken soup.”

  As she reached for her wineglass, he wondered what she thought about the setting he’d chosen. Did she suspect that he had ulterior motives by bringing her here?

  Heck, he was wondering the same thing. Why had he chosen this place? And when had the desire to “pick her brain” about surrogacy issues morphed into a longing to know her better on a personal level?

  On top of that, there was another question that concerned him even more. Why did the idea of kissing her again keep cropping up? Was there something going on in his subconscious that only his libido was privy to?

  That might be the case, because for some darn reason, he wanted a chance to show her that he had a lot more up his sleeve than sweet goodnight kisses.

  But getting involved with Selena—or any woman at this point in his life—would only complicate his plan to give those embryos a chance at life.

  “I have a question for you,” Selena said. “Why did Jim Ragsdale want to talk to you about his plans to use hippotherapy at the wellness center?”

  “Because I know a lot about horses and can train them for him.”

  She leaned forward, her expressive gaze zeroing in on him. “So you raise horses on your ranch?”

  He wondered what she found so intriguing—the fact that he owned a ranch in the first place or that he didn’t raise cattle like most ranchers in these parts.

  “Are you interested in hippotherapy?” he asked. “Or do you just like horses?”

  “Both. I find the whole idea of using a horse’s movements as therapy interesting. And I’ve always loved horses. As a girl, I dreamed of having one of my own, but we lived in a small house with very little yard. And even if we’d had a bigger place, my folks had a hard enough time feeding seven kids.”

  “Seven?” Alex, who’d been an only child, could hardly imagine what it would’ve been like to grow up in a family that large. “Where did you fit into the lineup?”

  “I was the fourth child and the second daughter.”

  “Sounds to me as if it was pretty easy to get lost in the crowd.”

  She laughed. “That just about sums it up. Our family was loud and boisterous, and someone was always trying to be top dog.”

  “So there was some sibling rivalry going on.”

  “Some, but not as much as you’d think. We might have each gone out of our way to make our own mark, but we loved each other. And we’ve always been supportive.”
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br />   “You undoubtedly studied hard, excelled in school and became a doctor. Your parents must be proud of you.”

  “They’re proud of all of us. My sister Lucia is an award-winning graphic artist, and Diego graduated from West Point and is a lieutenant in the army.” Selena sat back and smiled. “Let’s see, there’s a high school guidance counselor, a third-grade teacher, and Carlitos, the youngest, is a starting running back at Oklahoma State. Even Maria, who disliked sitting in a classroom and refused to consider college, is doing great. She married her high school sweetheart right after graduation. And now she’s the best wife and mother in all of Tomball, Texas.”

  Alex chuckled, along with Selena, until her laughter stilled, her smile faded and her brow furrowed.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  She looked up as though surprised by his question, then shook off whatever had stolen the light from her eyes. “Nothing’s wrong. I was just...thinking about something.”

  “What’s that?”

  She paused for a moment, as if she might share it with him, then she shrugged. “It was just a random thought.”

  He had an urge to coax it out of her, but let it go. “So you all succeeded one way or another.”

  “Yes, and we have our parents to thank for that. They encouraged us to try our best. And even when one of us struggled or failed, we never doubted their love or support for a minute.”

  “And no one rebelled?” Alex found that odd, especially with seven kids in the family.

  “Not really. Our neighborhood was a bit rough, so we all had to deal with the occasional gang- and drug-related issues. Carlitos, my little brother, gave them a few sleepless nights, but the older boys took him aside and let him know there’d be hell to pay if he gave my folks any trouble. And apparently, they made their point. He’s doing really well now—in the classroom and on the football field.”

  For a moment, Alex thought about the babies he planned to raise, the kids who would depend on him for love and support. Would he prove to be the kind of father that Selena had? Would his children grow up to be happy and successful?