The Cowboy's Surprise Baby (Cowboy Country Book 3)

by Deb Kastner

  He’d done nothing to earn that trust. If anything, he’d botched every mentoring opportunity he’d been given. Maybe the loose cinch hadn’t been his fault, but the part with Briana had been a complete and unmitigated disaster on his part. He had made a bad thing worse. He hadn’t handled that crying girl very well.

  Handled it? He’d caused it.

  Alexis ought to have fired him right on the spot. Instead, he was still mentoring the teens, directing a music number, no less. No wonder he’d balked like a skittish colt. Working on music with Tessa was out of his comfort zone on so many levels that he couldn’t even count them.

  Why should that matter? None of the officers he’d worked under in the navy ever paused to consider whether or not the orders they gave him fell out of his comfort zone. An order was an order.

  This was no different. It was his job, end of subject.

  He leaned forward, nudging Checkers into a gallop, letting the wind in his face ease the stress off his shoulders. He rode at a full gallop for about ten minutes and then turned back toward the Haddons’ stable and allowed Checkers to maintain an easier pace. Cole’s mind was blessedly neutral after the unnerving way it had been revving earlier. It was amazing what a good horseback ride could do for a cowboy.

  He was looking forward to the day Grayson was old enough to climb onto the back of a horse. What a blessing it would be to have the opportunity to teach his son how to ride the way his father had taught him when he was knee-high to a grasshopper.

  He was lost in happy thoughts when suddenly Checkers reared up underneath him. His horse had always been a little high-strung, so while the movement caught Cole by surprise, it didn’t unseat him. He’d been riding this horse for so long, it was as if Checkers was an extension of him. He felt the horse quiver underneath him and realized something was...off.

  He reined in, turning Checkers in a tight circle to calm him down and scout out the area around him.

  And then he heard it—the sound that no doubt was the cause of Checkers’ sudden flare-up.

  The echo of weeping. A woman’s high, distressed voice reverberated softly across the plains.

  Cole tuned his ears to the sound, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint it. He scanned the distance all around him but didn’t see anyone, or any movement in the brush.

  “Hello?” he called loud enough for the woman to hear him, praying that he didn’t startle or frighten her. She’d caught Checkers off guard, not to mention Cole, so he suspected she probably didn’t know he was there.

  The sobs stopped abruptly, but the woman didn’t immediately disclose her location. Cole waited, his pulse roaring through his veins as he realized he’d spoken before thinking the situation all the way through. The woman was out in the middle of a field a good half mile from the ranch.

  She probably didn’t wish to be disturbed.

  Another thought struck him right on the tail end of the first, and it was twice as frightening.

  What if it wasn’t a woman at all? What if, instead, it was one of Tessa’s teenage girls?

  He groaned softly and removed his hat, wiping the sweat from his suddenly sticky brow with the sleeve of his shirt. He had the sudden urge to kick Checkers into a gallop and skedaddle right out of there, but he’d already announced himself to the woman. She’d heard his voice. And he could hardly ride away from a woman in jeopardy, whatever her age.

  “Hello?” he called again.

  He waited, but still no answer.

  “It’s Cole Bishop. One of the—er—wranglers at Redemption Ranch.” His throat closed around his breath, and he had to consciously work to get air into his lungs. He’d stumbled over the word wrangler because another noun had popped up out of nowhere and almost forced itself into its place.

  Mentor.

  No doubt about it—he was going to regret this. He dismounted and left Checkers to graze, knowing the horse would stay within whistling range. He turned in the direction he thought he’d heard the crying coming from and cautiously stepped forward.

  “I don’t mean to intrude on a private moment,” he said, trying to speak conversationally and holding up both arms in a goodwill gesture. He couldn’t see her, but that didn’t necessarily mean she didn’t see him. He was quaking on the inside. He hoped his voice wasn’t quivering. Or his hands. “I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

  There was a rustling in the tall, dry grass a few feet in front of him as a young lady stood. Sure enough, he immediately recognized the girl as one of Tessa’s from the ranch. Her eyes were red and swollen, and she didn’t quite meet his gaze.

  What was her name? Katie?

  No—Kaylie. That was it.

  “Hey, Kaylie. I’m Cole. Do you remember me from the trail ride?” He searched for the best way to broach the subject of why she was out in a field by herself. He figured he’d best steer clear of the emotional aspect of the equation, at least for now. “This is quite a ways from the ranch. Did you walk out here?”

  Staring at her feet, she nodded in response to his question and brushed her long blond hair back behind her ears. She looked positively miserable, gnawing on her bottom lip and wringing her hands together in front of her.

  Okay, now what?

  Cole’s thoughts roared, his pulse pummeling as he searched through his options. He knew his next words were paramount, the difference between her taking him into her confidence or turning and running in the opposite direction. He had a history of the latter where women were concerned.

  The problem was, he didn’t know what words he should say or how to console her. According to Alexis and Tessa, he was supposed to be a mentor, a guide for the young people, but look how that had turned out for him so far.

  Not well. Not well at all.

  Whatever was bothering Kaylie, it seemed like a pretty big deal, but what did he know about it? Teenage girls were all about drama, right? Getting emotional and blowing every little thing out of proportion? Maybe it was nothing. Then again, it could be serious.

  What would a mentor do?

  What would Tessa do?

  “I—er—” he stammered, removing his hat and tunneling his fingers through his hair. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Is there something I can do to help you? Do you want to talk about...whatever’s bothering you?”

  The sound that emerged from Kaylie sent a shiver down Cole’s spine. It sounded as if someone was strangling a swine. She crumpled to the ground and covered her face with her hands.

  Cole’s gut turned over as he dropped to his knees beside her, supporting her shoulders as she sobbed and patting her awkwardly on the back. He’d never in his life been quite so far out of his comfort zone as he was at this moment.

  “Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor?” His suggestion was just a wild stab in the dark, but she immediately began to wail louder, which made him suspect something he’d said had hit the target.

  She didn’t appear to be injured, and her distress seemed more emotional than physical. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead to check for a fever. Her face was flushed, but she didn’t feel warm. Her skin was clammy and cold.

  “Why don’t you come back with me? I’ll take you to the Redemption Ranch homestead on my horse. Tessa will be able to help you better than I’m able to, and we can call Dr. Delia to come take a look at you, if you’d like.”

  “No!” Kaylie scrambled backward on all fours. “No doctor. Please. No doctor.”

  He held up his hands in surrender.

  “Kaylie,” he said, struggling to keep the frustration he was feeling out of his voice. He was quickly running out of options with her. “I won’t call Delia if you don’t want me to, but you’ve got to talk to me. I can’t help you if you won’t tell me what’s bothering you.”

  She stared at him for a moment, clearly taking his measure. He
steadily held her gaze, keeping his breath slow and even, praying the anxious teenager would see him as someone she could trust—at least until he could get her back to Tessa and Alexis. Surely they’d know what to do with the poor distressed girl.

  “Promise me you won’t tell anyone.” Kaylie dabbed at her wet cheeks with her palms. She sat back in the grass and crossed her legs.

  Tell anyone? What—some kind of secret?

  If that was the case, then she probably wasn’t hurt, at least physically. So why had she balked when he’d brought up the idea of seeing a doctor? Or maybe he was the one overreacting.

  Maybe it was just some silly teenage girl freak-out-because-the-world-was-ending, bad-hair-day moment, after all.

  “Sure. I promise.”

  Seemed simple enough. He wanted her to trust him, after all. He was working off the assumption that he’d been the one to find her out here for a reason, and not Tessa or Alexis, whom Cole imagined would have been much better candidates for this job. God must have His reasons, though Cole couldn’t even begin to fathom what they were.

  Kaylie cleared her throat and her gaze dropped to her hands, which she clenched and unclenched in her lap. Cole prepared himself to hear a dramatic sob story about a boy she liked not liking her back or some such teenage dilemma.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Cole was glad he was still on his knees with his palms braced against his thighs or he would have fallen over. As it was, his breath left him in a whoosh as if he’d been sucker punched.

  In a way, he had been sideswiped—but not nearly as much as this poor girl had obviously been.

  “Pregnant?” he repeated, his voice lower and tighter than usual. With the way his throat closed around his words, it was amazing that he could say anything at all.

  “Seven months.”

  Seven months?

  He caught himself gaping at her before he snapped his jaw shut tight. He didn’t want her to feel any worse than she already did, but he couldn’t ignore the shockwaves bolting through him. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that as a mentor, he should be responding in a more practical and compassionate manner, but seven months?

  He hadn’t paid that much attention to her when he’d worked with her in the stable, so now he took a moment to examine her carefully, imagining he must have missed the obvious signs of her pregnancy—like the fact that she ought to have a protruding midsection. But she didn’t. He couldn’t discern a baby bump at all. The teenager was reed-thin, like one of those supermodels who survived on nothing but kale smoothies.

  Granted, he didn’t know the first thing about having babies. Grayson’s mother hadn’t allowed him to be part of her life at all until after the baby was born. But he did remember his sister-in-law Mary being the size of a house during her last months of pregnancy. How could this tiny wisp of a girl be so far along and yet somehow have hidden it from everyone? How had no one noticed? He wasn’t the most observant of men, obviously, but Kaylie had been living in a bunkhouse with Tessa and five other girls for three weeks already. How did she keep a secret like that?

  He casually returned his gaze to her belly, trying to examine her without making her more uncomfortable than she already was. It was bad enough that he’d been the one to come upon her in her distress. She didn’t need some strange cowboy gawking at her and asking her a bunch of private questions about her pregnancy—like how far along she was. Either she wasn’t showing yet or else she was good at hiding it.

  Talk about awkward.

  He needed to call in reinforcements—immediately. Tessa, Alexis and Dr. Delia, for starters. He didn’t want to be responsible for making this situation into more of a mess than it already was. The girl needed counseling—from a woman. It was high time to take Kaylie back to the ranch and help the poor child get the assistance she needed to make it through this crisis.

  Tessa would know what to say, what to do, how to act in order to console the teenager. She would—

  Oh, no.

  He’d made a hasty and irreparable mistake. Before Kaylie had said a word about her pregnancy, she’d exacted a very specific promise out of him.

  What an idiot he was. He’d agreed to her conditions without even pausing to consider the possible ramifications. He’d expressly said he wouldn’t speak a word of what she’d just told him.

  Which left him—where?

  How was he supposed to help her if he couldn’t bring Tessa in for backup? What was he going to do if he had to handle this situation all by himself?

  He shifted into a seated position and leaned back on his hands, digging his fists into the dry grass. He knew instinctively that this was another make-it-or-break-it moment. If he said or did the wrong thing now, he might send Kaylie running a lot farther away than the half a mile she’d walked to get out into this field. She might disappear completely, and then there would be no one to help her.

  His mind flashed back to the story Tessa had told him about Savannah, pregnant and alone on the streets. Cole couldn’t let this tiny teenager with a loosely draped shirt that somehow completely masked her late-stage pregnancy end up as another statistic, as another Savannah with no place to go and no one to support her.

  “Have you spoken to Tessa about this? Or Alexis?” He knew she hadn’t, because Tessa and Alexis would have been doing all they could to assist her. His question was more to put the suggestion into Kaylie’s mind—where she could turn for help.

  “No!” Kaylie exclaimed in horror, bursting into a fresh bout of tears. Apparently she’d already thought about informing them and had rejected the notion. “You can’t tell them. You can’t.” She reached for his arm and clung to it. “You can’t. You promised.”

  “I won’t say anything,” he assured her, his voice grave. “But I really think you should. Tessa is the smartest, most compassionate woman I’ve ever met. She will know how best to help you and your baby. You can trust her. I do.”

  It was true that he had faith in Tessa as an outstanding counselor to these teenagers. She excelled at her job, and she would know what Kaylie needed to do. But he also knew he’d be placing Tessa in an emotionally traumatic situation that he wasn’t certain she was capable of handling.

  If Savannah’s tragic story had immediately thrust itself into the forefront of his mind, how much more would it haunt Tessa’s?

  And yet Cole knew in his heart that’s what Tessa would want him to do—lead Kaylie in her direction so she would have another chance to do whatever she could to help a troubled teenager.

  Which left him in a quandary of epic proportions. He could see no way out of it.

  He’d given his word to Kaylie, and to a man like Cole, his word was his bond. He’d vowed to remain silent concerning what she’d told him. But what if, by not speaking up and informing Tessa and Alexis of the situation, Kaylie ended up in worse circumstances than she already was? Someone needed to assist her, and he wasn’t even remotely qualified for the task.

  He had to help her—somehow. He needed more information. Clearly, her stay at Redemption Ranch was causing her no small amount of distress, and he could well imagine why, as she was trying to hide the truth about being pregnant when she was rarely if ever alone. But here at the ranch, she still had Tessa’s guidance. What kind of support system would she have back home? Would she, like Savannah, be thrown out of her parents’ house to try to make it on her own?

  Again, his thoughts drifted back to the story Tessa had related to him. No girl deserved the bitter life Savannah must be living, no matter what kind of mistakes she’d made. And neither did Kaylie.

  Cole could relate—more than he wanted to be able to. He was the poster child in the life-changing mistakes department where unplanned pregnancies and babies were concerned. He thought about sharing his own story with her but didn’t know whether it would help matters or make them wo
rse.

  Tessa would know what he should do. But alone, without her guidance, he didn’t have a clue, and he didn’t want to make a serious error in judgment, so he kept his past to himself as he struggled through deciding what he should do next.

  Tell Tessa? Not tell her and keep it to himself?

  Was it ever okay to break a promise? What if his silence put Kaylie and her baby more at risk?

  “What about the baby’s father?” he asked, trying to discern what kind of support system Kaylie was looking at once she returned home. “Does he want to be involved?” Cole cringed inwardly at the neutral wording. But as much as Cole hated it, it was an unfortunate reality—a man could choose whether or not to be a parent to his child, and he could walk away and not look back, if that’s what he wanted.

  Kaylie snorted, and for a moment her gaze flooded with as much anger as there was anguish. “My baby’s father is in college. I met him when he came to our house for dinner. Dad is a philosophy professor, and he loves to have his students over to debate issues. Dad said I couldn’t date any of those college guys because I’m too young, but I snuck out and met with Thomas.” She paused, and a sob hiccuped from her throat. “I thought he loved me.”

  Anger tore through Cole and he clenched his fists even harder into the ground, welcoming the distraction of the dry grass scratching his wrists. He could just imagine what that young man thought. And it had nothing whatsoever to do with love.

  He took a deep breath and, with great effort, set the issue of Thomas’s irresponsibility aside for the moment. Kaylie had failed to mention someone important, and he suspected that might be part of her problem. “What about your mother?”

  Kaylie’s weeping intensified. “She and Dad got divorced when I was little. I don’t even remember what she looks like, except in pictures. My dad told me she doesn’t want to see me. Ever.”

  Cole was floored, struggling to tamp back his own emotions as her story continued to hit closer and closer to home. Was Kaylie acting out because she didn’t have a mother’s guidance in her life? And if that were true, what would that mean for Grayson?