by Marin Thomas
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“The renovations are almost finished.” She shrugged. “I thought you’d want to get back to riding broncs.”
“My only plan this weekend is to tackle the exterior.”
She waved a hand. “I hired Smith Painting and Drywall in San Antonio to paint the motel. The owner is driving down tomorrow to look over the property.”
“I can do it for the cost of the paint.”
“There’s more involved than just rolling on a new color. There are a few places where the stucco needs repair and it has to be taken care of properly or you’ll have mold problems in the future, which could cost a lot of money to repair.” She walked out of the room and Gunner followed. “See?” She pointed to the corner of the building, where there was evidence of water damage.
“I never noticed that,” Gunner said.
“The owner of the company, Brett Smith, provided several references, which all checked out. Plus he’s been in business over thirty years and guarantees his work.” Lydia trusted the company to do a good job.
“What’s next after the bathrooms and wallpaper?” he asked.
“Room 1 still needs to be renovated.”
Gunner opened his mouth to protest and she cut him off. “I know, you want to keep that room for yourself, but you’ll be glad it’s available to rent when this place fills up during the summer months.”
“Your aunt is the only one who believes the Moonlight Motel will be a hit with tourists. We’ll be lucky if we rent one room a week during the summer.”
She didn’t want to argue with Gunner, so she dropped the subject.
“Karl will be by on Friday to install the laminate wood flooring in the office.”
“What happens after you’ve got everything checked off your to-do list?”
Talk about a loaded question. “I hand this beautiful motel back to you to run.”
“I meant what are your plans to keep busy the rest of the summer?”
“About that...” Lydia resisted squirming under his steady gaze. “As soon as I finish converting my aunt’s attic into a playroom, I’m returning to Wisconsin.”
The muscle along his jaw clenched. “You said you were staying for the summer.”
“After you asked about making a doctor’s appointment, I decided it was a good idea. I’m seeing my ob-gyn the last Monday of the month.”
His gaze shifted to the wall over her shoulder and the muscles along his jaw pulsed with an effort to keep his anger in check. She didn’t want to leave town with Gunner mad at her.
“I’ll call you after the appointment and let you know how it went.”
He nodded but didn’t say a word.
“I’ll be at my aunt’s. Call if you need anything.”
“Lydia.” He opened his mouth, then snapped it closed and turned away.
It took all her resolve to coax her feet toward her car. Eyes stinging, she drove to her aunt’s house, where she found a note on the kitchen table. Gone for the day. Be back before supper. Love, Amelia.
Blurry-eyed, Lydia sat down and pulled up her account on SavvyMatch.com. She had three new matches waiting for her to view. She clicked on TrueBlueTodd and pushed Gunner’s image to the back of her mind. Like the others on the dating site, Todd checked off every box on her husband must-haves.
She clicked on Edward1224 and then Jim345. All three were perfect matches, but the tears still dripped down her cheeks. She doubted the men would want to date her when she told them she was pregnant.
Why did she have to go and fall in love with a man who was so wrong for her? Who didn’t check off one box in her must-have column?
Lydia wished with all her heart that Gunner had always intended to eventually marry and have a family, but those hadn’t been his plans. She knew he’d marry her for the baby’s sake, but she didn’t want to wake up each morning to the reality that an unplanned pregnancy had pushed them together.
If they married, she wanted it to be because Gunner loved her, not because he felt obligated for the sake of their baby or to please his grandfather. He could still be a father to their child and she’d do everything possible to keep him involved in their lives, but she loved him too much to allow him to sacrifice himself.
Thirty minutes later she had pinged several new profiles—divorced men with children—but a splitting headache demanded she take a nap and she retreated upstairs.
* * *
GUNNER SAT ON the bed in room 1, where he’d retreated after Lydia left the motel an hour ago. He wasn’t happy she was leaving Stampede before the end of the summer, but he wasn’t sure what he could do to change her mind. The sound of a pickup caught his ear and he stepped outside. Karl Schmidt pulled into the lot.
“Hey, Gunner. Since I was in the neighborhood, I thought I’d stop by and make sure I have the right measurements for the flooring.”
Gunner met him at the office door. “Need help?”
“I think I’ve got it.” Schmidt stepped inside and glanced around. “Is Lydia here?”
“She left a short while ago.”
“Is she at her aunt’s house?”
“I think so. I’m heading over to Amelia’s. You want me to give her a message?”
“I’ve got a couple extra boxes of flooring and wondered if she wanted me to use it in the hallway behind the office.”
“I’ll ask her,” Gunner said.
Schmidt fiddled with the tape measure for a few minutes, then shoved it back into his pocket. “Okay, well, guess I’ll be going.”
“See you later.” Gunner locked the office, then hopped into his truck and drove through town. Lydia’s Civic sat in her aunt’s driveway, but Amelia’s Thunderbird was missing from the garage. The eighty-five-year-old woman sure got out a lot.
He knocked on the back door. No answer. He turned the knob and the door opened. When he entered the kitchen, he noticed Lydia’s laptop on the table, a glass of water sitting next to it. “Lydia?”
Silence.
He walked down the hallway looking inside each room—empty. He stood in the foyer gazing up the staircase, wondering if she was resting or working in the attic. He listened for noises, but all was silent, so he backtracked through the house, not wanting to disturb her. On his way to the door his thigh bumped the edge of the kitchen table and the laptop screen popped on, revealing the SavvyMatch.com website.
Things between them were a mess, that was for sure, but Lydia was having his baby. Why was she online looking to date other men right now?
He resisted the impulse to sit down at the table and scroll through her account, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t view Ted115’s profile on the screen. The guy looked like a dweeb with short hair and long sideburns. Gunner scanned the man’s bio. Single dad looking forward to having more kids someday.
Single dad? Now that Lydia was pregnant, was she looking for a potential husband who was already a father?
Gunner stared into space, envisioning another man helping to raise his child. He’d proposed to Lydia, but she’d let him off the hook—shouldn’t he be relieved that his only responsibility would be to his child?
So why did it feel like someone had walked across his chest wearing spurs?
Chapter Thirteen
“You just going to sit here and drink yourself into oblivion on this fine Tuesday afternoon?”
Gunner stiffened when his grandfather’s voice drifted into his ear. “You’re not supposed to be in a bar.”
Gunner and two other patrons in the Saddle Up Saloon had planted their backsides on stools three hours ago and none of them were in a hurry to leave.
The bartender pointed to Gunner’s grandfather. “Water or coffee, Emmett?”
“Coffee, JB.” Emmett nudged Gunner’s elbow. “How old do
you think he is?”
“Looks as old as you.” JB’s long hair was silver now, but he wore it in the same ponytail that he’d sported when he’d served Gunner his first legal drink way back when.
Emmett nodded his thanks after JB placed a mug of hot coffee in front of him. “You making an art project?”
Gunner ignored the question and continued building his confetti pile made out of a shredded beer label.
“Amelia said Lydia left town this morning.”
“Yep.”
“She say when she’s coming back?”
“Nope.”
“Did you ask her?”
Gunner glared at his grandfather. “I didn’t see her.”
“Then how’d you find out?”
“Lydia sent me a text.” But not until she’d stopped for gas in San Antonio. Just far enough away that Gunner couldn’t chase her down and persuade her to change her mind.
The door opened and Logan strolled in. “Shouldn’t you be out chasing cows?” Gunner asked when his brother sat next to him.
“I would be, but Gramps left me a note saying you went AWOL and I was to head into town to look for you.” Logan caught JB’s attention and said, “I’ll take a coffee.”
“I haven’t been AWOL. I’ve been right here since noon,” Gunner said.
The door opened again, sending a flood of bright sunlight into the bar. Karl Schmidt waltzed in and headed straight for the group.
The one place Gunner had hoped to lick his wounds in private was turning into a gentlemen’s coffee klatch.
“You want a cup of joe, too?” JB asked Karl when he delivered Logan’s mug.
“Sounds good, thanks.” Karl took the seat next to Logan.
JB placed an empty mug in front of Karl, then set the pot on the bar. “Pour your own refills.”
“Why are you here, Schmidt?” The fact that Lydia hadn’t even waited around a few days to see the office flooring installed and the furniture set up in the rooms told Gunner how badly she’d wanted to skip town.
“Lydia’s not answering her phone,” Karl said.
“She went back to Wisconsin,” Gunner said.
Karl blew on his coffee. “I thought she was staying for the summer.”
Emmett poked Gunner. “Dumbass here chased her off.”
“I didn’t chase anyone off.”
His grandfather made a rude noise. “You didn’t convince her to stay, did you?”
“Is something going on between Lydia and Gunner?” Karl spoke to Logan.
“Just a baby, is all.”
Karl choked on his sip of coffee. “A baby?”
Gunner nodded. Everyone else in Stampede knew Lydia was pregnant; how had the contractor missed hearing the news?
“Well, shoot.” Karl’s mouth turned down at the corners. “I was thinking about asking Lydia out. Are you two getting married?”
“I told Gunner to propose, but—”
“I proposed. She doesn’t want to marry me.” Gunner might as well tell the truth before the town gossips came up with their own tale. “Lydia’s using an online dating site called SavvyMatch.com and I’m not the match she’s looking for.”
“What’s a dating site?” Emmett asked.
“It’s like Facebook. Only, you sleep with your friends,” Logan said.
“You’re a fool, Gunner, if you let Lydia slip away.” Karl took another sip of coffee, then threw a dollar on the bar. “If you speak to Lydia, tell her I should have the new baseboards in the office painted by the end of next week.”
“I’ll paint them,” Gunner said. He needed something to keep his mind off Lydia.
After Karl left the bar, Logan stood. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” Gunner said.
“I ran into Amelia when I stopped at the motel on the way into town.”
“What was she doing out there?” Gunner asked.
“Same thing as me—looking for you. I promised I’d bring you by her place when I found you.”
“I don’t want to talk to the old biddy,” Gunner said.
Emmett banged his fist on the bar. “Watch how you speak about Amelia.”
“All you do is argue with the woman,” Gunner said. “What are you defending her for?”
“Yeah, Gramps,” Logan said. “You don’t even like her.”
“I never said I didn’t like her.”
“You’ve got a weird way of showing your affection for her, then.” Logan pulled Gunner off the stool. “I have better things to do. Let’s get this over with.”
Emmett left a twenty on the bar. “Wait for me.”
The three of them climbed into Logan’s truck and drove over to Amelia’s house. The older woman was sitting on her front porch waiting. “What are you doing here, Emmett?” she asked.
“He was drinking at the bar with Gunner,” Logan said.
“Drinking?” Amelia’s eyes rounded.
Emmett smacked his hat against Logan’s back. “Coffee.”
Gunner pressed his mouth into a thin line and braced himself for a verbal lashing from the old woman.
“Do you love my niece?” Her blue eyes stared daggers at Gunner.
Love? Gunner didn’t know the first thing about real love. The only love he’d known in his life had been from a mother who’d walked out on him and his brothers and a father who’d put booze, cheating on his wife and rodeo ahead of his sons. Add in an ex-sister-in-law who’d left Logan in the dust, and yeah, Gunner knew about love—just not the kind Lydia’s aunt was getting at. “I don’t know, ma’am,” he answered honestly.
Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “Any upstanding man would offer to marry the woman he got pregnant.”
“I offered my hand again, but Lydia turned me down again.” Gunner grimaced. “I’m not the kind of husband she’s looking for.” He’d been busting his backside trying to prove to Lydia that he was responsible enough to be their baby’s father, all the while stupidly believing that she’d remain single. It hadn’t occurred to him that sooner rather than later she’d want to make a life with another man.
Amelia’s eyes sliced to Emmett before returning to Gunner’s face. “Then you must convince Lydia that her tastes have changed and you are just what she needs.”
If Gunner was committed to his child, wasn’t he just as committed to Lydia even if they weren’t married? He hated that he felt compelled to defend himself. “I gave up rodeo and did everything Lydia asked me to do and then some.”
Amelia rolled her eyes. “Lydia’s not going to marry you for the baby’s sake or because you followed her to-do list for the motel.” Amelia grasped Gunner by the shoulders and stared him in the eye. “You must make her believe she needs to marry you for her sake.”
Instead of proving he’d be a good father to their child, Gunner should have been proving he’d be a good husband and life partner to his child’s mother. He closed his eyes and envisioned the future the way he’d always planned—single and with few responsibilities. It seemed like a lifetime ago that he was living the dream; then the dairyland princess had crashed into town, changing that dream.
Before it was too late and some SavvyMatch dweeb claimed her, he had to convince Lydia that good-time Gunner was her perfect match.
* * *
“EVERYTHING LOOKS GREAT, LYDIA.” Dr. Hernandez wrote on her prescription pad, then tore off the sheet of paper and handed it to her. “But your blood work shows you’re a little anemic. Take this until I see you again. Then we’ll recheck your iron levels.”
“Thank you, Dr. Hernandez.”
The doctor paused at the door. “When you make your appointment for next month, my nurse will give you information on birthing classes.”
After the door shut, Lydia’s smile slid off
her face. She changed out of her gown and back into her clothes, then slipped her feet into her sandals. With every passing day, Lydia was growing more excited about being a mother, but the tiny thrill was dampened by the circumstances responsible for this momentous occasion—and the fact that Gunner wasn’t here to share the moment. When she’d imagined herself having a baby, she hadn’t been alone.
She zigzagged her way through a maze of hallways to the waiting room, where she stopped at the desk and made her next appointment and received a handful of baby literature, which she stuffed into her purse. After thanking the receptionist, she turned to leave but froze when the door opened and Gunner walked in.
The waiting room grew still—even the phone stopped ringing. Lydia looked her fill, her heart thumping hard at the sight of Gunner in faded jeans, a Western shirt and a cowboy hat. She wasn’t the only one drooling over the cowboy—every big-, medium-and small-bellied woman appeared mesmerized by him.
When Gunner’s gaze landed on Lydia, the guarded look in his eyes softened. She’d left Stampede only seventy-two hours ago and had missed him every single second of that time. She met him at the door. “You remembered I had a doctor’s appointment today.”
He removed his hat and shoved his fingers through his hair. “I got a flat tire outside of Rockford or I would have been here two hours ago.”
She took his hand and led him to the elevators. After they stepped inside and the doors closed, he asked, “What did the doctor say?”
“Everything is fine.”
His eyes skipped across her face and landed on the button panel. He was nervous. “Do you have time to grab a bite to eat?” she asked.
“You pick the restaurant.”
“There’s leftover spaghetti at my apartment.”
The elevator doors opened and they walked out to the parking lot and stopped at her Civic. “I’ll follow you,” he said.