by Leslie North
Kit grabbed Stella’s hand and held it while Stella sniffed.
“It will get harder,” Ava said, “but Scout’s a really good guy. I know you two aren’t together, but he’s right here, so he can help a lot.”
“Yes,” Kit echoed. “You can make him get up in the middle of the night and all that, too.” She grinned. “I’m sure he’s learning all about it in whatever book he’s sneak-reading.”
Stella stared at Kit. “Book?”
Ava chimed in. “It was so cute! Earlier, he let slip that he’s been reading up on pregnancy.”
“Maybe we should get him one of the What to Expect When You’re Expecting books,” Kit mused.
“He’s been reading up on pregnancy?” Stella said, feeling as if she hadn’t heard right.
As Kit and Ava chattered on, Stella thought her poor heart was going to burst right out of her chest, it was so swollen. He really wanted to be that involved? But why? Why would he do that, when she was the one who was pregnant? Why would he even care about the pregnancy when she and the baby would be leaving after the birth?
“And you know, Bran and I are happy to babysit, and our friend Darlene who keeps house for us loves to take care of kids, too. I leave Janelle and Cam with her all the time. I think they like her better than me.”
“Well, you don’t get dibs on babysitting,” Kit protested. “You have your own baby. Hunter and I need to practice, so we get first priority with this one.”
Stella blinked at them. “Babysit?”
“Trust me, hon,” Ava said confidently. “You’re going to want breaks. Even if it’s just an hour or two so you can wash your hair. You’ll be happy to let us take the little one for a while.”
“Why would you do that?” Stella asked.
Kit and Ava looked at one another, brows furrowed, then at her. Kit’s head tipped to one side in apparent confusion, and Ava scowled, muttering something about people who left other people alone too much.
“We’re family,” Kit said, her tone incredulous. “We’re the baby’s aunts, Cam and Janelle are its cousins. And even though our husbands can be idiots, they’re really good babysittin’ uncles. Of course we’ll take care of it.”
Stella swallowed as that sank in. Aunts. Cousins. Uncles. Her baby had a family. One she hadn’t even considered. Scout wasn’t a singular entity like she was—he had a family. A big one. And they expected to be part of her baby’s life. If she took the baby traveling with her, she wasn’t just taking it away from Scout, she was taking it away from an entire family.
She smiled weakly at them. “I guess I just hadn’t thought that far,” she said quietly, not wanting to tell them she wasn’t planning to raise the baby in Gopher Springs.
“Of course you hadn’t, hon,” Ava said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “You’re still happy to wake up and fit your clothes. There’s plenty of time for all that other stuff. You just focus on eating healthy and getting lots of sleep. The rest will work itself out when it’s time.”
“Speaking of sleep,” Kit said with a significant glance at Ava. “I think we may have worn this poor girl out.” She stood up from the sofa, and Chester hopped down, an expectant look on his furry face.
“You might be right.” Ava looked concerned as she turned to Stella. “You know, I realize we come on a little strong, but we mean it when we say we’re here to help. If Scout’s not pulling his weight or there’s something that’s worrying you, all you have to do is call. We’re both happy to be here for you, any way you need us.”
Stella’s throat was so clogged, she couldn’t even speak, so she just nodded, turning grateful if soggy eyes to both women.
“There. We came. We fed her cookies. We made her cry,” Kit said cheerfully. “Our work here is done.”
Stella laughed then and stood to walk them to the door. After several hugs and a promise about lunch and maternity clothes on Friday, she shut the door behind them and leaned against it, her mind a jumble of conflicting ideas and details.
For the first time in a very long time, Stella didn’t know what she should do. She wasn’t sure she even knew what she wanted to do.
For the first time in a very long time, Stella wasn’t alone.
9
Scout had been given a tongue-lashing by his sisters-in-law. They’d torn a strip off him on one side, then gone and done it on the other, for good measure. It gave the old adage no good deed goes unpunished new life. But really, how was he to know that asking them to be friends with his baby-momma would result in a mile-long list of everything he should be doing for Stella—and wasn’t?
But first and foremost? They’d told him Stella was miserable. And somehow, he was supposed to fix that. Kit had suggested that he start by giving her something productive to do, instead of leaving her to sit alone in the house all day. Hell, they expected him to know she was bored and lonely? He’d thought he was being considerate by not intruding on her when she was pregnant and grieving her granddad. According to the women in his family? That was dead wrong.
Which explained why Scout was in the kitchen of the main house at seven a.m. with a thermos of peppermint tea and a healthy breakfast sandwich all wrapped and ready to go.
“Scout?” Stella’s sleepy voice drifted through the soft sunlight that filtered into the kitchen.
“That’s me.” He gave her his most charming smile, the one that got him out of a lot of trouble when he was younger.
“What are you doing?” She was wearing a camisole and matching sleep shorts. Scout tried not to look too closely at her braless chest, but he sure as hell hoped none of his men ever came to the house when she was dressed like that. It wasn’t leaving much to the imagination. He blinked. Including the little bump that had formed low right below where her waist was. It was round and firm, and if she were facing away from him, he’d never have known it was there at all.
“I’m putting your breakfast together,” he began. Then he blinked again. Her long red hair was in ropey curls around her face, and her creamy skin was rosy from sleep. But most of all? She had a bump, and his fingers itched to touch it. “You have a bump,” he told her awkwardly.
She smiled and patted it. “I know, it’s kind of cute, isn’t it? It just sort of…popped in the last few days.”
He walked closer to her and held out his hand tentatively. “Can I…?”
She laughed. “Sure, but I don’t think you’ll feel anything yet.”
He reached out and cupped that little mound in her middle, and something inside of him broke. “It’s the first time,” he whispered, looking down at his big hand on her small tummy.
“The first time?” she asked, her voice gentle.
“The first time I’m holding him.” He glanced up at her, shrugging shyly. “I mean, sort of.”
She was silent for a moment, and he slowly, reluctantly moved his hand away.
“You’re right,” she said, grabbing his hand and placing it back on her bump, keeping her own hand over it. “It’s the first time for all three of us.” She gave a small chuckle. “I talk to her, you know?”
He grinned, loving the way his skin felt sandwiched between her tummy and her hand. “Oh, yeah? What do you say?”
“Mostly I was telling her not to make me sick, but that seems to have stopped. I need new things to say now.”
With his free hand, he reached over and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear. “How about, hey baby, we’re your parents, and we didn’t expect you, but we’re starting to think maybe you’re the best surprise we’ve ever had.”
She nodded, her gaze locked on his.
“That’s the perfect thing to say,” she whispered.
They stood like that—the three of them—silently for a few moments in the quiet early morning sun. Then Stella’s stomach growled and startled them out of their reverie.
“Okay then, that’s my cue. I have breakfast all ready for you, but you need to get dressed first.”
Stella looked at him in confusio
n.
“Go on,” he gestured toward the staircase. “I’ll explain after we get in the truck. Right now, though, we need to get a move on.”
Stella stuffed the last bite of the delicious breakfast sandwich Scout had made into her mouth as he pulled the truck to a stop in front of a whole bunch of empty land.
“I was right about the breakfast, wasn’t I?” he asked.
She swallowed, then nodded. “You were. It was really good.” She smiled to herself as she thought about the speech he’d made during the drive, explaining the sandwich’s perfect balance of pregnancy nutrients. Ava and Kit must have been telling the truth—he’d obviously been reading up.
“So what are we doing here?” she asked.
“Hop out, and I’ll tell you.”
They climbed out of the truck, and Scout waited for her before leading the way into the field.
“This is the acreage we need to irrigate,” he told her. “And I need you to tell me where to put the dhoras and how to build them.”
She looked at the large piece of land, covered in half-dead grasses. It was nearly flat, but not completely, which meant they’d need to divide it into sections and deal with them separately and as a whole.
She began walking, explaining the technique to him and describing where certain components would go, how the ditches would work, where the drainage would flow. By the time they’d walked in a big circle, her brain was filled with calculations, lists of materials they’d need, and an image of the pasture green and healthy with Scout’s dairy cows grazing contentedly.
As she wound down her explanation, she saw Scout watching her, a grin on his face.
“What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious.
“You’re really good at what you do, aren’t you?’
She shrugged. “They keep hiring me back, so I guess so.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “How many workers will it take to get this done in say, a week?”
She gave him a number.
“Okay, why don’t I hire them, and you can be the project foreman. I mean, if you want to…”
Something inside her bubbled with anticipation. “Yeah?”
“Absolutely.”
She grinned a mile wide. “I’d love to. Can we get them hired by Monday?”
He rubbed his chin. “Should be able to. I know of three guys who do labor for hire on various ranches in the area, and I bet I can get Bran to lend me a couple more.”
“I’ll be ready,” she asserted. “I can finish digging through the equipment in the barn—”
“I have one stipulation,” he interrupted.
She narrowed her gaze. “What’s that?”
“Take me or one of the guys with you so you aren’t lifting or pulling things off those shelves. I know you’re strong and healthy, but I don’t need you getting a concussion from some box falling on you.”
She took a breath. She wasn’t used to needing anyone’s permission to do anything, but he had a point. She decided she could live with it. “But I’m the boss for the entire project, right?”
He stepped closer, gazing at her with the most beautiful blue eyes she’d ever seen. “Sweetheart, you’re the boss of everything.”
Stella’s heart beat hard and fast as he gazed at her. His voice was low, and the sun was warm on the bare skin of her arms. She didn’t remember North Texas being this…inspiring. It was like something inside her had taken flight, lifting off from the barren ground, soaring into the sun-drenched air above.
“Stella?” he asked, his voice lower and softer.
She swallowed, her gaze drawn to the line of his throat, the way his skin was burnished like gold there. Then came his jaw, the angles of it clean and deep. She moved on to his lips, full, red, strong, and his nose, with the tiniest bend in the bridge, and she wondered if it had been broken, or if her baby might have that same sweet flaw.
“Stella?” he said again, jerking her out of her trance.
She gazed into his eyes. “Yes?” Her own voice was husky, and she felt short of breath.
“I’m going to kiss you now,” he announced, his hands lifting to cradle her face.
She let out a tiny breathy sigh and tilted her head ever so slightly as his lips came down over hers.
10
Stella melted into Scout’s hold as he pulled her closer. Their mouths were hot and seeking, tongues searching, lips caressing.
He kept kissing her, walking her backward until her butt hit the side of his truck.
She gasped as his big, broad chest pinned her against the warm metal. Her nipples were so sensitized, they tingled and ached the moment he pressed into them.
He reached down and peeled her hands off the truck panel, lifting them over her head. It stretched out her torso, making her completely open to his body that now touched her from sternum to painfully aroused core.
“Stella,” he whispered, moving his lips along her jaw to her earlobe. He nipped at it. She squirmed beneath him.
“More,” she squeaked, drawing a growl from him. She needed relief in a way she’d never experienced before, and she didn’t even realize her left leg had hiked itself around his narrow, denim-clad hips. She couldn’t stop herself from grinding against him as he held both of her wrists in one of his big hands, then reached the other down and cupped her ass, pressing his erection into her rhythmically.
Stella moaned in frustration. “Please,” she growled, feeling as though she might lose her mind if she didn’t get an orgasm in the next sixty seconds. Scout tore his lips away from her neck, although he kept the lower parts of their bodies pressed tightly together. His expression was two parts amusement and one part concern.
“So it must be true,” he said, his lips twitching into an almost smile.
“What?” she rubbed her core against him as her voice cracked. Why was he talking at a moment like this?
“Those pregnancy hormones make you…well…” His eyebrow raised.
She squeezed her eyes together, trying not to scream in sexual frustration. “Less talk, more action,” she demanded. He buried his face in her shoulder and chuckled.
“Scout, I’m serious, you have to do…something. I’m going to die.” And she really did feel like she might expire right there in the middle of that blasted dry field.
“Okay, sweetheart, okay.” He pulled her away from the truck door and opened it. “Sit,” he commanded. She did, her legs hanging off the side of the seat in the open doorway. Within a minute, he had divested her of tennis shoes, jeans, and panties.
He’d also unbuttoned his own jeans. “You sure?” he asked as he ran his hand through her tangled hair.
“Oh my God, Scout,” she pleaded, laughing like a crazy person. “Get on with it.”
Standing in the open doorway of the truck, he pressed her gently back against the warm leather seat with one hand. She wrapped her legs around his flanks and moaned as he entered her. He’d barely begun to move when the orgasm hit her, no slow-rolling wave but an electric shock, like lightning striking with a sharp explosion, followed by streaks of electricity that shot out from her center, all the way to her feet and hands.
She cried out, her back arched, head thrown back, mouth opened in what felt like never-ending pleasure. She heard Scout curse and then felt his warmth pulsing into her as he shuddered, hunched over her until he finally collapsed, head on her chest, his arms shaking from his efforts.
Her body stilled along with his, and a feeling of complete peace and utter contentment rolled over her like sunshine over a field of flowers.
“I think I’m broken,” he muttered from where his face was buried in her cleavage.
She noticed her nipples were still ready to go, even if the rest of her needed a few minutes.
No one seemed inclined to move, and she found herself running her fingers through his flaxen hair, her mind drifting between the way he looked when he announced he was going to kiss her, and her plans for irrigating the field. For reasons she couldn’t fathom
, it all seemed to mesh somehow.
When he finally stood and gently pulled away, she felt the loss of him deep inside, in places she couldn’t name and didn’t understand.
He righted his clothing, then reached a hand in to help her sit.
“Are you okay?” he asked gently.
“So much better,” she answered with a small sigh of contentment.
He pulled her clothes off the floor of the truck and helped her step into everything. As she laced her tennis shoes back up, he cleared his throat, gazing at the empty land rather than her.
“I, uh, probably shouldn’t have done that.”
“Bite your tongue,” she told him, worried he was now going to mess with her high. It was the best she’d felt in weeks—hell, months. She really wanted it to last.
He finally looked back at her, and she saw the discomfort and confusion in his eyes. “It wasn’t…I mean, I didn’t…” His words stopped as if he’d simply run out and couldn’t produce any others.
Stella slid out of the truck seat and looked up at him. “You’re worried I’ll make it into more than it was.”
He watched her warily.
“Look, we wouldn’t be in this particular…situation…if we weren’t attracted to one another, right?”
He nodded emphatically, and she couldn’t help but grin. “So maybe there’s nothing wrong with expressing that once in a while. We have almost six months here together, and it can’t hurt our future as co-parents to get to know one another a little better. And maybe sometimes sex is part of that.”
Scout blinked at her. “You’re serious?”
She shrugged. She hadn’t planned it, or considered it before that moment, but it made sense. They did need to get to know one another better, and the sex was great. “Why not?”
“It was really good, wasn’t it?” he asked, a grin unrolling across his face.
“They do not publicize those pregnancy hormones,” she answered with an equally wide grin.
“Probably so there’s not a population explosion.”
She laughed, and he wrapped an arm around her neck. “You’re all right, Red,” he told her, giving her a kiss on the temple.