The Cowboy’s Mistake

by Jackson, Mary Sue

  “I always want to know what you think. That’s why we’re on a date together.”

  “I love our dates,” said Layla with a contented sigh. “But really, Charity, what I think is that Trey is trying to help. He just doesn’t realize how overbearing his decisions can be.”

  “How can he not realize that? I’ve told him before.”

  “Men,” Laila said simply. “Men do not realize things on the first telling. Not in my experience, anyway.”

  Charity’s face was still red from telling Layla how Trey had stepped in, but she knew her friend had a point. Trey was trying to be helpful in his own way. He’d been so careful not to cross her boundaries the last few weeks. He didn’t try to dictate her diet, or tell her what she was and wasn’t allowed to do. But it seemed there were still some things he didn’t understand.

  “You’re both in uncharted territory.” It was like Layla was reading her mind. Uncanny, that girl. “He’s always been the type to ride in on a white horse and save the day. I think it’s in his nature. You can’t really stop it or change it. You can only redirect it.”

  “But what if I don’t want to spend my entire life redirecting his noble impulses without him ever learning to rein himself in?” Charity took a bite of her burger and ate during the pause in the conversation. Yes. This was what it meant to hang out with your best friend, even if it was technically virtual. They rolled with the natural ebbs and flows of their chats, pausing often to enjoy the food. It was perfect. Charity missed her more than she could say. “That’s too much work for one person.”

  “You’re right about that.” Layla sounded thoughtful. “But honestly, isn’t that part of being in a relationship? Everybody has their own impulses to try and tame. Sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t. You can tell him if he’s driving you crazy, too. And you should. But don’t write him off. You guys balance each other out more than you think.”

  “How?” Charity asked the question around a mouthful of burger. “Seriously. How?”

  Layla looked at her as if she was asking how to eat the burger that was already in her mouth. “What do you mean, how? You have a tendency to jump in with both feet and not resurface until something goes wrong. Trey’s always trying to head off a disaster at the pass. If you were here in Chicago, I’d make you take more breaks than he does.”

  “You would not.”

  “I would too, Charity. You can’t run a business long-term if you burn yourself out within the first month. And there’s no way you haven’t noticed that it’s a different ballgame filling bulk orders like the one from Western Wear.”

  “I have noticed,” Charity admitted, dipping a fry into a pool of ketchup. “But I thought I could handle it just fine. I still think I could, actually.”

  “I disagree.”

  “On what grounds?”

  “On the grounds that you have big circles under your eyes?” Layla said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Were the dark circles that bad? Charity had to resist the urge to cover her eyes with her hands. She’d hardly been paying attention to how she looked when she’d gotten ready because she was in such a rush to see her friend. “You’re clearly putting in late nights, and if I know you, you’re getting up early, too.”

  “Now you’re on his side.” Charity played up her grouchiness for effect.

  “Oh, stop.” Layla laughed. “I’m on your side forever, like it or not. But I think you should talk to him. Because there’s a piece of this you’re not considering.”

  “What’s that?” Charity’s thoughts immediately leapt to the babies and how drastically her life was going to change once they arrived. There was that, plus the fact that they might not have a full forty weeks before she delivered the babies. Time was seriously compressed in a way that Charity had never experienced before.

  “What if he does love you? What if he’s head over heels in love with you, with all the bells and whistles? What then?”

  Charity felt a deep blush rise to her face. She tried to hide it with a bite of burger, but Layla saw anyway.

  “Yeah. See? You wouldn’t be quite so angry if you thought of it that way. He cares about you. That’s what this is. You need to talk to him.”

  “Fine.” Charity took a deep breath. “Enough about me. Tell me everything in your life.”

  It was another hour before she left the restaurant, and when she got home, she found Trey in the living room. From the way he was positioned, it was obvious he’d been waiting to see if she’d come home.

  “Hi,” he said, relief coloring his voice.

  “Hey. So, listen…”

  “I’m all ears.” He seemed so eager to talk to her. How could she have left in such a bad mood?

  “I know you’re trying to help.”

  Trey’s shoulders sagged for an instant, and then he straightened up, that irresistible smile curving the corner of his mouth. “I really am, Charity.” The words he didn’t say hung in the air between them.

  “I see that. But I still need you to think about what you do.” She let out a breath she felt like she’d been holding for several years. “You have to let me be in control of my own business. If you have concerns, you talk to me about them—you don’t go behind my back and interfere. Okay?”

  “Okay.” Trey watched her, and even his eyes on her felt hot. He was capable of understanding. And it looked like he was going to try. At least, if he screwed this up again, she’d been completely clear. “You want to sit down with me and watch a movie?”

  “Nothing could be better in the entire world,” Charity said. Her shoulders felt sore and tight from all the tension.

  By the time the movie ended, she felt totally relaxed and at peace. Trey yawned on the sofa beside her. “I’d better hit the sack,” he said. “Got an early start tomorrow, as usual.” She could feel how cautious he was, glancing over at her.

  “I might sleep in,” she said tentatively.

  “Good for you.” Trey leaned over and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I’ll see you when you’re up.”

  She watched his back retreat up the stairs and thought about inviting him to share her bed. But no—the peace between them was still too new and tentative. Making love with him would only scramble her brain. She had to admit that it was delicious when that happened, but for now, she needed to settle for cold sheets. Maybe a cold shower. Something to clear her mind and tame the ache in her muscles before she settled down for the night.

  He was right about one thing: she had to settle down. Maybe having a little more free time during the day would do both of them good.

  Not that she’d tell him that.

  He’d been wrong to go behind her back. She’d never change her mind on that.

  Twenty

  After Charity disappeared for a couple of hours that evening, things got better between them.

  For the rest of the summer, Trey held himself in check. He didn’t make comments when he thought Charity was working too hard, keeping a similarly busy schedule, and he certainly didn’t dare call and ask for another extension. But Charity, for her part, cut back a little on the demanding hours. She started sleeping a little later in the morning and stopped working just before dinner, keeping the evenings free. They usually visited Kepler in the barn or took him out to the paddock to relax after the meal.

  So far, his strategy to keep the peace with Charity was working. He offered help where he could. After a few weeks, Charity let him into the workshop and showed him how to do leather stitching. “I just—I can’t do all of it by myself,” she admitted, and he could tell that it pained her to say it. The Millers did not ask for help lightly, Charity least of all. He’d seen her trying to stretch out her fingers some mornings.

  As August turned into September, he spent more and more time in her workshop, sewing next to her in a kind of harmonious quiet that Trey came to treasure. It was a different pleasure than having her in his bed, that was for sure, but he was learning that there were many different flavors o
f the joy that was Charity. He couldn’t believe, honestly, that he’d waited so long to be near her like this. It had been such a torment being in the same house as her for all those years and doing nothing about the attraction he felt. All the reasons he thought were barriers to their relationship were dropping away. Her parents weren’t upset. Austin seemed invested in the idea of them being married. He hadn’t lost them after all.

  Now, there were no arbitrary rules holding them back. Sure, Austin stopped by when he was home on break from the circuit and questioned them relentlessly about whether Trey was doing enough to keep Charity healthy and safe, but Charity brushed him off each and every time. “I wouldn’t live here if he were dangerous, Austin,” she’d said at least twenty times, rolling her eyes to match.

  And that was how they reached twenty weeks into her pregnancy.

  Trey could hardly believe that it had gone this fast. Nobody expected the twins to reach full term, which meant they were over halfway to being parents. The thought hit him suddenly at random times throughout the day, most often when he was sitting at the workbench next to Charity, working on her orders. She’d completed the first order from Western Wear in six weeks. She’d meant for it to be five, but had come down with a cold that took her out of commission for four full days. As soon as she was well enough to sit at the workbench, she was right back at it.

  But that hadn’t been enough for Western Wear. In a triumph of Charity’s new business, they’d immediately placed another order. And then another. It seemed they wanted to keep plenty of Charity’s pieces on hand. She was thrilled with the attention, and though Trey didn’t want her to keep up her furious pace, he was glad that she’d finally reached out and asked for his help with something.

  The night before Charity’s twenty-week ultrasound, they lay in Trey’s bed together, tangled in the sheets. Charity had been feeling off throughout the afternoon. Trey could see it in her face, and he felt it in the way she held herself apart from him as they made love. It was as if she wanted to be sure nothing went wrong, and everything seemed riskier by the day.

  She was looking up at the ceiling fan, watching it spin in lazy circles above them. “What do you think they’ll be?”

  Trey turned over to watch her face. “I think they’ll be babies.”

  She laughed. “I mean, do you think we’ll have boys or girls?”

  “I don’t know. Aren’t you the one who’s supposed to have a sixth sense about it?”

  Charity screwed up her nose. “I haven’t had any senses like that. I think people who say they do are just…having a moment of wishful thinking. Besides, what else would I compare this pregnancy to? I’ve never done this before.”

  “Good to know,” Trey joked. “Do you have any hopes either way?” He asked the question softly, because he knew he was treading on sensitive ground. Even a horse trainer knew that it wasn’t done to hope for one sex over another. It wasn’t something people talked about publicly. But he wanted to draw Charity closer, and if this was one way to do it, then he’d ask. It was the most intimate question he could think of, lying there next to her.

  Charity pursed her lips. “I keep trying to imagine it going either way. Sometimes I picture a pair of little boys running after you on the farm, playing with little toy lassos.”

  “Lassos?” Trey laughed. “You think I’d let a pair of little children run wild with lassos? Those are a grown man’s game. Or a woman’s.”

  “I absolutely think you would.” Charity grinned.

  “What else have you pictured?”

  “A pair of little girls running after you. Also, with lassos. I guess the lassos are a big part of my parenting fantasy,” she said with a little chuckle.

  “If you really want them to have lassos, we can work something out.”

  “What about you?” Charity turned on her side to face him, and he breathed in the warm scent of her. “Have you had any visions of the future?”

  “Some, but they’re hazy.” Trey had thought about this more times than he was willing to admit, but he just couldn’t get a clear picture in his mind of what it would be like to have twins. To be a father at all, really. It was like a dream where someone called him from a distance, and he never got close enough to see their face. “I know I’ll be over the moon either way. That sounds cliché, but—”

  “No, I get it,” Charity said, cuddling up close to him. Then she let out a long sigh. “I should get back to my room before I fall asleep completely.”

  He wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in. “What if you didn’t?”

  She yawned. “Are you propositioning me?”

  “Yes. Don’t bother making the long, cold walk to your bedroom downstairs. Stay right here where you belong.”

  “All right,” she said sleepily, and the next thing he knew, she was asleep in his arms.

  * * *

  The next day at Dr. Rosario’s office, Trey was a bundle of nerves. And Charity was about to wet her pants.

  He knew that because she kept hissing it at him through gritted teeth. “If she doesn’t call us back soon, I’m going to—”

  “I know.” He patted her hand, though this didn’t seem to make the situation any better. Dr. Rosario had given Charity instructions about how much to drink before the appointment, and she had followed them to the letter. Now she was clearly wishing she hadn’t.

  “I’m going to go tell them I can’t do this.” Charity stood up with fire in her eyes at the exact moment that the door opened and the nurse called her back.

  “Thank god,” Trey said under his breath. The amount of water they’d wanted her to drink had seemed a little insane, even to him. Charity moved as fast as she could through the waiting room and back to the ultrasound suite. It was at the other end of the building, and Dr. Rosario met them there.

  “I’m sorry for the wait,” she said immediately. “Hop up on the table and we’ll take a look at the internal organs for the babies. Then you can visit the bathroom.”

  By this point, Charity was breathing deeply, the concentration clear on her face. Trey helped her up onto the table and she briskly flipped up her shirt and tugged down the panel of her maternity pants to reveal the twenty-week curve of her belly. He would never get tired of the sight of her body as it grew and changed to accommodate the babies. It was amazing.

  Dr. Rosario pressed the wand against Charity’s belly and she hissed through her teeth. Luckily, the doctor was quick but thorough when it came to getting the images, and before Trey knew it, Charity was hopping back up and rushing for the bathroom at the back of the room.

  Dr. Rosario turned to him while she used the facilities. “Are you two interested in finding out the sex of the babies today?”

  “Yes,” he said. He didn’t want to get into it, but he thought he might explode from the anticipation.

  Charity looked far more at peace when she came out of the bathroom. Even in the darkness of the ultrasound suite, he could see the excited smile on her face. She took a deep breath before she climbed back up on the table.

  “All right,” Dr. Rosario said. “Time to learn a little more about your babies.”

  She pressed the wand back into Charity’s belly, and the babies appeared on the screen. Trey couldn’t decide if he wanted to watch the screen or Dr. Rosario’s face. Her expression would tell him more about whether everything was all right or not.

  “See this, here?” She hovered the wand in one spot. Trey wasn’t sure what he was looking at.

  “I see,” Charity said.

  “Congratulations,” Dr. Rosario said, a smile in her voice. “You’re having two little girls. And everything looks great.”

  Charity let out a gasp of pure excitement and reached of Trey’s hand. His skin hummed with excitement as Dr. Rosario finished the scan, taking another batch of images.

  “One twin is a little larger than the other, but that’s perfectly normal,” she said.

  “You’re going to be surrounded by women,” Charity joke
d, and he could feel the joy radiating from her. This was a good moment.

  Dr. Rosario stood up and handed Charity a towel to wipe her belly. “I’ll be right back with some photos for you and a referral.”

  Trey’s gut turned to ice. “A referral? For what? I thought everything was fine.”

  “It is. But I refer all high-risk pregnancies to the maternal-fetal specialist in the city. We want to be sure that everything proceeds smoothly right up until delivery. I don’t foresee any issues, but we want to be as sure as we can.”

  Charity held the photos tightly in her hands as they left the clinic. Trey had basked in the sight of them for a good few minutes before they stepped out into the sunshine, but now all he could think about was getting an appointment with the specialist. As soon as he was in the truck, he dialed the number on the card Dr. Rosario had given them.

  The receptionist answered right away. Trey gave his name and Charity’s, then explained that they wanted an appointment right away.

  “Oh, sir…I’m seeing here from the hospital records that she’s just at twenty weeks. There’s no rush to begin consultation with us. We could schedule your first meeting in four weeks, or—”

  “I don’t want to wait that long,” he said firmly. “I want the earliest possible appointment. Put us on a cancellation list if you have to.”

  “Sir, are you sure that—”

  “Can you look it up for us, please? We don’t want to wait, if at all possible.”

  “All right.” There was a pause. “We have an opening in two days, but that’s very soon, so I understand if you—”

  “We’ll be there.” He rattled off the rest of Charity’s details so they could book the appointment, then hung up the phone. There. That was taken care of.

  “You were a little intense with that receptionist,” Charity said from the passenger seat. But her eyes twinkled.

  So, she liked it now.

  “When’s the appointment?” she asked as they pulled out of the parking lot.