The Cowboy's Secret Baby

by Leigh Riker

  But had his pitch for the rodeo been merely his excuse to see her?

  Calvin was staring at him again.

  Obviously, Dallas was on his own with the rodeo. He’d counted on his charm to gain Lizzie’s support, and he knew few other people in town except—the thought suddenly occurred to him—Calvin Stern, who wasn’t working beside him right now without any experience. Dallas had to start somewhere, or his event would never happen.

  “You ever do any rodeoing?”

  Calvin heaved another bale off the truck, stacked it in the barn with the others, then came back for more, wiping his hands, which were chafed like Dallas’s from the bristly straw, several strands sticking to his palms. “Tried calf roping once, and that’s the operative word.”

  “Calf roping. Huh,” Dallas said.

  “You don’t have to say it like that. I’m good on a horse, but you bull riders are something else. Daredevils. I’d never risk my neck on the back of one of those ornery critters. That’s a death wish.”

  Dallas laughed. “Yeah, you got that right. It can be a rush, though.”

  “Well, I’ve had my share of excitement.”

  Dallas guessed Calvin must mean his years in the military or his run-in with the law several years ago. Hadley had briefly mentioned Calvin and two of his buddies rustling some cows back then, but Dallas was in no position to judge him.

  Calvin grinned. “These days I get my thrills in another arena.” His gaze grew softer, warmer. “My girlfriend’s all I can handle. Most of the time,” he added.

  “Maybe one rodeo wasn’t enough to get hooked,” Dallas said, though it had been for him. He unloaded the last hay bale, its sweet, grassy scent filling his nostrils. “You should try again.” He took a breath. “In fact, there’s going to be a rodeo in Barren late this summer.”

  Calvin looked skeptical. “A rodeo here? Where would that be?”

  He suddenly turned away as if he’d been given a cue, and at the same instant, from the back steps of the main ranch house across the yard, the dinner bell clanged. Standing there in her apron, Clara McMann rang it again to make sure the cowhands didn’t miss the big spread she served every day at noon. Fat chance. Slender, with graying brown hair, she waved at them. “Hurry, now. My famous beef stew will get cold.”

  “If so, Clara would heat it up,” Calvin muttered, “but she’s right. That stew should be called famous.” He started toward the house.

  His stomach growling, Dallas followed at Calvin’s heels. “I’m telling you, my rodeo’s going to happen,” he said, though he didn’t yet know how.

  Calvin stopped walking to gape at him. “You’re putting on the rodeo?”

  “You bet.”

  Calvin resumed his walk to the house. As if she’d known they would make a dash for the food, Clara had gone inside. “For one thing, you’d need livestock.”

  “I’ll have to work on that.” Dallas knew some contractors he might be able to talk into supplying calves, horses and bulls for a reasonable fee.

  Calvin shook his head. “We’re off the beaten track here. Who would enter?”

  Good question. Dallas hoped a few of his rodeo pals would welcome the chance to show off their skills for a new audience. He had calls to make there too. As they climbed the back steps, he rattled off some other possible names. Local ones. “Grey Wilson, Logan Hunter and his brother, Sawyer, from the Circle H, Cooper Ransom, who’s running the Sutherland ranch with his wife, even Finn Donovan, the sheriff, who I’m told has a small herd of cattle. My brother,” he added.

  “Hadley? Good luck with that. You’ll need it.”

  Calvin had pulled open the kitchen door, and the smells of beef, potatoes, carrots and onions tempted Dallas’s taste buds. Hadley was already seated at the table, scooping heaping spoonfuls of stew onto his plate. His toddler twins were banging their hands against the trays of their high chairs, barely missing the plastic bowls that contained their lunch. Hadley looked up. “You two talking about me?”

  “Sure are.”

  “Behind my back,” Hadley murmured, but he didn’t look as unhappy as he had the morning Dallas had begged for a job. Maybe he and Jenna had settled their differences, whatever they were, although she was nowhere to be seen. Probably working at her interior design firm in town.

  “I’ve got a proposition for you,” Dallas began, heading for the sink to wash his hands.

  Calvin snorted. “Wait till you hear this.”

  Dallas tensed. The remark wasn’t the same as being bullied by a pack of eight-year-old boys on a playground, or knocked around in some foster home, yet the words sent him back there anyway, and he was still smarting from Lizzie’s refusal to help. Ace’s suspicions too. No one seemed to believe in him.

  “I’m definitely putting you on the roster,” he told Calvin, then launched into an explanation for Hadley. As he took his place at the table, one of the twins—Luke—lobbed a piece of bread at Dallas with a surprisingly accurate arm, making his sister, Grace, giggle then sweep her bowl onto the floor. Clara hurried to pick it up. Dallas had quickly learned that lunchtime was always an adventure.

  “A rodeo,” she said, sounding as if the idea appealed to her.

  And to Dallas’s surprise, Hadley grinned. “I wouldn’t mind. That would keep you here for a while.” He sobered. “But I can’t see you in any arena soon, Dallas. That what you’re thinking?”

  Dallas ladled stew onto his plate. “I have to ride sometime, the sooner the better as far as I’m concerned.” He remembered his last conversation with Ace.

  “And risk damaging your hip again?”

  His mouth set. “It’s made of metal. I’m told it will last longer than the rest of me.”

  “Leaving the ‘rest of you’ vulnerable,” Hadley pointed out. “One wrong move on your part or some bull’s and you’re lying in the dirt again waiting for the ambulance. You really want to throw away your career? You’ve spent enough time laid up to know how long it takes—longer with each injury—to come back.”

  “Which is what I need to do,” he insisted. “I’m fine. I’m doing the work here, aren’t I? Call it part of my rehab, if you want.” In fact, he had sessions most days after work at a facility in Barren and was making good progress. “Calvin and I unloaded that entire truck of hay for you today and I’m ready for more. After lunch we’ll ride out to check on that sick cow you mentioned and all the spring calves, see how they’re doing in this heat...”

  Without looking, Hadley snatched another bread missile from Luke before the toddler could fire it. “Easy, pal.” Was he only talking to his son? “That’s not the same, Dallas. You know it. If you want to put on some rodeo, maybe that’s not a bad idea. Things do get pretty quiet around here in summer since the county fair moved over to Farrier—which I reminded our former mayor more than once is not the county seat—but for you to actually compete in the event?”

  He was still shaking his head when Dallas answered. “You’re getting the cart ahead of the horse. I have to arrange the whole thing first. I’m thinking early August. By then, I’ll be good to go.” Which wasn’t much time. Would six weeks be enough?

  He could tell Hadley didn’t quite believe him either. His blue gaze nailed Dallas like a butterfly to a board. “Is this about your folks again?”

  “No...it’s not.” Another small lie that Hadley would probably see through. But he needed to ease back into the game. Prepare for his comeback, as his agent called it. “Sure, I’m worried about Mom, but that’s not the only reason. If I don’t do something, Ace is going to cut me from his roster. The rodeo, like my job here, will allow me to be physically active.” And he’d like to give something back to this town that had helped his brother find his place in life. “Maybe, as I heal further, I can even enter some minor events around the state, test my renewed fitness. I won’t get into any more trouble,” he assured Hadley. “You
don’t have to worry.”

  “Where you’re involved, I always worry. That gung-ho attitude of yours does get you into hot water, little brother. I worried about you even when I hadn’t seen you for years.”

  “I’m here now,” Dallas said, “where you can keep an eye on me every day.” He picked up his fork, then hesitated.

  Across the table, Clara was eating at the same time as she cut Grace’s meat with her free hand. Calvin was halfway through his first serving of stew.

  Dallas said, “I won’t ride anywhere or in Barren unless I know I’m up to it. How’s that?”

  Hadley heaved a sigh. “I’ll leave you to the details, and I haven’t ridden a bull since I was eighteen, but you might as well sign me up. Then I’ll be right there to pick you out of the dust.” He reached over to ruffle Dallas’s hair, an annoying habit from the time they were kids. “I figure I won’t have any real competition.”

  * * *

  “YOU MADE MY DAY, ELIZABETH. Goodness, I haven’t seen you in weeks,” Jenna Smith said, coming around her desk at Fantastic Designs for a brief hug. “You missed the last meeting of the Girls’ Night Out group, and we were all wondering why.”

  “I was packing the kids’ stuff for Colorado then,” Elizabeth said, though that was only half the truth. Since the divorce proceedings began, she’d missed other get-togethers with her friends, those who had stood by her. “I’ll come next time,” she promised.

  By then she might not be in hiding, and maybe she’d have enough energy to stay awake all evening. Elizabeth was having a hard time sleeping, and mornings weren’t her best time either. She stifled a yawn.

  While trying to stay awake earlier today, she’d cleaned her already tidy house from top to bottom. Again. She’d even assembled the new bookshelves for Jordan’s room, which had been languishing in a box from Ikea in the mostly empty garage. Harry had taken most of the tools and garden equipment, including the lawn mower, though she didn’t know why since he was living in an apartment. Then she’d tackled Seth’s collection of stuffed animals and packed half of them away in the attic—in case he missed them, she wouldn’t throw them away or donate them to charity. As she dusted, she’d tried to see Stella’s point that her bedroom really should have at least one purple wall.

  Now she was at Jenna’s office because she needed a friend, one she could trust.

  “I can’t sleep. I miss the kids,” she admitted. “Harry never had time for his own children before, but now he’s got them for the whole summer. Part of me wants their bond to strengthen—”

  “And the rest of you would like to kick him off a cliff,” Jenna murmured.

  Elizabeth’s quick smile faded. “I worry especially about Seth, who doesn’t seem to be adjusting to the summer with his father, but I don’t know what else to do. He’s in Colorado—I’m in Kansas. Harry’s not the most patient person. He’s always a bear when he doesn’t get enough sleep, and if he’s up all night with Seth...”

  “He might be more likely to bring them all home.”

  “Which I’d actually prefer. You can’t imagine how quiet the house seems.”

  “Yes, I can—well, except for the twins.” Tall and slim, Jenna leaned against the front of her desk. “Hadley and I have only been married for a few months, but I feel as if I’ve always taken care of those babies. Yet sometimes I can’t help wishing...” She trailed off. The expression in her blue eyes looked wistful.

  “Jenna. I shouldn’t have said anything.” Elizabeth touched her hand. Jenna rarely talked about her infertility, which was a sensitive issue. “I didn’t mean to rattle on like that about my kids.”

  “No, it’s not your fault.” Jenna played with a strand of her auburn hair.

  “I’m still sorry.”

  “And like you, I’d probably be going stir-crazy without our twins,” Jenna murmured. “At some point I’ll have the chance to miss them too. I won’t look forward to that.” She studied Elizabeth for a moment. “It can’t be fun for you alone in the house—how could it? Is that why you had dinner with Dallas Maguire?”

  Elizabeth startled. Other than from a distance when she’d watched Dallas drive off early in the morning to work, Elizabeth hadn’t seen him much since that night. And what other answer could she have given him about his local rodeo? It wasn’t in her to brave more public scrutiny. She couldn’t afford another disaster. Her spine stiffened. “How did you know?”

  “Jack told Mom, who told my sister. Shadow told me over coffee this morning. I thought I should warn you.”

  Elizabeth felt the color climb in her cheeks. At least Jenna’s sister, another member of their Girls’ Night Out group, had kept the talk within their family. Jack, the chef at the Bon Appetit, was now married to Jenna’s and Shadow’s mom. But word might soon get out somehow. Elizabeth toyed with the strap of her bag. Good grief, news traveled in this town, even among her closest friends, and in the past months she’d endured way too much gossip. She swallowed. “Dallas and I are neighbors, that’s all.”

  Elizabeth wouldn’t seriously reconsider his notion about a rodeo, even for charity. Besides, if his rodeo didn’t work out, Dallas might be back on the circuit before her children came home. In either case, she’d made one mistake with him and wouldn’t risk another. “Harry may be free now to explore a new relationship, but I’m not. Especially with a guy who spends most of his time on the back of a bull or in his pickup.” The conversation with Jenna had gotten way too personal. “Why would I choose another man like that?” As if he wanted to be roped and tied. “Dallas loves rodeo. It’s like he’s married to the sport. I have no interest in spending my nights watching sweaty men try to ride nasty bulls on TV.”

  “Is that what he did? Watched rodeo?”

  Elizabeth arched an eyebrow. “Don’t you know that too?” she teased. “Yes, he wanted to watch the bull riding, so what could we possibly have in common?”

  But she couldn’t help thinking of the time they’d shared after her divorce became final.

  Until that afternoon, her natural reserve—even caution—had sustained her. She’d felt that reserve ever since her father left home when she was only six, the same age Seth was now. Elizabeth remembered the stares, the whispering and the finger-pointing years ago after her dad abandoned their family. Although Harry hadn’t left like Elizabeth’s dad had, Seth’s obvious pain caught at her soul. She supposed she felt an even stronger need to protect him than she had Jordan or Stella when they were about-to-be first graders before the divorce. Today on the phone Elizabeth’s heart had broken for Seth all over again.

  Still, that remembered afternoon with Dallas troubled her—maybe that was why she couldn’t sleep—and prompted her now to confide in one of her dearest friends. “Jenna, may I tell you something? I think I need to get this off my chest.”

  “Of course.” She bent to catch Elizabeth’s gaze. “What’s wrong?”

  She assumed her face showed every sign of remorse. “I did such a foolish thing.” She told Jenna about her unplanned tryst with Dallas, her tears, his comforting touch and then... “We, um, started kissing and had...sex.” The last word came out as a whisper.

  Jenna’s eyes widened.

  “I know,” Elizabeth said, “I couldn’t have done anything more stupid. All my fault.”

  “I doubt that,” Jenna murmured.

  “And now, it’s just...awkward seeing him, which I’ve tried to avoid.”

  “I hope you avoided something else.” Jenna’s sympathetic gaze held hers. “I mean, he’s a great-looking guy, I can’t blame you if you’ve noticed, and Hadley says he’s a hard worker. He seems very nice too, but what if, all at once... How can I put this delicately? You find yourself about to become a mom again?”

  Elizabeth’s heart stopped. Her thoughts flew back to the day of her divorce, Dallas coming to see how she was coping, then Elizabeth going upstairs with him... �
�No, not possible. We were careful—at least about that.”

  Jenna’s face cleared. “Then if I were you, I’d try to forget what happened. He won’t be living next door for long, will he? You don’t have to interact if you don’t want to.” She paused. “He’s not a talker, is he? He wouldn’t tell other people?”

  “No. I’m sure he won’t,” she said. “And he knows how I feel about the gossip after Harry’s affair became public.” Elizabeth mentally crossed her fingers. Did she know him well enough to trust his silence? “The only time I’ll probably see Dallas again is when he mows the lawn next door.” He’d started to do just that yesterday, but then he’d stopped and gone back into his house. “We made an error in judgment. My kids are my focus now. Before they come home, I need to get myself in order.”

  For another moment, she considered her choices. She wasn’t about to take a cruise or sign up for some course, as Dallas had suggested. With the divorce, though, her situation had changed, not for the better. Elizabeth had refused alimony. She didn’t want anything personally from Harry, but even with him paying child support her financial outlook was now different. “Which means eventually looking for a job,” she said.

  Jenna studied her office layout. “I wish I could hire you, but I’m not at the point with my business yet where I can afford help.”

  Elizabeth was briefly tempted, against her better instincts, by Dallas’s proposal about the rodeo, but she wouldn’t mention that. Besides, that position would be unpaid, and she’d still have her own life to rearrange. Where to start? “You probably don’t know this,” she said, “but I was once Harry’s administrative assistant. That’s how we met, his first year as mayor. But as my children’s main caregiver now, I couldn’t do that for someone else. In any job I apply for, I’d need less stress and more flexible hours.”