The Bull Rider's Christmas Baby

by Laura Marie Altom

  “Yes, but—”

  “And you got them in the barn before the storm?”

  “Not yet, but—”

  “Dammit, Cash, you’re killing me. I know you’ve got a full plate, but we’re trying to run a business here, and—”

  Cash had never been what one might call an expert communicator, so before heartburn churned up his gut, he blurted out, “I’m pregnant.”

  “What?”

  “Yeah. You know how Ruby dumped me right before that last ride I had in Vegas?”

  “Uh-huh…” Even Dallas’s grunts didn’t sound happy.

  “To celebrate, I hooked up with this uptight brunette from out East, only turns out she was actually pretty wild, and—”

  “Holy hell,” Dallas roared, “would you get to the damn point!”

  “Condom broke. She’s pregnant.”

  His big brother, the rock of their family since their father had died three years earlier, had apparently fallen speechless.

  “You there?”

  “Oh, I’m here, all right. When’s the wedding? Mama didn’t raise us to not do right by a woman. If she catches wind of this before you put a ring on that gal’s finger, you’ll never hear the end of it.”

  “I know, which is why I’m calling. I realize everyone will expect me to do the so-called right thing, but what if I can’t?”

  “So help me, if this is one of your practical jokes…”

  “Honestly, would I joke about something like this? Vegas was hot, but God’s honest truth, right now I’d swear off women forever. Had my eye on a smoking-hot redhead that night in OK City when I took my fall. Should’ve had my mind on business. Females are nothing but trouble, and—”

  “Would you hush? Your voice is bringing on a migraine. In the meantime, you need to reassess your marriage views before Mom gets wind of this.”

  “Thanks, bro. You’ve been a lot of help.” Especially considering Cash hadn’t even gotten around to telling his brother he was now stuck with the woman living in his home for an indefinite length of time.

  Dallas grunted. “And my whole damned life you’ve been a walking—or in this case, limping—pain in my ass.”

  WREN RESTED ON HER SIDE, staring out the bedroom window, trying to regroup. She was drowning in fear. In hindsight, hopping a plane and showing up on Cash’s doorstep hadn’t been one of her brightest ideas. Should she have stayed in Baltimore? Told Cash he was going to be a father via internet or phone?

  Eyes stinging, the ever-present knot in her throat hurting more than usual, she indulged in a brief crying jag before forcing a deep breath. Her entire life she’d been on her own. The orphanage had taught her to become an island. Self-sufficient and independent. Knowing she wanted more for her future family, she’d studied hard. Won scholarships. Fought her way to the top of her college and then med-school classes.

  An unplanned pregnancy went against everything she’d fought so hard to become. That said, she hugged her womb, knowing that despite this momentary setback, she wouldn’t trade her baby for the world.

  When the front door slammed, Wren jumped.

  “Hello?” Cash called.

  “In here.” With the backs of her hands she wiped still-damp cheeks.

  Even barefoot, he towered over her. Despite the room’s airy, open feel, the walls closed in around her. She’d never been the claustrophobic type, but his larger-than-life personality made it hard to breathe. Or maybe it was just those damned chaps!

  A muscle ticking in his jaw, he turned his glare out the window. “I owe you an apology.”

  “Oh?”

  “I should’ve handled this better. Truth is I’m kind of freaked out. This isn’t the sort of thing that happens every day.”

  “Tell me about it.” Even though Wren had had plenty of time to adjust, there were still days she couldn’t get a grip on how far off course she’d strayed.

  “When you get a chance,” she said, “could you please get my rental agreement and overnight bag from my car? I’ll call the agency for an extension.”

  “Will do. But let me give you a credit card to cover the extra days.”

  “Not necessary,” she argued.

  “How about you lie there making our baby and let me worry about everything else?”

  “Seriously? You’re able to say that with a straight face?” The sooner she got out of his home, the better. With that attitude, Cash Buckhorn sounded like a throw back to the days before Oklahoma had even been a state.

  “What?” He blasted her with his smile. As usual, her traitorous body hummed under his spell. Just looking at him made her all hot and bothered. Luckily, there wouldn’t be any additional touching between them. “You are making a baby, right?”

  Having nothing more to say, she rolled over, blocking his powerful dimples from view.

  “Not to change the subject,” he said in a perfectly nor mal tone implying he still didn’t get what he’d said to tick her off, “but I’ve got a big family. They’re a bunch of busybodies. If you’re going to be here a week, they’re going to find out about it, and when they do, it’s only fair I give you a heads-up.”

  “Regarding what?”

  “The fact that you’re carrying my child but don’t have my ring on your finger.”

  “Isn’t that archaic? The notion that a woman has to be married just to have a baby?”

  He shrugged. “I couldn’t agree more, but around here, folks see things differently.”

  “Is that what you want? To get married?”

  “No offense, but no freaking way.”

  Though it was good news that his Old West chivalry ended at the very idea of a shotgun wedding, the vehemence behind his statement made her feel about as welcome as ants at a picnic. She’d always been so goal oriented that allowing a man into her life had never even been a priority. Sure, she’d let loose on a few weekends here and there, but for the most part, she stayed to herself, keeping her eyes on the prize of one day becoming a respected doctor. She dreamed of losing the stigma of having been a throwaway child. She wanted to feel needed and useful and above all, loved. “I appreciate your honesty. It’s good we’re both on the same page.”

  He actually sighed with relief. “So you don’t think we should marry, either?”

  “Of course not,” she managed to say with a forced laugh. Although one day marriage was very much on her to-do list, for now it was out of the question.

  Chapter Two

  “You’re pretty as the south pasture view.” Georgina— Cash’s mother and queen of the Buckhorn empire that included everything from cattle and quarter-horse breeding to oil—surveyed the mother of his child as if she were a filly up for auction. “A little on the scrawny side, but that’s easily fixable with plenty of home cooking. Isn’t that right, son?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Cash muttered, wishing he hadn’t told Dallas everything concerning Wren’s visit. That way, he could’ve eased his mom into the matter. Kind of like you didn’t want to jump into a cold pond on the first swim of summer, it wasn’t a good idea letting your mom know you’d gotten a virtual stranger pregnant. If his mother found out, she’d have them to the courthouse within the hour. Which was why he was grateful to Wren for hiding her belly with an oversize purse. Cash had been all for keeping Wren’s temporary presence on the ranch a secret, but she’d insisted on meeting his mother. Since in the twenty-four hours Wren had been in his home the color had returned to her cheeks, he’d agreed to a short outing before putting her back to bed.

  “When Dallas told me his little brother had a woman staying with him, I didn’t believe it. Now that I’ve seen it with my own eyes, I need to know everything. How you met. Where you’re from. Who your parents are. Don’t skip a single detail.”

  Wren opened her mouth to speak, but thankfully Stella, nanny to Dallas’s twin daughters, rounded the corner from the hall leading into the vaulted living room. The Western-themed grandeur of the ranch’s main home made his look like a playhouse. “Whe
w. Betsy and Bonnie are at their friend Megan’s. They’re eating there, too, which means I’m free until at least eight.” Only just noticing the stranger in the room, she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know we had company.”

  “Stella Ward, meet Cash’s new girl, Wren Barnes, from—I’m sorry. I never did hear where you’re from.” His five-ten mom wore her white hair in a low ponytail, and had tucked her blue plaid Western shirt into the waistband of her jeans. Out of her back pocket a pair of red leather gloves hung like a turkey wattle.

  “Baltimore,” Wren said.

  “You’re a long way from home,” Stella noted. “How did you two meet?”

  “At the Venetian in Vegas,” Wren said.

  “Yeah, we, um, fought over the same slot machine.” Cash forced a grin. “She won.”

  Alongside Wren, he slipped his arm around her waist, begging her with a squeeze to keep her mouth shut about the reality of their situation.

  Her pinched smile told him the jury was still out on her decision. Thank the Lord for that humongous purse!

  “Must’ve been a good machine,” his mother noted, lowering herself onto the custom sectional his dad had had commissioned the year before he’d died. “I’m assuming this epic battle took place during your last rodeo out there?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Cash further tightened his hold. “We’ve talked every night since. But then I got to thinking it was high time I saved myself some money by just flying the girl out here.”

  “But Henry told me there’s a strange car parked at your house. Your daddy and I didn’t raise you to make a guest travel all that way unaccompanied.” Count on Henry not to keep his big mouth shut. The old guy had been working the ranch since Cash had been in diapers.

  “It wasn’t a big deal, Mrs. Buckhorn.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, and it occurred to Cash that considering her condition, Wren might need to sit.

  Come to think of it, the way his knee throbbed, copping a squat wasn’t a half-bad idea.

  Stella snorted. “Would be to me. Wren, I wouldn’t have put up with that if I were you. Plus, I imagine that must’ve set you back a pretty penny.”

  “I’ll pay her back,” Cash said. “In not only money, but kisses.” He smooched her cheek.

  At which point she shoved him away. “Enough’s enough. Mrs. Buckhorn, Stella, I’m sorry to have participated in this sham for even five minutes, but the truth of the matter is that…” Down went her purse, taking Cash’s sinking stomach along with it. “I’m pregnant, and—”

  “Oh, dear,” said Georgina. “The way you carry on, Cash, I worried about something like this.”

  “Carry on? Before meeting Wren I’d been faithful to Ruby for two long weeks.”

  “That’s my point. Two weeks? You’re incapable of holding a meaningful relationship.” She paced. “Your good looks were bound to get you in trouble. Even though you and Ruby had been on and off for years, she was all the time worrying about one of those buckle bunnies throwing themselves at you and one day coming away with the prize.”

  “Stop right there,” Wren interjected. “I’m certainly not a buckle bunny, whatever that is, and Cash is hardly a prize, but my worst nightmare. For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted a baby, but not like this. As we speak, I’m supposed to be deep into my first year of medical residency. Not stuck in Oklahoma with a no-good cowboy who doesn’t even have the sense to buy a condom that won’t break.”

  Georgina and Stella began talking at once.

  Cash slipped his fingers into his mouth to whistle them quiet.

  “First—” he directed his words to Wren “—it took two to tango, and honey, I don’t recall hearing any com plaints from you. Second,” he said to his mother, “before you start nagging, I’m a full-grown man and don’t need a lecture. Third—” he glared at his nieces’ busybody nanny “—you stay out of this. It’s none of your concern.”

  “It is,” Stella countered, “if I have a wedding to put together in only a few days.”

  “Stop the bus,” Cash said, holding up his hands. “No one said anything about a wedding. Wren and I agree the whole idea is archaic. Besides which, as long as her blood pressure checks out, she’ll be gone within a week.”

  “If you were raised in a barn, getting married is archaic,” his mother interjected.

  Hands up, Wren said, “Please, the last thing I intended was to start all of this bickering.”

  “Yeah, well, you failed miserably.” Cash shot her a glare before walking out the front door. “Couldn’t you have held up the purse a few minutes longer?”

  On her own with a pack of female wolves, Wren was unsure what to do with her hands. “You, ah, certainly have a lovely home, Mrs. Buckhorn.”

  “Thank you,” Cash’s mother said with a cold formality Wren didn’t like nearly as well as her earlier, friendly way.

  Clearing her throat, Georgina said, “I’ve never been one to beat around the bush, so here goes… While I certainly can’t force you and my son to marry, the fact that you’re carrying his child means a great deal to me.” Crossing to an oak rolltop desk, she withdrew a checkbook and proceeded to write. “How much will it cost me to keep this baby in the family, starting by having it born with the Buckhorn name?”

  “Y-you can’t be serious,” Wren said. “This isn’t about money. At all. I wouldn’t even be here if a freak fainting spell hadn’t forced me to temporarily stay.”

  Stella asked, “Are you and the baby okay?”

  “Fine,” Wren assured her, “but my blood pressure was unusually high. Dr. Haven felt it was best that I stay off my feet this week—just to be safe. After that, I have to complete my residency as planned and Cash can, well…” She fidgeted with her hands. “Do whatever it is Cash does.”

  Sitting hard on the desk chair, Georgina Buckhorn didn’t try hiding the fact that she’d started to cry—in the process making Wren feel all the worse for standing by her conviction to not only finish her education, but remain single while doing it.

  “Georgia, hon,” Stella soothed, up from the sofa and rubbing the older woman’s back. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

  “How?” Cash’s mother wailed. “Both of them are clearly not in their right minds. In my day, when a woman got pregnant, she got married. There was none of this career mumbo jumbo.”

  “But you helped Duke with the ranch,” Stella pointed out.

  “That was different. This land was our mutual love,” she said with a sniffle. Looking to her friend, she said, “Stella, would you mind fetching me a cool glass of sweet tea?”

  The nanny scampered off.

  “If you don’t mind my asking—” Georgina shifted in her chair “—what do your folks think about all of this?”

  “Honestly, ma’am…” Wren raised her chin. “I don’t have folks. I’ve been on my own for as long as I can remember, which is why keeping this baby is so important.” Cupping her hands to her belly, to the tiny life inside, she added, “More than anything, I want a family. Unfortunately, in order to properly care for my baby, I first need to finish my training. By no means is this the perfect scenario I’ve always dreamed of, but I’m a firm believer in playing the cards I’ve been dealt.”

  “WHO’S RUBY?”

  Early evening, Cash looked up from shoveling manure to find the source of his consternation. Wren had changed from her uptight suit into a pair of jeans and a Johns Hopkins Med School T-shirt. Impressive. With a school pedigree like that, he could see why she wouldn’t want to waste her life in Weed Gulch. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

  “Probably, but I’m going stir-crazy cooped up in the house.”

  Scowling, he asked, “What’s wrong with my house?”

  “Nothing,” she assured him. “It’s lovely. I’m just not used to having so much downtime.”

  “Oh.” To avoid seeing the strain her nice, full breasts put on her shirt, Cash went back to shoveling. It was just his luck to not only be stuck with a pregnant ho
ttie in the house for the next week, but not even be able to touch her. Maybe if he ignored her, she’d go away.

  “You never answered my question. Ruby?”

  No such luck. “Ruby was my somewhat recent past.”

  “Please stop being evasive and answer the question.”

  Leaning on his pitchfork, he wasn’t sure where to begin.

  “I gather you’ve known her awhile.”

  He grunted. “Like Mom said, on-and-off high school sweethearts—mostly off.”

  “If she meant so much, why haven’t you married her?”

  “Truth?” His facial features hardened. “Bull riding meant more. Which I guess gives us something in common, huh, Doc?”

  Hefting herself onto a pile of hay bales, she made the universal sign of scales with her hands. “Riding bulls/saving lives. I fail to see the correlation.”

  “You wouldn’t.” Turning his back on her, he returned to work. His daddy had always said nothing cleared a cloudy mind like weary muscles. His aching knee knew the adage to be true.

  “Whatever.” After a deep sigh, she said, “Back to Ruby. If you wouldn’t stop riding bulls long enough to marry her, why would your mother expect you to marry me? Makes no sense.”

  “Nope.” Wishing she’d hush, Cash quickened his pace, hoping the harder he ignored her, the more she’d get the hint he wanted to be left alone.

  “I mean, beyond sharing this baby, you and I have no connection. That means you’re free to date, and one day marry, any woman you want.”

  “That simple, huh?” Judging by the furrow between her eyebrows, she wasn’t quite as sold on the idea of him hooking up with another gal as she’d like him to believe. Good. If he was hurting from having to look at her gigantic pregnant boobs, he’d feel better knowing she wasn’t happy, either.

  Wren struggled for a coherent thought, eventually sputtering, “It could be—simple. If you’d let it.” It wasn’t fair that Cash had removed his shirt, turning her mind to mush. Having that bare chest pressed to hers had brought on the kind of heavy, sexual wanting she’d never dreamed possible. Which, in light of her current condition, was a fact she’d do well to remember. This time around, he was strictly hands-off. Especially since with his golden curls kissed by honeyed evening sun, it was easy to imagine how beautiful their son or daughter would be.