The Maverick's Ready-Made Family

by Brenda Harlen

  “I have no idea,” he admitted. “I didn’t even know Delia was pregnant until she showed up with Bennett.”

  Her eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”

  He shook his head.

  “Then you weren’t...in a relationship...with Bennett’s mom?”

  “It was an on-again, off-again relationship. Usually more off than on.”

  “Oh.”

  She didn’t sound disapproving so much as disappointed, and though he wasn’t sure why her opinion mattered to him, he hastened to explain. “Neither of us wanted anything more than that at the time.”

  “So Bennett was an accident?” she guessed.

  “Unplanned,” he clarified, his tone firm. “But not unwanted.”

  She smiled then. “No one who has seen you with your son could ever doubt how much you love him.”

  Her baby kicked again, reminding him that his hand was still on her belly. And making him suddenly aware of the intimacy of the contact.

  He’d never before thought that pregnant women were particularly attractive, but there was something about Antonia’s lush, ultra-feminine curves that appealed to him in a way no other woman ever had.

  Her gaze lifted to his again, those beautiful green eyes wide—and just a little wary. He snatched his hand away, reached for what was left of his now lukewarm soda and sipped.

  He felt somewhat reassured by Antonia’s comment. He did love his little boy and he wanted Bennett to never have reason to doubt it. Because he worried that his son would always have questions about his relationship with his mother—if he ever did have a relationship with her.

  At this point, Clay had little knowledge of Delia’s plans. And his most recent communication from her—a postcard tucked in a pile of mail his mother had brought to him from Rust Creek Falls—had been scarce on details.

  Clay~

  Just wanted to let you know that I’m in Hollywood. Please don’t worry, I’m doing fine. More importantly, I’m finally following my dream.

  Delia

  That was it—no mention at all of the baby she’d given birth to and then abandoned into his care.

  Obviously she wanted what she wanted and she wasn’t going to let anyone get in her way—including her own child. And Clay couldn’t help but feel guilty that he’d made a baby with such a self-centered woman. Not that he’d been careless—he knew that Delia was on the Pill, but neither of them had realized that the antibiotics she was taking for a bronchial infection would interfere with her birth control.

  Now that he had Bennett, he wouldn’t wish his child away for anything in the world. But he did wish that he’d been able to give his son a mother who was capable of loving and caring for him. A mother like Antonia.

  Which was a dangerous thought. The kind of thought that came from sitting in a dark theater watching a sappy movie with a woman who smelled like springtime and whose smile had the power to light up an entire room. Because while happily-ever-after was a frequent ending in books and movies, he knew it was a much rarer occurrence in the real world.

  He’d had the benefit of a pretty good example in his parents, but he wasn’t naive enough to think that having positive role models was any kind of guarantee. In fact, two of his brothers only proved the contrary. Dallas, who had married his college sweetheart at the ripe old age of twenty-four, was miserable most of the time and, on the rare occasions that his wife graced the family with her presence, Laurel didn’t look any happier. And Braden, who wasn’t even married, didn’t dare blink an eye without first getting permission from Diana, his girlfriend of two years.

  Not that Clay was opposed to matrimony, it just wasn’t something he’d ever wanted for himself. A long-term commitment for Clay was making a dinner reservation more than a week in advance. He’d certainly never been with any one woman long enough to think in terms of next year, never mind forever.

  Of course, having Bennett had changed a lot of things—including his perspective on relationships. Not that he was looking to settle down with any one woman now, but he’d at least acknowledged that he had to alter his dating philosophy. He wasn’t going to confuse his son by allowing a parade of women to move through his life, and since Bennett was his number one priority, he’d decided the easiest solution was to take a hiatus from dating.

  And he hadn’t missed any part of the social scene over the past several months—not the meaningless flirtations or the superficial seductions. But being here with Antonia now, he realized the one thing he had missed was the one thing he hadn’t experienced with any other woman in a very long time: the camaraderie.

  He honestly couldn’t remember when he’d wanted to spend time with a woman simply because he enjoyed being with her and without any expectation of getting her naked. While he couldn’t deny that he wanted to get Antonia naked, he’d accepted that it wasn’t going to happen. He genuinely enjoyed being with her. And he knew that was just one more reason why he needed to be cautious—because the more time he spent with her, the more he realized that Antonia Wright was the type of woman a man could seriously fall for.

  And Clay had no intention of falling.

  * * *

  Prompted by the advertisement on the screen, Clay and Antonia had both turned off the ringers on their phones for the movie. But Antonia was sure Clay didn’t like to be inaccessible, especially when he was away from Bennett, so she wasn’t surprised that he immediately checked his phone after they’d exited the theater. She was, however, concerned when he frowned at the display screen.

  “I missed a call from my mother.”

  Since his mother was watching the baby, she understood his concern.

  “I have to call her back,” he said, already dialing the number.

  “Of course,” she agreed. And while he was waiting for the call to connect, she slipped into the ladies’ room to give him some privacy—and to grant her bladder some relief from the combination of a large soda and a baby sitting on it.

  When she returned, the furrow in his brow was gone, his worry obviously alleviated.

  “She just wanted to let me know that I was invited to Dax and Shandie’s for dinner tonight.”

  He sounded almost apologetic, and she thought she understood his dilemma. Since it was after four o’clock, he wouldn’t have sufficient time to drive her back to the ranch before he was expected at his cousin’s house.

  “I can catch a cab back to the ranch,” she told him.

  He scowled. “You cannot.”

  “You don’t think I’m capable?”

  “Of course not. I just meant that I brought you here and I’m not going to abandon you to find your own way home.”

  “I don’t mind,” she insisted.

  He sighed. “I should have told her that you were with me. But I didn’t because I was afraid that information would have generated more questions than it answered.”

  “You don’t have to explain,” Antonia assured him.

  She herself had left a note for her father, just saying that she’d gone into town to see a movie with a friend. She hadn’t identified the friend because she didn’t know how her father might react. Not that he was likely to disapprove—after all, there was nothing to disapprove of—but he was likely to have questions that she didn’t want to answer.

  “If I’d told her, she’d at least be prepared when we show up at Dax and Shandie’s for dinner.”

  “I’m not going to your cousin’s house for dinner.”

  The adamant tone had him lifting his brows. “Is there any particular reason why you’re so opposed to meeting my family?”

  “Of course not,” she denied. “But I need to get home to help out with dinner there.”

  “Peggy cooks the evening meal, and Nora serves it.”

  “And I help in the kitchen,” she said, though she knew
Peggy was more than capable of handling everything on her own and probably wouldn’t even notice if Antonia wasn’t there.

  “Don’t you ever get a night off?”

  “I took the afternoon off,” she reminded him.

  “Okay,” he relented. “If you really need to get back, I’ll take you.”

  Antonia nibbled her bottom lip. It wasn’t necessary that she return to the ranch, especially if doing so would only throw a wrench into Clay’s plans, but she didn’t really want to go to his cousin’s, either. Talk about awkward situations.

  She had no doubt that she would be made to feel welcome or that everyone would make polite conversation at the table. In fact, Clay’s mother had been more than gracious when she’d met her the previous evening at D.J.’s Rib Shack. But she’d also seen the way Bennett’s grandmother’s eyes had widened when she’d realized that Antonia was pregnant, and if she went with Clay to Dax and Shandie’s, she knew they would all be wondering what Clay was doing with his pregnant landlady. It would be easier for both of them if they didn’t give anyone reason to ask that question.

  “Maybe there’s a third option,” she suggested.

  “That third option being?”

  “I can hang out with Catherine while you have dinner with your family, and you can pick me up at her place when you’re done.”

  “You’d rather impose on your newlywed friend and her husband than have dinner with my family?”

  “Yes.” She replied to his question without hesitation.

  His lips curved, just a little. “Well, no one can accuse you of not being honest.”

  “I try,” she said, and reassured herself that repressing her lustful feelings for this sexy cowboy was not dishonest—it was self-preservation.

  “Okay,” he agreed. “Give Catherine a call and make sure she’s home.”

  She took her own cell out of her purse and dialed her friend’s number. Catherine was more than happy to accept her offer of company because Cody had gone to help a friend fix a shed that had been damaged in a recent storm and she, after having spent the whole day doing inventory at the store, was ready to put her feet up and order pizza.

  Antonia’s stomach rumbled; the baby kicked. Apparently popcorn and Milk Duds weren’t enough—her unborn child wanted pizza.

  Five minutes later, Clay pulled his vehicle into Catherine’s driveway. Antonia got out quickly, before her friend had a chance to come out of the house. But not quickly enough, because Clay didn’t make any effort to pull away before he saw the door open, and Antonia silently cursed his gentlemanly manners.

  “Was that your sexy cowboy boarder?” Catherine asked by way of greeting.

  And so the interrogation begins, Antonia thought. But she tucked her tongue in her cheek and replied, “Nope. That was just Clay.”

  Her friend’s lips curved. “I thought so.”

  She sighed. “It’s not what you’re thinking.”

  “I don’t think you have any idea what I’m thinking.”

  “I know how your mind works,” Antonia reminded her. “And right now, you’re so in love that you want everyone else to be in love, too.”

  “Okay, there might be some truth in that,” Catherine admitted. “But I saw you with Clay last night—and there was a definite zing between the two of you.”

  Antonia sighed again. She couldn’t say there was no zing, because she very definitely felt zing whenever she was near Clayton Traub, but she knew that was just the effect of pregnancy hormones on her end and that there was no way that he felt anything of the sort.

  “Reality check,” she said to her friend. “He is a single dad with a six-month-old baby and I’m nearing the end of my seventh month of pregnancy.”

  “So how did you end up in town with him?” Catherine wanted to know.

  And this, Antonia knew, was why Clay hadn’t told his mother about their outing—because the answer to Catherine’s question was only going to raise a lot more questions in her mind.

  “Antonia?” her friend prompted.

  “We went to see a movie,” she admitted.

  Catherine’s lips curved in a slow, satisfied smile.

  “It wasn’t a date,” Antonia told her.

  “A sexy cowboy took you to a movie. How is that not a date?”

  “Clay only invited me to go with him because he didn’t want to sit in the movie theater alone.”

  Her smile faded. “Did he say that?”

  “Of course not, but it was implied.”

  “Hmm.” Her friend considered. “Did he buy the tickets?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Did he buy the popcorn?”

  “Yes,” Antonia said again.

  “Did your fingers collide as you both reached into the tub?”

  More than once, and every time, Antonia’s pulse had skipped then raced. But there was no way she was admitting that to her friend. Instead, she only said, “You’re making way too big of a deal out of this.”

  But Catherine wasn’t nearly finished with her interrogation. “What movie did you see?”

  Antonia revealed the title of the film with reluctance.

  Catherine’s brows lifted up. “A chick flick?”

  “The only other option was a slasher film, which would have given me nightmares for weeks.”

  “He willingly sat through a chick flick,” Catherine noted, with both authority and smugness in her tone. “It was a date.”

  Chapter Five

  When Clay saw his brother at breakfast the next morning, he got a generous helping of cold shoulder along with his western omelet. Bennett’s mood wasn’t much better. Obviously his son didn’t remember that Peggy did the cooking and serving on Sunday mornings because Antonia went to church. Not that his son disliked Peggy, and the Wright’s housekeeper absolutely doted on the baby, but whenever Bennett went to the main house, he expected to see Antonia, and he was none too happy that she wasn’t there.

  But it was Forrest’s mood that was the bigger cause of concern for Clay. “Are you gonna be mad at me forever?” he asked his brother.

  Forrest stabbed a strawberry with his fork. “I’m undecided.”

  “I didn’t ask to be put in the middle of this.”

  But his brother didn’t care. “I came to Thunder Canyon because I needed some space,” he reminded him. “I thought you, of all people, would understand that.”

  “No one objects to you wanting space,” Clay said. “But you can’t cut yourself off from the family.”

  “No matter how hard I try,” Forrest muttered.

  “Why are you trying so hard?”

  His brother remained silent, whether unable or unwilling to answer the question, Clay didn’t know.

  “You’re right,” Clay said. “We don’t know what you went through in Iraq. No one who hasn’t been there can possibly understand the things that you saw and did. But you have to understand what Mom and Dad went through, not knowing, and not even knowing if you would ever come home.”

  Forrest stared into his coffee cup for a long moment before he responded. “I thought I knew what I was signing up for,” he said, shaking his head. “Turns out, I didn’t have a clue.”

  Clay didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t sound trite. He certainly didn’t know what his brother had gone through in Iraq, and while he could—and did—imagine the horrors he had seen, he knew that the reality was probably ten times worse.

  “A friend of mine went to help a kid who fell off his bike. The boy couldn’t have been more than seven years old, but when Reg bent over to check the scrape on his knee, the kid stuck a dagger in his gut.”

  “Jesus.”

  “That’s just one example,” his brother said. “No matter where you went, you didn’t know what to expect,
who to trust. In the end, it was easier to trust no one, because you could be ambushed from any direction.”

  Clay winced, because he sensed where his brother was going with this revelation. And because he did feel guilty that he’d coerced Forrest’s attendance at D.J.’s for dinner without warning him that the whole family was going to be there.

  “That’s what Friday night felt like,” Forrest told him. “An ambush.”

  He refrained from pointing out that no one’s life had been in danger, because he knew his brother wasn’t referring to the level of risk so much as the breach of trust. Instead, he only said, “I’m sure Mom thought of it more in terms of a family get together.”

  “I’m sure she did,” his brother agreed. “But you didn’t even let me prepare for that much.”

  “I’m sorry,” Clay said now, because he was. “But I needed you to be there because I wouldn’t have been able to handle the disappointment on Mom’s face if she didn’t see you and see for herself that you’re doing okay.”

  “I wouldn’t have bailed.”

  And because Clay knew it was true, he felt even guiltier for his deception. “Do I need to apologize again?”

  “Maybe a few more times,” Forrest said.

  Then one side of his mouth turned up, just a little, but it was enough that Clay knew he was forgiven.

  * * *

  While Forrest and Clay were lingering over breakfast, Ellie dragged Bob to the Thunder Canyon Community Church. She enjoyed attending services on a regular basis and didn’t think being out of town was any reason to miss a Sunday morning. Besides, she’d learned a long time ago that after-service coffee hour in the community room was a great opportunity to catch up on all the latest news—and she wanted to know more about her sons’ landlady, who had also been in attendance at the morning service.

  Ellie had just added a generous drop of cream to her coffee when she saw a group of older women approaching the table of sweets, chatting among themselves. Most of them she recognized from previous visits to town, and she was curious about whatever topic of conversation had them so engaged.