Rodeo Legends--Shane

by Pamela Britton

  She felt his hand fall on her own and she almost pulled her hand away. “You’re having a baby, not getting both legs removed. And you heard your dad. Your job will be there once the baby is born.”

  And there he went again. The voice of reason.

  “Relax,” he said, jiggling her hand. “Let’s take it one day at a time.”

  He was a good man. The more time she spent with him, the more she admitted things could have been so much worse.

  “Your dad is pretty amazing, by the way.” He released her hand and it troubled her even more to note how deflated she felt once he let her go. “I can’t get over how surreal it was to meet someone I’ve looked up to my entire life.”

  She cocked her head at him. “You follow my dad?”

  “On Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.” Even in the dark, she could see his teeth flash as he smiled. “I’m surprised you didn’t see the Star Oil die-cast car that was on my shelf in my old room.”

  She’d had no idea. But then, it wasn’t exactly something that would normally come up in conversation. Oddly enough, the realization that he followed her dad’s racing career made her heart soften all the more.

  “You’re lucky to have them.”

  She was, and she knew it, especially after watching Shane’s relationship with his dad. Thank goodness he had the rest of his family.

  And her.

  It hit her then. Really hit her. She’d be a part of his life forever.

  “I think I’m going to turn in.”

  He started to stand. She reached for his hand before he could do more than get his legs beneath him.

  “Thank you.”

  He turned to look at her and the mood changed. Just like that. A snap of the fingers. A beat of the heart. Electricity danced between them.

  She knew it then, knew it with an absolute certainty. She could have a real future with this man. If only that were possible.

  “You’re welcome,” he said softly.

  And then he was gone, her hand dropping to her side on the bench, her heart beating as loudly as his footfalls on the brick path he’d followed to her side.

  * * *

  WHAT A CLOSE CALL.

  Shane all but ran back inside. It took all his willpower not to barricade his door once he made it back to his guest room.

  Guest room.

  She had a home that belonged on a television show. Not as lavish as her parents’, but still better than anything he would be able to afford. It was the sad truth that rodeo cowboys didn’t make millions of dollars. Life on the road was expensive. Over the years, he’d been able to put away some of the bigger purses. He had just about enough to purchase some land from his dad, but he’d never be able to afford a home like Kait’s.

  Millions. That was what she made. He’d married America’s sweetheart of the stock-car circuit and damned if he didn’t feel completely inadequate sitting in her luxurious home after sharing a meal with her famous parents. Tomorrow they would hop on a private jet—again—and head back to California where they would share a tiny little farmhouse on his aunt and uncle’s land.

  He heard her come in, not her footsteps, because the house was so big she’d have to be wearing clogs for him to hear footfalls. No. He heard the sliding back door open and close, knew she’d be walking by. It amazed him how hard it was to keep from going to the door. He wanted to step in front of her. To hold her again.

  To kiss her.

  Yes. That, too. There was no denying it. Where Kait was concerned, the sexual attraction was off the charts. There were times when he wished this were a real marriage and he could head off to bed with her so he could show her just exactly what she did to him. Instead, he forced himself to undress, to climb beneath the covers and try to get some sleep. But it was a longtime coming. All he could think about was Kait somewhere down the hall, alone.

  He woke up tired and out of sorts the next morning, probably because he knew he was in for a boatload of work once he returned to the ranch. His brothers were always good at covering for him in a pinch, but they took it out of his hide once he was back in action. Coupled with the fact that he had a rodeo that weekend and he hadn’t ridden in four days, well, he had a feeling he was in for a rough week.

  “Ready?” Kait asked with a smile so false it should belong on the face of a used-car salesman.

  “Ready,” he said, hitching his duffel bag over his arm. It smelled faintly of horses. Not surprising, since it traveled to rodeos with him.

  He took one last look around her elegant home and wondered if he’d ever see it again. This was a business arrangement, he reminded himself, kept reminding himself, because damn it all, when she looked as good as she did this morning it was hard to keep his eye on the ball. She wore an off-white blouse that clung to her trim frame and was so sheer it revealed the lacy shirt she had on beneath. She’d tucked it into a pair of jeans with rhinestones on the pockets and they hugged her curves in a way that made his eyes dip downward. You’d never know she was pregnant. Not even a little bit.

  “The pilot called this morning to confirm our travel arrangements. We’ll be back in California by noon, thanks to the time change.”

  “Good to know,” he said, following her out. Amazing to have your own jet. He still marveled over it all. Even when they pulled up the airport, he still tried to take it all in. She’d been quiet the whole ride there and that didn’t change once they boarded the twin-engine jet.

  “I’m going to take a nap.”

  He wasn’t surprised. It seemed that was all she ever wanted to do lately. And for a moment, he allowed himself some concern again. This week she’d see a doctor for the first time, and to be honest, he was glad.

  He busied himself on the way home with planning his rodeos for the rest of the year, in between keeping an eye on Kait. She seemed restless. At one point she woke up, looked out the window, then went back to sleep again. They landed and they coasted to a stop in front of the Santa Barbara jet center.

  “Look,” she said when the stepped off the plane, “I did a lot of thinking last night.”

  Uh-oh. That sounded ominous.

  “I was thinking maybe I should stay at your aunt and uncle’s place. You can keep living with your brothers.” He saw her take a deep breath. “You know, like you normally do.”

  He stopped at the base of the jet’s staircase. In the distance, a big jet took off at the main airport and the sound deafened him so that he had to yell to be heard.

  “No.” It shocked him how quickly the word rose to his lips and how loudly he shouted it, far more loudly than he needed to, even over the sound of the Airbus’s engine.

  “No?” she repeated back.

  A lock of her hair caught the wind, driven by the ocean just a few short miles away, and the scent of salt was hanging in the air.

  “I just think it’s best if we keep this more of a businesslike relationship.”

  No.

  No, no, no.

  But another part of him, the sane part of him, admitted it was a great idea. He already had feelings for her that he probably shouldn’t. Last night had been evidence of that.

  “No,” he said again.

  It was one of those moments when you know you should bite your tongue, but he just couldn’t seem to do so. It was like being shot off the back of a bull. His stomach dropped. He stood for a moment, stunned. He really did have feelings for her.

  “We should stick together, especially when we return to ranch. We’re going to need each other in the coming weeks.”

  “What does it matter if we live apart? Nobody will know outside the ranch. It seems pretty secluded there. I doubt the paparazzi will be hiding in the trees. I’m just a race-car driver. Not a big deal in the scheme of things.”

  It was a big deal. She was a big deal—to him. And their living arrangements, too. Their unborn
child. It all mattered. And he didn’t want... He tried to gather his thoughts, because the truth was he didn’t know what he wanted, but it sure wasn’t what she suggested.

  “We stick together,” he said, heading for his truck. She didn’t follow, and he turned back to argue his point even more but froze when he spotted the look on her face. She’d placed a hand on her belly, panic in her eyes, and when their gazes connected, hers was filled with panic.

  “I think something’s wrong.”

  Chapter Eleven

  He’d never driven so fast in his life. Kait didn’t seem to notice. She sat in the passenger seat of his truck, eyes closed, hand on her belly. She’d kept it there the entire time. As if she could hold their child inside her if something really were wrong.

  “Almost there.”

  Fortunately, they were near a hospital. Unfortunately, she whimpered as he pulled into a spot. He’d never known skin could tingle while blood drained from someone’s face, but that was exactly how it felt. Kait wasn’t the type to cry out in pain. Tough as nails, that was his girl.

  His girl?

  Yes, damn it. They were a couple now no matter what. And she was scared right now. The pupils of her blue eyes were dilated and there were brackets around her mouth that he’d never seen before.

  “Let’s get you inside.” He held out his hand. Her palms were sweaty.

  He didn’t want to lose the baby. It struck him like the horns of a bull, made his knees grow weak for a moment so that he stumbled a bit, forcing him to catch his breath. He feared for the tiny life inside of her, and for Kait, too.

  They took her right in, stashing her in a curtained room, one with drapes that’d been left open and gave them a view of doctors rushing back and forth. Someone came in, a nurse of some sort, and the kind-eyed older woman had Kait change into a paper robe. Shane tried to help her but Kait waved him away, and even though he knew it was ridiculous, he kept his eyes averted. She finished quickly and Shane helped her settle back into the bed, although though she wanted to take a seat. Stubborn woman. He insisted on covering her with a blanket and then helping her adjust a pillow that reminded him of something you’d find on an airplane, except it was covered in paper.

  “Thank you,” she said, but the words were immediately followed by a grimace of pain.

  “Do you need anything?”

  She shook her head, and he admitted to himself he’d never felt so helpless in his life. His shoulders sagged in relief when a different nurse came in. This one was younger and far more no-nonsense, with her pulled-back hair and plain black smock. She checked Kait’s vitals, and he found his hand sliding into Kait’s as the dark-haired woman wrapped a blood-pressure cuff around her forearm. Kait clutched at his hand, and the coldness of it alarmed him. He didn’t think she was the type to hold on to someone for help, but that was exactly what she did.

  “Am I alive?” she joked with the nurse, who gave her a tight smile in response.

  “You’re fine.”

  So much for bedside manners. They both watched as she entered information into her table. She gave them an impersonal smile before saying, “The doctor will be here shortly.

  Shane smirked. He’d been in his fair share of emergency rooms over the years. No doctor ever arrived “shortly.”

  “I’m sorry,” Kait whispered.

  “Sorry?” He couldn’t keep the disbelief from his voice. “Don’t be silly, Kait. This isn’t your fault.”

  “If I’d stayed at the ranch—”

  “Don’t. We don’t even know what’s wrong. It could be...” He racked his brain. “...indigestion. Or gas. It could be gas. You did eat that burrito for lunch yesterday. One good fart and you might be all better.”

  She stared at him in the same way the nurse had a moment before, but then he saw her face begin to fracture. Her lips lifted a bit.

  “Very fun—”

  “Hi, Kait,” said a man, who shocked them both with his sudden appearance. He was staring at the tablet in his hand, but then he looked up and stopped dead in his tracks. “Kait Cooper.” He glanced down at the electronic chart again. “You’re Kaitlin Cooper.”

  Shane would have laughed at the doctor’s slack jaw if they were in any other situation. The doctor recovered quickly, however, and glanced down at the chart again.

  “You’re having some cramping?”

  She nodded.

  The man came forward. “I’m Dr. Penrod, the ob-gyn on call.”

  “Kait,” she said softly, forcing a smile, holding out her hand.

  He shook Kait’s hand, and something about the man’s bedside manner instantly reassured Shane. He was older with a ring of gray hair and shiny scalp that seemed to reflect the fluorescent lights above them.

  “And how long as this been going on?”

  “It just started.”

  The doctor nodded. “Okay then. Let’s take a look.” He moved Kait’s robe off to the side, the paper crinkling at the movement. When he rested his hands on Kait’s abdomen, his brows lifted.

  “You said you’re how many weeks pregnant?”

  “Nine,” she answered.

  “Hmm.” He kept probing, his face scrunched in concentration as he palpated Kait’s belly. “Have you had an ultrasound yet?”

  Kait shook her head.

  Shane said, “She’s supposed to be seen this week.”

  The doctor nodded, drew back. “Let’s take a look now.”

  Shane met Kait’s stare. Rather than reassured, she appeared more panicked than before. He squeezed her hand even harder.

  The doctor came back in with a nurse, who pushed a machine in front of her. Kait’s belly was exposed again. In a matter of minutes, the machine was on and the screen lit up with an image that looked more like a child’s finger-painting experiment than the inside of a woman’s body. He glanced at the doctor to gauge his reaction, his skin tingling again at the look on the man’s face. He turned back to Kait.

  “Are you sure you’re only nine weeks?”

  “Absolutely positive,” she said.

  The doctor moved the wand, and then his brows lifted. Shane was staring right at him when it happened. He shifted the wand some more as, on screen, two little blobs came into focus.

  “Well that explains that,” the doctor said with a wide smile. “You’re having twins.”

  * * *

  TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Kait still reeled from the news.

  “So I suspect you’ve just been overdoing it from the sound of things,” the doctor was saying, his blue eyes peering sternly down at her. “The babies are fine. They each have a strong heartbeat. The cramps are just your body adjusting to what’s going on in there. I’m going to urge you to stay off your feet for now. No flying back and forth. No hard exercise. No riding horses,” he said with a wink at Shane.

  Babies. That was the only word that stuck in Kait’s head. Twins.

  She felt light-headed.

  “So she’ll be okay if she rests?”

  The doctor nodded. “Take her home and put her to bed, Dad.”

  “She already sleeps a lot.”

  “Perfectly normal. It’s the hormones. Some women can barely stay awake. From everything I’ve seen today, she should be fine. A few days of off her feet and she’ll be back at it. But let me know if the cramping gets worse or if any other symptoms develop.”

  The doctor went on to list the things she should be watching out for. Kait only half listened. Shane was nodding his head, clearly taking his roles as father-to-be and spouse seriously.

  Twins.

  “But they don’t run in my family.”

  The men stopped talking. The doctor’s smile grew. “It happens sometimes.”

  Twins.

  She would never really remember getting dressed. The doctor ordered her discharge papers. Eventually,
it was just the two of them alone in the partitioned-off area. She could watch feet pass by beneath the curtain and that entertained her for a moment while her mind tried to assimilate what they’d just been told.

  “We’re going to be okay,” he said softly, reaching for her hand again. “I know this is a shock, but at least the babies are okay.”

  There was that word again. Babies. Two kids. Somehow that seemed so much worse than one. Then she felt instantly terrible for thinking children could be bad. She had been so panicked when she’d felt the initial twinge of pain. In that moment, she’d realized how dearly she held on to the tiny life inside her body.

  “Not going to lie,” Shane said. “You look like you want to cry.”

  No. She wasn’t going to cry. Just because there were two lives inside of her instead of one didn’t change how she felt. She would deal with having two children in the same way she dealt with everything. Head on.

  “I’m fine,” she said, wincing when she straightened again. The doctor said the cramping would go away once her body adjusted to the two tiny bodies inside her. “Ready?”

  He drove them to his home and she was glad. It gave her time to compile a to-do list in her head. She checked off one item immediately—texting her mom.

  Surprise! I’m having twins.

  Her mother’s response was immediate.

  Hahaha. Very funny. But I’m glad to know you made it back safe and sound. I’ve been waiting to hear from you.

  She always let her mom know when she was wheels on the ground, but today her first thought had been the baby inside of her. Babies. She would have to get used to saying that.

  I’m not kidding, Mom.

  She stared out at the passing scenery, always intrigued by the tall mountains that lined the coast. They were studded with granite stones and yucca plants.

  Her phone chimed.

  Call me.

  On the heels of the text, though, came the sound of her phone ringing, and she knew who it was. When she glanced at Shane, he smiled slightly, and she knew he’d figured out who she’d been texting.

  “You’re kidding, right?” Her mom’s voice sounded as breathless as a marathon runner’s. “Last I heard, you didn’t even know your due date. You can’t possibly know you’re having twins.”