A Texas-Sized Secret

by Maureen Child

“Not until we get a few things straight,” she said, then asked, “What did you say?”

  “I was coming to you, Naomi, so, no,” he said, “I’m not going anywhere now.”

  Some of that temper that had been driving her melted away. He could see it in the way her shoulders relaxed some. “You were really coming to me?”

  “Couldn’t take the silence here, Naomi. The emptiness. I needed you to come home. And you have.”

  He grabbed hold of her, yanked her in close and kissed her, letting his body tell her everything that was so hard to say in words. She leaned into him, and he felt whole for the first time in hours. This was where he belonged. Right here, with her. The world righted itself, and every last, lingering doubt hiding in the shadows of his mind dissolved in the realization of what he had—what he had almost lost.

  When he finally lifted his head, he looked down into her eyes and said, “I’m sorry.”

  “Excuse me? You’re sorry?”

  He grinned a little. “Is it so surprising?”

  “Well,” she admitted, “yes. I didn’t expect you to say that. I thought we’d finish our argument and that I’d have to hold you down to make you listen to me. An apology wasn’t in the game plan.”

  “I was wrong, Naomi. Expected or not, I am sorry. I never should have let Maverick get to me.” He released her, jammed his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and admitted, “I reacted just the way he wanted me to. I shut you down. Wouldn’t listen. Hell, I didn’t even listen to myself, because of course I trust you, Naomi.”

  She blew out a breath, then pressed her lips together in an attempt to steady herself. Toby knew her even better than he knew himself, and that was just one more reason why he’d been the idiot his sister had called him.

  Naomi didn’t cheat. Naomi would never hurt him.

  “Thanks for that,” she said and gave him a tremulous smile.

  “I saw that picture and I lost it,” he admitted, jerking his hands free and tossing them in the air helplessly. “I didn’t think. Didn’t remember that the bastard’s whole point is to create chaos and tear people apart.”

  “It wouldn’t have done anything to us if I had just told you about Gio wanting to meet with me in the first place, Toby.” Her eyes were shining as she looked up at him. “I should have asked you to go with me.”

  Watching her, he asked what he should have the day before. “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because I wanted to handle it myself.” She laid both hands on the curve of the baby and rubbed, as if soothing the child within. “I wanted to kick him out of my life, our lives. Once I was there, I was wishing for you, though, if that helps.”

  “A little,” he admitted. “I get you wanting to do it yourself, Naomi. But you could have told me.”

  “And should have, I know.” She pushed her hand through her wind-tangled hair and sighed. “He wanted money. Threatened to tell the world that he’s my baby’s father if I didn’t pay him off.”

  Toby felt a hard punch of anger and gritted his teeth against the helpless flood of it. He really wished he had five minutes alone with the man. “What did you say to that?”

  “I told him to go ahead. It would make it easier to sue him for child support.”

  A laugh shot from Toby’s throat. “You did?”

  “Yes, and he wasn’t happy,” she said, smiling now. “But according to Cecelia, he’s got bigger problems at the moment.”

  “What?”

  “Not important,” she said, shaking her head. “I’ll tell you later. Toby. Why were you coming to see me?”

  “Because sometime between last night and this morning, I finally figured something out.” He reached for her again, laid both hands on her shoulders and held on. “I was coming to tell you that I love you, Naomi.”

  She gasped and clapped one hand to her mouth. Her eyes filled instantly with a sheen of tears. “Really?”

  “Yes.” His gaze moved over her face, taking in every detail. In the sunlight, the bright streaks in her hair shone like polished copper. Behind her hand, her mouth was curved in a small smile, as if she wanted to believe him but couldn’t quite manage it. And her eyes, her beautiful eyes glittered with love and hope.

  “I love you, Naomi,” he said again, willing her to trust him. To believe him. “I was a jackass yesterday. I was so worried about losing you I forgot to fight to keep you.”

  “Toby...”

  He had no clue what she was going to say, but Toby was determined to speak first. To tell her everything he should have told her when he first suggested they get married.

  “I shouldn’t have shut down like that yesterday. I do trust you, Naomi. It was my own stubbornness that didn’t let me tell you that I think I’ve always loved you.” He ran his hands up and down her arms, kept his gaze locked with hers. “I’m lucky enough to be in love with my best friend.”

  She pressed her lips together and reached up to impatiently swipe tears from her eyes. “When I left yesterday, Toby, I wasn’t really leaving, you know. I always planned to come back.”

  “You walking away is something I never want to see again, Naomi. Don’t think I could take it.” Just the thought of losing her was enough to bring him to his knees.

  When Sasha left, anger had driven him. If he lost Naomi, he’d lose his soul.

  “You don’t have to worry about that,” she assured him, stepping in to wrap her arms around his waist. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m exactly where I want to be.”

  He held on to her for several long minutes, relishing the beat of her heart against his chest, the scent of her shampoo flavoring every breath and the thump of their child, kicking to get attention.

  Finally, though, he pulled back, caged her face between his palms and said, “I want to adopt your baby, Naomi. As soon as it’s born, I want to be its father. So that baby will never doubt that he or she belongs. That we’re family.”

  “Oh, Toby...” Tears trickled down her cheeks, but she smiled through them, and his heart turned over to see the love beaming in her eyes.

  “And about the California thing,” Toby added quickly, wanting to say it all now while he was holding her close. “If you have to be there for weeks on end to tape your show, we’ll manage. We can buy a house in the hills there and we’ll have a California base for whenever we need it.”

  “You’d do that for me?” she asked.

  “For us,” he corrected, wiping her tears away with his thumbs.

  “It means so much to me that you would,” Naomi said and went up on her toes to kiss him, hard and fast. “But you don’t have to. I called Tamara today to tell her thanks but no, thanks.”

  Now it was his turn to be surprised. “What? Why would you do that?”

  “Because I don’t need it in the desperate way I used to,” she said. “Before, I wanted my show to succeed so badly so I could prove myself. To my parents. To myself. Because the show was all I had, I poured everything into it.

  “But these past few weeks, I’ve discovered I’m more than my show, Toby. I don’t need to make a point. I need you. Us.”

  “But, Naomi, this was your dream.”

  She shrugged and smiled. “If Tamara Stiles can get Fashion Sense on stations around the country, so can I. And doing it myself means it gets done my way. I don’t have to leave Texas, leave what makes my show what it is to make it succeed. I’ll get there. It’ll just take a little longer.”

  “You’re amazing,” he said quietly. He’d always seen her strength, and he was glad she could see it now, too. “I believe in you, Naomi. You wait and see. In a few years, your show is going to put Royal on the map.”

  She grinned. “As long as you’re with me, then everything will be perfect.”

  “Oh, I’m with you, honey. And you’ll never shake me loose now.”
/>   “Good to hear,” she said and moved to kiss him again.

  He stopped her cold with a shake of his head. “Not yet. We’ve got something else to settle first.”

  “What’s left?” she asked, but she was smiling and he was grateful. He never wanted to see her cry again.

  “Just this.” Toby went down on one knee in front of her and pulled a simply set sapphire ring from his pocket. Holding it up, he saw more tears and told himself this one last time was okay. “You didn’t want an engagement ring before because it wouldn’t have been real. I hope you’ll take this one, though. This ring belonged to my grandmother, Naomi. It symbolizes the fifty years of love she and my grandpa shared.”

  “Toby...”

  His gaze locked on hers, Toby said softly, “I’m offering you this ring, Naomi. I want to give you my name, my love and the future we’ll build together. Marry me for real, Naomi. Trust me with your heart, with your baby. Give me more babies. Fill this big empty house with the kind of love that lasts generations.”

  “Oh, Toby, my heart hurts it’s so full,” she whispered brokenly.

  “That’s a yes, then?”

  “Yes, of course it’s yes.”

  He slid the ring onto her finger, where that cool sapphire caught the sunlight and winked up at both of them. Then he lifted the hem of her shirt and pressed a gentle kiss to the mound of her belly and heard her sigh as she stroked her fingers through his hair.

  Then he stood up and looked into her eyes as he pulled her into his arms. “I love you, Naomi,” he whispered. “Always have. Always will.”

  She sighed again, smiled and lifted one hand to smooth his hair back from his forehead. “I love you, Toby. Always have. Always will.”

  “Good to hear,” he said, lowering his head for a kiss.

  Naomi grinned. “Talk, talk, talk. Show me what you’ve got, cowboy.”

  He grinned back, and then he showed her.

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from REUNITED...AND PREGNANT by Joss Wood.

  Don’t miss a single installment of the

  TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: BLACKMAIL

  No secret—or heart—is safe in Royal, Texas...

  THE TYCOON’S SECRET CHILD by USA TODAY bestselling author Maureen Child.

  TWO-WEEK TEXAS SEDUCTION by Cat Schield.

  REUNITED WITH THE RANCHER by USA TODAY bestselling author Sara Orwig.

  EXPECTING THE BILLIONAIRE’S BABY by Andrea Laurence.

  TRIPLETS FOR THE TEXAN by USA TODAY bestselling author Janice Maynard.

  A TEXAS-SIZED SECRET by USA TODAY bestselling author Maureen Child.

  and

  July 2017: LONE STAR BABY SCANDAL by Golden Heart® winner Lauren Canan.

  August 2017: TEMPTED BY THE WRONG TWIN by USA TODAY bestselling author Rachel Bailey.

  September 2017: TAKING HOME THE TYCOON by USA TODAY bestselling author Catherine Mann.

  October 2017: BILLIONAIRE’S BABY BIND by USA TODAY bestselling author Katherine Garbera.

  November 2017: THE TEXAN TAKES A WIFE by USA TODAY bestselling author Charlene Sands.

  December 2017: BEST MAN UNDER THE MISTLETOE by USA TODAY bestselling author Kathie DeNosky.

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  Reunited...and Pregnant

  by Joss Wood

  Prologue

  In Bangkok International Airport, Beckett Ballantyne, his booted feet resting on his backpack, looked across the row of seats to Cady and smiled. Her eyes were closed, her lips moving as she silently sang along to whatever she was listening to via the new pair of earbuds she’d bought in Pantip Plaza yesterday.

  A light green bandeau held her long, deep brown hair off her face and turned her wintry eyes a light green. Sitting with her heels on the seat of her chair and wearing denim shorts, a white tank and beaded bracelets, she looked exactly like what she was: a sexy backpacker seeing the world.

  With that half smile on her face, the flirt of a dimple in her cheek, she would make anyone looking at her envious of her freedom, jealous of her next adventure.

  She was young, gorgeous and adventurous and, no one, Beck was certain, would suspect that she was utterly miserable.

  Not with him. They were, as far as he knew, perfectly fine for a couple who’d met and run off to South East Asia together within a month of meeting at an off-campus party in New York. Technically, since his trip was planned, she’d run off, choosing to spend the long summer holidays after freshman year traveling with him.

  Her staid, conservative, churchy parents had freaked.

  Beck glanced at the phone in her hand and he wondered how many emails and voice messages they’d left, begging her to come home. How many tears would she shed this time? How long would it take her to come out of the funk their recriminations tossed her into?

  In Beckett’s mind it was psychological torture, and her parents just kept up the pressure. She was wasting her life; she was a disrespectful daughter; she was living in sin with him...

  Her father had an ulcer; her mother was depressed. How could she be enjoying her trip when they were so miserable? They missed her and worried constantly about her—what if she was kidnapped and sold into the sex trade? They’d heard there was a bomb blast in Thailand—what if she was caught up in an explosion?

  He’d told her to ignore them, to only check in once a week, but Cady couldn’t disconnect. Their mind games turned her into a conflicted mess. She wanted to be with him but her guilt over disappointing her parents was eating her from the inside out.

  He knew that she felt stuck in the middle. He thought her parents were narrow-minded and they thought he was a spoiled rich kid, the spawn of Satan because he lured their innocent daughter overseas with the sole intention of corrupting her.

  If one could call worshipping her body at every opportunity corruption...

  Beck felt the action in his pants and tipped his head back to look at the ceiling, readily admitting that he couldn’t get enough of Cady. At twenty-three, he’d had other lovers, so he couldn’t understand why he was utterly addicted to making love with her, being with her.

  If he believed in the emotion, he might thin
k that he was in love. But since he didn’t, wouldn’t allow himself to, he did what he always did and pushed those uncomfortable thoughts away.

  Her parents’ disapproval would’ve been easier for Cady to handle if she genuinely loved traveling, loved experiencing the hugely different cultures they stepped into. But having been protected and cocooned, she’d cried at the poverty and slums she saw in India, been shocked by the sex trade in Phuket. The crowds, the sounds and strange food threw her, and the lack of English disoriented her. He couldn’t fault her for trying, and she didn’t whine but she wasn’t enjoying the experience. It didn’t help that she’d had her wallet lifted, her butt touched and had to spend four days in a grungy bathroom, her arms wrapped around a cracked toilet bowl.

  He’d thought she’d enjoy the clear sea and white-sand beaches of Phi Phi, the island they’d just returned from. But Cady was miserable. And because Cady was miserable, he was, too. He’d thought that their desperate need to be with each other could conquer anything.

  He was so wrong.

  With his ridiculously high IQ, being wrong was not a concept he was very familiar with.

  God, these last two weeks together would be torture. Every time he thought of her leaving, his stomach knotted and his lungs seized. They had a plan, he reminded himself; they’d agreed to three months together and then she’d head back to college and he’d continue his travels.

  But after two and a half months together, he knew that he could no longer take her, and his feelings for her, lightly. And that realization made him feel like his life was spinning out of control. While his little brain was already mourning her departure, his big brain was insisting they could do with some distance, some time apart. He needed a lot of space and quite a bit of time apart because he was starting to suspect that she might be the beat of his heart, the breath on his lips, the reason the sun rose in the morning.

  He had to let her go because, if he wasn’t careful, he could love her with a fierce, crazy, forever type of love. Love like that meant taking a very real risk, a huge leap of faith. It made him feel lost, exposed and far too vulnerable—all the emotions he’d been trying to avoid since he was eight. Love meant pain, and he was too smart to put himself in harm’s way.