Just a Cowboy and His Baby (Spikes & Spurs)

by Carolyn Brown

  Gemma looked him in the eye. “Don’t get defensive with me, cowboy.”

  He smiled. “I’m not. I just wanted you to know up front that I’ll pay for everything if you’ll just help me.”

  Gemma nodded. “Deal. She’s about finished with this bottle. You want to burp her or go unhitch my trailer?”

  “You can’t unhitch a trailer with your foot like that.”

  “Then I’ll do the burping and you do the unhitching,” she said.

  He waved at the door.

  She groaned. “Dammit! And don’t let me hear you repeating that, Miss Holly. I want hitching as in a permanent relationship, and that’s a fact.”

  Half an hour later they were in her truck, baby in the car seat and Gemma looking through papers while Trace drove. They’d only driven a mile when they saw a Dollar General store with its big yellow sign.

  “Is this all right?” Trace asked.

  “Just fine. Oh, oh!”

  He tapped the brakes. “What?”

  “Don’t stop. Go on and park. I just found a DNA paper. That redheaded groupie witch must have been helping her out all along.”

  Trace found a spot close to the door and turned to face Gemma. “What are you talking about?”

  “Says here that the baby is yours. Ninety-nine point nine percent positive. Looks like they took your DNA from a beer bottle. I didn’t know they could do that. I thought that was just something on television cop shows.”

  “I’d feel better if I had another one done,” he said.

  “Then do it, but I betcha she’s yours. If Ava hadn’t known she was, then she wouldn’t have given her to you,” Gemma said.

  He pinched his nose between his thumb and forefinger. “Man! I never thought I’d be having a conversation like this when I woke up this morning. And I still have to call my parents.”

  “I have to call Momma and Ace,” she said.

  “Why Ace?”

  “Remember, we are going to ask him to take our extra rig home. And Momma because I want to.”

  He held the door to the store for her, and the lady behind the checkout counter greeted them. “Hot enough for y’all?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Gemma said.

  She had blond hair cut in a neckline with a spiky top. Blue eyes were set deep in a bed of wrinkles that said she’d seen middle age come and go a while back. “My uncle said he saw a whole caravan of lizards last week headin’ north. Guess even they’ve had all of this summer heat they can stand. Girl, it must be miserable to have crutches and a new baby both. But looks like your husband is a good man. Most men I know wouldn’t be carryin’ a baby around without one of them buckets. Can I help y’all with anything?”

  “We need formula and diapers,” Gemma said.

  “Baby stuff is that way.” The lady pointed. “Boy or girl?”

  “Girl,” Gemma answered.

  “How old is she?”

  “Two weeks.”

  “Man, you look damn fine to have just had a baby two weeks ago. Took me months to get back in my clothes. Y’all need any help, you just holler.”

  “Thank you.” Gemma said.

  Trace held Holly cradled in one arm and pushed a cart with the other. He stopped midway down the aisle and shook his head.

  “Where do we even start?”

  Gemma pointed to the second shelf down from the top. “Three cans of that powdered formula. Two packages of those newborn diapers.”

  “Three?”

  Gemma steadied a crutch and reached around him. “A can will last just about a week, but we don’t want to run out in the middle of the night. Diapers won’t last that long. We need three packages of these blankets.”

  “Just tell me what and how many and I’ll put it in the cart. I’m afraid you are going to fall,” he said.

  She backed up a step. “Okay then, three packages of those undershirts and three of these gowns.”

  Trace picked up things and tossed them into the cart. “Why three?”

  “That makes nine of each and she’ll go through them in a hurry. Especially if she’s a spitter, and if she’s not, a diaper might leak or worse. And we’ll have to do laundry more often too, so we might as well get a bottle of that baby laundry soap.”

  “Do we need bottles or are those two from the bag enough? Don’t they have to be sterilized?” Trace asked.

  She propped the crutch tightly under her arm and pointed. “Those are what we need. They are just shells that you put liners in. Get a couple of boxes of liners. That way we can toss the liners in the trash and only sterilize nipples in the microwave.”

  “I’m glad you’re here,” Trace said.

  “You are welcome. Are you going to let me win this week?” she teased.

  He shook his head. “I am not! You know the rules. When it comes to the competition, we aren’t even friends.”

  Gemma smiled. “You got it! Oh, we’ve got to have that thing.”

  “What is it?” Trace asked.

  “A fold-up stroller for when we take her to the rodeo. We can put it under your bed when we aren’t using it, but we need it,” she said. “And now for the pretty stuff. Five outfits should be enough right here at first, wouldn’t you think?”

  “For what?”

  “Trace Coleman, this baby is not going out in public dressed in a nightgown or a knit undershirt. She’s going to have some pretty things, and when I can get to a Western-wear store she’ll have cute little cowgirl things. Look!”

  He turned to see her flipping through a round rack of baby things. She quickly picked out half a dozen pink dresses with matching diaper covers and tossed them into the cart.

  “And that should do it for this week,” she said.

  “You mean this is a once every week thing?”

  “Oh, honey, at least that much, maybe more.” She smiled.

  “You are enjoying this way, way too much.”

  She nodded. “Yes, I am. Now let’s go home and play with her. I swear she’s such a good baby. She hasn’t fussed a single bit.”

  ***

  The day went past in a blur. Holly ate. Holly slept. Holly had her diaper changed and her gown at least three times that day. Then it was time for bed and Trace stopped dead in his tracks.

  “What now? I can’t sleep with her, Gemma. I’m a big man. What if I rolled on her or my pillow got all tangled up in her face?”

  Gemma exhaled in exasperation. “We forgot to buy a bassinet.”

  “A what?”

  “It’s a small baby bed. They can use them until they’re about three months old.”

  “What does it look like?”

  Gemma held her arms out. “About this long and this wide with legs on it and rollers so it can be moved around, and sometimes they have a little canopy thing with lace and frills for little girls.”

  Trace’s brown eyes narrowed. “I got an idea. I’ll be right back.”

  He was gone ten minutes and returned with a big wooden box about the size of a bassinet but without a hood, legs, or a fancy little mattress.

  “Will this do?”

  “I expect it would, but isn’t that a feed box?”

  “Yep, it is, but it’s brand spanking new. Never had a single bit of feed or hay in it. Man I bought it from swears he was going to start using it tomorrow, but he’ll go get another one.”

  Gemma cocked her head to one side. “We could fold a blanket several times for a mattress and put the box beside the bed.”

  “Then it will work?”

  “Yes, and she can say she was a true cowgirl from the time she was two weeks old,” Gemma said.

  Trace grinned. “Maybe that will keep my mother from trying to turn her into a lawyer or a judge.”

  Chapter 19

  Baby Holly was bathed, fed, dressed in a clean pink nightgown, and her dark hair brushed, but Gemma continued to hold her. Sitting in the middle of Trace’s big bed, she rocked the baby back and forth and hummed to her.

  The sight put a catch in
Trace’s chest. He wished Gemma had been the one that had gotten pregnant with his child. He finished dumping the baby’s bathwater down the sink, rinsed the big plastic bowl, and in a few easy strides was beside the bed. He leaned down and kissed Gemma on the forehead and then Holly on the cheek.

  “Thank you, one more time. I wouldn’t know what or how to do anything, but I’m learning fast,” he said.

  “You’ll get the hang of it. Look at her sleeping. Isn’t she beautiful?”

  “Yes, she is,” Trace said, but he was staring at Gemma, not at his new daughter. He cleared his throat and sat down beside her. “Hey, I need to call my dad to see about all this legal stuff. You okay while I step outside? How long do you think it’s going to take us to get to Oregon after this rodeo?”

  “We’ve got a week to get there. If we have a horrible night with her, then we’ll only go a couple of hundred miles. If she sleeps good, we’ll go more. Go call your folks. I think you are procrastinating,” Gemma answered.

  “Yes, I am, but before I make the call—” He paused.

  Gemma looked up at him. “What?”

  He took a deep breath and spit it all out without stopping. “From Hermiston it’s only three hundred miles to Bremerton, Washington. That’s just a day’s trip, and then it is two weeks until the rodeo there. Would you fly to Goodnight with me and spend that two weeks at my house? We wouldn’t be so cramped and I could help Uncle Teamer. We could fly back to Bremerton, ride that night, and then drive down to Ellensburg.”

  Gemma nodded. “Yes, I will.”

  Trace let out a lungful of air in a whoosh.

  “You didn’t think I’d say yes, did you?”

  He kissed her on the cheek. “I was almost afraid to even ask.”

  “Go make your call now. I’m going to talk to Momma and then Ace while you visit with your folks.”

  Trace carried the folder with all the information in it outside with him. He held his breath again after he dialed his father’s phone number. It rang four times before his dad picked up.

  “Yes?”

  “Dad, Trace here.”

  “I have caller ID, Son. I know who is calling. Your mother and I just finished dinner and we’re in a taxi on our way home.”

  “I have a daughter,” Trace blurted out.

  “Is this a joke?”

  “No, sir. Put it on speaker so Mother can hear. I need some legal advice, and I only want to tell this story once,” he said.

  He started at the beginning and told them exactly what documents were in the folder.

  “Now what do I do?” he asked.

  “Are you positive the child is yours, and that if it is, the mother has given up all rights?”

  “Looks that way on paper, but I can fax them to you tomorrow morning for you to look at,” Trace said.

  There was a pause before his mother spoke. “First thing you do is drop down on your knees and promise Gemma O’Donnell half your kingdom for being so generous with her time. I’m still mad at you for bringing her to dinner with us and not even telling her or us. I was so stunned that she probably thinks I’m horrid, and nothing your father or I said came out right.”

  “What?” Trace said.

  “I’m a grandmother now, Son. I can say whatever I want.”

  “You always have anyway,” Trace said.

  “Yes, I have, but it’ll get worse now. I’ve got court and your father has cases in the next few days, but we will be in Bremerton for that rodeo. I want to see my granddaughter. And Gemma deserves better than meeting us without giving her a chance to refuse or even pretty up. Good Lord, Trace, I would have shot your father if he’d taken me to see your grandparents without a notice.”

  “And,” his father chimed in, “now she’s taking on a child you fathered with another woman from a weekend bender?”

  “Okay, okay, I goofed. I wanted her to meet you all. And I thought it would be a nice surprise for both of you. All I hear from you, Mother, is how you wish I’d find a nice girl and settle down. Now about this legal stuff?” Trace asked.

  “Sounds like it’s pretty well taken care of, Son. I want another DNA just for absolute proof in case this woman ever comes back. And send all those documents to me first thing in the morning,” his father said. “I’ll file them all in the state of Texas. You want to change her names?”

  Trace hesitated.

  “Talk it over with Gemma,” his mother said.

  “She’s agreed to go to Goodnight to spend the two weeks between Hermiston and Bremerton to help me with Holly.”

  “Good, then we will plan on seeing you at Teamer’s rather than flying all the way to Washington. We’ll be in touch, and you tell Gemma that we’re coming,” his mother said.

  ***

  Gemma laid Holly in her bed and dug her cell phone out of her purse.

  She hit the speed dial for her mother and waited.

  “Hi, kiddo. Where are you? How’s the ankle? You really should forfeit your entry fee and not ride in this rodeo. You can win the next one with a good foot rather than hurting this one again and not winning either,” Maddie said.

  “I’d forgotten about my ankle. Trace still makes me use crutches, but it’s healing pretty fast, and I hate to give up my entry fee. Are you sitting down, Momma?”

  “You didn’t marry that man, did you?”

  Gemma sputtered. “What made you say that?”

  “Your tone. There’s something different about it.”

  “No, I did not marry him. But I’m sitting here looking at his baby.” Gemma went on to tell her the whole story before Maddie could butt in again.

  “Oh my!” Maddie said when she finished.

  “Is that all you’ve got to say?”

  “For right now it is because I’m shocked speechless. Don’t you dare fall in love with that baby and mistake it for real love for the man. That wouldn’t be fair to either of you, and you better think twice about getting too attached to the baby because it’ll just make it harder to leave her when the time comes.”

  “For someone who is stunned into silence you are doing a really good job of talking. Ace is here. I hadn’t even called him and wasn’t expecting to see him until the rodeo, but he just stuck his head in the trailer door so I’ll call you later.” She ended the call with a touch of a finger.

  Blake and Dalton followed Ace into the small trailer with Trace behind them. The brothers stood around the feed box and stared down at the sleeping child.

  “Well, I bet that was a big surprise!” Ace said.

  Gemma slid off the bed. “Yes, it was. I thought y’all were coming for the rodeo.”

  “Bull was ready early,” Creed said.

  Ace bent down on one knee to get a better look at the baby. “We won’t be staying for the rodeo. But we’ve worked out a plan with Trace. Blake is going to hitch up to your trailer and take it home with him. He had planned to go on west of here and check out a ranch, but it sold today. That’s why he brought his own truck and can take your trailer home.”

  “I might look at a couple of places between here and home. You tell your momma about this?” Blake asked Gemma.

  “Just did.”

  “Liz and Jasmine?” Ace asked.

  “Not yet.”

  Ace stood up. “Then I call dibs on telling Jasmine, and you can tell Liz.”

  “I wish that was mine,” Dalton said.

  Gemma gulped. “You do?”

  “I’m so ready for a wife and kids now that I have bought my own place,” he said.

  Blake touched the edge of the baby’s bed. “I can’t believe you’ve got her in a feed box. Throw a little hay in there and she’d look like the nativity scene down at the Ringgold church when we have the Christmas pageant. Remember when Rachel was the baby for it and she cooed and gooed at her momma the whole time the kings were there?”

  “Those were her uncles and she knew them. She damn sure didn’t coo at you three, did she? And besides, this is nearly August, not December,�
� Gemma said.

  “No, she set up a howl,” Ace answered.

  Trace looked at Gemma.

  “Her uncles and father were the three kings, and these three were the shepherds. Maybe y’all should have brought her shiny presents instead of leading a baaing sheep up on the platform,” Gemma explained to Trace.

  “Gemma was the angel that night. She had a crooked wire hanger covered in silver tinsel on her head,” Ace said.

  Trace shook his head. “Angel? Y’all let her be an angel?”

  Blake’s booming laugh woke the baby. “I’m sorry, but that’s exactly what I said when I saw her all draped in a bedsheet with that halo on her head.”

  Gemma picked Holly up. “Well, this is a real angel.”

  She suddenly realized that Holly would be in Goodnight, Texas, celebrating her first Christmas with her father and his family at the end of December. Gemma would be in Ringgold with her family.

  Oh, no, I will not! I’m not leaving. Trace can get used to the idea one day at a time and even think it’s his idea when he asks me to stay on forever.

  “And come Christmas, she might even be teething and even Jesus won’t be able to get along with her then,” Blake said. “Remember those times with our nephews and our niece?” He looked at his brothers.

  Ace’s face went serious. “Come Christmas, I’ll be a daddy! It just hit me. I’m going to have one of those.”

  “Maybe two if you want to stay up with Wil and Pearl,” Blake said.

  “Oh, no!” Ace said. “They did an ultrasound and I saw my daughter and there’s just one of her.”

  “Okay, while my big brother is digesting the idea of fatherhood, let’s go get these trailers changed over. We’ve got a bull in a trailer out there and a lot of miles to go,” Blake said.

  “Tell me again how you manage to take care of this,” Gemma asked.

  “Blake brought his truck, so he’s going to take your trailer all the way home. Dalton is going to follow me in Trace’s truck and we’ll leave it at Goodnight, then he’ll get in with me and we’ll go on home,” Ace said.

  Gemma handed the baby to Trace. “I’ll go get my things out of the trailer.”

  “Would you mind if I used your trailer on the way? It would save some hotel expenses while I’m looking around. There’s a couple of pieces of property I want to look at around Vernon,” Blake asked.