by Amy Lillard
“I believe there is.”
Something in the woman’s voice had Bryn putting the car into park, had her cutting off the engine.
“Just for a bit.” His mother smiled encouragingly, then moved back so Bryn could get out.
Her limbs were stiff and jerky as she opened the car door and stepped into the Texas heat once again. It was different than Georgia. Not as humid by far, but hot all the same.
Together the two of them walked back to the sprawling ranch house. It was a beautiful structure, though Bryn had been too nervous before to truly appreciate its majestic beauty.
“Let’s go into my office where we can talk.” She led the way, then turned back to face Bryn. “I’m Evelyn, by the way. Jake’s mother.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Bryn murmured. Southern manners kicked in where all else failed. At least she had called it right. “This really isn’t necessary,” she said.
Evelyn ignored her and opened one of the large doors to a leather and bronze office complete with a gently worn sofa with a brown-and-white cowhide tossed over the back. Bryn was fairly certain it was the real deal and not a designer version from Pottery Barn.
“Go ahead and have a seat. Grandma Esther went to get us some refreshments.”
“Really,” Bryn gently protested once again. “This isn’t necessary. I don’t want anything from Jake. I—”
“Sit.” The one word was spoken like a woman who was accustomed to getting her way. Always.
Bryn perched on the edge of the sofa, while Evelyn eased into the overlarge chair behind the desk.
“How did you and Jake meet?”
Bryn shook her head. This was not going at all as she had planned, but then again, what did she really expect? That she could come in, announce that she was having Jake’s baby, and they would just let her waltz out the door without so much as a by-your-leave?
A girl could hope.
But when she got back to Georgia, she was having a long talk with Rick about personal boundaries and bad advice. A girl had to depend on her best friend to help her through tough situations. So far he had encouraged her to latch on to a cowboy—the very same cowboy who’d gotten her pregnant—and pointed out his picture in Out West magazine, thereby negating her arguments that she didn’t even know his last name. That night, trivial matters like surnames just never came up.
“I was in Austin in May. I believe Jake was there for a weekend conference. He really didn’t tell me.” She shook her head. She was making a mess of this.
She stood. “Listen, you don’t owe me an apology. I’d rather just be on my way.”
“Carrying my grandchild.”
Bryn made a face. “She sort of has to go with me.” She placed one hand protectively over her growing mound of a baby. No matter how much she watched what she ate, she seemed to be packing on the pounds.
“It’s a girl?” Evelyn asked. Her voice was barely audible.
Bryn shrugged. “I just want it to be.”
Jake’s mother smiled. “So did I, but I ended up with five boys.”
“Five?”
“I’m afraid so.” But her smile took all the venom from her words. “Jake didn’t mean what he said. He . . .” she started, then shook her head, “he had a tough time when his first wife died.”
“He’s a widower?” Of course he had been married. The women in Texas knew a good thing when they saw it.
“Cecelia, that was his wife, she died giving birth to their daughter, Wesley.”
He has a daughter? Bryn sank back to the couch cushion. “I see.”
“He just needs some time to adjust to the idea of being married again. And having another baby.”
“I’m not marrying Jake.” The idea was ludicrous. They didn’t know each other. A baby did not a marriage make. “It was a mistake coming here.” Bryn pushed to her feet and slung her purse over one shoulder.
Evelyn was on her feet in a heartbeat. “I told you, Jake didn’t mean what he said.”
Bryn pinched the bridge of her nose and pushed her sunglasses back into place. “This has nothing to do with what he said. Well, maybe a little, but we don’t know each other. We can’t get married.”
“You know each other well enough to have made a baby.” Evelyn’s words stung with the truth.
“That’s not really the point, now is it?”
“Why are you in such a hurry?”
She spun around. Grandma Esther stood in the doorway with the promised refreshments.
“Oh, you know. I’m a busy girl with things to do.”
“If you’re going back to Austin, then I hope you’ll leave your number and address so we can keep in touch.”
“I’m not going back to Austin.”
“Your car has Georgia plates,” Esther said.
“That’s right. That’s where I live.”
“You’re from Georgia?”
“That’s right.”
“You never did answer me,” Esther pressed.
“I have a . . . meeting on the West Coast.” That was a great way of putting it. Surely beat the heck out of I’m dumping my baby sister’s ashes in the Pacific. “I’m supposed to be there day after tomorrow.”
“Then you have plenty of time.” Esther waved away Bryn’s protests with a flick of one gnarled hand.
“That’s right,” Evelyn said. “You can have dinner and spend the night here.”
“I—”
“We won’t take no for an answer,” Evelyn said.
“Besides,” Grandma Esther interjected, “it’ll save you the hotel charge.”
Money wasn’t an issue. But staying with these people . . . that was. She should get out now while the getting was good.
“Please.” Evelyn’s voice was filled with heartfelt emotions. “Please give us a chance. We need to get to know you. After all, you’re having my next grandchild.”
She didn’t want anything from these people. In fact, if it hadn’t been for that blessed magazine, she wouldn’t be standing here now. But she had wanted to give them the chance, let them know that in six months’ time another Langston was entering the world.
“How do you even know I’m telling the truth?”
Evelyn smiled. “If you were just trying to trap Jake into marriage, why would you walk away?”
Chapter Two
Jake laid his head against the rough cedar paneling of the hallway and tried to get himself back together. He could hear his mother, his grandmother, and Bryn Talbot in his mother’s office talking about nothing and the most important things in his life. He felt trapped, hopeless, like a calf who had gotten tangled up and no one was around to free him. Oh, how he wished he could hop in his truck, crank up Van Halen, and just drive.
But if he was wishing, he might as well wish he could go back and relive that night. Change something—anything—that would keep them from being where they were right now. Or maybe he just wanted to go back a half an hour or so and figure out a better response to Bryn’s shocking news. There had to be at least a hundred.
He shook his head. Going back wasn’t an option. Going forward was all he had left.
Lightly, he rapped on the door and entered without waiting for a response.
Grandma Esther hung about the fringes, holding a plate of nachos as if presenting them to the queen. His mother leaned against her large mahogany desk while Bryn perched on the edge of the big leather couch as if she might bolt at any second. She seemed confident, yet wary. In control, yet ready to call the whole thing off. And beautiful.
She looked beautiful. And he was slammed with memories from that night. Heated sighs, soft touches. Vivid yet surreal, like a dream he couldn’t quite shake. But this was no dream.
All heads turned in his direction as he entered, but he only had concerns for the woman on the couch.
“Can I . . . uh, talk to you for a moment?”
There was a split second when he thought she might say no, then she gave a small nod.
“Come on, Esther. Let’s give them some privacy.”
“Not on your life.” His grandmother shook her head and dug in her heels. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.” She grabbed one of the nachos from the plate and shoved it into her mouth before offering some to the both of them.
Bryn politely shook her head, but somehow the small gesture seemed to break some of the tension.
“I’m sorry,” he said. The words too simple and not enough, but all he had just the same.
Her gaze was steady as she studied him. “Sorry that we’re having a baby or—”
“Sorry for what I said.”
“Okay.” She dipped her chin as if to say she understood, but her eyes remained distrustful. Wary.
“Esther.” His mother hovered at the door, but Grandma Esther simply ate another nacho and looked from one of them to the other as if she were at a tennis match.
“And you’re right. I did need to know.”
She remained silent. He had no choice but to continue, though the words seemed to be getting harder and harder to say.
“Can you stay for dinner? Give us some time to work out the details?”
“We can call Seth and Jessie,” Grandma Esther said. She abandoned the plate of nachos on the desk and headed for the door. Her cane rattled with each step she took. He supposed she was going into a different room to use the phone, but Jake was grateful to have one less person be witness to his humiliation.
“I’ll just . . . ,” his mother started, then pressed her lips together and let herself out of the office.
The door hadn’t even shut behind her when Wesley raced in, her blond hair flying out behind her. “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” These days she had two speeds: full blast and asleep. She flung herself into his arms as if she hadn’t seen him in days instead of just minutes. “I finished my snack, can I go out to the barn? Joe Dan said he’d keep an eye on me.”
“Joe Dan has work to do.” Jake brushed her hair back from her face and resisted the urge to kiss her jelly-smeared cheek. She was getting to the age where random kisses were not allowed. Still, he could eat her up he loved her so much. The feeling alone made his heart ache in his chest. “I tell you what. If you will go play in your room for a few more minutes, I’ll take you to the barn myself. Deal?”
“Deal.” Her grin was sly as she slid down his side. Her boots clunked on the floor as they touched down. She started to turn for the door, then stopped. “Who’s that?”
“Bryn,” he choked out. There were so many answers but none that he could give his daughter.
“Hi.” Wesley walked over to Bryn as pretty as you please and extended her hand for the woman to shake. “It’s nice to meet you, Miss Bryn.”
“Likewise.”
Then his daughter turned back to him. “Is she here about the cook’s job?”
Jake shook his head.
“Oh, okay, then.” She nodded sagely.
“Go on and play now.”
“’Kay, Daddy.” She skipped from the room as if she hadn’t a care in the world. That was his job, to make sure she didn’t.
“I’m just going to go now.” Bryn waved a hand toward the door in a gesture that looked like a fish flopping on the banks of a creek.
“I thought you were going to work out some details with me.”
She shook her head and turned away, but not before he saw the tears in her eyes. “I’ll send you an e-mail.” Without waiting, she made her way to the door and out.
It happened so quickly Jake blinked twice before realizing that she was gone. “Wait,” he called, finally setting his feet into motion behind her. “You don’t have my e-mail address.”
Her footsteps never slowed as she darted across the foyer and out the front door. “I’m sure the ranch has a website.”
She was almost to her car when he caught her arm and spun her around. She might have had a good head start, but his longer stride was to his advantage.
“Why are you running away from me?”
She shook her head and gently pulled her arm from his grasp. “I just need to go.” Thankfully her tears had disappeared, if they had ever really been there to begin with.
“And we’re going to decide the fate of my child over e-mail?”
“Our child,” she corrected. “And yes. I see no problem in handling this through e-mail. In fact, maybe we should just consult attorneys and let them sort through it all.”
Jake shook his head. “They might get to draw up the papers, but you and I have to decide.”
“I need to go,” she repeated.
“What’s so urgent that you can’t stay for an hour or two? I mean, you came here. Surely you didn’t think you could tell me that you’re having my baby then waltz back out again like nothing ever happened.”
“You’re right. I should have never come here.”
“But you did.”
She stopped trying to get away from him. “I have an appointment.” She had said that before.
“I understand, but this is important. More important than to take care of it with a string of e-mails.”
She shook her head. “We’re going in circles.”
He crossed his arms. “The solution?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Why don’t you stay and let’s work this out?”
“I can’t. I can come back.”
“Come back?”
“I promise. I’ll come back after my . . . appointment.”
They were at an impasse. What could he do but tell her okay? “So be it.”
• • •
Bryn was all too aware of those green eyes following her as she backed out of the driveway. She imagined that she could feel his stare but she knew she was just being overly dramatic.
And yet . . .
She waited until she got to the farm road before punching the address of her hotel into the GPS. Four and a half more hours until she got to El Paso. Four and a half hours of wondering why she agreed to come back.
“You are on the quickest route to your destination.”
“Great,” she muttered, adjusting the air. Then she dialed the familiar number and turned on her hands-free.
“Hair Flair Unlimited.”
“Rick?”
“Girl, I have been worried about you. I thought you’d call before now.”
His familiar voice brought tears to her eyes. She blinked them away. One thing she had learned in the last couple of years: tears didn’t help a thing. Not. One. Thing. “Yeah . . . ? Well, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you.”
“So,” he said. She could almost hear him rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “Did you see him?”
Six foot plus of handsome cowboy flashed through her mind. Dark hair, green eyes, strong jaw, unyielding lips. “Yeah. I saw him.”
“And . . . ?”
She shook her head. “And nothing.”
“Don’t give me that. I need details, and I need them two hours ago.”
“There isn’t much to tell.” It was both the truth and a lie.
“Was he surprised to see you?”
Bryn turned on her blinker indicating that she was turning out onto the highway even though it didn’t appear there was anyone around for miles. “That word works.”
“Oh, you! Spit it out. What happened?”
“He seemed angry.” Though for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why. It’d really been more than anger, and he looked a bit scared. And that was where she got confused. What did he have to be afraid of?
“Angry?”
“I know, right? It’s weird. But I just got the feeling
. . .”
“And . . . ?” Rick asked.
“And nothing. I need to get to El Paso before dark, and I told him I had to go.”
“There’s something you’re not telling me, and it’s big.”
And that was what she got for being best friends with Rick McFadden since seventh grade. “I don’t know,” she said truthfully. “It was just strange.”
“How else did you expect it to be? Not every day you go tell a man you’re having his baby, never mind the fact that you barely know him.”
Those hard green eyes flashed through her thoughts. “I don’t know him at all.”
“Only in the biblical sense,” Rick quipped.
“Will you be serious?”
He coughed. “Sorry. Why are we being serious again?”
“I don’t think I can go through with this.”
“Well, it’s a little late to be changing your mind.”
“Not about having the baby. About including him. I mean, we don’t know each other and—”
“Hush your mouth,” Rick said. “You can’t keep this child from him.”
Bryn sighed. “I know, but—”
“No buts.”
“He’s not what I expected.”
“How so?”
She resisted the urge to close her eyes and think about it. He wasn’t what she had expected in so many ways. “Well, he’s wealthier than I thought, and he’s got a little girl.”
“He’s married?”
“Widower.”
“That’s tough. How old is his daughter?”
“Four. Maybe five.”
“Honey, are you going to be okay?”
“I will.”
“What are you doing now?”
“Driving.”
“What?” he screeched. “Why aren’t you back at the ranch house with your cowboy?”
“First of all, he’s not my cowboy. Second of all, I made a promise that I intend to keep.”
Rick sniffed. “I’m sure Emery would understand. You need to work things out with this man. And the sooner the better. You can’t do that driving to California.”
“You don’t understand. I was standing there, his grandmother’s trying to serve nachos, his mother wants to talk to me about the future, his daughter comes running in. I just couldn’t take it. I had to leave.”
