He puts on his cowboy hat and then gets our suitcases out of the back. “We’re going to unpack,” he tells the others.
“We’re glad to have you back, Amber,” Aaron says. “Stay as long as you like.”
“Thank you.” I sling my bag over my shoulder and reach for my carry-on.
“I’ve got it,” Quinn says. “You’ve still got a bad leg.”
He pulls my large suitcase, my carry-on, and his carry-on behind him. I do love a cowboy who takes control. Cowboy. I’m dating a helicopter-flying cowboy.
Amber Rose Black, what have you gotten yourself into?
Chapter Seventeen
Quinn
Amber rolls off me, lies back on the blanket, and gazes up at the midday sky. I try not to stare at her, but she’s so damn gorgeous. For the past week, I’ve asked myself how I got so lucky. We’ve christened many places on the ranch. Her apartment, my apartment, the hay barn, the ridge. Even Maddox’s pool when we snuck over on Tuesday night. And now we can add pasture number three to the list. It’s been six days, and she hasn’t mentioned leaving. Every morning, I wake up and wonder if today will be the day she decides to go. And every night, when she lies in my arms, I know I don’t want her fifteen miles from me, let alone fifteen hundred.
Still naked, she reaches into my rucksack and pulls out the sandwiches she packed for our picnic lunch. “Turkey or roast beef?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
She hands me one. “Roast beef, then. I prefer turkey.”
“Thanks, but looking like you do right now, this could be a sawdust sandwich and I wouldn’t care.”
She picks at her lunch. “Tag called last night. Asked when I was coming home.”
I take a bite, trying not to look like she just punched me in the gut. “What’d you tell him?” I ask casually.
“I told him I didn’t know, but I don’t want to wear out my welcome.”
“There are dozens of people living on this ranch, Amber. I doubt anyone really cares that you are too.”
She puts down her sandwich and looks off in the distance.
I sit up and pull her against me. “That came out wrong. What I meant to say is that there are plenty of places to stay here. You’re not displacing anyone. You’re not bothering anybody. And I know for a fact that some people like having you here.”
“Some people?”
I flip her onto her back and hover. “If I had my way, you’d never leave.”
She gazes up at me, conflicted. “I’ll have to eventually. Maybe not this week or even next week, but Calloway Creek is my home.”
“I know. We’ll work something out.”
“What is it you want to work out?”
“How we’re going to live thousands of miles apart and still be together.” When she looks surprised, I run a finger down her jawline. “You said so yourself that you wanted to see where this goes. Have you changed your mind?”
“No.”
“Good.” I lean down and kiss her, then I pull back. “Just to be clear, when you leave, I won’t be sleeping with anyone else.”
“I won’t either.”
I can’t help my cheesy grin. “You know what that makes us, don’t you?”
Her hands cover her face as she fakes being distraught. “Do we really have to say it?”
I pin her arms over her head. “Face it, sweetheart, we’re a couple.”
Her lips form a beautiful smile, and she wiggles beneath me. “Maybe we should commemorate the occasion.”
“Again?”
She reaches between us and grabs my dick. “Again, cowboy.”
Who am I to deny this woman anything?
We’re dressed and ready to head back on our ATVs when a mare grazes close by. Amber goes over to her. “And who are you?”
“This is Mavis.” I point to her colt by the fence. “That’s Jingle.”
“And why don’t they stay in the stables like the others?”
“A lot of the broodmares and their foals stay turned out. The babies benefit from the exercise they get in the large open spaces.”
She runs a hand down her mane. “She’s got dreadlocks.”
“Fairy knots,” I say.
“Excuse me?”
I chuckle. “The tale of the fairy knots goes like this: during the night, it’s said that a group of fairies wander out in search of horses. Once their ideal horse is found, they twist their manes to form little stirrups and reins, then they ride the horses all night. And although the horses are returned by morning, the knots are left for when the fairies come again.”
Amber examines one of the tangles. “Fairy knots, huh? Did your mom tell you that story?”
“My mom? No. She wasn’t a bedtime story kind of mom. My grandmother told me.”
“So your family’s not a total wash. Your grandmother sounds nice.”
“She was a saint. Literally. Stayed with my grandfather even after he had an affair with their housekeeper, which resulted in my uncle. But she died a long time ago.”
“I think I’m ready to learn how to ride,” she says, petting Mavis.
I put her hat on her head. “I believe there might just be a cowgirl in there after all.”
We pack up and hop on the ATVs. Despite all the time we’ve been spending together, both of us still have work to do.
After we put the four-wheelers in the barn, I see an unfamiliar car by the stables. Shit. Could it be Jon? We’ve all been on high alert knowing today is the day he’s getting released. He wouldn’t come here on day one, would he? And in a small Honda, no less. But then a woman emerges and walks toward us. I feel like I should recognize her. Oh, yeah, she’s the one who rode the mechanical bull like a pro—not to mention riding me afterward. What’s her name? Shelly? Misha? Michelle? Yeah, Michelle.
“I’m really sorry about this,” I say to Amber. “I don’t know why she’s here.”
Amber raises a brow. She gets what I’m saying.
“Michelle,” I say as we approach. “What brings you to Devil’s Horn Ranch?”
“You’re not an easy man to find,” she says. “And I’m surprised you even remember my name.”
I nod to Amber. “As you can see, I’m kind of busy here.”
I know I’m blowing her off, but what right does she have tracking me down here, especially after all this time?
“We need to talk,” Michelle says.
“Okay.” I cross my arms.
She glances around. “Not here.”
“Why not here?”
“It’s important, Quinn. Please?”
“I’ll just take off,” Amber says.
“No. Stay,” I say.
Michelle asks, “And she is?”
I take Amber’s hand, something I’ve never done in public. “My girlfriend.”
It’s not exactly an ideal moment to call her my girlfriend for the first time in front of a girl I once had sex with, but at least Amber goes with it and doesn’t pull away.
Michelle studies her. “Your girlfriend?” She snorts an incredulous laugh. “Who’d have thought? If it’s true, this involves you too.”
“Me?” Amber says.
“Is there somewhere we can go?” Michelle asks. “I don’t think this is a conversation you want to have out here.”
I point. “My apartment is over there.”
Michelle nods. “Good. I have to get something from the car. Meet you there in a minute?”
“Uh, okay. It’s just past that stable. Go through the main door, and then take the second door on the right. Go up the stairs. I’ll leave my apartment door open.”
“Go ahead, then,” she says. “I’ll be there shortly.”
Amber and I walk away. “What the hell is this about?” I say.
We enter the building, and Amber stops. She looks like she swallowed a bug. “You don’t think she’s going to tell you she has herpes or something, do you?”
“Shit.” Then I think of how long it’s been. “Surely I would have gotten it by n
ow.”
“Syphilis, then? I hear that can sometimes show up years after exposure.”
“Just fucking great,” I say. “Nothing like a goddamn STD to make my day.” We go inside my apartment, and I leave the door open like I said I would. “Damn, Amber. I’m really sorry if I’ve given you something. I don’t even know what to say. I thought I was clean. But I guess it has been a while since I’ve had a checkup.”
“We always use condoms. It’s okay.”
“We don’t use anything when you suck my dick.”
She grimaces. “God, you’re right.” She wipes her lips as if that could rid them of my cooties.
I’ll feel terrible if I’ve given her an STD. Would we be able to get through it? I can’t help feeling like I just got her and now I could lose her. I sit and slump forward, forearms on my knees.
She sits next to me and puts a hand on my back. “This isn’t going to change anything. So we have to get a course of antibiotics. That’s no big deal.”
“What if it’s something worse? There’s bad shit out there, Amber.”
“We’ll deal with it.”
I look at her. “How can you be so goddamn perfect?”
Noise in the doorway gets our attention. Michelle is standing there loaded down with bags over her shoulder. Then she pulls something in from the hallway. A baby stroller.
I hop off the couch. “Oh, fuck no.”
Michelle shuts the door behind her and deposits her bags on the floor. Then she picks up the tiny baby. “This is Josie. She’s yours.”
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true.” She gets a piece of paper from the bag and hands it to me. “Your name is on her birth certificate. Do the math, Quinn. We were together ten months ago.”
My head spins. I know the exact date we hooked up. I’d just won my first rodeo buckle. Could she be telling the truth? My palms sweat and my heart races. I can’t have a goddamn kid.
“You’re a slut, Michelle. How can you possibly know the kid is mine?”
Amber swats me. “Hey now, sluts are people too.”
I know she’s trying to break the tension, but at this point, not even Santa Claus himself could do that.
“She’s yours,” Michelle says. “I’m not as slutty as I led you to believe.”
“You expect me to take your word for it and give you child support? Is that what this is about?”
Tears pool in her eyes. “That’s not what I want.”
A horrible thought occurs to me. “You think I’ll marry you or something?”
She shakes her head. “That isn’t what I want either.”
“Then why the hell are you here?”
She comes over and holds out the baby. “Take her.”
“What? No.”
“Take her or she’ll fall. I have to show you something else.”
I cradle Josie like I have Vivian and Casey. She’s so small. I glance at Amber, who looks as surprised as I am.
“Here,” Michelle says, handing me another piece of paper. “I had a lawyer draw these up. It says I wish to terminate my parental rights, but a judge won’t grant the termination unless she’s been abandoned for at least six months.”
Amber’s voice rings loudly. “You’re abandoning her?”
“Technically, I’m giving her to her father. Someone who has the means to support her.”
Amber’s head shakes over and over. She looks ill.
I hold the baby out to Michelle, careful to support her head. “You need to take her. I’ll go get a test to prove I’m not the father.”
Michelle backs away. “I can’t raise her. I’m sorry. I just can’t.” She starts crying. “You’re rich. You can give her everything she deserves. Things I could never give her.”
She goes for the door. “What the fuck is happening here?” I say. “You’re leaving her here?”
“I’m sorry. It’s for the best. Please tell her…” She loses her voice to sobs. “Tell her I tried. And I loved her, but I just couldn’t. Tell her I’m sorry.”
She walks out the door. I hold the baby tight and follow. “Wait. Michelle!” She races down the stairs. “Michelle!” I can’t possibly run after her while holding Josie. I hand her off to Amber and then trip over a pile of stuff near the doorway on my way. “Damn it.” I almost fall down the stairs. I run around the stable just in time to see her car speed away.
Owen emerges from the stable. He chuckles. “Run another one off, did you?”
“You have no fucking idea,” I say and then turn to go back upstairs.
Chapter Eighteen
Amber
Josie sucks on my finger. Immediately, I feel a kinship with her. “You’ll be okay.”
Quinn comes back in. He takes in all the baby stuff Michelle left on the floor, then he blows out a long breath and gets his phone.
“Who are you calling?”
“The police.”
“Can you not?”
He looks at me like I’m crazy. “Amber, some crazy chick just dropped a baby on my doorstep. I’m calling them.”
“They’ll only call social services. And they’ll send somebody out to collect Josie, who will be put in some random foster home. God knows what’ll happen to her then.”
He shakes his head. “Not my problem.”
“Look at her,” I say. “See the color of her hair? It’s the same as yours. And your noses are almost identical.”
“Doesn’t matter.” He paces around the couch. “In the very unlikely event that she’s mine, the police still need to know her mother abandoned her.” He stops and his eyes close briefly. “Ah, shit.” He sits, looking guilty. “Amber, I know this must be hard for you, but this is different. She’s not mine.”
“But there’s a chance,” I say. “Even if there’s a small chance, don’t you want to know? Could you live with yourself knowing you had a child out there, and you just gave her to the state to deal with like the thousands of other kids they’re already forced to place?”
“I really don’t think she’s mine. I always use protection.”
“But the timing. It fits, right? You were with her around the time she got pregnant. I’d say that puts you pretty high on the list of potential fathers.”
“What would you have me do, just take her word for it?”
“Get a paternity test. And probably a lawyer.”
I look at Josie. “And in the meantime? What in the hell do you expect me to do with her?”
“Michelle said something I don’t understand. She said you were rich. Was she being overly dramatic? Why does she think someone who lives in a place like this and cowboys for a living is wealthy?”
He leans back and runs fingers through his hair. “Because I am.”
Before I get a chance to question him, Josie wakes up and cries. I point. “Get the diaper bag. She might need to be changed.” He fetches it and puts it in front of me. “Oh, no,” I say. “She’s your kid. I’m not doing all the work.”
“She’s not my kid, Amber.”
“Well, until you prove otherwise…” I hold Josie out to him.
“You want me to change her diaper?”
“It’s not hard. Go on, take her.”
I spread a blanket on the couch and get out supplies, then I tell him how to do it. “How do you know how to do this?” he asks.
“Friends with kids. At twenty-eight, I’m one of the few without them.” Josie doesn’t stop fussing. I put my finger near her mouth and she sucks on it again. “Maybe she’s hungry.”
He scoffs. “Because who knows when her deadbeat mom fed her last.”
“Don’t call her that.”
“Why not? What would you call someone who does this to their kid?”
“I’d call her Piper.”
“Piper found a family to adopt you. She didn’t just leave you on someone’s doorstep.”
Josie cries louder. I motion to the bags on the floor. “See if there’s formula in one of those. And a clean bottle.” He
goes through them and pulls out a can. “Good. Follow the instructions—mix it with some lukewarm water.” I pick up Josie. “Are you hungry, sweetie pie? Milk is coming.” I fish a pacifier out of the diaper bag and hope it will settle her until her meal is ready.
Quinn brings a bottle from the kitchen. “I have no idea if I did it right.”
“Test it on your wrist. If it’s too hot, you’ll feel it.”
He shakes the bottle and some drops fall onto his skin. “I guess it’s okay.”
“Sit.”
“Jesus, really?”
“Come on, Quinn. You said it’s not your problem. Well, it’s way more your problem than mine. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“This is one hell of a problem. Is it bad that now I’m wishing it was syphilis?”
I laugh and put Josie in his arms. “Feed her half the bottle and then burp her.”
She immediately starts sucking. He watches for a second, then looks up at me. “I bet you’re already planning your plane ride home.”
“You think I’m going to run away?”
“I would.”
“Like you said, she may not even be yours. Besides, she’s adorable. It might be fun to have her around for a while.”
“Fun? You call a newborn fun? Tell me that at three in the morning when she won’t shut up.”
“I won’t be here at three in the morning.”
“Oh, hell no. You have to help me, Amber. I’ll drop her. Or overfeed her. Or do some shit I’m not supposed to do.”
I try not to laugh. “Are you begging? Because I love a man who begs.”
“I’m begging.”
“If I’m going to sleep here, you’ll have to make it worth my while.”
For the first time in an hour, his eyes light up. “Anything. I’ll do anything.”
“Okay then. I think that can be arranged.” While Josie eats, I look at her birth certificate. “Oh, wow.”
“What is it?”
“Michelle gave her your last name.”
“Why the hell would she do that?” He shakes his head. “She’s doing this for money. There’s no other explanation.”
I scan the rest of the birth certificate and gasp when I see the birthdate. I gaze at Josie in utter fascination. “Look,” I say to Quinn, pointing to her date of birth.
Texas Roses (The Devil's Horn Ranch Series) Page 11
