THE MAVERICK'S THANKSGIVING BABY

by Brenda Harlen

  “We’ve been apart longer than we were together,” he pointed out. “And I promise—I’m not still in love with you.”

  As he said those words, he realized—without a doubt—that they were true. He was completely over Shaelyn. Yes, he’d loved her once, but that was in the past. He’d been young and infatuated, wanting to be with the woman who claimed she wanted to be with him. When she’d gone, he’d realized that he hadn’t missed Shaelyn so much as he’d missed being with someone.

  “But you still haven’t said that you’re in love with her.”

  “I’m in love with Maggie,” he said, because it seemed that speaking the words was the only way to get his former fiancée out of the way so he could marry the mother of his child.

  “Okay, then—” she took a step back “—I guess I should offer my congratulations.”

  “Thank you, Shaelyn.”

  But, of course, she couldn’t leave it at that. “I hope she loves you, too, Jesse. Enough to trade in the glitz and glamour of Hollywood for the tedium and simplicity of Big Sky Country.”

  And with those words, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and stalked out, passing the groom’s best man on the way.

  “What the hell was she doing here?” Nate wanted to know.

  “I’m not entirely sure,” Jesse admitted.

  His family had never taken to Shaelyn, despite the fact that he’d planned to marry her. Nate, specifically, had expressed disapproval of her apparent lack of ambition to do anything other than get married.

  “What did she say to put that look on your face?”

  Jesse just shook his head.

  “Don’t let her mess with your mind,” Nate warned.

  “She didn’t say anything that I haven’t already heard a thousand times.”

  Except for the fact that she was still in love with him, and he wasn’t going to get into that with his brother. Because, as he’d said to Maggie when he first proposed to her, he wasn’t looking for love.

  So why was he bothered by Shaelyn’s suggestion that Maggie might not love him enough?

  * * *

  As his wife fussed with his tie, determined to get it just right before he walked their daughter down the aisle, Gavin stared stonily ahead, trying not to think about the reason he was in this tux.

  “You’re the father of the bride—try to look happy.”

  “Even if I’m not?”

  Christa sighed. “You should be happy for your daughter—this is what she wants.”

  “She’s only twenty-eight years old and she’s been so busy building a career, she’s barely dated. How can she know what she wants?” he demanded.

  “No one knows her mind like our Maggie,” his wife assured him. “A fact that you’ve been lamenting since she was a toddler.”

  He smiled, because it was true, but the smile quickly faded. “You don’t think he coerced her into this marriage because she’s pregnant?”

  “I think she wouldn’t let herself be coerced if she didn’t want to be.”

  He continued to scowl. “She’s our baby girl.”

  “Our baby girl’s going to have a baby of her own in a few months,” Christa reminded him gently.

  “And she’s going to have that baby more than a thousand miles away from us.”

  “I know you think Montana is the middle of nowhere, but we managed to get here today, didn’t we?”

  “You think I’m being ridiculous,” he realized.

  “I think you’re being a father.” She tugged on his tie, bringing his mouth down to hers for a quick kiss. “And a very handsome father of the bride you are.”

  “The mother of the bride looks pretty good, too.”

  She arched a brow. “Pretty good?”

  He grinned and slipped his arm around her waist. “I love you, Christa.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “I just hope that, forty years from now, Maggie and Jesse will be as happy as we are.”

  “No one can know what the future holds,” she told her husband, “but I have no doubt that when you walk our daughter down the aisle today, she will be marrying the man she loves.”

  * * *

  The groom’s parents, already seated in the church, weren’t any more enthusiastic about the forthcoming nuptials than the bride’s father.

  “I hope he isn’t making a mistake,” Todd Crawford said, drumming his fingers on his knee.

  His wife clasped her hands together in her lap. “What else could he do, under the circumstances?”

  “Nothing,” her husband admitted. “A man needs to take responsibility for his actions, and a child needs a father.”

  “Then why are you griping?”

  “I just wish, if he had to knock up someone, he’d chosen a local girl who might actually stay put in this town.”

  “Except that one or more of his brothers has dated most of the single women in Rust Creek Falls,” she pointed out drily.

  “There are plenty of women in Kalispell or even other parts of Montana.”

  “Like Billings?”

  He winced at the mention of the hometown of the groom’s former fiancée. “Okay, so that didn’t work out so well for him. But I’m not sure this is going to be any better. She’s from Los Angeles for Christ’s sake.”

  “Don’t swear,” his wife admonished.

  “She’s not going to be happy here.”

  “You don’t know that—look at her cousin, Lissa. She came from New York and yet she settled in with the sheriff with no difficulty.”

  As was usual when Todd couldn’t refute an argument, he said nothing. But his jaw remained stubbornly set.

  “This all started when he went to work at Traub Stables,” he said, after another minute had passed.

  Laura frowned. “What?”

  “It’s those damn Traubs—they lured Jesse away from home, from his roots.”

  His wife sighed. “You know Jesse’s heart has always been with the horses.”

  Todd shook his head. “As if it wasn’t bad enough that everyone in town knows that our son is working for a Traub, now he’s marrying a California girl.”

  “Could you try to focus on something else—at least for today?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like the fact that we’re going to be grandparents again.”

  “That’s if she sticks around long enough for us to meet the baby,” her husband grumbled.

  * * *

  Maggie had lived her whole life in Los Angeles, where there was no shortage of handsome men. She worked in a law firm where men lived in suits. But she was certain she’d never seen anyone as handsome as Jesse Crawford. And she knew none of those other men had ever affected her the way he did. Never had any one of those men made her breath catch in her throat or her heart pound so hard and fast against her ribs she was certain everyone must be able to hear it.

  But when she took her first steps down the aisle and saw Jesse standing at the altar, that’s exactly what happened.

  She didn’t even remember the exchange of vows; the words were somehow lost in the excitement of the realization that she was going to be Mrs. Jesse Crawford. She did remember the kiss. Although it was chaste in comparison to other kisses they’d shared, there was heat in the brief touch of his mouth to hers, enough to heighten her awareness and anticipation.

  Now she was in his arms again, sharing their first dance as husband and wife.

  As she turned around the floor, she caught a glimpse of her parents—Christa dabbing her eyes with Gavin’s handkerchief—and Jesse’s parents—Laura’s smile obviously forced, Todd’s attention on the drink in his hand.

  “I think your mother disapproves of the fact that I’m wearing a white dress,” Maggie said.

&n
bsp; Jesse looked down at his bride—the most beautiful woman he’d ever known, looking even more beautiful than ever. “You don’t need to worry about my mother’s—or anyone else’s—approval.”

  At nineteen weeks, Maggie wasn’t obviously pregnant. It was only because he’d been intimate with her slender body that Jesse was aware of the subtle bump that was proof of their baby growing inside of her.

  “I’m not really. But I know people are already speculating about the reasons for our getting married so quickly.”

  “People are always going to talk about something.”

  “I know,” she admitted. “Although it’s a little unnerving to realize that the Hollywood paparazzi has nothing on the Rust Creek Falls grapevine.”

  “You’re a celebrity here,” he told her.

  “The city slicker who shamelessly seduced the quiet cowboy and trapped him into marriage?”

  He tipped her chin up, forcing her to meet his gaze. “I don’t feel trapped,” he promised her. “I feel incredibly lucky.”

  Then he brushed his lips against hers.

  And the way she kissed him back gave him hope that, before the night was out, he’d get even luckier.

  * * *

  After the cake-cutting ceremony, Maggie slipped away to use the ladies’ room. Lissa had been taking her duties as matron of honor seriously and had barely left the bride’s side, but she was dancing with her husband now and Maggie didn’t want to interrupt.

  It was a bit tricky to maneuver her skirts in the narrow stall, but she managed and was just about to flush when she heard the click-clack of heels on tile. Several pairs, by the sound of it, accompanied by talking and laughter.

  The words she heard made her pause with her fingers on the handle.

  “Guess who stopped by to see the groom before the wedding,” an unfamiliar female voice said.

  “Who?” a second woman wanted to know.

  “Shaelyn Everton.”

  “Who?” the second speaker asked again.

  “Jesse’s ex,” yet another voice responded, sounding impatient. “The one he was engaged to for all of three weeks.”

  Inside her bathroom stall, Maggie sucked in a breath. Thankfully, the other women were too focused on their conversation to hear her.

  “How do you know this?”

  “Brad told me that Nate caught them together in the anteroom before the ceremony.”

  “Caught them doing what?” There was more glee than curiosity in the tone, suggesting that the second woman enjoyed a juicy scandal.

  Maggie pressed a hand to her stomach, desperate to still its sudden churning.

  Her friend laughed. “Nothing like that,” she chided. “They were just talking.”

  “Oh.” Woman Number Two didn’t hide her disappointment while the bride exhaled a long, slow breath. “What was she doing here?”

  “Trying to make a final play for Jesse would be my guess.”

  “Because breaking his heart once wasn’t enough?”

  “She messed him up, that’s for sure,” the first woman commented. “I remember hearing his mom tell my mom that she didn’t think he’d ever get over her.”

  “That was a long time ago,” someone else said. “And he seems happy with Maggie.”

  “For now,” the first speaker allowed.

  “Give her a chance,” the third woman suggested.

  “Kristin’s just mad that Maggie got him into bed and she never did.”

  “I’ve always liked the strong, silent type,” the first speaker, now identified as Kristin, admitted. “But Brad is every bit as cute as his brother—maybe even more.”

  “But why was Shaelyn here?” The second woman finally circled back to the original topic of conversation. “I thought she married some other guy.”

  “She did, but they’re divorced now. And while she might have been the one to leave Jesse, the rumor is that she never got over him.”

  The women had apparently finished their primping and started toward the exit, as evidenced by the click-clack on the tiles and their fading voices. “I don’t think he...”

  Maggie stayed in the bathroom stall until she was sure they were gone, and then for a few minutes more to compose herself.

  She didn’t know what to make of that entire exchange. What she did know was that, even if Shaelyn still wanted Jesse, she wasn’t going to get him.

  Because the shy, sexy cowboy was Maggie’s husband now.

  * * *

  Jesse warily eyed the beer that Maggie’s oldest brother offered to him. “Is it poisoned?”

  Shane Roarke grinned. “You haven’t given me any reason to want to make my sister a widow...yet.”

  “Then I’ll make sure I don’t,” he said, accepting the bottle.

  “I wish I could be sure that Maggie will be happy here.”

  “You don’t think she will be?”

  “Let’s just say I have my doubts.” Shane sipped his own beer.

  “Wasn’t it just a couple of years ago that you decided to make your home in Montana?”

  “Yeah, but I moved around a lot before then,” his new brother-in-law pointed out. “Maggie, on the other hand, has been working her tail off for the past five years to establish herself at Alliston & Blake.”

  “From my perspective, she worked too long and too hard for too little.”

  “I don’t disagree—but it was her choice.”

  “So was this,” Jesse assured him.

  “That’s what I have to wonder about,” Shane said. “Because this whole situation—quitting her job, moving twelve hundred miles away, having a whirlwind wedding—isn’t Maggie. She doesn’t rush into anything.”

  She hadn’t dragged her feet at all the day they met, but that was hardly something that would gain him points with her brother.

  “She walked down that aisle of her own free will.”

  “It looked that way,” Shane agreed. “But one of the women I work with just had a baby, and I have to tell you—pregnant women have all those hormones to deal with that mess with their heads and their hearts.

  “I’m not sure Maggie knows what she wants right now, but you managed to convince her that you should be together for the sake of your baby. She’s smart, but she’s probably scared, too. The prospect of having a baby on her own had to be a little daunting, especially when her pregnancy ended any hopes of ever getting a partnership at Alliston & Blake.”

  He must have noticed Jesse’s scowl, because he swore softly. “I guess she didn’t tell you about that.”

  “No, she didn’t.”

  “I think she was planning to leave, anyway,” Shane said now. “But when her boss found out she was pregnant, it expedited the process.”

  “So you think she married me because she was in danger of losing her job?”

  “No. She wouldn’t have had any trouble getting another job in LA—and not just at our parents’ firm. But I think marrying you gave her the excuse she needed to make a big change.

  “I’m just not sure, because everything happened so fast, that she’s not going to regret it in a month or two and realize she isn’t cut out for life in Small Town, Montana.”

  Jesse thought about what Shane had said for a long time after the other man had gone.

  There was no doubt he’d pushed Maggie to the altar because it was what he wanted for their baby. She’d voiced some objections, and he’d disregarded each and every one. Even her concerns about her clients in LA had been discounted, because they hadn’t been as important to him as giving their baby a family. But they’d been important to her...

  Damn.

  He didn’t know if what Shane had said about pregnancy hormones was true—but in case it was, he was going to give her time and space to decide if
this was truly what she wanted.

  * * *

  As was usual for a bride, Maggie spent a lot of time dancing with various guests. After the first dance with her new husband, she took a turn around the floor with her father, then Jesse’s father, then Ben Dalton. She danced and chatted with each of her new brothers-in-law and several other residents whose names she wasn’t even sure she would remember. When her brother Ryan snagged her for a spin, she was grateful that she didn’t have to keep up any pretenses—at least for the next three minutes.

  “When you decide to make some changes in your life, you do it in a big way,” he mused.

  “It was time,” she said lightly.

  “Maybe,” he acknowledged. “But this is the twenty-first century—you don’t have to get married to have a baby.”

  “I know,” she said, and she loved her brother for his ability to support nontraditional choices.

  “You should also know that I’m having a really hard time not kicking that cowboy’s ass for doing the things he did with you that resulted in you getting pregnant.”

  She held back a smile. “You could try to kick his ass.”

  Her brother’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t think I could take him?”

  “I’m a big girl, you know. It’s not like I was an innocent virgin seduced by a big bad cowboy. I wanted him every bit as much as he wanted me.”

  Ryan winced. “I don’t need to know things like that.”

  “Apparently you do.”

  “I just want you to be happy, and I’m not convinced you will be with him. He’s not at all like any of the other guys you’ve dated.”

  “No, he’s not,” she agreed. “And I think it says something that I never fell in love with any of those other guys.”

  He looked at her carefully. “You really are in love with him?”

  “This is the twenty-first century,” she said, echoing his words back to him. “I wouldn’t be marrying him for any other reason.”

  “So I can’t kick his ass?”

  “You can’t even try.”

  “Okay,” he relented. “But if he ever makes you unhappy, you let me know.”

  “I’ll let you know,” she promised.

  “Maybe I should kick Shane’s ass,” Ryan suggested.