Blame It on the Cowboy

by Delores Fossen

  And never would because a thread didn’t exist. “Well, I’m definitely not pregnant, and I’m not flat broke. And as for the food poisoning, I only do that when I’m really pissed off at someone.”

  Of course that last statement was a joke, but Logan didn’t crack a smile. In fact, it seemed to frustrate him.

  “I can’t stay long,” he said without taking that frustrated stare off her.

  “Yes, you’re leaving for Dallas. When will you be back?” She tried to make that sound like a casual question. She failed big-time.

  “A couple of days. Maybe more. You’re not flat broke?” he tacked on to the end of his answer.

  She shook her head. “Please don’t make me show you my wallet and bank statement.” Again, another attempt at a joke, but he still didn’t smile.

  “Why did you stay, then?” he asked.

  Mercy, no matter what she said to that, it would require some soul-baring. Something she wasn’t ready to do just yet. Reese couldn’t tell him that she’d stayed because of him. That would send Logan running.

  “Maggie’s uterus,” she lied. That poor woman’s anatomy was getting a lot of buzz.

  He nodded, mumbled something she didn’t catch, but Reese certainly caught the next thing Logan did.

  Logan pulled her to him and kissed her.

  It happened so fast she didn’t see it coming, but Reese didn’t need to see anything to feel it. With just a touch of his mouth to hers, the man could perform some magic, and the flutter turned instantly into a sweet spot of pleasure. She felt as if she were melting sugar in a really hot pot.

  He didn’t exactly experience the melting, though. Logan seemed to be angry. Maybe with her, maybe with himself. And that anger went into the kiss. He probably soon figured out, though, that when kissing, the anger just made it all seem more intense. More urgent.

  Reese figured once they had to break for air that it would be the end of it. That Logan would say he was sorry and that it wouldn’t happen again.

  He didn’t.

  He went right back to her mouth for a second round, this one deeper and even longer than the first. The problem with deep, long and intense was that everything revved up. Not just the kissing but the body-to-body contact. Logan snapped her to him, her breasts landing right against his chest.

  All in all, a really good place for them to be.

  Reese’s nipples especially liked the idea because they tightened and hardened. The rest of her body, however, started to soften. Everything below the waist preparing for something it wasn’t going to get.

  When oxygen became an issue again, Reese was certain it was time for Logan’s apology and departure. But no. His arm tightened around her, and with a clever little adjustment, he had their midsections aligned in just the right way for her to feel his erection.

  Oh, man.

  That wasn’t a good thing to feel. Her body was already whining for Logan, and that didn’t help. It especially didn’t help that Reese already knew that Logan’s cleverness didn’t just happen with his kisses. He could do marvelous, wonderful things with his erections.

  She broke away to give him a second to rethink this. Their gazes met, held, and Reese thought maybe she could regain her footing now that he wasn’t kissing her. But without breaking the eye-lock he had with her, he slipped his hand beneath her top and touched her.

  Reese made a sound. Way louder than it should have been. All pleasure. It was too schoolgirl for her to react this way to a simple hand on her bare skin, but her sound and reaction were a drop in the bucket compared to what he did next. Logan turned her, lifting her in the same motion, and sat her on the counter.

  He probably didn’t notice the plate of scones sitting there.

  It was incredible what he could do with just a few deft shifts of their bodies. Since this part of the counter was table-high, it gave her the perfect height for him to step between her legs. All the while kissing her, touching her and generally making her crazy.

  Of course, she’d felt all of this that night in the hotel, but Reese realized now the tequila had dulled things more than quite a bit. She was getting a full dose of Logan without the boozy haze.

  “How far are we taking this?” she managed to ask.

  “Not far.”

  He was lying, delusional or else he had no concept whatsoever of what not far actually meant. Because somehow he made their new counter position work so that his erection was now in the V of her thighs. Some well-placed pressure, some more kisses, his hand sliding over her breast, and Reese no longer cared if he took her right then and there.

  She didn’t even care that she was sitting on a plate of scones that would give her a greasy stain on the butt of her jeans.

  What she did care about was more of everything Logan was giving her. She found herself wiggling to get closer and closer until the only way for more closeness to happen was for her to unzip their jeans and go at it right here amid the scone crumbs.

  And that might have happened if she hadn’t caught the movement from the corner of her eye.

  Logan must have seen it, too, because he let go and moved in front of her. However, he was clearly too late.

  Bert, Maggie, Sissy Lee and three people whose names Reese didn’t know had their faces pressed against the window. Unless they’d all been struck with a sudden bout of blindness, they’d just seen Logan and her kiss each other’s lights out.

  * * *

  ACCORDING TO THE hottest gossip that Logan had heard, Reese was definitely pregnant with his child. Of course, that gossip had been fueled by what folks had seen through the window of the Fork and Spoon. So far, the gossip hadn’t made it to any of his business associates, but if it did, well, Logan didn’t want to go there. He wasn’t exactly a celebrity, but that kind of talk could hurt.

  Something he’d known right from the start.

  That meant he should just make a clean break with Reese and start dating someone. Someone who could help the gossip die down so he could go back to his normal life.

  If his dick could laugh, it would have laughed at that.

  For reasons he would never understand, his dick wanted Reese. His mouth, too, and while he hated to let stupid parts of him like that rule his life, it was as if the other parts no longer had a say in it. That’s why Logan had decided to go ahead and have an affair with her. That would make his dick and mouth happy, and if he fucked her enough, it might burn this heat to a crisp.

  There, that was the plan.

  But the plan went a little south when Logan went into the ranch house and saw Reese there in the family room. She was on a stepladder, putting up twinkling lights for Mia’s birthday party, and she turned, her gaze connecting with his.

  And he forgot how to breathe.

  Hell. Now his lungs had gotten in on this stupid attraction.

  He could hear chatter in the kitchen. Della, Stella, Cassie. And there were kids running around in the backyard, but Logan’s eyes froze on Reese.

  “You made it,” Reese said as if his arrival were nothing short of a miracle.

  In a way it was. Logan had had three days of intense meetings, interviews and the makeup photo shoot, and what he should be doing was heading to the office to clear out what would no doubt be a mountain of work on his desk. But Mia had sent him a personal invitation to her fifth birthday party, and while he often declined personal invites, Logan hadn’t declined this one.

  He would put in an appearance, and since the party wasn’t due to actually start for another half hour, he figured he could also see Reese and the rest of his family. A way of killing three birds with one appearance.

  Reese was smiling when she went to him, and she leaned in as if to kiss him. But no kiss. Just a whisper. “Everyone thinks I’m pregnant.”

  He wasn’t surprised the gossip made it
to her. The café was usually a hotbed for that sort of thing, but he heard just as much worry and concern in her voice as there was in Logan’s head.

  “I’m thinking about smoking a cigarette or drinking a shot of tequila in front of them,” she added. “Maybe talk about skydiving or some other sport that a pregnant woman wouldn’t do.”

  “It won’t help.” Then the gossip would be about what a reckless pregnant woman Reese was. “The talk will die down as long as you don’t go see the doctor for any reason or if you don’t gain weight.”

  Her eyes widened enough for him to know that those simple instructions were a problem. “I’m guessing that look doesn’t have anything to do with any weight gain you might be considering?”

  She shook her head. “I went with Cassie to the doctor in San Antonio. Lucky was tied up in a meeting, and Cassie said she wanted to discuss the engagement party on the drive. Cassie didn’t tell anyone about what doctor she was seeing or why, not even me, but then she had a script filled at the pharmacy.”

  Logan picked through that explanation and realized his soon to be sister-in-law was pregnant. For once, he was hearing something ahead of the gossip.

  “Prenatal vitamins?” Logan asked.

  Reese winced. Groaned. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  It stung that the news hadn’t come from his brother or Cassie, but things had been plenty hectic lately. Soon though, he hoped Lucky would come to him with the announcement.

  “I don’t think Cassie planned to tell me,” Reese went on. “It was hard not to know, though, when I saw the script. It was written out to Cassie, but apparently everyone thinks she was getting the vitamins for me. But Cassie and Lucky didn’t want anyone to know until after Mia’s party. They don’t want to steal any of the limelight.”

  Logan was betting if anyone in town suspected that Cassie was pregnant, then the news wouldn’t have made it yet to the girls. And even if it did, Mia was such a sweet kid that she wouldn’t mind sharing the limelight.

  “Lucky knows, though, right?” he pressed.

  Another nod. “So do Della and Stella. They guessed because Cassie’s been having some morning sickness—apparently whenever she smells coffee or bacon. Lucky and Cassie want to tell Riley and Claire after the party.”

  And speaking of the party, the room looked great. Very girlie fairy-tale-ish with the lights and the sparkly decorations. Reese had moved a table into the room, and it was filled with all sorts of kid goodies, including a large pink birthday cake.

  “How did the meetings go?” she asked.

  “They’re done.” And that was the best thing he could say about them. Logan had been distracted through most of the past three days.

  “I talked to Jimena,” Reese said. “She won’t be threatening you again. And there’s been no sign of Chucky.” Another pause. “I also talked to Elrond.”

  “That was on my to-do list.”

  “I figured it was.” And judging from the way she glanced away from him, that didn’t please her. Well, talking to the clown who’d screwed his ex probably wouldn’t please him, either, but Logan had felt it was necessary.

  “Elrond said Helene gave him the porcelain breast, but he insists that he didn’t have sex with her.”

  “He’s lying,” Logan snapped. “At least about the porcelain breast. Helene had two of them made for me. Bookends,” he clarified, “and she told me that one of them went missing before she could give me the pair. Elrond probably stole it.”

  Maybe it was his suddenly pissed-off tone, but Reese no longer looked so happy to see him. “It’s important for you to find out the truth,” she said. Not a question. But Logan wondered if it should be.

  Was it important?

  Hell, yes. But he had no idea what to do with the information once he had it. Clearly, the clown hadn’t taken advantage of Helene. Logan had walked in on her at the tail end of an orgasm so this wasn’t a situation where he was trying to defend Helene’s honor. Or would make sure he got the guy arrested.

  So, what was it?

  Logan figured it was something he didn’t want to examine too closely, and he put it in the guy-thing category. His brother Riley had all kinds of man-rules for situations like these so Logan’s new man-rule was that he intended to confront the Bozo who’d contributed to bashing his life to smithereens.

  Reese touched his arm to get his attention. “Do you still love her?”

  Now, that was a question he seemed to be having to answer a lot lately. “No.” And since it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, Logan went with something he did want to say. “I think we should have sex.”

  She blinked. Obviously, that didn’t come out as smoothly as he’d planned.

  “Now?” she joked.

  Those stupid parts of him wanted to jump at the chance, but Logan figured he had to at least try to act like an adult and not a teenager. “Tomorrow night around eight?”

  Reese certainly didn’t jump at the invitation.

  “I could serve Cheetos and Milk Duds,” he joked, too. Except it wasn’t just a joke. Logan wanted her to say yes, and he’d obviously botched this.

  “Jimena told you about my snack favorites.”

  He nodded. “She also said you carried a really sharp knife in your backpack.”

  That got the reaction he wanted. Reese smiled. “Two of them. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

  However, she didn’t get a chance to add more because Della, Stella and Cassie had joined them. Logan got hugs from all three women, and it was from over Cassie’s shoulder that he saw Claire, who was standing back from the rest.

  “Could you help me with something?” Claire asked.

  Logan went to her, but he hoped he didn’t have to do anything that required decorating skills. But it wasn’t decorating stuff. The moment he made it to Claire, she took hold of his arm. “You think we could maybe go to the sunroom for a chat?”

  Uh-oh. She’d heard the rumors about Reese being pregnant. Or maybe she’d guessed about Cassie and wanted him to confirm it.

  With Claire’s fairly tight grip on his arm, they went into the sunroom on the far side of the house. Away from the playing kids. Away from anything remotely resembling a party. When she stumbled, Logan caught onto her.

  “Sheez, are you all right?” He had her sit on the sofa, and he went to the wet bar to get her a bottle of water.

  Claire mumbled a thanks, sipped some of the water and looked at him. “What I’m about to tell you stays between us. Sorry to dump this on you,” Claire added, “but I thought I was about to pass out. If I’d told Della or Stella that, they would have guessed right off.”

  “Guess what?” he asked, clueless.

  Claire clued him in. “I haven’t done the pee stick yet, but I’m pretty sure I’m pregnant.”

  Oh.

  Apparently, he was the only male in the McCord family who hadn’t knocked up somebody.

  And for some reason, that made Logan feel like shit.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “YOU’RE SURE ABOUT THIS?” Jimena asked Reese.

  Reese looked at herself in the mirror. “Sure about which part?”

  Because there were a lot of cogs going right now. Her dress, her shoes, her makeup. The perfume she’d borrowed from Jimena. And, of course, the biggest cog was the reason she was doing all these things.

  For Logan.

  The new-to-her dress was one that Reese had bought at Lookie Here. It was sunshine yellow, perhaps not exactly her color with her hair, but it’d been one of the few dresses in her size. Reese had been afraid to ask for a larger size for fear it would keep the pregnancy rumors going.

  “The sex-date part,” Jimena answered after she washed down a mouthful of the scone she was eating.

  There
was no easy answer for this. No, Reese wasn’t sure about it, but yes, she was going to do it, anyway.

  It would probably be a huge mistake, something she’d spent her adulthood trying to avoid, and this one had more pitfalls than most. Logan was looking for an affair. That was it. And he’d never tried to make her believe otherwise. Considering their relationship had started with a one-night stand, though, what did Reese expect?

  “Whose idea was this, anyway?” Jimena pressed.

  “Mine,” she lied. It would save time on this conversation. Jimena was worried about her, that was obvious, but her friend would only worry more if she knew Logan had been the one to set this up.

  Jimena didn’t call her on that lie, but she did stare at Reese from over the top of her diet soda. “Are you even sure he’s over his ex?”

  “He is.” Another lie. If he were over Helene, then why was Logan so insistent on speaking to Elrond? Of course, she wouldn’t mention that to Jimena.

  “If Logan’s over his ex, then why does he want to talk to Elrond?” Jimena added.

  Apparently, the woman’s telepathic skills were working well tonight because she took that question right out of Reese’s head.

  “Wouldn’t you want to talk to the person if they’d broken up a long-term relationship on the very night you’d planned on proposing?” Reese argued.

  Jimena just looked confused. Probably because she couldn’t wrap her mind around the long-term relationship part. Jimena didn’t stick with men. For her, a week was plenty enough.

  Reese checked her hair one last time and hated that she was fussing with it. Hated that she was fussing, period. She hadn’t actually had a date in high school, but she remembered the nervous excitement from the girls when they’d talked about dates and such. It’d seemed vain and frivolous to Reese, especially since she was working full-time by then, and yet here she was doing it herself.

  Enough.

  “You can stay the night if you like,” Reese offered.

  Jimena shook her head. “I’ve got a dinner date.”