The Rancher's Blessed Event

by Stella Bagwell

  “Well, we haven’t seen one in a while,” Chloe exclaimed.

  Laughing, Justine motioned to the three younger women. “We’re still waiting for the tables to be set.”

  “But we wanted to ask Emily about Cooper,” Anna complained as she waved a handful of forks at her mother. “He’s gorgeous.”

  “And much too old for you,” Chloe told her.

  Anna turned to Emily. “Mother said he rode broncs in the PRCA, is that true? She said he was a champion!”

  “That’s true,” Emily said, not a bit surprised at her young niece’s interest in Cooper. He had that something about him that made women, young and old, look and wonder and sigh.

  “Gosh, he must live an exciting life,” Anna said with a sigh. “And to think he came back to be with you. I can’t imagine a man doing that for me.”

  Chloe rolled her eyes at her daughter’s exaggerated comment. “That’s because you haven’t met the right man yet. Now you girls go get the tables ready. The food is going to get cold if we have to keep waiting on you three.”

  The young women, who all happened to be different shades of redheads like their mothers, left the room. Once they were out of sight, Emily made a helpless gesture with her hands. “I should have told Anna that Cooper didn’t come home for me. But I guess she’d have romantic notions in her head no matter what I said.”

  “She is that age,” Chloe agreed with a resigned shake of her head. “And now that her piano concerts have her traveling from coast to coast, I can only hope she doesn’t lose her head over the wrong one.”

  “The same goes for my Caroline,” Justine added, then glancing to make sure there was no one else in earshot except her sisters, she said to Emily, “Okay. The girls are gone now. So you can tell your mother and your aunts how things really are.”

  “Really are?” Laughing awkwardly, Emily walked over to the gas range where the baked turkey was keeping warm on a huge platter. She sniffed the delicious aroma. “Things are just what you see,” she told her. “Cooper is trying to get the ranch back in shape and I’m helping him up to a point. He won’t let me do much without an argument.”

  “How long is he going to stay?” Chloe asked. “He has a career men would pull their eyeteeth for. We’re all surprised he’s stayed away from it this long.”

  Rather than look at the three older women, Emily examined every dish of food on the cabinet counter. Along with the turkey there was baked ham, candied sweet potatoes, corn bread dressing and giblet gravy, plus an endless number of salads and vegetables.

  Eventually she said, “Cooper is going to stay for a while yet. Until the baby comes.”

  “And what then?” Justine questioned.

  Emily knew her aunts loved her very much and they were only asking her these questions out of concern for her. But Emily didn’t want to talk about Cooper leaving. She didn’t like to think how quiet the house would be without him. Or how it would be to get up every morning and not see his face or hear his voice. At night when she went to bed, he wouldn’t be in the bedroom across the hall.

  “He’s going to hire a man to run the place and he’s...going back to rodeoing, I guess.”

  “Hmm, that doesn’t make much sense to me,” Chloe said thoughtfully. “If he plans to go back to his career in rodeo, looks like he’d do it now before the finals in Las Vegas. He could hire someone to work on the ranch now as well as later. If he stays here with you, he stands to lose a lot of money.”

  “I’ve pointed all that out to him, Aunt Chloe. But he has his own ideas.”

  “And I think all those ideas are about you,” Justine remarked.

  Emily groaned. For the life of her she didn’t know why her relatives had these romantic ideas about her and Cooper. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Justine rolled her eyes. “Oh, no? Just take another look at the dress you have on,” she told Emily.

  Emily glanced down at the teal green sweater dress, which was cut to gently drape her growing figure. “I can see it’s very nice.”

  “Nice!” Justine burst out with disbelief. “I wish Roy had that much taste. The last thing he bought me was two sizes too small and was a garish orange color. He thought it would go with my hair. But I did my best to act like I loved it.”

  Emily sighed. “Believe me, Cooper bought clothes for me simply because he knew I needed them. That’s all there is to it. There’s no other underlying reason. So please, no more trying to link the two of us together. It just isn’t going to happen. Now when are we going to eat?”

  As if on cue Ivy stuck her head over the batwing doors leading into the kitchen. “The tables are ready and the men are getting restless.”

  “Okay honey,” Chloe told her. “We’re bringing the food out now.”

  Relieved the interrogation about Cooper was over, Emily picked up a bowl of fruit salad and hurried out of the room. She had almost reached the dining table when her mother caught up to her and took her to one side.

  “Don’t be upset with your aunts, darling,” she said in a voice for Emily’s ears only. “They don’t understand.”

  Emily looked into her mother’s gentle face. “Understand what?”

  “How much you really love Cooper.”

  Dinner was a long affair with as much conversation as there was food. By the time the meal was over and the dishes were being scraped, Emily was completely stuffed and terribly drowsy.

  The second time she yawned, her mother waved her out of the kitchen. “We have plenty of help with the cleaning up. Go take a little nap.”

  Emily followed her mother’s suggestion and left the noisy kitchen, but she had no intentions of taking a nap. She found her coat and slipped out a back door of the house. The weather had warmed since early morning and though the wind was brisk on her face, it wasn’t stinging cold as it could be in New Mexico at this time of year.

  Jamming her hands deep into her coat pockets, she ambled out toward the cattle pens, then on toward the stables. When she entered one of the horse barns, she was surprised to find Cooper strolling down the long, sawdust covered alleyway.

  The big door creaked as she shut it behind her. Hearing it, Cooper turned, then seeing it was her, he stood and waited until she caught up to him.

  As Emily made her way down the alleyway to where he was standing, she couldn’t help but notice how sexy he looked today in a collarless white shirt, blue jeans and brown lambskin jacket. But even when Cooper was dressed in flannel shirts, rough-out chaps and muddy boots he managed to stir her senses.

  “I thought you were watching the football game with the rest of the men folk,” she said.

  “I was. But after the score became one-sided I got bored.”

  She cast him a knowing little grin. “And you got an itch to look at the horses.”

  He chuckled. “Okay, a little itch.” He walked over to the nearest stall and peered over the gate at a paint yearling. “What a beauty this one is going to be. Does your Aunt Chloe race very many horses now?”

  Emily joined him at the stall. “She holds it down to only the bigger futurity races. Which is quite a job in itself. But Chloe would be lost if she wasn’t working with her horses.”

  He looked away from the paint and over the rest of the building. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a magnificent ranch. Does it belong solely to Wyatt and Chloe now?”

  Emily shook her head. “Even though Chloe and Wyatt are the ones who live here, Mom and Justine are still part owners, too. It’s a joint family thing with the sisters and their husbands. Between the six of them, they’ve turned it into a fine ranch.”

  “Fine,” he said with a grunt of amusement. “This place is more than fine, it’s something else. They must be very proud of it.”

  Sighing, she rested her shoulder against the stall door. “When I first saw this ranch it wasn’t anything like it is now. In fact, my mom and her sisters were very close to losing it. I’m sure I’ve told you about the twins’ birth mothe
r setting fire to the place. Hundreds of acres were scorched black. I was only thirteen then, but I still remember it vividly. Those were rough times.”

  And she was still having rough times, Cooper thought as he looked at her quiet face. It was no wonder she’d grown bitter. After a while a person had to harden themselves just to survive.

  “You know, Emily, this—” he made a motion with his hand around the stables “—is what I always wanted the Diamond D to be. When I was much younger, I had all sorts of dreams to make the old Dunn place grow. That’s why I left, to earn the money.”

  For long moments his eyes searched hers. “Why do you think I was such a jerk for wanting more than what I had?”

  “Because you were enough for me, Cooper. I wanted to be enough for you. The rest... if we needed it... would come later.”

  If Cooper had known what he knew now, he probably would have made different choices back then. Especially knowing she’d been pregnant with their child. Yet he refused to feel guilty about his wants. They had all been for her. Even now there were so many things he would like to give her. To him, that was a part of loving someone.

  “I don’t want to argue about this, Emily. I didn’t mean to get into any of it in the first place.”

  “So why did you? Today of all days, we’re supposed to be thankful and happy for what we have.”

  Emily was right, Cooper thought. But something about being with Emily’s family today had reminded him of all the wonderful things he’d missed. And all those he would never have.

  “Tell me, Emily, what do we have? Sure, we have our health. I do thank God for that. We both own a run-down ranch. And you have a baby on the way. But we don’t have each other. And we never will.” His expression bitter, he made a motion with his hand toward the direction of the house. “We’ll never have what your parents have. Or your aunts and uncles.”

  Fury rose inside Emily and begged her palm to slap his face. “And whose choice was that, Cooper?”

  “Yours! You made it ten years ago when you married my brother!”

  This time she couldn’t stop her hand from flying straight at his head. Seeing it coming, Cooper ducked and snatched a hold on her wrist.

  Her breasts heaved as she glared up at him. “I guess it makes you feel better to place all the blame on me and Kenneth. But you need to face reality, Cooper. Your brother is dead and gone. You can’t keep blaming him for everything!”

  His grip on her wrist tightened while the expression on his face grew even harder. “Kenneth will never be truly gone from your life. You’re having his child. How do you think that makes me feel?”

  “Like the selfish bastard you are!” she snapped back at him.

  Cooper couldn’t think of a time he’d been more furious. Not just at Emily, but with Fate and the unfairness of all that had happened.

  “If I’m going to hear you call me that every time I turn around, I might as well act the part,” he muttered.

  “Act? You don’t have to act—”

  Her barrage of words were suddenly cut off as he jerked her into his arms. “If that’s what you think, then I might as well start taking what I want and quit worrying about the right or wrong of it. You certainly have!”

  Her mouth fell open and Cooper didn’t hesitate to take advantage. His head swooped down and his lips captured the shocked O of her lips.

  To have him kissing her, even in a fit of anger, caught Emily totally off guard. She’d never expected to taste his lips again or feel the hard heat of his body pressed against hers. The sweet treasure of being in his arms again swiftly overrode her anger and in only a matter of seconds she was kissing him back with a passion that stunned him.

  Cooper didn’t know how he’d gone from being furious one moment to being consumed with desire the next. But somehow it had happened. He couldn’t stop his hands from clutching her closer or his tongue from delving deeper into the warm recesses of her giving mouth. She was the only woman he’d ever really needed or wanted. The only woman who could make him forget where they were or why.

  The soft nicker of a horse finally broke the heated kiss. His breaths coming rough and rapid, Cooper put her away from him just as the door to the barn opened and Harlan stepped inside.

  “There you are,” he called cheerfully as he spotted the two of them. He walked the length of the alleyway until he was within a few steps of them. “Rose was worried when she didn’t find Emily in the bedroom taking a nap.”

  Cooper shot her a dry glance before he turned to face her father. “That’s just where she was headed, Harlan.”

  “Cooper!”

  Ignoring the warning in Emily’s voice, he took her by the shoulder and nudged her toward her father. “Sometimes your daughter has to be reminded of her condition.”

  Chapter Seven

  Two weeks into December Cooper decided it was time to head to the livestock auction in Roswell. The fences he’d been working on in the west pasture were patched and the market prices were holding at rock bottom. And Emily was growing larger every day. In less than three months, she’d be giving birth and he’d be saying goodbye to her and the Diamond D. If he was ever going to begin restocking the ranch with cattle, he needed to do it now.

  “Okay, I’m ready to go.”

  Cooper looked up from his coffee cup as Emily entered the kitchen. She was dressed in rust brown corduroy slacks and a matching turtleneck sweater. Both garments were two of those he’d bought for her before Thanksgiving. He knew she considered all the things he’d given her as her “dress up” clothes, which she only wore when she went out or someone was coming over for a visit. The reason she was wearing them this morning was all too evident to him.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he told her.

  Smiling confidently, Emily placed her coat on the back of a chair, then walked over to the coffeepot and poured herself a half cup.

  Her chin lifting, she folded her arms beneath her breasts. “Do I look ill? Or just stupid?”

  Cooper shook his head. “Neither. And I don’t want to argue with you, Emily. So—”

  His words broke off as she suddenly rose from her chair and began to pull on her coat. “Then don’t. We’re wasting time. We need to be there before the auction starts. I don’t want to buy cattle I haven’t had time to look over first.”

  Cooper shot to his feet. “You don’t want to buy? I thought I was the cattle buyer around here.”

  She gave him a sweet smile as she buttoned her coat. “Maybe you are the money supplier. But I’m the one who’s going to be doing the ranching here long after you’ve hit the road. I think that gives me the right to a little say about things.”

  She had him over a barrel, Cooper decided.

  “Damn it, Emily, if you get sick—”

  “I’m not going to get sick.” She wrapped a black woolen scarf around her neck as she headed toward the door. “And if I get that tired, I’ll make you rent a motel room and we’ll drive back tomorrow.”

  Like hell, she would, Cooper growled to himself. There was no way he’d stay the night in a motel room with Emily. The mere thought of it made him break out in a sweat.

  “Okay, okay,” he relented and motioned her out the door. “You’ve won, so let’s go. It’s already seven and it’s an hour and a half drive to Roswell from here.”

  Halfway into the trip Cooper realized he’d done the right thing by bringing Emily along with him. Each time he glanced over at her, she was smiling and the excitement glowing in her blue eyes told him how much she was enjoying driving across the desert this winter morning.

  Several weeks ago, Cooper had come to the conclusion that Emily had been living a solitary life these past years. She’d been married to Kenneth but from all he could see their life together had not been a happy or prosperous one. He didn’t know whose fault that had been. But he got the impression that Emily felt she was the reason things hadn’t gone right for them.

  “Did you and Kenneth ever go out much?”

>   The question swung Emily’s head back around to him. She didn’t know why he still asked her such things about Kenneth and herself. It was like stirring up dead ashes.

  “Go out?” she asked. “You mean on special occasions, or what?”

  “I mean go out for any reason. Like we’re going out today,” he explained.

  Emily shook her head. “Not much. Kenneth didn’t like getting away from the ranch unless it was an absolute necessity. Besides, we never really had the money to do much traveling. Not that Kenneth would have traveled anyway. He never was like you, Cooper. He wasn’t an adventurer or gambler.”

  Surprised by her comment, he glanced at her. “I didn’t realize you thought of me in those terms.”

  Her expression turned dry. “Well, let’s face it, Coop, you never were a stay-at-home family man.”

  Put like that, Cooper supposed he couldn’t argue with her. But is that what he’d been doing all these years? he asked himself. Gambling that his riding skills would win him a fortune?

  Shrugging, he said, “I guess I was conceited enough to believe I was going to win. I never thought of it as a gamble with my money.”

  “I was thinking more in terms of your life. Rodeo riders are killed every year. Didn’t you—don’t you ever think about the danger?”

  “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t cross my mind once in a while. Especially when a buddy broke his neck or back. But fear of dying was never on my mind when I climbed onto the back of a bronc.”

  It suddenly dawned on him that Emily wasn’t thinking about his bronc riding just in terms of the past. Her thoughts were on the future. Could it be that she was actually worried about him going back to the sport? The thought had never entered his mind before now. But perhaps it should have.

  “Emily, I’m not going to get killed like Kenneth.”

  “You think I’m worried about you?” she asked blithely.

  “It sounds like it to me.”

  Emily quickly looked away from him before he could see just how much she really did worry over him. “Well, even though you are...a a pain at times, I don’t want anything to happen to you.”