And then it was spinning out of control.
Finally, he lowered himself over her, into her.
She closed her eyes, sighing with satisfaction as he filled her. Then he began to move, slow, deep strokes that touched her very center. Her desire was definitely raging now. He’d already given her so much pleasure, but he held back, resisting his own release until he felt her body convulse around him.
Afterward, he brushed her hair away from her face and touched his lips to her temple. “I love you, Kayla. I understand that you might need some time to believe it’s true, but I hope you won’t need too much time, because I’m anxious for us to build a life together.”
I love you, too.
The words—his and her own—filled her heart to overflowing, but the words stuck in her throat.
She did love him, but until she was certain that his feelings were real and the declaration wasn’t prompted by some overblown sense of chivalrous responsibility, she wasn’t going to let herself trust that they were true.
* * *
Trey wasn’t surprised when Kayla suggested that he could drop her off at her sister’s place rather than take her home, and considering that he’d manufactured her sleepover at Kristen’s house to explain her absence from the Circle D, it wasn’t an unreasonable request. However, now that he knew about their baby, he didn’t want to keep the news of her pregnancy from either of their families a moment longer.
Her parents were at the table, having just finished their midday meal, when they arrived. Rita immediately offered to fix a couple more plates, but Trey assured her they’d already eaten. He didn’t tell her that they’d had a late breakfast at the lovely little inn in Kalispell where he’d spent the night with her daughter.
“You just missed Derek and Eli,” Rita told Trey. “They were here for lunch but headed out to check the fence on the northern boundary of the property.”
“That’s too bad,” he said, though truthfully, he was grateful. He was prepared to face Kayla’s parents and share the news of her pregnancy, but he wasn’t eager to witness her brother’s response. Derek had been unhappy enough to learn that Trey was dating his sister; he wasn’t sure what his friend would do if he knew she was pregnant.
“I’m sure they’ll both catch up with you soon,” Kayla said, her words sounding like an ominous warning.
“In the meantime,” Trey said, refusing to be sidetracked from his purpose, “we wanted to share some news with both of you.”
Rita glanced from him to her daughter and back again, her expression one of polite confusion. “What news is that?”
He glanced at Kayla, indicating that it was her turn to talk, hoping that her parents would accept the news more easily if it came from her lips.
She drew in a deep breath and tried to smile, but her lips wobbled rather than curved. “We’re going to have a baby.”
There was silence for a long moment before Rita finally spoke.
“You mean you’re planning to have a baby sometime in the future?” she asked, clearly trying to understand a statement that made no sense to her because she had no idea of the history between Kayla and Trey.
“No, I mean I’m pregnant.”
Charles set his coffee mug down on the table, hard, his grip on the handle so tight his knuckles were white. “You’re the father?” he demanded of Trey.
“Yes, sir.”
“I don’t understand,” Rita said. “How is this possible? Trey’s only been in town a couple of weeks...and the two of you just started dating.”
“It happened in the summer,” Kayla admitted. “The baby’s due in April.”
Her mother’s eyes shimmered with moisture. “I knew something was up with you, but I never imagined...oh, Kayla.”
Her eyes filled, too. He knew she felt guilty for keeping her pregnancy a secret, and she probably felt as if she’d disappointed her parents. Beneath the table, he reached for her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.
“When’s the wedding?” Charles wanted to know.
“We’re still trying to figure that out,” Trey said.
“What’s to figure? You call a minister and set a date, and if you haven’t already done so, it just means you’re dragging your heels and I—”
“Daddy,” Kayla interrupted. “I’m the one dragging my heels.”
Charles frowned at his daughter. “You don’t want to marry the father of your baby?”
“I don’t want to get married for the wrong reasons.”
“A baby is never a wrong reason,” he insisted. “And if you did the deed with a man you don’t love, that’s no one’s fault but your own.”
A single tear slid down Kayla’s cheek; she swiped it away.
“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh?” Rita asked.
“Reality’s harsh,” her husband replied.
“What’s done is done,” Kayla’s mother said, attempting to be a voice of reason. Then, to her daughter, “Have you been seeing a doctor?”
“Yes, I’ve been seeing a doctor,” Kayla assured her.
“And everything’s okay?”
She nodded. “Everything’s fine.”
“Everything except that she’s unmarried and pregnant,” Charles grumbled.
* * *
“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Trey asked her.
“It wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.”
“True, but I half expected to be leaving with my backside full of buckshot so, in comparison, it wasn’t so bad.”
“I’m sorry that my father is pressuring you to marry me.”
“You seem to have forgotten that I asked you first—that I want to marry you.”
“You want to do the right thing,” she reminded him.
“Yes, I do,” he confirmed. “Lucky for me that the right thing also gives me what I want—a life with you and our child.”
* * *
Now that Kayla had told her parents, it was time for Trey to tell his. But since he wouldn’t be seeing them until after the New Year, he decided to face his grandparents first.
He found his grandmother in the kitchen, preparing the evening meal.
“Where is everyone?”
“Claire and Levi took Bekka for a walk, and your grandfather is in the garage trying to find replacement bulbs for the Christmas lights that he insists are packed away somewhere.”
“How long has he been digging around in there?”
“Let’s just say it would have been quicker for him to drive into Kalispell to buy new replacement bulbs.” She looked up from the potatoes she was peeling. “Something on your mind?”
His grandmother’s instincts were uncanny as usual and since he couldn’t imagine an appropriate segue, he just blurted it out. “Kayla’s pregnant.”
“I don’t believe it,” she said sternly. “And you shouldn’t be spreading gossip about matters that aren’t any of your business.”
“It is my business,” Trey told her. “It’s my baby.”
His grandmother put a hand to her heart. “You’re joking.”
He shook his head. “She’s due in April. April ninth.”
Melba silently counted on her fingers.
“It happened when I was here in the summer,” he admitted.
“What happened in the summer?” his grandfather asked, stomping into the kitchen.
His grandmother looked at him, because it was his news to tell.
“I slept with Kayla Dalton,” he admitted.
Gene winced. “Why do I need to know this?”
“Because she’s pregnant.”
“Didn’t your father give you the talk?”
“Yes, he gave me the talk,” Trey confirmed. “And you gave me the talk. And we were careful.”
“Obviously not careful enough.” Gene nodded to thank his wife for the coffee she set in front of him. “You’re going to marry her.”
It wasn’t a question but a statement; Trey nodded, anyway. “As soon as I can get Kayla to agree.”
“What do you mean? Why wouldn’t she agree?”
Melba rolled her eyes at her husband. “Because he probably said ‘we better get married’ without any attempt at romance.”
“Don’t you think the time for romance is past?” Gene asked.
“The time for romance is never past,” his wife insisted.
“I can do romance,” Trey interjected, attempting to shift the attention back to the subject at hand and away from the argument he could sense was brewing between his grandparents.
“Of course you can,” Melba agreed.
“Start by buying a ring,” Gene advised. “That’s the most important thing.”
“Telling her you love her is the most important thing,” his grandmother countered. “But only if it’s true.”
“It is. And I did.”
“Then you should buy a ring.”
“I did that, too.”
“And she still said no?”
“I didn’t have the ring when I asked,” he admitted. “And I didn’t know how I felt about her when I asked.”
“And now she’ll think you only said those words because of the baby.”
“That’s the root of the problem,” Gene spoke up again. “Thinking.”
“I beg your pardon?” his wife said.
“Young women these days overthink everything—and young men don’t know when to take action.”
“What do you suggest I do?” Trey wanted to know. “Throw her over my shoulder and cart her off to the preacher?”
“I don’t know that your actions need to be that drastic,” his grandfather allowed. “But I’ve got an idea.”
* * *
Later that night, Kayla tracked her mother down in the laundry room. “I know you’re disappointed in me, and I’m sorry,” she said softly.
“I’m mostly disappointed that you didn’t tell us about the baby sooner,” Rita said, measuring soap into the dispenser and setting the machine to wash. “It might have been a lot of years ago, but I still remember how anxious and worried I was during my first pregnancy—actually frantic and paranoid might be more accurate. I needed reassurance about everything I was thinking and feeling and doing, and I relied so much on my mother for that advice and support.”
“I wanted to tell you.” Kayla picked up a T-shirt, still warm from the dryer, and began to fold it. “But I didn’t think it was fair to tell anyone about the baby until I told the baby’s father.”
“I can understand that,” her mother allowed. “I can’t understand why it took you five months to do that.”
“Because Trey had gone back to Thunder Canyon and it wasn’t the kind of news I felt comfortable sharing over the phone.” Especially after a drunken one-night stand—but, of course, she didn’t share that part with her mother.
“So when did you finally tell him?”
She set the folded shirt aside and picked up another. “Yesterday.”
Rita matched up a pair of socks. “Yesterday?”
She nodded.
“The man’s been in town for more than two weeks,” her mother pointed out.
She nodded again.
“Well, I can’t say I know how awkward and difficult it must have been to share the news,” Rita admitted. “And that’s between the two of you.”
Kayla continued to fold her father’s T-shirts.
“You know, I wouldn’t have made a big deal about the French fries if I’d known you were pregnant.”
She managed a laugh. “I know, Mom.”
Rita matched another pair of socks. “Trey Strickland... I never would have guessed.”
“I really am sorry,” Kayla said.
“I don’t want you to be sorry—I want you to be happy.”
“I’ve screwed everything up so badly, I’m not sure that’s possible. Trey is so angry...and hurt.”
“He wouldn’t be so angry and hurt if he didn’t care about you deeply,” Rita told her.
Kayla considered that for a minute, wanting to believe it could be true and, at the same time, afraid to let herself hope.
“Do you care about him?” her mother prompted.
There was no point in denying her feelings any longer. “I love him.”
Rita smiled. “I thought you did.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” she admitted. “I can’t separate what I want from what’s best for both of us and our baby.”
“It is a good thing,” her mother insisted. “Because with love, all things are possible.”
RUST CREEK RAMBLINGS: BITS & BITES
Lovely Manhattan transplant, Lissa Christensen, has been spending time with fellow newcomer and nurse, Callie Crawford—at the local medical clinic. Are the two friends catching up on local gossip...or is it possible that the sexy sheriff’s wife is “in the family way”?
* * *
Kayla was relieved when she woke up on Christmas morning because it was the one day she could be fairly certain that her family would be too busy with other things to pressure her about the situation with Trey.
She appreciated that they were thinking about what was best for her and the baby, but what they didn’t seem to understand was that she wanted to marry Trey—she just needed to know that it was what he wanted, too, and she couldn’t shake the feeling that he had only proposed out of duty and obligation. Until she could be sure that he really wanted them to be a family, she couldn’t say yes.
The door flew open and Kristen leaped onto Kayla’s bed. “Merry Christmas, Sleepyhead.”
She smiled at her twin, who had opted to sleep in her old room the night before so the sisters could celebrate Christmas morning together one last time. “Merry Christmas, Earlybird.”
Kristen fell back on the mattress, so their heads were side by side on the pillow. “It’s the end of an era, isn’t it?”
Kayla nodded. “Next year, you’ll wake up with your husband on Christmas morning.”
“And you’ll be celebrating your baby’s first Christmas.”
She nodded again. Although it was a full year away, she couldn’t help wondering what the day would look like—when she and Trey would have an eight-month-old baby with whom to celebrate the holiday. But where would they be? And would they be together? Or would their baby be shuffled from one house to another from one year to the next?
“I understand why you turned down Trey’s proposal,” Kristen said to her now. “You didn’t want to marry him for the sake of your baby. But maybe you shouldn’t have looked at it that way.”
“How should I have looked at it?”
“You could have focused on the fact that the man you love was asking you to marry him.”
“But I don’t just want to marry the man I love—I want to marry a man who loves me, too.”
“And he does,” Kristen said.
But Kayla wasn’t so sure. Since the day after she’d told him about the baby—and after they’d told their respective families about the baby—he hadn’t said another word about marriage or even hinted about wanting a life with her and their baby.
“What does he have to do to prove to you that his feelings are real?” Kristen asked her now.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But I think I deserve something more than an impulsive and slightly panicked proposal.”
“You definitely do,” her sister agreed.
“Girls!” Rita called up to her daughters. “Breakfast is ready.”
Kayla threw back the covers. “I’m starving.”
&nb
sp; Her sister laughed. “You’re always starving these days.”
She walked down the stairs beside Kristen, as she’d done every Christmas morning for as long as she could remember. But this year, Kayla wasn’t thinking about presents from the jolly man in the red suit—she was preoccupied with thoughts of a different man...and hoping for a holiday miracle.
Chapter Fourteen
Breakfast was fruit and yogurt, pancakes, and bacon and eggs, and for once her mother didn’t give Kayla a disapproving glance when she filled her plate.
She looked around the table as she ate—at her mother and her father, still solid after thirty-five years of marriage; her brother, Jonah, and his wife, Vanessa, still newlyweds; Kristen and her fiancé, blissfully in love and eager to start their life together. She wanted what they each had—the affection and commitment—and she wanted it with Trey.
After everyone had eaten their fill and the kitchen was cleaned up, the family moved into the living room to exchange gifts. Kayla hadn’t yet sat down when there was a knock at the door. Her heart quickened.
Though Trey hadn’t said anything more about her mother’s invitation to join them on Christmas Day, she couldn’t imagine who else it might be. Certainly there wasn’t anyone else that she wanted to see today as much as she wanted to see him.
“I’ll get it,” she said, feigning a casualness she didn’t feel as she tried not to race to the door.
It was Trey—and he looked so incredibly handsome in a black sweater and dark jeans with his leather jacket unzipped. He hadn’t shaved, but she didn’t mind the light growth of ginger stubble on his jaw. In fact, she thought it made him look even sexier than usual, and just a little bit dangerous.
Dangerous to your heart, she reminded herself, stepping away from the door so he could enter.
“Merry Christmas, Kayla.” He took advantage of the fact that they were out of sight of everyone else to steal a quick kiss, touching his lips lightly to hers.
“Merry Christmas,” she replied, feeling suddenly and inexplicably shy. After two days of no contact except through text messages, she wasn’t sure what to say or how to act around him.
“Is it okay that I’m here?”
“My mother did invite you,” she reminded him.
Merry Christmas, Baby Maverick! Page 17
