The Rodeo Cowboy’s Baby

by Heidi Rice

  He nodded. “I know, pretty dumb isn’t it? But I didn’t figure out how dumb, until I’d given myself a moment to think about how I really felt about you and the baby. And gotten Gabe’s input.”

  “I’m glad,” she said, but she was still confused.

  “Once I’d got past the fear, it all became clear to me.” He brushed a thumb across her cheek, catching the last of her tears on the pad. “I finally figured out that the only person stopping me from making those commitments was me. Not him. And that the real reason I hadn’t gone the distance with anyone was because I hadn’t met you.”

  Evie’s heart bounced in her chest at the conviction in his voice, but she was too overwhelmed to speak.

  “I know now, that this is about us,” he added. “And only us, and what we can make out of this. What we want to make out of this…” His gaze dropped back to her belly. “This pretty terrific surprise development. And once I’d thought about it, I knew what I wanted to make out of it was an excuse to see you again. To see you a lot. And to be a daddy to our baby.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, if you still want to see me?”

  “Oh Flynn.” She flung her arms round his neck, the cry of happiness choking off in her throat. “Yes, I want that very much, too.”

  She heard his rough chuckle as he held her securely, the delicious aroma of man and laundry soap engulfing her as he rubbed her back.

  Eventually, he pulled back, held her at arm’s length to look into her face. “I can’t leave the business this winter. The cabin’s built, but I was planning to start looking at stock during the winter season, while there’s not so much to do at The Double T. But I could try visiting every month at least.”

  “Visiting where?” she asked.

  “Visiting you in New York City,” he said.

  The giddy jump of joy in her heart wasn’t to be denied this time. “But you don’t have to come to New York. I can work anywhere. Why don’t I come to Marietta?” The minute she’d offered, she wondered if she’d gone too far. Perhaps he wasn’t thinking of a live-in relationship? He hadn’t actually offered her a place to stay.

  But when his eyes popped wide and his smile spread over his face, she knew the days of her second-guessing herself, of letting her doubts obscure her joys—of letting her mother’s legacy poison her future, the way he’d let his father’s legacy poison his, had finally gone for good.

  “For real?” he said. “You want to move down here, to move in with me?”

  “I’d…I’d love to, if you’ll have me.”

  It was risky… They were still virtual strangers in so many ways. But she figured with a shared purpose—namely new parenthood—and her newfound love for all things cowboy, not to mention their phenomenal sexual chemistry, which she was already raring to re-explore, they had as good a foundation as a lot of people.

  And anyway, look how far they’d already come, in the space of just three days? And three wild, unforgettable nights? She had a connection with this man that was stronger than any she’d ever had with anyone else in her life. That had to count for something.

  “Irish. Would I ever.” Tugging her back into his arms, he lifted her until she was straddling his lap, her back wedged against the steering wheel, the thick ridge in his pants pressing against the hot spot under her jeans.

  Glancing down, he pressed a warm palm against her belly and then curled his other hand around her nape, to pull her head down to within inches of his lips.

  Her heart gave a giddy jump at the look of possessiveness, of purpose, of devotion in his eyes.

  “You and me need to get to know each other a whole lot better before junior arrives,” he said.

  His lips captured hers, stealing her breath and her heart right along with it. She kissed him back with all the blossoming love in her heart. The thought of discovering all the things she didn’t yet know about him filling her with excitement and anticipation.

  They would have challenges along the way, and lots of them. There was no such thing as an easy ride when it came to relationships. And in many ways, a new baby so soon was going to make those challenges harder to negotiate, not easier. But she already felt such a kinship with him.

  His positivity, his energy, his wit, his protectiveness and his wild enthusiasm for life, seemed a perfect complement to her caution and practicality. He had survived so much already, they both had. He made her feel like there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do.

  Desire pounded into her sex, as the kiss became carnal, hungry. But then he grasped her head and lifted her lips away from his.

  “There’s only one problem,” he murmured, but the twinkle in those emerald eyes told her not to worry too much about it.

  “What problem?”

  “I’ve got your greatest fan bunking with me at the moment, too.”

  Her heart stopped. “Oh no, Flynn, I don’t want to make things difficult for you with your brother.” Especially as she now knew how close they were. And why.

  “Hey, don’t panic,” he said. “I was just messing with you. Gabe is going to be moving into the bunkhouse—it’ll give him an incentive to help me finish the damn thing.”

  Before she had a chance to protest, he’d tugged her lips back down to his and her mind blurred, the heat incinerating everything but the solid, sexy feel of him beneath her fingers, and the explosion of pure unadulterated joy in her heart.

  Epilogue

  June, the following year.

  “You hold that baby girl like a pro already, man.” Boone Telford tipped the neck of the icy beer bottle he was drinking at Flynn. “Never would have figured you for the first one of us to get his diaper-changing stripes,” he said, still smiling, like it was the biggest joke in creation—but a good one.

  For a guy who was about to get married, Boone looked really chilled, Flynn noted. Chilled enough to hang out on the porch of the big red barn decked out in flowers and fairy lights for his wedding and shoot the breeze with Flynn and Cody and Shane and Jesse as they waited for Piper and her bridesmaids to arrive so she and Boone could say their vows in front of two hundred guests.

  But then Flynn knew why his buddy was so chilled, because Piper was the perfect girl for him. Not girl, woman. A woman Boone never missed an opportunity to tell them it had taken him way too long to figure out was made for him. Flynn knew how impatient Boone was now to get the ceremony over and done with so the rest of his life could really begin.

  “I am a pro, bro.” Flynn grinned back at the groom to be, showing off a little as he rubbed his daughter’s tiny back and she snuggled contentedly against his ear. Mercedes Dolores Donnelly O’Connell, or Mercy for short, was a daddy’s girl and no mistake. From the very first time he’d held her in his arms, and she’d blinked up at him with wide, tear-stained eyes and stopped crying abruptly, everyone said he had a magic touch with her. But he knew it wasn’t magic, it was just good old-fashioned unconditional love and fatherly devotion. He would do anything, be anything, for the precious little person cradled against his shoulder—and his daughter knew it, because she was the smartest kid who ever lived, obviously.

  Just like her mommy.

  His gaze snagged on Evie, who stood on the other side of the tables laid out in the meadow in front of the barn for the wedding feast later in the afternoon. She had yet to lose the baby weight she’d acquired during the pregnancy and he hoped she never did, because the generous new curves looked incredible on her.

  She threw her head back and laughed at something Cody’s new wife Kelly had said—the same pretty little waitress and single mom who had outed the former bad-boy bull rider as a good guy at the rodeo last year, and gotten the whole town talking on Twitter.

  He guessed Evie was probably catching up on all the business from Cody and Kelly’s May wedding in Sweetheart, which Evie and he had missed because they’d been busy at the Marietta hospital welcoming Little Miss Terrible Timing into the world.

  “She’s four whole weeks old alr
eady,” he boasted, turning back to the guys and breathing in a lungful of the delicious new-baby scent—talcum and mother’s milk—that he’d become totally addicted to. “Although I’ve got some work to do on my diaper skills,” he added, remembering the joke he and Evie had shared, when he’d been frantically cleaning his daughter up so they could head out that morning. Because Mercy’s terrible timing had struck again and she’d managed to soil her diaper right after they’d gotten her all dolled up in her party dress for the wedding.

  “My time’s still hovering around a lamentable twenty-five seconds,” he added. “Evie timed me. She was not impressed.”

  All four of his buddies laughed.

  “You’re gonna have to work on that for sure,” Cody commented. “How are your roping skills faring these days?” he asked. “You planning to do any entries this season?”

  The season was in full swing now and he wondered if Cody was planning to get back on the circuit after dislocating his shoulder last year. He knew Cody had held off partly because he hadn’t wanted to spend any quality time away from Kelly and Ricky, Cody’s newly adopted seven-year-old son, especially right after the wedding. Cody loved bull riding, but he loved Kelly and Ricky more.

  “My roping times suck,” Flynn replied as his daughter gave a soft burp next to his ear. “That’s my girl,” he murmured, kissing her downy cheek. “But I’m not planning to do any more rodeo-ing,” he added. “I’m gonna leave it to Rafe and Glory to carry on the O’Connell name in the arena from now on.”

  And maybe Gabe too, who had started to get his shit together with the drinking as soon as he discovered he was going to become an uncle. The four of them had been together a couple of days ago at Mercy’s small family christening in Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church on Front Avenue.

  He’d adored hanging out with all his siblings for the first time since Christmas, watching Rafe and Glory get acquainted with the newest member of the O’Connell clan. All his siblings got on great with Evie too, especially Gabe, who’d taken up a job at The Double T over the winter but called round to see them every Sunday without fail.

  Gabe had been sober for eight months and counting now. He’d even been the one to drive them into Marietta when Evie’s labor pains had started, because Flynn had been way too busy freaking out.

  He spotted Gabe over by the arch of wild flowers Boone and Piper’s folks had set up for them to stand under when they said their vows.

  His brother stood alone, drinking a Pepsi straight from the bottle. The deep tan and lean muscle acquired after handling the spring calving and the endless repair chores needed on a ranch after the winter months was a big improvement on where he’d been when he’d arrived in Marietta last October. But Gabe still had a ways to go.

  He’d conquered the drinking out of sheer force of will, but the unhappiness that had caused it, a brooding sadness that Flynn suspected tracked way back to that night all those years ago when Jonas Blackstone had beaten him bloody, hadn’t gone away.

  “Hey, Gabe,” Shane shouted over, obviously having spotted Gabe, too. “What you doing standing there—thinking of getting hitched yourself?”

  Gabe lifted the bottle. “Screw you, Marvell,” he said, good-naturedly, but he didn’t come over to join them.

  Flynn wondered if he missed the rodeo. Was that why he’d avoided the guys this afternoon? Perhaps there was a way they could get him back on the circuit, if he wanted to return to competition? But Gabe would have to ask for help first, and Flynn figured that was a bigger hurdle for his big brother than any other.

  He saw Logan Tate approach Gabe. They shook hands. Flynn smiled. Logan had been a good friend to Gabe in the last few months. He’d even had Gabe and Flynn as two of his groomsmen at his surprise wedding to Charlie on Christmas Eve. Logan’s new wife appeared, sporting an impressive baby bump while snapping pictures of everyone. She said something to Gabe, kissed Logan, then wandered over to join Kelly and Evie, and now Jesse’s girlfriend CJ too, by the dinner tables.

  They’d all kidded Logan about shotgun weddings when Carol Bingley had told the whole town how the reserve deputy had bought not one, not two, but three pregnancy testing kits in the pharmacy exactly a month before their wedding day. But Flynn knew, like everyone else did, that Logan hadn’t needed any excuses to propose. If anything, he suspected Charlie was the one who had needed the persuading. Although she’d looked so happy when she and Logan had tied the knot in the glitter of fresh snow, Flynn was sure the pregnancy had been planned, unlike his and Evie’s happy accident. And the wedding had just been the inevitable result.

  The thought brought a frown to his face. And the small velvet box that had been burning a hole in the inside pocket of his suit all day began to scorch his breastbone. He’d bought the darn ring months ago. Right after he and Evie had attended their first sonogram appointment together in the maternity department of Marietta Regional Hospital. That was two days after she’d moved into the cabin for good.

  But he’d resisted popping the question, not wanting to ask too much of her when she was already adapting to so much change already. By the time Christmas had rolled past, the pregnancy had started to take all their focus—Evie had been excited about every single aspect of it, even the endless bouts of morning sickness in the first trimester—so he’d continued to hold back, never finding the right time to make his move.

  Knowing Evie, she’d want to do something real classy and that would take planning. And once she started to show, they’d been focused on the run-up to the birth. Living together and preparing to become a mom had seemed like enough for her to get her head around, he didn’t want to pile up too many wishes all at once.

  It was all so fresh and new, there was no rush. That’s what he’d told himself.

  But then the recent spate of weddings and engagements had forced him to admit the truth. And call BS on all his excuses.

  The truth was he’d been scared. Scared to ask, in case she changed her mind, about loving him. Which was just plain dumb, one last throwback to the frightened little kid who had scrambled across a trailer park in the dead of night to call the cops on his own father.

  When they’d arrived here today, and he’d watched Evie get misty-eyed over the beautiful décor—the pretty combo of rustic wild flowers and fairy lights over worn wood even making him feel a bit choked—he’d known it was way past time to let go of that kid for good.

  It was time to stop messing about and get the job done. They’d agreed to give Mercy his name, but he wanted Evie to have the O’Connell name, too.

  He felt the weight of his daughter’s compact little body on his shoulder, fast asleep now, and knew he needed to propose tonight.

  And if Evie said no, he’d just keep on asking her until she said yes. Because she belonged to him and their baby, the same way he belonged to them.

  He dragged his gaze away from Evie and his thoughts away from what had to happen tonight.

  “How’s your shoulder?” he asked Cody, trying to concentrate on his friends again, and the in-depth conversation about the new season’s prospects that had been going on without him.

  Cody rolled the shoulder in question, which he’d dislocated during the Marietta Rodeo and had needed quite a lot of intense therapy on.

  “It’s good. I’m planning to enter the Greeley Stampede to test it out next month. But practice has been going great. And Kelly and Ricky are all aboard with me getting back on the circuit. They’re gonna come out and cheer me on every chance they get,” he added, the pleasure in his voice unmistakable. “Which means I’m guaranteed to win… Unlike Jesse,” he said, slanting a mocking look at their friend, “who’s gonna have a hell of a job keeping ahead of his own girlfriend in the saddle bronc ranking this season.”

  The guys laughed at Cody’s crack, but with affection rather than derision, because they all knew Cody wasn’t far wrong. They’d all been blown away by CJ’s continued progress in the male-dominated event. In fact, CJ was making such great t
imes, competing with the men and beating a lot of them, Jesse’s dominance at the top of the rankings might actually be threatened… One of these days.

  But rather than looking bothered by the competition, or Cody’s friendly ribbing, Jesse’s gaze drifted to CJ—who looked tall, athletic and every inch the gorgeous woman she was in a long flowing dress that matched her long flowing hair—and his eyes filled with pride at his girlfriend’s super-woman status.

  “I know,” he said, beaming that big smile that had become his trademark since hooking up with CJ. “Isn’t she awesome?”

  Not one of them could disagree with the dude.

  Boone squinted into the sun. “I should go round up my groomsmen, Piper will be here soon and I want to be in my spot. No way am I giving her an excuse to walk out on me again.”

  It was a good half an hour before the wedding march was due to be played by Flynn’s reckoning, so Boone had heaps of time, but he understood his friend’s determination not to screw up. They all slapped the guy on the back and poked fun at him for his eagerness, before he rushed off to get ready for Piper’s arrival.

  The rest of them swapped fist bumps and high fives before splitting up to find their other halves.

  A good forty-five minutes later, as he watched Boone and Piper declare their love for each other in the sunshine, he looped his arm securely around Evie’s waist while holding Mercy on his shoulder with the other hand.

  His two best girls.

  Tonight, he was going to take the final step to make all three of them into a family. Maybe it was just a formality, saying the vows, making those promises in front of his family and friends, the way Boone was doing, the way Cody had already done, the way Shane was about to do, and Jesse was no doubt thinking about doing—given that proud, possessive look in his eye whenever he watched CJ, in or out of the arena.

  But saying the words, getting them witnessed, mattered, because Evie mattered.