The Cowboy's Little Surprise

She turned from the closet. “I talked to Sugar about giving me more time at the shop and maybe even letting me back her up when she needs help in the bakery.”

“Do you really need to take on more hours, especially when it means being on your feet, in your condition? If that bast—”

“Don’t. Please.” She shot a glance toward the door. “I don’t want to talk about Terry around Scott. And I can’t blame Terry. If he were Scott’s father, things might be different, but I can’t expect the man to give me extra support for a child that’s not his.”

“Is he still planning to see Scott?”

“He said he would.” But she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

Damn. A man didn’t just walk away from a child he’d raised, even if that child wasn’t his own.

But he didn’t push the issue. This was the first time he and Layne had discussed the subject, and he realized the wisdom of keeping the rest of his feelings about it to himself. For now.

“What about financial support for the baby?” he asked.

She touched her stomach, not much rounder than it had been the last time he’d seen her.

Late December. She had just discovered she was pregnant and hadn’t wanted to be home for the holidays. They had met halfway between Cowboy Creek and the Texas ranch he was working.

For the first time since he’d left town, they had spent Christmas together. They ate dinner in a nearly empty diner decorated with limp tinsel and faded ornaments. But the waitress wore a pin with a reindeer whose nose flashed like a small red strobe light and had made Scott laugh.

Layne, expecting a baby but already on the road to divorce, had done her best to smile.

The effort it took told him he needed to come back to Cowboy Creek.

Layne shifted one of the boxes he’d set on the bed. “My lawyer’s making sure Terry’s keeping up with the insurance payments to cover the hospital.”

“He’d damned well better keep up. You have any problems, you let me know and I’ll talk to him.”

“Always the protective big brother,” she murmured, her eyes misting. She sat beside him and rested her head against his shoulder. “I really appreciate everything you’re doing, Cole. Coming back to town. Helping with the move. Even giving me a hand with the unpacking.” She sat back and looked up at him. “I couldn’t have done all this without you.”

“I’m not begrudging any of it, you know that. But you also have to know you’re not alone here. You heard what Sugar told you the other day. You’ve got friends in town, plenty of friends who would help out.”

“Yes, I do.” She gave him a crooked smile. “Maybe I should have said what I was really thinking. I didn’t want to do this without you.”

To his dismay, her voice broke. “Layne...”

“Let me go check on Scott.” She hurried from the room.

Earlier, after giving her son strict instructions to stay on the floor with his trains, she had settled him in the living room. With boxes piled throughout the apartment, it wasn’t safe to let him run loose.

Cole looked at the boxes piled around him in the small bedroom and had a sudden urge to run loose himself. Or just to run. Maybe Jed hadn’t been wrong, at that.

He felt the need to get the hell out of Cowboy Creek again. Coming back here had dredged up too many bad memories, too many thoughts of how helpless he’d been to protect Layne against their mama’s indifference and their dad’s vicious tongue.

Too many reminders of the boy he’d once been.

On the other hand, his return to help Layne through a bad time had brought with it an unexpected advantage. Taking a job at Garland Ranch again would go a long way toward proving he had changed.

His talk with Tina should have done the same, but her acceptance of his apology had rung about as true as a forced smile at a sad Christmas dinner.

He’d have to try harder to convince her they could put their past behind them.

Chapter Three (#ulink_4a29aa78-8d6c-5dad-9fa1-dd0b4732d827)

“What do you think, Paz?” Jed asked.

At the table in the hotel kitchen after breakfast, he sat finishing up his coffee. Paz stood at the counter where she was making one of her fancy desserts for tonight’s supper. With Tina and Robbie at the breakfast table, they hadn’t had a moment to themselves till now.

She cracked an egg into the ceramic bowl in front of her. “I think,” she said, “by asking Cole to return to work here, you have stirred up more than the sugar in your coffee.”

Frowning, he looked at her. She had sounded tart and a few worry lines creased her forehead, but she gave him a faint smile.

He grinned back. “I have set some things in motion, haven’t I? For step one, anyhow.”

“Do you think everything will go as you want it to?”

“Of course. All according to plan. And once the other girls are here, we’ll move on to step two.”

She cracked another egg into the bowl and added a spoonful of vanilla. “Sugar called me this morning. Tina and Ally were at the shop last night.”

“To see Layne?”

“Yes. And asking about Cole.”

He chuckled. “What did I tell you? Nothing to worry about. Everything’s falling into place.” At the sound of light, familiar footsteps in the hallway, he added, “Hush. Here comes the girl now.” He got up to rinse his mug at the sink.

Tina entered the room and set a tray of dishes on the counter beside him. “Thank goodness for the Women’s Society and their monthly breakfast! Maria’s just clearing the last couple of tables. I’ll take care of loading the dishwasher for you, Abuela. I’ll take that, too.” She plucked the rinsed mug from Jed’s hand. “And then I’ve got to get to my office.”

“Already?” he asked.

“Yes, unfortunately. And I know the next part by heart, Abuelo.” She laughed. “‘You can’t work all day, every day.’”

“Well, it’s true. You need to relax once in a while, girl. Have some fun. You work too hard.”

“Somebody has to, while you brush up on being lord of the manor. You’ll want to make a good impression on Andi and Jane when they get here.”

“Oh, I’ll make an impression on them, all right. One of these days, I might even make you sit up and take notice, too.” Smiling, he left the room.

* * *

IN HER OFFICE behind the hotel registration desk, Tina entered items into the accounting software. Working with finances normally grabbed her attention, but for the past couple of days, she’d had trouble concentrating.

Again, her thoughts flew to the cause of her distraction—her brief reunion with the man who had fathered her child.

Cole had broken her heart years ago. That was nobody’s fault but her own. She was over that—and over him.

Still, his return had resurrected the old memories.