The Cowboy's Triple Surprise

“I thought you told me you had money from your parents.”

“I do. From their life insurance policies. So at least I won’t have to worry about the hospital bills.”

She didn’t want to think about those policies and what they represented—the mom and dad she had lost years ago. Money couldn’t take their place in her life. But in reality, she had lost them both long before the accident that had taken them away. Her dad had chased the rodeo and her mom had chased her dad, and as a result, she had never really had them in her life to begin with. All the more reason for staying away from Tyler.

How could she have let herself...

How could she have slept with a rodeo cowboy?

“Grandma practically raised me,” she said in a low voice. “I know how much she loves me, and I know she’ll help me out. But I’m trying to save up as much as I can for everything else the babies will need. I have to report to the Hitching Post tomorrow.”

She looked at Layne. “But I’m just dreading having to walk back into that hotel and see Tyler again. Or having to face any of the Garlands. Everyone else in Cowboy Creek must know the situation, too. What did I think?” she added, rolling her eyes. “That I could hide my head in the sand like an ostrich, and they wouldn’t figure out the timing as soon as they saw my stomach getting bigger?”

Layne smothered a laugh. “Sorry. That’s some visual. But if hiding the truth was your goal, I’m afraid you can forget it. Take it from a mom twice over. Nobody around here messes up the math on a pregnancy.” Sobering, she added, “I know you don’t want to tell Tyler the news, Shay. But you should think about it. Before someone else does.”

“People ought to respect my right to privacy,” she snapped.

“In this town? No. Someone, sometime, is bound to tell him—out of the goodness of their heart, though. You know that.”

“Oh, I do know. They’ll have the best of motives, thinking they’re making things easier and doing me a favor.”

“Exactly. The longer you wait, the more you run that risk. And worse, the more gossip and speculation will fly.”

“I know that, too,” she mumbled. Her eyes blurring, she stroked her stomach and sighed.

Chapter Four

Tyler patted the stallion’s flank, then left the stall.

In the corral outside the barn, a few of the hotel guests were saddled up, looking stiff and serious as they took instruction from some of the cowhands.

He headed across the yard to the Hitching Post.

The wind had picked up a bit, but the midafternoon sun had gotten stronger. Together, they kept the temperature at a comfortable level. Too bad they couldn’t do anything about his temperature. Since yesterday, he had jumped from hot to cold and back again every time he thought of Shay.

As he reached the hotel, the back door opened. Pete, Jed’s ranch manager and Jane’s husband, came out of the hotel and down the porch steps. “In for the day?” he asked.

Tyler nodded.

“Whenever you’re needing another ride, you’re welcome to any of the mounts here.”

“Needing?” Tyler echoed.

Pete shrugged. “The way you tore out of here after lunch, I’d have said you were looking for more than just time in the saddle.”

“Yeah.” All morning, he had helped Tina and Jane in the ballroom again. Shay hadn’t been around, and no one had mentioned her name.

They had released him from duty just before lunch, and afterward he and Freedom had done some hard riding on Garland Ranch. The long trek had been designed to help him outrun his thoughts. Instead, it had only given him more time alone, ample time to envision what he’d seen yesterday.

Shay, with her belly so big she looked like she might give birth at any moment. Not that he was an expert on pregnancy. But he could count. And he still didn’t like the numbers he’d come up with.

“The ride doesn’t seem to have done you much good,” Pete said. “Or else that expression of yours is saying you hit a cactus patch somewhere out on the ranch.”

“I hit something thorny,” he agreed, wondering just how much the other man could help him. Pete had two kids of his own. He certainly ought to know something about the stages of pregnancy. He might also know when Shay was due to have her baby.

But he didn’t intend to stand there gossiping about her with Jed’s ranch manager. Or even to discuss her with Jed. He had to talk to Shay. All day, he’d replayed their conversation in his mind. Her lack of reaction when he had said he would keep her secret told him he couldn’t be the daddy. But he needed her to tell him herself.

“See you later.” Tyler made his way into the Hitching Post. A short walk down the hall took him to the wide doorway of the hotel’s kitchen.

Paz stood near a counter, where light glinted off a knife resting on a cutting board filled with raw vegetables. She broke off from what she was saying to gesture toward a large coffeemaker on one counter. “Coffee is brewed there.”

“Thanks.”

At the large table, Jed sat with a mug in front of him. “Take a load off,” he invited, waving at an empty chair.

Tyler filled a mug and took his seat at the table.

“As I was saying,” Paz said to Jed, “Tina talked with Shay and told her we won’t need her for the reception tonight. Shay’s planning to work at the shop instead, but she said she’ll be here tomorrow afternoon.”

“Good.”

Not so good for him. Tomorrow afternoon seemed a long time away. And if the Garlands herded her like a stray mare again, chances were good he probably wouldn’t get to talk to her alone. He couldn’t let this opportunity pass him by. “Shay seems to be pretty far along.”

“She is,” Paz confirmed. “She has just a few weeks left.”

“We’re trying to keep her from overdoing it,” Jed put in. “That’s why we appreciated your help yesterday and this morning. You deserved the break after lunch. Enjoy your ride?”

“Yeah,” he said, not satisfied with changing the subject but unwilling to push the issue. “It felt good to get out.”

“Of the hotel?”

“Just out. On horseback.” What had those all-knowing blue eyes seen to make Jed ask that question? He couldn’t tell the man the truth.

Last night, he had spent the evening with the Garlands and their hotel guests. And yeah, between that and today’s stint in the ballroom, then at the crowded lunch table, he had felt the need to get out of the hotel, to get away on his own. To put some space between him and the Garland family. Along with Jed and Paz, and not counting the absent newlyweds, that included two granddaughters, one of their husbands and a handful of kids. A lot of Garlands to go around. He’d needed some breathing room.

Maybe it was having all the other hotel guests there, too, that left him feeling boxed in. Maybe it was just the fact he’d grown up without brothers or sisters and had gotten used to the quiet.

But mostly, he suspected it had to do with needing to escape his thoughts of Shay. Like that had worked.

“Cole ought to be back tomorrow,” Jed said.

“Good. I’m looking forward to seeing him.” Heck, he needed the diversion. “He’s flying in from Denver?”

“Driving. He was making a couple of stops along the way.” Jed took another sip of coffee. “Paz and I were just talking about you before you walked in.”

“Me? What’s up?”

“With this reception going on, we’re all going to be tied up most of the evening. I’m afraid you’ll be on your own.”

“No problem. I’m sure I can find something—” or someone “—to keep me occupied.”

* * *

SHAY SLID THE decorated cake into the large freezer in the Big Dipper’s workroom. Their ice cream cakes were always in demand for birthdays and other celebrations. And though SugarPie’s bakery supplied the wedding and party cakes for the Hitching Post, the Dipper always took care of the hotel’s ice cream orders.

She didn’t want to think about the hotel or about the man she had last seen there yesterday. She touched her stomach. “I probably should have stayed to talk to him,” she murmured to her babies, “but the two of us were never alone.” She laughed softly. “And I don’t mean because you three were there with me.” She sobered again. The thought of having her conversation with Tyler in front of any of the Garlands had done her in, making her run at the first opportunity.

With a sigh, she closed the freezer door securely, then returned to the empty front room of the shop.

They did a booming business in the warmer months, good enough for her boss to pay her a decent wage all year round. Unfortunately, the job was only part-time. As she had told Layne, she needed her income from the Hitching Post, where they paid her an even better part-time rate.

As if the thought of Layne had summoned her, the door to the shop opened and she stepped inside.

“What brings you here?” Shay asked in surprise.

“A pint of chocolate-marshmallow swirl, for one thing.”

“You’re not pregnant again, are you?”

Layne laughed. “That’s what Jason asked. No, I’m not. But the craving was a good reason to get me over here.” She went to the small freezer off to one side of the room.

“Like you need a reason for ice cream.” Shay leaned against the counter instead of taking the high stool out from beneath it. She didn’t trust herself on the stool. After growing so much in the past few weeks, she was finding it harder to keep her balance even with her feet flat on the floor.

Layne set her container on the counter. After looking around the still-empty shop, she said, “I stopped in at the L-G to pick up a few groceries this afternoon and ran into Mo. We had quite a chat.”

The look of excitement on Layne’s face made Shay blink in surprise. “A chat about what?”

“Your hours.”

Again, Shay blinked. Her hours wouldn’t have given anyone reason to feel excited...unless Grandma had heard something from Jed about giving her more work time.

“Mo told me you were here tonight and not helping out at the Hitching Post.”

“Oh. That.” Usually, she waitressed at the receptions and parties.

“Yes, that. What did you think we talked about? What happened?”

“I don’t know for sure. Tina called earlier today and told me they wouldn’t need me for the reception. They’re probably worried I’ll go into labor in the middle of the dance floor.”

Layne laughed. “You know that’s not it.”

“Well, maybe not.” She shrugged. “She did say Jed wants me to come out to the Hitching Post tomorrow afternoon. I hope he’s planning to give me more hours.” Or a raise.

“I hope so, too, at least until it’s time for you to stay off your feet. Which is getting close, isn’t it?”

“Don’t you start, too. I saw Dr. Grayden Thursday morning. The babies are doing fine, and he said I’m still good to go with the date we’ve scheduled for my C-section. And he and my specialist in Santa Fe gave me their okay to continue working.”

“With no restrictions?”

“I just have to take things easy,” she admitted.

“We all realize that. So remember, if Jed doesn’t offer you as many extra hours as you’d like, it’s because everybody out at the ranch is concerned about you.”

“You could have fooled me,” Shay said as she rang up the purchase. “Jed might be, but Tina and Jane spent more time falling all over Tyler than they did watching out for me. I was glad they kept him occupied—and away from me.” They had kept him busy on the other side of the room, except for that short time he had stood next to her. She had continued working, had forced herself not to look up, yet she had been as aware of him as if he’d plopped himself down in the center of all the vases on the table in front of her.

“Have you decided what you’re going to do about talking to him?” Layne asked.

“Not yet.” Sighing, she scooped up the pile of pennies in the cash register drawer and let them trickle through her fingers. “I know you’re right. If I don’t tell him, someone else will. But I want to do it my way. In my own time.”

“Which still means not at all,” Layne said wryly. “Otherwise, you would have managed to talk to him at the ranch yesterday.”

Shay reached for the twenty-dollar bill Layne held out. “I couldn’t have, with everyone around.”

“That makes sense. With news like yours to share, you’re going to need some time alone with him.”

Her insides turned as cold as a tub of ice cream. It had nothing to do with the freezer case beside her and everything to do with the picture Layne’s words had formed in her mind. “At the rate things are going, it doesn’t seem likely that’s going to happen.”

But even as she said the words, she knew she was going to have to make it likely. No matter how she felt about Tyler, he was going to have to learn the truth. And she wanted to be the one to break the news to him.

The one to tell him he had gotten her pregnant, and she didn’t want him anywhere near her or her kids.

As she handed Layne the change, she saw, beyond her, a customer standing outside the glass-paned front door. She curled her fingers against her empty palm and swallowed a groan of frustration.

Tyler swung the door open. When he stepped into the shop, the temperature suddenly seemed to rise by a hundred degrees.

He nodded at her and removed his Stetson.

Layne looked toward the door. “Well, hi there. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah, it has.”

Layne said something else; Tyler replied. Shay saw their mouths moving, but panic seemed to have closed her ears.

“Well.” Layne turned and sent Shay a sympathetic glance as she reached for the sack with her ice cream. “I’d better get home before this melts,” she said brightly. In a lower voice, she said, “Good luck with your private chat.”

Not here. Not now. “You don’t have to go,” she protested just as Tyler opened the door again. For a moment, she held on to the hope he planned to leave. But he was only being polite for Layne.

Too bad he hadn’t been a gentleman for her.

She flushed, knowing she was at least half to blame for winding up...together with him. At least half to blame, if not much more, for believing in something that wasn’t meant to be.

He closed the door behind Layne and turned Shay’s way.

The room seemed to spin—not a symptom of pregnancy she had experienced before. She put her hands on the counter in front of her. “Don’t tell me they’ve sent you here from the Hitching Post for ice cream.” She fought to keep her voice steady. “I happen to know what’s on the menu for the reception tonight, and everything’s covered.”

“Nobody sent me here. But everyone’s all tied up, and I had time on my hands.”

“Really? You didn’t have Jed to talk to?”

“He said he’d be busy all night at the reception.”

She frowned. “That’s strange. He always makes an appearance, but he’s never stayed the entire time, except at his granddaughters’ weddings. Well, then, what about Pete?” Jane and her husband lived in the manager’s house on Garland Ranch. “And if he’s busy, you’ve got plenty of cowhands to hang out with.”

“Maybe I had the urge for dessert.”

“Then you’ll find more of a selection at SugarPie’s.”

“Could be. But maybe what I want’s right here.”

Once she would have fallen for that line and hoped he wanted her. She was so over that now. So over him.

She slid open the freezer case and pulled out an empty ice cream tub. It gave her the excuse to walk away, to go into the workroom and avoid his blue-eyed stare. Shaking her head in disgust at herself, she crossed to the big freezer.

She had been all too good at analyzing his expression these past couple of days. She had seen the surprise on his face after he noticed the size of her stomach, had witnessed his frustration as she stood to leave the banquet hall. And just a minute ago, she had clearly read the determination in his eyes.

As she pulled open the freezer door, cold air blasted her. With luck, it would shock some sense into her. Hands shaking, she reached up to the top shelf for another tub of butter-pecan ice cream.

Just as he had yesterday, Tyler stepped up beside her. Again, she nearly jumped out of her shoes.

“I’ll get it.” He grabbed the tub she intended to take off the shelf.

“Thanks, but I’m pregnant, not incapacitated.”

“I didn’t think you were.” He slammed the freezer door shut. “Let’s just say I’ll scratch your back, you scratch mine.”

The image that followed his words stole her breath.

He looked away, as if he’d only now realized what he had said. He cleared his throat and looked back at her. “I’ll take care of this, then you can take care of a few things for me.”

Unfortunately, his attempt to make his point clearer only filled her mind with bittersweet images and memories. Tyler flirting with her at Cole and Tina’s reception... Tyler’s hand brushing hers as they walked the streets of Cowboy Creek on a moonlit night... Tyler kissing her thoroughly as he ran his fingers through her hair...

She had to get her thoughts and this conversation back on track. “Take care of a few things?” she repeated.

“Questions.”

This close, he seemed to tower over her. It wasn’t a menacing stance, just a result of the difference in their heights. She had grown up as one of the tallest girls in school, and after meeting Tyler at the wedding, she had liked that he made her feel petite. She still liked it. His towering didn’t bother her.

It was his nearness that left her feeling shaky. This close and at this stage in her pregnancy, her rounded stomach nearly brushed his flat abs. This close, she could see every darker fleck in his dark blue eyes, making her wonder if any of her babies would have eyes the same shade.

She didn’t move. He didn’t, either. After a moment she realized she stood leaning back against the freezer door. The cool metal sent another shiver through her. The cold tub he held in one arm, so close to her, added to her chill.

And still, they stood as frozen as two ice cream sandwiches.

Finally, she tore her gaze away, breaking whatever spell had captured her, and pushed past him. It took effort for her not to run. “If you intend to help me, you can put that tub in the freezer case up front.”

As he followed, she heard his boots on the tile floor behind her. She should have heard him in the ballroom yesterday and here in the workroom a few minutes ago. But, no, both times she had been so wrapped up in thoughts of him, she hadn’t noticed his approach. Not good at all when she needed to stay in control any time she was near him.

She had lost control with him once, and look what had happened.

At the freezer case, he slid the tub into the empty space. To her relief, he then walked back around to the front of the counter.

Through the plate glass of the front window, she saw a family walking up to the shop. Her heart tripped a beat, whether from anxiety or elation, she wasn’t sure.

“You can’t stay here,” she hissed.

“Why not? It’s a store.”

“But we can’t talk here. Or now.” Behind him, the door opened. She waved to the Walcotts and their two kids. The family went to their favorite table near the front of the store, and she glanced up at Tyler again. “Please go,” she murmured.

“You’ll talk to me when you get off work.”

He hadn’t made it a question. “Yes,” she said between clenched teeth.

“What time do you finish up?”

She could tell him a lie. Give him a later time. Or, if the shop stayed as quiet as it was at the moment, she could tell him the truth, then rush through closing and leave before he returned.

Anything to avoid the conversation she didn’t want to have.

He must feel as uneasy as she did about their impending talk, or why wouldn’t he just have blurted out the crucial question and been done with it?

As wonderful as all her options for evading him sounded, she knew she couldn’t be that devious. She sighed and admitted, “I’ll be done in a couple of hours.” At least that would give her time to collect her thoughts and plan exactly what she would say.

“All right, then,” he agreed.

Relieved, she sagged against the counter.

“I’ll just stick around,” he added.

“But... I’m working.”

“We covered that. And I’ve got nowhere to go except back to the Hitching Post. No sense in my driving all the way out there just to turn around and come back. Give me a triple dip of that butter pecan.”

When she hesitated, he shot a glance toward the front table, where the Walcotts were still deciding on their own order.

He faced her again and leaned across the counter, bending down so close she could feel his breath against her cheek as he spoke quietly into her ear. “The Garlands corralled you at the Hitching Post yesterday. Then you ran off from the banquet room and never came back. And now, thanks to your customers, you’ve been saved by the bell. In case you weren’t counting, that’s three strikes for me. Do you seriously think I’m going to walk off and let you make yet another escape?”

Chapter Five

Three scoops of ice cream might have been more than he’d needed, but after witnessing Shay’s obvious desire to see him gone, Tyler had been doubly determined to find an excuse to stick around.

He’d given her his exact reasons for his plan to stay. The question he’d thrown at her about her potential for an escape hadn’t been idle talk, either. If he’d left the Big Dipper and come back again, he wouldn’t have been a bit surprised to find the door locked and Shay long gone.

From the booth he’d taken in one corner of the room, he could watch her as she worked behind the counter. He could also listen as she chatted with one customer after another while filling their orders. Now, she had gone to the back room for something, and it was all he could do not to get to his feet and follow her.

The shop had stayed busy for the better part of an hour. It was as if everyone in Cowboy Creek was scheming to keep him from having things out with her.

Of course, that was paranoia talking.

Even as he had the thought, danged if the bell over the door didn’t ring yet again. This time, he recognized the customer who entered. The man took one look at him, grinned, and headed in his direction.

Cole Slater slid into the seat opposite, and Tyler’s heart slid down to the vicinity of his knees. Was he never going to get to talk to Shay alone?

Happy as he was to see his buddy, this wasn’t the time or place he’d have chosen for them to get together.

Cole had no inkling of that, though. Still grinning, he reached for Tyler’s hand. They shook, and the other man said, “Tina told me you were here.”

“How did she know?” Tyler frowned in confusion.

“No, not here at the Dipper. I meant, in Cowboy Creek. We talked earlier today, but she was tied up getting ready for the wedding reception at the Hitching Post, and we didn’t have time to get into much detail.”

“Then what brings you to the Big Dipper?”

“Ice cream, what else? Hey, Shay!”

She had returned from the back room and looked over at their booth. Reluctantly, it seemed to Tyler, she headed their way. “A pint of the usual?” she asked Cole.

“You’ve got it. I’m surprising Tina. She gets cravings,” he said to Tyler, then turned back to Shay. “How about you? Working right here in an ice cream shop, you ought to be able to get your fill of any flavor you like.”

She shook her head. “No, I see it so much every day, ice cream’s not on my list.”

Tyler wondered what she did crave, but she didn’t say.

“Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll get your order together.” She walked away to greet an elderly pair who had come in and taken seats near the counter. As she stood beside their table, chatting, her hand went to her lower back.

Tyler frowned. With the weight she was carrying up front, she probably ought to be sitting once in a while, taking a break. Taking it easy.

“She’s due even before Tina,” Cole said, as if he’d watched Tyler watching Shay.