The Cowboy's Triple Surprise

“Tyler,” Tina said, “thanks so much for agreeing to help us all out. I think Jane’s trying to flag you down. Would you mind giving her and the waitresses a hand with the banquet tables?”

“Sure.” He glanced toward the other side of the room. Then he nodded to them both and ambled away.

Shay tried not to stare after him. She didn’t care where he was going or what he was doing, as long as it wasn’t near her. Let him think what he wanted about her pregnancy, too. She didn’t have to correct his assumption.

“Shay?”

Startled, she turned to stare at Tina. “I’m sorry. What?”

“I said, why don’t you sit and take it easy? It’s hard to be up on your feet, especially when you can’t even see your feet.”

“You should talk,” Shay said, glancing pointedly at the other woman’s middle, then blinking as she recalled Tyler doing the same to her. “You’re not that far behind me.”

“But I’m experienced. And I’m not carrying three babies.”

Shay tried not to wince, not to react at all to what Tina had said. She shot another look across the banquet hall. To her relief, Tyler had reached the opposite side of the room. Even with the acoustics in the high-ceilinged ballroom, he couldn’t possibly have overheard.

“Actually,” Tina said, “I’ll give you a hand, since I have some free time this afternoon.” She took a seat at the table.

Shay followed and returned to her own chair. Again, she couldn’t argue. Tina was only looking out for her. And as one of the Garland family, the other woman was more or less her employer.

She didn’t know what Tyler was doing back here in Cowboy Creek, but for all she knew, Jed might have hired him, too. She might have to face him every time she came to the hotel to work.

The thought was too much for her to consider.

She reached for the ribbon dispenser. Right now, she needed to push aside her reluctance to be near him for even part of this afternoon. She had to focus on the job that was going to help her pay her bills.

And still, she stared across the room.

Tyler had gone down on one knee to inspect something under a table. His broad shoulders strained against his flannel shirt the way her stomach strained against her maternity top. His belt encircled a waist as rock hard as his abs and now slimmer than she was around the middle.

“Shay,” Tina said, “do you mind if I borrow that dispenser before you run out of ribbon?”

Shay looked down at the table in front of her. Her face flamed. While trying to distract her thoughts from Tyler, she had coiled a length of ribbon into a tangled mass around her fingers. She grabbed the scissors and snipped the ribbon free.

Without another word, Tina took the dispenser, then reached for an undecorated vase. Shay sent her an apologetic glance, but the other woman didn’t look her way.

For a while, she managed to focus on the vases and the ribbons and a casual conversation with Tina. Then, all too soon, she found herself tuning in to the thump of Tyler’s boots from the other side of the room, the rumble of his voice as he spoke to one of the women, the sound of his deep laugh as he responded to something one of them said.

A spurt of jealousy hit, an unwanted, unwelcome emotion that twined itself—like the ribbon twisted in her fingers—around her heart.

She should have expected it and been prepared. And she couldn’t let it worry her, because she knew what caused the sudden upswing of emotion.

From the day Tyler had left to the day she finally acknowledged he didn’t plan to contact her again, her up-and-down feelings had run out of control. Late-night anxiety triggered her bouts of insomnia. Stiff-necked tension left her no comfortable position even if sleep had wanted to come. Anger and depression had made her days as uncomfortable as her nights.

There had been no way she would have run after Tyler, no way she wanted an unreliable cowboy in her life. Anger at herself, at how far she had let herself fall, had triggered every one of those reactions. She had simply waited them out, knowing they would pass, and they had. Eventually.

After she had discovered she was pregnant, she had again fought—and won—a battle to get her emotions in check, but there were times, like today, when her hormones won out. Green-eyed jealousy was trying to entice her. She wouldn’t let it succeed. Tyler didn’t mean anything to her anymore. She couldn’t care less who he flirted with now. Though he had fathered her babies, he was a free man.

She didn’t plan to do or say anything to change that.

* * *

WHEN HIS YOUNGEST GRANDDAUGHTER, Tina, entered the kitchen, Jed Garland took notice. Her grin made him sit back in his chair and nod in satisfaction.

Paz, standing near the refrigerator, stopped and turned their way.

“Tyler went for the bait, did he?” Jed asked.

“I don’t know about that.” Tina laughed. “But as you would put it, let’s just say Jane had him well and truly hooked by the time I left the banquet hall. He’s helping with the table setups, though his attention keeps wandering, and so does Shay’s. I’m now beginning to think you were right all along. You’re some matchmaker, Abuelo.”

“I try,” he said modestly.

Both she and Paz laughed out loud.

“I’m curious,” Tina said. “Tyler seemed so reluctant to help after you told him Shay would be working with us. I’m surprised he’s cooperating now. What did you say to him after the rest of us left the dining room?”

“I simply mentioned that no able-bodied man would let a woman in Shay’s condition get overworked.”

“Mentioned?” Paz repeated.

Chuckling, he looked over at the hotel cook. She had worked for him for more than twenty years now, since before they had this granddaughter in common and long before those gray streaks had started threading through her hair. “Well, maybe a bit stronger than mentioned. What do you think of his reaction?”

She crossed the room to take the chair beside Tina’s. After a glance toward the kitchen door, she smiled at them both. “I think it has proved your point. If we didn’t already believe that Tyler is the daddy of Shay’s babies, I would surely think so now.”

He nodded. “We’d have had to be imbeciles not to have caught on months ago. The boy’s reactions today only confirm he and Shay had something going on.”

“True,” Tina said. “I was watching, and the look on his face when he stood in the doorway and saw her was priceless. So was Shay’s when she found him sitting beside her. But I’m feeling a little guilty you didn’t tell either of them ahead of time that they would see each other at lunch.”

He shook his head. “There’s a lot to be said for shock value. And there’s even more to be said about keeping those two on their toes. Jane and the other girls are still with them in the banquet hall, aren’t they?”

Tina nodded.

“Good. Nothing like holding something a man wants within his sight but just out of reach. I’m betting the longer he has time to question things, the more eager he’ll be to stick around to get answers. And in the long run, the more Shay will benefit.”

“Yes.” Paz nodded. “We have to think of Shay.”

“We do,” he agreed. “It’s best we all pretend ignorance for as long as we can. Then they’ll never suspect we’re trying to get them together.”

“You think this plan is a good one, Jed?” Paz asked.

“Of course, I do. And it’s not just me and the girls who believe in it.”

Tina gasped. “You talked to Mo?”

“I did, just before lunch. And she’s in complete agreement. Shay puts on a good act when she’s with any of us, but her grandma said she’s been moping for months now at home. And that’s not good for her.”

“Especially in her condition,” Paz said in alarm.

“Exactly. Well, don’t worry. We’ll be keeping her much too busy to worry about anything...except Tyler.”

“You are a devious, scheming man,” she said, shaking her head.

“Thank you,” he said with a grin.

Chapter Three

“We need that table over here,” Jane called across the banquet room.

“No problem.” Tyler turned in midstride, rolling the round table on its edge across the hardwood floor toward the space she indicated. “You ladies sure do know how to put a man to work around here.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Heck, no. Hard labor is my middle name.” Though Jane laughed, he couldn’t keep from wincing. Head down, he busied himself with pulling out the legs of the table and tightening the supports. Then he crossed back to the wheeled cart and took down the next table.

The phrase he’d jokingly tossed out—hard labor—had made him think of Shay and her pregnancy. Where was the man who had gotten her into that state? There had to be someone in the vicinity. A husband. A boyfriend. Someone. Despite her lack of a wedding ring, for all he knew, she had married that someone a week after he had left town.

It looked to him as though she might be ready to have her baby at any minute. But what did he know about that, either? After lunch, she had stood from her seat beside his and lumbered away. Except for the rolling gait of a saddle-sore greenhorn, from the back she seemed just the way she had when he’d met her months ago. Quite a few months ago.

For a moment, his thoughts got hung up on the time frame. But only for a moment. He couldn’t have been the one to get her pregnant. After all, when he had said something about her moving on to someone else as soon as he’d left town, she hadn’t denied it.

“Hold up, Tyler,” Jane called. “The reception’s in this room, not on the patio.”

To his chagrin, he saw he’d overshot his mark and was almost to a pair of doors leading outside. “Got it,” he said, forcing a laugh. Abruptly, he turned back and took the table to the appropriate spot.

As he continued to work, Shay remained absorbed in her vases and ribbons. Every time he attempted to set up a table closer to her, Jane sent him to another area of the room.

Maybe that was for the best. He and Shay didn’t have anything left to say to each other. And they couldn’t have talked much, anyway, with Tina or Jane constantly by her side. It was as if they were standing guard over her. Every time Jed stopped by the room, even he seemed to take up a protective stance. Because...

Because she was due to have that baby at any minute?

Despite his own reassurances to himself, he did some quick mental math. The results caused him to pull his bandanna from his back pocket. It took him two tries to wipe the cold sweat from his face.

“You okay, cowboy?” Jane called teasingly.

Across the room, Shay looked up from her work.

“Ma’am,” he said to Jane, “I’ve had a change of heart. You’re about working me to death here.” He grinned. “Even the hired hands ought to be entitled to a cold drink now and then, don’t you think?”

He saw her fighting to hide a smile. She made a show of glancing at her watch. “Well, I suppose we can spare you for a minute.”

“Good.” He ambled across the room, deliberately avoiding Shay and Tina and aiming straight for the corner table a few yards from them. Earlier, one of the waitresses had brought in a jug of sweet tea. He filled a glass.

After a mouthful of the drink, he turned to look at the two women. Both were pregnant. Was there something in the water around here? He eyed his tea glass and swallowed a laugh. Then he looked at Shay’s belly again, and his sense of humor deserted him.

He needed to act normally around her, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. Which he didn’t. Hoping for a casual approach, he headed toward their table. From across the room he saw Jane start their way, too.

He came to a stop beside Shay, not too near, but close enough to see the long sweep of her lashes as she kept her eyes down, her gaze focused on her work. Close enough to smell the same flowery perfume she had worn last summer when he’d danced with her at the wedding and, a few nights later, when he had slept with her in her bed.

He gulped another mouthful of sweet tea and nearly choked on it.

Shay never looked his way. The chances she would even throw a glance at him seemed less likely by the second. That only made him more determined to get her attention. He gestured toward the vases lined up on the table. “Looks like this is going to be one big wedding.”

He stood facing Shay, but Tina answered instead. “The biggest we’ve had here yet,” she said emphatically.

He knew she was the financial genius in the family. “The thought of all that income must make your accountant’s heart beat faster.”

She laughed. “You must have heard that phrase from Cole.”

“I did.” He looked at Shay. Another, more intimate memory of them together flashed into his mind. “What makes your heart speed up?” he blurted.

“Heartburn,” she said flatly.

He blinked. Maybe that was a symptom of pregnancy. Or maybe she was just pulling his leg.

“This worker is due for a break, too,” she said, bracing her hands on the table. She seemed to have trouble pushing herself to her feet. Afraid she might overbalance and fall over the chair, he held it steady for her just as he’d done in the dining room after lunch. And just like then, she gave him a curt, dismissive nod. “Tina, I’m going for a walk. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Good idea,” he said. “I feel the need to stretch my legs, too.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not—”

“—thinking of leaving us, are you?” Tina finished. “Tyler, I’m surprised at you. We’ve still got so many tables to set up.”

“We certainly do,” Jane said. “And we’ve run into a little problem over there.” She pointed to the far side of the room. She raised her brows.

Tina smiled.

Shay turned and left the room.

Shrugging, he followed Jane across the banquet hall. He’d been roped into helping again, and danged if he could think of a single good excuse that would cut him loose.

Somehow, he managed to carry on a conversation with Jane and the rest of the women while his brain focused on the topic of Shay’s baby. The first chance he had to find her alone, he wanted an answer to the question that continued to nag at him:

Just how far along is she?

* * *

FOR THE REST of the afternoon, Jane kept him hopping. The closest Tyler got to Shay was when he set up chairs at the tables in the area near where she was working.

He had just come within yards of her when she pulled a cell phone from the bag she had hooked over the back of her chair. After checking the display, she turned to Tina. “I need another break. And I missed a call from my grandmother.”

“Give Mo our regards,” Tina said.

Shay nodded. This time she appeared to have less trouble getting up. She also seemed to be in a hurry, as if she wanted to get out of her seat before he could lend his help.

He watched her walk off.

A few minutes later, Tina left the ballroom, too.

Time ticked away, and neither of the women returned.

Eventually, Jed and Paz stopped in the doorway and surveyed the setup. Tyler tucked the final two chairs beneath a table, then sauntered in their direction.

“Looking good,” Jed said.

Tyler eyed the room and tried to see it from the older man’s perspective. All the tables had been covered with long white cloths and shorter pale blue ones, but only half the sets of silverware wrapped in white napkins had been put in place. And there were no decorations around the room yet.

He gestured to the folding table at which Shay and Tina had been sitting. “Looks like two of your helpers have deserted you.”

“Tina had to go back to work in her office,” Paz said.

“And Shay left,” Jed put in, answering Tyler’s unspoken question.

“Left?” he asked, startled. Then he backpedaled, trying to downplay his interest. “I mean, I thought she was in charge of table decorations.”

“She is. But she got a call from her grandma and said she had to go home.”

Jed made the statement so calmly, Tyler couldn’t jump to the conclusion that anything was wrong. He also couldn’t keep from wondering whether Shay had wanted to avoid him. At that thought, the hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention. She had no reason to stay away from him now. He’d assured her he wouldn’t bring up their past.

He thought back to Cole and Tina’s wedding and what had happened a couple of days after, and couldn’t help rechecking his math. But even if the dates tallied, that didn’t have to mean a thing. They’d seen each other less than a handful of times. They’d slept together once. What were the chances she’d gotten pregnant from what amounted to a one-night stand? A heck of a lot slimmer than her waist right now, that was sure.

He focused on his surroundings again and found Paz looking his way. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear he saw sympathy in her gaze.

“Shay told me to tell Jed she was sorry,” she explained. “Her grandmother is fine. I think it was Shay who wasn’t feeling well. Tina will call her in a little while to make sure she arrived home.”

“Good idea.” Jed nodded.

“If she felt that sick,” Tyler said, “you’d think she’d have called her husband to pick her up.”

“Doesn’t have a husband,” Jed returned.

“No novio—boyfriend—either,” Paz added.

Exactly the question Tyler’s mental mathematics had caused him to consider all afternoon. But asking Jed or Paz about Shay’s pregnancy would only bring more unwanted attention to his interest in a woman he should only barely know.

* * *

SHAY STRETCHED OUT on her friend’s couch, putting her tired feet up in hopes of easing the swelling. She pulled the afghan from the back of the couch and spread it over her, but even the weight of the knitted wool couldn’t banish the chill she felt.

Layne came from the apartment’s small kitchen carrying a tray with a couple of mugs and a plate of cookies. When she held out one of the steaming mugs, Shay took it gratefully.

Though she hadn’t eaten much of her lunch at the Hitching Post, she couldn’t even look at the cookies. When she got home, she would have to have something. Not now. The way her stomach felt at the moment, she almost didn’t want to risk a sip of tea, either. But she needed the warmth. Needed the mug to hold on to.

She sighed again and glanced at Layne, the only person who knew the truth about her pregnancy. “Tyler’s going to figure out the timing, if he hasn’t already. Even if he’s not the type to keep track of dates—” or to keep track of his conquests “—he’ll remember the month of the wedding. So many brides get married in June.”

As if to challenge that tradition, Layne and her ex-husband had remarried at the Hitching Post just this past weekend.

Shortly before that, Jed’s widowed granddaughter, Andi, had gotten married, too. Those newlyweds were still away on their honeymoon.

Like Tina, Shay had always dreamed of a June wedding and lots of children. Her dreams never included having those children first or raising a family on her own.

But she wouldn’t be alone. She had Grandma and Layne and the Garlands, and the rest of her friends. They were all she needed. All her babies needed, too.

“He’ll figure it out,” she said again. “Or maybe someone at the Hitching Post already told him my due date.”

“Is that so bad?” Layne asked quietly. “You’re going to tell him, anyway, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not.” A flash of anger left her breathless. But it was fury at her own actions that caused tears to rise beneath her hurt. What a fool she had been to fall for Tyler’s dark good looks, his great pickup lines and his pretense of genuine interest. Well, he had truly been interested in something, anyhow. In getting her into bed. And she had made it all too easy for him. She tightened her fingers around the mug. “He slept with me—once—and never looked back. Why would I chase after him to tell him the news?”

“Because he’s the father.”

“No, he’s not.”

Layne’s eyes opened so wide, Shay couldn’t help but laugh. Then, sobering, she slumped against the couch cushion. “Of course he’s the father. I don’t...”

I don’t sleep around. But she had. One single time.

She glanced across the living room to where Layne’s little girl lay sleeping in her playpen. Layne’s new husband had left a few minutes ago, taking their son into the kids’ room to read him a story.

“Don’t worry,” Layne said, “they’ll be good for an hour or more.”

Shay nodded. Still, she lowered her voice, as much out of reluctance to confess the truth as from the worry she would be overheard. “I only meant that Tyler wouldn’t be a real father. How could he be? And why would I want him to be, when he didn’t care enough about me to come back again, or even to call or send me a text?”

“You don’t know what happened after he left.”

“I don’t want to know,” she said flatly. “I don’t want to know anything more than I do already—that he was so hot and such a sweet-talker. And I was such easy pickings.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Why not? You know it. I know it. And worst of all, he knows it, too.”

“I know you, Shay. You wouldn’t have slept with him if you didn’t care about him.”

“I can’t believe this.” She stared down at her tea. “At the wedding, the two of us just clicked.”

“I know you did.”

As the groom’s sister, Layne had attended the wedding last summer, too. At the reception, she had witnessed Shay’s first meeting with Tyler. So had almost everyone else in Cowboy Creek. “The day after the wedding,” Shay said slowly, “he came to the Big Dipper with Jane and Pete and the kids. He came back every day. He borrowed a truck from Jed.”

She had already told Layne all that, but not the rest. “The night before he planned to leave, he showed up again. It was so beautiful out, and after I closed up the shop we went for a walk. We wound up at my house and...and Grandma was out at her bridge club. And I guess you can figure out the rest.” She blinked. “I didn’t plan it.”

“But you wanted it to happen,” Layne said softly.

Shay nodded.

“Because you cared. And because you thought he cared about you.”

“Yes.” She shrugged. “What difference does it make what I thought? Obviously, I was wrong.” At least, on one of those counts. “And how can I ever face him again?”

“He’s not just passing through?”

She shook her head. “Oh, I’m sure he’ll be leaving soon enough. But...”

“But he came to see Cole,” Layne guessed. “And Cole’s gone to Denver to check out that new stallion for Jed.”

“Right. Tyler’s staying until he gets back. And I’ve got to go to work at the Hitching Post again. We’ve got the wedding tomorrow night.” She winced, filled with guilt about the way she had sent along an apology with Paz earlier, and then escaped from the hotel.

Still, she couldn’t regret leaving. The Hitching Post was not the place for a reunion with Tyler. She’d needed to get away. Needed to get some space while she figured out how to do what she knew she had to do. Tell him the truth about her pregnancy.

She had to tell him about the children she would soon be having. Not one child. Not two. But three small, unexpected babies, already growing and thriving inside her. Already very much loved.

Not his babies.

Hers.

“How did you get away from the hotel today without having to talk to Tyler?” Layne asked.

Shay explained about the missed phone call, which she had noticed on her cell phone at the best possible time. “Grandma just wanted to remind me not to hurry home, since she had plans to be out for supper at SugarPie’s.” The sandwich shop in town was one of Mo’s favorite hangouts, and Sugar Conway, the owner, was one of her best friends. “It gave me a reason to leave the banquet room. Once I was away from everyone,” she confessed, “I used the call as an excuse to run. Which is going to make going back tomorrow even more awkward.”

“Couldn’t you just call in sick?” Layne asked.

She almost choked on a laugh. “I wish. But I can’t let Jed and everyone else down. Besides, I need the money. Neither of my part-time jobs comes with insurance.”