Colton Cowboy Standoff

Two exes reunite as danger rocks the family ranch.

A Coltons of Roaring Springs romance

Years after ending her relationship with her husband, Wyatt Colton, Bailey Norton shows up on his doorstep with an unexpected request: to father her child. Unresolved passion sets off sparks between them, but Bailey must resist Wyatt’s undiminished allure—and show her true grit when the Colton ranch is mysteriously sabotaged. Can this Colton cowboy lasso the culprit and a forever family?

USA TODAY bestselling and RITA® Award–winning author MARIE FERRARELLA has written more than two hundred and fifty books for Mills & Boon, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, marieferrarella.com.

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Colton Cowboy Standoff

Marie Ferrarella

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09353-8

COLTON COWBOY STANDOFF

© 2018 Harlequin Books S.A.

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

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Version: 2020-03-02

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To

Every couple

Who had their hearts set on a baby

And found that the path was not always that easy.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

About the Publisher

Chapter 1

“Hello, Wyatt. How are you?”

The woman’s low, melodic voice hypnotically wove its way into his bloodstream.

Wyatt Colton stood in the doorway of the Crooked C ranch house, completely speechless and trying to remember if he’d somehow gotten drunk last night without having any memory of it.

But he knew he hadn’t.

He’d cleaned up his act several years back, substituting work to numb himself instead and to blanket the hurt he’d felt when she’d left him. Last night, like so many other nights, he’d been dead tired and had just fallen into bed, still dressed with his boots on.

The same way he’d woken up this morning.

But a hallucination was the only way he could explain why he was suddenly seeing Bailey, tall, golden-brown-haired and beautiful, standing on his porch, talking to him as if it was just any other day.

As if nothing had ever happened.

As if she hadn’t ripped his heart out of his chest, breaking it into a million pieces when she’d suddenly walked out on him and on their marriage without giving him even a single warning regarding her intentions.

He felt as if he’d been torpedoed when the divorce papers had arrived in the mail.

“Stunned,” Wyatt finally said, answering his ex-wife’s question when he was finally able to find his tongue and get it to work.

His tongue might be working but his brain was another story.

The first year after Bailey had left, he’d kept fantasizing about situations like this one. Scenarios in which he would open his front door—the door of the ranch house they had begun to build together—and find Bailey standing there. Sometimes repentant and contrite, other times smiling through tears, but always telling him that she’d been wrong to leave him. The scenarios would always end with Bailey throwing her arms around his neck and him forgiving her as he lost himself in the sweet taste of her lips.

As time went on, the fantasies occurred less and less frequently until he was finally able to make it through a whole month without aching for her.

Well, almost.

However, the pain did ease up and he felt he was almost human again...

And now here she was, standing in front of him, in the flesh, and Wyatt found himself suddenly catapulted back to the shaken shell of the man he’d been right after Bailey had left him.

Staring at her now, he couldn’t help thinking she looked almost shy standing there. As if she didn’t know what seeing her like this was doing to him.

“May I come in?” Bailey asked in a quiet voice, shifting and feeling somewhat awkward standing there on the front porch.

Her fingertips were cold, colder than even the Colorado January air warranted. Wyatt looked almost like a stranger, not at all like the man she had loved and lived with six years ago. His shaggy, dark brown hair, bits of gray just coming in at the temples, framed dark blue eyes and a left cheek with a slight hint of a dimple.

Had she made a mistake, coming back? Was he going to turn her away after all?

For a moment it seemed as if Wyatt wasn’t going to answer her question. And then, when he opened his mouth, she could feel her heart squeeze in fear, afraid that he would say no and then close the door on her.

So when Wyatt finally said, “Sure,” and stepped back to allow her access into the house, Bailey felt the corners of her eyes growing moist.

Willing her tears not to fall, she walked into the wide, warm, inviting living room.

“I like what you’ve done with the place,” she told him after a beat. She slowly looked around and took in the room in its entirety.

Initially they had worked on this room together but hadn’t gotten nearly finished when she’d suddenly taken off.

It all came flooding back to him, every detail, every feeling, as if it had been just yesterday.

“It needed furniture,” he told Bailey with a careless shrug.

Bailey looked around again, taking more in. They had only finished building half the ranch house before she’d made her mind up to leave.

“Well, you did a nice job, Wyatt,” she murmured and then added, “Really,” in case he thought she was just mouthing empty words.

Wyatt frowned. His guard was up, but even so he could feel her getting to him.

She always could.

His resolve kicked in. He wasn’t going to allow himself to be set up for another bout of mind-numbing disappointment, he thought fiercely. He’d barely survived the last time and had just gotten to the point where he was breathing regularly.

He couldn’t go through all that again.

He wouldn’t be able to survive it.

His dark blue eyes narrowed as he looked at the woman he had believed would be by his side forever. The joke was on him, he thought bitterly.

In the beginning it seemed as if Fate had purposely thrown them together when he’d left home and embarked on making a name for himself outside the oppressive Colton sphere of interest.

All of his life he’d been overshadowed by his family and his last name. When his father, Russ, wouldn’t allow him to do what he’d wanted to do—insisting instead that his oldest son get a business degree so he could take over the family business—Wyatt had abruptly dropped out of college, left his family and taken to the road.

His father had all but gone into a rage when he’d learned that his firstborn was following the rodeo circuit.

It was on that same circuit that Wyatt had met Bailey-Ann Norton.

A rodeo brat whose father took her with him as he went from town to town, following the circuit, Bailey had never known another life. Eventually she’d become a barrel racer.

Their attraction was immediate and strong, but she hadn’t thought there was any serious commitment on his part. That hadn’t happened until Wyatt had learned his beloved grandmother had died, leaving him a sizable amount of land right outside of Roaring Springs, Colorado.

It seemed like an omen, the next step in his desire to make something of himself apart from his father’s almighty influence. Tired of the aches and pains he’d accumulated as a bull rider, Wyatt decided to change his plans—again. He’d asked Bailey to marry him and help him create a home and a ranch.

He remembered that Bailey had never looked more beautiful than when she had smiled up at him and cried, “Yes!”

They’d returned to Roaring Springs and started building their home and the ranch he envisioned.

He’d thought things were going well. Obviously he’d thought wrong. A few years into their marriage, Bailey had suddenly left him.

Wyatt felt as if he’d been gut-shot.

It had taken him all this time to get over her, to get on with his life and finally become whole again.

And now she was back!

Why was she here?

It made no sense to him.

He wanted to know. “Did you come back here just to give the place a once-over?” he snapped, a cold edge in his voice.

Bailey’s courage almost failed her then. But she had come this far—she couldn’t just back out now. She had to tell him why she’d sought him out after all this time.

“No,” she answered Wyatt quietly, “that’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why are you here, Bailey?” he demanded.

Bailey took a deep breath, hoping her voice wouldn’t crack. She raised her head slightly, doing her best to look and sound as if she was in command of herself, in command of the moment. She knew that her ex-husband didn’t like displays of weakness. He valued bravery, even in an enemy, which she knew was the way he probably thought of her. At least to start with.

Her dark eyes met his.

You’ve got this, Bailey, she told herself. Her voice sounded as if it was echoing in her head as she answered his question.

“I’m here because I want to have a baby and I want you to be the father.”

Chapter 2

His eyes might not be playing tricks on him but his ears had to be, Wyatt thought. He couldn’t have heard what he thought he’d just heard.

“Say what now?” he asked, unabashedly staring at Bailey.

Wyatt vaguely remembered that when they’d first gotten married they had discussed having children, but they had decided it would be best to wait a few years. At the time he’d felt their energy had to be focused on making a go of the ranch. But, he remembered thinking, they would have plenty of time for kids later.

The subject had never come up again. In the beginning they’d been too busy with the house and the ranch, and then, when there might have been a better time to start a family, Bailey had taken off.

“A baby,” she repeated, her eyes on his. “I want to have a baby, and whatever our differences might be, I still think that you’re the best man I ever knew and I want you to be the father.”

Wyatt was attempting to process the words he had just heard. Moving like a man who couldn’t quite feel his legs, he walked farther into the sprawling living room and sank onto the comfortably worn leather sofa. Once sitting, he indicated that Bailey should sit on the sofa, as well.

When she did, only then did he speak.

“Just like that?” Wyatt asked her, astonished. “I don’t hear from you for six years and then you walk back into my life, telling me you want me to be the father of your baby?” Even as he said the words out loud he couldn’t quite believe this was happening. Bailey had always been so levelheaded, so sensible, and this was a totally irrational request. “Why?” He wanted to know. “Isn’t there anyone else around?” he demanded.

“I don’t want just ‘anyone,’” Bailey told him softly. “I want you.”

It couldn’t be as simple as that. There had to be something more to it, he thought. Something she wasn’t telling him. He frowned. “Assuming I believe you—”

“You should,” Bailey interjected. Why would he think she was lying? She’d never lied to him before, she thought defensively.

“Assuming I believe you,” Wyatt deliberately repeated. “Why a baby now, all of a sudden?”

Bailey took a breath before answering. She supposed he had a right to know.

None of this, including coming out here, had been easy for her. She wasn’t the type who asked for favors. On the contrary, she had always gone out and gotten whatever she wanted or needed all by herself.

But this time was different. This time she couldn’t be the lone wolf. She needed help.

“Because I’m running out of time,” Bailey confessed.

That was twice he’d been caught off guard in the space of less than ten minutes.

“You’re dying?” Wyatt asked in a hushed, stunned voice as he stared at her in disbelief. Bailey had always been so bright, so lively. He couldn’t begin to imagine her being felled by some sort of terminal disease.

“No,” Bailey quickly answered, wanting to correct any misimpression he might have gotten. “I’m not dying. But my chances of getting pregnant are.”

She looked pretty healthy to him, Wyatt thought, confused. He shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

Why couldn’t he just say yes to her request? Why did he need this all spelled out for him?

“This isn’t easy for me to talk about,” Bailey told him, wanting to beg off from making any elaborate explanations.

“Take your time,” he told her. “You came out all this way to talk to a man you turned your back on, so this has to be important to you,” he surmised, waiting for her to speak up.

Bailey didn’t know if he was being incredibly sensitive or if he was just being sarcastic. Either way, she knew she was going to have to ride this out and answer his question. Wyatt was her only hope and that meant she had to make him understand so that he would agree to father this baby.

Taking a deep breath, she plunged into the explanation she was afraid he would find as embarrassing as she did. Or at the very least, confusing.

But there was no way around it.

“My cycles have always been inconsistent...” she began, her throat feeling particularly dry.

“Cycles?” Wyatt questioned, not really sure what she was talking about.

Okay, she’d state it another way, Bailey thought, still trying to be delicate about her explanation. “My time of the month.”

The light suddenly dawned on Wyatt. “Oh.” He avoided her eyes as he said, “Go on.”

She started to get more technical. It felt somehow less embarrassing that way. “I found out that was caused by polycystic ovarian syndrome.”

“Okay,” he said only because he wanted her to get on with it so that they could get to the end of all this. He was a horse breeder and didn’t understand terms that weren’t directly involved with the care and breeding of his herd.

She could tell by the way Wyatt had just said “okay” that he didn’t understand what she was telling him. Bailey tried again. “Because of that condition—it’s called PCOS—my getting pregnant becomes harder and harder the older I get.”

“You’re just in your midthirties,” Wyatt pointed out.

She took that to mean that she’d finally gotten through to him and he was starting to understand her dilemma.

“Exactly,” she cried, nodding her head. “That means it’s now or never if I want to have a baby.”

Bailey searched his face to see if Wyatt was still following her or if he’d lost interest. But he looked as if he was waiting for her to go on. So, taking heart, Bailey continued, doing her best to play on his sympathies.

“I have wanted a child of my own ever since I was a kid. A child I could love. A child I could give the kind of emotional support and material things to that I never had when I was growing up.” She paused for a moment, turning on the sofa to look into his eyes. To appeal to him. “But I need you to make that happen.”

Wyatt was having trouble wrapping his head around what she was telling him. He kept coming back to the fact that she was the one who had walked out on him, not the other way around. She was the one who had sent the divorce papers. She’d obviously wanted nothing more to do with him then, and now here she was, asking him to make a baby with her.

It just didn’t add up.

“What changed your mind?” He measured out the words slowly.

He’d lost her. “I don’t understand,” she told him.

“Well, you didn’t seem to want to stay with me six years ago,” Wyatt reminded her, “so what’s changed?”

“Nothing.” That wasn’t strictly true, she thought, so she rephrased her statement. “At least, not my opinion of you,” she amended. Because she could see that she’d managed to further confuse him, Bailey tried again. “I didn’t marry you because you were a Colton or because you’d suddenly inherited your own ranch. I married you because you were a good, decent man.”

He waited for that to make sense to him. When it didn’t, he asked, “If that’s true, if that’s how you felt, why did you leave?”

Bailey shook her head. There was no point in going into all that now. She wasn’t here to fix a broken marriage with a man she couldn’t forget. She was here to try to salvage something for her future.

“That’s complicated.”

“And yet you thought it was worthwhile to come back,” he said, mystified.

And then she realized why he was confused, why he was holding back.

“I came back just to get pregnant,” she explained. “I’m not planning on staying once that happens,” she assured him, thinking he was worried he was going to be saddled with her, at least until the pregnancy was over. “You don’t have to worry. I’ll be out of your hair the moment I know that you were successful getting me pregnant.”

“Even breeding horses involves more romance than this,” Wyatt told her.

“I’m not looking for anything from you except your ‘donation,’” Bailey said, trying to get her point across to him while attempting to resist his sexy gaze. “You won’t be on the hook for child support or any sort of money at all. Really,” she emphasized.

Wyatt looked as if he had his doubts about what she’d just said. “If that’s the case, just how do you plan on taking care of this baby if and when I say yes and you do get pregnant?”

“I can take care of us,” Bailey answered.

“I asked you how,” Wyatt repeated, still waiting for a concrete answer that made sense to him.

She hadn’t planned on opening up her life to him once again, but now it seemed that she had to...but she refused to let him break her heart again.

“Do you remember when I told you I wanted to become a veterinarian?” she asked.

It had been one of the reasons why she’d finally left him. Because becoming a veterinarian had always been a dream of hers and he had asked her to put it on hold for him until after they got the ranch up and running.

Just as he’d asked her to hold off on having babies. Everything she’d wanted, everything that had meant anything to her, he’d asked her to put on hold—until she felt as if all of her was on hold in deference to him.

“Judging from the look on your face, you don’t remember,” Bailey concluded. “Well, I did it.” She saw him raise a quizzical eyebrow. He still wasn’t following her, she thought. “I became one,” she told him. “I became a veterinarian and started up a small practice of my own. That means that I’ll be able to pay for this baby when he or she arrives.”

Bailey took a breath then continued. “So, as I said, all I need from you is your ‘donation.’” She held her breath as she nervously searched his face. “What do you say?”

Wyatt remained silent for a while, as if honestly considering her question and thinking it over. But when he spoke, it wasn’t to give her an answer, positive or otherwise.

“I don’t know, Bailey,” he told her. “This is a big decision.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” she pointed out, trying not to sound as frustrated as she felt. She hadn’t come all this way to hear him turn her down. “Men have one-night stands all the time. You could think of it that way. Or you could think of it as making love to an old girlfriend for old times’ sake.”

“But you weren’t my girlfriend,” Wyatt pointed out, his eyes narrowing. “You were my wife.”

Bailey shrugged, shoving down the emotions threatening to overwhelm her. “Same thing.”

Wyatt shook his head. “Not really. There’s a big difference.”

She squared her shoulders, bracing herself for the answer she didn’t want from the man she’d never forgotten. “So it’s no?” she asked, too disappointed to try to hide her reaction.