Читать книгу Wanted: Texas Daddy - Cathy Gillen Thacker - Страница 9
ОглавлениеFour months later
Nick put the closed sign on the door of Monroe’s Western Wear and turned back to Sage.
Wheat-gold hair swept up into an untidy knot on the back of her head, her face glowing with the unmistakable light of happiness and maternal good health, she looked more gorgeous than he had ever seen her.
But the time for avoiding this conversation was over.
He walked through the rustic interior of the store, his attitude as stern as hers was stubborn. “Enough of this evading, Sage. We have to tell people.” The sooner the better, as far as he was concerned.
Sage ducked her head to avoid meeting his gaze, and continued sorting through the stack of women’s jeans. “In a couple of weeks,” she murmured, zeroing in on another size up from her normal.
He resisted the urge to direct her over to the small but well-outfitted area containing denim maternity wear. Settling with his back against the heavy wood display rack, so she would have no choice but to look at him, he asked, “You really think you can keep hiding this?”
Her lower lip thrust out into a kissable pout. “The chef’s coat and colorful aprons have worked so far.”
Actually, Nick thought, his gaze sliding down her newly voluptuous body, they hadn’t. It wasn’t just the waist and hips of the garment that were snug—the double row of buttons over her newly luscious breasts were so tight, they threatened to pop off.
Deciding, however, that might not be the best thing for him to point out, he merely inclined his head. “Your family has been giving me looks.”
“So?” She shrugged again. “They give everyone they think has designs on me looks.”
Not, he thought, the kind of looks they’d been giving him. He cleared his throat, regarded her severely, tried again. “Sage...”
She started to dart past him, then stopped, spying a Bullhaven Ranch pickup truck parking in one of the slanted spaces in front of the store. Her pretty mouth dropped into an O of surprise.
“Oh, heck!” she swore, darting off in the opposite direction toward the back of the store. “There’s Chance!” She ducked through the curtain that led to the storeroom, calling over her shoulder. “If he asks, I’m not here!”
Well, this ought to be fun, Nick thought wryly, as a second, then third pickup pulled up next to the first. Three tall men emerged from the driver’s seats. Headed toward the front of the store.
Chance Lockhart peered around the closed sign. Gestured. He wanted in. So did his two brothers.
Figuring they may as well get this over with, Nick obliged. Garrett, Wyatt and Chance Lockhart stalked in. Not surprisingly, all three of Sage’s older brothers looked loaded for bear. The only sibling not there was her Special Forces brother, Zane, who was as usual off on assignment. Garrett nodded perfunctorily at Nick. “Monroe.”
This was not looking good. “What can I do for you?” Nick asked.
Wyatt jumped in with a suspicious glare. “For starters, tell us what in blazes is going on between you and Sage.”
“Not sure what you mean.”
Chance squinted. “Are the two of you a couple? Or what?”
It took everything Nick had to suppress a groan. “I imagine Sage would classify us in the ‘or what’ category.”
Garrett’s frown deepened. “Not funny, Monroe.”
“Mom is worried sick,” Chance added.
Lucille Lockhart was a wonderful woman. Kind and generous to a fault. Nick did not want to cause her grief.
“She needn’t be.” He would care for and protect Lucille’s only female child with every fiber of his being.
“Really?” Wyatt demanded, slamming his hands on his waist. “Because from where we’re standing, it looks as if Sage has some pretty big news to share.”
So they did suspect, just as Nick had figured. Pushing aside his irritation that Sage had let it come to this, he said, “Then maybe you should be asking her.”
The brothers’ expressions turned even grimmer. “We have,” Wyatt groused. “She won’t tell us anything.”
Sounded familiar.
Suddenly, he felt sympathy for her family, even as he remained boxed in by his first obligation, which was to Sage. “What do you want me to do?” he demanded impatiently. It wasn’t like he could control Sage. No one could.
“Cowboy up,” Chance said.
Garrett nodded. “Show some responsibility.”
The intimation that he hadn’t stung.
Nick thought about all the times he’d held Sage while she cried—uncharacteristically—over the silliest things. How he’d taken it in stride when she’d fallen asleep, mid-just-about-anything, and/or asked him not to touch her breasts because her nipples were just too sensitive. Surpassed what he really wanted—like sizzling fajitas or a big juicy rare steak—and instead dined on what she was having, even if it was ginger ale and crackers.
Resentment knotted his gut. “How do you know I haven’t been?”
A skeptical silence fell.
Finally, Garrett said, “Have you asked her to marry you?”
Without warning, the curtain behind them was ripped aside. Sage stormed out, temper flaring.
This, too, was par for the course. Since conceiving, her emotions had frequently skyrocketed out of control.
“Whoa, Nellie!” Hormones raging, she marched toward her brothers, shooing them away with both arms. “You guys need to back the heck off!”
Her brothers remained where they were.
And suddenly, Nick knew what had to be done. Whether Sage liked it or not.
“They’re right.” He pivoted back toward her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. “The time for pretending there’s nothing going on with us has passed, darlin’.”
Giving her no chance to protest, he swung back to her three brothers. “Sage is pregnant.” He paused to let the words sink in. Aware in that moment he had never been prouder, or happier. “And the baby is mine.”
* * *
“WELL, THAT WENT BADLY,” Nick admitted, the moment Sage’s brothers had left, more than a little disappointed to find out the two of them had no plans to marry.
“You think?” Sage paced back and forth between the aisles. She’d thought Nick was on her side in this! Fuming, she gave him a sharp look. “Now it’s only a matter of time before they tell Mom I’m pregnant with your child.”
His eyes lit up the way they always did when he knew he’d gotten under her skin. “First of all—” Nick shrugged, as if not sure what the big deal was “—you are pregnant. And your brothers are right—you can’t hide it much longer. So unless you cowgirl up and have that talk with your mother—and soon—they’ll be forced to spill.”
As always, his ultramasculine presence, the sun-warmed leather scent of him, made her feel protected and intensely aware. In an attempt to keep her equilibrium, she kept her distance from him. “That’s not really a comfort to me, Nick.”
He rubbed his hand across his closely shaven jaw, then lazily dropped it again, his eyes never leaving hers. “Hey, I call it like I see it. And for the record, Sage? I’d like to tell my family you’re carrying my baby, too!”
The bell above the door dinged.
Sage moaned, thinking it was probably her brothers, back for Round Two of Convince Sage To Do The Traditional Thing. Instead, the interloper was a gorgeous, elegantly dressed young woman Sage had never seen before.
Nick looked surprised but pleased as he moved to shake the lady’s hand. “MR! What are you doing here? I thought our meeting wasn’t until tomorrow.”
This was the lauded MR? Sage thought in shock. From the way Nick had talked about the venture capital executive, she had imagined someone older and stodgier. Not some auburn-haired beauty sporting stylish black eyeglasses who could double as a Hollywood starlet.
Not that Nick had indicated he had noticed MR’s stunning good looks.
He turned back to Sage, backtracking long enough to make introductions. “Sage, this is MR Rhodes, from Metro Equity Partners. She’s the venture capital exec I’ve been working with. MR, this is—”
“Your fiancée?” the exec guessed tartly.
So she was stodgy after all, considering her disapproving tone as her gaze moved knowingly to Sage’s tummy.
“Ah—” For the first time since the other woman had entered the store, Nick looked flummoxed.
“Baby mama?” MR guessed again, with a candid smile that did not reach her eyes.
The set of Nick’s mouth was suddenly as tense as his shoulders. “Did you want to talk business this evening?” he asked brusquely.
MR got the hint. “Briefly, I do. We’re very close to getting approval from the other partners for the deal you and I have been negotiating.”
A long, slow back and forth of ideas that had been going on as long as Sage had known Nick. “That’s great news!” he said.
MR scowled, suddenly seeming as reluctant and unhappy as Nick had a second ago. “It would be, if you weren’t in the midst of a situation.”
Oh, dear. “Maybe I should leave,” Sage said.
“No.” Nick clapped a possessive hand on her shoulder. He gave her a look that said they had nothing to hide. “You stay.”
Okay, then.
He turned back to MR. “What do you mean by situation?”
MR huffed and looked at Sage as if she were a spoiler. “The plan is to make Nick the public face of the new Western-wear stores. Have him featured prominently in every ad, with personal appearances at every location. But we can’t do that if he’s a deadbeat dad.”
Deadbeat dad? “Nick is not shirking his responsibility,” Sage said hotly.
“I know my partners. They are old-school, family men. There is no way they’re going to go for the new company spokesperson—the brand representative, if you will—having a kid out of wedlock. It’s just not going to happen.” MR looked Nick in the eye. “So unless you want to be trapped here in this one-horse town, in this one-horse store, in perpetuity, the two of you need to get hitched. Pronto.”
Sage turned to Nick in a panic. She didn’t want him to lose everything he had been working so hard to achieve, any more than she wanted to be backed into a corner herself. To her relief, he reached over and gave her hand an understanding squeeze.
“What if we had the rest of my family—my three sisters and brother, and all my nephews and nieces—in the ads?” Nick proposed. “Maybe even use photos of the rest of the Monroe clan. We could go back as far as the store’s beginnings, which is four generations.”
“No. You are the one they want to see in all the ads. And you can see why, right?” MR turned to Sage in full business mode. “He’s like a younger, hotter, tall-dark-and-handsome Ralph Lauren. Our vision and the success of the new venture hinges on Nick’s sex appeal, his image as an upstanding cowboy and devoted family man. And with you pregnant, Sage, regardless of how either of you feel about it, that means marriage. ASAP.”
“We can’t make a decision like that on the fly,” Nick countered.
“Understandable. You all need to talk about it. In the meantime, my assistant, Everett Keller, is checking into the Laramie Inn. We’d like to have dinner locally. So if you could recommend a place with fresh fish. Shrimp. Scallops. Salmon.” MR picked up on Sage’s distaste. “Something wrong?”
Sage shook her head. Nope. Nothing to see here.
But the ever-probing venture capitalist wouldn’t let it go, so Nick placed a comforting hand on Sage’s spine. “Sage got sick on shrimp early in her pregnancy. Just thinking about it makes her ill.”
An understatement if there ever was one. She couldn’t even look at recipes. Never mind photos of the cooked food. And she was a chef! Hopefully, the malady would pass. But for now, a simple whiff made her toss her cookies. Pronto.
“I see,” MR said.
When clearly she didn’t.
Eager to discuss something other than her continuing battle with morning—or in some cases, evening—sickness, Sage wrote down the name of a bed-and-breakfast located a short distance away. “They have an executive chef that’s on par with the best in Dallas, and the menu and wine list to go with. You’ll need reservations. But if you tell them you’re here to do business with Nick and he recommended it, I’m sure they’ll find a way to fit you in this evening.”
“Thanks.” MR looked grateful.
“No problem,” Sage said.
She’d do whatever she could to help Nick.
Short of ruining everything and marrying him, of course.
* * *
“MR IS RIGHT,” Hope Lockhart said, a short time later, when Sage and Nick went over to her brother and sister-in-law’s home. The four of them gathered in the kitchen of the Victorian, while one-year-old Max sat in his high chair and ate his dinner of green beans and diced meatballs.
A crisis manager and public relations expert, Hope had guided the family through several calamities since first meeting them the previous summer. “While there are many customers who won’t care whether you or Nick ever tie the knot, there are others who will be up in arms over it,” Hope told them gently. “You don’t want to lose any potential business right out of the gate. Not if you want this venture to be a success.”
“Think of the plus side,” Garrett added, from his place at the stove. Winking, he gave the boiling pasta and spaghetti sauce another stir. “Mom will be delighted.”
It was all Sage could do not to groan. “Did you all tell her yet?”
Garrett shook his head. “Like we said a while ago at the store, that news is yours to deliver, sis. I just wouldn’t wait too long.”
“Want to do it now?” Nick asked, as he and Sage turned down an invitation to stay for dinner and left.
The sun had set, leaving the quiet residential street bathed in the yellow glow of the streetlamps. Stars shone overhead.
Feeling the need for some support, Sage tucked her hand in Nick’s and rested her chin on the solid warmth of his upper arm. “First, we need to talk about what we’re going to do.”
He caught her other hand and turned her to face him. “I don’t expect you to marry me, Sage.”
But clearly, she thought, it was what he wanted. A simple solution to a very thorny problem. “You heard what MR said. If we don’t, your deal with her firm is likely off.”
Nick shrugged, a distant look coming into his eyes. Sage felt about a million miles away from him. She didn’t like it. In an effort to understand what was going on with him, she asked, “Did you ever tell MR you felt trapped here in Laramie?”
His broad shoulders tensed. “Not in so many words.”
“So she inferred it?”
He nodded curtly.
Which had to mean, she knew Nick pretty well. Pushing aside a surge of unexpected jealousy, Sage gently pushed for more information. “Why would she do that? What did you tell her?” That you haven’t told me?
“When I first approached Metro Equity Partners we talked a lot about the fact that the store, the custom boot-making operation and the ranch have been in my family for four generations. The fact that the women have always run the mercantile operation, the men the ranch.”
“But at some point all that changed.”
“When my mom and dad died in the accident when I was ten, my oldest sister, Erin, took over everything. She sold off all the cattle, but she ran the store.”
“She also raised you and your three older siblings, right?”
Nick nodded gratefully. “Along with her own kids, yeah. But when she married Mac Wheeler and they added a set of twins and another baby to the three they were already raising, Erin needed to take a break from running Monroe’s for a while, and just concentrate on her family life and custom boot-making—which she really loves.” He released a breath. “So at my suggestion, she spun her custom boot-making operation off into a separate business entity, while I took over at Monroe’s. And when she and Mac moved to Amarillo for his work, I put aside my own plans to work for a big corporation in Dallas or Houston, and stepped in permanently to run things here.”
“No one else could do it?”
“It wouldn’t have made sense. I was the business major in the family. My brother, Gavin, studied medicine. My twin sisters, Bess and Bridgett, are both nurses. Plus, the three of them all needed to be closer to the hospital and their patients, so while they got places in town, I moved back to the ranch to take care of the horses, too.”
This was something he rarely talked about. “Doesn’t sound like you had a lot of choice,” Sage said.
He shrugged. “I’m the youngest. It’s my turn. And the way I figure it, a business is a business. And since my goal is to build Monroe’s Western Wear into what it could be—not just what it is—I’m okay with it.”
She understood concessions, because she had made more than a few of her own. Often unhappily. Knowing the kind of resentment that could fester, long-term, she asked, “Would you be okay with losing this venture capital deal because of conditions I put on our arrangement?”
His expression inscrutable, he worked his jaw back and forth. “I’ll find other investors.”
It wasn’t that easy. If it had been, she sensed he would have done this five years ago, when he first took over the family business.
She ignored the quiver, low in her belly, her need to comfort him in a very elemental way. “How long did it take you to interest Metro Equity Partners?”
“Eighteen months or so.”
Which, Sage knew, could feel like a lifetime when you weren’t getting what you wanted. She couldn’t bear to see him disappointed. Not when she was getting everything she wanted—primarily, his baby. “It’s unacceptable for you to have to go back to square one,” she told him firmly.
“It’s just the way it is.” Shouldering the burden stoically, he exhaled. “After all, we’re not talking pennies here.”
She recalled what he had shared with her of the proposal, thus far. “We’re talking six additional stores, opened two months apart, over the course of a year. We’re talking about the many years of work you’ve already put in on this business plan, which is...”
“Four, give or take.”
“Four years.” Sage shook her head in silent remonstration, more determined than ever to make him as happy as he’d made her. “You’re not giving that up. And you’re especially not giving that up on account of me. Got it?”
She tapped his sternum with her index finger.
Vowing softly, “They want you married? We’ll get married. ASAP. And it doesn’t have to change a thing.”
* * *
BUT, OF COURSE, Sage quickly learned, matrimony changed everything, in the blink of an eye. Not only was her mother—who’d been frankly disapproving about Sage’s initial plans to have a baby on her own via artificial insemination—delighted to hear that Sage was carrying Nick’s child, she was even happier when she learned that her daughter was planning to marry him right away.
“That’s wonderful news!” Lucille said, tears shimmering in her eyes as she hugged them both. “But, pregnant or not, you need to do this right—”
Meaning have a big fancy wedding, Sage thought in consternation.
“—and make this a special day reflective of your enduring love for each other,” Lucille finished firmly.
Except, she thought with a wince, that would make the nuptials feel real, and she and Nick knew they weren’t.
At least not the way her mother was assuming, since she hadn’t told Lucille why they were suddenly heading to the altar. And she had made Hope and Garrett promise they wouldn’t, either.
“If you want me to call my event planner,” Lucille continued, already reaching for her phone, “I’ll get right on it.”
Sage gently touched Lucille’s forearm. “Actually, Mom, I think Nick and I want to make all the decisions ourselves.”
“All right,” her mother conceded, smiling at Sage’s rounded tummy. “But if you, or Nick, or the baby need me—”
“We know where to find you,” she promised.
“Well, that went okay,” Nick said, when they left the Circle H Ranch.
Sage savored the intimacy of being alone with Nick. She loved the steadfast way he always backed her up. “Mom’s always up for more grandchildren.” There were four now, and with two of her four siblings married, another engaged, hints of more to soon be on the way.
Looking as if he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, Nick drove the country roads with the same masculine ease he did everything else. “This is going to work out,” he told her reassuringly, then took her hand and kissed the back of it.
Tingling all over for no reason she could figure, Sage looked over at him. “Are you sure you don’t feel trapped?”
He dropped his hold on her hand. “No.” Steering the car over to the berm, he put it in Park and turned to look at her. His glance sifted slowly over her face, lingering on the flush in her cheeks and her bare lips, before returning slowly to her eyes. Sage caught her breath. As their gazes locked, he rubbed a strand of her hair between his fingers. The corners of his lips curved upward. “Do you?”
Insides quivering, Sage took a moment to consider. At times like this, all she wanted to do was make love with him. Maybe because that was the one place where they felt the closest.
“Yes. No. I don’t know?” she said honestly at last, meeting his playful smile with one of her own. Taking off her seat belt, she moved to wrap her arms around his broad shoulders and kiss him. “But if this will help you make all your business dreams come true,” she promised tenderly, wanting to give him as much as he had given her, “I’m all for it...”
“Good to know,” Nick replied, a sexy rumble emanating from his broad chest. Taking her all the way into his arms, he covered her mouth with his own. And though she had promised herself she would keep their relationship in the friends-with-benefits category, it was darn near impossible to hold back the rush of feelings inside her as she melted into his embrace. He kissed her like there was no tomorrow. Only today. Like the future would always belong to them if only she had the courage to see where the relationship between them led.
And for the moment that was enough.
More than enough, she thought wistfully. Their plans to keep their nuptials simple, and under their control, quickly went out the window, however, when they met with MR late the next morning.
“You need a big, splashy, over-the-top romantic wedding. With plenty of photos we can release to the press later, if need be. And we need to get it done in three days,” the venture capital exec said.
To help with that, MR had summoned her assistant, Everett Keller, a nerdy-looking young man who was clad in spit-shined wing tips, neatly pressed slacks with suspenders and a starched purple shirt with a wildly patterned bow tie. He hovered nearby, taking notes on an electronic tablet.
Sage’s eyes widened in shock. “There’s no way we can pull together a wedding in that time frame!”
Nor would she want to do so.
MR arched a perfectly plucked brow. “There is if I call in every favor I’m owed, and you all and your families do the same and we have it at Nick’s ranch.” She paused to let her words sink in while Everett typed furiously. “Saturday evening is perfect.”
Sage and Nick exchanged exasperated looks.
Neither of them liked being railroaded into anything, and MR was being awfully pushy about what was, in the end, a very personal matter.
“Let me put it another way,” the elegant redhead stated bluntly. “The partners meet on Monday to hear the presentation and vote on whether or not to fund the initial phase of Nick’s proposal. I can’t delay the vote on this project without explaining to them why. If I do that, and you’re still not married, it’s over. Done. On the other hand, if you’re married, and wildly in love and expecting a baby, it’s not really going to matter. So you decide. You want it done by Saturday evening? Or not?”
Sage looked at Nick.
Once again he wore that poker face. But just for a second, she had seen that flash of disappointment in his eyes. The look he evidenced every time he hit a roadblock in his plans to expand Monroe’s Western Wear. It was the same look she’d had whenever her own dreams of having a baby incurred another snafu. The one her ex had worn whenever she talked about getting engaged, when Terrence was perfectly content with things the way they were. She was not going to be the reason for Nick’s unhappiness the way she had been with her ex’s.
“We’ll do it,” she said, forcing herself to match MR’s enthusiasm. She turned to Nick, took both his hands in hers and squeezed fiercely. “Just promise me one thing.” She looked deep into his eyes. “All of this won’t damage our friendship.” Because she didn’t think she could live without that.
“Come on now, darlin’.” He gave her a long, searing look, then wrapped an arm around her shoulders and leaned forward to buss the tip of her nose. “You and I both know I would never let that happen.”
She heaved a sigh of relief.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Everett Keller pause in bemusement. Like he couldn’t believe he had to stand around and witness this. MR had an intense, watchful expression on her face, too. Almost as if she were waiting for a time bomb to go off.
Sage hoped it wasn’t Nick.
Splaying both her hands across his broad chest, she relaxed into his easy embrace. Met his eyes. He seemed to be taking this all in stride. But was he really? She drew a deep breath, warned, “Preparing for a wedding, even in a normal amount of time, can be really stressful.”
She only had to recall Terrence’s reaction to their brief engagement to know that.
Nick nodded. Still appearing confident, unperturbed.
So, why, Sage wondered, was she suddenly completely on edge?
Again, MR observed the emotion simmering just beneath the surface and stepped in to assist. “That’s why Everett and I are here,” she soothed. “Not just to help but to make sure that absolutely everything goes according to plan. I promise you both...this is one wedding that will go off without a hitch.”
