Читать книгу A Baby Between Friends - Kathie DeNosky - Страница 7

Never at a loss for words, Ryder could only remember a couple of times in all of his thirty-three years that he had been struck completely speechless. At the moment, he couldn’t have managed to string two words together if his life depended on it. Summer asking him to help her have a baby was the last thing he’d expected.

To keep from driving off into a ditch, he steered the truck to the side of the road, shifted it into Park, then turned to gape at the woman seated in the truck beside him. How in the world was he supposed to respond to a request like that? And why the hell was his lower body suddenly indicating that it was up for the challenge?

Shocked, as well as bewildered, his first inclination had been to laugh and ask her who it was she was really considering. But as he searched her pretty face, Ryder’s heart began to thump against his ribs like a bass drum in a high school marching band. He could tell from the worry lines creasing her forehead that she wasn’t joking. She was dead serious and waiting for him to tell her he would father her child.

“I know this comes as a bit of a surprise,” she said, nervously twisting her hands into a knot in her lap. “But—”

“No, Summer,” he said, finally finding his voice. “An unexpected gift or winning a few bucks in the lottery is a surprise. This is a shock that rivals standing in ankle-deep water and grabbing hold of a wire with a few thousand volts of electricity running through it.”

She slowly nodded. “I’m sure it was the last thing you expected.”

“You got that right, darlin’.”

Ryder took a deep breath as he tried to figure out how to proceed. He knew he should ask some questions, but he wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to know first. What made her think that she wouldn’t one day meet the right guy to change her mind about getting married and having the family she wanted? Why had she decided that he was the man she wanted to help her? And how did she figure she was going to get him to go along with such a cockamamy scheme?

“We’re going to have to talk about this,” he said, deciding that he needed time to think. Starting the truck’s engine, he steered it back onto the road. “We’ll stop by the hotel long enough for you to get your things and check out of your room. Then we’ll drive on down to the Blue Canyon.”

“No, I think it would be better if I stay at the hotel instead of your ranch,” she said, her tone adamant. “It might look like we were—”

“Seriously?” He released a frustrated breath as he glanced over at her. “You’re worried about what people might think, but yet you want me to make you pregnant?”

“That isn’t what I’m asking,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t want you to make me pregnant. I’m asking you to put a donation in a cup for a clinical procedure in a doctor’s office.”

Ryder grunted. “Don’t you think that’s splitting hairs? The bottom line is, you’d be pregnant and I’d be the daddy.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t expect you to support the baby or help raise him or her,” she insisted. “My parents left me more than enough money so that I never have to worry about taking care of myself and a child.”

He barely resisted the urge to say a word she was sure to find highly offensive. Did she know him at all? She wanted him to help her make a baby and then just walk away like it was nothing?

Not in this lifetime. Or any other for that matter.

“Summer, we’re going to wait to finish this conversation until after we get to my ranch,” he said firmly. He needed time for the shock of her request—and the irritation that she didn’t want him to have anything to do with his kid—to wear off before he was able to think rationally.

“No, I’d rather—”

“My housekeeper, Betty Lou, will be there with us so you don’t have to worry about how things are going to look,” he stated, wondering why she was so concerned about gossip. It wasn’t like there wouldn’t be plenty of that going around if he lost what little sense he had and agreed to help her—which he had no intention of doing. But he needed to get to the bottom of what she was thinking and why she was willing to risk their friendship to make her request.

He cleared his throat. “You’ll have to admit that what you’re asking of me is pretty massive, and we need to talk it over—a lot. Staying at my ranch until we have to take off for the next rodeo in a couple of days will give us the privacy to do that.”

She didn’t look at all happy about it, but she apparently realized that going to the Blue Canyon Ranch with him was her best chance of getting what she wanted. “If that’s the only way you’ll consider helping me—”

“It is.”

He didn’t want to give her any encouragement or mislead her into thinking he was going to assist her. But he needed to talk to her and make her see that there were other alternatives to have the family she wanted besides going around asking unsuspecting men to help her become pregnant.

She took a deep breath then slowly nodded. “All right. If you won’t consider helping me any other way, I’ll go to your ranch with you.”

They both fell silent for the rest of the drive to the hotel and by the time she gathered her things, checked out and they drove on to the Blue Canyon, it was well past midnight.

“It’s late and I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired,” he said when he turned the truck onto the lane leading up to his ranch house. “Why don’t we get a good night’s sleep, then we can hash this all out after breakfast tomorrow morning?”

She nodded. “I suppose that would probably be best.”

Parking in the circular drive in front of the house, Ryder got out and walked around to open the passenger door for her. “I guess before we go inside I’d better warn you. You’ll need to steer clear of Lucifer.”

“Who’s that?” she asked, looking a little apprehensive.

“Betty Lou’s cat,” he answered, reaching into the back of the club cab for her luggage while she gazed up at his sprawling two-story ranch house.

“Oh, I won’t mind being around him,” she said, turning to smile at him. “I adore animals.”

Ryder shook his head. “You won’t like this one. I’m convinced he’s the devil incarnate.”

“Why do you say that?”

“He barely tolerates people.” Ryder carried her bag to the front door, then letting them into the foyer, turned to reset the security system. “He hisses and spits at everyone who crosses his path, except Betty Lou. And there are times I think she walks on eggshells around him.”

“You get chased by the biggest, meanest bulls the stock contractors can offer on a regular basis…and you’re afraid of a house cat?” she asked with a cheeky grin.

Relieved that the awkwardness that followed her request seemed to have been put aside for the moment, he shrugged as he led her over to the winding staircase. “I know what to expect with a ton of pissed-off beef. But that cat is a whole different breed of misery. He’s attitude with a screech and sharp claws. Sometimes he likes to lurk in high places and then, making a sound that will raise the hair on the head of a bald man, he drops down on top of you as you walk by.” Ryder rotated his shoulders as he thought about the last time Lucifer had launched himself at him through the balusters from the top of the stairs. “He’s sunk his claws into me enough times that I’m leery of walking past anything that’s taller than I am without looking up first.”

“Then why do you allow your housekeeper to keep him?” she asked when they reached the top of the stairs.

He’d asked himself that same question about a hundred times over the past several years—usually right after the cat had pounced on him. “Betty Lou thinks the sun rises and sets in that gray devil. She adopted him from an animal shelter after her husband died and when she took the job as my housekeeper, I didn’t think it would be a big deal for her to bring him along with her. I like animals and besides, I’m gone a lot of the time anyway, so I don’t have to be around him a lot.”

“That’s very nice of you,” she said, sounding sincere. “But it’s your house. You shouldn’t have to worry about being mauled by a cat.”

Ryder shrugged. “I don’t see any reason to be a jerk about it when Lucifer means that much to her. I just try to steer clear of him as much as possible when I do make it home for a few days.” Stopping at one of the guest bedrooms, he opened the door, turned on the light for her, then set her luggage beside the dresser. “Will this be all right? If not, there are five other bedrooms you can choose from.”

He watched her look around the spacious room a moment before she turned to face him. “This is very nice, Ryder. Did you decorate it?”

Her teasing smile indicated that she was awaiting a reaction to her pointed question. He didn’t disappoint her.

“Yeah, right. I just look like the kind of guy who knows all about stuff like pillows and curtains.” Shaking his head, he added, “No, I hired a lady from Waco after I bought the ranch to come down here and redecorate the house.”

“She did a wonderful job.” Summer touched the patchwork quilt covering the bed. “This is very warm and welcoming.”

“Thanks.” He wasn’t sure why it mattered so much, but it pleased him that she liked his home. “I bought it right after I sold my interest in a start-up company my college roommate launched while we were still in school.”

“It must have been quite successful,” she said as she continued to look around.

He grinned. “Ever heard of The Virtual Ledger computer programs?”

“Of course. They have a program for just about every kind of record-keeping anyone could want.” Her eyes widened. “You helped found that?”

He laughed out loud. “Not hardly. I know just enough about a computer to screw it up and make it completely useless. But my roommate had the idea and I had some money saved back from working rodeos during the summers. I gave it to him and he gave me 50 percent of the company. Once it really took off, I sold him my interest in the company and we both got what we wanted out of the deal.” He took a breath. “He has total control of The Virtual Ledger and I have this ranch and enough money to do whatever I want, whenever I want, for the rest of my life.”

“Then why do you put yourself in danger fighting rodeo bulls?” she asked, frowning.

“Everybody has to have something that gives them a sense of purpose and makes them feel useful. Besides, I have to watch out for boneheads like Nate and Jaron.” When she yawned, he turned to leave. “Get a good night’s sleep and if you need anything, my room is at the far end of the hall.”

Her smile caused a warm feeling to spread throughout his chest. “Thank you, Ryder, but I’ll be fine.”

Nodding, he quickly stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind him. What the hell was wrong with him? Summer had smiled at him hundreds of times over the past few years and he had never given it so much as a second thought. So why now did it feel like his temperature had spiked several degrees?

He shook his head as he strode toward the master suite. Hell, he still hadn’t figured out why his arms had tingled where she rested her hands when they danced at the party. And why did the thought of her wanting him to be her baby daddy make him feel twitchy in places that had absolutely no business twitching?

When Summer opened her eyes to the shaft of sunlight peeking through the pale yellow curtains, she looked around the beautifully decorated room and for a brief moment wondered where she was. She was used to awakening in a generic hotel room where shades of beige and tan reigned supreme and the headboard of the bed was bolted to the wall. But instead of spending the night in a hotel as she’d planned, she had agreed to accompany Ryder to his ranch.

Her breath caught as she remembered why he had insisted she come home with him. After weeks of trying to find a way to bring up the subject and ask him to be the donor for her pregnancy, she had worked up her courage and made her request. And his answer hadn’t been “no.” At least, not outright.

He thought they needed to talk it over and although his insistence that they stay at his ranch had made her extremely nervous, she had agreed. She needed to reassure him that she would sign whatever document was needed to ensure that she would be solely responsible for the baby and that he would be under no obligation. She was sure that once he understood that, he would be more inclined to help her.

As she threw back the covers and got out of bed to take a shower, she thought about what Ryder would want to discuss first. He would probably start off with wanting to know why she didn’t feel she would ever meet a man she wanted to marry. Or he might try to convince her that, at the youthful age of twenty-five, she had plenty of time and should wait to make such a life-changing decision.

Standing beneath the refreshing spray of warm water, she smiled. She might not have practiced the way she worded her request as much as she should have, but she was armed and ready with her answers for their upcoming discussion about it. She knew Ryder well enough to know he would try to talk her out of her plans, and she had painstakingly gone over the way she would explain her reasoning and how she would frame the responses she intended to give him. Once he realized that she was completely serious, along with the promise of a legal document relieving him of any commitment to support or help raise the child, surely he would agree.

Anxious to start their conversation, she toweled herself dry, quickly got dressed and started downstairs. Halfway to the bottom of the staircase, she stopped when she came face-to-face with one of the largest gray tabby cats she had ever seen.

“You must be Lucifer,” she said tentatively. From Ryder’s description of the cat, she wasn’t sure how he would react to encountering a stranger in his domain.

She hoped he didn’t attack her as she walked past. But instead of pouncing on her as she expected he might, the cat gazed up at her for a moment, then letting out a heartfelt meow, rubbed his body along the side of her leg.

Reaching down, she cautiously stroked his soft coat. Lucifer rewarded her with a loud, albeit contented purr. “You don’t seem nearly as ferocious as Ryder claimed you were,” she said when he burrowed his head into her palm, then licked her fingers with a swipe of his sand-papery rough tongue.

When Summer continued on down the stairs, Lucifer trotted behind her as she followed the delicious smell of fried bacon and freshly brewed coffee. “Good morning,” she said when she found Ryder seated at the kitchen table.

“Morning.” He rose from his chair as she entered the room, and Lucifer immediately arched his back and hissed loudly at Ryder. “I see he’s still the same happy cat he’s always been,” Ryder said sarcastically as he shook his head. “Would you like a cup of coffee, Summer?”

“Yes, please. It smells wonderful.”

“Just a little cream?” he asked. They had met for coffee so many times over the past few years, he knew exactly how she liked it. Just as she knew he always liked his coffee black.

“Yes, thank you.” She smiled. “You know, I think Lucifer likes me. He rubbed against my leg and let me pet him when we met on the stairs.”

“See, I told you it’s just you he has a problem with, Ryder.” The woman standing at the stove chortled.

“I don’t know why.” He looked as if he might be a bit insulted by her comment. “Most other animals don’t seem to think I’m all that bad of a guy.”

“Maybe you aren’t home enough for him to get used to you,” Summer suggested.

“Whatever.” Shrugging, he walked over to take a mug from one of the top cabinets, then poured her some coffee. “Betty Lou Harmon, I’d like for you to meet my friend, Summer Patterson.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Harmon,” Summer said warmly as the older woman turned from the stove to face her.

“It’s real nice to meet you, too, child. But don’t go bein’ all formal,” the housekeeper groused, shaking her head. “You call me Betty Lou the same as everybody else, you hear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Summer said, instantly liking the woman. With her dark hair liberally streaked with silver and pulled back into a tight bun at the back of her head, her kind gray eyes and round cheeks flushed from the heat of the stove, Betty Lou looked more like someone’s grandmother than a rancher’s housekeeper.

Wiping her hands on her gingham apron, she waved toward the trestle table where Ryder had been seated when Summer entered the room. “You find yourself a place to sit and I’ll get you fixed up with a plate of eggs, bacon, hash browns and some biscuits and gravy.”

“I don’t eat much for breakfast,” Summer confessed, hoping she didn’t offend the woman. She seated herself in one of the tall ladder-back chairs at the honey oak table. “Normally all I have is a bagel or toast and a cup of coffee.”

“Well, you’d better eat a hearty meal this mornin’ if you’re goin’ horseback ridin’ down to the canyon with Ryder,” Betty Lou said, filling a plate and bringing it over to set on the table in front of her.

“We’re going for a ride?” Summer asked, crestfallen. She thought they were supposed to discuss her request.

“I thought I’d show you around the ranch,” Ryder said, nodding as he brought her coffee over to the table. When Betty Lou went into the pantry, he lowered his voice and leaned close to Summer. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk and no one around to overhear the conversation.”

“We could have done that in my hotel room,” she reminded him.

He raised one dark eyebrow as he sat back down at the head of the table. “For someone who is so concerned with appearances, you haven’t thought of the obvious, darlin’.”

Ryder’s intimate tone and the scent of his clean, masculine skin caused her pulse to beat double time. “Wh-what would that be?” she asked, confused and not at all comfortable with the way she was reacting to him.

“How do you think it would look with us being alone in your room for several hours?” He shrugged. “I doubt anyone would be convinced we were just talking or watching television.”

“Oh.” She hadn’t thought of that. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Now eat,” he said, pointing to her plate.

“Aren’t you going to have breakfast?” she asked, taking a bite of the fluffy scrambled eggs.

He took a sip of his coffee and shook his head. “I ate about an hour ago.”

When she finished the last of the delicious food, Summer smiled at Betty Lou when she walked over to pick up the plate. “That was wonderful. Thank you.”

The woman gave her an approving nod. “That should tide you over until you eat the sandwiches I packed for the two of you.”

“We won’t be back in time for lunch?” Summer asked, turning to Ryder. “How far away is the canyon?”

“It’s not that far.” He gave her a smile that made her radiate from within. “But there’s a creek lined with cottonwoods that runs through the canyon, and I thought you might like to have a picnic along the bank.”

“I haven’t done something like that in years,” she said, happy that he had thought of the idea. Going on an outing like the one Ryder suggested was one of the many things she had enjoyed doing with her parents.

“You do know how to ride a horse, don’t you?” he asked. When she nodded, he unclipped his cell phone from his belt. “Good. I’ll call the barn and have my foreman get the horses saddled and ready for us.”

A half hour later as he and Summer rode across the pasture behind the barns, Ryder watched her pat the buckskin mare she was riding. With the autumn sun shining down on her long blond hair, she looked like an angel. A very desirable angel.

He frowned at the thought. They had never been more than friends, and until his brothers started ribbing him about taking her to Sam and Bria’s wedding vows renewal celebration, he had purposely avoided thinking of her in that way. So why was it all he could think about now? Of course, her making her plea last night for him to be her baby’s daddy sure wasn’t helping matters.

“I’m glad you thought of this, Ryder,” she said, distracting him from his confusing inner thoughts. “I love going horseback riding. I used to do it all the time. But after I took the job with the rodeo association, I sold my parents’ farm and all of the horses and I don’t get to ride much anymore.”

“Was there a reason you couldn’t keep it?” he asked. She said she had plenty of money, so that couldn’t be the cause of her selling everything.

She stared off into the distance like the decision might not have been an easy one to make. “With all the travel required for my job, it just didn’t seem practical to hang on to it.”

“I realize you have to arrive in a town a few days before a rodeo in order to get things set up for the media and schedule interviews for some of the riders, but couldn’t you have boarded one of the horses and ridden on the days that you do make it home?” he asked, knowing that was what he would have done.

He could understand her not wanting to hold on to her parents’ home without them being there. It would most likely be a painful reminder of all that she had lost when they were killed. But he didn’t understand her not keeping at least one of the horses if she liked to ride that much.

“I don’t go home,” she answered, shrugging one slender shoulder. “I just go on to the next town on the schedule.”

“You don’t go back to your place on the few days we have off between rodeos?” They normally met up in the next town for the next rodeo and had never traveled together before. It appeared that although they were close friends, there was a lot that they hadn’t shared with each other.

But he still couldn’t imagine going for weeks without coming back to the ranch. Besides Hank Calvert’s Last Chance Ranch, the Blue Canyon was the only place he had ever been able to truly call home. And a home of his own was something he never intended to be without again.

“I…don’t have a place,” she admitted, looking a little sheepish. “I know it sounds bad, but I couldn’t see any sense in paying for the upkeep on my parents’ home or rent on an apartment when I’d only be there a few days out of the month.”

Reaching out, he took hold of the mare’s reins as he stopped both horses. “Let me get this straight. You live out of hotel rooms and you don’t have a place to call your own?” When she nodded, he asked, “Where do you keep your things?”

“What I can’t pack into the two suitcases I take on the road with me, like furniture and family keepsakes, I keep in a storage unit in Topanga, California, not far from where my parents lived.” When he turned loose of the buckskin’s reins and they continued on toward the trail leading down into the canyon, she added, “It’s much cheaper than paying to keep them in an apartment I’d never use.”

Shocked by her revelation, he shook his head. “So for all intents and purposes, you’re homeless.”

“I guess it could be construed that way.” She nibbled on her lower lip a moment as if she might be bothered by it more than she was letting on. “But as long as I’m traveling like I do, I don’t mind.”

“How long have you lived this way?” he asked, still trying to wrap his mind around what she had told him.

“About three years.”

He had been friends with her all that time and not once had he suspected that she lived the life of a nomad. What else was there about her that he didn’t know? And how the hell did she plan on taking care of a baby with that kind of lifestyle?

When they reached the canyon’s rim, they fell silent as Ryder rode the bay ahead of her to lead the way to the meadow below. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her lack of roots. Why did she want a baby when she didn’t even have a home? What was she going to do with the poor little thing, raise it in a series of hotel rooms while they traveled from one rodeo to the next for her job? That wasn’t any kind of a life for a little kid.

Ryder didn’t know what her reasoning was, but he had every intention of finding out. He knew from personal experience that it was important to a kid to have a place to call home.

Leading the way to the spot along the bank that he had in mind for their picnic, he reined in the gelding. “How does this look?”

“It’s great,” she said, stopping the buckskin mare beside his horse. “There’s plenty of shade.” She pointed toward one of the cottonwoods. “And under that tree looks like the perfect place to put the blanket.”

Dismounting the bay, he dropped the reins to groundtie the horse, then moved to retrieve the rolled blanket he had tied to the back of the gelding’s saddle, along with the insulated saddlebags holding their lunch. From the corner of his eye, he watched Summer jump down from the mare’s back and start doing some stretches to loosen up after the ride.

He briefly wondered if she was having muscle cramps, but he quickly forgot all about her possible discomfort as he watched her stretch from side to side, then bend over to touch her toes. Her jeans pulled tight over her perfect little bottom caused his mouth to go as dry as a desert in a drought. When she straightened, then placed her hands on her hips to lean back and relieve pressure on her lower back, he sucked in a sharp breath. Her motions caused her chest to stick out and for the first time since he had known her, he noticed how full and perfect her breasts were.

Ryder muttered a curse under his breath and forced himself to look away. This was Summer. She was his best friend and he’d never thought of her in a romantic light. So why now was he suddenly taking notice of her delightful backside and enticing breasts?

Disgusted with himself, he shook his head and tucking the picnic blanket under his arm, finished unfastening the insulated saddlebags from the bay’s saddle and carted everything over to the spot beneath the cottonwood that Summer had pointed out. His fascination with her feminine attributes was probably due to the fact that he hadn’t been with a woman in longer than he cared to remember—and he’d have to be blind not to notice that Summer was a damned good-looking woman with a set of curves that could tempt a eunuch. He wasn’t at all comfortable thinking of her in that way, but there was no denying it either.

As he set the saddlebags down and unfolded the blanket to spread it out on the ground, he gave some thought to his dilemma. He was a normal, healthy adult male who, like any other man, needed to occasionally get lost in a woman’s softness. Once he got back out on the rodeo circuit, he needed to take a trip to one of the local watering holes in whatever town he was in and strike up a cozy little acquaintance with a woman who wasn’t looking for anything more than a real good time. Maybe then he would stop having inappropriate thoughts about his best friend.