The Rancher's Baby Proposal Read online

  “I think,” she said slowly, “he will come around and open up with me. If we have enough time. But now I want something else, too.”

  Yes, she liked the idea of helping Reagan get comfortable with her. But even more, she liked the idea of what she had just told Tina. “One day, I do want to settle down, and that was as big a surprise to me as it was to you. Meanwhile, I think The Girl Most Likely needs to find out what else she can learn about herself.

  “We were right this morning, chica. I like my bright colors and flashy jewelry and being a drama queen. Sometimes. But it couldn’t hurt to try something different. Maybe for the chance to see how Reagan will react,” she admitted. Then she added truthfully, “But right now, I’m curious about trying something different just for me.”

  * * *

  REAGAN HADN’T SPENT much time in the Cantina in the summer between graduating high school and then leaving for college. Yet the minute he stepped foot inside the place again, he noted many things he could have described from memory. The long bar with its polished wood top and row of round, padded swivel stools. The mirror spanning the wall behind the bar, with rows of liquor bottles lined up and reflecting against the glass. The pool table in one corner and dance floor in another, with the jukebox in between, blasting out a country song.

  He thought of the dances in the high school gym and the times he’d seen Ally here at the Cantina with one kid or another from school. She sure loved to dance.

  He didn’t want those thoughts or the images that came with them. If he had his choice, he wouldn’t think of her at all.

  Knowing the trip tonight would revive some memories, he couldn’t say exactly what had brought him here.

  It wasn’t for the beer, since he was drinking club soda. He didn’t intend to have alcohol, as he had just dropped Sean off at Mrs. B’s and soon would be driving back home with him to the ranch. He was glad the woman had her evening free and was willing to watch his son for a couple of hours.

  He hadn’t come here for conversation. He had Sean to chat with at home, though he had to admit the baby wasn’t much of a talker. Not like someone else he knew.

  He wasn’t here even for companionship. He’d had that at the ranch, too. But he’d given up the chance to have...a good time... To be with someone who would...someone who might...

  Dang. Face it, already.

  Sure, he was interested in Ally. Because he hadn’t had sex for way too long. That’s what it was. That’s all it was.

  Maybe if he kept telling himself that, he’d eventually believe it.

  Frowning down at his mug, he finally and reluctantly admitted it was thoughts like those that had driven him from the house. Had sent him looking for a distraction. Right now, he needed someone he knew to walk through the doors of the Cantina.

  After what seemed like weeks, someone did.

  Cole Slater raised his hand in greeting. After grabbing a beer at the bar, he headed toward Reagan’s booth as if they had made plans to meet here. Reagan sighed in relief. If anybody could carry a conversation, it was Cole.

  “Expecting someone?” the man asked.

  Reagan had to swallow a laugh. “Nope.” He shook his head and gestured with his soda mug at the empty half of the booth. “All yours.”

  “Good.” Cole slid onto the bench seat. “Mitch is getting off duty soon and stopping in for a quick one.”

  He nodded. At the Hitching Post on Sunday, he had learned Mitch Weston, another of his friends from school, was now a deputy sheriff in Cowboy Creek and married to Jed’s middle granddaughter, Andi.

  “We didn’t get to talk much at dinner the other afternoon,” Cole said. “Family suppers are great—and when you get all Jed’s gang together, it’s a big family. And a long dining room table.”

  “Yeah, it was.” And good luck or bad, he’d wound up sitting next to Ally.

  “Expect a call from Jed about a barbecue at the ranch. Meanwhile, what’s been going on with you?”

  He filled Cole in about earning his degree in Houston, then making the move to San Antonio for the new job and finally returning to Cowboy Creek to get his folks’ place ready to sell. “If I can find a buyer, that is. Jed’s asking around, but I haven’t had any takers yet.”

  “You’re selling the place?” Cole sounded surprised. But then, he worked for Jed and probably wouldn’t mind having a spread of his own. And like any good wrangler, he wouldn’t understand how a man could willingly give up the chance to own land.

  Reagan didn’t understand how, tonight, he could have willingly passed up—

  “First I heard of you putting your place on the market,” Cole said.

  He forced his thoughts back to the here and now. And his future. “Yeah? You interested?” Maybe he could cut a deal tonight and be on his way home with Sean tomorrow. Except that, even with the work he’d done this afternoon going through closets and boxes upstairs at the house, he hadn’t made a dent in all the stuff his parents had stored there. To tell the truth, he hadn’t worked with full concentration. His thoughts had kept drifting to...other things.

  Besides, he didn’t mind going through years of accumulated household stuff. It was what would come after that bothered him. He’d have to sort through his parents’ personal belongings, items he couldn’t just cart up and have hauled away. As little as he liked the idea, he would have to face all those memories.

  Cole shook his head. “Thanks, but I’m not looking to move. I’m more than happy to be where I am now. And Tina and I finally have the apartment at the hotel all fixed up. You’ll have to come by.”

  “If I’m still here.” Something Cole had said finally hit him. He frowned. “You hadn’t heard I was selling the ranch? Jed didn’t say anything?”

  “Not to me.”

  “Have you been away from Cowboy Creek?”

  “Not lately.”

  The idea flashed through Reagan’s head that Jed might not have said anything to anyone about the ranch being on the market. But what would the man have to gain by that? He pushed the thought away.

  “Speaking of being gone,” Cole said, “you left out a few items in your itinerary. Somewhere along the line, you managed to acquire a baby.”

  “Yeah.”

  Cole raised an eyebrow.

  Cowboy Creek High wasn’t that big. Though they’d been at different grade levels, he and Cole had shared some classes, played sports together and had always been friends in school. Close enough friends that Reagan knew if he said nothing, he could expect Cole to follow up with a question. “Ex-girlfriend,” he explained. “Things didn’t work out, and I got custody of my son.”

  “Any chance of a reunion? As I can attest, sometimes circumstances change. Or people do.”

  “Not in this situation.”

  Cole nodded. “I’m betting you mentioned some of this to Jed.” He laughed. “He’s probably got you next on his list.”

  “List?”

  “To match you up with someone, the way he did with me and Tina...and Mitch and Andi...and the matchmaking successes go on.”

  He shook his head. “No thanks. Not interested. It’d be a waste of his time. Besides, he knows I’m leaving soon.”

  “That won’t stop Jed. I’ll bet that’s why he invited you and Wes Daniels to dinner on Sunday. And why Tina asked Ally.” Shaking his head, he laughed again. “They’re best friends, but they couldn’t be more different. And I sure can’t see Ally hooked up with either of you guys, considering she doesn’t want anything to do with kids.”

  “She doesn’t?”

  “Nope. She’s always been up front about that.”

  Cole took his empty mug and went to the bar for a refill.

  Reagan frowned. Ally had sure been up front with him about some things. But what Cole had just said about her not liking kids...that
didn’t seem like the Ally he knew, the one who was taking such good care of his son.

  He thought back to what Jed Garland had said to him on Sunday.

  A boy always needs his mama.

  Right now, Sean was too young to notice, but he’d soon grow old enough to realize he didn’t have a mother.

  He and his son had already lived through one woman deserting them. He wouldn’t have his boy become attached to a string of women who wouldn’t become part of his life. And that’s what had started all his thinking, his talking, his reacting last night. He had woken up on the couch and seen Sean cuddling much too comfortably against Ally.

  He took a swig of club soda and set his mug down so hard, he thought he’d cracked it. He wasn’t going to fall for the woman just because she had won his son’s affections. He wasn’t going to fall for the woman at all.

  Chapter Eleven

  Ally took a seat at one of the little round tables in SugarPie’s and smiled at Tina. After her friend’s tea and sympathy at the Hitching Post and her own announcement about wanting to learn something new about herself, they had looked at each other and said in one breath, “Shopping trip!”

  Now she pleaded, “Don’t let me go crazy over the desserts, chica, or I won’t fit into my new clothes.”

  Layne arrived and took their order, then eyed the department store bags Ally had left on an extra chair. “Looks like somebody went a little wild tonight.”

  Ally laughed. “No, just the opposite, actually.” When Layne went back to the kitchen, Ally turned to Tina. “No flowers, no flounces, no bright colors. It’s a good thing I didn’t wear any of those clothes home from the store. Mama and Papa wouldn’t have recognized me when I walked in the door.”

  “You know that’s not true. And everything you bought looked great on you, especially that green shirt, the way it brings out your eyes.”

  “I need it to bring out more than that. I need to find a whole new personality.”

  “No, you don’t. Just try being yourself when you’re around Reagan. You’re wonderful just the way you are, and he’ll see that, too.”

  “Thanks, chica.” She could always trust her best friend forever to say something to cheer her up. “I hope I knock his socks off, as Jed would put it. But I was talking about myself again.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She shrugged. “I may have won The Girl Most Likely award in high school, but you and I both know I’ve been playing that role since third grade. It’s like a...well, I was going to say, like a mask, but that doesn’t describe it well enough.” She gestured to the sacks. “It’s more like all these new clothes I bought tonight. I put on my role as easily as I get up and get dressed in the morning. And then at night I go home and take it off with the rest of my clothes. I’ve done that for so long, I don’t even know who I really am any more.

  “We were right this morning, Tina. It couldn’t hurt to try something different. If Reagan likes that someone else, great. If he doesn’t...well, I can’t worry about that right now. After all these years, I think it’s more important to try something different for me.”

  “Then, Reagan or no Reagan,” Tina said, “this is the perfect chance.”

  “I think so. And the clothes are just the beginning.”

  “That’s for sure.” Tina laughed. “Our stop at the drugstore was a trip down memory lane, wasn’t it?”

  “It was.” Ally reached for that smaller sack and set the two items she took from it onto the table. “Look at this. Light pink blush and clear lip gloss and that’s it. My face will be more naked than the day I was born.”

  Even as Tina laughed, she shook her head. “Stop, Ally.”

  “Okay. But after all, this is the same look I wore in junior high. Actually, as attached as I am to my makeup case, I have to say I think I’m going to like the change.”

  “Permanently?”

  “Hey, let’s not get crazy. When I go out to party at the Cantina with the girls, I’ll still need to play the role.” She winked. “After all, I owe it to everyone who voted to give me that award.”

  * * *

  “I’M RUNNING LATE,” Ally announced as she entered the kitchen at home the next morning.

  Mama stood at the sink. Papa already sat at the table, eating breakfast.

  She glanced at the clock on the stove. How she could possibly be late when it had taken a half minute to do her makeup this morning, she didn’t know. Maybe it had something to do with all the daydreaming she had done in the shower...

  “I shouldn’t have stayed out so late last night at SugarPie’s.”

  “And then a call from Tina?” Mama asked with her back still to Ally. “You waited for her to let you know she got home all right?”

  “Of course.” They always checked in with each other on nights Ally drove back to town from the Hitching Post or Tina returned home, although Tina, especially, was used to driving on the long, dark stretches of road.

  Ally wondered if she would ever have a need to get used to that.

  Right now, though, she needed to focus on getting to work. “I’m just going to drop a slice of bread into the toaster and eat it on the run.”

  Her mother turned from the sink, ready to protest, Ally knew. Instead, she looked her up and down. “What’s this, querida?”

  “It’s the new me,” she said, holding her hands up and twirling slowly, the way she had done when she’d shown off her dress to Sean. “Do you like it?”

  “What’s wrong with the regular you?” Papa demanded.

  “Hush,” Mama said. “Every girl likes a change once in a while. You look very nice in that shirt and slacks. Although very different without any jewelry... Well, sit. Your eggs have been keeping hot on the stove. And if you show up ten minutes late, it would be the first time in all the years you’ve worked there. They won’t fire you.”

  “That is true. I’m nothing if not dependable, right?” She wished for the first time in those five years that she could play hooky from the day job. She would much rather be working her second job out at the ranch with Sean. And Reagan.

  As if Mama had read her mind, she asked, “And how was Sean yesterday? I saw Nan at the club meeting last night, and she said he was a bit fussy with his bottle.”

  “He was fine when I was there.” She recalled how he had reached out to her. Of course, she knew he was too little to give her a hug, but still, her throat tightened at the memory. Maybe someday...if he were still here...

  Mama left the kitchen, and Ally carried her plate to the table.

  Papa took his turn to look her over. “I would ask if you’re getting yourself all dolled up for some boy, but I guess that doesn’t apply since you’re all dolled down.”

  She laughed and kissed the top of his head. “No, not for some boy. Not for some man, either. This new look is for me.” And to her surprise, just as she had said to Tina last night, she liked it.

  She had restrained her wild curls and put on her minimal makeup and worn the blouse Tina had said brought out her eyes. It was a totally different look, but one she could easily see herself wearing again and again. She looked down at her bare arm and frowned. Mama had noticed the missing bracelets right away, and she had to admit her arm felt bare without them.

  One bangle bracelet...or maybe two...wouldn’t have hurt.

  Mama returned to the kitchen carrying a long white box. “Ally, I have just the thing for your new look.” She removed the lid and held out the box.

  After one glance at the delicate gold chain that had belonged to her beloved abuela, Ally let out a gasp of pleasure. Then she immediately shook her head. “That’s your favorite bracelet, Mama! I can’t wear that to the store. What if I broke it?”

  “You can keep it in your locker until you finish work.” Mama covered the box again and set i
t on the counter beside Ally’s shoulder bag.

  “All right,” she agreed. “I can do that. Thanks.”

  She glanced again at the covered box. Not that she was the least bit superstitious, but...

  She sincerely hoped the family heirloom would bring her good luck.

  * * *

  FIGHTING SOME UNEASINESS, Reagan left his bedroom and went down the stairs. He had heard Ally arrive at the house a short while ago.

  The brief time that had passed between the sounds of her car door closing and her footsteps going back and forth in the kitchen had told him she’d gone directly inside. She couldn’t have known he wasn’t in the barn, as usual. Normally, she stopped by there first to give him a chance to see his son.

  This change in her routine had to be a sign she was still upset about what had happened—and hadn’t happened—between them yesterday.

  He needed to man up and get any awkwardness about that over with.

  As he strode along the downstairs hall, he made sure his boots hit hard against the wooden floor. He didn’t want to startle her.

  The only sound he heard from the kitchen was the splash of running water. No radio playing. No Ally humming along to the music or talking to Sean.

  She stood at the sink, faced away from him. Her hair hung in one long braid down her back, the curls tamed at the top by a silver clip and at the bottom by a ribbon tied in a small bow. First time he’d seen it that way since grade school.

  He smiled, imagining her surprise if he tugged on the ribbon.

  Not gonna happen. Nothing was going to happen between them. At the reminder, he curled his fingers into a fist.

  She shut off the faucet and moved over to set something on the counter.

  With the water running, she probably hadn’t heard his boots. He cleared his throat.

  She turned, saw him and gave him a brief smile. Cool, impersonal. Nothing like he’d gotten used to seeing. “Hi. I didn’t know you were in the house. Sean’s asleep. I was going to bring him to see you a bit later. I just wanted to take care of this.” She gestured to the counter and stepped aside.