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
