style="font-size:15px;"> “We can go to your place tomorrow and get whatever you need.” His expression turned serious. “I really want this opportunity for us, Jessie. Please say you’ll stay.”
She might have had a chance if he had been demanding or insistent. But the sincere tone of his voice and the hopeful look in his eyes were impossible to resist. Maybe she needed this test to prove to herself that they could raise their child together without her falling into bed with him again.
“All right, I’ll arrange to take the time off and stay until the weekend after Thanksgiving,” she heard herself say. “But only on one condition.”
“What’s that, darlin’?” he asked, lowering his head to brush her lips with his.
“I don’t want any pressure from you about getting married,” she stated flatly as she backed away from him.
“I promise.”
“I’m only here for you to prove to me that you’re sincere about wanting this baby as much as I do and to work out custody and visitation.” As an afterthought, she added, “And just for the record, at night I’ll be staying in one room and you’ll be staying in another.”
Standing with his brothers at the makeshift bar his hired men had constructed for the party, Nate was only half listening to the conversation about his brother’s rodeo stock company and the bucking bulls he owned that had been selected for the National Finals Rodeo. He was too busy watching Jessie. She was as cute as a button in the girl garden-gnome costume that Bria had picked up for her to wear to the party. She’d had to leave the vest off because it was too formfitting, but the white apron over her full red skirt hid her rounded stomach just fine.
Seated on a bale of hay, Jessie was listening attentively to his two nephews Seth and little Hank jabber about their new ponies. He could tell by the way she smiled at the little boys going on about riding their “horsies” that she loved kids. When his niece Katie toddled over to her, Jessie picked up the baby girl to sit on her lap without a moment’s hesitation. She was going to be a great mom, and he could only hope to be half as good of a dad.
His heart stuttered and he had to take a deep breath to chase away the fear tightening his chest. Just the thought of being a daddy scared the living spit out of him. What if he couldn’t live up to the responsibility? He was a fantastic uncle to his niece and nephews. But that role didn’t carry nearly as much responsibility as being a father. What kind of dad would he be?
His biggest fear had always been that he would turn out to be as negligent and undependable as his and Sam’s father had been. That’s why he’d never really thought about having kids. Hell, he hadn’t even thought about having a wife because of it. But it was all he’d been able to think about for the past twenty-four hours. Could he live up to his responsibilities?
Of the six men he called his brothers, Sam was his only biological sibling and had turned out to be as solid as a rock. He was the exact opposite of their old man, and it gave Nate hope that he would be just as reliable as Sam. But how would he know for sure?
“So what’s up with you, Nate?” T. J. Malloy asked, interrupting Nate’s disturbing thoughts.
“Yeah, this is the first time you’ve asked the little blond to join one of our family get-togethers,” Ryder McClain added, grinning from ear to ear.
“Maybe now that he owns the Twin Oaks Ranch, Nate is finally ready to settle down,” Lane Donaldson speculated as he cradled his infant son in the crook of his arm.
“I’ve got a hundred bucks that says he and Jessie are married by spring,” Sam said, glancing from Nate to Jessie and back. “Yesterday when she called to ask me where she could find you, she sounded pretty determined.”
“Jessie called you and you didn’t tell me?” Nate demanded, glaring at his older brother.
Sam shrugged. “She asked me not to and I told her I wouldn’t. And you know as well as the rest of us about Hank’s number-one rule.”
“Yeah,” Nate said, his irritation fading at the mention of their foster father and the personal code of ethics he had taught the boys in his care. “Break a bone if you have to before you break your word.”
His brothers all nodded in agreement.
Jaron Lambert pulled his wallet from the hip pocket of his jeans, got out a hundred-dollar bill and plunked it down on the top of the bar. “I say Nate and Jessie will be hitched by the middle of this coming summer.”
“I’ve got Christmas,” T.J. said, adding his money to the pool.
“I’ll take Valentine’s Day,” Lane spoke up, putting his hundred with the rest.
Ryder pulled his wallet from the hip pocket of his jeans, then looked him up and down before he slapped Nate on the shoulder. “I’m betting they’ll be married by Thanksgiving.”
Nate shook his head as he listened to his brothers bet on when he and Jessie took a trip down the aisle. It had always been this way with the brothers. From the time they were all placed into the care of their foster father, Hank Calvert on the Last Chance Ranch, the six of them had a betting pool going on just about everything. Of course back then they had all been dirt poor and had nothing better to do than speculate on the next time it rained or which one of them would be the first to win a buckle at one of the junior rodeos they all competed in.
Now that they were all self-made millionaires, instead of betting fifty cents or a dollar, the stakes were a lot higher. These days it was nothing for them to bet a hundred dollars or more on who would be the next one to tie the knot or add to the family with the birth of a baby. But up until yesterday, he hadn’t even considered the possibility that he would be the next one they speculated on or that they would all be right in doing so.
Every time one of them mentioned him getting hitched he felt a twitch at the corner of his left eye. He still couldn’t believe that he was finally willing to take the plunge and get married. It scared the living hell out of him that he might let Jessie and their baby down. But he had a responsibility to both of them and he was going to do everything in his power to live up to what a good husband and father should be.
Focusing on the pile of money on the bar to keep himself from dwelling on all of the what-ifs, Nate shook his head. “While you all waste your time and money, I’m going to ask Jessie to dance.” The kids had abandoned her in favor of playing with a cardboard box someone had left over by the refreshment table, and he decided now might be a good time to find out when she wanted to tell his family about the baby.
He threw his empty beer bottle in the recycling bin at the end of the bar and walked away. He was in enough trouble with her. He didn’t want to add more by telling the guys about her pregnancy before she was ready. And if he stuck around much longer, there was a real possibility of him accidently tipping them off that something was up. If that happened, they would needle him until hell froze over trying to get him to tell them what was going on.
Hiding things from the people who knew you best wasn’t all that easy. That was the only downside he could see about being so close and knowing each other so well. But he wouldn’t have it any other way. He knew he could count on his brothers being there for him no matter what, just as he would be there for them.
“Are
