knocked at the door of the saddle shop, her palms sweating. Grady had told her to come around back and park there in the small lot. It was well-lit. She wasn’t afraid of getting mugged.
What was she afraid of?
Seeing Grady again? Feeling the attraction that had tumbled them into intimacy? Here was where it had happened—in his office on the blue-denim couch.
Pushing the images out of her head, she knocked sharply on the door again. There was a dim light inside, a brighter one to the right…in his office.
He opened the door and one look into his deep blue eyes told her he, too, was remembering everything that had happened here. He had coal-black hair that she had run her fingers through. He had broad shoulders that had felt so muscled under her hands. He had a stubbled jaw and that stubble had felt—
“Come on in,” he invited her with a Texas drawl that should have seemed ordinary, but wasn’t.
Her mouth went as dry as the west Texas dirt.
She followed him inside, inhaling the scents of leather, wood, other materials he used for his custom-made saddles. She didn’t pay any attention to the worktables, the bench that Grady had told her his dad had handcrafted for him. Rather she followed Grady into that small lit room.
He went behind his desk and sat in the high-back chair. She didn’t sit in one of the chairs in front of the desk. Instead she stayed standing. “I won’t take up much of your time.”
He leaned back, making the chair squeak. “Take all the time you want. I’m not really thrilled with returning to the bookwork program on my computer.”
To Grady’s right, a cursor blinked on a ledgerlike screen.
There was no point in making small talk. That wasn’t why she had come. “I’m pregnant.”
The two words hung suspended in the air between them.
“Are you saying the baby’s mine?”
She had never imagined he’d doubt that when she told him. “Of course the baby’s yours. You’re the only man I’ve slept with in a year. But if you don’t believe me, then we don’t have anything to talk about.” She turned, ready to leave, almost eager to leave.
But Grady shot out of his desk chair, was around his desk, and grabbing her elbow. “Hold on there. It was just a question.”
Gazing into his eyes, she realized it was a question he’d had to ask. After all, they didn’t know each other.
“We used a condom,” she said lamely, knowing that form of contraception was usually reliable but not foolproof.
Grady sighed and rubbed his hand across his forehead. “Yes, we did, but it was a condom I’ve had in my wallet for a while.”
“It could have broken?”
“Possibly. Or you could have gotten pregnant before I put it on.”
She felt heat crawl into her cheeks. There had been foreplay—teasing foreplay as she’d never experienced before.
Completely aware of his hand on her arm, the tingles dancing up and down, she pulled out of his grasp and had to make something clear. “I don’t want anything from you, Grady. We’d already decided seeing each other again would be a mistake. This doesn’t change that.”
“The heck it doesn’t.” His drawl had become more pronounced with each word. “I’m going to want a DNA test after the baby’s born.”
Her heart lurched. She did not want a relationship, especially not with a man who couldn’t trust. The idea of getting involved again, getting penned up, trapped, controlled, almost made her panic.
He must have seen the look in her eye because he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I’m going to have this child and raise this child and love this child. But that doesn’t mean you and I have to be…connected.”
“What has you so spooked? You weren’t like this that night.”
No, she wasn’t. That night had been full of wonder and impulse. When she’d met Grady, the chemistry between them had been so strong she hadn’t thought about the next day or a week from that night.
“I’m not spooked. I just don’t want to be involved.”
“You are spooked. You’re afraid I’ll do something you don’t want me to do. So why did you tell me?”
“You had the right to know. Sagebrush is a small town.”
“And I could put have two and two together easily if I saw you pregnant and figured out the dates.”
“Yes,” she admitted, wanting to turn from his probing blue eyes but unable to do so.
His voice lowered…was gentle yet more intense. “You’re not going to cut me out of the baby’s life. If I’m a dad, I’m going be a dad. Do you understand that, Francesca?”
She went cold inside from the thought of him wanting any kind of control, and licked her dry lips. “What does that mean?”
“It means I want to spend time with my son or daughter. I want to have a say in decisions. I want to act like a real parent. I’ve looked forward all my life to being a dad. I’m not going to let the opportunity slip away.”
Grady came from a large family, a loving family, and she should have realized he’d feel this way.
“Don’t look so scared, Frannie. I’m not going to try to take custody away from you, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
She didn’t know what she was thinking. No one had ever called her Frannie.
“I’m not scared,” she returned defensively, squaring her shoulders. “I’m just worried you’ll want to tell me what to do and that’s not going to happen.”
He eyed her assessingly. “I guess we really don’t know each other, do we? One night on the sofa doesn’t a couple make.”
“No, it doesn’t. And we’re not a couple.”
He let a few pounding heartbeats pass before he asked, “When are you due?”
“February twenty-seventh.”
“What are you going to do about your practice?”
“I haven’t figured everything out yet. I’ve only known a short while.”
He cocked his head. “Did you think about not telling me and moving away from Sagebrush?”
She was hoping her guilt didn’t show.
“You did, didn’t you?” he accused. Then calmly he asked, “What made you decide to stay and not run?”
“I’m not a coward. I have a life here. I’m not going to let any man make me give
