her baby, and then leave him with another burden, another responsibility, like his ex-wife had? The memory twisted his insides.
“How far along are you?” he asked, his shoulders hunched forward as kinks formed along the tightening ridge of his spine.
“Three and a half months.” She pressed her hand against her lower abdomen and a soft smile curled her lips, making his insides tighten with an interest he didn’t want or need. “I haven’t started to show much yet. But I can’t wait to be big and round and start wearing maternity clothes.”
His eyebrows arched with disbelief. His ex-wife certainly hadn’t been thrilled with the prospect of gaining weight, having swollen feet or accumulating stretch marks. He’d taken the brunt of her anger as her body had changed over the long nine—actually nine and a half—months.
He stared at Elise for a full minute, pondering her statement, questioning whether he believed her or not. “You don’t mind being pregnant?”
A smile bloomed across her face, transforming her ordinary freckled features into a work of art, worthy of a museum. It made her even more beautiful, more radiant than before. He had a hard time concentrating on his need to give her a resounding “no.”
A tightness twisted his chest, and a lump formed in his throat. Damn. He could picture her in his mind’s eye with a softly rounded belly, her auburn hair teasing her shoulders and that same heart-warming smile that reached her eyes and his heart. He imagined what it would be like to hold her, to feel her soft curves melt against him and taste her full lips.
Whoa! What the hell am I doing? Putting the cart way ahead of the horse. She’s pregnant, for God’s sake! He reminded himself again and again until the appealing image vanished beneath an onslaught of painful memories.
It didn’t matter if he was attracted to her. When she’d first admitted her reason for coming to his ranch today, he’d felt a quickening of his pulse. He’d thought his luck was turning. He had hoped the woman who volunteered to be his mail-order bride would be attractive. But it wasn’t a requirement. It was a bonus. And he’d felt damn lucky all of a sudden.
Then she’d hit him with news that was like a donkey kick to the gut. He felt the impact shattering his hope like glass. It did matter that Elise was pregnant. It mattered a lot.
Now what the hell was he going to do about her proposal?
“Oh, yes!” she exclaimed. “I love being pregnant. I don’t even mind the nausea.” She smoothed her hand over her abdomen in a protective gesture, as if guarding the baby growing inside her. Paula had never acted maternal during or after her pregnancy. Nothing could have prepared Cole for the remarkable difference he saw in Elise. And the response it provoked inside him.
“But I never thought,” she added, “I’d be single and pregnant. That wasn’t in my plans.”
He knew all about failed plans. Watching Elise, he had an urge to move closer to her, to wrap a protective arm around her, to…He stopped himself again. His mind spun with questions, not only aimed at Elise but also at himself. If he were to marry her, and that was a big if, then he’d have more than the added responsibility of a wife. He’d have another child. Another mouth to feed. A truckload of new responsibilities.
My God, what am I doing? Was he actually contemplating the possibility of marrying this unwed mother-to-be?
Drawing in a steadying breath, he asked, “Do you know who the father is?”
Her shoulders jerked, and a spark ignited in her hazel eyes, making them blaze with defiance. “Of course! What kind of a woman do you think I am?”
He shrugged. Hell, he didn’t know her past, her character, morals or even her plans for the future. He certainly didn’t know if she was the type of woman he wanted influencing his impressionable daughter. Why, the father of her baby might be any one of a dozen men! “I don’t know.”
Her mouth opened and then closed abruptly into a thin, disapproving line. She lowered her eyes and smoothed her palms over her skirt. Her hands trembled.
“I suppose that’s true.” An inner strength fortified her voice, making it stronger and steadier than she looked. “I had an opportunity to question you the other day. I guess it’s your turn. You have a right to know what you’re getting yourself into. So go ahead. Ask any question you’d like.”
Given the okay to pry into her personal life, he asked, “Where is the father?”
“I’m not sure at the moment. Rusty wasn’t interested in being a father or in settling down so he moved on.” She shook her head slightly, dismayed by her own circumstances. “He’s on the rodeo circuit.” She gave a soft, disbelieving chuckle. “I thought that sounded romantic once. I thought it was a traditional kind of profession. You know, handed down from father to son, cowboy to cowboy, through the generations.”
She sucked in a harsh breath. “Boy, was I wrong.” Her hands twisted in her lap, her fingers tightening on each other. “I also thought I was in love.” Her voice softened, but the tension in her coiled like a steel spring, making her features look stark and pale. “Maybe I was in love with the idea of love. I naively followed him to a few rodeos. We were headed to Amarillo when I discovered I was pregnant. That’s how I ended up in Desert Springs.”
“He just left you here?” Cole asked, his blood pressure spiking with disbelief.
Elise nodded. “Without a cent or a way to—”
She stopped herself and her lashes shuttered her eyes, hiding her emotions from Cole. A bright red hue stole up her neck and deepened the color on her cheeks.
His hands curled into fists. How could a man do that? How could a man live with himself after walking away from the woman who carried his child?
He remembered the day Paula had told him they were going to have a baby. It seemed so long ago and yet it was as clear to him as the west Texas sky. Paula had been furious, angry…at him. But he’d been ecstatic, elated, joyous. He’d never known such euphoria. He’d wanted to shout from the nearest mountain top…er, plateau. He’d felt like the king of the world. Wanting to share the special moment with his wife, he’d tried to wrap his arms around her in a celebratory hug, but Paula had jerked away and thrown a vase at him.
Suddenly he felt a bond with Elise, one he’d never felt with his ex-wife. Elise had been rejected, as he had, as his daughter had. For some strange reason, he wanted to reassure her, to promise everything would be all right for her and her unborn child. But he resisted. He didn’t know the whole story. Frankly, he didn’t know what to do.
Still stunned that a man would behave in such a manner, he asked, “This Rusty fellow left you after you told him you were going to have his baby?”
“Yes. It became painfully apparent that he wasn’t the man I’d thought he was.” The quaver in her voice made Cole’s gut clench with anger. “When he started to pack his bags, I didn’t argue with him or try to stop him.” She combed her fingers through her hair and sniffed daintily as if trying to forget the pain and the rejection she’d suffered. Then she lifted her chin, and her eyes burned with an inner fire of strength. “I let him go. I didn’t want a man who didn’t want me or my child. I wasn’t going to grovel and beg.”
He admired her convictions, her pride. But why was she turning to him? To a stranger for a husband? He sensed there was more to her
