“Are you okay?” she asked, and I forced myself to unclench my hands on the steering wheel.
“Yeah, fine. Just got a lot on my mind.”
“Me too.”
“You know, I think about that night all the time.”
A low throaty laugh escaped her. “Me too. It’s hard to forget with the souvenir you left me.”
“I expect so.”
She didn’t say anything else as we drove down the long dirt driveway that led out of the ranch, but I caught myself stealing glances at her. Too many glances. One hand rested on her swollen belly, the other played with a strand of her hair as she stared out the window.
"It's really beautiful." Something about the way she said that made my chest tight. I wanted her to like the ranch. I needed her to.
"Yeah, every season changes, but my favorite is winter. It’s cold and still and everything is just…peaceful.”
“I’ve never spent a winter on a ranch. We only went to visit in the summer."
"Your grandpa's ranch." She looked at me with surprise in her eyes. "Yeah, I remember things."
"Does your family all know now? About us…the baby?”
I swallowed hard, not knowing what the right choice was here. I supposed it was the truth. "They do. Buck overheard me talking with Mama. He told Clint…and I'm sure, by now, Sera knows. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen her yet. She loves babies.”
“She’s your little sister?”
"Yep. Although, if you call her my little sister, she won’t be happy with you. Being the only girl, she got treated like the princess she is for years. But she has a lot of big brothers to teach her how to take care of herself. She don’t take kindly to being called little."
She went quiet again as we drove down the property line, her eyes scanning the fence just like I explained she needed to. I could've been doing this on my horse. Gettin’ in some exercise. Not that I needed exercise after all the work I regularly do. But I wanted to be near her, and I didn't want her doing anything stupid, like trying to keep up with her sister.
"So, tell me a little bit about you. Aside from what I found out on Google, I don't know anything about you, Tristan.”
"Well, I guess you need to tell me what Google says about me first."
She bit her lip, as though she was holding back something she wanted to say but was afraid of. "Google says you are a bit of a player."
"Define a bit of."
"I think, well, they say you slept with every girl in town and half the sisters of the ranch hands."
I laughed out loud. “Wow. It’s true, I’ve had more than my share of single women in this town, but definitely not every single one of them. In fact, I haven't had sex in nearly five months."
Her eyes went wide, and a little gasp escaped her. "You mean?"
"You were the last woman I slept with, Hazel. I just didn't want anybody else after you."
Her breath caught in her throat, the sound louder than it should have been in the car, but hell if I wasn't paying way too much attention to her. "You were only the second guy I'd ever been with. And you’re the only one who has ever successfully gotten me pregnant."
"Well…lucky me?"
"I'm older than you, you know?" She wasn't looking at me. Instead, she continued to stare at the fence line like her life depended on it.
I wanted to stop the truck and make her look at me because we had so much to talk about. Not just about the baby. We needed to talk about that night we were together. The night I realized my brothers were right. Once you find someone you connect with, why would you ever want to let go?
"How old are you?"
“Thirty. I'll be thirty-one in a couple of weeks."
I chuckled. "It's not that much older than me, darlin’. Besides, it doesn't bother me. Do you have a problem with it?"
She sat up straighter, cheeks turning pink. "It shouldn't matter. I’m not dating you anyway."
"You might not be dating me, but you're having a baby with me."
“True.”
I drummed my fingers on the steering wheel, trying to think of what to say next. We didn't have that much time until she was gonna head home. "So, you're a nurse. Don't you have, like patients or something waiting for you?"
“I’m a nurse practitioner. But I don't have a practice anymore. I lost my space when I got divorced."
"How did that happen?"
"It's a long story."
"I've got nothing better to do."
"My ex owns a wellness center. He’s a chiropractor. I rented my office space from him, but he never made me a partner, even after we were married. So, when we got divorced, he took it all. I had, well, I had everything, and then I had nothing."
Anger boiled in me. Who the hell did that to someone? That asshole stole everything from her, and why? Because he was tired of being married to someone like her, a beautiful, gentle woman. "So you didn't want to get divorced?"
“Not at first. Until I realized he was cheating on me. It blindsided me. But then, I saw the signs that I had been ignoring. Things hadn’t been right between us for quite a few years. It needed to happen. I just wouldn’t admit it."
"Well, I'm glad that he's out of your life. That leaves room for…other people."
She smiled then, the curve of her lips lighting up something inside me.
"And what about you? Anyone ever shatter your heart into a thousand pieces?"
I swallowed hard. "Not yet. But there's time."
Hazel
“I hope it never happens to you. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.” I needed to stop twisting my hair around my finger. I was going to break it off. “I bet you’ve been the breaker of hearts plenty of times, though.”
He shrugged. “If I was, I’m a real fuckin’ asshole.”
Looking at him, I couldn’t agree with that. All I saw was a man who was determined to be there for his child without question. There wasn’t a moment’s hesitation once the reality sank in for him. Tristan was all in.
“Shit,” he muttered.
“What?”
I followed his gaze out front and saw a lone horse limping along slowly. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She shouldn’t be out this far. I don’t know how she got out of her paddock.”
“Do I need to call the vet?” I asked, pulling my phone from my pocket.
“Nah. I’ll call in first. Poor girl has been dealing with an abscess in her hoof from a puncture wound. She won’t get better if she’s way out here walking all over creation on it.”
He grabbed his phone from his pocket after pulling to a stop. “Clint, I got Bailey out here way out of bounds. No, I don’t know how she got out of her paddock. Yeah. Okay, great. I’m in the truck with a guest. Yeah, if you could send one of the hands to help bring her in. Thanks.”
He hung up and sighed. “Bailey, girl, you gotta take it easy until that hoof is healed.”
“You really love those horses, don’t you?”