Prologue
Drew
This was not happening. My period was not late. I was never late a day in my life, not even when I was extremely stressed. I could always rely on my body to be on time.
But that date on the calendar didn’t lie. I was two days late. Two freaking days.
This could not be happening. Not to me.
My hands trembled. I flatted them against the bathroom counter, blowing out a shaky breath, trying to calm down. Being pregnant didn’t mean the end of the world. It just meant things would be tougher from here on out. That was all. I could do this.
Right?
If there was one thing I’d managed to learn from my crappy parents, it was that freaking out and worrying solved nothing. All I could do was continue to put one foot in front of the other and keep my eye on my goal. Which was now being a mother and supporting a baby. I had no other choice.
Blowing out a soft breath, I forced myself to walk out of the bathroom, my hands going right back to shaking. One of my roommates was sitting on the couch, a bowl of popcorn in her lap as breakfast. I shared a tiny apartment with two other women. We were amicable, but that was about it. None of us were close to being friends. We just kind of used each other to have a place to stay. That was the extent of our “friendship”.
I waved at her as I grabbed my keys off the hook by the door and headed down the stairs to the parking lot. My old, beat-up Toyota Camry was sitting in its spot, looking like it was one rough bump in the road away from falling apart. But she was solid, even if many other people didn’t think so. She hadn’t let me down—yet.
Time seemed to have slowed down with the dread of becoming a mother settling in my stomach. The drive to the local pharmacy seemed to be never-ending, though I knew it was really only a couple of minutes. Nausea swirled in my gut as I shoved my car door open and stepped onto the old, pothole-riddled parking lot. The old lady at the counter looked up from her book when I walked in and then promptly looked back down, ignoring me.
Sighing, I headed to the feminine products aisle and grabbed the cheapest pregnancy test on the shelf. The plastic crinkled as I tightened my hand around it, slowly making my way up to the counter. The old lady sneered at me when she saw what I had in my hand.
Why did people have to be so judgmental and rude as if I wasn’t already dealing with enough?
“Young kids having sex too young these days,” she muttered.
I gritted my teeth. Bold of her to assume I was some ‘young kid’. “I’m actually thirty, not that it’s any of your business,” I snapped at her.
She flushed, properly chastised, and quickly ducked her head, avoiding eye contact. My teeth ground together as I quickly swiped my card, paying for the stupid pregnancy test. Then, I snatched it off the counter and stormed out to my car.
I really hated people sometimes.
The drive back to the apartment felt like it took even longer than the drive to the pharmacy, and I felt like the steps leading up to the apartment were just going on and on with no end in sight. When I finally pushed open the front door, the living room was empty, and I could hear the shower in the master bath running. Our other roommate appeared to not even be awake yet, thankfully. Which meant I could take this test in peace.
Here was to hoping that my body was just being wonky.
~*~*~
Two pink lines changed my life forever. Solidified what I’d already known and made it permanent.
I hadn’t stopped crying since those lines popped up, and I’d escaped out of the apartment as soon as they did, taking all evidence of the test with me.
I had to figure out what to do. Find a better job or get a second one. I had to save up money for an apartment to live in alone and to sustain myself when I had to take maternity leave. Was there government assistance for pregnant women? God, what was I going to do about medical bills? Then there were diapers and baby clothes and wipes to plan for. I could breastfeed, but I had to budget for a pump and extra bottles.
This baby thing was terrifying. How was I going to manage this alone?
I blew out a soft breath and rubbed my temples when I stopped at a red light. I needed to get my head on straight.
Plan. I needed a plan.
I knew who the father was, but he wasn’t known for sticking to one woman, and he’d been in trouble with the law, doing a stint inside for a while before getting a second chance to get his life together out on a ranch in Meadows Brook, a small town about an hour away from where I currently lived.
But if there was a chance I could get his help…
It was a shot in the dark, but I was taking it. I had to. What other choice did I have? I was desperate.
I hooked a U-turn at the next light and headed the other way out of town, aiming my car for Meadows Brook.
It was time to take the first step. From here on out, everything I did was no longer about me. Every choice I now made had to be decided with my baby in mind.
~*~*~
Travis was coming down a hill on a massive horse when I pulled up in front of the ranch house. He frowned at my car before adjusting his hat and making his way over to me. “Whatever you’re sellin’, the owner prolly ain’t interested in,” he told me.
I slid out of the car, hating the way my hair was sticking to my neck and my temples from the heat. My car didn’t have air conditioning, and it was sweltering outside now, the comfortable temperatures from this morning long gone.
“Um, that’s not…” I drew in a deep breath. I was sweating even more now, my nerves combining with the heat to basically drown me in my sweat.
“Wait.” He dismounted and erased the distance between us in two long strides. “Drew?” he asked incredulously.
I flushed. He’d actually remembered. How many times had I heard in the bar I worked at—where he and I met and hooked up in the employee bathroom—that he never remembered the women he slept with? More times than I could count. I thought I’d have to explain to him who I was. A little bit of relief swept through me knowing he remembered me.
“Um, yeah,” I mumbled. “We, uh—we should talk,” I quietly told him.
I watched as he mulled over my words in his mind. I swallowed thickly when his gaze flickered to my belly before those warm, chocolate-brown eyes focused on my face.
“This isn’t happening,” he muttered. My hands shook, and I wrapped my arms around my chest like I could protect myself from his dismissal. He scrubbed his hands down his face before slapping them down to his sides. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?” he quietly asked.
Tears burned in my eyes. I nodded and scuffed the toe of my old, worn, dirty sneaker against the gravel. He sighed, his shoulders deflating. “Well, there’s that,” he grunted. “You’d be about a month along, right?” He scratched at his stubble, staring over my head before looking back at me. “Trying to remember the crap they taught us in school.”
I nodded. “I haven’t been to a doctor yet, but I’m late, and that test—” I reached into my car and pulled it out, showing it to him.
He blew out a soft breath. “Yeah… there’s no mistaking those lines.” He scratched at his stubble-covered chin again. “You got a phone?” he asked me. I nodded, pulling it out. He pulled his out of his pocket as well. “Good. Send me a text real quick so I have your number and you’ll have mine.” As he rattled the digits off, I quickly typed them in, then shot him a text with my name. He saved it before putting his phone back in his pocket. “I’ll reach out to you tonight if you’ve got time for a phone call, and we can talk.”
I nodded. This was going a lot better than I thought it would. “Thanks,” I mumbled. “I, uh, I didn’t expect—” I cut myself off. I hadn’t expected him to remember me. I hadn’t expected him to actually want to talk.
What I had expected was for him to laugh me off this ranch and tell me to never return.
He sighed. “I know my reputation precedes me, Drew, but I won’t turn my back on my kid. Of that, you have my word. I’ll talk to you this evening, yeah?”
“Yeah,” I whispered, turning to face my car. Then, I spun back around. “And Travis?” He arched a brow at me. “Thanks for not turning your back on me.”
His lips tilted up the tiniest bit. “We’re in this for life now, Drew.”
And that was even more terrifying than the prospect of having a baby. Because I was still attracted to the womanizing cowboy.
