Page 37 of Tangled Up With You

His lips parted on a shaky exhale right before a slow smile creeped across his lips, stretching them wide until he was smiling at me so beautifully it made my legs shaky. God, it really should have been criminal how gorgeous his smile was.

“You do?”

“Yeah. There’s no reason we can’t do this, right?”

“Not at all.”

Relief made my shoulders slump. “Great! So you agree, then. We can be friends and co-parent this kid together.”

Some of the brilliance faded from his smile as the corners of his lips dipped. For a second I thought I might have read the situation wrong, but then he blinked and nodded. “For sure. Yeah. Total agreement.”

Thank God. “The logistics might be a little hard to work out. I mean, I know your job keeps you on the road a lot, but?—”

“I’m stayin’.”

“I—” I rocked back on a heel. “What?”

“I’m stayin’. I’m movin’ to Hope Valley.”

“But . . . what about bull riding?”

He roughed a hand over his jaw and stared off to the side like he was giving my question some thought. “I lived on the road the way I did mainly because I didn’t have any responsibilities keepin’ me in one place. Obviously, that’s changed now.” He waved a hand toward my stomach. “I can have my home base wherever I want and travel to the different events I’m competing in, and I want that home base to be here.”

I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting him to say, but it sure as hell hadn’t been that. “Oh.”

“I want to be a part of this baby’s life, Ivy. I want to be a part of your pregnancy.” His shoulders squared and his chin lifted, and I watched in awe as determination slid over his massive frame. “I want to prove to you that I’m in this. One hundred percent.”

I didn’t realize until that very moment how badly I’d needed that reassurance from him. “Okay,” I said quietly.

He nodded, his features growing resolute. “So we’re in agreement.”

“Right.”

“Great. So I’ll move in this weekend.”

“Alright—wait.What?”

He smiled, and I knew I’d somehow played right into the bastard’s hand. “I told you I wanted to be a part of this. The best way to do that is to be close to you. The best way to be close to you is by living together. So I’m moving in.”

“The hell you are!” I shrieked.

He reached over the railing and brushed his thumb across my jaw in a soothing gesture. “Shh, sweetheart. You can’t gogettin’ worked up over every little thing. It’s not good for the baby.”

Oh, that son of a bitch. I clenched my hands and stomped my foot as I demanded, “You arenotmoving in with me.”

He lifted a shoulder, the picture of calm and casual. “We’ll see. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to work.”

He turned around and headed toward the horse, leaving me so steamed I couldn’t appreciate watching his ass as he walked away.

I was going to murder him.

Chapter Twenty

Ivy

“How did this even happen?” Lennix asked as she stared out my back window, watching as Connor hauled a duffle bag stuffed so full it looked like it was about to split at the seams out of the bed of his truck, hooking the strap over his shoulder before heading for the carriage house-turned apartment at the back of my property.

“This was the compromise we came up with,” I muttered around the rim of my teacup. I’d discovered recently that peppermint tea helped settle my stomach, so I made sure to always keep some on hand. “It was the carriage house or I kill him in his sleep. I went with the option that didn’t come with jail time.”

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