Page 24 of The Cowboy's Secret Babies

“I’m used to a lot of talk,” Rosie assured him. “What you find out when you show up pregnant in the tiny little town where you grew up, but with no husband or explanation, is that a lot of the people in it aren’t quite as nice as you used to think.”

“That just makes me furious.” This wasn’t the first time Matilda had expressed such sentiments. She’d been outraged on Rosie’s behalf from the start. Once she’d even ‘accidentally’ let an overly fed cattle dog she’d rescued bound out of her cute red pickup to bowl over Gwen Sheen, the daughter of the owners of the feed store, as she stood on the sidewalk talking smack about Rosie. Matilda didn’t play, people only thought she did. “What business is it of anybody else’s anyway?”

“On the other hand,” Rosie continued, “other people come out of nowhere and are wonderful. You just never know what you’re going to get. So no, I’m not worried about people talking about Ryder and me. The boys are too young to understand, and from their perspective, they have a new friend who plays with them all the time and that they get to call Daddy. It’s a win-win.”

This was all true. Ever since Ryder had appeared at her doorstep, both the first and the second time, she had been scrupulous in separating out the things she felt allowed to feel—because it supported the boys and what they needed—and the things that were hers. The private things that only she knew.

The things that kept her up at night, mixing memory with fantasy, and driving herself wild.

That part was hard enough to deal with every night. It certainly wasn’t something she intended to discuss in the presence of her older brother.

Also, and more importantly, she meant it about the surprising support from other people.

Take, for example, Kendall Carey and Cat Lisle—though, she corrected herself, she was pretty sure Cat went by Cat Carey now, not that it mattered in Cowboy Point where she would forever be a Lisle. Rosie had seen the two of them at Mountain Mama one chilly afternoon. Rosie had been stopping in to pick up one of their handmade half-baked pizzas for dinner before she swung by to pick up the boys. Cat and Kendall had been there, sitting close together in the corner, making each other laugh. A lot.

Rosie had expected that when they met eyes, they would all nod politely, and pretend not to know each other. That was how folks rolled in a tiny little mountain town in winter, when it was only the locals around, Mountain Mama was pretty much the only restaurant in the community that was open all the time, and every hello came with the risk of an in-depth conversation about everyone’s business, and their parents’ business, and each and every one of their cousins’ business too.

Selective blindness was a necessity around here.

But the opposite happened. Kendall waved when she saw Rosie. And when Rosie only blinked at her in confusion—and likely some alarm—she got to her feet, came over, and tugged Rosie with her back to that table.

We’ve been wanting to talk with you, Cat had said when they got there.And here you are. It’s like fate.

It’s like a small town, Rosie had replied.

Cat and I like to get away every now and again, Kendall had carried on, as if Rosie hadn’t said something deliberately grumpy.Just the two of us.

Because only the two of us have the exquisite pleasure of knowing entirely too much about the inner workings of the Carey brothers.Cat had smiled at Rosie.And you are the only other person in town who could join that club.

Rosie reacted so strangely that even now, thinking back on it, she hardly knew what to make of it. For one thing, those words went through her like an electric shock. A deep, chaotic, endlesshumming, deep and long.

And she was pretty sure that she blushed hot and red.

Oh no, she’d said at once.I can’t be in your club.

More of a support group, Cat had replied with a grin.

In case the rumor mill hasn’t gotten around to you yet with the full story, Ryder and I did not have a relationship, Rosie had told them.That is not the word used to describe what happened between us.

There were other words. She thought about those other words all the time, but that was inappropriate for an early afternoon discussion in a family-friendly joint like this.

You have the most intimate relationship that anyone could have with a man, Kendall corrected her, gently enough, but with enough intensity that Rosie found herself surreptitiously looking to see if Kendall looked like she was getting rounder. Looking wasn’t rude, asking was rude, she assured herself, but her quick sweep was inconclusive.You’re the mother of his children. It doesn’t matter if you spent fifteen minutes with him. That was then. Now you’re going to be part of his life forever.

That had definitely sounded like something a pregnant woman would say.

That makes you one of us, Cat had chimed in, smiling so wide and so happy that Rosie knew she had todo somethingto stop whatever runaway train this was.

Maybe Kendall had seen that on her face.It’s okay if you’re not the joining type.

What we really wanted you to know, Cat had said then, in the same tone,is that we’ve got your back.

Apparently, Kendall said with a smile,Careys stick together.

I’m not a Carey, Rosie had gritted out, and there was no reason why a simple statement of fact should have been so hard for her to say. She shouldn’t have felt as if she was tearing out her own throat in an effort to save it.

Your sons are Careys, Cat had pointed out. Gently enough.So I’m sorry, but you’re kind of one too. By default.

Rosie had never been more relieved to hear her name called by Indy Bennett up at the counter, giving her the perfect excuse to get the hell away from the two of them. She could appreciate the gesture, she told herself as she hurried out to her car, meeting no more eyes. She could appreciate it, but it was misplaced.

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