Page 36 of Her Cowboy Baby Daddy
She smiled gamely. “Can you go now?”
He smiled back. “Yes. I’ll go now, but I’ll be back in the morning, and it willnotbe awkward. Right?”
She gave him a raised brow look, and he laughed, but it sounded forced. He slid a hand around the back of her neck and bent his head close to hers. “Again, I’m honored. Tomorrow you’re the boss, I’m the day hand, and we’ll take it from there.”
“Maybe my face will be a normal color by tomorrow.”
He gave her a lopsided grin, then dropped a light kiss on her lips. She curled her hand around the back of his neck and pulled his lips back to hers for another few seconds before stepping back. The kiss made her feel better. More in control. He wasn’t rejecting her. He was rejecting her plan.
But, what if...
She frowned up at him as she put more space between them. “That wasn’t a mercy kiss, was it?”
The crooked grin lit her insides on fire. “Anything but. See you tomorrow, Hayley.”
The lights went out in the barn as he spoke. “Déjà vu,” she muttered. Sometimes it seemed like the power was off more than it was on.
“At least the storm seems to have passed, so the utility crews can get to work on the outage.”
“Silver lining,” she said as she moved to open the bay doors. Spence got into his truck and drove out of the barn, stopping to open the window.
“We’re good.”
It was a statement that bordered on being an order.
“Totally,” she agreed, meeting his gaze dead-on. They had to be because she needed him. “See you tomorrow, Spence.”
The driveway was covered in white hailstones. As Hayley made her way to the house, the kitchen lights came on in front of her, and the light over the man door of the barn came on behind her. The sodium light bulbs on the pole lamps would take longer to come on, but it appeared that the utility company wouldn’t need to mobilize.
Good. She needed a hot bath, and, for that, she needed power.
Her nerves were shot—but maybe in a good way. This hadn’t worked out, but she’d proven the saying that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. She’d made her first attempt at finding a father for her kid. It hadn’t worked out, but now she knew she could ask and survive.
Although, truth be told, there had been a few moments with Spence when she’d dearly wished that the earth would just swallow her, but it hadn’t.
Now all she had to do was work with the man for the next several weeks, because he’d been correct in his assumption—she needed help on the ranch, and he was her best bet.
Chapter Seven
“You have tolet him go,” Bella said after Hayley described the previous day’s humiliation.
“You mean fire him?”
“You have no other choice.” Bella was not exactly known for putting herself out there, and her expression had bordered on being horrified as Hayley described asking Spence to be the father of her child and him turning her down.
“Would that I could,” Hayley said. She didn’t even know if she was paying him for anything other than the pipe corral, so it would be hard to fire him. “I need him. I don’t know why I asked when I did. I should have waited, but—”
“You wanted an answer so that you could move forward with the procedure, tie up the legalities and all that.”
Even though they were in the back corner of the Main Street Diner, and the only other patrons were sitting on the other side of the room, Hayley leaned forward and voiced her true disappointment in a whisper. “He would have been the perfect donor. He’s smart and easygoing and—”
“Really, really good-looking.”
They’d spent years apart since being college roomies, but Bella could still finish Hayley’s sentences for her. As if realizing where Hayley’s thoughts had gone, Bella held up a hand. “Sorry. That’s twice I’ve interrupted you.”
“Don’t let it happen again,” Hayley said with a mock scowl. Then she sighed. “I just thought that knowing the dad personally would make things less, I don’t know, chancy? I’d know for certain that the person is who they say they are.”
“Would anyone else you know fit the parameters? Smart, easygoing, willing to help you have a kid, then disappear from your life.”
