Page 57 of Her Cowboy Baby Daddy
Thus recreating the more stable years of her life.
She set both hands on the table in front of her. “I totally understand if you don’t want to come back and finish the corrals—”
“I’m coming back.” She frowned as he interrupted her. “We’re even now. I said no to baby daddy. You said no to”—he gestured—“me, I guess.”
“I didn’t—” She let out an abrupt breath. She obviously had. “Are you sure?”
“I made a commitment.” He got to his feet and picked up the hat he’d set on the table, holding it in front of him. “When I do that, Hayley, I follow through. Your corrals will be finished before I leave again.”
Chapter Ten
Spence was ina mood by the time he got back to the ranch. He would have gone to town and drunk off some of his frustrations, but he had no place to stay, no friend with a couch, so instead, he headed home.
He’d suspected going in that Hayley would have issues with him declaring his feelings, but he hadn’t expected to be so flattened by her insistence that a relationship was out of the question while she raised her child. The woman meant what she said, which pretty much extinguished any glimmers of hope he had.
And the frustrating part was that he understood. She’d been happy on the ranch with her partnerless dad, while her mom demonstrated how not to have a healthy relationship time and again. Of course she equated single life with good parenting. She said she couldn’t speak to the future, but when she went ahead with her baby plan, Spence was certain that pregnancy and child rearing were going to be the center of her existence.
No room for a guy who truly felt that he’d be more of an asset than a hinderance when it came to stability.
He parked the Chevy next to Reed’s Dodge and sat for a moment, watching his mom move past the kitchen window, remembering the times he’d successfully snuck back into the house via his bedroom window. A good trick, that, since it had involved a tree outside his parents’ bedroom window, and the branches creaked, so he had to be extra stealthy.
Well, he was past sneaking in, but he had to admit that he wouldn’t mind entering his room via the tree because he didn’t feel like pretending everything was normal when it wasn’t.
Somewhere along the line, he’d fallen in love with stubborn Hayley Parker, who did not share his feelings, even if she admitted to being tempted to ask him to her bed. He understood her logic—but he did not agree with it. Just because she’d never experienced a healthy relationship didn’t mean it wasn’t possible.
A knock on the truck window scared the bejeezus out of him. He gave his brother a dark eye through the window and then opened the door. Reed stepped back and slid his thumbs into his pockets.
“Early night.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Things didn’t go well with Hayley?”
Spence answered with another dark look.
Reed gestured toward his house with his chin. “I’ll open the Whistle Pig.”
Spence studied his brother. Opening the Whistle Pig was huge. Reed guarded his good bourbon, and sharing meant that he suspected that Spence had issues.
He did. Why pretend he didn’t?
Lex popped her head out of her bedroom door when Reed and Spence entered the living room, headphones on, phone in one hand. She pointed to indicate where she would be—closed up in her room—then shut the door, leaving Spence and Reed with relative privacy.
“I’m fine,” Spence said after Reed handed him a glass with two fingers of bourbon.
“I know.” Reed took a seat and, after standing awkwardly with his drink in one hand, Spence did the same.
“I’m not fine.” He twisted his mouth sideways for a moment. “But I will be. Just waiting for the sting to end.” Reed asked no questions and Spence, after studying his untouched drink, met his brother’s gaze. “Did Lex say something?”
“Did she have to?” Reed asked, telling Spence that it had been obvious to everyone that he’d developed a thing for Hayley, and he hated the thought of looking like some lovesick kid in front of his family.
“Shit.”
Reed smiled a little. “If it makes you feel better, when Mom brought it up over marshmallows, Cade was surprised. So maybe we’ve been seeing clues for a while.”
“Oh yeah. Good to know.” Spence dropped his head against the sofa cushion, loosely holding his glass on his thigh. “With Cade back, I’m thinking of taking off as soon as I finish Hayley’s corrals.” Which was only going to take a couple of days. “I’ll come back for the surgery, but with Henry hanging on until the end of June, we have enough hands to handle the work here.”
“One, Cade doesn’t know how long he’ll be here. Two, you may as well stick around for the surgery, which is in what? Less than two weeks. Three... doesn’t Hayley need your help?”
