Page 2 of A Baby for the Billionaire Cowboy

“Um. I’m not here for the party,” she said. “My auntie Rhonda is supposed to be here. I just need to talk to her for a minute.”

The older woman frowned. “I’m not sure we can let you inside without a ticket, but I can send a message to Rhonda.” She turned away and waved to someone inside the big room.

Great. They probably thought she was trying to sneak in without paying. Rhonda had talked about the fundraising event, and how important it was for her to be there and show her support for the Tomlinson family. Why a family that had won a billion-dollar lottery needed anyone else’s support, Daisy didn’t know. She suspected it was Rhonda’s way of saying she wouldn’t have attended the wedding even if she’d been invited. Rhonda had met Daisy’s fiancé two weeks before, at the farce of an engagement party William had insisted on squeezing in before the wedding. He’d only wanted to show off for his friends. Auntie Rhonda had seen through his smug superiority. She’d called him “all hat and no cattle,” and Daisy had giggled despite knowing she’d pay for it later. Rhonda’s snide remarks were nothing compared to William’s comments later, once Rhonda was no longer around to defend herself.

Daisy should’ve called off the wedding then.

She should never have agreed in the first place.

Really, she shouldn’t have gotten pregnant. Once that had happened, she hadn’t felt like she had a choice about getting married. But apparently she did, because she was here and not on her honeymoon.

“That’s a right pretty dress,” the girl in yellow said.

“Thank you.” Daisy shifted uncomfortably. She’d give almost anything for thick socks and a pair of tennis shoes right then. Should she explain why she was wearing a fancy ivory sheath if she wasn’t attending the party?

Maybe she’d rather let them think she’d been trying to sneak in.

A young man, maybe mid-twenties, crossed the room and exchanged a few words with the woman in black. He headed back into the room, weaving between big round tables. The woman turned to Daisy with a polite smile. “It will just be a minute.”

“Thank you. I’ll wait outside.” Daisy would have loved to sit down, or at least to kick off her shoes and go barefoot on the smooth tile, but she didn’t want to answer questions, and the younger woman looked like she was bursting with them.

Daisy walked alongside the building, away from the bright lights by the door. It was tempting to lean against the building, but that might ruin her dress. Not that she ever wanted to wear it or even look at it after this day, but destroying it would be wasteful. Maybe she could get a few dollars for it at a consignment shop.

She closed her eyes, swaying with fatigue and too many emotions to name. This night had to end sometime, right? The only thing worse than living through it once would be living through it over and over, stuck in a loop like in a movie.

“Miss?” a man’s voice spoke.

Daisy opened her eyes. She’d hunched in on herself at his voice, so she forced herself to straighten as she turned. “Yes?”

It was the young man who’d been sent to fetch her aunt. He wore a tux, so he was probably someone rich, maybe from an old-money family.

“My mama and Mrs. Gillespie and their friends were in the middle of a conversation,” he said. “I didn’t want to interrupt—actually, I couldn’t get a word in—but I left a note. I’m sure Mrs. Gillespie will be out presently. Would you like to come inside to wait?”

“No, thank you.” Daisy preferred the shadows. She hadn’t dared to look at herself in the mirror at the gas station, but she could feel the tendrils that had escaped her fancy updo, and her makeup had likely smeared if not actually streaked down her cheeks while she was crying. She’d tried to blot her face with a damp paper towel, but she didn’t need hundreds of eyes on her in bright light. “I’m fine out here.” Did her tone sound as martyred to him as it did to her?

He looked down at her feet peeking out of the bottom of the sheath dress and back up at her. Then he turned and strode toward the door without a word. Daisy sagged a little. It figured that the rich, fancy folks at a party like this would take one look at her and know she didn’t belong. Still, he didn’t have to be quite so dismissive.

The man returned a minute later carrying a chair. Daisy tried to make sense of it.

He set the chair next to her and gestured toward it. “Please, have a seat. I’ve never worn shoes like that, but my feet hurt in these.” He pointed down to his dress shoes. “Although I guess some women wear high heels all the time and must like it, I suppose?” He looked suddenly uncertain. “I’m sorry if I overstepped.”

Daisy opened her mouth but couldn’t think of a response. She sank down onto the chair and whimpered with the pleasure of easing the shoes away from her blisters. She smiled up at the man. “I’m grateful. Thank you.”

They gazed at each other. Finally Daisy said, “You don’t have to wait with me.”

He shot a glance toward the door. “I’d rather, to be honest.”

Daisy found a smile tugging at her lips. She’d almost forgotten she knew how to smile. “Not your kind of party?”

He shook his head. “Parties aren’t my kind of party. I’d rather be home with my animals. But the dinner should be pretty good. I just have to get through a couple of hours of listening to people pitching their business plans, and then I can go back to normal.”

“So stoic,” she said. Goodness, was she actually teasing him? She didn’t even know his name. He was apparently some sort of businessman, despite the fact he couldn’t be thirty yet.

“I guess you don’t like parties either, if you don’t want to go inside,” he said.

“It’s not that. Not exactly.” It was too much to explain, and they didn’t know each other. “I’m not in the mood right now. I’ve never been to a party like this one anyway, so I don’t know if I’d like it.”

Music drifted out, a lazy country tune, not some fancy string quartet. This was supposed to be her wedding day. She should have been dancing with her new husband. Instead—

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