Keeping the Cowboy's Baby novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: Two Lines

Six weeks later a positive test, her ex and his fiancee at her counter, and a demand for her stolen $14,000 that ends with the rancher walking in.

Boone stood in the doorway with snow on his hat and looked at the phone in my hand.

"Everything okay?" he said.

"My ex texted," I said. "Wrong number, he's done."

It was the truth with the middle cut out.

He looked at me a second longer, then nodded and set down an armload of wood.

"Road's open by noon," he said. "I'll drive you down."

He didn't ask about the ex.

He drove with one hand on the wheel and the heater roaring, and I watched his brother's name sit unspoken in my chest.

At the diner on Main Street he put the truck in park and turned to me.

"Give me your number, Gwen."

"No," I said.

His jaw moved once.

"Then tell me why not."

"Because it was a great night," I said. "And I'm not staying in a town where I'll be any man's mistake."

I got out before he could answer.

I did not learn his last name.

I told myself that was the point.

Six weeks later I stood on the cold tile of the diner restroom, holding a plastic stick with two pink lines on it.

I had thrown up in the walk-in twice that week.

I had told Peg it was the flu.

Peg Rasmussen had owned the diner for thirty years and had known my mother since high school.

She had put me up in her spare room without asking questions.

She also knew a flu when she saw one, and mine was not it.

I put the stick in my apron pocket and looked in the mirror.

"Okay," I said to myself. "Okay."

I did not cry.

I put my hand flat on my stomach and thought of the long tired years of my mother raising me alone.

I knew right then that I was keeping it.

I didn't have a plan.

I had a job, a rented room and a chipped front tooth.

I had one night in a cabin, and a man whose last name I'd never asked.

It was enough to start.

I washed my face and walked out into the dinner rush.

The bell over the door rang.

I looked up to hand out menus, and my whole body went cold.

Dalton Miller walked in.

He wore a new hat and a belt buckle the size of a saucer.

On his arm was a polished blonde woman in a camel coat with a ring on her finger the size of a pea.

He saw me and did not even blink.

"Table for two," he said to the room.

He'd had five months to get better at lying.

I picked up two menus and walked them to the corner booth, because I had a job.

I set them down.

"Hello, Dalton," I said.

His fiancee looked between us.

"Do you two know each other?"

"Never seen her," Dalton said. "Waitress, maybe. Honey, you want the pie?"

I leaned in close and kept my voice low and level.

"Fourteen thousand dollars," I said. "You've had it five months."

"Excuse me?" his fiancee said.

"She's confused," Dalton said, smiling at her with all those teeth.

"I'm not confused," I said, and said it louder.

Every fork in the diner went quiet.

"This man took fourteen thousand dollars out of my savings account in Spokane and left me a text," I said.

Peg stopped with a coffee pot in her hand.

Dalton stood up slowly.

"Lady, I don't know you," he said, loud enough for the counter.

"But I know the type."

"Follows a man across state lines, makes up a story, wants a payday."

"I'm not following you. I live here."

"Sure you do," he said.

Then he looked at the hand I hadn't noticed pressed flat against my stomach.

His smile turned slowly into something else.

"Oh," he said. "Oh, that's rich."

"Dalton," his fiancee said.

"No, babe, look at her. That's a woman who needs a daddy for something."

My face burned.

I did not look away.

"Pay me back and I'll never speak to you again," I said.

"Or what?"

The bell over the door rang behind him.

A big shape filled the doorway, snow on the shoulders of a canvas coat and a gray hat in his hand.

Dalton turned and smiled.

"Boone," he said warmly. "You're just in time. This woman says I owe her money."

I knew the man at the door.

I knew the silver at his temples and the long white scar down his left forearm.

I knew the way he had said my name once into my neck.

He looked at his brother.

Then his eyes went to me, and to my hand on my stomach.

"Gwen," Boone said.

← Chapter 1 · All chapters · Chapter 3 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend