A Baby Between Friends

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“Morning.” He rose from his chair as she entered the room, and Lucifer immediately arched his back and hissed loudly at Ryder. “I see he’s still the same happy cat he’s always been,” Ryder said sarcastically as he shook his head. “Would you like a cup of coffee, Summer?”

“Yes, please. It smells wonderful.”

“Just a little cream?” he asked. They had met for coffee so many times over the past few years, he knew exactly how she liked it. Just as she knew he always liked his coffee black.

“Yes, thank you.” She smiled. “You know, I think Lucifer likes me. He rubbed against my leg and let me pet him when we met on the stairs.”

“See, I told you it’s just you he has a problem with, Ryder.” The woman standing at the stove chortled.

“I don’t know why.” He looked as if he might be a bit insulted by her comment. “Most other animals don’t seem to think I’m all that bad of a guy.”

“Maybe you aren’t home enough for him to get used to you,” Summer suggested.

“Whatever.” Shrugging, he walked over to take a mug from one of the top cabinets, then poured her some coffee. “Betty Lou Harmon, I’d like for you to meet my friend, Summer Patterson.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Harmon,” Summer said warmly as the older woman turned from the stove to face her.

“It’s real nice to meet you, too, child. But don’t go bein’ all formal,” the housekeeper groused, shaking her head. “You call me Betty Lou the same as everybody else, you hear?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Summer said, instantly liking the woman. With her dark hair liberally streaked with silver and pulled back into a tight bun at the back of her head, her kind gray eyes and round cheeks flushed from the heat of the stove, Betty Lou looked more like someone’s grandmother than a rancher’s housekeeper.

Wiping her hands on her gingham apron, she waved toward the trestle table where Ryder had been seated when Summer entered the room. “You find yourself a place to sit and I’ll get you fixed up with a plate of eggs, bacon, hash browns and some biscuits and gravy.”

“I don’t eat much for breakfast,” Summer confessed, hoping she didn’t offend the woman. She seated herself in one of the tall ladder-back chairs at the honey oak table. “Normally all I have is a bagel or toast and a cup of coffee.”

“Well, you’d better eat a hearty meal this mornin’ if you’re goin’ horseback ridin’ down to the canyon with Ryder,” Betty Lou said, filling a plate and bringing it over to set on the table in front of her.

“We’re going for a ride?” Summer asked, crestfallen. She thought they were supposed to discuss her request.

“I thought I’d show you around the ranch,” Ryder said, nodding as he brought her coffee over to the table. When Betty Lou went into the pantry, he lowered his voice and leaned close to Summer. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk and no one around to overhear the conversation.”

“We could have done that in my hotel room,” she reminded him.

He raised one dark eyebrow as he sat back down at the head of the table. “For someone who is so concerned with appearances, you haven’t thought of the obvious, darlin’.”

Ryder’s intimate tone and the scent of his clean, masculine skin caused her pulse to beat double time. “Wh-what would that be?” she asked, confused and not at all comfortable with the way she was reacting to him.

“How do you think it would look with us being alone in your room for several hours?” He shrugged. “I doubt anyone would be convinced we were just talking or watching television.”

“Oh.” She hadn’t thought of that. “I suppose you’re right.”

“Now eat,” he said, pointing to her plate.

“Aren’t you going to have breakfast?” she asked, taking a bite of the fluffy scrambled eggs.

He took a sip of his coffee and shook his head. “I ate about an hour ago.”

When she finished the last of the delicious food, Summer smiled at Betty Lou when she walked over to pick up the plate. “That was wonderful. Thank you.”

The woman gave her an approving nod. “That should tide you over until you eat the sandwiches I packed for the two of you.”

“We won’t be back in time for lunch?” Summer asked, turning to Ryder. “How far away is the canyon?”

“It’s not that far.” He gave her a smile that made her radiate from within. “But there’s a creek lined with cottonwoods that runs through the canyon, and I thought you might like to have a picnic along the bank.”

“I haven’t done something like that in years,” she said, happy that he had thought of the idea. Going on an outing like the one Ryder suggested was one of the many things she had enjoyed doing with her parents.

“You do know how to ride a horse, don’t you?” he asked. When she nodded, he unclipped his cell phone from his belt. “Good. I’ll call the barn and have my foreman get the horses saddled and ready for us.”

A half hour later as he and Summer rode across the pasture behind the barns, Ryder watched her pat the buckskin mare she was riding. With the autumn sun shining down on her long blond hair, she looked like an angel. A very desirable angel.

He frowned at the thought. They had never been more than friends, and until his brothers started ribbing him about taking her to Sam and Bria’s wedding vows renewal celebration, he had purposely avoided thinking of her in that way. So why was it all he could think about now? Of course, her making her plea last night for him to be her baby’s daddy sure wasn’t helping matters.

“I’m glad you thought of this, Ryder,” she said, distracting him from his confusing inner thoughts. “I love going horseback riding. I used to do it all the time. But after I took the job with the rodeo association, I sold my parents’ farm and all of the horses and I don’t get to ride much anymore.”

“Was there a reason you couldn’t keep it?” he asked. She said she had plenty of money, so that couldn’t be the cause of her selling everything.

She stared off into the distance like the decision might not have been an easy one to make. “With all the travel required for my job, it just didn’t seem practical to hang on to it.”

“I realize you have to arrive in a town a few days before a rodeo in order to get things set up for the media and schedule interviews for some of the riders, but couldn’t you have boarded one of the horses and ridden on the days that you do make it home?” he asked, knowing that was what he would have done.

He could understand her not wanting to hold on to her parents’ home without them being there. It would most likely be a painful reminder of all that she had lost when they were killed. But he didn’t understand her not keeping at least one of the horses if she liked to ride that much.

“I don’t go home,” she answered, shrugging one slender shoulder. “I just go on to the next town on the schedule.”

“You don’t go back to your place on the few days we have off between rodeos?” They normally met up in the next town for the next rodeo and had never traveled together before. It appeared that although they were close friends, there was a lot that they hadn’t shared with each other.

But he still couldn’t imagine going for weeks without coming back to the ranch. Besides Hank Calvert’s Last Chance Ranch, the Blue Canyon was the only place he had ever been able to truly call home. And a home of his own was something he never intended to be without again.

“I…don’t have a place,” she admitted, looking a little sheepish. “I know it sounds bad, but I couldn’t see any sense in paying for the upkeep on my parents’ home or rent on an apartment when I’d only be there a few days out of the month.”

Reaching out, he took hold of the mare’s reins as he stopped both horses. “Let me get this straight. You live out of hotel rooms and you don’t have a place to call your own?” When she nodded, he asked, “Where do you keep your things?”

“What I can’t pack into the two suitcases I take on the road with me, like furniture and family keepsakes, I keep in a storage unit in Topanga, California, not far from where my parents lived.” When he turned loose of the buckskin’s reins and they continued on toward the trail leading down into the canyon, she added, “It’s much cheaper than paying to keep them in an apartment I’d never use.”

Shocked by her revelation, he shook his head. “So for all intents and purposes, you’re homeless.”

“I guess it could be construed that way.” She nibbled on her lower lip a moment as if she might be bothered by it more than she was letting on. “But as long as I’m traveling like I do, I don’t mind.”

“How long have you lived this way?” he asked, still trying to wrap his mind around what she had told him.

“About three years.”

He had been friends with her all that time and not once had he suspected that she lived the life of a nomad. What else was there about her that he didn’t know? And how the hell did she plan on taking care of a baby with that kind of lifestyle?

When they reached the canyon’s rim, they fell silent as Ryder rode the bay ahead of her to lead the way to the meadow below. But he couldn’t stop thinking about her lack of roots. Why did she want a baby when she didn’t even have a home? What was she going to do with the poor little thing, raise it in a series of hotel rooms while they traveled from one rodeo to the next for her job? That wasn’t any kind of a life for a little kid.

Ryder didn’t know what her reasoning was, but he had every intention of finding out. He knew from personal experience that it was important to a kid to have a place to call home.

Leading the way to the spot along the bank that he had in mind for their picnic, he reined in the gelding. “How does this look?”

“It’s great,” she said, stopping the buckskin mare beside his horse. “There’s plenty of shade.” She pointed toward one of the cottonwoods. “And under that tree looks like the perfect place to put the blanket.”

Dismounting the bay, he dropped the reins to groundtie the horse, then moved to retrieve the rolled blanket he had tied to the back of the gelding’s saddle, along with the insulated saddlebags holding their lunch. From the corner of his eye, he watched Summer jump down from the mare’s back and start doing some stretches to loosen up after the ride.

He briefly wondered if she was having muscle cramps, but he quickly forgot all about her possible discomfort as he watched her stretch from side to side, then bend over to touch her toes. Her jeans pulled tight over her perfect little bottom caused his mouth to go as dry as a desert in a drought. When she straightened, then placed her hands on her hips to lean back and relieve pressure on her lower back, he sucked in a sharp breath. Her motions caused her chest to stick out and for the first time since he had known her, he noticed how full and perfect her breasts were.

Ryder muttered a curse under his breath and forced himself to look away. This was Summer. She was his best friend and he’d never thought of her in a romantic light. So why now was he suddenly taking notice of her delightful backside and enticing breasts?

Disgusted with himself, he shook his head and tucking the picnic blanket under his arm, finished unfastening the insulated saddlebags from the bay’s saddle and carted everything over to the spot beneath the cottonwood that Summer had pointed out. His fascination with her feminine attributes was probably due to the fact that he hadn’t been with a woman in longer than he cared to remember—and he’d have to be blind not to notice that Summer was a damned good-looking woman with a set of curves that could tempt a eunuch. He wasn’t at all comfortable thinking of her in that way, but there was no denying it either.

As he set the saddlebags down and unfolded the blanket to spread it out on the ground, he gave some thought to his dilemma. He was a normal, healthy adult male who, like any other man, needed to occasionally get lost in a woman’s softness. Once he got back out on the rodeo circuit, he needed to take a trip to one of the local watering holes in whatever town he was in and strike up a cozy little acquaintance with a woman who wasn’t looking for anything more than a real good time. Maybe then he would stop having inappropriate thoughts about his best friend.

Three

Sitting beside the lazy little creek after finishing their lunch, Summer glanced over at Ryder’s handsome profile. He really was one of the best-looking men she had ever known and she had a hard time believing it took her this long to realize it. Studying his features, she found herself hoping that if he agreed to help her, their child would look like him. But neither of them had brought up the subject of her request and the longer it took for them to start the discussion, the more uncertain she became. What if he refused to be the sperm donor?

He had all the attributes she wanted for her child and asking any of the other men she knew wasn’t even a consideration. She didn’t know them well enough to determine if they had the traits she was looking for, and truthfully, she didn’t want to get that well acquainted with them. She didn’t trust any man the way she trusted Ryder and couldn’t imagine anyone else as her baby’s father.

“Have you given any more thought to helping me?” she finally asked.

“I really haven’t thought about much of anything else,” he admitted, turning to face her. “It’s not every day that out of the clear blue sky a woman asks me to help her get pregnant.” His expression gave nothing away and she had no indication of what he might be thinking.

“As I told you last night, you wouldn’t be obligated in any way,” she said, hoping to reassure him. “I’ll be responsible for everything. You wouldn’t even have to acknowledge that you were the donor.”

“In other words, you don’t want me to be involved at all in my own kid’s life,” he said flatly. Shaking his head, he added, “You of all people should know that’s not the way I roll, darlin’.”

The steely determination she heard in his voice surprised her. “I…well…I hadn’t thought you would want—”

He held up his hand. “Let’s back up. We can cover what would happen after you became pregnant a little later on. Right now, I have a few things I’d like to know.”

“Of course,” she said pleasantly. She was confident she could answer all of his questions. “What would you like to ask first?”

Ryder’s piercing green gaze held her captive. “Why me?”

“You have all the qualities that I would want passed on to my child,” she said, not having to think about her answer. “You’re healthy, physically fit, as well as physically appealing. You’re also honest, loyal and other than my late father, you’re the most trustworthy man I’ve ever known.”

“You make me sound like a prize stud someone would want to cover their herd of mares,” he said, shaking his head in obvious disbelief. “How long have you been thinking about this?”

“About six months,” she admitted. Things weren’t going the way she had hoped. He didn’t sound as if he was all that receptive to the idea. “But I didn’t seriously think of approaching you until a couple of weeks ago.”

Nodding as if he accepted her answer, Ryder stared off into space for a moment before he asked, “Last night you told me you didn’t want to wait to see if you change your mind about meeting a man you might want to settle down with.”

“That’s right.” She shook her head. “I don’t have any intention of ever getting married.”

“Why?”

“As you know, I’m pretty independent,” she said, reciting the answer she had rehearsed. “I don’t want to lose that. I don’t want to be dependent on a man or give anyone that kind of control over me.”

He frowned. “Where did you get the idea that whoever you met would want to control you?” Shaking his head, he propped his forearms on his bent knees. “Most men I know admire independence in a woman. Me included.”

“Maybe I should rephrase that,” she said, thinking quickly. “I don’t want to give that kind of emotional control to anyone.”

Staring at her for several long moments, Ryder asked, “Who was the bastard?”

His question startled her. “I…don’t know what you mean.”

“Someone had to have hurt you pretty bad to make you feel this way,” he insisted. “Who was he?”

Ryder’s assessment was hitting too close to the truth and she had to force herself to remain calm. “There wasn’t anyone,” she lied. “I’ve just never believed that I need a man in my life to validate my worth as a woman nor do I want to depend on him for my happiness.”

“Okay,” he said slowly. She could tell he wasn’t buying her explanation, but before she had the chance to say more, he asked, “Why now? You’re only twenty-five. It’s not like your biological clock is ticking or the alarm is about to go off.”

She took a deep breath. Her answer this time wasn’t a lie or a half-truth. “I want to be part of a family again, Ryder. I want someone to love and be loved by in return.”

“Ah, darlin’,” he said, moving to wrap his strong arms around her. Pulling her to him, he gave her a comforting hug. “I know how alone you’ve been since your parents passed away, but do you really think having a baby will be the cure for your loneliness?”

“I really do,” she said, feeling a bit confused by the fact that Ryder’s embrace wasn’t the least bit intimidating. Any other man giving her a hug would have sent her into a panic attack.