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The Bachelor's Baby
Teresa Southwick
CONGRATULATIONS, COWBOY…Tucker Smith had waited one long year for his second "date" with the pretty lady he'd shared one passionate night with. But nothing had prepared the rugged rodeo man for the three little words that Casey Wright had come to tell him….YOU'RE A FATHER!That's all Casey had to say to Tucker. After all, besides a child, they had nothing between them but chemistry. And desire was not something to build a family on. But when Tucker hauled her to his ranch to set up house, she wondered if there was more to the sexy cowboy than blue eyes and brawn. Could this confirmed bachelor have marriage on his mind?
Table of Contents
Cover Page (#ubd82b0c9-dcd7-51be-ae6d-c26ab59e5905)
Excerpt (#u9393c423-7477-5dac-8cda-5c299db7adde)
Dear Reader (#u85c47ac0-2aee-5d56-a86a-f8c40c5db7fc)
Title Page (#u9ae39086-047b-510a-90ad-1b785ecebbf5)
Dedication (#u0aeb5b5a-7d49-516d-aff6-4d0e170d11ca)
About the Author (#ueeb7ab70-63af-5d0b-9bc1-2da706315117)
Chapter One (#u2e0b62d1-4806-5432-a524-65c78435c722)
Chapter Two (#u96eb8af2-555c-5101-b205-1fc71a27b421)
Chapter Three (#uce88be0f-4ad8-50ec-86dd-1f6f6df94935)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
“I came to see my child,”
Tucker said, resting his wide palm against the front door to keep her from slamming it
“That’s not what you wanted last night,” Casey replied.
“I’m sorry, Casey, but you have to admit news like that comes as a shock to a man.”
“Why did you bother to find me? For that matter, why did you keep a date we made a year ago?”
His gaze turned intense as he looked from the top of her head, down to her pink painted toenails. “I had to see for myself if you were as cute as I remembered. If your eyes were still as green as the hills after a rainstorm.”
Her knees went weak as soft-serve ice cream. Just like the first time she’d seen him.
“As for why I bothered coming today, I want to see the baby. I need to see my son.”
Dear Reader (#ulink_cbce15b2-3747-5dc3-8229-7fb44b7edf65),
The month of June makes me think of June brides, Father’s Day and the first bloom of summer love. And Silhouette Romance is celebrating the start of summer with six wonderful books about love and romance.
Our BUNDLE OF JOY this month is delivered by Stella Bagwell’s The Tycoon’s Tots—her thirtieth Silhouette book. As her TWINS ON THE DOORSTEP miniseries continues, we finally discover who gets to keep those adorable babies…and find romance in the bargain.
Elizabeth August is back with her much-loved SMYTHESHIRE, MASSACHUSETTS series. In The Determined Virgin you’ll meet a woman whose marriage of convenience is proving to be very inconvenient, thanks to her intense attraction to her “in-name-only” husband.
BACHELOR GULCH is a little town that needs women, and the name of Sandra Steffen’s brand-new miniseries. The fun begins in Luke’s Would-Be Bride as a local bachelor falls for his feisty receptionist—the one woman in town not looking for a husband!
And there are plenty more compelling romances for you this month: A lovely lady rancher can’t wait to hightail it out of Texas—till she meets her handsome new foreman in Leanna Wilson’s Lone Star Rancher. A new husband can’t bear to tell his amnesiac bride that the baby she’s carrying isn’t his, in Her Forgotten Husband by Anne Ha. And one lucky cowboy discovers a night of passion has just made him a daddy in Teresa Southwick’s The Bachelor’s Baby.
I hope you enjoy all of June’s books!
Melissa Senate, Senior Editor
Silhouette Romance
Please address questions and book requests to: Silhouette Reader Service
U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269 Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3
The Bachelor’s Baby
Teresa Southwick
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To the woman I shared an airport shuttle with who
inspired this story. I hope you and your cowboy found
a happy ending.
TERESA SOUTHWICK
is a native Californian with ties to each coast, since she was conceived in the East and born in the West. Living with her husband of twenty-five years and two handsome sons, she is surrounded by heroes. Reading has been her passion since she was a girl. She couldn’t be more delighted that her dream of writing full-time has come true. Her favorite things include: holding a baby, the fragrance of jasmine, walks on the beach, the patter of rain on the roof and above all—happy endings.
Teresa also writes historical romance novels under the same name.
Chapter One (#ulink_abad706c-f43c-5b8b-baa8-366649b459e7)
She’d always been a sucker for a guy with blue eyes and todie-for dimples. Unfortunately, tonight was no exception.
Casey Wright stared at the man standing in the doorway of the Cheatin’ Heart. The man who could have written the How To… manual for guys with blue eyes and dimples. The man who had turned her life upside down a year ago tonight
The man who didn’t know it yet.
She was as antsy as drops of water on a red-hot skillet as she watched him scan the room. When she waved, he nodded. Walking toward her through the crush of people, he flashed a wide grin, showing off his dimples to heart-stopping perfection.
“Tucker Smith,” she said, when he finally made his way to her table. Trying to control the jackhammering in her chest was like trying to stop a Mack truck with failed brakes.
“I wasn’t sure you’d remember me.”
How could she not? She remembered everything about him, in Technicolor detail. A piddling three hundred and sixty-five days couldn’t erase from her memory the way he’d mercilessly wielded his highintensity gaze against her. In all fairness, it wasn’t his fault she had fallen head over heels.
“I’m surprised you showed up,” he said, filling the strained silence as he nudged the brim of his black Stetson up a notch.
“We agreed to meet here at the Cheatin’ Heart after the rodeo ended, one year to the day after our first date.”
“Nine out of ten women would have blown me off.”
“I know.”
A part of her had wanted to do exactly that. There was only one reason she had come. There was something very important she needed to tell him. Suddenly she could hardly breathe. Her heart pounded so hard the blood rushing in her ears drowned out the country-western song playing on the jukebox in the corner.
Casey had spent one unforgettable night with this man. He had given her the best time of her life; but it couldn’t happen again. Tucker Smith was the first, and last, rule she would ever break.
“Can I sit down?” he asked, removing his hat. He shoved his fingers through his black hair.
“I’m sorry. Of course,” she said, lacing her fingers together to keep her hands from trembling. She sat forward on the edge of her seat.
He lowered his tall frame into the chair at a right angle to hers. “You look good, Casey. Different though.” He looked closely at her.
She had definitely changed, but was surprised he noticed anything in the bar’s shadowy interior. The lights glaring down on the wooden dance floor in the center of the room were the main source of illumination in the place. Glancing at her Laura Ashley outfit, Casey figured she did look a far cry from the woman he had met a year ago. That night she had dressed in jeans and a fringed, cotton blouse, like everyone else who hung out in the bar, down to the boots that had slid easily over the floor. Tonight, in her spaghetti-strapped floral jumper with the white, cap-sleeved T-shirt beneath, she knew she stood out like a nun in a Vegas chorus line. And her white canvas sneakers would make a heck of a squeaking noise if she got out there to dance. Not a chance of that happening again. Cheek to cheek with Tucker had been the beginning of her problems.
That brought her back to the reason she had kept this date in the first place.
“Tucker, there’s something I have to tell you—”
“I guess. A year’s a long time. We’ve got a lot to catch up on. Starting with why you never returned my calls.”
The knot in her chest tightened a notch. “I intended to. Every time I tried, you had moved on.”
He looked puzzled. “Sounds like there’s some stuff we have to sort out. Would you like a glass of wine? White, right?” he asked, starting to signal the waitress.
Nine out of ten men wouldn’t have remembered that, she thought, echoing his earlier comment about her. “No, thanks. I can’t—”
“Can’t?” He raised one black eyebrow questioningly. “Are you all right? You look like you’re about to be sick.”
“Actually, that part stopped after the first trimester.”
“That part?” His gaze narrowed as he rested his forearms on the table. His knuckles brushed her clasped hands, and she leaned back as if she’d been burned. “What are you trying to say?”
She took a deep, shuddering breath. “I’ve rehearsed this over and over, trying to find just the right words, but I don’t think there are any.”
“What, Casey? Spit it out.”
“I got pregnant a year ago tonight, Tucker.”
His eyes blazed like twin blue flames. He didn’t move or flinch. He just stared at her for several moments. Finally, in an angry tone, he asked sarcastically, “And I’m the father?”
She recoiled as if he’d slapped her; she couldn’t have been more shocked if he had. She’d never expected this reaction, because deception wasn’t something she ever practiced, and no one who really knew her would accuse her of it. His accusation made her feel cheap and dirty.
Breathing hard, she stood. Her hands started to shake, and she curled her fingers into her palms. But the shivering spread straight through to her center. With an effort she kept her voice steady. “There’s only one reason I’m not going to slap your face for that remark. We spent one night together, and you couldn’t possibly know anything about me.”
“You got that right.”
Tears burned the back of her eyes, and Casey blinked hard. So much for playing by the rules. She had felt it only right to tell him face-to-face he was a father, not interrupt his life on the rodeo circuit. It was probably for the best that during her pregnancy and the birth, when she had no family support, she hadn’t known he felt like this or she would have known how alone she truly was. Always in the back of her mind was the dim fantasy that Tucker was there. That when she told him they had a baby, he would be happy about being a father.
She couldn’t have been more wrong. The truth hurt more than she’d thought possible.
“No matter what you think, Mr. Smith, I don’t lie. I thought you should know you had a child. Now you do. What you do with the information is of little consequence to me. Goodbye.”
She turned on her heel.
“Casey, wait—”
Her shoes squeaked loudly on the wooden floor, muffling the sounds behind her. The only thing that had gone right all evening was that she made it outside before the tears she’d been holding back fell, turning her into a blubbering fool.
“Don’t slam the door, Casey.”
Tucker put his wide palm on her front door when she pushed against it. If she’d been tall enough to see through the peephole, she’d never have opened it in the first place. Against his strength, there was little she could do to shut him out unless he chose to leave.
Still, a good bluff couldn’t hurt. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t.”
“I came to see my child.”
“Yours? That’s not what you thought last night.”
“I’ve had a chance to think.”
She glanced at the cow watch on her wrist that she’d bought a year ago at the rodeo. It showed eleven in the morning. “It’s been all of fifteen hours since you got the news. Is that enough time to change your mind? You all but called me a liar—”
“You didn’t give me a chance to say much of anything.” He held up a hand. “Not that I blame you. I’m sorry, Casey, but you have to admit that news like that comes as a shock to a man.”
“It comes as a shock to a woman, too.”
“Look,” he said, moving his body into the doorway. “Can I come in? Or would you like your neighbors to get an earful?”
