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“Um.” Avery blinked like an owl. “How did you—”
Finn shrugged. “Everyone in town is talking about it. There’s nothing quite as cute as a baby goat.”
“The goat. Right.” Avery swallowed, and he traced the movement up and down the graceful column of her throat.
Was it his imagination, or did she seem nervous?
“The goat’s cute, but she’s a handful. I don’t know what Old Gene was thinking.” Melba rolled her eyes. “She has to be bottle-fed every four to five hours, round the clock. It’s almost like having a real baby again, but maybe a little less noisy.”
Avery turned toward Melba with an incredulous stare. “Less noisy?”
Melba shrugged. “Sure. You know how babies are.”
Avery shifted from one foot to the other as she glanced at Finn and then quickly looked away.
Melba’s eyes narrowed. “How exactly do you two know each other?”
Why did the question feel like a test of some sort?
Finn gave her an easy smile. He had nothing to hide. “Avery and I are both in the beef business.”
“Really?” Melba looked him and up down.
“Absolutely. Our paths used to cross every so often, but we haven’t bumped into each other since my family relocated to Montana.” A pity, really. “I’d love to take you out while you’re in town, Avery.”
She bit the swell of her lush bottom lip. “Oh…um, well…”
Not exactly the reaction he was going for. Avery looked as scared as a rabbit, and Melba was once again scrutinizing him as if he were giving off serial killer vibes.
Was he missing something?
His thoughts drifted back to the night they’d spent together in Oklahoma City. It didn’t take much effort. The entire encounter was seared in his memory—every perfect, porcelain inch of Avery’s skin, every tender brush of her lips.
They’d been in town for a gala dinner of cattle executives, and Finn would be lying if he’d said he hadn’t been hoping to run into her. Through their overlapping business connections and a handful of mutual friends, Finn and Avery had been moving in the same orbit for quite a few years. He’d wanted her for every single one of them. How could he not? She was lovely. And smart, too. It took a special kind of woman to hold her own as the vice president of a major company in a business dominated by men. Finn considered himself a Southern gentleman, but that wasn’t true of everyone in the beef business. Avery had run into her fair share of chauvinists and good old boys, but she never failed to rise above their nonsense with her head held high.
As much as she fascinated him, he’d respected her too much to make a real move. Their interactions had been limited to a low-key flirtation that he found immensely enjoyable, if somewhat torturous.
But the night in Oklahoma had been different. June in the Sooner State was always a nightmare of blazing heat and suffocating humidity, but that particular weekend had been especially brutal. A heat wave swept through the area, causing widespread power outages as the temperature soared. The gala’s luxury hotel was plunged into darkness. Even after they got the generator up and running, the crystal chandeliers were barely illuminated, and heady, scented candles were scattered over every available surface.
He remembered Avery saying something about the animosity between their families, and true, his father had never uttered a kind word about Oscar Ellington. Quite the opposite, actually. There was definitely bad blood between the Crawford and Ellington patriarchs. But Finn and Avery had always managed to get along. And something about the darkness made their little flirtation seem not so low-key anymore, so over laugher and dry martinis at the bar, they’d agreed to set aside any familial difficulty.
She’d looked so damned beautiful in the candlelight, all soft curves and wide, luminous eyes. He’d taken a chance and leaned in…
He swallowed hard at the memory of what came next. It had been like something out of a dream. A perfect night—so perfect he hadn’t taken another woman to bed since, despite his popularity in Montana. And now Avery was right here, less than an arm’s length away, when he’d thought he’d never see her again.
“Please,” he said. “Dinner, or even just coffee? For old times’ sake.”
He’d been neck-deep in women for the past three months, and now he was begging for an hour of Avery Ellington’s time. Wonderful.
Melba cut in again before she could give him an answer. “Look at the time! Sorry to interrupt, but we simply must be going. Avery, how could you let me forget? We have to stop over at the Dalton Law Office to pick up those papers for Gene.”
Avery’s expression went blank. “What papers?”
“Those very important papers. You know the ones.” Melba took the flannel shirts from Avery and handed them to Nina, who shoved them into a bag.
Avery crossed her arms, uncrossed them and crossed them again. Finn’s gaze snagged on her oversize blue button-down. Was that a man’s shirt she was wearing?
His jaw clenched. They hadn’t even spoken since that simmering night in June, but Finn didn’t like the thought of her with another man. Not one bit.
Overreacting much? It was one night, not an actual relationship. Maybe he wasn’t such a fine Southern gentleman, after all.
“Come on, now. We don’t want to keep Ben Dalton waiting.” Melba shoved one of her five shopping bags at Avery and then linked elbows with her.
“Right. Of course we don’t.” Avery glanced at him one last time as Melba practically dragged her out of the store. “It was good seeing you, Finn. Goodbye.”
He stared after them, wondering what in the hell had just happened.
“Can I help you find anything, Mr. Crawford?” Nina said from behind the counter.
Finn dragged his gaze away from the scene beyond the shop window and Avery’s chocolate-hued hair, whipping around her angelic face in the wind like a dark halo.
He smiled, but his heart wasn’t in it. “No, thank you.”
For some strange reason, he almost felt like he’d already found what he needed. And now he’d just watched her walk away.
Again.
“Where are we going, exactly?” Avery gripped her shopping bag until her knuckles turned white and did her best to resist the overwhelming urge to glance over her shoulder for another glimpse of the general store.
Of Finn.
She almost wanted to believe she’d imagined their entire awkward encounter just now. Since the moment she’d first spotted the two tiny pink lines on the drugstore pregnancy test she’d taken in her posh executive washroom at Ellington Meats, she’d tried to imagine what she’d say to Finn the next time she saw him. Somehow she always imagined she’d be able to utter more than two stuttered words.
Had she managed to string a whole sentence together at all? Nope, she was pretty sure she hadn’t. So much for being a strong, independent woman and facing the situation head-on.
“We’re not going anywhere, dear. I thought you were going to faint when you saw Finn Crawford. I made something up to get you out of there.” Melba gave her hand a comforting pat.
So her panic had been that obvious? Fabulous.
“Oh, thank you. But I was surprised, that’s all.” Shocked to her core was more like it.
Which was really kind of ridiculous, since the whole reason she’d come to Rust Creek Falls was to tell him about the baby. Get in, drop the baby bomb and get out. That had been the plan. It was just so much harder than she’d imagined. And now here she was, a couple weeks later, still secretly pregnant.
“Finn is an old friend.” She stared straight ahead as they walked back to the boarding house. What had just transpired at the general store was a minor setback, not a total disaster. It’s not like she could have told him she was pregnant right then and there.
Hey, so great to see you. FYI, I’m having your baby, and I’m planning to raise it on my own. Just wanted to let you know. I’ve got to pay for my pile of flannel now. Have a nice life.
Beside her, Melba snorted. “Well. He seems to have a lot of friends, if you know what I mean.”
Avery’s steps slowed as her heart pounded hard in her chest. “I don’t, actually.”
“It seems pretty obvious that you aren’t ready to jump into a relationship. In any event, from what I’ve heard, Finn Crawford wouldn’t be a great candidate.”
Avery concentrated hard on putting one foot in front of the other as she turned Melba’s words over in her mind. She was almost afraid to ask for more information, but she had to, didn’t she? If the father of her baby was an ax murderer or something, that seemed like vital information to have. “Melba, what exactly have you heard?”
The older woman shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong. He’s a right charming fellow—possibly too charming. He’s dated practically everyone in Rust Creek Falls since his family moved to town. It’s sweet that he asked you to dinner, but Finn isn’t right for a nice girl like you.”
A nice girl like you.
What on earth would Melba think if she knew the real story?
Avery took a deep breath. The air smelled like cinnamon and nutmeg, courtesy of the decorative cinnamon brooms so many of the local business included in the fall pumpkin displays decorating the sidewalk. But the cozy atmosphere couldn’t get her mind off a troubling truth—Finn might not be a serial killer, but apparently, he was a serial flirt. Somehow she didn’t think a baby would fit neatly into a carefree lifestyle like the one Melba had just described.
But that was fine. More than fine, really. She didn’t need Finn’s help. If she could run the business division of a Fortune 500 company, she could certainly raise a baby. Her father would blow a gasket once he found out his first grandchild was going to be a Crawford, but he’d get over it. Having Finn out of the picture might even make things easier, where the whole family feud matter was concerned.
She obviously needed to let Finn know it was happening, though. That just seemed like the right thing to do. His reputation around Rust Creek Falls didn’t change a thing. It wasn’t as if she’d thought she could actually build a life with the man.
Still, the fact that he’d been acting as if Montana was the set of Bachelor in Paradise while she was battling morning sickness and freaking out about starting a family with the son of her father’s sworn enemy stung a little bit.
Who am I kidding? Avery climbed the steps of Strickland’s Boarding House alongside Melba and thought about all the nights she’d spent in this house, secretly wishing Finn would call or text out of the blue so she’d feel less awkward about their situation. Less lonely.
It stings a lot.
Chapter Three (#u8312f908-b8b3-5e87-808e-6078b5ce5da7)
“Mr. Crawford.” Melba Strickland stood on the front steps of her big purple house and looked Finn up and down. “This is a surprise.”
Was it?
Finn got the feeling she wasn’t shocked to see him in the least. The furrow in her brow told him she wasn’t pleased about his impromptu visit, either.
“Good morning, Mrs. Strickland.” He tipped his hat and smiled, but her frown only deepened.
Once Finn had recovered from the shock of running into Avery at the general store the day before, he’d realized she’d never given his invitation a straight answer. Granted, she hadn’t exactly jumped for joy when he’d told her he wanted to take her out while she was in town, but she hadn’t turned him down, either. Melba hadn’t given her a chance.
After he’d finally collected what he needed at the store, he’d returned to the Ambling A and spent the afternoon making repairs to the ranch’s barbed-wire fence. One of the things Finn liked best about Montana was its vast and sweeping sky. He’d always loved the deep blue of the heavens in Texas, but here it almost felt like the sky was stacked on top of itself like a layered cake. A man could do a lot of thinking under a sky like that, and while he’d pounded new fence posts into the rich red earth, he’d managed to convince himself things with Avery hadn’t been as awkward as he’d imagined. Old Gene probably had papers waiting to be picked up at the Dalton Law Office, just like Melba said. There was no legitimate reason why Avery should be trying to avoid him.
Now, in the fresh light of day, he wasn’t so sure. Melba was definitely giving him the side-eye as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other and tried to see past her to the inside of the boarding house.
Was she even going to let him in?
“I stopped by to see Avery.” He nodded toward the bouquet in his hand—sunflowers and velvety wine-colored roses tied with a smooth satin ribbon. “And to give her these.”
Melba glanced at the flowers. Her resistance wavered, ever so slightly.
“I’ll have to see if Avery is available.” She held up a hand. “Wait here.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He winced as she shut the door in his face.
Finn felt like a teenager again, trying to get permission to take a pretty girl to the school dance. Even back then, he wasn’t sure he’d ever run into a protective parent as steadfast as Melba Strickland.
At long last, the door swung open to reveal Avery with her thick brunette waves piled on top of her head and her lips painted red, just like she’d looked that fateful night in Oklahoma. But instead of her usual business attire, she was wearing faded jeans and an oversize cable-knit sweater that slipped off one shoulder as she gripped the doorknob. Finn’s attention snagged briefly on the flash of her smooth, bare skin, and when he met her gaze again, her mouth curved into a bashful smile.
“Finn Crawford, whatever are you doing here?” She tilted her head, and a lock of hair curled against her exposed collarbone.
It took every ounce of Finn’s willpower not to reach out and wind it around his fingertips. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that question?”
What was she doing in Montana…in Rust Creek Falls, of all places?
“I had business nearby, and since I was a bit intrigued by the charming town you’d told me all about, I thought I’d check it out while I was in the area.” That’s right—the last time they’d seen each other, he’d told her all about the plans to relocate the ranch. “It seemed like a nice place to escape for a few days.”
Finn nodded, even though her answer raised more questions than it answered, such as what exactly did she need to escape from?
“I actually thought about looking you up, but I wasn’t sure if I should,” she said.
He arched a brow. “Why not?”
Avery took a deep breath, and for a long, loaded moment, the space between them felt swollen with meaning. But then she just bit her lip and shrugged.
“Are those for me?” She smiled at the bouquet in his hand.
A wave of pleasure surged through him. Whatever her reason for being here, it was great to see her again. “They sure are.”
“How very gentlemanly of you. Thank you.” She took the flowers and held them close to her chest. Her soft brown eyes seemed lovelier than ever, mirroring the rich, dark centers of the sunflowers. “Do you want to come in while I put these in some water?”
She gestured toward the interior of the boarding house, which was the last place Finn wanted to be while Melba was around.
“Actually, since you seem so interested in the area, why don’t I show you around town for a bit? I can even give you a tour of the ranch if you like.”
“A tour of the ranch,” she echoed. The flowers in her grip trembled. “Your ranch?”
Finn paused, remembering what she’d told him in Oklahoma about the supposed feud between their families. Once upon a time, Oscar Ellington and Maximilian Crawford had been friends. Best friends, according to Avery’s father. They’d roomed together in college, both majoring in agriculture and ranch management. After graduation, they’d planned to go into business together, but at the last minute, Finn’s father had changed his mind. He pulled out of the deal, and the friendship came to its tumultuous end.
“Sure,” Finn said. He and Avery weren’t their parents. He saw no reason why he couldn’t take her to the Ambling A and walk the land with her, show her how the fall colors made the mountainside look as if it were aflame.
Although, if Oscar and Maximilian had turned their youthful dreams into a reality, the ranch wouldn’t be his. It would be theirs—his and Avery’s both.
Imagine that, he thought. Being tied to Avery Ellington for life.
He could think of worse fates.
But that would never happen. Ever. He wasn’t even sure why he was entertaining the notion, other than the fact that his dad and Viv Dalton were dead set on putting an end to his independence.
“All right, then,” Avery said, but her smile turned bittersweet. “Let’s go.”
Copper and gold leaves crunched beneath Avery’s feet as she and Finn walked from his truck to the grand log cabin overlooking acres and acres of ranch land and glittering sunlit pastures where horses flicked their tails and grazed on shimmering emerald grass.
Calling it a cabin was a bit of a stretch. It looked more like a mansion made of Lincoln Logs, surrounded by a sprawling patio fashioned from artistically arranged river stones. The Rocky Mountains loomed in the background, rugged and golden. Enemy territory was quite lovely, it seemed.
