THE MAVERICK'S THANKSGIVING BABY Read online

  So while he hadn’t planned to tell them about the baby, he couldn’t regret that Maggie had done so—especially when her announcement had actually struck his mother mute for a whole three minutes.

  “I can’t believe I said that. To your parents.” She dropped her face into her hands as they drove away from The Shooting Star. “I’m a horrible person.”

  “You were magnificent,” he told her.

  She shook her head. “Your mother pushed all of my buttons.”

  “She has a knack for that.”

  “I shouldn’t have let her push my buttons. I should have just smiled and kept my mouth shut.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t.”

  “Now they hate me.”

  “They don’t hate you.”

  “They hate me,” she said again. “And yet, they still expect you to marry me. How screwed up is that?”

  He shrugged. “My family’s big on taking responsibility.”

  “I thought they were big on finding someone who would suit you ‘so perfectly.’”

  “Apparently a baby trumps everything else.”

  “At least I understand a little better now why you felt compelled to propose.”

  He turned into the Christensens’ driveway. “I do agree that a baby should have two parents.”

  “We’ve been through this once already tonight,” she reminded him.

  “But you still haven’t agreed to marry me.”

  “Because I’m a big-city liberal who isn’t morally opposed to nontraditional families.”

  “I’m not, either,” he said. “Except when it comes to my child.”

  “Our lives aren’t just in different cities but different states,” she reminded him.

  A fact of which he was painfully aware. And he didn’t know what he could say or do to convince her to give them a chance to build a life together; he didn’t have any new arguments to make. So he reiterated the most important one: “Our baby needs both of us.”

  He parked the truck in front of the sheriff’s house, and although she was reaching for the handle before he’d turned off the engine, he scooted out of the vehicle and around the passenger side to help her out.

  “There’s no doubt your parents raised you to be a gentleman.”

  He lifted a finger to tip back the brim of his hat. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and made her smile.

  But her smile quickly faded. “I wish I could say yes.”

  His heart bumped against his ribs. “It’s a simple word—just three little letters.”

  “Those three little letters can’t miraculously span twelve hundred miles.” She started toward the house, and he fell into step beside her.

  “We can figure it out,” he said, desperately hoping it was true.

  “I’m going back tomorrow,” she reminded him. “I’ve got an early flight.”

  He sighed. “Will you let me drive you to the airport?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve got to return my rental car, anyway.”

  “Can I call you?”

  “Of course.”

  He caught her hand as she reached the door. “I know you have a lot to think about, but let me add just one more thing to the list,” he said.

  And then he kissed her.

  * * *

  Maggie didn’t like to leave her car in the airport parking lot if she didn’t have to, and she usually managed to cajole her brother Ryan into playing taxi driver. But when she got off the plane Sunday afternoon, she discovered that he’d somehow talked their mother into doing the pickup.

  And when she saw Christa, Maggie felt her throat tighten and her eyes fill with tears. It both baffled and frustrated her that she could keep her chin up in the face of almost any kind of adversity, but as soon as she saw her mother, all of her defenses toppled and she felt like a little girl in need of her comforting embrace.

  Christa, sensing that need, instinctively opened her arms and drew Maggie into them.

  “What story did Ryan concoct to get out of airport duty this time?”

  “There was no story,” Christa said. “I volunteered.”

  “You hate driving around the airport.”

  Her mother shrugged. “I thought you might want to talk.”

  “I do,” she agreed. “I just don’t have the first clue where to begin.”

  Christa didn’t press her. In fact, she didn’t say anything else until they were in the car and driving away from the airport—except to ask for directions.

  Once they were on the highway, Maggie finally vocalized the question that had been hovering at the back of her mind. “How did you manage to juggle a legal career and three kids?”

  “I’d be lying if I said it was easy,” Christa told her. “And I’m not sure I could have done it when you were babies.”

  “You weren’t working then?”

  Her mother shook her head. “I took a leave of absence when we adopted Shane and didn’t go back to work full-time until you were in kindergarten.”

  “You took twelve years off?” She guessed at the number, since it was the age difference between herself and her oldest brother.

  “It was actually closer to sixteen, although I did work a few hours a week at Legal Aid, to keep my hand in,” her mother explained. “But your dad and I both agreed that if we were going to have children, our children needed to be a priority. I didn’t want to work to pay someone else to raise you.

  “That’s not a choice every woman can make,” she acknowledged, “but I was lucky to have your dad’s support in that decision.”

  “I don’t want to give up my career,” Maggie said. “But I don’t want to be so wrapped up in my career that I miss out on being a mother to my child.”

  “You don’t have to choose one or the other,” her mother pointed out.

  “I’m not sure Brian Nash would say the same thing.”

  “Then maybe you need a new boss.”

  “I’ve dedicated almost half a decade to Alliston & Blake.”

  “Yes, you have,” Christa agreed.

  And Maggie heard what she didn’t say—that maybe the time she’d already given them was enough. But leaving Alliston & Blake, trying something new and different, was a scary prospect. A little bit exciting but mostly scary, especially now that she had more than her career to think about—she had a baby on the way.

  “I don’t know what’s the right thing to do,” she admitted. “I know how to research precedent and draft motions and argue cases—I don’t know how to be a mother.”

  “Being a parent is the toughest job you’ll ever have, and the most important.”

  “What if I screw up?”

  “You will,” her mother said easily. “Every mother does once in a while. Every father, too.”

  “That was subtle, Mom.”

  Christa smiled. “I wasn’t trying to be subtle.”

  “If you have questions about the baby’s father, why don’t you just ask them?”

  “I don’t have any specific questions—I just want you to tell me something about him. There was a time when you used to tell me everything about the boys you liked, but you’ve been awfully closemouthed since your trip to Montana in the summer.”

  Maggie wondered if it was possible to sum up Jesse in a handful of words, if there was any way to describe the way she felt when she was with him, any way to explain the conflicting emotions that she didn’t understand.

  “His name is Jesse Crawford,” she said, deciding to start with the simple facts. “His family owns the general store in Rust Creek Falls and The Shooting Star ranch, but Jesse trains horses.”

  “So he’s a cowboy,” Christa mused.

  Maggie nodded. “He’s strong and smart, a little bit shy but incredibly sexy
. There’s an intensity about him, a single-minded focus. And he has a real gift for working with animals. They respond to him—his hands and his voice.”

  “I’m thinking he has the same gift with women,” her mother noted drily.

  Maggie felt her cheeks flush. “Maybe. But Lissa assured me he doesn’t have that kind of reputation. In fact, since she’s been living in Rust Creek Falls, she hasn’t heard of him dating anyone at all.”

  “So what brought the two of you together?”

  “Happenstance? Luck? Fate?”

  Her mother’s immaculately arched brows lifted. “Fate?”

  “Something just clicked between us when we met,” she said. “It was almost like...magic. I know that sounds corny, but I can’t explain it any better than that.”

  “You’re in love with him,” Christa realized.

  “I think...maybe...I am,” she agreed hesitantly. “But is that even possible? I only met him a few months ago, I haven’t spent that much time with him and I don’t know him that well. But there’s this almost magnetic draw that I can’t seem to resist—that I don’t want to resist when I’m with him.”

  “Have you told him how you feel?”

  She shook her head.

  “Why not?”

  “Because I don’t know how he feels.”

  “Love shouldn’t be given with strings—it’s a gift from the heart.”

  “Even if I told him, even if he—by some miracle—felt the same way, it doesn’t really change anything.”

  “Honey, love changes everything.”

  “Maybe that’s what makes me uneasy,” Maggie finally admitted. “I like my life the way it is—and I get that having a baby will require some changes. But since I told Jesse, he’s suddenly gone all Neanderthal, insisting that we should get married.”

  “You don’t sound very happy about that.”

  “I’d be happy if I thought he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me,” she admitted, startled to realize it was true.

  “Isn’t that usually the motivating factor behind a proposal?”

  “The motivating factor for Jesse is our baby.”

  “Are you sure about that?” her mother asked gently.

  “I told him I was pregnant and he said ‘we should get married.’”

  “And what did you say?”

  “I said no.”

  “Did he accept that?”

  “No,” she admitted.

  Christa smiled. “When do we get to meet him?”

  Chapter Six

  Since Jesse couldn’t leave his animals unattended for a weekend, he called his brother Brad and asked him to take care of them. Of course, his brother showed up Friday just as Jesse was getting ready to head out.

  “So where are you going this weekend?” he asked curiously.

  “Los Angeles.”

  “California?”

  “No, Los Angeles, Montana.”

  “Okay, it was a stupid question,” Brad allowed. “But why are you going to California?”

  “To see Maggie.”

  His brother narrowed his gaze. “That lawyer you were all ga-ga over in the summer?”

  “No one over the age of twelve uses the expression ga-ga,” Jesse chided. “But yes, Maggie is an attorney.”

  “I didn’t even know you were dating her.”

  No one knew they were dating—because they weren’t. But they were having a baby together and although his parents were now aware of that fact, they’d been surprisingly closemouthed about the situation. Probably because they were waiting for him to announce a wedding date, which he didn’t think was going to happen anytime soon.

  While he knew that Maggie’s pregnancy couldn’t remain a secret forever—and probably not very much longer—he wasn’t ready to share the news with Brad. So he decided to go with the same explanation that Maggie had given to Jared Winfree. “We wanted to keep our relationship under the radar, to avoid small-town gossip.”

  “You definitely did that,” Brad allowed. “I guess it’s pretty serious, though, if you’re going to LA to see her.”

  “I want to marry her,” Jesse admitted.

  His brother shook his head. “Why would you want to tie yourself to one woman when there are so many of them out there? And if you insist on settling down, why wouldn’t you choose a local girl? Why would you hook up with another big-city gal who’s only going to break your heart?”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Jesse said drily.

  “You were devastated when Shaelyn left,” Brad reminded him. “I don’t want you to go through something like that again.”

  Actually, he’d been more relieved than devastated, having realized even before Shaelyn did that their engagement had been a mistake. But he didn’t argue the point with his brother because Brad was right about one thing—Maggie was a big-city gal and it was entirely possible that he was making a big mistake.

  Again.

  * * *

  Busy. Crowded. Frantic.

  Those were Jesse’s first impressions of Los Angeles, and that was before he left the airport terminal.

  Thankfully everything he’d needed had fit into a carry-on, so he didn’t have to battle the mass of people at baggage claim. He weaved through the crowd, feeling like a salmon swimming upstream. Or maybe the more appropriate analogy would be like a fish out of water.

  Except that when he finally spotted Maggie, everything and everyone else seemed to fade away.

  She offered him a quick smile and a kiss on the cheek. “Is that everything?” she asked, indicating the duffel bag slung over his shoulder.

  “That’s everything,” he confirmed.

  She nodded and led him toward the exit. “I got caught up in a meeting and didn’t have a chance to pick up a file that I need this weekend. Do you mind if I make a quick stop at the office now?”

  “Of course not,” he said. In fact, he was curious to see where she worked—the big-city lawyer in her natural milieu.

  But that was before she pulled out of the airport parking lot and onto the highway and he realized that Los Angeles traffic was insane. He’d never experienced anything like it and was beyond grateful that he didn’t have to drive in it. And when Maggie began to zip from lane to lane, he just closed his eyes and held on.

  They arrived at the offices of Alliston & Blake twenty minutes later. Maggie pulled into an underground parking garage and led him from there to a bank of elevators. She punched the call button for the one designated Floors 10–21, and once inside, they began the ascent toward the eighteenth floor.

  “Are you okay?” she asked. “You look a little pale.”

  “I think so,” he said. “I’d heard about California traffic, but I didn’t anticipate anything quite like that.”

  “That was nothing compared to rush hour,” she told him.

  “I’ll happily skip that experience, if it’s an option.”

  She smiled. “I’ll try to get in and out as quickly as possible.”

  He followed her into a small office with two desks and the same number of filing cabinets and bookcases. She went to the closer desk, the one with a neatly engraved nameplate that said Maggie Roarke. A similar nameplate on the other desk said Samantha Radke.

  Maggie must have noted the direction of his gaze, because she said, “Sammi’s working out of the San Francisco office this week.”

  While she sifted through a neat stack of folders, he moved farther into the room, checking out the diplomas on the wall and noting the summa cum laude designation on Maggie’s certificate from Stanford Law.

  “Got it,” she said, just as a brisk knock sounded on the open door, immediately followed by a man’s voice, “Good—you’re back.”

  Maggie’s s
mile froze on her face. “And on my way out again, Brian.”

  The man—Brian—didn’t seem pleased by her response. And that was before he spotted Jesse standing beside her desk.

  “Who’s the cowboy?” he asked, speaking to Maggie as if Jesse wasn’t even in the room.

  “Jesse is...a friend of mine,” she said. “Jesse Crawford. Brian Nash.”

  His hands were soft, his grip weak. The suit was obviously a pencil pusher who wouldn’t be able to wrestle a fifty-pound sack of grain never mind a two-thousand-pound bull. Which didn’t surprise Jesse or concern him—but he didn’t like the way the other man put his hand on Maggie’s shoulder, then let it linger there.

  “I’m glad I caught you,” Brian was saying to her now. “I have a meeting with Perry Edler tonight that I thought you might want to attend.”

  Perry Edler—the Chief Operating Officer of Edler Industries, one of Alliston & Blake’s biggest clients. The invitation—and the possibilities that it implied—made Maggie’s pulse quicken. Then she glanced from Brian to Jesse, and her pulse quickened again, but for an entirely different reason.

  “Tonight?” She shook her head with sincere regret. “I can’t.”

  Brian frowned. “What do you mean—you can’t?”

  She couldn’t blame him for sounding confused. In the almost five years that she’d worked at Alliston & Blake, she had probably never before uttered those same words. Her job had always been her number one priority and she’d happily juggled every other part of her life to accommodate it.

  “I’m sorry,” she apologized automatically. “But I already have plans for tonight.”

  “Plans?” Her boss’s frown deepened as his gaze skipped to Jesse again. “Plans can’t compare to opportunities, and this is an incredible opportunity for you, Maggie. Mr. Edler specifically asked that you be assigned to his team for this new project.”

  She looked at Jesse, her conviction wavering. His expression was guarded, giving her no hint of what he was thinking or feeling. He was leaving the choice entirely up to her, and she knew that if she told him this meeting was more important than their dinner plans because it had the potential to make her career, he’d probably wish her luck.