Wolf Ranch Boxed Set - Books 4 - 6

Chapter 3

3

BECKY

I pushed the cart through the produce section and stopped in front of the avocados. I gave one a gentle squeeze, then another, finding some that weren’t too firm or soft. I added a bunch to my cart. I never used to like avocados, even avoiding guacamole at Mexican restaurants as if it were some kind of green slime.

Now? I couldn’t get enough of the things, which wasn’t helping my bank account. November in Montana wasn’t the best time to get them, but my body wanted the dang things, and they stayed down. At least it was healthy, unlike my ridiculous craving for cocktail wieners.

I’d only thrown up once today, which was a miracle in itself. I worked on the labor and delivery floor at the hospital. I knew all about pregnancy. Well, I thought I had, until I was pregnant myself. My OB assured me that while having morning sickness into my second trimester was perfectly normal, it wasn’t fun.

No s**t, Sherlock.

It wasn’t too severe that I worried about nourishment or being dehydrated. My little peanut gave me a reprieve for most of the day to get food down. And keep it down. The rest of the time? People needed to watch out.

It just seemed like a long time since the nausea began. Since I found out. Even longer since that night. That night.

The night that Clint the Hot Cowboy and his super sperm got past a condom and knocked me up. Not only had the wild ride he’d given me in the storage room been a surprise—I’d never had a quickie before in my life—so were the two blue stripes on the pregnancy test I took a few weeks later.

I’d worked at a clinic telling people the importance of using condoms, that they weren’t a foolproof method of birth control.

Again, no s**t, Sherlock.

The fateful July party was supposed to have been fun. A little wild. Something for Audrey to remember as a crazy bachelorette party before she tied the knot with her hot rodeo champ, Boyd. She wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t forget it.

I knew Boyd and Audrey went at it like rabbits. Even back then. Especially back then. But they hadn’t been the ones to get all hot and heavy in the storage room.

I had. With Clint Tucker. While I’d never met him face-to-face before that night, I’d seen him in passing, and I’d liked what I’d seen a whole hell of a lot. I’d been friends with Audrey since she first moved to town, and we began working together at the hospital. After she met Boyd, I’d gone to the ranch and seen Clint in the corral with the horses. That was when I realized I had a thing for cowboys.

He looked like the Marlboro man without the cigarette. Dark hair, muscular. Big. Well, over a foot taller than me. He had the square jawline and rugged appearance of a manly-man, but there were smile lines around his eyes that made him seem trustworthy.

There had been other guys around, but I’d been snared watching him. Only him. There’d been a calmness about him that was a draw, as if he knew who he was and didn’t give a f**k what anyone else thought. At the ranch and at the bar that night.

It was a complete one-eighty from my ex.

If there was a photo of a d**k in the dictionary, it wouldn’t be of a p***s—it would be my soon-to-be ex-husband’s face. Todd was a d**k. Clint wasn’t one, but definitely had one, and look where that got me. Pregnant. I should have learned from Todd and steered clear of men. I had, until Clint and my need to save a horse and ride a cowboy. I had a trusty vibrator, and I should have blown out the motor.

I pushed past the fruit and steered to the meat counter. It was damn hard to eat the amount of protein recommended, according to my doctor’s meal sheet. I sighed as I waited for the butcher to come over, so I could order some sausages, but the smell of the raw fish at the far end of the display hit me hard. I gagged before I could even talk myself down.

Oh s**t. Where was the bathroom in this place? I spun in a circle, wondering if it was up front by customer service or here in the back, but that only made things worse.

Abandoning my cart, I whirled away from the counter and ran smack into a wall of… tall, hard man.

Big hands wrapped around my elbows. “Hey,” a deep, all-too-familiar voice rumbled. “Becky… hey. Wow. Um… hi. Uh, you all right?”

I craned my neck to look up and... into Clint’s handsome face. My eyes widened in surprise and panic. His nostrils flared as he drew a deep breath, and for a moment, his startled eyes seemed to change from green to grey. I quickly dropped my analysis of the color of his irises because the act of moving my head too fast brought on another wave of nausea.

“Jesus, you look green,” he commented.

For a third time in five minutes, no s**t, Sherlock.

I stepped to the left to get around him, but he followed. I shifted to the right as if I were a football tight end trying to get past an opposing linebacker.

“Hey,” he said at the same time as I told him to move.

He didn’t, and that was it for me. I doubled over, heaving, and—God help me—puked a little on Clint’s work boots.

“Oh my God,” I croaked, keeping my head down as I shoved my hand in my purse for a tissue. “Oh God, this is so embarrassing.”

I hadn’t seen Clint in four months, and now I threw up on him. Because of his baby being all sadistic and torturing me from the inside out.

“You okay? Shelby, get her a bottle of water,” Clint barked.

“Yep. Be right back.” The sound of a female voice brought my head up again, just in time to see the gorgeous juice bar girl from the farmer’s market heading away. I stared at how her snug jeans showed off an ass she could probably bounce a quarter off of. Her short puffy coat didn’t hide anything.

My stomach instantly settled. As in a brick sunk in it and held it down.

It wasn’t like I was interested in Clint. I wasn’t! I hadn’t told him there’d been consequences to our hookup a few months ago because the last thing I needed was guy complications. Sure, I’d stewed on that issue for a few weeks. Did I tell him? Did I not? He deserved to know. No, it didn’t matter. We’d left it as casual. A quickie. Nothing more.

I had enough trouble trying to get through my divorce from Todd in one piece. We’d been legally separated for two years, but he wouldn’t sign the papers. Wouldn’t end it. Instead, he wanted to f**k with me. Draw it out. Push up my legal bills in the hopes I’d give up and go back to him.

Yeah, I’d go back to a guy being a d**k just to get me back. Todd was dumber than I’d ever thought. I was stuck with him legally until he gave up and just signed.

A wild f**k at the back of Cody’s was one thing, but I didn’t need some other guy making demands of me. They were nothing but trouble.

That was the whole reason I hadn’t gone to Audrey to be my Ob/Gyn. Not only did I not want my BFF to see my v****a or a baby popping out of it—I did have some boundaries in friendships—I was afraid she’d put two and two together and realize who the father was.

Still, seeing Clint with Juice Girl jabbed me with a hot poker of jealousy. Clearly, he and his d**k had moved on. I would never have a tight body or even tighter ass. My baby belly and my breasts popped over the last week.

“Let’s get you somewhere you can clean up,” Clint suggested, looking me over.

Thank God I had on a heavy coat and a bulky sweater beneath.

“I’ll just go home,” I mumbled, trying to lurch away. To forget this moment ever happened.

But Clint maintained contact with one of my elbows, following along beside me as if I required his strength to walk.

Which would’ve been nice if I had. Or if I hadn’t just barfed all over his feet.

Gah!

Juice Girl materialized out of nowhere. “Here you go—it’s already paid for.”

Clint snatched it from her hand with a murmured thanks, unscrewed the top and thrust it at me. “Take a sip.”

I grabbed it, desperate to escape. “Thanks so much, both of you. I gotta run before I hurl again.”

“I’ll drive you home,” Clint offered.

“No, no, no, no.” I couldn’t seem to stop my lips from saying the syllable over and over again. “I’m okay on my own.”

I was. Completely on my own.

“Probably,” he countered. “But I’m not letting you drive yourself home when you’re feeling this way. Give me your keys, sugar.”

Sugar. He’d called me that at the bar. It had sounded good then and now.

But I wasn’t his sugar. He was with Shelby, and I knew he wasn’t an asshole, so I had to assume he called every woman sugar. Like the mechanic who worked on my car calling everyone honey.

I looked up at him, my embarrassment morphing into something hot and slithery. My ever-tender n*****s beaded up in my now too-tight bra. I’d just thrown up, and I was hot for him. Eager for what he had in his pants. And the dark words out of his mouth.

Clint was bossy.

I shouldn’t like that.

Not after Todd’s controlling asshole ways. He’d told me what to do, what to wear, what to buy.

But it seemed a girl never learned because Clint’s take-charge attitude just erased all nausea and left my panties damp.

I had hormonal whiplash. Nauseated one minute, horny the next.

Yeah, as if Clint wanted to get it on with a woman who just hurled on him. Soooo sexy.

Still, I hesitated. Part of me was anxious to escape, especially considering Clint was here with another woman. But he held out his hand and pinned me with that stern dark gaze, and I found myself passing the keys before I’d made up my mind whether to obey.

“What about your groceries?” Clint asked, glancing behind me at my cart.

“I just need to leave,” I begged. “I’ll come back tomorrow and apologize to the manager.”

“Okay. Shelby, would you mind—”

“No problem. I’ll take care of our shopping. Give me the keys to your truck, and I’ll finish up.”

Well.

She was awfully accommodating considering Clint was leaving with another woman. She must really be eager to please. When I glanced at her, I found her eyeing me with curiosity rather than jealousy.

Uh oh. Hopefully they weren’t into threesomes.

Oh, what was I thinking? Nobody was thinking about having s*x with me right now. I just puked in a grocery store. On a hot cowboy’s boots.

He was just being a gentleman and seeing me home.

I let him steer me outside, and I pointed out my Subaru. He opened the passenger door and handed me in like I was some kind of elderly woman then walked around, pushed my seat all the way back and climbed behind the wheel.

“Where to?” he asked, looking over at me.

“Listen, you don’t have to drive me.” I opened the glove box and pulled out some napkins, which I thrust at him. “For your boots.”

He took them and leaned down to give his boots a quick swipe. “Thanks. Now, where do you live?”

“I’m really sorry, Clint. I don’t want your girlfriend to be mad.” I couldn’t help myself. I just had to ask. He was a nice guy, and I didn’t want to mess things up for him.

“Girlfriend?” He raised both brows in surprise then his lips twitched. “You think Shelby’s my girlfriend?” He shook his head and started the car. “No, sugar. She was just helping me pick up some things for a family gathering we’re having. It’s too cold for a barbeque but same kind of thing.”

“Oh. She’s—um—family?” Dammit, did I sound way too hopeful? Did I really think a gorgeous guy like him would be single?

He backed up, lips tipping up again. “Yep, we’re related. I couldn’t tell you exactly how. Second cousins, maybe—I don’t know. But yes, she’s family.”

I sat back, my stomach calm, much of my agitation easing. “Well, she seems really nice.”

I liked her far better now that I knew she wasn’t Clint’s girlfriend. She seemed like a really awesome cousin. Stellar, even.

I gave Clint directions back to the duplex I’d moved into when I first left Todd and arrived in Cooper Valley. Thanks to the crushing weight of his med school bills—yeah, his, not mine—I couldn’t afford any better. I still couldn’t since we were still f*****g married, and his debts were my debts.

“What do you think made you sick?” Clint asked. “Stomach flu? Food poisoning?”

I drew in a breath. “Food poisoning, probably,” I said quickly. While Clint might eventually find out I was pregnant, I couldn’t deal with the complications that would bring at the moment. I’d wanted to see him again, but I’d wanted to be prepared. Have a mental script of what to say. Heck, even makeup and maybe not have throw-up breath.

As happy as I was that he and Shelby weren’t an item, that didn’t mean I got to lay claim to him. Or that I even wanted to. His d**k would be good, but all of him? All six-feet plus of hot cowboy? I wasn’t ready for that or the complications that went with it.

I would have enough problems when Todd found out I was pregnant. Knowing that asshole, he’d probably try to claim paternity even though we hadn’t had s*x in two years. He was determined to cause me as much trouble and delay our divorce for as long as he possibly could. Adding a pregnancy to the legal proceedings was going to be a nightmare.

“What do you do for that?” He glanced over from the wheel.

Seriously? Had he never had food poisoning before? “Oh, you know. Lots of fluids and staying closer to a bathroom than I did. I’ll be fine. I’m already feeling better. Again, I’m sorry about your boots.”

“Stop apologizing,” he said firmly in that same bossy tone that had made my n*****s hard at the store. He pulled in front of my place, parked and quickly texted the address to Shelby, so she could pick him up. He turned to look at me, his gaze roving over my face. “What can I do to help?”

“You’ve been a huge help already, but it’s enough.” I opened the door and climbed out, my boots sinking into three-day old snow my neighbor and I still hadn’t shoveled.

Clint surged out from behind the wheel and jogged to catch my elbow, like he was afraid I’d slip.

I stopped and smiled at him. He really was quite the gentleman. The memory of him gallantly riding to my rescue the night we hooked up came flooding back with fondness. “I’m fine. Really. Hey, your nose is looking better.”

He lifted his free hand to touch it as if he’d forgotten, then grinned. “Yeah. All good.”

“Don’t worry about me,” I replied. “I’m good, too.”

“Well, I am worried.” His forehead crinkled. He steered me forward to my door. “I’m going to come back and check on you.”

My heart did a little somersault before I promptly stepped on it.

Nope. Dating Clint was off the table.

Way too complicated, and I knew it was better to steer clear of him from the start because I had a feeling he had a slew of broken hearts in his wake. I didn’t want mine to be one of them.

“It’s really not necessary.”

“Tough. I’m going to come by just the same,” he said firmly, tipping his cowboy hat.

I tried to ignore the clenching between my legs that simple act produced while Clint stepped even closer and stared down at me as if fascinated. He took a deep breath as he studied me.

Oh lordy. I wouldn’t mind a repeat of the night we hooked up.

It had been mind-blowing to say the least. I remembered the feel of his hands on me, the hard press of his body against mine as he held me pinned to the wall. The feel of him hot and thick between my legs. The deep thrust of his d**k. The way he looked when he came. How it felt when he made me come.

Shit, I wanted that again. So bad. But I couldn’t, even though my vibrator didn’t compare. That one night had already gotten me in a world of trouble.

If I weren’t worried about barf-breath, I would’ve stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek, but considering my horrific state, I thought it best to simply duck into my place and wave from the door. Shelby had just pulled up in Clint’s truck, so I was home free.

“Thanks again,” I chirped, trying to close the door in his face.

“You can close the door on me now, sugar, but I’ll be by tomorrow to look in on you.” He stepped back.

I waved again and shut the door.

Crap.

Resisting that sexy cowboy had been doable today because I’d puked on his boots. Tomorrow would be a different story.

I wasn’t sure I had the willpower necessary to resist the magnetic attraction I had to the father of my child.