Page 7 of A Baby for the Texas Cowboy (The Texas Wolf Brothers #3)

Her tone was dismissive. Anders felt both shamed and angry and the flare of jealousy was especially unwelcome.

He pinched his nose and breathed in deeply.

They were going to raise a child together. They had to learn to communicate without emotions getting in the way.

“Let’s start this again.” He dug deep and cleared his throat, feeling like he’d swallowed a Brillo pad. “Please. Tinsley.”

He tried out her name and liked the way it tripped off his tongue.

“I am sorry I was a jerk when you tried to talk to me at the arena.”

Her expression didn’t change.

“I was shocked at your…” He waved his hand vaguely in her direction and then jammed his hand in his pocket, feeling dumb.

Somehow, she managed to arch one eyebrow while still nailing him with the stink eye—not what he was used to with women, well, with anyone. He was golden. The charming Wolf. He rarely pissed anyone off.

“I didn’t do this to myself,” she said. “And I certainly wasn’t planning a pregnancy.” She turned away and hissed something under her breath he couldn’t quite hear because his heart still thundered in his ears.

“I know,” he said knowing he was handling this badly.

He’d not slept last night. “I took precautions, Tinsley. I always do, but…” He trailed off.

No excuses. From the moment she’d uttered the P word—well, not the exact moment, but the moment it had sunk in that he’d had an epic birth control fail—he’d known what he had to do.

Tinsley’s face held no give.

Damn. She was really going to make him work for it.

Her right. You effed up both your lives.

“I’m sorry,” he said simply, but that didn’t seem enough either. He was really floundering. “Let’s start over.”

“How?” She laughed as if amazed at the concept that they could communicate as friends.

Because we’ve seen each other naked .

“It took guts to come to me,” he admitted and then winced. It shouldn’t have taken guts.

He’d been with a lot of women. More than his share, he conceded, feeling like he had a mouthful of sawdust.

Tinsley should trust him to do the right thing by her and her child, but why would she? He’d had one foot out the door the minute he’d walked in. He’d congratulated himself on his honesty and that he and Tinsley had agreed on the score.

“Let’s sit down. Have a conversation.”

He looked around the tasting room. No tables or chairs. And the apartment upstairs also had been empty of furniture.

“Anders, stop playing nice.”

“I’m not playing anything,” he said, offended.

“You’re a player. I knew that. It’s fine for the proverbial roll in the hay, but not for anything long term.”

Where was she going with this? He felt his usually barely there temper kick up a notch. What exactly was she accusing him of—hit and run?

“And that’s fine,” she emphasized. “Because I didn’t, and I don’t want anything long term with you.”

His mouth formed the W of the word what , but nothing came out. He swallowed and yanked at his hair as if that would pull out the words. “You told me you were pregnant with my child.”

“Yeah. I am, but if you want a paternity test I get that.”

He felt like the conversation was a broken gate swinging back and forth wildly in the wind.

“Is that safe for the baby now?”

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter because I’m not asking for anything.”

“What?” He looked around for a chair.

“I told you.” Tinsley still had her arms crossed as she leaned against the wine bar as if she needed it to hold herself up.

“I don’t expect anything from you. I don’t need anything from you.

You are off the hook.” She unfolded her arms and made a big swishing motion like he was supposed to disappear. Cowboy in a magic show.

Anders blinked, feeling as if all the air in the room had just been sucked out.

Too damn bad. He managed to bite the words back and keep them in his head. She might not expect or want anything from him—and who spoke like that to the father of their child, anyway?—but she was going to get it.

“Anders, I’m starting work. We don’t have to decide anything today.”

“If the baby’s mine, then we conceived it at the weddings. And that means you’re nearly through our first trimester,” he said.

Her mouth dropped open. “Our,” she repeated, and again she nibbled on her lower lip, and then, as if realizing she was doing it, she pressed her lips together, blew out air, and moistened her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue.

Anders remembered vividly the heat of her tongue and how her lips felt wrapped around his cock, and he barely restrained a groan as his cock twitched to half-mast.

Bad timing.

“There’s no our here,” she said, and her voice wobbled a little before she sucked in a breath and squared her shoulders.

“I don’t think your boobs are going to double or that your stomach will balloon.

You won’t be staving off stretch marks with some organic whatever concoction from an online store. ”

His gaze inadvertently dipped to her breasts. They’d been siren-call tempting before, and he still fantasized about how they felt in his palms and the sounds she’d make when he’d suck on her nipples even though her clothing.

Eyes up, idiot .

Guiltily he looked back into her face expecting anger. Or a sucker punch. Instead, the first hint of a wry ‘boys will be boys’ smile played around her soft, plump, pink mouth. Only he was most definitely a man.

“You look beautiful, Tinsley,” he said softly and without thinking about it, he walked toward her.

“Please, Anders.” She took a step back. She even held out her hand, palm out like a sexy crossing guard. “We don’t have to talk about anything now.”

The hell they didn’t.

“Anders, take the out,” she said in a rush, stepping forward and placing her hands on his chest like she could push him out of the tasting room.

“I’m not asking for anything from you. Not money or time.

You’re young. A bull rider on top. You’ve still got years to ride.

To earn top money. To build your brand. You don’t want a baby to slow your roll. You don’t want me.”

Her words were a slap in his face. Still, he’d blown it about as badly as a man could, and he had to leash his frustration in order to pull out a save.

So he covered her hands with his. They were ice cold.

He rubbed them lightly. She acted so tough, but she was afraid. Why? Of him? That didn’t sit well.

“You forgot something on that list of yours,” he said, massaging her hands.

“What?” She looked up. Her dark gold gaze glittered and her voice was edged with defiance.

“I’m also a dad. I am the father of your child. And that trumps everything.”

His hands dropped to her hips. He pulled her close and let her feel his growing arousal.

He didn’t want her—what BS. He hadn’t stopped wanting her.

“I’m not walking away, Tinsley, no matter how hard you push.

I intend to marry you so that our child has a mother and a father and we will raise our child together. ”

*

“Marry? Together?” She stared at Anders in horror.

“No.” She tried to draw in a breath, but it was too fractured to deliver the oxygen she needed.

“We aren’t together.” She tried to infuse her voice with conviction, but she sounded young, uncertain—like the child and young woman she’d once been.

She couldn’t go back. She wouldn’t. She’d worked too hard to remake her life, and herself. She couldn’t be trapped again.

“I…you didn’t…want this,” she said. “We didn’t plan on a baby.”

“No. But we have a child coming, and we have to prepare.” Anders sounded infinitely patient, unlike John when she had once—only once—balked at his plans. Defensively, she wrapped her fingers around her throat. “We have to be on the same page.”

“I don’t…I don’t want…” Thoughts flew around her brain like swarming bees. She couldn’t catch one. She couldn’t hear herself think.

Why was he here? Why was he trying to act all noble or whatever game he was playing? There was no same page for them.

“You and I did our best to prevent a pregnancy.” Tinsley clung to that fact. “You have condoms in your wallet. In your travel bag. In your toiletry bag. You are ready at all times.”

“Nothing’s foolproof, Tinsley.” He seemed so calm, as if both their lives hadn’t been blown up by one broken condom.

She couldn’t breathe. It was so hot in here. She turned around to look for a door, a window, an escape.

“Tinsley.” Anders sounded far away, but the worry on his face made her feel like prey. She had to run. She had to go. She was going to have a panic attack. She’d had them before growing up—a few. She’d managed to hide most, but after John…

Don’t think about him. Stay here. Stay now.

But here and now was the last place she wanted to be.

“I have to think. I have to…” She whirled around and started for the back door, but her vision grayed and the floor seemed to roll. Was this an earthquake? She’d never been in one. Did Texas have earthquakes? Was it from fracking? Texas was an oil state, right?

Dimly, she heard Anders talking, his beautiful voice soothing the way she’d heard him talk to the bulls in the pens before his rides.

“Hey, you’re okay.” Anders had one arm around her body, just under her breasts, as she pressed against the door, trying to get outside. His other stroked down her spine.

Nothing was okay. It would never be okay. She had no idea how to be a mother. She’d had a terrible example. And she didn’t want to give another man any say in her life ever again.

“Just take a breath, baby. Breathe with me, Tinsley.”

How humiliating. And this wasn’t even a full-blown panic freak-out. She usually managed to avoid those by having space and independence. Not getting boxed in by expectations and rules and people demanding things from her she couldn’t give.

The baby was going to be very demanding.

She squeezed her eyes shut. What was she going to do? How was she going to cope?

Do not cry.

“That’s better.” His voice was so soothing. She’d always loved the way his voice was low, resonant, quiet. Not trying to out-talk anyone. He was one of the few men she’d met who truly listened.

“You need to go,” she whispered. “You need to. I have to be alone,” she told him.

“Tinsley, I’m not leaving. Hey, stop running.”

But she dashed for the door. He reached out and snagged her arm, and without thinking, she pulled and spun so that he was outside facing her. She pushed hard, grabbed the dangling rope of the roll-down door, and pulled with all her strength. She shot the bolt home.