The Bachelor's Baby (Bachelor Auction Book 3) (13 page)

Into the silence, he abruptly hit the button on his door and cracked his window, making cool wind whistle into the cab. He threw his hat into the back seat and plucked the buttons on his coat, jerking it open a few inches.

She turned goggled, unseeing eyes to the smear of white and blue out the side of her window, surreptitiously lowering the zip on her vest to get a bit of that cooler air down her own throat.

“Mainstreet Diner all right?” he asked as they approached town.

“If we can get in, sure,” she said, clearing her throat. “We’re right on time for the breakfast rush,” she warned, unsurprised by the lack of parking when they got close enough to start looking.

“Mind walking?” he asked when they found a spot on the next block.

“Not at all.” The snow was melting and dripping off the awnings, reflecting like diamonds, while the breeze carried the sweet scent of a turning season.

“I was going to come and open your door,” he said with a disgruntled frown when he met her on the sidewalk.

That made her smile in bemusement. “You’re quite a gentleman, aren’t you?”

He shrugged. “Might not be great at relationships, but I’m a helluva date.”

“Mmm. Modest, too.”

He winked and set a light hand under her elbow, making her tense in reaction, belly flooding with heat.
What was it about this man?

“There might be slippery patches,” he said as though reading her tension. “I don’t want you to fall.”

Concern for the baby or her, she wondered? She decided not to ask, glancing instead back toward the boutique, but if they carried bras, they’d be the lacy, get-your-motor-running kind. She’d probably have to go into Bozeman for a grow-with-you maternity bra.

Maternity wear
, she thought with a muted sigh at how thoroughly her life was changing.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I thought I knew what my life would look like a year from now, but it turns out I didn’t. I still don’t.”

“I hear that,” he murmured, his thumb shifting against her upper arm in a caress of sympathy.

They were almost at the diner when they bumped into Andie Bennet and Heath McGregor as they were leaving. Both were dressed for work in construction boots and khakis.

“Oh, hey you two. Congratulations!” Meg greeted them, not having seen Andie since they’d been named the winners of the Great Wedding Giveaway. “Linc, you remember Lily from the auction? I met her through Andie. We were in school together, and this is her boss—” she winked as she deliberately overlooked their couple-dom, having always suspected Andie had a thing for her brother’s best friend long before the two of them got together publicly. “Heath.”

“We’ve met,” Linc said, nodding and shaking hands in greeting. “Andie did the wiring for my office. In fact, I’ll need to move up my timetable on rewiring the rest of house and the scope of that renovation has changed. I need the place finished sooner than later, so I’ll need a full crew out there. I’ll call you for some estimates,” he said to Heath.

“Sounds good,” Heath said in the way of a man who owned his own business and was used to accommodating his customers, but Meg saw Andie’s gaze skim to the hand Linc kept on her elbow.

Meg tried to divert her friend’s curiosity by asking about the wedding, but Andie wound up asking, “How long are you in town this time?”

And Meg came up against reality with a smack. Linc’s grip on her arm tightened. She didn’t know if that was in support or apprehension.

“I, uh…” Meg drew a small breath and pasted on a big smile before throwing herself on the mercy of the town’s grapevine. “I’m back for good.”

“Really?” Andie’s gaze flicked to Linc’s and Meg doubted the woman needed her certified electrician’s ticket to see the live connection between the two of them. “That’s great, but I thought you loved Chicago?” She brought her attention back to Meg.

“It’s a long story,” Meg averred. “Let’s have a girls’ night soon and I’ll tell my story to everyone at once. Save repeating myself. We’re starving, aren’t we, Linc?”

*

Linc promised to
call Heath, held the door for Meg, and bit back a facetious,
Girls’ night?
Didn’t they call them baby showers under these circumstances?

But he could see Meg was unnerved. Which was probably his fault. He was a doer. Once he’d put together in his head that his baby was coming and needed a place to sleep, well, he needed to get the room ready.

The heavy aromas of bacon, eggs, and coffee painted the warm air of the diner and Meg returned more than one smile as they were shown to a booth.

“Hi, Annie,” she greeted their waitress. The woman poured him a coffee and they exchanged a few words before she left to fetch an herbal tea for Meg.

“I keep forgetting what a small town is like,” Linc admitted once they were alone. “That everyone knows everyone else. All their business.”

Meg pulled off her vest and set it beside her. “I’d think oil rigs would be the same.”

“They are,” he agreed, trying to keep his gaze from dropping to check out her chest.

He’d left his coat in the truck, needing to cool down after she’d put a mental image of her naked breasts into his mind’s eye, but he’d grabbed his hat. Now he took it off again and set it beside him in the booth, giving his hair a quick ruffle and smooth with his fingers.

“It was pretty hard to have so much as a private thought out there,” he allowed, “but once I started traveling, I was always the outsider. I knew the men talked about me, but I didn’t care. Well…” He shrugged. “I cared if they thought I was being heavy-handed. I was there to get a job done so I needed cooperation, not pushback, but even last night, thinking about…” He skimmed his gaze down her front now, finding himself looking for evidence of a baby that wasn’t there yet. She was still slender and, yeah, he couldn’t help noticing that those very nice, weighty breasts of hers looked better than ever.

He snapped himself out of what could easily become a hypnotic study.

“The last thing I’m worrying about is what people in this town think of me. But it’s different for you, isn’t it? These are your friends. Did I give away too much out there?” He jerked his head toward the sidewalk.

Annie came back with Meg’s tea and she ordered toast and a fruit cup. Linc frowned at her skimpy appetite as he requested the rancher omelet and a double side of ham.

“I knew what I was doing.” Meg cupped both hands around her steaming mug as Annie left. “Both in moving back here and coming out for breakfast with the guy I won at the bachelor auction.” Her mouth took on a fatalistic twist. “People are going to talk. There’s no escaping that. And I’m as nosy as most. Probably worse, so I can’t complain,” she added with a rueful smirk. “I actually like that people look out for each other here. One of the hardest things for me to get used to in Chicago was feeling anonymous.”

“You went there for work?”

“Work was how I afforded to live there, but no, it was more of a quest,” she said, sounding wistful, then looked very unguarded as she admitted, “I was trying to find my birth parents.”

“Did you?” he asked, sensing by her despondent expression she hadn’t.

“No.” She sat back, gaze shadowing and lips going tight. “No, and it’s time I quit looking. I realized that when…” Her expression grew more troubled. Chagrined. “That super-fan wasn’t planning to hurt me. He thought he was in love and wanted a relationship. He felt a connection that I didn’t. As I was dealing with all of that, I realized that if my birth mother wanted a relationship with me, she’d have found a way to have one. I’m registered with every reunion agency I can find. I’ve put myself out there, literally on national television, and she hasn’t come forward. I was even part of a special segment on adult children trying to find their birth parents. We explored so many avenues and… nothing. She doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

Her face crumpled at the last and she hid her expression with a quarter turn into the wall and a search in her purse.

Linc reached across, grieved at how hurt she was. He squeezed her arm. “Maybe she can’t, Meg.” He didn’t want to suggest her mother was dead so he managed a lame, “Maybe she moved to another country and doesn’t know.”

“Maybe another planet? I just want to know
why
. But I have to let it go,” she choked out insistently, dabbing a tissue under her eyes and dragging her composure into place. “I have to let
her
go. Them. And I can. Now.” Her wet gaze came up to his, so defenseless and grateful his heart gave a lurch in his chest.

“Really?” he murmured, stunned that rather than resenting him for saddling her with an unplanned pregnancy, she was embracing the baby as the blood tie she’d always yearned for. “You humble me, Meg.” He was shaken to the core.

“You might want to rethink your proposal then,” she said, trying for flippant, but her voice was strained enough he knew she was trying to make a joke to get past her flood of emotion.

He shook his head, growing more certain every minute. He might have avoided the weight of family ties, but only because he felt them as strongly as she did. In his mind, the cost of family had been too high, but he was beginning to remember the return. The connection. The unconditional love.

A tripping sensation hit his insides.

He wasn’t looking for love, he reminded himself, trying to backtrack from even thinking the word. Not from Meg. He found himself looking away to hide a sudden attack of self-doubt. Getting your heart tangled up with your child’s was non-negotiable. He knew it would happen no matter how they settled the practical side of their lives, but he was highly reluctant to give up his soul to a woman. Especially one so resistant to commitment.

Still, he didn’t want her living apart from him.

“I don’t have to rethink anything. I want to marry you,” he told her with calm certainty.

It made fresh emotions chase across her face, something hopeful and sweet followed by caution and apprehension. “But there’s no mad hurry, is there? I mean, why not wait and see how we feel when—” She lowered her voice, leaning forward to mouth, “—the baby gets here?”

“Why not figure out how to live as a couple before we get a third party into the mix?” he argued.

Their meals were coming so he sat back, waiting while the plates were set and Annie had moved on before asking, “Is it the life of a rancher’s wife that worries you?”

She paused with her fork hovering over a chunk of melon. “The opposite, actually. I always resisted tying myself to a local boy because I knew I would be leaving to search for my birth parents, but I could easily have married out of high school and stayed here. I like ranch life. Blake always acted like I was doing him a huge favor, coming back to put in a garden, then canning and freezing everything, but I love it. The worst thing in the world to me is buying eggs or jam from a grocery store when you can do all that yourself and know what’s really in it.”

“Where will you get those things if you’re living here in town?” he asked. “
How
will you buy your groceries? I’d wind up supporting you anyway, so—”

“Hey, I’m very employable.”

“Please,” he cut her off. “That wasn’t an attack. The reality of pregnancy and newborns and motherhood means that work will be a burden.” He leaned forward and kept his voice pitched low. Every other person in this joint might be talking and eating, but he was conscious of sharp ears now. “What do I do with the baby when it’s my turn? Take him or her out on horseback to mend fences?”

She scowled, not meeting his eyes, but not arguing. What rebuttal did she have?

He didn’t hammer his point. They ate without talking for a few minutes, but she slowed, started to reach for her tea, then set her hands in her lap. She swallowed again, but hadn’t taken a bite in a full minute.

“Meg?”

“I’ll be right back,” she said rather abruptly, disappearing toward the ladies’ room before he could react, but he had a grim feeling he knew what was happening.

She came back looking washed out and smelling of mint toothpaste. “I’m going to step outside for some fresh air,” she told him as she zipped into her vest.

He’d shoveled in most of his meal, stole a triangle of her toast, topped it with ham from his own plate and took it with him to the counter where he covered the bill and met her outside.

“I’m sorry,” she said as they started back to his truck.

“I’m worried,” he said frankly, offering her a wrapped mint he’d nipped from the bowl next to the cash.

She waved off the candy and indicated her purse. “Have toothbrush, will travel.”

He ate the sweet himself and had his arm around her before he’d realized he was going to do it, but he wanted to comfort her. This whole thing was taxing enough without feeling like you had the flu twenty-four seven.

“I’m okay,” she protested, but leaned her weight into him.

He rubbed her arm, liking the feel of her against him. “I’ll take you home. Groceries can wait.”

“No, I’m fine. Honestly. I feel better already.”

Her color had improved, but…

“Honestly,” she repeated. “Don’t let me throw off your plans.”