The Cowboy Earns a Bride (Cowboys of Chance Creek Book 8) (6 page)

Mia nodded, knowing Hannah was trying to help. But it was easy for Hannah. She was so beautiful with her white-blond hair and competent ways. Everyone admired her for going back to school to become a veterinarian, and her new husband, Jake, was head over heels in love with her—enough to change the whole course of his life and go back to school, too. If only Luke loved her like that.

But why should he when she was carrying another man’s child?

She turned on her side, curled into a ball and placed a hand on her belly. Poor little bean. There would be no happy, celebrating crowd when she gave birth. She was just an unwed mother who’d had sex with a married man.

She could almost hear her mother’s voice.
What did you expect, Mia? You reap what you sow.

Well, she was definitely reaping. But it was Fila’s day, not hers, so it was time to end her pity party and get her act together.

“It’s better this way,” she said to Hannah. “He knows, and I’ve seen how he feels. Now I can move on and start my life without him.” Her voice wobbled.

“Mia.”

She shook off Hannah’s soothing tone. “No, it’s better to accept things as they are and stop hoping for the impossible. I’m not going to end up with Luke. I’m going to raise this child alone. And that’s okay.” She had Ellis’s money now. She could make her way.

“Whatever happens, you aren’t alone,” Hannah assured her. “You’re surrounded by friends, Mia. And every last one of us is going to help.”

Later that afternoon,
Luke paced the tight confines of the room his mother had designated for him to change into his wedding clothes. The chairs were set in lines for the ceremony and everything else that needed to be lifted and moved was in place. All that remained was for him to change and wait for the guests to arrive so he could usher them to their seats. But he wasn’t fit for company now. Not after Mia’s bombshell.

Pregnant.

About four months pregnant, if his calculations were right.

By Ellis Scranton, a forty-two-year-old businessman who’d probably be bald in another couple of years. Luke ignored for the moment that he was thirty-one. The idea of Ellis with twenty-one-year-old Mia was sickening.

The idea of anyone with Mia was sickening.

Now he understood why his talkative Mia had become increasingly silent as the weeks had passed. Now he understood why she held back every time he tried to take things further—even though he’d seen the desire in her eyes many times. The one time they’d kissed—way back when she’d first moved in—the sparks between them could have started a blaze. Since then she’d refused to acknowledge she was interested.

Now he knew why. Mia was being noble. She refused to tangle him up in a relationship because she’d already tangled with another man and gotten pregnant.

Other women would have done their best to steal his heart so when their pregnancy showed he’d stick around. Some women might even have tried to pass the baby off as his. Not Mia. She’d done her best to keep him free and clear. She hadn’t wanted him to pay for her mistakes.

Maybe she’d been afraid he’d cast her aside. His fingers clenched into fists. He couldn’t stand to think she’d been afraid of that. He wasn’t the kind of man who ran from trouble. He was the type who stuck around and sorted it out. How could she not know that about him?

He stifled the urge to punch a hole in his parents’ wall at the thought of how lonely and scared she must’ve been these past few months. For one second—one second—he’d just about punched a hole in Ethan’s living room wall. He’d wanted to find Ellis and beat the living daylights out of him. Mia had seen it in his eyes and flinched away. That had stopped him mighty quick. Shame had flooded him—that he’d bring violence anywhere near a pregnant woman. Then he’d remembered which woman was pregnant and how she’d gotten that way and he’d stumbled right out of Ethan’s bunkhouse.

He’d wanted to get in his truck, start driving, find the bastard and mete out a little frontier justice—but there was the damn wedding to get through, so he’d sat there like a beaten dog and driven the woman he loved—the woman Ellis had knocked up—back home and watched her flee inside like the devil himself was after her.

He figured the devil had already found her. The devil in the form of a cocky businessman who couldn’t keep it in his pants. Ellis had power, authority and money. How simple it must’ve been for him to turn Mia’s head. What had he told her—that he’d fallen hopelessly in love? That he’d leave his wife and children for her? That he’d show her the world? To a small town girl like Mia—just starting out in life—it must have been too tempting to resist.

“Forty-five minutes to show time. Here are your boots. I don’t know when Mom found the time to shine them all.” Ned stood in the doorway holding Luke’s dress boots. Luke hadn’t even heard him open the door. Ned frowned as he entered the room. His stride was still unsteady from breaking his leg the previous month, but it was healing well and shouldn’t have any lasting effects. “Something’s got you fired up.”

Luke tried to get a hold of himself, but by the look on his brother’s face he hadn’t succeeded.

“What did she do?” Ned asked.

“Who?”

His brother chuckled. “Any time a man looks like that, a woman’s involved.”

“I’ll tell you another time.”

Ned cocked his head. “Sounds serious. I’m leaving for my honeymoon tonight. Sure you don’t want to tell me now?”

“Nope.” Luke shoved his hands in his pockets and with an effort changed the subject. “Guess I’ll get changed. What about you? You ready for this?”

“For marriage? Hell, yeah.” A smile lifted the corner of Ned’s mouth. “You’d better watch out—like Dad said this morning, he’s got his sights on you now. You’re the only one he hasn’t helped marry off.”

“He can’t help me.”

Ned misunderstood his meaning. “Don’t underestimate the ability of Holt Matheson to bring about matrimony in the strangest of ways.” He looked at his watch. “Guess I’d better get dressed.” He headed for the door.

Luke just shrugged. If only their father could help him sort out this mess.

“Fact is, I thought you’d be halfway to marrying Mia by now.” Ned’s tone turned serious as he hesitated with one hand on the doorknob.

“Yeah, so did I.”

“You love her, right?”

Luke blinked. He and Ned had never discussed love before. “Yeah.”

“Then get on with it. Don’t let anything get in your way.”

Get on with it.
Ned was right. He should get on with it. Nothing had really changed—except now he knew why Mia was holding back. She liked him all right, maybe even loved him, but was afraid he wouldn’t want her in her current condition.

Well, he did want her, and he’d have her, too—after he paid Ellis a visit and made it damn clear the man had better stay out of their lives.

The door burst open again, slamming into Ned hard enough to knock him off balance. Luke jerked forward to steady him with a hand to his bicep before he fell to the ground. Wouldn’t want the groom to break his leg for a second time—on his wedding day.

“Hey!”

“Sorry.” Jake came in and shut the door behind him. His shirt was untucked and his hair stuck up every which way. “Shoes. Where the hell are my shoes?”

“They’re on your feet.” Ned regained his balance and pointed to Jake’s beat-up cowboy boots testily.

“Not these. My dress boots. Mom would kill me if I wore these in the wedding.”

“Aren’t they in the hall outside your room? Mom polished them all last night.”

“I saw them there earlier. Now they’re just—gone!”

“Luke, help the idiot find his boots. I’m going to get dressed. Fila will clobber me if I’m late to our wedding. Or Camila will do it for her.”

He left, chuckling. Jake didn’t share his amusement. “Someone took them.”

“Why the hell would anyone want your boots?”

“I don’t know! Are they in here?” He commenced searching through the closet and under the bed. Luke helped him, promising himself he’d confront Ellis right after the wedding. When they turned up empty they split up and searched the other rooms on the second floor. Forty-five minutes later Luke was still looking when he heard a ruckus from down the hall.

“What the hell, man?”

Luke traced the sound to find Jake and Rob squared off in Rob’s old room. Jake shook a pair of cowboy boots at Rob. Rob ducked.

“I didn’t take them.”

“They were under your bed.” Jake swung at him.

Rob backed up, hands raised. “I didn’t put them there. Besides, I haven’t slept in that bed in a dozen years.”

“Man up and admit it. You always loved to play a joke.”

“I’m over that.”

“You’re late!” The new voice was decidedly feminine, with a trace of a Mexican accent that made it easy to place. Luke turned to find Camila behind him. She wore a beautiful red dress and her dark hair flowed around her shoulders like a shawl. Large gold hoop earrings swung as she talked. “You all need to get downstairs, now. You’re keeping the bride waiting.”

The men sprang into action. Jake slipped on his boots and tucked in his shirt. “I’ll get you back for this,” he said to Rob on his way out of the room.

“I didn’t do a damn thing.”

Camila shushed them both. “It’s like dealing with a pack of children,” she said to Luke as they walked down the stairs. Evan Mortimer stood at the bottom.

“Everything all right?” he asked. “Sounded like a barroom brawl up there.”

Luke shook his head and sighed. “Just life as usual in the Matheson household.”

Mia could hardly
breathe as she stood up beside Hannah in front of the gathered guests and watched Fila move up the aisle created between the lines of folding chairs in the large back room and solarium of the Matheson house. Fila was radiant in a silvery white sheath with a lacy train. Ned looked proud enough to burst out of his skin as he watched his bride come down the aisle on his father’s arm. Fila’s parents had been killed in Afghanistan, and she had no relatives present, but everyone had come to know her during her time in Chance Creek, and she was surrounded by friends. As for Ned, since he’d grown up right here on one of the preeminent ranches in Chance Creek, he might as well be local royalty.

As the couple stood in front of Joe Halpern, the preacher, Mia willed herself not to cry. It wasn’t just her sorrow that made it hard to catch her breath, nor was it the grim expression on Luke’s face as he stood next to Ned. Her dress—a plain cobalt-blue sheath that echoed Fila’s—had fit just a week ago when she visited Ellie’s Bridals a final time. Now it stretched tight across her abdomen, making her want to fold her hands protectively in front of it.

She forced herself to keep them by her sides, and tried to keep her mind on the ceremony. This was one of the most important days of Fila’s life. It made no difference that Mia had ruined her chances of ever marrying the man she loved. Fila, unlike her, deserved happiness, and Mia would do nothing to mar it.

When the ceremony was over and the chairs were being shifted to circle the tables that the men helped to set out, she slipped into a bathroom and took a few minutes to calm herself.

Where would she go tonight when the wedding was over? Normally, she’d run to Autumn’s place if there was trouble, but not today—not when Autumn’s baby had just been born. She couldn’t stay here on the Double-Bar-K, either. She wasn’t sure if Luke would even let her back into his cabin. Perhaps she could impose on Bella and Evan? Surely there was an out-of-the-way room in their mansion she could inhabit just for a day or two—until she found her own place. Or maybe she should rent a motel room for the night?

“Don’t worry,” she whispered to the small hard lump growing in her belly. “I’ll make a life for us, I swear I will.”

Knowing she couldn’t disappear for too long without raising suspicions, she returned to the reception, where she bumped into her mother and father, who stood near a table full of hors d’oeuvres. Standing with them was Linette Wilcox, who was friends with both her parents and Lisa Matheson. Linette headed up several committees at the conservative church Mia’s parents attended on the outskirts of town. She had never been friendly to Mia. In fact, Mia thought she was mean and selfish, but she’d done her best to always be civil, in respect for her parents’ attachment to the church and to the woman herself.

“Mia Start—there you are. I was looking for you.” Linette’s voice cut through the murmur of the crowd like chalk on a blackboard. She took Mia’s hand and tugged her closer. “See, I told you there was something different about her, Enid. Mia, you’re getting fat!”

Mia’s cheeks flamed as her mother turned around to look. Surely the old busybody couldn’t have spotted her pregnancy. She searched for a quick retreat. “Sorry, Mrs. Wilcox. I have to go help out in the kitchen.”

“Nonsense. You never could cook. See Enid? What did I tell you?” Her bony fingers wrapped more tightly around Mia’s wrist. Mia saw heads all around them turn her way. Damn it—she had to get out of here.

Before she could move, Linette reached down and patted Mia’s belly, giving a hard push on her abdomen. Mia sucked in a gasp of air.

“I knew it!” Linette crowed. “I know a pregnant woman when I see one! Did I or did I not say your daughter was hiding something, Enid? Mia always was sly. Shame on you, keeping a secret like that, girl. Where’s the ring on your finger?”

Mia thought she would die. Now everyone had turned to look at her. This was the stuff of nightmares—the very reason she hadn’t told a soul except for her closest friends. Her mother turned pale as parchment. Her father stood as still as the statues on Lisa’s mantelpiece. She’d get no help there. They would be thinking of their church—their friends—the same friends who turned a cold shoulder to anyone with a wayward child.

“Mia! Say something!” her mother hissed. “Tell her she’s wrong.”

“I…I mean—” A chill swept over her, followed by another flush of heat. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t. Not at Ned and Fila’s wedding.

“See? I was right. She won’t even name the father. You certainly won’t find him in this crowd. I heard Ellis Scranton already left town. Things must’ve gotten too hot for him here. I bet you gave him what-for, didn’t you, Bart?” Linette looked utterly victorious—she knew as well as anyone else Mia’s father was not the type to confront anyone. Mia had a sudden flash of insight—this was about the Easter bazaar. Her mother had been nominated to run it this year. Linette’s face had looked like she was sucking lemons for a week afterward.