The Cowboy's Secret Baby by Leigh Riker

Author:Leigh Riker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-04-15T13:06:40+00:00

* * *

PASSING BY OLIVIA MCCORD ANTIQUES, Dallas saw the lights were still on. The closed sign wasn’t on the door yet. He had good news to share, but couldn’t wait until he and Lizzie got home. He was also still riding high on her agreement to stick with the rodeo. You need me more than I imagined. Their quasi friendship had changed. He’d change it more if he could, but, remembering their talk in her backyard, he shouldn’t. She knew his plans to leave Barren for the circuit, to postpone any thought of a serious relationship. Dallas pulled into a parking space then walked into the store. He didn’t bother with preliminaries.

“Guess what?”

Lizzie glanced up from the front desk. For a second he saw the same dismay in her eyes he’d glimpsed the other night. “What are you doing here?”

“Hello to you too,” he said, undeterred. Nothing would spoil his mood. “Go on, guess.”

“I don’t know. You’ve won the lottery? You looked at your bank balance this morning and, what do you know, you’re a gazillionaire? You just mowed your lawn, noticed a hump in the backyard grass and dug up a cache of sapphires and emeralds? Pirate gold in the middle of Kansas?”

He smiled. “No, but I wanted to tell you this in person.” He crossed the room. “Some of my buddies are on for the rodeo. They’re going to contact more guys. Everybody loves our charity aspect. Grey Wilson said he’d lend us some Angus calves for the kids’ event, some horses for the adult rodeo. And Fred Miller’s lending us a bull from the herd he’s gradually liquidating. Hadley’s going to buy it afterward.”

“Slow down,” she said, coming out from behind the counter. “I was just closing up.” She flipped the sign around on the door. “Honest, I can’t keep up with you.”

He followed her around the shop as she tidied the displays and tallied the cash register receipts. “It’s going to happen,” he said. “And yeah, there were times I wondered if it would. I hope that didn’t show.” He caught her upper arms, drew her to him. “Confidence, huh?”

She laughed a little. “Your confidence makes me dizzy.”

“Guess what else.”

“Hmm.” One finger to her chin, she pretended to think. “Let’s see. You’ve won Cowboy of the Year.”

She was teasing, a good sign. Maybe he hadn’t said too much about his birth family in her yard. “National Finals aren’t till December. Next year will be my year.”

Her answering smile died. “I hope so, but that only reminds me you won’t be here then. Which, of course, has nothing to do with me.”

Obviously he’d said way too much about his career, though.

She lifted a hand to her forehead. “Actually, this hasn’t been my best day. I already had a headache when you came in, and earlier I had a...difficult discussion with a coworker.”

With Olivia out of the country, there was only one other person here. “You must mean Becca Carter.”

Her eyes widened. “You know Becca?”

“I work with her boyfriend.

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