Not My 1st Rodeo (24 page)

Epilogue

Seven months later

Jacy tried not to fidget too much in the passenger seat. She hadn't spent this much time in a car with someone else driving since before she had her drivers permit.

“Relax,” Ray said for the third time, reaching out to rub her jean-covered thigh. “We're almost there.”

“I'm trying, but this is a big deal. And if we do it wrong, it's going to be…” She flailed her hands about, making explosion sounds.

“You mean I can't open with Happy Mother's Day, we're pregnant?” Ray laughed, the warm sound like music to her soul.

She swatted his arm. “You're on thin ice with my mother already.”

“She'll like me again once the baby's here. Babies make everything better.” He squeezed the thigh and then returned his hand to the steering wheel. Ten and two. He'd been obsessed about safety for the last five weeks. The day they'd seen the plus sign, he'd gone out and bought the car because he didn't think a car seat would be safe enough in either of their trucks.

Jacy twisted the engagement ring on her finger. “If your parents hadn't already guessed, I'd wait until the wedding to tell them. It's only three weeks away. Lots of people wait until the second trimester before they announce.”

“They're going to figure it out.” Ray rubbed his knuckle against her breast. She glanced down at the new cleavage and sighed. “Unless you want to cop to a boob job.”

“They do look fake.” She crossed her arms over her chest and squeezed. So far, adding two cup sizes was her only symptom.

“They don't.”

“Like you're some boob judge. They could totally be fake.”

He shrugged. “There's a class guys take our freshman year of college. How to spot who got a boob job for high school graduation 101.”

“Ah, yes, I must have been too busy at how to tell if your guy is full of shit 102.”

“You aced your class, I aced mine.”

She glanced down at her cleavage again. “They're too big for my body.”

“You're going to grow into them. If I get lucky, they'll stick around. If not, we'll just have to have another baby. And another.”

“That's hot,” she deadpanned.

“Three is the magic number.”

“Two. Maybe. We have to see how this one goes.” She rested her hand below the waistband of her jeans. “You're going to have to figure out how to keep condoms from breaking, or we'll go back to the birth-control method I used before we met.”

“You didn't… Ah, I see what you did there. Clever. Never going to happen, but clever.” He cleared his throat. “Are you going to tell anyone the condom broke? Because I'd rather Bubba never know that. I mean, I wasn't even back from the bathroom and you had your legs up the wall and were talking about when the baby would be due. It's an oops, but not with a capital O.”

“It was an ideal time to get pregnant. The holidays are a slow at work and January is a good time for me to take a month off. I'm a practical girl, that's where my mind went.” She rested her head on the seat back and smiled his way, the edges of his profile lit by the afternoon sun. “But don't worry, no one in that house wants to think of us having sex. My mom's just going to be disappointed because this is exactly why she doesn't approve of living together before marriage.”

“We're staying the night so we can get the marriage license in the morning before we head back home, so we can get married in her county, at her house. Still, my money is she makes me bunk with your brother, even after we tell her about Bubba.”

No way would she take that bet. She rubbed her fingers in the newly shorn hair at the nape of his neck. She liked it a bit longer, but the Mitchells had a Mother's Day haircut tradition. “I want her to like you, and right now you're really not her favorite person.”

“I'm not going to apologize for something we're both happy about. Personally, I don't care what she thinks. But if she's upset, it will bother you, and you're busy making a baby, so I'll jump whatever hoops she wants me to. What did you say this week is?”

She took his hand off the steering wheel and placed it on her belly. “He's the size of a grape and his heart is dividing into chambers.”

“Exactly. You're busy. No one needs to hassle you with their judgments.” He stopped the car and yanked it into park. He turned to her with a megawatt smile. “Let's do this thing.”

He leaned in for a quick kiss and then circled around the car to open her door. He offered her a hand in this chivalrous way he had. She always took it, because when she did, he pulled her up right beside him.

“Babe, no matter what, I'll back you up. If you want to go in there and pretend you found some new supersizing bra, I'll go with it.”

She wrapped her arms around his waist and grinned up at him. He hadn't shaved since morning and a light shadow covered his jaw. Right here, in this tight little circle, she had what she needed. “Leave our stuff in the car. If Mama doesn't want you to stay with me, I'll bunk with you at Slade's.”

He kissed her forehead and took her hand as they walked up the steps. He held open the screen door while she walked inside first. As soon as the screen door slammed, her mother came running the rest of the crew behind her. Jacy squeezed Ray's hand tight, tighter.

“Happy Mother's Day,” she said as her mom wrapped her up in an embrace. “We're having a baby.”

About the Author

Jenna Bayley-Burke is known for her fun, sexy romance novels, baking banana bread and over-volunteering. She thinks she has the best jobs in the world
—
mother, wife and author. When she's not lost in her latest story, she can be found pursuing whatever hobby her characters are enamored with
—
photography, yoga, shoes, gardening, crafts and cooking up a storm. For more on Jenna check out her website
www.jennabayleyburke.com
.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Not My 1st Rodeo

Digital ISBN: 978-1-61923-184-9

Print ISBN: 978-1-61923-094-1

Nothing Like a Cowboy Copyright © 2015 by Donna Alward

Something About a Cowboy Copyright © 2015 by Sarah M. Anderson

Anything for a Cowboy Copyright © 2015 by Jenna Bayley-Burke

Editing by Heidi Moore

Cover by Syneca

Nothing Like a Cowboy, ISBN 978-1-61922-861-0

First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: June 2015

Something About a Cowboy, ISBN 978-1-61922-870-2

First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: June 2015

Anything for a Cowboy, ISBN 978-1-61922-860-3

First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: June 2015

First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. print publication: June 2015

First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: June 2015

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: August 2015

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