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Authors: Stella Bagwell

BOOK: The Rancher's Blessed Event
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This time she couldn't stop her hand from flying straight at his head. Seeing it coming, Cooper ducked and snatched a hold on her wrist.
Her breasts heaved as she glared up at him. “I guess it makes you feel better to place all the blame on me and Kenneth. But you need to face reality, Cooper. Your brother is dead and gone. You can't keep blaming him for everything!”
His grip on her wrist tightened while the expression on his face grew even harder. “Kenneth will never be truly gone from your life. You're having his child. How do you think that makes me feel?”
“Like the selfish bastard you are!” she snapped back at him.
Cooper couldn't think of a time he'd been more furious. Not just at Emily, but with Fate and the unfairness of all that had happened.
“If I'm going to hear you call me that every time I turn around, I might as well act the part,” he muttered.
“Act? You don't have to act—”
Her barrage of words were suddenly cut off as he jerked her into his arms. “If that's what you think, then I might as well start taking what I want and quit worrying about the right or wrong of it. You certainly have!”
Her mouth fell open and Cooper didn't hesitate to take advantage. His head swooped down and his lips captured the shocked O of her lips.
To have him kissing her, even in a fit of anger, caught Emily totally off guard. She'd never expected to taste his lips again or feel the hard heat of his body pressed against hers. The sweet treasure of being in his arms again swiftly overrode her anger and in only a matter of seconds she was kissing him back with a passion that stunned him.
Cooper didn't know how he'd gone from being furious one moment to being consumed with desire the next. But somehow it had happened. He couldn't stop his hands from clutching her closer or his tongue from delving deeper into the warm recesses of her giving mouth. She was the only woman he'd ever really needed or wanted. The only woman who could make him forget where they were or why.
The soft nicker of a horse finally broke the heated kiss. His breaths coming rough and rapid, Cooper put her away from him just as the door to the barn opened and Harlan stepped inside.
“There you are,” he called cheerfully as he spotted the two of them. He walked the length of the alleyway until he was within a few steps of them. “Rose was worried when she didn't find Emily in the bedroom taking a nap.”
Cooper shot her a dry glance before he turned to face her father. “That's just where she was headed, Harlan.”
“Cooper!”
Ignoring the warning in Emily's voice, he took her by the shoulder and nudged her toward her father. “Sometimes your daughter has to be reminded of her condition.”
Chapter Seven
T
wo weeks into December Cooper decided it was time to head to the livestock auction in Roswell. The fences he'd been working on in the west pasture were patched and the market prices were holding at rock bottom. And Emily was growing larger every day. In less than three months, she'd be giving birth and he'd be saying goodbye to her and the Diamond D. If he was ever going to begin restocking the ranch with cattle, he needed to do it now.
“Okay, I'm ready to go.”
Cooper looked up from his coffee cup as Emily entered the kitchen. She was dressed in rust brown corduroy slacks and a matching turtleneck sweater. Both garments were two of those he'd bought for her before Thanksgiving. He knew she considered all the things he'd given her as her “dress up” clothes, which she only wore when she went out or someone was coming over for a visit. The reason she was wearing them this morning was all too evident to him.
“You're not going anywhere,” he told her.
Smiling confidently, Emily placed her coat on the back of a chair, then walked over to the coffeepot and poured herself a half cup.
Her chin lifting, she folded her arms beneath her breasts. “Do I look ill? Or just stupid?”
Cooper shook his head. “Neither. And I don't want to argue with you, Emily. So—”
His words broke off as she suddenly rose from her chair and began to pull on her coat. “Then don't. We're wasting time. We need to be there before the auction starts. I don't want to buy cattle I haven't had time to look over first.”
Cooper shot to his feet. “
You
don't want to buy? I thought I was the cattle buyer around here.”
She gave him a sweet smile as she buttoned her coat. “Maybe you are the money supplier. But I'm the one who's going to be doing the ranching here long after you've hit the road. I think that gives me the right to a little say about things.”
She had him over a barrel, Cooper decided.
“Damn it, Emily, if you get sick—”
“I'm not going to get sick.” She wrapped a black woolen scarf around her neck as she headed toward the door. “And if I get that tired, I'll make you rent a motel room and we'll drive back tomorrow.”
Like hell, she would, Cooper growled to himself. There was no way he'd stay the night in a motel room with Emily. The mere thought of it made him break out in a sweat.
“Okay, okay,” he relented and motioned her out the door. “You've won, so let's go. It's already seven and it's an hour and a half drive to Roswell from here.”
 
Halfway into the trip Cooper realized he'd done the right thing by bringing Emily along with him. Each time he glanced over at her, she was smiling and the excitement glowing in her blue eyes told him how much she was enjoying driving across the desert this winter morning.
Several weeks ago, Cooper had come to the conclusion that Emily had been living a solitary life these past years. She'd been married to Kenneth but from all he could see their life together had not been a happy or prosperous one. He didn't know whose fault that had been. But he got the impression that Emily felt she was the reason things hadn't gone right for them.
“Did you and Kenneth ever go out much?”
The question swung Emily's head back around to him. She didn't know why he still asked her such things about Kenneth and herself. It was like stirring up dead ashes.
“Go out?” she asked. “You mean on special occasions, or what?”
“I mean go out for any reason. Like we're going out today,” he explained.
Emily shook her head. “Not much. Kenneth didn't like getting away from the ranch unless it was an absolute necessity. Besides, we never really had the money to do much traveling. Not that Kenneth would have traveled anyway. He never was like you, Cooper. He wasn't an adventurer or gambler.”
Surprised by her comment, he glanced at her. “I didn't realize you thought of me in those terms.”
Her expression turned dry. “Well, let's face it, Coop, you never were a stay-at-home family man.”
Put like that, Cooper supposed he couldn't argue with her. But is that what he'd been doing all these years? he asked himself. Gambling that his riding skills would win him a fortune?
Shrugging, he said, “I guess I was conceited enough to believe I was going to win. I never thought of it as a gamble with my money.”
“I was thinking more in terms of your life. Rodeo riders are killed every year. Didn't you—don't you ever think about the danger?”
“I'd be lying if I said it didn't cross my mind once in a while. Especially when a buddy broke his neck or back. But fear of dying was never on my mind when I climbed onto the back of a bronc.”
It suddenly dawned on him that Emily wasn't thinking about his bronc riding just in terms of the past. Her thoughts were on the future. Could it be that she was actually worried about him going back to the sport? The thought had never entered his mind before now. But perhaps it should have.
“Emily, I'm not going to get killed like Kenneth.”
“You think I'm worried about you?” she asked blithely.
“It sounds like it to me.”
Emily quickly looked away from him before he could see just how much she really did worry over him. “Well, even though you are...a a pain at times, I don't want anything to happen to you.”
The soft concern in her voice was very hard for Cooper to resist. But he told himself she would be just as worried over any relative or acquaintance. He couldn't let himself think he was anything special to her. If he did, he was bound to fall into the same heartache she'd dealt him ten years ago.
 
Emily had been a rancher's daughter and wife all her life. During that time she'd seen plenty of ups and downs in the cattle market, but she could safely say she'd never seen such pitiful cows at prices so rock bottom it was indecent.
“Dear Lord, Cooper, this is enough to send a small rancher racing to the city to hunt for a desk job,” Emily told him later that day as they watched another sorry lot of mixed breeds being herded into the auction ring.
He gave her a wry little grin. “Well, they are going cheap.”
“I wouldn't have one sorry hoof of them on the Diamond D,” she insisted.
Cooper had to admit Emily knew her cattle. So far she hadn't seen a decent one and so far she'd been dead right. Glancing at his watch, he said, “It's already three o'clock and we haven't bid on one cow. At this rate, the whole trip over here to Roswell is going to be a dry run.”
Putting her hands against her back, Emily arched and stretched. The movement didn't go unnoticed by Cooper. For her sake they were going to have to leave soon, whether they'd bought any cattle or not.
“We're not leaving until we get what we want,” she promised him.
Cooper lifted his hat and ran a hand through his dark hair. Even though there were a few heaters blowing from the ceiling, it was cold in the bleachers around the auction ring and with nothing to support her back, he knew Emily had to be stiff and exhausted. Yet so far the only complaint he'd heard out of her was the condition of the cattle.
“Emily, it's already going to be late when we get home. You have to be getting tired because I am.”
The weary smile she shot at him went straight to Cooper's heart.
“I'm okay,” she insisted. “Let's watch a few more sell before we go. Please?”
For the past three weeks, Cooper had kept a safe distance from Emily. If he'd touched her at all it had only been inadvertently. Yet now he found he couldn't stop himself from scooting closer and supporting her back with his arm. “If we don't see a decent cow in thirty minutes, we're outa here. No arguments.”
“Okay, a half hour,” she agreed, while thinking if he continued to hold her like this, she wouldn't care if they bought any cows. She needed his closeness, his touch, his strength. With each day that passed, she realized that more and more. Yet she also knew she couldn't let herself fall in love with him a second time. He would soon be gone, back to his rodeo life. And she'd be here to go on—without him.
Surprisingly, the next herd of cattle into the auction ring was poor, but well-bred. She and Cooper both agreed with a lot of extra care and decent weather the animals would eventually blossom into a profit.
Unfortunately, a few other cattle buyers sitting around the drafty auction barn had the same idea. But to Emily's surprise, Cooper didn't back down from the bidding until he got the final drop of the gavel on the whole thirty head.
“Do you think you should have spent that much?” she asked him. “Ten thousand dollars is a lot of money.”
“I have it.”
She frowned at him. “I know you have it. But that's a great deal of funds to invest in something you're... well, come spring you won't even be around to see the cattle.”
Emily brought up his leaving often and Cooper figured it must be on her mind. But hell, it was constantly on his mind, too. He kept asking himself how he was ever going to make himself walk away. And if he couldn't, how could he ever find the courage to stay.
“I'll drop in from time to time. And just knowing the ranch is doing better will be enough.”
In other words he wouldn't necessarily need to see her. Oh well, she thought resignedly, he'd never professed to love her and she'd never expected him to. But it would be nice to know she would at least be...missed.
More than an hour later Cooper had paid for the cattle and arranged for them to be shipped to the Diamond D. They walked out of the auction barn and discovered snow peppering down from a heavy gray sky.
Emily wrapped her woolen scarf around her neck then reached for Cooper's arm. Now that she'd finally left her seat on the bleachers, she realized she was far more tired than she'd thought.
“I don't want to slip,” she explained her reason for holding onto him.
Cooper glanced down at her and suddenly felt like a two-inch heel. What sort of man was he to make Emily think she dare not touch him without a practical reason for it? He didn't want her to think of him as being that cold or distant. He wanted her to lean on him if she needed to. And yet he knew it wasn't quite that simple, either. It really didn't matter why Emily touched him. His reaction to her was always the same. He felt an overwhelming need to love and protect her, to never let her go.
“I really think we should get something to eat before we leave town,” he suggested as he helped her into the cab of the pickup truck. “Do you feel up to going to a restaurant?”
She nodded. “I need to eat. I'll try.”
Cooper drove them to a downtown steak house where a waitress quickly took their order for T-bones. While they waited for the steaks to be cooked, they ate tossed salad and watched the snow collecting on the street outside.
“Maybe we shouldn't have stopped to eat,” Emily said, her fork paused in midair as she gazed out the plate-glass window. “Much more of this and we're going to slip and slide all the way home.”
Her face was pale and dark shadows smudged the delicate skin beneath her eyes. The sag of her shoulders told Cooper it was all she could do to remain upright. To put her through the drive back home tonight would be cruel and unnecessary.
“I've decided we should stay here in Roswell tonight.”
His announcement jerked her head around. “Stay here? But—”
“You're too tired to make the trip.”
“I'm not. Anyway, I can lay down in the seat.”
He shook his head. “There's no point in it when we're both tired and the roads are slick. I'll call your dad and ask him to send a wrangler over to feed the livestock for us. We'll drive home in the morning after we eat breakfast.”
“Cooper, I know this morning I suggested staying here overnight, but that was only because I was bargaining with you. You don't have to—”
He put up his hand to ward off anything else she planned to say. “Don't worry about it, Emily. It's no big deal. I've spent ten years in motel rooms. One more night isn't going to hurt me.”
Deciding it wasn't anything to make an issue over, she stabbed a forkful of lettuce and smiled at him. “You know, I can't remember the last time I was away from the ranch overnight. I suppose it was when Mother was sick with the flu and I stayed a couple of nights on the Flying H with her and Dad.” Shrugging, she gave him another tired smile. “I guess this is the first traveling adventure I've had in a long time.”
The narrowness of Emily's life never ceased to amaze Cooper. There was so much she'd never seen or done, so much she'd lost in the last ten years he'd been away. He wished he could give it all to her. All and more. Yet it terrified him to even think of trying. Maybe eventually he could forgive and forget the fact that she'd married Kenneth rather than waiting for him. But then there would always be the baby to remind him.

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