The Cowboy's Secret Baby: A BWWM Pregnancy Romance (3 page)

Chapter3

Maggie walked slowly up the sunny sidewalk, looking in the windows of the shops as she walked, waving to people she knew, and talking to her daughter Carly who was sitting in the stroller in front of her, babbling and waving to everyone around her as they went along.

It was a nice day; peaceful, slow moving, with not much going on at all, and Maggie was thinking about taking Carly to play in the park when a couple walked out of a restaurant and stood on the sidewalk right in front of her and Carly.

She stared for a moment, unable to believe it, but then she gasped as the realization hit her and she said his name with almost more emotion and anguish than she could bear.

“Jonathon? Jonathon Tanner?” she breathed as she stared at him.

He turned to her and the moment he saw her, he recognized her; her stunning beauty, her sea green eyes, her full sweet lips, the elegant curve of her neck and her graceful body. He felt his heart skip two beats and begin to pound in his chest as memories of the last night he saw her flashed through his mind and heated electricity shot through him.

“I can’t believe it!” he exclaimed happily as he took a step toward her, his eyes feasting on her. “I can’t believe you’re here!” he said excitedly.

She stared at him in shock and shook her head. “I can’t believe that
you’re
finally here!” she replied, and then her shock began to give way to deep anger.

He missed the anger at first as he grinned and spoke to her. “I thought you were going back to California to graduate school and go work for that earth company!” he said with a smile and then he turned to the slim blonde beside him who had been so still that she could have easily passed for a mannequin.

“Maggie, this is Janis, my fiancée, Janis, this is my friend Maggie. My inspiration and muse, actually; it was because of her that I ever left to go on my wild adventure. She believed in me when no one else did and told me to go for it, and I did, and now here we all are!” he grinned.

“Why are you still here?” he asked Maggie with some surprise.

She stared at him and felt hot anger rising up in her, but not wanting to explode on him and cause a scene in front of anyone around them, especially her baby girl, she lowered her voice and spoke in a low and bitter tone. “I couldn’t go back, Jonathon, because I was too busy trying to make ends meet here while I went through my pregnancy alone and then had to raise our daughter by myself. What, did you think that I could just go back to school on my own and take care of all of my classes and work, and graduate and then get hired on at the company while I was pregnant and having a baby? What the hell is your problem anyway? How could you do this to me, and especially to her? Your own daughter, Jonathon! How could you walk away from your own daughter?”

Her voice was vicious and filled with pain as she was finally able to stand before him and voice all of the hurt and loneliness she had felt over the two years he had been gone. Two years in which she had found out she was pregnant on her own, gone through the whole pregnancy alone, then had their daughter alone, crying sometimes at night, wishing for some sort of release, wishing for some sort of justice and help, for some support. Every day that she raised her daughter, though, she knew that Carly was the greatest blessing of her life, but every day she felt as if she was just that much further from her dream of graduation, which had been put on hold, just like everything else in her life had been put on hold for the sweet baby girl sitting in the stroller in front of her.

Jonathon stared at her, feeling the full force of her anger and emotion, frozen in shock as his eyes drifted from her down to the stroller at her feet and the little girl, just over a year old, who was looking up at him with his own blue eyes, his mother’s blue eyes, and clapping happily at him as she waved her little hand at him and laughed.

He stared at the baby. She had soft dark brown curls of hair, the same color as his, and she had his eyes, but she had her mother’s skin and her mother’s beauty. She was unequivocally the most beautiful baby he had ever seen. She squealed at him and his heart began to thud heavily in his chest.

Jonathon slowly raised his eyes to meet Maggie’s eyes. “You must be kidding... I... this is my... this is our...?”

Maggie glared at him through narrowed eyes. “This is our daughter, you know, the one you didn’t want anything to do with?” She shook her head at him in disgust.

He looked at her in confusion. “What do you mean the one I didn’t want anything to do with? Maggie, why didn’t you ever tell me? Why have you kept this a secret from me?”

She clamped her mouth shut and gritted her teeth, her eyes wide on him for a moment and then she closed her eyes and breathed deeply as he moved toward her and watched her closely, looking down at their daughter every few moments.

“How dare you! I didn’t keep this a secret from you, Jonathon! I went to your ranch, I went to your parents and told them about her, and about us, and they kicked me out and told me that you didn’t ever want to see me again, and that you never wanted to see this baby! They said you wanted nothing to do with us and I believed them because I haven’t ever seen you since you left me in my bed! You’ve been gone two years and all of a sudden you just walk out of a restaurant here and now you’re standing here acting like you don’t know what’s going on? Are you serious?” She was livid. Her hands were clenched tightly around the handle of the stroller and she shook her head in deep anger at him, amazed at his gall.

Jonathon was floored. “What are you talking about? I left to go travel around the country like you said I ought to do, and I just got back yesterday! My parents have never said one word to me about you or about this baby! I didn’t even know that you were still in town or that this little girl even existed... that I had a... a daughter...” he said as tears stung his eyes and he looked down at her, shaking his head and slowly kneeling in front of her.

The baby watched him as he came down to her level and she reached for him, patting his cheek and babbling at him, telling him things in her own language. He reached out his hand and she closed her small fingers around one of his fingers, and his whole heart filled to overflowing with love, and broke at the same time. He knew in that instant that he was never going to be the same again.

He looked up at Maggie with tears in his eyes and shook his head. “I’m so sorry. I... I don’t know what to say to you. I didn’t know. They haven’t ever said a word about it to me. Not once.” His voice cracked as he stared into the sea green eyes that held him locked to her, and he saw a tidal wave of emotion in her eyes as well.

She shook her head. “They never told you?” she asked in disbelief.

“They said... they said that you didn’t want her, and that you wouldn’t talk to me... that you didn’t want anything to do with us.” She bit her lip as she watched him stand up and walk around the stroller to her. Her heart felt like it was going to explode right out of her chest as he reached her, his gaze steady on hers, and then he took her in his arms and held her tightly.

At first she didn’t want him to. She didn’t want him to touch her at all because she had such anger in her, such pain and confusion and agony that had built up over two years leading up to that very moment, but as his strong arms held her tightly to his chest against his heart, right where she had been when they had made their baby the last time he held her, she could not hold her anger in any longer, and she let it all go.

Tears spilled out of her eyes and she wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly, burying her face in his chest as emotion flowed out of her. He wept with her, and after a few minutes of release, they caught their breath and let each other go. She looked up at him and he smiled, almost laughing a little.

“It’s so incredible to see you again. You changed my life,” he told her, meaning the two year trip he’d taken.

“You changed mine too,” she said with a little laugh, meaning their daughter.

He raised his eyebrows and nodded. “I can see that.” He walked around the stroller again and kneeled down to see her close.

“What’s her name?” he asked, looking up at Maggie.

“I named her Carly. Carly Wilson-Tanner; so she has both of our last names. You weren’t there when she was born and there wasn’t anyone to ask, but I felt like she should carry your name as well. I thought it would be the only part of you that she ever had,” she said with a thin voice as she wiped her eyes dry.

He looked down at the baby girl who was grinning at him and smiled as wide as he ever had. “Carly...” he said happily and she brightened at hearing him speak her name.

He heard a polite little cough behind him and he turned suddenly and remembered that Janis was standing behind him.

Jonathon rose up and blinked, looking at her and feeling a sudden rush of pressure on himself. He took a step toward her, not quite knowing what to say as she watched him silently.

“Oh.... uh... Janis. I...” He looked back at Carly and Maggie and sighed, then turned back to his fiancée. “Janis, obviously there are some things that I need to take are of here. Things that I obviously didn’t... uh... didn’t know about at all. Why don’t I take you home and we can talk about it there?” Then he turned back to Maggie and looked at her earnestly.

“You and I have a lot to talk about. When would it be okay to come over to your place and talk with you and visit Carly?” he asked gently.

She shook her head slowly and gave a half-laugh. “I didn’t think that I’d ever hear those words from you. Ever.” She wiped one last tear away and then sighed and shrugged. “I’m in the same place, if you remember where it is.” She looked at him a little shyly, remembering that night they were together two years before.

He grinned at her. “I remember exactly where it is.”

She felt her cheeks get warm. “Okay, well, we’ll be there all night tonight, and then tomorrow I’m at work until about four in the afternoon.”

Jonathon held his hand up to her. “I want to see you today. I have to get this worked out with you. I can’t believe I’m so far behind on it. I’ll come over in a couple of hours. Will that be all right?” he asked hopefully.

She nodded. “Yes, that will be fine,” she said, nodding her head and finally giving him a real smile. Carly squealed happily and he reached down and held her little hand for a moment, and then brushed his fingers over her soft dark brown curls.

Jonathon stood up and nodded to her. “I’ll see you in a while then.” He gave her a wave and a lingering gaze, and then turned back to Janis who was looking none too pleased with him. He placed his hand on her back and walked with her to his car.

***

Maggie watched him go and stood staring after him. She couldn’t believe it. After two years of complete silence and of facing her biggest life change alone, he was there. He was there out of the blue in front of her, right in her path, with no idea that she had gone through anything that she had gone through, that she had had their baby on her own without him, and that his parents had lied to him and not told him that he had a child. There he was, and the moment that he found out that Carly existed and that Maggie had gone through everything that she had on her own, he wanted to be there for her, to talk with her about it and see his child. He wanted to know about it. He was coming to visit her at last, and to discuss their baby.

It was astounding to her, and it was all she could do just to walk home and try to sort through the myriad of emotions that were twisting through her. Things were about to change, and though it was long past time for it to happen, it was still hard to believe that it was happening.

***

Jonathon put Janis in the car and climbed in with her to drive her home.

He had no idea where to begin with her. “Janis, I know this must come as an unthinkable shock to you; it’s a big surprise for me, too. I’m so sorry. I had no idea at all that... that I was a father, or I’d have been back here right away; in fact, we probably wouldn’t have met at all,” he said, shaking his head in wonder.

He looked at her and saw that she was staring straight ahead and not talking at all.

He sighed. “Okay. You’re upset; I can understand that. I can absolutely understand that. I’ll give you some time to think about it, and you and I can talk about it when I get back from my visit with her. I’m going to be talking to my parents as well, but they’re gone this afternoon. I’ll have to wait until tonight when I get back to the house.”

She still said nothing. He drove her all the way back to the house in silence and dropped her off with a kiss on her cheek before she turned and walked away from him.

He called his mother while he was still at the ranch and got her voicemail. “Mom, I need to talk with you and Dad tonight. There are some serious things to discuss. Please come home soon and wait for me. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he said, trying to mask the bitterness in his voice.

He hung up and looked out over the vast valley in front of him and the enormous Teton Mountains. He had a child. A daughter. The thought of her made his heart swell, and he couldn’t wrap his mind around the reality of it, even though he had seen her. She was beautiful; and he knew she had his heart wrapped around her tiny little finger.

Then there was her mother. Maggie was just as stunning as ever, and he was amazed that she had gone through all that she had on her own and was still making it work; making her life and the life of their daughter happen with no help from him or his parents.