Hard-Riding Cowboy (Kinky Spurs 3)

Nash sighed and took a lesson from his brother. He dropped his head to his plate and started eating again.

When the women turned to each other, cooing over Megan, making her feel better, Nash took a quick look at Chase. His brother winked at him, a small smile curving his mouth.

Nash shook his head and focused on his plate. Maybe silence was the best thing of all when it came to girl talk. Besides, that way it gave him more time to watch Megan laugh. He really loved her laugh. And that smile.

Damn, that smile undid him.

Chapter 6

With a belly full of sausages and salad, and even a cherry pie, Megan hadn’t objected when Nash drove them back to his place. She had the night off tonight and was glad for it, wanting the time with Nash. Dinner with Shep and Emma had been great, and she felt lit up inside. After spending more time with the Blackshaw family, she saw the special thing that everyone in town saw. The family worked hard, played hard, and they even appeared to love hard.

She wanted a piece of that. Not only for herself, but for her baby too.

Those were the thoughts lingering in her mind as she took a seat on Nash’s porch while he ventured inside to get drinks. Gus settled at her feet, his head propped against her toes.

This evening, for just a couple of hours over dinner, Megan had realized how lucky her child would be to be a part of their tightknit family. She kept up hope that by the time the baby arrived, everyone around her would get along like she’d seen at Shep and Emma’s dinner table tonight. She could even picture Christmas dinner at her parents’. Both Nash and her father there. She needed to keep that image bright. For everyone.

She inhaled the crisp, clean air as Mother Nature began showing off with a sunset above the mountain peaks that compared to no other. Pinks, oranges, and purples spread across the sky for as far as the eye could see.

A slight flutter tickled in her belly bringing Megan’s hands there. She pressed against the butterflies. Was that the baby? Or was she imagining it all? Having never done this before, both were entirely possible. What she did know for certain was the little one growing inside her, getting bigger day by day, was so heavy on her mind now. This was the kind of life she wanted for her child. Peace. Happiness. Love.

Hell, she wanted that life for herself too.

The air shifted around her, heating up, and she smiled, glancing sideways to Nash. He had his cell phone in his hand, aimed in her direction. The one glass of sweet tea and the beer bottle rested at his feet.

“Did you take a picture of me?” she asked suspiciously.

He tucked his cell back into the pocket of his Levi’s and grabbed the drinks off the floor. “Some moments should be captured.” He offered her the iced tea then stepped over Gus to take the seat next to her. His cowboy hat rested low on his head, his intense eyes watching her carefully. “What were you thinking about right then?”

She hesitated but then chided herself for doing so. “I want this life for our child.”

“What life is that?” he asked softly.

“A quiet life.” She turned to take in the vast Colorado beauty. It was really endless out there. Mountains, a creek, and so much green, she would never grow tired of this view. “A happy life.”

“You doubted our child would have

a happy life?”

“I think . . .” She drew in a deep breath, knowing she had to get this right. When things made sense in her head, she turned to him. “I hope that we can give our child a life where the Harrison and Blackshaw feud doesn’t exist.” She rubbed her belly at that flutter again. “We grew up surrounded by so much anger. I don’t want that for our little one.”

Nash’s head tilted in obvious confusion.

“Don’t you remember what it was like?” she added. “Even when I was eight years old, I never understood why I was supposed to hate your family. As I got older, I hated that there was this thing between our families, standing in the way of all our friendships.” She paused. Then she unleashed her truth. “I don’t want our child to know that hatred.”

Nash’s eyes searched hers for a long moment before he replied, “Blackshaw men are proud. Your father is also that way too. Whether you understand it or not, there is going to be some tension between men like that.”

“Oh, I know,” she agreed with a soft nod. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I wish I could remove the tension so our baby doesn’t have to grow up in the same way we did.” She hoped he would take that message to heart.

Nash looked away. “We turned out fine.”

“Did we?”

His hard gaze returned to hers, his working jaw the only sign the conversation bothered him.

“We went through high school trying to ignore the way we felt about each other,” she continued, needing to get this out. “I’m twenty-seven now. You’re twenty-eight. So many years have gone by that we’ve ignored what we wanted. Now that we’ve opened that door, I can’t help but see all the time we’ve wasted when we could have been happy.”

That made him smile. “You’re happy?”