Tempted by the Texan

But straightening things out between them wasn’t going to be easy. The other night, he had done a lot of damage to their relationship when he’d shut her out and told her his past was none of her business. She might never be able to overlook that. But if he had to get down on his hands and knees to beg her forgiveness, that was exactly what he intended to do. Nothing was more important to him than making things right with the woman who owned him heart and soul.

As he walked across the parking area to his truck and got in, he checked his watch. He had a five-hour drive to get to the Sugar Creek Ranch and a stop to make in Waco before he got there.

Swearing a blue streak, he started the truck and steered it out onto the highway headed north. Waiting until morning was one of the hardest decisions he’d ever had to make. But it would be late by the time he arrived at Sam and Bria’s, and what he had to say to Mariah wasn’t something that could be covered in a matter of minutes.

He released a heavy sigh as he merged into traffic on the interstate. Normally he was a very patient man. But without question he was facing the longest, most frustrating night of his life.

* * *

Sitting on the window seat in the bedroom she always used when she stayed overnight at her sister’s, Mariah closed her eyes as she waited to see what the stick in her hand was going to indicate. If the claim on the back of the box was true, the test she’d chosen showed the earliest, most accurate results possible.

Unable to wait any longer, she opened one eye to peek at the tiny screen. Opening her other eye, she stared at the pregnancy test in disbelief. It not only displayed the word pregnant, it gave the estimated number of weeks.

“Well, that explains a lot,” she murmured, placing her hand over her lower stomach.

When she’d awakened feeling sick the morning after she’d left the Wild Maverick Ranch, she’d chalked it up to having cried herself to sleep the night before. But feeling the same way two mornings in a row, she’d driven to a drugstore up in Stephenville to purchase one of the tests to rule out the possibility that she was expecting. But instead of doing that, it had confirmed that she was indeed going to have Jaron’s baby.

Now what was she going to do? She was not only jobless, homeless and pregnant, she was at odds with the father of her baby.

Tears filled her eyes when she thought about the man she’d loved since she was eighteen years old. Why did he have to be so darned stubborn?

As she sat there staring at the stick in her hand, wondering how she was going to tell the love of her life that he was going to be a daddy, someone knocked on the bedroom door. “Mariah, sweetie, do you mind if I come in?” her sister asked from the other side.

Swiping at her eyes, she tucked the pregnancy test into the pocket of her jeans. “Come on in, Bria.”

Her sister immediately opened the door and walked over to sit beside her on the window seat. “How are you feeling today?”

Mariah shrugged one shoulder. “About the same. Disillusioned. Hopeless. Sad. Take your pick.”

Bria shook her head. “I’m not talking about your emotions. I’m asking about your morning sickness.”

Shocked, Mariah turned to look at her. “How did you know?”

Smiling, Bria put her arm around Mariah’s shoulders and gave her a reassuring hug. “I recognize the symptoms. When the smell of bacon frying sent you running from the kitchen yesterday morning, it raised my suspicions. When it happened again this morning, I knew for sure.”

“How can you stand the smell when your cook is making breakfast?” Mariah asked. “As soon as I walked into the kitchen I thought I was going to die.”

“Bacon doesn’t bother me,” Bria answered. “It’s the smell of coffee that sends me running.” She laughed. “Poor Sam has to go down to the bunkhouse now if he wants his morning coffee.”

Mariah couldn’t keep from feeling envious. Knowing her brother-in-law, he didn’t mind at all. Sam Rafferty would walk through fire for Bria and do whatever it took to make her comfortable. She just wished Jaron felt that way about her.

“Isn’t it a little soon for me to be feeling sick?” Mariah asked, glad that she had her sister to talk to about it.

Bria shook her head. “It’s different for every woman and can happen at any time, although mornings are the most common. Some women get sick right away, while others don’t have a problem for a few weeks. And some aren’t bothered with morning sickness at all.”

“You might know I wouldn’t be lucky enough to be in that last group.” She sighed. “Please tell me it doesn’t last long.”