Cowboy Baby Daddy

Ouch. It hurt. A lot.

Alex had abandoned me like what we shared meant nothing. He’d given me a big, pretty speech, made me feel special, and then dumped me like garbage.

The worst part was he’d given me all that hope for more. I could have taken it if he’d admitted he wasn’t interested in anything more. It wasn’t like I’d thought sleeping with him for one night meant we were together. So why had he lied to me? Was it just some game to him?

My hand dropped to my stomach. I wasn’t showing yet, but I would be soon. This was his child. He needed to know.

If Alex didn’t want to be involved, then fine. I didn’t care. I wouldn’t even want child support from him if he didn’t want to be part of his kid’s life.

I picked up my phone and sent him a text.

Call me back. I’m pregnant, and I think it’s yours.

Yeah, maybe I should have tried calling him directly, but I didn’t want to feel that stabbing disappointment when I called him and got transferred to a voice mail.

Now, it was just a matter of waiting.

* * *

After a week, dozens of text messages, and a half-dozen calls, Alex still hadn’t responded. So the situation had gone beyond him ghosting me after a one-night stand to him not caring about his own baby.

Well, maybe. It could be that he hadn’t even gotten my latest messages, but it didn’t matter. The more I thought about it, the angrier I became.

The obvious truth was that him ignoring me from the beginning proved he had no respect for me. I didn’t care at that point whether he even did know. I didn’t need him in my life, not if I was another warm body to him. I honestly wondered if he’d only come to the reunion to bang me because we never did it in high school.

I sat on my couch, staring at my phone, silently seething.

It was time for one last attempt. I dialed his number. My heart leaped as it clicked to connect.

“The number you have reached is no longer in service. Please hang up and dial again,” the voice said over the phone.

“Son of a bitch,” I muttered. I almost threw my phone across the room but stopped myself at the last second.

I ended the call. The bastard must have changed his phone number on me. I wondered why he didn’t just block me versus changing his number, but maybe he was worried I’d track him down. Or maybe he’d decided to change a long time ago. Both possibilities pissed me off.

I didn’t care. He’d made it obvious he didn’t want to talk to me from the beginning. Whether he’d changed his number recently or not, he’d stopped responding to me the day after the reunion. There was no way I could let that go.

Everything he’d said that night together at the reunion had been a lie. He’d only wanted a quick fuck before moving on. I’d fallen for it, for him, just because of his nice muscles, easy smile, and dangerous look in his gray eyes. All because of a stupid crush from when I was a teen.

I ground my teeth.

Screw Alex Kline. Screw all men everywhere, the self-centered bastards. It was the two of us now: me and the baby. I didn’t have time to worry about Alex.

I’d considered going to Carl and asking him to talk to Alex, but decided against it. If Alex had gone through that much trouble to avoid talking to me, then I’d let him be free like he wanted. I didn’t want someone like that in my child’s life.

A knock sounded from the door, and I took several deep breaths. I’d asked Mama to stop by my place so we could chat. I hadn’t told anyone, but I figured she should be the first one after Alex.

I hurried over to the door to open it, trying to wipe any anger from my expression.

Mama stepped inside, a suspicious look on her face. “Why did you call me over here, honey?”

I closed the door. “I have some news, Mama.”

Her face twitched. “Oh? Please don’t tell me you’re moving out of Livingston?”

“What?” I shook my head. “No. I love Livingston.”

She fanned herself with her hand. “Oh, thank the Lord. You’ve been in kind of a mood since the reunion, and I thought it might have given you ideas, honey.”