Cowboy Baby Daddy

So why was I so angry at the news? I should have been overjoyed I was off the hook.

I rolled to my side and sighed.

It was just not right. That’s what I came up with it. Alex was a construction worker, and now he was a rancher in a small town. He shouldn’t have that much money. Livingston wasn’t the kind of place where millionaires lived.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Yes?” I called, sitting up.

Mama opened the door and smiled at me. “Kadie’s taking a little nap in my room, and the rest of the kids have been picked up by their parents. You can come out if you want.”

“Oh, Mama, you didn’t have to do that. You could have had Kadie come in here. I’m not trying to hide from my own daughter.”

She shook her head. “I think you needed some time alone to think.” She sat on the edge of the bed. “As much as I love to have you visit me, maybe if you told me what was going on, I could help you.”

“Help me?”

“When you said you needed to hide out at my house, I didn’t question it.” Mama sighed. “Because I figured you’d tell me sooner than later. Well, now it’s later, and I want to know what the problem is.”

“Alex. He’s the problem. We had a fight.”

“About what? As best I can tell, the man is doing everything he can to prove he’ll be a good father to Kadie. I’m not understanding the problem. What did he do?”

“Alex is a fraud.” I snorted. “I don’t know if I can trust a man who’s not honest about what he is.”

Mama’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh? And what is that? I don’t know if I want to know, but is he some sort of pervert or something? Does he have some special room for weird sex?”

This was the last way I’d wanted the conversation to go.

Bile rose in my throat, and my stomach lurched. “Lord, Mama, no. And I don’t ever want to talk about anything like that again with you.”

“I read too. I know what people are thinking about. What is it, then?”

I groaned and slapped the back of a hand on my forehead. “He’s rich, Mama.”

“What?”

“He’s rich. He’s a millionaire. The other day when I went over to his house, he left his laptop open, and I saw some account statements. Bunch of investment and savings accounts. He could buy a bunch of houses around here and still have money left over.”

Mama nodded slowly and then whistled. “You sure know how to pick them, Aspyn.”

“Right? How can I trust a man who isn’t honest with me?”

She laughed. “You’re upset because the father of your daughter, a man who obviously still has strong feelings for you, is rich and not poor? The Bible doesn’t say it’s impossible for a rich man to get into heaven, just hard.”

“You don’t get it. It’s about trust.” I shrugged and lay back down, rolling away to glare at the wall. “You haven’t seen his house, Mama. He bought it like it was nothing. I thought he’d taken out a loan, but when I looked at his computer, I saw that he’d bought it outright. He’s filled it with stuff I could never afford.”

Mama tapped my leg. “Okay, I see the problem.”

I rolled back to face her, my heart lightening. Finally, someone could see my side. “You do?”

“You’re not upset with him, Aspyn.”

“Huh? I most certainly am.”

She shook her head. “You’re upset with yourself.”

“No, I’m not.”