Pregnant with the Rancher's Baby: Reclaimed by the Rancher

“I’m so glad to be back here,” Jessie commented as he helped her into the house.

“I had Rosemary make up the downstairs guest room because I thought steps might not be a good idea this soon after surgery,” he said as they walked down the hall.

“That’s probably a good idea.” She smiled. “As slow as I’m moving it would probably take all night just to get up the stairs.”

“Would you like to change into one of your nightshirts and lie down for a while?” Nate asked, wondering if she was tired from the hour’s drive.

“No, I’ve been in bed for the past two days and I’d really like to be up for a while,” she said, turning toward the family room.

“Do you want something to eat or drink?” he asked, trying to think if there was something else she might need.

She smiled. “You aren’t going to hover, are you?”

“I’m just trying to make sure you’re comfortable.” He frowned. “Why do you ask?”

“Summer and Bria stopped by the hospital yesterday afternoon and they were telling me about Ryder’s propensity to hover over Summer whenever she’s ill,” Jessie said, grinning. “I just wondered if you were going to be like him.”

“Yeah, he does have a tendency to be an old mother hen where Summer and little Katie are concerned.” Nate was beginning to understand how his brother felt about taking care of the woman and child he loved more than life itself. “Is there anything else you need?”

“Yes,” she said as she sat down on the couch. “I’d like to have that talk we discussed in the hospital yesterday.”

What he had to tell her was going to take some time and was without question the most important conversation of his entire life, not to mention the most difficult. He was going to be laying his soul bare to her and once started it wasn’t something that could be interrupted and picked up later. He could only hope she understood and loved him anyway.

“Are you sure you’re up to it?” he asked.

She stared at him for a moment before she nodded. “Whether I’m going to like hearing what you want to tell me or not, things can’t go on between us the way they’ve been, Nate.”

“I agree,” he said, praying she would understand and forgive him. Deciding there was no easy way to tell her about his past, he took a deep breath. “I’m a convicted felon.”

Nate could tell by her shocked expression that was the last thing she expected. “When did that happen?”

“I told you up front that my brothers and I were foster kids and met when we all ended up being sent to the Last Chance Ranch,” he said, reaching up to rub the growing tension at the back of his neck. “Believe me, we weren’t sent there because we were little angels.”

“I always assumed it was just a name,” she said, shaking her head. “I didn’t realize it had a literal meaning.”

“Yeah, it was our last shot at keeping ourselves from being incarcerated,” he stated flatly. “It was either finish growing up there or behind bars in a juvenile detention facility.”

“What did you do that you were arrested?” she asked, her tone quiet.

“Sam and I started out stealing food and then graduated to robbing stores at gunpoint for cash.” Unable to look at her for fear of seeing the condemnation on her pretty face, he walked over to gaze out the window at the land that represented how far he’d come in life.

She frowned. “What caused you to start stealing food?”

He shrugged. “Why does any kid start shoplifting food? We were hungry.”

“Didn’t your previous foster parents see that you had enough to eat?” He appreciated the indignation in her voice, but she had it wrong.

“Darlin’, we didn’t land in foster care until after we got caught robbing a convenience store,” he admitted. “That was after our mom passed away and our dad abandoned us.”

She gasped. “Oh, Nate, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. The day our dad walked out and disappeared for good was the luckiest day of our lives,” Nate said, unable to keep the bitterness from his voice. “He sat on his ass and let our mom work herself to death to support the four of us because he was too lazy to keep a job. And that wasn’t his only flaw. He liked making us feel like it was our fault for everything that went wrong in his life. He had a way of talking to us that undermined any self-esteem or confidence we had.”