Rodeo Legends--Shane Read online

  But if anything, the words made his brother seem even more curious. Shane refused to talk about Kaitlin, though. Just as he hadn’t told Carson about the night he’d met her. They’d both done a good job keeping their one-night romance out of the limelight. He planned to keep it that way.

  Still, he kept a watchful eye in his truck’s rearview mirror as he drove away from the ranch a half hour later. He wouldn’t put it past his brother to follow him. Carson was that way. Not a serious bone in his body. The thing was, and it irked the hell out of Shane, life just seemed to fall into place for Carson. He was a team roper like Daddy and Uncle Bob, but had he set a goal to try to make it to the NFR? Hell no. And then when he’d gotten there through blind luck, he’d just lackadaisically roped his way through each round, coming within a hairbreadth of winning the whole shebang. Meanwhile, Shane had twisted himself into knots until that final round in his event. Then he’d had the rotten luck to draw Dingo. Some things just weren’t fair.

  He’d traveled halfway to town before he realized the motel was only a few miles away. He’d purposely given her the name of a place on the outskirts of Via Del Caballo. The fewer prying eyes that spotted the two of them together, the better. He loved his hometown with its rolling hills—they were green this time of year—and picturesque downtown, but the thing about Via Del Caballo was that everyone knew who everyone was. Still, he felt a little guilty as he pulled into the single-story Spanish-style motel with a wooden railing and doors that opened to the parking lot. He felt about sixteen again, like a kid sneaking out to a party.

  Nervous.

  He had to wipe his hands on his truck’s steering wheel. Crazy how many emotions were coursing through him. Excitement. Curiosity. Anticipation.

  He would bet it was her rental car he’d parked next to. Sure enough, as he walked by he could see the rent-a-car sticker in the front windshield. He didn’t even need to knock, either, because her motel door opened and there she was, his all-American girl with her blond hair and blue, blue eyes.

  “Hey there,” he said.

  She smiled, but it was a forced grin, and that was his first clue that something wasn’t quite right. He’d expected a sultry grin, maybe even a flirtatious comment, but instead she stepped aside, allowing him access to her room without so much as shaking his hand.

  “Sit down.”

  His heart pumped double-time then, but not for the reason it’d been pounding earlier. Something on her face told him this was not a social call, and if wasn’t a social call, that meant she had news to share, and there was only one kind of news he could think of that would be responsible for wiping the smile off a beautiful woman’s face.

  “Why do I have the feeling you’re about to tell me something I’m not going to be too happy to hear?”

  She motioned toward the bed, and he felt his mind start to detach from his body in the same way it did right before he climbed atop a bull. She stood there, her hair loose and long around her shoulder, a red T-shirt hugging her curves, plain jeans revealing the shape of her hips, and he knew, he just knew.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  Good thing she’d told him to sit down.

  Chapter Two

  She hated blurting the news like that. Hated the way his face seemed to drain of color. Hated that she felt like some kind of lowlife for getting them into this predicament.

  It takes two to tango.

  She’d been repeating the words to herself the whole way to Southern California. It didn’t help that she’d had to lie in order to escape the clutches of her family. They thought she’d flown west to talk to a potential sponsor, which meant she’d had to drag her publicity agent into the ordeal so that Amanda could cover for her. She hated asking Amanda to lie. Thank goodness the woman was professional enough not to ask questions.

  “Are you sure?”

  She almost laughed. “Oh, yes.” She crossed her arms in front of herself. He hadn’t seen the pregnancy tests lined up on her counter. “I’m sure.”

  He tipped his cowboy hat back, presumably so he could see her better, and she admitted the dark-haired cowboy was just as handsome as she had remembered with his sideburns and square chin. Pictures on the internet didn’t do him justice. No wonder she’d fallen into bed with him.

  “How?” He shook his head, the right side of his lips tipping up into a wry grin. “I mean, I know how, but you took precautions, right?”

  “Of course I did.” She placed her hands on her hips. “You were the one that didn’t use a condom.”

  “I told you we should, but you were in such a dang hurry.”

  She took a deep breath because he was right. She’d been the one to tell him not to worry.

  “I guess it doesn’t really matter.” She shook her head. “What’s done is done, but in hindsight, it was a stupid mistake. My ob-gyn thinks I didn’t take my birth control pills regularly enough—not,” she quickly added, “that I missed any. I didn’t. I just lead a busy life, and that weekend we were testing a new car and I wasn’t on time and sometimes that can lead to trouble, or so I’ve learned the hard way.”

  His shoulders had tensed even more, she noticed. It was easy to spot given the breadth of them beneath his blue-checkered shirt.

  “So what are you going to do?”

  Okay, so points for not getting angry with her over the birth-control thing, or calling her names or reacting like a jerk. Negative points for using the word you.

  “We are going to decide that together.”

  The shell-shocked look had begun to fade. He nodded, tipped his black cowboy hat back a bit more. A cowboy. That was so not her usual type, and yet here they were.

  She turned, pulled up a chair and sat down across from him. The motel was a real dive. She had told herself not to feel insulted that he’d recommended it, but then she reasoned he’d been trying to keep their relationships under wraps and so had chosen a place off the beaten path. Still, the worn brown carpet and tiny little room wasn’t exactly what she was used to when traveling. It smelled like an old jacket, and the brown bedspread looked worn. Their knees almost touched, and there was a window-mounted air conditioner next to them that’d clearly seen better days.

  “You want to keep it?” he asked, his eyes wide and full of concern.

  Did she want to keep it? She stared at her lap. His gaze seemed to see right through her and she didn’t want him to glean that she’d considered terminating the pregnancy. It would be so simple. She wouldn’t have to tell anyone. Just a quick trip to downtown Charlotte and she’d be done.

  “I don’t think I have a choice.” She took a deep breath, looked into his eyes and felt the panic begin to subside. Something about his presence had that effect on her. She’d noticed it the night they’d met. He was like a balm to her souped-up soul. “I’ve always told myself if anything like this ever happened, I’d have the baby, not that I ever expected this to happen. But babies, they’re a blessing, right? I refuse to just throw a life away.” She shook her head, feeling close to tears again. “I can’t. I just can’t.”

  He nodded, and she really wanted to cry when she saw the understanding in his eyes. “But what about your career?”

  And that was it. That was the reason she’d flown across the United States to see him. What about it? Decisions needed to be made, and she didn’t want to make them alone. She needed to talk them out with someone, and who better than the baby’s father?

  “I would have to take a leave of absence.” She felt her stomach flip again at the thought of breaking the news to her dad. “We’d have to find a substitute driver. I could still work for the team, help them out and whatnot, but it’d have to be from the sidelines.”

  He was still nodding and, much to his credit, seemed to approve. “How do you think your family’s going to take the news?”

  She took a deep breath. “My dad’s going to flip. My mo
m will support me. My brother Jarrod will never let me live it down, and neither will my younger brother and sister.”

  Her brother Jarrod raced cars, too. It was a family affair—her mom, dad, older brother and two younger siblings were all involved...would all be disappointed in her.

  “And your fans? Your sponsor? Shouldn’t you be concerned about that, too?”

  He understood. Of course he would. He lived the life of a professional athlete, too. He was the one person in the world to whom she could confess all and, she hoped, help her to accept the grim truth: she was well and truly hosed.

  “It’ll be big scandal,” she confessed. She went back to staring at her hands. “Our fan base is Southern, and you don’t get pregnant out of wedlock in the South.”

  He leaned forward, prompting her to meet his gaze. He had a good soul. She could see it in his eyes. She’d known it that first night she’d met him, and her estimation of his character had only improved since seeing him again. He could have no idea how much she appreciated his levelheaded assessment of the situation.

  “Surely times have changed.”

  “Oh, they have, just not in the South. My sponsor’s going to flip, too. I’m the pitch girl for MarriageMate.com. I guess people consider me sensible and trustworthy. I don’t know how sensible they’re going to think me once they discover I’m pregnant and the father is someone I barely know.”

  He leaned toward her and she thought for a moment he might stroke her cheek. “They don’t have to know that,” he said softly. “We could tell people we met months ago. That we’ve just kept it under wraps.”

  She’d thought about that, too. It would make things seem a little less tawdry.

  His hand landed on her knee, his warm palm reassuring. “We could play it up. Say we’re in love.”

  She held his gaze. “You mean lie.”

  The side of his mouth tipped into a half smile of chagrin. When he shrugged, she frowned because she hated the idea of lying to her fans. And what if some gossip rag decided to look into their so-called past? What if they discovered that her racing schedule and his rodeo schedule would have made a relationship next to impossible? Plus she was pretty sure it was obvious they’d never met before that night in Las Vegas. There’d been a very public introduction.

  “I don’t think that will work.” She was about to remind him of their first meeting when her cell phone rang. She blanched when she saw who it was. Her mother. She hated having to fib to her mother.

  “You need to get that?”

  She nodded.

  “Go on.” He waved her away. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  He wouldn’t, either. She’d worried during the whole flight that he’d get upset. Blow up on her. Disappear. He hadn’t and that reassured her more than anything. Everything would be all right, she told herself. She would just have to break the news to her family.

  * * *

  SHANE LISTENED TO Kaitlin’s side of the conversation as he waited in her room. He didn’t mean to eavesdrop. The walls were so thin he could hear a fly land on the sidewalk outside. He probably should have picked a better place for her to stay. He had a feeling the motel’s clientele probably wasn’t the best.

  He was going to be a father. His stomach did the equivalent of being catapulted off a bull.

  He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. That didn’t soothe his stomach. He scrubbed a hand over his face.

  Daddy.

  He couldn’t imagine some little boy or little girl calling him that. And he realized in that instant that his life would be forever entwined with Kaitlin Cooper’s. He couldn’t imagine letting her raise a child alone, and for that reason he had a feeling she might agree to what he was about to suggest.

  “Sorry about that,” she said, her troubled eyes even more full of sadness and dismay when she came back into the room. “That was my mom checking up on me like she always does.” She flicked her long hair over a shoulder.

  He understood what that was like. His mom had been the same before she’d died during a surgery meant to save her life. They had more in common than they probably thought. One day, he’d tell her all about the remarkable woman who’d raised him.

  “Look—” he took a deep breath “—I’ve been thinking while you were on the phone.”

  She nodded, and he saw her sit up straighter, as if she expected bad news.

  “I think we should get married.”

  Her shoulders went from rigid to slack. “What?”

  “I think we should tell people the truth—that we met in Las Vegas. We could hedge a little about what happened afterward. We could say we’ve been seeing each other on the side ever since and that we fell in love and that we were going to hold off getting married, but you’re pregnant and so we decided to make it official.”

  If he’d asked her to take her clothes off and jump off the Empire State Building, she couldn’t have looked more shocked. “You want to marry me?”

  No. Not really. He was just old-fashioned enough to want to marry a woman he loved. Someone he could settle down and grow old with. Marriage to a woman he barely knew was definitely not part of the game plan, and yet that was what he felt honor-bound to offer.

  “Look. I’ve got sponsors, too. Even though it’s not the same for a man as it is a woman—”

  “So totally not fair.”

  He nodded in agreement. “I know, but it’s still going to reflect poorly on me if your pregnancy gets any kind of media traction. Not saying it will. It’s possible nobody will care. I mean, it’s not like we’re A-list stars, but the truth is, there’s more to it than that.”

  Only as he said the words did he realize what was in his heart. It wasn’t just to save face that he wanted to marry her.

  “I want my kid to have my last name.” His hands went slack in his lap as the tension drained from his body. “I know that sounds old school but I do. And I want him or her to know that I’m their daddy. No matter what happens between you and me, my kid is just that...my kid.”

  Her eyes had grown soft. He felt it then, that same little tickle in his belly that he’d felt the night he’d met her. It gave him pause, but only for a moment because she reached out and touched his knee and that had him feeling all kinds of different things.

  “You’re remarkable.”

  “You might not say that after you taste my cooking.”

  She smiled softly. “Are you sure?”

  “About my cooking? Absolutely. My brother bought me a fire extinguisher for Christmas.”

  “No.” She shook her head. “About getting married.”

  No. Not at all. He had a feeling this whole deal would end up a lot more complicated than he thought, but it was his fault, too. He should have worn protection that night. He hadn’t.

  So he nodded firmly. “I’m sure.”

  She drew back, stared at him for a long moment and then said, “All right, then. Marriage it is.”

  She still seemed pensive but less uncertain than she had earlier. He respected the hell out of her for not taking the easy way out. She hadn’t flown to California and demanded marriage. She’d laid her cards out on the table and asked for his advice, and he respected her concerns, understood them, too. He might be scared to death, but he understood.

  “Las Vegas?” he asked.

  “Might as well. That’s where it all started.”

  “We can drive there tonight if you want. Only a few hours away from here.”

  “Tonight?” Her brows had lifted.

  “Why not?”

  She considered his words. “Why not, indeed.”

  Chapter Three

  He thought he might pass out.

  Shane stood beneath a stone archway and the man who would officiate his wedding—someone who bore a striking resemblance to Elvis—was standing next to him. He might
be about to make the biggest mistake of his life.

  “Are you ready?” called a woman he’d never met before, but who clearly worked for the Little Chapel on the Hill—a misnomer if ever there was one. For one, it wasn’t on a hill, it was three blocks from the Vegas Strip. And it wasn’t little. From the outside it looked like a traditional wedding chapel, complete with a bell tower and a steeple, but walk inside and it was more like a high-dollar hotel, one with a marble reception counter. Three sets of double doors led to three different chapels. They’d had their choice: traditional, nontraditional and agnostic, which he’d joked to the clerk must be a plain white room. The receptionist hadn’t seemed amused.

  They’d chosen traditional. Wooden pews and a stained-glass window that had been dulled by the evening light sat amid a plethora of flower bouquets, some in vases, others in wrought-iron holders.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” he answered.

  The man officiating lifted a hand. Shane jumped at the sudden commencement of the wedding march that burst from hidden speakers.

  Deep breaths.

  This was not how he’d planned to do it. Not at all. Maybe not ever. Probably, this wasn’t how she’d planned to do it, either, but now they were both stuck.

  And there she was, at the end of the aisle.

  Kait.

  He didn’t recognize her at first, although how that could be when she had such a famous face he didn’t know. She didn’t wear a veil, but she had all the other accoutrements of a bride. She’d gone all out. No plain dress. No light makeup, not that she needed any. No loose hair. She’d piled it all atop her head with little rhinestones set into the strands. They matched the gown she wore, one that must have cost her a small fortune. It hugged her figure and flared at the waist, reminding him of a mermaid, the ends swirling around her feet as she walked, her shoulders bare. And her eyes, those beautiful blue orbs, were stunning all on their own, but they’d been accentuated by thick liner. Her wide mouth had been stained a deep, dusky red. And as she drew near and his gaze met her own, it was like being jabbed by the horn of a bull...all sharp jolts to the chest and the buzz of adrenaline. He’d had the same sensation when he first spotted her all those months ago.