Page 77 of A Baby for the Texas Cowboy
“You’re right. Now that you’re here would you like to try Verflucht’s reserve flight?”
“Certainly not.”
But no, her mother continued to study the room as if it both dissatisfied and bewildered.
“Mom,” Tinsley reached out a hand to touch her mother’s smooth, small-boned hand, but her mom pulled away.
“John doesn’t want a problem,” she finally said. “He has moved on. He’s married and has a son Jackson and a daughter Madison. His wife was back on her Peloton two days after the birth.”
That sounded way too soon. Pushing out a baby looked painful in TV shows, and Tinsley still couldn’t bring herself to think about the actual birth part of this unplanned pregnancy, but she was pretty confident there would be no sitting on an exercise bike her first morning home—definitely later though as Tinsley loved feeling healthy and fit.
“Why would there be a problem?”
“More videos.”
“I’m not a porn star.”
“We did our best long ago, to scrub your presence from our lives, as has John, but he is running for governor and will likely win. Your father may be nominated to be an ambassador, and we don’t want any kiss and tell stories or more videos of our former daughter to surface online. You made a terrible accusation about John to me, and of course I never repeated it, but I don’t want to hear another word about him except that you wish him and his family well. And I’d prefer you to stay out of the public eye.”
“I work in the hospitality industry.”
“Nowhere, Texas, doesn’t count.”
So much was hitting her right now that Tinsley couldn’t begin to process it.
And then the door to the tasting room opened, and her past and present and future imploded as the most beautiful cowboy in all of Texas sauntered in the with a smile like the sun rising, and sparkling eyes bluer than a Texas spring sky.
*
Anders was ontop of the world.
He was heading to Vegas for the finals. He and his best friend were being pitted against each other as rivals. Kane’s retirement announcement had kicked everything to a higher level, which just made Anders that much hungrier for the win.
Personally, his life was even better. He and Tinsley had had their third doctor’s appointment, and the baby and Tinsley were doing well. She was no longer avoiding talking about the baby or trying to hide her changing figure, and he figured that meant she was happier, becoming more comfortable with their future.
He’d stopped pushing marriage and having her move out to the ranch, but he hadn’t given up. He was biding his time, wooing her, and the woman he was getting to know was even sexier, smarter and more entrancing than he had a right to aim for.
He swung open the tasting room door, feeling like a cowboy of old—he wore his new custom chaps he’d picked up this morning. They were comically flashy and looked ridiculous out of the arena, but bull riders were cowboy rock stars and he wanted to show off.
Tinsley had a thing for him in chaps, and he wanted her to remember what she was missing over the next few days.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said, swaggering in to the tasting room like he owned it. He hopped up on the bar, bracing himself on his hip, kissed her and then pushed himself back to standing. “Ma’am.” He tipped his hat to the beautifully coiffed woman in pink who looked like an ice cream cone.
He smiled.
And then he realized there was more tension between the two women than he’d ever experienced on top of a chute when a rider was about to drop down on a restless, rank one hundred percent bull.
“You.” The woman took a step back and then another. She pointed at him, and her pale skinny finger shook like she’d seen a ghost. Was that diamond even real? It was dang near the size of a cow’s eyeball. “You’re that…that…cowboy in the whiskey ad taking a…what do you call it?” Her face twisted like he’d jammed half a lemon in her mouth and squeezed it. “A shot off my daughter’s breasts like she’s a human table.”
“Your daughter?” Anders repeated, feeling like he’d just been spun around and bucked off into the dirt before he’d even got his seat.
“She was, but her father and I are no longer claiming her as such, so there’s no money in it for you, if that was your plan.”
What was she talking about? He didn’t need anyone else’s money. And then it hit him. Tinsley had lied to him about her parents being dead, although if this was her mom disowning her for working in a tasting room, he could understand why she hadn’t wanted to trot out her mother. And then something else made sense—why she hadn’t wanted his money or anyone else’s. She wanted to make it on her own. Tinsley and he were so similar. If this woman had made her do a song and dance for every crumb growing up, he now understood Tinsley’s fierce protectiveness of her independence.
Tinsley had lied—or at least not corrected his mistaken assumption, and he’d given her every opportunity. That hurt. But he’d deal with those negative emotions later.
Anders held out his hand. “Ma’am, I’m Anders Wolf.”
