Page 55 of My Cowboy Temptation

I get up and am out the door without looking to see anyone’s reaction to my abrupt departure, nearly barreling over Callie, who’s just coming into the building’s lobby.

“Brody?” she asks, appearing confused but also happy as her mouth turns up into a smile. “What are you doing here?”

“Callie. Be honest with me. How far along is this pregnancy? Are you really only twelve weeks along?”

She bites her bottom lip, her eyes growing large, as she seems to be debating something.

“It’s not a hard question to answer, Cal. Let me be more precise. Is the baby mine?”

The guilt that I see in her eyes tells me the answer before she does. “Yes.”

A single word that should fill me with elation, elation at knowing that Callie and I are going to have a baby together, and yet the ground I’m standing on feels shaky under my boots as I look at the woman who I love more than anything in this fucking world and who’s been lying to me.

“Why, Cal? Why would you let me think this baby is someone’s other than mine? Were you ever going to tell me? Were you ever going to give me a chance to be a dad?”

She blinks back tears that are threatening to fall. “I’m sorry I lied, Brody. But I didn’t want to burden you with this truth, didn’t want you to feel any obligation to this child or me. I wanted you in my life—in the baby’s life—because you wanted to be. Not because you felt you had to be. And when I left, you made it perfectly clear your intention was to move on like nothing ever happened between us. You chose your relationship with my dad and this ranch over me.”

“The hell with your dad and the ranch, Cal. When you found out you were pregnant with my kid, you should have told me.”

Her cheeks flush with anger. “I barely got the words out that I was pregnant at dinner the other night, and you were up and out of there so fast you were practically a blur, trying to get as much distance between us as you could.”

“I walked out of that dinner because I was pissed as hell, but not at you. I was pissed at myself for letting you go. I was pissed because I wanted that baby growing inside you to be mine. But even that changed over the past few days. I stopped caring if that baby was biologically mine or not because I knew I was going to love it either way. Which is why I told your dad about us last night. Laid it all out there. Even told him I loved you and was going to be there for you and this baby.”

Her mouth drops open as she stares up at me. “Wait. You did?”

A couple of people walk in, pausing as they see us before sharing an uneasy look with each other and heading down the hallway.

“This isn’t the place for this,” I say roughly. “I need to go someplace I can think and calm down.”

“Brody,” she says, stopping me as I reach the door. “I-I was going to tell you. It’s why I said we needed to talk.”

“Save it, Cal. You only needed three seconds to say what you needed. The baby’s yours. See how simple?”

Then, before I could be dragged into more of a public confrontation, I push the door open and without glancing back, head out.

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