Page 52 of His First Baby Rodeo

“How do you feel?” Marilyn asked gently.

El felt her eyes fill with tears. She swiped them away. “This is embarrassing.”

“Hormones,” Marilyn said sagely. “It’s perfectly understandable.”

“I feel… a lot of things,” El said. “I think I’m happy about it.”

“That’s great!” Marilyn enthused.

“But it’s complicated,” El said. “I’m not in a relationship.”

“I don’t mean this to be rude, but do you know who the father is?”

El nodded. “I do, but that doesn’t make things easier. I don’t think he’s going to want any part of this.”

“But you’re going to tell him, right?”

“I think I have to,” El said. “I think he’ll find out regardless of what I do, so there’s no sense in trying to hide it.”

Marilyn nodded. “That makes sense to me,” she said. “If you think he’s going to find out regardless, that must mean it’s someone who’s in your life.”

“You might say that.”

“You can tell me,” Marilyn urged. “I mean, if you want to. If it would be helpful for you to tell someone, you can tell me.”

“Are you going to tell Jeff?”

“I don’t have to. I think Jeff will probably want to know eventually, but it’s up to you what you tell him and when. I just want you to feel like you have someone on your side. I know how intense and scary it can be to realize you’re pregnant, even when you’re in a committed marriage and you were planning to start a family together. I can’t imagine what you must be going through.”

El closed her eyes. “It’s Mac,” she whispered. “Mac is the father.” It was the first time she’d said the words aloud, and it felt as though saying them made them extra true somehow.

“I thought so,” Marilyn said.

“You knew?”

“I didn’tknow. But Jeff and I were both picking up on some chemistry between the two of you when we saw you at the fair.”

“Jeff’s going to be mad. He didn’t want me to hook up with Mac.”

“He didn’t want you to get hurt, El, that’s all. All he cares about is your well-being. He won’t be mad at you. He just wants you to be all right.”

“I don’t know what to do next,” El admitted.

“Well, the most important thing is to schedule a doctor’s appointment,” Marilyn said. “I’ll make an appointment for you with my doctor, unless you’d rather find someone yourself?”

“No, that would be great, actually.” El was relieved. It took a weight off her mind to know that Marilyn was taking care of things. The only problem was that it forced her to focus on the things that only she could take care of — the personal side of the problem. “I think I need to talk to Mac.”

“Do you have a phone number for him?”

“Yes, but… I don’t think this is a conversation I want to have over the phone,” she realized. “I won’t really know how he’s feeling unless I can look him in the eye while I tell him. And besides, he deserves to hear news like this in person. It wouldn’t be right to just make a phone call.”

“So does that mean you’re going back to Texas?” Marilyn asked. “I can go down there with you, if you’d like company.”

“No.” El shook her head. “He won’t be there. He joined that rodeo circuit — he’s on tour.”

“Oh, that’s right,” Marilyn realized. “You told us about that.”

“So I’ll have to… I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to wait until the tour ends or something.” She had no idea when that would be, she realized. How long would she be waiting? Was it possible the baby would be born before she had a chance to tell Mac about it? If that was true — if there was even a possibility of that — then shehadto tell him over the phone. She couldn’t let him go that long without knowing, and she didn’t think she could wait that long, either, to find out what he might have to say about it.

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