The Cowboy's Surprise Baby. Ali Olson

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СКАЧАТЬ seemed to realize her indecision, because he turned and started walking toward her house again. After a moment, she pulled herself out of her shock and hustled to catch up with him. When he spoke, he sounded lighthearted, confident. Exactly the Jack she knew from high school. “How about this—we go out tonight just to get to know each other. We start fresh. No expectations. No baggage. No past. Just us, two twentysomethings who met while I was out for a drive and you were going for a ride on your horse.”

      She had to smile at his antics. “No past? So you saw a random woman riding a horse in the middle of nowhere and stopped to ask her out?”

      His eyes danced with laughter. “When you put it like that, it doesn’t sound so great. How about I was driving along when I saw a beautiful woman and a beautiful horse, and I felt compelled to speak to her. The woman, not the horse.”

      Amy wasn’t sure if she was amused or panicked. For a moment he sounded just like Armand. Charming, flattering...but this was Jack. He was being sincere.

      Wasn’t he?

      They grew quiet and walked a little longer, until her childhood home appeared down the street.

      “So I’ll pick you up tonight at seven?” he said, his voice serious as he turned toward her again.

      Amy nodded, though a large part of her yelled that it was too much, too soon. Jack’s face lit with a smile, and he turned his attention back to the house that loomed before them. She was glad he wasn’t looking at her any longer, so he wouldn’t see just how torn and confused she was.

      She tried to tell herself she was being stupid, worrying over nothing. She’d known Jack almost as long as she’d been alive. Armand was—well, he was a blip on the radar of her life, not worth thinking about. So she would just stop.

      The likelihood of that was so far-fetched that Amy couldn’t stop a snort from escaping.

      “What’re you thinking about over there?” Jack asked, the gleam in his eye making him so devilishly handsome she wasn’t sure if she wanted to kiss him or run away.

      “That wasn’t me, that was the horse,” she said, turning away so he wouldn’t see the flow of emotions she couldn’t control.

      He snorted skeptically in response, and she felt the tension inside her break as a laugh broke from her throat. She’d forgotten how easily he could make her laugh, regardless of her mood. She had missed that.

      They arrived at the house, and even though the mare was pulling Amy toward the barn, she couldn’t pull herself away from Jack, as if something magnetic about him forced her to stay close to him now that she’d found him again.

      He looked in her eyes again, making her stomach drop somewhere near her toes. “Seven, right?” he asked.

      The note of insecurity in his voice sent a pang through her heart. It reminded her again of how much she must have hurt him. She nodded. “Seven.”

      He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers, sending a shock wave of hormones rushing through her body. Her mind recoiled at the feeling, and she almost called the date off right then and there. The idea of being vulnerable again so soon, even with Jack, made her more than nervous.

      Jack seemed to realize he’d crossed the line. He tilted his hat and said, “I don’t normally kiss ladies I just met. I assure you, I’ll be a perfect gentleman on our date.”

      He turned back toward the road and began walking away, but she wasn’t ready for him to disappear. Not quite yet.

      “You haven’t even asked my name,” she called to him, desperate to see his face again for a few more seconds.

      He looked at her with a smile and bowed. “Where are my manners? Name’s Jack, miss. And you are...?” he asked.

      God, he was so cute she could hardly speak. “Amelia. Friends call me Amy.”

      “Amelia,” he repeated, as if tasting the word, and she felt such an overwhelming urge to kiss him she was glad he was already several feet away.

      Reluctantly, she started toward the barn, following the horse’s insistent pull. Before she could get too far, though, she realized something. “This is all I have to wear for a date,” she said to his retreating figure, raising her voice so he would hear and gesturing toward her jeans and old T-shirt. “I’ve been living out of a backpack in the African desert for the past year.”

      He just smiled at her again. “Sounds like you’ll have some mighty interesting stories to tell me at dinner, miss. You can just wear that,” he said, eyeing her carefully. “I like the cowgirl look.”

      Before she could say anything in response, Jack had chuckled and waved. “See you at seven,” he called as he turned away a final time.

      Once he was gone, she spun toward the barn and practically ran the rest of the way, making the horse move quickly to keep up. Even so, Amy was unable to outrun her thoughts.

      What was the matter with her? Jack was not Armand. He wasn’t the type of guy to seduce her and manipulate her into falling for him. He wasn’t a selfish liar. He was Jack.

      Still, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from panicking every time he said something sweet or she felt desire rise up.

      She knew she was still hurting from what she’d been through, and that it was far too soon to go on a date with Jack. She knew she should’ve said no. But it was too late now, and a part of her wanted so badly to be with him again, to feel his arms around her. To be safe and secure.

      She was going on a date. That was all there was to it. They would talk and eat and get to know each other again. And maybe, maybe she would be able to convince herself that everything that had happened in Morocco was in the past.

      As she brushed down the mare, Amy went over the morning’s events once more in her head. Jack was just as attractive as always, that was for sure, but in high school he’d seemed a little more...happy-go-lucky, she supposed. He had always seemed happy, as if life smiled upon him. There was something careworn about him now.

      She fervently hoped that she wasn’t the one to change that about him.

      She shook her head at the irony of that thought, since it was just that part of his nature that had been one of the reasons she had run instead of talking to him. She’d been worried he would convince her that the doctors were wrong and they could have exactly the life they’d planned because it was the life he wanted, dammit, and everything always worked out the way he wanted.

      And she had known all those years ago that if she talked to him she would cave, give in to the hope even when she knew the odds, and it had made her a coward.

      But now—

      “I saw Jack Stuart walking you home,” Pop said from behind Amy, startling her out of her thoughts.

      He came up beside her and pet the horse she was grooming, but said nothing else. Just waited.

      Amy nodded. “He spotted me while I was out riding. We had a good talk.”

      Pop said nothing, but she could tell by the slight curve of his mustache that he was pleased. He didn’t meddle in the affairs of his children like Ma, but he cared deeply СКАЧАТЬ