Tycoon Cowboy's Baby Surprise. Katherine Garbera

Чтение книги онлайн.

       Three

      Kinley had a rushed dinner with Penny and her nanny before leaving to meet Nate. Tonight was important, and she needed to be stronger than she’d ever been before. She’d dressed carefully, choosing a gray cap-sleeve dress that nipped in at the waist before ending at the knees. She’d paired it with a piece of costume jewelry she’d purchased at a vintage shop in Melrose the year before her mom had died.

      Wearing it always made Kinley think of her mom. She touched it like a talisman, trying to glean a little of her mom’s courage before Nate showed up. She was scared.

      She’d made the only choice she felt she could make when she’d decided to have Penny and to raise her daughter on her own. But circumstances had changed, and it was time to make another choice.

      She pulled her phone out of her purse for the tenth time since she’d texted Nate that she was waiting for him at the Peace Creek Steak House, not because she expected him to respond, but because she felt so vulnerable just standing there waiting for him.

      She heard a group of people approaching the entrance and looked up to see Bianca Velasquez walking toward her. Her mom had cleaned the Velasquez home way back when, and Bianca and Kinley had been really good friends. She smiled when she noticed Kinley, waved her friends on and came over to give her a hug.

      Her friend had thick black hair that she wore long and falling around her shoulders and olive skin Kinley had always envied. She was wearing a pair of slim-fitting white jeans and a flowy navy-colored blouse.

      “I didn’t know you were back in town,” Bianca said.

      “I didn’t know you were, either. I thought you were still in Spain,” Kinley said. Bianca’s young husband had recently died in a fiery car crash, leaving the window with an eighteen-month-old son to raise. Kinley and Bianca kept in touch by email and had a lot to share since they both were single moms.

      “I recently moved back. Mom and Dad were really persistent. And I missed Texas,” Bianca said. “Do you have plans tonight? You can join us.”

      “I’m only back for a few months to plan Hunter’s wedding,” Kinley said. “I’m meeting someone but I’d love to catch up sometime.”

      “Me, too. I’m looking for a job, believe it or not,” Bianca said in a sort of self-effacing tone. “I have your number, so I’ll text you and we can find some time to meet up with our kiddos.”

      “Sounds great,” Kinley said, hugging her friend and realizing how nice it was to see Bianca. The combination of secrets and guilt had been weighing on her, but seeing a friendly face, making some normal plans, made her feel better.

      Bianca waved goodbye before going into the restaurant. Kinley felt someone watching her and glanced up to see Nate at the end of the driveway, walking toward her. He hadn’t changed since their earlier meeting; he still wore dark jeans paired with what she knew was a designer shirt and hand-tooled, custom-made leather boots. He walked like a man who knew his place in the world. He was confident and sure, and a part of her truly resented him for it.

      She’d been struggling to figure out her place her entire life. She might not have been aware of it when she’d been younger, but these days it felt like a yoke around her neck. Like she’d been carrying it for too long. Part of it, she knew, was the burden of what she had to tell him and her own uncertainty about how to do it, but she knew another part was the fact that she felt like she was always running to catch up.

      Probably that could be traced back to living two different lives for most of her upbringing: the weeks in town with her mom at the Velasquez home and the weekends on the ranch with her father.

      “Nate, I’m glad you could make it,” Kinley said. To her own ears, her voice sounded too bright. Like she was trying to force out a happiness she didn’t feel. But she put a smile on her face, determined to keep it in place until she actually could smile around him.

      “It was my idea, so I wasn’t about to say no.” He winked at her as he reached her, putting his hand at the small of her back to turn her toward the entrance.

      She moved forward, trying to ignore the pulsing that had started as soon as she felt his hand on the small of her back. His hands were big and hot and made her very aware of the last time he’d touched her there.

      They’d both been naked and he’d rolled her onto her stomach in that big king-size bed to give her a massage, which had ended with him deep inside her as she’d climaxed again and again. A shiver of pure sexual need went through her.

      It had been a long time since any man had touched her save for her ob-gyn, and Kinley, who had been too tired to think of dating before this, now thought that might have been a huge mistake.

      She wished she’d had at least one other man since Nate so she’d have some sort of buffer. He reached around her to hold open the door, and she was both elated and disappointed that he broke contact.

      She stepped inside, waiting a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dim interior. She was losing control of herself, which would mean loss of control of the situation if she didn’t pull herself together.

      She skimmed the bar and spotted a booth in the back that looked like it would give them some privacy from the other patrons in the steak house.

      “I see a spot,” Kinley said, walking toward it quickly, not giving Nate a chance to touch her back again.

      * * *

      Touching her had been a mistake, because as he watched her walk through the bar, images СКАЧАТЬ