The Cowboy's Convenient Bride
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Which really didn’t explain anything.
Rowan started fussing, so Laura got up and put her on her shoulder. Tanner noticed again the difference in coloring. Laura’s hair was wavy and a gorgeous auburn shade of red that he knew most women coveted and few came by naturally. Her skin was creamy white with a few light freckles, her eyes a clear summer blue. Rowan, while having the same pale skin tone, had perfectly straight dark brown hair, and her eyes were blue, but not the same vibrant shade as her mother’s. Gavin’s hair had been brown like that, too, but he couldn’t remember the man’s features well enough to know if there was any imagined resemblance.
To the townspeople, the implication was enough. He knew that people often saw what they wanted to. Such was the power of suggestion.
So if Gavin wasn’t the father, who was? And why was that truth so much worse than letting the world think Rowan was Gavin Wallace’s?
“Tanner? Let’s go into the living room. She’s got a bouncy seat in there that she loves. It’s almost nap time anyway, and I can explain a little better.”
He followed her into the living room and sat on the sofa while she settled Rowan in the little chair and gave it a bounce. The girl’s face lit up and she smacked at the toys on the activity bar in front of her.
“Best thing I bought for her,” Laura said, smiling. “She loves it and it’s saved my sanity more than once. Now that she’s awake longer through the day, she gets bored.” She sat in the chair to the right of him and let out a big breath. “I suppose I need to elaborate a bit, don’t I?”
Did she? Was it really any of his business? He thought about what it meant to be a good friend. He had friends, but Cole was really the guy he was closest to. And even then, there were things his brother didn’t know. Tanner totally understood how it felt to want to keep the darkest parts hidden away. Curious as he was, he knew how he had to answer. “Tell me only if you want to,” he said. “You don’t owe me any sort of an explanation at all.”
“And that’s very generous of you. And surprising.”
“Like I told you before, I’ve had a few moments that are not my finest. I don’t judge.”
She smiled at him then, a soft curving of her lips that reached in and grabbed him right by the heart. It was sweet, and perhaps a bit vulnerable—something he hadn’t seen in her up to this point. Except for one moment, last December. When she’d had a particularly nasty contraction and she’d reached out for his hand in the ambulance. She’d looked so scared and yet so trusting.
“You know, I’m starting to believe that’s true,” she whispered.
There was a long pause, and then she put her hands on her knees. “You’ve been nothing but kind to me, and I trust you. So here’s the truth, leaving out some names if that’s okay with you.”
“You can tell me as much or as little as you like.”
She looked relieved. “The truth is, up until last spring I lived in Nevada, in Reno. I was working for a small graphic design company and my roommate tended bar. Through her, I met this guy and we went out a few times. He was really handsome and charming, and he said he was in sales.” She laughed bitterly. “Pharmaceutical sales. God, I was so dumb, so naive,” she said, giving a bitter laugh. “Anyway, it was a bit of a whirlwind thing. But then he said he was being transferred to a new territory for a few months and he ended it. A few months later, he came back, and he was still handsome, still charming...but something felt off. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was an edginess to him that hadn’t been there before. A...hardness. I think I knew I should end things, but I told myself I was imagining it. I ignored all my instincts.”
Tanner didn’t like where this was going. At all. “Did he hurt you?” he asked gently.
Her eyes clashed with his, but she shook her head a little. “No, not like that. He never laid a hand on me. He came into my work and wanted to start up where we left off, and I fell for his charms all over again. I let him stay with me at my apartment until he found a new job. But after a few weeks back together, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t feel safe, though I couldn’t explain why. A few times, some guys showed up at my door, and I knew he wasn’t honest about who they were. All my internal alarms were ringing and so I decided I needed to break it off.”
Tanner hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath until she paused and he let it out. “And then what happened?”
“The day before I was going to do it, the cops came and arrested him. He totally lost it when they showed up, and God, it was so ugly. He was charged with violating his parole, assault and battery and possession of a controlled substance. I had no idea about the drugs. Turns out that transfer? He wasn’t working. He was in prison.” Her normally sparkly eyes had dimmed, her lips thinned to a straight, disapproving line. “He wasn’t a pharmaceutical rep at all. He was dealing. To kids. And I was too blind to see the signs. By then it was too late.”
Tanner didn’t say anything; he simply sat quietly while she composed herself. He knew what it was like when you found out the person you thought you loved turned out to be totally different. Though at least Brit hadn’t been a felon. Just...not who he thought she was.
“The baby’s his?” he finally asked.
She nodded miserably. “When they left with him, he looked right at me and said he’d be back, just like last time. Not to worry, he’d come find me when he got out. The way he said it...it made my blood run cold. It wasn’t reassuring. It was a threat. If he knew about Rowan...”
Tanner looked from her to the sweet baby bobbing in the bouncy chair. The two of them weren’t his, but damned if he didn’t feel protective of them just the same. “He’d come after you both.”
She nodded again. “Yeah. I had to give a statement to the police and I found out a lot about his past. I was so stupid, Tanner. So blind. I believed every lie he fed me. How many kinds of idiot could I be? And then to get pregnant...”
The agony in her voice was real. “I’m pretty sure you didn’t mean for that to happen,” he said quietly. He got up and moved to the end of the sofa so he was closer to her, and he reached out and put his hand on her knee. “Listen. Remember that marriage I mentioned? I was totally in love with this girl Brittany from Lincoln. She and a couple of girlfriends moved to Vegas, and I thought I’d surprise her one weekend. It was crazy.” He decided to leave out some of the more sordid details about the weekend activities. “By the end of it, we’d gotten married at a chapel on the Strip.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh. And when I asked how long it would take her to pack up and come home with me, she laughed. She had no plans to leave. She loved it there. She loved the lights and the excitement and the party. She certainly didn’t love me. It was all a crazy, fun adventure to her.”
“And you were dead serious.”
“You betcha.” He smiled wryly, trying not to think of the moment when Brittany had all but fallen over laughing at him. “We all make mistakes. And I guess now I understand why you haven’t set the record straight. Because you’ll take the gossip if it means keeping your daughter safe.”