Heidi Hormel - The Convenient Cowboy

“Uh-oh.” Calvin’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Grandma...Mimi is in the hall. Bye, Daddy.”

Spence’s knuckles turned white as he fought the urge to hurl the phone across the room. Just the sound of Calvin’s grandma in the hall was enough to send the boy running. He didn’t know how Calvin had found a phone to use, but his son clearly needed to talk with him. When he calmed down, he’d call and ask to speak with the little boy. Hopefully, Eugenia and Stuart Smythe-Ferris—the pretentious last name Missy was back to using—would be open to a brief conversation, despite being sticklers for following every comma of the custody agreement.

He glanced over at Olympia, who’d scooted into the divot made by his body. She didn’t look close to waking up. Wasn’t she a cowgirl? Weren’t they up at the crack of dawn? The only other cowgirl he knew was his sister-in-law, Jessie, and she was out in the barn before the sun rose most days.

He moved to the in-room coffeepot to brew something to combat the headache. They needed to get on the road because he had to be at the office by noon. He’d given some crap-ass excuse to get the time off. No one at the office knew about his marriage, except HR.

“Olympia,” he said more sharply than he’d meant to. She jerked.

“Wha—?” she mumbled, her head coming up, then falling back down with a thump.

“It’s nearly checkout time, and I’ve got to get to the office.”

Olympia squeezed her eyes shut and moaned.

Crap. She was going to be sick. Sympathy jabbed at his conscience. After all, it was his baby making her so ill. He said calmly, “There’s soda there for your stomach.”

She climbed out of the bed and slammed into the bathroom. He heard retching. He refocused on the coffeepot, watching with extreme concentration the drip of the magical brew. His head pounded, but the first slug of coffee would help.

“Olympia,” he called through the closed door. “Are you okay? I need to use the bathroom, and we’ve got to get going.”

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to die.” She groaned.

“Try the soda.” He cared about how she felt, really he did, but work was waiting and so was convincing his ex in-laws that he had to talk with Calvin today. The anxious tone of his son’s voice played again in his mind.

“Maybe ginger ale?”

“I’m going downstairs to get one.”

How had his simple plan spiraled so out of control? he asked himself as he searched through the overpriced convenience store in the lobby for ginger ale. He could feel the time ticking away. Finally, he paid the three dollars for a bottle and made his way back upstairs in the world’s slowest elevator.

“Got the ginger ale,” he said as he opened the door. The room was quiet. He walked through and saw the bathroom door was open. “Olympia?”

She was back in bed, with the covers over her head.

“Olympia, we’ve got to go. You can sleep in the truck.” She shook her head like a toddler. He didn’t have time for this. He yanked all the covers off. “Let’s go.”

“If I get in your truck, I’ll be sick.”

“Drink this,” he said, holding out the soda. She cracked open one eye, then held out her hand for the bottle. She sat up slowly. He wanted to tell her to hurry, but he also didn’t want her back in the bathroom. “While you drink that, I’ll get ready. Five minutes.”

She was sitting propped against the pillows when he came out of the bathroom, about half the soda gone. Her just-below-the-chin, deep brunette hair was messy, and dark circles still ringed her eyes, but she no longer looked whiter than the sheets.

“Good. You’re ready.”

He refilled his coffee and shoved their stuff into the duffel. They had to get going now.

“Just leave me here.”

“Can’t afford the room for another night.” He opened the dresser drawers, looking for any stray items.

“I’ll be sick again.”

“You have the ginger ale, and I’ll stop at a drive-thru for breakfast. You need food.”

“I’ll get a taxi and meet you at the ranch.”

“No taxi will take you that far out of town.”

Olympia curled into a ball. “No.”

He’d had less trouble with Calvin when he was little. “Olympia, I will carry you downstairs if I have to. We’re going.”

She sighed dramatically and slowly sat up. “If I get sick, it’s your fault.”

“I’m willing to take the risk.”

Olympia walked over to him, pushing at her hair. “Okay. I’m ready.”

“You’re going in that?”

“What does it matter? We’re just headed home.”

“Don’t you, um, want to...well, maybe...a bra?”

She glanced down. “What? Nothing’s showing, is it?”

Was she making a joke? He could see her nipples and the generous curve of her breasts! He could imagine them filling his hands, soft but firm. He dug in the duffel and pushed her bra at her. His face had to be red. The last time he’d blushed about a girl’s bra had been in the eighth grade.

“I need to wash my face, too.” She strolled to the bathroom with her bra hooked on her finger. Was she putting an extra swing in her walk?

Spence adjusted his stance, wishing that his hangover was worse, bad enough that all he could think about was the pounding pain in his head. Instead, he remembered holding on to those hips as... He refocused his inner dialogue, telling himself to check the room for more of their stuff. Think about Calvin. Recite legal code. Remember what it felt like when he turned eighteen and his parents, who were on a cruise, didn’t even call to wish him a happy birthday. That did it. Calvin would never know that kind of disappointment and hurt.

Chapter Four

Olympia’s touchy stomach growled when she got a deep whiff of the smell of cumin, chili and sizzling meat that hung over the restaurant. Good thing because if she’d run to the bathroom, Spence’s very smart doctor brother would figure out everything. Her stomach did a tiny flip as she thought about the pages that Spence had proposed adding to their prenup to “address the ongoing custody and care of any issue of said marriage” after they’d discovered she was pregnant last week.

“So how’re things going? That rescue horse working out?” her new brother-in-law asked. “Jessie wanted me to find out.” Payson was as tall as Spence but a little thinner and much darker. She wondered how two brothers from the same parents could look so different.

“He’s doing fine. I’m getting him sorted out. Why couldn’t Jessie come with you?” She hoped she didn’t sound desperate. Being surrounded by MacCormack men made her nervous.

“She has a new crop of therapists to introduce today. But I’m supposed to warn you that we’ll be down to see you before I fly back to Philadelphia.”

“I thought you were done with the East Coast?” Olympia swallowed hard and told her brain to calm down. Getting him to talk about his program at Children’s Hospital would stop him from focusing on her. Could he see the pregnancy glow or something?

“Not yet,” Payson said. “My contract with Children’s runs through the end of next year. Even with a lawyer in the family, I couldn’t get out of it. Jessie and I keep reminding ourselves that it’ll be over soon. Plus, she’s so busy, she doesn’t notice whether I’m there or not.” Payson’s smile moved only the very corners of his mouth.

“That’s not true and you know it,” Spence said. “Plus, how are you two supposed to give Calvin a little cousin if you aren’t even in the same state?”

Olympia wanted to kick Spence. How dare he talk about pregnancy and babies? He’d promised her that he wouldn’t say a word tonight about the baby, but had added that they couldn’t keep the pregnancy secret forever.