Barbara Daille - The Cowboy's Triple Surprise

“You are a devious, scheming man,” she said, shaking her head.

“Thank you,” he said with a grin.

Chapter Three

“We need that table over here,” Jane called across the banquet room.

“No problem.” Tyler turned in midstride, rolling the round table on its edge across the hardwood floor toward the space she indicated. “You ladies sure do know how to put a man to work around here.”

“Are you complaining?”

“Heck, no. Hard labor is my middle name.” Though Jane laughed, he couldn’t keep from wincing. Head down, he busied himself with pulling out the legs of the table and tightening the supports. Then he crossed back to the wheeled cart and took down the next table.

The phrase he’d jokingly tossed out—hard labor—had made him think of Shay and her pregnancy. Where was the man who had gotten her into that state? There had to be someone in the vicinity. A husband. A boyfriend. Someone. Despite her lack of a wedding ring, for all he knew, she had married that someone a week after he had left town.

It looked to him as though she might be ready to have her baby at any minute. But what did he know about that, either? After lunch, she had stood from her seat beside his and lumbered away. Except for the rolling gait of a saddle-sore greenhorn, from the back she seemed just the way she had when he’d met her months ago. Quite a few months ago.

For a moment, his thoughts got hung up on the time frame. But only for a moment. He couldn’t have been the one to get her pregnant. After all, when he had said something about her moving on to someone else as soon as he’d left town, she hadn’t denied it.

“Hold up, Tyler,” Jane called. “The reception’s in this room, not on the patio.”

To his chagrin, he saw he’d overshot his mark and was almost to a pair of doors leading outside. “Got it,” he said, forcing a laugh. Abruptly, he turned back and took the table to the appropriate spot.

As he continued to work, Shay remained absorbed in her vases and ribbons. Every time he attempted to set up a table closer to her, Jane sent him to another area of the room.

Maybe that was for the best. He and Shay didn’t have anything left to say to each other. And they couldn’t have talked much, anyway, with Tina or Jane constantly by her side. It was as if they were standing guard over her. Every time Jed stopped by the room, even he seemed to take up a protective stance. Because...

Because she was due to have that baby at any minute?

Despite his own reassurances to himself, he did some quick mental math. The results caused him to pull his bandanna from his back pocket. It took him two tries to wipe the cold sweat from his face.

“You okay, cowboy?” Jane called teasingly.

Across the room, Shay looked up from her work.

“Ma’am,” he said to Jane, “I’ve had a change of heart. You’re about working me to death here.” He grinned. “Even the hired hands ought to be entitled to a cold drink now and then, don’t you think?”

He saw her fighting to hide a smile. She made a show of glancing at her watch. “Well, I suppose we can spare you for a minute.”

“Good.” He ambled across the room, deliberately avoiding Shay and Tina and aiming straight for the corner table a few yards from them. Earlier, one of the waitresses had brought in a jug of sweet tea. He filled a glass.

After a mouthful of the drink, he turned to look at the two women. Both were pregnant. Was there something in the water around here? He eyed his tea glass and swallowed a laugh. Then he looked at Shay’s belly again, and his sense of humor deserted him.

He needed to act normally around her, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. Which he didn’t. Hoping for a casual approach, he headed toward their table. From across the room he saw Jane start their way, too.

He came to a stop beside Shay, not too near, but close enough to see the long sweep of her lashes as she kept her eyes down, her gaze focused on her work. Close enough to smell the same flowery perfume she had worn last summer when he’d danced with her at the wedding and, a few nights later, when he had slept with her in her bed.

He gulped another mouthful of sweet tea and nearly choked on it.

Shay never looked his way. The chances she would even throw a glance at him seemed less likely by the second. That only made him more determined to get her attention. He gestured toward the vases lined up on the table. “Looks like this is going to be one big wedding.”

He stood facing Shay, but Tina answered instead. “The biggest we’ve had here yet,” she said emphatically.

He knew she was the financial genius in the family. “The thought of all that income must make your accountant’s heart beat faster.”

She laughed. “You must have heard that phrase from Cole.”

“I did.” He looked at Shay. Another, more intimate memory of them together flashed into his mind. “What makes your heart speed up?” he blurted.

“Heartburn,” she said flatly.

He blinked. Maybe that was a symptom of pregnancy. Or maybe she was just pulling his leg.

“This worker is due for a break, too,” she said, bracing her hands on the table. She seemed to have trouble pushing herself to her feet. Afraid she might overbalance and fall over the chair, he held it steady for her just as he’d done in the dining room after lunch. And just like then, she gave him a curt, dismissive nod. “Tina, I’m going for a walk. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Good idea,” he said. “I feel the need to stretch my legs, too.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not—”

“—thinking of leaving us, are you?” Tina finished. “Tyler, I’m surprised at you. We’ve still got so many tables to set up.”

“We certainly do,” Jane said. “And we’ve run into a little problem over there.” She pointed to the far side of the room. She raised her brows.

Tina smiled.

Shay turned and left the room.

Shrugging, he followed Jane across the banquet hall. He’d been roped into helping again, and danged if he could think of a single good excuse that would cut him loose.

Somehow, he managed to carry on a conversation with Jane and the rest of the women while his brain focused on the topic of Shay’s baby. The first chance he had to find her alone, he wanted an answer to the question that continued to nag at him:

Just how far along is she?

* * *

FOR THE REST of the afternoon, Jane kept him hopping. The closest Tyler got to Shay was when he set up chairs at the tables in the area near where she was working.

He had just come within yards of her when she pulled a cell phone from the bag she had hooked over the back of her chair. After checking the display, she turned to Tina. “I need another break. And I missed a call from my grandmother.”

“Give Mo our regards,” Tina said.

Shay nodded. This time she appeared to have less trouble getting up. She also seemed to be in a hurry, as if she wanted to get out of her seat before he could lend his help.

He watched her walk off.

A few minutes later, Tina left the ballroom, too.

Time ticked away, and neither of the women returned.

Eventually, Jed and Paz stopped in the doorway and surveyed the setup. Tyler tucked the final two chairs beneath a table, then sauntered in their direction.

“Looking good,” Jed said.

Tyler eyed the room and tried to see it from the older man’s perspective. All the tables had been covered with long white cloths and shorter pale blue ones, but only half the sets of silverware wrapped in white napkins had been put in place. And there were no decorations around the room yet.

He gestured to the folding table at which Shay and Tina had been sitting. “Looks like two of your helpers have deserted you.”