Karen Smith - The Cowboy's Secret Baby

“Of course. I want him to see the world. But not too soon,” she added in a teasing tone.

When Ty let Jordan get close to the horse, Marissa was concerned. Glancing at her, he must have seen that.

“Goldie is gentle,” he assured her. “She doesn’t move suddenly and not much rattles her. It will be safe for him to touch her.”

“What kind of horse is she?”

“A Tennessee walker. A gaited horse. That makes riding easier for me. She and I have gotten along like best friends since I brought her here.”

Marissa stepped up beside Ty, not knowing what to expect from a horse, either. “Are you sure she won’t bite or anything?”

She could tell Ty was trying to keep from laughing. “She won’t bite,” he assured her. “I guess you haven’t been around horses much, either.”

“Never been around them.” They really were magnificent creatures, but so magnificent they scared her.

“We don’t want Jordan to be afraid of them, right?”

“Right,” she agreed, but without much enthusiasm. A little fear could be a healthy thing.

Ty took Jordan’s little hand and guided it toward Goldie’s nose. When the boy’s fingers smoothed over the softness, he giggled and gave an excited sound of glee.

“Try it again,” Ty said. “Anything that causes that reaction should be tried more than once.”

Marissa’s quick glance at him made her breath catch. There was something in Ty’s eyes that said he remembered their night together as vividly as she did. Was there some message in what he’d said to Jordan?

“Now your turn,” Ty told her. “Just run your hand down her nose and pat her neck. She likes that.”

He made it all sound so sensual, like so much more than learning to know a horse.

When she reached out her hand, Ty advised her, “Slowly. Never move too fast around them. They’re just like people, really. They don’t like to be startled.”

As she moved her hand over Goldie’s nose, she could see why Jordan had giggled. It was a kind of softness she hadn’t felt before.

Remembering what Ty had said, she slipped her hand around to the horse’s neck. Her coat was coarse but pleasant to the touch. Her mane was silkier than the rest of her coat as it fell over Marissa’s hand.

Although the horse had fascinated Jordan when they’d begun, now he was tired of being held and tired of touching Goldie’s nose. He began shifting away from Ty.

“Is it okay if I put him down over near those hay bales? There’s nothing he can get into and nothing that will hurt him there.”

“Unless he starts eating the hay,” Marissa said wryly.

Ty lowered Jordan to the floor.

The toddler looked around as if he’d just been placed in a whole new world. Then he staggered toward a hay bale, eager to touch it.

As they stood at the stall together, Ty’s elbow brushed Marissa’s. That quickening in her breath was back. He was so tall, so elementally male.

As they watched Jordan hold on to one bale and then toddle to another, Ty said, “That apartment building you’re living in is getting run-down. What happens when you need a repair?”

Marissa wrinkled her nose. “It takes a couple of weeks till the landlord gets around to it. I had a leaky sink and Kaitlyn’s husband, Adam, fixed it for me. I either do it myself or find a way around it.”

“A child needs some space to move around, needs to see something other than the inside of an apartment, don’t you think?”

Uh-oh. She should have left before the tour. “What are you getting at, Ty?”

He set his hat back farther on his head. “The Cozy C has always been a refuge to me. When I was a kid and things weren’t going right, I could come out here to the horses. I could take walks through the fields. I could go on a hike through the hills.”

The anxiety Marissa had felt driving out here became palpable, tightening a fist around her heart, making it hard to swallow. But she managed to say, “If you think I’m going to let Jordan come here and live with you, you’re wrong. He’s my son, Ty. He needs me.”

“Calm down,” Ty assured her gently. “Of course he does. I’m not suggesting Jordan come live here. I’m suggesting the two of you come live here. Think about it. It certainly would help you with expenses. You could save money for Jordan’s future.”

She was already shaking her head.

He cupped her shoulders so she’d look at him. “You kept Jordan’s birth from me. I’ve lost fourteen months with him. Don’t you see I want to know Jordan in a real way, not just sometimes, now and then, here and there?”

Looking deep into Ty’s blue eyes, she tried to see the truth. Although Ty’s rodeo days were over, would he really stay? Yes, he was committed to revamping the Cozy C. He seemed committed to his uncle. But could she trust him? Could she trust him to be the dad he wanted to be? Could she trust him not to just run off again, chasing some other dream?

“I was going to ask Jase for a raise and find a new place,” she admitted.

“Ask him for a raise. I’m sure you deserve it. But as far as finding a new place... Think about the Cozy C. We have plenty of room here.”

“Once you start taking on guests, everything will change.”

“Sure, there might be people around,” he said. “But the nature of the ranch won’t change. Wouldn’t it be good for Jordan to meet people from all walks of life? Wouldn’t it be good for him to have me and Uncle Eli around him? We’re family, Marissa, whether you like the idea or not.”

Did she like the idea? “Your uncle might not want us around.”

“You seem to get along with him. That’s a feat in itself. He has his own set of rooms. He can be private when he wants to be private. I talked to him about it before we came out here. He’s open to it, Marissa. I want you to be open to it, too.”

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