Tanya Michaels - The Texan's Christmas

“Adele is their mother,” Nicole said quietly.

His shoulders slumped in relief. “You know.” If it was information she already possessed, then he hadn’t crossed any lines by addressing the subject.

She nodded. “And now you’ve answered my question about whether or not Lizzie and the others know. I was already planning on having a very candid conversation with them, but it’s nice to have an idea of what I’m walking into.” She was back to studying him—this time, searching his gaze with naked curiosity. “I’m surprised you brought it up, though.”

So am I. He’d made it a policy to stay out of discussions about Brock’s first wife. But he hadn’t wanted Nicole to show up at the ranch unprepared. Did that make him disloyal to his stepsiblings? “Well, the Barons can be intense. They—”

“They? Not ‘we’?” She gave him a teasing smile. “Aren’t you a Baron, too?”

“On paper.” Daniel had wondered more than once if his mom had asked Brock to adopt her boys to provide another layer of insulation between them and convicted felon Oscar Burke. No one at their new school would dare bully a Baron. “I mean, my brother, Jacob, and I are technically Barons, but we weren’t born into it. Lizzie and Carly and the others are great. But as kids, with immature sibling rivalry and the awkwardness of meshing two households...”

“I get it. I was a foster kid and lived with some nice families through the years. But even with the ones I felt closest to, they weren’t really my family.”

Hearing about her upbringing made him feel ungrateful. At least he and Jacob had always had a home, always had each other. Who did Nicole Bennett have?

She stopped next to a compact car that sported a decal logo for a well-known rental company. “This is mine, temporarily anyway. Thank you for looking out for me.” She surprised him by reaching out, squeezing his forearm gently. At her touch, a rush of endorphins replaced his earlier soreness. He didn’t know which he was enjoying more—the contact between them or the way she was looking at him. Her admiring expression did more to make him feel like a badass than any rodeo buckle he’d ever won. “I’m glad you’ll be there this weekend, Daniel.”

Something shorted in his brain when she said his name, and he heard himself ask, “Would you like a ride? Sunday, obviously. Not now.” What are you doing? He lived five miles from the ranch and had been trying to stay out of his siblings’ investigation of their mom. So why was he volunteering to go completely out of his way to pick up Adele’s second-in-command?

She chuckled. “Is this because you feel sorry for me?”

“No, ma’am.” If she thought pity was the only reason a man would want to spend time with her, she clearly didn’t own a mirror. “I, uh, wasn’t supposed to drive much after my fall, so I’ve been having to rely on volunteer chauffeurs. It feels so good to be in the driver’s seat again, I’m looking for excuses to get behind the wheel.” Thank God Jacob couldn’t hear him now. He’d never let Daniel live down such a lame excuse.

“Plus, GPS isn’t always reliable out in rural areas,” he continued, powering through the embarrassment. Rodeo taught a man to hang on tight and keep going. “If you ride with me, there’s no chance of getting lost, with the added bonus that you know there’ll be a friendly face as soon as you arrive.”

“I’d like that.” She met his eyes, and color tinged her cheeks. “I’d like that a lot.”

They exchanged phone numbers and she typed the address where she was staying into his contact list. Daniel climbed into his truck, whistling under his breath and unable to remember the last time he’d been so eager for one of the weekly family gatherings.

* * *

“YOU ARE A bad influence,” Nicole chided, leaning back in her chair. “We should be at the office.”

Adele grinned. “I notice you didn’t let guilt stop you from enjoying that giant cinnamon roll.” It had been Adele’s idea to sneak away from work early and window-shop at the extravagant Galleria. They’d covered much of the first two floors before Adele’s energy began to flag. Nicole had suggested they get a snack and watch the ice skaters on the rink below. Amateurs wobbled around the edge of the oval while a few standouts in sparkly leotards and skirts executed athletic spins in the center.

Truthfully, Nicole probably should feel guiltier about leaving the office. She’d already missed an hour that morning when she’d interviewed the new OB. Thinking about how Adele had gotten a second medical opinion here in Dallas, Nicole had realized she should probably get a backup obstetrician. Since traveling wasn’t generally prohibited until the last trimester, she might spend a good chunk of her pregnancy here. It would be smart to have someone local who knew her history. She’d liked Dr. Davis and had scheduled an ultrasound with him for next week. She couldn’t wait to see the first sonogram photograph, even though she knew the earliest pictures weren’t discernible as babies.

“Thinking about the baby?” Adele asked.

“How’d you know?”

Adele looked pointedly at Nicole’s stomach, where her hand rested. “A lot of pregnant women fall into the unconscious habit of doing that. As if we need some way to commune with the babies before we can feel them moving, as if it makes them more real somehow.”

Even knowing Adele’s history, it was still difficult to remember sometimes that she’d gone through four pregnancies.

“So everything went all right at the doctor’s?” Adele asked.

“Fine. He didn’t examine me today. This was more of a quick meet and greet to fill out all the paperwork and make sure I was comfortable with him. You’ll never believe who I ran into—Daniel Baron.”

Adele blinked. “At the OB-GYN’s?”

“No. Outside. It’s the same health-care complex where he has physical therapy. He mentioned you, confirmed that the Barons know you’re their mother.”

Adele nodded, unsurprised. After Nicole’s suspicions earlier in the week, Adele had discovered her children had definitely been searching for her. She’d even touched base with an old friend, Genevieve Lewis in Lubbock, who said Carly Baron came to visit, asking questions about her long-lost mother.

Swirling her straw around in what was left of her lemonade, Nicole recalled the unexpectedly protective tone in Daniel’s voice. I don’t want you to be caught in the middle. She was touched that he cared. Since Nicole had learned young that people in her life were temporary, she’d spent a lot of years looking out for herself. She wasn’t used to feeling as if someone had her back—especially someone she hardly knew.

In fact, she wasn’t sure which she found more charming, that he’d gone out of his way to prepare her for a meeting with his family or how he’d stumbled over asking if she wanted to ride with him. Daniel was very tall, with a chiseled jawline and natural swagger. The man routinely dealt with two-thousand-pound bulls, yet she had the power to fluster him? Heady thought. It made her feel as if they were even for that moment when they’d first shook hands last spring and she’d barely been able to remember the word hi.

Adele stared across the table, her expression shrewd. “Maybe you should tell me more about this Daniel.”

“With the way you’ve tried to keep up with the Barons over the years? You probably know more about him than I do.” Even though Daniel wasn’t related to the others by blood, Nicole was sure her employer would have wanted at least some data on the guy who’d grown up with her children. “I’ve only seen him on a handful of occasions.”