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The truth was right there, three feet away. I didn’t want to look, couldn’t force my feet to move to see the results. You can do this. Just walk over there and open your eyes. The pep talk didn’t work and after counting to ten and then back, twice, I took one step. Then another. And then I opened my eyes and looked down at the five different applicators, hoping, no praying that I wasn’t seeing what I thought I was.
Pregnant. Positive. Digital displays. One single line and plus signs. They all said the same thing. They all said that my one sexy night of fun in more than two years had left more than a lasting memory. That I was now one of those women who got knocked up by a one-night stand. “Shit.” Every time I thought I was making progress in my life, something or someone came along to prove me wrong.
“Hey Rocky, you okay in there?” Kody knocked, and I jumped.
“Yeah I’ll be out in a sec.” I splashed cold water on my face and stared at the applicators one final time before I swept them into the trash bin. And I knew what I had to do. It started with getting the hell out of San Diego. For a while or forever. “Okay. I’m really sorry about bringing all of this into your life, Kody.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it Rock. This isn’t on you.”
He could say that until he was blue in the face, but that nasty purple bruise on his pretty face said otherwise. “It is and as long as I’m around you, they’ll make you a target. I have to leave.”
“Where will you go?” He sighed and dropped his head to my shoulder. “I want to talk you out of this so bad, but you have your determined face on and it hurts too much to talk.”
I laughed so hard I snorted. “Good because my mind is made up. I’ll let you know when and where I land.” I would miss Kody. He was the first good friend I’d had and the fact that he was a guy, meant so much to me.
“Wait, what happened in that bathroom?”
“Oh,” I smiled and rested both hands on his shoulders. “I’m pregnant.”
“The knight in shining armor?”
I nodded because that was what Dallas had been that night. My white knight with messy blond hair, a wide smile and blue eyes that always seemed to be laughing. “Yeah. That one.”
I knew he’d help me because he had that whole sexy cornfed cowboy thing going on. But also, because I was carrying his baby.
Chapter 2
Lasso
I was confused as hell and all my Spidey senses were tingling in warning, telling me that shit stunk to high hell and it had nothing to do with the German shepherd next door. Standing on my porch, looking as lush and sexy as she had for one hot night in San Diego, was a girl—a woman—I hadn’t seen in almost two months. “Uhm…hey Rocky. What’s up?” As I stood there, ready for whatever bomb she was about to drop, another thought occurred. What if Rocky was a stalker? The Reckless Bastards had enough of that lately.
“We need to talk,” she said, her tone serious and somber. I braced myself, knowing nothing good ever came after those four words. “Can I come in?” The way she looked over both shoulders, scanned my residential neighborhood, set me on edge and I stepped back, waving her in.
“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Because that would be just fucking perfect. I meet a hot girl and we have one fun night together and now she thinks the big bad biker can swoop in and save her.
“Kind of. Do you have any water? I’m so thirsty but I didn’t want to stop for the bathroom so, please?”
All types of warnings clanged around my brain at her words and how they didn’t fit together, not with her tone and her actions. But I got her a glass of cold water from the fridge and shoved it in her hands. “There. Start talking.”
She didn’t look worried at all, just gulped down half the glass and set it on the table, keeping her fingers curled around the bottom. “Thanks for that. I needed…oh shit.” One hand smacked over her mouth as her green eyes flashed wide. Worried. She was on her feet seconds later and before I could register what the fuck was going on, Rocky was emptying her stomach in my kitchen sink. On and on she went, making the most sickening sounds while I stood in my own damn kitchen feeling helpless as fuck. “Sorry about that.” Her smile was sheepish, her expression contrite.
But now I was on the verge of fucking panicking. “You want to tell me what the hell is going on here, Rocky?” I refilled her glass and shoved it her hands, forcing her to sit back down before she collapsed on the floor. I wet a kitchen towel and put it on the back of her neck. I didn’t know why, I just remember my own mama doing that to me when I made it to the kitchen table with a hangover. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. No. Probably not,” she answered softly and then burst into tears, grabbing one of the many scarves around her waist and drying her eyes.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I hated tears. Nothing made me feel more helpless, more useless than a woman with tears in her eyes. I vowed, after leaving my family and my hometown of Rose Petal, Texas, that I’d never feel that way again. And now, look at me.
Fuck.
All I could do was wrap my arms around her and hold her close while she cried her eyes out, clung to me and left my t-shirt a soggy mess. Thankfully she didn’t have any makeup on so I was just wet. “Ah shit, Rocky.”
She took my words the wrong way, pulling back and sitting tall in the wooden kitchen chair as she wiped away all traces of her tears. “Sorry. Shit, I’m really sorry, Dallas.” She stood, her legs a little wobbly as she walked the few steps to the sink, rinsing out her glass and the sink itself, finding cleaning products under the sink. “Seriously, I’m sorry.”
“Should I ask again?” It was obvious she needed help just as it was obvious she didn’t want to tell me why. Or ask for my help.
Her southern California tanned skin, paled and she shook her head as she sat. “No. I’m not dying. Not right now, anyway.”
