AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Indefinitely,” his dad added, his tone a little gruff. “It’s only fair to you, Cheyenne, that Wade step it up and provide for you.”
“I have full intentions of doing that, Dad,” Wade snapped, his own voice souring. “We’ve already made our relationship official—and that wasbeforeI found out she was pregnant.”
“Awe,” Hazel cooed, leaning on her elbows against the kitchen island. “I justknewthat it was meant to be. When’s the wedding?”
“Whoa!” Wade threw up his hands. “No one said that we had to have a shotgun wedding. These are different times.”
My face went hot at the mention of a wedding, and my stomach flipped violently as the fear crept back in.
I don’t know if I can do this family thing.
“Let’s not suffocate the poor woman,” Blake grunted, shaking his head. “We all know what happens when this shit gets out of hand. Someone leaves your ass at the altar.”
“Shut up,” Hazel shot at him, her whole demeanor growing cold. “That’s got nothing to do with Wade and Cheyenne. I was just being funny. You don’t have to go drudging up the past.”
Well, this escalated quickly.
“You don’t have to go back out and take care of Roanie,” Wade let out a heavy sigh, toweling Takoda dry the best he could as he set him down on the rug in the bathroom. “I can just text some of the guys to deal with it or when I go out—I’m sure they all know the news by now, anyway.”
“It travels that fast?” I raised my brows.
“Yeah, for sure. Blake will have run his mouth to all the hands by now during the evening chores. There’s more rain coming this evening, too.”
“What? Really? Wejustgot the power on, and there are more storms?” My shoulders sagged, having been relieved to see the lights on for the first time since I had arrived.
Wade chuckled. “We won’t lose power again, Chey. They fixed the backup generator today, too. We might be flooded right out of the damn house, but by god, we’ll have lights.” He stood up straight, leaning over and placing a kiss on the top of my head. “I need to go out and finish up a few things in the office. The cattle truck is coming to load forty head tomorrow in the morning, and I haven’t finished up the paperwork.”
I nodded, taking the towel from his hand. “I’m going to get Takoda comfortable in the bedroom, and then I’ll head out to take all those gawdy ribbons out of Roanie’s hair.”
“Yeah, it was over the top, but I thought you deserved it.”
Blushing, I smiled. “Thanks.”
“Also…” Wade paused as he opened the bathroom door for Takoda and me, “…I think you should know that I’m not going to pressure you to meet me at the altar any time soon. I know that this isn’t what you exactly wanted—you know, the whole family thing. I get that it’s a lot. We’ll go your speed, okay?”
My stomach tightened at his sweet words, and I forced myself to nod. I appreciated the change in Wade, but the more we talked about becoming a family, the more it scared me. That was the one thing about this that I just had a hard time coming to terms with. I was more than willing to stay in Texas and see where things go, but a baby in the mix meant that I was going to be a...mother.
I still needed to call Leia.
Taking a deep breath, I led the way to my bedroom, opening the door for Takoda. He ran into the room, jumping on the bed and rolling around on the comforter. I cringed at the trail of dog hair he left, knowing that the family probablyneversaw that much dog hair on their bedding.
“Oops.” I laughed, walking up to him and giving him a scratch behind his ears before grabbing his blanket and tossing it onto the bed. “You need to lay on this, mister.”
He tilted his head at me, his little pink tongue lolling out the side of his mouth. He bared down on his front legs, before running a quick circle around the bed and landing in the middle of the blanket.
“We can play when I get back,” I gave him one last pat. “You’re getting a sister. Her name is Roanie—and you’re also getting some sort of human sibling, too.” My hand went to my still-flat stomach, my heart stuttering with a tinge of nerves...
And maybe a little excitement.
Regardless, I gave Takoda one more quick pat before leaving him there and slipping out of the bedroom. I knew that Wade would make sure that Roanie was taken care of, but I wanted to take advantage of having a horse...
I mean, if she was mine, I wanted to be the one who took care of her.
Rolling my tense shoulder muscles, I headed down the stairs, hearing laughter in the kitchen. I recognized Hazel’s giddy voice and her mother’s laugh. A smile stretched across my face.
They’re kind of my family now.
It was a comforting thought as I stepped into the kitchen, both of them turning to look at me.
