come on, Lacey.”
“I remember distinctly—”
She didn’t either, and they both knew she didn’t. “What?” he demanded. “You remember what?”
The baby, in his highchair, chortled to himself as a slow smile curved Lacey’s eminently kissable mouth. For a moment, Logan thought she would actually say something about the two of them, about how she’d never in her life imagined him as a lover—but that was one thing he had definitely changed her mind about. He had to resist the urge to clap his hand over her mouth.
And then she said, “Broccoli.”
He didn’t think he’d heard her correctly. “Broccoli?”
Lacey nodded. “You convinced me to give it a try. You said I would like it raw. With ranch dressing.”
He stared at her, thinking, Liar. You never ate any broccoli for me—raw or otherwise.
“Yes.” That smile of hers was too innocent by half. “Broccoli. Remember?” She was blatantly teasing him, pouring on the innuendo.
But it could be worse, he reminded himself. At least she hadn’t said what he’d feared she might.
He forced a smile to answer hers and let her have her silly lie. “I don’t know how I could have let myself forget.”
“More string beans?” Tess asked him.
He thanked her and spooned a second helping onto his plate.
The talk turned to safer subjects.
Zach asked Jobeth about a calf she had chosen to raise herself as a 4-H project.
Jobeth explained how she planned to experiment with different varieties of feed.
Then Tess wanted to know how things were going for Starr. Evidently, the older girl had a job at a local shop called Cotes’s Clothing and Gift.
“A summer job is a summer job,” Starr said. “It gets a little boring, but it’s not that bad. Mr. Cotes offered me four more hours on Saturdays. I’m going to take them. Might as well make use of my free time this summer. When school starts, I want to keep my focus on studying, where it belongs.”
“Our Starr is a straight-A student,” Edna declared with pride.
A contrary glint came into the girl’s impossibly beautiful violet eyes. “At least I am now.”
Zach frowned. “We are proud of you. Very, very proud.”
Starr lifted her lovely chin. “Thanks.”
Evidently, the girl had had some problems in the past. Logan wondered what, but the subject had already shifted again.
Zach was suggesting that Logan might want to saddle up and ride with him and Jobeth and the men sometime in the next few days. He could see how things were done on a working cattle ranch.
Logan confessed, “I think I’ve been on a horse about three times in my life. And they weren’t very lively horses, if you know what I mean.”
Zach chuckled. “We’ll find you something sweet-natured and easy-going—or you can ride in one of the pickups. Your choice.”
“Then I’d enjoy a tour, Zach. Thanks.”
Beside him, Lacey slid back her chair and stood. “Excuse me.”
Apprehension pulling a thread of tightness across his chest, Logan looked up over the ripe curve of her belly and into her eyes. “What is it? Are you feeling all right?”
She laughed and put her hand on his shoulder. It felt good there. Damn good. “Relax. I’m fine. I need to…make use of the facilities, that’s all.”
“You’re sure. If something’s—”
She lifted her hand and stroked the hair at his temple. “Logan. Eat.” Her hand was cool and her eyes were a summer sky—clear, stunningly blue. A smile quivered across that soft mouth of hers. He had to remind himself that they were not alone, or he would have laid his palm on her belly, a possessive touch, which would have felt totally appropriate then. At that moment, she was all softness, all openness. And all for him.
But then she seemed to catch herself. She jerked her glance away. Her smile vanished.
She dropped her hand. “I’ll be right back.” She slid around the chair and headed for the hall.
He watched her until she’d disappeared from view, reluctant to relinquish the sight of her, wondering at her swift change of mood. For a moment, she had been so damn…tender.
Just as she’d been when he woke and found her standing over him in the cabin an hour before. He’d seen the softness in her eyes then, too. And something else. Worry, maybe.
But softness, definitely.
And even earlier, while he unpacked his few things. She had sat in that rocker and watched him, a dreamy, contented expression on her face.
As if she…
It came to him. Right then, at the Bravo family’s dinner table, as he watched her waddle away through the living room, then disappear beyond a door that led to the front hall. It all snapped into place.
For Lacey, this was more than a matter of sexual attraction. More than affection, more than the commonality of a shared past. More even than the most important issue of the child she was about to have.
She was in love with him.
It made perfect sense. The abrupt way she had broken it off in September—that must have been when she had realized.
And what about the times he had called her and she’d never called back? That hadn’t been like her. Before, she would have called, if only to insist that she was fine, that he was not to worry about her, that he needed to get on with his life and let her get on with hers.
Yes. She was in love with him—and she feared, because of Jenna, that he would only hurt her.
He wouldn’t. Never. Jenna was gone for good now, living in Florida with Mack McGarrity, a baby on the way. She was no threat to what Logan and Lacey might share.
Damn. Lacey loved him.
True, he didn’t have a lot of faith in love lately. He’d loved Jenna for all those years and in the end, his love had not been enough to hold her.
But this situation was different. He was already committed to making a life with Lacey. He had been from the moment he’d learned that she carried his child. If Lacey thought herself in love with him—whatever the hell that really meant—it could only work in his favor.
A lightness seemed to move through him. A feeling of rightness, of ease.
And of power, too.
She loved him.
He knew now, with absolute certainty, that she would say yes to him. She had that wild streak. And she was willful. She might not be the wife that Jenna would have been. But she would be his in a way that Jenna never had.
She was already his.
Because she loved him. Lacey Bravo loved him.
He hadn’t realized that doubt had been eating at him, eroding his self-confidence, setting his nerves on edge. He hadn’t realized it until now, when doubt was gone.
He turned back to the table, a grin pulling at his mouth—and found six pairs of eyes focused on him. Even the baby was watching him.
“That girl’s a pistol,” Edna muttered under her breath.
“She’s independent,” said Tess warmly, speaking right up in Lacey’s defense. “I admire independence.”
Edna gave Tess a fond smile. “Of course you do. So do I. But the fact remains. She needs a husband.”
Zach