Maverick (Star Valley Book 3) (16 page)

Cassidy nodded. “I’m going to get my hair done in town.”

“Um…” Leah glanced at Candace who shrugged. Not wanting to irritate her newest possible friend, Leah handed over the items. “Okay.”

Cassidy fastened the necklace and walked to her car with a wave. “See you later!”

“Good God she’s gorgeous!” Candace hissed.

Leah nodded as she waved. “Yep. She’s the county beauty queen, apparently.”

Candace gaped at her. “And she lives here?”

“Well, she lives in the bunkhouse with Sawyer. They’re engaged.”

“Thank God!” Candace sighed. “Who needs that competition?” She glanced at Leah then, suddenly. “That wasn’t a knock on you, Leah.”

“I know.”

“You’re pretty,” the girl insisted.

“I didn’t say anything,” Leah replied quietly. And she might be a lot of things, but pretty wasn’t one of them.

“
Leah
,” Candace growled, because they’d had this conversation way too many times.

Whatever she was or wasn’t, Austin wanted her, or had tried to kiss her anyway. Leah’s heart sped up at the memory of him leaning in, lips nearly touching hers. “Do you want some tea?” she asked, rising quickly to her feet.

“No,” said Candace. “Not really.”

“Sure you do!”

The brunette snorted and pushed herself out of the chair. “I don’t. But I’ll pretend I do, so you can go on a Cowboy hunt. Just make sure you know who’s doing the hunting.”

‡

A
ustin followed at
a distance, trying not to seem as though he was stalking her. When she embraced Candace and they ended up sitting on the porch, there was no good way to hover around and not be out of place. He decided to give the girls some privacy and headed into the kitchen through the side door, still wondering what they were saying about him, if anything at all.

He found Sawyer at the counter, holding a large box. “Just got back from the post office,” he announced. “I got you a present.”

Austin pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and eyed him warily. Sawyer’s gifts were not to be trusted, under any circumstance. Some might explode. Some might embarrass you. All of them were designed for a laugh at your expense.

Austin refused to take the offered box.

Sawyer pretended to look hurt.

Austin knew better.

“I got you a doll,” Sawyer told him.

Unable to come up with any interpretation that might be good, Austin replied, “I don’t need a blowup doll.” Though he needed something right about now. He should’ve kissed her when he had the chance, when they were alone together. He should’ve tossed her down on the couch and made her lift her dress again and—

“Are you sure about that?” Sawyer asked. “You’re looking awfully…tense…at the moment.”

“Shut up. And throw this on the manure pile,” said Austin, chucking the box back at his younger brother.

“It’s not that kind of doll,” Sawyer assured him, drawing out a pocket knife and slicing the packing tape across the top. Styrofoam went everywhere as he reached into the box and pulled out a small doll, slightly larger than a football.

“What the hell?” Austin blinked at the plastic thing.

“It’s for practice,” said Sawyer with a grin. “You feed it, diaper it, hold it when it cries. It’ll wake you up at 2 am, just like a real baby.”

Austin glared at him. “So I should just start losing sleep now?”

“Might as well. Here,” he said, picking up a plastic bottle off the counter and sticking it into the doll’s mouth. He passed both to Austin. “Don’t drop it,” he warned. “It knows when you drop it. Or don’t pick it up. And it’ll give you a low score. You don’t want to fail at parenting.”

“It keeps score?” asked Austin. He took the damn thing but was not at all sure what to do with it. He’d never held a baby before, only calves, and a few chicks when he raised them for the State Fair as a kid. “This is dumb,” he declared looking down at the thing. “I don’t need this.”

“Because you know all about changing diapers?” Sawyer countered.

“Well, no but…Leah will do it.”

“Leah? You’re going to make her do everything.”

“Sofia can. Or Dakota. I’m not…I don’t…”

“You’re going to make a shit husband,” Sawyer observed.

Austin stared at him. A shit husband? A
husband
?

“Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. You’re not going to give that girl your name? Your baby?”

“I…” Austin stammered. “It was a lot to take in. I just wanted to get her home, to help her out, help raise my kid.”

Sawyer grinned. “Welcome to diaper duty, Dad. Though I think Leah’s going to want a little more than a glorified babysitter.”

“Do you think she’d—?” At that moment, he felt something cold and wet on his pants. “What the fuck?” He fumbled the doll, catching it by the leg before it hit the floor. “It leaked!”

Sawyer doubled with laughter as he watched Austin grabbing frantically for a dish towel. “You know, if you keep holding its leg like that, social services is going to show up.”

“God damn it, Sawyer!” As Austin dabbed at the spreading stain, the towel turned yellow. “Is that
urine
? What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Shit just got real.”

“
Does it shit, too
?” He flung the thing onto the island hard enough for it to bounce off and roll onto the tiled floor.

Sawyer shook his head. “Well, now you’re in jail. You don’t even get an A for effort here,
vaquero
.”

“Damn it, Sawyer!” Austin rubbed at his jeans trying to stop the dark stain from spreading. At that moment, the side door opened and Leah and Candace stepped into the kitchen. Both women froze and stared at him for a moment before they burst out laughing. “I…this…this is not…I didn’t…
He did it!
” he cried jabbing a finger at his brother. “He bought me a baby that leaks.”

“I’m going to kill you,” he threatened but his little brother only howled. Austin stormed off through the living room and upstairs to change into some clean clothes. It might not be urine. It might be just colored water, but with Sawyer it paid to take no chances.

Back down stairs, he only found Candace, sitting alone on the porch. “Where’s Leah?” he asked, though after this bullshit she probably wasn’t interested in finding herself alone with him again any time soon.

“The bathroom. Again,” Candace said with a roll of her eyes.

As they waited, Austin saw an opening to get what he hadn’t been able to from Leah in these past few days. “Is she happy?” he asked, not really wanting to know the answer but needing to anyway.

Candace looked at him askance.

“I keep asking,” he told her. “She says she’s fine. Just fine. I can’t tell what she’s thinking half the time.”

The brunette sighed. “Leah keeps everyone at arm’s length. She always has. Even growing up, when she got sick. She never talked about it.”

Austin frowned at her. “Why? Isn’t it hard for her, to go through all that alone?”

“Yes.”

“Then why?” he asked again. He couldn’t understand it. Here at Snake River he was surrounded by people would lend him a helping hand if he asked. Most times he didn’t even
have
to ask.

“So, it won’t be so hard on
us
,” Candace answered, “if she dies and leaves us alone.”

Austin blinked at her, trying to parse her words. “If she dies,” he repeated numbly.

Candace sighed. “Leah’s had it rough. The cancer struck early and fast the first time, when she was a little girl.”

Austin took a deep breath and tried to steady himself on his feet. “The first time.” The words tasted like ashes in his mouth.

The brunette nodded and he could see a deep well of sympathy in her dark eyes. “And then they said she was okay, in remission they said. Her folks had a party, cake and ice cream, rented a pony they couldn’t afford. They were so happy.”

“And then she got sick again,” he concluded. He tried to picture it, a terrified little girl, her struggling family, all of them thinking they’d spotted the rainbow after a storm, only to find out they were only in the eye of a hurricane.

Candace nodded. “Two years ago. It hit her mama the hardest. I swear I never saw a woman go to church more often than Mrs. Pierce. And Leah, she wouldn’t let her daddy take another job to help pay for the treatments. She told them she had insurance working at the museum.”

Austin groaned. “And she didn’t.”

“Not to speak of. It covers one of her medications, none of the others, and none of the treatments.”

“God damn it,” he growled and kicked at the dirt under his boots.

“She couldn’t put her parents through hell again, she said. So she hid everything from them as best she could. They don’t know about her credit cards, about all the payments she’s making to the oncologist and the hospital. She even waited two whole weeks to tell them that her final scans were totally clear.”

“Why?” he asked, shocked. “Why would she wait?”

Candace shrugged. “Caught between two evils, I guess. Keep torturing them, knowing she was sick again and worrying over her, or tell them she’d
supposedly
gone into remission again, only to find out it came back later. Her mama thinks it’s a miracle. Her daddy is too wary to trust it. So’s Leah. She won’t talk about it, won’t say anything out loud or make plans for the future.”

Austin’s jaw clenched and he glared at the young woman. “And what are you doing about that?” It rankled him to think Leah hadn’t been getting the support she so clearly needed.

Candace bristled at his tone. “Well, I made her that list, didn’t I?” she snapped, jerking her chin at the wrinkled paper in his hand. “I think it’s over. I think she beat the damn thing! And I think Leah’s earned her chance to be happy. That’s what I think! She deserves to start a life for herself.
And
I’m hoping she’ll get lucky and find a man who’ll stick around.”

The sharp look in her eyes told him she was trying to rile him. And God damn it if it didn’t work. Picturing Leah with another man made him go rigid. “I’m not going anywhere,” he growled. “I’ve already said I’d take care of the baby.”

Candace eyed him sharply. “Yeah. But who’ll take care of
her
?”

He hadn’t meant it that way. “
I will.
”

“But will you love her?” Candace shot back.

Austin rocked back on his heels, stung the same as if the girl had slapped him. “I…I haven’t…I haven’t promised her that.”

“Well maybe you should think about just how much you can really give her. Because a ranch is fine and dandy and help raising the baby is nice, too. But Leah deserves everything, absolutely everything.” Candace took a menacing step forward and Austin held his ground but he felt like an asshole. She reached out a poked a finger into his chest. “She deserves it and I’m going to make sure she gets it. If not with you, then with someone else. She can have your money, Mr. Big Shot Rancher, and she can have love with someone else. There’s nothing wrong with that these days.”

Austin was tempted to tell her that he wasn’t a big shot. He didn’t actually have much money, but somehow that made him seem even worse. More and more it seemed he might’ve come out ahead on the deal while Leah had gotten swindled. “I won’t hurt her,” he insisted.

Candace jammed her hands on her hips as she looked up at him. “I think you should stay away from her. Just leave her alone.”

Austin gaped at her. “Leave her alone?” The suggestion seemed ridiculous under the circumstances. “She’s pregnant with my baby, Candace!”

The woman rolled her eyes. “Well, if you hadn’t fumbled around like an asshat without a
top hat
, she wouldn’t be in this mess!” She blew out a harsh breath. “I’m just as guilty as you are, I guess.”

“How’s that?”

“I pushed her into kicking up her heels in Jackson, having a good time.” Her gaze slitted in his direction, cold as any blizzard. “I should’ve known some smooth talking drunk in a Stetson would take a poke at her like a horny goat. She got no orgasm, a baby, and
you
out of the deal. I’d say she’s due for her luck to turn any day now. You stay away from my best friend, Austin Barlow. Even if she is pregnant.”

Candace turned and stormed off, kicking up dust as she walked. Austin gaped at her for a moment, then shouted, “Hang on! Is that what she told you? That she didn’t get off?”

She didn’t answer, instead leaving Austin to puzzle out his blurry memories of that night hotel room. He remembered giggling and heavy breathing. Surely she’d had a good time, right? His lack of an answer galvanized him. Leah had been through so much in her life, the very least he could do was show the girl a good time. But then maybe Candace was right and it was better to stay away.

“It’s going to storm,” he called after her. “You should head out unless you’re staying the night.”

Turning toward the barn, his thoughts were a jumble. Could he love her, this girl he barely knew? If he tried and failed, he might break her heart in the process. And it sounded as though Leah’s heart was already cracked in more than a few places. He’d never forgive himself if he was the one to shatter it.

Though it was against his nature as a gambling man to walk away from a little bit of risk, he was a Barlow first and foremost, and no man with an ounce of honor would play fast and loose with a girl’s heart, especially not a girl like Leah Pierce. They could be parents, but maybe that was all. Court and Rowan were making it work, co-parenting Willow. Austin and Leah could manage it just as well.