Only You (9 page)

JD shifted his legs and cursed to himself. He could never get comfortable in a theater or any place that had public seating. His legs were too long. Right now, his shoulder brushed against Maggie’s, and he wished like hell that he didn’t have to sit next to her.

He wanted to blame his semi-arousal on her, but he could tell by her surprised expression that she hadn’t known he was going to be at the movies tonight. Which meant she hadn’t worn the perfume for him. He shifted his legs again. Maybe it wasn’t perfume. Maybe what he was smelling was Maggie. God knew she tasted good. Every. Beautiful. Creamy. Inch of her.

Aw, Christ. Way to go, dickhead. Get yourself all worked up like some sleazy old man.
He needed to concentrate on Ellie. Or, hey, how about the movie?

Maggie elbowed him in the side. “Stop squirming,” she hissed in his ear.

He glared at her. He wished he had whatever it took to stick out his tongue like she had a few minutes earlier. He’d almost laughed out loud at her antics, but had caught himself in time. The last thing he wanted to do was encourage her.

If he were being truthful, it was the only thing he wanted. He caught himself thinking of her a million times a day, and always with a smile on his face. But she hadn’t been honest with him, had betrayed him, really. Which was a stupid word to use because they barely knew each other. He shouldn’t feel betrayed. Their relationship had no history, no weight to it. Not like his marriage to Lydia. But, as melodramatic as it sounded, that’s the word that kept appearing in his head.
Betrayed
.

He wanted to forget about Maggie Kennedy, and he didn’t think that was going to happen for a long, long time.

His phone vibrated in his jacket pocket, and both he and Clay reached for their cells at the same time. After listening for a minute to Sammie’s breathless voice, he nodded toward Clay and stood. Sodapop was having trouble pushing out her baby.

A few people behind them hissed at him to sit. He leaned over Maggie and put his hand on Clay’s shoulder. “I’ll go. They probably don’t need both of us.”

Clay shook his head. “Dave said the foal’s turned around. He’s having a hard time finding her front legs. I’m coming, too.”

Ellie was already heading up the aisle to the door. He supposed it was too much to expect the women to watch the rest of the movie together. He followed her outside, into the cool spring evening. A couple strolled along the sidewalk on the other side of the street, and all of the stores, except for Arnie’s diner, were closed. Cooper Creek was a sleepy town where nothing much happened. Someone like Maggie, who was used to a more sophisticated life, would die of boredom living in a place like this. But his life, too, had been vastly different than this, and he’d adjusted to rural living. Maggie didn’t appear to be in a hurry to leave the ranch, but that probably had more to do with Claire and Sammie being there than her falling in love with ranch life.

JD grimaced. Damn it. He was thinking of Maggie again.

“Is Sodapop okay?” Ellie asked.

“There’s a complication with her birth. Clay and I are going back to the ranch to help.” He took one of Ellie’s hands. “I’m sorry. Rain check?”

“Of course. Call me when you’re free. You go ahead. I can walk home from here. It’s only a couple blocks.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll drive you home.”

“I’ll drop her off,” Clay said as he joined them on the sidewalk.

Maggie stood to one side of Clay, her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket, looking decidedly unhappy with the change in plans. She’d probably planned to jump Clay tonight and start in with the baby-making. Clay seemed like a steady kind of guy, not the kind of man who’d go in for one night of crazy, wild sex. JD closed his eyes. He was losing his frigging mind. Any red-blooded male would give his right arm to spend a night with Maggie.

“I have to go to the clinic and pick up my truck,” Clay continued. “It has most of what I might need in it. I drive past Ellie’s house, so I’ll take her home. You and Maggie might as well head back to the ranch. If that’s all right with you, Maggie,” he tacked on at the last minute.

She eyed the three of them standing in front of her with a certain amount of disdain. “I suppose.” Then stomped over to the passenger door of JD’s truck.

“Are you sure, Clay?” JD asked.

Clay shrugged and trudged off to his car, Ellie trailing behind him.

“Buckle up,” JD ordered after he started his truck.

Maggie yanked her seat belt out and slipped it over her shoulder. He glanced once in her direction. She had her back half-turned to him as she stared out the passenger window. Apparently, she was going to give him the silent treatment. Fine with him.

He drove through the quiet town, again thinking of how bored Maggie would get after a few months of living in the sticks. “I’m surprised you’re still here,” he finally said.

“So am I.” She folded her arms, shifting her eyes to the front window.

“Still hunting cowboys?”

Instead of chewing him out like he expected, she sighed and slid down in her seat. “Not really.”

“Change of plans?”

“People are too nice around here. I wanted someone to impregnate me. I didn’t want to make friends. But I like everyone I meet.” She glanced at him, then down at her lap. “I’ll probably go back to the city and find a donor there.”

JD gripped the steering wheel to stop himself from trying to shake some sense into her. He wasn’t her keeper. If she was determined to find a no-strings baby daddy, it wasn’t any of his business. He couldn’t wait for her to leave. Then maybe he’d stop thinking about her. “What’s the holdup?”

“Do you have any idea how unhappy Claire is? Your stupid brother has broken her heart. And”—she raised her voice—“he’s made it impossible for her to leave and get on with her life. She’s my friend, and she’s asked me to stay and support her.”

“You’d put your plans on hold to help Claire?”

“Of course. Sammie, too. They’re family.”

“I don’t have friends like that,” he said after a minute.

She looked at him finally. “You have Ethan.”

“Doesn’t count. He’s my brother.”

“I disagree. I think it’s wonderful how you’ve helped out on the ranch.”

“I’ve been hiding, Maggie. I ran away from my life and ended up here. There’s nothing altruistic about that.”

She touched his arm. “Sometimes the only thing you can do is stop. It happens to a lot of people. We push and push, but no matter how hard we try, things don’t work out. And you have to stop or you’ll break. You’re too hard on yourself, JD. You’re a good man.”

“But a coward.”

“Really? I can’t imagine you being afraid of anything.”

They had ventured into personal territory, and JD searched for something, anything to shift the conversation. “I’m afraid of spending hours shopping to find what I need for my house,” he tossed out.

Her lips twisted as if acknowledging his dodge. “I’m pretty good at interior decoration,” she said after a minute. “Want some help? I can lend a hand if you want. I’d like to pay you back for letting me stay at the ranch.”

She made it sound as if he’d done her a favor, but they both knew he’d skedaddled the minute she’d shown up.

“Really?” He’d been trying to distract her from their conversation, but man, it would be fantastic to hire someone to furnish his house. Even if it meant torturing himself by seeing her more often. “You’re hired.”

“Sure you can afford me?”

He smiled at her. “We’ll work out something. Ethan said he planned to visit sometime in the next couple of weeks. Can you pull some stuff together before that?”

“You mean like a bed, dishes, towels? Stuff like that?”

He laughed. “Yeah, like that.”

“I guess I could give it a try.”

He turned into the driveway and parked the truck beside the barn, which was lit up like a hotel. “I hope Sodapop’s okay.”

“Me, too. I’ll make some coffee and bring it out. I don’t want to get in the way. JD?”

He walked around the front of the truck and opened her door. “Yeah?”

“You realize we’ll have to see each other more often if I work on your house. I’ll need your opinion on some things.”

As long as she kept her dating schemes to herself, he could handle spending a bit of time together. “We’ll figure it out as we go. See what you can pull together in a week or two, okay?”

His breath caught when she smiled her Maggie smile. God, she was beautiful. “Great. I’m going to the city soon. I’ll need your credit card.”

He pulled out his wallet and handed her one of his cards. Maggie looked delighted with herself, as though she’d pulled off a big heist. Wait till she discovered that, following his accountant’s suggestion, he’d drastically lowered the limit on that particular credit card.

He chuckled as she snatched the plastic out of his hand and jumped out of the truck. He was probably making a mistake spending more time with her, but it didn’t feel like it at the moment. And he’d finally really start moving into his house. Who would have guessed it’d be Maggie who’d give him a helping hand?

Maggie filled two thermoses with fresh coffee, grabbed a handful of mugs and slowly made her way to the barn. She’d changed into jeans and a sweater and exchanged her high heels for Claire’s old canvas sneakers. She wasn’t sure how she felt about watching a horse give birth. A part of her hoped it would be all over before she got there. Sammie, of course, was already helping Dave. Claire, the wise woman, had firmly refused Maggie’s invitation to accompany her to the barn. She’d said that tomorrow would be soon enough to visit the new foal. Maggie thought she might have the right idea, and yet, she was curious enough to at least take some coffee to the four people attending the birth. A glimpse would probably be enough for her. 

The sweet smell of horses and hay greeted her when she entered the well-lit barn. She followed the low murmur of men’s voices to the end of the barn and sidled up between Sammie and JD, who stood outside the stall. Dave and Clay were standing quietly by the stall door, watching Sodapop.

Someone had scattered fresh straw in the stall, and Sodapop lay on the floor, her sides heaving as she breathed heavily.

“I see a foot.” Dave said as he and Clay sank to their haunches to get a better view of the birth.

Maggie shoved the thermoses and mugs onto a nearby shelf and strained on tiptoe to see over the top rail. Sammie climbed to the top to watch.

“Is she okay?” Maggie whispered.

JD glanced at her. “So far.”

“Can the foal breathe in that sac?”

“It’ll rip in a minute or Dave will pull it off.”

Everything went quiet in the barn. Maggie leaned closer to JD, taking comfort in his presence. “She’s not pushing.”

“Yeah. She may just be taking a break.”

Sodapop’s sides heaved. “There’s the second foot. Sideways, thank God. Come on, honey,” Dave coaxed in a soft voice. “Keep pushing.”

Maggie sniffed, tears filling her eyes as the foal’s nose appeared. People and animals gave birth every day, but for her, watching the foal slowly emerge was a miracle she’d never witnessed before. JD put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close to him.

“You’ve never watched a birth before?”

“No. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“For us it is. I’m not sure how Sodapop feels about it.”

Maggie snuggled closer, welcoming his reassuring warmth. “She’s okay, though. Right?”

He hesitated. “I hope. Dave seemed to think she’s too young to give birth. But she looks like she’s handling it okay so far.”

Except Sodapop had stopped pushing again. Everyone held their breaths as they waited for her contractions to start again.

“Dave?” Sammie’s voice wavered.

Dave flashed a smile at Sammie and turned to Clay. “You ready?”

When Clay stood, Maggie noticed he was wearing rubber gloves. He gripped the foal’s front legs through the embryonic sac and tugged gently. The foal slid out another few inches. 

Maggie gripped JD’s arm. “Is it okay to do that? Does it hurt the baby or the mom?”

“It’s better to assist at this point. We need to get the foal out and breathing on its own. Here it comes.”

Sodapop shuddered with a huge contraction, and the foal slid out and onto the floor. Clay peeled the sac away and looked the foal over, his hands gentle. “You’ve got yourself a stallion,” he laughed.

Dave and Clay high-fived each other. Sammie slipped down into the stall and moved over to Dave’s side. Maggie stood transfixed as she watched the baby struggle to kneel up on his front knees. “He’s so beautiful,” she whispered.

JD glanced at her. “He is, isn’t he? What do you think we should name him?”

“Cracker Jack.”

JD laughed. “You’re not serious.”

She grinned back at him. She didn’t know if the elated feeling inside was from JD having his arm around her and their semi-flirtations, or if the birth had stirred her up. She’d been giving a lot of thought to getting pregnant, but not to actually having a baby. She couldn’t wait.

“I was thinking the baby was a surprise, like the prize you get in a box of Cracker Jack. I loved that when I was a kid. But . . . I suppose you want something more traditional,” she added.

“Well, I don’t want Cracker Jack, even if he was a surprise.”

Maggie watched through the railing of the stall as the small foal tried to stand again. Sodapop suddenly pushed herself to her feet and swung her head around as if taking notice of who was present. The foal lurched to his feet and ran headlong into his mother’s side.

“Maverick,” she said.

JD nodded and smiled. “Maverick’s a good name.”

Maggie’s heart turned over as she was drawn into JD’s heated expression. Long, dark lashes surrounded his beautiful blue eyes. She vaguely heard someone call her name, but was so lost in his gaze, she couldn’t pull away.

JD dropped his arm from around her shoulder and stuck his hands in his jeans pockets. “Clay’s talking to you.”

“Clay?”

“Your date.”

She blinked.
Clay
. Of course. She turned and forced a smile. Clay, Dave and Sammie had all slipped out of the stall and were watching the foal and his mother get acquainted.