together, but I will never feel for you, what I feel for him.”
We rode the rest of the way home in silence. Every once in awhile I would glance over at Cade, but he never took his eyes off the road. He had this look on his face. I had only seen it a couple of times before. He was fiercely determined. That look scared the hell out of me. He wasn’t going to go anywhere until we knew who the father was. Oh my god! How was I going to tell my parents I was pregnant? Oh, and I would have to tell them I wasn’t sure who the father was. Wow, who’d have thought my life would come to this?
I broke the silence when we started down the drive to my house. “Cade, I don’t want to tell anyone about the baby yet.”
He didn’t even look at me. “I’ll do whatever you want, hon. You just tell me, and it’s done. You don’t want anybody to know. I won’t tell a soul. But I’m not leaving here until I know if that baby is mine.” He finally looked up at me, with his green eyes burning. “And if that baby in your belly is mine, you will be mine too. That’s a guarantee.” He finally looked away from me when my dad opened my door.
“Darlin’, we were so worried about you. We took good care of the kids, while Cade took you to the hospital. Thanks again for that, Cade. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate ya takin’ care of my baby.”
Cade tipped his hat at my dad. “The pleasure was all mine, Mr. Harper, I assure you.” He glanced over at me. “Looks like ya’ll could use a couple of extra hands with the new cattle comin’ in and all. Why don’t Clay and I stay here with ya for a bit? Mr. Davidson will be here tomorrow with the cattle from the sale. Since it’s doin’ poorly, probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, to keep ‘em all together for a while. Then we can cull the herd and go our separate ways in a few weeks probably.”
My dad looked at me, waiting for me to respond to Cade. “Uh, I guess that’d be okay. You can stay in the old cabin as long as ya need to. But we don’t want to keep you from anything at your ranch. If you need to get back, everything here will be just fine.”
Cade was getting mad. He was glaring at me. “No, hon, right here is where I need to be. I’ll send Clay to the ranch to pick up some stuff for us and we’ll see ya’ll tomorrow. Mr. Davidson is plannin’ on gettin’ here around lunchtime right?”
I nodded and my dad helped me down out of the truck. He tipped his hat at Cade. Cade drove away toward the cabin.
We went into the house and my mom came running over toward me. “Loralei Harper, this is what you get for not listening to your mother. I told you, you need to eat healthier. You don’t eat right, sweetie. It’s not good for you. And you aren’t setting a good example for the kids.”
I really couldn’t handle this right now. “So, mom, if you’re done yelling at me about my eating habits, could you maybe tell me where my kids are?”
My mom glared at me. “You know you’re never too old to bend over my knee ma’am.”
Seriously, she was going to do this now?
“Mom, I am suffering from a head injury, I cannot handle this right now. Where are my babies?”
My mom pointed toward the back hall that led to the kid’s playroom. I walked in and Mags had Sammy pinned to the floor in a chokehold. God, I loved that girl. “Whatcha doin’ there Mags?”
She looked at me with that sweet, innocent expression on her face. The one she always got when she was doing something to Sammy that she shouldn’t be doing. “Mom, I’m trying to teach your son a lesson. He keeps telling me that girls aren’t as tough as boys. But look, Mommy, he can’t get up. So, who’s stronger now, Sammy? Huh, huh? Is it you?”
Sammy grunted, “No.”
Mags won. She was thrilled. “See, was that so hard? You shoulda just agreed with me. Boys are not stronger than girls.”
Sammy ran over to me and threw his little arms around my waist. He gave me the biggest hug and looked up