The True Cowboy of Sunset Ridge (Gold Valley #14)(15)

Sammy positively glowed. “That’s great,” she said. “Because we’re actually expecting another baby.”

It was clear that everybody in the room already knew, except for Colt. He felt a little bit irritated that Sammy or Ryder hadn’t told him.

But maybe... Well, maybe he’d been a little bit more absent than he realized over the last few weeks. Maybe he hadn’t been passing for okay quite to the degree that he thought.

“Congratulations,” Mallory said.

“I had a home birth with Astrid. Do you only use the birthing center or...”

“It’s going to depend on my insurance,” Mallory said. “But ideally I’d like to give the mothers choice between home and the clinic. I want to be able to provide a flexible experience.”

“Well I love that,” Sammy said.

“Yeah, I love it less.” Ryder looked uptight, which really didn’t surprise Colt.

“I was fine last time,” Sammy said, waving a hand.

“There are no guarantees in life,” Ryder said. “But I’m glad that you feel so confident in the whims of fate.”

“I ride the winds of fate like a mother of dragons,” she said, tossing her head back. “Don’t step to me.”

“So,” Ryder said. “You know Sammy now.” He directed that at Mallory.

Mallory laughed. “It’s not unusual for men to be concerned about the process. Particularly men who are more traditional...”

“Who said I was traditional?” Ryder asked.

It was Colt’s cousin Pansy’s turn to chime in. “The everything about you?”

“I’m being maligned,” Ryder said. “Colt, help me out?”

“No, thanks,” Colt responded, doing his best to keep his voice light.

“Wow. The thanks I get for raising you people.”

It was a full house tonight, with Pansy and her husband, West, West’s half brother Emmett, Logan and Rose, Jake and Callie, and Iris and Griffin in addition to Ryder and Sammy, who lived in the farmhouse. There was also baby Astrid, who wasn’t really much of a baby anymore, and was more of a holy terror on two chubby legs.

Rose was also pregnant, due in just a couple of months.

It was like everybody was moving into this phase of life that he just had no desire to get himself involved in. Hell, he didn’t even... It wasn’t about not being ready. It was more like it being his worst nightmare. The idea of being responsible for something so vulnerable as a baby. And a wife that was carrying one. A god-awful prospect all things considered.

Everything he touched turned to poison, and it was best if he never put his hands on anything quite that fragile.

He loved his family. He loved his niece, because the thing was, Astrid might as well be his niece, because Ryder might as well be his brother. He was Uncle Colt, whether that was his actual genetic title or not.

He liked kids well enough; he just didn’t want any of his own. He liked to keep all his relationships light, not too deep. And he was good at it.

At least he had been. Usually with his family he smiled, he played football, he helped barbecue, he played the guitar—a light country tune with easy lyrics that meant less than nothing to him.

Far removed from who he’d been before his parents had died. When he’d been an overthinker who’d found music so personal he’d had trouble sharing his songs. Well once his parents had died, he’d quit playing his own songs. It had solved that problem. Made it all simple.

It was why he liked his sexual relationships easy and free. He liked everything that way.

The thing about one-night stands was you were never supposed to see them again.

And he should know, because he was an expert. He had been for quite some time. It was just how he lived his life. It was what he did. And he never had a particular sort of problem with it. Never felt guilt about it. But then, he had never thought obsessively about any of his one-night stands, over and over again.

Ever.

Until her.

That was the problem.

Mallory haunted him.

She had haunted him since that first time he had seen her in the Golden Valley Saloon all those months ago. And he didn’t know why in hell that was. Unless she was some sort of omen. A ghost of a ship that was yet to come.

Shit, he hadn’t known it was coming until it was too late. And now he was sitting there in his family gathering brooding about the whole damn thing, and babies.

There was just no point to it. Then, he imagined there was no real point to running away from the rodeo and licking his wounds on his brother’s ranch.

What’s the alternative?

All that easy and free had been messed up with Trent’s death, and he was having trouble finding his way back to it.

“What’s the matter with you?” His brother Jake made his way over to him.

“Nothing.”

“Oh, other than the usual?”

“If you’re going to tell me that I should be over my best friend’s death...”

“I’m not,” Jake said. “I think you know that. But if you want to be a jerk about something...”

“I’m not. I’m standing here drinking a beer.”

“You’re antisocial. Pick up your guitar. Play.”

“Why don’t I stand in the center of the room and do a line dance. Maybe ‘Achy Breaky Heart’? Would that help you out, Jake? I wasn’t a rodeo clown, you know. It’s not my job to make people laugh.”