Chapter 2 Olivia
TWO
OLIVIA
The reservation for Wild Vista Ranch glares at me as I chew my lip.
Two nights in one of their single-room cabins.
A little out of my price range—the whole place is, honestly—but if two nights is all I can afford to track down this Ford Greyson and get our marriage annulled, then that’s all I need.
I know I could just walk in, go to the visitor centre, and ask for him.
Maybe get on my knees and beg him to sign the paperwork.
But there’s a small part of me that thinks he might be my baby’s father, and I need the two days to figure out if he is. I can’t shake how familiar he is now that I’ve seen his face again. Not just from Vegas, but from before.
“Are you sure you can look after him?” I ask, glancing over at my new sort of sister-in-law.
Winnie scoffs, waving a hand. “You know I have a small army of siblings. And those siblings have children. Oh, and I’ve looked after your own niece and nephew more than once now. I’ve got this little guy.”
“The last time I tried leaving him alone, I ended up passing him off to my aunt so we were still in the same house,” I mutter, crossing my arms.
“Yeah, I know,” she says softly. “But you’re in the next town over and it’s two days. You need to focus on finding this guy and getting him to sign the papers. You don’t need to worry about me looking after Christopher. I’ve got him.”
Initially, I’d hated the idea of my sister moving to the middle of nowhere Colorado with her twins.
She, on their behalf, inherited property in the town from a relative of their bio-father, who died after they were born.
And after her disaster of a divorce, she and the kids had needed a fresh start.
Of course, no one could have expected that fresh start included her falling in love with a grumpy mountain man and him changing his entire life for her and the children. Winnie, being his sister, actually kind of pushed them together.
So, it’s not that I don’t trust her. I really do, because she somehow brought my sister to the love of her life, and I know she genuinely cares.
It’s myself I don’t trust.
“What if he doesn’t sign the papers?” I ask quietly, dropping onto the edge of the bed. “What if he tries for a divorce?”
“Half of nothing is nothing,” Winnie says honestly, cocking her hip and putting Chris on it. “And even if he tries, you could go for anything he has. Just because he works on the ranch doesn’t mean he doesn’t have assets elsewhere. He’d have to be careful about that.”
“Right, but I probably look like a total…” I can’t finish the sentence, not with Chris looking at me with his wide, dark blue eyes. He doesn’t get them from me or anyone on my side. They are a distinct and clear inheritance from his father, a man I haven’t been able to find.
Winnie sighs and sits with me, Chris immediately grabbing at my dark brown hair. With a small smile, I pull him onto my lap. “I don’t want this to go any further than it has to,” I whisper. “I need to find Christopher’s dad.”
“You still think this guy might be him?” Winnie asks.
I’d almost forgotten she knew the history of my one-night stand.
Met a guy at one of those tacky western themed bars.
Initially, I stole his cowboy hat—bad, I know—and took it with me to ride the bucking bull.
He’d watched from the sidelines, grinning like a handsome fool, and it had felt like we were the only two in the bar.
Then we spent the night in the bed of his truck under the stars.
It would’ve been romantic if it weren’t for the fact that I returned to my dingy apartment in Albuquerque and found out I was pregnant three months later.
And I never got his name.
It’s still the biggest regret of my life.
I don’t know anything else about him other than the fact that he isn’t from the area and that he had a brother.
Our late-night conversation still had a tinge of alcohol disfiguring the memory, and all I remember now is the shape of his smile and the hint of dimples when he laughed.
Could my Las Vegas husband be him? I’m not sure.
What are the chances?
Sighing, I shake my head. “For now, I’m letting that theory go,” I reply, shoulders slumping. “My priority is the annulment.”
Winnie pats my knee before rising. “Well, you still have a long drive ahead of you,” she says. “Why don’t I make you an iced latte for the road while you say goodbye?”
Tears sting my eyes, throat suddenly tight with emotion. I barely give her a nod as I stare down at Christopher. “I won’t be gone long,” I whisper, running my fingers over his tuft of dark hair. I can’t tell if he gets it from me or his father. My boy is a mix of us both, and when he smiles…
When he smiles, all I see is the cowboy with the dimples.
“Don’t go doing anything while I’m gone,” I add, voice trembling. “No developing, okay?”
Christopher babbles something incoherent, but I’ll take it as confirmation he won’t suddenly start speaking or walking, neither of which are even possible.
He’s only just now sitting up on his own, even making moves to crawl. At seven months, it’s hard to think he’s not still that same newborn I carried out of the hospital on my own, with only my sister beside me.
At first, I hadn’t even been sure if I should keep him or give him to a family who could love and provide for him in the way he deserved. But then I held him, and I listened to him cry. My resolve cracked, but I still had doubts.
Was I ever going to be good enough to be his mom? Could I give him a life that supported him—and myself?
And then there’s the question of his father. What if I gave Christopher up, only for his dad to reappear and want a relationship with our son?
I wouldn’t change it for the world now that I have him. Now that I’ve spent the last seven months being his mom for real, caring for him and protecting him, I can’t see myself doing anything else.
Which means I have to give his father a chance to do the same. And if he doesn’t want this—if he doesn’t want to be a dad to Christopher—then that’s okay, too. At least then I’ll know I tried, and I won’t feel guilty in a few years when my boy asks why he doesn’t have a dad.
My thoughts wander to my sister and her second chance at love, to her twins who now have a father in their life again, and the fact that she’s pregnant with her third.
Shaking my head, I put Christopher on my hip as I leave the bedroom. I don’t need to be putting romantic ideas in my head.
This accidental husband of mine is just that: an accident.
And in a few hours, I might just get exactly what I need.
An annulment, and the knowledge that he isn’t the cowboy from my past.