His Secret Older Woman Is Pregnant

Chapter 005 Levi

The Texas heat was already bearing down, baking the dust into a fine powder that coated everything, but the boys were too busy standing around looking important to notice. All the ranch hands, plus Billy and Nash, were huddled up near the barn like they were drafting a war treaty. They didn’t even glance my way until I’d already unloaded Billy’s supplies and was wrestling the massive, flat box out of the extended cab of my truck.

It was awkward as hell to carry—wide and thin, wrapped in brown paper with the store’s logo stamped in fancy black cursive across the front. I tried to look casual, like I hauled around fine art every Tuesday, but the wind caught the edge of the package and nearly spun me around.

"A gift for your beloved?" Nash called out, finally noticing me. His grin was sharp, the kind that meant he smelled blood in the water.

"No," I said, gripping the cardboard tighter. "For the resort."

Billy turned, tipping his hat back. "For the resort? What is that, a picture?"

I felt the defensive heat climb up my neck. "No, it’s a wheelbarrow."

"Since when are you into shit like that?" Nash asked, stepping closer. He eyed the packaging like it might explode.

"Normally I’m not. But this is extraordinary."

Billy walked over, wiping his hands on his jeans. He studied the label. "Where did you get it?"

"That photography store in town."

"The one next to Buddy’s place?" Nash asked.

I cleared my throat, shifting the weight of the frame. "That’s the one."

"What made you stop there?" Billy asked, brow furrowed. "I sent you to the hardware store. That’s way on the other side of the square."

"I saw Buddy at the marina last night," I lied smoothly, though the lie tasted like chalk. "He told me to stop by and check the place out, so I did. I don’t regret it."

I went to adjust my grip, and that’s when the receipt, which I’d tucked lazily into the corner of the packaging, fluttered loose. It drifted toward the dirt like a dead leaf. Nash was too quick. He snatched it out of the air before I could even make a move.

He scanned it, and his eyes practically bulged out of his head. "Jesus Christ, Levi." He looked at me, then back at the slip of paper. "When the fuck did you come up with this kind of money? What, did you rob a bank while you were out running errands?"

I snatched the receipt back, my jaw locking tight enough to crack a tooth. "Just like you, I’ve got money tucked away, Nash. Remember that I’m in school, and I paid for every dime of that on my own."

"Which is exactly why you shouldn’t have two grand in cold hard cash just sitting in the bank," Nash shot back, his voice rising. "What’s going on with you?"

"Not that it’s any of your business," I snapped, "but I do happen to have money, and what I do with it is up to me."

Billy stepped in, his voice dropping to that calm, reasoning tone he used on skittish horses. "It’s none of my business either, Levi. But why on earth would you spend that kind of money on a picture?"

"Well, isn’t it beautiful?" I challenged, gesturing to the wrapped box.

"Sure, I bet it is. But that’s a king’s ransom for a kid paying his own way through architecture school," Billy pointed out gently. "Surely you can find plenty of other things to put that toward. Tuition isn't getting any cheaper."

I looked at them both like they’d sprouted second heads. They still saw me as the little brother, the one scraping by, the one who needed looking after. They didn't know the half of it.

"For your information," I said, keeping my voice low and hard, "I happen to have enough money saved up to buy a fucking house if I wanted to. I haven’t spent a dime, other than to pay for Daddy’s messes, since I started working." I pointed a finger at Nash. "And you know as well as I do that we’ve both been working since we could fucking crawl on account of Mama and Daddy being so goddamn irresponsible. I figured it was high time I spent money on something I wanted. And goddammit, I wanted this picture."

Silence stretched out between us, heavy and uncomfortable. Nash stood there, blinking, looking at the blank cardboard. Then a slow, knowing smirk spread across his face.

"Wait a minute," Nash said. "That’s the store where that pretty blonde works, isn’t it?"

I shot a look at Billy. The older man was biting the inside of his cheek, fighting a smile.

"So what if it is?" I argued, though it came out weaker than I intended.

Nash laughed, a short bark of sound. "I’m sure it wasn’t Buddy’s good looks and puppy dog eyes that compelled you to buy a picture of a bunch of fucking trees for two grand."

"She didn’t give me puppy dog eyes, for your information," I said, realizing too late that I sounded like a schoolboy defending his crush. "I actually saw her taking this photograph. In the woods here."

"Here?" Billy pointed at the ground. "Like, on the Barnes ranch?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I, um, found her as she was taking it. Scared the living daylights out of her. But if you look at this picture... I don't know. It's perfect. I just had to have it."

"Well, you’re smart to keep it here," Nash said, his eyes dancing with mischief. "Because if Shelly gets wind of this, especially when y’all have a baby on the way, she’ll tear you to shreds."

"You can say that again," Billy muttered.

"You two aren’t going to say anything, are you?" I asked, panic flaring in my chest.

"What, that y’all have a crush on a pretty blonde photographer, or that y’all spent two thousand dollars on a life-size picture of trees?" Nash choked out, barely holding back his laughter.

Billy’s chest was vibrating with suppressed mirth. I wanted to punch him. In fact, I wanted to punch both of them. I considered grabbing the damn picture and hiding it in my room at home, risks be damned.

"Look, I don’t have a crush on her," I lied. "I swear."

"Sure, Levi," Nash said, entirely unconvinced. "Because you just go around buying high-end art all the time, man."

Billy took mercy on me, stepping between us. "Levi, we’re not judging you. Hey, it’s a nice picture, and if you want to, y’all can hang it in the resort house all you like. Nobody’s going to say a word. But be careful, my boy. That girlfriend of yours has a silver tongue, and if she finds out about this, your brother’s right. She’s going to eat you for lunch. Any woman would. You think about it, okay? She’s pregnant with your child—"

"Presumably," Nash interjected dryly.

Billy shot him a look before turning back to me. "Whether or not she’s expecting, Levi, a woman would want you to spend that sort of money on her, not on an extravagance like that. Especially now."

He had a point. A solid, logical point that made my stomach churn.

"Fine," I said, hoisting the box again. "But I don’t have a crush on her."

"Whatever you say, Levi," Nash chuckled, turning back to the barn. "Just make sure Shelly doesn’t find out about it if you like your balls where they are."

The fluorescent lights of the college hallway hummed with a headache-inducing buzz. I leaned against the wall, checking my phone, dreading the conversation I knew was coming. When I saw Shelly walking down the corridor, hugging her laptop to her chest like a shield, I felt a wave of something that wasn't love. It was shame.

"Shelly, hey," I said, pushing off the wall.

"Levi," she said. Her voice had an edge to it, sharp enough to cut glass. "I’m late for class."

"Listen, I’m sorry about leaving the other night without saying anything."

She didn't stop walking, so I fell in step beside her. There was a bank of chairs attached to tables, restaurant-style, off to the side of the main thoroughfare. I gestured toward them. "Have you got, like, two minutes to talk?"

She sighed, a heavy, dramatic exhale. "Fine. My professor is always two minutes late anyway. It’s not like I’ll be missed."

I slid a swivel chair around to face her. "I’m sorry," I repeated. "I was just... caught off guard when you announced the news in front of my brother and his fiance." I didn't take the bite out of my tone. It had been a low blow, dropping a bomb like that in front of an audience.

"Well, it just came out, Levi," she said, examining her fingernails. "It’s the hormones."

"I get that now. But I had to do some damage control. I’m practically a laughingstock. My brother and Billy don’t even believe you’re pregnant."

I watched her face closely, searching for a flinch, a tell, anything. Part of me—the dark, selfish part—wanted desperately to believe she was lying. But believing she was a liar meant admitting my first real girlfriend was manipulating me, which was a different kind of failure.

She kept staring at her fingertips. "Levi, this isn’t easy for me either. I mean, I never expected this to happen. I’m in school. Having a baby is the last thing I want to do."

The opening was there. I took it.

"So, don’t do it, Shelly," I said, my voice dropping to a whisper. "We don’t have to have this kid if it means fucking up both of our lives."

She sat there in silence, her expression unreadable. Not a yes, not a no. Just a void.

"Hey, Levi!"

The shout came from above. I looked up toward the mezzanine railing and spotted Dave, a buddy from my architecture studio. "I tried calling you, man!" he yelled down.

I instinctively reached into my pocket to pull out my phone to show him it was dead. As I did, a crumpled piece of paper came with it—the receipt from the antique store. It fluttered to the floor, landing closer to Shelly’s sneaker than mine.

"Shit," I muttered.

Shelly was faster. She snatched it up before I could bend down. Her eyes scanned the total, and her eyebrows shot up.

"My phone's dead!" I shouted back up to Dave, trying to distract from the disaster unfolding at knee-level. "I’ll see you in class!"

Dave nodded and disappeared. I turned back to Shelly, holding out my hand. She handed the receipt back slowly, her eyes cold.

"I bought it for the ranch," I said quickly.

"Using Billy’s money?" she asked.

"Well, no," I confessed, stuffing the damning paper deep into my pocket. "I bought it for myself. But it’s staying at the ranch."

She blinked. She didn't scream, didn't yell. She just looked at me with a flat, evaluating stare that was somehow worse.

"Shelly, look," I said, leaning in. "You’ve got nothing to worry about as far as money is concerned, okay? If we decide to have this baby, we will manage. I can take care of us."

"Fine," she said, standing up abruptly. "I really need to get to class. And so do you."

"Yeah. I’ll see you later."

I leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her head, already walking away. I watched her go, a knot of frustration tightening in my gut. I still didn't know how to read her. There was so much she kept locked away.

Instead of heading to my own class, I found myself following her from a distance. I realized with a jolt that I didn't even know what building she was heading to. I’d never asked.

I trailed her through the atrium and down the west hall. About three minutes later, she turned into the business wing. I stopped dead in the middle of the hallway, feeling like an absolute idiot. All this time, she was taking a Business Administration program?

I stood there as students flowed around me like a river around a stone. We talked about people, about drama, about the baby... but I’d never asked her what she was studying. I’d never seen a textbook because everything was digital now. It was a small thing, but it felt like a crack in the foundation of a house I wasn't even sure I wanted to build.

By the time I drove back into town, the sun was dipping low, casting long shadows across the square. I told myself I was just killing time before heading back to the ranch, but my truck seemed to steer itself toward the antique store.

The lights were off in the main showroom, the "Closed" sign hanging crookedly in the window. But through the glass, I could see movement in the back—Lennie. She was bent over something, her hair falling across her face.

I raised my hand to tap on the glass, then stopped. My knuckles hovered an inch from the pane. She wouldn't hear it. I felt a pang of stupidity. The only way to get her attention was to open the door and trigger that red strobe light, but the door was locked.

"Levi?"

I turned. Buddy was standing in the doorway of his hardware store next door, wiping his hands on a rag. "Nice to see you. Twice in one week, eh? That’s a record."

"Sure is," I said, walking over. "I was just coming back from class. Wanted to stop in and say hello."

He lifted a bushy eyebrow. "To me, or to Lennie?"

"Both of you," I said, the lie coming easier this time.

"Y’all want more of that coffee?"

"No, I’m good. Shoot, as it is, I’ll be up for hours."

Buddy leaned against the doorframe, his expression turning serious. "Heard your daddy’s up for bail."

My stomach dropped. "Yeah? I hadn’t heard. I suppose Nash knows, but he probably didn’t want to talk to me until after I was home."

"I’ll let him tell you the rest, but as far as I know, the judge granted him bail today."

I looked at the older man. "Go on and tell me what you know, Buddy. I don’t mind. I’m sure Nash won’t mind saving his breath on the subject."

Buddy nodded and motioned for me to follow him inside. We walked to the back of his store, past rows of screws and tools, to a cluttered desk. He grabbed a box cutter and sliced open a carton of hinges.

"Word is that your brother’s girl got him off easy," Buddy said, not looking at me. "That she dropped the charges."

"Then why does he need bail?"

"I heard it was a condition of Braylynn’s to play it up, even though the charges were dropped. Give your daddy a few turds in his shorts, if you know what I mean." Buddy chuckled nervously. "Of course, if that were me, I’d have made him think she died. A man like that needs more than just a little scare. I’m hoping Brady down at the bar won’t let him inside the doors anymore."

"I don’t think that’ll matter, Buddy. Daddy’ll just find somewhere else to drink."

"Not in this town, he won’t. And I think Braylynn also made the sheriff pull his license. Even though he wasn’t drinking and driving this time."

"That’s smart," I admitted. "He’s lucky he hasn’t killed anyone yet."

"Anyway," Buddy said, shelving the hinges. "Once he’s done in rehab, he’ll be coming home. Are y’all ready for that?"

"I don’t need to be. I’m never there," I said firmly. "If I’m not at the ranch, I’m at Shelly’s."

"Shelly? Who’s that?"

"My girlfriend. She doesn’t live here. And I’ll thank you for keeping that to yourself."

"Which part? That you got a girl, or that she don't live here?"

"Both, if it’s all the same to you."

He nodded once, sealing the deal. "Fine by me. So, what can I do for you tonight, Levi?"

"Nothing much."

"Just looking for some company?"

"Sort of."

He studied my face for a moment, his eyes shrewd. "Y’all want me to give Lennie a heads up that you came to pay her a visit?"

"Sure," I said, exhaling. "If it’s not too much trouble."

He winked. "Not at all. Come on."

I followed him through the connecting door he had the key to. As he unlocked it, he reached in and flipped a switch. A red light pulsed in the back of the shop, bouncing off the antique mirrors and glass cabinets.

Lennie lifted her head from the computer she was working on. When she saw me, her face transformed. It wasn't the guarded, sharp look Shelly gave me. It was open. Warm.

"Hi, Lennie," Buddy called out, waving a hand to catch her eye. "Levi here wanted to pay you a visit."

Lennie looked luminous. Her blonde hair was blown out, caught up on one side with a silver clip. She wasn't wearing a stitch of makeup, but her lips were pink as punch.

"Levi," she said, her voice soft. A flicker of worry crossed her face. "Is there a problem with the picture?"

I held up a hand. "No, not at all. Nothing like that." I scrambled for a reason to be there. "I, um, I just wanted to find out when y’all wanted to come by for them riding lessons. And I don’t have your number."

"Oh." She smiled, and the tension in my chest unspooled. "The address and number are stamped on the receipt, Levi. And it’s also on the box. You didn’t have to make a trip all the way here for that."

"It’s okay," I said, feeling heat rise in my cheeks. "I was just in the area anyway."

Buddy cleared his throat loudly. "I’ve got to get back and finish up for the day. Levi, you call me if you need anything. And I’ll keep mum on that talk about your daddy."

"Thanks, Buddy."

When the door clicked shut behind him, the silence in the shop felt intimate, heavy with the smell of old paper and lemon polish.

"Sorry if I’m intruding," I said, making sure she could see my lips. "I won’t take up much of your time."

"That’s okay. I was just finishing up. I don’t have much inventory work today, just planning my next project. I’m going out late tonight anyway. It’s a full moon."

"Yeah?" I leaned against the counter. "You want to get a shot of the moon?"

"Not exactly. There’s a small brook I want to photograph while the moon is reflecting on it. I found it after the last full moon and I wanted to grab the opportunity. It’s a clear night."

"Sounds interesting."

"Do you want to come along?" She asked it simply, her eyebrows raised. There was no obligation in her face, no social maneuvering. Just an invitation.

"Sure." I frowned. "When do you want to leave?"

"Any time. I just need about five minutes to finish with this." She gestured to the laptop sitting on an antique oak desk.

"Let me guess. Buddy?" I tipped my head toward the furniture.

"Of course. I found this desk and I couldn't resist. It’s beautiful."

The way she said the word—beautiful—made the hair on my arms stand up. I wanted to say just like you, but I swallowed the words. What the hell was wrong with me? I was with Shelly. I had a baby—maybe—on the way. I shouldn't be here, basking in the glow of this woman who made the air feel lighter just by breathing it. But I couldn't make my feet move toward the door. Being around her felt like good karma.

"Can I give you a hand with anything?" I asked instead.

"Um," she looked around. "Do you want to take my car or your truck?"

"We can take my truck. I’ve got a few chairs in the back if y’all want to sit while we wait for the moon."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. Do you want me to take your camera equipment out?"

"As long as you think it’ll be safe out there."

"I’ll keep watch. I promise."

Ten minutes later, we were in the cab of my truck, the engine humming beneath us. My stomach was doing flips I hadn't felt since junior high.

"Tell me where y’all want to go," I said.

"Promise you won’t get mad?" She looked at me with a sheepish expression that melted my defenses.

"I promise. Is it at the ranch?"

She smiled. "It is. That little brook that lines the grass by the pasture."

"Oh, yeah. I know the one."

"Perfect. Now, I’m not sure if the shot is going to look too much like a postcard, but it’s worth a try."

"I’m sure anything you put a spin on will be beautiful," I said. "I’ve seen your work. I’ve bought your work. I own your work."

She chuckled softly. "Yes. Thanks to you and that lovely woman looking for a birthday present, I made more money yesterday than I have all month."

"I’m glad to have helped."

"Did you decide where you’re going to hang the picture?"

I thought about my daddy, coming home from rehab in a couple of months. Bitter, angry, looking for things to break.

"I’m hanging it at the ranch," I said.

"Good. I’m glad."

We drove out to the Barnes ranch under a sky that was turning a deep, bruised purple. I pulled the truck up close to the resort house, killing the lights so we wouldn't draw attention.

"Do you want to ride a horse or walk there?" I asked.

Her face lit up like a kid on Christmas. "Are you serious? We can ride there?"

"Well, I do work here, Lennie. And I ride the horses all the time, darlin'."

"But can we do it with the camera equipment?"

"I can use the saddle with compartments."

We got out, the night air cooling the sweat on my back. I grabbed her gear, handling the heavy bag like it was glass. As we rounded the corner of the barn, movement caught my eye.

Liz and Wyatt were walking out of the main barn doors. I opened my mouth to shout a hello—I hadn't seen them since the wedding—but something about their posture stopped me. They were walking close, heads bent together, an intimacy in their silence that felt like a "Do Not Disturb" sign.

"Um, just hang back here for a second, Lennie," I whispered. I knew the volume didn't matter to her, but the instinct to be quiet was overwhelming.

She turned to me, her eyes locking onto my lips, reading the words. It gave me shivers, the way she focused on my mouth. It was almost sexual, that intensity. Like I was the only thing in the world that mattered.

Lennie turned back to the couple. She watched them for a moment, her body going still. Liz said something to Wyatt, her face turned partially toward us, illuminated by the barn's security light.

Lennie spun back to me, biting her lip. "I think we should give them some privacy."

"Why? What’s up?" I was about to ask if she’d heard something, then remembered. She hadn't heard a thing. She’d seen it.

"She just told him," Lennie whispered, her eyes wide, "that she thinks she might be pregnant."