Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
Emma
“ E verything looks great,” Dr. Jordan said to me, a smile on her face. “Welcome to the second trimester.”
“Thank you,” I muttered, trying not to think about what it meant when it came to Mason.
“I can see you’re starting to show,” Dr. Jordan continued, her eyes jumping to Lily and then back to me. “It’ll only get more pronounced as you go. This is your first, so it takes a while.”
I forced a nod and a smile, worry rattling my chest as we finished up the appointment and bid the doctor goodbye. I had traveled all the way to Austin for the appointment, and convinced Lily to come with me. I didn’t want to risk anyone finding out about the pregnancy…
Not yet.
“You know, you’re going to have to tell him, Emma,” Lily said in a low voice as we made our way out of the hospital. “ And once you do, we don’t have to drive so dang far for an appointment.”
I pursed my lips, knowing she was right. “I know.”
“Okay, but you’re in the second trimester, and you’re literally just a couple months away from finding out the gender… I bet Mason would love to be a part of it.”
“I have no idea what we are,” I throw out at her while my mind raced back to the night he kissed me on my front porch. Nothing more had really materialized, other than him visiting the café to eat breakfast most mornings. Of course, I knew more cattle were missing from other ranches, and I had seen on Facebook that he was spending more time with Jess.
“Well, the gala is this weekend, so you’ll be going to that with him—as a couple.”
“A fake couple,” I corrected her, thinking back to the conversation with Lucas. “You heard him say it.”
“Yeah, but I also don’t think fake couples kiss goodnight. He’s been to the café every morning, Jess. The food is amazing, yeah, but he comes in to see you. I think they’re just really busy with the investigation and Dara said he’s been at the ranch with Jess a lot.”
“Probably because Cody picked up a job there,” I muttered, stepping off the sidewalk and heading toward Lily’s car. The sun was baking the streets today, and as much as I loved Austin, I didn’t love the traffic or the noise. Small-town life had grown on me… And honestly, I was starting to think I preferred it.
“Maybe. I don’t know what’s going on with that mess. Every time I ask Dara about it, she just shuts down.”
I shrugged, thinking back to the private conversation between Jess and I that night of the party. I had sworn to her that I wouldn’t talk about her strong feelings for the kid— she thought she was in love and I wasn’t going to tell her otherwise. “I think Jess is just in that teenage relationship phase… I just don’t know why the two of them aren’t, um, what do they call it these days? Official? ”
“You think that’s because of Mason?” Lily asked me as she slid into the driver’s seat. “I feel like maybe Jess holds back because of who Cody is and the bad blood running between them all. I can’t blame her for that.”
“You say that, but Cody’s working at the ranch,” I pointed out, confused by it all myself—but maybe that was why Mason was hanging out at the ranch all the time.
“Yeah, I think it’s fishy,” my best friend said, her nose crinkling up. “I don’t think that’s some coincidence. I think Graham is up to something. I mean, honestly, I get the kid is trying to be a cowboy, but I don’t know… There’s plenty of ranches around here.”
I nodded in agreement. “And if Lucas is in a bad financial spot, why would he be hiring more hands?”
“See, you get what I’m saying! I think there’s more to it. I just don’t know what it would be—maybe inside information about the ranch so he can buy it?”
“You don’t think he’s behind the missing cattle, do you?”
Lily shrugged. “I don’t know. Part of me thinks he could be, but stealing cattle has always kind of been a thing around here. It was real bad back when I was a little kid. The Lowe Ranch lost almost two hundred head—and never found them or who took them.”
“That’s just so crazy,” I commented, trying to wrap my head around a theft that big. I didn’t have a clue about ranching, but I did know how big a cow was… And that just didn’t seem like an easy animal to steal.
People have their ways though.
“Anyway,” Lily cleared her throat as she pulled out onto the onramp for the highway. “We need to talk about the fact that you’re starting to show—and Mason still doesn’t know.”
I glanced down at my stomach, which was now pooching out just enough that I noticed it. “I don’t know. I work at a bakery; it could easily be played off that I ate too much of my own food.”
Lily rolled her eyes and laughed. “Oh, come on, Emma. I get what you’re saying but the only weight you’ve gained is right there .” She pointed to my belly. “You’re not going to be able to play that off forever.”
“No, and I don’t intend to,” I reasoned. “I intend to tell Mason… He’s just… Really busy or something.”
“Or you just don’t want to tell him,” Lily muttered, her disapproval apparent in her voice. “And that’s not fair to him or you. He needs time to prepare for it just as much as you do—and let’s not forget about Jess.”
I cringed at the thought. “She might hate me for it.”
“She’s not going to hate you,” Lily reasoned. “It means gaining a sibling for her. It might take her some time to come around, but I know she will come around. Ever since you picked her up at the party, she’s talked nonstop about you to Dara. She thinks you’re great, and I think you should nurture that relationship with her.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I just don’t want to overstep any of Mason’s boundaries. He hasn’t invited me over in some time, and I don’t think me skipping him to get to his daughter is a good idea.”
“I seriously think you’re overthinking way too much. You know what I think?” Lily cocked her head at me, catching my gaze for a second before going back to the road.
“And what’s that?”
“I think that he likes you. I think he really likes you, but I think he’s obsessed with helping Lucas and I think he’s worried like hell about his daughter and her new boyfriend—her first boyfriend, I might add. I think he’s just got a lot on his plate… And Mason is not exactly the most forthcoming kind of guy.”
“Um, he was very forthcoming about the gala being fake. ”
“Meh,” Lily shook her head. “I think he was just trying to cover his ass, so that Lucas wouldn’t pry into his personal business.”
“Right,” I grumbled, leaning back against the seat and casting my gaze out the window. I wanted to believe her—and yeah, it was nice seeing Mason every morning at the café, but it wasn’t like it was quality one on one time. He hadn’t asked me on a date. We simply had a fifteen-minute conversation in the morning while he ate a bagel.
That was it.
And while that might constitute casual friendship, that was a far cry from dating.
“I think you should talk to him about your relationship,” Lily said after we rode for a while in silence. “I think you should ask what direction he wants to take it. You’ve known him long enough that I think it’s fair.”
She wasn’t wrong.
“Yeah, maybe I should talk to him about it after the gala?” I suggested, looking to her for advice. She had been in a relationship with Drew for as long as I had known her, and while they’d had plenty of rough spells, they always came through it. That counted for something.
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s a bad idea,” Lily agreed. “Maybe once you get past that this weekend, you can get a solid answer from him—and speaking of the gala, we have to find a dress for you to wear.”
“And one that will conceal this.” I rested my hand on my stomach. “I don’t want Mason to put it together before I have had a chance to tell him. That would be a nightmare.”
“Well, maybe during the same conversation about where things are going, you can end with that.”
“Information overload,” I said with a sigh, already dreading all of the conversation.
“Nah, you deserve to know where he’s at in the relationship as much as he deserves to know that he’s going to have a baby. It works both ways, and if he’s not serious about you, then move on. You deserve someone who loves you the way you want them to.”
“Or just loves me at all,” I pointed out, giving her a laugh devoid of humor. “It never seems to work out for me.”
“That’s only because it wasn’t the right one.”
“That’s probably true,” I agreed, though I had to admit I was skeptical of the whole soulmate thing. Love was a choice, rather than a feeling, and I had heard plenty of people say that…
And I wanted someone to choose me.
We rode in the car in silence the rest of the way, while my head spun, thinking about what I needed to get started on for the nursery. Though, I was waiting to know the gender before I really got into the nursery décor…
Oh, and I still needed to tell my mom.
Ugh.
I dug my phone out of my purse, opening it up to see a few missed messages. Surprisingly, one of them was from Mason. I opened it first, figuring I would get to the ones from my mom later.
Wanna come over tonight for dinner around 7? Jess will be there, too.
“What is it?” Lily asked, giving me a curious look.
“He asked me to come over for dinner this evening,” I said, quickly typing back a text to accept the invitation. My heart fluttered in my chest… Maybe he had just been busy with everything.
“See,” she nudged me over the console. “Don’t give up yet. It could work out.”
I nodded, the excitement draining as I read the texts from my mom. Ugh. She was frustrated that I hadn’t taken the time to call her in a while and accused me of dodging her.
“I have to tell my mom,” I muttered, letting out a sigh. “She just keeps hounding me about avoiding her—but I’ve been avoiding her because I don’t wanna tell her about it until I know where everything is with Mason.”
“While I don’t blame you, you’re still going to have to stop dodging her. You know as well as I do, that if you avoid her any longer, she’s going to just show up at the café one morning—and I know you don’t want her to do that.”
Oof.
“That would be the worst, and I know she would be able to tell just by looking at me. She has that sixth sense about things like that. She knew my sister was getting married long before she had come out and told her.”
“Exactly,” Lily shuddered. “She’s basically a psychic or something. You probably should call your mom and tell her.”
I took a deep breath and- exhaled sharply. “Yeah. I guess I’ll call her before dinner.”