Free Baby My Baby (A Ranching Family) by Victoria Pade Page A

furniture and set up a nursery and take her baby away!
    But of course the rational part of her knew he could. That he would. That being the father would not be limited to visits.
    “Are you all right?” he asked with an edge of panic to his voice.
    “I’m going home” was all she could say, heading off around him with no idea of how she was going to get there.
    But for the second time Ash stopped her, taking both her shoulders in his big hands and bringing her face-to-face with him. “Are you sick? Do you need a doctor?”
    “No!” she yelled, trying to yank free of his grip, but he was holding her too tight to manage it. “I just want to go home.”
    The concern in his features edged toward confusion, but she had no intention of enlightening him. What could she say, after all? That she was feeling selfish and possessive and couldn’t bear the fact that this baby she was carrying might say its first word or take its first step during his time with it instead of hers? That the reality of sharing this child had just struck her like a ton of bricks?
    “I just want to go home,” she repeated.
    “Then let’s go,” Ash answered, turning her in the direction of his car.
    Neither of them said any more as they drove back to the ranch. Beth was lost in her own thoughts, her own regrets that this baby would be brought into such a complicated situation. By the time Ash pulled up in front of the house she wanted only to go in and be alone.
    But he wasn’t having any of that. He insisted that he wasn’t leaving until he’d made sure she had a well-balanced meal and really was okay.
    And so they fixed dinner together. Ash barbecued two steaks while Beth prepared a salad, a fruit cup and sliced bread, all in silence, punctuated with loud closings of cupboard doors and the clattering of dishes, glasses and silverware placed heavily on the kitchen table.
    She could feel Ash watching her as if he thought she’d lost her mind and might run screaming into the night at any moment, but it didn’t matter. She almost felt as if she could run screaming into the night at any moment.
    “Are you going to let me know what I did wrong?” he finally asked as they began to eat.
    “You didn’t do anything wrong,” she said, her tone belying the words.
    “You always have a violent reaction to the suggestion of buying baby furniture, is that it? Is something wrong that you aren’t telling me?”
    “Everything is fine. Just drop it.”
    Still, his black eyes bored into her while he chewed a bite of steak. “Do you want this baby, Beth?”
    Her own fork stopped halfway to her mouth as she stared back at him. “Of course I want this baby. Not having one of our own was your plan, not mine.”
    Both his bushy eyebrows rose at that. “You never disagreed with it. If you wanted to have a baby, why didn’t you say so?”
    “I didn’t really think you’d ever find a big enough break in your schedule to work it in either way.”
    “But what if I had? Would you have just gone along with the adoption idea and resented it rather than speak up and tell me how you felt?”
    “I didn’t say I resented anything.”
    “You didn’t say a damn thing.”
    She merely went on eating without saying anything now, either.
    He frowned at her. “Did you get pregnant on purpose?”
    “No, I didn’t. I wouldn’t do something like that, in the first place. And in the second place, why on earth would I have willingly gotten myself into what’s a long, long way from being ideal circumstances to bring a child into?”
    “But you do want it now that it’s on the way?”
    “I said I did.”
    “You just don’t want to buy a crib for it.”
    He wasn’t going to get her to admit to what had hurt her in that maternity shop. To let him know that the idea of his taking the baby to the reservation was a weakness she had, a vulnerable spot. No way. Never. Shag Heller’s daughter knew better than that.
    “It’s just too soon,” she repeated.
    He went