Free Only You by Kate Kelly

JD, and now that she had him, she felt like she had a tiger by the tail. He was all man, and right now he was doing his silent, brooding thing. The man was a definite mood killer.
    A happy, local gal, Ellie was the steady kind of woman JD needed in his life. Someone at home on a ranch. Lord knew Maggie had never belonged anywhere. She’d given up trying years ago. Marrying Dominic had been a last-ditch effort, and look what a miserable failure she’d made of that.
    “Ellie. JD.” Clay nodded to both of them.
    “Which movie are you going to?” Ellie asked.
    “The African one,” Clay said.
    “So are we!”
    Maggie winced at Ellie’s enthusiastic tone. As though there were more than two movies to choose from. As she braced herself for what she knew was coming next, Maggie kissed her mildly entertaining evening good-bye.
    “We might as well sit together.” Ellie smiled so hard that Maggie wondered if her cheeks would crack.
    God, she hated being a bitch.
    She needed to change tactics. No more cowboys. When she went to the city with the girls for their weekend away, she’d take a good look around. It couldn’t be all that hard to find a healthy, willing man to father her child.
    “I’ll take the aisle seat,” Maggie said as all four stopped at an empty row of seats. She suspected Ellie was the kind of person who chatted during a movie, and she was damned if she would sit beside JD and have him cast his gloomy outlook over her evening.
    “No.” Sweet little Ellie got a stubborn look on her face. “I need the outside seat. I, uh, I get nervous in crowds.”
    Maggie raised her eyebrows as she looked around the half-empty theater. Realizing Clay had already started into the row, she followed without comment. Sitting beside JD in the dark was exactly what she’d been hoping to avoid. She eyed the row behind them and even leaned toward it, until JD yanked on her jacket sleeve and pulled her back.
    “Sit down and behave,” he growled in her ear.
    She slumped into her seat, made a big production of getting comfortable and leaned as far away from JD as she could get. Which brought her right up against Clay. He smiled and slid his arm along the back of her seat.
    “Comfortable?” he asked.
    She made herself smile back. It wasn’t Clay’s fault he wasn’t JD. “I’m fine. Thanks.”
    She was painfully aware of JD and Ellie chatting easily beside her. Ellie had picked up JD’s big hand and was playing with his fingers.
    “What else do you do for fun around here?”
    “Hmmm?” Clay jerked his attention away from JD and Ellie.
    “Fun. What do you do for fun?” He had a crush on Ellie? Really? He kept glancing toward the other woman as if he couldn’t help himself. Why had Clay bothered to ask her out? Maggie sighed. She might as well quit while she was ahead and go home now.
    “I have a ranch, as well as my practice,” Clay said. “I don’t really have much time for fun.”
    Ellie leaned forward. “Most folks around here like working. A lot of us grew up on ranches. What do you do for work ?”
    When all three looked at her with curious expressions, she scrunched down in her seat. “I’m part-owner of an art gallery in San Francisco.”
    She knew how that sounded to them. Like she was a spoiled woman, playing at work. She had a degree in fine arts and had worked long, endless hours for several years to make the small gallery a success. Now that it had gained a reputation for featuring new and upcoming artists, she’d decided it was time to take a step back and do something different. Like have a baby.
    “I always thought a business venture like that was much more difficult than it looked,” JD said.
    Maggie could have kissed him for being so kind.
    She sat up straighter. “Yes, we’ve been in business for over ten years. That’s considered a success in the art world.”
    “Good for you,” Clay said, with a hint of condescension in his voice. Maggie was reminded of her parents’ reaction to her