Free The Cowbear's Curvy Christmas (Curvy Bear Ranch 2) by Liv Brywood Page A

stomach cramped. As a rush of nausea overwhelmed her, she bolted up. “Oh, God. I’m going to be sick.”
    After rushing into the bathroom, she slammed the door behind her. She dropped to her knees and bent over the toilet. The biscuit she’d snuck earlier came up with a vengeance. Her stomach clenched and churned until she’d thrown up everything. As she slid down to the floor, the room spun.
    Mack knocked once before rushing into the room. “Honey, are you okay?”
    “I don’t feel so good.”
    “Was it something you ate?”
    She put her hand over her mouth so he wouldn’t smell her dragon breath. “I know I’m not the best cook, but I’ve never given myself food poisoning.”
    “Did you eat anything different from what you’ve been feeding us? Did you eat anything from the forest?”
    “No. I mean, I haven’t been feeling like myself lately. But I didn’t—” A sudden, horrifying thought took hold.
    Mack must have read her mind. “You couldn’t be pregnant, could you?”
     
    ***
     
    Madison hadn’t said a single word during the trip to and from the store. She held the plastic bag containing the pregnancy test that could change her life. As they bounced along the road to the ranch, her stomach churned. There wasn’t anything left in it, but her stomach didn’t seem to care.
    Mack looked over at her. “Are you okay? Let me know if I should pull over.”
    “I’m fine.”
    She wasn’t fine. How the hell could fate be this cruel? Now that she’d had time to think about it, she’d been feeling slightly nauseous for the last few weeks, long before arriving at the ranch. So if she was pregnant, it wasn’t Mack’s. As if that would be any better.
    “I can’t believe this is happening,” she whispered.
    “You don’t know for sure yet.”
    “Don’t worry. If I am pregnant, it’s not yours.”
    “How do you know?” Mack asked.
    “I didn’t recognize it until now, but I’ve been tired and nauseous the last few weeks. I just thought it was depression.”
    “If you’re pregnant, what are you going to do?”
    “I have to tell Ben.”
    His jaw twitched. “That bastard has no right to your baby.”
    “If it’s his child, he has a legal right.”
    “Dammit.”
    “Yeah.” She waited a few beats. “Sometimes I think God hates me.”
    “Why?”
    “I haven’t really told you much about myself, but I was born into a very wealthy family. But for all the money we had, there was no love in our house. I don’t even think my parents liked each other, let alone loved each other. They were both from wealthy families and their fathers did business together, so looking back, I think it was more of a marriage of money than of love.”
    “That sucks.”
    She forced a smile. “Yeah.”
    “My parents were madly in love with each other. We didn’t have much when I was a kid. They spent their whole lives building up the ranch to make it what it is today. That’s why I’m so adamant about protecting it. I want to make sure that their hard work wasn’t for nothing.”
    “It sounds like you loved them a lot.”
    “I did. They did everything for us. Not a day went by that I didn’t know how much they loved me. I was very lucky in that regard. I know not all families are like mine.”
    She laughed bitterly. “You have no idea.”
    He reached for her hand. “No matter what happens, I’m here for you. Okay?”
    “We hardly know each other.”
    “I know. But sometimes you can be friends at first sight. It’s like love at first sight, without all the longing,” he said.
    She agreed with him about feeling that indescribable spark when she first met him, but she wouldn’t have called it friendship. It wasn’t love either. She didn’t know what it was, only that it was special.
    They pulled into the driveway. Mack jumped out of the truck and ran around to her side. After opening the door for her, he helped her down.
    “Do you want me to go with you?” he asked.
    “Are you going to hold the