Page 67

"Oh yeah? You ever had one blow straight up the back in a gas station parking lot?"

His lips curve. "Twice. Once in July while camping, which is its own special kind of hell."

I laugh again. "That sounds horrible."

"It was. Trust me." His grin widens, and then it fades. He shifts closer to me without disturbing Charlie. "I need to tell you something, and I don't think you're going to love it."

My stomach drops instantly. "What?"

"My family."

"What about them?"

"They're a lot, Lainey. Loud, nosy, completely incapable of minding their own business once they catch wind of something. And once they find out about Charlie, about you, they're going to be all over it. All over us. There won't be a corner of this ranch you can stand in without somebody asking a hundred questions."

My pulse creeps up. "That sounds like a nightmare."

"It can be." He huffs, half exasperated, half fond, the exact tone of a man who loves his family and knows exactly how exhausting they are in the same breath. "Here's the kicker. We have to tell them tomorrow."

My whole body tenses. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." He pins a no-negotiation gaze on me. But there's a gentleness underneath the certainty that keeps it from feeling like the same kind of demand he made in front of Mama. "If they find out on their own, from gossip or somebody spotting Charlie or a hundred other ways news travels on a ranch this size, it's going to be so much worse. For you, for me, for her. I'd rather they hear it from us, on our terms, than piece it together themselves and show up at your door with a hundred questions and demands."

"Demands?"

"They're going to want to see Charlie."

"I don't know if I'm ready for that," I blurt out. My daughter's asleep against a man I've known intimately for exactly one reckless night and one catastrophic afternoon. So I add, "It's a lot, Jagger. All of it. I haven't even had time to process today, let alone brace myself for meeting an entire family of Cartwrights as your baby mama."

His lips twitch. "I understand. But it'll be worse if we wait. Trust me. I know this family. Mason and Phoebe already know it's you."

"Me?"

"I told you that I was looking for you all year."

I hold my breath with my butterflies kicking up.

"I wasn't lying," he delivers softly.

Whatever, if anything, is between Jagger and me, it's more than I'm ready to dissect right now. So I ask, "What are they going to think of me? Showing up out of nowhere with a baby they didn't know existed?"

"They're going to think exactly what I think." His voice softens. "That you did the best you could with the information you had, and that my daughter is another wonderful addition to the family… As are you."

My heart almost leaps out of my chest. To avoid dealing with the us part, I argue, "You don't know that. You haven't even told them yet. I mean, they're going to know I'm your one-night stand." My face heats.

"So?"

I don't say anything, thinking of Ruby, whom I really like and already respect from the few minutes she made Mama and me feel at home in the Butterfly House. She's going to know I slept with her son a few hours after meeting him. It was bad enough telling my mom.

They're all going to know.

"I might as well wear a scarlett letter," I mutter.

"Oh stop. That's not going to be how it is. I know my family." He says it with certainty.

"Great first impression I get to make," I say, still horrified.

"Listen, darlin'. I know my family. Mama's going to cry. Dad's going to stare at Charlie in awe. Mason's going to make some joke. And every single one of them is going to fall in love with Charlie inside of five seconds, because that's just what happens in this family when a baby come in the room. But they'll love you, too."