Baby My Baby (A Ranching Family) Read Online Free Page A

Delicate—that was the word for how she appeared, her high-cheekboned face haloed in that thick, coffee-bean-hued hair, those soft pale lips, that thin nose that could have belonged to a porcelain doll...
    Ha! She was no porcelain doll. Beneath it all beat a will and determination stronger than any man’s. Furniture to move? Beth Heller would do it herself. Or die trying. A tight lid to open? She’d beat on it, run it under hot water, use pliers, nearly break the jar rather than admit she couldn’t do it herself. Heavy boxes? If she couldn’t drag them, she’d devise something else—once she’d used roller skates—but she sure as hell wouldn’t ask for help.
    Funny—when they’d first met, her independence had been one of the things that had attracted him to her. But her determination had somehow lost its charm. Ash wished that, just once, she would break down and admit she needed him.
    But maybe what she’d told him was the truth. That even pregnant with his child, she didn’t want him or need him.
    It had been such a long time since Ash had been able to read her feelings. She’d never been the type to say “I love you.” In the early months of their marriage, though, he’d always seemed to sense what she was feeling.
    Somewhere, they’d lost their connection. She hadn’t so much as let him comfort her in her grief when her father had died. All she’d shown him was a stiff upper lip. Stoicism. Resolution. Death, she’d said to dismiss his concern for how she might be taking the news, was a fact of life.
    Then, in the middle of the night when she’d thought he was asleep, she’d locked herself in the bathroom to cry for the old cuss. And when Ash went looking for her, would she unlock the door and let him hold her? Let him console her? Not Beth Heller. She’d gotten angry that he’d discovered her and she refused to open the door. She’d spent the whole damn night in that bathroom. And when she’d come out the next morning? Not a word about it. Not a tear or a sign that she’d ever shed one.
    And he’d been left with empty arms aching to hold a woman who didn’t want him to.
    No, the way she looked was no indication of the way she was. It didn’t reflect the core of steel that she wanted everyone to believe ran right through the center of her.
    Whether it really did or not.
    Ash threw the letter back into his suitcase and snatched his shirt with a vengeance.
    That was all old business. Finished. Now there was something else to deal with, something else to concentrate on.
    They were going to have a baby.
    In spite of it all.
    * * *
    Late June sunshine flooded the cheery guest bedroom in which Beth woke up that morning. All of Kansas Daye’s house was like that particular room—bright, warm, homey, comforting. But it didn’t help the knots that formed in Beth’s stomach the minute her eyes opened and she recalled the reason she’d appeared on her old friend’s doorstep the night before, asking to sleep over.
    She’d driven around for a long time after leaving the ranch, hoping to give her brothers enough of a chance to get rid of Ash for her.
    But when she’d gone back, his car was still there.
    She’d been afraid he was stonewalling, refusing to leave until he spoke to her, and so she’d sought refuge with Kansas.
    Lord, but she didn’t want to confront him!
    It had probably been unrealistic, but she really had hoped he would take her letter seriously and leave her alone. That he’d just go on with his life the way it was and let her go on with hers.
    But no, he had to come to Elk Creek.
    Why, exactly? she wondered, staring up at the ceiling.
    There wasn’t anything he could do. It wasn’t as if he could take a turn carrying this baby. Any involvement on his part couldn’t happen until the child was born, and that wouldn’t be for months yet. So what was the point?
    Maybe he’d come just to let her know how unhappy about it he was.
    After all, she knew he’d been against their