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

with Jackson and the only way I could get him out of there was to give him my word I’d try convincing you to see him today.”
    “What about convincing him to go back to the reservation?”
    “I let him know that’s what you wanted him to do. But he’s not budging.” Linc frowned at her. “And I can’t say as I blame him. In his shoes there’s no way I would.”
    “I thought you were on my side.”
    “I am, I am,” he assured her halfheartedly. “I just don’t understand what your side is, exactly.”
    “What’s Ash’s side?” she asked rather than explaining herself.
    “Well, I don’t know that, either. I only know that if my wife were pregnant with my baby and ran out the back door rather than talking to me about it, I’d want to turn her over my knee.”
    Was he telling her that was what Ash wanted to do? That he was that angry? “I’m not his wife. Not anymore,” she said defensively, as if that were an answer that made sense.
    “That’s just splittin’ hairs,” Linc said.
    “Don’t you think you should talk to him, Beth?” Kansas put in quietly, breaking the silence she’d held until then.
    “Yes, I know I should,” Beth grumbled, more to herself than to either of them.
    “ Should nothing, he isn’t going to let you get away with not talking to him,” Linc warned her.
    Beth rolled her eyes. “I said everything I needed to in the letter I wrote him. I don’t know what else he wants to hear.”
    “Maybe he has something to say to you.”
    That tightened the knots in her stomach.
    Linc went on, “He was going from our place to the hunting lodge to take a cabin there. We could have put him up but—”
    “Oh, I’m glad you didn’t.” Beth breathed out a gust of panicky air at just the thought. Wouldn’t that have been grand? She could have had Ash in the bedroom right next to hers. She’d have met him coming and going at all hours of the day and night; she’d have had to see him the way he was at home—relaxed, casual, sexy, appealing...
    “It was definitely better that you didn’t invite him to stay at the ranch,” she reiterated firmly, as if it still might be a possibility.
    “I felt rude and inhospitable not asking him to, but between you running out and Jackson all het up over this thing, I didn’t think I’d better.”
    “Jackson didn’t hit him again, did he?” Beth asked, her concern sounding.
    “No. Just the one punch. In fact, he calmed down considerably when he realized it wasn’t as if Ash was denying his responsibilities. But still, I didn’t think it was a good idea to have Ash close at hand in case he did something else Jackson might take offense to. You know how he is. He always thought he needed to fight your battles for you.”
    “I hope this won’t be a battle.”
    Linc’s expression said he didn’t see it being anything but.
    It made Beth wonder yet again just how unhappy Ash was about her pregnancy.
    But there was no sense sitting around worrying about it. Even if she was susceptible to just the sight of her former husband, Shag had taught her to ignore weaknesses like that. And certainly not to let anyone else see them. Running out the night before had been a show of weakness. It wasn’t something she was proud of.
    She had to tough this out, she told herself. And that was what she was going to do.
    Besides, apparently Ash wasn’t leaving, and if she had to deal with him sooner or later, it might as well be sooner.
    She laid both of her palms on the tabletop and pushed herself to her feet. “Do me a favor and call him at the lodge, would you? Tell him to come back out to the ranch in an hour. That’ll give me a chance to shower and put on clean clothes.” And having her brother make the call would buy her that much more time before she had to actually talk to Ash herself.
    Linc eyed her suspiciously. “You aren’t just stalling so you can go home, pack a bag and leave town, are you?”
    Tempting thought. But it would only postpone