The Cowboy's Surprise Baby (Cowboy Country Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

amusing, but there was not one single thing funny about having to share breathing space with Tessa, much less having her commandeer his baby, even if it was only for a diaper change.
    “You’ve never changed a baby before?” he guessed, his lips quirking. Even on her worst day, she couldn’t be half as inept as he’d been his first few go-rounds, but he would shoot himself before he ever admitted that aloud.
    Her auburn eyebrows hit her hairline. “It...it’s not that. I don’t mind changing Grayson for you. I’ve had my fair share of experience handling babies now and again. I was just wondering—that is—is your wife around? I don’t think we’ve met.”
    Of course.
Tessa didn’t know he wasn’t married. He’d hoped that particular tidbit would make its way around town and he’d never have to encounter that question. It was just like Tessa to have avoided the gossip. He wondered what people were saying, exactly. Folks were going to make all the wrong assumptions unless he set them straight. In a down-home, conservative little Texas town like Serendipity, things were done right and in the proper order.
    First comes love, then comes marriage, and
then
comes the baby in the baby carriage.
    Only that’s not how it had been for Cole. To his everlasting shame, Grayson wasn’t the product of love
or
marriage. That didn’t mean Cole didn’t love his son with all his heart. Grayson was far and away the biggest blessing God had ever given him. He had such awe and wonder about this new little human being. The curve of Grayson’s ears, his fingers and toes, the way the baby already responded to Cole’s voice in the dead of night when it was just the two of them awake and rocking to a lullaby.
    It might not have happened the way he would have planned, but it had happened, and being a father to Grayson was Cole’s new mission, more important than anything he’d done in the navy. More important than anything he’d ever done in his
life
.
    He was not proud of how he’d gotten to this point, but he was proud of being here, of being Grayson’s father. As for his son’s mother...
    “I’m not married,” he admitted softly, sliding his chair closer to hers so they wouldn’t be overheard.
    Tessa’s brow rose again, and Cole frowned. She didn’t have to gape. This didn’t bode well for how the rest of the town was going to take the news.
    “I see,” she murmured.
    No, she didn’t. She hadn’t a clue about the man he’d become. He wasn’t the bright-eyed kid who’d dated her all through high school. Not even close.
    “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said.
    “I’m sorry.” Her tone was punctuated with bitterness. “I had no right to ask.”
    She was taking it personally. This wasn’t personal. It had nothing to do with her at all. “You couldn’t have known.”
    “I’ll just— Let me go take care of his diaper real fast for you, and then you can have the baby back,” she stammered.
    He watched her make a quick exit into the ladies’ room, the sweet, fruity scent of her perfume lingering behind her. He blew out a frustrated breath and threaded his fingers through his hair.
    He was quick to acknowledge his own part in his disaster of a life, but he had faith that the Lord would use it for good, even if he didn’t have any idea how that might work out for him, or for Grayson. He could only put himself and his baby in God’s capable hands.
    He didn’t know why the Lord had set him on this path, but he imagined he must be even more hardheaded than he’d realized. Most horses could be broken with a whisper. It appeared he needed the sharp jerk of a bit to get him moving in the right direction.
    When Tessa returned with his still-happy infant, she immediately deposited Grayson into Cole’s arms. He adjusted his son to his shoulder and gently patted his back.
    “After I saw Grayson was with you, I completely spaced on the reason I came to Cup O’ Jo’s in the first place,” she admitted