When Summer opened her eyes to the shaft of sunlight peeking through the pale yellow curtains, she looked around the beautifully decorated room and for a brief moment wondered where she was. She was used to awakening in a generic hotel room where shades of beige and tan reigned supreme and the headboard of the bed was bolted to the wall. But instead of spending the night in a hotel as she’d planned, she had agreed to accompany Ryder to his ranch.
Her breath caught as she remembered why he had insisted she come home with him. After weeks of trying to find a way to bring up the subject and ask him to be the donor for her pregnancy, she had worked up her courage and made her request. And his answer hadn’t been “no.” At least, not outright.
He thought they needed to talk it over and although his insistence that they stay at his ranch had made her extremely nervous, she had agreed. She needed to reassure him that she would sign whatever document was needed to ensure that she would be solely responsible for the baby and that he would be under no obligation. She was sure that once he understood that, he would be more inclined to help her.
As she threw back the covers and got out of bed to take a shower, she thought about what Ryder would want to discuss first. He would probably start off with wanting to know why she didn’t feel she would ever meet a man she wanted to marry. Or he might try to convince her that, at the youthful age of twenty-five, she had plenty of time and should wait to make such a life-changing decision.
Standing beneath the refreshing spray of warm water, she smiled. She might not have practiced the way she worded her request as much as she should have, but she was armed and ready with her answers for their upcoming discussion about it. She knew Ryder well enough to know he would try to talk her out of her plans, and she had painstakingly gone over the way she would explain her reasoning and how she would frame the responses she intended to give him. Once he realized that she was completely serious, along with the promise of a legal document relieving him of any commitment to support or help raise the child, surely he would agree.
Anxious to start their conversation, she toweled herself dry, quickly got dressed and started downstairs. Halfway to the bottom of the staircase, she stopped when she came face-to-face with one of the largest gray tabby cats she had ever seen.
“You must be Lucifer,” she said tentatively. From Ryder’s description of the cat, she wasn’t sure how he would react to encountering a stranger in his domain.
She hoped he didn’t attack her as she walked past. But instead of pouncing on her as she expected he might, the cat gazed up at her for a moment, then letting out a heartfelt meow, rubbed his body along the side of her leg.
Reaching down, she cautiously stroked his soft coat. Lucifer rewarded her with a loud, albeit contented purr. “You don’t seem nearly as ferocious as Ryder claimed you were,” she said when he burrowed his head into her palm, then licked her fingers with a swipe of his sand-papery rough tongue.
When Summer continued on down the stairs, Lucifer trotted behind her as she followed the delicious smell of fried bacon and freshly brewed coffee. “Good morning,” she said when she found Ryder seated at the kitchen table.
“Morning.” He rose from his chair as she entered the room, and Lucifer immediately arched his back and hissed loudly at Ryder. “I see he’s still the same happy cat he’s always been,” Ryder said sarcastically as he shook his head. “Would you like a cup of coffee, Summer?”
“Yes, please. It smells wonderful.”
“Just a little cream?” he asked. They had met for coffee so many times over the past few years, he knew exactly how she liked it. Just as she knew he always liked his coffee black.
“Yes, thank you.” She smiled. “You know, I think Lucifer likes me. He rubbed against my leg and let me pet him when we met on the stairs.”
“See, I told you it’s just you he has a problem with, Ryder.” The woman standing at the stove chortled.
“I don’t know why.” He looked as if he might be a bit insulted by her comment. “Most other animals don’t seem to think I’m all that bad of a guy.”
“Maybe you aren’t home enough for him to get used to you,” Summer suggested.
“Whatever.” Shrugging, he walked over to take a mug from one of the top cabinets, then poured her some coffee. “Betty Lou Harmon, I’d like for you to meet my friend, Summer Patterson.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Harmon,” Summer said warmly as the older woman turned from the stove to face her.
“It’s real nice to meet you, too, child. But don’t go bein’ all formal,” the housekeeper groused, shaking her head. “You call me Betty Lou the same as everybody else, you hear?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Summer said, instantly liking the woman. With her dark hair liberally streaked with silver and pulled back into a tight bun at the back of her head, her kind gray eyes and round cheeks flushed from the heat of the stove, Betty Lou looked more like someone’s grandmother than a rancher’s housekeeper.
Wiping her hands on her gingham apron, she waved toward the trestle table where Ryder had been seated when Summer entered the room. “You find yourself a place to sit and I’ll get you fixed up with a plate of eggs, bacon, hash browns and some biscuits and gravy.”
“I don’t eat much for breakfast,” Summer confessed, hoping she didn’t offend the woman. She seated herself in one of the tall ladder-back chairs at the honey oak table. “Normally all I have is a bagel or toast and a cup of coffee.”
“Well, you’d better eat a hearty meal this mornin’ if you’re goin’ horseback ridin’ down to the canyon with Ryder,” Betty Lou said, filling a plate and bringing it over to set on the table in front of her.
“We’re going for a ride?” Summer asked, crestfallen. She thought they were supposed to discuss her request.
“I thought I’d show you around the ranch,” Ryder said, nodding as he brought her coffee over to the table. When Betty Lou went into the pantry, he lowered his voice and leaned close to Summer. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk and no one around to overhear the conversation.”
“We could have done that in my hotel room,” she reminded him.
He raised one dark eyebrow as he sat back down at the head of the table. “For someone who is so concerned with appearances, you haven’t thought of the obvious, darlin’.”
Ryder’s intimate tone and the scent of his clean, masculine skin caused her pulse to beat double time. “Wh-what would that be?” she asked, confused and not at all comfortable with the way she was reacting to him.
“How do you think it would look with us being alone in your room for several hours?” He shrugged. “I doubt anyone would be convinced we were just talking or watching television.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t thought of that. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Now eat,” he said, pointing to her plate.
“Aren’t you going to have breakfast?” she asked, taking a bite of the fluffy scrambled eggs.
He took a sip of his coffee and shook his head. “I ate about an hour ago.”
When she finished the last of the delicious food, Summer smiled at Betty Lou when she walked over to pick up the plate. “That was wonderful. Thank you.”
The woman gave her an approving nod. “That should tide you over until you eat the sandwiches I packed for the two of you.”
“We won’t be back in time for lunch?” Summer asked, turning to Ryder. “How far away is the canyon?”
“It’s not that far.” He gave her a smile that made her radiate from within. “But there’s a creek lined with cottonwoods that runs through the canyon, and I thought you might like to have a picnic along the bank.”
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