Tyler patted the stallion’s flank, then left the stall.
In the corral outside the barn, a few of the hotel guests were saddled up, looking stiff and serious as they took instruction from some of the cowhands.
He headed across the yard to the Hitching Post.
The wind had picked up a bit, but the midafternoon sun had gotten stronger. Together, they kept the temperature at a comfortable level. Too bad they couldn’t do anything about his temperature. Since yesterday, he had jumped from hot to cold and back again every time he thought of Shay.
As he reached the hotel, the back door opened. Pete, Jed’s ranch manager and Jane’s husband, came out of the hotel and down the porch steps. “In for the day?” he asked.
Tyler nodded.
“Whenever you’re needing another ride, you’re welcome to any of the mounts here.”
“Needing?” Tyler echoed.
Pete shrugged. “The way you tore out of here after lunch, I’d have said you were looking for more than just time in the saddle.”
“Yeah.” All morning, he had helped Tina and Jane in the ballroom again. Shay hadn’t been around, and no one had mentioned her name.
They had released him from duty just before lunch, and afterward he and Freedom had done some hard riding on Garland Ranch. The long trek had been designed to help him outrun his thoughts. Instead, it had only given him more time alone, ample time to envision what he’d seen yesterday.
Shay, with her belly so big she looked like she might give birth at any moment. Not that he was an expert on pregnancy. But he could count. And he still didn’t like the numbers he’d come up with.
“The ride doesn’t seem to have done you much good,” Pete said. “Or else that expression of yours is saying you hit a cactus patch somewhere out on the ranch.”
“I hit something thorny,” he agreed, wondering just how much the other man could help him. Pete had two kids of his own. He certainly ought to know something about the stages of pregnancy. He might also know when Shay was due to have her baby.
But he didn’t intend to stand there gossiping about her with Jed’s ranch manager. Or even to discuss her with Jed. He had to talk to Shay. All day, he’d replayed their conversation in his mind. Her lack of reaction when he had said he would keep her secret told him he couldn’t be the daddy. But he needed her to tell him herself.
“See you later.” Tyler made his way into the Hitching Post. A short walk down the hall took him to the wide doorway of the hotel’s kitchen.
Paz stood near a counter, where light glinted off a knife resting on a cutting board filled with raw vegetables. She broke off from what she was saying to gesture toward a large coffeemaker on one counter. “Coffee is brewed there.”
“Thanks.”
At the large table, Jed sat with a mug in front of him. “Take a load off,” he invited, waving at an empty chair.
Tyler filled a mug and took his seat at the table.
“As I was saying,” Paz said to Jed, “Tina talked with Shay and told her we won’t need her for the reception tonight. Shay’s planning to work at the shop instead, but she said she’ll be here tomorrow afternoon.”
“Good.”
Not so good for him. Tomorrow afternoon seemed a long time away. And if the Garlands herded her like a stray mare again, chances were good he probably wouldn’t get to talk to her alone. He couldn’t let this opportunity pass him by. “Shay seems to be pretty far along.”
“She is,” Paz confirmed. “She has just a few weeks left.”
“We’re trying to keep her from overdoing it,” Jed put in. “That’s why we appreciated your help yesterday and this morning. You deserved the break after lunch. Enjoy your ride?”
“Yeah,” he said, not satisfied with changing the subject but unwilling to push the issue. “It felt good to get out.”
“Of the hotel?”
“Just out. On horseback.” What had those all-knowing blue eyes seen to make Jed ask that question? He couldn’t tell the man the truth.
Last night, he had spent the evening with the Garlands and their hotel guests. And yeah, between that and today’s stint in the ballroom, then at the crowded lunch table, he had felt the need to get out of the hotel, to get away on his own. To put some space between him and the Garland family. Along with Jed and Paz, and not counting the absent newlyweds, that included two granddaughters, one of their husbands and a handful of kids. A lot of Garlands to go around. He’d needed some breathing room.
Maybe it was having all the other hotel guests there, too, that left him feeling boxed in. Maybe it was just the fact he’d grown up without brothers or sisters and had gotten used to the quiet.
But mostly, he suspected it had to do with needing to escape his thoughts of Shay. Like that had worked.
“Cole ought to be back tomorrow,” Jed said.
“Good. I’m looking forward to seeing him.” Heck, he needed the diversion. “He’s flying in from Denver?”
“Driving. He was making a couple of stops along the way.” Jed took another sip of coffee. “Paz and I were just talking about you before you walked in.”
“Me? What’s up?”
“With this reception going on, we’re all going to be tied up most of the evening. I’m afraid you’ll be on your own.”
“No problem. I’m sure I can find something—” or someone “—to keep me occupied.”
* * *
SHAY SLID THE decorated cake into the large freezer in the Big Dipper’s workroom. Their ice cream cakes were always in demand for birthdays and other celebrations. And though SugarPie’s bakery supplied the wedding and party cakes for the Hitching Post, the Dipper always took care of the hotel’s ice cream orders.
She didn’t want to think about the hotel or about the man she had last seen there yesterday. She touched her stomach. “I probably should have stayed to talk to him,” she murmured to her babies, “but the two of us were never alone.” She laughed softly. “And I don’t mean because you three were there with me.” She sobered again. The thought of having her conversation with Tyler in front of any of the Garlands had done her in, making her run at the first opportunity.
With a sigh, she closed the freezer door securely, then returned to the empty front room of the shop.
They did a booming business in the warmer months, good enough for her boss to pay her a decent wage all year round. Unfortunately, the job was only part-time. As she had told Layne, she needed her income from the Hitching Post, where they paid her an even better part-time rate.
As if the thought of Layne had summoned her, the door to the shop opened and she stepped inside.
“What brings you here?” Shay asked in surprise.
“A pint of chocolate-marshmallow swirl, for one thing.”
“You’re not pregnant again, are you?”
Layne laughed. “That’s what Jason asked. No, I’m not. But the craving was a good reason to get me over here.” She went to the small freezer off to one side of the room.
“Like you need a reason for ice cream.” Shay leaned against the counter instead of taking the high stool out from beneath it. She didn’t trust herself on the stool. After growing so much in the past few weeks, she was finding it harder to keep her balance even with her feet flat on the floor.
Layne set her container on the counter. After looking around the still-empty shop, she said, “I stopped in at the L-G to pick up a few groceries this