Page 20 of Promised to the Cowboy

I push down the flare of anger, knowing her words come from a place of uncertainty. “I’m not your father, Evie.”

Evie holds my gaze for a few seconds before dropping her eyes. “You’re right; I’m sorry. Knee-jerk reaction. I just—” She lifts her eyes back to mine. “I’m not trying to trap you, Gabriel. I didn’t come here for a rescue. I didn’t come here to hand you a problem and wait for you to solve it. If it came to it, I could do this alone and do it fine. I need you to hear that part.”

“I hear it.” I hold her gaze. “You could do it alone. You’re not going to.”

“Gabriel—”

“I’m not going anywhere, Evie. I want to be clear about that. I’m not—I don’t need time to decide.” My jaw tightens. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not scared. I don’t have a map for this. I know whatnotto do better than I know what to do. But I’m here. I’m staying. I’m in this with you.”

Down at the barn, one of the horses—probably Captain Winky—knocks something over in his stall, oblivious to the fact that the world just restructured itself on a porch forty yards away.

Evie looks at me for a long time. Her hand is flat on her knee, and I can see her working her knuckle, the one she set herself.

Then relief crosses her face, as if she’s been braced for impact for so long that she doesn’t quite know what to do when the impact doesn’t come.

“When I mentioned practicalities,” I say softly, “I meant things like prenatal vitamins, scans, and a doctor who isn’t two states away.”

“I had an appointment, but”—she presses her lips together—“I kept moving it.”

“We’ll un-move it. There’s a clinic in town,” I say, my mind working overtime. “We can call in the morning, get an appointment. I’ll drive you.”

Evie bites her lip. “We?”

I reach for her hand, where she’s still twisting the ring on her finger, and lace our fingers together. “We. You’re not alone in this, Evie.”

“I can drive myself.”

“I know you can.” I hold her gaze. “Let me anyway.”

“Fine,” she says. “You drive. But I pick the radio.”

“Deal.”

“And if it’s talk radio, I’m jumping out.”

“Country or quiet,” I say. “Those are my terms.”

A smile pulls at her mouth as she sticks out her hand. “Deal.”

My hand swallows her smaller one, but neither of us shakes. We just hold on, my thumb sweeping over her soft skin, her fingers curled around mine.

We sit in the dark a while longer, not talking. The valley is fully dark now, just the outline of the hills and the stars over the ridge. Her shoulder is almost touching mine. Neither of us closes the last inch, but neither of us moves away either.

“You should sleep,” I say eventually.

“You too.”

“I’m not going to sleep.”

“Neither am I.” She tips her head back against the porch post, eyes on the sky. “So we might as well stay up together.”

I lean back beside her. “Evie?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s your middle name?”

She turns her head to look at me. “What?”