The Cowboy’s Baby Agreement: Wells Brothers Book Two Read online

  Wells Brothers

  The Rancher’s City Girl

  The Cowboy’s Baby Agreement

  The Cowboy’s Second Chance Family

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, SEPTEMBER 2020

  Copyright © 2020 Relay Publishing Ltd.

  All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Leslie North is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Romance projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers.

  Cover design by Mayhem Cover Creations.

  www.relaypub.com

  Blurb

  At 30 and single, Mina Heath has made the biggest decision of her life: she wants to have a baby. After perusing the local sperm bank’s donor contenders, she’s stunned to realize that her favorite anonymous donor is someone she knows. Someone she had a painful crush on in high school. It’s been years since that heart-wrenching moment when she discovered Liam Wells didn’t reciprocate her feelings, but with the injured rodeo star and potential baby daddy back in town, it’s pretty difficult to ignore the hot cowboy. And it becomes impossible to ignore him when she gets stranded in his cabin during a snowstorm—especially when Liam suggests she try to get pregnant the old-fashioned way.

  When the snow clears after their passionate night, Mina gives Liam a thank-you-very-much and heads home. But no way is Liam saying good-bye to Mina that easily. On the pretext of making sure the contract baby becomes reality, he ensures they get together as often as possible. After being a thrill-junky and in the limelight for so many years before his injury, he’s finally found a soft place to fall— right into Mina’s arms. Still, Mina is determined to do everything on her own and Liam convinces himself their no-strings relationship is for the best. Until it isn’t.

  Could this cowboy be in love? And can he convince Mina—and himself—that he’s ready to settle down?

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  (Wells Brothers Book Two)

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  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  End of The Cowboy’s Baby Agreement

  Thank You

  About Leslie

  Sneak Peek: The Cowboy’s Second Chance Family

  Also by Leslie

  1

  Bette’s Diner was warm and busy and bustling. The conversation over Thursday night’s special, which was meatloaf with a side of mashed potatoes, was all about the snow. Mina watched as Mrs. Jenkins clutched her husband’s arm and peered out of the front window, like the snow might come sweeping in off the mountains and attack her where she sat in front of her half-eaten meatloaf. “Howard, do you think it’ll be bad?”

  “It’s not gonna be bad, Ellie.” Mr. Jenkins kept eating despite his wife’s death grip on his elbow. “Snow’s not even supposed to arrive until later this week. Haven’t you been listening?”

  “You never know,” Mrs. Jenkins fretted. “Sometimes storms come in when you least expect it. Changes everything. We have to stay on our toes.” She glared out through the window. “Oh, Bette, what do you think?” Bette owned the diner and was working the evening shift. She stopped beside the Jenkins’ table and refilled their seltzer waters. “Do you think it’ll be as bad as they’re predicting?”

  “It’ll be beautiful, don’t you think?” Bette ran a diner. She was unbothered by most things that came through her door. Had to be, in order to keep her sanity. “We’ll have to get the sleds out for the grandkids. I wonder if Rick put them up above the barn or in the garage. I’ll send him a message about it tonight. Or maybe we’ll ski. I love that fresh snow.”

  Mrs. Jenkins was the only one in the diner who showed any signs of worry about the weather. For her part, Mina wasn’t worried at all. Not about the snow. She had other things on her mind. Like sperm.

  Sperm, sperm, sperm. Never in her life had Mina imagined that she’d think this much about sperm. In college she’d thought about it the way all her friends did. It was something to be avoided, because the only thing worse than failing a class was failing a class and finding out you were pregnant by the guy who took you home from the bar after the football game. Mina had never wanted even a whiff of that risk. She knew better than most people how the world was. There was you, and there was everybody else, and none of them were going to help you unless they got something out of it. Plus, she plain didn’t need them. She’d do this herself, like she did everything else.

  She shifted on the diner seat’s plastic cushions and scrolled through the list of sperm donors one more time. The world might be against her. Her own uterus might be against her. But that didn’t mean Mina didn’t want kids. On the contrary, she was desperate to have a baby of her own. She’d grown up with only her grandmother to take care of her. All that time, all those days when it was just the two of them, Mina had looked forward to the day when she’d start her own family.

  Preferably with a man who loved her. For a while, it had seemed like one of those might have existed…but that had been back in high school, and there had been no available men back then. They’d all been boys. But boys could break your heart just as easily, as Mina had learned. It was better, in the end, to be self-sufficient. In all things.

  Sperm. She had to focus on sperm. Her fertility had been the reason she’d spent all day visiting her reproductive endocrinologist in the city. There had been…issues…in the last few years, and at this year’s annual visit to the gyno, Mina had learned that she had uterine fibroids. If the fibroids got out of control, it would get harder and harder to get pregnant.

  Mina still felt a bit like the wind had been knocked out of her. She was thirty—not a teenager by any means, but also not so old that she’d imagined fertility would be a problem. But one symptom after the other had piled up in the last year and now here she was, looking at her top five choices on a sperm donor website. It was nifty, in a way. She could tick a tiny checkbox next to each profile and compare them to one another on a single page.

  The profiles contained more information than Mina would have expected. One donor liked chess and had won multiple tournaments. One made a habit of climbing mountains and “planned to tackle Everest in the next year.” That sounded pretty promising. Even now, sitting in Bette’s Diner, she imagined a life with her child that was…fun. So the donor—the father? Needed to be fun and adventurous too. She read through the profiles again and found herself lingering on donor number two. Was it possible to be attract
ed to sperm? Well, if you’re an egg, maybe. She snorted at her own joke just in time for Bette to walk by.

  “Do you need a tissue, hon?”

  Mina beamed up at her, a strange relief flooding her veins. “No, no—I was just laughing at my own joke. You know me.”

  Bette winked at her. “I do. Can I get you anything? Another plate of dinner? It’s all-you-can-eat.”

  “I’m good. I’m—I’m really good.” Excitement came hard on the heels of relief. That was it. That was the decision. She’d go with donor number two, and she’d have the intrauterine insemination procedure, and that would be that. She’d roll the dice on having a baby of her own. No more waiting. No more wondering. Only action. “Thanks, Bette.”

  Bette put a hand on Mina’s shoulder, then bustled off to the other patrons. Mina swiped out of the internet browser on her phone and pulled up her contacts list. She had the clinic’s office saved. Two rings, and she connected with Jennifer, the unflappable receptionist.

  “This is Dr. Humbacher’s office. Are you calling to make an appointment or about a previously scheduled appointment?”

  “I want to do it,” Mina blurted out, then slapped a hand to her forehead. “I mean—hi, Jennifer. This is Mina Heath. I had an appointment with Dr. Humbacher earlier today. We spoke about an IUI procedure, and she told me to call back when I’d made a decision. Well, I’ve made the decision. I want to go through with it. I want to get on the schedule.” Mina held her breath, as if somehow the clinic would be full up. She braced to hear the news that they couldn’t possibly fit her in. Not next week, and not ever.

  “Wonderful. Let me bring up your file and see if Dr. Humbacher left any notes.” Mina’s head started to hurt from holding her breath, and she forced herself to release it—in, out, in, out. “She wrote that your next appointment should be scheduled four days from now, which puts us at next Monday. Does that sound correct?”

  “It does.” Now she was practically wheezing into the phone. Mina squared her shoulders. “It does sound correct, yes.”

  “Is ten o’clock all right?”

  “It’s more than all right. It’s perfect.” Mina worked from home, which sometimes meant that money was unpredictable. Today she praised all the good things in the universe for giving her a flexible schedule.

  “A couple more things. I’ll need to charge your card for the deposit. Should I use the one we have on file?”

  “That’s the one.”

  Mina waited while Jennifer put the payment through. She swallowed hard at the thought of what this procedure would do to her bank account. It would be worth it—she knew that absolutely. But it was a lot of money, and there was a difference between scheduling an appointment and putting the cash where it counted. Oh, and there was an even greater difference between fronting the fee and showing up for the procedure, which she would do. No matter what.

  “Now,” said Jennifer, “I have to remind you that you need to call twenty-four hours in advance if you need to cancel or reschedule, or your’ll lose the deposit.”

  “I will do that. Thank you very much.” Mina hung up and set her phone on the table in front of her, nerves humming with something between anxiety and pure, wild hope. She’d done it! Modern woman makes modern decision to have a child without the help of a man. News at 10! She snorted again at her own joke and leaned back in the booth. Making the decision—that was always the hardest part. And now she really had done it. The wheels were turning on the next phase of her life.

  Bette came by to clear her empty plate and leave a new pot of hot water. Mina poured it into her mug and dipped in a fresh tea bag. She felt like she’d just finished a marathon, or something equally hard and taxing. The next challenge waited right around the corner, but for now she could take a breath and celebrate. She considered the dessert menu. Maybe she’d have pie. Why not? Bette’s pie was the best in the world, and she’d done it. Next week, everything started.

  A commotion at the door wrenched her attention away from the decision between chocolate cream and apple. The diner door stood open wide, cold air gusting in. A tall figure in a cowboy hat—that was about all she could see—was…surrounded by other patrons? Mina couldn’t help staring. They were asking for selfies. Regulars at Bette’s, asking for selfies? Who had shown up in town, some Hollywood movie star?

  A male voice floated over the chatter, which had risen to a fever pitch in a matter of seconds. It sounded…vaguely familiar. A shiver moved down her spine. She dragged the dessert menu over in front of her and willed the other noises out of her mind.

  “Live life at full throttle, right, Liam?” That was a shout from one Mr. Parks, who’d been the football coach at Benton Ridge High School for thirty years. He’d only just retired. But he still hadn’t forgotten Liam Wells. Who could ever forget Liam Wells? Nobody in Benton Ridge, that was for sure. And not Mina.

  God, she wished she could forget him.

  Liam Wells, big-time rodeo star from a small town. He played up being from Benton Ridge as though the town had just been a backdrop for the story of his life. And Mina had played a bit part in that life. Heat spread across her cheeks in a vicious blush. She was sixteen again, sitting at Bette’s. Staring at the same menu. Swallowing down humiliation at what Liam had done. Her throat went tight with it. Mina kept her butt firmly planted in the seat. Did she want to grab her purse and sprint out of here at top speed? Yes. But would she do that in front of Liam? Not a chance.

  All that had happened a long time ago. She wasn’t a sixteen-year-old girl with a broken heart anymore. She was a fully-grown woman who was going to be a mother. Who was going to make all her dreams come true. End of story.

  She forced herself to turn in her seat and flag down Bette, who came over with a knowing look on her face. Mina ignored that look. Even if Bette knew all the details of what had happened fourteen years ago—and Bette almost certainly did, because this was Benton Ridge and Bette knew everything—there was no way Mina wanted to have a conversation about it. “I need my bill, Bette,” she said with a tight smile. Bette brought it. In slow motion, Mina took her card from her wallet. In slower motion, Bette made a round of the diner and came back for the little plastic tray that held the bill. It took several eternities to ring her up while Liam Wells stood in the doorway, making the whole place cold and posing for photos.

  Mina scribbled her signature on the bill as fast as she could, tipped her phone and wallet back into her bag, and yanked it over her shoulder. Her heart seemed ready to burst out of her throat. Door, car, home. Door, car, home. If she could just get out of here without actually running into him, everything would be all right.

  She stood and scanned the diner. Liam had moved inside, over by the pie case, still half-surrounded by people. No time to think—just go.

  She was three steps to the door when she heard her name. No. No, no, no. Not today.

  Mina kept her eyes forward and pretended to be thinking of something extremely engaging. She got the door open a single inch before the hand came down on her shoulder. Her entire body stiffened at the touch, and the breath went out of her.

  “It is you,” came Liam’s voice. “I thought it was. How are you, Mina? Long time, no see.”

  Well, she couldn’t freeze him out in front of everybody at the restaurant, now could she? Bette would see, and then Bette would know that Mina still had feelings about what had happened in high school. She turned to face him, feeling like a puppet on strings.

  God, Liam Wells was handsome. His green eyes blazed out from a face that could have been cut from stone. Her stomach did a slow flip. “Liam, hi.” A strange, uncalled-for heat burned across the pit of her belly. Words—she could keep talking to him. She had to keep talking. “What are you doing in town?”

  He gestured toward his leg. “Recuperating from an injury.” A frown darkened his perfect, stupidly perfect, face. “I’m stuck taking the winter off and rejoining the circuit in the spring. What about you? Do you still work down at the department stor
e?”

  He remembered. “No, I moved on a long time ago.” Why did she care that Liam remembered? It didn’t matter. “I work from home now. I’m a graphic designer.” She did more—she had a fashion blog and had recently been working with a friend from college to actually design clothes. But Liam didn’t need to know that.

  Liam moved closer, his half-smile making her knees feel like Jell-O that hadn’t quite set. “Good for you. Honestly, that’s amazing. And you look amazing, too.”

  She turned her head to the side so she didn’t have to face the compliment head-on. “Thank you.”

  “If there’s anything you need, you call me, all right?” Liam drew a business card from his pocket and pressed it into her hand. “I know I still owe you.”

  She stood there, frozen, holding the business card. Liam tipped his hat and turned away. His first step looked painful. Mina made it a point not to know things about Liam Wells, but it looked like whatever injury he’d had had hurt him. Still, by the time he got back to the pie case, there was no sign of the limp. Like he didn’t want people to know he was still hurting.

  He glanced back over his shoulder. Their eye contact was brief, a blink—but she saw it, and she knew he was looking for her reaction.

  She wasn’t going to give him one.

  Mina went out onto the sidewalk, the wind a sharp contrast to the heat of the diner and Liam’s eyes, and shoved the business card into her purse. “I don’t need you, Liam Wells,” she said to the snowflakes lightly falling to the earth. “I don’t need anybody.”