A Baby of Her Own (Dundee, Idaho #1)(45)
Author: Brenda Novak

Only half listening, Delaney returned to the conversation. “What?”

He gestured at the dartboard. “I think I should get to keep that triple bull, don’t you? This is our third game, and it’s my turn to start.”

“You started last time,” his brother told him.

“So?” Billy Joe argued. “If Rebecca was marrying me, I might let it slide. But she’s rejecting us both for some guy in Nebraska, as if anybody would want to live there. Anyway, Laney thinks I should get to keep it, don’t you, Laney?”

“Sure,” she said, “whatever,” and threw another glance over her shoulder to see Conner laughing with a small group near the jukebox.

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to her. She lost her ability to reason about five minutes ago.”

“No, I didn’t,” Delaney protested. “What is it you wanted to know?”

Billy Joe cocked an eyebrow at her. “You’re not drinkin’ now, are ya, honey? Because that’s not good for the baby. Even I know that.”

She held up her soda water. “I’m not drinking.”

“Then, what’s wrong?” Bobby asked. “You feelin’ sick again?”

“No, not tonight.”

“Well, if you’re feelin’ sad ’cause you wanna give that baby a daddy, darlin’, you just let me know,” Billy Joe said. “Because you don’t want no millionaire’s grandson, no siree. You want a real man like me.”

Delaney laughed. Thanks to Rebecca, just about everybody she saw knew about Conner and the baby. Billy Joe and Bobby had been teasing her all night, telling her she had to name the baby Billy Bob, after both of them. But she didn’t mind the secret being out in this setting. It was the people who decided her job future who worried her. When they learned about her situation, she doubted there’d be too much laughter.

“Your turn,” Rebecca said, after throwing her three darts and winding up with a double seventeen.

“Nice start,” Delaney said.

“She didn’t start, I did,” Billy Joe corrected. “And I got a triple bull.”

Delaney threw her own darts and landed a bull’s-eye on her first, and a twenty on her third. But she was having a tough time concentrating with Conner Armstrong only half a room away and every available woman in the place—and some who weren’t so available—fanning herself at the sight of him.

“He’s not that handsome,” she muttered, but even Rebecca seemed to disagree.

“Laney, you can call that man a lot of things, but unhandsome isn’t one of them.”

“Whose side are you on?” Delaney asked, looking over her shoulder yet again. Only, this time she found Conner staring right back at her and nearly dropped her drink. Immediately glancing away, she set her glass on the small round table where they kept their darts, grabbed Billy Joe’s arm and demanded he dance with her. He seemed a little befuddled by the sudden move, but he obliged, and a few minutes later, his brother and Rebecca joined them on the floor.

“What’s up with you girls tonight?” Bobby asked, scratching his head as they all turned slowly in a circle to Lee Ann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance.”

“Conner’s here,” Rebecca explained.

“The millionaire’s grandson?”

Rebecca nodded. “That’s him.”

Billy Joe smiled. “Where?”

“Don’t look now,” Delaney cried. “He might be watching us.”

“Then, let’s give him a show, darlin’.” Pulling her into a much tighter embrace, he buried his face in her neck and clung to her as though they were lovers.

“I think you’ve had too much to drink,” Delaney said, squirming until she could maneuver them into a position that was a little more respectable. But he only laughed and dropped a quick kiss on her lips.

“Let’s see how he likes that,” he said, but Rebecca and Bobby weren’t laughing with him, and the moment Delaney looked up, she saw why. Conner was charging through the dancers, practically shoving them to one side. And he was coming straight for her.

She gazed up at Billy Joe. “I don’t think he liked it.”

“I don’t think so, either,” he said, sobering.

Delaney didn’t have a chance to say any more before Conner took hold of her arm.

“I believe this is my dance,” he said.

Billy Joe hesitated, but after a moment, he stepped back. “Sure. I was just congratulating her on the baby.”

“Fine,” Conner said. “We appreciate it.” But his body language said he didn’t appreciate Billy Joe at all, and Billy Joe knew enough to clear out.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Delaney asked, as Conner slipped his arms around her waist.

“Dancing.”

She tilted back her head to see his face. “You had no right to break in.”

“You’re carrying my baby. I think that gives me some rights.”

Delaney tried to stop dancing, but he pressed his hand against the small of her back and kept her swaying with him to the music.

“Don’t you agree?”

“That would depend on what kind of rights you mean,” she said. “You’re acting as though you have some say over what I do.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked. “You already got what you want from me and now you’re not interested in any more?”

Not interested in any more? Delaney could feel his body only a heartbeat away, and remembered how he’d made love to her. He’d used his hands and his mouth to relax and excite her in ways she’d never imagined, then struck a rhythm that carried her with him, swiftly and easily, until she forgot all self-consciousness and everything else—except him. He’d been part of every thought, every sensation, and was now so inextricably connected to her ideal of the perfect lover that she wondered if anyone else would ever compare.

“I don’t know what you want me to say.” She glanced at the people around them as if the sight of the familiar might take her mind off being in Conner’s arms again. “I can’t undo what happened in Boise.”

Rebecca touched her shoulder from behind. “Laney, we’ll be over at the darts.”

“Great. I’ll go with you,” she said, and started to step away, but Conner locked his hands behind her back.

“She’ll meet you later,” he told Rebecca.