Expecting His Brother's Baby
Karen Rose Smith
Silhouette Romance 0373247796

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She was the woman he'd always wanted but couldn't have...or could he?

Old and forbidden desires began to reemerge when Brock Warner returned to Wyoming to help Kylie run his family's ranch.  He hadn't pursued her years  ago because she'd been too young and achingly innocent--and then his brother had claimed Kylie for his own.

Kylie's failing marriage had ended with her unfaithful husband's death.   Now she was left only with bittersweet memories, an empty bank account and a baby on the way.  Brock's homecoming had her thinking back to the kiss they'd once shared.  And had her wondering about what could have been...
 

REVIEWS 

"In all three books, Ms. Smith paints the mountains and valleys surrounding her fictional town with a colorful and lovingly applied brush. The stories are enriched as well with deftly drawn characters, major and minor. In EXPECTING HIS BROTHER'S BABY, Ms. Smith brings off a difficult premise and makes it work...For a fast-moving, emotion-stirring read with a happy-ever-after conclusion, be sure to get EXPECTING HIS BROTHER'S BABY and put it atop your to-be-read pile. And don't forget its prequels if you haven't enjoyed them already."  ~ Jane Bowers/Romance Reviews Today

"...Kylie's Expecting His Brother's Baby (4), and Brock can't get past it. Karen Rose Smith concludes Baby Bonds with another solid effort. Kylie's instantly sympathetic, and she's the heart of this unusual, engaging tale." ~ Catherine Witmer/Romantic Times Bookclub

PROLOGUE

Wild Horse Junction, Wyoming

Kylie Warner didn't often compare herself to other women. She'd been a tomboy all her life, more comfortable on a horse than anywhere else. Function, rather than fashion, had always directed her clothes choice. But meeting this pert and sexily-dressed waitress from Clementine's--Wild Horse Junction's watering hole--Kylie felt as if she'd let herself go. With her straight blond hair drawn back in a ponytail, and in her parka snug over her maternity outfit, she wondered what had happened to her sense of womanly pride since Alex died.

"I'm Trish," the waitress said with a smile that looked more forced than genuine. "We can use the boss's office. He went home for dinner."

When Trish had called Kylie, she'd said she wanted to talk to her about boarding her horse at Saddle Ridge Ranch.

Since her pregnancy, Kylie hadn't been able to take on training horses...or even giving lessons. After her baby was born, she was hoping to jump in again with both feet. Until she could, boarding horses could help keep Saddle Ridge from sinking deeper into debt.

At seven-and-a-half months pregnant she was driving herself hard, concentrating on the new life growing inside of her while at the same time managing Saddle Ridge as well as working as office manager at Wild Horse's temporary employment agency. No wonder she hadn't gotten her hair trimmed in months or applied more than lipstick before she left the ranch every morning.

As she followed the brunette in the short black skirt down the hall to the saloon's office, the hairs on the nape of Kylie's neck prickled. Something about Trish Hammond's demeanor seemed...off. Kylie's hand protectively went to her tummy. The fingers of her other hand gripped her purse tighter.

This is about boarding a horse, she scolded herself. Relax.

Yet once she stood inside the small cluttered office and Trish Hammond closed the door, her uneasiness grew. Squaring her shoulders and lifting her chin, she looked the waitress in the eye. "You have one horse to board?"

Trish's red blouse clung to her breasts as she gave an off-handed shrug. "I never exactly told you I had a horse to board. I just said I wanted to talk about it. Really, I had another reason for asking you here. I have something you might want. It belonged to your husband."

Trish opened her cowhide purse the same shade of red as her boots and extracted something shiny.

Kylie felt suddenly queasy as she recognized the belt buckle. Alex had several of them that he'd won at rodeos. Bull-riding had always been his passion...and it had killed him.

Her mouth went dry. Her heart raced. Her worst fears, which had gnawed at her over the past couple of years, had also urged her to hide her head in the sand. Yet she knew she had to play this out. She knew she had to finally face the truth.

Taking the buckle from Trish, she turned it over and saw the engraving on the back. Alex had been dead for four months, but he still had the power to hurt her. The date on the belt buckle was April, the month before she'd gotten pregnant.

When she lifted her gaze to Trish's, she knew this was the woman who'd been calling the ranch and hanging up whenever Alex wasn't home. This was the woman who had been her competitor and she hadn't even known it. It had been Trish's initial on the cocktail napkin Kylie had
found when she'd sorted through Alex's clothes.

Why had Trish called her here? To humiliate her? To see for herself the woman Alex had married, yet betrayed? Kylie could attack. She could sling accusations. She could show how much she was shaken by this proof that Alex had cared for someone else, maybe as much as he'd cared for her, perhaps even more. But she knew anything she did or said could affect
her baby. She could gain satisfaction for a minute, but anxiety from words flung in pain would last a lot longer. Her hands trembled and she wouldn't let Trish Hammond see that.

Whatever Trish's reasons for needing this confrontation, Kylie wouldn't give her the satisfaction of a scene. She laid the buckle on the desk. "If Alex gave that to you, then he wanted you to have it." She turned to leave.

Obviously Trish had wanted to get a much bigger rise out of her because she asked, "Didn't you mind sharing your husband?"

Fury rocked Kylie. She didn't think she'd ever been this angry in her whole life. But she also knew her life with her son or daughter was more important than any hurt this woman could inflict.

Still, she couldn't keep the fierceness from her voice. "I believed in the vows I made. I tried to hold my marriage together, but I couldn't do it alone."

As tears burned her eyes, she turned her back on the other woman and left Clementine's quickly. Outside she blindly made her way to her small blue pickup at the edge of the parking lot. Rooting for her keys, she finally found them as she tried not to think...tried not to
feel...tried not to remember.

However as she climbed into her truck and turned the ignition switch, she did remember--the weeks at a time Alex had gone on the road following the circuit, the nights of loneliness, the days of chores, and finally facing the fact that Saddle Ridge was sinking deeper and deeper
into debt and her husband wouldn't listen to her about it.

Backing out of her parking space, she veered toward the lot's entrance and Wild Horse Way. Once on the road she turned on the heater, knowing she was too cold inside for the warmer air to do any good. Tears began falling then as she relived her decision to leave Alex if he didn't go to a counselor with her. Before he'd left for his last rodeo in Las Vegas, they'd argued. He'd accused her of getting pregnant on purpose to keep him at home more. She'd insisted their marriage didn't stand a chance unless they tried couples' therapy. That had been the main reason for her taking the job at the temp agency. Not only to earn more money to pay for the bills, but to pay for counseling so they could put their marriage back together and maybe start over.

As she avoided a pothole in the road, tears fell harder. She increased her speed outside of town. Her heart hurt so badly she knew it might finally break. Picturing the satisfaction in Trish Hammond's eyes as she'd handed Kylie the belt buckle, Kylie couldn't hold in the sobs that broke loose now.

Distracted, she barely registered the upcoming pothole. As she hit it, her truck listed and fell to the right, banging onto the road. She lost control and, in horror, knew she was going to land in the ravine.

One prayer passed her lips. "Lord, keep my baby safe."

Then the truck lurched sideways and fell sharply, throwing her against the door. When her head hit the steering wheel, a gray fog swept over her. Closing her eyes, she let it engulf her, relieved to escape the pain of a broken heart.

CHAPTER ONE

Panic gripped Kylie as Brock Warner entered her room Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately her enforced stay in the hospital since Friday had given her too much time to remember her confrontation with Trish Hammond. All she'd been able to think about was her husband's infidelity.

Now here was his half brother! How had he found out about her accident? Was he going to try to convince her to sell Saddle Ridge?

"What are you doing here?" Her emotions were so raw right now the question had just popped out.

Shoving his black Stetson higher on his forehead, Brock stopped beside the chair where Kylie sat. "Dix called me. He was worried sick about you."

Her foreman shouldn't have meddled. "I'm fine."

"Don't you just look fine." Brock's thick black brows quirked up as he took notice of her sling, then the bruise on her forehead.

Her brother-in-law's Apache blood was evident in the hue of his skin, the dark somberness of his eyes, the jet blackness of his hair. Brock Warner emanated a sensuality when he walked, when he talked, when he smiled, in a way she'd seen in few men. It had given her a
jumbled, off-balance sensation when she was a teenager...and still did now. She remembered the night she graduated from high school, the night she'd kissed him and--

She stood, pride and courage taking over for her and her unborn child. "I'm sorry Dix dragged you here from...from wherever you were."

"Texas," Brock filled in. "Between consultations."

"When did you arrive?" she asked warily, her gaze taking in everything about him. She hadn't seen him since Jack Warner's funeral five years ago...when Brock's new wife had accompanied him.

"I got in about an hour ago. Dix looked worn out, so I offered to come get you."

Concern for Dix took away her annoyance at his interference. He'd been a friend of her father's and had looked out for her in a quiet way since he'd gotten her a job at Saddle Ridge. They were both worn out. Trying to keep the ranch afloat without any outside help had been
wearing on them long before Alex had died.

Brock's gaze softened as it slid from her loose blond hair to her maternity top. "I'm sorry about what happened to Alex."

Brock had told her that on the phone after he'd missed Alex's funeral. He'd been doing whatever geologists did somewhere in Central America. Away from civilization, he hadn't called his home in Texas for messages in over a week. When he finally had, he'd phoned her and learned
about the bull-riding accident that had taken his brother's life. By that time, though, Alex was buried and she hadn't wanted Brock to learn the condition of Saddle Ridge. It was during that phone call she'd found out Brock had gotten a divorce over a year ago. It was during that phone call she'd told him she was pregnant but managing perfectly fine.

"I'm sorry for your lost, too," she said quietly, knowing Brock had cared deeply about Alex.

"The last time I talked to him he was in Utah. I should have kept in touch more often," Brock said with real regret.

The crack in Kylie's heart grew a little wider when she thought about the last time she had talked to Alex. After he'd left early for his last rodeo, she'd been sure their marriage had been over. With what she'd found out from Trish Hammond, it had been over long before that day.

A smiling nurse bustled into the room, cast an admiring look at Brock, then handed Kylie a few papers. "Here are Dr. Marco's instructions. I understand he went over them with you this morning."

Kylie studied the checklist. For the most part, she was supposed to rest for the next two weeks.

Brock took the papers from her hands. "I spoke with your doctor a few minutes ago. I told him I'd make sure you followed his recommendations."

"What do you mean you'll make sure? You can go back to Texas. I don't need you here. Dix should never have called you."

"You should have called me long before this. One look at the place--" He shook his head. "There will be time enough for this discussion. Right now, let's get you home."

As Brock took her elbow, Kylie's knees felt wobbly. She could smell the piney musk of his aftershave, feel the strength in his large hand. She had once dreamed of more than friendship with Brock Warner, but he'd dismissed her as too young for his consideration. When he'd come home with a wife, that had told Kylie more than anything else that she'd never belong in his life.

Six months after that, she'd married Alex.

She and Alex had gone to school together. He'd teased her in the play-yard. They'd shared homework. When her Pop died and she'd had to sell their homestead to pay debts, when she'd moved to Saddle Ridge and taken a room above the barn to be a groom to the horses, Alex had still seemed more like a brother than a suitor. Then suddenly, after his dad died, he'd turned the full extent of his cowboy charm on her. Not only that, he'd needed her. He'd poured out his grief to her and she'd shared his loss...because she'd lost her own dad. Never one to sit still enough to figure numbers, Alex had asked her to help him with the book work, and
he'd found her suggestions made sense. Yet he'd had his own agenda. Marrying her had only been a part of it.

Now, she didn't know if he'd ever really loved her. She had loved him, in a loyal, until-death-do-us-part kind of way. She'd wanted to have children with him. She'd wanted to raise a brood--sons and daughters who would always have each other and the legacy of Saddle Ridge to depend upon. But Alex had wanted to postpone having kids and it wasn't until they'd been married a couple of years that she'd really understood he'd never grown up himself, that he'd intended to ride the rodeo circuit until he was too old to care about conquering the next ornery bull.

When a volunteer came into the room with a wheelchair, Kylie pulled away from Brock's clasp. "I can walk. I don't need--"

"Hospital policy," the nurse announced cheerily.

Brock hefted up the worn, leather duffle bag that had been her Pop's. "I'll take this to the car and meet you at the front entrance."

As Brock left the hospital room, Kylie almost felt dizzy with relief. Then she reminded herself the woozy feeling probably had come from the concussion. Concussion or not, she was clear-headed about one important fact--she would never depend on Brock Warner. He was not going to look after her...or interfere in her life.

A short time later, Brock picked her up at the hospital's entrance. They'd driven in silence for about five minutes when Kylie cut the awkward tension. "Did you rent this?" "This" was a white SUV.

"Yes. For now. But after what happened to your truck, I'll be going to look for something to replace it."

"Dix said it could be repaired."

"It had a broken ball joint. It's fifteen years old. With over 150,000 miles, it's time to let go of it, Kylie."

Holding onto the first vehicle she'd ever owned hadn't been strictly sentimentality. She simply couldn't afford to replace it. "I'll check the paper for used trucks."

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it. The ranch could use a new one. What happened to the crew-cab Alex won?"

So Brock had known about that, Kylie realized. Two years ago, a prize at one of the rodeo competitions had been a brand spanking new silver truck, but it had been a gas guzzler. "I sold it."

"Why didn't you keep it and get rid of yours?"

Because she couldn't have gotten anything for hers. "I did what I thought was best."

The message she sent was clear--the truck she drove was none of his business.

Brock's jaw tightened and deep furrows dented his brows.

Turning away from him, she stared out the side window. If he thought he could come in here and just ride roughshod over her, he was sadly mistaken.


From the book: EXPECTING HIS BROTHER'S BABY, by Karen Rose Smith - Silhouette Special Edition, September 2006, ISBN:0-373-24779-0. Copyyright: 2006
 

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