Read Online Maverick (Star Valley Book 3) by Dahlia West - Free Book Online

say?” Candace shouted through the door.
    Leah blinked at it. “It says… pregnant .”
    Candace squealed and threw open the door. “It does? Let me see!”
    Leah held it up, underneath the bright, overhead light.
    Pregnant.
    Candace let out a low whistle. “I’m glad I sprung for the one that was easy to read.”
    Out of the bathroom, now seated at the kitchen table, Leah kept staring that the strip, as though it would somehow change to Just Kidding ! or Gotcha !
    “Can you believe it?” Candace asked quietly.
    Leah could only shake her head. No. No, she could not believe it.
    “It’s…It’s a mir—”
    “Don’t!” Leah hissed so loudly that Candace snapped back in her chair. “Don’t do that! Don’t say it out loud. Not like that. Don’t say that. ”
    “Leah, it’s not going to go away. This is real. It’s here and it’s real.”
    Leah shook her head, bangs falling into her eyes. “Maybe,” she said cautiously. “Maybe it’s real. These things can be wrong. They’re wrong all the time. It might be real.” And that’s all she was willing to risk at that moment. She knew too much about opening your mouth and letting the Devil know what you were thinking, what you were hoping for.
    “Will you call him?”
    Leah was so lost in her own thoughts it took several moments for her to realize who Candace meant. “I don’t have his number, remember?”
    “Jesus, Leah! I left you alone for one night and you went crazy on me!”
    Instead of arguing, Leah reached out and steadied the test strip firmly, not wanting it to move one inch, as though looking at it from a different angle might affect the readout.
    “What would you do if you could find him?” asked Candace.
    Leah leaned back in the chair and stared up at the ceiling for a long moment. “I don’t know. Tell him. Maybe.”
    “He deserves to know, Leah.”
    She blew out a harsh breath. “Yeah, I guess. I just don’t know how that would work. What if he lives in Cheyenne or Rock Springs? That’s a lot of hard driving. And for 18 years? God, I can’t even think about it.”
    “But you’d tell him?”
    Leah lowered her head and looked at her friend across the table—her best friend. It didn’t matter, really, because she knew she wouldn’t go through this alone. She shrugged. “It’d be the right thing to do.”
    Candace reached out and plucked a folded newspaper off the stack of mail on the table. She flipped it over, laid it back down, and pushed it toward Leah.
    Leah’s heart flip-flopped as she saw a face she recognized, one she’d seen in her dreams about a dozen times since Jackson Hole. “Oh, my God,” she murmured as she slowly lifted her hand toward it—toward him . “Oh, my God.”
    “His name is Austin Barlow,” Candace declared. “And he lives in Star Valley.”
    “Star Valley!” Leah snatched the paper off the table. He was so close! It was unbelievable. There he was looking out at her with his dark eyes and wavy hair and sexy grin that made her melt as though he were there in person. In the photo he was holding the glass trophy she’d seen at the bar. She quickly scanned the story that went along with the picture. Candace was right. He was a cattle rancher who lived just five hours away, which was practically right next door by Wyoming standards. Heat crept up her face at just the thought of seeing him again.
    Maybe he wouldn’t want to see her. Or worse, maybe he’d be furious at the news. Doubt started to creep in and it must’ve been apparent on her face because Candace clucked at her. “You’ve got to tell him, Leah,” she insisted.
    “There’s…there’s no number,” Leah argued stupidly.
    Candace snorted. “There aren’t a lot of ranches in Star Valley called Snake River, I’ll bet. Once we hit town it’ll be easy to find. Says here it takes up half the damn county. Hell, we could drive onto it and just park the car and wait for him to find us .”
    Leah pressed her lips together and stared