Parker took a deep breath as she pulled onto the street her parents lived on. She’d been putting this off for months, but she needed to tell them about the pregnancy. Especially since she was back in town. They’d be concerned and hurt if they found out she was back and hadn’t told them. Eagle Creek was a small town. There was no hope that they wouldn’t find out.

Yesterday had been her first full day at Red Moon, and she’d enjoyed herself. The farm was beautiful, and everyone was friendly, even though Tyler, Chase, and Leah were the only ones she could be around so far without her shyness kicking in. She’d worried when Chase hadn’t come to dinner last night, but Ty had said he was out with friends. Parker didn’t want to run Chase out of his home.

Her time with Ty had been a bit of a revelation, too. They’d worked in ease with each other yesterday afternoon and then enjoyed a peaceful dinner before sitting down to watch a movie. Very little movie watching had happened though, because they’d spent the whole time talking. They got along really well, and had a surprising amount in common.

Even if their relationship never progressed past this point, she felt like they would be great friends. And that was what mattered, for the baby. Having parents who were good friends was the next best thing to having parents that were truly together. Everything was looking up.

She pulled into her parent’s driveway and stared at the modest home she’d grown up in. It was a Sunday, and both cars were here, so she wouldn’t be able to put this off anymore. Her parents had always been supportive, but who could say how they’d react to her news?

Blowing out a breath, she shoved her car door open and walked to the door before knocking on it. A few moments later, her mom opened the door with a polite smile that froze when she saw it was Parker at the door.

“Parker? Honey, what are you doing here? Did we know you were coming? What am I saying, of course we didn’t. That’s not something we’d forget. Robert, Parker’s here!” She hollered as she pulled Parker into the house.

Her mom pulled her into a hug, enveloping Parker in her arms and a cloud of Chanel. For a moment, Parker fought tears as she was instantly transported back to her childhood again, when everything was simple and uncomplicated. She was pulled back into the present when her father walked into the hallway.

“Parker? What are you doing here? Did we know you were coming?”

“Of course not, Robert. We wouldn’t forget something like that,” Janelle scolded, disregarding the fact that she’d just asked the same thing moments before. “Come on, dear, let’s go sit in the living room and talk. I’m sure you didn’t come all the way from California just to catch up.”

A few minutes later, they were all sitting in the living room, glasses of tea her mom had fetched in their hands. The silence stretched out and Parker felt herself getting more uncomfortable as she fought with how and where to start.

“Do you have luggage you need me to bring in,” her dad said, starting to put his glass down so he could rise.

“No, no. Don’t worry about it,” Parker said, omitting that all of her luggage was at Tyler’s farm. “Mom, Dad… I need to tell you something.”

Her mom instantly jumped up. “I knew it! You’re sick. Why else would you show up here without a phone call first? Don’t worry honey, whatever it is, we’ll get you well again,” she said, pacing in front of her chair. “Tell us straight. How bad is it?”

“Mom!” Parker said loudly, interrupting her. “I’m not sick! I swear. Not sick, not dying. I’m perfectly healthy. Calm down.”

Her mom sank back down in her chair with a puzzled frown. “Then what else would bring you all the way out here, that you couldn’t tell us on the phone?”

“Are you gay, Parker? It’s okay, you can tell us. I’ve always suspected you were. There won’t be judgements here,” her dad asked.

“Now that’s a horrible thing to say, Robert,” her mom scolded. “Not about the judgements. Of course we wouldn’t judge. We’d love Parker no matter what. But you suspected? How did you suspect something like that and not tell me?”

Parker sighed and rubbed her forehead as her parents went back and forth. Her dad had always thought she was gay? How had he come to that conclusion? She’d never had boyfriends, true, but she’d hardly ever brought friends that were girls over, either.

She exhaled heavily and looked up at her parents. She had to get this out before they came up with more craziness.

“Mom. Dad.” Taking a deep breath, she blurted, “I’m pregnant.”

Silence reigned over the room. Her mom was frozen and her dad had a deeply surprised look on his face.

Her dad was the first to break the silence. “So you’re not gay, then?” He asked, a wealth of shock in his voice. “Although I suppose you don’t have to be straight to have a baby. You and your partner could have found a sperm donor.”

Parker shook her head in exasperation. Her dad sure was holding on to his belief that she was a lesbian. “No, Dad, I’m not gay. Totally straight.”

“Hmph,” her dad grunted. “Guess I’ll have to readjust years worth of thinking, then.”

Her mom finally seemed to come out of the daze she’d been in. “Oh, get over it, Rob. Parker… you’re going to have a baby? Where’s the father? He didn’t want to come to Wyoming with you? He shouldn’t have let you drive so far on your own. How far along are you?”

Parker twisted her fingers together. “I’m four, almost five, months along. The father… he doesn’t live in California. He lives here in Eagle Creek.”

“Eagle Creek? Four months ago? So it happened the weekend of Tiffany’s wedding. I didn’t see you with anyone at the wedding. Who is it?” Her mother said rapid fire.

“He didn’t come to the wedding. It happened the night of the bachelorette party. I ran into an old friend at Pete’s,” Parker explained, stretching the truth. They didn’t need to know Ty hadn’t remembered her from school. “You guys probably know who he is. Tyler MacKeltar.”

“Tyler MacKeltar? The one who owns that farm, Blue Moon? Strange name for a farm,” her mom muttered. “He was a… nice boy.”

“It’s Red Moon, honey,” her dad said. “Nice boy isn’t exactly how I remember him. Hoodlum is more like it. I haven’t heard much about him lately, but I’m sure that hasn’t changed. He’s got all those tattoos, and I’m sure he’s on steroids or something. Have you seen how big he is?”

Parker laughed. “Dad, he’s not on steroids. He owns a farm, remember? He does a lot of manual labor. Besides, I have a tattoo, and I’m not a hoodlum.”

“A very tasteful rose on your ankle, dear. Not a bunch of skulls. Although I don’t see anything wrong with his. They’re sexy,” her mom replied.

“Janelle!” Her dad exclaimed as Parker looked at her mom in surprise.

“What? It’s true. Tyler is a very good looking young man. Well done, Parker.”

Parker burst out laughing, some of her tension easing even as her dad glowered at his wife.

“I don’t want you guys to get the wrong impression. There’s not a wedding imminent or anything. I just told Ty I was pregnant this week when I got here, and we’re taking it slow, getting to know each other better before the baby is born. We’re not jumping into anything just because I’m pregnant.”

“I think that’s wise,” her dad grumbled as her mom swatted him on the arm. “What? It is. I’m not too sure of him, no matter how ‘sexy’ you think he is, Janelle.”

“Would you feel like that if it was Gordon? Don’t judge a book by its cover, Robert.”

Parker wrinkled her nose at the mention of Gordon. He was the son of her dad’s bank manager and a sniveling, pretentious little weasel. He had been even back in elementary school.

“At least we know he’d be good for her. He’s a good man with a great job,” her dad retorted.

Parker held her hands up as her mom opened her mouth to reply. “It doesn’t matter what kind of man Gordon is. I’m having Ty’s baby, and no matter what happens between us, he’ll always be in my life. Even in yours. He’s your grandchild’s father. I love you, Daddy, but you’re going to have to get used to that.”

“Are you staying in town, Parker?” Her mother asked as her dad sat back in his chair, grumbling under his breath.

“For the foreseeable future, yes. It’s possible I may move back here. I don’t need to stay in San Diego to work, and I have the baby to think of now. Everything is kind of up in the air right now, though. Ty and I have a lot to work through.”

“I think having both parents close would be best for the baby, and your father and I would be absolutely thrilled to have you close again. I’d love to be able to get my hands on that baby whenever I wanted, too,” her mom said. “I agree, though, that you need to work through this with Tyler. It’s a big change, and more than anything, we want you to be happy.”

Her dad sighed. “Your mom is right. Your happiness, and the happiness and well being of the baby, are what matters the most. If you say Tyler is a good man… well, I’ll believe you for now, but I reserve the right to change my mind whenever I want. Can I go get your bags, now that we’ve worked that out?”

Parker shifted on her chair. “I’m staying at Red Moon. Now don’t look like that, Daddy. You just said you were going to give Ty a chance. Besides, I’m back home to try to get to know Ty better. I can’t do that very well if I’m here all the time.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” her mom said with a quelling glance at her father. “You should bring Tyler to dinner sometime soon, Parker. Let us get to know our grandbaby’s daddy. Maybe then your father will chill out,” she added pointedly.

“I’ll ask when he’s free,” Parker promised, inwardly sighing. Coming here for dinner was probably the last thing Ty would want to do, but she thought it was a necessary evil. Her dad was going to be uptight about Ty until he got to know him better.

“You do that. You should tell Tiffany soon, too. She’ll be hurt if she hears about your pregnancy from someone else.”

Parker agreed, and they spent another thirty minutes or so catching up before Parker left with a promise to call and visit often.

She got in her car and then just sat for a moment. That had gone better than she’d ever imagined it would, even with her dad’s reluctance toward Ty. Now she just needed to tell her sister, but she wasn’t near as nervous about that as she had been about her parents.

Putting the car in drive, she backed out of the driveway and headed back to Red Moon with a smile on her face. Everything seemed to be working out.

Parker pulled her car to a stop at the farm and killed the engine before getting out. She waved at Chase, who was coming out of the equipment shed, as she walked to the house. She took a deep breath of the pure country air, as she always did, before she let herself inside. After living in the city for so long, she couldn’t get enough of the clean air here. Something else she’d missed about home, and something she’d never even known she’d missed until she was here.

She paused inside the door, taking in the delicious smell of dinner permeating the air, a bit surprised at the sense of homecoming she felt. She’d only been here for a few days and yet this place felt like hers already. That was dangerous thinking, though. Even if she did move back home, the odds were heavily in favor of her not living here.

She was trying to push away the sudden sadness that had swamped her at that thought when Ty came out of the office. Her breath caught as she saw him. He was big, powerful, and was looking more gorgeous than a man had a right to. She still sometimes had trouble believing she was here because she’d had sex with him. Him! Her childhood crush and a man most women would give their right arms to sleep with.

It had felt like a dream afterward, when she’d gone back to California. It wasn’t until she’d found out that she was pregnant that it had suddenly become very real. Sometimes, though, even with the pregnancy, it was hard to believe.

Ty spotted her and walked over. “Hey, Parker. How did it go?”

“Pretty well. Better than I thought it would, although my dad thinks you’re a hoodlum.”

Ty laughed, his deep baritone washing over her and giving her goosebumps. “He’s not wrong. I used to be a bit of one, but I like to think I’ve grown up now.”

“I think it’s all the tattoos that give off that impression now,” Parker responded with a smile. “I had to remind him that I have a tattoo myself, so if that makes you a hoodlum, so am I.”

Ty’s eyebrows shot up on his forehead. “You have a tattoo? How did I not know this?”

Parker turned her leg to the side and gestured at it. “It’s just a small rose. Most people don’t notice it.”

Ty studied the rose on her ankle before his eyes slowly came back up, tracing her bare legs. When his eyes met hers, Parker couldn’t stop the shiver that wracked her body at the heat in his gaze. “Still, I paid thorough attention to that gorgeous body of yours that night. I thought I had seen everything, but then again, I wasn’t paying too much attention to your ankles. Much better places for me to focus my attention.”

Parker couldn’t tear her eyes from his. She shifted a bit as she felt her nipples pucker and an ache start deep in her core. She watched as his eyes dropped to her lips, and her own did the same to his. He had full lips, the lower one slightly fuller, and she had the sudden urge to nip it, hard. She felt herself leaning toward him and felt nothing but relief when he did the same. She needed his lips on hers. Needed it with an intensity that stole what was left of her breath.

She jumped when she heard Chase calling Tyler’s name from somewhere in the house. Cursing Chase’s rotten timing as Ty pulled back and looked the other way, Parker struggled to control her breathing. She was going to combust if something didn’t give soon. And if it was this bad after only a few days, how in the world was she going to survive here for so long?

Ty turned back to her, studying her face as he did so. “I better go see what he wants. I wanted to let you know that I have some stuff on the farm that I need to check out after dinner, so I’ll be out of the house for a couple hours tonight.”

Parker nodded her understanding, not trusting her voice enough to speak, and watched as he turned to find his brother. Feeling unsettled by the depth of her emotions, she went to get her laptop. Maybe doing some work would help her get her mind off of things. She’d heard pregnant women were hormonal and felt things strongly. She hoped that was the case, because if this need, this yearning, she felt for Ty was real and how she truly felt… She wouldn’t recover when she had to walk away. And it sure seemed like she would have to, because Ty couldn’t seem to make up his mind about what he really wanted from her.