When Parker woke up the next morning, the hurt from the night before was still there, but she was also filled with determination. She wasn’t here to try for anything more with Tyler. It didn’t matter how much she wanted it, how much she longed to truly be his. She was here so they could get to know each other. She was here to give her child a shot at having both parents.

She showered and dressed before grabbing her laptop and heading downstairs. Tyler had said he oversaw the outer operations of the farm in the morning, so she wouldn’t run into him. She’d grab some breakfast and then get some work done.

She paused in the sitting room, setting her laptop on a table before looking out the window. An angry thunderstorm had broken out just as she’d gone inside yesterday, and this morning, everything was shiny and still wet, washed clean from the rain. She loved storms, and it had soothed the hurt inside of her a little last night.

Ty had been right about the storm, and she was glad he had been. Ty’s rejection of her still hurt, but she felt like the storm had washed her clean, too. Reminded her of why she was really here. Her hand dropped to her belly. The precious life she was growing was the reason. Nothing else mattered.

Turning away from the window, Parker headed into the kitchen, shyly greeting Leah when she got there. Leah directed her to the counter, where pancakes and bacon were waiting, and Parker filled a plate while Leah poured her a glass of orange juice after she passed on coffee.

Parker sat at the table to eat, smiling a bit uncomfortably at Leah as the older lady sat down across from her with a cup of coffee for herself. She’d never been very comfortable eating while others weren’t, but she couldn’t tell her no.

“How are you liking the farm so far?” Leah asked her.

Parker smiled as she swallowed a bite. “It’s beautiful. I think I’m going to enjoy my time here very much.” Parker hesitated for a moment, feeling fairly certain that Ty hadn’t told anyone about the pregnancy yet. “It’s going to look stunning on the website.”

Leah snorted before taking a sip of her coffee. “And when are you due?”

Parker felt her eyebrows raise. “Ty told you?”

“No, but I can tell. You have that look about you. And I had six babies myself, so it’s a look I know well.”

“Oh, wow, six?” Parker shook her head as she smiled. “I can’t imagine doing this six times.”

Leah chuckled. “I couldn’t either, when I had my first. But I wouldn’t change a thing. Those babies are the best thing that ever happened to me. Well, I guess they’re not babies anymore. All grown up, and all of them living somewhere else now. I wish I saw them more, but we all talk on the phone fairly often.”

Parker chatted with Leah more about babies and pregnancy while she finished her breakfast, staying to talk after she was finished. Leah had a lot of experience and was full of valuable advice, everything coated in humor and laughter. Parker had a feeling they could get pretty close if she stayed long.

Leah finished off her coffee and stood with a sigh. “I reckon I ought to get back to work. And I’m probably keeping you from that website you’re designing,” she said with a wink thrown Parker’s way.

Parker laughed as she stood up. She offered to wash her dishes, but Leah shooed her away with a joke about trying to take her job, and Parker headed back to the sitting room. She sat down and opened her laptop to work, but her eyes kept straying to the window.

She sighed and rubbed her head, frustrated that she couldn’t focus. She didn’t have anything pressing at the moment and had scheduled it like this for a reason while she took her trip, but she did still have deadlines she wouldn’t mind getting ahead of.

She slumped back in her chair, looking around the room, taking in again the old and worn furnishings. She wondered if Red Moon was struggling a bit financially or if Ty and Chase just put everything back into the farm operations. She thought back to the ancient desktop computer on Ty’s desk. It was probably more of a financial struggle, because she couldn’t see Ty not updating that since it had to make dealing with farm work difficult.

Parker sat up as a thought hit her. She might be able to help. Maybe she really could build a website for Red Moon. Website’s really weren’t what she did, but she was experienced in them from building her own. She just needed to know exactly what Red Moon did: what crops they grew, what animals they raised, and what animals they sold. She’d grown up in a ranching and farming community, but she’d grown up in town. Her dad was a banker and her mom was a teacher. She didn’t know much about farms, but she could learn.

Feeling excited, Parker closed her laptop and headed outside. She’d just take a look around until she waited for Ty to get back to the house. She would put her idea to him then and ask him questions about what they offered here then.

Parker wondered around for a moment, not sure where to start. She walked to the equipment shed and peeked inside quickly before moving on. She had no idea what most of that did, so it was best to leave it alone until she had Ty or Chase with her.

Tucking her hands in the pockets of her shorts, Parker strolled slowly around, taking everything in. She passed a pen with goats inside and smiled at their playfulness. She’d never been around animals other than house pets, but she was enjoying the change. When she got to the pig pen, she stopped and then climbed on the bottom rung to get a better look.

The pig inside was huge, and Parker assumed it was a female, since there were some piglets nearby. They were the cutest things she’d ever seen, playing in the mud and having a grand old time. Momma pig wasn’t exactly cute, but her size was impressive.

Parker looked around, wondering what all pigs ate. She’d heard people say slop a lot, but was that all, or did they get fed some type of pig food or something? And did they sell the piglets? She’d like to put them on the website. Cuteness like that needed shared.

“What the hell are you doing, Parker?”

Letting out a shriek of surprise at the sound of Ty’s voice right behind her, Parker jumped and found her foot slipping. Clutching onto the post, she wobbled as Ty came up behind her, grabbing her to stop her from falling before easing her to the ground.

Parker let off a shaky laugh, fighting off embarrassment as Ty stepped back, keeping his hands on her arms.

“Seriously Parker, what the hell? You shouldn’t be climbing on shit! You’re pregnant, in case you’ve forgotten. I don’t know, maybe you have. Not eating, trying to carry shit, climbing and almost falling and breaking your pretty neck.”

Parker studied Ty’s face, frowning slightly. She’d wanted to laugh at his rant, but the urge went away when she saw the genuine worry on his face. “Ty. Take a breath. It’s okay. I don’t normally skip meals. I mean, look at me. Do I look like I don’t get enough to eat? I don’t carry anything heavy. I just wanted to carry my bathroom bag, which wouldn’t hurt me or the baby. I’m not fragile, and carrying stuff like that won’t hurt either of us. As for climbing, I was less than a foot off of the ground. And I would have been fine. The only reason I lost my footing was because I didn’t hear you approach and you startled me. Even if I’d fallen, the only thing that would have been hurt was my ego. It wouldn’t have been much of a fall. The baby and I are fine, and we’re going to stay that way.”

Ty searched her eyes for a moment before sighing and pulling away to run a hand through his hair. “Okay. I probably overreacted, but I worry about you. Worrying isn’t something I’m used to doing, so I don’t always handle it well.” He shot her a look under hooded eyes, and she felt a zing go through her body, practically feeling that look down to her toes. “And look at you? I have looked at you, Parker. Every inch of you, and I can’t stop looking. You’re gorgeous, and if you don’t realize that, or haven’t noticed the effect you have on me, you’re not as smart as I thought you were. Now why were you looking at Franny?”

Parker blinked, mouth opening and closing like a fish, taken aback both by his comment about how she looked, and the sudden change in conversation. He thought she was gorgeous? And she had an effect on him? She couldn’t keep up with him. One minute he was basically running from her and the next, he was telling her how gorgeous she was.

And Franny? Who was Franny? Parker looked around, still disoriented, and realized he must be talking about the pig. “Franny is the pig?” She asked, wanting to make sure.

“Yeah, the sow. Big old gal,” he said affectionately, going to stand by the pig pen.

Parker fought to keep the amusement off of her face as she moved to stand by him. Big muscled tatted up bad boy, who loved his pig? Her amusement faded, replaced by warmth. Something about that combination was making her heart melt.

“Sounds like you like Franny a lot,” she replied, moving to stand next to him at the fence.

“Yeah, well,” Ty said, clearing his throat and shifting uncomfortably. “I’ve raised her since she was a piglet. She was the runt of her litter that no one thought would make it. I hand fed her and everything. She ended up being the best of them. We almost lost her last year, and we would have if Kendall hadn’t come to save her.”

Parker felt her eyes narrowing as she heard the affection in his tone when he talked about Kendall. This felt a whole lot like jealousy, but who was she to get jealous over who Ty liked? She might be having Tyler’s baby, but she and Ty weren’t together. He could like who he wanted.

Didn’t mean she had to like it, though.

“Kendall?” She asked, fighting to keep the emotion out of her voice. Going by the amused glance Ty shot her, she didn’t succeed.

“Yeah, Kendall Montgomery? You know who she is, right? Y’all are fairly close in age.”

Parker nodded. She knew who he was talking about, although it didn’t make her feel any better. Kendall was very pretty, if she remembered right. Kendall was really nice, too, she thought, feeling slightly guilty about sending dagger thoughts the other woman’s way. “We never talked much, but I remember who she is.”

“She’s a vet now. When Franny here was poisoned last year, Kendall left her family’s ranch to stay here and save her.” Ty sent her another look, amusement still dancing in his dark gaze. “That’s when she fell for Sam. Sam is Garret’s brother. They’re mat—married now. Sam lives on Bear Claw Ranch with her.”

Parker pretended to study Franny so she could avoid the knowing in Ty’s eyes, wondering over the stutter on his words when he said married. Maybe it was stuff about his dual nature he was almost letting slip. She needed to pay closer attention; maybe then she could figure some of it out.

“Franny was poisoned?”

Tyler sighed, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah. One of the women who worked closely to Sam with the animals had a crush on him. She thought poisoning the livestock was a good way to get his attention,” he added wryly.

Parker shook her head. Women like that gave her whole gender a bad name, and perpetuated the crazy women stereotype. Although in her case, maybe she really had been crazy to do something like that.

“I’m glad it all turned out okay,” she said quietly.

“Speaking of Sam, that’s him over there,” Ty said, nodding to the big barn.

A huge redheaded man, almost as big as Ty, was carrying a large bag of feed over his shoulder as he headed to the barn. He saw them and nodded, lips curved up in a grin. Parker raised a hand in a wave as Ty nodded back at him.

She was instantly relieved when Sam didn’t look as if he was going to come over. She was doing so well, holding her own with Ty, and even managing to resemble a normal person with Chase, but her reaction to Garret last night had proven that her social skills were still sadly lacking. And selfishly, she didn’t want anything, or anyone, to interrupt the flow she was managing with Ty.

Ty turned away from the fence, motioning for her to walk with him, and Parker hurried to follow before Sam changed his mind and headed over. She snuck a peek at Ty, wondering if he was moving them because he wanted to be alone with her as much as she wanted to be alone with him. It wasn’t likely, but it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility either, she supposed.

“You never did tell me why you were watching Franny,” Ty said.

“Oh! So I was thinking,” Parker began excitedly, “that I really could build that website for Red Moon. That way I wouldn’t be fibbing to Chase or anyone else about why I’m here.”

Ty sent her a surprised look, putting his palm to the small of her back to guide her around some rocks on the ground. “I told Chase yesterday, actually. I’m not sure what we’d even do with a website.”

Suppressing a shiver at his touch, Parker gestured wildly with her hands as she spoke. “Advertise! A website would get the farm’s name out there and potentially bring in more customers. I don’t know a lot about farming, but I’m sure you sell your crops and animals and such. Red Moon would have a larger reach, and if you hit the right target audience, the benefits could be a boon financially.”

Ty shook his head as he rubbed his jaw. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about building a website”

“Luckily, I do. It’s not really something I do, but I built my own, and it’s pretty successful. I know what I’m doing. I have my camera with me and I can take some photos for the graphics. I just need you to talk me through everything you offer here. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“What about running it? Who will do that? It sounds like a full time job, and I don’t have time to do that. I wouldn’t even know where to begin.”

Parker waved a hand. “Oh, I can do that. It’s not really a full time job, especially in the beginning. You need to build up the website traffic before you spend a whole lot of time at it. Getting it designed and up and running is the hard part at first.”

Ty halted and Parker turned to him in question. He had that intense look on his face, and his eyes had darkened. “You’ll be here to run it, Parker?”

Her breath stalled in her chest. The look in his eyes said he wanted her to be, but… “I mean, yeah. For a while, at least. And you know, I don’t have to physically be here to run the website.” Parker watched him closely, and noticed that his face dropped slightly as he looked at the ground, shielding his eyes from her. Testing out a theory, she said, “I can always take new pictures of things when I visit with the baby.”

Ty’s gaze snapped back up to meet hers, black eyes narrowed as he glared at her. She absently wondered if the color change was from his shifter nature or if they’d do that anyway. “Fuck, Parker. Are you going to make me say it so soon? I don’t want you to go home, okay?”

Parker’s heart stopped in her chest and then began beating again in a furious rhythm. Those words, coming out of his sculpted mouth… They were potent. The experiment on the whole had been a bust, though. She still didn’t know if he wanted her to stay because of the baby or because he wanted her. Or both. She figured it had been stupid to try to find out, especially this soon, but she hadn’t been able to stop herself from trying. His ‘pull her close and then push her away’ actions were confusing, and she wanted to be on clearer ground.

She couldn’t ignore the other truth, though. She wanted him, just as much as she wanted to know where they stood.

She watched as he lifted his hand to touch her, before he clenched his fist and drop it back to his side. Parker squeezed her eyes shut in frustration for a moment before looking at him as he spoke again.

“This website? It would require a lot of time at your laptop, right?”

Parker cracked a genuine smile. “You mean keep me out of trouble? Sitting in a chair, not doing much of anything, like a pregnant lady should?”

Ty chuckled, his eyes returning to their chocolate color as his smile reached them. “That’s basically what I’m asking.”

“Yes, I’m sure it will keep me out of trouble. It’ll keep me busy, at least.”

Ty hesitated for a moment, searching her eyes. “And give us one more reason to spend time together,” he said softly, almost to himself. “Okay, Parker. Go for it. I have to get back to work. I’m not done with my morning rounds yet. Just, promise me, if you start taking pictures this morning, you won’t go scaling walls or toting bricks around, alright?”

She smiled at that. “I promise not to perform super hero-like acts while I’m photographing.”

“Good,” he replied with one last lingering glance before he turned and headed away.

Parker fanned herself as she watched him. He looked just as good going as he did coming. She just wished she could figure him out and know for sure what he wanted.