This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales, is entirely coincidental.

  RELAY PUBLISHING EDITION, FEBRUARY 2021

  Copyright © 2021 Relay Publishing Ltd.

  All rights reserved. Published in the United Kingdom by Relay Publishing. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Mary Sue Jackson is a pen name created by Relay Publishing for co-authored Romance projects. Relay Publishing works with incredible teams of writers and editors to collaboratively create the very best stories for our readers.

  Cover Design by Mayhem Cover Creations.

  www.relaypub.com

  Blurb

  Rodeo star Derrick Samson is shocked when he discovers he’s engaged. Especially when it’s to his beautiful ranch manager and former high school sweetheart.

  When he returns home after retiring from years on the circuit, Penelope Martinez explains that the fake engagement was just a way to get her ex off her back. Now she begs him to continue the ruse, but Derrick wants none of it—until he realizes how vital Penelope is to the success of his ranch. So he cuts her a deal: if she stays through the birthing season, he’ll agree to a fake engagement. Penelope is on board, however she has one more condition: absolutely, positively no kissing.

  What was she thinking? No kissing the sexiest cowboy she’s ever known? Turns out that’s a rule that was made to be broken. More than once. To make the engagement seem real, Penelope moves into the ranch house where working closely together with Derrick makes it almost impossible to keep their relationship all business. Soon enough, they’re rekindling the old flame. Being with Derrick is wonderful—at first. But then he starts putting up barriers and pushing her away, leaving Penelope more than confused and wondering if what they have is real at all. It’s almost as if he’s hiding something from her…

  She wants them to be together, but is her love strong enough to get past whatever is holding them apart?

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  End of Rancher’s Pregnant Ex

  Thank you!

  Make an Author’s Day

  About Mary Sue Jackson

  About Leslie North

  Sneak Peek: Cowboy’s Pregnant Employee

  Also By Mary Sue

  Want more?

  One

  He'd parked at the very end of the long, winding drive, intending to approach his old place on foot. After all, Derrick Samson figured, he was home. All of this was his now. Walking the last few hundred feet might help him feel more at peace with having to return with his life in shambles. Or at least a little less like an astronaut dropped on an alien planet. He knew this place, back to front. He might not have ever imagined coming back quite this way…but at least he was settling into something familiar and fully known, fully understood.

  That's what he thought would happen when he shouldered his beat-up old duffel bag and started ambling up the drive. But with every step, his strides slowed, until he eventually stopped altogether and just stood there staring at the landscape.

  He'd spent a lot of time on the rodeo circuit making good-natured barbs about the place he'd grown up, in the Colorado ranching country. “My dad wasn't what you'd call a careful man,” he'd say, swallowing down the pain behind those words and turning it into a joke. “You're probably picturing things all nice and neat and trim, right? Beautiful, well-groomed horses grazing on a hill at sunset? Yeah, it was nothing like that.”

  But there they were. Three beautifully groomed horses, contentedly cropping the lush grass atop the rolling hills as the sun slipped lower on the horizon. Looking like something off a picture-perfect postcard and nothing at all like anything he’d grown up with—nothing like the wreck of a home he still caught himself expecting. He knew things had changed, but his memories were slower to catch up. This wasn’t the home he pictured when he thought of this place. It was so much better.

  “Wow,” he muttered to himself as he spun in a slow circle. Every time he came back to the ranch, it was the same disorienting feeling. “She's done such a damn good job.”

  He still expected to see the old markers of his father's carelessness. The old barn with the sagging, mossy roof. The dry, dusty patches of scrub that the irrigation never reached. The graveyard of rusted-out pick-ups and the teetering stacks of bald tires ringed with overgrown weeds. All those things his father had let slide as his condition got worse had disappeared the second Penelope Martinez had taken over running the ranch.

  Everything looked beautiful, even better than when he'd been here last, over two years ago for his father's funeral. The drive had been packed with cars then. But now it was empty, and nothing stood in the way of his view of the main house up ahead.

  His heart gave a little leap at the sight of the wide, wraparound porch where he'd spent hours, playing with the dogs, doing his homework and waiting for his father to come in from his chores. Back when things were good around here. They looked pretty damn good again, and he wondered to himself if he could possibly do as well at the job as his ex-girlfriend.

  Yeah, it was his ex-girlfriend who'd restored this place to its former glory. The thought didn’t really sting anymore. His and Penelope's breakup was fourteen years in the past. It wasn't like she'd broken his heart last week. No matter how fresh things felt. They'd been kids back then, and now they were adults, and Penny had clearly run this place with care and precision.

  He'd been wondering how he was going to run this place himself now that his rodeo days were behind him, but it was pretty clear that the answer was, “Keep letting Penny do her thing.”

  The question now was, would she do her thing with him here? Technically, she’d been working for him for the past two years, ever since he’d inherited the place—but all their interactions had been from a distance. Working side by side with him might be a whole other matter. He shouldered his pack again and continued his trek up the drive to find out.

  As he neared the main house, he saw the front porch had changed, if only a little. In place of the ancient porch swing that squeaked in even the slightest breeze were two rocking chairs set facing each other. And they were currently occupied by a man and a woman. He couldn't see the man's face.

  But he could see the woman's, and the sight of it made his heart stall in his chest. Breathing hard, Derrick darted for the shelter of the strange pick-up that was parked in the turn-off. He needed a moment to collect himself, because the sight of Penelope Martinez all grown up still had him rattled. Derrick squinted, the better to take her in.

  Her dark-blonde hair glinted in the sunlight, sending out flashes of those golden highlights that used to mesmerize him. She still wore it back from her face, in the thick rope of braid he'd spent hours playing with, twirling the end through his fingers as he listened to her talk. Her shoulders were still slim but strong, and she still held her head up high on that elegant neck of hers. He could distinctly remember kissing his way down it, tracing a path with his lips from her jaw to her shoulder. She looked the same, somehow, but better too, the years touching lightly on her, enhancing her like fine wine.

  She looked gorgeous.

  And she also looked irritated. He could see it in the tense line of her jaw. She lifted her hand and Derrick caught the flash of something. He squinted.

  A ring.

  She had a ring on her left hand. On her ring finger. A flashing glint of diamond that made bile rise in his throat.

  She was engaged?

  Then the man she was facing stood up, and the bile rose even higher. He swallowed hard as he took in the silhouette of Will Reed. They'd been rivals for as long as he could remember, and the sight of him had Derrick instantly on the alert.

  As Will stood up, Derrick straightened up too. What the hell was Will doing here? And why did Penelope look so upset?

  And more importantly, who was she engaged to?

  “I don't understand,” she said, her clear voice carrying all the way down to where Derrick crouched. “What went wrong?”

  Will shrugged. “I can't really say. You know I put in a good word for you.”

  Will mooned at her, but she looked away. Derrick found that he didn't care for the way Will was looking at her one bit.

  “Okay,” she breathed slowly. “This isn't the end of the world. I can still find other ways to get the money.” She stood up. “Thanks for coming by to let me know.”

  “Maybe your fiancé could help you out? Where is Derrick, anyway? I hoped I would run into him.”

  Derrick's heart stalled. He forgot all about the need to keep hidden and took a step forward.

  They both snapped their heads towards him.

  Where was her fiancé? Her fiancé... Derrick?

  Penelope's eyes went wide. She looked from Will back to Derrick, her expression like a trapped and frightened rabbit.

  Derrick looked at her hand again. Now that he was close enough to see it clearly, he realized he'd recognize that ring anywhere. It was his mother's engagement ring. On Penelope's finger.

  An old ripple passed between them as her eyes went round. She tilted her head just a fraction and Derrick knew what she was asking him. Please, her expression said. Please just play along?

  Instinct and desire surged through him. He stepped forward. “Hey there, baby,” he said, holding her gaze and sliding his arm around her waist. It felt too good. Too natural to stop there. He pulled her close, her lush body flush against his, and without a moment of hesitation, he brushed his lips to hers.

  She stiffened in his arms. It was the chastest of pecks, something that he'd give to his grandmother, but an undeniable thrill rippled through him all the same. The tiniest gasp escaped Penelope's lips—from surprise or pleasure, he wasn't sure—then she pulled back. She gave him another one of those wide-eyed, pleading looks before pressing her hand to his chest. “I missed you too,” she said, a little too loudly. “But let's not be 'that' couple, okay?”

  Derrick swallowed down his retort that he had no idea they were a couple again at all and instead just nodded. Whatever this was, she was calling the shots—at least for now. But make no mistake about it, he would be getting an explanation very soon.

  Penelope turned to Will, who was standing stock still on the porch. His hands were balled into fists by his sides, and his normally ruddy complexion had gone a dangerous shade of purple. “Sorry about that,” Penny said primly, but Derrick couldn't help but notice the note of relief in her voice.

  “Yeah, no problem,” Will muttered thickly. “Good to see you again, Derrick.”

  “Hey thanks, Will. Long time no see, huh?” Keeping things polite, he extended his hand in greeting.

  Will looked at it like Derrick was offering him a dead fish. He gave him a weak shake, a single pump up and down, before he dropped it like it had scalded him and looked back at Penelope. “Well, I'll be on my way. Just wanted to give you the news in person.”

  “I appreciate that,” Penelope replied stiffly. She didn't look like she appreciated it one bit.

  Will waited a beat. Then with an explosive sigh, he stepped off the porch. Penelope slid her arm around Derrick's waist. “Hold on,” she murmured out of the corner of her mouth. “Just till he leaves?”

  He couldn't really object to the way she pressed against him. And when she lifted her hand to wave goodbye to Will, he took it one step further, slinging his arm around her shoulders before joining her in waving to the retreating pickup.

  As soon as Will disappeared around the bend, Penelope dropped her arm. “I am so sorry,” she exhaled shakily. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she blew out a long sigh. “Thank you for playing along; you didn't have to do that.”

  “I didn't know what I was doing,” Derrick confessed.

  She nodded. “I know. I'm so sorry.”

  “You keep apologizing,” he said warily. “Why?” He let his eyes settle on her ring. “And does it have anything to do with that?”

  Her eyes went bright and shiny, and Derrick felt a moment of panic that she was about to burst into tears. But Penny was too strong for that. She pulled herself together with a visible shudder and laid her hand on his arm. “Let's go inside,” she said softly. “There's something I need to explain to you, and I feel too awful to do it out here in the light of day.”

  “Pen? I gotta admit, you're kind of freaking me out. What's going on? And why are you wearing my mother's engagement ring?”

  She took another deep breath. “Because your mother gave it to me, Derrick. Because as far as the whole town of Half-Mile Creek is concerned, you and I are engaged.”

  Two

  “Let's talk about this inside?” Penelope tried to keep her voice from shaking as she looked at Derrick's thunderous expression. She couldn't tell if he was shocked or angry or some terrible combination of the two. Regardless, it hurt to see him looking at her that way. No matter how long it had been (fourteen years, Penelope reminded herself. She knew the length of their breakup down to the day) since he left town, she still didn't want him to look at her with such a... look.

  “We're engaged?” Derrick finally asked.

  “Obviously, um, no. And I told you I’m sorry for lying about it.” She touched her finger to her mouth. Brief as it had been, his kiss still burned there, lingering like a brand. He'd played right along so beautifully that she had almost believed this wasn't going to go badly at all.

  Not that she deserved to have him go easy on her. But she'd still hoped. Just a little.

  “Let's go inside,” Derrick snapped.

  Penelope closed her mouth. It wouldn't do to remind him that she'd already suggested that. She bent her head and followed him meekly into the kitchen.

  It was strange having him in here, taking up all the oxygen in the room. She knew that by rights this was his house. But she'd been working here at the Samson Ranch since she was eighteen. Derrick's own father had hired her on. Had made her forewoman five years ago. And for the last two years, since Mr. Samson's passing, she'd been the one in charge here. This place felt like hers.

  She needed to let those feelings go. Derrick was back, so he’d be running the show now.

  She took a deep breath. “I'm sorry you had to find out this way,” she began, then immediately regretted prefacing her explanation that way. It made her sound so cold, and she didn't want to be cold. She wanted to be okay. She wanted this weirdness to be over.

  “Found out what, exactly?” Derrick's eyes went to the ring on her finger and she twisted it nervously.

  She took a deep, shuddering breath. He wasn't going to like this. “Will and I were together, Derrick.”

  Derrick's eyes blazed, but his voice came out icy-cold. “And?”

  “It lasted a while, I guess, but it was on again, off again. I thought it was pretty casual. When I realized it was more serious for him, I broke it off.” She rubbed her temples. “Or at least I thought I did. I very clearly said we were through. But Will wasn't having it.” The more she talked about it, the more annoyed she became. If Will had just taken no for an answer, she wouldn't be in this mess. “Well anyway, he wasn't listening to me—or he thought he could change my mind. Flowers, presents, calling me at all hours…it was like the more I told him that it was over, that I just wanted to be friends, the more determined he became to ‘win me back.’”

  Before long, it had started crossing the line from “annoying” into “harassing”—he’d text her all day long, getting angry and aggressive when she didn’t reply, as if he felt entitled to keep constant tabs on her. He’d show up drunk outside her apartment at three in the morning, begging to be let in. She hadn’t wanted to call the cops on him, not after all their years of friendship, but she’d known she needed to do something to get him to back off, once and for all.

  She couldn’t tell Derrick all of that, though. With his temper, who knew what he’d do? Best to keep her explanation simple. “It was starting to stress me out and so one day I kind of just—snapped.”

  She shrugged helplessly as she looked at him, searching for any trace of understanding. But instead, he seemed hell-bent on making an already awkward situation even more awkward. “Snapped how?”

 

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