The Cowboy's Secret Baby: BWWM Cowboy Pregnancy Romance (Young Adult First Time Billionaire Steamy African American) by Christin Jensen

family.
    “This is so wonderful,” he enthused to his therapist.  “I’m not just some lonely soul plunked down in the middle of nowhere, having to learn my job from the hired hands.  I have a family, an actual family, complete with a few horse thieves and Civil War generals, and probably a few unacknowledged black relatives as well.”
    “What’s probably more important,” the therapist responded, “is that you’ve learned your mother was a caring woman – a school teacher who looked forward to having her own baby.  Your father certainly felt responsible for you, but he was afraid to love you.  The grandfather you remember seems to have been a genial old coot. – That’s what’s really bothered you all this time – the feeling that they left you behind because you weren’t good enough.”
    “Yes, I guess that’s about the sum of it.”  Farris sank back in his chair.  “I guess at the back of my mind I always felt like I just wasn’t good enough, so they all upped and left me.”
    Meanwhile, Clarice was facing rather more difficult truths.  Dr. Carstairs was flipping methodically through her filled tablets.  “Did you ever try to draw your mother before?” the doctor asked.  “Like when you were just learning, I mean.”
    “No!” Clarice found herself almost physically pushing the thought away.  “She was the nearest thing to God in my world, and she was never happy.  I would never have dared.”
    “Actually,” Dr. Carstairs said considering, “I don’t believe I’ve heard of any other artist who attempted to portray their parents.  It must be a built-in inhibition. – Still,” she added thoughtfully, “these drawings show that you were angry with and afraid of your mother from early childhood.  Is that how you remember things?”
    “I guess I didn’t really realize it,” Clarice responded, “until I started letting the pencil flow as it would. – I guess when I went to Kentucky I was ready to jump into the arms of anybody who accepted me.”
    Dr. Carstairs smiled at her.  “Do you realize how many people over the years – male and female – you’ve pushed away from you because your mother wouldn’t like them?”
    “Doing that was really the easiest way to live and have the kind of mental freedom I wanted,” Clarice admitted.  “If I kept Mother happy and didn’t get in her way, I could do pretty much what I wanted to. – That other sketchbook is pure pornography,” she added hurriedly when Dr. Carstairs started to open it.
    “So I see,” Dr. Carstairs remarked.  “It does tell me why you started to step out of your broken eggshell. – I suggest you only share that with Farris.”
    Having researched all the details of the accident that took his mother’s life, Farris promptly had a panic attack.  He called John Pirtle after dinner one night – devil take the expense – and expressed himself vehemently.
    “Believe it or not,” we’ve already thought about those possibilities, Farris,” Pirtle responded patiently.  “Sewanee isn’t quite the back of the beyond, of course; there is a hospital there.  Clarice is coming up here to St. Thomas, though, because that’s where her obstetrician takes all his patients.  You can check that hospital’s reputation online.”
    “The hospital itself doesn’t bother me.”  Farris tried to possess himself in patience.  “How’s she going to get there in time?  Clarice’s old two-seater, 10-year-old truck is just not going to cut it. – What if Angus has stop and deliver the baby on the road?”
    Pirtle chuckled.  “We’re way ahead of you. – I do have four legitimate children, you know.  I’ve already made a deposit with a local ambulance company in her area to get her here any time, day or night.  I’ve even paid the extra fees to have EMTs aboard; they’ll be in radio contact with St. Thomas all the way once they get in range. – If I thought it would do any good, I’d have Angus bring