“We both had too much to drink.”

He nodded.

“We should go home,” she said after a minute.

He didn’t need to ask if she’d been taking a preventative. He was sure she hadn’t. And he wasn’t used to being expected to provide protection, so he’d had nothing with him. Even if he had, they were both too involved too quickly for him to have thought of it.

Great, he thought privately, now she’ll get pregnant and she’ll have it made until the kid graduates. All the money she’s never had…

He stopped abruptly. She thought he was a working cowboy. She had no idea who he was, really.

“You don’t have to worry about…anything,” she said after a minute.

“You’re taking something?” he asked hopefully.

She hesitated. “Yes. I’m…taking something.” She was. Vitamins. But he didn’t need to know. He’d go back to Texas pretty soon and if she got pregnant, he’d never know. She thought about a baby and she felt warm all over. This was a complication she didn’t need, but she’d wanted children all her life. She wasn’t even upset about the possibility. But a roaming cowboy, well, he’d be worried that she’d want to garnishee his wages or something. She wasn’t like that, but he wouldn’t know it. He wouldn’t need to know it.

“Oh.” Odd, that he was disappointed. Because just at the last, he’d been thinking about babies. Mina, with her homemaking skills, would be a natural at taking care of a baby. He’d thought of a family, himself, but the sort of women he carried around with him didn’t predispose him to fatherhood. He’d grown cynical, when woman after woman laughed at the thought of getting pregnant.

“So you don’t have anything to worry about,” Mina said.

“I wasn’t worried,” he said gently, and he smiled at her. It was a different kind of smile than he’d ever given her. It made her feel warm, protected.

She sipped more of her soft drink.

“You’re right, though. We should get home. It’s very late.”

He got up and she followed suit.

SHE WAITED WHILE he settled the bill and then they got into the truck for the long drive home.

He reached for her soft hand and tucked it into his as he drove. “Will it embarrass you if I tell you that I’ve never enjoyed a woman so much?”

She gasped.

“I guess it would,” he said.

“You’ve been around,” she began.

“Yes. Around. With sophisticated, selfish women who wanted pleasure but weren’t disposed to give it without a lot of incentive.” By which he meant, unknown to her, rich gifts. He glanced at her. “You gave me your innocence. I wasn’t worthy of such a gift,” he added quietly.

“I was drunk,” she said.

He laughed. “I was drunk, too. That doesn’t change what I said. You were meant for a different sort of man altogether. Not me.”

Her heart sank. “There’s never been anybody I felt that way with before,” she said after a minute.