Читать книгу Branded - Annette Broadrick, Annette Broadrick - Страница 9

Jake looked at her in silence for several moments before he shook his head in disgust. “Very funny, Tiffany. You’ll notice that I’m not laughing, however. Need I remind you that we never had children? As I recall, once we were married, you informed me that you didn’t want children because pregnancy would ruin your figure.”

He drank a swallow of beer and struggled to hang on to his temper. “What game do you think you’re playing here? I haven’t seen you in years. Did you suddenly decide that I’m an easier touch than the father of that little girl? Sorry, but that kite won’t fly. I’m not paying you child support, Tiffany. You can’t hang that one on me. I want you to go upstairs, get your daughter and get the hell out of my home.”

It wasn’t the child’s fault her mother had no integrity, he reminded himself. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the little girl, given her circumstances.

He rolled the bottle he held across his forehead to cool off. What he needed was to stick his head into one of the horse troughs outside. If he stayed in the same room with Tiffany much longer, he might forget that his mama had taught him always to be a gentleman, regardless of the provocation.

Without a word, Jake walked outside and sat down at one of the patio tables.

He stared into the night. The moon was high in the sky, almost full, giving enough light to see the rolling hills beyond his home. The vista usually had a calming effect on him. He hoped it would work this time.

There was no reason to let her get under his skin like that. Getting him to react had probably been her plan all along, wanting to see what he would say and do. Well, she had her answer.

The door opened behind him. He turned his head and watched Tiffany come outside empty-handed. His jaw tightened as she walked in and out of the shadows to the table where he sat. She sat across from him, the light from the kitchen window falling across her face.

He waited for her to speak and when she didn’t, he said, “Didn’t you forget something? I want you and your little girl gone. Now.”

Tiffany lifted her chin and stared back at him. He knew that look. She was ready to fight him if she didn’t get her own way. Well, too bad. She could throw as many temper tantrums as she wanted to throw, but they wouldn’t work. He wasn’t going to take her child and pretend it was his.

“Do you remember the night before I moved out of here?”

“Are you talking about the night you crawled into my bed after I was asleep?” he asked grimly.

She smiled at him and nodded. “Yes. I wanted to show you that you might deny me other things, but you never denied me sex.”

“You made your point. Making love to you was the only thing I seemed to do that you approved of. So what?”

“Well, as things turned out, I was a little too eager that night and since you were more than half asleep, we didn’t use protection. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I was pregnant.” She looked down at her clasped hands, resting on the table. “Mother Nature’s little joke on me.” Her voice had flattened by the time she’d stopped speaking.

“And I’m supposed to believe that?”

She looked up at him, her gaze meeting his. “I really don’t care what you believe. She was born nine months after that night. Do the math.”

“I doubt I was the only man who was in your bed around that time.”

“I refuse to get into name-calling, Jake. Regardless of what you may want to believe, your name is on Heather’s birth certificate. If you have any doubts, have the tests run.”

He swallowed, thinking back to that night. He’d made love to her until they were both exhausted. She was right. He hadn’t used protection. He supposed the surprise would have been if she hadn’t gotten pregnant. If he gave the matter any thought after being served with papers, he probably figured she had used protection.

In the silence between them, he could hear the night sounds, the rustle of animals foraging by moonlight, the occasional deep croak of a bullfrog, the distant sound of a dog barking. “If you were pregnant at the final hearing,” he said after several minutes, “why didn’t the information come out in court?”

She sounded irritated and impatient. “Because I hadn’t paid attention to my monthly cycles during that horrible time. I was so distraught that I put any irregularity down to stress. The divorce was final before I discovered the truth.”

Which still didn’t explain why he didn’t know about it. Knowing Tiffany, as soon as she found out, she would’ve been screaming for his head…or other, more delicate parts of his anatomy…to be removed from his body.

“Why didn’t you tell me once you found out?”

“Because I didn’t want to have anything more to do with you, that’s why! I decided to raise her on my own. There are lots of single mothers who raise their children alone. You’d been so hateful during the divorce proceedings I decided you didn’t deserve to know you were going to be a father!”

“So you decided to punish me by not letting me know, is that it?”

“Yes!”

“The only problem with your logic, Tiffany,” he said wearily, “is that it isn’t punishment if I didn’t know about her.”

If what she said was true—and it would be easy enough for him to find out—then he really was the father of the little girl upstairs.

His stomach knotted at the thought and he broke into a cold sweat. For more than three years he’d had a child that he never knew existed.

“Why tell me now? Did you figure I’d been punished enough after all this time? You’ve kept her very existence from me for all these years, Tiffany, including the pregnancy itself. Care to explain to me why, after all this time, you brought her here tonight?”

She shifted and appeared to be trying to decide how to answer him, clasping and unclasping her hands.

Uh-huh. This was going to be good, watching her squirm. If he could find any pleasure in this encounter, which was certainly doubtful, it would be watching Tiffany as she tried to figure a way to justify her actions, which were inexcusable. He knew she was self-absorbed and permanently immature, but he never thought she would stoop so low as to keep a child from her father in order to get revenge.

She looked away from him, chewing her bottom lip. Finally, as though answering his question, she said, “Soon after Heather was born, my schedule became so hectic that my grandmother offered to keep her for me, which worked out great for everyone. Gram had someone to entertain and play with, and I was able to spend time with Heather as often as possible without disrupting her schedule.” She paused and rubbed her forehead, as though she had a headache. “The thing is, Gram had a stroke two weeks ago and she’s now bedridden. She won’t be able to care for Heather.”

“So much for raising a child on your own, right, Tiffany? But having your grandmother raise her for you has nothing to do with why you’re just now telling me about her.” He raised his brow. “Or does it? Without your permanent babysitter you don’t know what else to do with her, is that it?”

“No, that is not it!” Her calm demeanor fell away and her anger took over. “Certain things have recently changed in my life, for your information. Ed loves and respects me—something you never did—and he wants to marry me! We had all our plans made—we wanted to get married in Vegas and honeymoon in Hawaii, and then visit Japan and Australia. Everything would have worked out perfectly if Gram hadn’t had her stroke. The timing couldn’t have been worse!”

Jake stared at her in amazement. Did this woman care about anyone other than herself? There was no sign that her grandmother’s illness was anything more to her than an inconvenience.

“Let me get this straight. You planned to go off for months and leave Heather with your grandmother?”

She lifted a shoulder. “She would have been fine with Gram. They got along well together. Besides, I’ve taken trips before. I doubt she even misses me when I’m gone.”

“You must have considered the situation desperate for you to break your silence to bring her to me.”

Tiffany ran her hand through her carefully coiffed hair, another indication that this meeting wasn’t going the way she’d planned. He wondered what she’d expected he would do when she showed up? Welcome her and the child with open arms? Be so thrilled to discover he was a father that he’d ignore the fact she’d kept the knowledge from him for all this time?

If so, she was even shallower than he’d always thought.

In a quieter voice, she said, “I thought I’d worked everything out just fine. I told Ed that we’d have to take Heather with us.”

He dropped his head to hide a smile. After a moment he looked at her and said, “I somehow doubt he was thrilled with that particular idea. Most men expect to have their bride all to themselves at that stage of their marriage.”

“I thought he had accepted the idea, although taking a three-year-old on your honeymoon is certainly not what either of us planned or wanted!”

“Couldn’t your mother have looked after her?”

“That’s another problem, entirely. Heather won’t behave for Mother.”

Another proof that she was probably his. He had to admire Heather’s discrimination. Tiffany’s mother was just an older, even more spoiled, version of her daughter. Too bad he hadn’t recognized the similarity sooner. If he had, none of this would be happening.

On the other hand, if Mrs. Rogers and her granddaughter—and boy, he would have loved to have seen her face when she found out she was going to be a grandmother!—had gotten along, he would never have known about Heather.

Funny how life worked sometimes.

“We left Dallas this morning,” Tiffany continued, intent on her story. “I thought everything had worked out just fine. Ed never said a word to make me believe he hadn’t accepted the situation until we were on the road. That’s when he told me he wasn’t interested in raising someone else’s child. He hadn’t expected to become a full-time parent when he proposed to me. He assured me that he wouldn’t mind if she visited us occasionally, but he didn’t want her around all the time.”

Tiffany appeared to have run out of steam and just sat there looking at him.

After a moment, he said in a neutral tone, “And you still plan to marry him.”

She looked at him with tears in her eyes. “Please understand, Jake. I love him, really love him. He’s older, more mature. I’ve known who he was for years but I never expected him to show any interest in me. When he did, it never occurred to me that accepting Heather would be a problem for him. He knew about her, he’d even met her once, and I thought he would adore her as much as I do.” She pulled a handkerchief from her purse and carefully blotted beneath her eyes. “When he told me that, once he realized I wasn’t going to leave her in Dallas, he’d arranged for Heather to stay with a professional sitter in Las Vegas while we were overseas, I was horrified. I really was. He made it clear he didn’t intend for Heather to go with us and I didn’t want her to stay with a stranger. I didn’t know what to do.”

Jake didn’t know what to say. If she still intended to marry this weasel, he figured they deserved each other.

She sighed and said, “That’s when I thought about you. I remembered how you were always talking about wanting children. I decided to forgive you for being so mean to me back then. I knew that Heather would be better off with her own flesh and blood for a few months, instead of with some stranger in Vegas.”

Maybe the child was better off with him, if this was the way she was being treated. He was still having a little trouble absorbing the fact that people could be so callous to their offspring.

He leaned back in his chair, his gaze steady, and said, “You need to understand something before this conversation goes any further, Tiffany. If you intend to leave that little girl with me after not having the decency to tell me she even existed until tonight, I refuse to allow you to bounce her between us in order to suit your convenience.”

She frowned at him. “I don’t know what you mean, Jake. She’s your child, after all. If we can make an arrangement where each of us keeps her part of the time she’ll get to know both of us. I realize that I made a mistake keeping her from you. She deserves to know her father.”

Damned if she didn’t sound pious.

He folded his arms. “You’re treating her like a toy you grew tired of playing with. So let me make myself perfectly clear. If you leave here tonight without taking her with you, or if you decide to leave her somewhere in Las Vegas once you get there—and believe me, I’ll be keeping tabs on that—I’ll make certain you lose all parental rights to her. You will see her only when I think she’s capable of handling it.”

She looked at him as if he’d slapped her. “You’d take her away from me?” she asked in horror. She started sobbing. “I should have known better than to let you know about her at all. I should have followed my instincts and kept you out of both our lives! I knew you were going to be hateful about this. I just knew it!”

He stood. “C’mon, I’ll help you get her back to your car.”

She jumped up. “No! I can’t take her with us. I just can’t! I want what’s best for her, I really do.” Tears continued to run down her cheeks and her nose glowed where she kept wiping it with her handkerchief. She twisted the beleaguered piece of cloth between her hands. “It’s just so hard, Jake,” she said pathetically, “you know? I don’t know the first thing about taking care of her. She won’t behave, she ignores what I say, and just the other day she found some cosmetics in my purse and smeared them all over her face. I know she knew better, but she did it just to spite me! I’ve been doing the best I can, but I just don’t know how to deal with her!”

“And you think I do.”

Still wringing her handkerchief, she said, “Well, at least I’ll know she’s with part of her family. I don’t think you’ll have any trouble getting along with her because you’ve always been good with children. This is the best thing for Heather. You’ll find someone here on the ranch to keep an eye on her when you can’t watch her.”

Jake held his wrist up to the light. “At one o’clock in the morning? Somehow I doubt that very much.”

She seemed to regain control of her emotions, long enough to blow her nose. “I’m sure she’ll be okay for a day or two until you find someone to look after her.” Tiffany looked around the patio vaguely, no doubt wishing she was anywhere but here. “I, uh, hadn’t realized it was so late. Ed and his driver have been so patient, waiting hours for you to come home.” She gave him a half smile. “Sorry if I broke up a hot date with one of the local yokels.”

Despite her words, she didn’t move away. Instead, she continued to stand there, warily watching him.

“I meant what I said, Tiffany. I’m not going to punish this child by moving her back and forth between us at your convenience.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I know, Jake. I love her so much, but I’m really not cut out for the whole mother thing, you know? I was horrified when I found out I was pregnant after being extra careful all those years. I didn’t know what to do. Gram talked me into having her, promising me to help with her, and I’m not sorry I did. Honestly, I’m not. It’s just that…” She paused as though searching for words. “I’ve always been high-strung, and trying to deal with her has just been too much for me. My nerves can’t stand the pressure day in and day out.”

She dropped her eyes and slowly turned away.

He made no comment as she left the patio. She’d almost disappeared around the corner of the house when she stopped and said, “I almost forgot, Jake. I brought all the necessary papers you’ll need for her—her birth certificate, a record of her shots, that sort of thing. I’d already packed them, thinking she’d need credentials to go overseas with us. I also brought her clothes and other belongings. She’s familiar with them and I hope they’ll help her to adjust.” She looked at him through the shadows. “Goodbye, Jake. Take good care of her.”

Jake continued to stand there on the patio without moving. He was numb with all that had happened tonight. In a few moments, he heard the purr of a well-tuned engine and watched as headlights swept across the driveway.

The silence of the country night returned.

Now that she’d gone, he needed to face what had happened. If Tiffany was telling the truth, he had a daughter. A daughter he’d discovered long after he’d finally accepted that he would never have a family of his own.

That was the good news. That was the great news.

The bad news was that he had a daughter who would be waking up in the morning in strange surroundings without a familiar face to reassure her that she was safe. He had a daughter who would probably be afraid of him, at least at first.

Jake rubbed the back of his neck and picked up his empty bottle. He walked into the kitchen, tossed the bottle in one of the recycling bins on hand and looked around, trying to force his mind to wrap around the idea of instant fatherhood.

A large manila envelope he hadn’t noticed before lay on the kitchen bar. He sat down on the bar stool Tiffany had used and opened the envelope.

Her birth certificate was on top. Her name was Heather Anne Crenshaw and she’d been born on Sept. 28, which meant she would be four years old in a little over six weeks.

He was listed as her father.

He stared at the document until it grew blurry. He hadn’t been there when she was born. He hadn’t been there when she learned to sit up, to stand, to take her first step or say her first word. He hadn’t been there to watch the infant turn into a little girl.

He’d already missed so much of her life.

Jake removed his hat and hung it on the rack beside the door, turned out the lights downstairs and went up to his room. After he sat on the side of his bed and removed his boots, he returned to Heather’s room in his stockinged feet. She had shifted and now lay on her side, still clutching her bedraggled rabbit. He noticed several more stuffed animals sitting at the end of the bed. She looked so innocent lying there, sleeping so soundly. She had no idea how her world had changed yet again. Her great-grandmother’s sudden illness must have been devastating to her. And now this.

Eventually he quietly checked the closet and chest of drawers. Yes, Tiffany had amply provided for her, he was thankful to see.

What was he supposed to do now? Come morning, this sweet-looking child was going to wake up and face new people and new surroundings. Of course she would be afraid. She would need to be dressed and fed and…

He froze. Was she housebroken? How would he know? Raised with three brothers, his only experience around little girls was watching Ashley grow up.

Ashley.

She would know what Heather needed, wouldn’t she? Would she be willing to help him out for a few days? He hadn’t seen much of her in the past several years, not since she’d gone off to Texas A&M, but at one time they’d been the best of friends.

He certainly needed a trusted friend about now.

Would Ashley be able to help him?

She was a doctor, wasn’t she?

Sort of. She was a veterinarian. That was close enough, wasn’t it?

She was a woman, besides. She’d know what to do with a little girl, since she’d been one herself.

At the moment, he didn’t have many options. He was desperate. Surely she would be willing to do whatever needed to be done for his daughter.

Jake returned to his bedroom, looked up her number and called her.