Читать книгу Cowboy's Secret Child - Sara Orwig - Страница 9

“Sorry. And I’m sorry to pry into your private life.”

She nodded, appreciating his apology and fighting an urge to like him. “When I was engaged, my doctor discovered a tumor and I had to have surgery. I’m fine, except I won’t ever be able to have children. My fiancé decided that I wasn’t really a complete woman, and he broke our engagement.”

As Jeb closed his eyes and looked as if he had received a blow, she could guess what was running through his mind. “That was one of the reasons I agreed to adopt Cherie’s baby, but it has little to do with why I love Kevin so much now.”

“But you’ll be much less willing to give him up because of it.”

She bristled and swung her legs to the floor, coming to her feet to face him. “I’m not willing to give him up now because he’s my son! He’s my son as much as if I had given birth to him. I got him when he was a day old. Cherie didn’t even want to see him! She hated being pregnant. I love him because he’s my baby and has been since he was born!”

Jeb rubbed his forehead. “Lord help us both,” he mumbled, hearing her agony and watching tears stream unheeded down her face. He hurt, too, and he couldn’t give up his son. “What do you want me to do? Walk out that door and forget that I have a son?”

They stared at each other, and he knew her emotions were as raw as his. She was shaking and white as snow again. She had a smattering of freckles across her nose, and when she became pale they stood out clearly. As she clutched her stomach and ran from the room, he felt as if he had just beaten her.

While he was alone, he paced the room and wondered whether he should just go and try to get back with her later, but that was only putting off what was inevitable. They were each going to have to give or else they would end up hurting Kevin, and Jeb didn’t think she would want that any more than he did.

When she returned, she looked even more pale. She moved to the sofa and sat with her feet on the floor. She looked small and hurt and defiant and he felt like a bastard for what he was doing, but he wasn’t going to give up his son to save Amanda Crockett’s feelings. He pulled a chair to face her and sat down. “We’ll have to work something out.”

“I don’t know anything about you.”

“I grew up on a ranch in Saratoga County. I have three brothers—Cameron, a rancher, lives near here with his wife, Stella, on the family land. It’s ironic that you left Houston and moved close to my family and home. My brother Selby and his wife, Jan, live in El Paso. He’s with the DEA. The youngest brother, Burke, leads wilderness treks. He and his wife, Alexa, have a home in Houston, so they’re not far away.”

“You were a paratrooper, you have a brother with the DEA and another who leads wilderness treks— your family is a little on the wild side.”

He shrugged. “I’m settled now. I bought land southwest of here and I’m raising horses. I hoped to take Kevin there.”

“You weren’t a rancher when you were married to Cherie, were you? I thought she told me she had married someone who worked in Houston.”

“I did. As soon as I graduated from Tech, I was hired as a salesman for a Houston feed company. After the second year I was promoted to district superintendent, then in another couple of years, director of marketing. That’s when I was married to her. I couldn’t have afforded Cherie before then.” He looked away as if seeing his past, and she wondered if he was lost in memories and talking out loud. “When we met, Cherie was charming, seductive, adorable. As long as she got her way, she stayed charming, but when I quit work and wanted to become a rancher, that’s when her true personality emerged. I was wildly in love with her when we married because she seemed to be everything a man could want.”

“I can imagine,” Amanda said quietly, knowing her beautiful cousin could be delightful as long as things went her way, but when they didn’t, she could be dreadful.

“Why did you decide to become a rancher?”

Jeb shrugged. “The corporate world was not for me. I grew up on a ranch, too, and I wanted to get back to that life.”

He studied her, and silence stretched tensely between them. “If you thought I had abandoned Kevin and Cherie, why did you cut all ties to your past and hide your tracks when you moved from Houston to Dallas?”

As she flushed and bit her lip and looked guilty, he wondered if she had been leading him on with an act. How much was she like Cherie? he wondered again.

“I guess deep down there was a part of me that doubted Cherie,” Amanda said, so softly that he had to lean forward to hear her, yet leaning closer was a tactical error because he could smell her perfume, see her flawless skin, watch as her tongue slid slowly across her lower lip. His body heat rose and momentarily he lost awareness of anything except a desirable woman sitting inches away. He had to fight the urge to reach out and touch her.

She twisted a string from her cutoffs in her fingers. “I wanted to believe her when she said you didn’t care and you had gone, but my cousin has never been a stickler for the truth. She tells things to suit herself. I was scared of just what’s happening now. That someday the doorbell would ring and there would be Kevin’s father—you—wanting him back.” She looked Jeb in the eye. “Maybe I shouldn’t have made it difficult for you to find us, but from all indications, you weren’t a man I wanted to get to know.”

“I suppose not, since I can take him from you.”

“I don’t think you can,” she said coolly, and he realized she was pulling herself together more and more as they talked. “Cherie has gotten mixed up with people in the past that I didn’t want to know. Her choice in men would never be mine. Sorry, that doesn’t sound complimentary, but Cherie and I are very different.”

“So I’m noticing,” he remarked dryly. He wondered if she realized exactly how guilty she looked. But she was different from Cherie. Cherie was a charmer when she wanted something, flirting and using her feminine wiles to sweet-talk someone into doing what she wanted. He had been charmed completely, but marriage had brought reality and another side to Cherie that was far from charming. Cherie would never have been as forthright as Amanda.

Amanda caught another string on her cutoffs and twisted it back and forth between her thumb and forefinger. Otherwise, she looked quiet and composed. He watched her hand, noticing that her fingers were delicate and slender. She did not wear any rings and wore a simple watch with a leather strap circling her wrist.

“I suppose we’re going to have to work something out to share him,” she said stiffly, and each word sounded wrung from her in agony. “Unless you’re still intent on going to court and trying to take him from me completely. If you do that, I’m going to fight you and we’ll just end up hurting him.”

“I agree.”

She let out a long breath and closed her eyes. “Thank you!” she said. “We agree on that much. Kevin should come first.”

“If he came first completely one of us would give him up.”

She opened her eyes to look at him and he could see the speculation in them. “Maybe not. Maybe he needs a father as well as a mother. But I have to know how you’ll be with him. There are things I don’t approve of.”

Jeb’s temper flared and he leaned closer. “Lady, I’m his father. Whether you approve or not, I’ll do what I think is best for my son. I won’t abuse him, but I suspect I’ll let him do things that you and that nanny and the other women in his life would be afraid to let him do. He acts scared of his shadow now.”

“He’s just shy,” she said defensively. She studied him as if trying to figure him out. “Would you strike a child?”

“Never. It shouldn’t ever be necessary.” Green eyes searched his, and he gazed back steadfastly.

“I hope you’re telling me the truth,” she said. “Is there any way that you can prove to me that you knew nothing about Cherie’s pregnancy? How do I know that you didn’t abandon him and now that Cherie has a successful career, you’ve decided you want your son after all?”

“I can find the person who told me, and you can talk to her. It was Polly McQuarters. She knows I wasn’t putting on an act. And what difference would it make to me whether Cherie’s career is soaring? You’ve legally adopted her child.”

“She’s set money up in a trust for him.”

“I don’t need or want Cherie’s money. I’ll bring you records of my income and my net worth.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Amanda said, rubbing her temples.

“I told you about my brothers. There’s another family member I haven’t mentioned—my mother.”

“Kevin’s grandmother,” Amanda whispered, closing her eyes and experiencing a blow to her middle. A father and now another grandmother. She could feel her child slipping away from her, yet she knew she couldn’t fight to shut those two important people out of his life. She opened her eyes to discover Jeb watching her intently.

“I haven’t told Mom about her grandson yet. I want you and Kevin to meet her.”

“Of course, Kevin should meet her.” Amanda laced her fingers together. “It’s a shock—to open the door and find Kevin’s father and learn he has three uncles and a grandmother. Is there anyone else you haven’t told me about?”

“Nope. My father’s no longer living. My mother is Lila Stuart and she’s raised four boys and she was a damned good mother. She lives in Elvira, a small town near my ranch and Cameron’s. She’s Elvira’s mayor.”

“How will I break this to Kevin? He’s shy around men. Could you just start coming over and getting to know him and then I tell him?”

“I think it would be better to tell him from the start and then I get to know him. Either way it’s a shock, but he’s only three. Little kids accept life as it comes.”

She caught her lower lip in her small white, teeth. As she gazed into space beyond him, Jeb studied her, thinking she must have been engaged to a real jerk. He thought of Cherie and he could see little resemblance between the cousins. Cherie was a blue-eyed blonde, drop-dead gorgeous, with a lush figure. Her cousin had a more earthy look with her riot of red hair and a smattering of freckles, but, in her own way, she was a beautiful woman. He pulled his train of thoughts away from her and focused on Kevin.

“What have you told Kevin about being adopted?”

“I’ve told him the truth, but he’s only three and I don’t think he cares or understands. I always tell him how much I wanted him and how much I love him.”

“Can you be more specific about ‘the truth’—what did you tell him about me?”

“I told him his mother had to give him up because she moved far away and that she’s my cousin. He hasn’t seemed to realize that he’s never even seen her since the day he was born. I told him that his father was in the army and far away. And I told Kevin I wanted him badly and loved him with all my heart. It’s pretty simplified, but he accepts that, and when he gets older and wants to know more, I figured I would explain more. At this point in his life, he doesn’t seem to care.”

“Sounds good enough,” Jeb said, thinking over her answer. “What about Maude—Cherie’s mother?”

“Kevin knows Aunt Maude is his grandmother, and she’s seen him five or six times, but since she remarried and moved to California, she’s out of touch and she doesn’t seem deeply interested in him. She’s more interested than Cherie is though, because she sends him birthday and Christmas presents and calls him once a year. At the time I adopted him, she went to court with me. Aunt Maude said I’d make a better mother than Cherie.”

“I’m sure you do.” He thought about the rest of the week. “Would you like to come out to my ranch tomorrow night and bring Kevin? I’ll pick you up, take you out there for dinner and bring you home early so he can get to bed.”

“Are you that close to the city?”

“It’s a long drive—about an hour and a half—but I don’t mind. I think we’d better start getting acquainted.”

Nodding, she gave him another searching stare. “Are you dating anyone?”

“No, and I don’t intend to marry again.”

Her eyes widened in surprise and she shook her head. “You look like a man who likes women and vice versa.”

“I do like women, but I don’t want to get married. Or at least not for a long, long time. Maybe someday, because I’d like more children. I was a fool about Cherie and I don’t ever want to go through all that pain again,” he said, being completely honest with her because they were going to have to work something out. “Our marriage was wonderful for a time, but then it went really bad.” Jeb stood. “I’ll leave now and pick you up tomorrow evening. Is half past five too early?” he asked, knowing she got home before that time each day.

“That’s fine,” she said, standing and walking to the door with him. The top of her head came to his shoulder, and as he looked down at her, conflicting emotions warred in him. He didn’t want to find her desirable. He wasn’t happy that he wanted to touch her and soothe her and stop hurting her.

“We’ll work it out. Kevin is the main consideration, and we’ll just have to share him.”

“I can do that,” she said, but she sounded worried. “I want to know that you’ll be good to him. I don’t know anything about you except that you married Cherie and fathered Kevin.”

“You and I will get to know each other.” He hesitated. “Do you have a picture of Kevin I can have?”

“Yes,” She left to return in minutes with a picture in a small frame. “I have a lot of pictures. Here’s one you can take. I’ll look for some more and give them to you tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

They both looked at the picture of the smiling child. “He was two when that was taken,” she said softly. Jeb noticed that when she talked about Kevin or to him, her tone filled with a special warmth. “He looks very much like you.”

“Even I can see a resemblance,” Jeb said. “There’s no mistaking he’s mine,” he added grimly, knowing that Cherie hadn’t been faithful to him. He glanced at Amanda. “Thanks for the picture.”

“I have another copy of it in a scrapbook.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow evening.”

She opened the door and he left, striding down the walk to his car. Jeb drove away, his emotions still churning. Nothing had gone the way he had imagined it would. Why hadn’t he stopped to think how attached his son would be to his mother? He supposed hurt and anger got in the way of reason. He was going to have to share Kevin. It could be worse, and Amanda Crockett might be a very nice person. How much was she like her cousin? So far, damn little, or she wouldn’t have taken Kevin in the first place.

The boy was too shy. Jeb hoped Kevin would get over his shyness. From the looks of it, he needed a man in his life. Jeb’s thoughts shifted to Amanda Crockett and her broken engagement. He could hear the hurt in her voice and he knew why she had taken Kevin. She would fight to keep him because he would be the only child in her life. The ex-fiancé was a real jerk, Jeb thought again.

Amanda Crockett. Jeb thought about the statistics the detective had brought him about her: parents deceased, only child, no family except an aunt, Maude Whitaker, and a cousin, Cherie Webster, twenty-eight years old, an audiologist, no men in her life, attends church each week, a large circle of friends, a broken engagement two years after college. Now he knew more—her perfume, whose scent lingered in his memory, her tenderness with Kevin, her full red lips and long slender legs, and that mass of unruly red hair that had to mean there was a less serious side to her. He had to admit that when they touched or looked into each other’s eyes, some fiery chemistry occurred. Sparks flew between them, and he suspected she didn’t want to feel any attraction, either, but in those moments, he had seen the change in the depths of her eyes, the sultry intensity. He had felt a tightening in his body, a sheer physical response to nothing more than that exchange of looks.

“Forget it,” he growled under his breath, trying to concentrate on the problems ahead.

When Jeb reached his ranch, a full moon spilled silver beams over the sprawling land. Feeling restless, he put the car next to his black pickup in the garage and began to walk, heading toward a pasture where some of his horses were. Two of them raised their heads and came to the fence near him. He stopped to talk to them, wishing he had brought an apple with him.

He moved on, knowing sleep wasn’t going to come. How would they divide their time with Kevin? Half a month with one parent, half with the other? Weeks with one, weekends with the other? They would have to go to court, get lawyers involved and get it all settled legally, and he dreaded the entire process. The disruption in Kevin’s life wouldn’t endear him to a man who had been a complete stranger until half past five this afternoon.

Jeb swore, striding fast, turning and going back to his house to get his running shoes. He switched on lights in his kitchen, which was big and roomy and had oak cabinets and stainless steel equipment. He thought about her tiny kitchen, remembering the times he had brushed against her. The lady sizzled effortlessly. She had an effect on him that set his pulse racing. “Think about something else,” he told himself.

In February he had bought the ranch—including the house, which was only four years old—from a family moving to Arizona, and he had spent little time doing anything to it. He strode down the hall to his big bedroom. He had a king-size bed, a desk and little else.

Pulling on his running shoes he left the house, breaking into a jog. His nerves were ragged, his emotions still churning. Cherie.

What a bitch she had been! Hiding her pregnancy from him and letting him walk out without knowing about his baby. Giving the baby away instantly. Jeb wondered why she hadn’t had an abortion, knowing she would have no qualms about it. Maybe she didn’t realize she was pregnant until it was too late to get one legally. He was still surprised that had stopped her, but then he remembered Cherie had told him about a good friend in high school who had died from a botched illegal abortion. Maybe fear had deterred her. His thoughts jumped to Kevin.

Tomorrow night he was bringing his son to the ranch! The thought of having Kevin cheered him immeasurably and he began to plan. He would barbecue a chicken and get extra drumsticks since Amanda said that was one of Kevin’s favorite foods. He thought of Popcorn, a small, gentle pinto mare. Maybe Kevin would like to ride her.

Jeb yanked off his shirt and tossed it over a bush beside the road where he could pick it up on his way back to the house. Sweat poured off him as his thoughts danced around the possibilities. This Friday he was riding in the county rodeo. Would Amanda let Kevin come and watch? Jeb suspected that Amanda was going to be less than enthusiastic to learn about his rodeoing.

How would they divide the time? Kevin was so accustomed to being with Amanda, would he resent having to be with Jeb?

Question after question swirled in Jeb’s mind as he wondered about the future and went over the past few hours, from the moment he had first looked up and had seen Kevin standing in the doorway, staring sleepily at Amanda.

When his muscles were aching, Jeb jogged back home, knowing he was no closer to answers to his questions than he had been when he started. As he passed the barn and bunkhouse, a tall figure emerged from the shadows.

“Kinda late run, isn’t it? How’d it go with your son?”

Jeb slowed and wiped sweat from his forehead with his shirt as he faced Jake Reiner, a fellow saddle bronc rider and horse trainer who was working with some new horses Jeb had bought. Jake was shirtless, wearing jeans, with his shaggy black hair hanging loosely on his shoulders.

“Not like I expected.”

“When does anything go like you expect it to?” Jake drawled, lounging against the corral fence.

“I saw Kevin and talked to him a little. He’s shy.”

“He just doesn’t know you. What about his mama?”

“I’m sure she hates me, but she’s being cooperative, all things considered.”

“Cooperative? When you left here, you sounded as if you would storm her house and bring your son home with you.”

“Yeah, I know. I didn’t stop to think what I’d do if she and my son were very close and he loved her deeply. Which seems to be the case. And she was told that I abandoned him. My ex-wife was a congenital liar.”

“I’ve seen Cherie. Most men wouldn’t care whether she was a congenital liar or a kleptomaniac. She is one beautiful woman. Is her cousin as beautiful?”

“Not in the same way.”

“In other words, no.” Jake shook his hair away from his face. “So where is your son?”

“I’m bringing them both to the ranch for supper tomorrow night. Want to join us?”

Jake grinned. “No, thank you. I’ll leave the family gathering to you. She may look at you as possible marriage material.”

“No, she won’t. She was hurt by an ex-fiancé, and I think she’s as uninterested in marriage as I am.”

“If she is, she’d be the first female I’ve ever known. ’Course, I don’t know her yet, but there’s no such thing as a woman who doesn’t want to marry.”

Jeb laughed. “I should have come and talked to you instead of wearing myself down with all my running. Sure you don’t want to join us for supper?”

“I’m sure. I’m not much for the domestic scene.”

“If you change your mind, come to the house about seven. We should be here by then.”

“Sure.”

“How’s Mercury?” Jake asked, referring to a wild two-year-old sorrel he had acquired.

“He’s gentling down. Give me another day.”

“Good. You can’t sleep, either.”

“Naw. Some nights are good, some aren’t.”

Jeb nodded. “See you,” he said, wondering again about Jake’s past and what demons plagued him. They had known each other from the rodeo circuit and then they had grown close when they had been together through scrapes in the army. Jake had saved Jeb’s life once when Jeb had been shot rescuing an American diplomat who had been taken hostage in Colombia. Yet as close as they had become, there was always a part of Jake shut away from even his best friend. Whatever it was, that dark secret kept Jake on the move.

Jeb turned and jogged to the house, glad Jake was with him, because his friend was one of the best horse trainers in the country. Jake wouldn’t put down roots anywhere long enough to really build up his reputation with horses. Jeb knew he couldn’t worry about Jake’s wanderlust—when Jake was ready to move on, he would move on.

Thinking about Amanda, Jeb showered and sprawled across his big bed, sleep as elusive as ever. Neither one of them was going to like dividing Kevin’s time between them.

Jeb stared into the darkness, his thoughts racing over possibilities. What if he talked Amanda into moving to his ranch? With three bedrooms and three baths, there was plenty of room. During the day when she was at work, he would be as good as any nanny. While he worked, he could take Kevin with him, and if he couldn’t, he had Mrs. Fletcher, who cooked and cleaned for him four days a week. She was a grandmother to ten kids, so she would be good to Kevin.

Jeb sat up and rubbed the back of his neck. He slid off the bed and began to pace around the room, switching on a bedside lamp as he thought about the idea of having Amanda Crockett share his house and his life. If they weren’t married or dating, they probably wouldn’t get in each other’s way and they could share Kevin. His ranch house was sprawling and roomy. They would have to share their lives, but maybe they could manage it for Kevin. All week she would be gone during the day. He would be gone all day Saturday.

He shook his head at the thought of a woman underfoot all the time, and he guessed she would take an even less enthusiastic view about having him around. He sat on the edge of the bed and ran his fingers through his hair. Scratch that idea.

Half an hour later the idea came back to him and he mulled it over until the first rays of daylight grayed the night and spilled through the windows. He debated with himself about talking it over with her, but the thought of presenting the idea of them living together at his ranch gave him a queasy stomach. And he could imagine it would take her all of three seconds to kill the notion.

Tuesday evening he was again on Amanda’s porch, his nerves jangling as he punched the doorbell. When she opened it and smiled, his pulse jumped. Revealing her even white teeth, her smile held so much warmth, he wanted to reach out and touch her.

“We’re ready. Want to come in a moment while I get my purse and Kevin’s things?”

“Sure,” Jeb answered, and stepped inside. Without the screen door between them, he could get a better look at her. She motioned him toward the living room. “I’ll get Kevin.”

She wore a blue sundress that left her pale shoulders bare, and with her hair tied in a ponytail, she looked about twenty years old. She didn’t have the breathtaking dazzle her blond cousin did, but she was incredibly good-looking.

“Hi, Kevin,” Jeb said warmly when the little boy ran into the hall. Instantly Kevin slowed and looked up at Jeb.

“’Lo,” he said. Amanda appeared and took his hand.

“I’ll lock up, so go ahead and we’ll be right out.”

Jeb nodded and stepped outside to wait.

Amanda locked the house, switched on the alarm and took Kevin’s hand. Dressed in a yellow sunsuit, Kevin clutched his blanket and a small book. As Amanda strolled toward the car, carrying Kevin’s car seat, Jeb took it from her, their hands brushing. “I’ll buckle this in.”

Opening the door, Jeb put the car seat in the back, and Amanda went around to the other side to help.

“These aren’t the easiest things to fasten in place,” she said. When her hands brushed his again, a current shot through her, and she looked up to meet his gaze.

He was only inches away from her and his dark eyes bore into her. While he studied her, there was no denying that she felt something, yet she didn’t believe in chemistry between men and women and she didn’t want to feel any magic with this man.

With an effort she looked down at the seat and tried to catch her breath. Jeb had placed a strap in the wrong place and she took it from him, too aware of each contact with his warm fingers. She fastened the strap quickly. “Come on, Kevin.”

He climbed into the seat and buckled it while she fastened her own belt and Jeb slid behind the wheel.

“My ranch is southwest of town. It’s in the direction of your office.”

“You know where I work? Oh, the detective you hired told you. I forgot for a minute. I suppose you know a lot about me.”

“A lot of statistics. Where you work, where you go to church, that from all indications you’re a good mother now.”

“How could a detective decide I’m a good mom?”

“The statistics prove that—you take Kevin places on the weekend, see that he gets to visit his friends, have him on a waiting list for private school, that sort of stuff.”

She turned slightly in the seat to look at Jeb. Dressed in a pale blue shirt and tight jeans, he was ruggedly handsome. He didn’t seem as intimidating as he had during those first few hours, although he was blatantly masculine. She glanced at his long legs and then shifted her gaze outside.

“Will I see horses?” Kevin asked.

“Yes, you’ll see horses, and we have a pond with ducks and baby ducklings,” Jeb replied.

Kevin clapped his hands, and Amanda twisted in the seat and saw a sparkle in his dark eyes.

“He’s going to have fun,” she said solemnly, turning back to look at Jeb again. Was he going to win her son’s affections swiftly? With a twinge of guilt, she wondered about jealousy, but she knew that, instead of jealousy, it was more fear that she felt, fear that she might lose Kevin completely. But that was ridiculous. Jeb might be very good for Kevin, but she didn’t see how she could ever lose the bond she had with her son. She didn’t know what his teen years would hold, but she didn’t have to worry about them yet.

Later that evening the same fears and questions rose in her mind as she watched Jeb playing ball with Kevin in his backyard. Laughing, Kevin kicked a big red ball and it rolled along the ground, hit a rock and bounced beneath the rail fence. Jeb’s long legs stretched out as he dashed to retrieve the ball. He jumped the fence easily, scooped up the ball and threw it back to Kevin. She watched Jeb leap back over the fence with ease and realized how strong and agile he was—how very male. Kevin needed a man in his life, and Jeb Stuart was going to be good for her son. That thought both tore at her and cheered her. But she didn’t need a man in her life and she didn’t want to find Jeb attractive or appealing or allow him to become an important part of her life.

Later, she perched on a fence and watched Kevin ride Jeb’s gentle pinto mare. Next, they went to the pond to see the ducks, then walked back to the house where they had bowls of ice cream. Afterward, they moved to the family room and Kevin got out a coloring book Amanda had brought for him. In seconds he was asleep on the floor.

“It’s time for us to go home,” Amanda said. “I suppose we should have left when we finished the ice cream, but he was having a good time. You won him over tonight with the horseback ride and the ducks and playing ball with him. He’s always loved to play ball.”

“He’s a great kid, but then I’m prejudiced.”

“Yes, he is,” she said, looking at Jeb. He was seated in a large leather chair, his booted feet propped on an ottoman in front of him. He appeared as relaxed as Kevin until she looked into his brown eyes. His determined gaze made her heart a skip a beat.

“Kevin is already asleep, so why don’t we take this time to talk about what we’re going to do. I thought about it all last night.”

“So did I,” she answered quietly, wondering if he had slept as little as she had. She wished she could put off ever making decisions about how she would share her son with this forceful stranger.

“Good. I’d like to tell him that I’m his father.”

“Isn’t it a little soon?”

“I don’t think so. Kids accept life as it comes to them. I want him to know the truth. Can I come get both of you and bring you here for dinner again tomorrow night and tell him?”

She knew it was useless to tell him that he was rushing her. She gazed into his dark eyes and could see the steely determination, so she merely nodded. A knot burned her throat once again. She wished she could just gather up Kevin and run too far away for Jeb Stuart to find them. He was talking to her and she tried to focus on him.

“Kids adjust to whatever life hands them. You’ll see.”

She knew he was right, but she was having difficulty adjusting to anything concerning Jeb Stuart. There was, however, no point in postponing the inevitable. She nodded. “Fine.”

Jeb stood with an easy grace. “I’ll be right back. I have something to show you.” He left, and she looked around the large family room that she could almost fit half her house into. The stone fireplace was immense. Bookshelves lined one wall—all empty. He said he had only lived here since February and he hadn’t bought much furniture. That was an understatement. He had a large leather sofa and a big matching brown leather chair, two end tables, lamps and nothing else. The plank floor held a shine and everything looked neat and clean, but the room was so bare it looked as if he had moved in yesterday. She thought about her home, which was filled with pictures and books and plants, and wondered if he found it cluttered.

She was already saving money for Kevin’s education and she didn’t want to use her savings. In any case, she would have to hire a lawyer to help her with the legalities of whatever arrangement they worked out. She rubbed her temples. She had had a dull headache since yesterday when she had opened the door and looked up at Jeb.