The Cowboy's Secret Son Read online

  The little boy scanned the office before he realized what Nathan meant. He smiled so wide, Nathan couldn’t help but smile back. Maybe there was hope yet.

  “Nathan, you remember Grace Cameron?”

  He looked at his mom, who nodded at a woman standing to the side of the little boy. It took a few clicks of the cogs in his brain for the truth to slip into place. But beyond the stylish, beautiful blonde in front of him, he could just make out the girl who’d been his algebra tutor. A girl he’d made love to and then pretended like it didn’t happen.

  A girl who had disappeared without a trace, without a word. And now she reappeared just as suddenly and without warning.

  “Grace.” For some reason, his brain couldn’t force more than her name out of his mouth.

  “Nathan, good to see you.”

  She only met his eyes for the barest hint of a moment before she turned her attention to the boy.

  “Yours?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Her voice sounded small, the same as he remembered it. So a part of that teenage girl remained below the surface of the woman she’d grown into.

  The little boy looked up at Grace. “Mom, do you know the cowboy?”

  “Yes, honey,” she said, her voice stronger. “This is Nathan Teague. We used to go to school together.”

  The kid looked as if his mother had just told him she knew his favorite football player or superhero.

  Grace placed her hands on the boy’s shoulders in what looked like a protective gesture. Maybe she was nervous that he might get hurt here, a common worry among the parents he’d met so far today. He resisted the odd urge to reassure her.

  “Nathan, this little cowboy is Evan,” she said.

  Nathan extended his hand, and Evan shook it without hesitation.

  “You’ve got a good grip there.”

  If possible, Evan grinned even wider.

  “Were you good at school, too?” Evan asked.

  Nathan laughed. “Not as good as your mom. In fact, she had to help me pass one of my classes.”

  Evan nodded. “She helps me with my homework, too.”

  “You’re mighty young to have homework.”

  “You’d be surprised,” Grace said. “School has changed a lot in just a few years.” So had Grace. Or had her voice always been that pretty, the audible equivalent of a gorgeous spring day, and he’d never noticed it cloaked in her shyness? He had the oddest sensation that he’d like to hear her read to him. This time when she met his eyes, they held for a little longer, allowing him to appreciate their pale blue color. When she seemed to realize this, she ushered her son toward the door. Having forgotten what had brought him inside, he followed in her wake.

  “Are you back in Blue Falls?” he asked.

  “Just a little vacation.”

  Evan spotted the horses and a few more kids down by the corrals. “Mom, can I go see the horses? Please!”

  She looked about to refuse, with an edge of concern pulling at her features. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen that look today. “He’ll be safe. Simon and Dad are down there.”

  Grace still looked unsure but finally relented. “Okay.” Evan shot off like an Olympic sprinter. “But be careful,” she called after him.

  “He seems excited to be here.”

  “You have no idea. I swear he’s John Wayne reincarnated.”

  He chuckled. “There are worse things.”

  “Yeah.”

  He followed as she walked slowly toward a bench overlooking the stables and corrals. She sank onto it as though she was utterly exhausted.

  “You okay? You look tired.”

  “Just a long drive today.”

  Instinct told him it was more than that, but if she didn’t want to share, it wasn’t any of his business. Suddenly, he wanted to apologize for the idiot he’d been back in high school, but she’d probably think him an even bigger idiot for bringing it up now when she’d obviously moved on.

  He didn’t sit beside her. Rather, he leaned against a nearby oak tree. They both watched as Evan climbed up on the fence rails and reached over to pet a big blonde mare named Dolly.

  “At least he’s not running away in terror like some of the kids,” he said.

  “Unfortunately, he has no fear. I took him to a rodeo once, and I firmly believe he would have climbed onto the back of one of the bucking horses and given it a whirl.”

  Nathan laughed. “Fearlessness can come in handy.”

  “I don’t want him to be scared of everything, but a little healthy, self-preserving fear would be nice.”

  Nathan looked over at Grace’s golden blond hair. When he’d known her before, it’d been long and straight down her back. Now, she had it cut in a shorter, wavy style that suited her. “Well, it doesn’t look like he’s caused you to go gray yet.”

  Grace lifted her hand to her hair, and he noticed she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. “No, not yet.”

  A little girl in pink cowgirl boots, a pink shirt with fringe and a pink cowgirl hat climbed up on the fence next to Evan and started petting Dolly, too. She struck up a conversation with Evan, unintelligible at this distance.

  “Hey, we’ve got two kids who actually like the horses. This week might work out yet.”

  “Do you usually have lots of kids afraid of the horses?”

  Nathan shrugged. “Don’t know. This is the first time we’ve done the camp. Maybe the last.”

  Grace didn’t respond. Despite looking tired, she didn’t seem terribly relaxed. In fact, her back was as straight as if she was tied to a fence post. She clasped her hands together in her lap so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.

  “You sure you’re okay? Can I get you something to drink?”

  “He’s yours.”

  Her quick response made no sense. “What?”

  Grace turned her head slowly, met his gaze. “Evan. He’s your son.”

  Chapter Two

  All the breathable oxygen disappeared from around Nathan. At least it felt that way.

  “What?” He stared at Grace, thinking he couldn’t possibly have heard her correctly.

  Grace clasped her hands into a tight ball in her lap and took a deep breath. “Evan is your son.”

  “That’s not possible.”

  She looked up at him. “I assure you it is.”

  Nathan snatched his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair. He took a couple of steps away from Grace, away from the words she’d spoken. The boy she claimed was his son was now feeding the horse a carrot with Simon’s help. A wild storm of denial and curiosity whirled within him.

  “You got pregnant that night at the party?” he asked without turning back toward Grace.

  “Yes.”

  Heat rushed through him. “And instead of telling me then, you decided to run away?”

  “I didn’t have a choice.”

  She said it so matter-of-factly that an unusual anger roared inside him. He spun back toward her, met her gaze. “You always have a choice.”

  “Maybe you did, when you decided to pretend nothing had happened between us.”

  Despite his anger, he winced at the sharpness of that truth.

  Grace shifted her gaze toward the stand of trees opposite where she sat. “But I didn’t when my parents literally dragged me away in the middle of the night in shame.”

  He’d met her parents once, and could all too easily imagine them doing such a thing. But he didn’t want to feel sorry for her. Six years had passed since then, years in which she’d cheated him by keeping the existence of a son from him. If Evan was his. Maybe she was mistaken.

  “How do you know he’s mine?”

  She laughe
d, but it wasn’t the type of laugh born of amusement. “You’re really asking me that question?”

  He crossed his arms and stared at her, every muscle in his body tense. “Yes. You show up here unannounced and tell me some boy I’ve never seen is my son, and I’m supposed to just believe that?”

  Grace shifted on the bench so that she more fully faced him. “Think about it. Do you remember me having guys lining up to sleep with me back in high school?”

  “I don’t know what you did. You could have met someone after you left here.”

  She shook her head, and something about her expression made him feel as if she thought him the most clueless man in the world. “I pretty much lived under lock and key when I lived here, and it only got worse after we left, after my parents discovered I was pregnant. I had to sneak out a window to come to that party.”

  “Why did you?”

  She didn’t immediately answer. Instead, she seemed to think about it as she let her gaze fall away from him. “Because I liked you. And I thought maybe you liked me.”

  He didn’t know what to say to that. The silence stretched to an uncomfortable length. He plopped the hat back on his head and shoved his hands in his jean’s pockets. “I don’t know how to react or what to say. I feel like I just got hit with a cattle prod and a stampede all at once.”

  “You don’t have to do anything, at least not now.”

  He glanced at her, trying to read this woman he didn’t even know anymore. Had he ever? She was no more the girl who’d helped him raise his algebra grade so he could play football than one of the fence posts around the corral. That girl had barely been able to meet his eyes, even on that night he’d made love to her.

  This woman marched onto his ranch and pronounced him the father of her little cowboy wannabe.

  Man, he felt as if his head was going to explode.

  “What does that mean, not now?”

  “I’m not looking for money, or even your help in raising him. I’m doing fine on my own.”

  “Then, why tell me at all?”

  “Because I’m all he has, and if something ever happens to me, I want him to have somewhere to go.”

  The way she sounded as though he was nothing more than a back-up plan caused his anger to swell. “And you thought of the sperm donor?”

  She gasped, and her eyes went wide. “Nathan, that’s not how I think of you.”

  “It’s not?”

  “No.”

  “Could have fooled me. What if nothing happens to you, Grace? I get nothing? I’m just supposed to forget you dropped this little bombshell on my head?”

  “Of course not.” She appeared flustered, as if she hadn’t anticipated him putting up a fuss. “I just wanted you to know.”

  He looked toward the corral when he heard youthful giggles. Evan and the little pink girl were laughing, at what he couldn’t tell. “Why now? I’m assuming you didn’t just leave your parents’ house.”

  “I…I just finally got up the nerve. I realized it wasn’t responsible to be a single parent and not make plans in case something happened to me.”

  He shook his head and shifted his eyes back to her. “You could have called. Hell, written a letter or something.”

  “I thought about it, picked up the phone I don’t know how many times.”

  “And you decided just dropping by was better?”

  “I didn’t know. I honestly didn’t know if I could go through with it. I almost turned around half a dozen times.”

  “Good to know I could still be in the bloody dark about having a kid.”

  This time, she winced. “Telling you wasn’t as easy as you obviously think it should have been.”

  He shifted from one foot to the other, cursing himself for the fool he’d been that long-ago night. One more idiot kid who couldn’t keep his pants zipped. “Did I really treat you so badly that you’d keep my son from me?”

  “This isn’t about you, Nathan.”

  “Obviously.” He had to get away, find some air to refill his lungs. Calm the hell down. He couldn’t think when he was so close to this woman spouting words that could change his life so dramatically. When he could see the boy who might very well be the beginning of a new generation of Teagues. “I’ve got work to do.”

  He stalked down the hill but didn’t head for the barn. Instead, he made for his truck. Nothing like a drive up to the more remote area of the ranch to help him untangle his thoughts.

  If only he’d taken time to think seven years ago.

  THAT HAD NOT GONE WELL. Grace sat on the bench, bone weary and wishing she could turn back the clock even an hour. One would think, after all the time she’d spent contemplating various ways she could tell Nathan about Evan, she’d end up doing something other than just blurting it out at the first opportunity.

  She didn’t let her doubts get the better of her, tempting her into believing she’d made a mistake in telling Nathan about his son. It was the right thing to do, for many reasons, but she wished he’d stuck around longer so she could explain further. Part of her couldn’t blame him for his reaction. If she were in his spot, she had no idea how she’d react.

  There was no going back now, though. She’d simply have to figure out how to progress from her clumsy start.

  “Didn’t go how you’d hoped, huh?”

  Grace looked up to see Laney Stuart had approached without her noticing. “I don’t know why I bothered running scenarios in my head because my brain and mouth staged a coup and abandoned them all.”

  Laney sat on the bench next to Grace. “Well, at least it’s done.”

  “It’s far from done. I fear it’s just the beginning.”

  “Then at least you can stop imagining how he’ll react. Now you know.”

  “And I feel loads better,” Grace said, her voice full of sarcasm. “I thought you were here for moral support, not stating the obvious.”

  Laney squeezed Grace’s hand. “I am, sweetie. I’ll listen anytime you need to talk.”

  Grace squeezed back. “It’s good to see you. It’s been too long.”

  “You just miss my French toast.”

  Grace managed a small laugh. “If my stomach ever calms down, I fully expect you to make me some.”

  Laney leaned back with a dramatic sigh. “You only love me for my culinary skills.”

  “If I remember correctly, French toast is the extent of your culinary skills.”

  Laney playfully punched Grace in the arm. “That’s not true.”

  “Oh, you’re right. I forgot mac and cheese—from a box.”

  Laney gave Grace a narrow-eyed stare. “Tell me again why I like you, why I took a week off from work to come to the-middle-of-nowhere Texas.”

  “I babysat your daughter so you could study?”

  “Hmm, seems I remember doing something similar for you.”

  She had indeed. Laney had been a single mom grad student trying to finish her degree and plan for a wedding to her long-distance boyfriend when she’d advertised for two roommates. Grace, along with Emily Stringer, one of Grace’s fellow interior design students and her current business partner, had answered the ad.

  Grace still swore something cosmic had brought the three of them together. She’d bonded with Emily over their shared love of interior design, and with Laney over their single motherhood. Laney and Emily had similar personalities: strong, determined and quick with snappy comebacks. Considering the roommate horror stories she’d heard during her years of college, she’d won the roomie lottery.

  While Evan and Cheyenne had played, Grace and her two best friends had studied, laughed, planned for their futures and shared their deepest secrets. Laney and Emily were the loving, nurturing, fun sisters her own had never been. />
  “It’s so good to see you,” Grace said, growing serious. “You have no idea how much it means to me to have you here.”

  “I think I do. You were there for me on some of my most frightening days. And you know Emily would be here, too, if you hadn’t threatened her with bodily harm if she closed the doors.”

  “I know, but our business is too new for both of us to be AWOL on the customers we do have. Plus, she’s already been there for me so many times.”

  “Don’t worry about that now. Focus on what you came here to do.”

  Grace sighed. “I doubt I could think about anything else for more than two seconds if I tried.”

  “You’ll get through this, just like everything else.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Grace took a deep breath then stood. “I better get us settled in our cabin.”

  “He’ll come around. May take some time and he might be angry for a while, but he’ll get over it. And if not, I’ll be forced to kick his ass.”

  Grace lifted an eyebrow. Of the three of them, Laney was by far the most girly.

  “Okay, hire someone to kick his ass,” Laney admitted.

  Grace leaned down and gave Laney a quick hug before walking down the slight incline toward the stables. “Evan.” When he turned at the sound of his name, she motioned for him to come to her. “Come on. We have to take our stuff to the cabin.”

  “But, Mom…”

  “We’ll be coming back in a bit. Now don’t argue.” Her last words came out a little sharper than she intended, so when he reached her she gave him a big smile and placed her arm lovingly around his shoulders. “I see you and Cheyenne found each other.”

  He grunted in confirmation but kept staring back at the corral. “Isn’t she pretty? She ate sugar cubes right out of my hand!”

  “Cheyenne?”

  He looked at Grace as if she’d suddenly taken leave of her senses. “No! Eww. I was talking about Dolly, the horse.”

  “Oh, of course.” Grace bit her lip to keep from laughing.

  But as they got into the car and headed up the hill to the cabins, her urge to laugh faded away. When she thought about it, Evan really wasn’t that different from his father. Back when she’d known the younger version of Nathan, he’d been more wrapped up in horses and football than he had in any girl, least of all her.