Accidental Father
And information he hadn’t even been looking for jumped out at him. Brown eyes.
Jake’s heart broke into a full gallop. Slowly, he slid the file back into the cabinet.
He remembered enough about a genetics class he’d taken in college to know that two brown-eyed parents could still have a blue-eyed child. But at the same time, Kylie had his coloring and had been born nine months after he’d been with Sarah. That was just too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.
Kylie Harper was his daughter.
The wind kicked him full in the face that evening as Jake took Blackjack on a flat-out run across the long, pale pasture, inhaling the energy around him and letting the stallion’s hoofbeats drum out the nagging thoughts in his head. Chokecherries, pines and golden aspens blurred in his side vision. The cloudless blue sky above all but disappeared. They didn’t slow down until they’d gone nearly as far as wooden posts and barbed wire would permit. Then Jake reined the horse in and eased him into a blowing, cooling-down walk.
He couldn’t yet see the big white main house where Jess and Casey Dalton lived with their little daughter. But corrals and outbuildings lay ahead, and to his far right, a row of pines marked the long access road to the ranch.
Jake frowned as he pointed Blackjack toward it and the barn beyond, realizing that the ride had given him only a temporary respite from his tension. He was as churned up now as he’d been this morning when he’d read Vince Harper’s description.
He was almost to the road when two riders cut through the trees on horseback.
With a jolt, Jake recognized Sarah and Maggie Dalton, both astride chestnut mounts with white blazes.
“Jake! Hi!” Maggie called as they rode toward him. Both women were dressed in jeans and boots, but while Maggie wore a navy blue sweatshirt, Sarah wore a faded denim jacket over her white blouse. Both collars were up and her top two buttons were undone, creating a deep V from her long, smooth neck to the top of her chest. She rode well.
“Hello,” Sarah said with a cautious smile.
Jake smiled back and returned the greeting, thinking that she was probably wondering if he was still irritated because she’d refused his invitation to have coffee. Well, yes, he was. He was also irritated because he was sleeping on a medieval rack, acting like a jealous kid because of her, and being kept in the dark about the daughter he knew was his.
But this was another opportunity to smooth the friction between them and gain her trust, and he wasn’t going to get impatient this time and blow it.
“Starting your ride or finishing?” Maggie asked.
“Finishing. I was just heading back.” He relaxed in the saddle, looping his reins around the saddle horn. Underneath, his blood pumped hard. “Nice day.”
“And if you believe the forecasters,” Maggie said, “tomorrow could be even better. I was supposed to ride with Ross, but he apparently got busy so I invited Sarah to join me.” She laughed. “She brought me an instruction sheet. I’m going to attempt to make a quilt.”
“You’ll do fine,” Jake said, then remembered their phone conversation last night. “Should you be riding?”
“According to Doc, I can do anything I normally did.” She shrugged. “I’ve always ridden. Now that I know about the baby, I’ll take it a lot easier, though.”
“That’s good.” A flock of noisy blackbirds sailed past them and landed some distance away in a field of winter oats. Jake gave them a cursory glance before continuing. “How would you feel about staying on for a while?” he asked. “Not as a deputy, but as the office manager. I never did get around to considering anyone for the position. Joe’s agreed to work full-time, and I’ll hire a part-timer to take his place.”
Maggie broke into a beaming smile. “I’d love it. Until the baby comes, there really isn’t much to keep me occupied.” She turned to include Sarah in the conversation. “Except quilting, if I can get the hang of it.”
“You will,” Sarah assured her.
“Wait, now,” Jake said. “Before you accept, see what Ross thinks.”
“Ross thinks I should be in a wheelchair with nurses attending me twenty-four hours a day. In fact, he doesn’t even want me riding. Which could be why he’s been ‘detained.’ He probably thought if he stayed away, I wouldn’t go.”
“Then maybe your staying on isn’t a good idea. I don’t want any trouble with your husband.” For a variety of reasons, Jake thought.
“Don’t worry. He’ll get used to the idea.”
Almost as though he’d been summoned, Ross cantered his buckskin-colored horse through the same section of lodgepole pines the women had emerged from, and rode toward them.
A feeling that was half-eagerness and half-vulnerability moved through Jake—the same knotted feeling he had whenever his path crossed Ross’s. It seemed to intensify out here with the Dalton homestead so near, and Brokenstraw cattle grazing in the distance.
Ross reined his horse in. He was a lean, fit, sandy-haired man, and sat tall in the saddle. Beneath his tan Stetson, his deep blue eyes were worried as he addressed his wife, but he tried to hide his disapproval behind a smile.
“Thought you were going to wait for me,” he said.
“Sorry, but it got late, and I didn’t want to waste the sunshine. We won’t have many more seventy-degree days.”
“I know, but…” Ross seemed to remember his manners then, and glanced at Sarah. “Nice to see you, Sarah.” His gaze slid to Jake, the smile flagging a little. “Afternoon, Sheriff.”
“Ross.” Jake couldn’t say if Ross’s reaction was personal, or if the man’s long history with the former sheriff had turned him off law enforcement in general. But there was always a hint of dislike in Ross’s eyes when they met. If it was personal, their relationship was destined to get even more strained when Ross learned who Jake was.
“Excuse us for a minute?” Ross asked. “Maggie and I need to talk about something.”
“Sure,” Sarah said.
“No problem,” Jake returned at the same time. He didn’t mind at all. He’d been looking forward to getting Sarah alone.
Still, Jake’s gaze followed the newlyweds as they rode their horses to a dying willow tree, as if some genetic link made it impossible for him to look away. Then Ross brought his horse alongside Maggie’s to kiss her, and common decency made Jake turn away.
He was shocked to see what could only be called longing in Sarah’s eyes when she, too, glanced away from the intimate scene.
Jealousy cut through him, stark and powerful. Was that yearning he’d seen in her eyes for Ross? Did Sarah have a thing for Maggie’s husband?
Without thinking it through, without weighing the consequences of his actions, Jake walked his horse closer to Sarah’s and stared into her expectant brown eyes. Then he asked, point-blank, “Is Kylie my daughter, Sarah?”
Chapter 4
Sarah’s eyes widened in shock, but Jake could see fear there as well. She sent an anxious glance toward Maggie and Ross. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about paternity. You, me—getting it on beside that little creek the night—”
In a heartbeat, fear and surprise became outrage. “Getting it on?” she repeated, her dark eyes flashing. “Well, thank you very much. If I didn’t feel cheap before, I certainly do now.” With a click of her tongue and a quick nudge to the mare’s ribs, the horse broke into a gallop.
Snapping Blackjack’s reins, Jake galloped across the pasture after her, damning himself for letting his control slip again. He came up alongside her, talking to her frozen profile since she refused to look at him. “Sarah, I’m sorry. That was frustration talking. I didn’t mean to imply that our being together was anything— Will you just hold up a minute?”
“No!”
“She has black hair and blue eyes, Sarah,” Jake persisted. “She didn’t get that coloring from you or your ex-husband. And she was born in April.”
Sarah yanked back on the reins, and her mount came to a skidding halt. Jake halted his horse, too. “How could you know that?”
“It doesn’t matter. I know.”
Calling from across the field, Maggie rode back to them. “Hey! No fair taking off without the trail boss!”
Frustrated all over again, Jake blew out a long blast of air. Dammit, why did she have to come back now, just when he was finally getting somewhere?
Maggie smiled as she came up to them, politely ignoring the tension in the air, though her eyes said she’d seen everything. “Guess what? I was wrong about Ross’s motives. He has a project to finish that can’t wait.”
With enormous difficulty, Jake forced his face into amiable lines. “Did you ask him about the dispatcher’s job?”
“Not yet. I thought I’d let him get used to my riding before I sprang anything else on him.”
Sarah reined her horse away and spoke stiffly to Maggie. “Ready to go?”
“Yep. Jake? You’re welcome to join us.”
“Thanks, but I’m finished here.” Boy, was he ever. “See you tomorrow.” Then, with another tight smile, he nudged Blackjack into a tail-swishing walk and headed for the barns.
Sarah released a trembling sigh and thanked God that Maggie had returned before Jake could ask about Kylie again—and that he hadn’t insisted upon an answer in Maggie’s presence. She didn’t know what she would have said.
She would tell him. But only when there was no chance of anyone overhearing them and they had plenty of time.
“Feel like talking about it?” Maggie asked as they rode along.
Startled, Sarah met her eyes. “Talking about what?”
“Whatever’s going on between you and Jake. That was a tense little scene I rode up on.”
“Tense?” Sarah repeated, stalling for time.
“Tense. There were enough sparks flying between the two of you to burn this pasture to the ground. What’s going on?”
With a laugh and a shrug, Sarah eased her horse into a faster walk. “I don’t know. We just rub each other the wrong way. Maybe we were enemies in another life.”
“Or lovers,” Maggie joked.
Sarah gripped the reins in a stranglehold and changed the subject. Soon she had Maggie excited about choosing patterns, fabrics and trims for the quilt she wanted to make for her baby, and the conversation was as far removed from Jake Russell as it could get. But beneath it all, Sarah was ashamed because she’d finally told an out-and-out lie.
How many others would she be forced to tell before this was over?
A few minutes later, still battling his frustration, Jake led his horse past the tack room and into the barn, blinking as his eyes adjusted from bright sunlight to the comforting dimness of dark, sturdy beams. His mood began to level out. He’d been here twice since he’d relocated, and the same observations he’d made the first time occurred to him again. There was no new wood in sight. The barn was old, silent—almost churchlike if you could get past the earthy smells of hay, leather and manure. Sunlight streamed through windows speckled with hay chaff.
He doubted it had changed much since Ross Senior had been alive.
Frowning at the uselessness of his thoughts, Jake led the stallion into his stall, unsaddled him, then closed the stall door and carried his gear to the tack room.
He was startled to see Jess adding liniment bottles to the shelves near the medicine cabinet. He’d been so preoccupied, he’d passed Ross’s older brother without seeing him. Not good for a lawman whose instincts needed to be needle sharp.
Jake hung his saddle on a peg, then smiled and walked over to the Brokenstraw Ranch’s co-owner. “Hi. Didn’t see you in here when I went by.”
“Figured you didn’t,” Jess said over his shoulder. “How was your ride?”
“Great. We kicked out a few nice mule deer. Horse picked up some major burrs, though.”
“That’s not the horse’s fault.” Jess chuckled. “You were the guy holding the reins.”
Jake chuckled, too, as he took a currycomb and brush from a shelf. “True enough. Maybe next time I’ll let the horse steer.” For a moment, he almost asked Jess if the area he’d ridden through today held any special meaning for the Daltons, then changed his mind. If it did, maybe they wouldn’t want him riding there anymore.
“Well,” Jake said, unable to extend the conversation, “guess I’d better get to it, or it’ll be midnight till I get back to town. See you.”
“Yeah,” Jess called back. “See you.”
Heart thumping, Jake returned to Blackjack’s stall, Jess Dalton’s face frozen in his mind. Their similarities were staggering. But maybe that’s because he was looking for similarities. They were both about the same height, same black hair, same build—same black Stetson. But Jess’s eyes were brown, probably like his mother’s, and he carried himself loosely, the mark of a man at peace with himself. Jake envied him that. He had too many unresolved issues in his life for that kind of peace.
He’d just started grooming his horse when Jess walked in and dumped a scoop of grain into Blackjack’s bin. The animal nosed into it.
“Hear you’re looking for a new deputy,” he said.
Jake grinned, trying to act nonchalant. “A part-timer, anyway. You looking for work?”
“Me?” Smiling, Jess put his shoulder against the stall. “No, there’s more than enough around here to keep me busy. At the moment, just keeping Ross settled is a full-time job. His boots haven’t touched the ground since Maggie told him about the baby.”
Jake fought to calm his nerves. “How about you? Looking forward to the new addition to your family?”
“We all are. The Dalton clan’s pretty small as most families go.”
Not as small as you think. “I see a lot of your aunt Ruby.”
With a low laugh, Jess stroked Blackjack’s neck as the horse continued to feed. “Aunt Ruby’s a handful. Stay on her good side, and she’ll give you the key to her heart. Tick her off, and she’ll find you a first-class room in hell.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“If you want to eat, you’d better. Around here we’ve got Ruby’s for food and Dusty’s for drinks. There’s not much else but grass, trees and mountains.”
“Grass, trees and mountains work for me,” Jake returned. “Speaking of which, you’ve got a nice spread.”
“Thanks. But that was our dad’s doing—and his father before him.”
“Your dad’s gone?” Jake asked, hiding a guilty twinge because he already knew the answer.
“For a while now. He and Ross’s mom died when Ross was in high school. Small plane accident.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.”
“Me, too. I still miss them both. But, as I said, it was a long time ago.” Jess glanced at his pocket watch, then tapped the side of the stall with the grain scoop. “Well, I’d better shove off. Casey’ll be putting supper on the table.”
Jake hid his regret behind a smile. “Nice talking to you.”
“Same here.”
But a moment later, Jess called from the doorway, “Care to join us? I think it’s fried chicken tonight.”
Jake didn’t move for a long second. Then slowly, he ambled into the hay-strewn aisle between the rows of stalls to meet Jess’s eyes. “Thanks, but I have a pile of paperwork waiting on my desk. I just came out for a little breather.”
“Maybe another time, then.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Jake said. “Thanks again.”
Stifling the gut-gnawing urge to follow Jess up to the ranch house, Jake wandered back to Blackjack’s stall and grabbed the currycomb. For years, he’d wondered how it would feel to walk the same rooms his father had walked, wondered if—given the opportunity—he would feel a familial connection, a sense of belonging that had always been missing from his life. Now he’d passed up the chance. But much as he’d wanted to say yes, there was no way he could sit across the supper table from Jess Dalton without telling him they were brothers.
Sarah put the teakettle on to heat, still rattled over her unexpected meeting with Jake. She’d worried about his looking too closely at Kylie’s coloring and wondering about it. But the current situation was worse. He knew her birth date. And the most logical place to get that information was at the courthouse.
If that’s what he’d done, she prayed he’d done so under the guise of investigating someone else. Because if the courthouse clerks—especially Elvira Parsons—realized that Jake was looking into Kylie’s parentage, Sarah’s name would be on everyone’s lips again.
Suddenly chilled, she tugged her white cardigan more closely around her. She could almost hear Elvira’s voice….
I’ve always wondered who that child’s father was. She doesn’t look a thing like any of the family—including that thieving, no-account husband of Sarah’s.
The kettle whistled. Sarah turned off the gas, then took a tea bag from the white-and-yellow ceramic canister on the countertop and dropped it into her mug. But something pulled her attention back to the canister set.
She frowned curiously. The sugar canister was turned around backward; instead of big, full sunflowers, it showed a cluster of small, barely open buds. And there was a trace of sugar spilled on the countertop.
Funny…she hadn’t used sugar from the canister in the last few days. And she took pride in having a neat, clean kitchen. She wouldn’t have left…
Kylie.
With a wry grin, Sarah wiped up the sugar with a damp sponge, then turned the canister around so that all four matched again. Obviously, her precocious little daughter was developing a sweet tooth, and was smart enough to move the kitchen chair back where it belonged after sneaking a treat. Still, what Kylie had done was dangerous. Tomorrow morning, Sarah would gently reinforce the rules about climbing.
Half an hour later, Sarah climbed the stairs, stepped over the child-safety gate across the top, then showered and settled into bed to read for a while. But when she’d read the same two paragraphs three times without comprehending any of it, she returned the book to her nightstand and clicked off her lamp.
Why couldn’t she get Jake Russell out of her mind?
She was through with men who sent her hormones spinning out of control. Sarah shook her head in the darkness, remembering Vince. Her teenage heart had fallen for him so hard, loved him so desperately and believed in him so fiercely, that she would have staked her life on their marriage lasting forever.
But behind his teasing smiles and charming compliments had beat the heart of a callous user who didn’t care about anyone but himself. In the three years they were together he’d lied, bedded other women indiscriminately and stolen from his own grandmother. He’d hurt a man with his fists and held up a liquor store. But he’d given Sarah a valuable gift—one that nearly canceled out all the heartache and shame. He’d shown her how brutally flawed her judgment was.
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