The Rancher's Surprise Son

Chapter Two

“Laura’s little boy, Johnny, is a hoot. He’s going to be quite the cowboy when he grows up.” Slim Gonzalez handed Cody a pitchfork later that afternoon in one of the huge barns on the Duke Ranch. “You should see the little guy on his pony, Pirate.”

Cody’s mouth went dry. He plopped down on a hay bale before he fell over. Grabbing a bottle of cold water from his small cooler, he took a long draw, then poured the rest over the back of his neck.

Cody turned toward Slim and braced himself. He wanted—no, needed—more information.

“Laura has a son?” Cody’s heart thumped as he spoke to Slim and one of the other Duke Ranch hands listened in. “Tell me more.”

“His name is Johnny. He’s three, maybe almost four years old.”

Why didn’t she wait for me?

Cody took another long drink. He didn’t want to ask his next question, but he had to know. “Did Laura get married?”

“To a guy she met at college. From what I hear, it didn’t last long. Too bad. She deserves more.”

Cody tried to let that all sink in. Laura got married and had a son with her husband. He fumed at another man touching her, making love to her.

He’d always thought of Laura as his. She gave her virginity to him in her small dorm room on a twin bed, and she’d told him that she’d loved him since first grade. He’d echoed that same statement, and told her that someday he’d make her father proud. Someday he’d make something out of himself and could date her out in the open, not sneak around behind J.W.’s back.

It was selfish of him, but even when he told her to forget him—to find someone else—he’d hoped like hell that Laura would wait for him until he was released from prison. Three years was probably a long time, but here he was, ready to pick up where they’d left off.

Shoot. She must have found someone right away.

For a second, he wondered if the little boy was his, but then shrugged it off. In her letters, Laura certainly would have told him that he was going to be a father. Wouldn’t she? Of course she would!

Cody couldn’t wait to see Laura alone and ask her about the college dude. He wondered if she was divorced or still married to the guy.

Dammit, why the hell did she marry someone else?

He had to leave, get out of here. The huge barn felt as small as his jail cell. He jogged outside and sat on an overturned barrel behind the building, gulping the hot desert air.

Where was Laura? He had to talk to her.

* * *

Laura, her mother, J.W. and Johnny sat on designer chairs on the flagstone patio that was surrounded on three sides by the wings of the Duke ranch house. They were shaded from the hot sun by a large pergola, rich with bright fuchsia bougainvillea and surrounded by natural desert flora and fauna.

Laura loved moments like this—nice and easy, when she could enjoy the company of her family—that was, until someone started a fight.

She took a tray from Clarissa, Johnny’s nanny and all-around helper, which contained a frosty blown-glass pitcher and four matching pale green glasses that she’d bought on a trip to Mexico. Laura had always loved the set, and liked looking at the tiny bubbles that seemed to be trapped inside the thick glass.

“Thanks, Clarissa,” Laura said then turned to her father. “I hear you hired Cody Masters, Dad.”

He took the pitcher from the tray and poured the lemonade into a glass. “News travels fast.”

“Did you also help him get out on parole?” Laura asked, trying to be nonchalant.

“I did.” He tickled Johnny, and the laughing boy climbed out of his booster seat and got comfortable on his grandfather’s lap. J.W. hugged him tightly.

Johnny just adored his grandfather, and Laura could tell by J.W.’s various questions and comments to the boy that the man was training him to take over the Duke Ranch.

Johnny was the son that J.W. had never had.

“What your father didn’t tell you was that Georgianna Lindy walked over here and asked him to get Cody out.” Her mother glared at J.W. “The man killed someone, and your father gets him out of jail because she came and smiled at him.”

Her mother’s old wounds never healed. Penelope Belcher Duke had always despised Georgianna Masters Lindy. The story went way back and added to the long discord between J.W. and Mike Masters.

The truth was that J.W. loved Georgianna first, but she’d picked Mike Masters over him, and Penny never stopped feeling like second best.

“That’s enough, Penny,” J.W. said between gritted teeth.

“Grandpa, can I ride Pirate now?” Johnny asked.

“No. Not right now, honey,” Laura answered. “It’s time for your nap.”

“Grandpa, I want to ride my horse!”

“Aw, Laura, let the boy ride. He’s a genuine Duke,” J.W. said. “He loves horses.”

“As opposed to a counterfeit Duke?” Laura said under her breath. “Dad, remember that I’m Johnny’s mother, and what I say goes. Please don’t interfere.”

“Oh, all right,” J.W. snapped at her, then turned to Johnny and tickled him. “Do what your mother says.” J.W. lifted Johnny and set him on the flagstones. “Take your nap, partner, and then you can ride your horse.”

Just as Laura stood up to take Johnny to his bedroom, Clarissa appeared and extended her hand. With a glance back at J.W., Johnny put his hand in Clarissa’s. “I’ll be right back, Grandpa.”

J.W. grinned and lit a cigar. “Sweet dreams, Johnny.”

Sweet dreams? Too bad she’d never heard J.W. say that to her when she was Johnny’s age. Laura followed Clarissa and Johnny toward the ranch house, feeling like a third wheel.

J.W. reached out and clasped Laura’s wrist. “Wait a minute. I want to talk to you,” her father said in the gruff tone he reserved for Laura and her mother.

“Yes?” Laura anticipated a pounding headache and sat back down. She looked to her mother for assistance, but Penny was busy typing something on her cell phone.

J.W. took a long pull on his cigar and blew a stream of stinky smoke into the bougainvillea. “I want to talk to you about Cody Masters.”

“I figured you would, sooner or later.” Laura knew the drill. “I’ll avoid him as much as I can, Dad, but what do you want me to do? Cody’s working here at the ranch, and I live and work here. I take Johnny to the barn to ride and out for walks. I’m bound to run into Cody.”

“You know what I mean.”

“You’ve been telling me the same thing since I was a kid. Cody Masters isn’t your enemy. Even Mike Masters wasn’t your enemy. He was your good friend at one time.” She turned to her mother. “Georgianna Masters was your friend at one time, too.”

“That was long ago.” Penny never looked up from her cell phone.

“Life is short.” Laura tapped a finger on the patio table. “All the more reason why you should mend fences.”

“Georgianna’s the one who should mend her fence. It looks horrible. It’s all falling apart.”

That was her mother’s attempt to change the subject and zing Georgianna at the same time, but Laura wasn’t going to fall for it.

“Mom, stop.”

“It’s not my fault that she can’t afford to keep up her so-called ranch!” her mother said.

J.W. put his cigar down. “That’s enough, Penny.”

“Not before I remind you that we lost that land because you got drunk and failed to win a poker game against Mike Masters. I still can’t believe it.”

Same old same old.

Her mother never missed an opportunity to bring up J.W.’s fateful Texas Hold ’em game thirty-something years ago. It was like a recording that played ad nauseam.

A bell on Penny’s cell phone rang, indicating a text message. Penny picked up the phone, punched some buttons and read the screen.

Her mother had always been unhappy, and a lot of it had to do with the Masters family, but even more had to do with J.W. Laura always wondered why her mother didn’t just didn’t pack up and leave, but Laura knew that Penny just loved being the Lady Astor of Duke Springs.

Penny pointed at the Double M, just beyond the tree line to the west of the ranch house. “That place is an eyesore.”

“Mom, maybe she doesn’t have the money or the help to fix it up.”

J.W. rolled his cigar tip on the lip of an ashtray. “Then she should sell it back to me. Matter of fact, I suggested that when she came to see me about getting Cody out.”

Laura’s stomach lurched. She knew the power that J.W. wielded. “Dad, you didn’t get Cody out on the condition that Georgianna sell the Double M to you, did you?”

Penny’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Did you do that, J.W.?”

He took a long draw on his cigar. “I have some scruples, no matter what you both think.”

Laura’s face flushed with guilt. Her parents didn’t have a clue that the Duke Foundation had provided Georgianna with money to do some repairs to her ranch house.

And Laura was in charge of the Duke Foundation!

There would be hell to pay if one of them ever found out, but Laura was satisfied that she’d covered her tracks. Also, Georgianna didn’t know that she was getting Duke money, or she’d definitely have refused it. Laura convinced Georgianna that she was receiving grant money earmarked for the preservation of historic ranches, and the Double M qualified.

Stubbornness. Who needed it?

Laura shifted in her chair. She didn’t like all the deception, but what else was she to do? She wanted to help Georgianna. Indirectly, she was helping Cody and Cindy.

“Cody’s back, so he’ll help his mother get the ranch going.”

“Oh no he won’t. I’ll keep him so busy, he won’t have time to work his ranch,” J.W. hissed.

“Dad, how can you be so hateful?”

“The boy will be so damn exhausted, he’ll realize that he can’t handle both.”

Laura felt tears of frustration stinging her eyes. “He’ll quit here to work the Double M. I would.”

“But he can’t.” J.W. grinned, balancing his cigar between his teeth. “It’s a condition of his parole that he works here. I own him for two years. If he screws up his job at my ranch, he goes back to prison.”

Penny reached over the table and placed her hand on J.W.’s. Her bright red, glittery nail polish gleamed in the light. “Now, that’s the J.W. that I know! Cody certainly will fail. Georgianna will have no choice but to sell.”

“That’s my plan,” J.W. said, reveling in Penny’s admiration. Laura knew that he didn’t get much of that from her, so he aspired to get attention and adoration from his peers and maybe from some of his ranch hands.

Laura stood. “I can’t believe how cruel you both are. Cody will collapse with all the work he’ll try to do. And where will Georgianna and Cindy live if you take away their home? How can you both plan something like that? Forget the stupid poker game. Forget about the Double M. Put up a fifty-foot fence if it bothers you to look at it, for heaven’s sake.”

Her headache was in full force and the lemonade sat sour in her stomach. How could her parents be so loving with Johnny and so hateful to the Masters family?

* * *

Laura walked toward the barn. Maybe she’d run into Cody, or at least catch a quick glimpse of him. They had so much to talk about, but first she had to warn him about her father’s plan to work him to death with the hope that Cody would fail.

Although he had probably figured that out already.

She thought about her mother. Why couldn’t Penny be more like Georgianna Masters Lindy? She was the grandmotherly type: loving, nurturing and so sweet to Johnny. Whenever she brought him over, Georgianna spoiled him too much—but in a good way. Laura had no doubt that Penny loved Johnny, but she didn’t really show him. Laura sniffed. That was how she had been raised—at arm’s length. Why should she expect anything more from her mother?

Cody and Cindy both showed love and care to Georgianna. They were three of the best people she knew. Cody and Cindy would do anything for Georgianna, and she’d do anything for them.

Laura had never been sure that her parents loved her. Her father had wanted a son to carry on the Duke Ranch legacy, so her gender was a strike against her. Instead of teaching her the ins and outs of running the ranch, her father had made sure that she did so-called “girl things” in school: ballet, baton, cheerleading. And he brought in people to give her facials, and then there were personal shoppers, and yoga instructors to teach her how to relax, but she was bored out of her mind.

J.W. was convinced that his own mother, her grandma Sarah, died from overwork. He often told stories that when his parents, Sarah and Walter Anthony Duke, first came to Duke Springs and farmed and made a ranch out of the Arizona dust, the work just killed her.

It didn’t matter that Sarah died at age sixty from cancer. J.W. was convinced that it was the hard work that killed her.

J.W. took that original ranch and made it into the showplace that it was today through his own hard work and determination. He hadn’t wanted Penny to work the land, cattle and horses as he had. Instead, he insisted that she occupy her time opening dress shops and gift shops—ladies’ shops. Still, he didn’t want his “two ladies”—neither Penny nor Laura—to ever remember how the original Duke Ranch had begun.

Laura had wanted to learn how the ranch operated, and wanted J.W. to teach her. They’d fought and fought over the years, with her father insisting that she do “woman things” instead. Fighting over this had stopped when she had Johnny. J.W. wanted a rough-and-ready boy that he could train to take over the Duke Ranch, and that was going to be her son.

Laura knew that she had to keep Johnny—and herself—away from J.W. a bit so he would not completely take over their lives.

And when she wanted to use her degree in finance to work on Wall Street, J.W. asked her if she’d run the Duke Foundation instead. He didn’t want her in New York City because he’d preferred his grandson right by his side so he could make Johnny into the next version of himself.

Over her dead body.

It wasn’t exactly brain surgery to give away money and let the world know that J. W. Duke was benevolent.

Actually, he was! She’d insisted that she had to live away from the ranch house, so J.W. built a cottage on the property for her and Johnny. All right, she could save money that way.

So, she’d stayed in Duke Springs, not because J.W. had asked her to, but because she’d thought that Johnny should know his family—and that included Georgianna and Cindy.

Family was everything, and she’d wanted family around Johnny.

As she walked, she remembered the original Big Upheaval. That was when she’d sat her parents down one day in the family room and told them that she was pregnant by a man at college.

Then she’d braced herself for their barrage of questions. Yes, they eloped to Vegas. No, she wasn’t going to tell them his name, but he was out of the picture. Yes, she would raise their grandson alone if she wasn’t welcome at home. Yes, she’d filed for divorce.

The fact that she purposely said the word grandson had mellowed J.W. considerably. Telling him that she was going to name the boy John Wayne Duke after him had J.W. purring like a kitten.

Laura had told them point-blank that she’d move and take Johnny away if they tried to find Johnny’s father—that he wasn’t in the picture at present.

But they still brought it up from time to time, and always a fight ensued.

She’d given serious thought to moving away from Duke Springs after one nasty fight with her parents that had to do with her getting support for Johnny from the man they referred to as her “college husband.” Even though they believed he had run out on her, they insisted that he should be held responsible.

She told them adamantly that she wasn’t going to pursue financial support and that she could provide for Johnny herself. Even when J.W. ordered her to give up his name so he could sic his lawyers on her “college husband,” Laura kept reiterating that she didn’t want to talk about it, or that she would move and take Johnny with her.

That never failed to quiet them down—for a while, at least.

Finally, after a particularly overwhelming fight, she’d made up a name with more vowels than consonants, and said that Johnny’s father had moved to Dubai, that he wanted Johnny and her to move there to live with him.

Her parents had never brought the subject up again.

Laura stopped and looked around at the extensive Duke Ranch that went on as far as the eye could see. Little did her parents know, she could never take Johnny from them now. The little guy would miss his horse, miss the beautiful pool, the big playground made just for him and the ranch hands that just adored him. She could never take him away from her parents, from Georgianna and Cindy and now Cody.

Cody had yet to meet Johnny.

She wiped the moisture off her face with a handkerchief, took a breath and resumed her walk to the barn. To escape the tension at home and the tension churning inside her, she visited Georgianna and Cindy Masters as much as she could. It was calm at the Double M, like shelter in the middle of a storm.

* * *

As Laura turned right to the path that led to the barn, she had to admit yet again that the Duke Ranch was breathtaking in size and scope. It was surrounded by several mountain ranges, and she loved the huge saguaros that lifted their arms to the sky. She loved the lumpy prickly pear cactus with their red berries on top and the coo of the mourning doves.

The horses and cattle that dotted the hills and valleys of the ranch were prime stock, and she enjoyed looking at them.

She thought she’d seen Cody go behind the barn. Maybe, just maybe, they could have a quick conversation. She hurried down the path, watchful of her mother and father.

She needed to see him, touch him and run her fingers through his pitch-black hair that was a bit too long. She wanted to feel the warmth of his skin and feel safe and secure in his arms once again. She wanted to breathe in the special scent that was his and his alone.

It had been a long three years.

When the judge gave him five years for involuntary manslaughter, Laura gasped. Cody turned to her and said that he’d be all right.

Then she’d hurried to the ladies’ room and vomited.

Walking around to the back of the barn, she saw Cody. He was just...pacing.

He must have sensed that someone was near, as he whirled around, poised for fight or flight.

“Laura?” he whispered. “Damn, don’t sneak up on me like that!” He dropped his hands, hands that probably had defended him in prison. “Laura, I’m so sorry...”

Tears sprung to her eyes. “Cody. I—I... You— I...”

“I’ve missed you, too.” They always could finish each other’s sentences. “How’ve you been? You look...even more beautiful than...”

“I wish you would have let me visit you.”

“I didn’t want you to see me in there.”

Laura couldn’t wait any longer. She ran toward Cody, and he enveloped her in his strong arms.

Finally!

“Aw...don’t cry.”

“I’ve missed you, Cody. So very much.”

“What about your husband?”

She went stiff in his arms. “How do you know about him?”

“It seems to be common knowledge among the ranch hands.”

“I don’t want to talk about that now, Cody. Just hold me.”

“And you have a son?”

She moved back, out of his arms. She wanted to talk about her son, but not just yet; she just wanted Cody to hold her, to get to know him again. “His name is Johnny.”

“Johnny.” Cody nodded. “What’s his last name?”

“Johnny Duke. I named him Duke.”

“Did his father like that?”

“His father wasn’t around when he was born, so I gave him my last name.”

“I see.”

“Cody, I have so much to tell you.”

He looked at the mountains in the distance as if lost in his own thoughts. “I told you not to wait for me, but I was hoping you would.”

“Let’s not talk about that now.” She touched his arm. “Let’s meet. Usual place. Usual signal. Tonight. Okay?”

“I’ll be there.”

“Johnny and I are living in a cottage that’s to the left of the main house. The window on the right will be our signal now.”

Their sign was always the half-open shade of her right bedroom window in the main house.

Actually, since the date he was sentenced, she’d never pulled the shade down on her bedroom in her cottage again. It was always raised because she was always waiting for Cody.

She’d have to be careful. She didn’t want her parents, especially J.W., to find out that she was meeting him. It would be a disaster.

Besides, she didn’t want to give her father any reason to send Cody back to prison.

Chapter Three

Cody slowly walked back to the remuda barn, which housed the mounts—mostly quarter horses—of the ranch hands and the Duke family.

He might as well get back to work and think about what he would say to Laura tonight without putting her on the defensive.

He probably blew it with his pointed questions, but they didn’t have time for a lot of polite conversation.

He looked over into the stall of Johnny’s horse, Pirate, a cute little black-and-white pinto pony. He could almost picture Laura’s son sitting in the tiny saddle as she led the horse around the paddock.

Cody wondered if the boy looked like her.

The Duke Ranch had four more barns with twenty stalls each, most of which housed prize Arabians, the best of which belonged to J.W.

The Dukes boarded Arabians for others and had an indoor and outdoor show ring for dressage competitions, auctions and some smaller rodeo events. The Duke Arabians attracted interest from all over the world, and “special visitors” were housed in guesthouses on the property.

He could never give something like this to Laura.

The fancy Arabian barns had their own staff for mucking out stalls and keeping everything spotless, but Cody knew that he’d be expected to fill in as needed. Or maybe not. If it got around that he’d murdered someone, even if they knew it was done to defend his family, it might send the exclusive clientele galloping away faster than their horses.

The thought of gathering a quarter ton of manure this afternoon with a pitchfork and shovel, loading it onto the honey wagon that was attached to a powerful ATV truck and then dumping it bored Cody to no end. He’d rather be training J.W.’s magnificent horses.

Cleaning the stalls was backbreaking work, but he was up for it. Yet he kept looking up at the ranch house, hoping to catch a glimpse of Laura. There was quite a distance from the patio to the remuda barn, but he could spot her anywhere. Laura had a special walk, a kind of bounce in her step, and she always held her head high. Wherever she went, people gravitated to her sunny nature and quick smile. Her eyes sparkled as if she knew a special secret—a good secret—that she was just dying to tell.

But he hadn’t seen that Laura yet. She’d appeared briefly at the Double M this afternoon when she’d first seen him, but then that Laura had faded almost immediately.

Obviously, his questions bothered her, but at least she was going to meet him at the creek tonight.

He wanted to find out everything she’d been doing for the past three years, no matter how trivial or insignificant she might think it was. Just the sound of her voice would calm him, might convince him that they’d someday have a chance together again.

And what about the college guy? Did he visit Johnny? Did he take him riding and play with him?

He and Laura had been talking about running away together since high school, but it had been only a hopeful dream. With his mother and Cindy needing him, he couldn’t have just up and left.