Colton's Secret Son
When she and Knox had begun dating in high school, Livia had pretended to approve of the match, although Allison had suspected she didn’t approve of Allison’s blue-collar background.
Nobody had been more surprised than Allison when she’d been awarded a scholarship to Boston University. The opportunity was too good to dismiss. It wasn’t until she had to pull out of school to nurse her father that she’d discovered her scholarship had been made available to her thanks to the charity of Livia Colton. A friend of hers who worked part-time in the bursar’s office had told Allison.
Livia had gotten her wish to break Allison and Knox apart through distance, but the minute she had returned to Shadow Creek, they had resumed their romance...until he’d left her.
All thoughts of Knox fled her mind as she saw Cody in the distance heading toward home. He walked with his best friend, Josh Inman, who lived on the next block.
This was the first year Allison had allowed her son to walk the three blocks from the school bus stop to their home. He’d begged her to be allowed to walk home instead of her picking him up, and she’d finally relented.
Josh veered off the sidewalk for his house and Cody hurried forward. He spotted her on the swing and waved and her heart swelled with overwhelming love. He was such a good boy and only very rarely pushed boundaries.
When he reached her he pulled his fire-engine-red backpack off his back and tossed it onto the porch, then sat next to her on the swing.
“Good day?” she asked. She took a deep breath, loving the scent of sunshine and all things young boy that filled her nose.
“Great day,” he replied. “Tony Mantelli brought his hamster for pet day and it got loose. All the girls jumped up in their chairs and screamed and Stacy Burrwell’s cat was going crazy in the cage and Danny’s dog was barking. It was totally awesome.”
Allison laughed. “Did Tony ever get his hamster back?”
He nodded. “Mrs. Jackson finally caught it and got it back in the cage.” He kicked his feet to move the swing a little faster. “I wish I had a pet.” He slid her a sly glance.
“And I’ll bet I know what kind of a pet you’d like to have. It’s bigger than a dog and smaller than an elephant.”
Cody grinned at her. “And it has a mane and hooves.”
“Cody, having a horse is a huge responsibility.”
“I know, but I’m ready for it, Mom. I always do my chores on time and I get good grades. I’m responsible and Miss Jade will tell you I’m great with the horses. Just please tell me you’ll think about it.”
“Okay, I’ll think about it,” she replied. “And what I’m also thinking about is walking to the Cozy Diner for dinner this evening. It’s a beautiful day.”
“Hmm, spaghetti Monday.” Cody rubbed his stomach.
Allison got up from the swing. “Homework?”
“Yeah, a little.”
“Let’s get to it so that you don’t have to worry about it when we get home from eating.”
It was just after eight that evening when she and Cody left the diner for the six-block walk back home. Clouds had moved in, making the darkness of night come faster than usual.
“I’m so full,” Cody moaned as they began the trek home.
“Me, too, and I didn’t have a big piece of chocolate pie like you did,” she replied.
“No, but you totally pigged out on the garlic toast. Besides, the chocolate pie was worth it. It was delicious.”
Dinner had been pleasant. They’d visited with friends and neighbors and enjoyed the good food the diner always provided. “You know what the best thing about eating out is?” she said.
“No dishes,” Cody replied.
“That’s right,” she agreed with a laugh.
The neighborhood sidewalk was darkly shadowed as the clouds hid the moon. Their footsteps rang out in unison in the otherwise still of the night.
She was definitely feeling the lack of sleep from the night before and all she wanted now was the comfort of her bed and a night with no dreams.
Her body tensed as she thought she heard the scuff of a footfall behind them. She whirled around, heart pounding, to see nobody sharing the sidewalk with them.
Had she only imagined it? They had only gone a couple more steps when a rustle sounded. Once again she turned around, her heartbeat accelerating even faster.
She saw nobody. However, there were bushes and trees right next to the sidewalk where somebody could hide, and her intuitive senses were screaming that somebody was following them.
“I’ll race you to the house,” she said to Cody. She couldn’t explain the fear that suddenly torched through her, she could only respond.
Her heart still banged an unsteady rhythm as Cody shot just ahead of her. “Winner gets a cookie before bedtime,” he exclaimed.
She ran, making sure Cody stayed just ahead of her. He could win the race and have his cookie, but she intended to see that nobody sneaked up on her son.
The house had never seemed so far away and she’d never felt the kind of abject fear that coursed through her as they raced to safety.
“Ha, I win,” Cody said as he reached their front porch two steps ahead of her.
Allison fumbled her keys out of her purse and quickly unlocked the door. She pushed him through the doorway. “Get upstairs and get your pajamas on and then you get your cookie reward.”
As he headed for the stairs, Allison remained at the front door. She looked down the sidewalk from where they had come. Had somebody been following them or had it only been a trick of her imagination?
A dog barked in the distance and a chill walked up her spine. She quickly closed the door and locked it, then leaned with her back against it as she waited for her heart to resume a more normal pace.
If there had been somebody out there, it was possible it was Chad being drunk and stupid and hopefully no harm had been really intended. Still, that thought somehow didn’t chase away the simmering fear that remained with her long into the night.
Chapter 4
Knox arrived at Allison’s house at three forty for his visit with Cody. The plans he’d had for them for the afternoon and evening were a washout due to the rain that had pelted the area since before dawn.
Thank God it had tapered down to just a fine mist as he left his car and raced for Allison’s front porch. She met him at the door and let him inside, where awkward greetings were exchanged.
“Cody should be here in just a few minutes,” she said.
He looked out the door. “Since it’s raining, maybe I should take the car and go pick him up.”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
He turned to look at her.
She smiled. It was the first real smile he’d received from her since he’d accosted her at Jade’s stables and it warmed him from the chill of the rain.
“I’ve been told by Cody that nine-year-old boys don’t mind walking in the rain,” she said. “He’s also told me quite firmly that he isn’t a baby anymore.”
“Then I’m glad you stopped me from doing something to insult his budding manhood,” Knox replied.
Before he could say anything else to her Cody ran through the door, bringing with him muddy shoes and boyish laughter. “Hi, Knox,” he said as he kicked off his shoes. “Sorry about the mud, Mom.”
“Hi, Cody,” Knox replied. “I had some plans for us outside this afternoon but the rain has changed everything.”
“That’s okay. Maybe we should just stay here and play some games. I’ve got some awesome video games and Mom mostly stinks at all of them.” Cody flashed his mother an apologetic grin. “You know it’s the truth, Mom.”
“Okay, I’ll admit I’m fairly lame at video games,” she replied with a grin.
“And maybe we could order pizza for dinner,” Cody said. “It could be a really fun night.”
Knox looked at Allison. He wasn’t sure she would consider his presence there all evening a really fun night. She gazed at her son and smiled. “Of course you two can hang out here, and pizza for dinner sounds great, but before you start any video games you need to go upstairs and change out of those damp clothes.”
“Okay, I’ll be right back.” Cody headed up the stairs and Allison’s smile disappeared as she turned to face Knox once again.
“If this is inconvenient for you I can always take him to Thorne’s or Mac’s,” Knox said.
“Cody being here is never an inconvenience to me.”
“I wasn’t talking about him being here, I was talking about me,” he replied wryly.
“You’re a necessary evil,” she said.
“Said the kettle to the pot,” he replied. “Why am I the only bad guy here?”
A dusting of color filled her cheeks. “I guess you’re not...yet.”
He released a sigh. “At some point you’re going to have to trust me, Allison.”
“It’s going to take time.” She reached up as if to grab a strand of her hair, but it was in that charming, slightly untidy knot at the nape of her neck and she dropped her hand back to her side. “Cody can get the video games set up and whatever else you might need. I’ll be upstairs until dinnertime.”
As she began to climb the stairs, Cody came back down, and within minutes he and Knox were in the living room with game paddles in their hands as an earnest rain began to pelt the windows.
With a gun Knox could outdraw most men, but he quickly discovered that he was no match for a nine-year-old’s nimble fingers on game paddles. The first two football games they played, his team lost to Cody’s by a landslide. Cody’s triumphant cries of victory didn’t last when he put in a gun range challenge and they exchanged paddles for plastic weapons.
A wooden fence appeared on the television with bottles lined up. Knox cleared them before Cody got off his first shot. “Wow,” Cody said, his eyes glittering brightly as he high-fived Knox. “That was awesome. You shoot like a superhero.”
Cody set his gun in his lap and gazed at Knox. “My dad is a superhero.”
Knox froze. “A superhero?” he finally said.
Cody nodded. “That’s why he can’t be here with me. He’s doing important work keeping the world safe and catching bad guys. There are a lot of bad guys.” He stared down at the gun in his lap. “I just wish for one day he could forget about the bad guys for a little while and come here and say hello to me.”
What in the hell had Allison done? He’d wondered what she had told Cody about his father and now he wished he’d asked her before. Why on earth would she have told Cody that outrageous story?
“Let’s play another game,” Knox said as a new anger toward Allison burned in his belly. What had she been thinking?
They played video games until six when he called the local pizzeria and made their order to be delivered. While they waited for the pizza, he and Cody set the kitchen table with paper plates and napkins.
When the meal arrived, Cody shouted up the stairs to his mother and she came down to join them. Knox swallowed his anger, not wanting a hint of it to show while the three of them ate together. But there was no way he was leaving this house tonight before he spoke his mind to her.
He’d ordered a large meat-lovers for them to share. He waited until Cody and Allison took their first pieces and then he served himself. Automatically he picked off the pepperoni on his slice and placed them on Allison’s plate. It was a habit deeply ingrained from when they’d been a couple.
“How did you know Mom loves pepperoni?” Cody asked.
“I know a lot of things about your mother,” Knox replied. “We went to high school together.”
“You did? Tell me some other stuff you know about her,” Cody asked as Allison handed him his napkin to wipe off a string of mozzarella cheese that clung to his chin.
“I know her favorite color is purple and when she laughs too hard she gets the hiccups.” His gaze locked with hers and for the moment his anger was gone, replaced by haunting memories.
“She likes pizza, but she loves cheeseburgers with lots of dill pickles and mayo,” he continued. What he couldn’t say was how soft and inviting her lips were when she kissed or how her hazel eyes changed colors when she was fired up with desire. “She also isn’t much of a chocolate eater, but give her a bag of chips or a loaf of French bread and she’ll tear them up.”
Cody laughed in delight and then looked at his mother. “That’s all true! Now, Mom, tell me some stuff you know about Knox.”
She finally broke eye contact with Knox and instead smiled at her son. “He was the star of the high school football team. He had great moves on the field, but he doesn’t dance very well.”
Cody shot a glance at him and giggled.
“He’s very loyal to his brothers and sisters and when he laughs too hard all the dogs in the area howl.” Her eyes twinkled with a teasing light. “And don’t ever ask him to sing to you because he can’t carry a tune worth a darn.”
Knox found himself laughing and for a moment it felt good to be there with her and his son and sharing some humor. The rest of the meal passed with easy conversation and was filled with more laughter. At one point Allison laughed hard enough that she got the hiccups, to the utter delight of her son.
Knox had forgotten how much he enjoyed her sense of humor and how delightful he’d always found the way her mind worked. And just that quickly he closed off to her as he remembered what she’d told Cody about his father. What on earth had she been thinking then?
The meal finished and cleanup was done and then Cody and Knox returned to the living room to play some more games. Rain still bounced off the windows and it felt as if in no time Allison came back downstairs to tell Cody it was bedtime.
“Would you like for me to come up and tuck you in?” Knox asked before the boy went up the stairs.
He held his breath, surprised by how much he wanted to tuck the sheet around his son’s neck and tell him to have sweet, wonderful dreams.
Cody’s eyes brightened. “Sure, I’d like that a lot. I’ll call you when I’m ready.” He bounced up the stairs and disappeared from Knox’s view.
He turned to face Allison who had come downstairs to get Cody for bed. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“No, it’s fine,” she replied.
“And after he’s in bed you and I need to have a talk.”
“About what?” Her eyes filled with an instant wariness.
“You can come on up, Knox,” Cody’s voice drifted down the stairs.
“I’ll tell you when I finish tucking in my son.” He turned from her and headed up the stairs.
* * *
Great, what now? Allison wondered as she watched Knox climb the stairs and disappear at the top. Whatever he wanted to discuss with her had put that cold chill back in his eyes.
As days went, this one had already been pretty crummy. Not only had George reported that three windows on the Wilkenson home had been broken overnight, but she’d also received a flurry of unpleasant text messages from Chad.
He’d threatened to turn her into OSHA, the IRS and any other number of government authorities. Although the business was in compliance with every one of those agencies, she couldn’t afford a ton of legal costs incurred by frivolous lawsuits or government inquiries.
She still hoped he was just blowing off steam and would eventually stop with the texts. However, the whole thing had put her a bit on edge.
The only thing that had taken Chad and the new vandalism out of her mind for a little while had been the laughter they’d all shared over pizza.
It had been so unexpected. In a million years she’d never dreamed that she and Knox would be able to laugh with each other again. But he hadn’t been amused when he’d gone upstairs to send Cody off to sleep.
She went back into the living room and sank down on the overstuffed brown sofa to wait for Knox’s return. There was no question that her son was developing a huge case of hero worship for Knox. Did it worry her? She had to admit it did a little bit.
She just didn’t want Cody’s fragile heart to be hurt in any way. It should be a little girl that gave him his first heartbreak, not his father.
Her muscles tensed at the sound of Knox’s footsteps coming back down the stairs. She’d stayed out of the way this afternoon and evening so that he and Cody could spend quality time together. From upstairs it had sounded like they’d had fun. What on earth could he have to discuss with her now?
He entered the living room and immediately she felt the heavy tension that wafted from him. “Did you get him tucked in?” she asked.
“I did.” He sat in the wingback chair opposite her and stared at her with his beautiful but cold blue eyes. “What on earth were you thinking when you told Cody that his father is some kind of a superhero who is off fighting crime?”
Allison physically felt the blood drain from her face. “I didn’t know what else to tell him.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t tell him his father was dead.”
She sat up straighter. She refused to allow his harsh gaze to cow her. “Three years ago a close friend of Cody’s lost his father in a car accident. Cody was distraught for his friend and while he was crying he asked me about his own father. That certainly wasn’t the time for me to tell him that his father was dead, so I told him he had an important job fighting crime and couldn’t come to visit because he was keeping us all safe.” She raised her chin a notch. “Besides, it was the truth.”
“Except the part where you didn’t tell him that I didn’t even know he existed.”
She leaned back and released a deep sigh. “Knox, I agree that I’ve made some mistakes. I thought...” She cast her gaze to the right of him, not wanting to look at him as she continued. “I thought I was doing what was best for everyone in the situation.”
“By telling me you got pregnant by another man when we were together? What part of that was best for everyone?”
“You had already left town. The last thing I wanted to do was force you to come back to me by telling you I was pregnant.” And then there was the fact that his mother was a convicted murderer.
“I thought you cheated on me.”
“I’d never cheat on any man. That isn’t who I am.” Another sigh escaped her. “Knox, this is all water under the bridge. I’m trying my best to make everything right now.”
To her utter surprise tears burned hot in her eyes, tears that were impossible to control. “Look, I’ve had a really bad day at work and the last thing I need right now is for you to berate me for decisions I made in the past.”
She ended her words with an audible sob and raised her hands to hide her face. Good grief, what was wrong with her? Why was she suddenly so out of control?
“Don’t cry, Allison. You know I could never stand it when you cried.”
The unexpected softness in Knox’s voice did nothing to staunch her tears. It only made her feel worse. She’d made such a mess of things when she’d lied to Knox so long ago. But she’d already been hurt by his abrupt withdrawal, and the last thing she’d wanted was to tie him to her when he obviously didn’t want to be with her.
She shook her head, feeling foolish as she only cried harder.
“Allison.”
His voice was close and when he grabbed her by the hand she allowed him to pull her up and into his arms. It was the very last place she should be, but she leaned weakly against him as her tears continued to flow.
She’d had to be so strong in taking care of her sick father, a baby and a business. She’d had to remain strong for Cody when her father had passed away, but at this very moment she had no strength left; there was only old grief and new regrets.
“Shh.” Knox tightened his arms around her. His embrace was wonderfully familiar and despite the years, in spite of his anger with her and her long-ago hurt and anger toward him, his arms felt safe. His shirt smelled of fabric softener and his woodsy cologne as she buried her head against his shoulder.
Slowly the tears began to subside but she didn’t move out of his embrace. There had been many times in the past ten years that she’d yearned for a man’s arms around her. She’d secretly yearned for his arms.
He rubbed a hand up and down her back, the caress not only comforting her, but also stoking a delicious warmth inside her. Move away, a little voice whispered in her head. This was madness, to linger in the arms of a man who would never have a place in her life again.
She raised her head with every intention of stepping away from him. But his arms pulled her closer to him and his lips crashed down on hers.
Hot and hungry, his mouth demanded an immediate response from her and she was helpless to do anything but comply. Without her volition her arms rose to encircle his neck as she opened her mouth to him.
The kiss erased all rational thought from her mind. Instead, all of her senses came gloriously alive as his mouth made love to hers. His tongue swirled with hers as his scent suffused her, and the heat of his hands on her back invited her to melt against his broad chest. Their bodies fit together perfectly, as if they had been made for each other.
He finally left her lips to slide his mouth down the column of her throat. As her knees weakened with desire, rational thought slammed back into her. She jerked back from him, appalled by how quickly, how completely, he could break down all her defenses.
His eyes radiated a raw hunger as he held her gaze intently. “Despite everything that has happened between us, I still want you. There’s always been something strong between us, Allison, and you can’t deny that it’s still there.”
No, she couldn’t deny it, but she also wouldn’t admit it to him. “It doesn’t matter.” She took two steps back from him, needing not only to emotionally distance herself but to physically distance herself, as well.
“That kiss was a mistake. I don’t feel that way about you anymore.” Okay, maybe she could deny it, but she could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn’t believe her.
“In any case, anything like that between us would be foolish and it would only complicate things. We aren’t going there again, Knox, and now I think it’s time we say good-night.”
She breathed a sigh of relief when he nodded and turned to walk to the front door. Her legs were still shaky as she accompanied him.
“I’m sorry about my little breakdown,” she said.
He turned to face her and before she could read his intentions he grabbed her and once again planted a kiss on her lips.
It was short and searing and when he released her his eyes sparkled with a knowing glint. “The next time you try to tell me you don’t feel that way about me anymore, say it like you really mean it,” he said, and then he was gone into the night.
Allison closed and locked the door, then raised a hand to her lips where the heat from his mouth still burned. How had the night gone so crazy, first with her unexpected tears and then with the even more unexpected desire that had exploded between them?
She turned out all the lights on the lower level and then slowly climbed the stairs where the hall light was on at the top. Thoughts of Knox still filled her head as she went past her bedroom and instead stood at Cody’s bedroom door.
He was asleep on the top bunk and facing the doorway. A little smile lingered on his face, as if he was enjoying happy dreams.
This was the first night in over nine years that she hadn’t been the one to tuck him into bed. She hadn’t kissed him on his forehead and told him to have sweet dreams. Her face hadn’t been the last one he’d seen before he went to sleep. Tonight Knox had maybe stroked the hair off Cody’s forehead and wished his son happy dreams.
She turned and went into her bedroom. In the adjoining bathroom she pulled the pins from her hair to release it and then changed from her clothes to her pink, short-sleeved nightshirt. Cody had bought it last year for Mother’s Day with his allowance, and it had a rearing horse on the front with the word Spirit in purple.
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