The Cowboy's Secret Son

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.”