The Cowboy's Secret Son

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.

As Grace pulled up in front of their cabin, she realized she’d never been inside one of them. She’d come to the ranch several times while tutoring Nathan, but they’d been confined to the dining room in the main house where Merline could watch them. That had been one of her parents’ conditions of her employment—that she and Nathan never be left alone. As if the two of them would suddenly go off and do all manner of sinful, indecent things. Little did they know their tight leash contributed to her doing the thing they most feared.

“Mom? Are you getting out?”

Grace shook off the dust of the past and realized Evan had already unbuckled himself and gotten out of the car. He stared at her through the open passenger window.

“Yeah, sweetie.” She needed to pull herself together, regroup. She’d stumbled through her initial meeting with Nathan and the big reveal, but there was no going back for a do-over.

With Evan’s help, she got their bags inside. When she dropped their biggest suitcase on the bed, she noticed Evan had climbed into a chair to look at some framed photos on the wall. She walked up behind him and immediately spotted Nathan in one of the photos, sitting astride a horse in early-morning light. His face wasn’t fully visible, probably wouldn’t even be recognizable to the casual observer, but she knew it instantly. Despite that one night together, they’d never been a couple. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t memorized every contour of his face. It’d been all she could do to not stare at him in class and when they sat across from each other during the tutoring sessions.

But that was a long time ago. A lifetime. Evan’s lifetime.

“Come on, cowboy. Let’s get unpacked so we can get back for the tour.” Yes, this trip was about ensuring Evan’s future, but for him it was supposed to be a dream vacation. And she planned to let him have exactly that. She wouldn’t allow her own issues to ruin her son’s big adventure.

“When will I be able to ride a horse?” Evan asked as he placed his clothes in one of the lower drawers.

“Probably not today.”

“Aww, man. Why not?”

“There are lots of things the cowboys have to show you first.” Like how to stay safe around those horses.

Grace shoved her instinctual worry about Evan’s safety down. There was a delicate balance between protecting him and smothering him the way Bob and Ruth Cameron had her and her siblings. And she refused to follow in their footsteps.

“You just have to take it one thing at a time, squirt,” she said. “I guarantee, you’ll like all of it.”

As they finally finished unpacking, Evan was on the verge of hopping with excitement and anticipation to get back to the main part of the ranch. Grace wondered if she’d ever possessed that sort of giddy energy. It was infectious though, and by the time they returned to the area with the barn and corrals, she was looking forward to the afternoon, too.

That anticipation faltered a bit when she spotted Nathan striding out of the barn straight toward them. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest. Surely he wouldn’t reveal his paternity to Evan right here in front of everyone. She started to step forward, to force him inside the barn so they could talk, but he stopped abruptly.

“Good afternoon, folks,” he said to the entire gathering. “Welcome to our first ever Cowboy Camp for Kids. If you’ve had a chance to look at your schedules, you’ll see we’ve got a lot lined up for you this week. Unless anyone has any questions, we’re going to start with a little tour.” Nathan turned without even making eye contact with Grace or glancing at Evan. “If you’ll follow me.”

Grace couldn’t help the bite of concern. Would Nathan reject Evan? She didn’t think she could bear that.

“Don’t borrow trouble,” Laney said low beside her. “Just go with the flow for now, see what happens.”

With a deep breath, Grace followed along with all the other kids and parents, hoping to make it through the afternoon’s activities. Maybe she’d find a chance to talk to Nathan more, force him to agree to her request for silence on the subject of Evan’s paternity. She refused to think about how he might react to that request. Not well if his actions so far were any indication. But she could only handle one big change at a time, and just seeing Nathan and Evan so close to each other was making her pulse jittery. Every time Nathan opened his mouth to talk about stalls or daily chores on a ranch or veterinary care for the horses, she had the unreasonable fear that he was going to reveal all to Evan.

Laney pointed her smooth, manicured hand toward where Evan and Cheyenne hung on Nathan’s every word. “Kindred spirits.”

“Yeah. Even though I don’t think Evan would admit it now.”

“At the ‘eww, girls’ stage?”