Belinda Barnes - The Littlest Wrangler

What a fool she’d been to think she could waltz in here and see James again and be okay. Well, she wasn’t okay. And she didn’t know if she ever would be.

“Well, I’ll be damned.” He dropped the folder and pen on a nearby desk and sauntered toward her, his lips turning up in a devilishly sexy smile, the same smile that had captured her heart. “It’s about time you showed up again.”

She wondered if James would still be smiling once he learned why she’d returned and if he would give her a chance to explain.

As though reading her mind, he bent to glance at Will. “Hey, buddy. How are you doing?”

Their son hunched one shoulder and buried his face in the curve of Kelly’s neck.

She gave Will a reassuring squeeze. “He’s a little shy.”

James straightened and sent her a questioning look. “Who’s this little fella?”

The sound of the air conditioner, the faint country music, served as a backdrop to his sudden silence while he stood waiting, watching, thinking only God knew what. She struggled to contain her anxiety.

“Kelly?” He tilted her chin with his forefinger and looked into her eyes.

She didn’t want to tell him, didn’t want to see the anger on his face. But most of all, she couldn’t bear the thought of hurting him any more than she already had.

Reminding herself why she’d returned, she forced back her apprehension. “This is Will, someone I want you to know. H-he’s my son.”

Something like disappointment clouded James’s eyes. “So you’re married?”

“No. Will’s two years old. He was born the fifth of May, two years ago.”

She watched him digest that, could see the wheels turning in his head as he mentally did the math. And she waited.

Fear made her tremble. Fear of what he would say, of the effect on her son. Had she made a wrong decision over two years ago? No, not about leaving. She’d had no choice. But she should have told James about Will a long time ago. He’d had a right to know.

Kelly locked her knees against the weariness that threatened to buckle her legs. She prayed James wouldn’t blame their child for what she had done. She prayed that he would grow to love Will. And she prayed he never discovered that, even after everything that had happened between them, after what she’d done, her feelings for him had never changed.

James’s smile faded. His eyes narrowed in question, shifting from her to Will, then back. “Are you telling me—”

“Will is your child.”

His child.

James Scott stood frozen. He had to remind himself to breathe. His head buzzed as if he’d taken a hard fall off the back of a bronc. The country music playing on the radio behind him faded into the background as her words hung in the air between them.

If he’d seen even a hint of a smile, he would suspect this to be one of the pranks they’d always played on each other, but the fear and exhaustion in Kelly’s eyes told him otherwise.

Her betrayal twisted his gut into a tight knot. “Why, Kelly? What made you think you had the right to keep this from me?”

She flinched. “I didn’t think—”

“You’ve got that right. You didn’t think or you would have known how I’d feel, what I’d say.”

“If you’ll just give me a chance to explain—”

“Why should I? You didn’t give me a chance,” he said, not allowing her the opportunity to defend her actions. He managed to keep his voice low enough not to frighten the boy. “And why are you telling me now?”

Her face was as pale as the white T-shirt she wore over a pair of blue jeans. She swayed, and he caught her elbow.

He muttered a curse. “You okay, Kel?” he asked, surprised at how calm his voice sounded when anger still pounded in his ears.

“I’m a little tired is all.” She stepped away from his touch, then looked from him to the child in her arms. “This is William James. He goes by Will.” Her eyes turned soft and warm as they lingered on the boy.

He studied the child’s chocolate-brown eyes, thick mahogany hair and olive complexion—too many similarities to ignore.

The boy watched him from the security of Kelly’s arms. Their eyes met and held until the toddler lowered his head against Kelly’s breast.

Something shifted in James’s chest, flooding him with an intense need to protect and something else he wasn’t sure he wanted to examine. “You should have told me before you left.”

“I didn’t know then.” She stifled a yawn.

He caught Kelly’s elbow and steered her to a chair, her arm fragile in his hand. “Let’s sit down where we can talk, before you fall asleep on your feet.”

Kelly sat on the edge of the chair. “I’m sorry. I’ve studied hard the past two weeks, even pulled several all-nighters. I loaded the truck yesterday after my last final and drove straight through from College Station to Willow Grove.” She tried to hide another yawn behind her hand. “I’m really, really tired, but I had to tell you.”

“Look, we’ve got some things we need to talk about, but you can barely keep your eyes open. Why don’t we go to my place? You can sleep for a while, then we’ll talk.” It would give him some time to think this whole thing through. After he cooled off.

She stood and blinked several times, as if focusing was difficult. “No, there’s so much to explain, so much I need to say. Just let me go splash some cold water over my face.”

He caught her arm when she tried to pass him. “Kel, I’ve already waited a couple of years. I reckon I can wait a while longer.” Maybe by then he would have regained control of the old feelings that had suddenly resurfaced. It was almost as if she’d never left. Only, he knew she had.

And now he knew she had also betrayed him.

The child began to fuss, and Kelly kissed his brow. “Just a second, sweetie, and we’ll leave.” She gave James an apologetic smile. “There’s a hotel not far from here where Will and I can get a room.”

“There’s no need for that,” he said, wondering at her reluctance to go home with him. Maybe it made her feel uncomfortable to go back to the place where they’d made love. “Look, Kel, you don’t need—”

“Thanks, but I can’t impose on you and your, uh, roommate.”

“Roommate?” Why would she think he had a roommate? He’d never had one before. “You care to explain that?”

When the child began to squirm, she shifted him to her other hip. “I assume you have someone living with you, James, that’s all.”

“Someone? You mean a woman?”

“No, James, I meant a tractor,” she said, her lips turning up in a grin that wavered, then slipped away as her eyes settled on him. “Of course I mean a woman.”

He had no intention of telling her he had only gone out twice since she’d left. Both times he had known five minutes into the date that it wouldn’t work. Because neither of the women had possessed Kelly’s quick wit or her sassy mouth. And neither had made him feel the way she did. “No, Kel, there’s no one.”

“Oh.”

“So will you go home with me now?”

When she didn’t answer right away, he said, “Come on. I’m not the big bad wolf. I’ll behave.”

Despite struggling to keep her eyes open, she smiled. “You forget I know you.”

“Can’t blame a fella for trying.” He lifted the restless child from her arms. Funny how holding Will seemed almost natural. He chalked it up to holding Cal’s daughter, Jessie, on more than one occasion. But this was different. This was his son.

He’d missed out on so much. As bad as he hated to admit it, he’d missed her while she’d been away at vet school. He’d missed the way she’d always pestered him, how she’d dragged stray cats and dogs to the clinic during off time and how she’d restored order to his disorderly life. But that was before she’d run out on him. Before this unthinkable deception.