Cathy Gillen - The Bride Said, 'Surprise!'

“I will.” Meg nodded, enthusiastically. “I’ll talk to him first thing tomorrow morning,” she promised.

“And tell him the truth?” Luke asked.

Meg nodded firmly. “That he and I are it, as far as family goes. Plenty of kids grow up in single-parent homes these days. I admit it’s a lot more common in Dallas, where we were living, than here in Laramie, but it happens just the same, and the families do just fine.” Meg shrugged her slender shoulders, the movement jiggling her breasts just enough to remind him she wasn’t wearing a bra under her pajama top.

“It’s not as if he doesn’t have any men in his life,” Meg continued defensively. “Now that Dani and Jenna are married, he will have uncles around to do guy stuff with him.”

Luke sat back in his chair. He stretched his long legs out in front of him, bumped Meg’s under the table, then shifted them to the side. “That’s probably true as far as Jake Remington goes, since he’s an independent businessman who owns a ranch. But Beau Chamberlain is a movie star. He’ll be off making movies a lot.”

“That’s true.” Meg also sat back in her chair, oblivious to the way the curve of one breast was revealed in the gape of her pale-pink pajama top. Meg kept her eyes on Luke’s as she continued defending her game plan. “Beau will have to go off on location. But he is also building a sound stage near here so he can work a lot of the time in Laramie. He’s already said Jeremy can come over and watch filming whenever he wants. The same goes for Jake. He said Jeremy is welcome out at the J&R ranch to play with his daughter, Alexandra, anytime.”

Luke shook his head. “What you are offering Jeremy is not the same as having a father, Meg.”

Meg gave him what he considered to be an outrageously self-righteous smile. “It’s the best I can do,” she said icily, slaying him with a glance. “And I would appreciate it if you would back me up on this.”

How could he, Luke wondered, when Jeremy was suffering so, and Meg was clearly in the wrong?

Meg leaned forward earnestly. “Please, Luke.” She took both his hands in hers. “Help me make Jeremy see it is okay for me to be both mother and father to him. Obviously, he’ll listen to you in a way he won’t listen to me.”

Maybe because I listen to everything your little boy has to say, Luke thought, not just what I want to hear him say. Luxuriating in the feel of her soft, slender hands warmly gripping the backs of his, Luke said, “Have you asked Kip to be a father to him?”

“Luke, I’ve told you.” Meg dropped her grip on him and sat back abruptly once again. “Jeremy isn’t Kip’s responsibility. He’s mine.” She pushed away from the table and began to pace. “You need to get that through your head, and so does Jeremy.”

“Meaning what?” Luke watched the sway of her hips beneath the loose-fitting pajama bottoms. “You haven’t told him? Or you told him and his reaction wasn’t favorable.”

Meg shoved both hands through the tousled strands of her damp auburn hair. “Meaning I was a wreck after Kip and I broke up and my parents died.”

“What are you trying to tell me, Meg?” Luke asked gruffly, aware she was hurting him whether she meant to or not by shutting him out, pushing him away.

Meg’s fair skin turned red, white, then red again. She had trouble meeting his eyes. “I’m trying to tell you that sleeping with you wasn’t the only foolish thing I did. There were other things I regret doing, too, both before and after you and I—” Meg stopped, unable to continue, and looked away. She took a deep breath, then turned back to him. Her hands knotted in front of her, she continued emotionally, “The truth is I made a series of mistakes. I’d give anything if I could go back and do it all over…do it differently. But I can’t.” She released a ragged sigh, pushed on. “And because I can’t change things, including the less-than-desirable circumstances under which Jeremy was conceived, I think it’s best that I leave those mistakes in the past, where they belong. And not hurt Jeremy or anyone else with the disclosure of the facts.”

Luke knew what she was trying to say, that there had been a third or even a fourth person in her life and in her bed. But he didn’t believe it. Meg had been so innocent and untutored the night they’d been together. And later, so upset at the passionate, uninhibited way she had behaved. He couldn’t believe she’d jumped into bed with anyone else either before or after they’d made love, no matter how upset she’d been over her parents’ deaths and her breakup with Kip. That was the kind of unplanned, unthinking thing that happened to a highly self-sufficient woman like Meg only once. On the other hand, he never would have believed she would summarily end their friendship, either, just because they’d foolishly and recklessly made love in a moment of crisis. “Then who is Jeremy’s father if it’s not me and it’s not Kip?” Luke asked bluntly, wanting her to look him in the eyes and tell him everything. Here. Now.

Meg’s jaw clenched as she spun away and haughtily resumed her pacing. “As I said, Luke, I am not discussing this with you or anyone else. What happened back then is over and done with,” Meg continued firmly, “and it’s no one else’s business but mine.”

Clearly, Meg had been hurt by whatever happened. It was obvious she felt very abandoned by whomever Jeremy’s father was, though how anyone could turn away from a cute kid like Jeremy, he didn’t know. Unless, Luke thought, Meg hadn’t been exactly forthright about the depth of her dilemma back then, and Kip or whoever Jeremy’s father was really didn’t know he was a father. If it was Kip it would have been just like Meg, Luke realized, to go to Kip and see if they could get back together and, failing that, just not tell him about the baby. Meg was so independent, self-sufficient, and responsible. Always had been. The last thing she ever would have wanted was for someone to marry her only because of the baby she was carrying. The last thing she would have wanted was a loveless marriage borne out of responsibility and nothing more.

Luke forced himself to concentrate on the dilemma at hand—how to satisfy her son’s growing curiosity about his male parentage. “But you will tell Jeremy about his father?” Clearly, Jeremy needed to be told something.

Meg nodded, reluctantly giving in just a little. “I’ll tell him the basic facts, that his father was someone I knew a long time ago. For a lot of very complicated, grown-up reasons he’s too young to understand, his father and I couldn’t get married to each other. So I decided to be both mommy and daddy to Jeremy and raise him on my own.”

Luke frowned. “I’ve talked to Jeremy, Meg. I don’t think that’s going to be enough to satisfy him.” Or me.

“It’s going to have to be,” Meg retorted, looked every bit as stubborn and determined as her son to have her way on this.

“And if it’s not?” Watching Meg finish the rest of her ice water, Luke pushed back his chair and stood, too.

“It will be,” Meg promised firmly. She looked him straight in the eye, and Luke felt the impact of their chemistry dragging him closer, like a rope around his middle, even as her defiant secrecy pushed him away. “Just as soon as Jeremy realizes I am not budging on this, either.” Brushing past him, she headed for the living room.

“Meanwhile, I want Jeremy in his own bed tonight.”

As she started for her son, Luke put a hand on her arm. “Let me do this,” he said quietly.

Meg shrugged off his concern and refused his help in a coolly determined way she never would have done six years ago, when they’d been the best of friends. “No, I’m used to carrying him. You stay with your girls.” Holding her sleeping five-year-old son in her arms so his head was on her shoulder and his legs were wrapped around her waist, Meg slipped out the door and headed across the lawn.