Cathy Gillen - The Bride Said, 'Surprise!'

Luke watched her enter her house.

He knew Meg thought he had given up trying to help.

She was wrong.

Jeremy might not be his son; he still needed a man to look out for him. Whether Meg liked it or not—for the moment, anyway, until Jeremy’s real father could be found and held accountable to both Meg and Jeremy—Luke was that man.

“THANKS FOR LETTING THE GIRLS play over here today,” Luke told Patricia Weatherby the next day. Mother of five-year-old Molly Weatherby, Patricia was also a new resident to Laramie. Luke had met her at the chamber of commerce, where she now worked. Learning they had daughters the same age, Patricia had offered to have his three girls over for a play date as soon as it was convenient.

“Where are you going?” Patricia asked as Molly showed Luke’s three girls where she kept all her toys.

Luke handed over his cell phone and pager numbers. “I’ve got some business in Austin to take care of. I hope to be back around four this afternoon at the very latest.” He hadn’t done enough for Meg when her parents died. Instead of helping her through her grief, he’d foolishly and recklessly made love to her, thereby adding to her distress. Had he known then that she was already pregnant with what was probably—despite her denials—her ex-boyfriend’s child, he could have persuaded Kip Brewster to do right by Meg and their son. But he hadn’t known then.

He did now.

And, having made half a dozen phone calls and found out where Kip was, it was time to act. Hopefully, Jeremy was Kip’s son. If not, Luke decided, he would keep looking until he found the help Meg and her son needed.

THE DRIVE TO AUSTIN went swiftly. Two hours later Luke was being ushered into Kip Brewster’s office at the prestigious law firm where he worked. As they shook hands, Luke noted Kip had changed very little since they’d gone to school in Chicago. He was still physically fit, handsome in that aristocratic, male model way, and very well mannered. “Thanks for taking the time to see me on such short notice,” Luke said.

“No problem.” Kip offered Luke a chair, then circled around to sit behind his desk. “You said there was some sort of personal emergency…?”

“It concerns Meg Lockhart.”

Kip’s eyes lit up with interest, his reaction confirming, for Luke, the fact that Kip was not over Meg. Any more than he himself had ever gotten over Meg and the abrupt way their friendship had ended. “How is she?” Kip asked.

“Thriving, professionally.” Luke was pleased to report.

“And personally?” Kip’s interest sharpened as he waited for Luke’s reply.

“Never married.”

“Wish I could say the same,” Kip said with a rueful shrug. “I’m divorced.”

Luke nodded. He knew what it was like to have things work out in ways you never expected. “I’m widowed.”

“Sorry.”

Luke nodded. “Same to you.”

Silence. Knowing there was no easy way to broach this, Luke forged on. “Meg has a son.”

Kip did a double take, looking just as shocked as Luke had been initially. “Meg—a single mother?” Kip asked in a low, stunned voice.

Luke nodded. He waited, but to his frustration, Kip did not leap to the conclusion Luke would have expected him to make. Which meant he was going to have to spell it out for him. “Jeremy is five now,” Luke said patiently. “His birthday is December first. He’ll be six.”

Kip’s brow furrowed. “Did Meg adopt this son of hers?” he asked finally.

“No.” Luke exhaled slowly. “Jeremy is her biological child.”

Another pause. “I don’t suppose she was artificially inseminated,” Kip guessed reluctantly after a moment.

Luke shook his head. Again, silence fell between the two men. Wondering what it was going to take for Kip to own up to his responsibility, Luke pushed on with difficulty. “The thing is, Jeremy’s a terrific kid. And he wants to know who his father is.”

Kip continued to look baffled. “You want my law firm to find this guy?”

“I want you to take responsibility for him.”

“Whoa.” Kip lifted both hands and held them in front of him like a shield. “No can do.”

Luke had been afraid he might be met with this type of reaction. If so, it explained a lot about what Meg had been going through. “This boy needs a father,” Luke said firmly.

“I understand that,” Kip said readily enough, leaning forward in his chair. “I even sympathize. And if he were mine, I wouldn’t hesitate to do right by him. But he isn’t mine, Luke.”

So Meg hadn’t told Kip she was pregnant with Jeremy, just as Luke had thought. “Going by the birth date, you were still dating Meg when Jeremy was conceived.”

“Which makes it all the worse.” Kip frowned.

Luke’s glance narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Do you know why Meg and I broke up?” Kip rubbed the back of his neck, looking increasingly uncomfortable.

Luke shrugged. “All she would ever say on the subject was you two wanted different things out of life.”

“Sounds like Meg.” Kip shifted in his chair and shook his head. “Discreet to the max.”

Luke waited.

Finally Kip rubbed his jaw and continued, “It boiled down to a couple of things. One, I was jealous of her increasingly intimate friendship with you. And two, she wouldn’t sleep with me. Wouldn’t even come close, which in turn led to a whole host of other problems between us. So you see,” Kip concluded heavily, “whoever Jeremy’s father is, it sure as hell isn’t me.”

TWO HOURS LATER, Luke was back in Laramie and still reeling from what he had discovered. He called Patricia Weatherby on his cell phone—learned all was fine with the girls—and asked for a little more time.

He drove over to John and Lilah McCabe’s ranch. He knew as soon as they ushered him in that he was interrupting something important. They had paperwork scattered across the kitchen table and a laptop computer plugged into the phone line. “I should have called first,” Luke apologized.

“Nonsense. We’re just doing the paperwork for our trip to Central America in a few weeks. We’re doing medical relief there.”

Luke hadn’t known. “That’s wonderful,” he said as he pulled up a chair alongside them.

“What’s up?” John asked, as ready to help as ever.

Luke drew a breath and worked to ease the tenseness of his muscles. “There’s no way to broach this subject gracefully, so I’m just going to be blunt. I need to ask you a few questions in complete confidence, and they’re really important, or believe me, I wouldn’t be here right now, inquiring.”

Lilah and John exchanged concerned glances. “Go ahead,” John said as Lilah got up to pour them all some coffee.

“Was Meg Lockhart’s son, Jeremy, born here in Laramie?”

“Yes.” A quizzical expression on her face—clearly she didn’t understand why Luke was asking—Lilah set a stoneware mug down in front of Luke and filled it to the brim. Then she topped off John’s mug as well as her own.

“Was he born prematurely?” Luke forged on. “Say by about a month?”

Again Lilah and John exchanged looks that indicated they didn’t want to be in the middle of this “situation” between Luke and Meg any more than Luke wanted them there. “I don’t think that’s a question you should be asking us,” Lilah said finally, as she returned the glass carafe to the warmer and returned to her seat at the table. “Medical records are confidential.”

“I know that. I also know I could get the answer easily enough by asking around town. And I don’t want to do that. I figure enough eyebrows have been raised regarding Jeremy’s paternity as it is.”

Abruptly John McCabe looked as protective as any parent. “Have you asked Meg these questions?”