Ann Evans - That Last Night In Texas

She lifted her bad leg, letting it rest against the side of the tub. The flesh was crisscrossed and puckered with surgical scars even after all these years. That night in the barn, everything had shattered Humpty Dumpty style. The pieces had been put back together again, but the doctor could only do so much. It wasn’t pretty, and no matter how diligently Cassie worked out in this room, it never would be.

With a frown, she slipped her leg back under the hot water. She had never allowed herself extended forays into the deep end of the pity pool, and there was no reason to start now. Forget aches in the winter and pain when she stood too long in one place. Her body was whole. She’d been so incredibly lucky.

Lucky.

She drew a shaky breath and, for the first time in ages, let her mind run freely over the night of her accident.

The time spent in Bandera’s stall was still a blank to her, and what came afterward at the hospital was no more than flashes, snapshots of pain and fear. A nurse trying to keep her awake. Vital signs. Her father weeping over her.

Most of the memories refused to mesh, but the sound of the doctor’s voice had somehow sliced through her haze. Asking permission to take her leg if it proved necessary to save her life. She had felt her insides shut down with the shock of that possibility, with the fear that even if she lived she would never be the same.

By the time Ethan had come to her, she had known what she had to do. They couldn’t marry. It would be so wrong to tie a virile, exciting man like Ethan Rafferty to a cripple. Their plans of travel, adventure, of starting a new, exhilarating life together—all of it disappeared like smoke as she lay there feeling the pain medication take hold. Dreams were fine for those who had some hope of attaining them. But starting that moment, she didn’t have that hope.

He had kissed her, an achingly gentle touch of his mouth against hers. She’d fought to stay conscious, to ignore the sweet, rough purr of his voice promising that everything would be all right. She had made herself concentrate on her breathing. One slow, even breath. Another.

And somehow, she had told him to go. She’d told him that she blamed him for what had happened. That he wasn’t right for her.

That she never wanted to see him again.

Now, it seemed so foolish to think that had been the end of it. Twenty-four hours later, when she had awakened to find her leg still intact, though permanently damaged, the doctor had informed her that she was pregnant. She might have managed to keep Ethan from throwing his life away, but hers had been altered forever.

Looking back, she remembered being terrified momentarily at the idea of becoming a single mother. Yet at the same time she had felt something light and airy travel through her.

Ethan’s child.

It didn’t matter that her father was horrified and angered by the news. It didn’t matter that her pregnancy would make the long, torturous months of therapy that lay ahead that much more difficult. Her heart reeled with the sweetness of it, willing to snatch at any crumb. The blaze of light within her was too beautiful and dazzling to be extinguished.

Slipping her hand beneath the water in the tub, Cassie ran her fingers over her submerged belly, remembering the way it had looked when she had been carrying Donny. It seemed like only yesterday that she had held her son for the first time, and Ethan’s imprint on that tiny face had been so clear.

Not once had she ever regretted the decision to have her baby. From the moment of his birth, Donny had become the fulcrum upon which her life was balanced. And never, ever, would she allow Ethan’s reappearance in her life to change that.

All her protective instincts were humming. She would find a way to handle this latest development. Josh would help her. Together they would protect Donny from anything Ethan might have in mind. She just wished she knew what it was.

Cassie inched down again, until the curve of her neck rested against the back of the tub. She closed her eyes, concentrating on taking deep, calming breaths, wishing her mind would stop ping-ponging back and forth with a dozen possibilities.

Maybe, as Josh had suggested, they were worrying needlessly. Who could guess what Ethan had in mind? He had come back to Beaumont on business. Obviously he had plans for the future. Wasn’t it possible that he had no interest in establishing a real relationship with his son? Were they contractually obligated to sell that Jackalope land to him?

Maybe he had a wife and children of his own someplace. No reason he shouldn’t after all this time. She tried to envision it, and discovered that she couldn’t. He had been an only child, a loner all his life. Hadn’t he once told her that, given his parents’ history of creating the most undesirable home life possible, he could not imagine ever having children?

Stop it. Everything will be okay. You’re worrying for nothing.

She heard the Torture Chamber’s door open. Since Mercedes had already left for the day, and Josh had moved back to River Bottom, it had to be Donny. She loved him beyond life, but lately he’d developed a disobedient streak designed to annoy the heck out of her. She refused to open her eyes and give him her attention until he behaved like the gentleman she had raised him to be.

“What happened to your manners?” she asked him over the sound of the bubbling water. “Go back outside and knock. Just because you live in this house doesn’t give you the right to trample my privacy.”

“Considering what I learned today, it seems strange to hear you talk about respecting a person’s rights.”

Startled, Cassie snapped her eyes open. She sat upright so fast that water splashed over the edge of the tub and one shoulder strap of her swimsuit slid down her arm.

Ethan stood in the doorway. He was still dressed in the suit she’d seen him in earlier, minus the tie. His collar lay open at the throat, but other than that, he looked every bit the successful businessman.

She’d barely been able to look at him that afternoon, and the setting sun had helped to mask his features. Now she saw that he was still the handsome heartbreaker. The deep-set eyes she had fought to forget were still the same intense shade of blue, the jaw still strong and square and fiercely proud. But there were some changes. The light caught a few silver threads in his dark hair, and it was no longer the reckless tumble she had once loved to run her fingers through. She supposed it was his mouth that had changed the most. No longer cocky and inviting. It was cast in such a somber line right now, so taut she could never imagine it smiling.

He came to the edge of the tub and stared down at her. He seemed taller than ever and she felt foolish, off center. Two feelings she abhorred.

She lifted her chin. She would be strong for Donny’s sake, just as she’d made herself be strong during those first terrible months of her pregnancy. “What are you doing here, Ethan?” she managed to ask.

One brow spiked. “You can’t guess?”

“Get out.”

“We need to talk.”

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