A Cowgirl's Secret(5)

“Y-yes, please,” she said. “Heidi, if you need me, we’ll just be down the hall.”

“Mom?” the boy—Luke’s son—asked. “Need help?”

“No, thank you.” Wearing a smile Luke knew from experience to be fake, Daisy said, “This will only take a second and then we’ll watch a movie.”

With their audience safely behind the loft’s closed door, Luke dragged Daisy to the seating area in front of the elevator. “Talk.”

She shook her head.

“Damn you,” he ground out in a low tone, trying to keep it together if for no other reason than the last thing he needed was a nosy neighbor butting into a conversation ten years in the making. “Let me guess,” he said upon releasing her to push her into an armchair. “Your deep, dark secret you just couldn’t bear for anyone to know was that you were pregnant with our son?”

Swallowing hard, she nodded.

“You’re such a coward, you caused your family—me—years of worry and pain just to hide a teen baby?”

“Th-there’s more to it than that.”

Pacing, hands to his temples, Luke wasn’t sure whether to punch the nearest wall or hightail it to Daisy’s loft, taking back the son she’d hidden from him apparently without so much as a shred of remorse. His rational side knew the last thing their child needed was to learn he had a father in a traumatizing way. Because of that, he settled for asking, “If Dallas’s P.I. hadn’t found you, were you ever planning to tell me?”

“Yes.”

“Lord…” Hand to his forehead, he slowly backed away. The damned cloying flowers made him want to retch. “I can’t believe this.”

“I’m sorry. I really was going to tell you. I just—it never seemed like the right time.” The more she wrung her hands, the more he fought the urge to wring her elegant neck.

“I’ve imagined hundreds of possible reasons for you taking off like you did—vanishing without so much as a written apology. I thought you’d been kidnapped or had amnesia. Never for one second did I believe you’d voluntarily abandon me—your whole life. But this…” He shook his head. “You’re lower than low. Knowing you carried my son inside you wouldn’t have been bad news to me but the ultimate blessing. What did I ever do to deserve this?”

“Nothing,” she said through tears for which he had no sympathy. “I—I thought it better for everyone if I stayed away.”

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What an absolute train wreck you’ve made of not only my life, but our son’s? Can you even imagine the questions he’s going to have? Did you tell him I was dead? Or did you just not care? How am I ever going to earn the trust of a ten-year-old who never even knew I existed?”

Hands on her hips, raising her chin, Daisy snapped, “If you don’t want him, go back to Weed Gulch.”

“Wouldn’t you just love that?” His tone dripped with sarcasm. “No doubt nothing would make you happier.”

“That’s ridiculous. Now that you’re here, I’m relieved. If I’d truly wanted to keep Kolt from you the rest of his life, I could’ve done it.”

“That’s supposed to make me feel better?” He shot her a look of such pure, raw disgust, Daisy felt physically assaulted.

She doubled over. Sobs started and wouldn’t stop.

If only she’d told him about Henry. Then maybe Luke would understand. As it was, everything had come out all wrong. In a perfect world, she would have explained the nightmare that had caused her to leave before the miracle she’d found in their son.

Luke said, “The gentlemanly thing would be for me to give you a hug and tell you everything’s gonna be all right, but you know what, Daisy? That’s something I can’t do. My whole life I’ve wanted to be a father. I married not long after you left, hoping to get the chance at a family.” His sharp laugh told her what she already knew from having kept up with Weed Gulch gossip online. His marriage had lasted less time than the courtship. “The trust issues you gifted me with took that dream and shot it straight to hell.” Lowering his voice, he asked, “Where do I even start developing a relationship with my kid? Does he blame me for not having been in his life? What have you told him about me? Being ten, surely he doesn’t think he came from the stork?”

“Mom?” Kolt stepped outside the loft. “I heard shouting.”