A Cowgirl's Secret(6)

Heidi followed. “I’m sorry, Julie. I tried keeping him with me, but he ran away.”

“It’s all right,” Daisy said with a sniffle. “If you wouldn’t mind, we’re going to need privacy.” Daisy went to her son.

Luke followed.

“Sure,” Heidi said, her wide eyes questioning. “Let me grab my purse.”

With her friend gone and her son alongside her, Daisy wished for courage, but found none. She’d always known this day was coming, though that knowledge did little to make it easier.

Clearing her throat, she suggested, “Why don’t we all sit down.”

Kolt didn’t budge. “Who are you?” he asked Luke. “Why are you making my mom cry?”

“Sorry about that,” Luke said, “but she did something that hurt not just me but you. Now, she’s sad.”

Daisy held Kolt for all she was worth. She had never needed her son more. “Sweetheart, remember how I told you your father lives really far away, and how he loves you bunches, but hasn’t been able to see you?”

Her son looked from her to scowling Luke. “Yeah…”

“W-well, I wish this moment could’ve been more special for you, but sweetie, this man—Luke Montgomery—is your dad.”

Luke knelt. “Hey, bud. I, ah, sure am glad to finally meet you.”

“If you really are my dad,” Kolt said, “then how come you never loved me enough to see me before now?”

“It’s complicated.” Daisy molded her hands to Kolt’s shoulders, hugging him against her.

“I hate that word.” Kolt broke free of Daisy’s hold. “Why can’t you ever just tell me the truth? I know my dad doesn’t love me and that’s why he never wanted to see me.”

“Whoa!” When Kolt took off running toward his room, Luke snagged him back. “You wanna know the truth? Until ten minutes ago, I never knew you existed. More truth? I’m really mad at your mom for not even telling me she was having my baby.”

“Really?” The boy looked from his mother to his father. With each bit of information Kolt’s eyes widened and Daisy’s heart broke a little more. What had she done? In hopes of protecting her child from that monster, Henry, she’d hidden him away from everyone who would have loved him, in the process, hurting him more than she ever could’ve known. “Is that true, Mom?”

Eyes pooling, Daisy nodded. “I’m so sorry. I never meant for you to find out this way. I just…” Her advanced degree didn’t help impossible words come easily.

“If you give me a chance,” Luke said to their son, “nothing would make me happier than getting to know you the way a father should know his son.”

“B-but you’re a stranger.” As if transforming himself into a self-sufficient island, Kolt also wrestled free of his father’s hold.

“That’s my point. You’re my son. We should at least be friends, don’t you think?”

Expression more confused than ever, Kolt escaped to his room, slamming his door behind him.

Daisy chased after him, but Luke grabbed her. “Let him be. Poor kid has a lot to digest. In time, he’ll be all right.”

“How do you know?” Daisy snapped. “Like Kolt said, you’re strangers.”

“And whose fault is that?” Luke asked.

The line on its own stung. Knowing Daisy had no one but herself to blame delivered its own special pain. “Regardless, I think you should leave.”

“The hell I will.” Brushing past her, he parked himself on one of the kitchen-counter bar stools. “Got any beer?”

“I’m serious,” she said in a whisper. “Get out. Kolt needs time to adjust, and I need—”

“I don’t care what you need,” Luke said in a dangerous tone. “This is about my son and me. If you’d wanted the idyllic pregnancy announcement, you might have considered staying in Weed Gulch.”

Exhausted, no doubt feverish, with an equally sick son on her hands, Daisy wanted to fight back, but lacked the strength, not to mention the justification. When it came to not telling Luke he was a father, Daisy knew herself to be one hundred percent in the wrong. “You may not believe it,” she said, “but I am incredibly sorry.”



KOLT USUALLY LOVED HIS ROOM. He had lots of great stuff to play with and, since his favorite color was blue, his mom had let him pick out blankets and pillows and even paint the walls a color she said reminded her of an angry sea. He’d never really got what that meant, but since he was never talking to her again, he didn’t guess it mattered. Now, his room, and their whole loft, felt like a jail.