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“Yes, ma’am.” Jeez, could she say nothing else?
Merline waved her hand in a “no need for that” type of gesture. “You’re a grown woman now. Call me Merline.”
“Yes…” Grace caught herself before she three-peated her response.
Merline eyed her reservation book again while Grace marveled at how little Nathan’s mother had changed. She was still trim and fit with a tan that spoke of lots of time spent outdoors. She wasn’t the type of woman to color her hair, but she didn’t need to because she had gorgeous silver hair cut in a bob just below her ears. She was casual and classy at the same time, a woman comfortable in her skin and her surroundings.
“So you’re living in Arkansas now,” Merline said.
Grace could almost imagine the unspoken words. Always wondered where you and your family disappeared to.
“Moved there after college. My best friend was from the area, so we decided to set up shop there.”
“What do you do?” Merline pulled a key from a rack behind her.
“Interior design.”
“Oh, I bet that’s fun. I love watching all those design shows on HGTV. I start watching one, and the next thing you know three hours have passed.”
“Me, too.”
“Even when you do it all day?”
Grace nodded. “Can’t seem to get enough of it, I guess.” She supposed she was still trying to fill her life with beautiful things after so many years of being forbidden them.
Merline handed Grace the key and a sheet of paper. “You’re in cabin twelve. Just take the drive behind the office.”
“I remember.”
Merline smiled, looking as if dozens of questions were swirling unspoken inside her. Could she possibly have put things together that quickly, especially since Grace and Nathan had never really dated? Grace fought the urge to grab the key and run, telling herself that her anxiety was causing her to see things that weren’t there. She tried not to think how Evan might have inherited his keen sense of observation from his paternal grandmother.
“That’s the schedule for the weekend,” Merline said as she pointed to the paper she’d handed Grace. “You’re just in time to get settled before the tour.”
“Will we get to see the horses?” Evan was bouncing on the balls of his feet, unable to keep still.
Merline smiled at him. “Yes, sir. Lots of horses.”
“Awesome!”
Grace laughed right along with Merline.
“Excited, isn’t he?”
Grace pushed down the front of Evan’s hat. “Yes, he’s talked about nothing else since I told him he was going to Cowboy Camp.”
“Our boys were crazy for horses at that age, too. Still are.”
The mention of the Teague brothers ratcheted Grace’s anxiety up another notch. She placed her hand on Evan’s back. “Let’s go, pardner. We need to unpack.”
This time, Evan didn’t express how unpacking was way down his list of things he wanted to do. Instead, he turned and headed for the door.
“Good to see you again, Grace.”
Was there an extra layer of meaning in those words, or was she imagining it?
Grace met the other woman’s gaze only briefly. “You, too, ma— Merline.” She stepped toward the door before she could stumble over something besides Merline’s name.
Just as she and Evan reached the door, it swung open and a much larger version of her son stepped inside.
“Mom, it’s a cowboy,” Evan said in awe.
Yes, it was indeed a cowboy. And Nathan Teague still took her breath away.
NATHAN LOOKED DOWN at the little guy tricked out in full cowboy attire. Whose idea had it been to let the ranch be overrun by munchkins all week? Oh, yeah, his. Temporary insanity, had to be. Already, two campers had cried when the horses got too close. One had screamed so loudly his parents had apologized profusely and headed back to Austin so they could check in to a hotel with a nice, big pool. He looked at their latest arrival and wondered how this one would react. Oh, well, he had to make the best of the situation.
He touched the front of his hat. “Looks to me like there are two cowboys in here.”
The little boy scanned the office before he realized what Nathan meant. He smiled so wide, Nathan couldn’t help but smile back. Maybe there was hope yet.
“Nathan, you remember Grace Cameron?”
He looked at his mom, who nodded at a woman standing to the side of the little boy. It took a few clicks of the cogs in his brain for the truth to slip into place. But beyond the stylish, beautiful blonde in front of him, he could just make out the girl who’d been his algebra tutor. A girl he’d made love to and then pretended like it didn’t happen.
A girl who had disappeared without a trace, without a word. And now she reappeared just as suddenly and without warning.
“Grace.” For some reason, his brain couldn’t force more than her name out of his mouth.
“Nathan, good to see you.”
She only met his eyes for the barest hint of a moment before she turned her attention to the boy.
“Yours?” he asked.
“Yes.” Her voice sounded small, the same as he remembered it. So a part of that teenage girl remained below the surface of the woman she’d grown into.
The little boy looked up at Grace. “Mom, do you know the cowboy?”
“Yes, honey,” she said, her voice stronger. “This is Nathan Teague. We used to go to school together.”
The kid looked as if his mother had just told him she knew his favorite football player or superhero.
Grace placed her hands on the boy’s shoulders in what looked like a protective gesture. Maybe she was nervous that he might get hurt here, a common worry among the parents he’d met so far today. He resisted the odd urge to reassure her.
“Nathan, this little cowboy is Evan,” she said.
Nathan extended his hand, and Evan shook it without hesitation.
“You’ve got a good grip there.”
If possible, Evan grinned even wider.
“Were you good at school, too?” Evan asked.
Nathan laughed. “Not as good as your mom. In fact, she had to help me pass one of my classes.”
Evan nodded. “She helps me with my homework, too.”
“You’re mighty young to have homework.”
“You’d be surprised,” Grace said. “School has changed a lot in just a few years.” So had Grace. Or had her voice always been that pretty, the audible equivalent of a gorgeous spring day, and he’d never noticed it cloaked in her shyness? He had the oddest sensation that he’d like to hear her read to him. This time when she met his eyes, they held for a little longer, allowing him to appreciate their pale blue color. When she seemed to realize this, she ushered her son toward the door. Having forgotten what had brought him inside, he followed in her wake.
“Are you back in Blue Falls?” he asked.
“Just a little vacation.”
Evan spotted the horses and a few more kids down by the corrals. “Mom, can I go see the horses? Please!”
She looked about to refuse, with an edge of concern pulling at her features. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen that look today. “He’ll be safe. Simon and Dad are down there.”
Grace still looked unsure but finally relented. “Okay.” Evan shot off like an Olympic sprinter. “But be careful,” she called after him.
“He seems excited to be here.”
“You have no idea. I swear he’s John Wayne reincarnated.”
He chuckled. “There are worse things.”
“Yeah.”
He followed as she walked slowly toward a bench overlooking the stables and corrals. She sank onto it as though she was utterly exhausted.
“You okay? You look tired.”
“Just a long drive today.”
Instinct told him it was more than that, but if she didn’t want to share, it wasn’t any of his business. Suddenly, he wanted to apologize for the idiot he’d been back in high school, but she’d probably think him an even bigger idiot for bringing it up now when she’d obviously moved on.
He didn’t sit beside her. Rather, he leaned against a nearby oak tree. They both watched as Evan climbed up on the fence rails and reached over to pet a big blonde mare named Dolly.
“At least he’s not running away in terror like some of the kids,” he said.
“Unfortunately, he has no fear. I took him to a rodeo once, and I firmly believe he would have climbed onto the back of one of the bucking horses and given it a whirl.”
Nathan laughed. “Fearlessness can come in handy.”
“I don’t want him to be scared of everything, but a little healthy, self-preserving fear would be nice.”
Nathan looked over at Grace’s golden blond hair. When he’d known her before, it’d been long and straight down her back. Now, she had it cut in a shorter, wavy style that suited her. “Well, it doesn’t look like he’s caused you to go gray yet.”
Grace lifted her hand to her hair, and he noticed she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring. “No, not yet.”
A little girl in pink cowgirl boots, a pink shirt with fringe and a pink cowgirl hat climbed up on the fence next to Evan and started petting Dolly, too. She struck up a conversation with Evan, unintelligible at this distance.
“Hey, we’ve got two kids who actually like the horses. This week might work out yet.”
“Do you usually have lots of kids afraid of the horses?”
Nathan shrugged. “Don’t know. This is the first time we’ve done the camp. Maybe the last.”
Grace didn’t respond. Despite looking tired, she didn’t seem terribly relaxed. In fact, her back was as straight as if she was tied to a fence post. She clasped her hands together in her lap so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.
“You sure you’re okay? Can I get you something to drink?”
“He’s yours.”
Her quick response made no sense. “What?”
Grace turned her head slowly, met his gaze. “Evan. He’s your son.”
Chapter Two
All the breathable oxygen disappeared from around Nathan. At least it felt that way.
“What?” He stared at Grace, thinking he couldn’t possibly have heard her correctly.
Grace clasped her hands into a tight ball in her lap and took a deep breath. “Evan is your son.”
“That’s not possible.”
She looked up at him. “I assure you it is.”
Nathan snatched his hat off and ran his fingers through his hair. He took a couple of steps away from Grace, away from the words she’d spoken. The boy she claimed was his son was now feeding the horse a carrot with Simon’s help. A wild storm of denial and curiosity whirled within him.
“You got pregnant that night at the party?” he asked without turning back toward Grace.
“Yes.”
Heat rushed through him. “And instead of telling me then, you decided to run away?”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
She said it so matter-of-factly that an unusual anger roared inside him. He spun back toward her, met her gaze. “You always have a choice.”
“Maybe you did, when you decided to pretend nothing had happened between us.”
Despite his anger, he winced at the sharpness of that truth.
Grace shifted her gaze toward the stand of trees opposite where she sat. “But I didn’t when my parents literally dragged me away in the middle of the night in shame.”
