Bring On The Night

“I love you,” he whispered.

Reluctantly, he set Henry on his feet, knowing he might have been too emotional for the child. When all this was so new to Henry, Jonah had hoped to keep a lid on his feelings and slowly get acquainted with his son.

He glanced at Kate and she turned away quickly, but not before he glimpsed tears in her own eyes. “Come on, Henry. We have to eat lunch,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied, falling into step beside her.

“I’m taking you to lunch, Henry,” Jonah said. “Where do you like to eat?”

The boy looked up questioningly at his mom. “If you insist, Jonah, let’s go to a cafeteria so he can eat some vegetables,” she said.

“Sure,” Jonah agreed. “Did you go to preschool, Henry?”

“No, sir,” he replied.

“He starts kindergarten this year,” Kate said.

Wondering about his son’s life, Jonah continued asking questions and getting yes or no for an answer. He held the car doors for Kate and Henry, noticing his ex-wife’s long, shapely legs when she slid into the vehicle.

At the cafeteria Henry stood in the line between them. Fighting the temptation to constantly touch him, as if to reassure himself that Henry was real, Jonah watched him, taking in everything he did, marveling at the child.

As they started through the line, Jonah leaned down to Henry’s level. “You get whatever you want to eat. Anything.”

Wide-eyed, Henry looked up at Kate, and she nodded, giving Jonah a searching look.

“I want that,” Henry replied, pointing to a bowl of bright blue cubes of gelatin.

Jonah couldn’t resist brushing Henry’s head lightly. When the boy turned to look up at him, Jonah smiled. Henry smiled in return and then his attention went back to the food spread before him. In minutes he had a tray filled with fried chicken, the gelatin, mashed potatoes and gravy. When he pointed to some corn, Kate spoke up.

“Henry, you have enough. You’ll never eat all of what you’ve taken.”

“Let him get it, Kate,” Jonah said quietly, and then he turned to Henry. “I told him to get whatever he wants and I don’t mind. If it’s all right with your mother, go ahead, Henry. Get the corn and whatever else you want.”

Kate looked at Jonah and then nodded to Henry, who took the dish of corn. Next, he wanted a fluffy white roll, and then chocolate cake.

They sat at a table by a window, where they could see across a grassy expanse to cars moving on the busy thoroughfare.

Henry cleaned up the bowl of gelatin first and then started on his fried chicken and mashed potatoes. While he ate, Jonah turned to Kate. “We need to work something out.”

She nodded and gave him a worried glance. “We’ll work out a schedule, but please understand, Jonah, I have to get settled and get him into a day care facility.”

“When are you moving your things from North Carolina?”

“There wasn’t much to move. I sold nearly everything before I left, and we’re sort of starting over now.”

Surprised, Jonah remembered the house he had shared with Kate, a comfortable three-bedroom home in a booming neighborhood. Kate’s parents’ house had been a desirable two-story in a pleasant, older suburb. In the divorce he had let Kate have the house and one car.

She kept her eyes down as she ate, and he studied her again, sure her clothing and jewelry were inexpensive.

“You sold both houses and you didn’t keep any furniture—not what we had or any of your folks’ things?” he asked, giving her close scrutiny.

“I kept a few little things, which I have in the car with me,” she replied, shaking her head.

“Kate, what happened?” he asked, puzzled by her answer. “Even if our possessions gave you bad memories, you loved your parents’ things. I can’t believe you let them go. What did you do with them?”

“I sold them,” she said, busily cutting a thick slice of roast beef. “This is a delicious lunch, Jonah.”

“So you don’t have furniture? Are you going to rent a furnished apartment?” he asked, surprised again, and realizing things must have gone really badly for her to sell both houses and all the furniture. Yet where had the money gone?

“Yes,” she admitted with obvious reluctance.

“Why, Kate? You had a rewarding job and your dad had his own business.”

“I’m sure you remember that Mom and Dad had the roller rink.”

“Sure, I remember. It was a thriving operation,” he replied.

“It was up until the time that we married, but it started slipping then. By the time we divorced, the neighborhood had changed and a bigger, newer rink was built in a better part of town. Instead of getting out, Dad held on. During that time he lost their health insurance because he couldn’t keep up the premiums. Finally he lost the business.”

“Sorry, Kate,” Jonah said tightly, still consumed by anger over Henry, and trying to listen as well as think ahead and make some plans. “What happened then?”

“Dad got a job selling furniture, but it wasn’t an adequate salary and he didn’t have benefits. Then he had a stroke.”

“Sorry,” Jonah repeated, remembering Kate’s father, with his bushy brown hair and his booming voice. The man had seemed so jovial and strong.

“Mom had a part-time job,” Kate continued. Jonah gazed into her wide, hazel eyes, his gaze lowering to her full, red lips. He didn’t want to look at her mouth or recall her kisses, but he did remember vividly, far too clearly. He caught the faint scent of her perfume. Memories from the past mixed with anger from the present, and he had to struggle to focus on what she was telling him.

“…but she had to quit to take care of Dad, and then suddenly I was taking care of both of them. They sold their house and moved in with me.”

“So why don’t you have your things? Surely you didn’t sell them, too.”

She nodded. “Yes, I did. I had to, because of their heart troubles. Without insurance, the medical bills were astronomical, and I had to quit my job to take care of them.”

“You have an aunt and uncle and cousins. Didn’t any of them help?”

“No, they didn’t,” she replied, shaking her head. “They have their own families to take care of. But I managed and didn’t have to go into debt, and I have some money saved for us to start out on. Also, I think I have a promising job lined up. This was a temporary setback, and we survived it.”

He gazed into her luminous eyes and knew if anyone could cope with tough times, it would be Kate. There was a practicality to her, enabling her to get to the essentials. He had always admired her for her ability to handle the tough moments, until the tough moment had been her decision to leave him. But then, that survivor instinct of hers might have been what caused her to walk out on him.

“I’m sorry about your folks,” he said, truly meaning it because he had liked her parents.

She nodded. “They were relatively young to have that all happen, although Dad was thirteen years older than Mom.”

“How’d you find the job here?” Jonah asked.

“Through the Internet.”

She wiped her mouth daintily, and he looked at her lips again for a moment, then tore his gaze away. He didn’t want to remember sexy nights and hot kisses and a myriad other seductive moments with Kate.

He watched Henry, who was steadily eating every bite of food in front of him. So was Kate, and Jonah wondered if they had been going hungry. Again he noticed how thin both of them were. Kate’s blouse looked a size too large.

If she had had a hard time, he was sorry, but it angered him to think that his son had been in dire straits. If she had only let Jonah know, Kate could have so easily avoided any hardships. As swiftly as he thought that about her, Jonah realized that Kate was independent enough to shoulder her own burdens and not expect help from others, much less from an ex-husband who didn’t know about their child.

“Who are your friends, Henry?” he asked, turning his attention to his son.

“Matthew and Billy,” the child answered.

While Jonah talked to Henry about his playmates back in North Carolina, Kate savored her potatoes and spinach. For the past few days, during the long drive to Texas from North Carolina, they had lived on peanut butter sandwiches and cold cuts and whatever else she could buy cheaply and pack in the car.

While he talked to Henry, she studied Jonah. He looked even more handsome than when they had been married. Tall, black-haired, with those midnight brown eyes that Henry had inherited, Jonah had an air of self-assurance and command that he hadn’t had before. Eyeing his navy knit sport shirt surreptitiously, she could tell he had filled out with solid muscle.

During their initial encounter in the drugstore, she had thought she would faint. Never had she expected to see Jonah in this part of Texas. She had always known she should tell him about his son, but it was easy to put off contacting him, and at first, anger at him got in the way. By the time they had parted, she had been furious with him for sticking to his wild lifestyle and staying in Special Forces, which trained him for dangerous assignments.

When she had walked out on him, she hadn’t known she was pregnant. She’d discovered that the first week she was on her own, but in her anger, she hadn’t wanted to tell Jonah or go back.

She had intended to tell him about his son eventually, but it got easier and easier to put it off. When she went through childbirth, Jonah was out of the country on an assignment, and by the time he was back home, she didn’t want to tell him at all.

Finally, enough time passed that she didn’t want to face his wrath or the complications he would cause. When their paths didn’t cross for a year, she’d begun to believe they might never cross again. When her parents both became terminally ill, she couldn’t think about anything except their care and looking after Henry. With her excellent job gone, times had been harsh and lean, because every penny went into caring for the three people dependent on her.

With a rush of warmth, she looked at Henry. He was a lovable little boy, an easy child to raise. She knew he was solemn and didn’t have the preschooling he should have had at this age, but he was bright and affectionate, and she loved him with all her heart.

Her gaze shifted to Jonah, noting that imperial nose, his prominent cheekbones and thickly lashed eyes. As her gaze drifted down to his mouth, she remembered too clearly moments of passion and how Jonah’s kisses could turn her to mush.

She was surprised he hadn’t remarried, but then, his career was his life, and it stood in the way of other commitments. Still, he was breathtakingly handsome, and a lot of women were drawn to men like Jonah. He had an old-world courtesy about him that females liked. Kate had been fully aware of the fury he had controlled today when he had learned about Henry.

Jonah had never lost his temper with her—not in their bickering about his career, not even in the last bitter argument when she had walked out on him. He had always kept his voice down, always kept his wits about him. But she had once seen him wade into a fight to save a slender guy who was being beaten by a gang of men, and Jonah had been wild and fierce and frightening. And he had ended the battle in seconds.

At the first sight of him today, she had hated how her pulse jumped. When he’d taken her arm to help her into the car, she had felt the contact to her toes. After all this time and even when she didn’t want to, she still responded instantly and totally to him.

She wondered if he was stationed in San Antonio now. Wondered if there was a regular woman in his life. She glanced at him again, to find his dark gaze on her, and as she looked quickly away, she tingled all over.

She was self-conscious about her clothes, which were old and worn, and she hated that she had had to reveal all her problems to him. If they were going to have this chance encounter, she wished it had been a month from now, after she had found a place to live and gotten her first paycheck from what promised to be an exciting job.

“Want some more water, Kate?” Jonah asked.

“Yes, please,” she answered politely, knowing they were both being courteous for Henry’s sake, and that every time Jonah looked at her, his dark eyes still blazed with anger.

She watched as he picked up the large pitcher with ease and filled her glass. She had always loved the shape of his strong hands, his blunt fingers with nails clipped short.

“Thanks,” she said, remembering his touch, knowing how his hands could take her to ecstasy. She looked away and tried to stop thinking about him, to stop memory piling on top of memory. But today had been a shock, one she’d been totally unprepared for.

“Would you like more milk, Henry?” Jonah asked.

“He’s fine—” she began, but when Henry nodded, Jonah got up to cross the room to the cafeteria line. Kate watched his long-legged stride. He was so broad-shouldered, his back tapering to a waist still as narrow as when they had married. He wore jeans and loafers, but she could remember Jonah naked, his warrior’s body fit and virile and breathtaking.

Stop thinking about him, she ordered herself. She looked away before he glanced back and caught her watching him.

He returned, opening the carton and pouring chocolate milk for Henry, who smiled up at him.

Guilt swamped her. It hurt to watch the two of them together, because she had not only cheated Jonah, she knew she had cheated her son. Henry deserved to know his father, whose only crime was to like his dangerous lifestyle and feel it was his mission to save people and help the world, even at his family’s expense.

She looked at her watch and then at Jonah, gazing into his eyes, which snapped with fury.

“I have an appointment in thirty minutes to view an apartment,” she reminded him.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Jonah said. “I want to be able to see Henry.”

“We’ll work something out,” she assured him, rubbing her forehead. “This isn’t the time or place to do so,” she added, glancing at the child. She didn’t want to talk about visitation rights or custody battles in front of Henry, who, now that he had a full tummy, was beginning to turn his attention completely to Jonah. Henry’s big eyes were fixed on his newfound father, studying every inch of him, from the watch on his wrist to the loafers on his feet. Henry scanned Jonah’s features slowly, as if memorizing them.

“If we’re finished here, we can talk as we walk to the car,” Jonah suggested, standing and coming around to hold her chair.

She nodded, wanting to get rid of him before he saw her years-old vehicle, piled high with the only belongings they owned.

Stepping outside into the sunshine, they headed for Jonah’s car.

“If you’ll just take us back to the drugstore, my car is parked there,” she said. “You can give me your phone number. I don’t have one yet, but you know where I’ll work, and I can give you that number.”

“Kate,” Jonah said, taking her arm while Henry hopped on one foot ahead of them. “I think I have a temporary solution for you that would save you money and enable me to get to know my son.”

Feeling weak in the knees at his touch, she turned to face him. Even though she was five feet nine inches tall, she had to look up at him, because he was six-two.

“What are you referring to?” she asked.

“I just inherited a ranch. That’s why I’m here in San Antonio.”

“You’re going to live on a ranch?” she asked in disbelief. “You’re not in Special Forces?”

“No, I’m not,” he answered. “I got out of the military, and yes, I’m going to live on the ranch.”

“You won’t last six months,” Kate remarked swiftly, without thinking, “unless you’re raising and riding wild bulls. You like life on the wild side too much, Jonah.”

A muscle worked in his jaw, and she knew she had deepened his anger, but she had blurted the truth.

He watched Henry while he took deep breaths in an obvious struggle to get his temper under control. “I have a lot of room. Move into the ranch house with me. You can commute to work and I can get to know Henry.”

Stunned, she stared at him, caught unaware by an offer she had never dreamed of getting.

Chapter 3

“That’s crazy, Jonah! I’m not moving in with you!” she whispered, wanting to avoid Henry overhearing them. So far he seemed wrapped in his own world. She didn’t know if Jonah was propositioning her, or what he had in mind, but it was impossible.

“It’s a large ranch house,” Jonah said calmly, as if he were explaining the situation to Henry. “If we don’t want to, we don’t have to see each other. Living on my ranch would save you paying rent until you get your feet on the ground.”

“Jonah, I can’t imagine—” she began, but he interrupted her.

“Wouldn’t it help you to live rent-free for the next six or eight months?”

She thought of what that would be like—a gift, heavensent. An enormous break. At the same time, it would mean living with Jonah.

If she did, she might risk falling in love with him and being hurt all over again. She knew that because she was responding to him now. Yet, undoubtedly Jonah was in her life and would be until Henry was grown.

“Yes, it would help,” she murmured, possibilities spinning in her mind.

“If you’d like, I can take you out to look at the place. It’s furnished, and you and Henry can move in today. I’m staying out there tonight, and tomorrow I’m going home to get my things.”

“This is so sudden,” she said, rubbing her forehead. She wished she could choose a different course, but this was such a godsend for her.

“It’ll solve some of your problems,” he said, as if the matter was settled. “Cancel your appointment to look at that apartment, and let’s go to the ranch.” Jonah held out his cellular phone.

She looked up to meet his gaze. What was she doing? she wondered. Did he know what he was asking? The past hour had been strained, and Jonah was steeped in anger that she knew was going to last a long time. And this volatile chemistry between them—did he feel it, too, or was she the only one who would have to fight that magnetic attraction, as strong as it had been when they first met?

“Kate, you could save the money to get a better place,” he reminded her. “During the day I can keep Henry with me, and if we need to, I’ll hire a nanny. Henry is my son, and I want to do things for him.”

She was weak in the knees again. After all the responsibilities she had shouldered alone for the past five years, to have such an offer of help was overwhelming.

“I know you’ll be a great dad to him and a role model,” she said, convinced there was only one answer to give. Yet she felt an enormous reluctance. She didn’t want to rely on Jonah any more than she wanted to find herself loving him again. If she had ever been completely over him…

Kate didn’t want to think too much about that, either.

Bright sunshine spilled over him, highlighting his black hair. Looking relaxed, with his hands splayed on his narrow hips, he stood close enough that she could catch a faint scent of his woodsy aftershave. His jaw was clean-shaven. He was still dangerous to her heart, and she was sure that, ranch or no ranch, he was still as wild and impulsive as ever.

“Are you going to let Henry do risky things?”

Jonah looked at the boy, who was squatting down and watching a bug crawl along the edge of the sidewalk.

“Kate, you don’t have a right to ask me what I’m going to do. I can go to court and take him away from you for what you’ve done.”

She gasped, pain shooting through her because his words terrified her. At the same time, guilt swamped her, because to a degree, she knew he was right.

“And you think, under the circumstances, that we can stay under the same roof? I don’t think so, Jonah.”

“We won’t see much of each other at all. It’s a big house, as I said, and we can arrange it so we aren’t together.” He looked at Henry again. “And to answer your question, I won’t let him do anything beyond the ordinary kid stuff. He can climb a tree, dabble in the creek, learn to ride.”

“Horses?”

“Right, Kate. I’ll find a gentle one for him. I don’t want him hurt, either. Let’s go look at the place.”

Standing on the sidewalk, she stared into his brown eyes and debated with herself. Her life had just changed, but how big would the changes be? She wanted to tell Jonah no and walk away, as she had five years before, but this time she couldn’t. Because of Henry, her life was tied to Jonah’s now.

She sighed and nodded. “It would help a lot if I didn’t have to pay rent for a while.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

“Let me cancel my appointment,” she said, doing so quickly. As soon as she returned his phone, she said, “I can follow you in my car.”

Jonah shook his head. “Come with me, and we’ll stay there tonight,” he said, and in spite of the circumstances, his words made her tingle. “I’ll send someone into town to get your car.”

“Fine,” she said reluctantly, yet seeing little choice. Free rent would give her and Henry a wonderful financial boost.

“Henry,” Jonah said, raising his voice to normal level, “let’s go look at where you might live for a time. You and your mom might move into my house. It’s out in the country.”

Henry brightened and walked beside Jonah, and Kate moved to Henry’s other side so he was between them.

Jonah held the car doors for both of them again, and then she watched him walk around to the driver’s side. She didn’t want to live under the same roof with him. When they’d divorced, it had taken her forever to stop crying over him, but this seemed the only solution right now.

Jonah slid behind the wheel and in minutes they were driving along a freeway in San Antonio, while Henry asked questions about the ranch and Jonah answered.

“How did you inherit a ranch in the Hill Country?” she asked. “I thought all your family was up in the Panhandle.”

“I didn’t inherit from a relative,” Jonah replied. “It was a man whose life I helped save when he was a hostage—remember? The one in Colombia?”

She took a deep breath, because that assignment had been the last straw. That particular mission had sounded suicidal. At the time, she’d known that Jonah told her very little about what he had to do. Just enough for her to never expect to see him alive again when she kissed him goodbye. And that was when she had given him an ultimatum to choose between her or Special Forces. He had said he couldn’t quit the military.

“Although I’m glad you got something rewarding out of that,” she said, remembering too clearly, “I’m surprised you’re moving here.”

“I’ll see how I like ranching. I always liked it when I was a kid.”

“That’s different, Jonah. You didn’t have full responsibility.”

“Nope, but this ranch looks like a promising place for me to be.”

As they sped out of the city, heading north to the ranch, they rode in silence. For the first half hour, all Kate could do was think about the gift of no rent for the coming months, and what a wonderful help that would be to her finances. Her spirits lifted, and she tried to avoid contemplating living under the same roof with Jonah, or his fury, or the future. She wanted to bask in relief over the problems his offer solved for her.

The land was green from spring rains, and wildflowers still dotted the hillsides. At one point they reached barbed wire fencing that stretched into the distance. “This is the south boundary of my ranch,” Jonah said.

As she continued looking out at endless pastureland, she realized they were passing a lot of acres.

At last Jonah turned the car off the state highway onto a hard-packed dirt road, between tall stone posts. On one of the posts a sign held the Long Bar brand. Kate glanced back to see Henry sitting up, straining against his seat belt to see out the window when they bounced across a cattle guard.

She looked at the rolling hills and saw cattle grazing in the distance. She had imagined something on a much smaller scale, and when they topped a rise and she saw a sprawling ranch house and other buildings, her surprise grew. “Jonah, this operation is enormous. You inherited all of it?”