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Riley's Baby Boy
Karen Rose Smith
Family feud or fairytale ending?After one torrid night at their high school reunion, Riley O’Rourke thought his torch for Brenna McDougall had finally been extinguished. But after she appeared on his doorstep – with his infant son, no less! – it was clear that the flames of passion sizzled hotter than ever.Brenna knows that Riley’s all wrong for her. But one encounter with her secret love plunges her back into his life for keeps. She hadn’t bargained on their long-muffled chemistry being as explosive as ever. Or that the old feud still simmering between his family and hers could threaten their new family…and their rekindled romance!
He opened the door to the May day, expecting to see a friend.
When he saw Brenna McDougall, his heart skipped at least one beat and his chest tightened.
Suddenly he realized she wasn’t alone. She was carrying a baby!
Riley’s military training served him well as he stood straight and stoic while his head spun and he calculated the fact that the infant looked to be about six weeks old. Six weeks old.
Keep your head on straight. Listen to her before you make a giant leap to the wrong conclusion.
“Hi, Riley,” Brenna said brightly. Then her confidence seemed to fade. “Maybe I should have called first, but I thought this was the best way to do it.”
“Do what?” He was proud his voice remained even as he remembered their fifteen-year high school reunion, their passionate night in his bed, then her departure without a word or a goodbye or a note.
“I had a baby. Derek is … your son.”
Dear Reader,
A man and a baby.
What can draw out a man’s tender side more completely than his child? I remember when our son was around three, my husband took him for a walk in our backyard. They crouched beside a rosebush and my husband let him smell the rose. I even shot a photo of it. It’s a tender moment I’ll always remember.
As a former marine, my hero, Riley, is usually a tough guy. But his stirred-up feelings for Brenna and his infant son change him. I hope you enjoy reading about his journey into fatherhood and his realization that since high school, Brenna has been the love of his life.
All my best,
Karen Rose Smith
About the Author
KAREN ROSE SMITH is the award-winning, bestselling novelist of seventy-nine published romances. Her latest series, THE REUNION BRIDES, is set near Flagstaff, Arizona, in Miners Bluff, the fictional town she created. After visiting Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon and Sedona, the scenery was so awe-inspiring that she knew she had to set books there. When not writing, she likes to garden, growing herbs, vegetables and flowers. She lives with her husband—her college sweetheart—and their two cats in Pennsylvania. Readers may e-mail her through her website, www.karenrosesmith.com, follow her on Facebook or Twitter @karenrosesmith or write to her at PO Box 1545, Hanover, PA 17331, USA.
Riley’s
Baby Boy
Karen Rose Smith
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To DeSales Sterner—
a wonderful mother, grandmother, sister and friend.
We love you.
Chapter One
The first knock on Riley O’Rourke’s door was hesitant.
The second was stronger.
Riley opened the door to the May day, expecting to see a friend. Family never knocked when they visited his house in the woods. They barged in. However, when he saw Brenna McDougall, his heart skipped at least one beat and his chest tightened because …
She was holding a baby!
Riley’s marine training was the only thing keeping him standing while his head spun. The infant looked to be about six weeks old. Six weeks old.
Keep your head on straight. Listen to her before you make a giant leap to the wrong conclusion.
“Hi, Riley,” Brenna said brightly. Then her confidence seemed to fade. “Maybe I should have called first, but I thought this was the best way to do it.”
“Do what?” He was proud his voice remained even as he remembered their fifteenth-year high school reunion, their passionate night in his bed, then her departure without a word or a goodbye or a note.
“I had a baby. Derek is … your son.”
Seeing Brenna again had knocked him for a loop, but her statement of his paternity felt like a sucker punch.
A former marine, he never lost his composure—not in the field, not in his post-military life. Raking his fingers through the black hair that had grown out over the past year, he recovered quickly. Yet he couldn’t take his gaze off of the little boy in Brenna’s arms.
“I guess you’d better come in,” he said, wishing he’d taken a shower, wishing he and Brenna didn’t have a past between them full of regrets.
Brenna held on to Derek as if he was the most precious bundle on earth. She rubbed her cheek against the baby’s and murmured something soft … something Riley didn’t understand.
“He’s just waking up,” she explained. “He was so good on the plane. And he fell asleep again on the drive from Flagstaff to Miners Bluff. I came straight here.”
Another surprise. Why hadn’t she driven to her parents’ first? After all, Brenna was the obedient, loyal daughter. Okay. He was still cynical about that.
Although she’d been in his house the night of their reunion last summer, her gaze wandered over it as if she were seeing it for the first time. One word could describe his place—comfortable. After living in the desert, in barracks, huts and bunkers, he’d wanted comfortable as well as enough furniture to seat a good portion of his family. With his dad, two brothers and a sister who sometimes dropped in unexpectedly, he needed a place for them to land.
With Derek in her arms Brenna turned around, assessing the long sofa and Western-patterned earth tones, the native-stone hearth, the recliner. There were two cushy chairs angled to watch the large-screen TV. Outside the dining area’s sliding glass doors, she could glimpse a patio with its brick wall and outdoor fireplace.
Still, Riley wasn’t concerned about her opinion of his house.
Anger created a slow burn through his blood. “Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?”
When she looked up at him with her sea-green eyes and pushed her long blond hair over her shoulder in a nervous gesture that had been a habit since high school, he almost forgot to listen.
“It’s complicated.”
“It’s complicated?” he snapped. When he realized his voice was a little too rough with a baby present, even though that baby had his blue eyes, he vowed to stay calm.
His gruffness didn’t seem to intimidate Brenna. After she stole a glance at him, she went to sit on the long sofa, settling the baby, who was dressed in a blue-and-white-striped onesie, in the crook of her arm. Derek waved his arms and smiled, if a six-week-old could smile. Brenna obviously thought he could because she smiled back and tickled his tummy.
But her smile slid away as her gaze met Riley’s. “I couldn’t get back to Miners Bluff before now.”
“Cell phone service might be a little spotty out here, but I do have a landline. I’m listed in the Miners Bluff directory.”
She ran her thumb over the embroidered puppy on Derek’s outfit. “I needed time, Riley, to figure out what I wanted to do. I was in the middle of designing a new bridal gown collection. I had orders for custom gowns. I had a show in March and then I went into labor early—”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “So?”
“So … I just didn’t know how I was going to handle all of it … any of it … you.”
“You wanted to handle me?”
Now her temper flared. “You know what I mean. I live in New York. You live here. I didn’t know how you’d feel about me being pregnant. It wasn’t as if we … we …”
“Picked up where we left off the summer after high school?”
“The night of the reunion, we knew we were having a fling for old times’ sake.”
Old times’ sake. She’d hit that nail on its proverbial head.
The night of the reunion they’d fallen into the past and hadn’t cared about the future. But now here she was, sitting on his sofa with his son.
His son.
Some of the shock was wearing off now, and as he approached the sofa and sat beside Brenna, the scent of her perfume, the curves of her body, the glossiness of her blond hair aroused him, just as they had when they’d danced the night of the reunion.
He steeled himself against the attraction that had begun when they were teenagers. “Can I hold him?”
Her eyes widened as if she hadn’t expected that. A reluctance seemed to come over her and he wondered what that was about. If he didn’t put her at ease, she could walk out that door and fly back to New York.
“I won’t drop him,” he said, with his own attempt at a smile, although it didn’t come easy. “Whenever I was home on leave, I handled my brothers’ and sister’s kids.”
Brenna smoothed Derek’s wavy black hair, then lifted him, warning, “You have to support his head.”
“I know.”
Those two words, I know, had an underlying message. As their gazes met, video flashed through his mind of himself and Brenna exploring each other. Their cravings when they were teenagers had defied their families’ hostility. Rebellion and defiance at work?
How stupid they’d been as teenagers. How reckless as adults.
As he took his son into his arms, Riley’s heart almost stopped. A protective urge he’d never felt before washed over him as he supported Derek’s head and then cradled his son in his arms.
He was a father!
Or was he? He had to ask the question, especially since Brenna had said she’d gone into labor early.
“Are you sure he’s mine?”
There was a look on Brenna’s face that he couldn’t decipher. He wasn’t sure if it was indignation or hurt. When she blinked, it disappeared and she lifted her chin. He knew that gesture. She was going to defend herself for all she was worth.
“I gave birth to Derek two weeks before my due date. I haven’t slept with anyone but you for a very long time.”
A very long time. Exactly what did she mean by that? Months? A year? Two? And why not? Brenna was even more beautiful now than she’d been in high school, with long golden hair, green eyes, a face that could have rivaled Helen of Troy’s. Oh, Lord, he was turning poetic. Brenna had always done that to him and he’d felt like a fool because of it. Yet as he sat next to her, realized her breasts were a little fuller, her hips a little rounder, an instinctive primal reaction he’d always had to her threatened to override any good thoughts or sense.
“But if you want a DNA test, no problem.” She glanced at him again and then added, “Maybe you don’t want a DNA test. Maybe you don’t want any part of …” She took a breath then motioned to her son. “Derek.”
Brenna had come from money, was beautiful, intelligent and always self-assured. But today there was an air of uncertainty about her. Because she hadn’t known what his reaction would be?
“I haven’t heard the roof blow off your parents’ house. Did you tell them who you think the father is?”
“I don’t think. I know.” She reached over and touched Derek’s little hand. Her arm grazed his and the awareness between them was instantaneous and potent, as it had been from the beginning.
His gaze drifted from her eyes to the pulse at her throat and it was fluttering rapidly. So was his. He waited.
“They don’t know about Derek.”
Riley felt suddenly confused. “They don’t know he’s a boy? They don’t know you’ve had him? They don’t know I’m the father?”
“All of the above.” Her voice faltered and he saw that she was tired from the trip and filled with anxiety.
“You didn’t tell them you were pregnant? How could they not know? Didn’t you see them at Christmas?” After all, the McDougalls were a close-knit family. They celebrated holidays. They kept traditions. They did everything right. Except Angus McDougall wasn’t always so right when it came to business.
“I didn’t really start showing until my sixth month. When they came to New York for Christmas, I wore heavy sweaters. They didn’t notice and I didn’t let on.”
“Because?” he prompted.
“Because I didn’t want any interference. When I left Miners Bluff, it was for a reason. You know that. I had trunk shows planned for winter and a collection to get out.”
“Trunk shows?”
He hadn’t been able to keep the real amusement from his voice. She gave in and shot him a half-smile. That smile was like a kick to the gut.
“I bring other designers’ gowns into my store and they show mine. It’s a great sales tool.”
She’d learned all about sales from wandering after her father in his department store downtown. The idea of that department store and of what Angus McDougall had done to his father could always make Riley see red.
As if Brenna knew that and didn’t want to get in to it, she hurried on. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, if I was going to come back here.”
“If you were going to tell me?”
Derek suddenly became restless, fretful, and Riley knew his son had probably caught that edge of anger in his voice. Careful once again to support the baby’s head, Riley picked him up, his hand practically spanning from Derek’s hair to midway down his back. He spoke to him softly and then nestled him in his arm once again. The baby quieted under his care.
“You’re good with him.” Brenna seemed really surprised.
“Brenna, you’re going to have to start trusting me.” He saw the look in her eyes that said she didn’t, the look that told him old insecurities die hard. She’d never really known if he’d dated her and bedded her in high school to get revenge on her father. It might have started that way, but in the end, he’d been tied up in knots over her. And what had she done? She’d been loyal to her family and she’d left.
How could they ever raise a child together when they didn’t trust each other?
“Trust goes two ways, Riley,” she said. “We’ll get that DNA test.”
“I know a good pediatrician my sister uses. I can probably make an appointment for tomorrow.”
