Natural Born Daddy

Inside the cozy kitchen, which was shadowed in the gathering twilight, she smiled at him. She took down two china cups and placed them on the kitchen table. “And you’re a lousy liar, despite all that practice you get dispensing your charm all over Houston. How’s the oil business?”

“Challenging.”

Attuned as always to his moods, she paused while filling the teakettle with water. “Bad week?”

“No worse than most.”

Her gaze narrowed. “That doesn’t sound convincing, old chum.”

Jordan picked up the empty cup and turned it slowly in his hands. The fine porcelain was cracked and chipped, but he found the delicacy oddly enchanting. Flaws, he’d discovered over time, often made people, like china, more interesting. He wondered what flaws Kelly had. After all these years, he could think of none. Discovering them suddenly struck him as a fascinating pastime.

“Jordan?”

He looked up from the fragile cup and saw that Kelly was regarding him with a puzzled expression. Those huge brown eyes of hers were filled with concern.

“Everything okay?” she asked.

“Rexanne broke the engagement,” he announced casually.

“Good,” Kelly replied without the slightest hint of sympathy.

“Damn,” he muttered irritably. “Did everybody dislike her except me?”

“I didn’t dislike her,” Kelly corrected. “I just thought she was all wrong for you.”

“Why?”

“She was using you.”

“Weren’t they all,” he said dryly.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” she said as she poured the boiling water into the pot, tossed in a handful of tea leaves and waited for it to steep.

“Have you ever approved of any woman I’ve dated?”

Kelly took the question he’d intended to be sarcastic seriously. “There was one, back in college. I think her name was Pamela. You dumped her after the first date.”

“And she was right for me?”

“I didn’t have all that long to check out her sincerity,” she reminded him, “but, yes, I think she could have been. She was sweet.”

Jordan scowled. Sweet? Perhaps innocuous would have been a better description. He didn’t even remember a Pamela, which didn’t say much for either her or him.

“Actually, I think my taste is improving,” he said, his gaze fixed on Kelly’s face. There was no immediate reaction beyond a faint flicker of something in her eyes, something he couldn’t quite identify. She seemed slightly more alert, perhaps even a little wary.

“You’ve already found a replacement for Rexanne? Isn’t that a little cavalier?”

“Not really. I told you a long time ago that I thought it was time for me to settle down.”

“Right, so you proposed to the first woman to cross your path after that, and look where that got you.”

“She wasn’t the first woman to cross my path,” he protested. “I was seeing several women at the time. Rexanne seemed like the best choice.”

“Maybe out of that lot, but did you ever stop to consider there was slim pickings in that bunch?” She waggled a slender finger at him. “I’ll answer that. No, you did not. You just decided you wanted to be married and filled the opening as methodically as you would have a position at your company. You probably had a stupid checksheet.”

She wasn’t all that far off the mark, though he wouldn’t have told her that for another gusher in his oil fields. “Well, I’m not going to be so hasty about it this time,” he said.

“You just told me you’ve identified the woman you want to marry. It’s been what? Two days? Maybe three since your engagement broke off?”

“Four, actually.”

She rolled her eyes. “Definitely long enough,” she said with a touch of unfamiliar sarcasm. “Jordan, why can’t you just relax and let nature take its course?”

He gave her a disdainful look. “I don’t have a lot of faith in nature.”

She gave him a wry look. “You would if you’d been in that barn with me an hour ago.”

“I don’t think the fact that your tomcat can’t keep his paws off of Francie is a testament to nature in its finest moments.”

She shrugged, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Okay, you may have a point about that. So, who’s the latest woman to capture your fancy?”

He leveled a look straight into her eyes and waited until he was sure he had her full attention. “Actually, it’s you.”

Kelly—calm, serene, unflappable Kelly—succumbed to a coughing fit that had her eyes watering and Jordan wondering if he’d gone about this in an incredibly stupid way. It wouldn’t be the first time the direct method had failed him.

Still, he was determined to make her see the sense of this. All of those lectures he’d given himself about dressing it up with a little sweet talk flew out the window. He set out to hammer home the logic.

“It’s a perfectly rational decision…” he began.

“You’re not serious,” she said when she could finally speak.

He pulled the jewelry box from his pocket and placed it on the kitchen table in front of her. Since she was eyeing it as if it were a poisonous rattler, he flipped it open to reveal a stunning three-carat diamond that pretty well proclaimed him to be dead serious. Despite its impressive size, it was simpler than the engagement ring he’d purchased at Rexanne’s urging. She’d wanted flashy. Kelly struck him as the kind of woman who would admire simplicity. Gazing into her eyes, however, he had the sinking feeling that admiration for his taste in rings was the last thing on her mind.

“You’ve obviously lost your mind,” she said, but her voice was softer now and laced with something that might have been regret.

“Quite the contrary. It’s the only rational decision for both of us.”

“Rational,” she repeated as if it were a dirty word.

There was an ominous undercurrent he didn’t quite get. “Actually, yes. I’ve given it quite a lot of thought. We’ve known each other forever—there won’t be any nasty surprises. We’ve both had more than our share of those. I can give you the kind of life and financial security you deserve.”

“And I can give you…what? A hostess? A cook, perhaps? A bed partner on cold nights?”

Jordan could feel the blood climbing into his cheeks as she enumerated some of the very thoughts that had occurred to him. They’d sounded better in theory than they did spoken out loud by a woman who was clearly insulted. She wasn’t taking this well at all. He searched for a new approach. “Now, Kelly…”

Unfortunately he never got to finish the sentence. Kelly was already shaking her head, rather emphatically, it seemed to him.

She stood and glowered down at him. “Not a chance. No way. Forget it, bud. Take a hike.” She seemed to be just warming up.

The flare of unexpected temper just might be one of those previously hidden flaws he’d been hoping to discover. He tried to calm her. “You’re saying no without giving the matter any consideration at all,” he advised her. “When you do, I’m sure you’ll see—”

“Not if we both live to be a hundred and ten and we’re the only two people tottering around on the face of the earth,” she assured him.

Jordan was beginning to get an inkling that she meant it and that nothing he was likely to say tonight was going to change her mind.

“Okay, okay,” he said, defeated for the moment. “I get the picture.”

“I doubt it.”

A hasty exit seemed in order. “Maybe I’d better let you sleep on it. We can talk again tomorrow.”

Kelly drew herself up and squared off in front of him. Fire sparked in her eyes, amber lights bringing that normally placid shade of brown alive. “We can talk tomorrow, if you like,” she said emphatically, “but not about this.”

Jordan edged carefully around her and made his way to the front door. “See you in the morning.”

“Jordan?”

Her voice halted him in his tracks. She had obviously followed him.

“You forgot something.”

He turned back. She was holding out the box with the engagement ring. “Keep it here,” he said, refusing to accept it. “Try it on. Maybe you’ll get used to the idea.”

She tossed the ring straight at him. He caught it in midair and sighed. “I’ll bring it with me tomorrow.”

“Don’t,” she warned angrily. “I’m not some poor substitute you can call on when the first string doesn’t show.”

Jordan was shocked by her assessment, even though he had to admit there might be just the teensiest bit of truth to it. “I’m sorry. I never meant it like that,” he insisted.

She sighed heavily. “Yes, Jordan, I think that is exactly how you meant it.”

That said, she quietly closed the door in his face. He was left standing on the porch all alone. Oddly enough, it was the first time in all the visits he had paid to this house that he was leaving feeling lonelier and far, far emptier than when he had arrived.

He made up his mind as he drove the few miles back to White Pines that night that that wouldn’t be the last of it. After all, hadn’t he wooed some of the most sought-after women in all of Texas? Maybe approaching this as a business proposition hadn’t been the wisest decision. He’d try roses and, if that didn’t work, billboards along the highway, if he had to. Nobody said no to Jordan Adams. Kelly would weaken sooner or later. What struck him as slightly worrisome was the fact that it suddenly seemed to matter so much. Somewhere deep inside him he had the troubling impression that she was his last and best chance for happiness.

* * *

“The man is impossible!” Kelly declared, leaning against the front door and listening for the sound of his car driving off before she budged. She didn’t want to move until she knew for certain he wasn’t coming back. She seriously doubted she could hold out against his ludicrous proposal for very long. She’d been in love with the man practically since the cradle.

Unfortunately he had never once in all these years given her a second glance. She doubted he would be doing it now, if he hadn’t suffered a defeat in his blasted plan for his own life. Who in hell had a timetable for getting married? No one she knew except Jordan Adams. Well, he could put that plan into action without her.

“Mommy, are you okay?” Dani asked, peering up at her.

“I sure am, munchkin,” she said with more exuberance than she felt.

“You look funny.”

She grinned at the honest assessment. Bending over, she scooped her daughter into her arms and swung her high. “Funny?” she repeated indignantly. “Mommy is beautiful, remember?”

Dani giggled from her upside-down vantage point. “Very beautiful,” she confirmed. “Let me down, Mommy. My head’s getting dizzy.”

“Mine, too, sweetie,” she murmured, glancing through the window and watching the red glow of Jordan’s taillights disappear into the night.

Suddenly she thought of all the times she’d watched Jordan drive away, her heart thudding with disappointment once more because he hadn’t recognized how perfect they were for each other, because his kiss had been nothing more than a peck on the cheek.

She’d married Paul Flint only after she’d finally faced up to the fact that Jordan was never going to view her as anything more than his pal. Her world had fallen apart after that stupid, impulsive decision. Not right away, of course. It had taken a month or two before Paul had started spending more and more time away from their home. She wasn’t even certain when he’d started seeing other women.

When she finally accepted the fact that Paul was having affairs, she asked for a divorce. Jordan had been there to pick up the pieces. He hadn’t even said he’d told her so as he’d transported her and then three-year-old Dani to the ranch where Kelly had grown up.

From that moment on they had fallen into their old pattern of frequent phone calls and visits whenever he came home from Houston. She looked forward to their talks more and more. She had dreaded the day when his marriage to Rexanne would force an end to the quiet, uncomplicated time they spent together.

At least that wasn’t a problem any longer, she thought with another sigh.

“Mommy? Are you sad?” Dani inquired with her astonishing perceptiveness.

“Just a little,” she admitted.

“I know just what you need,” her daughter announced, giving her a coy look that Kelly recognized all too well.

“What’s that?”

“A new kitten.”

Kelly grinned at her child’s sneaky tactics. The suggestion was certainly a more rational one than Jordan had offered. A kitten was a whole lot less complicated than taking on a husband who’d selected her for marriage for all the wrong reasons.

“I’ll think about it,” she promised. “Now, go take your bath and get ready for bed.”

Dani bounced off toward the stairs, then halted and looked back. “Mommy?”

“Yes.”

“Think really hard, okay?”

“Okay.”

It was the second time that night that she’d been asked to carefully consider a decision that could change her life. Instinct told her to say no to both requests. Her heart was another matter entirely.

Chapter Two

Jordan lingered over coffee at White Pines the morning after his proposal to Kelly. He’d been up since the crack of dawn, in the dining room since six-thirty. All that time he’d been pondering a new approach to the problem of getting Kelly to take his declaration of his intentions seriously. For the first time in his life, he was at a loss.

He heard the sound of boots on the stairs and glanced toward the doorway. Harlan Adams appeared a moment later, looking as fit as ever despite the fact that his fifty-sixth birthday was just around the corner. He regarded his son with surprise. Jordan suspected it was feigned, since nothing went on around White Pines that his father didn’t know within minutes.

“Hey, boy, when did you turn up?” his father asked as he surveyed the lavish breakfast buffet their housekeeper had left for them.

“Last night.”

“Must have been mighty late.”

“I’m too old for you to be checking my comings and goings,” Jordan reminded his father.

“Did I ask?”

Jordan sighed and battled his instinctive reaction to his father’s habitual, if subtle, probing. Harlan loved to goad them all, loved the spirited arguments and loved even more the rare wins he managed against his sons’ stubbornness.

According to Luke, the oldest, their father battled wits with them just to get them to stand up for what they wanted. Jordan supposed it might be true. He’d practically had to declare war to leave White Pines and its ready-made career in ranching to go into the oil business. Yet once he’d gotten to Houston, the path had miraculously been cleared for him. He’d promptly found work at one of the best companies in the state before striking out on his own a few years later.

“Everything okay around here?” he inquired as his father piled his plate high with the scrambled eggs, ham and hash browns that were forbidden to him except on weekends. He noted with some amusement that Harlan gave wide berth to the bran flakes and oatmeal.

“Things would be just fine if Cody didn’t decide he has to have some newfangled piece of equipment every time I turn around,” Harlan grumbled.

“How many have you let him buy?” Jordan asked.

His father shrugged. “Put my foot down about some fancy computer with those little disks and intergalactic communications potential or some such. I can’t even figure out the one we’ve got. Luke spent a whole day trying to show me again the last time he and Jessie were over here, but if you ask me, pen and paper are plenty good enough for keeping the books.”

Jordan hid a smile. He knew that his father’s pretended bemusement covered a mind that could grasp the most intricate details in a flash. Any trouble he was having with his computer was feigned solely to grab Luke’s attention.

“Daddy, you’re practically in the twenty-first century,” he chided. “You have to keep up with the times.”

“A lot of nonsense, if you ask me.” He grinned. “Leastways, that’s what I tell Cody. Keeps him on his toes.”

The youngest of the Adams brothers, Cody was the one who’d fought hardest for his place as the head of the White Pines ranching operation. Harlan had pushed just as hard to get him to leave and strike out on his own. Now there was little question in anyone’s mind that Cody was as integral to the family business as his father was.

“One of these days the two of you are going to butt heads once too often,” Jordan warned his father.

“Not a chance,” Harlan said with evident pride. “That boy’s stubborn as a mule. Might even be worse than you or Lucas and he’s a danged sight ornerier than Erik.”

He sounded downright happy about his youngest’s muleheadedness. He studied Jordan over the rim of his coffee cup. “You never did say what brought you home.”

“No,” Jordan said firmly. “I didn’t.”

“Wouldn’t have anything to do with that Flint woman, would it?”

Jordan’s head snapped up and he stared at his father. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because you make a beeline for that ranch every time you drive into the county. Can’t be sleeping with her, since you do wind up in your own bed here at night.”

Jordan’s jaw tightened at the too personal observation. “My sleeping arrangements are none of your concern. Besides, Kelly and I are just friends. She’s had a rough time of it these past couple of years. I try to look in on her every once in a while to make sure she’s okay.” At least, that had been his motivation until last night’s visit.

His father nodded. “She’s getting that place of hers on its feet, though. She’s got a lot of gumption and that girl of hers is a real little dickens. She called here last night to see if you’d asked yet about whether we want a kitten.”

Despite his annoyance with his father, Jordan couldn’t help chuckling at Dani’s persistence. The remark was also proof that his father had known he was back in town and had also known exactly where he was the night before. All the questions had been designed just to needle him.

“Did you agree to take one?” he asked, referring to the kittens Dani hadn’t trusted him to save.

“How could I say no? The child was worried sick about her mother drowning them all in the creek. She mentioned that you’d reassured her that wouldn’t happen, but she wasn’t taking any chances.” He eyed Jordan speculatively. “Does that pitiful excuse for a father of hers get by much?”

Jordan wasn’t surprised that his father knew the whole ugly story. It was hardly a secret, but even if it had been, Harlan made it his business to know about the folks around him, including those on neighboring ranches. He was even more persistent when it came to the women in his sons’ lives.

“Not that I’m aware of,” he told his father.

“Can’t understand a man who wouldn’t be proud to call a little one like that his own.”

“Neither can I,” Jordan said grimly. He’d expressed his views on Paul Flint more than once to Kelly, long before she’d finally decided on divorce as her only option. He’d even offered on occasion to pummel some sense into the man.

“Shame to go through life without a daddy,” Harlan observed.

Jordan regarded him intently. There was no mistaking that his father had a point to make. “Meaning?”

“Just what I said,” he insisted, sounding a little too innocent. “A child deserves two parents. Of course, a situation like that is all wrong for a man like you.”

“Now what’s your point?” Jordan’s voice contained a lethal warning note.

“Just that I understand you. You’re not looking for some country gal and a ready-made family. I’ve seen your type, glossy, sophisticated, like that…what’s her name?”

“Rexanne,” Jordan supplied automatically, used to his father’s refusal to get the names of the women in his life straight.

“Right,” he said. “Now she’s the perfect wife for a big oil tycoon.”

Jordan was beginning to wonder exactly how much his father knew about his broken engagement. It seemed to him that the digs were a little too pointed for him not to have heard about it. He’d always despised Rexanne, just as he had every other woman Jordan had brought to White Pines. His sudden defense of her was clearly part of some Machiavellian scheme of his. He’d probably been on the phone to Ginger during the week and gotten an earful about his son’s social life—or sudden lack thereof.

“I’m afraid Rexanne is out of the picture,” Jordan said tersely.

Harlan tried for a sympathetic look, but the effort was downright pitiful. There was a gleam of pure satisfaction in his eyes. “Sorry, son,” he said without much sincerity.

“She was the wrong choice. I’ll get over it.” Sooner than anyone imagined, if he had his way about it.

“It’s not surprising, then, that you were over to visit Kelly last night. She always has had a sympathetic ear, especially where you’re concerned.”

“We weren’t lamenting my love life last night,” Jordan said.

Curiosity blossomed on his father’s transparent features. “Oh?”

“We were just…talking,” he finally concluded weakly, unwilling to broach the actual subject matter of their conversation. Once Harlan got that particular bit in his teeth, there’d be no controlling his efforts at manipulation.

“Just don’t go letting her get the wrong idea now, son. You said yourself, she’s been through a lot. No point in getting her hopes up now that you’re on the rebound. No telling what a woman might do when a man is vulnerable. They can be downright sneaky when they’re out to get their hooks into a man.”

“There’s nothing the least bit sneaky or underhanded about Kelly,” Jordan snapped.

“If you say so, son. You certainly know the woman better than I do.”

Jordan didn’t think he liked the direction this conversation was heading. Any minute now his father was going to say something truly offensive about Kelly and he would leap to her defense. There was no telling what would happen after that. His mother would probably find them tussling on the dining room floor.

He tossed his napkin down on the table and stood. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

“Going for a ride?” his father inquired, his expression perfectly innocent.

“Yes,” he said tightly, and slammed out of the house.

Only much, much later did he wonder what he would have seen if he’d looked back. He had the strangest feeling he would have caught a complacent smile spreading across his father’s face.

* * *

With Dani visiting a friend for the day, Kelly had spent the entire morning checking on her livestock and inspecting her fences. Of course, given her state of distraction an entire section of fence could have been down and it would have slipped her notice. Fortunately the ranch hand she’d been able to afford just a month ago had been riding with her most of the day. Now, though, she was alone again, riding at a more leisurely pace.

She kept glancing toward the horizon, looking for some sign of Jordan’s car. Her ears were attuned to the sound of approaching hooves, as well, since he sometimes chose to borrow one of his father’s horses and ride over.

He still looked incredibly well suited to horse and saddle. In fact, she’d always thought he looked far more impressive and a hundred percent sexier in jeans and a chambray shirt than he did in those outrageously expensive designer suits he wore most of the time in Houston. Every time he put one of those suits on, it was as if a barrier went up between them. Sometimes she didn’t even recognize the man he’d become in Houston.

More than his clothes had changed. As if fitting himself to a role, he’d been transformed into a sophisticated executive, driven and sometimes, it seemed to her, a little too coldly dispassionate.

His proposal the night before had certainly fit the new Jordan. The old Jordan, the sensitive man who often sat in her kitchen talking until dawn, the exuberant daredevil who’d ridden over every square inch of her ranch and his own with her at midnight, would never have made such a proposition. He’d had more romance in his soul, even if little of it had been directed her way. Now she had to wonder if he’d wasted it all on that string of unsuitable gold diggers who’d spent the past few years trying to catch him.