Jenna kept shaking her head. The tears didn’t quite go away, but at least she didn’t start crying. He couldn’t have stood that. She started tapping the check with her finger. “You said you had a
small
ranch. You said it wasn’t much. Three acres. Your pickup is all scratched up and dusty.”
“
Well, it’s my work truck. I’ll get it washed tomorrow. I keep forgetting. I have a car but Mom wanted me to bring back some of Granddad’s things. And I said three
sections
, about two thousand acres.” He laughed. “You thought I had a hundred head of cattle on three acres? It was my granddad’s ranch. He bought it himself. He never took a penny from Grandmother’s side. That’s just how he was. Mom’s brothers run the big ranches. The Munday ranches. But there’s a few corporations and—”
“
So,” she interrupted, “this is…. It is.” She nodded vigorously. “It’s actually real.”
He rubbed her knee, worried she might have some kind of attack. “Breathe, kiddo.”
She took his advice and forced herself to breathe. Then she went still and flattened her hand over the envelope. “This is for Ethan. I can’t use it for the house, or Bri. I’ll start a college fund for him.”
“
Use it however you need,” Sam said, beginning to lose his patience. “Ethan’s going to college. Don’t worry about that. Send your sister to college. If you’re in a jam, use it. There’s more to come. You’ve been footing the bills from day one so it’s time I stepped in. Just take it because you’re ticking me off. Why didn’t you tell me things were so bad?”
“
I didn’t….” She stood suddenly and rushed to the back door. “Don’t follow me,” she said as she went outside and slammed the door behind her.
He didn’t, but he sat with his eyes closed and imagined her outside crying. Until he couldn’t take it anymore. He went upstairs to get another look at his son. He knew he’d never get tired of seeing that sweet little face.
He picked up the blue teddy bear off the floor, tucked it back under his son’s arm, and then sat in the rocking chair to watch Ethan sleep. But all he could see in his mind was Jenna outside, crying her eyes out.
He had to go see about her, whether or not she wanted him there.
She wasn’t outside anymore. He found her picking up around the den. “Better now?” he asked.
She didn’t look at him, but he caught a glimpse of her red face and swollen eyes. “So, you’re rich,” she said. A simple statement that sounded like an accusation.
“
I’m exactly who I was twenty minutes ago.”
“
You should have told me. It’s like I don’t even know you.”
Sam could only shrug. “I didn’t think of it.” He’d come into his inheritance when he was eighteen. It was old news.
She turned away with an armload of toys and headed to what they called the solarium. His mother would have called it a greenhouse. He followed her.
She dumped the toys into a large box with an open lid and began gathering up more of Ethan’s things. He went to help her.
“
I have this memory,” she said, “of these wild men in the post office. Big, scary men. They scared everybody in there, including my mother. She said they were Stricklands.”
He knew exactly who she was talking about – which Stricklands. “They’re from my dad’s side of the family. He has nine brothers and sisters. I know how some of them look, the older ones, the long hair and beards, but they’re just normal people. They work and have families just like everyone else.”
“
So, you won’t be taking Ethan to see them tomorrow?”
He had to laugh at that. “No, baby. I’ll just take him out to meet the folks. Dad’s completely civilized, I promise.”
She looked around for any toys they’d missed, then suddenly fell into his arms and hugged him. She cried again, but only for a moment, and then fell still, clinging to him. He swayed with her, not wanting to let her go until he was sure she was okay.
“
You know, the friends Brianna had over last night are their kids.”
“
Really?” she said, backing up enough to glance toward the den, probably trying to remember the girls. Girls that looked just like Brianna.
“
Just normal, hardworking people,” he assured her. “Some of the friendliest people you’ll ever hope to meet. Nothing to worry about.”
She fell back against him. “My dad said you’d have me living in a shack in the hills with a dozen kids and no food. But I didn’t care. I wanted you anyway.”
He gave her a firm kiss on the cheek. “We can live in a shack if you want and I’m okay with the dozen kids, but I insist on feeding them. No arguments.”
She slapped his chest and backed away, smiling even as tears still ran down her cheeks. “You always do that. You always make me laugh.”
He used his thumb to wipe away her tears. “Don’t cry anymore, okay. Everything’s all right. Let’s get some sleep.”
She nodded and went with him, giving up her cleaning for the night. He’d buy her big, ugly house himself if it would keep her from crying and worrying herself to death.
If only he’d known. If only he hadn’t been a coward, he could have kept all of this from happening. If only Jenna hadn’t let her father bully her. But the past was the past and he had a real future to look forward to now.
They only had a few pesky details to work out.
“
So, what were you and your sister whispering about earlier?” he asked, still curious.
“
She knows something. A secret. She was lording it over me. Threatening to tell you.”
“
Then tell me and she can’t use it against you anymore.”
She turned off the light in the den and checked the front door locks. He noticed the flowers were no longer on the entry table. He hoped they were in the trash.
“
It’s nothing,” she said. “It’s silly. I have a picture of you.”
“
A picture? Jeez. No wonder you didn’t want me to know.”
She gave him one of her backhanded slaps. “Years ago. When you were in high school. I had a crush on you even back then.”
“
Then we’re even. I have a crush on you now.”
She leaned against him at the top of the stairs and he put his arm around her, heading to her room. Their room, for now.
But he knew they couldn’t truly start over until they got out of her father’s house.
***
Brandon Stewart made another pass by Jenna’s house. He switched off his headlights and turned up the lighted driveway, to get a closer look. The green pickup was back and now all the lights were off inside the house. Cursing, he turned around in the circular drive, missing that crappy pickup by inches just because he felt brave, and drove away. She was still cavorting with Strickland trash. But he didn’t believe the rumor Ally had called him about. Jenna wouldn’t dare marry that ignorant bastard.
She’d stick with her own kind. She was only torturing him, wanting him to chase her. Giving as good as she got. He liked that about her. He liked the game. She’d won the first round, using her connections to get old O’Hara to stick by her and keep her job. But he had something much better planned this time.
He had connections of his own. One particular connection that would do anything for the right price. Jenna wasn’t the only one who could cavort with trash.
He smiled, imagining the look on Jenna’s face when she found her bastard baby missing. He knew she’d do anything to get the boy back. Anything.
He’d finance the search team and then be the big hero when he found the kid safe and sound.
She’d change her tune then.
Strickland garbage wouldn’t seem so appealing then.
She didn’t know it yet, but the game had just begun. And the second round would be all his.
The game would only end when she walked down the aisle in his mother’s wedding dress. He’d set his sights on her ten years ago and in the end, he always got what he wanted.
And once he had her – he’d destroy her.
Bored now that he’d devised his plan, he dropped in at a club where he could usually find some action. A couple of hours later, he strolled out of the club with some gullible college chick under his arm, a tall blonde whose name he couldn’t be bothered to remember. She was only for one night. She was only a substitute.
But he stopped cold, and the girl pushed his arm off her and ran away, when he reached his car and found it surrounded by a pack of wild hillbillies.
Brandon tried to run, too, but didn’t make it very far.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The next morning, Jenna was running late again. But this time not because she'd overslept, but because she’d found it nearly impossible to get out of bed with Sam. And then he’d joined her in the shower, slowing her down again. Not that she’d tried very hard to get away.
She’d turned the alarm clock back an hour, expecting those delays. But now she had to rush. She couldn’t do anything to risk her pending promotion.
Bri was already up, getting Ethan dressed and fed, and Jenna just had time for toast, and to write down Ethan’s details for Sam. He seemed a little nervous about keeping Ethan all by himself.
She was a little nervous about it, too, but knew this had to happen. Ethan and Sam needed alone time, to grow comfortable with each other, and hopefully bond. And Sam had said he’d take him out to his mother’s house. A woman who had raised children and surely would help him if he needed help.
Brianna, after doing some light cleaning for the house showing, would spend the day looking for a job. Jenna had Sam’s check in her purse to walk down to the bank during lunch, but had decided it would be good for Bri to get a job for the summer. Not that she doubted Sam, not really, but she wanted to make sure his check would clear before she got Bri’s hopes up about college. And it was time her sister learned what it was like to have a job.
She also wasn’t sure she wanted to use the money in that way. Her father had done that, spent Bri’s college money on his own expenses, and she didn’t want to do the same thing to Ethan. She didn’t want to rob him of a future. If Sam really had the money he claimed, it was his money and she didn’t want to use him to solve her own problems. They weren’t married yet and hadn’t even talked about the important details. Like the wedding date – and where they would live.
Those were complicated details to be worked out later.
Again, Bri rushed her to work, except today Ethan wasn’t in the back seat.
But Jenna couldn’t help glancing back there.
It
had
felt so strange to leave the house without
Ethan
, like deliberately leaving the stove and iron and water faucets on all at the same time.
She could still hear Ethan screaming for her, as if he’d thought she was leaving him with a murderer.
She could still see the look of absolute horror in Sam’s eyes as she’d left him with a screaming, squirming toddler in his arms.
“
He’s fine,
” Brianna
said
.
“They’ll be fine.”
“
I know.”
“
You’ve left him every day since he was born when you’re at work.”
That was true, but today was different. Today, Ethan wasn’t with Bri or at daycare. Today he was out in the world with a man who had probably never kept a child in his life.
“
Fuss, fuss, worry, worry,” Bri said, only half teasing. “Sam’s awesome. He’ll take care of him.”
“
I know.” She knew that. She did. She had his cell phone number and could call and check on them as often as she got the chance. “Sam has my work number but if he loses it he’ll have to call you. So keep the phone on you.”
As if Brianna would ever be without it. “Why would he lose your number? Jeez. I’m never having kids. They make people crazy.”
Jenna couldn’t really argue with that.
“
I learned something interesting about Sam last night,” Bri said. “When I was talking to Autumn.”
“
Who’s Autumn?”
“
Sam’s cousin. My old, new friend. She was over Sunday night with Mercy and Lara Beth? You never care about my friends.”
“
I do, but you have a hundred friends and I can’t keep them all straight,” Jenna said. She was wary of listening to gossip, but where Sam was concerned, she couldn’t help herself. “What did she say?”
“
That Sam’s rich. That his mom owns like half of Texas or something and they’re richer than even Ally Stewart’s family. I didn’t really believe her but she swore it was true. She said they’re all kinda stuck-up about it, except Sam. They all like him because he’s always been nice and normal.”
Jenna glanced at her sister. She hadn’t planned on sharing that information, yet. “I know. He told me last night.”
Bri hit the brakes in heavy traffic and Jenna was about to yell at her, but Bri sped back up. “So, it’s true? He’s like crazy rich?”
“
I don’t know. I know he has money.”