Expecting...in Texas (9 page)

His father’s gaze was unwavering. “Why are you so convinced that it isn’t?”

“Because she…told me.” Begun with conviction, the sentence dribbled away into doubt. Cruz saw the look on his father’s face and realized the error of his logic.

Ruben laid a hand on his son’s shoulder. The support was silent, but strong, nonetheless, and understood. “My point is made. If I were you, I would ask her again. And then a third time, as well. The truth will come out if you look for it hard enough.”

Maybe it was better to leave well enough alone. Maybe he really didn’t want the truth. And maybe,
Cruz thought in annoyance, he no longer knew what he wanted. “If it is my child—”

Ruben spoke to him, not father to son, but man to man. “Then you have a right to know.”

He felt like a dog chasing his own tail. “But if she doesn’t want me to know, then there isn’t anything I can do about it. I can’t force the answer out of her. Savannah even said it was for the best if the baby’s father wasn’t told.”

“And you need more proof than that?”

Cruz shook his head. His father didn’t understand. “She was talking about this college man of hers, this man she was to marry before he broke it off.”

“And you felt she was telling the truth?”

Savannah was right. It was best just to leave this whole thing alone. Better for him, and maybe, for reasons he didn’t quite understand, better for her, as well.

Taking the lariat, he threw the loop over the stallion’s head again. The horse didn’t flinch this time.

“As you pointed out, Dad, I have dreams. I’m not going to go buying trouble.”

Ruben laughed softly as he got down from the railing. “Perhaps you have already made a down payment on it.” He thought of the years that had gone into forming the man who stood before him now. Years Ruben never once regretted spending.
“Besides, I have never thought of a child as trouble.”

Cruz appreciated what was being said, appreciated the love and guidance he’d received over the years. But he knew his limitations. “I’m not you, Dad.”

“No,” Ruben agreed, “you are not.” They were different, he and Cruz, in so many ways. But in others, in matters that counted, they were the same. He knew that even if Cruz didn’t yet. “But you are an honorable man, same as me, even if you try to behave like some wild, untamable mustang. You cannot hide from your true nature forever.”

With that, Ruben turned away from the corral and walked away.

Cruz looked after him thoughtfully. He felt the horse nudge him from behind and then laughed. “All right, I know you like attention and I’ve ignored you long enough. Let’s get to work.”

Cruz did what made him happiest, and purged his mind of all other thoughts.

Seven

D
allas shook his head in amazement as he looked over the neatly bound report that Savannah had just handed him. Though he’d said words to the contrary, part of him had felt that perhaps Savannah had been given the bookkeeping job out of sympathy. Now he realized just how fortunate they were to have her working for them.

The woman gave a hundred fifty percent in every capacity, anticipating requests before they were even made, compiling statistics still warm from being formed. In six short weeks, she had gone from bookkeeper to treasure.

Setting the report down on her desk, he grinned broadly at her. “Savannah, I don’t know what we ever did without you.”

Savannah smiled and placed the report into the “to file” stack. “Relied on your other bookkeeper would be my guess.”

That’s what he liked about her. The fact that she didn’t have so much as a hint of an inflated ego. The woman was as unassuming as they came.

As he picked up his hat, he glanced at his watch. He had a plane to catch in less than two hours, and there was still the trip to the airport to face. But he lingered a moment, determined to exchange a few words with Savannah. In the ever-hurried pace that surrounded the ranch, there never seemed to be enough time for amenities.

“Nathan was never as efficient as you, Savannah. Thank God, Vanessa had the presence of mind to offer you the position when she did.”

Savannah thought of how the job had been a godsend to her; it had put an end to the soul-wearying task of trying to find a job, while debating just what to say about her “condition.” This might be the tail end of the nineties, but some things resisted change. Such as an employer’s desire not to waste money on a woman who might not return to her position once her baby was born.

She was the one who was grateful to them for helping her out of her dilemma, at least the financial end of it. “Thank you.”

Their eyes met, and work and plane schedules were tabled for the moment. “Is there anything I can do for you, Savannah?”

No, there wasn’t anything he could do—any more than he’d already done. The kind tone almost made her cry. Savannah shook her head as she picked up a stack of reports.

“Just throw in a compliment like that every now and then, and I’ll be fine.”

“No problem.” He followed her to the file cabinet. “I’ll be in Europe for about four weeks, but if there’s anything you need to reach me about, here’s the number of my hotel. I don’t want Dad dealing with any more than he already has to.” Dallas frowned, his features darkening slightly. “He’s got enough on his hands trying to extricate himself from the wicked witch of the west’s clutches.”

No one, Savannah had quickly discovered, liked Sophia Fortune. She hadn’t met the woman herself, but from all reports, Ryan’s soon-to-be ex-wife was selfish, self-centered and despicable. It was a wonder that the woman had pulled the blinders over Ryan’s eyes long enough to get him to marry her. But he’d been vulnerable right after his first wife Janine had died, and Sophia had apparently used that to her advantage.

A lot of wrong moves could be chalked up to vulnerability, Savannah thought. She closed her fingers over the paper with the hotel number.

Dallas picked up the travel bag he’d thrown together. “Then I’ll see you when I get back.” Turning, he almost ran into Cruz on his way out. “Sorry—didn’t see you standing there. Want to see me about something? I’m in a hurry, Cruz.”

Cruz shook his head, his easy smile betraying none of the emotions simmering beneath. “No, I just came to see Savannah.”

Dallas’s mouth curved. “Then I’ll get out of your way.” The next moment, he was gone.

Damn, when was she going to be able to look at Cruz without feeling her heart leap into her throat?

Nerve endings rose, stiffening like tiny hairs in a breeze. Savannah didn’t know where to look, what to do with herself. She hadn’t been alone with him for almost two weeks—ever since she’d told him that she was pregnant.

But because of her office’s orientation, she found herself watching Cruz work with his horse far more than she should. Watching, and letting her mind drift to a world that was perfect. A world where resentment and repercussions didn’t exist. And love did.

Forcing a smile to her lips, she looked at him. “What can I do for you?”

You can tell me the truth
.

His smile remained, sensual and teasing, as he shoved his hands into his back pockets. She looked a little pale, he thought. He wondered if that was because of the baby, or because she never seemed to go outside. At least, he hadn’t seen her around lately.

“Just stopped by to see how you were doing.” He took a deep breath. The room smelled of wood and lemon polish—his mother’s handiwork. But the scent of exotic flowers was new. Savannah’s. “It’s been about two weeks since I’ve seen you.”

Two weeks in which he’d tried to blot Savannah out of his system. It might have worked, too, if he didn’t have dreams that insisted on sneaking up on him in the middle of the night. Dreams about limbs as soft as cream, eyes as blue as the sky, and a smile made out of sunshine.

She came to him like that—a misty, unattainable dream—making him yearn for her. Making him doubt his own sanity when he awoke.

With the studied air of a man whose most serious thought was of his latest conquest, Cruz sat down on the edge of the desk and looked down at her. His eyes swept over her with familiar ease.

“So, tell me, how’s it going?” Her figure was as shapely as ever; there wasn’t so much as a hint of the baby that was to come.

She raised her eyes to his. “Professionally or personally?”

“Whatever you want to tell me.”

She pretended that she was still talking to Dallas. It was easier for her that way.

“I miss teaching, but the work is interesting and everyone’s been very kind.” She looked around at
the stacks of files that were still piled up on the desk. “I never realized that there was so much involved in running a ranch.”

He knew about that end all too well. It wasn’t just about the horses. Unbeknownst to his family, he’d taken several correspondence courses in management to learn that end of it. He meant to have his own ranch—not just dream about it.

But the ranch was the furthest thing from his mind right now. It took a great deal of effort not to reach out and touch her; he was so close.

With renewed determination, he kept his hands still. “And personally?”

Savannah would have looked away if she were able. Instead, her eyes were held prisoner by the look she saw in his.

“Like I said, everyone’s been very nice.”

The sensual smile melted into a genuine one. “You’re an easy person to be nice to. What do you do when you’re not working?”

She said the first thing that came into her head. “Read.” Savannah had gathered together an arm-load of baby books and books on parenting. She felt hopelessly unprepared for the coming event, but was trying to get a handle on it.

“I was wondering if maybe you’d like to go for a ride later.” He heard himself fumbling. He hadn’t fumbled around a woman since he was
fifteen. He didn’t know whether to be amused, or sincerely worried, about the implications. “If there’s no problem?”

Her brows furrowed in confusion. “Problem?”

His eyes lowered to her flat belly. “I mean in your condition…”

Cruz didn’t know how to put it. He hated this awkward feeling. Part of him wasn’t even sure what he was doing here. He only knew that he missed seeing her. Who knew? Maybe she even needed a friend. He could do that much for her.

Hell, he wanted more than that and he knew it. But it was a start.

“It’ll be a peaceful ride in the country, not the first lap of the Kentucky Derby. I think I can safely manage it without worrying about my ‘condition.”’

Cruz nodded, pleased at the answer. Maybe too pleased, but he’d deal with that later, he told himself. “When’s the baby due, anyway?”

“The beginning of March.”

Absorbing the information, Cruz rose. “All right, so I’ll see you about five. Will that be all right?”

She was free to make her own hours, Dallas had been very liberal about that. But she wasn’t sure about Cruz’s time table. “Is that when you get off? Five?”

The idea of regular, restricting hours had always rankled him. That was why he could have never left to hold down a job like his sisters. Confinement, any sort of confinement, visible or otherwise, wasn’t for him. He had to be free.

“I told you, it’s not like punching a clock. I put in a certain amount of time to train a horse. How I do it depends on me—and the horse.”

“Then make it for three o’clock.”

With a wink, he inclined his head. “Three it is.”

For the first time in two weeks, as she got back to her work a few minutes later, Savannah really felt like smiling.

The beginning of March
.

The words hummed through Cruz’s mind. He had made love with her at Bryan’s christening. The beginning of June. That left the count at nine months.

He’d bet his soul that the baby wasn’t a consequence of any aborted, short-lived reconciliation between Savannah and her ex-fiancé. The baby she was carrying was his, plain and simple.

Despite the jealousy he’d felt when he’d seen Dallas dancing with Savannah and paying attention to her, Cruz knew in his heart that Savannah wasn’t the kind of woman who slept around. He needed no affidavits, no sworn statements to sway
him one way or another. Some things a man just knew.

Which made the responsibility he was grappling with all the more difficult.

On the one hand were his dreams—dreams that required hard work and the kind of sacrifice he had no right to ask anyone else to make for him. The kind of sacrifice that would test his own metal.

On the other was a wide-eyed, gentle woman who, for reasons he didn’t understand, refused to use what was at her disposal to ensnare him. Many of the women he had bedded had been manipulating and self-absorbed. But not Savannah.

Unless… Was she such a grand master at deception that she had him completely fooled? Completely blinded to the truth?

His mouth curved in a mocking smile as he stopped at the corral. Somehow, he doubted it, but he’d walked too long on a cynical path to be completely divorced from the possibility.

At the very least, he’d suspend making a decision until he knew just what, if anything, she was up to. Climbing over the railing, he jumped down into the corral, picking up his lariat where he’d left it. The horse, a new stallion he’d been working with since only the day before yesterday, eyed him like an adversary.

That would change soon, Cruz silently promised
the animal. Easily, with soft words of assurance, he approached the skittish quarter horse.

Cruz had to admit that for reasons that weren’t entirely clear to him, he wanted Savannah to own up to the baby’s parentage. It wasn’t because he had a crying need to pass on his genes and his name to another, or to see himself immortalized in the small features of a child’s face. That had never been even a remote desire. If he thought of children at all, he thought of them as belonging to other people.

True, he loved his sisters’ children. His nieces and nephews always generated a warm feeling within him, but they were family, and feeling that way was safe. They were not his to provide for, only his to spoil. He had the best of all worlds, and he meant to keep it that way.