“Screw the damn contract.” Cody angled her head toward his, bringing their gazes together. “I should have stepped up and made JT mine the second I saw him in the kitchen.”
“What does that mean?” She needed to know.
“What I said the other night. I want to get to know my son. I’ve missed out on nine years and I won’t miss any more.”
Jake was so hungry for male attention, he would attach himself to anyone, Shelby thought. So the fact that his daddy was Cody, a walking superhero, would make the bond all the stronger. The man was the stuff of a little boy’s dreams—strong, powerful, smart, athletic, could throw a ball and ride a horse like nobody’s business. And now he had a truck. Shelby was nervous that when Cody moved back to his busy life in Austin, he’d wind up resenting having to make time for a son. Just like Preston had.
“And what happens if you get to know him and parenthood isn’t what you imagined it would be like? He isn’t what you thought he’d be.”
“He’s my son. That’s all I need him to be.” The fierceness in Cody’s conviction had her squirming.
“I just don’t want to see him hurt again.”
Then he ran a hand through her hair, gently cupping the base of her neck. “Listen to me, Shelby Lynn. Nobody messes with my family. Including me. And you and JT, you’re my family.”
Shelby went still. How many times had she dreamed of this very moment? JT asleep in his bed, Shelby and Cody whispering in theirs, and him accepting them as a family. His family.
Cody dipped his head, closer, stopping to study her eyes and everything went still. His thumb grazed over her lower lip and Shelby thought she’d expire from how fast her pulse thundered.
“But for how long?”
Cody sat there, not moving, showing not even the slightest hint of discomfort but she recognized that look in his eye and her heart did one final slam against her chest and stopped. Checkmate.
A moment ago she’d wanted nothing more than to make love to him and spend the rest of her days wrapped around him. But life with Cody had been full of so many twists and turns, she felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole, not sure which decision would lead to forever and which would lead to a life of misery.
“What?”
“For how long am I considered family?”
Cody glared at her. “What the hell kind of question is that?”
“Considering you figuratively just tore up the contract, a fair one.”
Cody gentled his features. “I said screw the contract, not the idea.”
Again she heard herself ask, “What?”
“We get married, just like you said. Finish out the year here, then go back to Austin—”
“Austin?” Shelby asked. “But Jake loves it here. I love it here. And I want him to grow up in Sweet Plains.”
“He should grow up with his parents, both of them, around him.” Cody took her hand and laced their fingers. “Why are you so mad? This is what you said you wanted.”
Shelby pulled her hands back. “No, what I wanted was for you to be a dad to Jake and for him to grow up here, with his friends and his horse and his team. We’ve made a life here. You can’t expect us to give up everything and move.”
“And you can’t expect me to move back here, to this house, after what I just told you.” No, she couldn’t. But that didn’t mean she was going to upset Jake’s life either. “And there is no way I am missing even another second of him growing up. Look at it from my point of view—I didn’t get to be there for the first nine years of his life. Don’t ask me to miss any more.”
“I’m not asking you to give up anything.”
But you’re asking me to give up everything.
“Good. Because I won’t. And once you think about it, us getting married is the best option.”
Great, she was nothing more than the best option. Shelby dropped her head into her hands and took in a deep breath.
“A lot has changed since I . . .” She couldn’t even say it.
Proposed
. How hard was that? “The important thing now is that you and Jake get to know each other. Parents manage to raise wonderful kids without being married, living together. As long as we love him and support him and work together, he will be fine. I know you don’t want—”
“Oh, I want.” He pulled her to him for a long, sweet kiss, pressing her hard against his body and showing her just what he wanted. “But I’m willing to wait.”
Shelby frowned at his easy manner. That’s not what she’d meant, and he knew it.
“Shelby Lynn. We’re getting married. It makes sense.”
“Makes sense?” Shelby shook her head. Why was he not getting this? “Cody, people get married because they’re in love, not to make their child happy or because it says in some rule book that marriage makes you a good parent.”
“And some kind of contract marriage is better?”
“Yes. We wouldn’t live in the same house, pretending to be in love for Jake’s sake. My proposal was a way to let Jake grow up here. Your way would confuse him.”
“No, it won’t. Think about it, we have a child together, we get along, our chemistry is . . .” He brought her hands to his lips and nibbled. She shivered. “Explosive. This is the right thing for JT and you know it.”
But what about me
?
“We have a year to figure out how this will all work and where we’ll live. Those are the details. JT is the big picture. I know we can make this work. You and me, we were always a good team.”
Shelby wanted to kick herself for not listening to Gina. If she’d just let go of her silly dream, she wouldn’t be in this situation.
When Cody had walked out, her world had cracked in half. Even though Preston was partly to blame and a decade had passed, the two pieces had never managed to find their way back together. How could he expect her to, once again, be a part of a family in which she was just an obligation? Valued not for herself but for her part in achieving a bigger goal?
No matter how painful it was to admit, Cody was right. Jake was the priority here and the will gave her twelve months to convince Cody to stay in Sweet Plains. She could do this.
No you can’t
, her heart whispered at the same time as she heard herself say, “Okay.”
Cody’s eyes roamed her body, slow and long and way too confident for her liking. “There are two things you need to know.” He raised a finger, ticking them off. “One—” He paused, the tension crackling between them. “This is real, Shelby Lynn. We’re going to make this work and that means we’ll spend every night in that bed. Together.”
“You mean consummate the marriage?” she asked, terrified of his answer.
“No, I mean sex.” Cody’s lips curled into a smile as dangerous as sin. “Wild and often.”
Of course he would expect that. Marrying Cody was one thing—protecting her heart while lying in his arms night after night was another. If making love with him was anywhere close to what they had shared when they were younger, it would be earth-shattering and life-changing. And that meant big trouble, of the heartache variety.
“Take it or leave it, Shelby Lynn. I don’t want our son to be one of those kids being shuffled from house to house, packing up a suitcase every Friday.”
Growing up, she was that kid. And so she’d do whatever it took to save Jake from the heartache, even if it was at the cost of her own.
“Okay,” she managed again, knowing she’d better start building up some walls. And fast. “What was number two?”
When his whiskey eyes sparkled with an indecent intent that sent Shelby’s stomach into a nervous nosedive, she regretted asking.
“This arrangement—it starts tomorrow.”
By the time Shelby dragged herself out of bed, into the shower and then a pair of worn jeans, the smell of pancakes, bacon, and eggs called from the kitchen. Since it was barely past daybreak, she couldn’t say which surprised her more—Cody wielding a spatula or Jake setting the table.
“Morning,” Jake said, arranging the napkins, which looked more crumpled than folded, by each plate. Shelby placed an affectionate kiss on his head, her lips barely grazing his curls before he ducked and scrambled out of reach.
“M-o-m!” Jake grumbled, dragging the word out to reach three syllables, and giving her a look of irritated horror.
Shelby didn’t know when it had happened. But somewhere between getting away from Preston, taking care of Silas, and waiting for Cody, her baby had grown up. And she didn’t like it.
“Did Cody tell you we’re going fishing today?”
“He sure did.” Shelby placed a fork on each pile of napkin.
“And that in Austin he’s got a big lake by his house where you can fish? And he’s got a pool. It’s heated.”
Shelby worked hard to ignore the this-day-would-be-perfect-if-it-were-in-Austin plug. “You’ve got fish and a river to swim in here.”
“Yeah, but there, they stock it with fish every year so you’re always going to catch something.” Jake sounded way too happy about this lake for Shelby’s liking. “And some guy caught an eighteen-pounder last summer. Right, Cody?”
“Right, partner.” Cody sent Shelby a flirty wink.
She did not wink back. Flirty or otherwise. “Just throw in the line and catch a fish. Where’s the fun in that?”
“I guess.” But his tone said he thought it would be more awesome than a week in Disney World—with the Dallas Cowboys.
“Enough about fishing, let’s get the table set,” Cody said.
“’Bout time you got up.” Those lethal whiskey eyes turned on her, taking a slow appraisal, from her lips to her bare feet and everything in between. Cody hadn’t moved even a step in her direction, but his heated inventory was as real as a caress, and her body reacted accordingly.
Oh, no you don’t.
Shelby had spent most of last night figuring out how to make this work without her being forced to give up everything if, when the twelve months were up, Cody was still adamant about moving back to Austin. And swooning every time he so much as looked at her was not in the plan. She would play it calm, cool, detached.
“Morning,” Shelby said, tossing her shoulders back and slamming as much confidence into that one word as possible.
Not willing to let Cody know how easily he got to her, but aware that he was watching her every move, Shelby walked right on over, sidled up beside him, and peered over his shoulder to see what was cooking. Well, besides her traitorous libido.
“Smells good.” Shelby gave herself a mental pat on the back. She sounded confident, a woman in control of her destiny, which was important. She wasn’t about to make that mistake twice.
In one fluid movement, Cody set the spatula on the counter, slid his hands around her waist, his fingers splaying low over the small of her back, high on her backside, and then he was kissing her.
The kiss was hot and commanding, with a hint of tongue and a whole lot of promise. Shelby’s body swayed, giving in, her arms sliding up and yanking him closer. She thought she would collapse then and there.
Cody groaned—one hand dropping to possessively shape her ass, the other running up her spine to fist in her hair—and pressed her body flush against his, showing her just how good a morning it was going to be.
“What was that?”
“My good morning,” he said, proud as a rooster and about ready to crow.
“What happened to giving me space?”
Cody released her and went back to flipping the pancakes. With a sidelong glance, he said, “There. Happy?”
No, she wasn’t, because somehow, even after all of her plotting and positioning, determined to take things slow, he was once again in control. And that was just asking for trouble.
“Now, if I were you, I’d soak up that space you claim you need so much, because come tonight, we won’t be able to fit but a straw of hay between us.”
She opened her mouth, expecting some sassy retort to come out, something a confident woman who was in control would say. Instead she got a pathetic, “Um . . .”
Cody flipped a flapjack and a grin broke over his face. “Why don’t you help JT put some juice in those glasses, ’cuz breakfast is served, ma’am.”
“Jake?” she croaked, just picturing the scowl of pure horror on her son’s face and imagining words like “gross” and “barf” floating over his lips at the sight of his mom and dad kissing like that.
Cody laughed. “Honey, JT left to wash up for breakfast. But it’s good to know how easily I can distract you.”
“That”—Shelby’s hand fluttered to encompass the spot where Jake had been standing—“had nothing to do with you. I’m just tired, is all.”
The truth was, the end of the world could have happened and she wouldn’t have cared as long as he kept on kissing her. But he didn’t need to know that.
“Really?” Cody’s voice was tinged with equal parts challenge and humor. He flipped the last pancake on the plate and turned to face her. His eyes roamed deliciously down to her breasts, which beaded under the soft cotton of her T-shirt, before returning to her eyes. “You willing to bet on that?”
Shelby grabbed the plate of flapjacks and scurried to the table, hollering out for Jake to come and get it. Cody laughed, full and masculine—it was the sound of victory.
Shelby had insisted that she’d clean the kitchen while the guys saddled up the horses. But after the horses were saddled, the picnic packed and loaded, and Jake had ridden his chestnut, Bandit, around the corral so many times Cody was dizzy, he began to think Shelby had chickened out. Or she was still mad over the Austin comment. Well, she needed to get used to it. JT would be better off in Austin, Shelby would love it once she got there, and he intended to prove that to both of them.
But the instant she edged her way toward the pen and, face pale and eyes huge as tires, caught site of Goliath, the Thoroughbred he’d saddled up for her, Cody realized she wasn’t hedging because of him. No, it seemed that Cody had found himself the only girl in the entire state who was terrified of horses.
Nope, Cody amended, when Shelby’s body leaned into the fence, her hands nervously working the paint off the wood slats, she wasn’t terrified. She was scared shitless.
“Is that,” Shelby croaked out and then swallowed hard. It didn’t help. “My horse?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Cody said, ambling his way toward her. “Goliath here’s been waiting all morning to meet you.”