Jackson Hole Valentine (23 page)

Just seeing them made her smile and brought back that warm Christmas glow. That’s why she’d made it clear to Cole that she didn’t want another gift. But he didn’t appear to be taking her seriously. She suspected that’s why, when Ryan had stopped over, he’d jumped at the chance to ride back into Jackson with him. Unless he really was going “stir-crazy” like he’d said.

Or he might just want to pick up more supplies to use in working with Charlie.

Meg pressed her lips together, her heart hardening at the thought of Ed and his lies. All she could hope was that experience would be a lesson to her and Cole to always keep the lines of communication open.

She quickly finished her dusting then returned to the living room, where Charlie had Lincoln Logs scattered from one side of the large room to the other. But instead of happily playing with them as he’d been only minutes before, he lay on the sofa, fast asleep.

Meg crossed the room and covered him with a cotton throw, brushing a kiss on his cheek. “I love you, Charlie.”

Love.

Even though it had been less than a month, Meg realized she’d fallen in love with the little boy…and with his new daddy.

Of course, she had a sneaking hunch she’d never quite fallen
out
of love with Cole Lassiter.

“I love you, Cole,” she murmured to herself, the words feeling right and true on her tongue.

Did he return that love? If her intuition was on target, he did. The look in his eyes when his gaze settled on her, the gentleness and passion in his touch all spoke to deep feelings.

When she’d mentioned last night in passing that the only open jobs for a physical therapist in Jackson Hole were part-time, he’d encouraged her to apply, saying those hours would work perfectly. Between the two of them they could be there before and after school for Charlie.

While she didn’t want to presume too much, he knew as well as she did how expensive rent was in Jackson Hole. She could never afford to do it on a part-time salary…unless she continued to live with him.

The yearning that rose inside her both scared and thrilled her. Thrilled her because she couldn’t imagine being anywhere but by his side. And scared her because she loved him and had been hurt by him before.

Still, her worries were buoyed by the knowledge that she now knew the truth about what had happened all those years ago. All the secrets were out and there should be nothing preventing them from moving on.

Meg had just finished putting the last Lincoln Log into its canister when she heard a familiar ringtone coming from the kitchen.

Although she knew she was being foolish, fear sent her heart into overdrive. By the time she scooped up the phone, she was out of breath as if she’d run a long race instead of simply gone from one room into another.

When Cole had left this morning, she’d resisted the urge to tell him not to go. The roads were snow-packed and icy. Meg knew how treacherous these mountain roads could be....

“Hello,” she said, her heart pounding in her ears.

Static filled the air for several seconds before she heard a man’s voice.

“Cole, this is Brian. We’ve got a lousy connection. Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” Meg said. “But this isn’t—”

“I received the results of the DNA testing on you and Charlie this morning,” Brian continued. “I thought you’d want to know right away.”

DNA testing?
What was the man talking about?

“It’s as you suspected all along. Charlie is your son, so that is indeed good news.” Brian’s tone, which had been friendly, suddenly became more businesslike. “I have the papers ready to file for sole custody. I’ll email those for you to sign along with the papers from the lab.”

More static filled the line.

“I’ll be back in touch soon,” Brian said before the line went dead.

Meg stood completely still for the longest time, her—er—Cole’s phone in her hand, processing what she’d just heard.

Cole was Charlie’s father, not Ty. How could that be? Joy and Ty had been a couple for almost ten years.

Had Cole donated his sperm to help Joy conceive? But if that were the case, wouldn’t Cole have already known he was Charlie’s biological father? And why would both Cole and Joy have kept that fact a secret from her?

Unless…

No. Meg shoved from her mind the image of Joy and Cole with naked limbs entwined.

There had to be a logical explanation for all this. She couldn’t wait for Cole to get home so she could find out what it was....

His good day had taken a nosedive. Cole realized something was wrong the second Meg met him at the door and he saw the look in her eyes. At first he worried that something had happened to Charlie, until the little boy burst around the corner and tackled him.

“Everything okay?” he asked in a low tone over the top of Charlie’s head.

In response she cast a pointed glance at Charlie. “We’ll talk later.”

Cole didn’t want to wait. But it appeared he didn’t have a choice, not with Charlie happily chattering about all the things he’d done while Cole had been in town, and tugging on his hand, asking him to play Lincoln Logs with him.

He placed the sack of learning supplies for Charlie on the side table in the foyer, keeping the smaller sack with him.

“I need to drop something off in my room,” he said to Charlie, “then we’ll play.”

Meg pulled a phone from her pocket. “You might as well take this with you. It’s yours.”

“Sorry ’bout that.” Cole grabbed an identical one from his coat pocket and handed it to her. “I didn’t realize I’d taken yours until Ryan and I were already in Jackson.”

She didn’t smile or make a joke about him stealing her phone. Instead, as they exchanged phones, her gaze kept shifting from him to Charlie.

If Cole didn’t know better, he’d think she suspected… Nah, that was simply his overactive imagination mixed with a large dose of guilt.

Still, as he headed to his bedroom, his sixth sense told him something was wrong and it involved him and Charlie. Surely his attorney wouldn’t have sent something to the house. Cole had made it very clear to Brian that any communication regarding Charlie’s paternity was to be by email or phone only.

Phone.

Cole stepped inside his bedroom and pulled the door shut. Only then did he pull out his phone, the one Meg had returned to him only moments before. He went immediately to the recent calls. When he saw Brian Danaher’s name at the top of the list, Cole’s heart stopped.

Taking several deep, steadying breaths, he hit Redial.

“Brian,” he said immediately when the attorney answered. “It’s Cole.”

“I bet you’ve been doing some celebrating today.”

“Celebrating?”

“About the positive DNA test results.” Brian paused. “How much of what I told you did you hear?”

“Remind me what you said.” Cole dropped down to sit on the bed. “I want to make sure I heard it all.”

“Well, to summarize—you are the boy’s father. I’ve emailed the paper to petition for sole custody,” Brian said. “Like we spoke about before, we’ll need to do another DNA test following the strict chain-of-custody protocol for it to hold up in a court of law.”

“About those papers,” Cole said. “I’m going to hold on to those for now.”

“You said earlier that you wanted to move quickly on the custody issue.” Brian’s tone was filled with puzzlement. “Is something wrong?”

A sick feeling filled the pit of Cole’s stomach. “I really hope not.”

Chapter Seventeen

T
he next five hours were the longest ones of Cole’s life. He was hypersensitive to every look, every comment.

Like at dinner when Meg said, “I noticed before that you and Charlie are both left-handed.”

Charlie didn’t make things any better when he proudly announced that his hair stuck up in the back just like his uncle Cole’s.

Though Cole had planned to have a very different conversation with Meg this evening, while he picked at his food over dinner, he tried to convince himself that it was good they were having this conversation now. Now that it had been confirmed Charlie was his son…

Shifting his gaze from the log cabin he was building on the floor, Cole settled it on the little boy, overcome with love for this child of his.

When he finally looked up, he found Meg staring. Her expression gave nothing away, but the flash of pain in her eyes before her lids dropped told the story.

He prayed he could make her understand. If not, he feared that the life he wanted—the one that had been within reach only this morning—would be gone.

When Charlie’s bedtime rolled around, the three of them took turns reading from an age-appropriate storybook. Tonight it was Charlie’s favorite, the one about farm animals.

Cole had informed her that a dyslexic child’s reading could be improved if they read aloud. Apparently it had something to do with activating the “Broca’s area” in the child’s brain, which remembers speech muscle movement.

But instead of admiration over his desire to help the boy, all Meg felt toward Cole was disgust. How could he have lied to her? How could he have made her believe that he wanted them to be a family when all along he planned to cut her out of Charlie’s life? Based on what his attorney had said, plans were already in place that would kick her to the curb.

Well, she wasn’t unwanted baggage, she was a vital part of this little boy’s life.

Charlie caught her staring and smiled. She gave him a thumbs-up. “That was really good, sweetie.”

Meg dropped her hands to her side and clenched her hands into tight fists. If Cole thought she’d just walk away from this boy she loved, well, he’d find out soon enough what happened when you shook a mother lion’s cage.

“Aunt Meg.” Charlie’s sweet voice broke through the churning in her brain. “It’s your chance to read.”

“You almost missed your turn,” Cole joked.

Meg met his gaze, the smile on her lips only for Charlie’s benefit. “You’ll find it’s not that easy to cut me out.”

Cole didn’t say a word, but she knew he’d gotten her not-so-subtle message. An observation that was confirmed once they’d put Charlie to bed.

He took a seat on the sofa and gestured for her to sit beside him.

Meg reluctantly dropped into a nearby chair.

“It’s not my intent to cut you out of Charlie’s life,” he said, his eyes dark and serious in the lamplight.

“Yeah, right.”

“I’m telling you the truth.”

“Who are you?” Meg’s voice sounded shrill, but she didn’t care.
Truth.
Did he even know what the word meant? “I feel like I never knew you. Not back in high school. Certainly not now.”

“Look, I’m sorry you had to find out Charlie is my son this way.” Cole raked a hand through his hair. There was so much he wanted—make that
needed
—to say to her. But when he’d planned this discussion in his head, it hadn’t been with her glaring at him.

“Yes, that did come as quite a surprise.” She gave a humorless laugh. “I just wonder why it took me so long to see it. It’s obvious now when I see the two of you together.”

“Meg, I didn’t—”

“When were you planning to kick me out, Cole? Your leg is almost healed. Were you waiting for the doctor to release you before you told me I’m out of his life? Or were you going to just let me get the legal papers in the mail?”

Cole had initially assumed it’d be best to let Meg talk. Give her the opportunity to blow off some steam. He realized that had been a mistake. She reminded him of a locomotive being stoked by misconceptions. A head of steam was building and any moment she could blow.

“You know, I’m getting this déjà vu feeling all over again,” she continued before he could respond. “Following your own agenda is what you do best. You pretend to have feelings for me then you drop me. You haven’t changed at all.”

“Meg,” Cole said. “Please let me explain.”

“Explain?” She practically sneered the word. “Or make up a few more lies?”

“Yes, explain.” Cole spoke between clenched teeth.

She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “Okay. You can start by
explaining
to me how it happened that you and my best friend had a baby together.”

Despite her adversarial tone, Cole told himself this was progress. At least she wanted—okay, was willing—to hear what he had to say.

“Joy and Ty were going through a rough time in their relationship.” Cole chose his words carefully. “She wanted to get married and Ty wasn’t sure he did.”

“So you muddied the waters by sleeping with her.”

Cole ignored the comment and continued. “She left Jackson Hole and moved to Texas. I’m not sure why she chose Austin other than her great-aunt Mary lived there. Joy and I ran into each other and started hanging out. Both of us were lonely and one thing led to another. We only had sex a couple of times before we realized you shouldn’t sleep with someone when you’re in love with someone else.”