Texas Two Step: Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 1 (22 page)

Adam giggled. “Do not.”

Olivia struggled to her feet, slipping the crutches under her arms. “Oh yeah, you do,” she said with a laugh. “I’m going to herd you into the bath like that cowboy herded that calf.”

Adam stood but dragged his feet leaving the table.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to take a bath anymore. Cowboys take showers, not baths.”

“Is that so? Says who?”

“Hobbs.”

Magda laughed. “Good ol’ Hobbs strikes again.”

Olivia brushed a lock of sweaty hair off Adam’s face. “Well, I think Hobbs is wrong. Remember that movie we watched last month? That cowboy took a bath. Remember?”

Adam squinted as he thought. “Yeah.” He yawned again. “Do you, Mitch?”

Mitch smiled. “Sure I do, buddy.” He leaned over and made a big production out of sniffing Adam’s head. “And your mom’s right. You do smell a little like a cow.”

Adam laughed.

Olivia pointed a crutch toward the door. “Okay, cowboy. Let’s go.” Before she’d taken a step, her phone began playing the theme from Jurassic Park.

“Drake,” Adam yelled. “Let me talk to him. I wanna tell him about riding a horse today.”

She hesitated answering the phone. Her gaze met Mitch’s across the table. His expression hardened. Before she could stop him, Adam snatched her phone off the table.

“’Ello? Drake? It’s Adam.” Adam laughed at something Drake said. “I miss you too. But guess what? Mitch says I’m the best cowboy he’s ever had. Uh huh.” He listened “Uh huh. Uh huh. Okay.” He held the phone out to Olivia. “He wants to talk to you.”

She took the phone. “Hi, Drake. Can I call you back? I was just getting ready to give Adam a bath.”

“I’ll do it.” Mitch shoved his chair back and stood.

“Hold on a sec.” She covered the receiver. “You don’t have to. I can call him back.”

Adam looked with an anxious expression from his mother to Mitch. The last thing Olivia wanted was for Adam to pick up on the tension between Mitch and her. She forced her hunched shoulders down into a relaxed position and smiled at her son. “I—”

“Olivia. I can bathe him. In fact—” he picked up Adam and threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, “—us guys have to stick together. Right, buddy?”

Adam giggled and wiggled around until he could see Olivia. “Yeah, Momma. Us guys are stickin’ together.”

“Okay, but make sure he washes behind his ears.”

“Ears?” Mitch said as he walked out the room. “What ears?”

Adam howled with laughter.

Olivia shook her head. “I’m back, Drake. How’s the dig going?”

Chapter Eleven

In the six days since he’d discovered he had a child, Mitch also discovered his son was well-adjusted, funny and inquisitive. Nothing escaped Adam’s attention. Many times he reminded Mitch of his younger brother, Caleb.

But if Mitch had had any residual question about Adam being his son—and he really didn’t—tonight’s bath sealed the deal. As he had lifted Adam into the tub, he’d noticed a brown birthmark on the back of Adam’s right thigh—the same one Mitch had, the same one Mitch’s dad had.

Mitch had always thought he understood how strong the pull of love could be. Now, as he stood at Adam’s bedside watching him sleep, he realized he’d never had a clue. His heart felt ten sizes larger than it’d been just a week ago.

An overwhelming urge to protect his son from all the hurts in the world filled every crevice of his soul like sand between rocks. There was nothing he wouldn’t do, wouldn’t get for his son. Nothing.

That he’d missed so many years of Adam’s life, missed the major milestones like walking and first words, infuriated Mitch. Combined with the undeniable fact that his parents not only knew about Adam but had had a relationship with their grandson shot his blood pressure into orbit. Attempts to talk to either of his parents about their part in Olivia’s deception always returned the same response…
Talk to Olivia.
While he knew they were right and he did need to talk with Olivia, he had to wait until his fury at her duplicity had lessened.

So tonight would be the night for their talk, even if he had to break into his own bedroom. First, he needed to get out of his wet clothes and take his own shower, but his feet were glued in place. Pulling his damp shirt away from his chest, he chuckled. How was he to know that a bathtub of water, plastic cups and a five-year-old boy added up to splashes and sloshes of water over the tub’s rim?

The scent of lavender alerted him to Olivia’s presence seconds before she made her way quietly to his side. “Thanks for giving him his bath.” She touched a wet spot on his shirt. Her finger burnt like a lit match. “What happened?”

He shrugged.

She chuckled. “Let me guess. Too much water in the tub and a set of cups.” She nudged his shoulder. “Amateur.”

The word made the lost years with his son a painful reality that drilled a burning hole through his gut. He struck without thinking. “Whose fault is that?”

The smile fell from her face as a mask of regret took its place. “I know. I’m sorry,” she whispered, then stepped around him to the bed. “He’s my life.” She looked over her shoulder. “I love him more than words can describe. I did what I thought best at the time. Can you understand that?”

He looked at his son, then back at Olivia. “Yeah. I get it.”

After tucking the covers snuggly around Adam, she leaned over and kissed his forehead. She glanced at Mitch. “I think it’s time we talked…about Adam, Joanna, everything.”

“Way past time, I’d say.”

Her cheek muscles tightened. She was probably gritting her teeth. Well, let her. He’d worn his almost down to nubs.

“Your office?”

He tilted his head toward the door and she followed him into the hall, pulling Adam’s door behind her until a slight opening was left.

“I’m not thrilled that he’s up here and I’m downstairs, but I have to admit he seems to be doing fine.”

Mitch shot a pointed look at the stairs and back to Olivia. “Like you could have gone up and down those stairs multiple times a day, which does beg the question, how did you get up here tonight?”

“Not easily. Hopped up each step.”

“Not smart, Olivia,” he said with a shake of his head. “But since you’re already up here, c’mon. We can sit on the deck outside the guest room.” He opened the door to his temporary bedroom. “Unless you’re afraid to walk through a bedroom with me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I can restrain myself from throwing you on the bed.”

He grinned at the vision she described. He couldn’t help it. As mad as he was about her keeping Adam from him, he still loved being with her.

Olivia swung around on her crutches and made her way into his room. His scent filled the room, assaulted her senses as she entered. She paused. The room was spotless. Bed still made. No clothes thrown away. No boots lying around.

“Nice room. Very neat.”

“Thanks, but tell Magda. She’s a gem. Not sure what I’d do without her.”

Olivia wondered if Hobbs had it in the back of his mind to marry his daughter off to Mitch. Wouldn’t that put a dent in Joanna’s plans to get Mitch back?

She sighed. Good thing she wasn’t entering a horse in that race. Once she was back on her feet, she’d be hightailing it back to Dallas as fast as her credit card could book airfare and be glad to be gone, done with her infatuation with Mitch, and her roiling gut, and her jealousy, and—

Liar.

“I assume we’re heading out those?” She pointed one crutch toward a pair of French doors.

“Yeah, but can you give ten minutes? I want to finish what Adam started.” When she frowned in confusion, he pulled his wet shirt away from his chest again. “A quick shower, then I’ll join you. Okay?”

“Sure. Whatever.” She opened one of the doors, hobbled through and shut it. The last thing she wanted to see was a naked Mitch.

She touched the tip of her nose to see if it was growing. A naked Mitch would be the number one item on any woman’s must-do list…including hers.

The night air was warm, but not yet filled with the typical south Texas humidity. Soft mooing in the distance accompanied the closer croaking of tree frogs. A light breeze twisted her skirt around her thighs. She drew in a deep breath of the mesquite-scented air and released it slowly, forcing tension from her neck and back. The throbbing muscles in her legs and arms confirmed she’d been too long off a horse to hop back on without twinges and aches. But she was fine with those. It was the twinges and aches in her heart that threatened to wring her dry.

Toward the far end of the concrete terrace, Mitch—or more likely Magda—had set up a table and chairs. She headed there, the plan being to get off her leg and give it a rest. As she dropped into a chair with a sigh, she glanced over her right shoulder. Below her the Olympic-sized pool glistened in the moonlight. Heat flushed her cheeks as she thought about her nightly swims and whirlpool therapy. If she’d known someone could have seen her…

“There you are,” Mitch said, pushing the door shut with his heel. He held up a bottle and two shot glasses. “Crown Royal Reserve.”

“You remembered.”

He snorted a chuckle. “How could anyone forget that you made a mini-skirt out of all our empty Crown Royal sacks?”

She smiled at the memory of Mitch’s fraternity Spring Fling. “Hey!” she said indigently. “I looked hot in that skirt.”

He set the bottle and glasses on the table. “No kidding. I couldn’t keep my eyes off your legs that night.” He chuckled. “Hell, I thought I was going to have to kill a few frat brothers who couldn’t take their eyes off you either.” He cracked the top of the unopened bottle and poured a couple of shots. “Salute.”

Olivia took the second glass, tapped his and drank. “Oh man. That was excellent. Another.”

He arched an eyebrow but said nothing as he refilled her glass. After she downed the second shot and pointed for a third, he said, “Liquid courage, Livie?”

She rolled the shot glass between the palms of her hands. “Maybe.” She drank the shot, collected her crutches and stood.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m not leaving, it’s just…” She walked a couple of paces away. “This is hard, Mitch.” She glanced at him. Nervous waves lapped at the sides of her stomach. She wiped sweaty palms on her shorts and grasped the handles on her crutches. “Let me talk, okay? No interruptions.”

He leaned back in his chair and nodded.

She sighed and paced the best she could with a sprained ankle, twisted knee and crutches.

“I didn’t know I was pregnant when you left. When I missed my period, I didn’t give it a lot of thought. I’d been stressed over our split. Plus, I’d never been very regular, so I wrote it off as normal. By the time I’d missed the third month, I’d been having nausea for a couple of weeks.” She laughed mirthlessly. “I was sure I had the flu.” She gazed over at him. “Denial is an incredibly persuasive state.” Lust curled inside her gut. She looked away because, damn it, he still looked so good to her.

And she wished he didn’t.

Life would be much easier if she could keep him—and her feelings—in the past. And that might be possible if she wasn’t so attracted to him. All the more reason the sooner she got away, the better it’d be. She’d never survive being rejected by him again.

She made her way to the low concrete wall around the terrace and braced herself on the edge. “I went to the doctor expecting her to give me something to get me through flu season. When she asked if I could be pregnant, my first response was no, of course not. Then I remembered our last night together and I knew. I had all the symptoms. Nausea. Missed periods. Sore breasts.” She shook her head. “And I had a reasonable explanation for each of them. Flu. Menstrual irregularity. Over-exertion during my workouts.”

She paused, trying to find the right words to explain what she did and why. This was hard…as hard as she’d feared. When Mitch didn’t say anything, she sneaked a peek to make sure he was still awake. Icy blue eyes bore into her. A familiar bolt of desire rattled through her, just as it had the first time she’d laid eyes on him. If only she’d had a third hand capable of carrying her liquid courage—as Mitch called it—with her as she paced.

Knowing she had to continue, she swallowed the lump in the throat and broke his gaze’s grip to look down at the pool again. “When my doctor told me I was pregnant, you cannot believe how happy I was. I was having your baby. I couldn’t imagine anything more wonderful in the world. And even though you’d told me you didn’t want to get married or have kids, I was sure that you’d be thrilled when I told you. I’m pretty sure my feet didn’t touch the pavement as I walked to my car.”

She paced to the other side of the deck, not venturing a glance at him this time because this next part of her story was going to be difficult enough without seeing the damning in his eyes. “I started to call you immediately, but it’d been three months since we’d talked and I wasn’t sure how to tell you.” A hollow laugh bubbled up her throat. “Hi, Mitch. I know we haven’t talked in a while and you told me to date other guys, but guess what? You’re going to be a father.” Each breath was like sucking a thick milkshake through a thin straw. Lightheadedness made her vision swim, but she welcomed the dreamlike feeling. Standing on Mitch’s deck with their son asleep across the hall didn’t feel real either.