Jackson Hole Valentine

by Cindy Kirk

  “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

  The 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 laug
h. “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.”

  “Wow, what a revelation,” Meg drawled, sarcasm dripping from each word.

  “Joy loved Ty. It wasn’t long before he realized the mistake he’d made in letting her go and came to get her. They married in Las Vegas on their way back to Jackson Hole.”

  “Then Joy found out she was pregnant.” The hurt in Meg’s eyes tore at his heart. “And both of you let Ty think it was his.”

  “I didn’t find out she’d even had a baby until her aunt mentioned it when she stopped by the coffee shop one day. By that time, Charlie was already eight months old.”

  “Really? She didn’t call or say anything to you about it before then?”

  Her tone called him a liar.

  “That’s right.” Cole held on to his temper with both hands. “As soon as I heard about the baby I came to Jackson Hole. When I asked, Joy insisted he was Ty’s baby, not mine.”

  Cole would never forget that day. Anger. Hurt. Sadness. He’d experienced a whole cacophony of emotions in one short hour. “When I mentioned doing a DNA test, Joy began to cry. She told me I would ruin her marriage if I pursued the test. And it would be all for nothing because the test would show Charlie was Ty’s son.”

  “You didn’t believe her.”

  “I didn’t know what to believe.”

  “You walked away from your own son.”

  “She insisted he wasn’t mine.” Cole wiped a hand across his face.

  “I can see how she could have fallen under your spell and lived to regret it,” Meg said, her words a sharp knife to his heart. “I did.”

  “Everything,” Cole said with a fierceness that surprised both of them, “everything I said to you I meant.”

  Meg rose and moved to the window, her back now to him. “You meant it when you said you wanted the three of us to be a family.”

  Cole stood. “Every word.”

  “Yet you told your attorney to get the papers ready to file for sole custody.” Meg turned and reached inside the neckline of her cowl-necked sweater. She pulled out the silver heart he’d given her their first—and only—Valentine’s Day together. “I put the necklace on this morning because I saw us having a bright future together.”

  Cole’s heart dropped when she flung it on the table and shook her head, a look of disgust on her face.

  “Meg, listen,” Cole began. “Let me explain.”

  “You listen. You will never take Charlie from me.” An edge of steel ran through her tone. “I’ll never walk out on that little boy and my promise to his mother.”

  “This is not as horrible or as unworkable as it appears.” Cole forced a conciliatory tone. “Let’s sit down and talk this through.”

  “I don’t trust you and I don’t want to be with you anymore.” Meg met his gaze. “As soon as I find a place to live, I’m moving out and I’m taking Charlie with me. There’s nothing you can say—or do—that will change my mind.”

  Cole had just gotten off a conference call with his attorney, finalizing plans for the Jackson Hole franchise, when the home phone rang again.

  He snatched it up, cradling the receiver lightly against his ear. “Don’t you have anything else to do on New Year’s Eve but talk with me?”

  “May I speak with Margaret, please?” a man’s voice said. “Tell her it’s Zac.”

  Meg’s youngest brother. Hearing the affection in her tone for this man, Cole had once looked forward to meeting him.

  “Zac, this is Cole Lassiter. Your sister isn’t here. She’s out running errands.”

  It was true to an extent and it sounded a helluva lot better than saying she was checking out several apartments that had made her short list.

  “I tried her cell,” Zac said, his frustration evident. “The call kept dropping before it went through.”

  Cole grimaced. Cell reception was a sore subject with him, too. “The weather is bad here. Must be affecting the signals again.”

  Zac swore. “Do you know when she’ll be back?”

  “No clue.” Cole told himself to stay out of it. He might be Meg’s family, but whatever problem he had was none of Cole’s business.

  Her brother blew out a harsh breath.

  Not my concern, Cole told himself. Still, he knew how much Meg loved Zac. And Cole could drive into Jackson and track her down…if the situation was critical.

  “Is there something I can do?” Cole asked. “Does this have anything to do with your girlfriend and baby? Are they okay?”

  “Yes. No. I don’t know.”

  Silence filled the line for several long seconds. Cole waited, not about to press.

  “Margaret told you about Lissa and the baby.”

  “She did,” Cole said. “Congratulations.”

  “Lissa and I, well, we’re not together anymore.”

  Cole waited for him to elaborate, but all he heard from the other end of the line was the sound of a bottle top popping open.

  “What happened?” Cole clamped his mouth shut, but the question had already slipped past his lips.

  “Her old man got his way.” Zac’s tone was heavy. “Her parents think I’m not good enough for their princess.”

  “What do you think?” For some reason, Cole couldn’t seem to pay attention to the “none of my business” refrain in his head.

  “I may not have a college degree but I do okay,” Zac said. “Ian is an engineer and he doesn’t come close to what I earn most years.”

  Cole clicked on the gas log and heat began to flood the room. Something told him this might take a while. “What is it you do?”

  “Custom welding. Ornate gates, fences, decorative doors. Stuff people pay big money for,” Zac said. “Lissa’s dad is a three-piece-suit kind of guy. That’s the kind of man he wants for her.”

  Cole knew how much that had to hurt. Even though back in high school he’d been irritated that Meg hadn’t told her parents they were seeing each other, his irritation had been tinged with relief. What would Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have thought of him? He doubted they’d have approved of a C-student w
ho lived with a stepfather cops knew by name for all the wrong reasons.

  “What does Lissa think?” Cole asked.

  “She’s proud of me,” Zac said. “She wants to marry me. Or at least she did....”

  After a long moment, Zac continued, “She told me I was using her dad as an excuse. That I was scared to commit. Can you believe it?”

  “Is it true?”

  “Hell, no,” Zac retorted. “One thing is true. Her old man isn’t going to rest until he drives me totally out of her life.”

  “Seems to me whether you stay together is up to you and her, not to him.”

  “Yeah, well, whatever.” From Zac’s tone, Cole knew the conversation was over.

  “I’ll tell Meg you called.”

  “Were you really going to take the kid from my sister?”

  Cole inhaled sharply. Of all the things Meg believed, that hurt the most.

  “Is that what she told you?”

  “Answer the question, Lassiter.”

  “I considered it…at first. But that was a mistake in judgment. Meg is Charlie’s mother now. He loves her and she loves him.”

  “What about you?” Zac asked. “Do you love Margaret?”

  Cole fought the urge to sweep the love he felt for Meg under the rug like he’d done for so many years. But to say he didn’t love her would be a lie. And he was done lying, to himself and to others. “I do.”

  “Did you tell her you didn’t plan to take the kid from her?”

  “She doesn’t believe me,” Cole said. “I tried to explain that I wasn’t going to file the papers, but she wouldn’t listen.”

  “Make her listen.”

  “She’s already made up her mind. You can’t change a woman’s mind.”

  “The hell you can’t.”

  Cole smiled even as he recalled how he’d begged and pleaded with his mother not to go. His stepfather had laughed, telling him he was wasting his breath. A woman makes up her mind to leave, and that’s that....

  Of course, Wally was hardly an authority on relationships. For the first time in days Cole felt a glimmer of hope. He would try again. And again. And again. As many times as it took for her to forgive him and believe he was sincere.