A Cowboy, a Bride & a Wedding Vow

by Shirley Rogers

  “Catie,” He Groaned, Then Covered Her Mouth With His.

  His tongue seared hers and she moaned low in her throat. It was all the encouragement he needed to drag her body against his and close his arms around her.

  He remembered the first time he’d made love to her. She’d been a virgin and unsure of what to expect. But she’d also been eager to learn and just as eager to please him.

  And one of the times they’d made love, she’d conceived his son.

  The thought flitted through Jake’s mind, clearing the way for rational thinking. He lifted his head and stared at Catherine’s face. She licked at her lips, and the action made his knees want to buckle.

  “This doesn’t change anything,” he growled, angry at himself for touching her. Angry, also, because he wanted to kiss her again.

  Dear Reader,

  Happy New Year from Silhouette Desire, where we offer you six passionate, powerful and provocative romances every month of the year! Here’s what you can indulge yourself with this January….

  Begin the new year with a seductive MAN OF THE MONTH, Tall, Dark & Western by Anne Marie Winston. A rancher seeking a marriage of convenience places a personals ad for a wife, only to fall—hard—for the single mom who responds!

  Silhouette Desire proudly presents a sequel to the wildly successful in-line continuity series THE TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB. This exciting new series about alpha men on a mission is called TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: LONE STAR JEWELS. Jennifer Greene’s launch book, Millionaire M.D., features a wealthy surgeon who helps out his childhood crush when she finds a baby on her doorstep—by marrying her!

  Alexandra Sellers continues her exotic miniseries SONS OF THE DESERT with one more irresistible sheikh in Sheikh’s Woman. THE BARONS OF TEXAS miniseries by Fayrene Preston returns with another feisty Baron heroine in The Barons of Texas: Kit. In Kathryn Jensen’s The Earl’s Secret, a British aristocrat romances a U.S. commoner while wrestling with a secret. And Shirley Rogers offers A Cowboy, a Bride & a Wedding Vow, in which a cowboy discovers his secret child.

  So ring in the new year with lots of cheer and plenty of red-hot romance, by reading all six of these enticing love stories.

  Enjoy!

  Joan Marlow Golan

  Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

  A Cowboy, a Bride & a Wedding Vow

  SHIRLEY ROGERS

  Books by Shirley Rogers

  Silhouette Desire

  Cowboys, Babies and Shotgun Vows #1176

  Conveniently His #1266

  A Cowboy, a Bride & a Wedding Vow #1344

  SHIRLEY ROGERS

  lives in Virginia with her husband, two cats and an adorable Maltese named Blanca. She has two grown children, a son and a daughter. As a child, she was known for having a vivid imagination. It wasn’t until she started reading romances that she realized her true destiny was writing them! Besides reading, she enjoys traveling and going to the movies.

  Shirley loves to hear from readers. Please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope and write to: PMB#189, 1920-125 Centerville Tpke., Virginia Beach, VA 23464.

  To my father,

  Frank Steadman, Jr.

  1921-2000

  I miss you.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  One

  “I think you’re my father.”

  Jake McCall stood stock-still and sucked in a hard breath. His heart began to pound, causing a roaring in his ears that resembled the rumbling sound of cattle being herded on his family’s remote Texas ranch. As he stared back at the tall, lanky youth on his porch, Jake’s face was blank. He couldn’t possibly have heard right.

  No way.

  I think you’re my father.

  The words reverberated through Jake’s mind, robbing him of an immediate coherent response. He fought for lucidity as he tried to make sense of what he’d just heard. His eyebrows drawn together, Jake shook his head, searched for his voice and stated quite emphatically, “I believe you’re mistaken, son.”

  His tone was deep and firm, his eyes steady as his gaze studied the disheveled kid. He was dressed in faded jeans that rode low on his hips and looked at least two sizes too big, as did his white T-shirt, spattered with what Jake thought must be the name of some rock group. The thick layer of road dust on the boy’s Nike sneakers nearly hid their black color. His brown hair was well below his collar.

  Jake met the kid’s guarded expression as he shifted his backpack from his shoulder. He caught it just as it hit the porch, his hand grasping one of the thick black straps, then tightening, indicating his unease.

  The brand name on the backpack was one Jake recognized, which made him realize that the boy wasn’t just some displaced kid off the streets. He belonged to somebody, Jake thought, immediately alarmed.

  “You’re Jacob Matthew McCall, aren’t you?” the boy asked. His gaze held Jake’s, and though his voice held determination, his shoulders slumped a bit in defeat.

  Jake nodded and waited. It seemed like forever before the boy spoke again.

  “I came a long way to meet you,” he stated, his green eyes cautious, as if he wasn’t sure of his welcome or what to expect from his sudden visit.

  Jake was sorry to see so little trust in such a young boy’s eyes. Who was he, and where had he come from?

  When he had answered the door and seen the boy, he’d thought he had come from the nearby town of Crockett. School had just let out for the year, and several kids had stopped by to ask for summer work—mostly teenagers who lived in town and had never set foot on a ranch.

  The boy said he’d come a long way. Jake looked behind him, but didn’t see a car. “How’d you get here?” he asked.

  The youngster’s lips curved into the bare resemblance of a smile. “I took a bus, then hitched a couple of rides. I got a ride in Ozona with someone who was headed for Crockett. I was walking this way when a lady stopped her car and waved me over. She said her ranch was next to yours, and she gave me a lift here.”

  “Mary Beth Adams?” Jake asked, thinking of his neighbor.

  “Yeah, that was her name,” the kid replied as he nodded his head.

  Jake couldn’t believe this young boy had taken such risks. That aside, the secrecy of the boy’s parentage must have been burning in his heart to have made him take drastic chances.

  Jake knew firsthand how secrets could drive a person crazy. When he’d taken over the ranch after his parents’ death, he’d learned that the woman he’d known and loved as his mother hadn’t given birth to him. He’d never been able to discuss it with anyone, not even his brothers or sister. Jake shook the hurtful thoughts from his mind. This wasn’t about him or the family secret he’d buried in his heart.

  He looked again at the boy whose green eyes were watching him. It took a lot of guts for the kid to knock on Jake’s door and confront him. Jake knew his size intimidated most people. At six-two, he towered over most men, given the exception of his brother Ryder, who was six-three. Their younger brother, Deke, wasn’t far behind them at six foot. The fact that Jake was the least outgoing of the bunch sometimes made him seem unapproachable to strangers, yet this kid had faced Jake without hesitation.

  The boy shrugged. “She said you go by ‘Jake’ and described what you look like, so I figured I had the right person when you answered the door.”

  “What’s your name?” Ja
ke asked, studying the boy while trying to figure out where he’d gotten such an absurd notion. Oddly, he did look a tad familiar. There was something about the color of his deep-green eyes that tugged at Jake’s memory.

  He wished he knew why. At thirty-four, Jake wasn’t ancient by any means, so at least his mind wasn’t slipping. Maybe it was that he had a bit too much to think about lately. Ryder and Ashley, his wife, had brought twin daughters into their family home, which added a new, but welcome, dimension to all of their lives.

  Jake quelled the flash of envy that sometimes attacked him when he thought of his two baby nieces, and reminded himself that he was happy for his brother.

  “Matthew. My friends call me Matt,” he answered, his expression guarded. As if gathering courage, he straightened and his shoulders stiffened.

  Noticing that Matt didn’t offer his full name, Jake didn’t know what to make of the kid. A strange, not at all comfortable feeling crawled up Jake’s spine. Odd that they shared the same name, though Matthew was Jake’s middle name and he’d never gone by it. Jake tossed that off as pure coincidence and probably one of the reasons the kid had mistakenly knocked on Jake’s door.

  The one thing in his life that Jake was positive about was that there was no way he’d fathered a child. Not long after he’d returned to the ranch, Jake had been thrown from a horse he’d been training. In a fury the horse had stomped on him and left Jake unable to have children. He had been devastated when the doctor had told him, but in time he’d learned to accept it.

  It wasn’t until he’d met and dated Maxine that Jake realized not having children meant he would never get married. He and Maxine had been seeing each other for nearly six months when Jake had confessed he was unable to father a child. She’d been upset, but she’d told him she loved him, that it didn’t make a difference.

  Foolishly Jake had believed her. He’d started making plans to ask her to marry him. He’d even bought her a ring. His heart cramped with renewed pain of the memory. The night he was going to propose she’d abruptly broken off their relationship, telling him she’d thought she could live with his “condition,” was what she called it, but she’d changed her mind. She wanted a whole man.

  Hurt and disillusioned, Jake had vowed never to allow himself to be that vulnerable to a woman again. He didn’t need a permanent relationship in his life. He settled for an occasional evening or two of pleasure when he desired company.

  Still, it was painful when he thought about never being a father, especially when Ryder seemed intent on populating the entire county singlehandedly. With the twins, Michelle and Melissa, and another baby on the way, Ryder was walking around with a silly grin on his face nearly all the time.

  Jake glanced over the boy once again, taking note that his head came to about Jake’s chest. His size, Jake thought, was deceiving. Hazarding a guess, Jake figured he was around twelve, much too young to be traveling alone.

  “Well, Matt,” Jake began, opening the screened door to the porch, “why don’t you come inside, and let’s see if we can figure this thing out.”

  Matt hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder. He stepped inside the house, and his gaze darted around the large foyer, taking in his surroundings with wide-open eyes.

  Jake closed the door, and silence filled the air between them. He wasn’t quite sure what to do next. He knew he had to get a handle on this mix-up quickly. The kid’s family was sure to be worried about him. Before Jake could say anything, Ryder came around the corner from the hall that led to the dining room.

  “Ashley sent me to find you. The babies have been fed, and we don’t have much quiet time. She said she’s not going to hold dinner much longer, that you’d better get your butt in there.” Ryder was smiling, but then he noticed the young boy standing by the front door. He stopped abruptly and flashed a curious glance at Jake.

  “This is Matt,” Jake said by way of an introduction. “Matt, this is my brother, Ryder.” Ryder stuck out his hand, and the boy shook it.

  “You come by looking for a job?” Ryder asked, taking another look at the kid, then watching his brother.

  “Not exactly,” Jake answered for the boy. “It seems we have some business to discuss. Go ahead and eat. I’ll be in, in a little while.” Ryder’s curious gaze flickered from Jake to Matt, but he left without commenting.

  “Let’s go somewhere more private to talk,” Jake said, then indicated for Matt to follow him down a hallway. Once inside the large ranch office, Jake extended his hand toward a brown vinyl sofa.

  “Have a seat,” he told Matt, then walked over to a large walnut desk and leaned his rear against it, bracing his hands against the edge. His gaze followed Matt as he sat down.

  “Now, just to be up-front with you, I have to tell you I’m positive I’m not who you’re looking for, but why don’t you start at the beginning. Where are you from?” he asked, crossing his arms and staring at the youth.

  “Lubbock.”

  Jake nodded and his brows wrinkled. “I went to school there for a while.”

  “I know.”

  The two words once again robbed Jake of breath. Jake was stunned by Matt’s answer. How much did this kid know about him, and how did he find it out? “You do, huh?”

  “Yes, sir.” Matt’s gaze never left Jake. “You went to Texas Tech, right?”

  Jake’s eyes widened so slightly it was barely noticeable. He’d attended Texas Tech until his parents were killed. Then he’d returned home to take care of his siblings.

  Jake figured that although it was out of the ordinary for Mary Beth to gossip, she must have been the one to mention such information to Matt. Of course, it could have been anyone who lived around Crockett.

  Everyone within a hundred miles of their ranch and the town knew Jake and his family. And most of those people knew that he hadn’t finished school, that he’d left to come home and take over his parents’ ranch when they died in an airplane crash. And that he’d raised his younger siblings. Still, Jake didn’t think Matt had come into contact with anyone other than Mary Beth.

  Matt was sitting on the edge of his seat. “I found a paper that my mom had in a chest in her bedroom. That’s how I found out that you’re my father.”

  Jake felt a little pang every time the boy called him his father. He couldn’t deny the yearning and disappointment that pulled at him. A little part of Jake’s heart twisted, wishing for something that was unattainable.

  He supposed most people would think that after raising three siblings, he’d pretty much raised a family. Jake had told himself that same thing many times and wished he felt that way in his heart. He had been responsible for his brothers and his sister, Lynn, since he was twenty-one, but had never felt that they were a substitute for having a family of his own. Maybe that’s why it had been so hard to watch each of them grow and mature. He had nothing to take their place.

  It wasn’t until Ryder had become a father that Jake realized how much he would miss by not having children. While he was happy for Ryder and Ashley, a little twinge of jealousy simmered in Jake’s heart. Ironically, Ryder had been the one who hadn’t wanted children, but he’d found the love of his life and had settled down and started raising a family.

  Jake knew he would never be able to do the same.

  “What kind of paper?” he asked, bringing his thoughts back to the problem at hand. The kid was staring at him as if he had the power to fulfill his dreams.

  “A hospital paper.”

  “Like a certificate—the kind with your footprints?”

  Matt nodded, but gave nothing more away.

  Jake’s lips thinned as he thought about it. “Do you have it with you?”

  Matt lifted his pack onto his lap and zipped open an outside pocket. He searched through it for a few moments, then produced a folded piece of paper and handed it to Jake. “It has your address written on it.”

  As Matt said, Jake’s address was written on the back side. For some reason the handwriting looked familiar.
Sighing, he opened it and studied what looked like a legitimate hospital certificate, the folded creases worn.

  The first thing that Jake searched for was his name on the document. A jolt went through him when he saw it printed neatly beside the word father. It was a natural response to look immediately at the line listing the mother’s name, and Jake’s heart took another blow when he actually recognized it.

  Catherine St. John.

  Jake’s hand shook as he stared at the paper, and he was unprepared for the rush of emotions that assailed him. His chest squeezed painfully. He couldn’t seem to get a handle on something as basic as breathing and hated feeling so out of control.

  All of his life he’d been the one to shoulder responsibilities, to make decisions, to carry them out and make sure that the ranch ran smoothly and his siblings were well cared for.

  How long had it been since he’d thought of Catie? he wondered, letting his mind slide back to his college years. He’d met her at school, had fallen in love with her. They’d even talked about marriage. But they both knew there was school to finish, and Catie’s father would have had a fit if he’d known how involved they were.

  Catie.

  Her face drifted through his thoughts. A beautiful brunette, tall and lithe, she’d touched his soul. But Jake had let go of her and their promise of a future together.

  He remembered that the last time he’d seen her, they’d had a fight over something. What about, he couldn’t even remember now. That night he’d gotten the call about his parents, and he’d returned home to deal with the responsibilities at the ranch and to care for his siblings.

  And somewhere along the way, he’d lost Catie. Jake stared at Matt. This was Catie’s son.

  His Catie.