She took her seat across from him. “He said I’m making him a victim by comparing him too much to Terry. And he said...” she swallowed hard “...he said I’m making Scott a victim, too.”
“And what did you say to that?” he asked, his tone so filled with concern he broke through her defenses without even trying.
Her laugh sounded more like a sob. “I didn’t get to say anything. He just walked away, like he always does.”
“All right, then what did you think about that?”
“I think we were victims. You and I. And I’m working at getting over that. But—” Her voice broke. “But I would never take anything out on Scott.”
“Of course you wouldn’t.” He leaned forward. “I think Jason realizes that, too. You know how things get said in the heat of the moment. But you also saw how he was with Scott. He’s attached to the boy whether you want him to be or not.”
When she said nothing, he reached for her hand. “Layne, I’ve heard Jason talk about him, and he knows all the things a daddy ought to know about his son. What’s more, I’ve heard the pride in his voice whenever he mentions Scott’s name. I think the man regrets what happened, about not being around.” Holding her gaze, he said gently, “And I think he deserves a second chance.”
Chapter Eighteen
Jason parked the pickup truck outside Greg’s house and rang the front doorbell. When he had called earlier, Greg had insisted he stop by.
Within seconds, his buddy stood in the open doorway grinning at him. “Well, come on in. I was beginning to think you were never going to make it back this way again. Beer?”
He nodded.
“And I’ve got a pizza in the oven. It’s just us. My girls are out for the night.”
The statement made him think of Mama’s Night Off—and what a bad idea that had been.
He followed Greg into the kitchen and took a seat at the breakfast bar. When Greg handed him a longneck, they clinked their bottles together in a toast—although why they did that, he had no idea. “We celebrating something?”
“Considering on the phone you sounded as though you’d won a world final and your ‘quick trip’ to New Mexico lasted more than a week, I’d say your visit was a success. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if you’d found a reason to hang up your spurs, too. And that’s cause for celebration in my book.” Greg leaned on the counter. “You got to see your boy.”
He nodded.
“So, who does he take after?”
“My ex in coloring, but he favors me in a few ways, too.” He talked about their similarities and resemblances, then ran down a mental list of what he’d learned about his son in such a short time. Scott’s liking for syrup, storybooks and wearing crayons down to nubs. “His favorite cookie is chocolate chip, just like mine.”
“Hate to tell you, buddy, but every kid’s favorite is chocolate chip.”
“Now that’s bull.”
Greg laughed. He took the pizza pan out of the oven and proceeded to serve their supper—cutting one long line down the middle of the pizza, dividing it into halves. “Obviously, you saw your ex.”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“And nothing.”
“Then you’re home again and that’s it?”
“No. I’m giving notice and going back. I’ve got a job in Cowboy Creek.”
Greg gave a long whistle. “That’s more than nothing. Sounds like there must be some interest there.”
“I’m not going back to Layne,” he snapped.
“And sounds like I hit a sore spot.”
“You talk too much. Anybody ever tell you that?”
“My wife. Constantly.” Greg took a huge bite from his slice and sat chewing it as if to prove he could keep quiet if he wanted to.
“All right. It is a sore spot,” he admitted. “If she had her way, I wouldn’t get near my son.”
Greg swallowed and shook his head. “That’s bad. You need to do whatever it takes to get her to come around.”
You need to find another way to state your case.
He needed to apologize.
On the long ride back here from Cowboy Creek, he’d run all his conversations with Jed and Cole and Layne through his head. He’d replayed all the times he had spent with Scott.
And now, hearing his best buddy stating essentially what Layne’s brother had said, he’d finally come to his senses. Finally figured out the truth.
He and Layne both might have been to blame for what had happened before, but in the long run, this time around the fault was his. He’d wanted Layne to trust him. To forgive him.
Instead, he’d given her every reason to believe he would run.
* * *
WHEN THE KNOCK came at the door, Layne’s heart jumped to her throat.
The sound of Scott’s happy squeal brought tears to her eyes.
Blinking them away, she opened the door. Jason stood in the hallway, and she didn’t know where to look first. He looked good, so good, just as he had the day she’d first seen him standing there a couple of weeks ago.
She swept her gaze from his tousled hair to his caramel eyes to his dark-shadowed jaw. Finally, she looked down at her son, who had wrapped his arms around Jason’s leg as if he never meant to let him go.
“You’re back,” she said.
“You noticed.” He ruffled Scott’s hair. He cleared his throat and shifted his Stetson from one hand to the other. “I’m on my way out to the Hitching Post. Jed asked me to stop by. He’s invited you and the kids for supper tonight. He said Tina tried to reach you but didn’t get an answer.”
“Really?” She frowned. “We’ve been here all afternoon. She must have called earlier when I was working. I wonder why she didn’t leave a message, as usual.”
“Beats me.” He glanced down. “What do you say, Scott, want to go have supper with Grandpa Jed?”
Scott squealed again. “Yes-s-s. Es-s-s. Scott have supper. Jason have supper, too?”
“I sure will.” He grinned at her son, then shot a look in her direction.
“Mommy have supper sure, too?” Scott asked.
After a hesitation, she said, “Yes, I sure will have supper, too.” She had already promised Cole she and the kids would come back out to the ranch soon. She just hadn’t expected Jason to be joining them, too.
She hadn’t really believed he would come back.
“We’ve got a while before we have to be at the Hitching Post,” he said.
“Oh.” She looked at her son. “Scott, can you go put your cars away in your bedroom for Mommy?”
He nodded, stepping backward, his gaze still on Jason.
When he had gone to pick up his toys, she turned back to Jason and shrugged. “Can I get you anything?”
“A comfortable armchair and a few minutes of your time.”
She hesitated, still hovering near the door. She could—should—tell him to leave. She and the kids could get out to the Hitching Post on their own. But curiosity and another feeling she didn’t want to label won out.
She curled up on her corner of the couch. He took the armchair. Seeing him sitting there made her heart do a little flip, half from pleasure, the other half from nerves. “Before you start, I owe you an apology.”
He raised his brows in question.
“You were right about my not seeing you as you are. But it had nothing to do with Terry. Even when you and I first got married, I couldn’t...didn’t trust you completely.”
“Because we fought so much.”
“Yes.” She took a deep breath and let it out again. “But that wasn’t your fault, it was mine. Fighting and making up with you was my way of keeping you at a distance. Of not getting too close, so you wouldn’t see I was someone you couldn’t lov
e.”
“Why would you think that? I always loved you.”
“I know that now. I wanted to believe it back then. And I did love you, Jason. I still do.” Her voice broke. “But down deep, I didn’t think you could love me. I didn’t think anyone could.” She linked her trembling fingers in her lap and stared at them.
As much as she had confided to him in the past, there were things she hadn’t said. Things he deserved to know. “When I was growing up, my mother virtually ignored me, and my dad spent most of his time telling me how worthless I was. How no one would ever care about me. He did the same and worse to Cole, especially whenever Cole stepped in to help me.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. She brushed it away. “I hated knowing that protecting me made things harder for him. But I don’t know what I would have done without him. And then I met you. And loved you, right from the beginning. But after all those years of listening to my dad, I couldn’t believe you would ever really care about me.”
Jason moved to sit beside her and take her hand. “I didn’t make things any better by fighting with you.”
“What else could you do? You had to protect yourself.” Stunned, she raised her hand to her mouth as if that would help her take back the words. “You had to protect yourself, the way Cole protected me. That makes me just like my father.”
“No, it doesn’t. It’s not the same thing at all. And I was as bad as you were about the fighting. Only sometimes...” his smile made her hot all over “...it was all about the makeup sex.” Then he shook his head. “Jed said to me we were young and immature. He was right. That’s all it was. I saw pictures you kept of us from when we got married, and the one Sugar took of us the day we found out you were pregnant. We were having a baby, Layne, and we were still kids ourselves.”
He swallowed so hard, she could see the muscles in his neck strain. “We were probably scared without even realizing it,” he continued. “And we sure had to be stressed. That’s partly why I started following the rodeo.”
She stiffened.
“Hear me out.” He wrapped his arm around her as if afraid she would get up and walk away. “Yeah, I like riding, but it was more than that. I was worried to hell and back—about being a daddy, about taking care of you and the baby, about paying the bills and providing everything you’d need. It was the thought of winning one of those big purses that drove me to the circuit. And the more you argued with me about it, the more stressed I got.” Again, he shook his head. “It’s no wonder we fought so much. Or that you kicked me out. That last night—”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“We have to.” He brushed his chin against her hair. “That night, you didn’t know where I went, and when I came back, you wouldn’t let me explain. I know you figured I ran off to the Cantina and had myself a good time. But I didn’t. I went home.”
“Home?”
“Well,” he amended, “to my mother’s house. That’s where I was headed anyway.” He laughed softly. “Instead, I somehow wound up next door at the Browleys’. Mrs. B fed me supper and chocolate chip cookies.” Suddenly, he sobered. “Later, when I tried to come home and you refused to let me anywhere near you, I decided it was time to go.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I’m sorry, too. But I swear to you, I thought I was doing the right thing. I figured you were better off without me. I knew Cole would take care of you. I knew you had plenty of friends. It seemed the smart thing was just to make a clean break and a fresh start.” He reached up to run his finger down her cheek, wiping away tears. “I’m sorry, Layne. I shouldn’t have left.”
“I didn’t give you much choice.” She rested her head against his chest. She could feel his heartbeat thumping, hear his indrawn breath.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “Then I came back, and things weren’t any better.” His voice rumbled in her ear. “I wanted to see Scott, and I didn’t plan to fight with you, but I guess you weren’t the only one with deep-down troubles. I wanted you to forgive me for walking away, but I didn’t see how you could. Because I couldn’t forgive myself.” He sighed. “I should have tried harder to keep us together.”
“And I should have told you everything instead of pushing you away.”
He leaned back and looked down at her. “I love you. Can we start over again?”
“No.”
He sucked in a breath.
“Last week, I thought about that, too,” she admitted. “But we can’t start over. We already have Scott.”
“And Jill.”
“And Jill,” she echoed, her heart swelling and her eyes filling with fresh tears. What a good man he was. What a good man he had been all along. “Jason... I need to tell you something else. The other day, Scott went into your wallet and pulled everything out of it. When I went to put things back, I found his birth announcement.”
“And here I thought you’d just gone snooping.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” she said, shocked. Then she caught his smile. “I know you saw Scott has my name. Jill does, too. I kept my maiden name when I married Terry because I knew...” She took a deep breath. “I knew I couldn’t give any child we might have his name when I hadn’t given Scott yours.”
Now he took a deep breath. Tears turned his caramel-brown eyes to liquid gold. “Layne,” he said hoarsely. He swallowed hard and ran his finger down her cheek. “Layne, will you marry me again?”
“Do you think we’ve learned enough to keep from making the same mistakes twice?”
“Yeah, I think we have.”
“Then, no kicking anybody out. No walking away, ever again.” She held his gaze. He didn’t flinch. “And no more taking charge. We’re equal partners now. Will you promise me?”
“Promise. Trust me?”
“Always.” She touched his cheek.
He leaned down and kissed her, so long and so thoroughly, she barely registered the sound of Jill’s cries from the bedroom and only belatedly felt Scott tugging on her sweater.
“Mommy, Jill crying.”
“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “I hear her.”
Jason scooped up Scott and set him on his hip. Then he rose, pulling her to her feet along with him. “Let’s go. We can’t keep our hungry little girl waiting.” He put his arm around her and escorted her down the hall and into the kids’ bedroom.
She took a seat on the bed and watched as Jason expertly lifted the baby from her crib. Scott lay on the bed on one side of her, Jason stretched out on the other, and Jill settled down to nurse.
Across the room, she caught their reflection in the dresser mirror. And she smiled at the picture of the family they were meant to be.
Epilogue
Three weeks later
The clinking of utensils against champagne glasses made Jason grin. With one finger, he lifted his unresisting bride’s chin to steal yet another kiss.
Once the noise died down, they broke apart, but he made sure to keep his arm wrapped around her.
Jed walked up and clapped Jason on the shoulder. “Well, thanks to you two, the Hitching Post has just set a new record for pulling together a wedding and reception with all the works.”
Layne smiled. “I think you deserve some of the credit.”
“And I guess I’ll take it.” Jed grinned. “I’ve got to confess, I do feel I had a hand in getting you together.”
“That’s for sure.” He gave his bride a squeeze. “Now, how about we try for a record on baby showers?”
“I’m all for that,” Jed agreed.
“Uhh...gentlemen?” Layne said. “If I have a vote in this decision, I say we wait just a bit. Besides, Tina’s shower has to come first.”
Jason nodded. “Fine. Whenever you’re ready, I’ll be here.”
�
�I know you will.” She rested her head on his shoulder. Then she said with a laugh, “As it is, since we got married so quickly, people probably think we already have a baby on the way.”
“I can tell you exactly what folks in this town think,” Jed announced.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” he murmured. Layne elbowed him in the ribs. Jed gave him a sharp-eyed glance.
Then the older man laughed. “Well, it’s true I do like to know what goes on around here.” He sobered and rested a hand on Layne’s shoulder, too. “Folks think you two have grown up and caught up to where you were always meant to go. They couldn’t be prouder of you two, and neither can I.”
As he walked away, smiling, Jason held Layne closer. She looked up at him, her blue eyes shining with happy tears.
Robbie ran across the dance floor toward them, with Scott hard on his heels.
“My daddy says come and take a picture,” Robbie announced.
“Daddy come, too?” Scott asked, taking Jason’s hand.
Unable to answer, he simply nodded.
Three weeks had gone by since they had told Scott the news, and every time he heard his son call him Daddy, he still got a lump in his throat. Three weeks had passed since Layne had agreed to marry him—again—and he still couldn’t believe his good fortune.
He gathered his new family around him for the photograph. Over their heads, he met Jed’s gaze. And he sent a silent, heartfelt thank-you to the matchmaking grandpa who had helped to make his life complete.
* * * * *
Jed Garland isn’t finished with
his matchmaking ways!
Be sure to look for the next book in
Barbara White Daille’s
THE HITCHING POST HOTEL series in 2017,
wherever Harlequin books and ebooks are sold!
Keep reading for an excerpt from A TEXAS SOLDIER’S FAMILY by Cathy Gillen Thacker.
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