Riley hated the fact that this had happened to Brenna, that she’d had to deal with his dad all on her own. He just wished he knew what she’d said and how she’d explained it all. He just wished he’d picked up the phone yesterday.
Brenna looked upset, maybe a little tense, but not angry. Another woman in this spot might have been furious this had happened to her.
Score another point for Brenna.
“Brenna just arrived a few days ago,” Riley said, knowing that was a lame explanation. He felt grimy, as if he’d ridden through a dust bowl—and he practically had.
His father shifted Derek a little, still looking down at him. Then he turned his attention to Riley again. “Brenna told me the two of you told her parents and then you went to the doc to get a DNA test yesterday.”
Riley’s gaze shot to hers.
She gave a little shrug.
“You don’t think you’re the dad?” Liam asked, now staring straight at him.
Riley stroked his hand down over his face. “This is private business between me and Brenna.”
His father studied him. “Maybe. Maybe not. Tell me when you were planning to notify me I had a grandson.”
“Today, Pop. I was going to call you when I got back from a trail ride this morning.”
Liam looked at Riley for a long moment and then nodded. “You don’t lie. I know that. I just feel a little...out of the loop. Do your brothers and sister know?”
“They will now,” Riley muttered.
“Mr. O’Rourke, can I get you something to drink?” Brenna asked. “I have iced tea, soda—”
Again Liam looked at Riley, giving him a half smile, as if to say, She’s acting as mistress of the house. Riley was a little surprised at that, too, but maybe she just wanted to escape the room. Maybe she was really angry but not showing it. Maybe a lot of things.
“Do you have any coffee?” Liam asked. “I’m working the supper shift and will be at the restaurant till late. Some caffeine roaring through my veins would be great.”
“Is the coffee in the canister, Riley?” Brenna asked.
“You don’t drink coffee?” Liam asked.
“Not while I’m breastfeeding.”
Liam had black hair shot with silver, blue eyes and a ruddy complexion that just grew ruddier. “I see. Never thought of that. I admire women who put their baby’s welfare first.”
Riley and Brenna both knew exactly why that was. Shawna O’Rourke hadn’t had the fortitude, or the compassion, or the love a mother should have for her children, to stay.
His father shifted toward Brenna now. “So, what did your parents have to say? I’ll bet your dad popped a blood vessel.”
To Riley’s relief, Brenna retained her composure. “I’ve been living in New York ever since I left after high school, so I’m on my own. I make my own decisions, Mr. O’Rourke. Now I don’t depend on my parents for anything. Not even their opinion of what I should or shouldn’t do.”
“But you did once.”
“Yes, I did.”
“I knew you and Riley were an item, even if they didn’t. But Riley wanted to keep it a secret, so I pretended I didn’t know. My gut tells me Miners Bluff was just a little too small for you.”
“I wanted a career Miners Bluff couldn’t give me.”
“And you got it. Do you think your life’s a lot different than it would have been if you’d stayed?”
“Pop! Stop with the questions,” Riley erupted.
“I’m just trying to figure out what’s happening now. How are you going to be a father to your son when he’s in New York and you’re here?”
That was the question they were all asking.
“I’ll get that coffee.” Brenna didn’t move right away. Rather, she went to Derek first to make sure he was safe in Liam’s arms.
“I held four kids at one time or another,” he assured her. “I never dropped one of them. And I’m sober. Have been for five years.”
“I didn’t mean to suggest anything otherwise. He’s just so small. Even when Riley holds him, I feel I want to put a safety net underneath him.”
His dad chuckled at that and really looked at Brenna. “We didn’t get to know each other when you were in high school.”
“No, sir. We didn’t.”
“You really are an honest woman, aren’t you?”
“I hope so. I picked up a box of cookies that aren’t home-baked, but they’re good. Be right back.”
Riley couldn’t look away from her for a couple of moments. She’d tied her hair back in a ponytail. She was wearing jeans and a beaded T-shirt. Her belted waist showed her slimness. Her legs were long and curvy. Her feet were bare.
While his father played with Derek’s fingers and toes, Riley followed Brenna to the kitchen. At the doorway, he lowered his voice. “I never expected this to happen.”
“When your dad first arrived, he was throwing questions at me. He was really upset, Riley.”
Riley studied her face, so temptingly pretty. “And what about you?”
She looked up at him, her gaze hiding nothing. “I’m okay.”
Riley sighed. “Best laid plans. I shouldn’t have waited. So why didn’t you just make small talk until I got here? Geez, Brenna, telling him about the DNA test.”
“Do you know your father?”
There was a note in her tone that warned him to be cautious. “I probably know him better than anyone. Why?”
She practically whispered, “Your father asked me detailed questions. What time I got in on Wednesday. What we did that night, then yesterday. ‘Oh, you went to the doctor’s. Just to get him checked?’ Was I supposed to lie? He would have seen it. He’s a great lie detector. I can tell.”
Riley almost smiled at that. “We all used to think that, before he started the heavy drinking. Now that he’s not drinking again, I guess you could say he’s more perceptive.”
“Yes, well, he guessed it wasn’t just a regular doctor’s appointment, so I had to tell him the truth.”
“You’re an open book,” Riley said, meaning it as a compliment.
But she shook her head. “No, I’m not. Not anymore.”
“You got hurt?”
“Oh, I got hurt.”
The idea of Brenna hurt disturbed something deep in Riley. He dropped his arm around her shoulder and guided her deeper into the kitchen. “Come on, let’s give him a little alone time with his grandson. I doubt if he’s going to get much of that. As soon as Shannon knows, she’ll be here wanting to hold him, too.”
“And how about your brothers?”
Riley’s expression must have hinted at trouble there.
“Tell me.”
“There’s nothing to tell. I don’t know how they’ll feel.”
“But you have an inkling.”
“We’re the O’Rourkes. You’re the McDougalls. My brothers consider our two families to have a feud going on. So I don’t know what will happen when they hear.”
After Riley found the coffee, Brenna quickly made a pot. As the coffee brewed, the two of them just stared at each other, wondering what came next. When Brenna finally asked if he had a tray, he looked at her as if she were crazy.
“A tray, Riley, to carry in his mug and some sugar and creamer. Surely there’s something like that somewhere.”
They looked and looked until she found a flat platter that would suffice. When she carried it out to Liam and set it on the coffee table, he looked at it as if it were foreign. “Just the mug would have been fine.”
“Do you take cream or sugar?”
“Just a spot of cream.”
She’d laid a spoon on the tray, too. “Would you like me to take Derek now?”
“I get it. You don’t trust me holding him with a
cup of coffee in my other hand.”
“I think he needs to be changed and then maybe a little nap. He gets cranky when he doesn’t get enough sleep. Sort of like your son.”
Liam practically roared at that, his first real laugh. “So you know that about him, do you?”
“I haven’t been around him for a while, but I do remember that. You’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like. I can wheel his crib in here if you’d like to watch him sleep.”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” Liam asked.
“Sure. Babies sleep so much of the time at this age. If you want to capture their expressions and just be around them, it’s easier that way.”
“You’ve been around babies a lot?”
“Oh, no. But I have read a lot of articles, blogs and books. They all help.”
“Is there anything in your books about a situation like this, where one side of the family thinks the other side of the family sucks?”
“All right, Dad. We’re not going to get into it. I don’t want you all riled up.”
“You think I’ll pick up a bottle again?”
Riley’s silence spoke volumes.
His father sighed. “We’re going to have to get into it, boy. It’s the only way we’ll get over it. I don’t want to see Angus McDougall any more than you do. But I have a feeling we’re going to run into each other now.”
Derek had become more unsettled and was now squirming a bit. Brenna could apparently see that Riley’s dad looked uncomfortable with a fussy baby.
Crossing to him she held out her hands for her son and his dad helped her gather the baby close. Then she said, “I’ll change him.”
His dad rose. “I have to be going. I have computer work to do at the restaurant before our midafternoon crowd turns into the supper crowd. I suppose I’ll be seeing more of you, Brenna, and I hope more of Derek. Unless you’d rather keep him away from me?”
Already headed for the hall, she stopped and turned. “I see no need to keep him away from you. You can visit anytime you want.” Then she hurried down the hall.
Liam stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets. “Do you think she meant that?”
“From what I’ve seen so far of her, she doesn’t say what she doesn’t mean.”
His father started toward the door and Riley followed. Liam stopped, eyed his son and asked, “So, are you the dad or not? Do you want to tell me what happened?”
How much to say, and how much to keep private? “The night of the reunion Brenna and I danced and actually began talking. I asked her back here to catch up.”
“Oh, the two of you caught up, all right. That’s easy to see.”
“What do you mean it’s easy to see?”
“Other than Derek, you mean?”
“Yes, other than Derek.”
“You look at her as if you want her.”
Geez. His dad could see that?
“I remember the way you two were in high school. You thought I was drunk. I wasn’t always. I saw you sneak into the back of your car. I saw you sneak into the old shed at the back of the property. And I knew what was going on.”
What could Riley say to that?
“So why the DNA test? You putting her through hoops?” his father asked.
“I didn’t know who Brenna had become since she’d gone away. It’s been fifteen years, Dad. She turns up here on my doorstep, says Derek’s my baby, and I’m just supposed to believe that?”
“If you trust her word, you do. But I know you don’t trust women. And I know why. So if you need the DNA test, then you need one. But I do want to know why you didn’t call me the night she arrived.”
This was one of the hardest questions Riley would have to answer. “I didn’t call because I felt I had enough on my hands dealing with her and Derek.”
After a long, narrow look, his dad nodded. “I’ll accept that. But from now on if something happens here with Brenna or Derek or you, I want to be called first. I’ve been behind Angus McDougall all my life. It’s not going to happen now. Not when my grandson’s involved.”
Riley understood exactly how his father felt. He clasped his dad’s shoulder. “It won’t happen again. You have my word.”
Whatever Brenna did, whatever Angus McDougall did, Riley would not let the McDougalls come between him and his father. He finally had a relationship with his dad and that wasn’t going to get messed up because he’d been too stupid to use a condom. Brenna would have to come to terms with the fact that her family didn’t come first, not with him.
Chapter Four
After Liam left, Brenna rinsed the coffee carafe.
Riley stood by the refrigerator and thought she was being entirely too quiet. “I’m going to have to make a grocery store run. If you write a list, I can pick up whatever you want.”
She stopped rinsing. “We could all go.”
“Already going stir-crazy?” He was half serious and half joking. With the life she was leading in New York, she’d never be happy back here, stuck in the middle of nowhere.
“It would be good to get out. When I’m here, I think too much.”
He went over to the sink where she was standing. “Thinking about what?”
“You, and me and Derek, and what’s going to happen next.”
Standing here so close to her, he knew what he wanted to happen next. She seemed to read his mind. He could have sworn the pulse at her throat sped up.
She said, “The history between us could get in the way of making good decisions.”
“You don’t mean history, you mean chemistry. Just say it like it is, Brenna.”
Her face flushed. “It’s worse than an elephant in the room,” she murmured. “I can’t—”
Once Brenna got started, her thought process could make him dizzy, and he only knew one way to stop it. He slid his hand under her hair, pulled her toward him and kissed her. Her breath sighed into his, right before desire took over and neither of them thought about breathing. Her body had always fit against his so perfectly. Her mouth had always been sweet, soft and more potent than any liquor he’d ever tasted. Brenna’s passion had always matched his.
This afternoon it came alive, as it had the night of the reunion, arousing him, pushing him to remember, making him wish they’d had no history to interfere. As she moaned and his hand went to her breast, he buried caution and good sense in favor of taking what she offered.
...Until her cell phone on the counter played the wedding march!
It only took a few seconds for that sound to clear his head. And by that time Brenna was pushing away, looking as if she’d committed a major sin, snatching her phone from the counter.
Pretending the kiss hadn’t shaken him up, he arched a brow at the music.
“My store manager,” she explained, taking the call and walking into the living room, glancing over her shoulder, then concentrating on the conversation.
Riley decided to load the dishwasher with the dishes in the sink, but listened to every word Brenna said.
“It’s okay, Michelle. I understand. You don’t want to lose a client. We don’t want to lose a client. But I’m not returning to New York...for a while. I’m not sure of the exact date.”
“I understand she wants a one-of-a-kind gown. So we can do a couple of things. She can phone conference with me. She can videoconference with me. From what she tells me, I’ll draw up three sketches and then we can go from there.”
“No, I can’t fly back, even overnight. I’m not going to put Derek through that and I don’t want to leave him. If we lose her, we lose her.”
Riley slid a dish into place. Brenna had come to Miners Bluff for a reason—to introduce him to his son. It seemed she’d do everything in her power to have nothing interfere with that.
Y
et how long could she ignore business? Just how long would she be satisfied with staying here among pines, deer and elk?
He listened less intently as she talked to her store manager about day-to-day operations—a seamstress getting sick, material being flown in, models they were choosing for the fall show. By the time Brenna ended her call Riley realized she was running a business, a business grounded in New York. She had a full life there, just as he had one here. He’d missed his family and he liked them coming around. He liked the peace he’d found. But if his son was in New York City—
Maybe joint custody would work. Would Brenna consider it? As she entered the kitchen again he knew now was not the time to discuss it. Especially not with the fire from that kiss still leaving smoke in its wake.
“Maybe you should go to the grocery store alone,” she said.
“Because of the kiss? Or because of your phone call?” He wasn’t going to let that kiss throw her into a tailspin. That’s why he’d kissed her to begin with, to keep her tailspin from whirling out of control.
“I have to go over supply orders and I’m expecting a call back from a client...an important client.”
“Important meaning she’s rich?”
“Important meaning I designed a dress for one of her daughters and she and her daughter loved it. She has two more daughters. I don’t just sell gowns, Riley, I sell a unique service that’s based on relationships.”
He felt petty for suggesting she was only interested in the money. But that kiss had gotten to him, too. It sure was an elephant in the room. “I didn’t mean to suggest—”
“Yes, you did. You’ve always had a problem with my family being well-off. I have to admit I live a good life, but not an extravagant one. And I work hard to make my business thrive. So don’t suggest I’m all about money, because I’m not. I never have been.”
That one hit home. She never would have dated him, snuck around with him if a guy her parents approved of had been on her mind. Suddenly he wanted to know, “If my name hadn’t been O’Rourke, would you have stayed in Miners Bluff?”
“You mean if our families hadn’t been at war but you’d come from a working class family? Would that have made a difference?”
Riley's Baby Boy Page 5
