Quint chuckled nervously. “Uh—you’re doing just fine, partner. I might drop him. When he gets some teeth and a strong left hook, I’ll try it. Right now I just want to see how much he looks like me.”
“Sorry, Quint,” Jonas told the other man. “He looks like Alexa.”
Drawing closer to the two of them, Quint carefully studied the baby’s face. “Damn, but I believe you’re right, Jonas! He even has my sister’s big mouth.”
“Quint!” Alexa scolded. “Just wait until you have babies! I’m going to insult every one of them!”
Quint threw back his head and laughed. “Okay, I’ll be nice. So what are going to name the little cowboy? Little Quint?”
Alexa rolled her eyes at her brother, then glanced shyly over at Jonas. “I’m going to call him Jonas David. If that’s all right with Jonas.”
Jonas felt as though someone had whammed him in the midsection. Naming the baby after him came as a complete shock. She’d never even hinted to him that she might do such a thing! What did it mean? Was she doing it out of gratitude? Because he’d delivered the child? Or was she trying to say, “I love you”?
Hell, hell, hell, Jonas. Get that word out of your system. Forget you ever heard it, because you’re not ever going to hear it from Alexa.
“I—well, I’m surprised. And honored,” he said.
Quint’s brows shot up with surprise as he glanced from his sister over to Jonas. “Obviously the David is for our father. That was his first name.”
“Yes,” Alexa told Quint. “And I hope you weren’t planning on using that name for one of your sons. But since you don’t even have a girlfriend, it looks like that’s not about to happen.”
“Don’t worry about me, sis. I’ll catch up. When the time is right,” Quint said coyly.
He gave Jonas a pointed look, while behind Alexa’s wheelchair the tall, redheaded nurse cleared her throat.
“I hate to interrupt this family gathering,” she said, “but I have to see Miss Cantrell safely to her vehicle before I can return to my post.”
“Well, you go right ahead, Ms. Donovan,” Quint told her. “I don’t see anybody trying to stop you.”
The nurse glared at him but said nothing as she pushed Alexa on out the revolving doors. The men followed closely behind, but once Alexa and the baby were safely ensconced inside the waiting truck, Jonas discreetly pulled Quint to one side.
“I’ve been needing to talk to you,” Jonas muttered in a low voice, “but I haven’t had a chance.”
“I can imagine that. It’s not every day a man goes around delivering babies.” Smiling, Quint reached over and swatted Jonas affectionately on the shoulder. “If Alexa hasn’t already thanked you, then I sure intend to. She’s my darling little sister. I want her safe and happy. Always. Thank you for taking such good care of her.”
“I’m glad that I was there for her.”
Quint studied his face. “You don’t look too happy about it.”
Jonas let out a long breath. “I’m happy for Alexa and the baby. It’s just that things are getting a bit—complicated.”
“How do you mean?”
Jonas rubbed a hand over his face. Behind them, the nurse hurried back into the hospital. He said, “Your sister and I—we—”
“Look, Jonas, I’m not dumb,” Quint interrupted. “She’s named the baby after you. That tells me a whole lot.”
Jonas shook his head. “I’m beginning to care about her, Quint. Really care. But you know why I’m here. You know that I’ll be leaving when all this is over. I—I’ve been thinking about things, and I’ve decided I’ve got to tell her.”
Quint glanced across the sidewalk to where Alexa sat waiting in the truck. She was staring curiously out the window at the two men. As a result, he took Jonas by the shoulder and guided him a few steps farther behind the truck so that they’d be out of her sight.
“You’re going to tell her that you’re a Ranger?” Quint was shocked.
Jonas sighed. “I have no choice.”
“But I thought that was something you didn’t reveal about yourself.”
Jonas looked down at his boots. “Normally, I don’t. But Alexa isn’t a part of this crime I’m investigating. And I trust her to keep my secret. I want to be honest with her, Quint. I want her to understand that my time here is limited.”
Quint’s features tightened. “So she won’t get serious. Is that it?”
Jonas nodded.
“Is that the way you want it?”
“I don’t have any choice in the matter,” Jonas muttered roughly.
“Don’t you?” Quint countered. “Being a Ranger doesn’t mean you can’t feel, love, marry.”
Jonas’s head jerked up, and he stared at the other man. “Believe me, Quint, your sister is a wonderful woman. She deserves more than me. I want her to know that.”
“Do what you have to do, Jonas. Just make sure you don’t hurt her. She lost Mitch. And then that handful of crap in Santa Fe just about crushed her. It’s high time she had some joy in her life. When she told me she was naming the baby after you, I thought—well, I was hoping you might be the man who would finally be able to make her happy.”
Suddenly feeling dead inside, Jonas shook his head. “You’re looking at the wrong man.”
Chapter Eight
The next day everything changed. Alexa’s mother, Frankie, returned home from her trip to Texas. Along with her, friends and acquaintances began arriving on the ranch to bring gifts to the new arrival and express their congratulations.
His attention no longer needed, Jonas went back to work, and that afternoon he took the time to call Tyler Pickens. To his surprise, the man was receptive and even invited Jonas to meet him on horseback the next morning so that he could show him where the fence had been downed between the two properties.
As for Jonas’s plan to talk with Alexa, he was still waiting to find the right time. If there was such a thing.
Last night, after they’d returned from the hospital, she’d been so happy, he’d not wanted to spoil her first full day of being a new mother with such somber talk. And today, with the house full of people, he’d not been able to get any private time to speak with her.
Now another night had arrived, and several tasks on the ranch had kept him busy later than expected. As he left his office, he noticed the driveway was finally free of strange vehicles and the lights in the house had been reduced to a few dim glows. Apparently, the well-wishers had all departed, and the place had quieted down. But Jonas was smart enough to know that the house would never go back to being the personal quarters it had once been for the two of them.
And maybe that was for the best, he thought dully. Today, when he’d caught glimpses of the waves of well-wishers coming and going from the house, he’d been reminded that he was really an outsider and not a part of Alexa’s life. For a while there, when the two of them had visited Alexa’s grandfather, he’d almost forgotten that. But now he’d come to his senses, and as he entered the kitchen and climbed the stairs, he did so with the realization that his days near Alexa were nearing an end.
As soon as he stepped onto the staircase landing, he was instantly surprised to see Alexa’s bedroom door ajar and a block of dim light slanting across the hallway. Would she be alone, or would her mother be up with her?
His heart beating faster than it should, he approached her door, paused and raised his hand to knock, but before he could rap his knuckles against the wooden panel, she called out to him.
“Jonas? Is that you?”
“Yes.”
Stepping into the room, he instantly sensed that she was alone, and his gaze quickly fastened on her. She was sitting in a wooden rocker, the baby cradled to her breast. Her black hair flowed loosely around her shoulders, and in the glow of the lamplight it gleamed with a reddish tinge. He’d never seen anything more lovely.
“I didn’t expect you to be awake,” he said quietly. “But I’m glad you are.”
Her ey
es were soft as she smiled at him. “I’m glad I am, too.” She glanced down at the baby. “J.D. was hungry, but he’s had his supper and now he’s sound asleep. Would you like to put him in his crib for me?”
Moving over to the rocker, he looked down at her and the baby and tried not to notice the way the neckline of her pink gown dipped between her breasts. Now that he’d seen her naked, he knew how beautiful she looked, and those memories made him long to kneel and touch her, slide his fingertips along her smooth skin.
“I would.”
She shifted the sleeping baby so that Jonas could easily pick him up, and as he bent over Alexa to collect the child, he caught her flowery scent, felt her eyes gliding over the side of his face. For a split second he started to turn his head sideways and lean his face into hers. But if he kissed her, he wouldn’t be able to think, to say what he needed to say. So he focused on the baby.
With the child cradled safely in his arms, he straightened to his full height and turned his attention to the slumbering infant. His thick black hair had been smoothed to one side, and his tiny fist was resting close to his mouth. The small cleft in his chin was exactly like Alexa’s, and Jonas could easily imagine him as a boy galloping across the ranch yard on a spirited pony.
“Poor little thing,” he murmured. “All those people coming in today, staring at him like a monkey in a zoo.”
Alexa chuckled lowly. “Oh, Jonas, it wasn’t that bad. None of them woke him. I doubt he even knew that anyone was around.”
The baby felt so tiny, so vulnerable in Jonas’s arms, and fierce protectiveness washed over him like the rain that had flooded the river. He didn’t know why he kept getting such fatherly ideas about Alexa’s child. It was foolish of him to think of her and little J.D. in such terms, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
Two days ago, when the child had been born and he’d held him in his hands, Jonas had been shaken to the very core of his being. Helping bring a child into the world was a life-altering event for any man. But this was Alexa’s child, and that made it all too special. And all too difficult to keep his heart hidden behind his Ranger’s badge.
Deciding he’d held the baby long enough, he carried him over to the white wicker crib that had been placed at the side of Alexa’s crib. After easing him into the cozy bed, Jonas carefully tucked the blue blanket around his shoulders, then lingered to make sure he was going to remain asleep.
“Mother is on top of the world,” Alexa said. “I had to make her go to bed. Otherwise she was going to wear herself out.”
He straightened away from the baby. “Frankie has a new grandson. She has reason to be excited.”
“Quint is coming over tomorrow for another, longer visit with his nephew. I guess he’s just a wee bit excited about the baby, too.”
Jonas glanced at her. “Quint’s coming over?”
“That’s what he promised. But who knows if or when he’ll tear himself away from the new ranch.”
A few days ago Jonas had called Quint and told him about the incident with Tyler Pickens. Might be the man would want to join Jonas and the neighboring rancher on their ride to the fence line, he thought. But it was hardly necessary.
Suddenly she rose to her feet and closed the small space between them. Jonas couldn’t help but notice how different she looked now that her stomach was flat and free from the mound of baby she’d been carrying.
“Have you eaten?” she asked.
He shook his head. “No. I’ll find something in the kitchen later. I came on upstairs because I wanted to talk with you.”
Her brows arched in a questioning manner. “You sound serious.”
“I am.” He let out a long breath. Then, reaching for her arm, he led her over to the bed.
A puzzled look puckered her features as she sat and then watched him walk over and quietly close the door. When he returned, he sank down next to her and reached for her hand.
After he folded her soft fingers inside his and rested their entwined hands on his knee, he said, “I really don’t know how to do this, Alexa.” His voice was strained and weary, and he wondered how one woman could make him so weak and vulnerable. “I’ve been thinking about it for days now. And I’m—well, I’m breaking the rules right now, but—” A heavy breath heaved from him. “I have to do this.”
Confusion flickered in her blue eyes. “You’re not making sense, Jonas.”
A wry twist appeared on his lips. “No. I expect not. And it’s not going to make much sense to you even after I explain. But I—”
“What rules are you talking about? Surely you don’t think you’ve behaved in an ungentlemanly way with me! That you have something to apologize for? We’re—well, I like to think you and I are growing closer with each day. We are, aren’t we?”
There was an anxious sort of hope in her voice, and the sound cut into him like a jagged knife inching its way toward his heart. “We are. And that’s why I have to be honest with you, Alexa. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. About me—about why I’m here on the ranch.”
Her gaze was questioning, searching as it raked back and forth across his face. “What does that mean? I thought you were here as the general manager of the Chaparral. Quint did officially hire you, didn’t he? I mean, he must have. I’ve been writing out your paychecks right along with those of the other hands.”
His face grim, Jonas nodded. “I was officially hired. And your brother has been a real stand-up guy to agree to all this.”
Growing frustrated now, she leaned back slightly and frowned at him. “Jonas, whatever it is that you have to tell me, please just come out with it. It’s not like I’m going to bop you over the head or anything.”
Glancing away from her, he struggled to brace himself. “All right, Alexa, here it is. I’m more than the Chaparral’s general manager. I’m actually a sergeant in the Texas Rangers. I’m here on assignment—an undercover assignment.”
Jonas looked back at her just in time to see her shoulders sag, her eyes darken, as though he’d dealt her a heavy blow.
“You’re not kidding. I can see that. But I—this doesn’t seem real, Jonas.” She paused and shook her head, as though she was trying to wake up from a dream. “And yet deep down it sometimes crossed my mind that you seemed more than just a rancher to me. Your clothing—the phone calls—some of the questions you asked.”
Biting down on her lip, she looked away from him, and Jonas felt his heart fill with a heavy ache as an empty, almost defeated expression took hold of her face.
“Are you angry with me?” he asked gently. “For not telling you before now?”
Shaking her head, she thrust a trembling hand through her hair. “I suppose I should be furious. But strangely I’m not. How could I think of you as a deliberate conniver? Especially when you must have had good reasons not to tell me. You’re a Texas Ranger! You guys are supposed to be honest and upright—the cream of the crop. You are, aren’t you?”
At this moment Jonas didn’t feel like cream, but more like scum. Normally, when he worked undercover, it didn’t bother him to keep secrets. That was just a part of the job. But this time, he’d allowed himself to get too close to Alexa—to everyone on the Chaparral. Now they were all starting to feel like family, and that was not a wise place for him to be.
His fingers tightened around hers. “Other than your brother, who was first approached by my captain about this assignment, no one is supposed to know who or what I am. Quint agreed to the whole thing because the trouble I’m investigating might be happening right here on the ranch. I’ve not figured that out yet.”
Alarm filled her blue eyes as they swung back to his face. “The trouble? What is it? What could be going on that’s so awful the state of Texas sent you here?”
“Rustling. Stolen Corriente bulls and heifers are being shipped in from Mexico without papers or even their true owners being aware of it. The Mexican government doesn’t want the cattle, the bulls especially, slipping into the United States. It jeop
ardizes the corner that their country has on the Corriente market. On the other hand, the United States doesn’t want diseases crossing the border unchecked and spreading into our cattle market. As to why I’m here in this area of New Mexico, we got a tip a couple of months ago that this area was a stopping-off place for the rustlers. The drivers crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are probably routing the cattle through the New Mexico mountains, where they change hands and are eventually hauled to markets in Texas.”
Alexa was in total disbelief. The idea of the crime seemed like something out of a Western movie, and the notion that some of the Chaparral’s men might be involved in such a felony seemed even more incredible. But beyond all that was the realization that Jonas was not the man she’d believed him to be. As with her mother, with Barry, she’d not really seen the whole person, and that shook her more than anything.
“Surely you don’t think some of our men are in on this rustling business, do you? Have you seen any evidence of that since you’ve come here?”
He shook his head. “Not at all. In fact, as far as I can tell, nothing with the Chaparral men can even be remotely connected to the crime. That’s why we contacted Quint to get me settled in a ranch and checking out the land. But I was having trouble latching on to any sort of lead. Until Tyler Pickens. Tomorrow he’s going to show me where the fences were downed. I’m hoping something will come out of that.”
Alarm prickled her skin. “So you’re thinking the rustlers might have been in the back part of our property?” she asked. “God, Jonas, that’s scary!”
His expression was sober, even a bit pained, and Alexa realized this whole thing must be putting him under an incredible amount of pressure. She didn’t like the fact that she’d been kept in the dark by him and her brother, but throwing a tantrum about it now would be fruitless. The thing that was really tearing her apart was the knowledge that he’d come here without the intention of ever making the area his permanent home.
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