CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Did someone turn up the sun a few notches?”
Jenny threw a glance at Owen, who was shading his eyes from the morning light even while wearing a baseball cap pulled low and with polarized sunglasses covering his eyes.
He’d been in the shower when she’d gotten up this morning, but based on the empty beer bottles on the coffee table and the way the couch cushions had been arranged, he’d had a late night after she’d gone to bed. Not that she’d slept. It felt like she’d tossed and turned for hours, reliving the memory of his hands on her. She was still working to convince herself both that it had been a bad idea to give in to her desire for Owen and that she wouldn’t do it again.
“It’s called a hangover.” She spoke quietly enough that Cooper, who was walking behind them toward the car, couldn’t hear. “You need greasy food and a milkshake.”
“Great,” Owen muttered, stopping at the edge of the sidewalk. “Let’s get breakfast on the way to the airport. We can be wheels up in an hour and on our way back to Colorado.” He took off his hat and wiped a hand across his brow. “It’s not even nine and already I’m roasting. The last thing I want to do is play golf with my brother and his friends.”
“Would you rather be going to a bridal shower for your future sister-in-law?” Jenny lowered her sunglasses on her nose and gave Owen a look over the top of them. “According to Gabby, we have to play party games.”
“Which is why we should—”
“Stop, Owen.” She put a hand on his arm. She wanted to do more. After last night, she wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and pull him down for a kiss. She wanted to recapture the way she’d felt at that moment, as if all of the crap in both of their lives didn’t matter. As if nothing mattered but pressing her body to his.
But last night had been great sex. Nothing more. He’d actually said those words. While they’d about killed her, she understood. Just like she understood he needed to see out this week with his family. She might not be able to be the woman Owen wanted or needed, but she could give him this. “We’re not leaving. You’re staying for the wedding and we both know it.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw but he nodded. “Thank you for being here with me.”
She forced out a laugh. “You’re paying me.”
“Right.” He shifted so that she had to drop her hand. “Cooper, are you ready for a morning of driving the golf cart?”
“How fast can it go?” her son asked as he climbed into the backseat.
“We’ll have to test that out,” Owen answered.
“Not too fast,” Jenny cautioned automatically, earning a groan from Cooper and a small smile from Owen.
“I’ll take care of him,” Owen told her as he started the car.
Emotion rose thick like molasses in Jenny’s throat. She rolled down the window and stuck her hand out as they drove through the neighborhood toward the Daltons’ house. The morning air was already heavy, and she could almost feel the moisture against her outstretched fingers. The climate of West Virginia was so different from what she was used to in arid Colorado, and it only made her more aware of how narrow her life had been.
They hadn’t had the money for vacations when she was a girl, and then she’d been focused on making a life for her son. There had been no time for the vacations and life-expanding trips other women she knew had taken in their early twenties. Her mother had splurged for a trip to Disney when she retired. That was the only time before this week that Jenny had been on a plane.
She wanted more for Cooper. She had no doubt Owen would take care of him, and it embarrassed her how much that meant to her. It’s what Cooper deserved, a man in his life to teach him to golf and throw a ball and cast a line and all the other little things boys with great dads took for granted. Cooper deserved a man who would do the things a father should.
She hated to admit that she wanted a man in her life. Not just any man—Owen. Last night had been amazing, but also a mistake. A friendly romp between the sheets was one thing, but sex with Owen was more. It had meant something to her that she couldn’t even put into words, but she knew risking her heart could destroy both of them if she wasn’t careful.
Her need was like the sultry air of summer in the rolling hills that surrounded Owen’s hometown. Sometimes it was difficult to take a breath and not have her desire for him threaten to choke her.
But it was nothing to him. She was nothing. She’d lost her chance and she wouldn’t ask for another one because she’d just end up hurting him again. Owen deserved better than that—better than her.
He was quiet as he drove, and she wondered if he regretted what they’d done. Hell, she’d been the one to set up the rules. Yet at the first opportunity, she’d tossed them aside.
She had to be stronger. She was there to help Owen and she couldn’t do that if she spent all her time mooning after him like a teenage girl with her first crush.
They pulled in front of his parents’ house a few minutes later, and Cooper hopped out to open the back cargo area. Hank was waiting on the front porch, a set of golf clubs at his side. He slung the clubs over his shoulder and started toward the SUV.
“I seriously need some greasy food right now,” Owen muttered, lifting the sunglasses to the top of his head. “Or a drink.”
“It’s a few hours of hitting around a ball. You’ll be fine.” She pointed a finger at him. “Just don’t go after your brother with a golf club.”
He smiled at her ridiculous warning. “I’ll try to restrain myself.”
She unfastened her seat belt and leaned over the console, using one finger to turn his face toward hers. His jaw was rough with stubble and the feel of it sent another wave of desire pulsing through her. She kissed him on the mouth, gentle and slow, and only moved her head back when she felt some of the tension ease out of him.
“What about the rules?” he murmured against her lips.
“Your father is watching,” she whispered, not knowing or particularly caring if that was true. “It’s all part of the show.”
She kissed him again and felt his smile against her lips because they both knew she was lying.
“It’s definitely better than a milkshake,” he told her, his dark eyes gentle on hers. “Thank you.”
She started to remind him that he shouldn’t thank her. For all intents and purposes, taking care of Owen was her job this week, and he was compensating her far more than she deserved.
Instead, she pretended that he was simply grateful for her taking care of him the way a woman took care of the man she loved.
The man she loved.
The thought, unbidden and unwelcome, made her jerk away as if she’d touched her mouth to a hot flame instead of Owen’s firm lips.
Opening the door handle, she lurched out of the car. Thick hands wrapped around her arms. “Whoa there, missy. Where’s the fire?” Hank gave her a knowing smile as if he could read the incendiary thoughts inside her head.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw Owen flip his sunglasses down over his eyes before turning to look at her. She might not be able to read his expression, but the frustration radiating from him was clear.
Why did it bother her that the kiss felt real to both of them? Her real feelings mixed with their pretend engagement farce to make her emotions a complete jumble.
Hank gave her arms a small squeeze and guided her to the sidewalk in front of the house with surprising gentleness. “You girls have fun today.”
“’Bye, Mom,” Cooper said as he climbed back into the SUV.
“Put on sunscreen,” she called lamely, earning another smile from Hank.
“We’ll take care of him,” he said, sounding just like Owen, who kept his eyes straight ahead.
She stood on the edge of the Daltons’ yard and watched the car pull away, Cooper waving from the backseat. He seemed to be taking everything that happened this week in stride, likely keeping his eye on the prize of that Hawaii vacation he wanted.
After a few moments, she turned for the house. Karen was waiting at the front door by the time she got there. “Come on in. Kristin called with a last-minute request for cream-filled cupcakes that they only have at the bakery in Jasper, which is the next town over. Gabby went to pick them up, so we have a few minutes to visit before she gets back.”
Jenny blew out a breath even as her stomach clenched. She had her own reasons for wanting to speak privately with Owen’s mom, but she hadn’t been prepared to have the conversation this morning.
“I’d like that,” she said, pasting a smile on her face and following Karen into the kitchen.
“Have a seat,” the older woman told her. “I made a fresh pot of coffee and baked a batch of my special tea cookies.” She tsked softly. “I’d offered to bring them to the shower, but Kristin had her heart set on the store-bought cupcakes.”
Jenny slid into the same chair she’d sat in for dinner last night, thinking that her mother would have liked Karen Dalton. “Kristin seems to have very particular ideas about every aspect of this wedding.”
“Oh, yes,” Karen agreed with a laugh. “I think she’s been planning her wedding day since she was a girl.” She pulled two mugs from the cabinet and filled them with coffee. “I guess that’s the way of most young girls.”
“I don’t think I ever planned an imaginary wedding,” Jenny admitted, adding a spoonful of sugar from the dish on the table to her coffee. “Although I did have a whole stable full of fantasy horses.”
Karen laughed again as she sat across from her. “You sound like my Gabby. Have you and Owen set a date for your wedding?” She shook her head. “I wish he’d told us about you sooner. He was always so closed off from the rest of us.”
Maybe because you allowed him to be ostracized, Jenny wanted to answer, but took a sip of coffee and said nothing. She had a deeper grievance to air on Owen’s behalf, but for once wasn’t sure how to broach the subject.
“It’s good he’s found you.” Jenny could hear love, regret, and guilt clashing in Karen’s voice. “He deserves—”
“Why haven’t you told him?” Jenny asked, unable to hear that she was what Owen deserved.
Not at this moment when she was about to force his mother to reveal a secret that could destroy their entire family.
“Tell him what?” Karen’s fingers tightened around her coffee mug.
“About his father.”
Karen’s tinkle of laughter was so sharp it could have cut glass. “My husband has always been tough on Owen, but—”
“I’m not talking about Hank,” Jenny said calmly, “and we both know it.” Based on Karen’s reaction and the fact that she didn’t immediately deny the veiled accusation, Jenny knew she’d been right in her hunch that Hank Dalton wasn’t Owen’s biological father. It didn’t give her any comfort to have an explanation for the role Owen had unknowingly been forced to play in his family.
“No one,” Karen said, her eyes filling with tears, “has ever guessed. I don’t understand how you realized it so quickly. Does Owen suspect—” She broke off, a little sob escaping her lips. “Have you told him?”
Jenny shook her head. She wasn’t even sure if it was her place to confront his mother, but Owen’s relationship with Hank Dalton had shaped so much of his identity. And all of it had been based on a lie. “He only knows that the man he thinks of as his father finds him lacking in almost every respect. From what I can tell, he’s spent his whole life trying to prove himself to your husband, but he was never going to measure up because he isn’t truly Hank’s son.”
Karen set her mug roughly on the table, coffee sloshing over the side. “Hank loves Owen,” she said through clenched teeth. “He’s strict and demanding, but he loves him and he’s raised him without ever hinting that theirs wasn’t a true father-son bond.”
“A bond?” Jenny snorted. “Is that what you call Owen being made to feel like a second-class citizen in his own family?” Her mother-bear instincts kicked in hard. She couldn’t imagine allowing anyone to treat Cooper the way Owen had been treated by the man he called Dad. “How could you have stood by all those years and let it happen?”
Karen’s head snapped back as if Jenny had actually struck her. She swiped at her cheeks with her fingers. “I protected Owen the best way I could,” she said, her eyes suddenly fierce and clear. “Do you know what he would have gone through growing up with no father?”
“I do,” Jenny shot back. “I don’t remember my father, and my son counts only me and my mother as his family.” She leaned forward and bit down on her lip to keep her emotions in check. “We struggled when I was growing up and a lot of times it sucked. But my mother loved me. I never had to question that.”
“Owen doesn’t question my love.” Karen spoke the words like she was willing them to be true. “Things are different in a small town like Hastings. I was eighteen and rebelling against my strict parents. The man who is Owen’s—” She shook her head. “No. I will not say he is Owen’s father. Hank has always been a father to all of our children. The man who got me pregnant was trouble. He was arrested during the time we were together, and I broke up with him. I found out I was pregnant on the day he went to prison.”
She pushed back from the table suddenly, moved to the sink for a dish towel. Lifting her coffee mug with still-trembling fingers, she wiped at the coffee that had spilled on the table.
“I’m sorry,” Jenny told her. Trent had been an idiot and she’d hated him for breaking her heart. Yet she couldn’t imagine how Karen must have felt carrying the child of a man who was on his way to jail.
“Hank was literally the boy next door,” Karen said quietly. “He’d enlisted the day we graduated high school and was getting ready to leave for boot camp. He found me on the back porch step of my parents’ house, crying my eyes out. I told him the whole story and he asked me to marry him on the spot.”
Jenny swallowed. “Wow.”
“We went to the courthouse the next day. Hank told everyone he’d been in love with me for years and the fact that he was leaving finally gave him the nerve to tell me. He convinced everyone . . .” She laughed. “Even me—that it was a whirlwind courtship. My parents were so relieved to have me away from my bad boy that they didn’t ask questions. They gave us five hundred dollars to go to Myrtle Beach on our honeymoon. We spent a long weekend there before Hank left for Parris Island, and Owen was born a few weeks late, so it all seemed to work out.”
She dropped into the chair again, wringing the dish towel between her hands. “I know Hank loves Owen. He was so gentle when Owen was a newborn. Every night Hank would carry him back and forth along the hallway in our tiny house on base until he fell asleep. He read stories and sang lullabies and—”
“When did that stop?” Jenny couldn’t help but ask. “It did stop, Karen. You have to see that. Was it when Jack was born?”
Karen squeezed the towel harder. “Maybe. But it became more noticeable as Owen got older. Other than his coloring, Owen looks like my side of the family. My brothers both have dark hair and eyes. No one questioned the fact that he didn’t resemble Hank.” She raised a brow. “Not until you, anyway. Jack and Gabby favor their father, both physically and in temperament. I think Hank was worried that Owen was going to take after his biological father if we weren’t tough with him.”
“Owen is one of the most honorable people I know,” Jenny said fiercely.
“He always was. But I followed Hank’s lead and I may never be able to make amends for the way it affected my relationship with Owen. I was afraid if I challenged Hank, then he’d tell Owen the truth and . . .” She squeezed shut her eyes. “I couldn’t risk that.”
“This family has shaped Owen,” Jenny said. “Everything he’s done has been an attempt to prove his worth to his father. You have to tell him the truth. It’s not too late.”
“He’ll hate me.” Karen suddenly looked far older than she was. “He’ll hate Hank. What if he goes looking for his biological father?”
/>
“Is that man still in Hastings?”
Karen shook her head. “No, and I don’t want anything to do with him.” She studied Jenny for a long moment. “How did you know so quickly?”
Jenny wasn’t sure how to explain it—instinct, a suspicious nature, or some indefinable connection to Owen that made her recognize what no one else had seen. “There was a look you gave Owen when we came into the house that vanished the moment Hank walked into the room. So much love replaced with an equal amount of guilt.”
She sipped her coffee. “From what I’ve pieced together from Owen, his father and Jack were the two who had trouble with him. Gabby was his ally, and you . . .” She paused, then finished. “You let it happen.”
Karen began to cry again, silent tears that almost broke Jenny’s heart. “This is not a conversation I ever expected to have, but now I’m even more thankful he has you,” she said, her voice cracking. “I know things weren’t easy for him, but I did what I thought was right. Hank did, too. He loves Owen, even if he never learned how to properly show it. Owen deserves a woman who can give him the kind of love we weren’t able to.”
Jenny shook her head. She couldn’t be the person Karen described and Owen needed. She was nowhere near that person. “I have to tell—”
“Mom, I’m home.” Gabby’s voice came from the front of the house and a moment later Jenny heard a door slam shut.
Karen grabbed her hand. “You can’t say anything. Please. I’m begging you.”
“Don’t ask that of me.”
“It’s for Owen.” Karen stood and wiped her cheeks, turning her back to the kitchen doorway. “This will break him, Jenny.”
“Hey, ladies,” Gabby called as she walked into the kitchen.
Jenny watched Karen take a breath, paste a smile on her face, then turn to her daughter. It was a classic mom coping mechanism. Karen would hold it together in front of her child no matter what.
“Did you get the cupcakes, sweetie?”
“Yup. I’m going to please Queen Kristin today.” Gabby moved to the table and looked between her mother and Jenny. “Is everything all right?”
Meant for You Page 17
