by Cindy Kirk
The bottom line was, either the DNA would show he was the father or it wouldn’t. According to the attorney, the only item on his agenda right now was getting to know Lia better.
“Exposing the baby to both languages sounds like a good plan.” Shane took her arm and steered them around a group of rowdy cowboys, shielding her with his body.
Lia’s gaze grew thoughtful. “Six months ago, developing a baby’s language skills was the furthest thing from my mind.”
“Before we reconnected—” Shane deliberately kept his tone casual and offhand “—did you ever think about giving the baby up for adoption?”
It was an important piece of information. If she’d seriously considered that option, she might be more open to giving him full custody if the baby turned out to be his.
Lia responded to a greeting from a family gathered around a platter of tamales, but the smile on her face appeared strained. “When I found out I was pregnant, a lot of thoughts went through my head.”
Shane noticed she hadn’t answered his question directly. But he didn’t press. He didn’t want to do or say anything that might make her shut down completely. “Did you suspect you were pregnant before you took the test?”
“I’d missed my period, which was unusual, but I was under a lot of stress at work.” She slanted him a sideways glance. “I suspected I was going to get laid off. I convinced myself that was the cause of my irregularity.”
“You were trying to keep up the pretense that everything was okay.” Shane thought of his father. Until his dad had given Jeanne Marie the shares of stock, he and his siblings hadn’t been aware the woman existed.
“Then I started having morning sickness. I was tired all the time.” Lia grimaced. “When I missed my second period I went out and bought a test. When the first test showed positive, I bought two more just to be sure.”
“Did you say anything to Doug?”
Lia narrowed her gaze. An icy chill suddenly filled the air. “Why would I say anything to him?”
Uh-oh.
“I assumed that, by the time you discovered you were pregnant, he’d have realized what he lost and had come crawling to you, wanting you to take him back.” Shane kept his eyes focused on the musicians, getting ready to start a new set.
The tension in the air dissipated like a balloon losing air.
“You’re right. He did call. Said he wanted to try again. I made it clear I had no interest in a man who lied and cheated. I didn’t mention the baby because I didn’t see it was any of his business. I’m not particularly proud of being unmarried and pregnant. I know it happens all the time in today’s society. But it doesn’t happen in my family.” Her lips twisted. “I didn’t even tell my mother until a couple weeks ago.”
Shane wanted to at least find out Doug’s last name. But she’d effectively changed the direction of the conversation, making it impossible to go back without raising suspicions.
“How’d your mother take the news?”
“She was disappointed.” Lia expelled a shuddering breath. “She thought she’d taught me better.”
Anger surged in Shane. “We used every precaution.”
“I mentioned that to her. I think what was hardest for her to accept was that I’d had a one-night stand and I didn’t even know the man’s last name.”
“You told her that?”
“It was the truth. I’d tried to find you but the hotel stonewalled me. The fact you stayed in the Lone Star Suite that night had been my only lead.”
“You must have been desperate.” Sympathy rose up inside him but he shoved it down. “Were you worried how you were going to manage to support a baby all on your own?”
Lia glanced at the ground. “I told myself God would provide, but it got harder to keep the faith when I lost my job and then as my savings began to dwindle.”
“There are families out there looking for a child to love.” Shane gently steered the conversation back to adoption.
“I had a couple friends encourage me to go that route.” Lia expelled a heavy sigh. “But no one could possibly love this baby as much as I do.”
There it was, laid out in front of Shane like a hog on a roasting spit. Not the answer he’d hoped for, but now he knew for certain what he’d suspected was true.
If this baby was his, a custody battle could easily end up being a brawl. Because Lia wouldn’t be one to walk away from her child...no matter how much money he threw at her.
Chapter Eight
Lia caught sight of Shane’s brothers before they saw her. She and Shane had snagged a prime spot beneath the leafy branches of a large oak tree. He was spreading out the blanket she’d brought with them when she saw Sawyer and Asher coming down the walk.
For a second Lia thought about not saying anything and hoping they didn’t see her or Shane. Ever since Sawyer had found out she was carrying Shane’s baby, he’d gone from being warm and friendly to all business.
Asher, whom she’d only seen from a distance a few times, held the hand of a small boy who looked about four or five. His son? Probably.
The child looked like his dad with dirty-blond hair and blue eyes. Those blue eyes reminded her of Shane’s and Lia couldn’t help wondering if her baby would look like him.
The men drew closer and instead of looking away, Lia nudged Shane. “Your brothers are here.”
Shane straightened and turned. Though a smile lifted his lips and he called out a greeting, he looked more annoyed than pleased.
“What have we here?” Sawyer’s gaze met hers. The suspicion and coolness to his blue eyes made her shiver.
“Hi, Sawyer.” Lia forced a friendliness to her voice that up until a few days ago would have been second nature. She shifted her gaze to the father and son and widened her smile.
Shane slipped an arm around her shoulders and the phony smile froze on Sawyer’s lips. “I know you’ve met Sawyer, but these two with him are my brother Asher and my nephew Jace. Asher, this is Natalia Serrano.”
“Pleased to meet you, Asher,” Lia said, shaking his hand.
There was a touch of sympathy in Asher’s eyes that she didn’t expect. “Nice to finally meet you, Ms. Serrano.”
“Please,” she said. “Call me Lia.”
She crouched down until she was at eye level with the small boy. “Hi, Jace. My name is Lia. Are you having fun?”
The little boy smiled. “My daddy is going to get me a tamale.”
“That’s nice of him. I love tamales.”
The little boy considered her words for several seconds. “Maybe my daddy will get you one, too.”
Lia simply smiled and ruffled his hair. “Your uncle Shane has promised me dinner tonight. I think I’m going to ask for tamales.”
“You’re pretty,” Jace said.
“Thank you, Jace,” Lia said.
“Well,” said Asher, shooting Shane an apologetic smile, “we should keep moving. We’ll touch base tomorrow?”
A look passed between the three men and Shane nodded.
“Do you have a big business deal in the works?” Lia asked once his brothers and nephew were out of earshot.
“Nope. Just some family business,” Shane said with an easy smile then changed the subject to dinner.
It turned out Shane liked tamales as much as she did, and he was soon heading off to get some before the vendor ran out.
Lia waited for him to return, mindful of all the curious glances being slanted in her direction. In Red Rock, the Fortune family, especially the four handsome brothers, were celebrities.
“I wasn’t sure if tamales would be enough.” Shane’s return pulled Lia from her reverie. “So I got us a little bit of everything.”
He sat down and began pulling tamales and churros, corn dogs and hamburgers out of various paper bags.
“They all look good,” she said diplomatically, resisting the urge to calculate in her head how much money he’d spent. “I don’t know how to pick.”
He considered the food s
pread out before them. “We could share. Have some of each.”
“Sounds like a stellar solution.”
They ended up evaluating each item as if they were food critics. By the time they finished, Lia was stuffed and had laughed more than she had in months.
Shane rested his back against the tree and motioned to her. “Come over here.”
Lia hesitated for only a second before she scooted between his legs and rested her back against his broad chest. He wrapped his arms lightly around her and she relaxed against him.
The bluesy jazz tune soon began to sound like a lullaby. Her lids grew heavy and she let them drift shut for a second. She wasn’t sure how long she slept. All she knew was she was startled awake by a clap of thunder.
Shane brushed a strand of hair from her face when she looked up at him. “Storm is moving in. We’d better start walking back.”
Lia hurriedly gathered up the blanket while Shane dumped the trash. Another loud crack split the air and a few fat raindrops fell on her hair.
Those around them seemed to realize at exactly the same time that if they didn’t hustle, they were going to get wet. Lia worried she and Shane might get separated in the jostling crowd, but he kept a firm grip on her arm.
By the time they reached her block, drops splattered the dusty sidewalk in increasing numbers. Shane pulled her into the doorway of her building as sheets of rain swept over the street.
Lia lifted her gaze to Shane. “Come up for a few minutes. You shouldn’t drive in this weather.”
He smiled. “Offer accepted.”
They stepped inside just as hail began battering the roof of the building. She turned to him with a worried frown. “I hope your car won’t get damaged.”
“It’s a rental.” Shane waved a dismissive hand. “I’m just thankful you didn’t get too wet.”
“Maybe my luck is changing,” she quipped.
He stared at her for a long moment but didn’t say anything more as they climbed the stairs to her floor.
Lia unlocked the door, stepped inside and gestured for him to take a seat on a well-worn sofa in a woven Southwestern plaid. “It’s a little late for coffee and I don’t have any alcohol, but I could make us some cocoa?”
He opened his mouth and for a second she thought he was going to decline her offer. Then he smiled. “Sounds good.”
Warmth spread like honey to fill every inch of Lia’s body. The response to a simple smile reminded her why she’d gone to bed with Shane that long-ago night. She had felt a connection to him, a bond that seemed to transcend the physical. Lia couldn’t explain it. All she knew was that tie between them was still there.
Her phone rang just as she placed two steaming mugs of hot cocoa on the coffee table and took a seat beside him. She pulled the phone from her pocket and glanced at the screen. Stephanie Roberts. She let it go to voice mail.
“You can take that call if you want.”
“It’s just a girlfriend wanting to make lunch plans.” She nudged his mug closer to him. “I hope you like marshmallows.”
Okay, so maybe she’d gone a little crazy with the marshmallows, but as far as Lia was concerned, they were the best part.
His gaze traveled slowly down her body, never once glancing in the direction of the mug. “Looks delicious.”
Despite the shiver of awareness that rippled across her skin, Lia reminded herself she was pregnant. Hardly a woman to inspire lascivious thoughts. She must have confused the yearning in his eyes with her own desire.
“Do you want to watch television?” She gestured to her ancient set.
“I’ve got a better idea.”
She was almost afraid to ask. “What is that?”
“You can tell me about you, give me the inside scoop on what makes Lia Serrano tick.” He smiled engagingly. “I’d like to get to know you better.”
Lia thought for a moment. It wasn’t that she didn’t think what he was suggesting was a good idea. Since she would be the mother of his child, she did want him to get to know her.
But she also wanted to get to know him. Because they were in this together.
“I’ve an even better idea.” She rose, waving away his protests. “I’ll be right back.”
She returned less than a minute later with a deck of cards.
A look of dismay crossed his face. “You want to play cards?”
Lia smiled and plopped down on the sofa next to him. “Not in the way you’re thinking. This is a deck of getting-to-know-you cards. The game is called Heart-to-Heart. I got it for a birthday present several years ago from one of my friends.” She expertly shuffled the deck. “There’s a different question on each card. When the card has two hearts on it, both of us have to answer the question. Otherwise we simply take turns drawing, and whatever question is on the card we draw, we have to answer.”
Shane took a sip of hot cocoa. From the doubtful expression on his face, this obviously wasn’t what he’d had in mind.
“Do you want to draw or should I go first?” She held out the deck, not giving him the option of saying no.
“You first,” he said, just as she expected.
She pulled a card from the top of the deck.
“Read it aloud,” he said.
“‘What music do you and your father have in common?’” A familiar sense of longing for something she’d never known gripped her heart. She glanced at Shane.
“Your game. Your rules,” he reminded her. “You have to answer.”
She lifted a shoulder in a helpless shrug. “I barely remember my father.”
Shane’s gaze searched hers. “What happened to him?”
“He left when I was three. I have memories of him laughing and tossing me up in the air, but I’m not sure they’re real or just stories.” Lia waited for Shane to say something but he simply took another sip of his drink and gazed at her with an expectant expression.
Of course he wouldn’t give her a pass. If Lia was in his position, she wouldn’t, either. You didn’t get to know someone by skirting around difficult issues. “He’d just turned thirty. One day he informed my mother he was leaving. Told her the life he had wasn’t the one he wanted.”
Lia picked at a loose thread on the sofa upholstery, wondering how she could feel such a loss over a man she barely remembered. “We never saw him again.”
Shane swore under his breath. “How did you survive?”
“My grandparents were very supportive. My mother worked two jobs, and as soon as my brother and I were old enough, we were expected to work and help out.”
“Has he tried to contact you?”
Lia shook her head.
“I can only imagine how you feel about him,” Shane mused. “You must despise the man.”
“Actually, I feel sorry for him.” Lia smiled at Shane’s look of startled surprise. “He ultimately came out the loser.”
“He missed seeing you grow up.”
“And my brother.” Lia wrapped her fingers around the mug, finding comfort in the warmth. “Big loss.”
She wondered if Shane saw the similarity with their situation. Would he walk away from his child and live to regret it?
Several heartbeats of silence passed between them before Lia gestured to the deck. “Your turn.”
With a resigned look, Shane moved the top half of the deck aside and selected a card from the middle.
“Read the question,” Lia urged. “Aloud.”
His eyes scanned the words on the card. “‘Do you think “honesty is the best policy”? Why or why not?’”
“That should be an easy one.” Lia wondered why he was even hesitating.
“On the whole, I believe honesty is the best policy,” Shane said slowly. “But if telling the truth might hurt someone, then it might be better to lie.”
She understood where he was coming from, but she couldn’t sit silently and have him think she agreed. “But the person you mislead is eventually going to find out that you lied and then, not only would they
be hurt, but it’d be hard for them to trust you again.”
Shane stared at her for a long moment and a look she couldn’t quite decipher filled his eyes. “If I’m hearing you right, you believe honesty is always the best policy.”
“This isn’t my question,” she gently reminded him.
“Yes, but I assume these questions are intended to stimulate discussion.”
Lia thought for a moment then nodded.
“That’s what we’re having,” Shane said. “A discussion.”
“Then, yes, I would say that I believe honesty is always the best policy.” Lia punctuated her comment with a decisive nod.
“Interesting,” Shane said, an enigmatic look on his face.
“Why interesting?”
“No reason.” His gaze grew thoughtful. “I like this game.”
“I knew if you gave it a chance you would.”
He smiled. “And you’re always right.”
She nodded, returning his smile. “Pretty much.”
“Your turn.”
She pulled out a card. She held it up for him to see. “This one has two hearts so it’s for both of us.”
“This game is rigged,” he muttered.
Lia smiled. He liked the game all right, as long as she was the one answering the questions. She read the question aloud. “‘What goals do you have for your children?’”
“It does not ask that.”
She held up the card. “See for yourself.”
“Okay,” he said finally. “But you drew it, so you answer first.”
The question struck at the heart of her fears for this child she carried. “I want her to be a happy, well-adjusted child.”
Shane raised a brow. “Her?”
“Dr. Gray thinks the baby is a girl. When she did the ultrasound, we didn’t see any, uh, hanging appendages. But then we didn’t have any really good views, either.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought if you were interested, you’d ask.”
For a long moment neither of them spoke.
“What are your goals for her?” he asked.
“I told you.” For someone who appeared to be giving her his full attention, he seemed to miss about half of what she said. “I want her to grow up to be happy and well-adjusted, to find her passion in life.”