“You don’t sound all right,” said his dad with a lowered voice. “You sure? You’re not drinking are you?”
“I’m not drinking. Nothing is wrong. I have to take care of something out near Superior. I know, Trace and I were just there, but I have to go back. See ya.”
Jake slugged the door with the side of his fist. How would he approach the subject? A second later he hit the brakes and skidded into a gas station. Wait, he couldn’t tell them. They might try to take Trace. “Dammit, dammit.” He pounded the steering wheel while his heart hammered in his chest.
Chad Manning was right by calling her names, even though Jake couldn’t bring himself to say them. Again, he picked up his phone and when Beth answered, he blurted out, “Baby, can you come over? This is important. I need to show you something.” He had to tell someone, and she was the only person who’d keep the secret. “Can you?”
“Now?”
“Yeah.” He hated the sound of his voice when he pleaded, but if he didn’t get this out he’d burst. His brain was ready to stroke, and his heart ached, filled with both love and hate.
“All right. I can be there in twenty minutes. Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“What? No! I should get there a little before you. I’m between home and Superior, closer to Superior.” Did everybody think he was up to no good? He was the only one who could change his reputation. But he already had changed.
“I’m on my way.”
Jake pulled out of the gas station and headed back home. Due to traffic slowing him down, Beth was there when he arrived. She came up to him when he stepped out of his truck. She had tried to read his face—he saw it in her eyes. Hopefully, it was as blank as his emotions.
She put her arm around his shoulder and kissed him. “You sounded upset. What’s going on?”
“Come inside. I’m already late, and I have to pick up Trace soon, but you have to see this.” He took her hand and walked her upstairs to his bedroom.
“Well, honey, I’ve already seen what you’re about to show me in here.” A little giggle slipped out as they entered his bedroom.
Jake didn’t laugh. “Take a seat if you want.” He opened the drawer and removed the folder where he had hidden the yellow envelope. “You’re not going to believe this. This morning I wanted this cabinet cleaned out, and I came across this.” He sat on the bed, handing the envelope to Beth. Jake leaned forward, his elbows against his knees, and he rocked while holding his head as she read it.
“Omigod, Jake.” She laid her hand on his back. “Omigod.”
“I don’t believe it. Trace is my son.” His words held an audible quaver.
“Well, he is your son either way. You’ve raised him. Who else knows?”
“No one. Well, I don’t know. I was on my way to talk to her parents, but that’d be a mistake. They might want to take him from me if they think I’m not his dad.”
Beth perused it again. “You know, I’ve seen a lot of these results at my other job, and something about this doesn’t look right.”
He faced her and pointed to the paper. “What do you mean?” The tremble in his voice became more evident to him now. “What do all these numbers mean anyway?”
“It’s the DNA report. Yours and Trace’s. Had his mother ever had DNA testing done on herself?”
“Yeah. Not many people know this. After her grandmother got breast cancer, Paige and her mom both had genetic testing done. Her report should be around here somewhere. It took hellish weeks to get the results back. I can’t wait weeks!”
“Did you submit to this test?”
Jake shook his head, and she continued. “I think you should have the test redone. I mean, since you didn’t submit to this test…you have no way of knowing if the specimen was contaminated, if it was even yours, or, or whatever.” Beth scooted closer and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. She peered into the closet and hesitated. “This isn’t for me to decide, Jake, you have to.”
He lifted his palms from his lap. “Where would I go? How do I do it?”
“You can get kits and do it yourself, I mean for you and Trace. It’s all confidential, but it’d be best in my opinion, to have a legal one done at a lab—a certified facility.”
“No, that isn’t necessary. This isn’t for legal reasons, it’s for my own reason. What if the results are the same? Then it’ll be on record he’s not mine. I’ll try the kit first.”
“And if it comes back the same?”
Jake jumped up and paced erratically. “I don’t know. No one is taking that boy from me. He’s my child no matter what, and I love him.” I love him. God, this is a damn nightmare. If he didn’t hate Paige before, he did now. He shook his head, confusion taking over and blocking out real thoughts about what to do. He stood in front of Beth and pulled her into a hug, needing to absorb her warmth. “I don’t know what to do. I have to have the results, though.”
“I understand, but you answered your own question. Let me pick up a kit for you, or I know of a company you can call, and they’ll send a kit right out. Start there. I’ll help you with the test. All you have to do is swab the inside of your mouth. What will you tell Trace?”
Jerking away, he lumbered to the window, pressed his hands against the marble sill, and stared outside at nothing. He leaned forward, shaking his head. “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.” Jake faced her. “When can you get the test?”
“Today? You said you had to pick up Trace. I’ll get it while you’re gone, unless you want to call to have it delivered overnight.” Beth picked up the report and perused it again. “You know what? I want to take a closer look at this report. Do you have a magnifying glass?”
“Downstairs in the office. I have to get my son.” They went downstairs. At his desk, he pulled a small magnifying glass out of the top drawer. “Here you go. What are you looking for?”
“I’m not sure, honey. Something about this doesn’t sit right with me.” She laid the report atop the desk, scanning over the names, then lifted it up to the light, viewing it again before laying it down. “Come here. Do you see this or is it just me?” Beth pointed at a smudge around Jake’s name. “I believe something has been whited out then your name typed over it, and possibly copied.”
“What? Let me see the sonofabitch.” Jake turned the desk lamp on and bent over to examine the report. She was right. “It does.” Why the hell would Paige have done that? Then the awful truth struck him upside the head like a bolt of lightning before a monsoon. She had wanted to take Trace to Baltimore, knowing he’d fight her all the way, which in fact, he did. “She’d use this against me.” Jake held the report up, peering at Beth. “She figured if I thought he wasn’t mine, I’d let him go.” He slugged his fist straight through the wall. “Go get that test, Beth. I’ll tell Trace we’re researching family history.”
“It’ll cost you and take some time to get it back. Are you sure you don’t want to go to a lab? Can you stand the wait, although really, you can check online to get results?”
“After weighing the options, yes. I don’t want this on any record—his record.”
“All right.”
He picked up his truck keys. She knew a lot about this. “How are you familiar with these reports?”
“I need to run upstairs to get my purse.”
Jake waited at the bottom of the stairs when she came down. “It’s okay if you don’t want to answer me, but I have to go get Trace now.”
Beth put her arms around him as she stood on the bottom step. “It’s not a secret or anything. Once I helped a friend with his, but we used a certified lab. It was for a paternity test. He was accused of being the father of a child he wasn’t, and he knew it.”
“Was it your husband?”
“Yes, it was. It seems he’d had a lot of lonely nights before he met the woman of his dreams.”
“The call girl of his dreams. Oh, shit, this is all too much for me. I can’t believe you married him. The risks alone.”
She pushed him in the chest and left the bottom step. “I told you I never had sex with him. He was in love with someone else. What do you think I am? He didn’t cheat on her with me for crimminy sakes.”
It pissed him off either way. He jerked away from her. “Where can I pick up a test? I’ll take care of getting it. I’m sure it’s self-explanatory.”
Beth reached for him, but he lifted his palms to block her, stepping back. “Go to your local pharmacy, the department store out of town, look it up online. I’ll get it for you, honey.”
“No, I’ll take care of it all,” he said adamantly. “Thanks for coming over.” Jake marched to the door and wrenched it open hard enough to pull the doorknob off if it had been loose. “I have to go.” And he did.
She hurried out behind him, but he remained silent while he got in his truck and started it. He glanced once into the rear view mirror. She still watched while he drove away. He slammed his fist against the console. He didn’t need the bullshit about her marriage of convenience right now.
***
Beth stood there with her arms folded, stunned. He was awfully touchy about her marriage. He should’ve been glad she hadn’t married a jerk who beat her constantly. So, what if she was old-fashioned and didn’t jump into bed with every stud who came her way. It was hard enough to explain in college when her roommate and classmates used the college opportunity as open season on sex with as many guys as possible—setting her up to get laid more times than she cared to remember. The bold girl inside of her only came out around Jake. He brought it out of her.
When she had started college, she hadn’t yet had time to get over Jake, therefore, she pined for him like the lovesick teen she was at the time. It didn’t mean she didn’t have a happy life as time went by, or that she sat pining over him for thirteen years. She had dated, and hooked up at times—sort of. Except later, after she found herself an adult, she had still longed for him, but life went on. It wasn’t her fault her heart refused to heal. She had tried. Tried to fall into bed numerous times and had wanted to fall in love.
Well, today she wasn’t taking his attitude. He hurt inside, and she didn’t want him to go through it alone. What Paige had done to him was awful, selfish, and spiteful. Cruel. A man like Jake deserved so much more than deceit. Beth got in her car and drove to the store to shop for dinner. Tonight she’d make a special meal for him and Trace. She picked up all she would need to make spaghetti and meatballs, crusty bread, Caesar salad, and carrot cake for dessert. She hoped Trace liked carrot cake as much as his dad always had.
Jake didn’t come right home, and she set dinner aside to warm when they arrived. Beth settled in front of the TV to watch holiday movies on her favorite channel she didn’t get at her mom’s. Four hours later, he drove up the driveway. She went out to the porch to meet them.
“Hi, Beth!” said Trace. “Me and Dad took a long ride along the Apache Trail. Have you ever been there?”
Jake gave her a contemptuous glance but turned away as quickly. She went to the first porch step when he headed away from the house. “I fixed dinner, Jake. It’s ready.”
Jake raised his hands in the air as he spun around. “I need to go to the barn.”
“Trace, come on in and get ready to eat. I bet you like carrot cake as much as your dad?”
He rubbed his belly as he ran up the steps. “How did you know? Where’s my dog?”
“Kasha’s inside.”
Jake glared at her as T.J. opened the door to let his dog out, and he and the dog ran down the steps. “I’m not in the mood for dinner right now. I have work to do since I’ve been distracted all day.”
Beth took Trace’s hand when he and the dog came back toward the door. “Tell me all about your ride. You know, the unpaved part of Apache Trail scares me to death.”
“Dad asked me if I wanted to drive.” Trace shook his head fitfully. “Those curves scare me too much.”
“Jake! You didn’t—”
“The kid has to learn to drive sometime.” He flashed a grin to his son. “Don’t get any ideas, ramrod, I was jokin’.”
Humph! “Beth said to Trace, “Your dad took me there once when I was a teenager. I bet I screamed and had my eyes shut the whole time. It terrified me, and he stopped along one of the cliffs and hung out his window.”
Trace laughed. “Dad, I believe her.”
Beth shuddered, thinking about their horrific ride. “I kind of don’t like heights, especially when it’s a sheer cliff.” Jake walked away, but she continued in a louder voice, “I think your dad liked to see me scared. Spaghetti dinner is waiting. Jake? You should come while it’s hot.” He’d probably blast her for being so persistent, but he could screw himself. All she had wanted to do was show him some comfort. Damn him. Jake Lawton proved to be as stubborn as always.
He stopped after a couple steps away before he pivoted, peered at Trace, and came back. “You don’t have to tell me what to do, but all right...since it’s there.”
Seething inside now, she could’ve growled if not for the dog attacking her thinking of her as the enemy.
Trace and Kasha ran into the house. The disdainful expression on Jake’s face wasn’t too friendly. Beth came down the steps to block his way, which didn’t stop him.
He removed his hat before heading up the steps. “I made it clear I wanted you to leave.”
Ouch! Beth entered the house when Jake held the door. Trace ran off to wash his hands. She caught and held Jake’s sleeve as he strutted past her, and she jerked him around to face her. “Listen. I was married before, and it’s none of your damn business why. I married a guy I didn’t love as a wife should love a husband, and he didn’t love me. So what! Get over it. All you have to know is I’m back here now—ready to start over with you unless you want to keep trying to ruin it. And that’s the way it is.”
Jake pulled her close to him and crushed his lips against hers. She placed her hand at the back of his head and fell into his kiss, his lips, and his tongue as he slid it into her opened mouth in a hungry rage. By the time it ended, they both breathed heavily. “Don’t hate me for my past. I love you. I know you’re hurting. Let me be here.”
Jake leaned his forehead against her shoulder. “I had no right to take it out on you. You cheated yourself for so many years, and it was unfair. Yeah, it makes me angry to think I’m the cause.”
“My reward was sweet, though out of the ordinary. I didn’t have a bad life, honey. Trust me when I say I was happy. I didn’t spend thirteen years pining for you.” Well, not exactly the whole time.
“A weird kind of happy, but all right. After dinner we’ll do the test.” Jake slipped his hand to the small of her back, and they went through the house. “I called to see how long it would take, and I can have the results back in three to five days. I can check sooner or login to an online account, which I’ll set up. Some can take longer.”
She spoke softly. “Oh, baby. You have to be right. The first night I met you, I said Trace looked like you. It’s obvious, and the fact the report had been tampered with—”
“Allegedly been tampered with. Everyone says he’s the spitting image of me. We don’t know for sure the report had been tampered with, babe.” He hung his head. “If it was, I can’t believe she went to such great lengths to do this to me and her own son. To freaking take him away from his father?”
“If, in fact, someone did tamper with the test, it’s illegal. You have a lawsuit if we find out who did it. Maybe there are fingerprints on the report.”
“No. I’m not doing anything legally, although I might have a lawsuit with my fist if I find out who was involved. Paige was a damn paralegal, and she should’ve known better.”
“Or she knew the right people. Come on. Trace is waiting for dinner. Did you explain about the test?” She observed him as he stared ahead with pain in his eyes as if he went into his head, reliving a memory. Beth gave him a few minutes before interrupting his musings. “Jake?”
He flung his hat t
o the table, and it slid off. Almost growling, he shoved his fingers through his hair, giving her a quick glance. “I lied to my child about the reason, yeah.”
Beth lowered her voice. “Well, maybe you didn’t lie. You could tell him what his mother did, and she’s the reason you have to do this. You’re lying to protect him.”
He kicked the throw rug across the room. “Either way, I’ll have to continue the lie to her parents, too, because I can’t tell Trace not to tell anyone about the test. He’d mention it if it popped into his head.” Jake put his arm around her shoulder. “Let’s eat. Nice of you to think of dinner.”
When they entered the family room, Trace was in front of the TV watching the news. “I waited for you. Kasha almost got the bread off the counter.”
“Yep, she always steals the bread if she can get it. Come on, Trace. Didn’t we talk about you watching the news?”
He stuck one of his fingers through his belt loop and cocked his hip out to the side. “But, Dad, sometimes I have to hunt for current events for school.”
“Ask me, I’ll tell you what the heck’s going on. Better yet, ask anyone in Canyon Junction. They seem to know everything.”
Beth nudged Jake in the ribs to hush his attitude. “Hungry, kiddo?” she asked T.J.
“Yup. My favorite! I love spaghetti and meatballs. Don’t I, Dad, just like you?”
“That’s right, T.J. Just like me. And cherry-chocolate ice cream, too.”
“Like me!” Beth said, beaming. “My favorite.”
“Atta, girl. You fit right in around here.” Jake winked, seeming to have accepted Beth sticking around after all.
“Yeppers, Beth, you do.” Trace ran to the kitchen ahead of them. “Come on. Let’s eat.” The dog beat him to the kitchen, and T.J. giggled as Kasha went right to her bowl, her dark tongue hanging out. “It’s our dinner time, not yours,” he said to her in a cheery, high pitched voice.
Chapter 11
Whispers of Forever: Mending Christmas (Canyon Junction: Hearts In Love #1) Page 16