“Will they be okay alone?” Mariana gazed worriedly at the kitchen.
“I’ll sit with them,” Alex offered and started off.
Wasn’t that a little like having a fox guard the henhouse?
“I don’t know....” Jacob frowned.
“They’ll be fine,” Julieta insisted.
He looked to Luke and Carly.
“She’s right, they’ll be fine.” His friend didn’t appear concerned.
To the children’s credit, they behaved well. For the first ten minutes. Long enough for everyone at the adult table to be served. Then, all hell broke loose. A small commotion ensued, accompanied by a high-pitched scream and then outraged crying.
“It’s okay,” Alex called from the kitchen. “Cody just spilled his milk on Rosie.”
By then, Jacob, Mariana, Luke and Carly were all standing.
“Excuse me,” Mariana said. “I’ll be right back.”
“Wait for me.” Jacob went after her.
The next moment, Cody came running full tilt around the corner, his face a mask of unhappiness and tears streaming down his cheeks.
Jacob was closer and scooped him up. “It’s okay, buddy.”
Cody buried his face in Jacob’s shoulder.
“Is he hurt?” Mariana hurried over.
“I don’t think so.”
By then, Luke had retrieved Rosie, who was also in tears.
“We can get you more milk.” Mariana soothed Cody by rubbing his back.
“Wanna go home.” Cody hiccuped and buried his face in Jacob’s shirt. “Peese, Daddy.”
The room went silent except for a small gasp from Lizzie. Jacob felt more than saw the stares. This wasn’t how he’d intended to break the news.
Brock’s hand came down on the table. “What’s going on here? Why did he call you Daddy?”
“He’s just confused,” Carly offered. “He calls Mariana Mama.”
“Don’t you think you should unconfuse him?”
Jacob felt a sudden flood of emotions, the strongest one a need to protect and defend this small child who, until only last week, hadn’t had a father in his life. Jacob might not be much of one yet, but there was no time like the present to start.
“He’s calling me Daddy because he’s my son.”
Julieta dropped her fork, which clattered to the table. Daniel cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable. Carly murmured, “I knew it!”
Brock recovered quickly. “Your son?”
“Before you ask, I only just found out.” Jacob touched Mariana’s arm and nodded at the table, indicating for her to take her chair. She did but squirmed uncomfortably as if the seat were made of thorns. He also sat, balancing Cody in his lap. “Cody’s moved in with me.”
Everyone started talking, slowly at first, then all at once. Jacob answered questions as best he could, until one from Brock silenced everyone at the table.
“How do you expect to work and rodeo with a boy to take care of?”
“I’ll manage. One way or the other.”
“You need to qualify for Nationals.”
“And I will.”
“Maybe you should let his aunt keep him until then.” Brock cut into a thick slab of pork roast. “Be easier on everyone.”
“Cody’s my son, and he’s staying with me.”
“Seems you’ve made your bed, you can sleep in it. Don’t expect any special consideration from me.”
Anger gathered inside Jacob. He shoved it aside. This wasn’t the time or place to start an argument. “Trust me, I don’t.”
They left soon after dinner, citing that Cody’s bedtime was fast approaching. Jacob was also tired, and it had nothing to do with the need for sleep.
What had he been thinking earlier? Brock hadn’t changed and never would. Cody was no more a grandson to him than Jacob was a son. Hoping for anything different was a complete and utter waste of time.
Chapter Five Mariana stood at the French doors, watching Jacob play with Cody in the backyard. More accurately, she watched Jacob watching Cody play by himself. The two weren’t exactly interacting. It was, however, a start. Jacob sat on a lawn chair and kept an eye on Cody, who crawled on his hands and knees, pushing his truck in circles.
She hadn’t objected when Jacob suggested he take Cody out to play. For one, she’d needed to organize her notes for a client meeting in the morning. For another, he’d been gone since Friday and only recently returned from the rodeo in Allen.
They’d hardly spoken at all about the fiasco of a dinner at the Roughneck. Jacob assured her not to worry. Right.
Mariana continued studying him through the door’s small windowpanes. She gave Jacob credit for maintaining his cool under what had to have been intense pressure from his family. After saying their goodbyes, some terse, others warm, they’d left the ranch. Jacob’s brother Daniel had called on the drive home. Their conversation was short and unrevealing, and ended with Jacob promising to see him in the morning.
Mariana gave Jacob his space, both before he left for the rodeo and since his return. As much as she might want to, it wasn’t her place to interfere in his family matters. Not unless Cody was directly and negatively affected. That didn’t stop her from being curious, which is why she stood at the door, staring.
“Enough,” she told herself and turned away. Cody was fine, Jacob deserved his privacy and she had plenty of work waiting for her. She returned to the dining table where she’d set up her laptop. At home, she had a small office. Here, she was forced to make do with what was available.
To her surprise, she lost herself in her work for—she glanced at the clock on her laptop—thirty-seven minutes. Really? She hadn’t worked more than ten minutes straight through since taking over Cody’s care.
She went to the door, telling herself she was being overprotective—then telling herself she wasn’t protective enough when Jacob and Cody were nowhere to be seen. Alarm coursing through her, she grabbed her coat, pushed open the door and rushed outside.
“Jacob!” she hollered. “Cody!”
“Here.” The reply came from the paddock and stalls.
She raced there, only to come to a grinding halt. Jacob was riding Amigo, and he had Cody sitting in the saddle with him!
“What are you doing?” she demanded, on the move again. She stopped when she reached the paddock, considering for just a moment the wisdom of climbing through the rails.
“I’d say riding but we’re just walking.”
Jacob wore a smile, his first of the evening. So did Cody. His reached from ear to ear, and his small hands waved excitedly.
“Horsey,” he exclaimed. “I widing.”
“Oh, my God.” Mariana’s heart pounded. “He’s not holding on.”
“I’ve got him,” Jacob assured her.
Indeed, his left arm was wrapped securely around Cody’s middle as they walked the perimeter of the lighted paddock. Buster followed behind, tail wagging.
“He could fall,” Mariana protested.
“We couldn’t be going any slower.”
Okay, they were progressing at a snail’s pace. And the paddock wasn’t large, maybe fifty by fifty feet. Also, the horse visibly limped from the bad hips Jacob had mentioned.
Mariana chewed her bottom lip. After another two loops around the paddock, she began to relax. Marginally. Cody called out, “Hi, hi,” with each pass they made, his little stocking cap sitting askew on his head.
All right. The two of them were cute together. If she’d brought her phone with her, she’d have snapped a picture.
On the next loop, Jacob pulled the horse to a stop in front of her. “You want to give it a try?”
“What? Are you kidding?”
“You have ridden before?”
“Not for years and not often. Leah was the equestrian in our family. Well, she and my dad.”
Jacob dismounted and reached for Cody. When the boy started to cry, Jacob left him in the saddle.
“Will he be all right like that?�
� Mariana bent and slid between the rails to stand in the paddock.
“I won’t let anything happen. I promise.” There was a strength in his tone that was surprisingly reassuring. Adding to that, Amigo had dropped his head and didn’t appear to be going anywhere. “I’ve met him, you know,” Jacob said.
“My dad?” She emerged on the other side of the fence. Amigo didn’t move, even when she walked around him to join Jacob. “I’d be surprised if you hadn’t met him at some point. He’s been involved in rodeo one way or the other for thirtysomething years.”
“Are you two close?”
“Hardly,” she scoffed. “I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen him in the past ten years.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well, these things happen.” She suppressed the unhappy feelings that always accompanied any discussion of her father and forced a lightness into her voice. “It’s probably for the best.”
“Was Leah close to him?”
“She saw him more, being a competitive barrel racer and all. But they weren’t close either.”
“Does he know about Cody?”
Her stomach tightened. Couldn’t they talk about something else besides her father? “He made a token appearance when Cody was born. That was the last any of us has seen him. He didn’t even show up at Leah’s memorial service.”
“Guilt can cause people to do things they regret.”
“Hmm.” She hadn’t thought that guilt might be what kept her father away. Did he regret his treatment of his family? “It makes no difference.”
“Are you sure?”
She reached up and patted Cody’s leg, the wall of anger she’d built and fortified through the years cracking ever so slightly. What she’d give for him not to suffer the same affliction as her and her sister. It was why she’d told Jacob about his son.
Please, please, be a better man than my father. She was risking so much. Cody’s entire future.
“Care to take a spin?” Jacob nodded at the horse.
This wasn’t the change of subject she’d been hoping for. “No way.” She laughed.
“If it makes you feel better, I’ll lead Amigo. Cody will love it,” he added as further incentive.
“We could both fall.”
“I’ll catch you.”
His eyes lingered on her face, and she swore he moved ever so slightly closer to her. Or was it she who leaned into him, drawn by an invisible and irresistible pull?
Next thing she knew, he was helping her mount, lifting Cody and fitting him snugly between her and the saddle horn. Amigo, good horse that he was, stood perfectly still.
“Ready?”
Oh, brother. She locked Cody to her with her left arm. With her right hand, she gripped the saddle horn for dear life. “I guess.”
Jacob led the horse at an even slower walk, if that was possible. Cody squealed with delight, pointing at this and that and babbling. When Jacob started talking, Cody quieted as if listening. Mariana listened, too. She hung on every word.
“I’m sorry about the other day,” he said. “My family is complicated.”
“Trust me, if there’s one thing I get, it’s complicated family dynamics.”
“Brock and I don’t always see eye to eye.” Jacob gazed at the horizon as he talked, though she suspected he was seeing something different in his mind.
“Parents and children often don’t.”
“He’s my adoptive father. My real father’s in prison.”
She knew that but didn’t say so. Jacob might not appreciate that she’d run a background check on him before approaching him about Cody. Because she was a big believer that children weren’t defined by their parents’ mistakes—she herself was a prime example—she didn’t count it against Jacob.
“If my mother could arrange it,” she said, “my father would be in prison, too. Not that he’s committed a felony,” she amended, then could have bitten her tongue. Jacob must hate being reminded of his father’s crimes. “Sorry. I didn’t—”
“It’s all right. My dad made his choices.”
And they had been bad ones. Mariana had learned a lot researching Oscar Burke. He’d not only embezzled two million from the financial firm where he’d worked and taken that money out of the country, he’d committed fraud and tax evasion. If that weren’t enough, he’d run off with another woman, a coworker at the firm. In prison, he’d participated in an attack on a guard, compounding his crimes and lengthening his stay.
Poor Peggy. Jacob’s mom had suffered a very public, very messy scandal that ended in divorce. Until then, the Burkes had been prominent citizens in the Houston area with not even their closest friends and relatives having any idea of Oscar Burke’s clandestine activities. Peggy moved her two young boys twice to escape the gossip, finally settling in Dallas. There, she met Brock and remarried and had what appeared to be a mostly satisfying life.
Maybe not so much for Jacob.
“Brock adopted me and Daniel when I was nine. I think both he and my mom thought a new last name would stop the kids at school from picking on us.”
The rocking motion of the horse seemed to have quieted Cody. It was causing Mariana’s limbs to relax, too. Who’d have thought she’d feel this comfortable on a horse? With Cody, no less.
“Did it?” she mused aloud.
“After the third school, yeah. I had communications problems with some of the other boys. When they teased me and Daniel, I tended to communicate with my fists.”
“Oh, my.”
“I stopped fighting eventually. Things got a little better, but we weren’t one big happy family by any means. I think my mother expected Brock to be the kind of father she desperately wanted for her sons. He was decent to me and Daniel, don’t get me wrong. But he always loved his own children to a fault. In his defense, it was unfair of my mom or Daniel and me to expect anything else.”
That might explain why Jacob was a senior safety manager at a drill site rather than an executive in the corporate headquarters. Then again, Mariana wasn’t one to judge. Her own father fell so short of the mark, it wasn’t funny.
“Brock cares about you, even if he comes on strong,” she said. “I could see it.”
“I know he does.” Jacob patted the side of Amigo’s neck as they made another round of the paddock. “He’s actually taken what I guess you’d call an interest in me a few times. When I was high school, I started playing sports and rodeoing. Jet was still too young for both. Brock came to every one of my games and every one of my rodeos. It helped that Carly was competing in barrel racing at the same time. All good things come to an end, however. I went off to college and by then Jet was old enough to start competing.”
“I’m sure Brock’s just as proud of your academic and business accomplishments.”
“He isn’t. He respects them for sure. Buckles and trophies are what impress him.”
How much, she wondered, did that have to do with his current race for a national championship title?
“Carly and Leah were acquainted,” he said. “Friendly rivals apparently. Leah told me that.”
“I didn’t realize.” Interesting, Mariana thought. That might explain how Leah had come to choose Jacob for Cody’s father. “Small world” was her only comment.
He came to a stop by the gate. “Another round?”
“I think we’re about done.” Mariana glanced down at Cody. If they continued riding, he might fall asleep again and wind up being awake half the night. She had an early morning tomorrow and couldn’t afford to be dragging her feet.
Jacob helped her down first, then he handed her Cody. “I’ll unsaddle Amigo and put him up.”
“All right.” She found herself looking into Jacob’s face, which was only inches from hers, and searching for any visible scars of his youthful ordeals. There were none. All his wounds must have been on the inside. “I still can’t believe I rode a horse with Cody,” she said with a smile.
Before she quite knew what
was happening, Jacob leaned down and brushed his lips across hers.
The kiss wasn’t long. Quite short, in fact. Just a soft, light whisper of a caress. She couldn’t call it chaste, however. At least, her reaction wasn’t chaste. A wave of heat washed over her from head to toe, leaving her breathless and a little disconcerted.
She drew back first. “I, ah, we can’t...”
He increased the space between them by taking a step back. “You’re right. I don’t know what came over me. Sorry.”
“It’s been a strange few days. None of us is ourselves.”
“Forget it happened.”
“I’ll see you inside.” She headed toward the gate, her legs unsteady, Cody pressed close to her body as if he could shield her from her soaring emotions.
Jacob had kissed her!
And while she hadn’t exactly kissed him back, it was still wrong. And foolish. She couldn’t afford to get hurt, and any involvement with him was just asking for it. Look at her parents. She more than anyone knew rodeo cowboys weren’t the best husband material.
More important, she had Cody to look out for. His future was depending on this adjustment period. She couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.
Jacob was right. She needed to forget the kiss happened.
She got as far as the family room before stopping and touching her lips with the tips of her fingers.
*
DANIEL CALLED JACOB as he was heading home from work, wanting to finalize their plans to attend the Lucky Draw Rodeo in Round Rock. Since they were driving rather than flying, they’d have to leave bright and early Friday morning in order to make it in time for the afternoon events.
Jet wouldn’t be going, his interest in rodoeing dimming in recent weeks. Understandable. His fiancée and future stepdaughters were more important.
“What are you going to do about the kid?” Daniel asked after they’d hammered out a few details. By kid, he meant Cody.
Jacob sat at a light, combing his fingers through his disarrayed hair. He was almost home, having left work after a grueling eleven-hour shift. He’d checked with Mariana right before his brother called. She was picking up Cody from day care and would be home when he arrived.
“I’m not sure.” Jacob had been wondering the same thing himself all day.
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