The Texan's Surprise Son

by Cathy McDavid

  Enough to leave him?

  “Bye-bye, Daddy.”

  “I love you, pal.”

  Cody blew him a kiss from the backseat. That was new. He must have learned it at day care.

  How many other firsts would Jacob miss when his son was with someone else?

  More than he’d like, but there was nothing to be done about it. Jacob needed to work, and he certainly wouldn’t deny Mariana and her mother visits.

  “Tell Mariana hello for me.”

  “I will.” Lucille smiled, though her eyes were sad.

  The invisible vise that had squeezed Jacob’s middle since he walked into his empty house tightened another notch. All communications with Mariana, all arrangements for this visit, had been conducted solely through her mother.

  How had things fallen apart so quickly? One minute, Jacob and Mariana were a happy couple, crazy about each other and planning a future. The next minute, they were barely speaking. Not speaking. Had attraction and, as Mariana pointed out, the coziness of living together been the only things binding them? Apparently so, for the instant they hit a rough patch, they’d bailed on their relationship. Both of them.

  Though Jacob had tried to talk to her. Repeatedly. But a man could only take so much rejection. He’d accepted responsibility for his contribution; namely, not telling Mariana that he was taking Cody to the rodeo. In his opinion, that was the extent of his wrongdoings. Mariana was the one who’d come unglued, uncorked and, if you asked Hannah, unhinged.

  “Thank you, Jacob,” Lucille said.

  “For what?” He’d been expecting Mariana’s mother to leave the instant she had Cody in her car. Yet here she sat, parked in his driveway.

  “Letting me see Cody. You don’t have to.”

  “You’re his grandmother.”

  Tears sprang suddenly to her already-sad eyes. “I miss Leah so much. You never really got to know her.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “She wasn’t a terrible person. She just wanted a child more than anything.”

  Lucille was referring to Leah’s tricking him into sleeping with her, then keeping her pregnancy and Cody a secret. “Of course she wasn’t.”

  “You don’t hate her?” Lucille stared up at him.

  “I’m grateful to her. She gave me a son.”

  “I have to admit, you’re a better father than I ever thought you’d be.”

  Her remark, so unexpected, touched him. “That means a lot to me.”

  “I did a terrible disservice to both my daughters. Hardened their hearts to all men because of my anger at their father.”

  Jacob kept quiet, unsure if she expected him to comment or not.

  “She cares about you, Jacob. I haven’t seen her fall for a man like she did you...ever, I suppose. It must have been difficult for her. Strange. Awkward. Being attracted to the man her sister seduced three years before.”

  He hadn’t thought of it quite that way before.

  “And with you being a rodeo man like Zeb.” Lucille lost herself in her thoughts for a moment. “Mariana, she can be obstinate.”

  Wasn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? Jacob almost laughed but didn’t. Lucille had obviously been doing some soul-searching.

  “I admire her. She fights for what she believes in. Personally and professionally.”

  “Telling you about Cody wasn’t an easy decision for her. She was really torn between her promise to her sister and her sense of right and wrong.”

  “Both those qualities make her a good attorney.” And someone Jacob admired.

  “I can only guess that leaving you and Cody must have been equally difficult for her.”

  “Then why did she?” He answered his own question. “Because she couldn’t face me.”

  Lucille drew back as if affronted. “She doesn’t walk away. She sees her commitment through.”

  “Not this time.”

  “Losing her heart must have scared her. It scared me when I was young. Probably why I’ve always been uncompromising where Zeb is concerned. If I didn’t work hard at hating him, I’d fall in love with him all over again.”

  That was the most revealing thing Jacob had learned about Mariana, and it came from her mother.

  “Maybe you should tell her that,” he said.

  Something in Lucille’s expression changed. “Maybe I should.”

  “Have a safe trip.” He swung the SUV door shut, stepped back and waved to Cody.

  She started the engine and drove away. Jacob didn’t worry. Cody was in good hands.

  With several hours to kill before having to head off to the drill site, Jacob ran a load of laundry and cleaned the kitchen. Outside, he filled Amigo’s feed bin with hay and shoveled manure under Buster’s watchful eye. He could afford to pay a part-time hand to oversee the horse’s care but preferred to do it himself. Even on a chilly day like today, being outside invigorated him.

  Normally, it invigorated him, he should say. Jacob hadn’t felt himself since Mariana left.

  He was just heading inside when his cell phone rang.

  “Where have you been lately?” Carly demanded.

  “Busy.”

  “It’s not easy being a single dad.”

  “It’s great being a single dad. There’s just a lot involved.”

  “How’s Cody doing?”

  “Bouncing back.” Exactly as the EMT had predicted.

  “I’m really sorry about Mariana.”

  He didn’t ask how Carly knew, assuming Mariana had told her. They’d spoken once or twice about Adele Black and AB Windpower. Many of the pieces were starting to come together. Jacob was glad for his adoptive siblings and glad Mariana had been able to help them.

  “It is what it is.” He hardly understood his feelings. How could he explain them to someone else?

  “You miss her.”

  That did sum things up pretty good.

  “She made her choice.”

  “If you ask me, she regrets it.”

  Could that be true? “I’m not running after her,” he said.

  “Why the hell not? She’s worth it.”

  “Carly.”

  “Fine. I’ll stop butting in.” She drew a breath, then changed the subject. “Listen, you are coming to Thanksgiving dinner.”

  She said it as though he didn’t have a choice, which he really didn’t. Attendance at Baron holiday dinners was mandatory.

  “For a while.”

  “What! You are not cutting out early, Jacob Baron.”

  Her tone was in jest. Jacob, however, wasn’t finding anything humorous of late.

  “Dad’s asking about you,” Carly went on, ignoring Jacob’s lack of response.

  “Tell him I’m fine.”

  “Come on, Jacob. You’ve been avoiding him.”

  With good reason, he thought. “I’m busy. Single parent. We talked about that. I’ll see him tomorrow at Thanksgiving.”

  Where a houseful of people were available to buffer any interaction between him and Brock.

  Jacob didn’t want to look into the older man’s face. See the disappointment there. He’d left the Valle del Sol Rodeo before competing and failed to qualify for Nationals. Now there was no Starr Solar Systems purchase, no new position at Baron Energies and no Mariana in his life.

  Jacob was batting a thousand.

  “You’re both being stubborn.” His sister was still on the subject of Brock.

  “What’s he being stubborn about?” Jacob opened the refrigerator door, evaluated the contents, decided nothing appealed to him for lunch and shut the door.

  “Talking to you,” Carly said. “He thinks you should come to him. In fact, he’s been sitting around the house since Sunday, hoping you’ll make an appearance.”

  “You know what? He’s right. We had a deal. I failed to keep up my end. I should go to him.”

  “It’s not like that, Jacob.”

  “It’s exactly like that.”

  “Then why won’t you come to the
Roughneck?”

  “Tomorrow,” he repeated.

  She made a very unladylike sound of disgust.

  “I’ve been thinking of looking for another job.”

  Carly gasped. “You haven’t! Why?”

  “I’m tired of waiting for Brock to promote me. If I can’t have the kind of job I want with Baron Energies, maybe I should try somewhere else. There are plenty of companies that would hire me.” On his last name alone.

  “You’d work for the competition? Tell me that isn’t true.”

  “I’d work for an alternative energy company. In fact, I heard from a friend that AB Windpower is hiring.”

  “Really?” That seemed to interest Carly.

  “Yeah. Or one closer to Dallas.” Jacob would consider changing jobs but probably not moving too far from Dallas. Mariana and her mother would miss Cody.

  “Don’t do it. Don’t leave us without talking to Dad first. You owe him that much.”

  He did.

  It was easy to blur the lines between business and professional. Wrong, but easy, and what had landed Jacob in this predicament in the first place.

  “Thanks for not giving up on me,” he told Carly.

  That brought a smile to her voice. “See you soon.”

  Not long after ending his call, Jacob climbed into his truck. His initial intention was to head to work early. Instead, he drove to the Roughneck.

  He did need to talk to Brock. And what better time than the present?

  Chapter Fifteen After stopping at the house and checking with Julieta, Jacob drove to the arena. Brock was right where she said he’d be, riding his favorite gelding. Luke stood at the fence, watching the other man closely.

  “Should he be doing that?” Jacob asked.

  Luke spun. Upon seeing Jacob, his face broke into a smile. “I was beginning to wonder about you.”

  Jacob fell in beside his friend. “I thought he was still mostly laid up.”

  “You know your dad. He insisted he was ready to ride. ’Course, I had to help him up on the horse. I’m not looking forward to helping him down.”

  “Nothing holds him back for long.”

  “Same could be said about you.”

  “That’s kind of what I came here today to talk to him about.”

  “Good.” Luke nodded approvingly.

  Jacob started off toward the barn.

  “Where you going?”

  “I can talk just as good to Brock from the back of a horse as I can on the ground.”

  Luke’s chuckle was loud and long.

  Jacob made quick work of saddling and bridling Zeus. The big sorrel, always full of energy, nearly trampled Jacob in his haste to exit the stall.

  The startled look on Brock’s face when Jacob trotted into the arena was priceless. “Thought you were working today,” he hollered.

  By the time Jacob caught up with Brock, he was back to his usual grumpy self.

  “Going in a little late. I called Darius while I was saddling up.”

  “The boss’s being tardy doesn’t set a good example for the employees.”

  “First time I’ve been late to work in over a year. I think I’m entitled.”

  Brock grumbled under his breath.

  They rode in silence for several minutes, both horses wanting to step out, and both riders letting them. Jacob wasn’t sure where to start. He settled on saying what was foremost on his mind.

  “I know you’re disappointed in me.”

  “Because you’re late to work?”

  “Not qualifying for Nationals.”

  “I won’t deny it. I had my heart set on you bringing home a title.”

  “I think I could have, too.”

  “There’s always next year.”

  Could he wait that long for a promotion? Jacob already knew the answer.

  “I’m done rodeoing.”

  At that, Brock’s bushy silver brows rose. “You are?”

  “Cody is my number one priority.”

  “You’d have had help raising him if you didn’t run that pretty little gal off.”

  “Mariana.”

  “I know her name.”

  “Did you refuse to say it just to make me mad?”

  “Something like that.”

  There might have been a touch of amusement in Brock’s voice. It was hard to tell.

  “She was more to me than just help raising my son.”

  “Maybe you should have told her that.”

  “I did.”

  “Did you show her?”

  Was Jacob’s entire family going to lecture him about Mariana?

  “I would if she’d take my damn calls.”

  Brock burst out laughing.

  “That wasn’t a joke.”

  “Which makes it all the more funny.” The older man sobered. “When your mother and I married, it was mostly for convenience. She wanted to give her boys a new life, a new name. And I need someone to run my house, mother my children and attend social functions. I suspect you know that.”

  “I guessed.”

  “I cared for her, though. Greatly. She was a fine woman with a good heart and gentle soul. And while our feelings for each other might not have been the stuff poets write about, I let her know every day, one way or another, that she was important to me. That I appreciated all she did for me and my children. That I valued her as more than just a partner or an accessory at business dinners.”

  He had? Jacob didn’t remember. Then again, maybe the ways Brock showed his affection and appreciation were small and personal. He hadn’t ever thought of Brock as the sentimental or romantic type.

  “She cared for you, too.”

  “I’m thinking what you feel for Mariana—” he emphasized her name “—is more the kind of love poets write about and much too valuable to lose.”

  “Fatherly advice?”

  “I am your father.” Brock brought his horse to a stop. When Jacob did, too, Brock looked him square in the face. “I’d be more of one to you if you let me.”

  Let him be a father? When had Brock ever let Jacob be his son?

  “I think you have that wrong.”

  The brows rose again. “Do I? You’ve shut me out from the beginning. At first, I understood. You were nine. Not ready to accept a new father, regardless of how angry you were at Oscar for what he did to you and your mother. So I gave you your space. Only you didn’t change. No matter how hard I tried, you shut me out.”

  He’d tried? Jacob examined some of his memories with a different perspective. Was it possible the distance he’d felt from the Barons had been his own doing and not Brock’s? The closeness he’d recently established with Carly and Lizzie seemed to suggest as much.

  “I came here today to tell you I’m going to look for another job.” His admission took him by surprise.

  Not, apparently, Brock. He didn’t so much as blink. “Is that really what you want?”

  “No. I want what I always have. To run an alternative energy division at Baron Energies. And someday, maybe my son will follow in my footsteps.”

  “That’d be nice. You did follow in my footsteps, and I didn’t have to drag you kicking and screaming like Jet.”

  Frustration had Jacob jerking too hard on the reins. He forced himself to loosen his grip.

  Hadn’t he worked hard enough? Proved himself? And yet Jet was going to run Baron Energies one day alongside Lizzie while Jacob remained senior safety manager. If he was even still working for Baron Energies.

  “I did everything you asked of me. The only reason I didn’t qualify for Nationals is because my son fell and broke his arm. I took him to the hospital. Which was more important. And if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a damn thing.”

  The corners of Brock’s mouth lifted in a grin. “You’d better not. Or you’re no son of mine.”

  Jacob glared at him. “I don’t understand you sometimes.”

  Again, Brock didn’t so much as blink and smoothly changed the subject.
“If you hadn’t avoided me since Sunday you’d know the purchase of Starr Solar Systems was final yesterday. They’re expecting you in their offices on Monday.”

  “What! Are you serious?”

  “As a heart attack.” Brock nudged his horse into a walk.

  Jacob went after him, still trying to wrap his brain around the past two minutes.

  “What made you change your mind?” he asked when he caught up.

  Brock reined to a stop. He looked surprised. “Nothing.”

  “But I didn’t qualify. That was the deal.”

  “The deal was you prove yourself. You did that.” He leaned forward and stacked his forearms on the saddle horn. “I might’ve been good about telling your mother how I felt, but it seems I’ve been lacking where you’re concerned. I’m mighty proud of you, Jacob. You’ve done right by your son and the family name. It took real courage to walk away from that rodeo when you believed you were leaving everything you’d worked for these past years behind. I respect that in a man.”

  Jacob shook his head in amazement. “You’re a stubborn old coot.”

  “Takes one to know one.”

  Hadn’t Carly said the same thing?

  At the barn, it was Jacob and not Luke who helped Brock down from his horse. When they were both on the ground, they shook hands.

  “Thank you,” Jacob said, a slight huskiness to his voice. “I won’t disappoint you.”

  “I’m counting on it.”

  He did something then he couldn’t remember doing since his high school graduation. He hugged Brock.

  “Get your ass to work,” his father told him. “You’re going to need to spend some time with Darius, getting him up to speed to replace you.”

  “He’s a good choice for the job.”

  Brock just grumbled again.

  Luke also shook Jacob’s hand when he shared his news about Starr Solar Systems. “You going to tell your sisters?”

  “Later. I’m running late.”

  It wasn’t them he wanted to tell, or Daniel. All Jacob could think about as he unsaddled and brushed his horse was Mariana. If things hadn’t gone wrong, she’d be the one he called first. The one he celebrated with tonight over the best dinner in town.