Kael

by Lori Wilde

  “You ready to hit the road?” he asked.

  Without waiting for an answer, he opened the passenger door and ushered them inside. Lordy, the fifteen-mile jaunt to Rascal was beginning to look like a fifteen-thousand-mile trek. He got in and started the pickup, racking his brain for small talk.

  Daisy stared straight ahead. She sat pressed against the passenger door as if ready to use it as an escape hatch, her body language declaring very loudly “touch me not.”

  What else did he expect? Kael figured she’d only agreed to this blood test out of a sense of fairness to Travis and because he’d threatened her with a lawsuit. Kael winced. This couldn’t be any easier for her than it was for him.

  Guilt crawled through him at a slow, tortuous pace. Daisy’s whole world had come crashing in around her ears, and it was all his fault. He’d burned her bees, and now he was making her face something she wanted to deny.

  Travis sat in the back, and before they’d driven far, he’d fallen fast asleep.

  “Kid’s tuckered out,” Kael commented.

  “I’m glad he’s asleep. This is going to be rough enough on him.”

  “It’s got to be done, Daisy.”

  “Why?”

  “We both have a right to know the truth,” he said.

  “What good is knowing the truth?” Daisy asked. “If you’re not going to stick around?”

  Kael paused to check his temper before responding. “I’ve changed, Daisy.”

  She turned her head and snorted indelicately. “Oh, yeah? Since when?”

  Kael stroked his jaw and stared out across the pickup’s hood. “I suppose since my accident. There’s nothing like having your kneecap shattered to give you a whole new perspective.”

  “And riding a motorcycle through an alfalfa field was the action of a mature man?”

  “The fire wasn’t intentional.”

  “Like you didn’t intentionally take Rose into the barn that night?”

  “Daisy,” he growled. “Leave well enough alone.”

  “What do you expect from me, Kael? I don’t hear one word from you in seven years, now suddenly you want me to make room for daddy?”

  Anger that matched his own sparked in her eyes. How many times had she stood her ground and challenged him like that? And how many times had her spicy nature roused him? Kael’s groin tightened in response. Dammit, she didn’t even realize the power she wielded over him.

  “You told me you never wanted to see me again. Remember?” He spoke softly as the pain of their parting flooded through him.

  Yes, seven years ago he’d been selfish and immature. His mind had been set on riding bulls

  and proving to himself he was worthy of his father’s name. Plus, he’d wanted to satisfy his wanderlust before settling down and having a family. But he’d always known Daisy was the woman he wanted to marry—the girl he hoped would eventually become his wife and bear his children. He’d never wanted Rose, not even when he had her.

  “What was I supposed to do?” he asked softly.

  Daisy shrugged. Her jaw trembled. Was she about to cry? Tough-as-nails Daisy?

  “Are you okay?” He reached for her, but she flinched, and he withdrew his hand. “I know this has got to be hard for you.”

  “Don’t patronize me.” She folded her arms over her chest.

  Kael sighed. He couldn’t win. “I promise I’m not going to take Travis away from you, if that’s what you’re worried about. I just want to know my son.”

  “Let’s save this discussion until we know for sure.”

  He nodded. She was right. He slowed as they entered Rascal city limits. Up ahead, he saw the sign for Balmorhea Springs.

  “Remember that time we went skinny-dipping?” Kael grinned.

  “No.”

  “Sure, you do. It was after—”

  “I prefer not to think about the past,” she interrupted. “It’s full of painful memories, and there’s nothing I can do to change that.”

  “Daisy, I’m sorry for all the ways I’ve wronged you.”

  “Apologies are easy for you, Kael. It’s the consequences you have a hard time dealing with.” She glanced over her shoulder at the back seat.

  Kael studied the child in the rearview mirror. Travis’ hair was darker than his mother’s, rusty instead of flame-colored. A dusting of freckles dotted his cheeks and nose, just like Daisy’s. And like hers, the sweep of his eyelashes was long and pale.

  Travis breathed quietly, his slender chest rising and falling as he slept. He seemed so small, so fragile. The sight tugged at Kael.

  “I can’t believe you kept your suspicions about Travis from me for so long.” He was trying not to sound bitter, but he wasn’t sure he succeeded.

  “Shh,” she cautioned, laying an index finger against her lips as Travis stirred.

  Kael clamped his mouth shut. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, not even to himself, but from the moment he’d returned to Rascal, memories had nipped at his heels. When he’d seen Daisy again and discovered her son might be his child, he had been fighting some pretty crazy fantasies. Visions of them as a family. He and Daisy and Travis. Living together, running the honey farm, loving each other the way it should be.

  What about your rodeo career? Where does that fit into your cozy family life?

  Heck, he was twenty-eight, plenty old enough to grow up and surrender his dreams. He’d risen to the top tier of the PBR. He’d ridden the best bulls in the world. What else was there left to accomplish in the arena?

  Two questions remained unanswered. The answer to the first question would lead him down one path, the solution to the other pointed in the opposite direction.

  One: Would his knee heal?

  Two: Was Travis really his son?

  TWO DAYS PASSED. TIME crawled as Daisy waited to hear the results of the blood test. She spent as much time with the bees as she could, reorganizing the depleted hives and planning her next move.

  Despite Kael’s assurance that he wouldn’t try to take Travis from her, Daisy wasn’t so sure she believed him. Kael and his family were rich. He could hire the best lawyers. If he took a notion to fight her...

  Her heart wrenched. Would he really do that to her?

  “Daisy!”

  She raised her head and saw Aunt Peavy waving at her from the backyard. Shucking her bee veil, Daisy walked away from the apiary.

  Sweeping her hand through her hair, she licked her dry lips. The bees buzzed erratically around their condensed colonies, still shocked from the fire.

  “Telephone,” Aunt Peavy said. “It’s the laboratory.”

  This was it. The moment she’d been dreading since Travis’ birth. Somewhere deep inside her, she’d always known the truth. That Kael and Rose had indeed produced a child.

  Her child.

  Aunt Peavy reached out and squeezed her arm. “Whatever happens, Daisy, it’s going to be okay.”

  “I wish I could be so sure.”

  “You’re the strongest person I know. You’ll come through this with flying colors.”

  Daisy nodded and squared her shoulders. What choice did she have? Wiping the dirt from her shoes on the welcome mat, she went into the house and with trembling fingers, picked up the phone.

  “Hello?” Her voice came out dry and scratchy, her hand curling tightly around the receiver. Sudden dizziness made her head swim, and her vision blurred.

  “Is this Ms. Daisy Hightower?”

  “Yes, it is.” Daisy blinked, cleared her throat, and placed a palm flat against the table to brace herself.

  “This is Gina from Kelon Laboratories in San Antonio.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “We have the results of the paternity testing on your son Travis.”

  “Go ahead.” It took every ounce of strength Daisy possessed to say it.

  “The test came back ninety-nine percent conclusive that Kael Carmody is the father of your son.”

  THERE WAS ONLY ONE thing to do. Kael pocketed his cell
phone and grabbed his Stetson. He was going to ask Daisy to marry him and convince her it was the right thing to do.

  He was Travis’ father, and the child needed a man in his life. Daisy was in deep financial straits, and he had the money to provide for her and his son.

  And bottom line, he still loved Daisy. It didn’t matter if she didn’t love him anymore or that she could not forgive him for sleeping with Rose. She had two very good reasons for marrying him, and Kael was not about to give up until he won.

  The feelings swimming through Kael were foreign.

  A surge of fatherly pride followed by the conviction that he was inept and ill-equipped for the job. He didn’t know anything about being a parent. For the first time, someone would depend on him, and that scared Kael more than ten dozen bucking bulls.

  It was a humbling and awe-inspiring thought.

  He was a father.

  A dad.

  And he’d missed out on so much.

  Fear over his own performance as a parent dissipated as a hard chunk of anger wedged inside his head. His son was already over six years old!

  He’d been cheated. Robbed of the most precious moments of infancy and early childhood. He would never get up in the middle of the night and rock his newborn son. He would never see Travis’ first steps or hear his first words.

  Regret, heavy as a knife blade, split him straight through the heart.

  The more he thought about it, the madder he got. Daisy and Rose had been wrong not to contact him all those years ago and tell him he might be a father.

  So damn wrong.

  Stalking out of the house, Kael grit his teeth. He jumped into the pickup and gunned the engine. His hands shook, and his foot fumbled with the clutch. The pickup shot forward, then

  died.

  The catalog of missed “firsts” continued to tumble through Kael’s mind. He started the engine again and rammed the accelerator to the floorboard. The truck leaped onto the road, grinding gears and spewing gravel.

  First smile, first baby tooth, first birthday cake. First Christmas, first skinned knee, first day of school.

  Kael slammed his fist on the steering wheel and accidentally honked the horn. A farmer, riding a slow-moving tractor on the roadside, drove into the ditch to avoid him.

  He slowed and gave the guy a sheepish wave. His neighbor, Keegan Winslow. Sorry, Keegan.

  As long as he’d had the element of doubt about Travis’ parentage, Kael had been able to remain calm, but once that tech from the lab had removed all but a one percent margin of error, his paternal instincts kicked in.

  The tires squealed as he braked to a stop in Daisy’s driveway and leaped from the vehicle. He dashed up the porch, ignoring the ache in his leg, and pounded on her front door.

  Aunt Peavy appeared, a frown knitting her brow.

  “Where’s Daisy?” he demanded.

  “Here now, Kael,” the elderly lady scolded, shaking a finger in his face. “You settle down right this minute. Daisy is just as disturbed as you are.”

  “Where is she?” Kael repeated. He was long past the point of being cajoled.

  Aunt Peavy must have read his intention on his face because she opened the door and stepped aside. “She’s upstairs in her room. But I swear if you upset her, I’m going to come up there and whack you with my broom.”

  “Me? Upset her? How do you think it feels, Aunt Peavy, to discover out of nowhere that you have a six-year-old son?”

  Aunt Peavy sniffed and glared at him over the top of her thick glasses. “If you’d have come home once in the past seven years, maybe she would have told you.”

  Kael stuffed his hands in his pockets. “She should have told me, anyway.”

  “After the way you hurt her? I’m surprised she’ll even speak to you at all.”

  He drew in a deep breath. How had his life gotten so complicated? Things used to be so simple. Riding a bull. Staying on for eight seconds. No sweat.

  Except, even before his accident, Kael had grown bored with the whole process. He’d already conquered the top of the bull riding world. What else was left? Making a comeback from a crippling injury? Besides, if he gave up rodeoing, what would he do with himself?

  Be a father?

  Kael cringed. He was facing some hard choices.

  “If you’ll excuse me, Aunt Peavy, Daisy and I have a lot of things to discuss.”

  “Just you mind your tongue with her,” Aunt Peavy reminded him. “I’m an old lady, and she and Travis are all I have left.”

  Nodding, Kael edged past her and headed for the stairs.

  Daisy and Rose had once shared the first bedroom on the left. Kael laid his hand on the doorknob.

  Suddenly, it was very hard to breathe. He was about to cross the threshold into a whole new world of responsibility. With the proposition he was about to offer Daisy, Kael’s life as he knew it would cease to exist.

  He knocked.

  “Come in.”

  Kael turned the knob and pushed open the door.

  The room had changed since the last time Kael had visited it. In those days, there had been twin beds and a stereo system stocked with the latest music. A television set and matching beanbag chairs, brightly colored knickknacks and makeup strewn across the old dressing table.

  Today, the room reflected Daisy’s solo personality. The flamboyant posters of movie stars and rock legends were gone. The electronic equipment had disappeared as well as the old furnishings. Everything was simple, direct, and functional. There were no frills, no ruffles, no extravagance. The walls were painted white and adorned only by pictures of Travis, Rose, Aunt Peavy, and Daisy’s parents. The small bookcase housed numerous tomes on beekeeping and farm repair, but there were no novels or biographies, no entertaining reading of any kind.

  But it was Daisy that seized his attention.

  She sat cross-legged in the middle of her queen-size bed, her face buried in her hands. Her hair was pulled in a ponytail, and she wore a red T-shirt and a pair of cutoff blue jeans that showed off her long, slender legs. A box of tissues rested beside her.

  “Daisy?” The anger that had carried him this far quietly evaporated as he realized she’d been crying. He’d never seen her cry, not even when her parents had been killed. Taken aback, he simply stood there.

  She sniffled and raised her head. Her eyes were moist, her nose reddened, but her shoulders were set firm and brave.

  “Kael.”

  “The lab called me.” He hesitated in the doorway, his hand still worrying the knob.

  “I know. Me too.”

  Their eyes fastened on each other.

  “I’m a dad.”

  DAISY’S HEART STUTTERED against her breastbone. The moment of truth had arrived. Her worst suspicions had been confirmed. The man she had loved for so long was indeed the father of her twin sister’s child. That awful night over seven years ago had come back to haunt them both with a vengeance.

  “May I come in?” he asked, his question surprising her.

  She’d heard him downstairs talking to Aunt Peavy, his voice raised in anger. She knew Kael was not a man to be thwarted, and she had expected him to come charging into her room like a Brahma on a rampage, demanding joint custody of her son. Instead, he looked rather like a lost little boy himself.

  Before she could steel herself, a wash of emotions swamped Daisy. Swallowing hard, she

  willed herself free of feelings. Denying her heartache was the only way she’d survived all these years. Now was not the time to let down her guard and give in to the quicksand of fear and sadness.

  “Come on in,” she invited, and he shut the door behind him.

  The small room shrunk in his presence. Daisy nervously fingered a shredded tissue.

  “We’ve got to talk.”

  She waved a hand at the rocking chair, resigned to the inevitable.

  Kael ignored the chair and stepped closer to the bed. He limped slightly, and the evidence of his wound yanked at something deep inside Dai
sy.

  For the longest time, she’d even refused to date him because he was a bull rider. She’d seen no percentage in becoming involved with a man who courted danger. Why get mixed up with extra trouble when life already offered so much grief?

  And she’d been right about him, too. But that knowledge did nothing to ease her suffering.

  Even though common sense had warned her off, she’d been attracted to him. Just like now. There was something irresistible about Kael. From that wide, cocky grin to his nonchalant stride, he made a girl yearn to be kissed.

  The way he was looking at her didn’t help matters, either. He pushed aside her pillows and lowered himself down on the bed beside her.

  The aroma of this male—zest and sunshine, soap and leather—descended upon her. Rousing not only long-dormant memories but her sexual desire as well.

  Daisy hiccupped back salty tears and struggled to calm her rapidly fluttering pulse. No man

  had ever awakened her the way Kael did, and the control he wielded bothered her. For over seven years, she’d fought that power and stupidly believed she’d gotten over him. She was wrong.

  “I’m sorry,” he said simply. “For all the pain I caused you and Rose and Travis.”

  Daisy touched the tip of her tongue to her upper lip and sat in stunned silence. She had anticipated his anger. Instead, he was asking for her forgiveness.

  “I don’t know where to begin,” Kael said, “making up for the damage I’ve caused.”

  “We’ve got to do what’s best for Travis,” Daisy said.

  “I agree.” He reached across the bed and took her hand.

  His touch, like the Earth’s atmosphere to a meteor, sent her splintering into a thousand hot, brittle pieces.

  Daisy sucked in her breath through gritted teeth and jerked back.

  But it was too late. She’d been stamped by his mark, labeled with the unmistakable imprint of Kael’s woman.

  “That’s why you’re going to marry me,” he continued.

  “Excuse me?” Daisy arched her back and turned to stare him full in the face. “What?” Had she heard him correctly? Was he actually telling her she was going to marry him?