He nodded at her, his lips in a flat line, and squeezed her hand still clasped in his to his chest. “Whatever it is, it can’t be worse than what I’m imagining. Just tell me.”
Or maybe it is worse.
“I don’t know who Whit’s father is.”
As his eyes widened and his head tilted forward on his neck as understanding struck him, she realized that this was news she probably should’ve shared with both of them and she said as much. He stroked her hand with his thumb as she explained the circumstances surrounding Whit’s conception. When she finally ran out of steam, pain crept into her heart as she realized the callousness of her confession taking place only moments after he confessed that he loved her. This wasn’t fair for him to find out what kind of person she was after he’d shared his heart.
“Do you love him?” he asked, his eyelids lowered so she couldn’t gauge his reaction.
“No. How could I after one night?” That was the only answer she could give him that made sense, even though many deeper emotions clouded the issue. Whit’s father had never hurt her, and because of him Whit was a part of her life. She did feel a kind of love for him but not the same as she felt for Kendry and his brother.
“But you said you regretted not telling him your name.”
She nodded, the truth searing her heart. “I do regret it. A father should know about his kids.”
“And if you see him again?”
Presley Ann shook her head. “He wasn’t from this area, he told me that much.”
Kendry looked up at her and murmured, “But we both know that if he did see you again, he would want you.”
Presley Ann shook her head. “I don’t know that. For all I know he might be angry. I told him I was on the pill. Just another one of my epic failures.” She searched his eyes for traces of anger, disappointment, or judgment.
He let out a breath and then crowded close to her and reached out to stroke her jaw. “If it was me in his shoes, I’d want to know, and I’d want you both. But understand something, kitten. I love you, and the fact that you made a mistake that resulted in your little boy coming into the world doesn’t change that. I love him, too.” He let out a slow exhalation and she could see that he was keeping at least some his thoughts to himself. She didn’t blame him.
“I’m sorry. I was scared that if you knew it would change the way you look at me.”
A smile slowly curved his lips as he stroked her furrowed brow and he leaned down to kiss her, his touch reassuring. Even the pounding of his heart against the back of her hand that he still clasped to him had slowed. “You wouldn’t hold me accountable for past mistakes I’ve made, or Jared, for that matter. I was curious about Whit’s father from the very beginning, and knew there had to be a story there.”
“I was too embarrassed to tell you.”
“We all have embarrassing stuff in our lives.”
“You? No. Not likely.”
“Yes, I was a bed-wetter,” he said, grinning at her until she burst into giggles. “And I was chubby in school until I went out for track in middle school. And I once split my pants in front of the entire school cafeteria. And I got an erection during a high school play I was performing in.”
With each statement, her giggles grew louder until she was finally snorting with laughter. “Oh no.”
His eyes twinkled as he said, “It popped up because I was nervous and wouldn’t go away. I was known as ‘boner’ for the rest of my high school career. See? We all have embarrassing stuff in our pasts. And before you say it, I count the adorable evidence of your past mistake as something to be thankful for instead of embarrassed about.”
Her laughter died down, to be replaced by a fuzzy warmth filling her chest and she reached up to stroke his bearded chin. “I’m lucky and blessed that you feel that way. Not many men would.”
“I’d claim him—and you—as mine any day of the week. Now, you need your rest since we have special plans for you tomorrow night.”
“You do?” she asked as she yawned.
“Yes, since Christmas Eve is going to be at your dad’s house, we’re taking you and Whit out tomorrow night.”
“I’ll be off by six.”
“Good.” He spooned up behind her. “Get some rest because I’m not done with you yet.”
Even his erotic threat didn’t keep her from conking out as she rested her head on his biceps.
Chapter Fifteen
Jared chuckled, unable to deny the warmth that grew in his chest as Whit grinned up at him from his car seat. Despite being so tiny, Whit knew him, and that connection really got to Jared as he unlatched the safety harness and gathered the baby against his chest. The boy even smelled good, he thought, as he pressed his nose and lips against the crown of his head.
He heard Presley Ann giggle softly as she moved in beside him in the open doorway of the truck. “They should bottle that scent, huh?” she asked as she stroked Jared’s arm. “Can I take him?” she asked as she adjusted her red sling and held her hands out.
“Nope, it’s my turn,” Kendry said as he came around to the door, too.”
Whit decided for them as he looked at her and whimpered, his little hands reaching for her. She said, “I’ll take him, since he looks like he’s getting hungry.”
The quiet night and rest she’d gotten with Kendry seemed to have been just what she needed. Although Kendry had mentioned that she’d awakened during the night and taken full advantage of him, a fact which made his brother grin like an idiot as he’d described the encounter.
Whit let out a soft sigh as Presley Ann took him and held him to her chest as she situated him in the sling. She seemed to glow in the twilight and he couldn’t help himself when he leaned down to kiss her crown.
“What was that for?” There was a softness in her voice, a quality that had nothing to do with what she said but more with the feelings she projected. Satisfaction filled him as he gazed at her. The changes were subtle but he’d been noticing it since stopping in to see her in the store to drop off lunch for her earlier that afternoon. She’d been chatting with a customer, smiling and laughing at something they said, before moving on to her next task. She’d been walking up the aisle toward him, and as she looked up and made eye contact with him, her already beautiful face had brightened so much that it’d made his chest ache just to look at her. Then as she reached for him he’d realized what made the difference. The reserve was gone. Was she finally beginning to understand? Because they were in a public place, with her coworkers and customers looking on, he hadn’t said anything, but there was no reason to hold back now.
“I love you,” he whispered as he brushed his lips against her temple once more.
He could feel Kendry’s eyes on him and he glanced up, not surprised to find Kendry smiling as he rubbed the scar on his sternum. He reached down with the other hand and patted his jacket pocket.
“O’Reilley’s parking lot hardly seems the place for an assignation, Presley Ann Woodworth. Especially with an innocent child in tow. Wait until your father hears about this perverted business,” her aunt said in a terse voice as she walked past them on the nearby sidewalk.
Walking beside her, Willie harrumphed and said, “She doesn’t care, mom. Hell, she’s also living with them.”
The aunt tsked and then made a snide comment under her breath. “Shameless hussy. Your poor father.”
When he would’ve replied, Presley Ann put a gentle hand on his chest and gave a minute shake of her head. Quietly, she said, “Don’t bother. They’re not worth it.”
Kendry made a disgusted sound as both women strutted away like two ruffled chickens, and then he muttered, “What is with that woman? She’s really got it out for you. And what’s with her popping up like Whack-a-mole everywhere we go? Is that her daughter?”
Presley Ann took a deep breath and let it out. “Yes, I work with her at the store. One of several reasons I hope to go full time as a self-employed person. The joys of small town living.”
He didn’t make a reply because he didn’t think Presley Ann had seen. He wouldn’t risk the woman repeating herself in Presley Ann’s hearing. This was a special night and he wouldn’t allow that woman’s ignorance to ruin it.
Presley Ann ignored her relatives as she cooed to Whit, adjusting the little Elmer Fudd hat on his head and bussing his cheek and earning a grin from him.
“Angel, would you like us to take you to Chantilly’s in Morehead instead, so you don’t have to see either of them?”
She glanced from him to his brother and said, “No, because they’re probably packed already and I like eating here. It’s her loss if she refuses to accept my son into the family and the two of you in my life, and I don’t need her approval in order to feel good about myself. I love two men. If they don’t like it, they can kiss my booty.”
Standing behind her, Kendry’s face went slack as he clutched playfully at his chest and staggered, mouthing, “Marry me.”
Jared chuckled, even though his joints went weak and he could almost imagine hitting his knees right then and there. She deserved the trappings, the romance. At the very least she and the baby deserved to get in out of the cold. “You’re sure?”
She grabbed her pretty blue scarf from Whit’s diaper bag and nodded. “Very sure. I’m not hiding from her or anyone else.”
He still planned to ask for a table on the other side of the restaurant from that contentious pair. Presley Ann needed to feed Whit soon and there was no point in opening her up to further criticism.
They bookended her as they walked up to O’Reilley’s entrance. The imposing, inlaid wood doors suddenly swung open, revealing the pressing horde in the foyer and a cacophony of sound as a couple of men exited.
“I knew this was a bad idea,” a tall man in a black cowboy hat said, before swearing softly under his breath.
His companion looked back at the mob inside as a group of individuals who looked like bodyguards slipped out of the doors, forming a bulky barrier to keep the door closed. A muscle-bound man joined the two men and growled, “Guys, we’ve got to move now.”
“Sorry,” the second man said as he turned toward the courtyard. “I just thought there might be a chance—”
A sharp gasp stopped Jared and his brother in their tracks and they looked down at Presley Ann as she froze in mid-step before she began backing up.
“Oh no,” she whispered. Her expression was slack and she’d gone deathly pale. Jared barely turned in time to catch her as she tripped on her feet, her eyes never leaving the pair of tall, black-haired cowboys in the courtyard. As the two men paused under an overhead light, Jared realized the men were identical twins. A pair of very well-known twins. The men set eyes on Presley Ann and Whit and froze.
The bodyguard tried to maneuver the men around her, until he noted the gaping shock on Presley Ann’s face. His assessing gaze dipped down to Whit and then he froze, too. He squinted at the baby, who looked up at him with big eyes. The bodyguard’s eyes bugged as he looked back and forth between the twins and the baby. “Oh shit.” He looked behind him as someone from inside tried to push the door open. “We gotta move, guys. I don’t know what this goat fuck is all about but you’re a smartphone camera shot away from a social media shit storm. You’re coming, too,” he growled at Presley Ann.
Presley Ann was panting as she looked from Jared to Kendry and then rosy color darkened her cheeks. Jared caught Presley Ann when her knees buckled under her and whispered, “He’s right, angel. I don’t know what’s happening but there’s about to be a spectacle.”
With a snarl, the bodyguard, who seemed to be in charge of the other men at the door, said, “So much for being relatively unknown in the area.” He crowded the two men, trying to get them to move away from the entry as he spoke to Presley Ann. “Wipe the fake shock off your face, honey, and come with us to the bus. I’ll contact their manager and see about getting a check cut for you. That’s what you wanted, right?”
“Hey!” Kendry said as he moved in front of Presley Ann and said, “You don’t talk to her like that.”
The man loomed over Kendry and said, “Unless you want your woman’s face, and the kid’s, plastered over every tabloid in America, I suggest you move her ass to the bus, and fast.”
Everything happened so quickly, Jared’s head was spinning, as they were ushered by the lead bodyguard and two others toward a pair of slick, black buses parked around the side of the restaurant away from all the other cars.
“Stop,” Presley Ann said softly as they approached the bus. The bodyguards kept them moving, and she finally planted her feet. “Stop!”
The bodyguard tried to move her bodily toward the opening door on the bus but one of the twins held up a hand to stop him. “Damn it, Paul, she probably thinks she’s being kidnapped the way you’re handling her.”
“I don’t understand—” Presley Ann tried to say but Paul cut her off.
“Not buying it, sweetheart. You saw an easy meal ticket and you’re trying to take advantage,” he muttered as he pointed at Whit.
Jared could see the confusion on her face and reached up to stroke her neck through her hair. “Angel, do you know who these two men are?”
She turned wide blue eyes up to him. Eyes that held only shock and confusion. She nodded and then shook her head, confirming at least one of his fears. One of those men was Whit’s father. But then she looked at the entourage and the two buses. “I don’t understand—”
Paul scoffed but Jared ignored him as he gestured to the bus and pointed at the men in front of them. “You’ve never heard of Truehart and Noble Strong? On the radio?”
“What? No.”
“What rock do you live under, lady?” Paul asked, doubt obvious in his tone. “You’re looking at the biggest names in country and western music right now. You never turn on the radio?”
Whit whimpered and she wrapped protective arms around him as she glowered at Paul and said, “When I’m not working my ass off I’m taking care of my son. You’ll forgive me if I don’t pay much attention to the Top Forty.” Under other circumstances, Jared would’ve enjoyed the show of spirit.
Jared shook his head and said, “She’s not a country and western music fan.”
Paul took a breath and then looked at the twins. “My responsibility is protecting the two of you. It’s obvious a conversation needs to happen here but it needs to be on the bus, not where everyone can watch. And we have a schedule to keep. We need to get on the road.” He turned to Presley Ann and said, “Whatever little media surprise you had planned didn’t work but don’t worry, I’ll take care of getting you what you really came for. Now get your gold-digging ass on the bus.”
Jared sprang at the man and growled. “Don’t fucking talk to her like that.” He had surprise in his favor as he pushed the man back against the bus, before the muscle-bound guy clocked him in the jaw and sent him sprawling to the asphalt.
“Damn it!” one of the pair of twins said. “Just hold on a second! Paul, you’re making a bigger spectacle of this than anyone else. Everybody just calm down!” He turned to Presley Ann and drilled her with cold, black eyes. “Who in the fuck are you? And what are you trying to do?”
Presley Ann shrank back from him and clutched Whit, who had begun to wail.
Truehart, who hadn’t said much yet, grasped his brother by the shirt front and said, “Noble, stop it.” That was when Jared finally focused on Truehart’s face. He stared at Presley Ann, and there was no anger in his expression, only shock.
Presley Ann consoled Whit as she stared wide-eyed at him. Jared had to grit his teeth as her guarded expression turned to one of relief. “Is it you? Your hair…” she whispered before running out of steam.
He
pulled his hat from his head, his expression changing from one of shock, to something much more unsettling to Jared. Much softer. He tugged one hand through the long, jet black strands and said, “I grew it out. It’s really you, isn’t it? And…” His gaze shifted to the baby and he drew in a deep breath.
She nodded and then looked down at Whit. She gulped loudly, a vulnerable, lost sound, as she gently tugged the hat from Whit’s head, revealing all his thick tufts of jet black hair. Hair exactly like the man standing in front of her. Finally surmising that the baby was related to him, Noble let out a curse and his cowboy boots echoed like gunfire as he stomped onto the bus.
Paul reached out for Presley Ann as if he planned to drag her onto the bus. Jared and Kendry closed in around her to protect her from his touch, and the other man put his hand on Paul’s shoulder. “I know it’s part of your job to protect us, but you will fucking respect this woman. Is that understood?”
Paul looked down at her and curled his lip and said, “Respect a fucking groupie looking for an easy meal ticket? Please.”
The black-haired man seemed to grow a few inches as he got in the bodyguard’s face. “She is not a groupie.”
Paul looked over their heads at the restaurant and said, “The rest of the guys are coming to load up. I don’t care what she is, True. Get her on the bus so you can deal with this fuckup.”
True turned to her and said, “Could we talk for a few minutes in private on the bus?”
Other members of the group joined them, having various reactions—confusion, shock, disgruntlement, and in one case amusement, as they spotted the baby.
“True, you dog!” one long-haired guy said, lifting his hand for a fist bump before schooling his expression, as he caught on to the tension around them. “My bad. We’re going,” he added as he pushed the others toward the bus next door. “We’ll ride with the roadies on this leg of the trip. Let y’all have some privacy.”
Absentminded Angel [Divine Creek Ranch 20] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 20