Jenny reached out an placed her hand on his shoulder. “Maybe everyone isn’t better off with you out of their lives,” she said.
Jason heaved a weary sigh that brought his shoulders rising under her hand. “I complicate lives wherever I go. But I’m not fishing for sympathy.” He reached for her hand on his shoulder and kissed it, then stood and walked over to where Lily leaned against the sofa playing with her doll. He lifted Lily onto his lap and sat on the sofa. Lily leaned against his chest and toyed with the lace on her doll’s dress. He looked at Jenny over the top of Lily’s head and said, “Tell me about the man I saw here this morning. Do you plan to marry him after we divorce?”
Jenny tried to assimilate what he’d just said, but her mind was still focused on his unexpected kiss. The man leaving here this morning? At last absorbing what he’d said, she raised a hand to stifle a giggle. “I don’t think so. I’d be marrying my brother, Frank, if I did.”
Jason stared at her, brows gathered in a frown. “Your brother?”
“I have no wish to marry anyone after we divorce,” she said. “But you might tell me about the woman you want to marry.”
Jason's frown deepened. “What makes you think I want to marry?”
“Why else would you travel so far to end our marriage?”
“I didn’t come here to end our marriage.”
“Why then?”
“To see you and Lily. To assure myself that you were happy.”
“But I’m not happy,” she said, her voice reflecting the longing, the pining, the terrible emptiness she’d endured for two long years. Then it all tumbled out, all the things she’d held bottled up inside and vowed never to say. “I may be blessed with two wonderful children but they have no father, and there’s no one who could ever take the place of the man who should be their father. You’re my husband, Jason, the only husband I want, and I’ve never stopped loving you or wanting you. And no, I’m not better off without you. I’m sad and lonely, and without you in my life I’ll be sad and lonely until the day I die. I’m sorry if that makes me a burden to you, but I can’t help the way I feel.”
Jason stared in disbelief. Then he lifted Lily off his lap and walked to where she stood. He took the clipping from her and set it aside, then pulled her to her feet. Taking her face between his hands, he kissed her deeply and pulled her into his arms and held her. She slid her arms around him and rested her head against his chest. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve dreamed of holding you like this?” he said. “But my life was so messed up I didn’t dare hope, only dream, knowing it could never be.”
Jenny looked up at him. “Do you love me?” It seemed such a simple question, yet the rest of her life depended on his answer.
Jason peered into her eyes and replied, “Yes, I love you completely.”
Tears of happiness filled her eyes. “Well, your life isn’t messed up now and you have no place to go and I want you here. I’m weary of hoping and dreaming and looking for you everywhere I go. When I go to bed I want to be able to reach out every night of my life and find you beside me and feel your arms around me and know you’ll always be with me. I love you, Jason, and I always will.”
Jason tightened his arms around her. “Do you think you’d be happy married to... oh, I don’t know... Maybe the owner of a hotel?”
“I’d be happy married to a chicken farmer if I knew it was you. But a hotel owner would be fine. Is that what you want?”
“Other than mining and running saloons, I suppose that’s what I know best. Cedar Rapids is a growing town and there’s property available close to the business center where we could build a fine hotel with a big ballroom where I could spin you around the dance floor.”
Jenny leaned back in Jason’s embrace and looked up at him, eyes glistening with joy. “Then you’ve learned how to dance?”
Jason kissed his way along the side of her face and nibbled at her lips and said between short, sweet kisses, “No, but maybe in time I could. It would give me a reason to dress you up in beautiful gowns and spoil you with diamonds and emeralds.” His face grew serious. He reached for her hand and looked at her bare ring finger, his brow drawn. “You sold the ring.”
“Never, my love,” Jenny said. She pulled on a chain holding the emerald ring. “On wash day I wear it on a chain close to my heart.” She planted a kiss on his lips, and after he returned the kiss with all the longing that had been trapped inside him for two long years, she snuggled in his arms and said, “It just came to me that Myles MacDonald, the person named on Lily's birth certificate as her father, is a man who was killed several years before she was born.”
Jason tightened his arms around her. "Yeah, well he won't be on it much longer," he said. "I'll be adopting Lily now, so my name will be on her certificate."
"Then we can truly bury Myles MacDonald along with James Dagget. I never want to hear the name of either mentioned again."
"Nor do I." Jason released Jenny long enough to pick up the clipping and rip it into shreds, then took her in his arms again. “Lily should never learn the truth about her father. It happened before she was born and she must not be burdened by it.”
From the bedroom came the sound of the baby babbling. Jenny looked up from the warm security of Jason’s embrace, and said, “Would you like to meet your son?”
Jason nodded. “I’d like that very much.”
Jenny took his hand and led him into her bedroom and over to the crib, where the toddler held onto the side rail while standing on sturdy legs. “Jason Colby Junior,” she said to the boy, “I’d like you to meet your father.” She looked at Jason. “As you can see your son is the spitting image of you. Look at those devil eyes and that crop of dark curls. And if that’s not his father’s roguish smile I don’t know what is.”
Jason’s face grew pensive. “Yes, he’s my boy all right, and I hope I can do right by him, and Lily. I never thought I’d have a family... Never thought I ever deserved one.”
Jenny touched his cheek. “Every child deserves a loving family. You just had to wait a little longer for yours.” She slipped her arm in his and snuggled against him. “And you will do fine by both of our children. You’ll grow into it. And in due time you’ll realize you’re everything any child could want in a father.”
Jason lifted the boy out of the crib and held him in the crook of his arm. The boy stared at him with big blue-gray eyes. “You’re a fine, strapping lad,” Jason said proudly, and kissed his son on the cheek. Then he looked at Jenny with regret. “Did you hate me when you found out you were carrying my child?”
Jenny reached up and touched his cheek. “How could I possibly hate you? Our son was a gift from you to me. He was a part of you. Everyday when I looked at him I saw something of you in him and knew that when my memory would one day start to fade I could look at our son and see you. He has brought so much joy into my life.”
Jason trailed a knuckle along his son’s chin, as if to assure himself that he was real, then looked at Jenny and said, “All I can think is that I wasn’t here for you when you gave birth, and I wasn’t here for his first smile or his first laugh or his first tooth. And you’ve had to do it all yourself." The look he gave her was one of pure admiration.
"Well I don't have to do it alone anymore," Jenny said. "And you will be here to teach your son to play pat-a-cake, and to shoot a gun, and maybe the two of you can learn to play baseball. And you will be here to see your daughter grow into a beautiful young woman, and to lecture every young buck who comes to court her, and one day to walk her down the aisle."
Jason smiled a warm, adoring smile filled with all the love Jenny could ever have imagined. “You’re a brave, strong woman, Jenny Colby, and no man could be prouder of his wife than I am of you. And no man could possibly love his wife more than I love you.” He curved his arm around her, pulled her to him and kissed her on the forehead.
“And no woman could possibly love her husband more. As for your son, I just hope he’s half the man hi
s father is when he’s grown.”
Jason gave her a wry smile. “You do know how to flatter a man.” He felt a tug on his pants and looked down to see Lily glowering up at him. He laughed. Withdrawing his arm from around Jenny, he said, “Sorry, sweetheart. I’ll take care of you tonight in bed. Right now my daughter is demanding my attention.” He scooped Lily up and held her facing her brother. He looked from one child to the other, then at Jenny, and said, “If I wake up and find this is only a dream, just shoot me and put me out of my misery.”
Jenny gave him a seductive smile. “I’m sorry, love, I missed what you said. I’m still thinking about you taking care of me in bed tonight. Can I hold you to that?” She placed her hands on his overloaded arms and stood on tiptoe.
He kissed the lips she offered and said, “Tonight, tomorrow, and until you’re a beautiful old woman with that little gleam of desire still burning in your eyes, and I’m an old rascal of a man with the sole purpose in life of keeping that gleam there.” He spread his arms just wide enough for Jenny to join the family circle, and she slipped her arms around his waist and snuggled against him. He closed his arms around her. Life was truly worthwhile... at last.
###
BOOKS BY PATRICIA WATTERS
HISTORICAL ROMANCES
Colby's Child
Her Master's Touch
Tame A Wild Heart
Miss Phipps and the Cattle Baron
CONTEMPORARY ROMANCES
Adversaries and Lovers
Suddenly Single
Justified Deception
Unwelcome Legacy
A Dolphin's Gift
BOOKS SOON TO BE RELEASED
Come Be My Love
Touch Me With Love
WHISPERING SPRINGS CHRONICLES
PATHS OF DESTINY TRILOGY
Book One: Playing With Destiny
Book Two: Playing With Fire
Book Three: Playing With Fate
SINS OF THE FATHERS TRILOGY
Book One: Bittersweet Promises
Book Two: Bittersweet Love
Book Three: Bittersweet Memories
www.patriciawattersromances.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana, Patricia Watters gave up the glamour and pageantry of the city, and now writes novels from a hand-built log house nestled in the evergreen forests of Oregon. An author with Harlequin and Avon-Harper Collins in the past, Patricia specializes in romance, and she invites you to visit her website at: www.patriciawattersromances.com.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Colby's Child Page 23