Brenda Jackson The Westmoreland Collection: ZaneCanyonStern

by Brenda Jackson

As if he’d given her a choice. “No. You said nine and it’s barely seven.”

  “I know. I got up at five and worked out some. Now I’m about to go horseback riding in the canyon, which is something I do every Saturday morning.”

  “Big bed, Dad.”

  Canyon laughed at how wide Beau had stretched out his arms.

  “Mine is bigger,” he said to his son, extending his arms out wider.

  Beau’s eyes widened. “Bigger?”

  Canyon smiled. “Yes, bigger.” He then glanced over at Keisha. “I’ll leave you two to get dressed and will be back in an hour to give you a tour of my home.”

  “That’s not necessary,” she said.

  “Yes, it is. Beau will be spending a lot of time here with me, and I want you to be comfortable that he’s in a safe environment.”

  Tilting her head, she studied Canyon’s features and saw the same handsome man she’d always seen. But there was a determination in his eyes that let her know that when it came to Beau he meant what he’d said last night. He would not let her come between him and his child again.

  “I’ll be ready for that tour when you get back,” she said.

  He arched his brow and continued to look at her as if surprised she’d given in so easily. She was smart enough to know which battles to fight and which ones to let go...for now. “Come on, Beau, we need to get dressed.”

  “Wanna see Dad’s big bed, Mommy.”

  She was curious about Canyon’s big bed, as well. “Later, Beau. We need to put our clothes on and get ready to go. Your daddy is taking us somewhere.”

  He looked at her confused. “My daddy?”

  “Yes.” Keisha knew that right now, to Beau, Canyon was Dad...as if Dad was Canyon’s name and not the role the name represented. She needed to make Beau understand. “Mommy,” she said, pointing at herself. “And Daddy,” she said, pointing at Canyon.

  Beau poked out his little bottom lip. “No, Mommy. He Dad.”

  Keisha smiled. “Yes, and he’s Daddy, too.”

  Beau scrunched up his face. “Daddy?”

  “Yes, Daddy.” She knew Beau was trying to recall all the times he’d heard other kids use the word daddy, mostly during pickup at day care or when the twins next door talked to Everett. Beau had never been around a male for any long period of time, and he certainly hadn’t been around one that he could call daddy. Until now.

  Beau turned to Canyon and a big, wide smile spread across his lips. “Wanna see your big bed, Daddy-Dad.”

  Canyon couldn’t help but laugh out loud before saying. “And you will, but not now.” He looked at Keisha. “Thanks.”

  * * *

  Canyon knew what Keisha had tried to do this morning with Beau, and he appreciated it.

  After one hell of a sleepless night, he’d woken up determined to make this a good day. He would be introducing Beau to his family, and he was pretty damn excited about it.

  An hour later, as Canyon returned from riding his horse, he was still filled with excitement. There was something about riding across his land and through the canyon that soothed him. Not only was it his heritage and his legacy, it was also his solace. And one day he would leave it all to his son.

  Beau.

  The realization that he had a son filled him in a way he hadn’t thought possible. A child had never been a top priority for him. Hell, a wife hadn’t either, until Keisha. But seeing Beau, holding him, touching him—that parental part of Canyon had come alive and had become so deep that he could feel it in every part of his body. He’d meant every single word he’d told Keisha last night. He didn’t intend to be separated from his child ever again.

  He wasn’t sure how she would deal with it or how she would deal with him. That wasn’t his concern. The only thing that mattered to him was building a strong relationship with his child, starting now. Today. He needed to make up for all the time he’d lost, and he refused to let her stand in his way.

  He recognized the frigid looks she was prone to giving him and knew his responsive stare was just as bad. The only thing holding his temper in check whenever he thought about the two years he’d lost was to remember what Dillon had said last night. She could have made a different decision regarding Beau, but she hadn’t.

  He walked into his house, placed his Stetson on the hat rack and glanced up at the same time that Keisha and Beau were coming down the stairs. Beau grinned wide when he saw Canyon and was about to take off toward him, but Keisha held firm to his hand. “No, Beau. Remember. No running down the stairs.”

  “Yes, Mommy.”

  Canyon couldn’t stop staring at Keisha. She had changed into a pair of jeans and a pullover blouse. To his way of thinking, she looked absolutely beautiful. He recalled yesterday when he’d seen her walk out of her office and noticed that her body had changed. Now he knew why. Because of Beau.

  She’d always had a nice body, now it was even curvier. More enticing. More tempting.

  He pushed those thoughts from his mind. He would not become involved with a woman who didn’t trust him, and she’d proved just how much she didn’t.

  As soon as Beau’s feet touched the floor, he took off running toward Canyon. “You know the rule, Beau,” Keisha said. “No running in the house.”

  He stopped and looked back at Keisha. “Not my house.”

  Canyon had to cough to keep from laughing out loud and hung his head when Keisha shot him a warning look. “It doesn’t matter, young man, whose house it is. No running in any house. Understand?”

  He nodded and then walked as fast as his little legs could take him to Canyon. He reached up his arms. “Pick me up high again, Daddy-Dad.”

  “See what you started,” Keisha said.

  Canyon chuckled as he hoisted Beau up in the air, thinking that he didn’t mind. In fact, he loved hearing the sound of his son’s laughter. “And for the record, this is your house, too, Beau.” He glanced over at Keisha with a look that dared her to refute his words.

  He placed Beau on his shoulders and said, “Now for that tour I promised you.”

  * * *

  Keisha had already seen Canyon’s living and dining rooms as well as the kitchen. But he showed all of it to her again anyway. “While I’m showing you around, note if anything is a red flag where a child is concerned and let me know so I can change it.”

  “All right,” Keisha said as he led her up the second set of spiral stairs.

  This was the first house she’d seen that had two beautiful spiral staircases, but the layout didn’t look odd. The two staircases appeared to join at the top, when they really did not. The effect was simply breathtaking.

  With Beau still perched on his shoulder Canyon turned when they reached the landing. “This is where my suite is located as well as other rooms for my pleasure.”

  For his pleasure? She wondered what kind of rooms they were.

  It didn’t take her long to find out. She entered the first room, the one he’d called his mini-gym. His personal workout room had every piece of weight-lifting equipment imaginable. Next was a game room with a dartboard, a pool table and a big flat-screen television that seemed to be over eight feet wide.

  “Nice,” she said. She could envision him in both rooms after a long and tiresome day at the office. He would probably work out first, shower and then go into his game room and unwind before calling it a night.

  “This way to my bedroom,” he said, leading her down a spacious hall that led to massive double doors made of dark oak. When he opened the door she just stood in the doorway and stared.

  “Big, big bed, Mommy.”

  That was an understatement. She was familiar with a queen-size bed since she had one of her own, and of course she’d seen a king-size. But this one had to be a super-duper king. “Yes, this is definitely big.”


  “Big, big, Mommy,” Beau reiterated

  She chuckled. “Okay, Beau. Big, big. Your daddy has a big, big bed.”

  “Let’s see if it’s too big for you,” Canyon said, dumping Beau off his shoulders and into the center. Beau bounced up and down, laughing a few times.

  “Fun, Mommy, fun. Come on bed, Mommy. Get in Daddy-Dad bed.”

  Keisha was certain her face tinted at the thought of her doing that. “No thanks. I’ll just stand here and watch you.” She didn’t have to glance over at Canyon to know he was looking at her. She could feel the heat of his gaze all over.

  Instead of looking at Canyon, she walked over to the huge wall-to-wall window. He had an amazing view from his bedroom, of the canyon as well as the Denver sky above it.

  Her heart began pounding in her chest when she felt Canyon’s heat and knew he had come to stand behind her. To take her mind off his presence, she said, “This is a beautiful view of the canyon.”

  “Yes, I think so, as well. That’s why I designed the house this way so I could wake up to the canyon every morning.”

  She turned and noticed Beau still bouncing as if Canyon’s bed was a trampoline. “And what about your guests? They don’t have this view.”

  He shrugged as an impish grin touched his lips. “No, all the guest rooms have a view of the mountains. I don’t think that’s so bad.”

  She didn’t think it was so bad either. In fact, she’d liked it, and when she’d woken up this morning, she couldn’t help looking out the window at the mountains while getting dressed. This house, Canyon’s Bluff, could grow on a person.

  “Come on, let me show you the other parts of the house.” He moved away, went to the bed and caught Beau in his arms as he bounced. Canyon then left the room.

  She followed, taking a quick peek into his bathroom. She shook her head. The master bath was to die for and was bigger than the living room at her house. Her house. She then remembered why she was here and what someone had done to her home, her sanctuary. The place where she’d always felt secure. She couldn’t push away the thought that someone had intentionally taken that security from her. Like the deputy had said, whoever had trashed her home had done so to make a point. But she had no idea what it was.

  Fifteen minutes later, Canyon ended his tour in the room that housed an indoor swimming pool. Like the rest of the house, the room was beautiful, and no matter what the weather was outside—even if the grounds were blanketed in snow—you could have a nice swim.

  “So did you see anything?” he asked in a voice that, to her way of thinking, sounded way too sexy. They were leaving the pool room, and he took the time to lock the door behind him.

  She lifted a brow. “Anything like what?”

  “Anything I need to be concerned about when Beau spends the weekends.”

  His words reminded her that he intended to be a part of her son’s life, her life, whether she wanted him to or not. “The only thing I saw that would concern me is the pool. Beau can’t swim.”

  He nodded as he led them back to the living room. Beau was still riding Canyon’s shoulders with his legs dangling around Canyon’s neck. “No problem. I intend to start teaching him how to swim next week.”

  Keisha bit down on her lip to keep from telling Canyon he shouldn’t make assumptions. Granted, upon seeing how well Canyon and Beau were getting along, a part of her was regretting keeping them apart, but she refused to let him run roughshod over her.

  She was still Beau’s custodial parent...although she had placed Canyon’s name as the father on the birth certificate. That had been the one concession she’d given after being hassled by her mother. Lynn had regretted not putting Kenneth Drew’s name on Keisha’s birth certificate. Even though Kenneth had not claimed his daughter, she was his blood nonetheless. Acknowledging that kinship would have at least given Keisha the name of the man who’d fathered her.

  “If you recall, I taught you how to swim,” Canyon said, putting Beau down on the floor, watching as he walked quickly over to the huge aquarium and pressed his face against it.

  Keisha felt an intense pull in her stomach. Canyon would have to remind her of those lessons. It had taken triple the length of time it should have taken...not that she hadn’t been an adept student. But mainly because they had spent their time exploring the numerous positions a couple could use while making love in water. To this day she would never forget those swimming lessons on one of the lakes in Westmoreland Country, and judging by the way he was looking at her, he hadn’t forgotten either. Just remembering sent sensual chills through her body. Chills she didn’t want to feel.

  Deciding not to respond to his comment about her swimming lessons, she said, “As to the other parts of your home, I didn’t notice anything since we won’t be staying long. However, I would like to take a more in-depth tour later today on my own.”

  Being around him was unnerving her when it shouldn’t. She’d accepted that the sexual chemistry was still there, even after three years, but she had expected to be able to handle it much better than she was.

  “Help yourself. I want to make sure I do things right, and I want to make sure you won’t be worried when he’s here with me.”

  “But I will worry anyway, Canyon,” she said honestly. “And when I do worry, please don’t take it personally. It comes with being a mother. Now that you know about him, you’ll worry, too, although you know I’m capable of taking care of him. It comes with being a father.” She hesitated a moment and then added, “Although some men take that role more seriously than others.” She smiled. “I even worried every day when he was with Mom. I used to call so much she would fuss at me for bothering her.”

  Canyon thought about what Keisha had just said. “Your mother took care of him every day while you worked?” he asked.

  “For the first eight months. She took a leave from her job just to do it.”

  He’d never met her mother but had spoken to her once or twice on the phone when she’d called. He knew of Keisha and her mother’s close relationship. He also knew Keisha had inherited her mother’s independent nature. Keisha had told him the story of how her father had denied she was his child when her mother had told him about her pregnancy and how her mother had raised her alone without any involvement from him.

  Canyon noticed when Keisha glanced at her watch. “I guess we need to leave if we want to—”

  She stopped talking when he reached out and took her wrist in his hand and looked at the watch...remembering. “You kept it.”

  It was a statement more than a question and he was well aware that she knew it. He had given her the bracelet watch for her birthday a few weeks before she’d broken up with him.

  “Yes, I kept it. Did you think I was going to throw it away?”

  He shrugged. “That had crossed my mind.”

  She absently flexed her fingers and he knew she was nervous about something. “Are you nervous about Detective Render’s visit later today?”

  She glanced over at Beau before shifting her head back over to him. “No. That’s not it.”

  He lifted a brow. “Then what is it?”

  She nibbled on her bottom lip. “It’s your family.”

  “What about them?”

  She drew in and then released a deep breath. “You and I agreed we won’t be pretending and I have a feeling they won’t either.”

  He tilted his head. “Meaning?”

  Lowering her voice so Beau wouldn’t hear, she said, “You and your family are close, Canyon. You and I didn’t part on the best terms, and I’m sure they know all about it. There’s no doubt in my mind they’ll be taken with Beau, but...”

  “But what?”

  “Maybe you should have found out for certain if they really want me there. I have done things they probably don’t agree with. I’m sure most of them took
your side about what happened. They probably figure I should have believed what you said. And that I was wrong for not telling you about Beau. Even you believe I was wrong on both counts so how can I expect them to feel any differently?”

  Canyon didn’t say anything for a minute. “First of all, please stop judging my family prematurely. You met most of them already—all of my brothers, except for Bane and Micah, and all of my cousins except for Gemma, since she’d already married and moved to Australia. You and I met the year after I returned home from law school, so you already know some of my brothers’ and cousins’ wives. You met Pam, Chloe, Lucia and Bella, because Dillon, Ramsey, Derringer and Jason had married them by the time you and I started dating.”

  Although she was three years younger than his thirty-two, they had finished their respective law schools at the same time, mainly because of the extra time it had required for him to change his major. He would never forget the day they’d met in the courthouse lunchroom. He had been an attorney for fewer than six months and had won his first case that day. She had won her case that day, as well. They had celebrated that night over drinks.

  “My family,” he continued, “will decide if they like you because of you and not because of me. They’ll let our business be our business. The Westmorelands make it a point to stay out of each others’ affairs.” He chuckled. “The only time we didn’t abide by that rule was when Derringer got involved with Lucia. She was Chloe’s best friend and childhood friends with Megan and Gemma. So, unfortunately for Derringer, those of us who knew his reputation were overprotective where Lucia was concerned.”

  He paused. “When you and I were involved I tried to get you to spend more time with my family, but you declined all my invitations. If anything, they probably think you have something against them because you never wanted to get to know them before.”

  His statement sent an embarrassing tint across her cheeks. What he’d said was true. She had turned down invitations to his family’s chow-downs and other little activities. But it hadn’t been because she’d had anything against them.

  Her grandparents didn’t have any siblings and her mother had had only one brother. For that reason, the thought of a family as large as Canyon’s was overwhelming to her. Luckily, he’d understood and hadn’t pushed. When she’d attended that charity ball with him and finally met his family, she’d found them to be nice and very friendly. His sisters-in-law and his cousins-in-law—Pam, Chloe, Lucia and Bella—had invited her to lunch, but before she could take them up on their offer, she and Canyon had split up.