Johnny was just enthralled with Cody. It made things worse when Johnny was visiting Pirate, and Slim Gonzalez told Johnny that Cody Masters was the best horseman he’d ever seen. Slim went on to say that Cody could teach riding, train horses and take care of them like a vet.
That’s all Johnny needed. At dinner, he asked J.W. if Cody could teach him how to ride. Seemed as if her son wasn’t satisfied just sitting on Pirate and being walked around the corral with Slim holding on to a lead rope.
Johnny wanted to be “a real cowboy like Cody.”
Ouch! J.W. had steam coming out of his ears after that little nugget was dropped over a meal of prime rib, baked potatoes and asparagus with hollandaise sauce.
After Johnny climbed up onto his grandfather’s lap and asked him so sweetly, J.W. was putty in the little boy’s hands. J.W. was ready to sign over the ranch to Johnny right then and there.
But instead, against his better judgment, he reluctantly agreed that Cody could give Johnny riding lessons on a trial basis. “Once a day for a half hour, and that’s it.”
Penny just sniffed, and huffed, and finally whispered to J.W., “Are you going to let your grandson be exposed to that...that...killer?”
“I’ve known Cody all his life, and he’s not a killer,” Laura whispered back.
Penny took a deep breath. “After Mike died, we should have offered Georgianna a lot more money for that run-down property, and maybe they all would have moved far away from Duke Springs. She turned down our first offer. We should have upped the money. Anyone can be bought.”
“Mother, please!” Laura raised her voice. “Not now!”
“You know I’m right.”
“I don’t know any such thing,” Laura said, standing. “Please excuse me.”
She went up to her old room to get her denim jacket. She ran a brush through her hair and touched up her makeup. She was thinking how glad she was that she’d never told Cody that Johnny was his son.
Cody would want to spend every minute he could with Johnny, and that would put Cody in the direct path of her parents.
She couldn’t expose Johnny to their continued hatred of the Masters family, and constantly running interference would be even more exhausting than it already was.
Yes. She was right not to tell him.
* * *
The window shade of Laura’s cottage was up halfway. That was their signal.
Thank goodness. She was going to meet him tonight. They had important matters to discuss, life-altering matters.
Cody sat on his usual rock, waiting for Laura to arrive. While he waited, he’d have a chance to cool down in the evening darkness and calm down before he busted a gut.
He thought of many different ways to approach Laura with the question of Johnny’s paternity, but all of them sounded as if he was accusing her of sleeping around.
Hearing her approach, he stood, waiting for her to get closer.
At last, she emerged from the desert vegetation and was walking down the path to the creek.
“Laura, I’m glad you were able to come. I need to speak to you. It’s very important.”
“I don’t think I can take anything else today. I’m just drained.”
“I don’t care how drained you are, dammit. I need to know if Johnny is my son.” He didn’t mean to blurt it all out like that. Out of a hundred scenarios, that one wasn’t even in the running.
Laura stood on the path, probably deciding whether or not to run.
She took a deep breath. “Yes. Yes, he is. Johnny is your son, Cody. He’s our son.”
He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow. He sat back down on the rock before he fell on his face into the shallow water.
“Why, Laura? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t take the chance, Cody. J.W. would see to it that you’d never get out of jail...ever. If he hadn’t, my mother would have.”
“They would deny me my son?” Cody asked. “Their hate goes that deep?”
“You couldn’t support us, Cody. J.W. takes great stock in that. I made up the college-guy story so they wouldn’t take it out on you.”
“My mother would have taken you in.”
She wiped her tears on her sleeve. “Oh, believe me, I thought of Georgianna, but if you recall, they were going through a living hell of their own. Cindy was a mess and your mom was worse. I couldn’t barge in like that.”
“You still could have told me. Me of all people, Laura.”
“And you’d be a basket case in jail not being able to be with Johnny. I couldn’t bring him to see you. In fact, you banned me from visiting you.”
“You could have told me sooner. When I got out.”
“When, Cody? When was a good time?”
“And I’m so damn dumb, I sort of believed the college-guy story because I never thought you’d lie to me about such an important subject like my son. Then Cindy told me to look at a picture of myself at the same age,” he said. “I can’t believe I really didn’t put it all together way before. I believed you, Laura. I believed you found someone else, just like I’d told you to.”
She put her hand on his, and Cody almost shook it off. He wasn’t ready for her to make a nice gesture. He was still in a world of hurt and anger.
She sighed. “Do you remember helping me move into the dorm in Phoenix? We made love on that tiny single bed. Your feet hung over the edge a mile. We laughed and laughed. Making love with you was fun, and loving and tender...all at the same time. Thinking of that day got me through nine months of lies and seeing you handcuffed and taken to jail the day of your sentencing.”
“I want to move far away from Duke Springs,” he snapped. “Me, you and Johnny. Far away from your parents. We’ll start over. We can learn to trust one another again.”
She was being choked by tears. “Trust? Do you think we could ever trust each other again, Cody?”
He thought for a while. “I hope so, but we have to get out of here. We’ll go north.”
“You’re a cowboy, Cody. Not a lobsterman or a dairy farmer. What would we live on? And you don’t want to leave Cindy and your mother. They need you. Besides, you have to stay here for at least two more years because of your parole requirements.”
“I could get a job in a factory in Phoenix or Tucson.”
She grunted. “You’d hate that. It’d be like you’re back in jail. I can’t do that to you. Believe me, I thought of every possible way that we could be together. We’ll just have to save every penny we can. Then maybe you can buy some livestock like you’ve always wanted, and you could supply rodeos with animals.”
“It would take forever,” he snapped, then thought for a while. “You know, Laura, I can understand why you hid Johnny from me in a way, but I don’t know if I can ever forgive you.”
“I did what I had to do, Cody.” She gazed into his eyes. “Now, why don’t you tell me what happened the night Hank Lindy died.”
“Laura, don’t ask me about that. I want to forget about it.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I thought we were trying to trust one another.”
He took a deep breath. “You’re just going to have to settle for what you already know for now, okay? Trust me?”
“I’ll try, Cody. I’ll certainly try.”
“Good.” He clapped his hands. “Now, how can I see my son more?”
“How about if you give him riding lessons? A half-hour a day. It’s already a done deal. Only, you can’t tell Johnny you’re his father. Not yet. Please, Cody. We’ll figure out a good time.”
“If it’s a chance to be with my son, then I’m there. But I’m going to tell you one thing, Laura. I’m not going to wait much longer to be Johnny’s father—his real father. We’ve both already lost too much time. And it’s going to be out in
the open. Let the chips fall where they may.”
“I’m afraid of those falling chips, Cody. Really afraid.”
Chapter Eight
Cody wanted to storm into J.W.’s office and tell him that he was Johnny’s father. He was tired of tiptoeing around the man. He’d done that since his father had died.
Mike Masters wouldn’t have been meek and mild like Cody. He’d call the man out and they’d fight. But Cody wasn’t about to fight J.W., and he didn’t want to argue with Laura. He’d let her have her way, just for a while. Then when Cody couldn’t tolerate it anymore, he’d have to tell Laura that it was time that they both presented a united front against her parents. If she couldn’t do that, then he would.
He thought he’d lost his man parts in jail, but this was so much worse.
Turning the light on in the barn, he headed for the right corner and the punching bag hanging from a crossbeam. He slipped on his boxing gloves and punched the hell out of the bag, trying to release some of his frustration.
He finally stopped when the sweat was pouring off him and his shoulders were burning. Then he hosed himself off and walked to the front porch to sit and think.
If only his father were here. Cody could talk to him better than anyone else in this world. He was dad, guidance counselor, priest, teacher and jail warden all rolled into one, and he’d oozed love from every pore.
He wanted to be a father to Johnny the way Mike had been to him.
Cody could talk to his mother about some things. Maybe this was one of those. Maybe she could explain Laura’s thinking to him.
He didn’t know if his mother was definitely keeping Laura’s secret, but it seemed as if she knew—or just guessed correctly.
Even his thirteen-year-old sister figured it out.
He didn’t know he’d had to buy a clue.
In spite of all the complications, Cody grinned. He was little Johnny’s father, and Johnny was a wonderful kid.
He was a dad, and he was going to be a real dad in every sense of the word!
* * *
The next afternoon, Laura watched as Cody helped Johnny brush Pirate. She could see the bunching and relaxing of the muscles in his back as he moved. Her cheeks flamed hot whenever she thought of Cody naked and making love to her.
It had been so long.
Right now the tension between them was like a thick fog that she couldn’t see her way through. She wanted everything to go back to “normal” so badly, like when they were still in high school and sneaking around behind her parents’ back.
In college, she had a taste of freedom before she had to drop out due to her pregnancy. She’d been twenty-three and tired. Tired of sneaking around. Tired of lying. Tired of getting lectured to by her parents since she became pregnant.
All she wanted was to start her own little family with Johnny and Cody.
Dreams do come true, she thought. Don’t they?
* * *
After his stint at the Duke Ranch, mucking the barn at the Double M and taking care of the animals, Cody must have dozed off on the rocking chair on his porch, because the howling of wolves woke him up.
Going inside, he wiped the sleep from his eyes, thinking how he couldn’t wait for tomorrow to come so he could be with Johnny again. It’d be a half-hour lesson, but Cody could stretch it to more with the added time of Johnny brushing down Pirate and cleaning the tack.
Of course, he’d help the little guy and maybe he could even play a little catch with Johnny. He seemed to like that.
J.W. must be softening a little if he was going to let Cody teach Johnny to ride. Obviously, Laura had arranged it.
And with any luck, J.W. wouldn’t be around the next day so he could get to know his son, but that was too much to hope for.
* * *
Laura awoke the next morning, thinking that this was going to be the day that Johnny would be getting his first real riding lesson on Pirate.
She couldn’t wait to see Cody again. They still had a lot to discuss, but the biggest secret had been told. She felt as if the weight of carrying it for almost four years had been lifted.
Well, half lifted. She still had her parents to tell—someday.
Today was going to be a great day! She’d hang around the corral on the premise of watching Johnny, but she’d be really watching Cody and their son together.
Just then, she heard beeping—the sound made when trucks backed up. She looked out of her bedroom window and saw an eighteen-wheeler backing up to the patio.
Oh, no! She was going to be sick.
She’d forgotten today was the day of her mother’s card party and luncheon. It was a benefit for the library in downtown Duke Springs, the library that her great-grandmother on her mother’s side had helped build.
The Duke Foundation had paid for constant updates to the building: new wiring, computers, networks, internet, and set up a little café in the corner that added a handful of jobs.
This benefit was for books, audio books, games and whatnot.
Laura was expected to be there and to give a speech as to what exactly the Duke Foundation had funded—undoubtedly for her mother to showcase her generosity—and what the organization planned to do next year.
She was also expected to greet the guests and charm them into giving more.
The same women—mostly shop owners—came to every fundraising event that the Dukes gave. It was the chance to be seen in the latest fashions and jewelry and to catch up with their neighbors and gossip. These ladies were mostly the same ones who were at the church picnic and saw her lunching with Cody.
Laura wasn’t being bitter, but she was sure they were checking on the Dukes to report back to their husbands. The family’s activities were great fodder for gossip during cocktail hour around their respective pools and at Pat’s Honky-Tonk and Café on Interstate 36.
By the time she showered and dressed in her red-and-pink floral sundress with matching red lace espadrilles, fixed her hair in an upswept ponytail, put on some light makeup, picked out jewelry and made it downstairs, the truck was pulling out and the caterers were hard at work.
The event would be outdoors by the main house under a white canopy with fans to keep everyone from baking under the sun. It was an early event—eleven o’clock in the morning—due to the heat as the day progressed.
White tablecloths were being unfurled onto a couple dozen round tables. Chairs had matching white slipcovers with white bows in the back.
Heaven forbid that her mother’s guests sat on metal folding chairs.
A brightly decorated van arrived from Rosie’s Flowers. Beautiful centerpieces were unloaded and set on the tables for the usual raffle at the end of the event.
“Here you are, Laura,” said Penny. “I was wondering when you’d get here. Clarissa has been keeping your breakfast warm for you.”
“I must have been tired.”
“You must have been out fairly late.”
Laura’s face flamed. “I sat outside for a while on the porch of my cottage. I couldn’t sleep.” That wasn’t a lie; she did sit for a while on the porch of her cottage...thinking.
Penny eyed her from the tip of her hair to the bottom of her shoes. If she was going to say more, she didn’t. She was distracted by some table that was missing a centerpiece.
Laura took a deep breath and went into the house to find Johnny. He was having breakfast with his grandfather. J.W. was reading the paper, and Johnny was reading from a Dr. Seuss book...er, he was making up a story from the pictures.
“And then the Cat in the Hat made a mess and the goldfish almost fell and...and... Hi, Mom!”
“Hi, sweetie. Did you sleep like a bug in a rug at Grandma and Grandpa’s house?”
He giggled. “Like a bug in a rug.”
J.W. fol
ded his paper and set it down on the table. “Isn’t he too old for that kind of talk?”
Here we go again—another disagreement about Johnny.
Instead of responding, Laura decided to ignore him.
“So, Johnny,” she said, taking a seat next to him and pouring herself some coffee from a carafe. “You’re going to have your first real riding lesson today.”
He nodded like a bobble-head doll.
“It’ll be cool, Mom. I like Mr. Masters. He’s cool, too.”
J.W. grunted. “That’s not how I’d describe him.”
“Dad, stop.”
“Oh, all right. But I would have taught Johnny how to ride.”
“So would I, but we’re both too busy to give him lessons. Besides, I want him to learn correctly, and Cody is noted for his horse skills. You know that. Matter of fact, I don’t know why you have him mucking out stalls. He should be in the A and B barns with the Arabians.”
J.W. rubbed his chin as if he was thinking about it, but he quickly dismissed the thought with the wave of his hand. “I can’t put him there. Our clientele wouldn’t like it.”
“Yes, they would. Especially when they see the results of Cody’s excellent training on their expensive horses.”
She might as well plant the seed. She knew her father would put his differences with Cody aside for the good of his ranch, not for her.
Maybe her father would think Cody was good enough for her when the millionaires did.
She hoped that Cody realized that she was always thinking, always planning. With her parents, she had to circle around them and catch them off guard, like a sneak attack.
Laura took a sip of coffee. “Sweetie, when you’re ready, we’ll go to the barn and see if Cody can give you your lesson now.”
“I’m ready!” he said.
J.W. went back to reading his paper. “I’ll stop by the corral and see how you’re doing.”
“Okay, Grandpa.” Johnny scrambled down from his chair, and J.W. bent over to give him a kiss on the cheek.
The Rancher's Surprise Son (Gold Buckle Cowboys Book 4) Page 9