Dakota Daddy

by Sara Orwig

  “We’re going to get ready and go back home to Santa Fe,” she said, something that usually Ethan was eager to do. To her surprise, he frowned.

  “Is Daddy coming?”

  “No, he’s not.”

  “Can’t we stay here so I can see him?”

  “We’ll be back here.”

  “Soon?” he asked, looking worried now. Megan frowned. Jared had already won Ethan’s affections.

  “Soon, I promise,” she said. “If you want to.”

  “I want to. I want to see Daddy and he said he likes to be with me.”

  “I’m sure he does. So do I. Now let’s get packed. It’ll be for a week, Ethan, and then we’ll talk about coming back here.”

  He nodded, but he didn’t look any happier, and she wondered if her life was going to be in a perpetual turmoil because of Jared.

  Jared drove away. The last two days with Ethan had been a delight with one flaw—he missed Megan. He’d hoped she’d come home with him tonight, or at least spend the evening with him, and he wondered what she was doing.

  Each day that passed, he missed her more and he thought about her constantly. When he’d taken Ethan home, it had taken all his control to keep from crossing the porch and kissing her.

  He wanted her badly. He thought about the marriage of convenience. It would be more than that, definitely no cut-and-dried business arrangement.

  With his thoughts on Megan, he drove automatically, wondering what her plans were for the evening and why she couldn’t go with him or if that had been merely an excuse. One certainty, she always responded when he kissed her.

  At the thought of their kisses, he was aroused, tempted to turn the car around and go back.

  She was important to him, necessary again. Years ago, after he’d left and she wouldn’t answer his letters, he’d tried to get over his hurt. He’d wanted to drive her out of his mind as much as she was out of his life. Most of the time he’d succeeded to the point he felt she didn’t matter. She was merely a part of his past. All through those years there had been a simmering anger. Maybe he actually had still been hurting. At the time, revenge had been a sweet idea. Had it really been revenge, or wanting to get her back in his life?

  He realized he was in love with her again.

  The truth shocked him, but then as he considered it, he knew it was love. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. Was there any way he could ever get past her anger? Perhaps there was one thing he could do. It could backfire or it could make a difference, but he was desperate with wanting her.

  Megan waited until Sunday evening, when they were back in their home in Santa Fe, before she called Jared. The walled patio gave her complete privacy. Pots of bougainvillea and hibiscus bloomed in a riot of orange, pink and yellow. Potted palms and banana trees added greenery, and it made her glad to be in Santa Fe. Ethan worried her though, because he’d been uncustomarily glum.

  Along with Ethan’s, her own spirits had sunk. Had she made another mistake leaving South Dakota? She hated to admit that as furious as she was, she missed Jared.

  She heard Jared’s deep voice on the line. “Jared, it’s Megan. I wanted to tell you that Ethan and I are in Santa Fe.”

  “You didn’t give me any warning that you were leaving. Are you returning to South Dakota soon?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll let you know if we do.”

  “I’d like to talk to Ethan. I was going to call him tonight.”

  “You can talk, but you won’t be doing him any favors. He wasn’t happy about leaving the ranch, because he wants to see you. You’ve managed to charm him, which I knew you would, and of course you’ve showered him with toys.”

  “Don’t resent it, Megan. I have some years to make up—and I love him.”

  “You don’t even know him!” she cried, and there was a long silence. “Jared, I’m sorry,” she apologized. “That was uncalled for. I’m glad you love your son. My nerves are shot over this.”

  “You’re causing a lot of trouble for yourself that’s unnecessary, and you’re going to cause yourself even more. Try to avoid catching Ethan in the crossfire.”

  “You’re one to talk!”

  “I’ve never deliberately hurt him. I didn’t know about him, but then we’re both aware of that.”

  There was another long silence and she started to say good-bye.

  “Megan, write down this number.” She picked up a pen and pad from the table beside her, figuring he was going to give her his Dallas office or home number.

  “Go ahead,” she instructed, then wrote the number, repeating it back to him. “Is this your home in Dallas?”

  “No, it’s not. Do you remember when your dad bought the ranch that adjoins yours to the north? I don’t know how old you were.”

  Puzzled, she frowned. “I remember. I was a junior in high school. The McGinnises moved away after their son’s car wreck.”

  “That’s right. Give Dirk McGinnis a call and ask him what prevailed on him to sell out to your dad and move out of state.”

  “Why…” she started to ask, but then bit off her words, going cold all over as she looked at the number on the pad in her hand.

  “Megan, let me talk to Ethan. Please.”

  She barely heard what Jared said as her head swam.

  “Megan!”

  His shout broke through, and she called Ethan, who came running and took the phone, walking away to talk to Jared. She stared at the number in her hands, knowing there was only one possible reason Jared would give her the McGinnises’ number.

  If her dad had made them move—threatened them or worse—then Jared had been telling her the truth.

  She didn’t have to make the call to have an answer, and she wasn’t certain she wanted to hear the answer anyway. But if true, then it had been her father behind the breakup after all.

  His treachery had been monumental. All along, it had been her father behind Jared’s mysterious disappearance. Jared had left to protect his family.

  She felt weak in the knees and had to sit quickly, as a light-headedness swept her. Through childbirth and the months of her pregnancy, her father had caused Jared to leave, and she’d been alone. Jared deprived of knowing his baby, their marriage plans in shambles, her heart broken—all because her father hadn’t liked Jared or his family, and needed to control her life. She put her hands over her face and sobbed. Her own father hurting her so badly, being so cruel to them. She couldn’t blame Jared for leaving.

  “…I may have made the wrong choice, but I still believe he would have injured my family terribly, and you.”

  She hadn’t known what her father had been capable of doing. She shuddered, shocked that she had been so incredibly wrong.

  Error after error piled up with Jared, yet how could she have suspected her father’s duplicity?

  Her wrecked marriage plans, having Ethan alone, without Jared present at his son’s birth or even knowing about it, her financial struggle, which had been unnecessary, a paper marriage—her father’s cruelty had been monumental. And she’d cut Jared out of knowing about Ethan all those years. She owed him terribly to make up for all he’d suffered because of her father’s unscrupulous ways.

  Stunned, she barely heard Ethan when he came inside after he’d finished talking to Jared. Ethan seemed to sense something amiss and grew quiet through dinner. When Amy Brennan, his best friend’s mother, called and asked Megan if Ethan could come to their house and sleep over, a rare treat, so Ethan and William could catch up, it seemed a blessing to Megan, and Ethan brightened immediately.

  As she drove him to William’s house, she glanced in the rearview mirror at Ethan. He sat buckled in the back, in his seat, with his new toy plane he’d brought to show William.

  “Ethan, I think we’ll go back to South Dakota sooner than I said. Would you like that?”

  He brightened instantly. “Yes, I want to go. When?”

  “Tomorrow, if we can get a flight.”

  “Awesome!” he crie
d, clapping and waving his arms, making her laugh for the first time in days. “Can I call Daddy and tell him?”

  “Yes, but wait until you come home tomorrow,” she said, suspecting she should have told him later. But he’d been glum since they’d left South Dakota.

  Unable to stop grinning, he wriggled with eagerness. “That way, you can tell him when we’ll arrive. I have to get our flight before we can tell him exactly when we’ll be there.”

  Driving home she passed the red adobe buildings, turning into her quiet house. Pink, red and white hollyhocks bloomed in the yard and tall cottonwoods shaded her home and its double-thick adobe walls. She could see people milling on the porch to her gallery.

  She returned to her house, to call Dirk McGinnis. She listened to how her father had threatened him and his family if he didn’t sell. He’d refused to sell to her father, ignoring threats. Shortly afterward, his son had had a car wreck. The brakes had failed on his truck and he’d almost been killed. The young man still walked with a cane. There was nothing they could prove, but it had been her father, and she might as well know.

  Weak-kneed again after she’d finished her call, she sat staring into space in the silent house. She owed Jared the most profound apologies. There was no question she would share Ethan with him now.

  Over breakfast, as the sun spilled over the thick adobe patio walls, she listened to birds sing, yet she felt as if the world would never be the same peaceful place she had known before.

  As she cleared the table, the doorbell rang.

  She glanced at her watch and frowned because it was only seven in the morning, and she couldn’t imagine who would be ringing her doorbell.

  She hurried to glance out the front window and saw a sleek, dark-green car in her drive. Anticipation churned in her as she rushed to the door to open it.

  Ten

  As if her wishful thinking had become reality, Jared stood holding an enormous bouquet of roses, lilies and daisies. Under his arm was a large box wrapped with a big bow.

  “Jared! Come inside,” she said, her excitement mounting. He looked handsome, solemn, fabulous and she wanted to throw her arms around his neck. Instead, she closed the door.

  Jared turned to hold the flowers out. “I was going to send you flowers and then I decided I’d bring them myself. Megan, go to dinner with me tonight.”

  She laughed, feeling giddy in spite of a sleepless, worried night. “You surely didn’t come to ask me to dinner.” Her laughter faded. “Jared, I have to apologize to—”

  He placed his fingers over her lips, and the instant he touched her, her heart thudded. He took the flowers from her and tossed them aside and dropped the package, taking her into his arms and leaning over her to kiss her.

  Her heart missed beats as she wound her arms around his neck and clung to him.

  While she kissed Jared, the walls she’d kept around her heart crumbled forever. She loved him and she wanted to work out whatever they could. And she had to apologize to him for doubting him and accusing him of lying.

  “Where’s Ethan?” he paused to ask.

  “At a friend’s house. Sleepover. We’re alone.”

  Jared kissed her again and all else no longer existed.

  He paused, framing her face with his hands and tilting her head up as he gazed into his eyes. “I had this planned differently, but I can’t wait. Meg, I love you. I’ve missed you terribly and I love you.”

  “Oh, Jared!” she exclaimed, tightening her arms around his neck and standing on tiptoe to kiss him, stopping his words. His arm banded her waist and he leaned over her, kissing her fiercely, curling her toes and melting her knees.

  Her heart pounded and she moved her hips against him, wanting him with all her being. He picked her up, still kissing her, finally raising his head. “Where’s a bedroom?”

  She pointed and pulled his head down to kiss him. Jared headed in the direction she’d pointed, and in a moment set her on her feet beside a bed as he pulled off her T-shirt and unfastened her cutoffs.

  She fumbled with his clothing, peeling it away, and in a few seconds he was putting on a condom and moving between her legs.

  She arched to meet him, hugging him and closing her eyes, already in ecstasy over his declaration of love. “I love you, Jared. Maybe I always have, and that’s what made finding solutions so difficult.”

  He kissed away conversation, loving her until they both climaxed and finally lay locked in each other’s embrace.

  “I love you, Megan. The happiest times of my life have been with you,” he said. “I made a mistake when I left. I should have listened to my dad, stayed and talked to you. I was hurt and angry and afraid for my family.”

  “Shh,” Megan said. “We both made mistakes. I should have let you know about Ethan, because you would have come home. I had more wrong judgments than you did, Jared. I called Dirk McGinnis, but I knew when you gave me the phone number what I would hear. Actually, it was worse than I’d imagined.”

  “I’m sorry. I debated telling you, and I haven’t all these years because I didn’t want to turn you against your dad, and I didn’t want to hurt you.”

  “It’s all done. We’ve both erred and suffered for it.”

  “I’m not making a mistake now,” he said, getting out of bed and picking up his trousers to come back and take her hand. “Will you marry me, Meg?”

  Her heart thudded and happiness enveloped her. She threw her arms around him. “No marriage of convenience?” she asked with laughter.

  “Hardly,” he responded dryly. “Unless you call the past hour merely convenient.”

  “Oh, yes, I’ll marry you, Jared.”

  He slipped a ring on her finger and she gasped in awe. “Jared, that’s enormous!”

  “You can select something else if you don’t like it.”

  “Don’t like it! Oh, Jared, this is so wonderful,” she said. “This means you’ll get me to move to Dallas after all.”

  “We’ll see what we can work out so that we’re both happy. I hate to take you away from here, if you love this. How about keeping this home, and you can come here when you want to?”

  “When you come with me, you mean. I’m not letting you get far for long ever again in my life.”

  “I hope not,” he replied solemnly. “Damn, I hope not. I love you, and you’ve made me the happiest man on earth.”

  She laughed. “I think that’s my line to you.”

  “I’m getting you and Ethan, Meg. That’s irresistible!” he said, pulling her to him for a scalding kiss, and all talk of marriage was gone for the next hour.

  Later, she lay in his arms, their legs entangled while she looked at her ring, turning it so the light hit it at various angles. “Jared, are you sure you aren’t marrying me to get my ranch?” He chuckled and she laughed, turning on her side to look at him. “Now it’ll be yours, too.”

  “I told you I wanted it for a bet I have with two of my cousins.”

  “I remember. You bet Chase and Matt. I read about them in magazines almost as much as I did you. And if my memory is correct, they’re each worth a fortune. I hope all of you made that loot honestly.”

  “And I hope you’re joking.”

  “Of course I am. I’m deliriously happy. Tell me more about your cousins and your bet.”

  “We made a bet that we’d each put five million in the pot, and whoever makes the most money during the year will win the pot.”

  “Good heavens! You each bet five million dollars!” she said, sitting up to stare at him. “You didn’t mention the amount.”

  “That’s right,” he said, caressing her bare breasts, and she grabbed the sheet which he promptly pushed away. She caught it once more.

  “I need this or I won’t hear one word you’re saying. You expect to turn around and sell my ranch for a huge profit?” she asked in disbelief.

  “Probably. It’s one project of several that would bring a quick profit. What do you think about remodeling your ranch?”


  She laughed again and shrugged, stroking his thigh. “Darlin’, you can do anything you want to with whatever concerns me,” she said in a sultry tone. He inhaled, pulling her to him to kiss her.

  It was another hour before she sat up again. “Jared, I can’t believe some of this. It isn’t real.”

  “It’s happening for sure,” he said, rolling over. “One more item of business—plan this wedding as soon as possible. Money is no problem, so get the staff you need. I don’t want to wait,” he said, smiling at her.

  She smiled in return, touching the corner of his mouth. “I can’t believe how happy I am. I agree. We’ll have this wedding so soon that your head will spin.”

  “Let’s get Ethan home to tell him,” Jared suggested. “Isn’t he young for a sleepover?”

  “This is only the second time. His friend’s mother and I are really close. And the two boys are, too. I thought it would cheer him up because he’s been so glum about leaving you.”

  “I hate to say I’m happy about that, but I can’t keep from being pleased that he’s missed me.”

  “He’s missed you, all right. We both have.” She wrapped her arms around Jared’s neck, clinging to him happily. “But first,” she said, “there’s some more loving to do here. We have years to make up, Jared.”

  “I’ll try,” he said, lowering himself to kiss her.

  Epilogue

  Megan gazed at her reflection in the mirror and felt as if she were in a dream.

  “You look gorgeous!” her aunt said, smoothing Megan’s cathedral train.

  “Thank you, Aunt Olga,” Megan replied, smoothing her pinned-up hair.

  “I still can’t believe you’ve pulled this all together in just weeks.”

  “Saturday, June, the twenty-seventh,” Megan said, glancing at her watch.

  “I need to go. The wedding planner called me in minutes ago. Jared said he’d watch Ethan. That child is so excited. I hope he doesn’t lose your wedding ring.”

  “Ethan won’t lose it,” Megan said with a laugh, thinking about Ethan being their ring bearer. She walked over to pick up her enormous bouquet of white roses and white orchids from Jared. His simple note had read, “I can’t wait…all my love.”