The boy nodded, took a few steps then turned back to Winn. “I—I shouldn’t be with you.”
Winn tilted his head. “Why not?”
“My dad said I d-d-don’t belong with you.”
Just hearing the boy call Brandon “his dad” had anger rising inside Winn. He tamped it down. The past couldn’t be undone. Because of Vanessa’s duplicity, Cam had suffered. Winn would not add to the pain in those hazel eyes. “I’m your family now. I’m not going anywhere.”
The boy only stared, a blank look on his face.
“I’m going to make chocolate-chip pancakes.” Winn remembered they were a favorite of Cam’s when he was younger. “You get dressed and I’ll throw together some breakfast.”
By the time Cam returned, dressed in a long-sleeved striped T-shirt and jeans, Winn had completed a couple of calls about a development in South Carolina that he was overseeing. He’d been distracted and made way too many pancakes.
When Cam had been a part of his life, Winn had done a little cooking, but since moving to Jackson Hole, business had been his priority. Everything else had taken a backseat.
Winn placed the plates on the table and sat down, prepared to get reacquainted with his son. As he unsuccessfully attempted to engage the boy in conversation, he realized his life had changed dramatically and he wasn’t sure he was ready.
* * *
Hailey heard Bandit barking on her way up the steps to her second-floor condo and increased her pace. Although her rental agreement allowed pets, she knew the landlord wouldn’t hesitate to act if her pet disturbed the other tenants.
She reached her door, hurriedly grabbing the key from her bag and fumbling with the lock. The barking escalated. “Bandit, shush.”
“Hailey.”
She heard Winn’s voice but merely held up a hand and focused on opening the door. Dorianna Samuelson, on the other side of her, should be home from her yoga class any second. Even though the woman was a friend of Hailey’s mother, she’d be the first to complain about the barking. Dorianna saw keeping the complex well ordered and quiet as her personal mission.
The dog gave a whimper of pleasure when he saw Hailey but followed her command to sit instead of jump, which had obviously been his impulse.
She grabbed the leash from the side table and clipped it on, before stepping back outside the door.
He looked business casual in black trousers, a gray shirt and shiny wing tips. Winn’s lips curved in a slow smile that caused a fluttering in her belly.
Completely understandable, she told herself. A handsome man. A lazy smile. She’d have to be dead not to react.
The blood sliding through her veins like warm honey assured Hailey she was very much alive.
“Hey there, neighbor.” She offered him a smile of her own. “Hope the barking didn’t disturb you too much.”
“It did.” His eyes held an impish gleam. “But I know a way you can make it up to me.”
The banter wasn’t new, nor was the hint of electricity accompanying it. What surprised Hailey was her reaction, stronger than before. Keeping her hand firmly on the leash while the dog quivered at her side, she batted lashes at Winn. “What do you have in mind?”
Before Winn could respond, Cam stepped forward. His face lit up like a kid on Christmas morning when he saw the dog. A low whine formed in Bandit’s throat.
Hailey loosened the retractable leash and said in a low tone, “Go to him.”
The dog raced across the short distance and Cam’s thin arms encircled him. The boy buried his face in the silky fur. Winn’s eyes met Hailey’s.
“That,” he said, “was what you could do.”
He gazed down at the boy with such affection in his eyes that Hailey felt tears sting the back of her lids. She quickly blinked them away.
Though she hadn’t yet made up her mind about his offer, it was obvious Winn needed a friend to help him traverse this difficult time.
“I was thinking of heading out to my parents’ ranch,” she said in an offhand tone. “It’s a nice day to ride horses, maybe have a picnic. You and Cam are welcome to join me.”
Cam lifted his head at the mention of horses, but his hand remained firmly on the dog’s back. “W-would Bandit come, too?”
Hailey nodded.
Winn glanced down at his tailored pants and shirt. “I’m not dressed for riding.”
“Hmm.” Hailey brought a finger to her lips. “You could change. Perhaps into something less stodgy.”
Winn’s dark brows winged up.
“Oops, I meant to say something more comfortable.”
That brought a chuckle from Winn. “Give me a few minutes to make a couple of calls and get out of these ‘stodgy’ clothes.”
Hailey’s lips twitched before she turned her attention to the boy. “Cam, would you like to keep Bandit company while I toss together a picnic lunch?”
Cam’s head jerked up and he glanced at his father.
“Up to you,” Winn said.
“Okay.”
The boy followed her into her condo and glanced around. She wondered if he noticed the difference between her overstuffed sofa with its colorful pillows and eclectic wall art and his father’s perfectly decorated interior.
She doubted it. Cam was so focused on Bandit he barely gave anything around him a second glance. But when she pulled out French bread then started to cube some cheese, the boy moved to the counter to watch.
“I—I already ate,” he stammered.
Though his eyes didn’t meet hers, Hailey saw it as a positive that the boy had initiated the conversation. “Riding horses always makes me hungry. I bet it makes you hungry, too.”
Cam shrugged. After a couple of seconds, he took a tentative step forward.
“You smell good,” he told her. “M-my mommy, sh-she smelled good, t-too.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Hailey caught sight of Winn, who’d just entered her condo. He paused at Cam’s words.
“You must miss her,” Hailey murmured.
“Sh-she m-might be coming to get me.” Cam looked up then and Hailey saw confusion and hope in his childish eyes. “P-people say she’s dead. B-but what if she’s looking for me? She m-might go to my house, but I—I won’t be there. Sh-she w-w-won’t know where I am.”
It was a lot of words, filled with emotion and struggle. Hailey didn’t interrupt and her heart ached at the underlying pain.
She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat and considered her response. Though undoubtedly this was something Winn should handle, the boy had shared his fears with her. It seemed wrong to ignore the question or redirect him to his dad.
“Your mother was a wonderful person who loved you very much.” Hailey gentled her tone and met his gaze. “But she won’t be coming back. Not because she wouldn’t want to be with you, but she can’t.”
Tears spilled from those big sad hazel eyes and slipped down his cheeks. Answering ones welled in hers.
She placed a light hand on the small bony shoulder. “But your dad is here and—”
“M-my daddy is dead.” Cam jerked away, clenching his small hands into fists at his sides.
“He isn’t dead, honey,” Hailey said gently, not bothering to hide her confusion. “Your dad is right behind you.”
Cam turned. His jaw jutted up when his gaze settled on Winn. He shook his head. “That’s not my dad.”
Hailey saw Winn tense.
“Of course he is,” Hailey protested.
“He’s not,” the boy doggedly insisted. “Mommy told me.”
Chapter Five
Hailey’s smile froze on her lips.
“Cameron. We’ll discuss that later.” Almost unrecognizable in worn jeans and a chambray shirt, Winn crossed the room and placed a hand on
the boy’s shoulder. “For now, I’d like you to take Bandit into the living room. I saw a brush on the coffee table. I bet Miss Hailey would like it if you’d brush him for her.”
“That’d be wonderful.” Confused, Hailey forced some enthusiasm into her voice. “Turn on the television if you’d like. Cartoons should be on one of the channels.”
Cameron’s gaze shifted from Hailey to his father and then to the dog. “C’mon, Bandit.”
Sending the boy from the room didn’t make sense to her. Why didn’t Winn simply reassure Cam he was very much alive?
Once the sound of cartoon laughter and music filled the air, Hailey turned to Winn. She gestured with her head toward the living room. “What did he mean that his mother said you weren’t his dad?”
“Do you have coffee?” Winn raked a hand through his hair, the gesture disturbing the expensive cut.
Hailey hesitated then moved to the counter and pulled out a tray of coffee pods. “What would you like?”
“Regular. Black.”
She brewed a cup for him and then one for herself. After placing the mugs on the table, she took a seat opposite him and fixed her gaze on his face. “What’s going on, Winn?”
“I didn’t want to pull you into this right now, but since Cam brought it up and you may be watching him, you should know.” Winn kept his voice low, though the sound from the other room made it impossible for Cam to hear even if he’d been speaking normally.
Winn took a sip of coffee and leaned back in the chair, but relaxed wasn’t a word she’d use to describe him. Despite his bland expression, she could feel his restrained energy simmering in the air.
“I met Cam’s mother at a party. She was a kindergarten teacher and a breath of fresh air compared to the type of women I normally dated.” Winn relayed the information as if giving a business report to a board of directors. “We began dating, grew closer and became intimate. She mentioned Brandon only as a guy she’d once dated. As I’d had a couple semiserious relationships myself, I didn’t think much of it.”
Hailey sipped her coffee more for something to do than out of thirst.
Winn’s gaze darkened. “We’d been together almost a year when things started heading south. I admit I’d let a project I was working on consume me, but she didn’t even try to understand. Nothing I did pleased her. We argued constantly. After a big fight, she moved out. I called her a couple of times, but she didn’t return my calls.”
“When was this?” Hailey asked quietly.
“Almost nine years ago.” He wrapped his hands around the ceramic mug. “Seven months later I learned from a friend Vanessa was pregnant and ready to deliver. I didn’t doubt the baby was mine because we’d been together at the time he was conceived and Vanessa wasn’t the kind to cheat.”
The conversation was getting pretty doggone personal. She wondered if she should change the subject. Instead, she found herself asking, “What happened then?”
“I went to her. Confronted her. Demanded to know why she hadn’t informed me she was pregnant.” The hard opacity of his eyes was at odds with his matter-of-fact tone.
Though Hailey completely understood Winn’s position, she shivered. She imagined he could be a formidable foe. “What did she say?”
Winn’s jaw set in a rigid line. “Vanessa made it clear she didn’t want to get back together, told me any feelings she had for me were gone.”
“That didn’t really answer your question,” Hailey observed.
He shrugged. “I told her we’d made a baby and had to do what was best for him. I was in the delivery room when Cameron was born. We worked out an informal custody arrangement and child support. For six years we made a potentially difficult situation work with very little drama.”
“Did you start dating each other again?” Hailey ventured.
“No.” He expelled a heavy breath. “She was right. Whatever we had was over. Still, because of the baby, I was willing to try to see if we could get those feelings back. Vanessa wasn’t interested. I even suggested we marry, but she nixed that, although my name was on the birth certificate and she put me in her will as guardian for Cam.”
“Was that necessary? I mean, why did you need to be in the will? You were his dad.” Something wasn’t adding up.
“At the time I didn’t think it was necessary, but since we weren’t married, she insisted.”
The water was still murky, but Hailey began to get a slightly clearer picture. She wasn’t surprised when Winn rose and began to pace.
While he strode across the room, Hailey attempted to put the pieces he’d given her together. “You said things worked well for six years. Then what happened?”
A muscle in his jaw jumped. He spat the name. “Brandon.”
“The man who died in the accident with her?”
“He was also the same guy she’d dated before me.” Winn’s lip curled. “Turns out he wasn’t as much of an ex as I thought.”
Placing his hands on the counter, Winn leaned forward, his gaze focused out the window.
A sick feeling took up residence in the pit of Hailey’s stomach.
“Apparently, around the time we were going through that rough patch, Vanessa had slept with him.”
Though Winn did a stellar job of hiding it, there was pain underlying the words. Hailey’s heart wrenched. But from the set look on his face, she knew Winn wouldn’t appreciate her sympathy. She forced a nonchalant tone.
“Why did it take six years for him to show up?”
“He was engaged when he slept with Vanessa.” His lips lifted in a sardonic smile. “His marriage lasted about seven years. He was still married when he ran into Vanessa having lunch with a friend in Buckhead. They began dating even before he’d separated from his wife.”
Winn’s voice was heavy with condemnation. Obviously he didn’t condone extramarital affairs. For a second, Hailey wondered why she was so surprised. Then realized it was because Winn Ferris was a man who seemed to go after what he wanted, damn the consequences. This was a new side to him.
“S-so that bothered you?” To her horror, Hailey found herself stammering.
Winn didn’t appear to notice.
“She dated a lot of men during those six years and so did I. Did I think it was wise for her to date a married guy? No. But it wasn’t my business.” Winn dropped into the chair. “I guess Brandon saw the birthmark on the back of Cam’s neck and insisted they do a paternity test. I didn’t know anything about it until they had the results.”
The look on his face said it all.
“It showed Brandon was Cam’s father,” Hailey whispered.
“Biological father.” Winn’s voice snapped sharp as a whip. “I was his dad, the only one he’d ever known. That didn’t seem to matter. Not to Brandon. And not enough to Vanessa for her to stand up for what was best for her son. Brandon wanted me out of Cam’s life. Vanessa went along with his wishes.”
“How could they cut you out?” Hailey’s mind reeled. “Wasn’t your name on the birth certificate?”
“Based on the paternity test, Vanessa petitioned to have it changed. One Sunday, I dropped Cam off after having him for the weekend and never saw him again.” Winn rubbed the bridge of his nose as if trying to keep a headache at bay. “Calls went unreturned. Gifts were sent back unopened. It’s no wonder Cam is confused and angry. One day I’m his daddy. The next, I’m gone, replaced by Brandon.”
Hailey had so many questions she wasn’t sure which one to ask first. “Vanessa wouldn’t let you see Cam but left you in her will as his guardian? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Oversight, I’m sure.” Winn gave a humorless laugh. “Brandon is probably rolling over in his grave right now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sorry Nessa is dead. But I wasn’t a big fan of Brandon. The boy in the other room isn’t the same child I
raised for six years.”
“The stammering is new.”
Winn nodded. “He was six when I last saw him, talking a mile a minute, always had a smile on his face. He spoke easily, clearly.”
“Did his fath—uh, did Brandon have a stutter?”
“Well, we weren’t close,” Winn said in a sarcastic tone. “But in our brief interactions, I never noticed one.”
“Any idea when Cam’s speech problems started?”
“Brandon’s parents mentioned it was a fairly new occurrence.”
“You’re in contact with his parents?” Hailey couldn’t keep the surprise from her voice.
“I picked Cam up from their house.” Winn gave a tight smile. “They weren’t pleased about having to hand him over to me.”
“I imagine not,” Hailey murmured, mentally sorting through the information she’d been given. Cam had no history of stuttering and the onset was recent. Both were good signs. As a speech therapist she knew Cam’s part-word repetition, manifested by difficulty moving from the initial sound in the word, could be treated.
“It might be a good idea to have Cam evaluated by a physician. If the doctor believes the stuttering requires speech-therapy intervention, I’d be happy to help.”
“I appreciate—” Winn began.
“When are we going to see the horses?”
Hailey glanced up and saw Cam in the doorway.
Winn offered the unsmiling child a wink. “We’re ready to roll.”
They’d reached the front door when Winn’s phone rang. Hailey assumed he’d let it go to voice mail, but he held up a finger and took the call.
As the conversation lengthened, Cam tested out some ninja moves. Watching the boy, Hailey shifted from one foot to the other. She attempted to tune out what Winn was saying, but since she was standing right there, that proved impossible.
Apparently, negotiations on a new development in South Carolina had hit a snag. It sounded as if whoever Winn was speaking with wanted him to fly down there and straighten things out. Winn mentioned Cam several times but seemed to be cut off before he got very far.
Ready, Set, I Do! (Rx for Love) Page 5