“I want you to come to dinner tonight.”
“Why?”
“We’re having a guest you need to talk to.”
“Trust me, unless it’s little Duke Buchanan, I’m not interested.”
“Oh, I think you’ll be interested in this person.”
He sighed. “Who is it?”
“Thunder Morgan.”
Ha. Any other time he’d jump at that chance, but not right now. “I’m not in the mood to discuss bronc busting, even with one of the greats.”
“That’s not why you need to talk to him.”
“What the heck are you talking about, Dust?”
She winked. “Come to dinner and find out.”
* * *
Sam had missed his first bronc busting event, and Sydney was worried.
How she missed him! Rod had been by twice, flashing more papers in her face about Duke and his birth and adoption. So now everyone knew. So what? It didn’t matter. She’d already lost Sam. Her priority now was Duke. She had to protect him. He was a happy little boy, and she intended to make sure he stayed that way.
They’d spent a morning at the rodeo, eaten there, and Duke was exhausted and cranky. Carrie thought his forehead was slightly warm, so he was in his room with his mother now, napping. Roy sat across from Sydney at the table in her hotel room.
“Time to start talking, baby girl,” Roy said. “I need to know why you wouldn’t tell us who the father was. Sam O’Donovan is a good man from a good family. He would not have done wrong by you or Duke.”
“It wasn’t easy telling you the baby was a result of a one-night stand. No girl wants to tell her daddy that.”
“No daddy wants to hear it, trust me. But at least now I know he was a good man. An upstanding man. Not some fly-by-night loser.”
“You thought that?”
“Sydney, we didn’t know what to think.”
She sighed. “Yeah, I gues
s I can understand that.”
“So start talking now, baby girl.”
“Oh, Daddy.” She took a drink of the iced tea in front of her. “It’s not a long story or a particularly interesting one. It’s actually really sad.”
“I’m listening.”
“How much do you know about the O’Donovans?”
“The girl married the middle McCray boy. They have a son. That’s about it. We haven’t been back here in a while. We certainly weren’t welcome to visit Blake while he lived here.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“So what’s the story?”
“I didn’t know this at the time, of course. Sam and I did talk that first night, but not about anything really personal. Mostly about the rodeo and stuff. We seemed to have a lot in common, and I liked him a lot.”