Sydney widened her eyes. “I can’t believe this. What the hell is going on?”
“I’m going after my rights, Sydney.”
“Meaning?”
“I want my son.”
“You can’t possibly be serious. You’re not taking him away from my parents. I won’t let you.”
“You gave away your parental rights. I did not.”
“And you agree with this?” she said to Dallas.
“I’m just the lawyer here. It’s not my job to agree or disagree. It’s my job to answer his questions about the law, and that’s what I’m doing. He already knows I can’t represent him in any kind of legal action. I have a ranch
to run.”
“Then who’s representing him?
“A friend of mine in Denver. Richard White. He’s a family lawyer. He specializes in this kind of stuff.”
“How much is this costing you?” she asked Sam.
“Don’t righteously care,” he said. “Hang the cost. I want my kid.”
“Don’t put the cart before the horse,” Dallas said. “We can’t do anything until we get the DNA results.”
“I can guarantee what the results will be. And so can you, can’t you, Sydney?”
Her cheeks warmed. “He’s the father,” she said. “I haven’t been with anyone else.” She turned to Sam. “After everything we went through last night, I can’t believe you still want to do this.”
“Last night only clinched it,” he said. “Last night proved how fragile life is. I’m glad as hell Duke isn’t sick, but damnit, anything can happen. Last night drove home that you never know what tomorrow may bring. I want to know my son now, because only God knows how much more time he and I have together.”
Sydney opened her mouth to speak but shut it quickly. What could she say to that? He made a damn good point.
“Tell me,” Sam said to her. “If you were in my place, what would you do? Say you had a kid out there you just found out about. Wouldn’t you want to get to know him?’
“I…I don’t know. The situation is completely different. I’m a woman. If I had a kid out there, I’d know it.”
“I think you just made my point. You can’t even begin to understand how I feel, can you? Women think they can make all the decisions because they have the babies. Well, I’ll grant you the fact that it’s your body. If you had decided to abort the baby, I wouldn’t have had any say in it.”
Sydney gasped. “I could never have done that.”
“I’m not saying you could have.” Sam’s tone softened a bit. “I’m just saying it was your decision. But that baby is half mine, and the minute he came out of your body, he stopped being solely your business.”
“Fathers do have rights,” Dallas said.
Sydney pounded her fist on the table. “I understand all that.”
“Then what’s the problem?” Sam said, still softly. “I’m just asserting my rights.”
“Can’t you at least talk to my parents? Maybe we can all work something out.”
“That’s an option you haven’t considered, Sam,” Dallas said, “and it’s something that makes real sense from where I see it. Remember, the court will consider what’s in the best interest of the child, not the parent. You can love that boy all you want, and you can want to be with him and raise him all you want, but if the court thinks leaving him with the Buchanans is in his best interest, that’s what they’ll do.”
Sam raked his fingers through his hair. The taut muscles in his forearm tightened. Good. Dallas had made him think.
“Without the court involved, I have no way of knowing they’d keep any agreement we made between us.”