“He doesn’t look like you either!” Ivan shouted back. “He’s the spitting image of her. Playing devil’s advocate, what makes you so goddamned sure he’s yours?”
“He’s mine.”
“You want to believe it so bad you can taste it, don’t you, boy?” Ivan said with a nasty laugh. “ ’Cause you know he’s the only heir you’ll ever have.”
Neal passed the back of his hand across his damp upper lip. The accident that had robbed Ivan of his legs had robbed Neal of his ability to reproduce. The freight train had pulverized the front third of their car. Neal had been trapped in the wreckage for hours before a rescue team was able to cut through the mangled metal and free him. The blood supply to his testicles had been suspended for such a long period of time that it had resulted in irreversible sterility. He didn’t like to think about it.
Thank God he hadn’t been left impotent, too. He would have killed himself if that had happened. But every time the subject of an heir came up, he got queasy. From the cradle, he’d been told that the one thing required of him was to produce another Patchett male. It was expected. It was the only thing that really mattered.
He clapped Ivan on the back. “You leave everything to me, Daddy. That’s my son, and I’m going to claim him. First we’ve got to get his mama groveling on her knees.”
On his way into town, Neal hummed beneath his breath. Now that he had a specific plan, he was feeling better. It was galling that Jade still spurned him as though he were white trash. Long ago she had rejected him in favor of Gary Parker. She still looked at him like he was something you’d track in from a barnyard. He couldn’t tolerate any woman thinking she had gotten the best of him. Before he was finished with her, Jade Sperry would rue the day she’d chosen him to be her adversary.
* * *
Jade wheeled her car into the driveway. Graham was out on the front lawn, practicing his moves with a soccer ball. “Hey, Mom.”
“Hi.”
“Watch.” He maneuvered the ball across the yard. When he was only a few feet away from her, he kicked the ball hard, straight into the trunk of a pine tree. “That’s a score!” he shouted, raising his fists above his head in a sign of victory.
“Easy to do without any opposition.”
He shoved several locks of sweaty, black curls off his forehead. “Huh?”
“Try it again with me acting as goalie.”
“Okay!” He retrieved his ball and carried it back to the far side of the yard.
Jade kicked off her high heels and assumed a challenging stance in front of the tree. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Instead of taking a direct route as he had before, Graham weaved his way across the yard, adroitly maneuvering the ball with fancy footwork. Jade stood ready in front of the “goal,” but he pulled her off center with a tricky maneuver, and before she could recover he kicked the ball into the tree trunk.
“Point!” he cried.
Baring her teeth, Jade lunged forward, tackling him, and following him down into the grass.
“Foul! Foul!”
Jade tickled his ribs. But he surprised her by rolling to his side and throwing her off. She sat up, panting. “When did you learn to do that? Only a few months ago I could hold you down for an hour.”
“I’m growing.”
She looked at him with maternal pride. “You certainly are.”
“How much do you weigh, Mom?”
“How indelicate!”
“No, really. How much?”
“About a hundred twelve pounds.”
“I already outweigh you!”
“What in the world are you two doing?” Cathy was watching them from the veranda.
“Playing soccer. I lost,” Jade said ruefully. Graham bounded to his feet and helped pull her up.