“So, drama queen meets drama king,” Claudia mused. “A match made in, well, okay. Maybe not heaven.”
Rolling her eyes, Cass countered, “Easy enough for you to take this so lightly. It’s not your life.”
“I’m not taking it lightly,” Claud argued. “But Cass, you couldn’t just go on forever not telling him. And you know it.”
“Maybe,” she admitted. Far off in the distance, dark clouds roiled, twisting in the wind, moving ever closer. “But I don’t like being pushed into it, either.”
“Look on the bright side,” her sister said. “Hard part’s over. He knows about Luke. Now you just have to work it out between you.”
“That is the hard part. He’s not even talking to me, Claudia. He’s—” She broke off and stared as Jake and his dog emerged from the barn and headed for the house. The big yellow dog jumped and rolled in the snow drifts like a clown and Jake looked fierce. Seemed his mood hadn’t improved any in the hours since she’d seen him last.
“He’s what?”
“He’s coming,” Cass told her sister. “I’ve got to go.”
“Okay, good luck!”
She was going to need it. Over the last few hours, Cass had been settling into the room she’d used when she was here the last time—at least the room that had been hers until she’d begun staying in Jake’s bedroom. Of course, that wasn’t going to happen this time. She hadn’t come back here for sex.
Her body tingled and she frowned.
Just thinking about sex with Jake was enough to make her body hum and her brain shut down. But she needed to be able to think rationally. To talk to Jake and make him understand why she’d done what she’d done. To tell him what her plans were for their son. And then, she had to get out of Montana. This time for good.
Downstairs, she heard the kitchen door slam and shivered. He was inside now and probably headed for her. So she stood up, squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. A quick glance into the crib had her smiling. Sleeping soundly, her son was in his favorite position, sprawled spread-eagle, much like his father. As she watched, Luke reached for a tuft of his own black hair and rubbed it between his fingertips.
Her heart filled to bursting and her spine straightened. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for this baby. No one she wouldn’t face. Nothing she wouldn’t dare.
Cass felt Jake before she heard him. The man still moved like a ghost, and she wondered if that came naturally to him or if it was a holdover from his time in the military. Either way, it didn’t matter once she turned her head to look at him, framed in the open doorway. The yellow Lab slipped past him and went first to Cass, his nails clicking on the hardwood. After she’d given him a pat, the dog stuck his nose between the rails of the crib, snuffled, then lay down right beside it, as if taking up guard duty for the tiny boy inside.
Jake, though, didn’t come in, just looked at her, then shifted his gaze to the crib and the sleeping baby. “Where’d you find the crib?”
His voice, though low, was rough and harsh.
“Anna had Charlie bring it down from your attic. She said your grandfather stored the family stuff up there and that you wouldn’t mind Luke using your old crib.”
“It’s fine.” His features tightened and a muscle in his jaw clenched. “You should have told me.”
Cass flushed and she felt the heat of it sting her cheeks. She could give him excuses, tell him the rationalizations that she’d run through in her mind over and over during the time they’d been apart. Heck, she’d even rehearsed exactly what she would say on the plane ride out here. But now that it was time...now that she was looking into his lake-blue eyes, she couldn’t do it.
The simple truth was, he was right. She should have told him from the first. Should have shared the miracle of their son right from the beginning. It had been wrong not to. Her brother and sister had tried to convince her of that, but her own fears had kept her from realizing it.
For so long now, she’d been on her own with Luke, seeing his first smile, his first tooth, and not being able to share it with the one other person who should have been there. There really was no excuse for not telling him—there was only her fears.
“I know.”
Surprise flickered in his eyes. “Didn’t expect that.”
The light was going, sun setting, and with any luck, Luke would sleep through till morning. He’d had a very long day with no nap and too many changes in his routine.