The Paternity Pact (Texas Cattleman's Club: Rags to Riches 3)

This was the exact sort of brotherly highhandedness that had driven Harley to leave Royal. Yet, she was no longer an impulsive eighteen-year-old with a short fuse and kept her voice calm as she responded. “Grant understands our life is in Thailand. And he has been very clear about never wanting a family.”

Miles snorted. “You don’t think he’ll change his mind after spending time with Daniel?”

“I don’t know,” Harley admitted, gripped by the now familiar tightness in her chest as she considered how complicated her life had become since returning home.

On one hand, she was enjoying the time she and her son spent with Grant and she adored how Daniel was responding to his father. She also loved seeing him blossoming amongst his friends at the TCC day care, but when he talked about how much he missed those they’d left behind, Harley was torn. She should be glad that her son had such a big heart, but it meant that being parted from those he loved hit him hard.

“Well you better figure it out,” Sebastian said, amplifying her irritation with his condescending big-brother routine.

Instead of shooting back with a sarcastic quip, Harley lifted her chin and calmly declared, “Trust me when I tell you that I will do what’s best for Daniel.”

And if that meant staying put in Royal so he could have his father in his life? Harley would cross that bridge when she came to it.

To her relief the conversation soon shifted away from her news and returned to the company’s troubles. She learned more details about the circumstances surrounding the fire at the WinJet plant in East Texas and the subsequent lawsuit that claimed her family had directed the falsification of the inspection records.

By the time they moved from the dining room back to the living room, Harley’s head was spinning. Given everything she’d learned tonight, she recognized that Wingate Enterprises was not going to be the future source for Zest’s funding. Which meant she’d have to figure out where to turn next because she couldn’t keep the nonprofit going with nickel and dime fundraisers.

Lost in thought, she didn’t notice the arrival of a new visitor until her mother’s fragrance filled her nostrils. Instinctively, she recoiled from the scent, turned around and regarded Ava’s tight mouth and hard gray-green gaze. As usual, she wore her dark blond hair in a classic chignon and the touch of elegant gray at her temples added gravitas to her timeless beauty.

“Well,” Ava huffed. “It seems as if you and I need to have a little chat.”

Bristling at both her mother’s authoritarian tone and her tardiness, Harley was momentarily caught off guard by the sight of Keith Cooper—Uncle Keith, as he wanted her and her siblings to call him. As if being their father’s best friend—and after his death, their mother’s “special” friend—gave him some deeper connection to them. Harley shuddered. What was Ava thinking to bring him here?

“About what?” she asked breezily, wondering which of her siblings had ratted her out.

“Daniel’s father is Grant Everett?” Ava declared, making it sounding as if Grant was some lowlife criminal instead of a wealthy, accomplished doctor, as well as a member of one of the town’s most philanthropic families. “What were you thinking?”

“What was I thinking?”

She’d been thinking that Grant was the most brilliant, fascinating, sexiest man she’d ever met. She’d been thinking that being with him made her happy. She’d been thinking that she was the luckiest girl on earth to have caught his eye.

“He’s nearly twice your age.”

Harley ground her teeth. “You can keep your opinions to yourself about Grant and me. I’m really not interested in hearing them.”

“I’m your mother. I have a right to say whatever I want to about the mistakes you’ve made.”

Growing up in the shadow of her talented and ambitious siblings, she’d often relied on reckless behavior to make her presence known. Being good had never gotten her any attention, so she’d been bad. And then they’d noticed her.

“My mistakes?” Harley’s gaze flicked to where Keith stood talking to her brothers. “What about yours?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Was this thing between you and Keith going on before my father died?”

Ava’s eyes went wide at her daughter’s insinuation, but Harley couldn’t tell if her surprise was genuine or merely great acting. “How dare you ask me such a question!”

“That’s not an answer.”

“You are being completely ridiculous.”

“Am I?” Harley ground out. “Because it seems like your devotion to my father all these years has been nothing but an act. It wouldn’t do for you to get a divorce. That would affect your standing in this town. Especially when everyone found out you were having an affair with his best friend.”

“I wasn’t,” Ava sputtered, shocked at her daughter’s attack. “We never—this is outrageous.”

“I might’ve been young, but I noticed the way he looked at you. And Dad told me how it was between the three of you when you were in college.”

“What do you mean how it was between us?” Ava asked, her unruffled manner belying the hard light in her eye, put there by her daughter’s accusation. “We were all friends. It wasn’t until after I graduated that your father swept me off my feet.”