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

“Like you’re blind to how good we are together. Or maybe it’s your opinion that what’s between us isn’t enough for you.” She sunk her teeth into her lower lip and her lashes fell, obscuring the hurt in her eyes. “That I’m not enough for you.”

“The fault doesn’t lie with you,” he assured her, taking her fingers in his and squeezing gently. “My track record with relationships isn’t great and I can’t promise to make you happy.”

“You don’t know that. You have no idea what I need to be happy.”

Grant’s throat tightened at the misery in her tone. “Maybe not, but I know Paisley was not happy because I couldn’t give her everything she needed.”

And if Paisley had been disappointed in his inability to give her the intimacy she craved, how much more harm would befall someone who led with her heart like Harley?

“I’m not Paisley,” Harley fumed, “and I wish you’d stop painting us both with the same brush.”

“Okay, forget my ex-wife. Let’s talk about how I disappointed my parents when I chose to become a doctor rather than join the family business.” Grant found his tone darkening with grief as he tried to make her understand. “It wasn’t easy on me knowing that I let them down, but I could never be happy unless I followed my own path.”

She stared at him in grim silence as she processed what he’d said. “And the path you’re on doesn’t have room for me.” Blinking rapidly, she dashed the back of her fingers over her damp cheeks. “If that’s your final word, then I guess I have to do what’s best for me.”

“Meaning?” Too late Grant saw that he’d done too good a job of pushing her away.

“Obviously, if there’s no future for us, there’s no reason for me to stay in Royal.”

Even though he’d known that his words would shatter the rapport between them, Grant believed he was doing the right thing. Until now.

“Then you’ve left me without a choice,” Grant said, angry with himself and with her. “I’m not going to just let you take Daniel halfway around the world.”

She must’ve been expecting that because nothing in her manner reflected surprise. “Have you thought about what this will do to Daniel?”

“Have you?” he snapped, furious with her for forcing his hand. Why couldn’t she just be reasonable? There was no reason why she couldn’t run Zest from Royal. Instead, she was taking Daniel away to punish Grant because he couldn’t be a lovesick fool. Damn the woman for demanding more than he could give!

“I guess we are at a stalemate.

” Harley tossed her head like an unruly filly.

Grant growled in pain as every fiber of his being screamed at him to give her whatever she needed to be happy again. “I guess we are.”

Eleven

In the days that followed the revelations that Grant would never consider taking their relationship any further, Harley channeled all her energy into Zest. To her chagrin, now that she wasn’t spending any time in Grant’s distracting company, her productivity had increased tenfold. How much more could she have accomplished if she hadn’t wasted so much energy on something that could never be?

“I’ve been thinking that it might be time to shift my focus to Dallas and pursue donors there full-time,” Harley said, eyeing her best friend to see how Jaymes would react to her plan.

“Are you sure you don’t want to take Grant up on his offer of the funding and give him the partial custody of Daniel that he wants?” Jaymes asked the question patiently, despite having already discussed the sore subject with Harley several times in the last week.

She’d come back to Royal to shore up Zest’s finances and she’d been foolish enough to think she’d succeeded when Grant had offered to back her nonprofit. That he’d done it to guilt her into staying in Royal felt like a huge betrayal. Add to that his decision to pursue a legal claim to Daniel and Harley was regretting that she’d ever come back to Royal.

“You know how much I hate being bullied.”

Harley dug her nails into her palms to stop the tears that threatened. She knew it would be easier for Grant if she and Daniel remained in Texas, but at the moment, she wasn’t feeling particularly open to making things easier for him.

“I know you think that the best thing for Daniel is for him to spend as much time with Grant as possible,” Harley continued. “But the work I’m doing in Thailand is very important as well and I can’t bear the thought of leaving Daniel behind while I’m halfway around the world.”

“And the fact that Grant isn’t interested in having a relationship with you doesn’t affect your decision at all?”

The burn of his rejection continued to smart. “Do you blame me for being hurt because he won’t give us a chance?”

“It’s not just you,” Jaymes reminded her. “He said he’s never going to marry again.”

“So where does that leave me?” she demanded, her heart constricting painfully.

Denying that she wanted Grant in her life as both the father of her son and her lover had become impossible. The mere touch of his gaze made her entire body leap with joy. She only needed to be in the same room with him for her core to be mobbed by urgent impulses until she wanted nothing more than to throw herself into Grant’s arms and revisit his passionate lovemaking.