Accidental Father. Lauren Nichols

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СКАЧАТЬ was ashamed because she’d finally told an out-and-out lie.

      How many others would she be forced to tell before this was over?

      A few minutes later, still battling his frustration, Jake led his horse past the tack room and into the barn, blinking as his eyes adjusted from bright sunlight to the comforting dimness of dark, sturdy beams. His mood began to level out. He’d been here twice since he’d relocated, and the same observations he’d made the first time occurred to him again. There was no new wood in sight. The barn was old, silent—almost churchlike if you could get past the earthy smells of hay, leather and manure. Sunlight streamed through windows speckled with hay chaff.

      He doubted it had changed much since Ross Senior had been alive.

      Frowning at the uselessness of his thoughts, Jake led the stallion into his stall, unsaddled him, then closed the stall door and carried his gear to the tack room.

      He was startled to see Jess adding liniment bottles to the shelves near the medicine cabinet. He’d been so preoccupied, he’d passed Ross’s older brother without seeing him. Not good for a lawman whose instincts needed to be needle sharp.

      Jake hung his saddle on a peg, then smiled and walked over to the Brokenstraw Ranch’s co-owner. “Hi. Didn’t see you in here when I went by.”

      “Figured you didn’t,” Jess said over his shoulder. “How was your ride?”

      “Great. We kicked out a few nice mule deer. Horse picked up some major burrs, though.”

      “That’s not the horse’s fault.” Jess chuckled. “You were the guy holding the reins.”

      Jake chuckled, too, as he took a currycomb and brush from a shelf. “True enough. Maybe next time I’ll let the horse steer.” For a moment, he almost asked Jess if the area he’d ridden through today held any special meaning for the Daltons, then changed his mind. If it did, maybe they wouldn’t want him riding there anymore.

      “Well,” Jake said, unable to extend the conversation, “guess I’d better get to it, or it’ll be midnight till I get back to town. See you.”

      “Yeah,” Jess called back. “See you.”

      Heart thumping, Jake returned to Blackjack’s stall, Jess Dalton’s face frozen in his mind. Their similarities were staggering. But maybe that’s because he was looking for similarities. They were both about the same height, same black hair, same build—same black Stetson. But Jess’s eyes were brown, probably like his mother’s, and he carried himself loosely, the mark of a man at peace with himself. Jake envied him that. He had too many unresolved issues in his life for that kind of peace.

      He’d just started grooming his horse when Jess walked in and dumped a scoop of grain into Blackjack’s bin. The animal nosed into it.

      “Hear you’re looking for a new deputy,” he said.

      Jake grinned, trying to act nonchalant. “A part-timer, anyway. You looking for work?”

      “Me?” Smiling, Jess put his shoulder against the stall. “No, there’s more than enough around here to keep me busy. At the moment, just keeping Ross settled is a full-time job. His boots haven’t touched the ground since Maggie told him about the baby.”

      Jake fought to calm his nerves. “How about you? Looking forward to the new addition to your family?”

      “We all are. The Dalton clan’s pretty small as most families go.”

      Not as small as you think. “I see a lot of your aunt Ruby.”

      With a low laugh, Jess stroked Blackjack’s neck as the horse continued to feed. “Aunt Ruby’s a handful. Stay on her good side, and she’ll give you the key to her heart. Tick her off, and she’ll find you a first-class room in hell.”

      “I’ll keep it in mind.”

      “If you want to eat, you’d better. Around here we’ve got Ruby’s for food and Dusty’s for drinks. There’s not much else but grass, trees and mountains.”

      “Grass, trees and mountains work for me,” Jake returned. “Speaking of which, you’ve got a nice spread.”

      “Thanks. But that was our dad’s doing—and his father before him.”

      “Your dad’s gone?” Jake asked, hiding a guilty twinge because he already knew the answer.

      “For a while now. He and Ross’s mom died when Ross was in high school. Small plane accident.”

      “Oh. I’m sorry.”

      “Me, too. I still miss them both. But, as I said, it was a long time ago.” Jess glanced at his pocket watch, then tapped the side of the stall with the grain scoop. “Well, I’d better shove off. Casey’ll be putting supper on the table.”

      Jake hid his regret behind a smile. “Nice talking to you.”

      “Same here.”

      But a moment later, Jess called from the doorway, “Care to join us? I think it’s fried chicken tonight.”

      Jake didn’t move for a long second. Then slowly, he ambled into the hay-strewn aisle between the rows of stalls to meet Jess’s eyes. “Thanks, but I have a pile of paperwork waiting on my desk. I just came out for a little breather.”

      “Maybe another time, then.”

      “Yeah, maybe,” Jake said. “Thanks again.”

      Stifling the gut-gnawing urge to follow Jess up to the ranch house, Jake wandered back to Blackjack’s stall and grabbed the currycomb. For years, he’d wondered how it would feel to walk the same rooms his father had walked, wondered if—given the opportunity—he would feel a familial connection, a sense of belonging that had always been missing from his life. Now he’d passed up the chance. But much as he’d wanted to say yes, there was no way he could sit across the supper table from Jess Dalton without telling him they were brothers.

      Sarah put the teakettle on to heat, still rattled over her unexpected meeting with Jake. She’d worried about his looking too closely at Kylie’s coloring and wondering about it. But the current situation was worse. He knew her birth date. And the most logical place to get that information was at the courthouse.

      If that’s what he’d done, she prayed he’d done so under the guise of investigating someone else. Because if the courthouse clerks—especially Elvira Parsons—realized that Jake was looking into Kylie’s parentage, Sarah’s name would be on everyone’s lips again.

      Suddenly chilled, she tugged her white cardigan more closely around her. She could almost hear Elvira’s voice….

      I’ve always wondered who that child’s father was. She doesn’t look a thing like any of the family—including that thieving, no-account husband of Sarah’s.

      The kettle whistled. Sarah turned off the gas, then took a tea bag from the white-and-yellow ceramic canister on the countertop and dropped it into her mug. But something pulled her attention back to the canister set.

      She frowned curiously. The sugar canister was turned СКАЧАТЬ