Branded. Annette Broadrick

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      He froze when he saw what was there. Or rather, who was there. A little girl, clutching a faded pink stuffed rabbit with an ear missing, lay there sound asleep, the covers pulled to her shoulders.

      He glanced at Tiffany, wondering what she was up to now.

      The child had blond curly hair and delicate features. He had no idea how old she was or why she was there.

      He shook his head wearily and walked out of the room. He didn’t stop until he reached the kitchen. Once there, he went to the refrigerator and reached for a beer. When Tiffany followed him into the room, he turned to face her. “What in the hell is going on, Tiffany?”

      “She’s your daughter. Her name is Heather and I’m leaving her here with you.”

      Two

      Jake looked at her in silence for several moments before he shook his head in disgust. “Very funny, Tiffany. You’ll notice that I’m not laughing, however. Need I remind you that we never had children? As I recall, once we were married, you informed me that you didn’t want children because pregnancy would ruin your figure.”

      He drank a swallow of beer and struggled to hang on to his temper. “What game do you think you’re playing here? I haven’t seen you in years. Did you suddenly decide that I’m an easier touch than the father of that little girl? Sorry, but that kite won’t fly. I’m not paying you child support, Tiffany. You can’t hang that one on me. I want you to go upstairs, get your daughter and get the hell out of my home.”

      It wasn’t the child’s fault her mother had no integrity, he reminded himself. He couldn’t help but feel sorry for the little girl, given her circumstances.

      He rolled the bottle he held across his forehead to cool off. What he needed was to stick his head into one of the horse troughs outside. If he stayed in the same room with Tiffany much longer, he might forget that his mama had taught him always to be a gentleman, regardless of the provocation.

      Without a word, Jake walked outside and sat down at one of the patio tables.

      He stared into the night. The moon was high in the sky, almost full, giving enough light to see the rolling hills beyond his home. The vista usually had a calming effect on him. He hoped it would work this time.

      There was no reason to let her get under his skin like that. Getting him to react had probably been her plan all along, wanting to see what he would say and do. Well, she had her answer.

      The door opened behind him. He turned his head and watched Tiffany come outside empty-handed. His jaw tightened as she walked in and out of the shadows to the table where he sat. She sat across from him, the light from the kitchen window falling across her face.

      He waited for her to speak and when she didn’t, he said, “Didn’t you forget something? I want you and your little girl gone. Now.”

      Tiffany lifted her chin and stared back at him. He knew that look. She was ready to fight him if she didn’t get her own way. Well, too bad. She could throw as many temper tantrums as she wanted to throw, but they wouldn’t work. He wasn’t going to take her child and pretend it was his.

      “Do you remember the night before I moved out of here?”

      “Are you talking about the night you crawled into my bed after I was asleep?” he asked grimly.

      She smiled at him and nodded. “Yes. I wanted to show you that you might deny me other things, but you never denied me sex.”

      “You made your point. Making love to you was the only thing I seemed to do that you approved of. So what?”

      “Well, as things turned out, I was a little too eager that night and since you were more than half asleep, we didn’t use protection. Imagine my surprise when I discovered I was pregnant.” She looked down at her clasped hands, resting on the table. “Mother Nature’s little joke on me.” Her voice had flattened by the time she’d stopped speaking.

      “And I’m supposed to believe that?”

      She looked up at him, her gaze meeting his. “I really don’t care what you believe. She was born nine months after that night. Do the math.”

      “I doubt I was the only man who was in your bed around that time.”

      “I refuse to get into name-calling, Jake. Regardless of what you may want to believe, your name is on Heather’s birth certificate. If you have any doubts, have the tests run.”

      He swallowed, thinking back to that night. He’d made love to her until they were both exhausted. She was right. He hadn’t used protection. He supposed the surprise would have been if she hadn’t gotten pregnant. If he gave the matter any thought after being served with papers, he probably figured she had used protection.

      In the silence between them, he could hear the night sounds, the rustle of animals foraging by moonlight, the occasional deep croak of a bullfrog, the distant sound of a dog barking. “If you were pregnant at the final hearing,” he said after several minutes, “why didn’t the information come out in court?”

      She sounded irritated and impatient. “Because I hadn’t paid attention to my monthly cycles during that horrible time. I was so distraught that I put any irregularity down to stress. The divorce was final before I discovered the truth.”

      Which still didn’t explain why he didn’t know about it. Knowing Tiffany, as soon as she found out, she would’ve been screaming for his head…or other, more delicate parts of his anatomy…to be removed from his body.

      “Why didn’t you tell me once you found out?”

      “Because I didn’t want to have anything more to do with you, that’s why! I decided to raise her on my own. There are lots of single mothers who raise their children alone. You’d been so hateful during the divorce proceedings I decided you didn’t deserve to know you were going to be a father!”

      “So you decided to punish me by not letting me know, is that it?”

      “Yes!”

      “The only problem with your logic, Tiffany,” he said wearily, “is that it isn’t punishment if I didn’t know about her.”

      If what she said was true—and it would be easy enough for him to find out—then he really was the father of the little girl upstairs.

      His stomach knotted at the thought and he broke into a cold sweat. For more than three years he’d had a child that he never knew existed.

      “Why tell me now? Did you figure I’d been punished enough after all this time? You’ve kept her very existence from me for all these years, Tiffany, including the pregnancy itself. Care to explain to me why, after all this time, you brought her here tonight?”

      She shifted and appeared to be trying to decide how to answer him, clasping and unclasping her hands.

      Uh-huh. This was going to be good, watching her squirm. If he could find any pleasure in this encounter, which was certainly doubtful, it would be watching Tiffany as she tried to figure a way to justify her actions, which were inexcusable. He knew she was self-absorbed and permanently immature, but he never thought she would stoop so low as to keep a СКАЧАТЬ