A Baby by Christmas. Linda Warren

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СКАЧАТЬ Mike and then go to the lab.”

      “Will you be sleeping here tonight?”

      He turned at the door. “I’m not sure.”

      “You’ll be sleeping here,” she muttered under her breath as he walked out the door, Wags right behind him.

      Wags missed him at nights, but there was no way he could take a dog to Elise’s. Elise didn’t even know he had a dog. So whenever he was at home Wags followed him everywhere he went.

      JAKE TALKED TO HIS FOREMAN, Mike, to go over which cotton fields were scheduled to be harvested today. It was late September, one of the busiest times of the year, and he needed to be here, but he had no choice—he had to go. He had good people working for him so he left things in their capable hands.

      The lab work was easy and simple, as Ms. Woods had said, a few minutes out of his day that could change the rest of his life. Driving home, he started toward Elise’s, then realized she’d already have left for the university. He should’ve called her this morning, but he wasn’t sure what to say. Maybe by tonight she would’ve cooled off and they could talk without tempers flaring.

      When he got back to the farm, he picked up Wags and drove to the fields. Wags loved to ride in the truck with his head stuck out the window. The machines were already picking cotton, which would be stored in a module to be taken to the gin a little later. Right now the goal was to get the cotton out of the field. The corn had been harvested in July and so far he was having a good season. The weather was always a deciding factor in his business. It could make or break him.

      His office was attached to a big barn that housed most of his farm equipment. After he checked with Mike and found they were on schedule, he headed there. Wags curled up at his feet as Jake tried to focus on paperwork that had piled up on his desk, but he couldn’t concentrate. He kept thinking about Elise. He wished he’d called her, then he’d know what kind of mood she was in and maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to get some work done.

      At noon, his brother Beau stopped by. Beau was a lawyer, single with dark good looks that made him popular with women. They’d had very little contact when they were growing up. Beau was eight when Althea left and the battle lines had been drawn—Beau and their mother against Jake and their father. Joe McCain had refused to let Jake have anything to do with them and that was the way it stayed for years. When Jake was twenty-five, Joe passed away and Beau came to the funeral. He and Jake started talking, getting reacquainted. Since then, Beau had been on a crusade to bring Althea and Jake back together, but so far Jake had resisted all his efforts. He couldn’t forget the hurt she had caused him and his father.

      “Hey, Jake,” Beau said, throwing himself down in a chair. “How’s business?”

      Jake lifted an eyebrow. “Busy.”

      “Yeah, I saw the machines in the field. Looks like you’re having a good year.”

      “Yep, even the shortage of rain didn’t hurt. Irrigation took up the slack.”

      Beau looked around the office. “It’s strange coming back here. I feel as if he’ll walk in at any minute and yell at me to do something. I was always frightened of him.”

      “We have different memories of our father,” Jake replied with a somber face.

      Beau eyed him speculatively. “Just like we have different memories of our mother.”

      Jake leaned back in his chair. He didn’t want to discuss their parents; that was the past. He was more concerned with the present and Elise and the DNA test.

      “What are you doing here, Beau?”

      “Aunt Vin wanted some advice on her will. She’s leaving everything to you, which is no secret, but I think she just wanted to make sure I didn’t feel hurt. I told her that by the time she dies, she’ll have spent it all on bingo, anyway.”

      “Yeah, it’s an obsession with her.” He glanced at Beau.

      “Are you sure you’re okay with her decision? I tried talking to her, but—”

      Beau held up a hand. “I’m fine with it, Jake. Besides, I’ve only gotten reacquainted with Aunt Vin in the past few years.”

      Silence stretched for a moment, then Beau slipped in, “Aunt Vin said you slept here last night.”

      Jake’s eyes caught Beau’s. “Don’t pry into matters that don’t concern you.”

      “Ah.” Beau crossed his legs. “Something is wrong.”

      It certainly was, Jake thought, but not in the way Beau meant. How much had Aunt Vin told him? Not much, Jake guessed; that was why Beau was fishing for information. Well, if the boy was his, it wouldn’t be a secret too long, but still, he wasn’t good at confiding and the last person he wanted to know was his mother. And he couldn’t trust Beau not to tell her.

      “Nothing’s wrong,” Jake replied in a cool tone.

      “Come on, Jake, I’m not stupid,” Beau kept on. “Something’s wrong or you wouldn’t be sleeping at the farm.”

      “If there is, it’s between Elise and me.” He’d never told Beau why he and Elise had gotten married so quickly. His relationship with Elise was private.

      “Okay, okay, I’ll stop prying.”

      “Don’t you have an office you should be in?”

      “Sure do.” Beau stood. “If you need to talk, you know where to find me.”

      “I won’t.”

      Beau frowned. “Why do you have to be so hard and unforgiving?”

      “That’s just me” was the quick answer.

      “No, it isn’t. It’s just a front to hide your emotions.” Beau took a breath. “For God’s sakes, why can’t you talk to her?”

      “I don’t want to.”

      “Why not? She’s your mother.”

      “Not anymore.”

      “Sometimes, Jake, you make me so angry.”

      “Close the door on your way out,” Jake said, then went back to his paperwork.

      “One of these days, Jake, you’re going to need someone, and I hope to God that person’s not as hard as you are.”

      Jake tried to shut out Beau’s words, but he couldn’t. All he could remember was a ten-year-old boy who cried himself to sleep wanting his mother—a mother who’d deserted him without a second thought. That might be hard for Beau to understand, but he wasn’t the one left behind. Jake refused to see Althea under any condition; that was a vow he’d made to himself when she walked out of his life—the day she abandoned him to start a new life with Andrew Wellman. That kind of betrayal he couldn’t forgive and neither could his father. A heartbroken man, Joe McCain died way before his time.

      Jake had never met his half brother, Caleb, the child of Althea and Andrew Wellman, nor did he want to. Caleb was now almost twenty-eight, СКАЧАТЬ