“That’s right.”
“And this is your little boy?” Casey grinned widely at Cody.
“Yes,” Beth said, her insides beginning to twist. “Cody.”
“Isn’t he a doll?” All of Casey’s anger with her brother seemed to fade as she reached out and grabbed Cody into her arms. “Well, what’re you doin’, big fella? Did you come out to the ranch to rope some steers or ride some broncs bareback?”
Cody didn’t say a word, but his eyes rounded in wonder.
“Beth’s here because Grandma wrote to her,” Jenner explained, his gaze locking with Beth’s. She narrowed her eyes at him to warn him, but one side of his mouth twisted upward in a sarcastic smile.
“Grandma?” Casey repeated.
“Mmm. Seems she and Beth have quite a correspondence going.”
“Is that so? How do you know our grandmother?”
Bristling, Beth said, “She wrote and asked me to come back to Rimrock because she thought it would do Jenner a world of good to see me and Cody. We’ve known each other a few years.”
Storm clouds gathered in Casey’s usually clear eyes. “Oh.” She slid a glance at Cody and her face suddenly paled.
“Beth’s here to clear up a few things.”
Casey’s throat worked and Beth felt her cheeks grow hot as embarrassment stole over her face. “That’s right,” she admitted, wondering how much Jenner intended to confide in his sister.
“Jenner? Is that you?” Over the staccato tap of heels on hardwood, Virginia McKee’s voice carried through the hall. She appeared suddenly through an archway and stopped dead in her tracks when her gaze landed on Beth. “Oh...well, I see you’ve brought a guest.” Her practiced smile fell perfectly into place, though she didn’t seem pleased and her eyes remained frosty, even when she looked at her grandson for the first time. “Come in. Please.” She led them into a spacious sunken living room decorated with pine walls, rock fireplace and heavy furniture in shades of forest green and tan. Along the back wall, windows offered a view of a ridge of mountains reflecting in the clear waters of a lake. “Please, sit,” Virginia invited.
Jenner propped his crutches against the fireplace and settled onto the raised hearth. “I’d hoped Mavis would be around.”
“She’s resting.”
“I am not!” Mavis’s voice rang clearly through the living room as she entered. “What’s going on—Oh!” Her gaze landed on Cody and Beth. “Well, it’s about time you showed up around here.” Using her cane, she crossed the room and smiled at Cody. “So this is the boy. I believe it. Just look at him, Virginia. He’s the spitting image of—”
“Mavis!” Virginia hissed. “I don’t think this is the time or the place—”
“Sure it is. We all know what’s going on here.”
“Not all of us,” Beth said quickly, holding on to her boy. “Cody—”
“Won’t really understand what’s going on, but it’s time he did. That’s what you want, isn’t it, Mavis? You’re lookin’ to find yourself a great-grandson.” Jenner’s words were harsh and cut to the quick.
The old lady took a seat in an armchair and sighed. “I told you why I wrote to Beth, Jenner, but it was only part of the truth. I thought that seeing the boy would be good for you, yes, and good for the entire family, but I also thought that it was time to right a wrong. Lord knows I loved Jonah. He was my only child and I adored him, but...I’m afraid his father and I spoiled him and let him believe that he could take everything he wanted from life. He was a good man. I believe that with all of my heart, but sometimes he made mistakes and he...” She sighed again and looked down at her hands, where age spots mottled the once-clear skin. “Well, I didn’t think it was right when he broke up Max and Skye, twisting the truth as he did, but I didn’t interfere.
“As for you and Beth, things were different. You weren’t in love like Max and Skye, but you became involved and you fathered a child, a child you never knew about. Jonah thought it was for the best and I disagreed with him, but I couldn’t dissuade him. Once again, I let him have his way. But now he’s gone and I can’t help thinking he made a terrible mistake.”
“That bastard!” Casey said.
Virginia’s face turned the color of chalk. “He was your father and a good father and I won’t have you speak ill of him, Casey Maureen McKee!”
“Enough, Mom,” Jenner cut in. “Casey’s just surprised. We all know what kind of a man Jonah was.”
Mavis wound her fingers nervously over the handle of her cane. “He only did what he thought was best.”
“Best!” Jenner snorted disdainfully, but held his tongue. Leaning back against the smooth stones of the fireplace, his arms crossed over his chest, his jean-clad legs stretched out in front of him, he watched Beth through eyes opened at half mast, as if expecting her to say something, anything, that might somehow prove she was lying.
“This is all just conjecture,” Virginia said pointedly to Mavis, “and I don’t think you should go around maligning your own son. Jonah, rest his soul, may have made mistakes in his life, but we all do, and we have no proof that the boy is Jenner’s.”
“Beth is here because I insisted she come,” Mavis said, her mouth pursing.
“Why didn’t she ever contact Jenner?” Virginia turned her attention to the woman who dared challenge her son.
Beth raised her chin up a notch. “He was already gone when I found out. Back on the rodeo circuit. He’d never tried to contact me since... since we were together, and afterward I heard rumors that he was engaged to Nora Bateman.”
“That was over,” Jenner said sharply.
“Not according to your father.”
Jenner swore roundly.
“I’ll not have you speak that way about your father,” Virginia admonished, her eyes narrowing. “He was a good—”
“Stop kidding yourself, Mom! Open your eyes. Jonah P. McKee did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, to whomever he damn well pleased.”
“Jenner—”
“Jonah McKee was a lousy husband. Why you pretend that you didn’t know that he ran around on you is beyond me.” Mavis gasped and Casey shook her head vigorously, trying silently to stop her brother’s tirade, but Jenner wasn’t finished. He was just beginning to warm to his subject. Pushing himself upright, he said, “As for his being a good father, Mom, he was a complete failure.”
Mavis let out a small groan of protest but didn’t attempt to stop her grandson.
“You and I and Casey and Max and even you, Mavis, we all know the kind of man he was. Jonah’s kids weren’t people—at least not to him. They were just things, possessions like everything else around here. Trophies when they were good, embarrassments when they were bad. I guess I win the award for being the worst.” Shoving himself forward, Jenner refused to use his crutches and half stumbled over to the couch where Virginia was sitting, clutching her hands over her heart, her eyes brimming with tears. “It’s time to stop deluding ourselves. All of us.”
“You didn’t even know him,” Virginia whispered.
Jenner snorted. “We all knew him, but we just made excuses. Mavis here, she blamed herself for spoiling him. You... I guess you figured you were lucky to catch the richest man in the county and turned a blind eye to his faults. Max believed in Dad to the point where he was almost corrupted himself, and I... Well, I spent a lot of time trying to prove that I didn’t want or need him, just the way he treated me.”
“He loved you!” Mavis interjected.
“He loved himself.”
Beth couldn’t stand any more. Gathering Cody into her arms, she said, “I think I’d better go.”
“What?” Jenner turned too quickly, nearly fell over, but caught himself. “Already? Just when things are getting interesting?”
“I did what I had to do. Now I think it would be best if—”
“If what?” he roared. “We all went back to our same little lives? If we all acted as if you hadn’t appeared with your son and your clai
ms about his heritage? Is that what you expect?”
Her spine stiffened and she stared him straight in the eye. “What I expect, Jenner, is respect. That’s all I want from anyone, including you!”
“Don’t go!” Mavis pleaded, her lips quivering. “Jenner will apologize.”
“Like hell!”
“Why did you bring me here?” she demanded, and Jenner’s grin was as cold as a blue norther raging through the mountains.
“I wanted you to see what it was like to be a McKee. You know, a lot of people in town envy us, think we’ve got the perfect lives, but they aren’t privileged enough to see deeper than the surface into the flaws.”
“What Jenner is trying to say,” Casey cut in, “is that he’s being a class-A jerk to scare you off because he’s afraid of what you and your son represent.”
“Which is?” Jenner asked.
“Responsibility and stability.”
“One psych course in college and now you know all about me.”
“You’re classic, Jenner.”
“And you all wonder why I moved out.”
“No, we all know why,” Casey snapped back, her temper rising along with his. “It’s because you can’t face yourself in the mirror, brother. It’s because you’re scared to death that you’re never going to be able to do the things you love. It’s because you’re...you’re.:.”
“Go ahead and say it,” Jenner snarled, his face flushing an angry shade of red. “A cripple. That’s the word you were looking for.”
“I was going to say a coward.”
Virginia shook her head. “That’s not true! He saved Hillary’s life and Dani Stewart’s, as well.”
“Oh, hell, let’s not forget the horses, shall we?” Jenner said sarcastically. “Don’t you know, Casey? Haven’t you heard? I’m some kind of hero. A goddamned, crippled hero!”
That was enough. Holding Cody close, Beth headed for the front door. “Thanks...thanks for the hospitality,” she blurted out, though, considering the situation, it hardly seemed sincere. She walked through the door and headed for Jenner’s pickup. Oh, Lord, why hadn’t she brought her own car? She could call her mother, she supposed, but Harriet was working the afternoon shift at the Pancake Hutt and Zeke was probably getting ready to head out for the swing shift at the mill. Short of walking the nearly ten miles back to town, she had no recourse but to wait for Jenner.
“Damn! Damn! Damn!” she said, rolling her eyes to the blue sky and wishing she hadn’t been such a fool. Coming back to Rimrock had been a mistake of the highest order. The more she was around the McKees, the more certain she was that she’d made an irrevocable error, one that would affect her son for the rest of his life.
“You mad?” Cody asked, his eyes round with worry.
“No...well, yes.”
“At me?”
“Oh, no, pumpkin.” She wrapped her arms around her son more tightly and wondered how much of the conversation in the ranch house he’d understood. She should never have subjected him to such a horrid and painful scene.
She heard the front door open and listened for Jenner’s uneven gait. “Jenner’s coming!” Cody obviously spied Jenner over her shoulder. Wriggling to the ground, he raced up to the cowboy who had sired him.
Jenner managed to balance on his good leg and hoist the boy into the air. Cody giggled in sheer joy and Beth’s heart tore a little with the sound.
“I ride horse now!”
“Well, pardner, not right now.”
“When?” Cody demanded as Jenner set him on his feet.
“Maybe later.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“I told you—don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Beth warned as Cody, intrigued with the old crossbred retriever lying in the shade of an old apple tree, ran eagerly to the dog.
“Be careful,” Beth warned.
Jenner snorted a laugh. “Careful of old Reuben? He wouldn’t hurt a flea. Isn’t much of a watchdog for that matter.”
“Look, would you just give me a ride back into town?” she asked, not wanting to share any small talk with him. It was better when she hated him, when she didn’t trust him, when her heart was hard where he was concerned.
“You don’t want to stay at the Rocking M—even with the red-carpet treatment?”
“I need to get back.”
Casey, half-running, hurried out of the house. “Oh, Beth, I’m glad I caught you,” she said, crossing the yard. “I just wanted to apologize for my brother. He can be one helluva bastard when he wants to be.”
“Now wait a minute—” Jenner cut in.
“Rude, obnoxious, self-indulgent, arrogant, a real jerk.”
“Thanks,” Jenner muttered.
“I’m not telling Beth anything she hasn’t already figured out.” Casey shot her brother a furious glare. “I don’t really understand everything that went on in the house, but I heard enough to put two and two together, and it looks like I’ve got myself a nephew.” She smiled as she cast Cody a loving glance. “I can’t tell you how thrilled I am, and if... well, this sounds really hokey I know, but if you ever need anything, especially a baby-sitter, I’m available.”
“Hey, hold your horses!” Jenner objected. “We don’t even know—”
“Know what? That the kid’s yours?” Casey whirled on him. “I heard the whole story from Grandma just now. Of course Cody’s yours. Look at him, for crying out loud. He’s got McKee stamped all over him.”
Despite the tension straining the air, Beth almost laughed.
“How can you tell? He’s just a kid!” Jenner said.
“Ever see any pictures of you as a toddler? Go look in Mom and Dad’s bedroom. Cody’s a dead ringer for you.” She shook her head and met Beth’s amused gaze. “I’d better warn you of something. All the men in this family are muleheaded. Maybe there’s still time with Cody, but the rest of them are beyond help.”
“Thank you, Dr. Freud,” Jenner muttered.
“I’ll send you a bill,” Casey quipped back, then rolled her eyes at Beth. “I’m serious,” she affirmed. “Anytime you need anything.”
“How about a ride into town?”
Jenner stepped between the two women. “Wait a minute. I’ll give you a ride home.”
“Don’t bother. If Casey would—”
“I said I’d do it.” He grabbed her arm possessively.
“Don’t you understand, Jenner?” she said, angling her face to his. “I’m giving you an out.”
“Well maybe I’m not asking for one.”
Casey lifted both palms skyward. “Hey, I’m not going to get in the middle of this. I’m outta here. You two work it out and you—” she pointed a finger at Jenner “—be smart for once in your life!” Flipping her hair away from her face, Casey climbed into an imported sports car of some kind and roared down the lane.
“My sister neglected to mention that the women in the family have some of the same unique and endearing traits as the men.” Jenner’s fingers still surrounded Beth’s wrist. He blew out a sigh and watched Reuben lick Cody’s chubby little hands. “About what happened in the house—”
“Let’s just forget it, shall we?” A dry gust of wind caught her hair, blowing the dark strands over her face. Just as she was brushing them aside, Jenner touched the edge of her cheek with a callused finger.
“I just wanted you to see what you were getting yourself into. What kind of family we are.”
“It doesn’t alter the facts, does it? Or were you just trying to test my mettle and scare me off?”
His fingers traced the line of her jaw, his gaze suddenly warm, and the harsh edges of his face seemed to soften a little. “You’ve given me a shock. I just want you to realize all the ramifications of what you’re doing.” His hand dropped back to his side and he leaned a hip against the fender of the truck.
“I can’t turn back now,” she said, and he watched the breeze play with her hair again. Sunlight glinted off the red-brown cu
rls and her cheeks were high with color, probably from embarrassment.
Suddenly Jenner felt like a heel. “Do you want to... turn back?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, her jaw jutting forward in defiance. “I thought this was the perfect opportunity for Cody to meet his father. Maybe I was wrong.” Before he could answer, she called to her son. “Come on, Cody. It’s time to go.”
“Dog come, too?” Cody asked.
“No, but—”
“Sure. Come on, Reuben.” Jenner whistled to the old retriever who loped over to the truck, then upon command leaped into the bed.
“I ride with him.”
Beth was horrified. “No way.”
“You’re up in the cab, pardner,” Jenner said.
“But I want doggy.”
“Who’s gonna steer the truck?”
Beth let out a little squeak of protest.
“I drive?”
“You bet.” He winked broadly at Beth as he yanked on the door of the old Dodge.
“God help us,” Beth whispered as Cody, with Jenner’s help, scrambled into the driver’s side. She was climbing into an ancient pickup that was going to be driven by a man with the use of one leg and a two-year-old. “Crazy, that’s what this is,” she muttered under her breath.
Jenner shoved the truck into reverse, and Cody, sitting next to him in the car seat reached over and honked the horn loudly. From the bed, the dog let out a sharp bark and they were off, leaving a plume of dust in their wake.
Beth glanced at father and son, both grinning widely as if they were having the time of their lives. She couldn’t help but wonder just how long it would last.
Chapter Six
Jenner smelled trouble. The kind of trouble that reeked of problems and clung to a guy for the rest of his life. Not only was that little imp of a kid getting to him, but the mother, as well.
They’d spent the rest of the day together. Though Beth had come up with a hundred reasons to return to her mother’s house, he’d managed to convince her to stick around. They’d gone to the park, a dippy kid’s movie in Dawson City and out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. Eventually, with Reuben still in the back of the truck and Cody falling asleep leaning against his mother, Jenner had taken her home to the cottage on Buckskin Drive. The house was nearly dark, soft light coming from only one window near the back and a single bulb burning on the front porch.