Do you take this rebel - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,45
and his own need to be on the cutting edge of the industry. He could have supplied her with one that was state of the art without batting an eye, but he resolved to provide an older model that wouldn’t get her dander up.
“No Internet,” Cassie said pointedly. “Understood?”
Jake sighed heavily. “Okay.”
Cole gave the boy’s shoulder a squeeze. “I’ll bring it by tomorrow, Jake. How will that be?”
“All right,” the boy said eagerly. “And you’ll show me how to write a program?”
“Sure, if you want to learn,” he said, then cautioned, “It’s a lot of work.”
“That’s okay. Someday I’m going to start my own computer technology company just like you.” He grabbed Cole’s hand. “Come look at my room and we can decide where the computer should go when you bring it.”
Cole found Jake’s budding case of hero worship touching. After living for the past few years with his own computer-illiterate father, a man who had absolutely no appreciation for his work, it was nice to have someone so eager to understand it and share in it. Jake was a good kid. Cassie had done a terrific job raising him on her own. Cole reminded himself to tell her that.
But when he tried to bring up the subject on the ride to Karen’s ranch, Cassie’s response was as touchy as always when he mentioned Jake. Cole told himself that her reaction was simply that of an overly protective single mom, but he was having difficulty believing it. Calling her on it would accomplish nothing. He’d already tried that, and she had only become more defensive.
Maybe he would ask Mrs. Collins. Her attitude toward him seemed to be mellowing lately. Maybe she would give him a straight answer. If not, he would just have to count on the fact that one of these days, Cassie would trust him enough to be completely honest with him. By nature, she wasn’t a secretive person.
At least she hadn’t been ten years ago, he reminded himself. Ten years was a long time, especially when most of that time she had been raising a child on her own. The truth was, he had no idea how Cassie might have changed. He just knew that plenty of things about her were the same, enough to fascinate him all over again.
He glanced at her, distressed to see that she was staring out the window with a distant, sad expression on her face. Maybe she was merely thinking about her friend’s loss, but he doubted it. He had caught that same expression even before Caleb’s death. Something—or someone—had stolen her youthful vibrancy and optimism, and Cole wouldn’t rest until he knew how that had happened.
Over the next few weeks Cassie lived in terror that Cole was going to learn the truth. It had become evident that he suspected that she was keeping something from him. And he also seemed to sense that it had to do with Jake. When he’d first tried to pin her down about her reasons for wanting to keep them apart, pure panic had washed through her. She’d had to force herself to calm down and respond as if her behavior was merely the reaction of a single mom.
She had thought at the time that Cole had bought her explanation about not allowing Jake to start counting on anyone who wasn’t likely to be around permanently. She’d also tried to be less overt about keeping the two of them apart, finding legitimate excuses to get Jake out of the house whenever Cole was likely to stop by. She’d been pleased by her success.
But then Cole had brought over that blasted computer, and it was clear that he intended to stick around and teach Jake to use it. When she’d tried to protest, the look he’d given her told her that nothing she said was going to be convincing. He was on to her, and sooner or later he was going to demand answers.
If her own determination to keep silent were the only thing at issue, she was sure the secret of Jake’s paternity would be safe enough, but there was Frank Davis to consider. She didn’t trust Cole’s father not to tell him everything. It had been evident during their confrontation that he wanted, in fact expected, Cole to claim Jake as the Davis heir. She doubted he would patiently wait forever for that to happen.
As it had ever since her return home, the debate over what to do raged in her head, setting off