Do you take this rebel - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,50
father’s gaze turned sharp. He studied Cole’s face, then gave a little nod of satisfaction. “She finally told you, then?”
As understanding dawned, Cole stared at him. “You know? You know that Jake is my son?”
“Well, of course I know,” he boasted, clearly oblivious to Cole’s barely concealed surge of anger.
“How long?” Cole asked, his voice deadly calm as he grappled with this newest revelation.
“I suspected it years ago, after you’d left to go back to school, but I didn’t have any proof. Not at first, anyway. Then, finally, I got Edna Collins to admit it. Took a whole lot of persuading, I’ll tell you that. The woman would have taken the information to her grave, if I hadn’t dangled some cash in front of her.”
Leave it to his father to buy what he wanted. “When was that?” Cole asked.
“A month or so after Cassie left town. I guessed she was pregnant. Why else would the girl turn her back on her only family?”
“But you saw no reason to share that with me?”
“No,” he said, regarding Cole evenly. “For a time I let myself believe it was better to leave things the way they were. You would have wanted to do the right thing, no matter what kind of mess it made of your life. So I took care of the girl’s medical expenses. I offered more, the same as you would have done, but Edna turned me down flat.”
“You offered more,” Cole repeated derisively. “Money, I imagine.”
“Well, of course. What else?”
“You didn’t consider offering marriage, maybe righting the wrong I had done by getting Cassie pregnant in the first place?”
His father scowled. “I told you, I wasn’t going to let you mess up your life.”
“I don’t see how taking responsibility for my own actions would have messed up my life. It might have taught me a lesson. And of course there was the fact that I loved the boy’s mother.”
“That girl was no good for you, that much was plain as day. She was a nobody.” At Cole’s muttered expletive, he backed down. “At least, that’s how I viewed it then.”
Cole regarded him curiously, wondering about the kind of logic his father used to justify his actions. “And now?”
“I’ve been forced to reevaluate,” he conceded.
Which explained the attempts to push him and Cassie together. “And why is that?”
“You weren’t showing any signs of getting over the woman. You haven’t had a single serious relationship in all the years you’ve been back. When I heard Cassie was coming back, I decided enough was enough. I couldn’t sit by and let the Davis heir be raised as a bastard right under our noses.”
Suddenly all of the evening’s stress boiled over. Infuriated, Cole grabbed a fistful of his father’s shirt and dragged him close until they were practically nose to nose. “How dare you?”
“I did what I had to do.”
“Then this is all about your choices, your decisions?” It took every bit of restraint he possessed to keep from shaking his father. “That boy was mine—hell, he was your grandson—and you kept it to yourself. What were you thinking?”
Not bothering to wait for an answer, he released his father and backed off before he could take the swing at him he so desperately wanted to take. “You’re the same manipulative, controlling son of a bitch I left home to escape ten years ago.”
His father drew himself up, seemingly unfazed by Cole’s anger. “I’m your father, and I’ll thank you to show a little respect,” he commanded.
“Then you’ll have to work damn hard to prove you deserve it. Right now I don’t see it,” Cole snapped, then whirled and headed up the stairs.
In his room he dragged out a suitcase and began haphazardly filling it with clothes. He had no idea where he was going, but he knew he had to get away. He heard his father huffing and puffing as he climbed the stairs, but he ignored it.
“Dammit, boy, where do you think you’re going?” his father demanded, hanging on to the doorjamb as he caught his breath.
“Away from here.”
“You’ve just found out you have a son and you’re leaving?” the old man asked incredulously.
“I have to think, and I sure as hell can’t do it here under your roof.”
“I’d like to know why not? The Double D is your home. It’s your heritage.”
“Not because I want it,” Cole pointed out. “Because you insist on it. If I stay, I’ll never know if what I decide is right or what you’ve deliberately set