Do you take this rebel - By Sherryl Woods Page 0,51
out to plant in my head.”
“That boy belongs here with us. It couldn’t be any clearer,” his father said.
“To you, maybe.” Then the full significance of what his father had said sank in. “Jake belongs here? Not Cassie? Is that what you’re saying? Even now, knowing that she’s the mother of my child, you still don’t think she’s good enough?”
“Hasn’t she proved that by lying to you?”
Cole couldn’t argue the point, not successfully, when he was still spitting mad over that himself. He let it go and continued packing.
“Cole, don’t do this,” his father pleaded. “Don’t give Cassie time to get herself an attorney, maybe even to take off again. Stay here and claim what’s yours.”
Cole silently closed the suitcase, then turned to face his father. “Jake is mine, not yours. The decision is mine, too. I want you to steer clear of him and stay the hell out of it. You’ve already done more than enough.”
His father shook his head. “You’re making a mistake.”
“It’s mine to make.”
That said, he left the room and the house. He had to wonder, as he drove away from the Double D, if he would ever be able to come back, knowing the part his father had played in everything that had happened.
Cassie sat on the front porch, trembling and sick at heart, long after Cole had left. When Jake crept outside to sit beside her, she wrapped him in a hug and clung to him until he protested.
“Mom, why did you and Cole fight?” he asked when she reluctantly released him. “I could hear you.”
Her blood ran cold. “How much did you hear?”
“Not the words, just that he sounded real mad. Was he mad?”
“Very,” she admitted.
“How come?”
“I…I kept something from him that I shouldn’t have.”
Did she dare tell Jake the rest? Not yet, she concluded, not until she and Cole had worked things out, if that was even possible. She needed to know what he wanted, how much a part of Jake’s life he intended to be, how much of a fight she might have on her hands.
“I like him, Mom. He’s been teaching me stuff, and he doesn’t talk down to me like I’m a dumb kid.”
“I know. He thinks you’re pretty special. He’s said so.”
Jake regarded her worriedly. “I didn’t mean what I said before about hating you.”
She managed a faint smile. “I know that.”
“You’re the best. And I like being here with Grandma, too. I don’t want to leave Winding River. We aren’t going to, are we?”
No, Cassie thought, for better or worse, they were here to stay. She wasn’t going to run again. Why bother, when Cole had the resources to find her wherever she went, anyway? And he would hunt her down. She had no doubts about that.
The next day, though, she was stunned to discover that Cole had left town.
“Went out to Silicon Valley,” one of Frank’s friends reported when he showed up for breakfast at Stella’s. He regarded her speculatively. “I don’t suppose you know anything about that?”
“Not a thing,” she said honestly, not certain whether to be relieved by the news or not.
Adding to the puzzle was the fact that Frank himself was a no-show at Stella’s. He hadn’t missed a day there in forty years or more.
“Frank took it real hard,” Pete reported as Cassie poured his coffee. “Despite all his grumbling, he dotes on that boy. I stopped by the ranch on my way here, but he wouldn’t even get out of bed. Said if Cole was gone for good, he didn’t have any reason to live.”
“That’s nonsense,” Cassie said.
“That’s what I told him, but you know Frank. He’s always been the dramatic type. Likes to control things, too. He’ll moan and groan for a few days, then come out swinging like always.”
No one knew that better than Cassie. “Yes, I’m sure he’ll pull himself together,” she agreed. “I’ll get your eggs now, Pete.”
“Don’t forget the bacon and hash browns.”
She grinned at him. “As if I could. You’ve been having the exact same breakfast for the past twelve years.”
“More than that,” he said, grinning back at her. “Started before your time. Of course, I have to have it here at Stella’s. If my wife found out, she’d have my hide.”
“I imagine she guessed your little secret years ago.”
Pete sighed. “Probably so. Never could keep a thing from that woman. That’s the basis of a good marriage, you know, keeping everything out in the open. Remember that when your wedding day comes along, and