Country Romance - Carolyne Aarsen Page 0,60

sat on the edge of his bed, wondering if he dared phone his brothers and Carly at this time of night.

It had to happen soon. It wasn't right to keep them in the dark about Dean.

Start with Reuben, he told himself. Last he heard, his brother was in B.C., which was an hour behind. He pulled in a deep breath, sent up a prayer, and punched in Reuben's number. His brother answered on the third ring.

"Hey. What's up?" Reuben asked, sounding puzzled. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"You guess? What's going on?" Trust Reuben to get straight to the point. "You never call me more than once a month."

Wyatt sat back on the bed, his legs stretched out in front of him, trying to find the right words.

"Remember that trip we made to Mexico?"

"After Theresa dumped you? Again?"

"That one."

"Vaguely."

Wyatt felt a flicker of shame at what he had to say next. "Apparently I hooked up with a woman there. Told me her name was Jane."

A moment of silence followed his comment.

Wyatt plunged on. "And, apparently, I got Jane pregnant."

"What?"

His brother's question exploded in his ear, and Wyatt closed his eyes, breathing, praying for strength.

"Seriously?" Reuben continued.

"I wouldn't joke about something like this."

"How did you find out? When did you find out?"

"Last week Monday, except I didn't know for sure until Sunday."

"And you decide to tell me now?"

Wyatt bristled at the veiled condemnation in his brother's voice. "I wasn't sure until I got the DNA test results back. And then we got socked in by a storm that knocked the power out."

Another beat of silence. "I'm guessing the DNA test was positive."

"Ninety-nine and a whole bunch of nines after that positive."

"Whoa. That's kind of overwhelming. I'm stunned."

"You're not the only one."

"Why did you find out just now? That was almost six years ago."

"His mother passed away. Asked a friend to bring Dean, my son, here."

"A boy."

"Yep."

"And his mother is dead?"

"Yes." He took a breath, then filled his brother in on all the other details. Why Sally or Jane had kept it a secret. Why she had waited this long. All the while Wyatt spoke, his mind shifted to Adele. He kept her out of the conversation. For now, Dean was a reality.

Adele, he wasn't sure of. Nor did he want to bring their relationship out. Not yet. Things were too new. Too fresh.

Too uncertain.

But even as he thought that, he felt a sense of rightness that he had never felt with anyone before.

And that had to count for something.

"So when are you coming back?" Wyatt asked, dealing with the other reality of his life.

"I hope to be coming back around spring. This job will be over then, and I'll be ready to get back to Millar’s Crossing."

Wyatt didn't want to tell him that Katrina had moved back as well. No sense rocking that particular boat. Besides, Reuben had been happily married to Denise. Had deeply grieved her death.

He probably didn't think much about his ex-girlfriend.

"Okay. Good. That’ll work out. We'll need to do a bunch of fencing."

Their conversation slipped to the ranch, their plans for expansion. How Finn and Carly were doing.

Wyatt knew he needed to talk to them too some time or other.

But as he and Reuben chatted, as he skated around the reality of the woman in the house who now held his heart, he knew that sooner or later he would have to face what was going on between them.

Thank goodness the waterers hadn't frozen while the power was out.

And thank goodness the storm had quit.

The sun was just coming up on the horizon, promising a beautiful day, as Wyatt made his way back to the house across the snow-covered yard. The temperature had risen overnight, and the wind had died down.

Lights were on in the house and smoke curled up from the chimney, rising straight up into the air.

Adele was probably up already. Making coffee, getting breakfast together.

He paused, his mind sifting back to the conversation he and Adele had last night. He had to be careful, but even while his practical self laid out all the reasons, his heart couldn't stop the gentle lift that thoughts of Adele created.

She was kind, caring, loving.

And she knew how to run a tractor.

He smiled at that last thought, trying to imagine Theresa coming anywhere near anything that had an internal combustion engine. The picture didn't gel and as he trudged through the snow, he caught a shadow in the kitchen's window.

And any thought of Theresa fled.

He wanted nothing more than to