His for the Taking - By Ann Major Page 0,35
been crying her heart out because of him, and yet she’d still left with Vernon?
“We have to talk,” he muttered gloomily.
“I don’t have long,” Maddie said in a crisp tone. “Miss Jennie needs me.”
“I’ll be fine right here with my soda and my morning paper. You two take Cinnamon out into the back garden and talk. There’s some shade, so it’s not too hot at this hour with the breeze. But mind that you make Cinnamon leave Bessie’s chickens alone, so George, her husband, doesn’t take a notion to shoot him again. You take all the time you need. I’ll be just fine in here.”
Tension throbbed through Cole as he pushed the screen door open and called to Cinnamon. The dog wheeled between their legs, barking. Then, of course, the dog rushed straight for Bessie’s chicken coop.
“I hope George doesn’t take aim at Cinnamon and shoot you or me by mistake,” Cole said to lighten the mood. “He’s a lousy shot.”
A tight-lipped Maddie whirled on him as soon as they were where Miss Jennie could neither see nor hear them. “We have nothing to say to each other!”
“Why don’t we start with the fact that I’ve had a son I haven’t known about for six damn years.” Deliberately, he kept his tone soft.
When she shut her eyes, he was sure it was to block him out, not because the sun slanting through the oaks was so brilliant.
“I want to see him,” Cole said. “To know him. For him to know me. As soon as it can be arranged and you feel that Noah is prepared, I want to meet him. Is that so wrong?”
“This has all happened so fast, I can’t think. All I know is that you weren’t there when we needed you. We’ve built a life—apart from you. It wasn’t easy, I’ll admit. I know you said you could do a lot for Noah, but the man I’m going to marry, Greg, can take care of us. He’ll work hard to make us happy.”
“Noah’s still my son,” Cole said. “I want to meet this other man, who’s going to have a big part in Noah’s life.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Cole saw Bessie’s shade lift.
“Please, if you ever felt anything for me…just go on with your own life. I was doing just fine without you.”
“Well, maybe I wasn’t doing just fine—not even before I knew about Noah. Maybe I want some answers. For six damn years I believed you jilted me and ran off with Vernon. In your letters that I stupidly didn’t open, you said that you believed Noah was Vernon’s. You sounded glad that he wasn’t, like you were glad to think I might be Noah’s father. Why? Miss Jennie just told me that you came to her right before you left Yella.”
“Miss Jennie shouldn’t be talking to you.”
“Well, she called it an awful night. She said you told her about us, that you were crying and that you were in some kind of trouble. If that’s true, I hope you’ll trust me enough someday to tell me what happened.”
“It’s too late.” Her flat voice was so faint he could barely hear her.
“Why did you tell her all about me if you were going to run off with Vernon? What the hell really happened that night?”
Her eyes grew huge and filled with pain. “I’m going to marry Greg, so none of this matters.”
“We have a son. I want to know what happened.”
“I can’t go back there.”
“I’m not asking you to go back. I’m asking you to communicate…honestly.”
Refusing to look at him, she bit her bottom lip.
“Why did you sleep with me yesterday?”
“Because I’m weak and cheap…like my mother.”
Was she? Grimly, he studied her wan face. He wished she could trust him enough to level with him.
Feeling so frustrated he wanted to shake her, he balled his fists and slid them into his pockets. “Maybe I would have been fool enough to buy that story before yesterday, but not now. I think you ran away from Yella because something terrible happened to you. I think you were scared and helpless, and I wasn’t there for you. I think the woman who put herself through college while she raised my son alone, the woman who has a decent job now and a schoolteacher fiancé who’s reputedly a damned paragon—that woman is the last thing from weak and cheap. I want the truth!”
She caught her breath. “Okay…like I keep telling you, the truth is that last night—the