LITMIR.BIZ

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      “Are you still in the same area?”

      “Yes. In Flower River.”

      His thoughts drifted back to the past. Bridget had attended one of his training clinics at the fairgrounds in the town where she lived. He’d been intrigued from the start, noticing her that very first day. She’d been his physical ideal: a blue-eyed blonde with a curvy figure that turned him on. Mostly, though, she was just a sweet, no-frills girl who’d never even been out of Montana.

      They’d embarked on a weeklong tryst, and being with her was the most fun he’d ever had with anyone. It wasn’t just about the heat that unfolded between the sheets, but the compatibility when they were hanging out together.

      For Kade, that was a rare occurrence. A loner by nature, he preferred to keep to himself. He could count the number of women he’d been with on one hand. Okay, maybe two. But he could go for years at a time without partaking of anyone’s company. Sometimes he missed the warmth of a woman’s body next to his. But it was easier to stay unattached than get pulled into romantic entanglements.

      A week, he supposed, was his limit. The precise amount of time he’d spent with the mother of his child.

      He squinted into the sun. “Did I make that bad of an impression on you, Bridget?”

      “What?” she replied.

      “For you to have left me out of Cody’s life.”

      “I already told you that it’s complicated.” She cleared her throat. “Just tell me if you want to meet Cody, and we’ll go from there. But if you have reservations, then please stay away. It has to be something you can handle. Otherwise Cody could end up getting hurt.”

      “Of course I want to meet him.” He couldn’t just ignore the fact that he had a son. He wanted to do the right thing, to take responsibility, to make a difference in the kid’s life. “And I’m not going to hurt him, not if I can help it. I got hurt plenty by my own dad. I know what that feels like.”

      “Really? I didn’t know you had a troubled relationship with your father.”

      “It’s not something I normally talk about.”

      “I had a problem with my dad, too.”

      A bell went off in his head. “Is that part of the complication you keep mentioning?”

      “Yes.” Her voice broke a little. “And I was just protecting Cody from more of the same. But like I said, we can talk about that when you’re able to come here.”

      He didn’t doubt that it was a long and painful story. But he was still concerned about the specifics and how it applied to him. “I can rearrange things so I can be free sometime next week. But I’m going to drive, not fly, so that’ll add a few more days.”

      “Where are you right now?”

      “In Texas.” He glanced around the Heartbreak Paint Ranch, a high-end facility that belonged to one of his clients, a country singer and his fashion-model wife. “I’m on a job. I travel the way I always did, and I still do clinics. But I also work for a lot of private parties now. I’ve come a long way since you knew me.”

      “I’m aware of the reputation you’ve built for yourself. Cody scoured your webpage. He’s impressed by the famous people you know and all the flashy horses you train. Ever since he got it in his head to meet you, you’re all he’s been talking about. He’s even been bragging about you to his friends.”

      Kade hoped he could live up to those kinds of expectations. “I’ll do my best to make him proud.”

      “Thank you. He’s going to be thrilled.” Her voice went soft. “After we hang up, I can email you some pictures of him.”

      “That would be great.” Kade couldn’t even begin to imagine what his son looked like. “Can I ask you something personal? Since you said that your grandfather was Cody’s father figure, does that mean that you’ve never been married or had a significant other who influenced him?”

      “No, there’s been no one. No one important,” she clarified. “I’m careful about the men I date and whom I let Cody get close to.”

      Kade figured as much, being that he’d also been left out of the loop. Nonetheless, he was glad that there wasn’t an ex-husband or some other dude who’d once mattered. He didn’t want to be compared with anyone else. It was scary enough that Cody was already putting him on a pedestal.

      She said, “I’ll email you those pictures, and once you work out your schedule, you can let me know for certain what day you’ll be here.”

      “Sure. Okay.” Curious about her appearance and how much she might’ve changed, he wanted to ask her to send a picture of herself, too, but he thought that might seem weird. He would be seeing her in person soon enough. “Tell Cody I said hello, and I’m looking forward to meeting him.”

      “I will. Bye for now.”

      “Bye.” He pushed the end button and stared into space, unsure of what to do next. Should he call his brother in California and tell him the news? Yes, he should. But he decided he would do that after he saw Cody’s pictures.

      For now, he opted for checking his emails on his phone, hoping Bridget had hurried and sent them.

      She hadn’t, at least not yet.

      He kept checking, and about ten minutes later, the email arrived with a subject line that read “Cody Colton Wells.”

      So that was his son’s full name? He liked the sound of it, but he would have preferred that the boy’s surname was Quinn instead of Wells. At least that would’ve made Kade feel more like Cody’s father, not left out of everything.

      He opened the attached files, and talk about being knocked off his feet. The first image appeared to be a school picture, where Cody was looking straight at the camera with a posed expression. Kade saw himself in the boy: his deep-set eyes, his naturally tanned complexion, even the cowlick in the front of his short dark hair. Kade’s was in a different spot and not quite as pronounced, but he still had one.

      The next picture was much more casual, with Cody sitting on the porch of a little blue-and-white house that was positioned on a dirt road and surrounded by trees.

      Was that Bridget’s house? The place where she was raising Cody? When Kade and Bridget were together, she’d stayed with him at the motel room he’d rented for the week. He hadn’t gone home with her because she’d still lived with her family then. It would have been awkward for her to bring him there or introduce him to anyone.

      But this time would be different. Kade would be going straight to her door—nearly eleven years later—to meet the child they’d created.

      Before he panicked from the sheer craziness of it, he opened the third and final photo, which showed Cody by a Christmas tree in the midst of holiday hoopla, wrapping paper everywhere. Again, Cody looked just like Kade when he got dressed up, with a crisp Western shirt and bolo tie.

      Should he reply to Bridget’s email? Should he tell her what a handsome kid they had? Or would that sound arrogant, given Cody’s resemblance to him? He smiled, feeling ridiculously proud that his genes were so strong.

      Even if he still didn’t know a damned thing about being a father.

      * * *

      Bridget was a nervous wreck, her pulse pounding beneath her skin. Kade was scheduled to arrive today.

      For now, Cody was at school. She and Kade had agreed to see each other first, to talk, to get the past out of the way before their son got home.

      Their son. Hers and Kade’s.

      The week they’d spent together had been the most beautiful, romantic time of her life. She’d relived every passionate moment after he was gone, waiting by the phone for him to call, just as Bridget’s mom had routinely done with Bridget’s

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