The Cowboy's Claim

Timing was everything. He needed to know the timing of her pregnancy. And the time to find that out was right now. He didn’t want to go another minute without knowing the truth.

Drawing a deep breath, still more than a little bit numb at the possibility of what he might discover, he approached her door and knocked firmly.

A curtain shifted slightly and then dropped back in place at the window. “Go away,” her voice said through the closed door.

“I’m here now, Courtney, and I’m not going away,” he replied.

“I’ll call Sheriff Evans,” she replied.

“I have a feeling with two murders on his hands you’ll have a hard time getting his attention.”

His comment was met with silence, and for several long moments he thought she intended to ignore him. But he wasn’t going to be ignored tonight.

Just as he was getting ready to knock on the door once again, she opened it and slid outside into the hot night air, pulling the door halfway closed as she had the last time he’d shown up here.

“I’m curious about your son,” he said, cutting to the chase. He noted that her full, lush lips tightened into a thin slash of irritation. The flash of the nearby red neon sign advertising the Grady Gulch Motel cast a faint blush over her features.

“Why would you be curious about him?” Her entire body language was one of intense defensiveness, but her gaze met his boldly.

A tight pressure filled Nick’s chest, a pressure that was both severe and painful. He knew what the pressure was...it was the question that begged to be answered, and he somehow knew that the answer might change his life forever.