Riley's Baby Boy

As quickly as he’d taken a step toward her, he took a step back.

“All right,” he said, going back to their earlier conversation. “I’ll call Clay and tell him I’m taking out the tours. But today I’ll be back by 1:00. I need to call my family and let the fallout begin.”

She’d watched him pace at times yesterday, pick up his phone and then put it down. He had a lot more family than she did, so there would be many more judgments to combat. No wonder he’d waited until he knew what he wanted to say … and do.

“I’ll be here,” she said softly. “While Derek sleeps, I need to work.”

“Work as in—”

“New sketches, new designs, phone calls. I have good people working for me, but they still need to consult with me.”

He nodded as if he understood. Then as if he couldn’t help himself, he reached out and touched her cheek. “Go back to bed. You have blue smudges under your eyes.”

Abruptly he turned away and headed for the kitchen.

As Brenna returned to her room, she knew she was probably going to have blue smudges for the next few months. Who did Riley see when he looked at her? The girl he’d known? Or the woman she’d become?

It really didn’t matter … because nothing had changed between them. On the other hand, everything had.

Riley was supposed to meet the tourists he’d be leading on a trail ride at the Rocky D ranch. Zack Decker guided a few horses into the corral to choose from—a pretty gray-spotted appaloosa, a bay, a chestnut, and Riley’s favorite, Silver Star, a beautiful pewter-gray gelding who was as reliable as he was durable. He was Riley’s pick every time.

Zack grinned at him as Riley strode up to the horse and gave him his hand to smell.

Silver whinnied a greeting.

Riley gave him a “hey, boy,” and stroked his neck.

“What’s on for this morning?” Zack asked.

“Three businessmen who decided to take a vacation together and come West.”

“Do you think they know how to ride?” Zack asked with wry sarcasm.

“They say they’ve had some experience. But trail riding in the foothills of Moonshadow Mountain is a heck of a lot different than riding on groomed lanes outside a big city. So we’ll see.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to ride out and be back by lunch?”

“It’ll be tight, but we should do okay. I really don’t want it to go long.”

As Zack walked around Silver and checked the lead on another horse’s nose, he said, “You usually don’t care if the trail ride goes all day.”

“The men are driving to Flagstaff and have a meeting about hiking down the Grand Canyon.”

“What’s the but?” Zack asked bluntly.

Zack never beat around the bush. As a movie producer and director as well as co-manager of the Rocky D with his wife Jenny, he could put his thumb right on the pertinent point even when you didn’t want him to. Riley knew Brenna’s presence in town wouldn’t be quiet forever. He was going to put in that call to his father when he got back and meet with him later today.

But for the meantime there would be no harm in telling Zack because he’d become more than a former classmate—he’d become a loyal friend.

“I had a surprise the other day.”

“Good surprise or bad surprise?” Zack asked, propping a foot on the bottom rung of the fence, tilting his Stetson back with his other hand.

“Brenna McDougall returned to Miners Bluff and ended up on my doorstep.”

“I heard you were talking at the reunion and left together. Family feud over?”

“Hell, no. But … I didn’t tell you why she came back.”

“If she was on your doorstep, then it was to see you.”

“Did you take a class in deductive theory?”

“Get on with it, O’Rourke. You want to tell me something. You know you do. You’re just having trouble doing it.”

Riley sighed, gazed off into the distance where pines and aspen, larch and laurel gave the Rocky D its special charm. “Have you ever done anything foolish, Zack? So foolish it changed the rest of your life?”

“Not speaking to my father for all those years was foolish. Not convincing Jenny to go with me out of high school was foolish. Holding grudges for too long without knowing the real reason behind them was foolish. So, yeah, I’ve done foolish things.” Zack had reconciled with his father Silas and had married Jenny less than a year ago. He sure seemed happy.

But Riley didn’t believe in marriage. He’d been too hurt by his parents. He didn’t believe two people could make promises that would last forever. His mother couldn’t stand the heat and she’d gotten out of the kitchen. His mother’s abandonment of her family had driven his dad to the bottle. Liam O’Rourke had never gotten over loving his wife and not being loved in return. Those difficult years had had a profound effect on Riley.

And if Brenna hadn’t been able to stand by Riley during the tough times, had she ever really loved him?

He had to admit when he saw Zack and Jenny together, they looked at each other as if they were each other’s worlds. He realized the same was true for Clay Sullivan and his wife, Celeste, who had also reunited after the reunion, as well as Mikala Conti and Dawson Barrett who had been classmates and were now expecting a baby. But besides his own parents’ divorce and that of his brother Patrick, he’d seen his sister lose a husband she’d loved.

The bottom-line truth was all of that plus Riley’s tours of service had affected him deeply. He didn’t want to be tied down. He wanted room to roam and that prevented romantic entanglements from going any further. Still …

Whenever he thought of Derek, he thought about a life built around his son. He just couldn’t envision it yet.

“Brenna knocked on my door and when I opened it she was holding my baby,” he blurted out.

Zack didn’t react at first. Then he asked with that perception Riley didn’t know if he admired or hated, “This happened the night of the reunion?”

“Yeah.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“I’m a dad. I’m going to act like a dad.”

“She has her picture in magazines, doesn’t she? Jenna told me she’s a well-known bridal gown designer. Mikala wore one of her gowns for her wedding.”

“Seriously?”

“Dawson told her whatever she wanted and that’s what she wanted. Small wedding, really nice gown. Not that I noticed much, with Jenny in a dress Brenna designed, too.”

“Yeah, she’s famous—in New York, anyway, maybe in L.A. We haven’t gotten into it.”

“Well, you’d better. I imagine her life is as busy as life could get.” Zack shook his head. “How did you ever get involved with her again? Your families will never see eye-to-eye.”