Natural Born Daddy

Her voice halted him in his tracks. She had obviously followed him.

“You forgot something.”

He turned back. She was holding out the box with the engagement ring. “Keep it here,” he said, refusing to accept it. “Try it on. Maybe you’ll get used to the idea.”

She tossed the ring straight at him. He caught it in midair and sighed. “I’ll bring it with me tomorrow.”

“Don’t,” she warned angrily. “I’m not some poor substitute you can call on when the first string doesn’t show.”

Jordan was shocked by her assessment, even though he had to admit there might be just the teensiest bit of truth to it. “I’m sorry. I never meant it like that,” he insisted.

She sighed heavily. “Yes, Jordan, I think that is exactly how you meant it.”

That said, she quietly closed the door in his face. He was left standing on the porch all alone. Oddly enough, it was the first time in all the visits he had paid to this house that he was leaving feeling lonelier and far, far emptier than when he had arrived.

He made up his mind as he drove the few miles back to White Pines that night that that wouldn’t be the last of it. After all, hadn’t he wooed some of the most sought-after women in all of Texas? Maybe approaching this as a business proposition hadn’t been the wisest decision. He’d try roses and, if that didn’t work, billboards along the highway, if he had to. Nobody said no to Jordan Adams. Kelly would weaken sooner or later. What struck him as slightly worrisome was the fact that it suddenly seemed to matter so much. Somewhere deep inside him he had the troubling impression that she was his last and best chance for happiness.

* * *

“The man is impossible!” Kelly declared, leaning against the front door and listening for the sound of his car driving off before she budged. She didn’t want to move until she knew for certain he wasn’t coming back. She seriously doubted she could hold out against his ludicrous proposal for very long. She’d been in love with the man practically since the cradle.

Unfortunately he had never once in all these years given her a second glance. She doubted he would be doing it now, if he hadn’t suffered a defeat in his blasted plan for his own life. Who in hell had a timetable for getting married? No one she knew except Jordan Adams. Well, he could put that plan into action without her.

“Mommy, are you okay?” Dani asked, peering up at her.

“I sure am, munchkin,” she said with more exuberance than she felt.

“You look funny.”

She grinned at the honest assessment. Bending over, she scooped her daughter into her arms and swung her high. “Funny?” she repeated indignantly. “Mommy is beautiful, remember?”

Dani giggled from her upside-down vantage point. “Very beautiful,” she confirmed. “Let me down, Mommy. My head’s getting dizzy.”

“Mine, too, sweetie,” she murmured, glancing through the window and watching the red glow of Jordan’s taillights disappear into the night.

Suddenly she thought of all the times she’d watched Jordan drive away, her heart thudding with disappointment once more because he hadn’t recognized how perfect they were for each other, because his kiss had been nothing more than a peck on the cheek.

She’d married Paul Flint only after she’d finally faced up to the fact that Jordan was never going to view her as anything more than his pal. Her world had fallen apart after that stupid, impulsive decision. Not right away, of course. It had taken a month or two before Paul had started spending more and more time away from their home. She wasn’t even certain when he’d started seeing other women.

When she finally accepted the fact that Paul was having affairs, she asked for a divorce. Jordan had been there to pick up the pieces. He hadn’t even said he’d told her so as he’d transported her and then three-year-old Dani to the ranch where Kelly had grown up.

From that moment on they had fallen into their old pattern of frequent phone calls and visits whenever he came home from Houston. She looked forward to their talks more and more. She had dreaded the day when his marriage to Rexanne would force an end to the quiet, uncomplicated time they spent together.

At least that wasn’t a problem any longer, she thought with another sigh.

“Mommy? Are you sad?” Dani inquired with her astonishing perceptiveness.

“Just a little,” she admitted.

“I know just what you need,” her daughter announced, giving her a coy look that Kelly recognized all too well.

“What’s that?”

“A new kitten.”

Kelly grinned at her child’s sneaky tactics. The suggestion was certainly a more rational one than Jordan had offered. A kitten was a whole lot less complicated than taking on a husband who’d selected her for marriage for all the wrong reasons.

“I’ll think about it,” she promised. “Now, go take your bath and get ready for bed.”

Dani bounced off toward the stairs, then halted and looked back. “Mommy?”

“Yes.”

“Think really hard, okay?”

“Okay.”

It was the second time that night that she’d been asked to carefully consider a decision that could change her life. Instinct told her to say no to both requests. Her heart was another matter entirely.

Chapter Two (#ulink_ba45bbf1-bb85-5c1d-85ed-916c665228af)

Jordan lingered over coffee at White Pines the morning after his proposal to Kelly. He’d been up since the crack of dawn, in the dining room since six-thirty. All that time he’d been pondering a new approach to the problem of getting Kelly to take his declaration of his intentions seriously. For the first time in his life, he was at a loss.

He heard the sound of boots on the stairs and glanced toward the doorway. Harlan Adams appeared a moment later, looking as fit as ever despite the fact that his fifty-sixth birthday was just around the corner. He regarded his son with surprise. Jordan suspected it was feigned, since nothing went on around White Pines that his father didn’t know within minutes.

“Hey, boy, when did you turn up?” his father asked as he surveyed the lavish breakfast buffet their housekeeper had left for them.

“Last night.”

“Must have been mighty late.”

“I’m too old for you to be checking my comings and goings,” Jordan reminded his father.

“Did I ask?”

Jordan sighed and battled his instinctive reaction to his father’s habitual, if subtle, probing. Harlan loved to goad them all, loved the spirited arguments and loved even more the rare wins he managed against his sons’ stubbornness.

According to Luke, the oldest, their father battled wits with them just to get them to stand up for what they wanted. Jordan supposed it might be true. He’d practically had to declare war to leave White Pines and its ready-made career in ranching to go into the oil business. Yet once he’d gotten to Houston, the path had miraculously been cleared for him. He’d promptly found work at one of the best companies in the state before striking out on his own a few years later.

“Everything okay around here?” he inquired as his father piled his plate high with the scrambled eggs, ham and hash browns that were forbidden to him except on weekends. He noted with some amusement that Harlan gave wide berth to the bran flakes and oatmeal.

“Things would be just fine if Cody didn’t decide he has to have some newfangled piece of equipment every time I turn around,” Harlan grumbled.

“How many have you let him buy?” Jordan asked.

His father shrugged. “Put my foot down about some fancy computer with those little disks and intergalactic communications potential or some such. I can’t even figure out the one we’ve got. Luke spent a whole day trying to show me again the last time he and Jessie were over here, but if you ask me, pen and paper are plenty good enough for keeping the books.”

Jordan hid a smile. He knew that his father’s pretended bemusement covered a mind that could grasp the most intricate details in a flash. Any trouble he was having with his computer was feigned solely to grab Luke’s attention.