Natural Born Daddy. Sherryl Woods

in his eyes. “Sorry, son,” he said without much sincerity.

      “She was the wrong choice. I’ll get over it.” Sooner than anyone imagined, if he had his way about it.

      “It’s not surprising, then, that you were over to visit Kelly last night. She always has had a sympathetic ear, especially where you’re concerned.”

      “We weren’t lamenting my love life last night,” Jordan said.

      Curiosity blossomed on his father’s transparent features. “Oh?”

      “We were just…talking,” he finally concluded weakly, unwilling to broach the actual subject matter of their conversation. Once Harlan got that particular bit in his teeth, there’d be no controlling his efforts at manipulation.

      “Just don’t go letting her get the wrong idea now, son. You said yourself, she’s been through a lot. No point in getting her hopes up now that you’re on the rebound. No telling what a woman might do when a man is vulnerable. They can be downright sneaky when they’re out to get their hooks into a man.”

      “There’s nothing the least bit sneaky or underhanded about Kelly,” Jordan snapped.

      “If you say so, son. You certainly know the woman better than I do.”

      Jordan didn’t think he liked the direction this conversation was heading. Any minute now his father was going to say something truly offensive about Kelly and he would leap to her defense. There was no telling what would happen after that. His mother would probably find them tussling on the dining room floor.

      He tossed his napkin down on the table and stood. “I’ve got to get out of here.”

      “Going for a ride?” his father inquired, his expression perfectly innocent.

      “Yes,” he said tightly, and slammed out of the house.

      Only much, much later did he wonder what he would have seen if he’d looked back. He had the strangest feeling he would have caught a complacent smile spreading across his father’s face.

      * * *

      With Dani visiting a friend for the day, Kelly had spent the entire morning checking on her livestock and inspecting her fences. Of course, given her state of distraction an entire section of fence could have been down and it would have slipped her notice. Fortunately the ranch hand she’d been able to afford just a month ago had been riding with her most of the day. Now, though, she was alone again, riding at a more leisurely pace.

      She kept glancing toward the horizon, looking for some sign of Jordan’s car. Her ears were attuned to the sound of approaching hooves, as well, since he sometimes chose to borrow one of his father’s horses and ride over.

      He still looked incredibly well suited to horse and saddle. In fact, she’d always thought he looked far more impressive and a hundred percent sexier in jeans and a chambray shirt than he did in those outrageously expensive designer suits he wore most of the time in Houston. Every time he put one of those suits on, it was as if a barrier went up between them. Sometimes she didn’t even recognize the man he’d become in Houston.

      More than his clothes had changed. As if fitting himself to a role, he’d been transformed into a sophisticated executive, driven and sometimes, it seemed to her, a little too coldly dispassionate.

      His proposal the night before had certainly fit the new Jordan. The old Jordan, the sensitive man who often sat in her kitchen talking until dawn, the exuberant daredevil who’d ridden over every square inch of her ranch and his own with her at midnight, would never have made such a proposition. He’d had more romance in his soul, even if little of it had been directed her way. Now she had to wonder if he’d wasted it all on that string of unsuitable gold diggers who’d spent the past few years trying to catch him.

      She knew without a doubt that he wasn’t going to give up on this crazy idea he’d gotten into his head about marrying her. One of his most attractive traits was his tenaciousness. To ready herself for the next assault, she had spent the entire morning reminding herself of all the ways to say no—and mean it.

      She was so busy concentrating on shoring up her defenses, she missed the plane the first time it flew over. The second time the sound of its engine drew her attention to the vivid blue sky. There was nothing especially unusual about a small plane overhead. Many of the more successful ranchers actually had their own planes to check out the far reaches of their land. Jordan’s family was one of them. Many more ranchers hired them on occasion. There was a small but active private airport nearby.

      What was unusual about this particular plane was the message trailing through the clear blue sky behind it: Marry Me, Kelly.

      She stared at it with a sort of horrified fascination. She supposed a case could be made that it was exactly the sort of impulsive, outrageous thing the old Jordan would have dreamed up, the sort of thing she’d claimed only moments ago to miss. Her heart, in fact, turned a somersault in her chest, a slow loop-de-loop that very nearly made her giddy.

      Her gaze riveted on that message, she bit back a groan. The whole blasted county was going to know about Jordan’s proposal now. Well, maybe not that Jordan was behind it, though that news would come quickly enough. Los Pinos was small enough that nothing ever stayed secret for long, including the identity of the man who’d taken his family’s plane up from the local airstrip to make his proposal in such an outrageous way. Her phone was probably ringing off the hook already.

      Even as she watched, the plane made another slow loop and circled back. Just when it reached a spot directly overhead, she saw something being scattered through the sky. Like confetti falling, it drifted down until the first touch of pink landed on her cheek. Rose petals, she realized at its silky touch against her skin. The man had filled the sky with rose petals.

      She sucked in a deep breath, inhaling the sweet scent of them, then lowered her head and rode deliberately away from the cascade of pink. Tears stung her eyes. He was making it awfully damned hard to say no. So far, though, he hadn’t come close to the one thing that would have guaranteed a yes.

      She reached the house just in time to see him settling his tall, lanky frame into a rocker on the porch. At the sight of her he stilled and waited, his expression oddly hesitant. That was a new side of Jordan altogether, one that stole her breath away. Not once in all the years she’d known him had he ever appeared the least bit vulnerable. He’d always been terribly, terribly sure of himself.

      “You have rose petals in your hair,” he said quietly.

      “Funny thing about that,” she said just as quietly, her gaze caught with his. “They were falling from the sky.”

      His mouth curved into a slow smile. “Amazing.”

      “Not many men could make that happen.”

      “Maybe not. I suppose it takes a man intent on making an impression.”

      Kelly sighed. “Jordan, you’ve never needed messages in the sky or rose petals to make an impression on me. Don’t you know that?”

      He seemed to sense that she hadn’t been as impressed as he’d hoped. “What does it take?” he asked.

      She reached up and patted his cheek. “I think I’ll let you think about that awhile longer.”

      Undaunted, he followed her into the house, heading straight for the kitchen as always. This time, though, he maneuvered past her and reached for the cups himself. He looked as if he needed to stay occupied, so Kelly washed up at the kitchen sink, then settled herself at the table and waited.

      He filled the kettle and put it on the stove, then lingered over her selection of herbal teas. “Which one?”

      “Orange spice, I think. The situation seems to call for a little zing.”

      “What situation would that be?” he inquired, leaning against the counter, his gaze on her steady and unrelenting.

      She really hadn’t wanted to get into this again