The Rancher's Surprise Son. Christine Wenger

remembered moving Laura into her dorm room at the University of Arizona in Phoenix. She’d been excited and eager to start her new life away from the Duke Ranch and away from her father’s immediate control. She’d had the sweet taste of freedom on her soft, warm lips and hot body, and they’d made love for the first time.

      It was a day he’d never forget.

      And he’d never forget today, either, seeing Laura for the first time in three years. Damn, she looked better than ever. She’d let her blond, silky hair grow and it fell over her shoulders in shades of gold. Shiny bangs tickled her eyebrows, but it was her eyes that told him everything. As he passed by, they looked him over, from the top of his cowboy hat to the bottom of his old boots and the silly suit he wore. He could see the sadness in her eyes.

      Did she still love him?

      Her letters had been his lifeline. At first, she’d written him every day, begging him to let her visit him, but he steadfastly refused. He didn’t want her to see him in there, but more importantly, he was afraid that she’d catch him at a weak moment, and he’d spill his guts.

      She’d been mad, and her letters only came once a week. She claimed that she was hurt and claimed that there was nothing happening to tell him.

      He always wrote her back immediately, but he’d sent the letters to the Double M. He knew that his mother would see that Laura got them, just as sure as he knew that J.W. or Laura’s mother, Penny, would destroy them.

      He and Laura had made such wonderful plans for their future, but there was no chance now, no future for them.

      He didn’t want to saddle Laura with a jailbird.

      Before everything happened, they’d had plans to leave Duke Springs and relocate to escape the long-reaching claws of J.W.

      As he toweled himself off, Cody looked out the window. His gaze was drawn to the logo of the Duke Ranch on the side of the white pickup. J.W. had a fleet of new white vehicles. The Double M had a beat-up ten-year-old Dodge Ram that was on a respirator. Once red, it was now pink from sunburn.

      Cody stared at the crown—a perfect representation of J.W.’s character. Along with the Duke Ranch, the man owned all of Duke Springs—the bank, some clothing and shoe stores, the grocery, the feed and tractor store. Everything was a spoke in J.W.’s far-reaching wheel.

      Everything, except the Double M.

      As Cody slipped into a pair of worn jeans he’d found in his dresser and an equally worn black T-shirt, he found himself itching to get back to ranch work. But he wished it was his own property that he’d be working on. The Duke Ranch wasn’t where he wanted to be. Not today. Not any day.

      He had to admit that at the Duke Ranch, he could see Laura from time to time. That was something to look forward to, but they’d have to be careful and tiptoe around so they could talk, catch up and maybe salvage some of their plans.

      That is, if Laura still wanted him. He couldn’t read her today. She seemed shocked to see him. Hadn’t J.W. told Laura that her father had helped to get Cody paroled?

      He wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t want anything to do with him. At the start of his incarceration, her letters told him that she still loved him, but the frequency of her letters had faded. When she did write him, it was mostly about his mother and sister and nothing personal about Laura herself.

      He told himself for the hundredth time that Laura must have moved on and that anything between them was over.

      He didn’t blame her one bit. He’d told her to forget him and find someone else.

      But damn, he’d really hoped she hadn’t listened to him.

Chapter Two

      “Laura’s little boy, Johnny, is a hoot. He’s going to be quite the cowboy when he grows up.” Slim Gonzalez handed Cody a pitchfork later that afternoon in one of the huge barns on the Duke Ranch. “You should see the little guy on his pony, Pirate.”

      Cody’s mouth went dry. He plopped down on a hay bale before he fell over. Grabbing a bottle of cold water from his small cooler, he took a long draw, then poured the rest over the back of his neck.

      Cody turned toward Slim and braced himself. He wanted—no, needed—more information.

      “Laura has a son?” Cody’s heart thumped as he spoke to Slim and one of the other Duke Ranch hands listened in. “Tell me more.”

      “His name is Johnny. He’s three, maybe almost four years old.”

       Why didn’t she wait for me?

      Cody took another long drink. He didn’t want to ask his next question, but he had to know. “Did Laura get married?”

      “To a guy she met at college. From what I hear, it didn’t last long. Too bad. She deserves more.”

      Cody tried to let that all sink in. Laura got married and had a son with her husband. He fumed at another man touching her, making love to her.

      He’d always thought of Laura as his. She gave her virginity to him in her small dorm room on a twin bed, and she’d told him that she’d loved him since first grade. He’d echoed that same statement, and told her that someday he’d make her father proud. Someday he’d make something out of himself and could date her out in the open, not sneak around behind J.W.’s back.

      It was selfish of him, but even when he told her to forget him—to find someone else—he’d hoped like hell that Laura would wait for him until he was released from prison. Three years was probably a long time, but here he was, ready to pick up where they’d left off.

      Shoot. She must have found someone right away.

      For a second, he wondered if the little boy was his, but then shrugged it off. In her letters, Laura certainly would have told him that he was going to be a father. Wouldn’t she? Of course she would!

      Cody couldn’t wait to see Laura alone and ask her about the college dude. He wondered if she was divorced or still married to the guy.

      Dammit, why the hell did she marry someone else?

      He had to leave, get out of here. The huge barn felt as small as his jail cell. He jogged outside and sat on an overturned barrel behind the building, gulping the hot desert air.

      Where was Laura? He had to talk to her.

      * * *

      Laura, her mother, J.W. and Johnny sat on designer chairs on the flagstone patio that was surrounded on three sides by the wings of the Duke ranch house. They were shaded from the hot sun by a large pergola, rich with bright fuchsia bougainvillea and surrounded by natural desert flora and fauna.

      Laura loved moments like this—nice and easy, when she could enjoy the company of her family—that was, until someone started a fight.

      She took a tray from Clarissa, Johnny’s nanny and all-around helper, which contained a frosty blown-glass pitcher and four matching pale green glasses that she’d bought on a trip to Mexico. Laura had always loved the set, and liked looking at the tiny bubbles that seemed to be trapped inside the thick glass.

      “Thanks, Clarissa,” Laura said then turned to her father. “I hear you hired Cody Masters, Dad.”

      He took the pitcher from the tray and poured the lemonade into a glass. “News travels fast.”

      “Did you also help him get out on parole?” Laura asked, trying to be nonchalant.

      “I did.” He tickled Johnny, and the laughing boy climbed out of his booster seat and got comfortable on his grandfather’s lap. J.W. hugged him tightly.

      Johnny just adored his grandfather, and Laura could tell by J.W.’s various questions and comments to the boy that the man was training him to take over the Duke Ranch.

      Johnny