Kayla's Cowboy. Callie Endicott

stuck out her tongue.

      “Careful,” Elizabeth warned. “A fly might land there.”

      “Or it might get stuck that way,” Granddad added, “and you’ll have to go through life with your tongue hanging out like a sheepdog.”

      “Oh, puleeze,” DeeDee groused.

      Elizabeth’s eyes twinkled at her husband. “I’m afraid we’re behind the times, Hank. Our jokes are dated.”

      “And proud of it.”

      DeeDee giggled.

      Even after such a short time with her grandparents, Kayla could see how comfortably the kids were settling in. It was something they’d never experienced, the sense of extended family. Curtis had been a foster child and Kayla’s mother was in and out of their lives—mostly out—depending upon her sobriety.

      Back in Alex’s room he sat on the bed, while Kayla took the chair.

      “I saw your birth father this morning,” she told him. “And I thought you might have some questions. I’ll tell you whatever I know.”

      “No more secrets?”

      “No more secrets,” she promised. “If I don’t have an answer for you, I’ll try to get one.”

      “Okay. Last night you said it was complicated, you know, about why my birth dad never visited me in Seattle. Didn’t he know about me?”

      Kayla swallowed. Depending on how she told her son, Alex might never want to meet Jackson. But as tempting as it was to keep him out of their lives, it wouldn’t be fair to her son.

      “I told Jackson I was pregnant,” she explained carefully, “only he didn’t think it was possible because he’d used condoms. We were kids, and kids don’t always handle that sort of situation well. That’s one of the reasons I don’t want you to jump into an intimate relationship too young. Accidental pregnancy, STDs, they’re all out there, and protection isn’t a hundred percent, no matter what you use.”

      “Jeez, Mom, you sound like a broken record.”

      “I don’t care. I don’t regret having you, but that doesn’t mean I want you to become a father before you’re ready.”

      Her son’s face scrunched up, reminding her of when he was small. He’d always been such a serious child, as if contemplating the weight of the world.

      “Maybe this Jackson guy wasn’t ready to be a dad, either,” he said slowly. “And that’s why he didn’t believe it.”

      Kayla blinked. “You could be right, but that’s water under the bridge.”

      Alex stared at his shoes for a minute. “What’s he like?”

      “If you mean what kind of man is he, I don’t know yet. But I can tell you some facts. He’s a rancher, which is what he wanted to be when he was in high school. His spread is called the Crazy Horse and he raises both cattle and horses. The McGregors go way back in this area. So does his mom’s family, the Nelsons. They were kind of rivals, I guess, until Parker and Sarah got married.”

      “After I found out about the adoption I figured my birth dad would be an artist or something.”

      Her son focused on his shoes again and Kayla’s heart ached for him. Montana was a world away from Seattle, and he was probably hoping his biological father would be more like him. “You should also know that Jackson was rather reckless as a teenager,” she said. “He was quite sexually active by the time he was seventeen.”

      “Duh. I wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t.”

      “Yes, but it turns out that one of Jackson’s other high school girlfriends also got pregnant. He has a daughter named Morgan about a month older than you.”

      Alex stared. “Jeez, Mom! That’s messy.”

      Kayla couldn’t help laughing at the apt description. “It is messy,” she agreed. “But we have to deal with it. The other girlfriend, Marcy, lived on the ranch next door to his parents’. They broke up and he went out with other girls, including me. Not long before your grandmother Carolyn and I left Schuyler, Jackson went back to Marcy and they got married right after graduation.”

      “You mean his other girlfriend was already pregnant when he was dating you, and they got married when he found out?”

      “I’m not sure why they decided to get married. I didn’t ask.”

      “I bet they won’t like me suddenly showing up. I don’t think Dad’s new family likes having DeeDee and me around, either.”

      Kayla learned forward, wishing she could protect her children from every hurt and disappointment. “If your dad’s new family doesn’t enjoy having you around, that’s their loss,” she said carefully. “As for Jackson’s family, I don’t know how they’ll react. He’s divorced now, but the rest of his relatives may want to meet you.”

      Jumping up, Alex went to the window and gazed outside.

      “How about it?” Kayla asked after a minute. “Do you want to meet your birth father?”

      “I’ll think about it,” he muttered. “Not yet anyhow. I feel sort of...mixed-up.”

      “Okay. I’ll let him know you aren’t ready. We’ll be in Montana for at least another week, so you have some time. If you can’t make up your mind before we leave, you can meet him later.”

      “Thanks, Mom. Can you find out more stuff about him?”

      “I’m planning to. Are you especially curious about anything in particular?”

      Alex shrugged. “I dunno. Just stuff.”

      Sighing, Kayla climbed to the attic bedroom and gave her daughter a version of the story suitable for a nine-year-old. However, it was apparent that DeeDee wasn’t shocked, and Kayla had a feeling they were overdue for a frank discussion about sex. Loneliness settled over her at the thought; it was one more thing she’d have to do alone because Curtis was a perpetual Peter Pan.

      Kayla went downstairs and found her grandmother knitting on the living room couch. Elizabeth glanced at her sympathetically. “How did it go?”

      Kayla groaned and dropped into a chair. “Alex isn’t ready to meet Jackson. He wants me to learn more about him, but when I asked what he’s curious about, he just said ‘stuff.’ ‘Stuff’ is a little vague.”

      “He’s a teenager.”

      “Too true.” Kayla yawned. “Do you have any sense of what kind of man Jackson grew up to be?”

      “I don’t know much. He isn’t wild any longer. From what I’ve heard, he works hard and his ranch has a good reputation. The gossip at the beauty parlor is that he dates regularly but is resistant to getting married again, which seems to annoy several of our single women.”

      Kayla didn’t know how accurate beauty-parlor gossip might be, but Jackson had already confirmed his aversion to marriage. What had he said... Too many sharks? Considering he’d been married to Marcy Lipton for eight years, she wasn’t surprised he was soured on women.

      “It turns out that Morgan is only a month older than Alex,” she murmured.

      Her grandmother had an apologetic glint in her eyes. “If we’d known Jackson was so good at getting girls into bed, we would have tried to stop you from seeing each other. At the very least we should have cautioned you about birth control.”

      Kayla shook her head. “It wasn’t your place to step in. Jackson used condoms. I don’t why they failed, but I wasn’t ignorant. I was educated about the facts of life before Mom brought me here. She didn’t shelter me growing up.”

      Elizabeth’s shoulders slumped. “I never knew what to do with her. She was