The Rancher's Secret Son. Sara Orwig

her family obligations then. He had simply wanted her to leave them behind to devote her life to him. She’d had to walk away and she didn’t want to draw him back into her life now, when she faced life-changing problems far worse than she’d faced before.

      She picked up her purse and took out her wallet.

      Her heart twisted as she looked at the picture of her son. Nick’s son. The child Nick knew nothing about. She looked into the same blue eyes beneath the same dark brown hair as Nick’s. She had once loved his father with her whole heart, until their breakup had torn her to pieces. After their breakup she had learned she was carrying Nick’s baby.

      She hadn’t told him right away because she’d needed time to make decisions. Their last time together had been painful, filled with terrible accusations that couldn’t be taken back. The memories echoed in her mind even now. He had proposed and she had asked him how they would ever work out being married when she had to take care of her ailing mother and help her grandfather with his business in Houston. Nick had expected her to move to Washington, DC, to be the society wife he had dreamed about—something she could never be.

      Nick had accused her of being so wrapped up in her family she couldn’t love anyone else. But it wasn’t like that at all. Her mother had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and her grandfather had suffered a mild stroke. They needed her the same way Nick needed his father’s approval.

      She could almost hear herself say those words to him. She accused him of going into law only because of a family tradition. All Milan males had become lawyers. Yet he couldn’t see that he was more tied to his family than she was to hers.

      Her last night with Nick had been bitter and hurtful, each of them flinging accusations until he had stormed out, slamming the door, and she had let him go, knowing it was over forever between them. Brokenhearted, she had cried most of that night and for days afterward. The memories still hurt and she didn’t want to ever go through that pain again.

      After their breakup Nick didn’t try to call and she didn’t want to talk to him. Then she discovered she was pregnant. Hurting, still angry with him, she’d planned to tell him about her pregnancy, but it was easier to keep quiet and avoid another confrontation. Nick would only push harder for marriage. He’d have to, as an out-of-wedlock baby would hurt his political future.

      While she was thinking about how to tell him she was pregnant and what she would do about it in the future, time slipped past. From a friend she heard that Nick had gotten engaged. Shocked and angry with him, she was hurt badly that he had rushed into marriage with someone else so soon after breaking up with her. She’d decided to keep quiet about his child. He would marry and have his own family, and he didn’t need to know about the baby she carried. Nick had made his choice, so she would go on with her life just as he had gone on with his.

      Until now. Now he had lost his wife and their unborn child. For the first time since she had learned of her pregnancy she felt compelled to tell Nick about his son. In spite of the angry words, hurt feelings, the bitterness and heartbreak between them when they parted, she had to let him know he had a child. How they would work out sharing a son, she didn’t know. But she knew it wasn’t right to keep his son a secret when Nick had already lost one child.

      Standing, she retrieved her phone and called home, wanting desperately to talk to Cody. Her grandmother answered and Claire felt like a child again, wanting to blurt out her problem and have her support and her wisdom. But she was grown now and she tried to shelter her grandmother from worries instead of taking them home to her. Grandma would have to know about this soon enough, but she didn’t have to hear about it while Claire was halfway across the state of Texas.

      She asked to talk to Cody. Just hearing his voice, she wished she could reach through the phone and hug him.

      She talked to him about bugs and his fish tank—his two favorite topics. Then she talked briefly to Irene, his nanny, who was there two days a week and whenever Claire left town. She talked again to her grandmother, for almost an hour before she finally told them goodbye. When she ended the call, she burst into tears. The reality of her situation was too much to bear. Nick was so close to his dad, so tied into his own family, that she was certain he would want his son in his life. She would have to share Cody with Nick. But how?

      For a long time she had tried to avoid thinking about Nick, but seeing him today, realizing she would have to bring him into her life and her family’s lives, she could not keep him out of her thoughts. Staring into space, memories overwhelmed her.

      A fellow Texan, Nick was in DC when she met him. She had graduated from college with a business degree and gone to work with her grandfather in his real estate business where she had worked part-time for years. When he sent her to Washington to a sales workshop, she had accepted a friend’s invitation to a cocktail party. She remembered holding a martini that she hadn’t even sipped when she looked across the room into the blue eyes of a tall, brown-haired man who gazed back. That first moment had been sizzling, a look that caught and held her attention. As she gazed at him, he raised his glass as if in a toast and she couldn’t keep from smiling and raising hers in return.

      She had turned back to her new friend from Dallas. “See the brown-haired guy across the room? Do you know who he is?”

      “Oh, yes. That’s Nick Milan, a lawyer with a prestigious firm here. Rumor has it he’ll be entering Texas politics someday. The Milans are a prominent old Texas family. Very wealthy.” She sucked in a breath and grabbed her drink. “He’s coming this way. I don’t think it’s to talk to me. I’ll see you in a little while.”

      “Don’t go. I don’t even know him.”

      “You’re going to,” her friend replied, and moved away only seconds before Nick stepped in front of her.

      Claire’s heartbeat had sped up as she looked into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.

      “I think it’s time we make our escape from this party. I’m Nick Milan, single and a lawyer. I live in Georgetown and I want to have dinner with you. And you are...?”

      “Claire Prentiss. You use the fewest words and get to the point faster than any lawyer I have ever met,” she said. “You don’t even know if I have a husband here tonight.”

      “You don’t have a wedding ring on your finger. I looked when I got close. If you had, I would have gone in another direction. May I take you to dinner?”

      “That’s nice, thank you, but you’re a stranger. I usually know the people I go out with.”

      “You should be cautious, but this is an exception. First, I assure you I’m perfectly safe. Second, you can’t deny we have chemistry between us. So go out with me.”

      She smiled. “Not too bashful, are you?”

      He shrugged. “I know what I want.” He set his drink down on a high-top table and speared her with his undivided attention. “If you need more information, I can tell you this. I’m from Dallas, where my dad’s a judge, but I work in DC for Abrams, Wiesman and Wooten. Excellent client list, I might add.” He nodded to where her friend had gone. “I saw you talking to Jen West. She’s met me and knows who I am. She can vouch for my character. Or we can go find Lydia and she’ll tell you more about me. Then we can tell her goodbye.”

      His fingers closed lightly on her arm and Claire walked with him to their slender, auburn-haired hostess, who turned to smile at them. “I see you two have met.”

      “Just met, Lydia,” Nick said. “I need a character reference so I can talk Claire into going to dinner with me.” He flashed Claire a smile that sent another sizzle through her.

      “Now, do I want to give you that character reference or not?” Lydia teased.

      “I think you just did,” Claire replied. She turned to Nick. “I accept your offer. You can tell me all about yourself over dinner.”

      “Oh, my,” Lydia said. “Now he won’t stop talking until midnight.”

      “I promise, I will,”