Their Child?. Karen Rose Smith

and nodded and got busy serving himself some whipped potatoes. He was cautious around Heck. Lori wasn’t sure if he’d picked that up from her, or if it was just a matter of Heck being a loud and boisterous man and Brody not spending enough time with him to get used to his ways.

      “Can’t hear you when your mouth’s shut,” boomed Heck.

      Lori plunked the bowl of green beans down without passing it. “We can sure hear you, Daddy. Since you shout most of the time.”

      Heck stiffened. He sent one of those what-did-I-say? glances at Lori’s mother. Enid gave him back a sheepish look. Heck said, “Well, I am so sorry if I have offended you—again.”

      Brody, who’d been watching the exchange with wide eyes, chose that moment to speak up. “We went to the lake. That was fun.”

      Heck pasted on a great, big smile and beamed it at Brody. “Good, son. Glad to hear it.”

      “And day before yesterday, we went to Tucker’s house. He lives on a ranch. I rode a horse named Little Amos. I swam in the pool and I played with Tucker’s dog—you know, the one I told you about. Fargo’s his name.”

      Heck leaned toward Enid at the other end of the table and spoke to her as if the two of them were alone. “They went out to the Bravo place?”

      Lori’s mother gave her husband a look of great patience. “Heck, honey, why don’t you ask Lori?”

      “Yeah, Daddy. Why don’t you ask me? After all, I’m sitting right here.”

      “Humph. Well. Ahem.” Heck turned his big head Lori’s way and asked with studied care, “Did you go out to the Bravo place, Lori—girl?”

      She looked into his eyes, which were the same shade of blue as her own, and she knew he was trying, that he was doing his best to get along with her, to mend the fences he’d trampled so cruelly eleven years ago.

      And she was way too hard on him, she realized that. He loved her. He’d only ever done the best he knew how for her.

      It was just that every time she looked at him, she remembered him looming over her terrified pregnant seventeen-year-old self, spewing warnings. Shouting scary threats.

       Who is he? By God, I will know. Who did this to you? You will tell me and I will fix him so he never does this to another innocent girl. Who is he? Lori, you tell me now. I will know who he is and I will track him down and if he’s a day over eighteen, his sorry butt is headed straight to jail…

      She’d cowered under the ominous weight of her father’s threats, believing, as only a scared kid can believe, that if she told, her father would do exactly what he’d promised. He’d send Tucker to jail. She’d pictured that—Tucker on a chain gang because of her and her lies. Tucker, wearing those striped pajamas they wore in old prison movies; Tucker dirty and bloody and needing a shave, beating rocks with a pickaxe in the sweltering sun.

      Lori still didn’t know which had hurt the worst: the threats and the yelling when she was so frightened already of what was going to happen to her—or that he had packed her off to San Antonio where he wouldn’t have to watch his unmarried little girl get big with a baby and embarrass him in front of the whole town.

      But that was then, she reminded herself.

      Right now, she was a grown woman who ran her own life. Right now, all Heck had done was to ask her a civil question.

      “Yes, Daddy. We went out to the Double T Thursday night. Tucker invited us. We had a great time.”

      “Well, now,” said Heck. “That’s nice. Real nice.” She could see the question in his eyes: Something going on between you and Tucker Bravo?

      But he didn’t ask it. For once, Heck kept his peace.

      Lori was grateful to him for that. She was also shamefully aware that it wasn’t so much a question Heck had no right to ask, but more one she didn’t want to answer.

      Because of the secret she’d kept for so long.

      The secret…

      Funny. At home in San Antonio, where she was a respected widow whose bright son went to a good school, she’d gotten so she hardly ever thought about the secret anymore. But now that she was back in Tate’s Junction, the secret just never seemed to leave her alone.

      The secret was a big problem. She did know that. It was an enormous weight on her mind and heart. It wore her down. She had to get rid of it, for good and all.

      And she would.

      Right after the wedding.

      She gave her dad a careful smile. He reached over and patted her hand. “Now, how ‘bout you go ahead and pass those green beans this way, honey?” She lifted the bowl and handed it to him. “Thank you,” he said.

      “You’re welcome, Daddy.”

      The next day, Lori saw Tucker at church again. And at the diner afterward. He kept catching her eye. Her pulse would race and her palms would sweat—and she would smile and nod and look away.

      Later in the afternoon, Lori and her mom and sister were sitting at the kitchen table poring over fabric sample books, discussing window treatments for the new house Lena and Dirk would move into as soon as they returned from their honeymoon. The phone rang and Lori jumped. She knew it would be him.

      Her mother turned in her chair and snared the receiver off the wall behind her as Lori actively resisted the compulsion to shriek, Don’t answer that!

      “Why, hello Tucker.” Enid actually wiggled her eyebrows at Lori—as Lena jabbed an elbow in Lori’s ribs.

      “Hey!” Lori grumbled. Her sister only giggled—and wiggled her own eyebrows. Lori wanted to grab one of the fabric sample books and bop her twin on the head with it.

      “Well, as it so happens,” Lori’s mother cooed into the phone. “She’s sitting right here. Hold on.” Enid covered the mouthpiece and shoved it at Lori. “Tucker,” she whispered dramatically, as if Lori didn’t already know.

      Lori took the phone. “Hello, Tucker.”

      “Hey.” His voice, so warm and deep, made her want to burst into tears. What was that old saying about liars weaving a tangled web? Oh, they did. They truly did. Lori felt the thick, many-layered web of her own dishonesty pulling tight around her, cutting off her air. He added, “I had a great time the other night…”

      “Me, too,” she heard herself saying. It was the truth—just not all the truth. “Thanks again.”

      “Any time—like, say, tonight? I’ll pick you up at six. We can drive into Abilene. I know a great little Mexican place there.”

      “Tonight?” Dread coiled through her like a snake gathering to strike. She imagined the two of them—alone, with no interruptions.

      And plenty of time to talk.

      No. She couldn’t do it. Couldn’t be alone with him again and not tell him—or maybe, on second thought, she could be alone with him and not tell him. And that scared her most of all.

      The other night had been bad enough, but at least then, she’d had the excuse that he and Brody were getting to know each other a little, that if even she wanted to tell him, it simply was not the time.

      But if Brody weren’t there, if it were just the two of them…

      No. Bad, bad idea.

      Her sister and her mother were both nodding frantically. She turned and faced the wall so she wouldn’t have to look at them. “Oh, really. I’d better not.” Behind her, Lena and Enid let out sharp groans of disapproval.

      Tucker allowed a long beat of silence echo down the line before he repeated flatly, “Better not?”

      She rushed into a totally fake reason why she couldn’t