He could remember the nights he had lain in bed as a small boy listening to his mother and father argue about how unhappy she was living out in the middle of nowhere. Eventually her pleading for his father to sell the ranch and move them all to a metropolitan area had turned to threats of her leaving.
Then, one day when he was nine, Shane came home from school to find his mother gone and his father passed out with an empty whiskey bottle at his feet. Cactus had stepped in to watch over him and when his father finally sobered up after a two-month bender, Shane asked several times where his mother was. “Gone” was all he could get out of his father each time he asked. Shane finally gave up and stopped asking.
But Hank McDermott was never the same after that. Other than being there to raise his son and instill a strong set of values in him, it was as if his dad had quit caring about everything else and reminded Shane of a horse that had its spirit broken. Once full of life, his father rarely left the ranch and removed everything in the house that hinted a woman had ever inhabited the place.
Shane had never wanted to give that kind of power over him to any woman. Never wanted a child of his to lie awake at night wondering where his mother was and why he never heard from her again. But with Lissa’s announcement that she was pregnant, he suddenly found himself determined to do the very thing he had vowed never to do—get married.
Glancing at her head resting on his shoulder, he took a deep breath and tried to relax. As long as he kept everything in perspective and his feelings for her under control, everything should be fine.
He would be a good provider, a faithful husband to her and a loving father to their child. That’s all any woman could ask of a man and all Shane was ready or willing to give.
Five
“It’s about time you hauled your sorry butt out of bed.”
At the sound of the elderly gentleman’s comment, Melissa stopped abruptly just inside the kitchen doorway. Standing at the stove, wearing nothing but a pair of long underwear and boots that had seen better days, the man had his back to her and apparently only heard her approach. She assumed he was Shane’s housekeeper, Cactus, and he obviously thought that Shane had come downstairs for breakfast.
How could she let him know that she wasn’t who he thought she was without startling him?
When he suddenly turned around, they both jumped. “God’s nightgown! Where in the name of Sam Hill did you come from?”
“You must be Cactus,” she said, unsure of what else to say. “Shane’s told me a lot about you.”
“Well, he never told me a damn … danged thing about you,” he stammered. “If he had, I sure wouldn’t be standin’ here in nothin’ but my long johns.” His wrinkled cheeks turned fiery red above his grizzled beard. “Excuse me, ma’am. I’ll go get myself decent.”
The man disappeared into a room off the kitchen as quickly as his arthritic legs would allow. A moment later, Shane walked up behind her to wrap his arms around her waist.
“How did you manage to get breakfast started so fast?” he asked, kissing her nape.
Her skin tingled from the contact. “I didn’t. It appears that your housekeeper, Cactus, has arrived home a little earlier than expected.”
He sighed as he rested his chin on her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Lissa. I should have known this would happen. Whenever he goes to see his sister they always get into an argument and he ends up coming home early about half the time.”
“It doesn’t matter.” She turned within the circle of his arms to smile up at him. “Cactus probably doesn’t know anyone affiliated with the resort. Besides, I seriously doubt that he would tell them I was here, even if he did.”
Shane kissed the tip of her nose. “Why is that, angel?”
“Because he knows I could tell them I caught him cooking breakfast in his long underwear,” she said, laughing. “If his blush was any indication, I think I embarrassed him all the way to the roots of his snow-white hair.”
Rolling his eyes, Shane shook his head. “He definitely marches to the beat of his own drum. But don’t worry. He’ll get over it.”
“Boy, I got a bone to pick with you,” Cactus groused as he limped back into the room. “Why didn’t you tell me you were gonna have a lady friend comin’ for a visit this weekend?”
“I didn’t figure it would matter, since you weren’t supposed to be here,” Shane answered, unaffected by the older man’s irritation. Releasing her, he walked over to the coffeemaker. “Have a seat at the table, Lissa, while I pour us a cup of coffee. Lissa, this is Cactus Parsons, my housekeeper and the orneriest old cuss you’d ever care to meet.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Cactus,” she said, smiling.
He nodded. “Ma’am.”
Remembering something one of her friends had mentioned about not drinking caffeinated beverages while pregnant, Lissa shook her head. “Thank you, but I think I’ll pass on the coffee.”
When Shane walked over to sit beside her at the table, Cactus asked, “How do you like your eggs, gal?”
“Say scrambled,” Shane whispered. “That’s the only way he knows how to cook them.”
“I heard that, and it ain’t true,” the old gentleman retorted. “I know how to put cheese in ‘em or if your lady friend would like onions and green peppers, I can make ‘em that way, too.”
Shane laughed. “But they’re still scrambled.”
“It don’t matter,” Cactus insisted, his toothless grin wide. “They’re still different than just plain old eggs.”
Having grown up in the house where teasing and good-natured banter hadn’t existed, Lissa enjoyed listening to the exchange between the two men. It told her a lot about the kind of man Shane was.
Besides going out of his way to preserve an old man’s dignity by making bets they both knew were a complete farce, Shane went along with and even encouraged the man’s complaints because he knew it made Cactus happy.
That was something her father certainly would have never done for one of his employees. For that matter, he hadn’t bothered to do anything even remotely similar to that for his own children.
There wasn’t a single time in her life that she could remember her father teasing or playing with her or her brothers. He had reminded them on a daily basis from the time they were old enough to listen that if they weren’t excelling academically or working to somehow improve Jarrod Ridge, they were letting themselves down and disappointing him.
“Here you go, gal,” Cactus said, interrupting her thoughts as he placed a plate of bacon and eggs in front of her.
As soon as the plate touched the table, the food that had smelled so delicious only a few moments before caused a terrible queasiness in the pit of her stomach. Glancing at Shane, she watched his easy expression turn to one of concern and she knew she must look as ill as she felt.
Unable to make an excuse for leaving the table, Melissa jumped from the chair and ran as fast as she could for the stairs. She barely managed to make it into the master bathroom and slam the door before falling to her knees.
She had never in all of her twenty-six years been as sick as she was at that moment. If the fact that she was pregnant hadn’t sunk in before, it certainly had became very real now.
Feeling as if the blood in his veins had turned to ice water, Shane took the stairs two at a time as he chased Lissa. What the hell was wrong with her?
She had seemed fine when they got up and came downstairs for breakfast. Then, without warning, she’d turned ghostly pale and bolted from the room like