But there was no forgiveness for that, which he knew too well by now. The price to pay for stealing forbidden love was that you paid forever. He’d paid every time he’d seen Mimi, every holiday, every waking moment of his life.
The price was never enough to stop a man from the folly of his ways. Love would not stop just because a man knew the price was out of his reach.
Mason crossed his ankles and rested his boots on the old, well-worn desk that had belonged to Mimi’s father, the former sheriff, Sheriff Cannady. This was his office, and it would take a long time for Mason to be able to believe the truth of the bronze door placard that read Sheriff Mason Jefferson.
In contrast to the office, the sign was bright and shiny, with its black letters stern against the bronze. So official. So steeped with responsibility. He had the sheriff’s office, and his chair, and his desk. But he did not have the sheriff’s daughter.
And now, whether he liked it or not, the final price to pay for all he’d been given, for all he’d pushed aside to be with Mimi that one night, was learning that Nanette was his daughter. Mason sighed, and stared at the ceiling, barely noticing the new coat of paint.
He remembered the day Nanette had been born. He’d helped deliver her, his own hands trembling with amazement as he’d held her. Stubborn Mimi had refused to leave her very ill father to go to a hospital, and her husband, Brian Flannigan, had been working in Houston or Austin or somewhere. Mason had stepped in, the mantle of responsibility heavy on his shoulders, to help Mimi, though the biggest part of his heart was fiercely glad that he’d gotten to share that moment with the woman he cared so much about.
The baby had let out a fierce wail of welcome to her new world, and the sound was another sharp-scratched memory he would never forget—God’s miracle writhing between his big palms. Mason had shaken a mental fist at the price he would pay for being unrepentantly glad that it was he in that room and not Brian.
He had never cared about mental costs, anyway. If he had one goal in life that he would never speak aloud—not to his youngest brother, Last, not to anyone, not even Mimi—it was that he would never, ever crack as his father had.
“Damn it,” he whispered under his breath. “I will never leave anything behind that I love.”
In spite of the anger and too-deep sense of betrayal he felt for Mimi now, Nanette was never going to think that her father had left her behind. It was his solemn vow. For stealing forbidden love, he was willing to pay the price forever.
Mimi was just going to have to deal with that.
THERE WAS NOTHING HEROIC about a man who decided that he would be a father to his child, no matter what, Mimi decided, watching Mason pack up Nanette’s things.
“Mason,” she said, “you’re being an ass. You cannot take my daughter and move her out to Malfunction Junction.”
Mason didn’t stop folding Nanette’s clothes as he put them methodically in her little pink suitcase.
“Mason!” Mimi reached out to take the suitcase away from him. “No.”
Silently, he looked up and met her eyes. His gaze was so flat and devoid of the friendship they’d once shared that Mimi released the suitcase when he put his hand on it.
This was not the result she’d envisioned when she’d confessed her secret, and her heart was completely broken. Not only had she lost Mason, who was her best friend and the man she’d loved all her life, but he seemed determined to take the one fragment of her world that she’d hung on to with gratitude and wonder. Nanette was her salvation, her dream come true, her only piece of Mason—Mimi had accepted that there would be no more than the child of their one stolen night.
“Mason, please,” she said. “You know a child needs its mother. Nanette won’t understand.”
He snapped the suitcase shut. “Nanette would understand even less a father who didn’t put her first in his life. She belongs on my ranch, and that’s where she’s going to live.” His tone had flattened out, and now he picked Nanette up in his big arms. “A father puts his family in front of everything else on the planet. And if you don’t agree, ask your father if he was putting you first all the years he raised you after your mother left.”
She stepped back from his words. “Mason, it’s not the same thing!”
He walked out the door and her words fell unheeded. Over his shoulder, Nanette looked at her with big eyes, completely satisfied to rest her chin on her father’s shoulder and go with him. And why shouldn’t she? All she’d ever known was that Uncle Mason was one of the three people who loved her most: her mother, her grandfather and her uncle Mason.
Only Uncle Mason was really her father, and it was time Nanette knew it. Mimi blinked back fast tears and resisted the urge to run after Mason. He couldn’t just take his child, Mimi thought wildly. But who would stop him? He was Nanette’s father, he was completely within his rights to at least partial custody and he was the sheriff.
A growing sense of desperation filled her, tightening her stomach. She ran out the front door to his truck as he switched on the engine. The truck window was open and she put imploring fingers on Mason’s strong chest. “Mason, I’m coming, too! Don’t rip us apart!”
He removed her fingers and shook his head. “You’ve done enough, Mimi. Some space between me and you is what is badly needed.”
He drove off, leaving Mimi stunned. Watching the truck pull away felt like a slow-motion tragedy from a movie. Her breath caught in her throat and her chest cramped, hurting more than anything she had ever felt. It was her heart, she was certain it was. Two of the three people she loved most on the planet had just left her, and the pain was more than she could bear.
She sank to her knees. Yes, she’d made the wrong choice. She’d lied. But she couldn’t believe that the man she’d grown up with had turned away from her in her hour of greatest need.
Chapter Two
Somehow Mimi made it through the night, but by the next day, she knew she was going to need help getting through to Mason. He wouldn’t answer either the house phone or his cell phone. She was growing desperate. How long did he intend to keep their child away from her?
“Dad,” Mimi said, striding into the living room where her father sat playing cards with Barley, Calhoun Jefferson’s father-in-law. Calhoun was one of Mason’s younger brothers, and he was crazy in love with his wife, Olivia, as she was with him. “When you have some time, I really need to talk to you.”
Barley stood. “Good. I’m going to Baked Valentines to get a box of cookies, Sheriff. Me and you are going to go hit some skeets and snack on some chocolate chips.”
When her father had fallen ill with liver disease, Mimi had spent a hellish year thinking she was going to lose him. But he’d recovered miraculously, thanks in part to the scrawny rodeo clown who spent so much time dragging the sheriff to social events. But skeets weren’t a social occasion that required chocolate chip cookies, since skeets weren’t real birds.
“I don’t remember skeets liking cookies from Baked Valentines,” she said.
Barley laughed and waved goodbye. “Be back in a bit.”
“He’s crazy,” her father said happily. “He’s determined to fix me up with Widow Fancy, so we’re going over there tonight.”
Mimi blinked. “Widow Fancy? I had no idea you—”
“No. Now don’t you get started on that.” The sheriff chuckled. “Barley’s just stirring things up. I’m fine the way things are. I’ve got you and my granddaughter, and that’s all I need.” He walked into the kitchen, taking out a big pot. “But I am going to make some soup to freeze for winter. Widow Fancy gave me a recipe.” He grinned. “Think I can make the base for tortilla soup?”
“Yes,”