“We’ll finish this conversation tomorrow,” she warned Gina. “I’m not buying a word you’ve said so far.”
“And I’m not buying for a second that you’re over Cole Davis,” Gina retorted. She waved at Cassie’s mother, then retreated inside Stella’s.
Cassie sighed. Gina was right. If she’d learned nothing else in the past half hour, it was that she was a long, long way from being over Cole Davis.
Chapter Four
“Mom!”
Grappling with the discovery that her feelings for Cole were as powerful as ever, Cassie barely registered Jake’s cry. Then she felt an impatient tug on her arm and gazed down into her son’s eyes, eyes the same shade of blue as those of the man who’d just dropped a bombshell, then strolled away.
“What, Jake?” she asked, still distracted by her realization that not even years of bitterness had dimmed what she’d once felt for Cole Davis. Add to that Cole’s charge that she’d been at fault, that he hadn’t abandoned her at all, but rather she had turned her back on him, and it was little wonder that she was confused. How could he have gotten it so wrong?
“Mom!” Jake said impatiently. “You’re not listening.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, turning her attention to him.
“Do you know who that was?” Jake demanded, his cheeks flushed with excitement, his eyes sparkling.
Her heart seemed to slam to a stop. “Who?” she asked cautiously, fighting panic.
Had Jake guessed? Had he seen the resemblance between himself and the man with whom she’d been talking? Would a nine-year-old be intuitive enough to guess that a stranger was his father?
A quick glance at her mother reassured her. Her mother gave a slight shake of her head, indicating that so far her secret was safe, both from Cole and her son. No, this was about something else, though she couldn’t imagine what.
“That man you were talking to,” Jake explained. “Do you know who he is?”
“Of course I know. He’s a rancher. He’s lived here all his life.”
“And you know him?” Jake demanded, clearly awestruck.
“Yes,” she said slowly. Clearly she was missing something. “How do you know him?”
“He’s Cole Davis,” Jake said. “The Cole Davis.”
When she failed to react, her son regarded her with exasperation. “Mom, you know, the guy who makes all the neat computer programs, remember? Like I told you I wanted to do someday. He’s, like, the smartest guy in the whole tech world. I’ve told you about him, remember?”
She had a vague recollection of that, but it couldn’t possibly be the same man. This Cole, her Cole, was a rancher, not a computer programmer. Or was he? She had no idea what he’d studied in college. Back then they’d been far too caught up in their hormones to spend a lot of time talking about Cole’s plans for the future.
“Are you sure, honey? Cole’s from a ranching family. His father owns the biggest spread in this county.”
“I know. I read all about it on the Internet. It is so awesome that you actually know him.” He turned to his grandmother. “Do you know him, too?”
She nodded, looking distraught.
“Will you introduce me?” Jake begged Cassie.
“No,” she said so sharply that Jake’s eyes filled with tears.
“Why not?” he asked, practically quivering with indignation.
Because she couldn’t risk it. If Cole was furious with her because of a letter she’d known nothing about, how would he react to the news that she’d kept his son from him? And then there was Frank Davis. How would he react to the news that a Davis heir had been kept from him?
“Because we’re not going to be here long enough,” she said, making up her mind that staying in Winding River was impossible. “Besides, if what you say is true, I’m sure he’s a very busy man. I doubt we’ll even bump into him again.”
The crestfallen look on Jake’s face cut straight through her. He asked for so little, and she was denying him something that was evidently very important to him.
“I’m sorry, Jake.”
“You’re not sorry,” he shouted, letting his ice cream cone tumble to the ground. “You’re not sorry at all.”
He took off at a run, blindly heading in the very same direction in which his father had gone only moments before. Dear God, what if Cole hadn’t left? What if he were in a store and chose that precise moment to exit? Jake would take matters into his own hands. He would force an introduction.
Cassie raced after Jake, commanding him to stop.
He was at the end of Main Street before his pace faltered. She caught up with him there. Breathless, she tilted his chin up to gaze at his tear-streaked face.
“I’m sorry, baby. I truly am.” She wrapped her arms around her son and let him sob out his unhappiness, regretting that she couldn’t grant his seemingly simple request. How much worse would his anger at her be if he ever discovered the truth—that she was not only keeping him from a hero, but from his own father?
“I don’t get it,” Jake whispered. “If you know him, why can’t I just meet him? It’s not like I’d pester him with a million questions.”
Cassie actually found herself grinning at that as she brushed the hair back from his forehead. “Oh, no? You always have a million questions.”
“But I wouldn’t ask them. I swear it.”
“Sweetie, if I could make it happen, I would.”
His expression turned mulish again. “You could. You just don’t want to. And you said we were gonna stay at Grandma’s a long time, so there’s plenty of time.”
Apparently, he hadn’t picked up on her earlier comment about leaving…or else he’d chosen to ignore it because it hadn’t suited him.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” she admitted slowly. “I think we should leave right after the reunion.” She forced a smile. “How about going to Cheyenne? Wouldn’t you like to live in a big city for a change, Jake? Just think about it. It’s the capital of the state, and in the summer there are Frontier Days. You’ve asked about that.”
Jake pushed away from her, that look of betrayal back in his eyes. “No. I don’t want to live in Cheyenne. I want to stay here. You promised. When you said goodbye to Earlene, you said you weren’t ever coming back except to pick up our things. That meant we were gonna stay here.”
“I didn’t promise. I said it was something we might consider. I’ve thought it over, and I think it’s a bad idea.”
“Don’t I get a say?”
“Not about this.”
“Well, I won’t go. You do whatever you want. Grandma will let me stay with her.”
Cassie knew better, but she let it pass. Once Jake calmed down, she would make him see how exciting it would be to move to Cheyenne, even though she dreaded the prospect herself.
“Come on. Let’s go find Grandma,” she said, taking his hand. He yanked it away, but he did come with her.
She could see her mother still waiting in front of Stella’s, leaning against the bumper of a pickup, her face pale except for too-bright patches of color in her cheeks. There was a sheen of perspiration on Edna’s brow. Cole’s offhand remarks flooded back to Cassie. She studied her mother.
“Mom,