The Come-Back Cowboy. Jodi O'Donnell

question, which Deke had to allow was evasive as all get out, must have struck his son the same way, for Jace’s expression shut down. “I don’t care! It doesn’t matter, anyhow. I don’t want any daddy, ever. I sure don’t need one.”

      Then, for some reason, the boy’s anger turned on Deke. “We don’t need you, either. Mama and me can run the Bar G fine without anybody’s help. So you can leave!”

      Deke steeled himself against the rejection and the pain as his mind whirled madly. His promise bound him as surely as any straitjacket, but he had to come through here, had to give as good as he got.

      He dropped to his haunches so he could face his son squarely, putting all the sincerity he had at his disposal into his gaze. “I don’t doubt that you can, Jace. The thing is—”

      He paused, torn. Yes, he’d given Addie his word, and just like the other, long-ago promise he’d made to her, he would keep it.

      He had to, or he’d be lost forever.

      “The thing is, Jace,” he said slowly, “I’m not leavin’.”

      The youngster froze for half a second, then lunged at him, grabbing handfuls of his shirt and pulling furiously. “But we don’t want you here!”

      Deke was taken so off guard that he was drawn forward to his knees before he had a chance to catch his balance. When he did, though, it was by clasping his fingers around Jace’s upper arms, just as he had earlier.

      The contact seemed to send the boy into more of a frenzy. He released his hold on Deke’s shirt, only to come at him with a flurry of fists.

      “We don’t want you here!” he cried. His hat flew off his head backward. “Just go, now!”

      “Jace, please—”

      A stray punch struck Deke in the Adam’s apple. If he hadn’t had any appreciation for what Addie had had to deal with earlier, he sure enough had it now, big time.

      The boy was frantic, seemed himself pulled by two opposing needs. Oh, yes, Deke knew the feeling all too well. And it would eat you alive if you let it.

      “Wait a minute.” He tried again, fingers still clamped on Jace’s arms. “What’s this all about?”