“When it’s warm and I’m alone.”
“Ever considered swimming here with a woman?”
He shook his head. “No, but now that you mention it...” As he tipped his head toward the water, his lips tilted upward on the corners. “Care to?”
When he looked at her like that, with that sexy gleam in his eyes and a teasing half smile, she was tempted to throw off her clothes and drag him back into the water.
“Uh, not now.” As soon as she’d said the words, regret settled in. For the past few weeks, she’d had him teaching her how to ride horses, though she was an accomplished rider and had been riding since she was a small child. But he didn’t know that. And it had been at Landry’s request.
Landry had been her best friend since they’d attended private school in San Diego. When Landry had asked Rachel to keep an eye on Noah, Rachel hadn’t seen it as much of a hardship. The man was so darned sexy she was surprised a dozen women weren’t standing in line for riding lessons with him.
Noah shook out his T-shirt and raised it above his head.
Rachel captured his arm with her fingers. “Don’t put that on because of me. You aren’t offending my sensibilities...and...and you need to let your skin dry more.” Mostly, she wanted to stare at his muscular body while she had an excuse.
“In that case, I won’t.” He tossed the shirt to the side and stretched out on his back beside her, lacing his hands behind his head. “What brings you out this far?”
“I had a date for riding lessons.”
He shook his head. “You don’t need riding lessons.”
“I don’t?”
Again he shook his head. “Let me guess, you’ve been riding since you were a small child, right?” His gaze rolled her way, his brows rising in challenge.
Rachel chewed on her bottom lip before finally nodding. “Yeah. I got my first pony when I was four.”
Noah snorted. “Figures. I find it harder and harder to know when someone is telling me the truth or a lie.” His lips thinned and he stared up at the sky.
“Hey. You’re far too cynical for one so young.”
“I’m not young. I’m thirty-seven years old and the person I trusted most has been lying to me for all thirty-seven years. What’s one more person lying to me?”
Her heart squeezing tight in her chest, Rachel didn’t refute his statement. The guilt weighed heavily. Instead, she lay on her back beside him and stared up at the leaves hanging over her, the sun sneaking through the gaps.
“If you didn’t come for the riding lesson, did you come out to stare at the long-lost son of Reginald Adair?”
“No, I came to see how you were doing.” That was true. But only half of the truth. She’d come to tell him that she’d been spying on him for the past several weeks as a favor to Landry. Surely he’d understand how careful the Adairs had to be. The family was rich. Noah could have been a scamming relative looking for a way to make off with some of the Adair fortune.
Since the DNA test, conjecture had been settled. Noah Scott was in fact Jackson Adair and justified in any claim on Reginald Adair’s legacy.
For the past month, Rachel had spent more time at Adair Acres than in San Diego where she was heavily involved in philanthropy, raising money for those in need. She’d put much of her work on hold in order to help Landry and her brothers spy on Noah.
She had to admit, it was much more interesting staying at Adair Acres than at her home, which had become just a big empty space since the deaths of her parents when she was a little girl.
Her chest knotted. Now that she didn’t need to spy on Noah, she didn’t have an excuse to stay. She’d miss having the Adair family around her, and her afternoons of riding lessons with Noah.
Her purpose for coming to Adair Acres that day was to confess her part in Landry’s plan to find out as much as she could about the man they suspected might be the missing Jackson Adair. She steeled her nerves and opened her mouth.
“Less than a week ago, I knew who I was,” Noah said. “I knew who I wanted to be and what to do with my life. I trusted the people I thought were family and the people I was working for. Now, I don’t know who to trust and who I am.”
His words froze what Rachel was going to say on her tongue.
“Apparently, some of them knew before the DNA test that I might be Jackson or they wouldn’t have asked me to take that darned test. Why didn’t they speak up then? Why all the secrecy?” Noah turned his head to the side to face her and held out his hand. “You’re not part of the Adair family. Tell me...” He paused before continuing. “Who can I trust besides you? Right at this moment, I think you are the only person I know who hasn’t lied to me.”
Wave after wave of guilt washed over her as she took Noah’s hand and squeezed it. “Noah, I...” She swallowed hard to clear her throat of the knot forming there so that she could say the words she knew she should. Words that would reveal her for the liar she was and dash his hopes of having someone unbiased to confide in.
Before she could say anything, he rolled over and planted his hands on the boulder on either side of her arms. “When I was growing up, I wished I had a big family, siblings to play with, to love and to share my life and theirs. One simple DNA test and poof! I have it all. But in my head, I’m still the poor cousin working for the rich Adairs. This life, the fancy cars, the social scene, flying around the world at a moment’s notice... It’s not who I am. I don’t belong here. I feel like I need to leave and start over somewhere else.”
Rachel sat up, bringing him with her. “Noah, no. You are a member of the Adair family. You have just as much of a right to be here as they do. It’s not your fault someone stole you from your parents.” It broke her heart to see the man torn by his desire to stay where he finally had a home and family, and leaving because he didn’t fit in. “Things will work out.”
“Whit and Carson can’t be happy about me.”
“Landry is thrilled. She knew how much it meant to her father to find you.” Rachel lifted both his hands in hers and held them between hers. “You just have to give Whit and Carson time to get used to having you around permanently. They already know you—it’s just a matter of accepting you as their brother.”
“I don’t know. I didn’t come here to cause the Adairs trouble and heartache.”
“You can’t leave now. They lost their father and Patsy, their mother, is going to jail. Landry and her brothers may not know it, but they need you as much as you need them.”
Noah shook his head. “Why would they need me?”
“Because you were the missing link to their father’s past. The reason he had such a hard time accepting them. You have to stay and let them get to know you and you them.”
Noah’s fingers closed around hers and he stared into her eyes. “Okay. I’ll stay. But not for them, but because you asked me.” He smiled and leaned forward, pressing his lips to her forehead. “Thanks.”
His mouth was soft, his gesture gentle. It could have been the kiss of a brother to a sister, but Rachel didn’t have sisterly feelings toward this man.
Over the past few weeks of riding lessons, she’d fallen deeper and deeper under his spell. He wasn’t like any of the men she’d dated. He was patient, caring and considerate of her feelings. The man didn’t have a shallow bone in his body and he didn’t give a damn about who could best influence his career or portfolio.
Though Noah thought he didn’t know who he was, Rachel knew exactly who he was: a real man who could be taken at face value and who would love his family dearly.
When