Page 20 of The Rancher's Secret Son

She gave him a searching look and finally spoke. “In the bar,” she whispered, turning abruptly. “I’ll get it.” She went behind the bar in the far corner of the family room. He trailed behind her and stood in the entrance, watching her. She looked lost, as if she had never been in the place before, as she glanced around. Shaking her shoulders, she reached for a glass and her hand trembled.

Grasping her slender wrist lightly, Nick steadied her hand and reached beyond her to get two crystal flutes. He turned her to face him. He ached to kiss her and he fought an inner battle, wondering if her own inner battle was causing her to look upset and shaky.

“Go sit and I’ll pour the champagne,” he said, starting to open the bottle while trying to resist reaching for her. She nodded and stepped away, moving out of the bar to sit on a high stool.

He let out his breath. How was he going to keep from falling in love again? Usually he recalled their parting, the anger and hurt that always cooled his desire for her, but it wasn’t working tonight. He set two empty flutes in front of her, popped the cork and poured the pale, bubbly champagne.

He walked around to face her, leaving a yard of space between them so he wouldn’t be tempted. He raised his flute. “Here’s to you, Claire, a beautiful woman.”

She gave him a tight smile. “Thank you. That isn’t what I thought you’d say.”

He touched her flute with his. Watching her, he sipped his champagne. He wanted to set his flute down, take hers from her and pull her into his arms. That was the way to pain and he wasn’t going to do it, but his inner battle was tearing him up.

“Here’s to our son, a beautiful child.”

“I’ll drink to that one,” she said, smiling broadly and looking as if she’d relaxed slightly.

“That’s better.”

Only one lamp was on in the large room, spilling a soft glow, and she had switched on classical music in the background.

“This next toast is to celebrate the night I met my son.” He held out his glass again.

“Whatever happens, Nick, I know you’ll be a good dad.”

They tapped glasses and then he sipped the bubbly champagne. Too bad he couldn’t cool his desire or his reactions to her as easily as the champagne quenched his thirst. She sat on the barstool, her fabulous legs crossed. He ought to stop looking, but she was too beautiful, too easy to look at.

Nick set aside his glass and crossed the room to the briefcase that he’d brought with him. He opened it and removed two small boxes.

He returned to hand her a long, flat box and place the smaller box on a table. “This is for you. I wasn’t with you when you had Cody. I should have been, but we can’t undo the past. I wish I could have given you this when he was born. It’s a small token of gratitude.”

“Nick, you didn’t need to get me something,” she said, shaking her head.

“Go ahead. It’s your gift for being Cody’s mother. Cody got his presents. Now I want you to have your gifts—what I would have given you if I had been present at his birth.”

“That’s sweet, Nick.” She carefully untied the ribbon and paper, opening the box with a gasp. “Oh, Nick, this is beautiful,” she said. He moved closer to take out the gold chain with a diamond heart pendant made with three heart-shaped rows of diamonds and a larger diamond in the center. The pendant glittered in the subdued light.

“Can I put it on you?”

“Of course,” she said, smiling at him. “It’s stunning.”

“You’re stunning, Claire,” he said quietly. “More now than four years ago.” As she lifted her hair out of his way, Nick stepped behind her to fasten the necklace.

She turned to face him. Her big, dark eyes held him and memories hit him with almost physical force as he recalled how much he had loved her once. “Claire, my heart has been broken twice—first with you and then when I lost my baby and my wife. I can’t go through heartbreak again.”

“We were both hurt,” she whispered. “We can’t undo the past. Don’t try.”

“I’m not trying to undo the past, Claire. And for this weekend, let’s put aside trying to work out our future. Let’s just get reacquainted and let me get to know my son. I want to make the most of each moment and not worry about how we’ll move forward. Can we do that?”

“Of course. That sounds best to me.” She gave him a slight smile. She fingered the diamond. “Can I go look in the mirror at my new necklace? It’s beautiful. Thank you.”

“You have another present. Go ahead and open it.”

She carefully opened a smaller box to find a gold charm bracelet with a one-carat diamond imbedded in the gold between each charm. One charm was a baby in a small crib and inscribed on the crib were the tiny numbers of Cody’s birthday. Another charm was a birthday cake with one candle followed by a charm in the shape of a small boy, then three figures, a man and a woman with a small boy between them. She smiled as she touched it. “That’s special, Nick. Thank you.”

“I’ll add a charm each year until Nick is eighteen, but you can pick out what you want for the charms.”

She turned the bracelet in her hand. “You’re committing yourself for the coming years. You don’t know what you’ll be doing.” She looked up at him. “Let’s sit down,” she said, moving to a chair. He sat close beside her, a table between them where they set their drinks.

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