Page 83 of Heart Like a Cowboy

“Yeah, I do.” In this day and age, it would be too easy to prove paternity, and besides, he couldn’t see a reason for Melinda to lie. “She’s in town, trying to decide if she wants to tell Tilly that she has a grandchild.”

“Holy shit,” Blue repeated, but this time his tone wasn’t solely one of surprise. There was some dread mixed with it.

Egan went with a repeat response as well and muttered a “Yeah.”

Alana was already reeling from the news, but the reeling was only going to escalate. Especially if Tilly found out. And as much as Egan hated to admit it, Tilly did deserve to know. Heck, Jack’s son should know as well so he could have the chance to be around his grandmother.

“Where’s Alana now?” Blue asked. “She’s not with this other woman, is she?”

Egan shook his head. “She’s in her office. The woman, Melinda Gorman, should be on her way to the inn.”

And that would cause some gossip, too, with folks wondering who Melinda was and why she was in town. Then again, the life celebration might be the perfect cover for her arrival if people believed she’d come for that.

“Go to Alana,” Blue insisted.

Egan considered just doing a quick check on his dad first, but one look at his face and his dad would know something was wrong. Once his dad was back home and he’d made sure that Alana was as all right as she could be, then Egan would explain everything to him.

“Thanks,” Egan told Blue.

He hurried back down the hall to Alana’s office and knocked once before he opened the door. And saw that Alana wasn’t there. Egan didn’t curse. Not yet, anyway. Instead, he checked the vending area.

No sign of her.

He then knocked on the door of the women’s restroom, and when there was no response, he opened the door a fraction. “Alana?” he softly called out.

“I saw her leave a couple of minutes ago,” someone said from behind him. It was a nurse, Nellie Parsons, and she smiled as if happy to provide that info.

But Egan sure as hell wasn’t happy. “Any idea where she went?” he asked, trying not to sound so worried that it would alarm Nellie.

It was already too late for that, though. Nellie was clearly alarmed. “I’m not sure. Uh, is she upset because the life celebration is dredging up so many bad memories for her?”

Egan made a sound that could have meant anything, and he headed back to Alana’s office to see if she’d left her purse, and therefore her keys and phone, behind. She hadn’t. However, there was a note on the center of her desk.

Now he cursed and wanted to throttle himself for not staying with her. He should have called Blue to let him know there was a problem and not have left her side.

Hell. He had to find Alana now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

AFTERSHEENDEDher call, Alana sat in Egan’s cabin and stared out the window. Waiting for Egan, knowing he’d come because he would be worried sick about her.

Even though she’d left him a note on her desk, one where she’d insisted she wasall right and just needed some time to think, there was no chance that Egan would just accept that “all right” status and not check on her himself.

Since there wasn’t any place in Emerald Creek she could go where Egan wouldn’t have found her, she’d opted to come here. A sort of hiding in plain sight along with killing two birds with one stone. It would put Egan on the ranch where his father was. And it would give them some privacy while Egan tried to do the only thing he could possibly do.

Be her hero.

She wasn’t sure if that particular trait was because of his DNA or if it’d been drilled into him during his military training. Maybe a combination of both. Either way, he would try his damndest to make things better for her, to soothe her old wounds. The new ones, too, that Melinda’s confession had given her. Egan would try to kiss it all away.

Alana just might let him try, too.

But he’d fail.

Because this was too big of a fix even for Egan.

For now, though, she pushed aside the inevitable doom and gloom and welcomed the quiet moments where she could sit at his breakfast table. Moments where she could try to clear her mind enough so she could start sorting through the stew of feelings that were boiling and bubbling inside her.

Thankfully, the cabin hadn’t been locked, and the view outside Egan’s kitchen window was ideal for peaceful thoughts, serenity and yes, even a little mind clearing. The picture-perfect acres of pastures and the horses that looked regal and expensive. A rider was on what she thought was one of the ranch’s cutting horses and was herding up some of the Andalusians, maybe to move them elsewhere.

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