“YOU’RE A DISGRACE,” Walter Pearson said, his mouth a set line. “I stopped by to let you know I’m here before going to the cabin and this is what I find?”
“We were only kissing,” Hadley insisted. “It’s Christmastime.” He reached for Jenna’s hand, but she’d put a few feet of space between them that told Hadley she’d thought twice about their brief intimacy.
“A kiss that meant nothing,” she said, holding Hadley’s gaze.
Pearson turned on him. “How could you defile the memory of my daughter? Because that’s what that was. After little more than a year, you’ve forgotten her? Amy loved you—God knows why.” He jabbed a finger in Hadley’s chest. Ordinarily, that would have provoked a response, but for a change Hadley held his temper. “Her mother and I are still heartbroken, while you—you’re already with this woman who called herself Amy’s friend!” His angry gaze raked Jenna. “And I’m supposed to be okay with this? Let me inform you. He’s using you as a convenience, Miss Moran.”
Hadley winced. Jenna had used a similar term minutes ago, calling herself a handy option. “We’re not involved. Your timing’s bad, that’s all.”
Pearson glowered. “Not as bad as yours. What about the twins? You have some glib answer for them? I never thought you’d be any kind of a father—”
Hadley’s jaw clenched. “I’m the only father they’ve got. Maybe you should make peace with that, Pearson, and leave me to raise them. Like Amy wanted.”
“Did she? Don’t think she didn’t complain to us about how you treated her.”
Hadley crossed his arms. “Amy had a tendency to embellish. I’d bet most of whatever she told you was fiction.”
The increasingly bitter quarrels they’d had during the last months of Amy’s life had made him doubt they could survive as a couple, even when he’d said he would try.
Pearson’s face was purple. “My daughter was no liar. I see now how prudent I was to send money for her, the only protection I could provide as long as she stayed with you.”
“You didn’t trust me to provide for her—and okay, I didn’t in the way she was accustomed to living—but after she died, I did grieve for Amy,” he told Pearson. “You can believe me or not. But we still weren’t right for each other, and if she had lived, we would probably be divorced by now.” Amy, the spoiled daughter of wealthy parents, Hadley the abandoned, drifter son of drug dealers. “Is that what you wanted to hear?” Hadley had the sudden feeling he was fighting for his life. “The best thing we did was to create the twins. My babies now, without her.”
Pearson’s gaze bored through him. “I wish I’d followed my instincts when Amy first told us she was pregnant by you.”
“And that’s another thing. Why wasn’t I informed about Amy’s heart condition? You and Danielle were aware of it. That’s on both of you. If I’d known, I might have taken more care, tried to better protect her health.”
For a moment Pearson appeared chastened. Then he said, “Amy begged us not to tell you. She was afraid you’d see her differently, even walk away from her, and we wished you had. I shouldn’t have listened to her. I should have taken her home where she belonged. Instead, you’re still in the picture holding my grandbabies hostage.”
Hadley held up a hand. “Stop right there. I’ve made it easy enough for you to visit them, not because I wanted to but because that’s your right by law. But we’re never going to agree about Amy or anything else.”
“Mr. Pearson.” Jenna spoke for the second time since Amy’s father had found them locked in a kiss that still flowed through Hadley’s veins like warm butter, but he wished she’d stayed quiet. “I don’t mean to butt in,” she said, “but I did promise Amy that if anything happened to her I’d watch over the twins, make sure they were being well cared for…and they are.”
Which didn’t help at all. Hadley’s feeling of dread grew worse.
Pearson’s gaze had sharpened. “Danielle mentioned that. We didn’t know what to make of it. An overseer?”
“I’d hoped it would never come to that, but yes. Amy asked me to serve as—”
“Jenna, don’t,” Hadley warned her.
“—what’s called a standby guardian, but the court hearing to officially appoint me never occurred. Amy had the babies a few days before the hearing. But from what I’ve read and learned since, I doubt the order would have been granted. Even though Amy was ill—which I didn’t realize then—and her wishes make sense in retrospect, I wasn’t a blood relative, just a friend.”
“Then she was worried.” Pearson glared at Hadley. “You knew about this guardianship?”
“Yes, and I would never have agreed to it. At the time I figured I’d humor Amy, wait until she saw the judge. I thought she was frightened about giving birth—afraid I wouldn’t be there for her afterward. But the court would never have gotten my signature on any document.” Now he knew that Amy had also been warned she could possibly die in childbirth.
Her eyes wide, Jenna appeared as if she wanted to bite her tongue. “I wouldn’t say Amy was worried.” By then she must have realized she’d said exactly the wrong thing. In a few words, she’d implicated Hadley as someone who’d needed to be watched, who probably still did. Why on earth had Jenna felt the urge to confirm Pearson’s opinion of him? Because she and Hadley had argued earlier? Because he’d admitted he wouldn’t stay so she was getting back at him?
Amy’s father spun on his heel and headed for the door. “Let me promise you something, Smith. You haven’t heard the last of this.”
* * *
HADLEY LOWERED THE GATE on the open-sided stock trailer, but even the bellowing of the new cattle inside couldn’t override his regrets about his fight with Pearson. Thanks to his temper, he hadn’t handled that well.
But this morning, as it had been for the past three days, his head was full of Jenna. So much for his attempt, then, to cool off his feelings for her.
Hadley pulled down the rear ramp, determined to focus on the ranch. He’d bought a dozen head from Logan Hunter’s herd, and Logan himself had come to deliver them with his family.
Logan climbed out of the pickup’s cab with a smile Hadley didn’t return.
The other man was the spitting image of Sawyer, his twin. “Three pregnant heifers in the lot,” he said, a definite bonus for the McMann ranch.
Logan’s wife, Blossom, her russet curls bouncing, unbuckled their daughter from her car seat. But little Daisy had a mind of her own, for as soon as her mother set her down, the toddler charged off in the direction of the house. “She wants to see Luke and Grace,” Blossom explained as Logan started after her. Halfway across the yard, he swept Daisy into his arms, then planted a kiss on her neck.
Instead of laughing, Daisy started to yell. Hadley thought of the twins, of Pearson and what had clearly been a threat.
His mind replayed the scene as he and the Hunters exchanged parenting stories of epic temper tantrums, which Daisy had discovered as a means of getting what she wanted. If Luke and Gracie walked by Christmas, then the real fun would begin. Assuming he was here for the holiday. Logan and Blossom were teasing Hadley about being outnumbered when he spied Jenna heading their way from the house.
He tensed. He’d said too much the other night. Worse, so had she. He realized she’d only intended to back him up after all, to reassure Walter the twins were fine with Hadley, but instead she’d affirmed Amy and her parents’ fears about him. Hadley was surprised Jenna had come to the ranch today. The only good part was that after Pearson’s tirade, Walter had gone home the same night.
Hadley couldn’t read Jenna’s expression. She said hello to Logan and Blossom, then wordlessly handed Hadley an envelope. Maybe she was giving up on her promise to Amy and was about to tender a resignation of sorts. Abandon the twins. And him. Never mind that he’d practically told her to. “What’s this?”
Her tone was cool. “I don’t open other people’s mail, but the return address is familiar.”
So were the names at the top of the letter inside. Walter and Danielle Pearson, engraved in black on thick, cream-colored stationery. The names seemed to taunt him again. After an exchange of looks, Blossom and Logan had quickly carried Daisy into the barn to visit the horses, so he and Jenna were now alone.
As he scanned the brief message, his stomach tightened.
Hadley. After our recent discussion, my wife and I—as Amy’s parents—have decided our grandchildren belong with us. We intend to sue for permanent custody of Lucas and Grace. We believe we are the better option to raise them, as Amy, our beloved daughter, clearly would have wished.
While he was trying to digest those few sentences that swam in front of his eyes, Logan and Blossom came out of the barn, Daisy chattering in some unknown language about Mr. Robert, Hadley supposed. The horse nickered after them, wanting more attention. Hadley stood stock-still, sure his face must be blanched dead white. Jenna stood nearby as if she, too, had been turned to stone.
“Bad news?” Blossom asked with a concerned expression.
“The worst.” But why was he so shocked? He’d been waiting for this for the past year. With a hard sigh, he said, “The twins’ grandparents want custody.”
Blossom’s brown eyes widened. “Why? No one could possibly accuse you of neglect, of not taking care of them. If you need witnesses to testify—”
“Easy, Blossom.” Logan put his arm around her. “Likely it won’t come to that. I’ve been dealing with similar antics from my grandfather for decades. He’s always more bark than he is bite. Pearson may be, too. Let me see what we’re up against.”
Hadley gave him the letter. We, Logan had said, as if they were friends instead of rancher and cowhand bound only by a business transaction for Clara’s cattle and because Logan had given him a second job. Blossom read over her husband’s shoulder. Looking tentative, Jenna stepped closer, too, perhaps remembering Pearson’s rant. “Hadley, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything about Amy’s guardianship. I didn’t intend to. If I hadn’t blurted that out, he’d never have gone this far.”
Logan waved the curt message. “If anyone threatened us like this—” He stopped. “Actually, someone did. Blossom’s ex-fiancé.”
She groaned. “Now, thank goodness, he’s completely off our radar. He relinquished any right to Daisy. I’m sure you won’t have any trouble, Hadley, proving yourself to the court—winning against the Pearsons—if it ever comes to that.”
Hadley wasn’t as sure. “My track record’s not the best. I have no permanent address. This ranch is Clara’s. Even the horse I ride half belongs to her. I’m single, a cowpoke without much money, with little education, or anything else to give the twins…”
“You give them all they need.” Blossom patted his arm. “Maybe, like Logan says, Mr. Pearson is all talk and he’ll never follow through on this threat.”
Hadley’s jaw clenched. “I’m betting he will. If the Pearsons do sue for custody, I’ll have to move on.” Even though he realized leaving wouldn’t help his cause, Amy’s parents now had Jenna’s would-be guardianship as proof of Amy’s concerns, including her fear that he would leave her, and he didn’t have the money for a court battle. “I won’t give up the twins, especially not to him.”
“This is all my fault,” Jenna said in a mournful tone.
Hadley wanted to reassure her, but actually, even if she had tried to help him, she’d said the wrong words.
“Who writes a stilted letter like this?” he asked, wanting to lash out. “It sounds like some foreign language.”
Hadley tried to repress a thousand memories of his foster days, including his betrayal of Dallas. Now his loss would be the twins—if he stuck around and let the Pearsons win.
* * *
WHAT IF HADLEY did lose the twins? Because of her? It didn’t seem to matter now that he’d rejected Jenna, or that Walter Pearson had assumed she was the new woman in Hadley’s life. Without meaning to, she’d made him look again like the loser people used to say he was. She hadn’t heard that in a while except from Amy’s dad.
Alone in her office above her sister’s health care agency, she tried to concentrate on her design plans for one of her new clients. But when the phone rang and she recognized the number, she stopped trying to focus. She was ready for this confrontation today.
“Jenna, you haven’t let me know if you want the grandfather clock,” her ex began without a greeting. “It’s taking up space in my storage unit.”
“That clock is from your family, not mine. Do with it as you please.” Still, the beautiful walnut piece had stood on the landing of the stairs in their Shawnee Mission house, a memento of kinship, of connection. For years Jenna had thought that meant her, too, David and the children they would have to carry on his line. “And you’re about to give me more news,” she guessed, tempted to hang up. David never called these days without some other purpose, usually one that ended up hurting her. Last time he’d crowed about the woman he was now seeing and her three children.
Luke and Grace, she thought instead, stunned that she’d actually suggested those names for Hadley’s twins. Amy had said they were her favorite, too, but they’d been Jenna’s choices first, and Hadley had seen right through her. And that wasn’t all he’d seen. I’m not the guy you should pick.
At her ongoing silence, David sighed. “Big news, yes,” he said. “I’ve asked Sheila to marry me. We’re doing a destination wedding in Barbados next spring.” She heard a smile in his voice. “On the beach, at sunset…”
Jenna stiffened in her chair. “Why do you do this? We’re divorced, David.” And he knew she didn’t want him back. She’d made that clear some time ago in his office in Kansas City then. “I don’t care what your plans are. I don’t have to anymore. But by the way, I will take that clock. I could use it for a client. You pay the shipping cost. Send it to Olivia McCord Antiques.” She rattled off the shop’s Main Street address. “Please give your bride-to-be my best wishes. She’ll need them. I hope Sheila knows, for her own good, that she’s marrying a man to whom family—a wife, for that matter—is not as important as his ego.”
At the other end of the line, he sputtered. “I never thought you were vindictive. If you can’t be happy for me—”
Those were the same words her mother had used. “I’m very happy.” He’d just proved her point by saying “me,” not “us.” “Be a better husband to her, if you can, than you were to me. A better father to her children than you might have been for ours.” When he didn’t answer—shocked, she hoped, into silence—Jenna added, “I learned my own worth the hard way. Don’t call me again.” Then, with a definite feeling of relief, she did hang up. Finally, and for the second time, she’d stood up for herself with David Collins, and he was now totally part of her past.
She spent the rest of the afternoon checking in with her clients. Her latest had come to her via a recommendation from Barney, who’d resigned from the bank. She made appointments for others to see certain pieces they might like at Olivia’s, alerted her friend to the clock’s arrival and arranged to meet a client at the tile store in Farrier tomorrow to pick out flooring for a new house. Then she hopped online to order herself the pricey cashmere robe she’d had her eye on, simply because she deserved an indulgence. A celebration of sorts about David.
Though she couldn’t feel completely satisfied. She wished things had gone differently with Hadley and Walter Pearson. She wished she and Hadley could have made something more of their mutual attraction—he’d admitted that much—but if this was to be her lot now, she would make the most of it, successful in her work if nowhere else.
At five o’clock Jenna heard a door open below, then footsteps on the stairs. A minute later her sister appeared.
“Virtual bottle of wine,” Shadow said, empty hand in the air. “Believe me. It took some doing, but I found Bertie a new place after all and he actually loves it! Mama’s thrilled. With the wedding a week away, she had enough to worry about. By the time she and Jack leave on their honeymoon to Mexico, I’ll have his uncle settled. He’s already put his house on the market. Want to help me make his assisted-living apartment into a home for him?”
“I will. Of course.” Jenna paused. “Congratulations. As long as we’re celebrating, see me lift a glass of your excellent wine here. I told David off this afternoon.”
Shadow grinned, ear to ear. “Details, please.”
Jenna related her conversation with her ex-husband, mostly her side of it. Indeed, she felt as if she’d closed one door and opened another, even if it wasn’t a door that led to the future she’d yearned for.
She also told Shadow that Hadley wasn’t interested in a relationship, and how she’d made him look bad with Amy’s parents. By the time she finished, she felt drained.
“Then apologize to Hadley. Make this work for you, Jenna, if that’s what you want.”
“I doubt there’s any way to fix it. After Pearson’s threats to take the twins, Hadley said he’ll leave Clara’s before the court ever rules on a custody suit. I don’t think that’s wise, and certainly not good for the twins to be uprooted so abruptly, but that seems to be what he has in mind.” I’m happy wherever the road takes me.
“Why wouldn’t he win in court?”
“Hadley doesn’t believe he would, and I’ve always known Barren was never the place he meant to stay. He has no more faith in himself than I did when I was living at home with Daddy or married to David. I think in his heart he’s still the bad boy of Barren.”
“After his upbringing, I can understand how he might feel rootless, but he’s not making decisions only for himself now.” She gazed at Jenna. “Neither are you. I want to cheer loud enough for Jack to hear me down at the café—or better, David in Salt Lake. Finally, you’re done with him, but…” Shadow rounded the desk, pulled Jenna out of her seat and hugged her fiercely. “Sisters don’t let each other off the hook. Jen, I can see you love Hadley and those babies, too. Why don’t you stop beating yourself up now because you can’t have kids? If I were you, I wouldn’t let them all slip away.”
For a second Jenna envisioned herself living in a house near Clara’s with Hadley, caring for the twins every day, sitting up with them all night whenever they were sick, watching them grow, loving and being loved in return. As if she were their mother. And Hadley’s wife. A part of her wondered now if she’d thought her only chance to be a parent of sorts might be that guardianship. And that was why she’d insisted on stepping in after the twins were born. Yet she’d heard Hadley say, If the Pearsons do sue for custody, I’ll have to move on. I won’t give up the twins.
“After his marriage to Amy,” Jenna said, “he doesn’t want another, and my bottom line? The twins aren’t mine. They’re Hadley’s.”
Shadow rolled her eyes. “You need to talk to Annabelle,” she said.