“You didn’t find me, you bought me,” Ryan said, his voice filled with bitterness. When the doorbell had rung, he’d expected to find Jennifer standing on the other side, ready to leave for El Paso. His heart had quickened as he pulled the door open; he’d been anxious to see her again. Instead, his mother had walked in, determined to straighten out everything that had gone wrong between them.
She was an attractive woman, trim and well-dressed, her ash-blond hair carefully styled into a simple pageboy. When he was growing up, he’d always been so proud of her. Rhonda Madison had been the prettiest mother on the block. Unlike some of the other mothers, her entire life revolved around Ryan—his school activities, sports. Anything that caught his interest caught hers as well. In hindsight, it all became clear. She’d been desperate to become a mother, and when she finally did, Rhonda Madison didn’t want to miss a single minute.
“Didn’t you ask questions?” Ryan demanded. “Like where I’d come from? What had happened to my parents?”
“He told us your mother was a teenage runaway,” Rhonda said. “We’d just turned over our entire life savings to this man. Your father might have been a little suspicious, but he wanted to make me happy and a baby was the only thing that could do that. We aren’t bad people, Ryan. And if we’d known you’d been stolen from your mother, we would have—”
“You would have bought me anyway?” Ryan asked. He waited for his mother to deny the accusation, but she didn’t.
“Have you talked to your…” The word stuck in her throat as if it pained her to say it. “The woman who gave birth to you?”
“You’ll be happy to hear she’s dead,” Ryan said, wanting to hurt her as much as she’d hurt him. “I’ll never know her, or my father. I do have a brother, though. And a niece.” Impatient to be done with the conversation, he glanced at his watch. “I have to get ready. I’m going away for the weekend.”
“Really?” his mother asked in a forced attempt at interest. “Where are you going?”
“El Paso,” he murmured. “I’m going to meet the parents of my fiancée.” Why he’d said it, Ryan didn’t know, for it was a bald-faced lie. Perhaps he’d meant to shock his mother, to draw her into another argument or maybe to drive home the fact that she wasn’t a part of his life anymore.
But she didn’t take the bait and the pained expression on her face caused a wave of guilt to rush over him. Sooner or later, he’d have to stop punishing her and accept what she and his father had done. But he wasn’t ready. Not yet. The wound was still too raw, and even after it healed a bit, he doubted that he’d ever be able to fully forgive them.
“Maybe, after you get back, you can bring your young lady to the house for dinner,” she suggested. “Your birthday is coming up. We could plan a barbecue.”
Ryan turned away from her and stuffed another shirt into his overnight bag. “Sure,” he muttered. He’d missed twenty-six birthdays with his real family, why not spend another one with the people who had been faking it? Suddenly, birthdays didn’t seem so important.
He heard her sigh in defeat and approach him from behind. When she placed her hand on his shoulder, he stiffened. He fought the urge to turn to her and gather her into his arms, to forget everything that had happened in the past month. But nothing could erase the lies they’d told.
In the end, she silently walked out the front door of his condo, leaving him to deal with his demons. Ryan furrowed his fingers through his hair and cursed softly. He’d never been a man to act on his emotions, choosing to think every word, every action out first. But since he’d learned of his true parentage, he couldn’t rely on his usual dispassionate nature anymore. Nothing made sense, and until it did, he’d just have to operate on instinct alone.
A soft knock sounded at the door and he spun around, ready to rebuff his mother again. But Jennifer stood in the open doorway, dressed in a pretty peasant blouse and a colorful skirt. She wore a straw hat on her head, her long hair tucked up beneath the crown. Like the sun appearing from behind a dark cloud, she instantly lightened his mood.
“What is it?” she asked, frowning. “You look upset.”
“Nothing,” Ryan murmured, gathering up his overnight bag and tucking his garment bag under his arm. “I just had a visit from my mother. Needless to say, it didn’t go well.”
“You shouldn’t punish your parents for this,” Jennifer said softly. “They didn’t know.”
“They should have asked,” Ryan countered.
“You can’t know what’s in a mother’s heart. Sometimes the need to have a child is so strong it hurts.”
Ryan’s jaw went tight and he fought the impulse to tell Jennifer to mind her own business. But if there was anyone he could talk to about his personal problems, it was her. And he didn’t want to break the tenuous connection they’d built between them. “I thought I’d drive,” Ryan murmured. “We can take my Lexus. I’ve got a CD changer and—”
“But I have a convertible,” she said, accepting the change in subject without further comment. “And it’s a beautiful day. Besides, I know a short cut through the desert. I bought some lunch for us and we can stop at Red Bluff Lake on our way there.”
Though Ryan would have preferred to determine the route and take his own car, Jennifer seemed so excited about the trip, he decided to throw caution to the wind and go along. After all, this was the new Ryan Madison, operating on instinct and emotion. He grabbed his bags and walked out behind her. Her little convertible was parked at the curb. It had to be at least ten years old and didn’t look as though it could make it through town, much less across all of West Texas. “Maybe we should take my car,” he said.
“Don’t worry,” Jennifer chided. “We’ll have fun.”
As they headed out of town, bypassing the interstate that went from Midland-Odessa to El Paso, Ryan realized why she’d chosen the route. It was obvious Jennifer didn’t believe in speed limits. Or stop signs or double yellow lines. She was in all probability the most aggressive driver he’d ever seen short of Al Unser or Richard Petty.
He relaxed a bit when they got out of town and sped toward Kermit. “Maybe we should use this time to brush up,” he shouted over the sound of the wind racing around them.
She turned and grinned at him, her eyes hidden beneath the brim of her hat and her dark sunglasses. “All right,” she said. “Ask me anything.”
He considered his first question carefully. He really wanted to ask her about the baby’s father, but Ryan knew he ought to leave that question for another time. “Jennifer. That’s an odd name for someone of your background.”
She laughed. “That’s my father’s doing. When he first came to this country, he loved to go to the movies. The only movie he’d ever seen in Mexico was Duel in the Sun, with Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones. He saw it at an old cine when he was eight. And then he came to America and the first movie star he saw was Jennifer Jones, walking right down the street in Los Angeles. He took it as a sign from God that he was meant to live in this country. And that’s how I got my name.”
Ryan laughed. “All right, now it’s your turn. Ask me anything.”
“You were involved,” she said. “Nearly married a woman
