between them.
“He? You already know it’s a boy?”
She unconsciously placed a hand over her rounded stomach. “Not exactly. The ultrasound was inconclusive. But I call him a boy anyway. I just have that feeling, you know.”
He absently stroked his chin as he continued to study her. “Uh, what about the father? What does he think?”
Damn it all, thought Lonnie, there he went again. He wasn’t going to get into this. Her personal life had nothing to do with him. The only thing he needed to be thinking about was getting the message delivered and getting back on the road to Hereford.
With a tight grimace on her face, she turned and headed for the kitchen. “I’ll go get that cracker,” she said flatly.
Thoughtfully, Lonnie followed and leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb of the opening leading into the small work space. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to get so personal.”
She didn’t respond to his apology immediately and Lonnie wondered how he could continue with this task if she was angry with him. Suddenly one of her shoulders lifted and fell, and she said, “It doesn’t matter. It’s no secret that the baby’s father skipped out on me.”
“Skipped out?”
Her lips flattened to a grim line as she glanced over her shoulder at him. “Yeah. He ran from the responsibility like a scalded cat. But I’m glad now. He would have made a sorry husband and father. Obviously.”
She was alone. Her declaration should have made him sad, even mad. Yet all he could feel rushing through his body was unexplainable relief. The emotion took him by complete surprise, and he tried to push the crazy feeling aside as he asked, “Is that what you thought was going to happen? That the guy was going to marry you?”
Looking away from him, she opened the cabinet and pulled down a box of vanilla wafers and a package of Oreo cookies. “Don’t all of us girls?” she asked wearily. “I made a bad judgment call. But I’ll not make the same mistake again.”
Lonnie noticed she didn’t sound bitter, more like resolute. And maybe that was a good thing. It was bad enough that this beautiful woman had already been taken advantage of one time. Twice would be obscene.
He didn’t make any sort of reply. Mainly because she didn’t seem to want or expect one, so he simply watched her fill a paper plate with the cookies.
“Would you care for some?” she asked.
Lonnie started to decline but decided it would be friendlier to accept her offer. And anyway, he hadn’t had a bite of dessert after the hastily gobbled burger he’d had for supper.
“Sure. I’m a sucker for sweets. Especially two-crust pies. You ever make those, Miss Katherine?”
She fetched another paper plate from the cabinet and placed it next to the cookies. “Sometimes. Whenever I have the time and a reason.” She gestured to the plate. “I’ll let you help yourself,” she added.
He started toward the cabinet, and she backed up and out of his way. Lonnie was a big, gangly man with long arms and legs and feet to match. He wondered if his size intimidated her or if she was put off by the idea that he was a lawman. Or maybe it was merely the fact that he was a man that made her keep a wary eye on him. In any case, he didn’t like the idea of her being skittish around him. He wanted her to trust him. In every way.
Lonnie tossed several of the Oreo cookies onto the plate, then added a few of the vanilla wafers for good measure. Behind him Katherine said, “A sheriff doesn’t come to a person’s house just to let him know someone has died. He has deputies for that kind of thing. What are you really doing here?”
Her quickness shouldn’t surprise him. She was half Ketchum, he reminded himself, and they were a damn smart bunch. This woman was no more gullible than her siblings.
“Let’s go sit down and I’ll tell you,” he said soberly.
For long moments her green eyes studied his somber face, and then finally she nodded and quickly swished past him.
Back in the living room they both took up the same seats they’d had earlier. After Lonnie had resettled himself, he took a long drink of the coffee and looked across the room at her. She wasn’t what most people would describe as petite, yet to Lonnie she seemed small and vulnerable and he wished he could simply rise to his feet and say his goodbyes. He wanted to tell Seth to leave this girl alone. She’d already had enough upheaval in her life. But she deserved to know the truth about her parentage, he argued with himself. She deserved to have a family.
“You remember that a few minutes ago I asked you about your father? Well, I had a reason for that,” he said. “I wanted to know just what your…what Celia had told you about him.”
A puzzled frown puckered her forehead. “I don’t understand. I’ve already told you what little I know about my father.”
He let out a long breath and leaned forward in his chair. “I realize that. But I just don’t know how else to get into this, except—” He stopped, shook his head and wiped a hand over his wavy hair. “Let me start again, Katherine, and hopefully I can make some sense to you. I have a friend who’s a Texas Ranger. He contacted me three months ago and asked me for help in finding you.”
He watched her go very still.
“A Texas Ranger?” she asked.
Her voice was quiet and quavery, and everything inside of Lonnie wanted to go to her and hold her hand tightly between his. He wanted to assure her that she was never going to be alone again. But he was a sheriff and he’d never met this woman before. He couldn’t let himself behave in a familiar way with her. It wouldn’t be professional. But then, the strange feelings he got whenever he looked at her weren’t exactly professional, either. They were a little unsettling.
“Yes. His name is Seth Ketchum. He lives in San Antonio. The rest of his family lives in New Mexico. Does the name mean anything to you?”
Lonnie watched her mull the name over in her mind.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “It sounds familiar. But Mom never said much about her family or friends. I accused her once of not having any, and she got so angry I never asked her anything else about them.”
“So she never mentioned her family? Or a woman named Amelia?”
Frowning, Katherine struggled to remember. “Except for a few cousins out in Arizona, she said her family was gone. As for a woman named Amelia, I remember she used to correspond with someone of that name. She told me that this woman was an old school friend. But, as well as I can remember, I never met her.”
“Well, Katherine, I don’t know how else to tell you but…there’s been evidence uncovered that leads me, and the Ketchum family, to believe that Celia wasn’t actually your mother.”
She gripped the coffee cup and scooted to the edge of her chair. “Whh…at?” she stuttered.
“It’s true,” he said starkly. “Celia McBride wasn’t your mother. She was actually your aunt.”
One slender hand fluttered up to her cheek where the blood
