closed the car door and turned to Keisha.
Ignoring the fierce frown on his face, she said, “You seem to be good with kids.”
He shrugged. “Dillon has a son named Denver who’s a little older than Beau, and I’m around him a lot. They favor.”
She lifted a brow. “Who?”
“Beau and Denver. Although Denver is a little taller, if you put them in a room together it might be hard to tell them apart.”
It was Keisha’s time to shrug. She would know her son anywhere. Besides, she couldn’t imagine the two kids looking that much alike. “Since you insist that we need to talk today, you can follow me home. But I don’t intend to break my routine with Beau because of you.”
“I don’t expect you to.”
She moved to walk around to the driver’s side of the car when he reached out and touched her. Immediately, heat raced up her spine and she was forced to remember the raw masculine energy Canyon possessed. She’d have thought that after three years she would be immune to him, but it seemed nothing had changed in the sexual-chemistry department.
“Keisha?”
With her pulse throbbing, she fought to regain her composure. She lifted her chin. “What?”
He met her gaze and held it. “Is there any reason someone would be following you?”
“What are you talking about?” Keisha asked, frowning.
Canyon shoved his hands into his pockets. “I started following you from your job, but I wasn’t the only one. A black sedan pulled out in front of me and whoever was behind the wheel followed you until a mile or so back. That’s when I tried getting the driver’s attention by driving close along the side of the car and forcing him or her to pull over. I don’t know if the driver was a man or a woman since the windows were tinted. Instead of pulling over, the car made a quick right turn at the next corner and kept going.”
Keisha remembered glancing in her rearview mirror and witnessing what she’d assumed were two drivers engaging in road rage. “You’re driving a burgundy car?”
“Yes.”
“I heard a horn blast and saw you trying to run that black car off the road. I figured it was nothing more than two drivers acting like fools.”
“It wasn’t. It was about me trying to find out why someone was following you. I even called the police to report it.”
“The police?”
“Yes. Just so happens that Pete Higgins is a deputy and a friend of Derringer’s. At the time, I only had a hunch you were being followed, so Pete checked it out as a favor. Then he got suspicious when he discovered the license plate had been reported as stolen. He’s since phoned back to say they’re still looking for the car.”
Although Keisha had only met Derringer Westmoreland once, during the Westmoreland Ball, she’d heard about him. Before marrying and settling down, he’d had a reputation of being quite the ladies’ man. In fact, a number of male Westmorelands had claimed that reputation.
“Well, I have no idea why anyone would be following me. Why were you following me?”
“Because on a number of occasions over the past ten months, I’ve approached you, wanting to talk and you refused to give me the time of day. Now I know why.”
Not wanting to get into it with Canyon about Beau now, because she was certain Pauline probably had her face glued to her office window, Keisha said, “We’ll talk later.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
Canyon waited until Keisha had gotten into her car before crossing the parking lot to get into his. It was only when he had closed the door and snapped his seat belt that the impact of the past twenty minutes hit him hard.
He had a son. A son he hadn’t known about until today.
* * *
With her heart pounding furiously in her chest, Keisha pulled out of the day care’s parking lot. She thought about Canyon’s assertion that a car had been following her. That didn’t make sense. None of the cases she was working on were serious enough to warrant anyone wanting to harass her.
This was a new car she was driving, a very popular model. Perhaps the person had had carjacking in mind? Shivers raced through her at the thought.
When she came to a traffic light she glanced into the backseat to make sure Beau was okay. She couldn’t get over how easily he had accepted Canyon.
And just how easily Canyon had accepted him.
Canyon hadn’t demanded a DNA test for verification, instead he’d claimed that Beau favored Dillon’s son. Had that been the reason why his acceptance had come without any hassles? Well, there hadn’t been any hassles so far. They still had to talk, and someone who’d been as close to Canyon as she had been in the past knew that while he had a cool demeanor on the outside, he was simmering on the inside.
Keisha drew in a deep breath and exited onto the road that would take her home. Glancing in the rearview mirror her gaze met Canyon’s as he seemed to look right at her. Gee whiz, did he have to look at her like that? With an intensity that had her dragging in more than one shaky breath and a rush of heat flooding her stomach, making it quiver. She gripped the steering wheel and refocused on her driving.
Canyon had always been able to get to her. At that moment, she couldn’t help but remember the day nearly four years ago when they’d met...
“Excuse me. Is this seat taken?”
Keisha looked up from the papers she’d been reading. A shot of hard lust reverberated through her veins. Lordy. Standing in front of her had to be, without a doubt, a man who could get a “yes” out of a woman without even asking the first question.
He was tall, more than six feet, and she had to strain her neck to look up at him. He had smooth mahogany skin, dark eyes, a firm jaw and a too-delicious-looking pair of lips. Once she got past his facial features then she had to deal with his broad shoulders and a too-fine body in an immaculate business suit.
“So, is it?” he asked in a deep, sexy voice.
She self-consciously licked her lips. “Is what?”
“This seat taken? It seems to be the only one empty.”
She glanced around the courthouse’s lunchroom. He was telling the truth. “No, it’s not taken.”
“Mind if I join you?”
She had to bite her lips to keep from saying he could do anything he cared to do with her. Instead, she said, “No, I don’t mind.”
She watched as he pulled out a chair and settled his tall frame in the seat. She had to be in court in less than an hour. At any other time she would have been annoyed at being disturbed, but not this time. This man was worth the interruption.
Extending his hand out to her, he said, “I’m Canyon Westmoreland. And you are?”
