her eyes, Tessa had sighed inwardly. Although she remembered the confused panic that had swept through her when she realized she’d been left high and dry, there always followed a tidal wave of relief that she hadn’t uttered the four, life-altering words: We’re having a baby. It was painfully obvious now that the complications could have been disastrous.
Stranded in Spain, she’d had no choice but to call Cord. By phone, he’d immediately purchased her a ticket for home and told her to get on the plane. There had been firm instruction in his tone, but there had also been concern over Hunt. Cord plainly did not believe that Hunt would have abandoned her. It was possible that no one was after her now, but Cord tended to be very overprotective.
She liked that, more than she would have thought. In fact, she tried not to think about Cord and his gentle strength. He reminded her of a shepherd keeping constant vigil over a flock. Hunt was the breeze blowing to the far corners of the earth. No one and nothing could hold him. In contrast, Cord was unshakable, unfailingly steadfast, an invincible fortress that would always be there.
Of course she’d been attracted to Hunt. She didn’t want to live and die never having strayed from the spot where she’d been born, the place where people looked down on the Drapers. Perhaps there was also an aura of excitement, of danger, with Hunt that had lured her. Passion in places where he spoke the language of the locals in different countries.
The baby kicked restlessly inside her.
She got to her feet and dressed. Making the bed, she told herself it did no good to let the ghosts of the past shape her destiny forever. To raise a child, she had to find a real job. There was very little she would be able to do in Crookseye Canyon, but she could talk to Mrs. Ashley, who lived next door to Cord. Mrs. Ashley was the nosiest of neighbors, but she had the brightest of hearts. She owned a beauty shop in town and perhaps she needed help. That would put Tessa front and center into where the gossip was hottest, but there was no way to run from what her life was going to be. She preferred to face it head-on and gainfully employed.
Opening her bedroom door, she noted the silence in the cool, dark hallway. Maybe Cord had already left to feed his livestock. She crept down the hall to go into the kitchen, only to pause as she glanced into the den.
Cord was sleeping in the recliner, in front of a fire that was now mostly smoldering ash. A long rifle lay across his lap. Tessa’s heart rate suddenly accelerated. She forced back the scream of anger and frustration and fear. A man was protecting her with a loaded rifle, and she was pregnant by a man who was missing.
“Good morning.”
Cord’s eyes had suddenly opened to assess her from head to toe, while she was still trying to gather her wits so she wouldn’t succumb to the black-edged hysteria. “Is it?” she asked numbly.
“The wind has died down,” he said, rising from the chair. He settled the rifle on a buckhorn rack and stretched his long, tall body. “That’s something to be grateful for.”
Something inside her snapped. “I don’t care about the wind! I care about you sleeping in a recliner. You were really afraid someone might break into the house, weren’t you? You didn’t want them getting down the hall where I was! You slept right here!” She flung out a hand to indicate the chair in front of the fireplace. “Cord, I…I’m scared.” The tears she hadn’t let herself cry before pricked at her eyelids. “You shouldn’t have to change your life because of me. This is not your problem. If I leave here, you can—”
“Tessa. Stop,” he commanded.
She did, halting her disjointed rambling.
“My brother is missing,” he said quietly. “That changed my life. It doesn’t matter how or why right now. It matters that it’s a fact. I don’t know whether anyone is after you or not. I’m just overly suspicious because I have a brother in a dangerous job. But he would want me to look after your well-being. And his child’s.” He took a deep breath. “I think we’re better off trying to pull through this situation together. Have you ever thought about that? I need you as much as you need me. You and that baby are all of Hunt I have if those goons were for real and he’s dead.”
She’d never thought of it that way. “I’m sorry.” Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down. “I didn’t mean to be selfish. I think the gun…startled me.”
He nodded. Silently, he took the rifle off the rack on the stone wall, unloaded it, put the shells in a box and locked everything in the gun cabinet. “There.”
She smiled hesitantly. “You’d think I’d be used to them, growing up in Crookseye Canyon.”
Shrugging, he said, “It doesn’t matter. It upset you, so I’ve put it away for now.”
For now.
She looked away.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen, Tessa. Let me make some calls. Hopefully, someone can give me the full story.” He stared at her, and Tessa was struck by the kindness in his eyes. There was compassion and deep concern. “In the meantime, do you mind sticking fairly close to the ranch today? Until I do enough checking to satisfy myself that those jokers last night weren’t genuine?”
“But if they were, then that means Hunt is d—”
“Don’t think about it.” His voice cut harshly across her words. “Knowing would be better than not knowing, but let’s not say it until we get confirmation.”
“Okay,” she said softly.
They held each other’s eyes for a moment.
“Would you mind making some toast while I put in some phone calls?”
She shook her head quickly, grateful for the chance to feel she was reciprocating his care of her. “I can burn toast with the best of them.”
“Great. I like charred bread. I’ll be in my office.”
He went into a room off the den, and Tessa looked at the back of him as he exited. Strong, capable. Both the Greer men had a lot of admirable qualities.
Hunt hadn’t loved her, though.
Intuition had told her a long time ago that Cord felt more toward her than brotherly. It was in his standoffish posture, in his discomfort when he was in the same room alone with her if Hunt went to do something while all three of them were in the house. It was the way she caught him watching her every once in a while, his eyes on her as if he was gazing at a fascinating, desirable treasure. His gaze would slip away guiltily if hers ever met it. She pretended not to notice. It was easier for everyone that way.
But it made the situation all the worse now. She wanted Hunt to be alive for the sake of their child. Deep inside, she knew Cord would consider it his obligation to raise Hunt’s child in the place of its missing father.
Tessa didn’t want that to be the case. She didn’t want to be an obligation. She didn’t want the people of Crookseye to laugh at her and her child because there was no father, and she didn’t want to succumb to the caring in Cord’s eyes. The truth was, letting him into her life would be taking advantage of him.
No matter how desperate her circumstances became, she would not allow herself to cross that line. There were all kinds of different honor codes: Hunt’s was for his country; Cord’s was for his family and homestead.
Tessa’s
