something you keep from a man,” he told Jake as he rummaged through the kitchen cabinets.
“No, I reckon it isn’t.” Jake opened the fridge and pulled out a package of moldy lunch meat. “Wouldn’t hurt you to get a wife.”
“I proposed. She isn’t interested.”
Jake laughed. “Proposed? What did you say, ‘Gee, I guess we should get married’? You’re the ladies’ man. I expect better from you.”
Duke laughed, and it loosened something inside him, something that had been tight as a clock and ready to spring loose. “I expect better from myself. I guess if a guy was going to have a kid, he’d expect to remember that he had her.”
He brushed a hand across the top of his head. Jake watched, hip against the counter, cowboy hat pulled low.
“Well, now you know. Guess what you gotta do is decide how to go forward from here.”
“I go forward as a dad. End of story.”
Jake shrugged, looking comfortable in his own skin. Duke had always thought of himself as the comfortable one. Today cool and unflustered belonged to Jake.
“Might call Charlie and get advice.”
“I don’t need your attorney.”
“Fine, you’ll figure it out.” Jake gave the easy answer as he stepped away from the cabinet.
Yes, he would find a way to be Lilly’s dad. He guessed he’d start by getting her that horse she wanted.
And he’d have to figure out his relationship with Oregon.
“Where are we going?” Lilly asked as they got closer to Martin’s Crossing. She was in Duke’s truck, leaning against Oregon. Her leg in the bright pink knee-to-foot cast was stretched out, nearly touching Duke’s leg as he drove.
He’d showed up at the hospital that morning with the news that he would be driving them home. Oregon had allowed it because she didn’t have a car there and because he was Lilly’s dad.
She’d spent a lot of sleepless nights thinking about how everything would change when she told him. It was no longer the Lilly and Oregon show. Duke was now a part of their lives. They couldn’t go back. In some strange way they were now a family unit. They would have to figure out how it changed things, what it meant for the future. She knew he deserved this, to be in Lilly’s life.
Oregon knew it would hurt in ways she hadn’t expected. Because the young cowboy she’d met thirteen years ago had been a force to be reckoned with. He’d had a charming smile, too much confidence and a way with words. He’d melted her resistance. She’d wanted love. She’d wanted forever. All from a man she’d known for a weekend.
Looking back, she knew how wrong that had been.
But present-day Duke was more of a concern. This man now had shadows in blue eyes that once had been carefree, full of laughter. This man now knew how to be a friend. How to be there for the people he cared about.
It didn’t take a genius to know her heart could be broken all over again if she wasn’t careful. Lilly moved, repositioning herself, bringing Oregon out of her own thoughts.
“Yes, Duke, where are we going?” She repeated her daughter’s question.
He’d been pretty mysterious since he showed up in the hospital room carrying a bouquet of flowers with a half-dozen balloons attached. It took up the entire backseat of his truck.
“We’re going to the ranch. I want to show you all something,” he answered. Once again mysterious, but this time with a hint of a smile.
“We should go back to our place so Lilly can rest.” Oregon hooked an arm around her daughter and Lilly snuggled close, probably drifting back to sleep again.
“Yes, rest is a good idea,” Duke answered vaguely and kept on driving.
They turned onto the road to the Circle M. The paved road ended at Jake’s house and became dirt. Fences lined both sides of the road. They drove past Duke’s house and then past a barn. In the field cattle grazed, and near the barn a few horses raised their heads and watched the truck drive by.
“This is pretty,” Lilly mumbled, lifting her head to look around.
“Yes, it is.” Duke pulled up to a stone cottage.
“Duke, what is this?” Oregon felt a twinge of uncertainty bordering on fear.
She’d been in Martin’s Crossing long enough to know he wasn’t going to let her call all of the shots now that he knew about Lilly. A part of her wanted to tell him to back off. Another part of her wanted him to pretend nothing had changed.
“Let’s get out,” he said. He opened the truck door and reached in the backseat for pink crutches, handing them to Lilly. “Come on, kiddo.”
Lilly, suddenly wide awake, grabbed the crutches and allowed him to help her out. No, it wouldn’t take Oregon’s daughter long to adjust to this new situation. Lilly smiled up at him and he leaned, giving her a loose hug. He was everything that any little girl would dream of in a dad. Especially Oregon’s little girl, who had watched with envy when other little girls sat on their daddy’s shoulders or rode bikes down the street together. Oregon knew that type of envy because she’d felt it often growing up.
“Coming?” Duke glanced back inside the truck, and Oregon nodded. Did she have a choice? Duke wasn’t smiling. His mouth was a straight, unforgiving line. His jaw was set. No, he wasn’t giving in.
She climbed out of the truck and met her daughter and Duke on the lawn, standing in front of the little stone house. “It’s nice. This is where you’ve been staying while you remodeled the old house?”
“Yes, and it’s where you’re going to stay now. It doesn’t have any steps. Even the porch is ground level. And the doors are wide.”
Oregon stood there on the freshly mowed lawn, speechless. A black-and-white dog came down the drive. Of course it went right to Lilly, circling her, sniffing, brushy black tail wagging. “Lilly, be careful. Don’t let him knock you down.”
“She isn’t going to knock me down, Mom.” Lilly dropped one crutch and leaned down to pet the Border collie.
“But you can’t fall. You have to be careful.”
“She’s careful.” Duke spoke in a quiet voice of reason. She didn’t want reasonable. Not right now. She picked up the crutch her daughter had dropped, and handed it to her. Lilly took it with a grimace and shoved it back under her arm.
When Oregon faced Duke, he nodded in Lilly’s direction, stopping her from saying anything she’d regret. Oh, that didn’t help. Reasonable, thoughtful, considerate male. How dare he?
“Oregon, I’m moving into the main house. I’ve been remodeling and it’s close to finished. That means this cottage will be empty. It’s quiet.
