too young to understand, his father and I couldn’t get married to each other. So I decided to be both mommy and daddy to Jeremy and raise him on my own.”
Luke frowned. “I’ve talked to Jeremy, Meg. I don’t think that’s going to be enough to satisfy him.” Or me.
“It’s going to have to be,” Meg retorted, looked every bit as stubborn and determined as her son to have her way on this.
“And if it’s not?” Watching Meg finish the rest of her ice water, Luke pushed back his chair and stood, too.
“It will be,” Meg promised firmly. She looked him straight in the eye, and Luke felt the impact of their chemistry dragging him closer, like a rope around his middle, even as her defiant secrecy pushed him away. “Just as soon as Jeremy realizes I am not budging on this, either.” Brushing past him, she headed for the living room.
“Meanwhile, I want Jeremy in his own bed tonight.”
As she started for her son, Luke put a hand on her arm. “Let me do this,” he said quietly.
Meg shrugged off his concern and refused his help in a coolly determined way she never would have done six years ago, when they’d been the best of friends. “No, I’m used to carrying him. You stay with your girls.” Holding her sleeping five-year-old son in her arms so his head was on her shoulder and his legs were wrapped around her waist, Meg slipped out the door and headed across the lawn.
Luke watched her enter her house.
He knew Meg thought he had given up trying to help.
She was wrong.
Jeremy might not be his son; he still needed a man to look out for him. Whether Meg liked it or not—for the moment, anyway, until Jeremy’s real father could be found and held accountable to both Meg and Jeremy—Luke was that man.
“THANKS FOR LETTING THE GIRLS play over here today,” Luke told Patricia Weatherby the next day. Mother of five-year-old Molly Weatherby, Patricia was also a new resident to Laramie. Luke had met her at the chamber of commerce, where she now worked. Learning they had daughters the same age, Patricia had offered to have his three girls over for a play date as soon as it was convenient.
“Where are you going?” Patricia asked as Molly showed Luke’s three girls where she kept all her toys.
Luke handed over his cell phone and pager numbers. “I’ve got some business in Austin to take care of. I hope to be back around four this afternoon at the very latest.” He hadn’t done enough for Meg when her parents died. Instead of helping her through her grief, he’d foolishly and recklessly made love to her, thereby adding to her distress. Had he known then that she was already pregnant with what was probably—despite her denials—her ex-boyfriend’s child, he could have persuaded Kip Brewster to do right by Meg and their son. But he hadn’t known then.
He did now.
And, having made half a dozen phone calls and found out where Kip was, it was time to act. Hopefully, Jeremy was Kip’s son. If not, Luke decided, he would keep looking until he found the help Meg and her son needed.
THE DRIVE TO AUSTIN went swiftly. Two hours later Luke was being ushered into Kip Brewster’s office at the prestigious law firm where he worked. As they shook hands, Luke noted Kip had changed very little since they’d gone to school in Chicago. He was still physically fit, handsome in that aristocratic, male model way, and very well mannered. “Thanks for taking the time to see me on such short notice,” Luke said.
“No problem.” Kip offered Luke a chair, then circled around to sit behind his desk. “You said there was some sort of personal emergency…?”
“It concerns Meg Lockhart.”
Kip’s eyes lit up with interest, his reaction confirming, for Luke, the fact that Kip was not over Meg. Any more than he himself had ever gotten over Meg and the abrupt way their friendship had ended. “How is she?” Kip asked.
“Thriving, professionally.” Luke was pleased to report.
“And personally?” Kip’s interest sharpened as he waited for Luke’s reply.
“Never married.”
“Wish I could say the same,” Kip said with a rueful shrug. “I’m divorced.”
Luke nodded. He knew what it was like to have things work out in ways you never expected. “I’m widowed.”
“Sorry.”
Luke nodded. “Same to you.”
Silence. Knowing there was no easy way to broach this, Luke forged on. “Meg has a son.”
Kip did a double take, looking just as shocked as Luke had been initially. “Meg—a single mother?” Kip asked in a low, stunned voice.
Luke nodded. He waited, but to his frustration, Kip did not leap to the conclusion Luke would have expected him to make. Which meant he was going to have to spell it out for him. “Jeremy is five now,” Luke said patiently. “His birthday is December first. He’ll be six.”
Kip’s brow furrowed. “Did Meg adopt this son of hers?” he asked finally.
“No.” Luke exhaled slowly. “Jeremy is her biological child.”
Another pause. “I don’t suppose she was artificially inseminated,” Kip guessed reluctantly after a moment.
Luke shook his head. Again, silence fell between the two men. Wondering what it was going to take for Kip to own up to his responsibility, Luke pushed on with difficulty. “The thing is, Jeremy’s a terrific kid. And he wants to know who his father is.”
Kip continued to look baffled. “You want my law firm to find this guy?”
“I want you to take responsibility for him.”
“Whoa.” Kip lifted both hands and held them in front of him like a shield. “No can do.”
Luke had been afraid he might be met with this type of reaction. If so, it explained a lot about what Meg had been going through. “This boy needs a father,” Luke said firmly.
“I understand that,” Kip said readily enough, leaning forward in his chair. “I even sympathize. And if he were mine, I wouldn’t hesitate to do right by him. But he isn’t mine, Luke.”
So Meg hadn’t told Kip she was pregnant with Jeremy, just as Luke had thought. “Going by the birth date, you were still dating Meg when Jeremy was conceived.”
“Which makes it all the worse.” Kip frowned.
Luke’s glance narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“Do you know why Meg and I broke up?” Kip rubbed the back of his neck, looking increasingly uncomfortable.
Luke shrugged. “All she would ever say on the subject was you two wanted different things out of life.”
“Sounds like Meg.” Kip shifted in his chair and shook his head. “Discreet to the max.”
Luke
