you or I can tell you on the phone, but you’re in for a giant shock.”
“You have to tell me now, Marek. Good grief, after that I can’t wait for you to get to Dallas. What is it?”
“Do you know who Camille Avanole is?”
There was a moment’s silence. “I don’t think so. I can’t think of a single Camille I know.”
“Do you recognize the name?”
“If you don’t tell me what you’re getting at, Marek, I’m going to reach through this phone and grab you.”
“Ginny, she called me and said she wanted to talk to me,” he said, recalling the sparks he’d felt when they had touched while shaking hands—something he hadn’t felt with a woman since the loss of Jillian. “She knew Kern,” he continued. “Camille and Kern went out on a weekend over a year and a half ago. She got pregnant with Kern’s baby.”
“Kern had a baby?” Ginny’s voice sounded faint and breathless.
“Yes, he did. He found out she was pregnant the day before he flew to Denver.”
“Oh, my word. Do you suppose that’s why he lost control and crashed? Was he thinking about the baby? Is it really Kern’s? Maybe it’s not and this is one of those women who try to take advantage—”
“Ginny,” Marek stated firmly. “Listen to me. She has a note Kern sent her right before the flight. It’s Kern’s message. It sounds like him. She gave me a copy of it, and I’ll show it to you.”
“Marek, I do need to sit. This is a shock. A baby.”
“A little boy named Noah. He’s six months old. I have dinner with Camille tomorrow night to talk about the future,” he said, realizing he was looking forward to seeing her again. Another first since losing Jillian. Maybe the numbness was wearing away. Or maybe it was Camille’s beauty and captivating presence that had stirred his reactions. “I can’t turn my back on that baby. I know he’s Kern’s son. She had a picture, and he looks like Kern.”
“We have to know this little boy. Will she let us? Is she famous? You asked if I know her.”
“She’s in opera. I’ve looked her up. She’s young. Only twenty-five. Her résumé is impressive to me,” he said, thinking her looks were just as impressive.
“Opera? How did she get with Kern?”
“A New Year’s Eve party where they had mutual friends.”
“No wonder I didn’t recognize the name. I’m country. What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I’m thinking about options. I’ll let you know.”
“We have to keep this baby in our lives. If he’s Kern’s baby, we can’t cut him out. Does she live in Texas?”
“No. She’ll leave in July and take him with her.”
“Have you told Jess?”
“Yes. He’d like to see the baby, too. I guess we’re all hoping for a bit of Kern in our lives again.”
“Wouldn’t that be wonderful? You’ve given me a shock. You better break it gently to Mom and Dad.”
“I will. I’ll call Camille and see what I can set up to see him. I’ll let you know. We’ll both see him, I promise you.”
He told her goodbye and called his parents, spending the next half hour breaking the news to them and catching up on their news.
Finished with family calls, he phoned Camille. In minutes he had plans to pick Camille up the next day and take her to Houston for dinner.
“You’re not going out with him,” Stephanie Avanole said, glaring at her sister.
“Yes, I am. I’ve given this a lot of thought. We’ve talked about it. He’s Noah’s relative,” Camille replied, wiping her forehead and the back of her neck as she walked away from the treadmill. “I know you don’t feel the way I do about this, but I think the Rangels have a right to see their nephew.”
“They’ll want to take him from you or tell you what to do with him. They’re not going to ignore him. These are wealthy, powerful people, accustomed to getting their way. You said Kern said his older brother ran the family after he was grown. That he was much more serious than Kern.”
“Tomorrow night Marek Rangel can talk and I’ll listen. Stephanie, he’s had a terrible loss and this is a shock.”
“I still say you’ll be sorry. You should never have told them about Noah, much less have agreed to go out with Marek Rangel tomorrow night. He’s a tough cowboy and tougher businessman. I’ve heard a few people talk. He’s had big losses—his fiancée as well as his only brother. He doesn’t sound like the lighthearted, I-don’t-care type.”
“I had to tell him.”
“I’m warning you,” Stephanie said, frowning and placing her hands on her hips, “you’ll regret this day. Marek Rangel will want to be part of Noah’s life.”
“I think he’s entitled to be. I don’t think he’s any threat to me at all.”
“You’ll never convince me that this is good.”
“Then you have a closed mind about it. He’s not an ogre,” Camille replied, remembering a handsome man with troubled brown eyes, a man who appeared hard, closed in a shell, inscrutable and preoccupied. A man who was nothing like his charming, devil-may-care brother.
Late afternoon Wednesday she dressed carefully in a deep blue dress with a vee neckline and long sleeves. Hoping to look successful, attractive and poised, she twisted and combed her hair to one side of her head, fastening it with a blue scarf. She had butterflies in the pit of her stomach and she didn’t know why, unless deep down, she was more worried about what Marek might want than she had told her sister.
The moment he arrived at her house, dressed in a navy suit, a white Stetson and boots, he looked like the successful Texas rancher that he was. He also appeared powerful, commanding and threatening to her future. Stephanie’s warnings haunted her.
In spite of the veiled look on his face, he was handsome enough to cause a jump in her pulse. For a fleeting moment she had a jittery dance of nerves and wanted to reach up to pat her hair. With a deep breath, her confidence returned.
“Come in,” she invited, stepping back, feeling as if she had stepped into a new world where her life would never be the same. “Noah is still awake.”
Two
As he entered a hallway his boot heels scraped on the polished oak floor. To his right through a wide-open archway, he glimpsed a piano in the corner of a large room with a hardwood floor and a brown leather sofa. To one side stood a large wooden desk. Marek drew a deep breath. An uncustomary nervousness plagued him, and he hoped he hid it. “I would like to see Noah,” he answered in a voice that deepened and sounded strange to his ears.
She closed the door and motioned
