“You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” Justice shook his head in disgust and took a long drink of his beer.
“Thanks. Now I remember why I came to you.” Jericho jumped up from his chair and stalked the perimeter of the ranch office. He’d always liked this room. It was purely masculine and the one spot Justice had been able to defend from Maggie’s influences. Every other inch of the ranch had been transformed or redecorated, but here, Justice drew a line.
Jericho slapped one hand on the fireplace mantel, looked over his shoulder at his brother and said, “You wouldn’t be mad?”
“Hell, yes, I’d have been mad.” Justice lifted his booted feet to the corner of the desk and crossed them at the ankle. “I was mad when Maggie showed up with Jonas in her arms and claimed he was mine.”
“He is yours.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t believe her.”
“So who’s the idiot?” Jericho countered.
“You are. I’m a recovering idiot. There’s a difference.”
“Damn it, Justice,” he complained. “She seduced me for my sperm!”
“Sneak up on you in the night, did she?”
“Not funny.”
A short bark of laughter shot from his brother’s throat and had Jericho scowling at him. “The hell it’s not. You can’t be seduced if you’re not willing. And if you’re so damned protective of your sperm, why didn’t you have the little suckers corraled?”
He didn’t have an answer for that one, so he turned around, stared into the dancing flames in the hearth and tried not to grind his own teeth into powder.
“You’re not listening,” he ground out. “She tricked me. Right from the beginning. Lied to me. Used me.”
“Yeah, well, welcome to the world. People lie sometimes.” Justice took another drink of his beer, balanced the can atop his flat abdomen and reminded his brother, “But when it mattered, when it really counted, she told you the truth. Besides, if you’re looking for perfection, Jericho, you’re not gonna find it.”
“Yeah, she did,” he agreed, remembering the look on her face when she’d told him. When she’d seen his reaction. Well, damn it, he’d like to know what man would have reacted differently. “I never planned on a family, you know,” he said, talking to himself as much as Justice. “Wife. Kids. I never wanted anyone so dependent on me that my death could destroy them. I never wanted to cause anyone that kind of pain.”
“Just this kind of pain then?” Justice argued. “That girl loves you, Jericho. She’s carrying your baby and she loves you and you walked out. You turned tail and ran out the minute she really needed you. The minute you were actually tested.”
Well, that didn’t set well with him. He hadn’t thought of his leaving in those specific terms. But now that he had, he was forced to admit that Justice was right. He’d walked out not only on the woman he loved, but on his own child, too. What did that say about a man’s honor?
“There’s something else to think about, too,” Justice said. “Didn’t you tell me that there was something you hadn’t told her?”
That brought him up short. In all the mess with Daisy and his fury at her deception, he hadn’t stopped to consider that he’d been keeping secrets, too. And if you’re keeping secrets, isn’t that the same damn thing as lying? Hell.
“So maybe, Jericho,” his brother mused aloud, “it’s time to swallow that damn pride of yours, go home and talk to the woman you love before you do something so stupid she gets away from you altogether.”
Daisy should have left.
She knew it.
Staying at Jericho’s house only made his absence tear at her even harder. But how could she leave before she faced him? How could she go on with her life until she knew exactly what it was he’d been keeping from her?
How could she go on with her life without him?
That was the real question and one she didn’t have an answer to.
She’d buried her emotions in cooking. There were now so many casseroles, desserts and stews stored in the freezers, no one at the camp would have to shop for supper for two years at least. And still, she was unsettled.
Nikki was on the couch beside her, curled into a ball, when suddenly she jumped straight up, gave a loud, sharp bark and jumped to the floor. Her nails clattered on the wood planks as she raced to the front door.
Daisy’s insides twisted into knots as she stood up. Jericho was home. At last.
The door swung open, but Daisy stood her ground and listened as Jericho’s deep voice rumbled out.
“Missed me, huh?” he asked and Nikki’s soft whines answered him. “Yeah,” he said, “crazy thing is, I missed you, too, CB.”
Confused, Daisy frowned slightly and the frown was still on her face when he walked into the great room with Nikki held against his chest.
“Hi,” he said.
“Hi yourself,” she said, then asked, “What’s CB?”
He shrugged, patted the little dog’s head, then set her onto the floor where she ran circles around him. “Coyote Bait.”
“Not very nice,” she told him.
“She doesn’t seem to mind.”
He walked farther into the room and it occurred to her that they were behaving like polite strangers. A corner of her heart ached for what they’d lost.
“How are you?” he asked. “How is the baby?”
“We’re both fine. You?”
“Same.”
He scrubbed one hand across his jaw, something Daisy had noticed he did whenever he was stalling, looking for the right words to say. So she waited to hear what he would come up with.
“You pissed me off,” he finally said. “But I guess you figured that out.”
“Yes, though you hid your feelings so cleverly, I deduced it when you left and didn’t come back.”
“Right.” He nodded. “I shouldn’t have done that. And so you know, it didn’t do any good anyway because I took you with me when I left.”
“Jericho—” Daisy started.
“No, don’t say anything.” He walked toward her and stopped just a few feet from her. “Not until I’ve told you something I should have told you long ago.”
She swayed a little, then locked her knees to keep herself standing. This was what she’d been waiting for. What she’d been dreading. What had kept her dreams filled with images of her lost brother, tangling with visions of Jericho and all he’d come to mean to her. Now she was both terrified of learning the truth and determined to hear it.