The Cowboy's Claim. Carla Cassidy

a son was merely a theory, and until that theory was proven he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around it.

      Adam pulled up in front of the motel. “It doesn’t look like she’s here.”

      Nick opened the passenger door to step out. “She’ll be here.” Sooner or later she had to come home, and he wasn’t about to leave here without answers.

      “You want to call me when you’re finished here and I’ll come back for you?” Adam asked. Nick frowned as he saw his brother lick his lips and look in the direction of The Corral.

      “Adam, go home and I’ll call you when it’s time to pick me back up.”

      For a long moment Adam stared at him, then with a weary sigh of resignation, he nodded. “Okay, I’ll go home and wait for you.”

      “I’ll call you for a ride home,” Nick agreed. Nick got out of the truck, and as he watched Adam drive away he admitted to himself that he had momentarily worried that Adam would leave here and drive directly to The Corral for a few drinks. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for Adam drinking and driving.

      He moved to the side of the motel and stood beneath a stand of trees, half-hidden by the deepening shadows of the night.

      If she saw him waiting for her she might just turn right around and drive away as quickly as she could.

      He figured she’d gone to pick up the boy from wherever he went when she worked. The boy. He didn’t even know his name. But, he still didn’t know if he even had a right to know his name.

      He’d known in some part of his grieving heart when he’d left here that he’d hurt her, but he’d thought it was best for both of them. She’d been ashamed of him. He’d convinced himself that she’d needed her parents’ approval more than she’d ever needed him.

      He’d been stunned when he’d realized he was her first lover. But, there was no reason to believe since that time that he’d been her only lover.

      He tensed as he saw her car pull in and park in front of her unit. He didn’t immediately approach her but instead remained where he was and watched as she got out of the car and then opened the back door to retrieve the baby.

      She hurried inside as if afraid somebody might see her, as if somehow afraid that he would see her. He’d certainly seen enough to know that the baby wasn’t some wee little thing she carried in one arm. He’d been a little chunk who had to be older than a year.

      Timing was everything. He needed to know the timing of her pregnancy. And the time to find that out was right now. He didn’t want to go another minute without knowing the truth.

      Drawing a deep breath, still more than a little bit numb at the possibility of what he might discover, he approached her door and knocked firmly.

      A curtain shifted slightly and then dropped back in place at the window. “Go away,” her voice said through the closed door.

      “I’m here now, Courtney, and I’m not going away,” he replied.

      “I’ll call Sheriff Evans,” she replied.

      “I have a feeling with two murders on his hands you’ll have a hard time getting his attention.”

      His comment was met with silence, and for several long moments he thought she intended to ignore him. But he wasn’t going to be ignored tonight.

      Just as he was getting ready to knock on the door once again, she opened it and slid outside into the hot night air, pulling the door halfway closed as she had the last time he’d shown up here.

      “I’m curious about your son,” he said, cutting to the chase. He noted that her full, lush lips tightened into a thin slash of irritation. The flash of the nearby red neon sign advertising the Grady Gulch Motel cast a faint blush over her features.

      “Why would you be curious about him?” Her entire body language was one of intense defensiveness, but her gaze met his boldly.

      A tight pressure filled Nick’s chest, a pressure that was both severe and painful. He knew what the pressure was...it was the question that begged to be answered, and he somehow knew that the answer might change his life forever.