months to think about it, and he wanted to keep the Long Bar Ranch, welcomed the changes it would bring to his life.
After purchasing boots, he put the package in the car and stood on the sidewalk in the hot sunshine. Tomorrow morning, before he left for Midland, he was to have breakfast with Mike and Savannah. Right now it was two o’clock in the afternoon, and he wanted to develop the pictures he had taken of the ranch so he could show them to his family back home. He smiled to himself. The ranch seemed to be in excellent shape, with enough land and stock to make it one of Texas’s largest and most successful cattle ranches.
As soon as he had made his decision, he’d felt restless, impatient to get moved in. Would he be buried out on the ranch and become a hermit, as Boone Devlin had predicted? At the moment Jonah didn’t care. The Long Bar would give him a stable life, a purpose, and the work would be something he liked to do—a lot more interesting than struggling with a burning oil well.
Climbing into the rental car, he drove into the parking lot of a drugstore and went inside. After leaving his film to be developed, he roamed the aisles, picking up a magazine to read at the ranch tonight, getting a couple of candy bars and another disposable camera. Then he headed back to the front of the store with his purchases.
Walking up the aisle, Jonah could see the cash register where customers paid on their way out. There was a short line, and he glanced at the people waiting there. Suddenly he froze in shock.
A tall woman stood there. Her back was turned to him, but he knew her at once. Her thick mane of unruly chestnut hair was as unmistakable as her long legs and tiny waist. It was his ex-wife, Kate Valentini Whitewolf.
For a moment, time seemed to fall away, as he remembered hours he’d spent lying in bed with her, holding her in his arms. Kate, warm and soft, laughing up at him, and then the laughter changing as her eyes darkened with passion and she wrapped her slender arms around his neck, pulling him down to kiss him…
Jonah groaned and ran his hand across his eyes, bringing himself back to the present with a jolt. Kate was there—only yards away. She wore a denim skirt, a red cotton blouse, with sandals on her feet and bracelets on her arm.
His first impulse was to grab her elbow and turn her to face him. “Kate,” he whispered, aching all over. How he had loved her! Then he remembered the pain of her leaving him, and he knew he should look away, let her walk out of the store. Speaking to her wouldn’t do anything except stir up old hurts.
Why was she in San Antonio? Jonah wondered. It had been five years since he had last seen her.
Other memories flashed in his head. They had met when he’d been stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and she had lived in Fayetteville. It had been a hot July afternoon when she had swerved to avoid hitting a squirrel, and instead had run into his car.
Since they were in a residential area, neither of them had been going fast, and it had been a mere fender bender. But Jonah recalled her embarrassment and his amusement. The moment he had stepped out of his car and looked at her, his pulse had started galloping.
She had been wearing cutoffs, with her hair in a ponytail, and his first thought was that she was a kid. But then she’d gotten out of the car, revealing her long legs and tiny waist, her lush breasts, and he always wondered later if he had fallen in love right there during that first glance. While they exchanged insurance information, he’d made a date to take her out to dinner that night.
He had met her family and learned she was an only child and had few relatives, but the few she had all lived in Fayetteville. She’d had a successful job in advertising. Three months later, they were married.
It took only seconds for those memories to flash in Jonah’s mind as he stared at her. Then he noticed movement at her side. A small child was tugging on her hand, and she looked down and spoke to him.
Pain sliced into Jonah as if someone had stabbed him.
He had known that Kate would remarry. She was too beautiful, too appealing, too sexy to stay single for long. But the child was proof of her union, and it hurt to face the reality. The boy looked about four or five years old. He had straight black hair and skin darker than Kate’s, as if he had already been out in the sun a lot this spring.
Their divorce had taken place five years ago. She hadn’t wasted any time in finding someone else, Jonah thought bitterly.
As if drawn by a will stronger than his own, Jonah’s attention returned to Kate’s face. While he moved toward her, he argued with himself whether or not to say hello, mentally telling himself to walk on past, stay out of her way and keep her out of his. She was a married woman now, with her own life, just as Jonah had his. Why open old wounds?
A few more steps and he was beside her, and she turned and looked into his face.
The impact of gazing into her thickly lashed hazel eyes was another blow to his middle, one that stole his breath and made his pulse jump erratically. Those seductive green-gold eyes could change hue with passion, vary with different colors of clothing, sparkle with humor and melt with love. Big eyes, a wide mouth, prominent cheekbones…She was always more vivid and striking than anyone around her. Today gold-and-red earrings dangled from her ears, giving her a gypsy look that went with her wild cascade of hair.
“Hello, Kate,” he said quietly. It hurt, remembering the terrible pain of breaking up the marriage.
As she looked at him, her eyes widened, her jaw dropped and all color drained from her face.
He frowned and reached out to steady her, because she looked as if she might faint. She caught the counter edge and held it in a white-knuckled grip. He was amazed at her reaction. Could she be that unhappy to see him, in a chance encounter in a public place?
“Kate?”
“Hello, Jonah,” she whispered, and he could see her make an effort to pull herself together. She blinked, licked her lips and stared at him. If he had drawn a gun on her, he didn’t think she could have looked more terrified.
“Are you all right?” he asked, feeling upset by her reaction.
“Yes,” she answered. “I’m surprised to see you.” She was mumbling, barely loud enough to be heard. “We—we need to go,” she stammered.
When she started to turn away, Jonah knew she would walk out of his life again, which was what she wanted. And he had to let her go because long ago their lives had separated.
“Mommy,” the little boy said, tugging on her arm.
Jonah had forgotten the child, but looked down at him now. When their gazes met, Jonah felt as if he had smashed into a brick wall. His breath left his lungs and his pulse roared in his ears. The shock he had experienced inheriting a ranch and fortune was nothing compared to what he felt now.
He blinked and stared, looking into brown eyes as dark as an inky night. The hint of prominent cheekbones to come, the childish nose that already had a slightly hawkish shape…this was a face Jonah knew well, from his own childhood pictures.
There was a stunned silence while Jonah’s brain registered what he was seeing. He stared dumbly, his mind piecing together the truth.
Then his knees weakened, and he started to shake as he stared in disbelief, knowing he was looking at his own son.
Chapter 2
When Jonah looked at Kate, he saw the truth in her eyes and realized why she had been so stunned to see him. Throughout those years, he’d had a son, and she had kept that fact from him.
The truth and all its implications, plus his first reaction of riveting shock, began to transform his emotions.
A slow, burning fury started in the pit of his stomach and spread until he had to clench his fists and struggle to contain his rage. Never in his life had he yelled at a woman or touched one in any manner to cause hurt, but he wanted to shout at Kate now and he wanted to shake her. Instead, not trusting himself to speak, he held his temper and inhaled deeply.
Someone