Page 11 of Sweet Surprise

“Wait.” Garret shook his head and straightened in his seat. “How can you not have known you had a son?”

Jillian was the one to shoot her youngest brother a slack jawed glare. “Really?” she spun about to face Carson. “I’m guessing she didn’t tell you?”

He nodded.

“Why wouldn’t she tell you?” Garret was frowning now. “What did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything. It was just one night.”

That heavy booted foot landed on the wood floor again. “Oh, man. I expected more from you.”

“We were in college. We had a little too much to drink. We spent a couple of weeks sort of dating, then she left school and told me she was marrying her ex.” He wasn’t going to say he’d been crushing on her since the first day she walked through the door of stats class, or how hard he’d spent those two weeks after their one night doing everything he could to make her want more than just friendship.

“No excuse,” Garret spat. “There are rules, and you broke the most important one.”

“Don’t hand me that,” Carson ground out. “Are you going to tell me you spent four years in college and never left your dorm room?”

“Of course not.” Garret jumped to his feet and stood toe to toe with Carson. “But no one was drunk, and everyone was protected. Rules.”

“I didn’t say she was drunk. I said we had a little too much to drink. They are not the same thing.”

“The hell they’re not,” Garret barked.

“Boys, boys.” Preston came between his brothers. “Y’all want to fight this out, do it later. Right now, we need to know more of what’s going on.” He turned to Preston. “Why is she here now?”

“Long story short, her ex-husband has Huntington’s disease.” A few hisses and grimaces could be seen and heard across the room. “When they tested Mason to see if he’d inherited it, Jess learned her ex isn’t Mason’s father after all. I was the only other option.”

“Have you arranged for a DNA test?” Jillian asked.

“Really?” Her twin whirled around to face her. “You can’t see it?”

“Frankly,” Jillian shrugged, “no.”

Sarah grinned at her sister-in-law. “If it makes you feel any better, I wouldn’t have connected the dots either.”

Preston grabbed hold of his wife’s hand again. “So, this will be wedding number two? Mom certainly can’t object to you marrying the mother of her grandson, whether you love her or not.”

“Did she agree?” Rachel’s voice dripped with anticipation.

Jillian’s question tripped over her sister’s. “That’s why she’s here then?”

“But,” Sarah cut off her in-laws, “I thought you said you only found out a few hours ago. How is she here already?”

Holding up his hands, palms out. “Whoa. One at a time. No, she hasn’t agreed because she doesn’t know anything about our trust fund dilemma. No, that’s not why she’s here.” He turned to face Sarah. “And she came to tell me in person rather than over the phone or email. We sort of bumped into each other at the café.”

“Got it.” Sarah nodded. “Now what?”

He dropped his head back against the massive recliner. “I can’t just say, thanks for stopping by, oh and as long as you’re here, why don’t we get married so I can help save the family ranch.”

“Why not?” Rachel asked. “People marry because they’re having a baby all the time. You’ll marry because you already have one. What’s so difficult about that?”

“Considering we haven’t seen each other in almost ten years, I’d say a lot.”

“No worse than marrying a stranger you found off the internet,” Jillian pointed out.

“Except when the year is said and done, we’ll still share a son.”

“He has a point.” Rachel shook her head. “How is it everything keeps getting turned on its head around here?”

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