Page 84 of A Cowboy's Trust
That had not been one of the variables they’d planned for.
“There’s a catch,” she added. “I mean, he’s a good kid. Handy at times, although that’s not a confession you can take to your buddies on the force. Truth is, I’m not really mother material.”
“Get to your damn point, Melissa. What do you want? Money?”
“That would be nice, but the other thing I want is sweeter. You can have Jeffrey. I’ll sign papers saying he’s all yours.” She narrowed her gaze. “But not if you’re with Tansy.”
He was flying by the seat of his pants, but even so, the answer was clear. “Bullshit. You can’t make that kind of demand.”
“Watch me,” she all but snarled. “Jeffrey or Tansy, you pick.”
19
The rest of the family had lingered in the house, waiting to hear what Melissa had to say. As soon as Jake returned, Logan was asked to take his breakfast out onto the porch.
The kid surveyed them all then nodded sagely. “I’ll just keep an eye on things, okay?”
Jake squeezed his shoulder in thanks then helped carry Logan’s meal to the small table tucked into the morning sunshine.
A few minutes later, Jake was back inside, dropping the bombshell.
“She wants you towhat?” Tansy quivered she was so mad. “Are we sure the woman is mentally stable?”
“Obviously she’s not,” Declan muttered.
“No sane woman offers to give up her son.” Kevin shook his head. “Only proving it will be nearly impossible.”
“A while ago she wanted me to sign a form that would put me on his birth certificate,” Jake informed them. “Would that help at all?”
Declan cursed. ‘”When did that happen?”
“Shortly after she got here. She also suggested that we’d make a great family, but I shut her down.” Dammit. Had he screwed up? Jake paused his pacing to demand of no one, “Should I have signed it?”
“If you’re on the birth certificate she can sue you for child support,” Kevin offered quietly. “I think it’s set at three years of back payments right now. You want her to have the legal right to what I’m spit-balling to be over thirty thousand dollars?”
Petra whistled softly. “She’d keep Jeffrey in a shot if she could nab that kind of money. And ongoing support, I’d bet.”
“That’s definitely not a solution.” Tansy shook her head. “I don’t know how she expects to monitor keeping us apart long term, but if pretending is all it takes, we’ll go along with it. Maybe it’ll only be for a short while, and once she’s convinced?—”
“I love you.” Jake’s words echoed in the suddenly silent room.
Tansy’s eyes widened.
Hope and pain swirled, tumbling together in the center of his heart.
“I love you, and I don’t want to have to pretend that’s not true.” He stared at her, an awful nothingness in his soul that shouldn’t be there. Not at the moment he’d confessed to a life-changing truth. He kept going because he had to. “Because I don’t believe Melissa for a minute. I don’t believe anything she says. No matter how much it hurts, there is no way in hell I can give you up just so she can jerk us around with false hopes and broken promises.”
A brittle gasp escaped Tansy. “We can’t let her leave with him. It’s every nightmare I’ve ever had.”
“Our hands are tied.” Jake’s hands tightened into fists, and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “I’ll have her followed. We’ll do everything we can to find a way, but it can’t be by having to endure her in our lives, in person or dictating our behaviour from afar.”
Tires squealed in the background as Jake wrapped his arms around Tansy.
They all turned. The front door opened and Logan leaned in. “Hey, guys? Melissa just left. She didn’t look happy.”
“Dammit.” Declan paced toward the door. “I’ll go see if she left anything in the apartment.”
Jake ignored the rest of the chaos and focused on Tansy. He lifted her chin and examined her tear-filled eyes. “I’m sorry. We couldn’t just take him.”
