Read Online Heart Of A Cowboy by Margaret Daley - Free Book Online Page B

scooted around to face her, but his gaze strayed to Zachary for a few seconds before returning to her.
    â€œNothing is really wrong.” Who am I kidding? Everything is wrong. The words she needed to say stuck in her throat, burning a hole. She swallowed once. Twice.
    Zachary stepped toward Nicholas.
    â€œMom?” His eyebrows slashed down.
    â€œRemember when I told you that your dad didn’t want to be involved in your life?” Nicholas nodded.
    â€œWell, I was wrong. He does.” A fortifying breath did little to fill her lungs. Zachary opened his mouth. Alarm dislodged her clogged words, and she blurted out, “Zachary is your father.”
    Nicholas’s jaw dropped. He peered at her for a briefmoment, then fastened his stare on Zachary. “You are? Why didn’t you say something when I was at the ranch?”
    Zachary spread his arms wide, palms outward. “I—I didn’t—”
    â€œHe didn’t know.” When Nicholas looked at her again, her stomach clenched into a hard ball.
    Nicholas’s confusion ripped her composure. She wanted to hug him. To hold him in her arms until everything was back to normal. To soothe his turmoil until the shadows faded from his eyes.
    She’d handled this all wrong. She should have told her son first by herself no matter what Zachary had in sisted. The minute he’d entered the picture all the carefully planned words she’d rehearsed evaporated like water in Death Valley. “I never told Zachary about you.”
    The furrows in her child’s forehead deepened. “Why not?”
    She threw a glance at Zachary, catching the same question in his eyes. “I tried. I called him several times to tell him, but he wasn’t there and he never returned my calls.” All of a sudden, even to her own ears, the reason wasn’t strong enough. “I was nineteen. Hurt he hadn’t called me back. I…” She couldn’t tell her son it was pride that had kept her from trying to get in touch with Zachary again. Pride and fear of rejection.
    â€œI never received the messages to call your mother. Through a series of unfortunate incidents, not your mom’s fault, I didn’t discover you were my son until today when she told me.”
    Surprise flitted through her. Not my fault? That wasn’t what he’d implied earlier.
    Zachary covered the few feet between him and his son. “That’s why I’m here tonight. We have a lot to catch up on.It looks like you’re working on algebra. I didn’t do algebra until I was fourteen.”
    Nicholas studied Zachary’s face for a long moment. “We look alike. I should have seen it.”
    â€œIf you aren’t looking for it, you wouldn’t notice.” Zachary returned his son’s intense survey. “But you’re right. We have similar features.” He sat on the long chest at the end of the bed, his legs spread, his elbows on his thighs, his hands loosely clasped. “Tell me about what you’re doing on the computer.”
    With a narrowed gaze thrown her way, Nicholas scooted his chair over a few inches to give Zachary a better view of the screen. Then her son launched into his plan to have calculus mastered by the age of fourteen. She prayed that Nicholas would talk to her about what he was feeling after Zachary left, but if that glance was any indication she was in for a rough night with her son.
    Â 
    After listening to the boy’s explanation of what he wanted to study, Zachary examined Nicholas’s—no, scratch that, his son’s—bedroom. It was nothing like his when he was growing up. On a wall was a detailed map of the solar system while on the opposite one was a map of the world with red and blue pins stuck in it—probably at least fifty. Another poster listed the periodic table. The full double bookcases next to his desk held volumes of books that an adult would have—not a child