Page 15 of Kayla's Cowboy
“So?” she pushed, now curious.
“So Kayla left and I haven’t heard anything about her since then. But now she’s visiting with her children. The oldest one’s name is Alex. This morning... Well, I learned that Alex is my son, and of course, that means he’s your brother.”
CHAPTER THREE
JACKSON STUDIED HIS daughter’s face as shock spread across it, along with other emotions that were harder to identify.
He’d hated revealing how badly he had messed up as a teenager. It had been a relief when he’d gotten back to the house and found her still asleep. The delay had given him time to think about how to tell her and rehearse it in his mind. The problem was, there wasn’t any way to make the situation sound better.
As for her guessing that he’d married her mother because she was pregnant...? Well, of course she had figured it out—all she’d had to do was compare her birth date with the day he and Marcy got married.
He ought to have already discussed it with Morgan, but he hadn’t wanted to take the chance of her guessing how much he had dreaded marrying Marcy. After all, while he’d dated Marcy on and off, he had never considered a future with her. But with a baby on the way, getting married had seemed the right thing to do.
“How do you know he’s your kid?” Morgan said after a long silence, an edge in her voice.
“I met with his mother this morning and saw his picture. He’s a McGregor.”
“Why didn’t she tell you before?”
He cleared his throat. “She did tell me, but I didn’t believe her. Anyway, her son looks enough like me that people may guess the relationship and talk. I didn’t want you hearing about it that way.”
“Why are they here now?”
“Alex wanted to meet his great-grandparents. He’d just learned he was adopted by Kayla’s husband and was upset they never told him.”
“I’d be pissed, too.”
“Don’t use that sort of language,” he said on autopilot.
“Yeah, I know, it isn’t ‘ladylike.’”
She rolled her eyes and Jackson took a deep breath. What was wrong with a girl using nice language?
“What’s he like?” Morgan asked.
“We haven’t met yet, but I know he’s a baseball and science fiction fan.”
“Probably a geek. What’s she like?”
It was a question Jackson hadn’t anticipated. “Oh, Kayla has dark auburn hair and blue eyes. I don’t know. Smart, I guess.”
“Cripes, Dad. If that’s all my boyfriend could say about me, I’d give him the old heave-ho.”
“This isn’t about Kayla and...you have a boyfriend? Who is he?” he demanded.
“No one steady at the moment.”
“But you used to have a steady boyfriend?” Jackson asked, his heart rate accelerating. A child growing up on a ranch was familiar with the facts of life, but he wasn’t ready for Morgan to experience those facts firsthand. “You’re only fifteen—that’s too young to go steady.”
Morgan gave him an inscrutable look that didn’t admit or deny anything. “How old was Kayla when you knocked her up?”
Damn. Okay, he was an even bigger hypocrite than he liked to think about, but he was determined to keep his daughter from having to grow up too quickly.
“I don’t remember for sure,” Jackson replied. “And it’s none of your business, so don’t ask if you meet her, or Alex, either.”
“Am I going to meet him?” she said, angry defiance creeping back into her attitude.
“That’s partly up to Alex, but it’s fine with me and I don’t think his mother will object. Is that what you want?”
His daughter’s nose wrinkled, but he still couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
“I guess,” she said after a while.
“Is there anything you want to discuss?” he asked, wishing she’d give him a hint about her feelings. It would have been easier if he’d found out about Alex before she turned so ornery. Or perhaps when she was older and they’d figured things out.
Morgan hunched her shoulder. “What do you mean?”
“I mean...how do you feel about all of this?”
“What do I care if you have another kid? Maybe he won’t cause you as much trouble as me.”
Jackson leaned forward. “Morgan, we might be going through a rough patch, but it doesn’t—”
“Save it,” she interrupted and jumped to her feet. “I’m going for a ride.”
“Take the satellite phone,” he reminded her.
He counted to ten as Morgan disappeared, their faithful German shepherd at her heels. The discussion hadn’t gone as well as he’d hoped, but slightly better than expected. His mom would say...