“What are you talking about?”
“Oh, I think you know. It doesn’t take a genius, Creed. Goodbye!”
He stood there for a long time after Melody left, trying to wrap his head around what she’d said—or rather what she didn’t say. What the hell was she talking about? What did Mindy’s daughter have to do with any of this?
He dropped to the bed and stared at the door.
His heart raced.
His spine tingled.
Mindy had said she came back to Cooper’s Hawk to speak to him nineteen years ago. Even writing him a letter explaining why.
Why hadn’t she just come to see him?
Unless…
He jumped up from the bed, pacing the floor.
How old was Jane? Had Mindy told him? She was just starting college, so eighteen or nineteen?
Could it be possible?
Could Mindy have been carrying his child?
Melody had read the letter Mindy had written.
Creed dressed and left his bedroom, taking the stairs quietly and stepped outside. He couldn’t sleep. It was still early and Mindy wouldn’t be up. His mind whirled like a washing machine and every muscle ached.
Taking a seat in one of the rockers, he sat there as the fingers of light crawled across the sky and he heard a rooster crow. The time had come that he got some answers.
Driving to Sage Ranch, he greeted Bo and other hands with a wave as he drove by, heading toward the house.
He pulled up next to Mindy’s car. Creed sat there staring at the front of the farmhouse, waiting for any sign of activity. Mindy would be coming out soon. He knew she’d been checking on the livestock and feeding the goats every morning.
If Jane was his daughter, why had she kept the truth from him?
Because he hadn’t met her at the ice rink when she came back to town?
The Mindy he knew and loved wouldn’t steal his daughter from him. Wouldn’t take away all the firsts, his family, a part of him.
But she had been keeping a secret. She said so herself.
Burying his face in his palms, he rubbed the tension from his forehead. What did he want? If he prayed that Jane wasn’t his daughter, then he felt like a jerk. If he wanted Jane to be his daughter, then he could never forgive Mindy and he’d lose her. Keeping his daughter a secret would be the biggest betrayal. How could anyone get over something like that?
Lifting his head, he stretched his gaze over the windows of the house. A light was now on in Mindy’s bedroom. A few minutes later he saw her coming from the back of the house to take the worn path down to the barn. My God, seeing her made his heart skip a beat. He wanted to be with her, spend the rest of his life with her. He wanted to believe this had all been a misunderstanding. But how could a nineteen-year-old secret be a misunderstanding.
Slow down, man.
Melody could be stirring up trouble. Something she had become an expert at doing.
He needed to get the answers from Mindy.
Get out of the truck, Creed.
Sitting there for a few minutes longer, he decided being a coward didn’t look good on him. He’d never ran away from trouble, never feared what was on the other side of a door. If he didn’t speak to Mindy soon, he’d explode.
He slipped out of the driver’s seat and shut the door quietly. He followed the worn path down to the field and into the open doorway of the new barn. He heard clanking and rattling and he found Mindy bent over scooping grain into a large metal bucket. The enticing curve of her firm bottom sticking up in the air didn’t deter the powerful curiosity rolling through his body.
Watching her, he replayed in his head what he’d say to her. What he would do if Mindy admitted what Melody insinuated. The second she stood up, swiping tendrils of hair away from her flushed cheeks, he felt a familiar ache in his groin. He wanted to stroll over, wrap her up in his arms and hold her there forever. The future he’d planned had become murky.
She saw him and after the surprise faded, she smiled, strolled over to him and set the bucket down. “Creed, I didn’t expect to see you so soon.”
He stood there quietly. His voice was lost somewhere between joy and fear.
Mindy must have sensed his internal tornado because the corners of her beautiful mouth dipped into a frown. “Creed? Are you okay?”
Shoving his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, he swallowed a large lump in his throat. “I didn’t expect to be here either.”
Several expressions flitted across her face. Her eyes widened slightly. Her shoulders slumped as if the gig was up. “You look like crap.”
“I didn’t sleep.”
She averted her gaze. “Must be from the company you’re keeping.” Picking up the bucket, she carried it outside. He followed.
“Mel came to see you, I know.” Another new piece to the complex puzzle. “What did you two talk about?”
Mindy unlocked the gate to the goat fence and stepped in. The herd came running, hopping excitedly from front to back hooves as she headed toward the goat house.
He followed her across the wet grass and waited outside the door of the small shelter as she scooped grain into feeders. “Well?”
Mindy lifted her chin to glace at him. “Don’t you already know the answer?”
“You don’t have any reason to be angry with me,” he huffed.
“Maybe I’m not angry with you. Maybe I am. Hell if I know. Why are you here, Creed?”
“We need to talk.”
Turning her back to him,
