Harlan’s skin turned ashen. “What the devil do you know about that?” he demanded indignantly, unsuspectingly confirming Luke’s suspicions. “And what business is it of yours, if I did?”
Luke refused to be drawn into an argument over ethics, morality or just plain trust. He had his own agenda here. “Find out anything interesting?” he inquired lightly.
“Nothing worth stopping the wedding over, which you obviously knew already.” He leveled a look at Luke. “Like I asked before, what business is this of yours? It happened a long time ago. If anyone should have told me to mind my own business, it was Erik, but he never said peep.”
“Maybe because he was too damned trusting to suspect you’d do something like that. I’m not nearly so gullible where you’re concerned. I know how manipulative you can be. I like Jessie. I don’t like to think that you don’t trust her.”
“Is that it?” Harlan demanded with a penetrating look. “Or is it something more?”
Luke felt as if he were standing at the edge of a mine field with one foot already in the air for his next fateful step. “Like what?”
“Like maybe your interest in her is personal.”
“Well, of course it’s personal,” he snapped, hoping to divert his father from making too much of his defense of Jessie by admitting straight out that he cared for her as he would for any other family member. It was a risky tactic. It appeared his father had been far more attuned to the undercurrents around White Pines than he’d realized.
“She’s my sister-in-law,” he pointed out. “She just delivered my niece in my bed a few days ago. I’d say that gives me cause to take an interest in her.”
“And that’s all there is to it?” Harlan inquired, skepticism written all over his face.
“Of course.” Luke uttered the claim with what he hoped was enough vehemence. His father still didn’t exactly look as if he believed him, but to Luke’s relief he appeared willing to let the matter drop.
“You found out she was adopted, didn’t you?” Luke prodded.
“Already knew that. Erik told us.”
“Did you find out anything about her family?”
“Now who’s asking too many questions?”
Luke scowled at him. “Just answer me. I have my reasons for asking.”
“So did I,” Harlan said testily.
Luke stood. “Never mind. I can see this was a waste of time.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sakes, settle down. Yes, I found out about her family. They were good, decent, church-going people. Paid their bills on time. Gave her a good education. There was nothing to find fault with there.”
“I meant her biological family.”
An expression of pure frustration spread across his father’s rough-hewn features. “Couldn’t get anywhere with that. Didn’t seem worth chasing after, once I’d met her. My gut instinct is never wrong and it told me right off that Jessie’s honest as they come. If I hadn’t known it before, there was no mistaking it when she walked away from here without a cent after Erik died. She’s a gutsy little thing, too stubborn for her own good, if you ask me.”
“An interesting assessment coming from you,” Luke observed.
Harlan’s expression turned sheepish. “So it is.”
Luke decided he’d better get out of his father’s office before Harlan picked up the issue of Luke’s feelings for Jessie and pursued it. He’d diverted his father once, but Harlan was too damned perceptive for Luke to keep his emotions hidden from him for long. A few probing questions, a few evasive answers and the truth would be plain as day.
“I think I’ll go hunt down Mother,” he told his father.
“I believe you’ll find her in the parlor reading or planning some social schedule,” Harlan said with a grimace. He turned back to his computer and sighed. “You know anything about these danged things?”
“Enough to get by,” Luke said.
“Maybe you could give me a few pointers later. At the rate I’m going, this year’s records won’t even be programmed before next year.”
Surprised by the request, Luke nodded. “I’d be happy to.” It was the first time he could ever recall his father admitting that one of his sons might have an expertise he didn’t. That single request went a long way toward mending fences, hinting that perhaps they could finally find a new footing for their relationship, one of equals. Respect was all he’d ever really craved from his father. He’d known he had his love, but true respect had been far harder to come by.
Just as Luke reached the door, his father called after him. “It really is good to have you home again, son. This house was built for the whole family. Never realized how empty it would be one day.”
Luke felt an unexpected lump form in his throat. He’d discovered the same thing about his own house recently, as well. For a few brief days it had felt like a home. “Thanks, Daddy,” he said. “It’s good to be here.”
Oddly enough, he realized as he walked away, it was true. It was unexpectedly good to be home. He wondered just how much of that could be attributed to Jessie’s presence upstairs and whether from now on “home” to him would always be wherever she was.
That night as he dressed for dinner, Luke conceded that his prediction of his mother’s reaction to seeing him had been right on target. She had been superficially pleased when she’d greeted him, but within minutes she’d been distracted by a flurry of phone calls from friends confirming holiday plans. He’d been only too glad to escape to his suite, where he waited impatiently for some news from Jim Hill. He doubted his mother had even noticed when he left the parlor.
Upstairs, he spent a restless hour wishing he still had a right to head out to his father’s barns and work the horses. He needed some hard exercise to combat the stress of being home again, of being so close to a woman he hungered for and couldn’t have. His shoulders ached with tension. His nerves
