Harlan Adams had a tendency to fly off the handle and go after the messenger when he got bad news. This particular message was very likely to get him blasted with a shotgun.
Chapter Six
Cody was gone when Jordan awoke at daybreak. Obviously his brother had managed to find the truck keys in his pocket or he’d had a spare set hidden away that he’d forgotten about the night before in his fury over his girlfriend’s betrayal.
Jordan groaned as he thought about what his father’s reaction was going to be to the news. He worried, too, about whether Harlan could still handle all of the ranch’s strenuous activities. As vital and fit as his father was, he had been depending more and more on Cody to run the day-to-day operations at White Pines. It was something that would have to be discussed, but to be perfectly honest, Jordan dreaded getting into it. His father hated even the slightest hint that Cody’s role at White Pines had gradually become equal to or even more important than his own.
First things first, though. He had promised Kelly he’d be back this morning to offer more help with the fences. She’d probably be delighted if he failed to show, but he wasn’t about to give her an excuse to accuse him of letting her down. Obviously she already had a lot she was blaming him for, garbage from their past he hadn’t even been aware was simmering in her head. The workings of the female mind had always been a puzzle to him, except with Kelly. Now it appeared she was falling into that same incomprehensible pattern of behavior.
With some reluctance he reached for the phone and dialed the ranch. To his vague relief, Dani answered. At least with her, he wouldn’t have to explain past actions.
“Hi, Jordan,” she said so eagerly it made his heart flip over. “Thanks for the pizza. It was scrumpsi-delicious.”
He grinned, despite his mood. “I’m glad you liked it.”
“Did you and Mommy have a fight after I fell asleep in the car?” she asked, a frightened note in her voice. It was the concern of a child who’d already seen her father walk out of her life, no doubt after more than one angry exchange with her mother.
Jordan’s heart thudded dully. How much could she possibly have heard? Why the devil hadn’t they been more discreet? They’d both assumed that Dani was sleeping soundly in the back seat. “Why would you think that, munchkin?”
“Because Mommy looks all sad this morning and she yelled at me for watching a video instead of coming to take my bath.”
So, Kelly looked sad, did she? He’d have to think about what that meant. As for her attitude toward Dani, he was pretty sure he wasn’t the one responsible for that. “How many times had she called you to take your bath?”
“Once,” Dani said.
Jordan had his doubts. “Really? Just once?”
“Maybe it was twice.”
More likely double that, Jordan guessed. “Don’t you think that could have had something to do with why she yelled?”
Dani sighed. “Maybe,” she conceded. “She still looks sad, though. Are you coming over?”
“In a bit. Is your mom there?”
“She’s in the shower.”
The vivid image that appeared in Jordan’s mind could have steamed up the whole state of Texas: Kelly naked, slick with water, her body provocatively covered with suds, his hands sliding slowly over her. He nearly moaned out loud, then caught himself. Thoughts like that about Kelly had never occurred to him in the past or, if they had, he had banished them at once. It was getting more and more difficult now to forget such images.
“Okay, munchkin, would you be sure to tell her I called?” He was proud of the steadiness of his voice when his pulse was still ricocheting wildly. “Tell her I have to spend some time with my father this morning, but I’ll be there as soon as I can, okay? Can you remember that?”
“I can remember.”
“Tell her the minute she gets out of the shower.”
“Okay. ‘Bye, Jordan.”
“‘Bye, munchkin. See you later.”
Jordan left Cody’s shortly after hanging up. The trip to the main house took only a few minutes, not nearly long enough for him to decide how to tell his father that Cody was gone. He didn’t catch a break once he was there, either. He found Harlan already seated in the dining room, the newspaper spread open in front of him.
His father regarded him with open speculation as Jordan poured himself a cup of coffee and plucked a corn muffin he didn’t really want off the buffet.
“You didn’t listen to a word I said to you, did you?” his father grumbled when Jordan was seated at the table.
“Which words of wisdom are you accusing me of ignoring?”
“You spent the night with that woman.”
He noticed that the note of glee in his father’s voice contradicted the somewhat negative phrasing of the statement. It simply confirmed Jordan’s suspicions that his father had been trying out a little reverse psychology on him by warning him away from Kelly.
“I assume you’re referring to Kelly, and no, I did not spend the night with her,” Jordan told him irritably, cutting the muffin into precise little sections to avoid having to meet his father’s gaze. “I was at Cody’s.”
That grabbed his father’s attention. Harlan’s gaze narrowed suspiciously. “What the devil were you doing there?”
“Trying to persuade him not to hightail it away from here.”
“Dammit all!” Harlan set his coffee cup down so hard, the coffee splattered all over the tablecloth. He made no attempt to blot it up. “Cody’s leaving? Without a word to me? Damn that boy’s hide.”
“He’s already left,” Jordan corrected.
“Why would he want to go and do something crazy like that? We have work to do. He couldn’t have picked a worse time for a vacation.”
“I don’t think he sees this
