Jessie watched Nita leave the foyer. A thoroughly sour expression clouded the Spanish woman’s lovely features. But she gave Nita no further thought, turning back to Chase and wondering why he was just standing there looking shocked.
“Have you a perfectly reasonable explanation for being here, or do I turn you over my knee and beat the living tar out of you for being the most irresponsible—”
“Don’t you take that tone with me, Chase Summers!”
He started toward her, but she backed away.
“How dare you travel in your condition? Have you no thought for yourself or the child? What if something had gone wrong?” Then his tone changed. “Did something happen? Are you all right?”
“Do you really care?”
“Jessie!”
“I’m fine.”
“What the hell are you doing here? I leave you safely with your mother—”
“Let’s be more specific,” Jessie fumed, always more comfortable attacking instead of defending. “You dumped me on my mother and then deserted me!”
“Deserted? Didn’t Rachel tell you I’d be back before the baby was born?”
“She told me,” Jessie said stiffly. “I didn’t believe it, and I still don’t. I haven’t forgotten I told you you could go your own way. Damn you, you sure didn’t waste any time leaving, did you?”
“Jessie, I’m this close to wringing your neck!”
“And I’m this close to socking you in the nose,” she retorted. “But I doubt it would solve anything.”
They glared at each other for several seconds.
Then Chase’s eyes softened and turned a velvety brown.
“Oh, Lord, I’m glad you’re, here,” he said. “I’ve missed you, Jessie.”
She was crushed in his arms, his lips molded to hers. He kissed her as if he were starving and she were his first taste of food. It didn’t take a second for Jessie to return his kiss with equal fervor. She clung to him, digging her fingers into his back. How she had missed the taste of him, the feel of his arms! She had almost forgotten the way he could make her feel, how he could make her want him to the exclusion of everything else.
“You’ve missed me, too, sweetheart.”
The words came from somewhere far away, muffled. He was nibbling at her neck.
“I haven’t missed you,” Jessie answered automatically.
Chase straightened, his eyes happy.
“If you’ll recall, Jessie, one of the last times you said anything to me at all was in Cheyenne. You were nearly in tears because your mother wouldn’t stay with you. So I thought you’d be delighted to spend some time with her. It was the perfect opportunity for me to get this part of my life settled. You couldn’t travel, anyway. Or you shouldn’t have.”
“I’m not quarreling with your motives, Chase,” Jessie said levelly. “I won’t even say you could have waited until after the baby was born. You left me without telling me. You didn’t discuss it with me.”
“How could I, the way you were? There was no telling how long you would be in shock.” He looked suspicious then. “When did you recover—as soon as I left?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Thanks, ” he grumbled. “I suppose you’ll be telling me my presence was what was keeping you in shock?”
“No, your leaving was what snapped me out of it,” she admitted.
“So you missed me! You weren’t pleased to find me gone?”
“Well... no,” she admitted again.
“Then I feel sorry for Rachel. She must have had a hell of a time coping with your tantrums.” He shook his head mournfully.
“Stop teasing me, Chase. I don’t think it’s at all funny. You had no right leaving me with my mother. I’m not her responsibility, I’m yours. You wanted to marry me, and now you’re stuck with me.”
“You mean it, Jessie?”
His soft voice caught her off guard. “Of course I do.”
“Well, I’m not complaining, sweetheart.”
“You’re not?”
He was grinning at her. “I like the idea of being stuck with you. Now, why don’t you show me where our room is? We never did get around to sealing our marriage vows.”
Jessie blushed.
“It’s the third door down the hall,” she said. “I can’t tell you about your—about Don Carlos until we’re alone.”
Chapter 44
JESSIE caught a lock of his hair and twirled it about her fingers, sighing in utter contentment. Chase lay on top of her, so still he might have been sleeping. But he wasn’t.
Jessie giggled, remembering that time in the wagon. “I thought you never slept on your stomach.”
“I’m not.” Chase didn’t move. “I’m sleeping on you.”
“I know you’re holding your weight back. You can’t relax—”
“I’m doing just fine,” he murmured.
“Come on, you can’t sleep now, anyway. Siesta isn’t for another hour or so. There’s lunch first, and you have to meet your cousins and—”
He looked up at her, grinning. “You mean we get to come back up here today and no one will think anything of it?”
“Chase, you’re terrible!”
“Am I? It’s been forever since I’ve seen you.”
“It’s only been—”
“Forever.” He kissed her to shut her up. Then he sat up, and his mood changed. She knew he’d been dying to ask, yet afraid to. She decided to help him.
“Aren’t you going to ask about Don Carlos?”
He wouldn’t look up. An interminable time passed without a response.
Finally he mumbled, “There’s no hurry.”
“I don’t believe—”
“Leave it alone.”
“But you’ve come so far!”
He looked at her, then looked away. “Jessie, it’s been twenty years since my mother first told me about the man. That’s a hell of a long time to wonder about someone. It’s a long time to—” He paused. “Call me a coward, but I’d rather not hear it.”
She couldn’t let him falter, not after all this time.
“Chase,” Jessie said gently. “Don Carlos has been ill for a long time, and now... now he’s worse. They wouldn’t even let me see him, afraid I would upset him.”
“But he is alive? You’re sure, Jessie?” He was gripping her shoulders.
“Yes, I’m sure. I got in to see him in spite of them.”
“Is he dying, Jessie?”
“I don’t know,” she sighed. “They haven’t actually said, but they treat him as if he were. Nita wears mourning clothes already. She’s your cousin by the way, the one who answered the door.”
“Never mind. Tell me.”
“Well, he didn’t seem to me like a man who was dying. His voice was strong. He’s alert. He’s just weak, and, well, maybe he just doesn’t have any reason to live.”
“Leave it to a woman to come up with a diagnosis like that,” Chase said disagreeably.
“Well, it’s possible. Anyway, I intended to tell him all about you, but Rodrigo—”
“Rodrigo?”
“Don Carlos had two sisters. Nita’s mother is dead. Rodrigo is the child of the other sister. She’s still alive, traveling now. Anyway, Rodrigo was with Don Carlos last night. He made me realize that such shocking news could do Don Carlos more harm than good.”
“Has he so many children that one more would be too much of a burden to acknowledge?”
“Chase, he has no children. That’s why I had to be so determined. I thought knowing about you would please him. But I couldn’t tell him if the shock would make him worse.”
“So he doesn’t know? And now you’re telling me I’ve come all this way for nothing because I shouldn’t try to see him, either?”