Free Heroes of Heartbreak Creek 02 by Where the Horses Run Page B

that thought aside, she stepped around the rear opening, and saw Jamie talking earnestly to Mr. Jessup. The tall Texan stood at the paddock fence, one booted foot on the bottom rail, his arms folded along the top rail, and several rangy cats rubbing against the leg bearing his weight.
    Jamie copied the pose—although being at least twenty-five years younger than his companion and a great deal shorter, his blond hair barely brushed the bottom of the third rail, and his interest was more on the man beside him than on the horse in the paddock.
    Yet, for a moment, in the sudden glare as the sun broke through the mist to crown their blond heads with golden light, they looked so alike they might have been father and son.
    Ignoring the catch in her throat, Josephine stepped forward. “There you are.”
    Jamie whipped around with a welcoming grin. “About time, sleepyhead.”
    Without taking his foot from the bottom rail, Mr. Jessup pivoted, one forearm still stretched along the top rail, the other coming down to rest low on his belt. “Miss Cathcart,” he said with a nod.
    “Did you bring anything to eat?” Jamie asked, his hazel eyes bright with excitement. “I’m ever so hungry.” At seven years old, he invariably was.
    “Cook gave you nothing?”
    “A muffin. But since Mr. Jessup looked hungry, I gave him some of it.”
    “That was kind of you to share.” She glanced up to find Mr. Jessup studying her, his speculative gaze dropping down to Jamie then back. She had no idea what he was thinking. Or why it would matter.
    “Have you breakfasted yet, Mr. Jessup?”
    He shook his head.
    “Then we’d be pleased to have you join us.” She instructed Jamie to tell Cook that she and Mr. Jessup would be coming up shortly. “We’ll eat on the side veranda, now that the fog is lifting. You may join us.”
    With a hoot, Jamie raced back through the barn.
    In the awkward silence that followed, Josephine wondered why she felt the need to explain Jamie to this stranger. He would find out soon enough, since she had never kept Jamie’s existence a secret. She adored her son. Took pride in him. And had long ago decided not to live under a cloud of evasions and innuendoes, or pretend a shame she didn’t feel. Better he should hear that from her, rather than through the gossip mills.
    Hiking her chin in challenge, she said, “Jamie is my son.”
    He nodded.
    Both confused and somewhat deflated by so lacking a response to her momentous declaration, she made certain he understood the whole of her sordid situation. “His father decided to marry someone else.”
    This time he gave a shrug. “His loss.”
    That was it? Two words and a shrug? No shock? Disgust? No speculative gleam in his eyes or even a spark of sympathy?
    She should have felt relieved. Instead, his utter indifference stung.
    “So when can I see Pembroke’s Pride?”
     • • • 
    Rafe knew right off he’d made a mistake. He just didn’t know what it was. One minute they were talking, the next, she was stomping away, muttering to herself. Was this about him asking to see the horse? Or what she’d told him about the boy? Had he failed some test he wasn’t even aware had been put before him?
    He had only said what he thought. Any man who walked away from his own child and a woman like Josephine Cathcart was either blind, a fool, or too stupid to appreciate his good fortune. So what was she mad about?
    “Hold on,” he said, coming up behind her in two strides.
    She flung open the door to one of the empty stalls. “He’s in his paddock.” She pointed to an open door on the outside wall. “Through there.”
    Rafe didn’t move. He knew now this wasn’t about the horse, but about his reaction to what she’d said. Had she expected him to be shocked? “I knew Jamie was your son. He has your smile. And I meant what I said. Any man who would walk away from a woman like you is a fool.”
    “You know nothing about me.”
    “I know you’re beautiful. And