Destined to Change (20 page)

I pulled in next to Stacy, climbed out of the jeep and walked over to her. She was sitting in her car, still sobbing. I knocked on the window, and she rolled it down.

“What the hell do you want? Haven’t you taken enough from me? Go the hell away!” she screamed at me and started to roll her window up.

“What is going on? Why are you so upset, and why was Jaxon here with you? Are you sick?” I asked.

“Oh so he didn’t tell the little country bumpkin bitch we have a kid huh? We were here getting the results of the DNA test.” She sneered at me.

My heart was pounding so fast. Another lie, he had lied to me again. He had a kid with Stacy. He left his wife and kid to go back to the farm. How could he do that? What kind of man was he, really?

“What do you mean, you have a kid?” I screamed back at her.

“Well let me explain it to you, honey. When a man and a woman really love each other, well they fuck like bunnies and make a baby. Ours is a little girl and Jaxon just left us so he could go play house with you. Great man, isn’t he? Are you proud of yourself? He’s all yours - you won.”

I just stared at her. I couldn’t speak. This couldn’t be true. They have a kid, and Jaxon just left them. Because of me?

I ran back to my jeep, climbed in, and headed home. When I got to my house Jaxon was sitting on my porch, waiting for me. I parked and as I started walking toward the door I noticed how sad he looked. If I hadn’t been so mad at him for lying to me, I would’ve almost felt bad for him.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I was waiting for you; I need to talk to you about something.” He looked up at me from under those beautiful long eyelashes.

“Stacy already told me. I know all about
her
.” I said while trying to keep a tear from welling up in my eyes. I couldn’t look at him. I was on the porch, trying to get in the house without him seeing how bad I was hurting.

“She told you?” he asked.

“Yes, she did. And I think that it’s time for you to go home to your family. You belong with Stacy. She’s your wife. You need to go home with them,” I said in the most unfeeling tone I could muster up.

“She told you everything and you want me to leave? Are you fucking kidding me?” he asked with a weird look on his face, like I had just surprised the shit out of him.

“Yes, I think you need to stay with your wife. I’m fine here. I have my family and my life that I need to get back to. This was fun, but I think we both knew it wouldn’t last.”

Jaxon stood up and walked toward me. “What the fuck are you saying, Loralei? You just want me to leave? You don’t want to give me the chance to explain?”

I turned and faced him. “There is nothing for you to explain. This, whatever the hell this was, is over. You have a family to take care of. So go do it!”

He stomped off toward Jake’s truck. When he got in the truck, he slammed his fists down on the steering wheel. He was mad. He was yelling, but I couldn’t hear what he was saying. He started the truck up and peeled all the way down the lane.

I watched him drive away. He was angry, but he didn’t even put up a fight. No matter how much I didn’t want to admit it, I really wished he would’ve.

I went in the house and called my mom. I asked her if she could please pick the kids up at school and keep them until tomorrow. I lied and told her I felt like I was coming down with something and just needed to rest for a bit. I was sure she didn’t believe me, but she agreed anyway.

I ran a hot bath, climbed in, and tried to wash all my worries away. Well, that didn’t work so I had to come up with a Plan B. A plan that didn’t involve me messing up Jaxon’s life. He and Stacy were married and they had a daughter. They needed to be together. Their daughter needed her father.

I was hoping that Jaxon could be a father to the twins, but he needed to take care of his child, and he needed to be with Stacy to do that. I couldn’t interfere and ruin their family, no matter how much it hurt me to see him drive away today.

Jaxon

I couldn’t understand what was going on. I was so pissed off. But at who? Loralei? Stacy? Or myself? It was a definite toss-up.

Stacy told Loralei about the DNA test and she still wanted me to leave.
God damn it!
She must have felt that this would be an easy way out for her. I was so in love with that woman that I couldn’t see straight and she gave up on me. Just like that.

She made the decision that she wanted me to leave. She wanted me to go to my wife and raise a kid that’s not mine. How the fuck did I fall in love with her? Apparently, she didn’t love me near as much as I loved her.

I had known in my heart the entire time that the DNA test would come back and say I wasn’t the father. I knew that I couldn’t have kids. Stacy and I had tried for so long and when she told me about Jaz, I just knew she wasn’t mine. I knew at that moment, I was the reason why we couldn’t have kids.

“Uncle Jake, I think it’s time for me to head back to California.” I couldn’t even look up at him when I said this. I knew that he would know something was wrong. I had moved beyond pissed, now I was hurting.

“Son, what’s going on? Did something happen with you and Loralei?” Uncle Jake asked. He was worried about me, but I just didn’t want to talk about this right now.

“Stacy came back, and she has a kid. Her name is Jaz.” The look on Uncle Jake’s face looked like something out of a bad movie.

“What do you mean
she
has a kid? Is it yours? Does she look like ya, son?”

“That doesn’t matter, Stacy’s my wife and I need to do the right thing by her and our family. I am taking her back home. I just want you to know how much I appreciate you letting me come stay with you. I really needed to get away, and you made me feel at home here. I can’t thank you enough for that.”

I grabbed Uncle Jake and pulled him into a man hug. Trying not to let him see how much it was hurting me to leave Loralei. But this was her decision and I had to abide by it, because I loved her.

Chapter 12

Cade

These past five weeks had passed like molasses. I hadn’t had sex for almost two months. I was so horny I could explode, literally.  I planned to leave for Harper Farms tomorrow. I was taking my cousin Clay with me to help me with the cattle. He wasn’t too much of a worker, but I had to get his ass out of town before he got himself killed.

That boy needed to learn to keep it in his pants, or at least pick his partners from a higher breed of women. He was twenty-one years old, and he definitely inherited our family’s good looks and charm. We were a sexy-ass bunch of cowboys. The last gal he was with told her brother about some of the things he did, like when she caught him in bed with their mother, and he threatened to shoot him. I’m pretty sure he would’ve if I hadn’t intervened. Goddamned family, can’t live with ‘em, and it’s illegal to shoot ‘em.

Tomorrow I would get to see Loralei again. I missed her so much. I told Mr. Davidson not to tell her I was coming. I wanted to surprise her - boy would she be surprised. I really wanted her to be happy to see me. I really hoped that asshat was out of the picture. A guy could dream right?

I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I was like a kid waiting for the carnival to come to town. I was too damn excited to sleep.

“Wake the hell up!” I screamed at Clay from down the hall. “I got shit to do today, and you ain’t holding me up.”

“Hold your fucking horses. I’m awake!” he screamed back at me.

We were in the car and headed to Harper Farms before six o’clock a.m. I had my thermos of black coffee, and I grabbed a pop-tart on the way out the door. Clay was asleep before we hit the end of the lane. That was fine by me. I didn’t need to hear him whine all the way to Kipton. We had about a four hour drive ahead of us, and I was hoping he would sleep for most of it.

I stopped in Joplin for gas and to grab some actual food. Clay woke up long enough to use the facilities and scarf down some biscuits and gravy. I was getting kinda nervous, or maybe I was excited, or maybe it was a little bit of both. I needed this woman, but what if she didn’t want to see me. I couldn’t understand what the hell it was about her. I just needed to be with her. She was the only damn thing I could think about.

Well? I’d had weeks to think about this, and I had a couple of ideas on how to make her mine. I couldn’t wait to get there and see her beautiful face and that amazing ass. Oh my god, I had missed that ass. Just thinking about it was getting “cowboy” all excited.

“What the hell, man?” Clay yelled as he smacked me across the back of the head. “You gonna take care of that shit in the truck? Man, I’m sitting right here. That is fucking sick!”

That’s when I realized I was kinda playing with “cowboy” through my jeans. Oh man, this shit had to stop. I had to have Loralei. I had to make her mine again and hear her scream my name.

All of these thoughts weren’t helping my current situation. They just caused Clay to smack me upside the head again. “Seriously, man. Pull the hell over and let me out of the truck!” I started thinking about chickens and cattle and anything else that would make my dick calm the hell down.

We were almost there and “cowboy” had finally calmed down. Clay only had to smack me on the back of my head a couple more times on the way there.

When we pulled onto the Harper Farms property, I immediately felt like I knew Loralei a little bit better than I had. This was her farm. I had my ranch and I knew what it meant to me. And I knew that she felt the same way about hers. I could tell she put her heart and soul into this farm. There wasn’t a thing out of place. The fence was perfect. The lanes were all tree lined. The farm definitely had felt a woman’s touch. My Loralei’s touch. I couldn’t wait to feel that touch again.

We were slowly driving down the lane when I looked over to the stables and saw her. Her beautiful blonde hair was pulled up in a ponytail, she had on a blue flannel shirt and those amazing, “huggin’ her in all the right places” jeans. She had on her old work boots. She was brushing out one of the horses and finally she heard my truck, stopped what she was doing and made eye contact with me. That’s when I noticed she wasn’t wearing any make-up and she looked even more beautiful than I remembered.

Loralei

What the hell was he doing here? No way - why was this happening? Cade, goddamn Cade was here. He was at my farm.
Shit!

He got out of the truck and started to walk over toward me. He was so amazingly sexy. Why did he have to be so incredibly sexy? He didn’t walk, he sauntered. Never losing that sexy sideways smirk. He was wearing his skin-tight wranglers, cowboy boots, ten-gallon hat, and a green button-up shirt that made his green eyes shine even brighter.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked before he made his way all the way to me.

“Well, hello to you too, hon,” he said with that sexy southern drawl.

“Seriously, Cade, why are you here?”

“Didn’t George tell ya? There was a problem with his herd. He said we would need to check the cattle out and decide who gets what. I really thought he would've called ya.”

There was something about the way he said that. It made me think that he had known all along that George hadn’t called me about the cattle.

“I had no idea you were coming. I got a call this morning that the cattle delivery has been postponed until next Monday. I find it a little odd that they didn’t mention you to me when they called this morning.” I leaned up against the barn. I hadn’t really noticed until just then. But I guess the entire time we were talking, Cade was getting closer and closer to me. By the time I realized it, I felt the barn behind me.

“Where’s asshat? He around here somewhere? Will he see me if I kiss ya right now?” Cade asked, as he leaned in closer to my face. I could feel his breath on my face. It felt pretty nice.

“Mom! Who’s the cowboy? Is he tryin’ to kiss you? MOM!” I heard Sammy yelling this from across the field. Cade jumped back away from me. The look in his eyes was almost sinful. He looked like he wanted to eat me alive. And I think he really did.

“Mom! There’s another big cowboy over by that truck, Mom. I’ll kick their butts! Don’t you touch my mommy, you asshat cowboys!” Sammy yelled as he ran across the field.

“Honey, mommy is fine. I know this cowboy. His name is Cade. Come and say hello. And watch your language.”

“Hello, cowboy Cade. Who’s the other cowboy?” Sammy asked, huffing and puffing, trying to catch his breath. About that time the other cowboy came out from behind the truck. He looked like a carbon copy of Cade, except smaller. Cade was so big and muscular. This guy looked like he didn’t work quite as hard as Cade.

“This is my cousin, Clay. Clay, say hello to these nice people,” Cade said.

“Hello, nice people.” Clay tipped his hat, using that same sexy southern drawl his cousin had.

“Nice to meet ya, Clay. I’m still a little confused about why ya’ll are here, though.”

“Mommy, I’m hungry. What’s for lunch?” My little Sammy was always starving.

“I was just going to make some sandwiches. We’ll eat in a bit, okay babe?” Sammy skulked off toward the barn.

Cade walked over towards Sammy, and said, “A sandwich sounds great, buddy. Maybe your mom will make one for me too?” Cade looked up at winked at me. Damn it, now I was going to have to invite them in for lunch. My mom did not raise me to be impolite.

I shrugged my shoulders and wrinkled my eyebrows, “Sure. We would love for ya’ll to come have lunch with us. Sammy, go get your sister.” Sammy headed off to get Mags.

When the kids got there, I had Cade and Clay follow us to our house. On the drive there I couldn’t help but think about the time I had spent with Cade. The things we had done together. The things he had done to me. I could feel the color draining from my face. I felt a little hand on my cheek.

“Mommy, are you okay?” Mags asked with a raised eyebrow and her little eyes squinting at me.