No Foolin' (Willowdale Romance Novel) (21 page)

TEAGUE SET DOWN his beer and counted the hours before he could leave this town. At least he’d never have to come back and see Kate again once he moved Jennifer near L.A. He didn’t think he could handle seeing the only woman he’d ever loved; the one woman he couldn’t have.

The door to the bar burst open and Teague looked up. It was the police chief. Teague looked for Kate, but it appeared the chief was alone.

“Hey, hey, everyone! I’ve got an announcement to make,” he bellowed, and the bar quieted down. “Kate Riley has finally agreed to marry me. Drinks are on me.”

The bar erupted in cheers, everyone jostling to shake the chief’s hand. Teague resisted the urge to smash his glass against the bar and slunk out before the chief spotted him.

He slammed his hands on the steering wheel. Damn, he’d screwed up. What had he done to send her rushing back to that hound? The chief was a cheater and he’d lied to her. And Kate had said she wanted the truth. How could she go back to a guy who’d given her nothing but lies?

And suddenly it was like the clouds had blown out of the sky and he got it. Kate wanted the truth. That was it. He wasn’t going to get her unless he could be truthful about everything. Could he do that? How long had it taken him to admit the truth to himself?

He stared out the window at the trees swaying in the warm midnight breeze and shook his head as the realization sank in. But could he be truthful about everything? Jennifer? The baby? All those damn newspapers and TV shows. If not for them, they’d have no problem making this thing work.

He ran his hand down his face wondering how he could fix everything. Then he realized those damn newspapers and TV shows might be able to help. He didn’t believe for one minute she wanted to be with the police chief. He had to take a chance. But if it didn’t pan out .
 . . he’d blow everything for nothing.

KATE TROLLED THE produce aisle, looking for the strawberries Dina had requested. She was enjoying being waited on, and Kate was happy to do it. Her mama would have been doing it if she were still here.

“Hi, there, Kate.” Delores looked up from the cantaloupe she was poking. “That was some big news about the baby.”

The last two days had been a whirlwind—cleaning up from the party, visiting Dina in the hospital, dealing with questions like this one. “Yes, but Dina’s fine and everything’s good.” Was there anyone in this town who didn’t know about the dramatic race to the hospital? That’s Willowdale for you.

Delores put her hand on her hip. “I was talking about Teague Reynolds’ baby.”

Kate said nothing. The words just wouldn’t come out. But Delores must have understood her confusion from the terror in Kate’s bulging eyes.

“You didn’t hear? He’s adopting a baby. His sister’s baby. I just saw it on
Entertainment Tonight .
 . .
and he talked about you, too.” She pointed a finger at her. “I would have gotten a bundle for that scoop.”

Kate left her half-filled cart parked next to the melons, raced back home and flipped on her computer.
Come on, come on!
She logged onto the
ET
website and clicked on the video links. Teague was holding the baby as the reporter interviewed him. “This is not the T-Rex we’ve come to know. Tell us about this baby, Teague,” said the beautiful blonde.

And Teague explained how he’d gotten a call that he had a twin sister, also given up for adoption years ago, and that she was having a baby she wouldn’t be able to raise, for reasons he didn’t want to discuss. He didn’t talk about her mental challenges.

“All these years and you didn’t know you had a sister?”

“No. It was a thrill to meet her.” He smiled his gorgeous Teague smile—the sincere one.

“And so you’re going to raise this baby on your own?” the reporter asked.

Teague looked at the camera. “I certainly hope not. I’ve proposed to a woman I hope says yes. So, I’ll ask her again—Kate, will you marry me?”

“Kate?” the reporter asked.

“Kate?” Tommy asked behind her.

She slapped the lid of her laptop shut, but it was too late.

“Teague Reynolds just proposed to you?” Tommy asked, palming his gun.

She nodded.

“But you said yes to me last night.”

“I didn’t say yes.”

“You didn’t say no. I took it as a yes.”

“Tommy, I just didn’t feel like fighting after everything with the baby.”

He blinked for a moment and deflated. “Guess that means you won’t be wanting this.” He held a small white box in his hand. He popped it open to show her the engagement ring, which appeared to be a honking two-carat solitaire. “I thought I’d get you a new one, start with a clean slate and everything.” He rubbed his hand over his eyes and sighed. “I told everyone at the bar you said yes. When I said we should go out and celebrate, and you didn’t argue, I just thought .
 . . well, I thought you were on board. ”

She hugged her arms around herself. “I thought you meant we were going to celebrate the baby. I was too tired to argue about all that marriage talk with you again. It’s just not right for us. Never was.”

He snapped the box shut. “I see.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to you. I’m sorry .
 . .”

He laughed softly. “Guess I deserve it. Payback’s a bitch, even six years later.”

“So you’re not mad?”

He puffed up his red cheeks and blew out his breath. “Oh, I’m pissed as hell at Teague. But not at you. You didn’t stand a chance against him.” He turned to leave and then stopped. “So his sister lives in Willowdale, too? That’s who I saw him in the park with?”

She nodded.

“What a coincidence.”

She shrugged. “I guess.”

He was putting it all together. “You two didn’t meet on the Internet, did you?”

She hesitated long enough to give him his answer.

He hooked his thumbs in his pockets. “What was it then?”

Hell, Teague had probably explained the whole thing on TV; no use keeping secrets anymore. “He was trying to protect his sister. Some photographer was following him. He bumped into me and asked for a ride. When all the photographers were at the airport, he offered to pay me to be his girlfriend so the press wouldn’t know why he was really here.” Ugh, that sounded bad saying it out loud. Really bad.

“He hired you to be his girlfriend and you said yes?” He clucked his tongue. “That surprises me even more than if you had been getting it on at Lookout Point.”

Kate struggled for the words to defend herself, but he was right. She opened her mouth to say something,
anything
, but Tommy waved a disgusted hand at her and quietly left.

She slumped on the couch, feeling anything but happy. Eventually, she lumbered back to the computer to make sure she’d really seen a marriage proposal on
ET,
for crying out loud. And she had. But Teague handled the “so they both lived in Willowdale question” a bit differently.

“Yep, that’s why I responded to her email on the Internet dating site. I was intrigued that they were from the same town. It was like, fate, or something.”

Kate winced. Teague hadn’t told the whole truth. But soon enough the gossip express would get the real story out, thanks to her.

The thrill of his proposal was gone. Things just couldn’t ever work out between them.

Each time the phone rang—and boy, did it ring—she waited to hear Teague’s voice. But he didn’t call. He didn’t show up. And when the news hit the press later that day about the way they really met, she knew why he wasn’t calling. She’d blown the lid off yet another secret he was keeping—their ridiculous arrangement. If he was too embarrassed to tell the truth about that, then what was the point?

The only bright spot in the days that followed was Delores’s visit. She arranged an auction to sell off the most valuable of Mama’s antique pieces, giving Kate twelve thousand dollars in the bank. Kate was stunned to see what some of the pieces went for and decided she’d be scouring garage and estate sales the very next weekend. After sitting down at the diner to celebrate, Delores made Kate a deal. “Why don’t you come into business with me? You do the hunting and I’ll do the selling.”

Kate had found herself a new career after all.
I don’t need a man to take care of me.
She tipped her nose up in the air just thinking about it.

A week had passed since Teague’s TV proposal, but she hadn’t heard from him. She wondered how angry he was with her. The doorbell rang one morning—earlier than the UPS man would be showing up and earlier than any of her friends would be rolling around. She thought maybe, maybe, it was Teague, but it wasn’t. It was a tiny, withered woman clutching her purse.

“Can I help you?”

“Are you Kate Riley?” she asked in a whisper of a voice.

She sighed. “Yes, how can I help you?”

“I’m hoping you can help me find Teague Reynolds. He’s my son.”

SHE THOUGHT SHE’D lost the connection on the phone because Teague hadn’t said anything in like, a minute.

“I know you probably don’t want to see me, and that’s totally fine, but you’ve got a woman here sitting with a world of hurt. What do you want me to tell her?” Kate asked.

“I’m here in Willowdale with Jennifer. I’ll be right over to tell her myself.”

WHO TO DEAL with first, Teague wondered. Kate was pissed, he knew that. She hadn’t called him, hadn’t given an answer to his televised proposal. She was probably livid that he’d lied about how they met. Here he was trying to start over with her telling the world the truth about the baby, and he’d blown it with another lie.

But his mother. Where to start there?
You ruined my life? How could you just give me away like a book you didn’t want to finish? Why didn’t you love me enough to keep me?

But all of his tough talk washed away when Kate opened the door and he said, “Where is she?” He’d deal with Kate later.

“In the living room. I’ll be on the back deck to give you some privacy.”

“No, stay. I want you to know everything about me, Kate. No more secrets.”

Her eyes bulged at that, but she just nodded and led him into the living room.

His mother was smaller and sadder than he’d imagined. He’d been ready to demand proof of her wild accusation that she was his mother, but he knew when he looked at her: the hair, the eyes, the guilt.

She smiled and he wondered if she’d always looked so ragged, or if the years had just worn her down. “Your hair was that beautiful color the day you were born. You and Jennifer, both with those dark waves. People would stop me on the street to get a better look at you two.”

It was like a punch in the gut, hearing how they’d been a family. “What about our father?” he heard himself ask. He paced the room, fighting all the conflicting feelings roiling inside him.

She waved a weak little hand in the air. “Oh, he took off before you were born, and I had no means to track him down. Truth was, I didn’t want to share you with a horrible man like that.” She smoothed her cotton skirt, the one she probably wore on special occasions like this, although it looked old and faded. He wondered how many special occasions she’d had in her life.

He swallowed hard and tried to channel all the anger and hate he’d felt the last thirty years. He wanted to storm out. He wanted to scream at her. He wanted to demand proof she was who she said she was. But the familiar rage just wasn’t there. Something had changed inside of him. So he sighed and said, “Why did you give us away after two years?”

“I didn’t.” Somehow, the woman slumped in her chair even more. “You were taken from me.”

Kate froze and Teague’s heart seemed to stop. “Taken? Why?”

She dropped her face in her hands and sobbed.

He sat next to her and surprised himself by gently rubbing her back.

She looked up and wiped her eyes. “Because of Jennifer. Her—injuries.”

Teague backed away. “What did you do to her?”

She reached in her purse for a hankie and blew her nose. “Negligence, that’s what the police said. Child endangerment. All sorts of charges to confirm what I already knew—I was a horrible parent. But I was so tired that night. I had you two in the tub—gosh, how you loved your baths. Always loved the water. You were splashing and laughing and you got your pajamas on the floor all wet. I went in your room to get new ones.” She took a deep quivering breath, and Teague rubbed her back again until she found the words to continue.

“And suddenly, it was too quiet. Jennifer was face-down in the tub and you were trying to pick her up .
 . .” Her hand hovered over her mouth and she worked to regain her composure. “It was a miracle, really, that she lived. But she had serious brain injuries. And since I was going to be serving time in jail and had no next of kin or anything, they placed you both in foster care, although Jennifer needed a special living situation with her needs.”

Her hands were on her knees, shaking, and Teague wrapped his fingers around hers and squeezed. It felt to him like grabbing a lifeline when you’re kicking and flailing underwater. It was terrifying, yet a relief at the same time.