A Willing Wife. Jackie Merritt
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nodded. “Banking is a good field.” He wanted to ask about her husband in the worst way, but not in front of Travis. Something very unusual was happening to Dallas: he was attracted to a woman! Feeling her pull, inhaling her scent, realizing that his body was reacting exactly as it should to a beautiful, sexy lady—which it sure hadn’t been doing with any other beautiful, sexy lady he knew. Obviously their chemistries blended in the unique and special way that brought a man and a woman together. Did she feel it as strongly as he did?
Travis was beginning to squirm. Maggie took his hand in hers. “We’d better be going. Thank you again, Dallas. I shudder to think what might have happened if you hadn’t been here.” She started walking away.
“Maggie, it was great seeing you again,” Dallas called after her.
She turned around just long enough to say, “It was nice seeing you again. Goodbye,” and then began walking so fast that Travis almost had to run to keep up.
“Mama, stop, you’re going too fast,” he finally complained.
“Don’t you ‘Mama’ me, young man,” she said sternly. “You could have been hurt very badly today. Do you understand what almost happened to you? If I catch you leaving the yard again without permission, I promise I will paddle your behind and you will sit on a chair in the house for a week. Without TV or toys. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mama,” Travis said with a tearful sniffle. He could cry now that he wasn’t with Dallas, and actually a few tears might even soften his mother’s heart.
They didn’t. Maggie marched stoically on toward her parents’ house with her son in tow, thanking God and Dallas Fortune that Travis hadn’t been injured, or worse, today.
But she’d meant what she’d told her son, and his teary little face did not affect that decision in the least.
Maggie’s homecoming—weeks and weeks before, as she’d told Dallas—had been everything she’d known it would be. She and Travis had arrived in the evening, surprising her parents to joyful tears. Rosita and Ruben had passed her back and forth, hugging and kissing her, and doing the same with Travis.
“Oh, he is such a handsome boy,” Rosita had exclaimed again and again. “And you are so beautiful, Maggie. Oh, my dear daughter, I’ve prayed so often that you would return to us. Now, let’s get you settled in, then we’ll have coffee and talk. We have a lot to catch up on.”
Rosita rarely had the time to write long letters, and Ruben corresponded with no one. But over the years Rosita had often scribbled notes to her daughter, passing on what Rosita considered to be the most crucial information about everyone who currently lived or previously had lived, on the ranch. And, of course, there’d been the long-distance phone calls between mother and daughter.
Those notes and phone calls were the reason Maggie knew about Ryan Fortune’s divorce problems, and about his new love, Lily Cassidy, which, in fact, wasn’t a new love at all but an old love renewed. Then there was the bewildering event of baby Bryan’s kidnapping.
Over coffee or tea at the kitchen table in the evening Maggie and Rosita did most of their talking. It began the first night Maggie returned to the ranch, and was what they were doing the evening of the day that Maggie and Dallas had met again because of Travis’s disobedient behavior. With Travis tucked into bed and Ruben reading his paper in the living room, Rosita related the latest news. “Sheriff Wyatt Grayhawk is still investigating the identity of the mystery baby. Of course, as I told you before, FBI agent Devin Kincaid rescued a baby from the kidnappers who the family believed was baby Bryan. But when Claudia and Matthew saw him, they knew it wasn’t their son. They’ve kept him and named him Taylor. More mysterious still is that the child turned out to be a Fortune—he has the crown-shaped birthmark and rare blood type. Yet no Fortune has claimed him.”
Maggie sipped her coffee. “That is so odd, isn’t it?”
“Very. He has to be the son of one of the Fortune men, because if any of the Fortune women had given birth, someone would know about it.”
“But which man could it be? How will Wyatt find out?”
Rosita leaned forward. “I heard that he’s mentioned a DNA screening on every one of the Fortune males.”
“But that’s so…so personal!”
Rosita shrugged. “So is fathering a child and then pretending you know nothing about it.”
“Mama, most of the Fortune men have pretty fast reputations, but I can’t imagine any of them knowingly denying their own flesh and blood.”
“I agree, but I have this feeling—”
Ruben shouted from the living room, “Rosita, stop with the feelings!”
“Oh, hush!” she called back. “You know my premonitions are more often true than not.”
Maggie had heard the same exchange from her parents before, and she hastened to change the subject, grabbing at the first thing that entered her mind. “It’s hard to believe that Cruz is married and settled down, isn’t it? He always had so many girlfriends.”
“Ah, but things went very differently when he met Savannah. They had their ups and downs, of course. Only once in a while does true love run smoothly. But they are happy now.”
“And I’m happy for them.”
Rosita nodded. “Yes, we all are. And I’m so pleased about the child they are expecting.”
“I’m sure you are, Mama.” Maggie smiled. “You will have another grandchild to love.” Her smile faded slightly as she thought of her and Craig’s shotgun wedding. Their marriage hadn’t lasted. She hoped Cruz and Savannah’s would endure forever.
“I’m so proud of him for striking out on his own,” Maggie murmured, forcing her thoughts into a happier vein. “I can’t believe he’s finally going to have his own ranch. That piece of land he bought is breathtaking. He’s going to make something of himself, Mama, and that’s very exciting.”
“Yes, it is, but it wouldn’t have been quite so easy to do if Dallas Fortune hadn’t offered to invest in Cruz’s dream.”
Maggie frowned. “That’s true, isn’t it. Mama, for Cruz’s sake I hope his ranch and horse operation doesn’t end up being just another Fortune possession.”
“Dallas isn’t like that, Maggie. I’m positive that his investment is in Cruz, not in the ranch itself.”
“Oh, I believe that Dallas’s investment is in Cruz, too. But after Cruz works himself to death starting up the ranch and getting it in good shape and running smoothly, what is Dallas’s attitude going to be then?”
Rosita looked shocked. “Maggie, what are you thinking of? Dallas is not plotting to benefit from Cruz’s hard work.”
Maggie sighed. “I’m sorry, Mama.”
“Dallas is not going to take advantage of Cruz,” Rosita repeated. “He’s not that kind of man.”
“What kind of man is he, Mama?”
Rosita thought a moment, then said with a saddened sigh, “He’s a lonely man, Maggie. He took the death of his wife and baby very hard.”
Maggie let that pass, for the moment, and the brief interval altered her mother’s thoughts. Rosita began to beam. “It’s so good having you home, Maggie. Promise you will never leave again.”
Maggie replied gently, “Mama, this is just a visit.” She smiled. “Granted, it’s a long visit, but eventually Travis and I will have to live someplace else.”
“No!” Rosita cried, then called to her husband, “Ruben! Maggie said this is just a visit.”
Ruben appeared in the doorway still holding the newspaper. “Why do you say such a thing and break your mama’s heart?” he asked Maggie.
“Papa,