Claiming His Brother's Baby by Helen Lacey

had briefly visited his ranch in Cedar Creek six months before his death.
    She raised her chin. “He never did tell me why you were estranged.”
    Tanner’s stomach tightened. “It was a misunderstanding that happened years ago.”
    “Really?” Her brows came up. “What kind of misunderstanding?”
    He shrugged. Tanner had no intention of telling her about Leah or the money or anything else from his past. “It doesn’t matter now.”
    She raised her chin in that stiff, determined way he was getting used to. “So you won’t tell me?”
    “No.”
    She laughed, the sound brittle in the room. “Well, Doug did say you had a stubborn, unforgiving streak.”
    He tensed. Of course his brother would have said that. Doug wasn’t one to take responsibility for his actions or his
mistakes
.
    Her expression narrowed. “What was your relationship like when you were kids?”
    “Good,” he replied truthfully. “But with twelve years between us we were never really kids together.”
    She nodded. “You said Doug joined the army at twenty-one and sent you to boarding school?”
    “That’s right.” He named the school that was about two hundred miles west of Bellandale.
    “Were you happy there?”
    It seemed an odd question. “I’ve never really thought about it.”
    She pushed on. “You’d just lost your parents, correct? Why do you think Doug made the decision to send you away when you were so young?”
    “He joined the army,” Tanner said. “I guess he did what he thought was the best thing at the time.”
    Cassie didn’t look completely convinced. “But what did
you
think?”
    He opened his mouth to speak, then clamped it tightly shut. She stared at him, looking intrigued and a little confused. He drew in a slow breath. “I thought... I suppose I thought I’d been abandoned.”
    “Did you ever tell him that?”
    Silence stretched like elastic for a moment. Finally, he spoke. “I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone that.”
    “Then thank you,” she said. “For not dismissing the question. I suppose I’m trying to understand why Doug would have done such a thing. I mean, you really only had each other.”
    “What twenty-one-year-old wants to be saddled with a kid? Especially someone like...”
    Tanner stopped when he saw her expression shift. He met her gaze and waited for her to speak.
    “You mean, someone like Doug?” she asked, her voice a bare whisper. When he didn’t respond she spoke again. “You know, don’t you?”
    Tanner shrugged a little. “I know what?”
    “You know Doug wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea of having a baby?”
    Wasn’t exactly thrilled?
His brother had flat-out said kids weren’t in his plans—ever.
    “I know he had some reservations.”
    She shrugged and maintained her resilient look. “It was a shock, that’s all. We’d never talked about children and when I found out I was pregnant I was surprised at first. When I told Doug, he didn’t...well, he wasn’t happy about it.”
    He knew the story. Doug had no intention of ever being a father to his child and Tanner knew his brother would have told Cassie that very thing had he lived.
    “I’m sure it was the shock, like you said.”
    As he said the words and tasted the lie, Tanner knew he had to keep the truth from her. It would hurt her deeply if the truth ever came out.
    “I suppose we’ll never know,” she said, softer still.
    Tanner shrugged fractionally. “I should get going.”
    “Are you heading into Bellandale?” she asked.
    “No,” he replied. “I’m going to crash at Ruthie’s for a few days. But I’d like to drop by tomorrow afternoon to see Oliver if that’s okay?”
    “Of course.”
    “Good night, Cassie. I’ll see myself out.”
    She nodded and watched him leave. Tanner grabbed his bag from the hall and headed through the front door and realized that leaving was the last thing he wanted to do.
    *
    When Cassie sat up in bed at six the next morning she knew the headache and