McCullen's Secret Son (The Heroes Of Horseshoe Creek Book 2) by Rita Herron

her.”
    “I’m sure he did.” He didn’t mean to sound surly, but his tone bordered on sarcastic.
    Mama Mary gave him a chiding look, and he grabbed one of the to-go mugs on the sideboard, filled it with coffee, wrapped an extra biscuit and bacon in a napkin for Willow and gave Mama Mary a peck on the cheek.
    “Thanks for breakfast. I haven’t had biscuits like that since I left here.”
    She grinned with pride, and he hurried away before she asked him where he was going. He could lie to Maddox, but it was harder to lie to Mama Mary because she could see right through him.
    Wind stirred dust around his boots, and the temperature had dropped twenty degrees overnight. As he drove across the ranch, the beauty of the land struck him along with memories of riding with his brothers as a kid. The campouts and cattle drives. The horseshoe contests and trick riding.
    When he’d left Pistol Whip, he’d been young and eager for travels, to see new places, to escape the routine of ranch life, and he’d enjoyed the different towns and women.
    This morning, though, the land looked peaceful. The women’s faces a blur.
    There was only one woman he’d ever really cared about, and that was Willow.
    By the time he reached her place, worry for her son dominated his mind.
    Knowing Willow must be frantic, he scanned the outside of her rental house and the property when he arrived. Everything appeared as he’d left it the night before.
    Leo’s truck was still parked on the lawn, the little boy’s bike mangled.
    He yanked on a pair of work gloves to keep from leaving fingerprints, then climbed out and walked over to the truck. For a man who supposedly had landed a windfall, the truck was old and shabby looking. Barring a few tools, the truck bed was empty.
    The door to the cab was unlocked, as if the man had gotten out in a hurry. Brett slipped inside and checked the seat. Nothing.
    No papers, computer or cell phone. No gun.
    He opened the glove compartment and found a wallet with a driver’s license and a hundred dollars in cash.
    He didn’t find an insurance card, but found a tiny slip of paper with a name and phone number.
    It was a woman’s name. Doris Benedict.
    Brett’s instincts kicked in. If Leo had another woman on the side, maybe she’d killed him.
    He jammed the paper in his pocket. It was a place to start.
    * * *
    W ILLOW DOZED TO SLEEP but dreamed of her little boy and Brett, and woke up in a sweat.
    In the dream, Sam looked so much like his father sitting on that horse that it nearly took her breath away and resurrected memories of watching Brett at the rodeo when he was eighteen.
    She’d fallen in love with him that day. He’d looked so handsome with his thick hair glinting in the sunlight. When he’d turned his flirtatious smile on her, she hadn’t been able to resist.
    She had been alone so long. Dubbed poor white trash because her father had been a mean drunk and she was motherless. The very reason she’d been determined to be a good mother to Sam.
    But now he was missing because she’d been fooled by Leo’s promises and wound up marrying a mean drunk herself.
    But that day Brett had made her feel so special...not like poor trash. All the other girls at the rodeo wanted Brett McCullen, the up-and-coming rodeo star.
    But after he’d received his buckle for winning, he’d walked over to her and kissed her right in front of the crowd.
    How could she
not
have fallen in love with him?
    It didn’t matter.
    Brett hadn’t wanted her the past few years. He had plenty of women. And he certainly didn’t intend to stay in Pistol Whip and settle down.
    She had done the right thing. If she’d told Brett she was pregnant five years ago, he might have stuck around, but he would have resented her. And that would have destroyed their love.
    She found some coffee in the kitchen and brewed a pot, then carried a mug and her phone to the front porch and sat down, praying it would ring with news about how to get Sam