Page 5 of Sweet Surprise (Honeysuckle, Texas #2)

Alice Sweet wasn’t saying a word, but did her son really think she wasn’t catching on to what was really going on?

The way her son’s gaze filled with wonder every time he glanced at the child?

The look of a nervous filly in the mother’s eyes?

Though Alice had way more questions than answers, she was willing to bet the ranch she loved that this young boy was not just any boy, but a Sweet.

What a precious gift after so much loss.

“Would you like to feed him now?”

Mason’s eyes widened. “Can I?’

“Sure.” Working with him, Alice helped him hold the bottle just right for the young calf to guzzle easily.

His laughter was worth it all.

“Be careful,” his mother said.

“It’s hard to mess this part up,” she reassured Jess. Oh, how she wanted to pepper Jess with questions. What happened? Did my son know? Why am I only meeting my grandson now? Have you been on your own? Was he an easy baby? So many questions.

At least from the way Mason behaved and how Jess eyed her son, any fool could see the child had been well loved.

Oh, Charlie, what did our son do?

“So, yes or no?” Preston asked him.

Swallowing hard, Carson nodded. “Yes.”

“Why now?” Garret leaned forward. “Why bring him home now?”

“Hey, I’ve only known about him for a few hours more than you.”

“What?” Jillian said a little louder than she’d probably meant to.

“Wait.” Garret shook his head and straightened in his seat. “How can you not have known you had a son?”

Jillian was the one to shoot her youngest brother a slack jawed glare. “Really?” she spun about to face Carson. “I’m guessing she didn’t tell you?”

He nodded.

“Why wouldn’t she tell you?” Garret was frowning now. “What did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything. It was just one night.”

That heavy booted foot landed on the wood floor again. “Oh, man. I expected more from you.”

“We were in college. We had a little too much to drink. We spent a couple of weeks sort of dating, then she left school and told me she was marrying her ex.” He wasn’t going to say he’d been crushing on her since the first day she walked through the door of stats class, or how hard he’d spent those two weeks after their one night doing everything he could to make her want more than just friendship.

“No excuse,” Garret spat. “There are rules, and you broke the most important one.”

“Don’t hand me that,” Carson ground out. “Are you going to tell me you spent four years in college and never left your dorm room?”

“Of course not.” Garret jumped to his feet and stood toe to toe with Carson. “But no one was drunk, and everyone was protected. Rules.”

“I didn’t say she was drunk. I said we had a little too much to drink. They are not the same thing.”

“The hell they’re not,” Garret barked.

“Boys, boys.” Preston came between his brothers. “Y’all want to fight this out, do it later. Right now, we need to know more of what’s going on.” He turned to Preston. “Why is she here now?”

“Long story short, her ex-husband has Huntington’s disease.” A few hisses and grimaces could be seen and heard across the room. “When they tested Mason to see if he’d inherited it, Jess learned her ex isn’t Mason’s father after all. I was the only other option.”

“Have you arranged for a DNA test?” Jillian asked.

“Really?” Her twin whirled around to face her. “You can’t see it?”

“Frankly,” Jillian shrugged, “no.”

Sarah grinned at her sister-in-law. “If it makes you feel any better, I wouldn’t have connected the dots either.”

Preston grabbed hold of his wife’s hand again. “So, this will be wedding number two? Mom certainly can’t object to you marrying the mother of her grandson, whether you love her or not.”

“Did she agree?” Rachel’s voice dripped with anticipation.

Jillian’s question tripped over her sister’s. “That’s why she’s here then?”

“But,” Sarah cut off her in-laws, “I thought you said you only found out a few hours ago. How is she here already?”

Holding up his hands, palms out. “Whoa. One at a time. No, she hasn’t agreed because she doesn’t know anything about our trust fund dilemma.

No, that’s not why she’s here.” He turned to face Sarah.

“And she came to tell me in person rather than over the phone or email. We sort of bumped into each other at the café.”

“Got it.” Sarah nodded. “Now what?”

He dropped his head back against the massive recliner. “I can’t just say, thanks for stopping by, oh and as long as you’re here, why don’t we get married so I can help save the family ranch.”

“Why not?” Rachel asked. “People marry because they’re having a baby all the time. You’ll marry because you already have one. What’s so difficult about that?”

“Considering we haven’t seen each other in almost ten years, I’d say a lot.”

“No worse than marrying a stranger you found off the internet,” Jillian pointed out.

“Except when the year is said and done, we’ll still share a son.”

“He has a point.” Rachel shook her head. “How is it everything keeps getting turned on its head around here?”

“Tell me about it.” Garret scrubbed his face. “All right, big brother. Now what?”

“You have a nice family.” When Jess thought about all the years wasted with Todd and his dysfunctional family, she could almost cry.

“Most of the time I’ll agree with you.” Seated in one of the many rockers on the back porch, even after all these years, Jess could tell Carson was hiding behind his smile.

Something told her on any other night, a good portion, if not all, of his siblings would be out here with him, enjoying the light evening breeze. Tonight, she was pretty sure this nice family was giving Carson the space they needed.

“Tell me something.” Carson kicked the rocker into motion. “Do you think, if you hadn’t gone back to Todd, that we would have had a chance?”

Memories of the last couple of weeks with Carson tugged at the corners of her mouth. “I thought so.”

His head bobbed and the chair set to rocking just a tad faster.

“I know they say hindsight is twenty-twenty, but even before I learned the truth, I’ve often wished things could have been different.”

Taking a sip of lemonade, Carson heaved a deep sigh. “Now that you’ve found me, what are your plans?”

She almost laughed. “Plans aren’t my strength. So far every plan I’ve ever made has fallen flat on its face, and impulse has given me the most happiness.”

The way his lips tipped upward in a lazy smile, she had the feeling he was thinking of the same things she was; their brief time together ten years ago, and today.

“Let me rephrase that.” He cleared his throat and forearms resting on his knees, he leaned forward.

“Would you consider moving with Mason here to Honeysuckle? We have a growing community, good schools, and lots of family.”

Her heart lurched to her throat before settling down to its rightful place.

Driving to West Texas had been an impulse, at least that’s what she’d told herself.

Had this been what she’d really hoped for?

A true fresh start? Lord knew, after meeting the rest of the Sweet family, she couldn’t picture a better way for her son to grow up.

“I mean, you wouldn’t have to sell your house if you didn’t want to. We could find a property manager for it.”

“I don’t own a house.”

“Oh.” That seemed to surprise him.

“We rent.”

“Got it. I’d be happy to pay off the remainder of your lease if you’d consider moving here.”

She shook her head. “No lease. Month to month.” And there was no point mentioning she was short this month’s upcoming rent. Or that she’d been downsized out of her job.

“I see.” His head bobbed and he went back to rocking.

She liked it better when he was asking questions. “If we were to consider relocating…”

“Mm,” was all he said as the chair swayed back and forth.

“I’d have to find a suitable place to live, a job, and…”

“And?”

“I guess that’s the two critical pieces.”

Once again, he leaned forward. “I am very willing and usually able to provide for Mason, and you if you need it.”

“Usually?”

He heaved another deep sigh. “The ranch has run into a few problems. Dad died a little over a year ago, and suffice it to say, our trusted foreman wasn’t so trusted.”

“Oh, no.” Her hand flattened against her collar bone. “How awful for your mother. I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you. The problem is, we’ve all moved home in an effort to save every penny we can to keep the bank from taking away the ranch.”

“I understand.” Sitting back, her hands clasped in her lap, she found herself rocking back and forth where he had stopped.

“I don’t think you do.” For the next several minutes, Carson went into great detail about the ranch, the foreman, the thefts, the trust, the partial payment on marrying and then the balance after the first year anniversary, his brother’s fake marriage and the struggles all the siblings were having to do the same.

“Of course the hardest part has been pulling the wool over Mom’s eyes so she doesn’t realize we’re all marrying quickly for the trust money to replenish what that snake of a foreman stole before we lose the ranch to the bank. ”

All she could do was nod. This entire scenario sounded like it had fallen from the pages of a really bad made for TV movie script.

“I know it’s asking a lot, and I can’t quite wrap my head around how to do this without hurting Mason.”

“This?”

He stared at her for a while and she could see the exact moment when he realized whatever he was saying and she was hearing may not be the same thing. “I was hoping, perhaps you’d be willing to marry me.”

She was pretty sure her jaw came close to hitting the floor and her eyeballs may have escaped from their sockets. “You want what ?”

Frantically, he shook his head. “Not for real. I mean, I wouldn’t expect you, I mean, we don’t have to, that is…” Pausing, he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Open mouth insert size thirteen shoe.”

Sorting through his rambling, slowly, she began to put the pieces together. He was asking her to do what Sarah had done. To help save the ranch. What she couldn’t decide was if this was an answer to prayer, or if she wanted to haul off and belt him.

“Feel free to slug me if it makes you feel better.” His gaze softened, but worry still danced in his eyes.

On the other hand, his uncanny ability, even after all these years, to know what she was thinking, made her smile. “I considered it.”

Shaking his head, he leaned back again. “It’s thoughtless, selfish, and I’m worried about Mason, but I’m also desperate. If you’re willing to help, and we put our heads together, I know we can figure out a way to make this work.”