Page 36 of The Maverick’s Forever Home (Montana Mavericks: Behind Closed Doors #2)

She didn’t know the Noveltys, but she’d bet that they were squeaky clean compared to the Wellingtons.

Most particularly since the home Jax was raising his son in had recently been a crime scene.

Resulting in the legal occupant, and, until recently, part owner of the ranch—Jax’s stepmother, Courtney Wellington—being sent to prison.

To make matters worse, the woman had been involved with illegally gained adoption records, and bribing officials to pass off a baby as belonging to another woman. A baby that was not much older than Liam, and had been born in secret on Jax’s ranch.

“At some point, the one who keeps fighting the longest will appear to not be working in the best interests of the child,” Jax said then, glancing over at her, his expression glum.

“Or they’ll seem to be that determined to do whatever it takes to protect the child’s interests,” she countered, feeling her heart bump a little harder as she watched him. In jeans, cowboy boots and a short-sleeved polo shirt, the dark haired man would turn heads even if he wasn’t wealthy.

He’d turned hers a time or two. At the moment, however, she just hurt for him.

He’d lost so much in the past few years.

His mother. Then a year later his father remarried—jeopardizing his relationships with his kids.

And maybe his reputation a bit, too. The next year, he died.

At the same time that Jax’s family name was being dragged through the mud, his wife was killed, leaving him with an infant son to bring home to the Fortune ranch his step-mother had sabotaged by arranging to have valuable horses stolen and property vandalized.

For one who’d been gravitating to every underdog fight in her path for her entire life, Priscilla was having a hard time separating herself from Jax and his current situation.

As though he’d read her mind, Jax looked from her to Liam, and with his gaze still pointing at his sleeping baby said, “I never saw myself being a father. Or getting married, either. My relationship with Christa, Liam’s mom, was just a fling—on both sides.

We’d only known each other a few months.

But we weren’t exclusive. Her choice as much as mine.

We had fun together, but didn’t see it going anywhere beyond that. Which is partially why it worked.”

He paused, and she kept her focus open-eyed and on him. Feeling the heart he was exposing to her. For a man like Jax to be confiding in her meant he was in a pretty desperate state.

“It had pretty much played out its course, we were finding less and less to say to each other, when she turned up pregnant.” He shook his head, looking from the baby to Priscilla as he said, “We used protection. Every single time. Not that there were that many of them.” Shrugging, he looked back to Liam.

“I’d been ready to head out to another town, embark on my next challenge, but when I found out she was pregnant—she’d insisted on having a paternity test done—I couldn’t walk away. Not from my child.”

The child had changed the man. Made total sense to her.

Shaking her head, her heart filling with compassion for Jax, Priscilla blurted, “If only you could get someone to act like your fiancée. It’d be a way to show the court that you’re serious about family, and that Liam will have a stepmom teaching him, adoring him, one who can be with him during the day.

” She’d been trying to lighten the moment, but had spoken without thinking.

Her biggest fault. One she’d been getting more and more under control.

But the man…he’d been pulling things out of her ever since she’d been back.

Of course, in her own mind, things made a different kind of sense than they sounded out loud.

Burning up with embarrassment, knowing her face had to be turning red, she opened her mouth to clean up her mess and blurted, “Before you get the wrong idea, I’m not suggesting that person be me.

I was jesting, not being serious. I’m not hitting on you here. ” Which drew his gaze back to her.

With a hint of a crooked smile that tugged at her some more.

“Not that you aren’t one of the town’s biggest catches,” she said. “You are. I’m just…no one is…for rent. I’ll shut up now.”

His gaze had a new light in it. Which could be good. For him. She’d given him a moment away from his baggage. But she’d only made more of a fool of herself.

“Not that I’d suit this situation, anyway,” the words continued to tumble out of her in a pressing attempt to convince him that she had in no way been referring to herself.

Because, for a second there, maybe she had been doing so.

Which was ludicrous. “I mean, my own reputation…this summer here, with Linc… I’m sure you’ve heard about that… ”

Was it actually possible to die of embarrassment? From self-inflicted humiliation, no less.

Jax was glancing back at Liam, probably trying to ease her disgrace as much he could do, with her being the one inflicting the ignominy on herself.

Without turning his head from is child, he said, “I know he was found dead a day or so after I got home. And that he’d approached a man about selling the man his adoption records. ”

She nodded. Still in disbelief over it all.

And eager to change the subject, too. “I went out with him a couple of months ago.” She filled him in on the rest of the story.

If she didn’t, someone else would at some point.

“And was dumped by him, too.” With no explanation whatsoever.

Not that she pointed that part out. Her words had brought his gaze straight to her.

He was studying her, open-mouthed. Like she was some kind of bug under a microscope.

She just couldn’t figure out if he was appalled, amused, or just wishing himself elsewhere.

Leaving her to further lament her bizarre behavior.

She’d never found a life calling. Just volunteered all over the land.

As the baby of her family, one who’d had to grow up without parents, she’d learned young to deal with life by just keeping herself busy with helping where help was needed.

She was a floater. And had just sailed a little too far into Jax’s waters.

He still wasn’t talking, the silence pressed on her, bringing awkward to new levels. Did she just duck away?

And avoid him in the small circle in which they ran?

“Anyway,” she said, “I hope you get an attorney who won’t stop until you’ve won, if you do have to go to court.

Ever since I first heard about your situation with Liam and then saw him when I brought the dogs out—I…

felt a bond with him. I lost both of my parents to a plane crash.

And the cousin I was raised with, she lost her mom in a crash.

It just feels right, somehow…purposeful…

and important that this child who also lost a mother has a father as dedicated as you are to be there for him.

And, seriously, if there’s anything I can do to help, feel free to reach out.

My uncle was there for me and my siblings, and I’d like to pay that forward if I could.

” The thought was brand-new to her. And rang with more truth than anything that had hit her in a really long time.

Jax blinked. He was watching her. Still giving no indication whatsoever what he thought about her embarrassing attempt to make it clear that she was not the least bit interested in him.

When, in truth, she was afraid that maybe she was.

Just a little.