Isabella Trueblood made histor reuniting people torn apart by war and an epidemic. Now, generations later, Lily and Dylan Garrett carry on her work with their agency, Finders Keepers. Circumstances may have changed, but the goal remains the same.

Lost

Her reputation. P.I. Jennifer Rodriguez was pregnant. And no way could she tell her traditional family there was no daddy in sight for her child. But Jen herself wasn’t born yesterday. She knew when to call in a favor.

Found

A phony fiancé. After Jennifer had successfully tracked down Ryan Madison, he’d said to call if he could ever help her out. And now was the time. He just had to show up with her at her parents’ place and pretend they were about to be married. Then he could disappear. It was no big deal. Except to lovestruck Ryan.

Finders Keepers: bringing families together

“Jennifer has a bun in her oven,”

Teresa piped up, a gap-toothed smile splitting her eager face, her brown eyes sparkling.

Jennifer’s heart stopped and her jaw dropped. Orange juice, halfway down her throat, came back up with a cough and she pressed her napkin to her mouth, her eyes watering.

“Niña, we all know Jennifer is not so good in the kitchen,” Carmen said, ruffling her daughter’s hair.

“No, she is,” Teresa insisted. “I think she’s taking cooking lessons.”

“Teresa, shh!” Jennifer hissed, watching as the rest of the guests began to turn their attention toward her youngest sister.

Ryan handed the little girl a sweet roll, waving it in front of her face. “Have something to eat, Teresa. Aren’t you hungry?”

Teresa took the roll. “Jenny and Ryan were in the garden last night and she told him she had a bun in her oven. I was listening from my tree house.”

Carmen’s eyes were wide. “And what else did Jenny say?”

“She said she’s knocked up, too. And she’s going to have a baby.”

“Oh, God,” Jennifer murmured.

Dear Reader,

I’ve always welcomed the chance to add a little variety into my writing life, so when my editor at Harlequin asked me to contribute a book to the TRUEBLOOD, TEXAS series, I couldn’t refuse. In the nearly thirty books I’ve written for them, I’ve never set a book in Texas. And the chance to learn more about Mexican-American culture was an added bonus!

A chance inquiry at my local library put me in touch with Cristina Capatillo-Fischer. She graciously agreed to help me “get it right,” and we spent many mornings at the library discussing Mexican wedding traditions, quinceañera celebrations and dinner menus. It wasn’t long before this Wisconsin girl knew the proper time to serve corn tortillas versus flour.

I hope you enjoy the next installment of TRUEBLOOD, TEXAS. The story of Jennifer Rodriguez, Ryan Madison and the baby between them was so much fun to write. I hope it’s as much fun to read!

Happy reading,

Kate Hoffmann

Daddy Wanted
Kate Hoffman

www.millsandboon.co.uk

The Trueblood Legacy

THE YEAR WAS 1918, and the Great War in Europe still raged, but Esau Porter was heading home to Texas.

The young sergeant arrived at his parents’ ranch northwest of San Antonio on a Sunday night, only the celebration didn’t go off as planned. Most of the townsfolk of Carmelita had come out to welcome Esau home, but when they saw the sorry condition of the boy, they gave their respects quickly and left.

The fever got so bad so fast that Mrs. Porter hardly knew what to do. By Monday night, before the doctor from San Antonio made it into town, Esau was dead.

The Porter family grieved. How could their son have survived the German peril, only to burn up and die in his own bed? It wasn’t much of a surprise when Mrs. Porter took to her bed on Wednesday. But it was a hell of a shock when half the residents of Carmelita came down with the horrible illness. House after house was hit by death, and all the townspeople could do was pray for salvation.

None came. By the end of the year, over one hundred souls had perished. The influenza virus took those in the prime of life, leaving behind an unprece-

dented number of orphans. And the virus knew no boundaries. By the time the threat had passed, more than thirty-seven million people had succumbed worldwide.

But in one house, there was still hope.

Isabella Trueblood had come to Carmelita in the late 1800s with her father, blacksmith Saul Trueblood, and her mother, Teresa Collier Trueblood. The family had traveled from Indiana, leaving their Quaker roots behind.

Young Isabella grew up to be an intelligent woman who had a gift for healing and storytelling. Her dreams centered on the boy next door, Foster Carter, the son of Chester and Grace.

Just before the bad times came in 1918, Foster asked Isabella to be his wife, and the future of the Carter spread was secured. It was a happy union, and the future looked bright for the young couple.

Two years later, not one of their relatives was alive. How the young couple had survived was a miracle. And during the epidemic, Isabella and Foster had

taken in more than twenty-two orphaned children from all over the county. They fed them, clothed them, taught them as if they were blood kin.

Then Isabella became pregnant, but there were complications. Love for her handsome son, Josiah, born in 1920, wasn’t enough to stop her from grow-ing weaker by the day. Knowing she couldn’t leave her husband to tend to all the children if she died, she set out to find families for each one of her orphaned charges.

And so the Trueblood Foundation was born. Named in memory of Isabella’s parents, it would become famous all over Texas. Some of the orphaned children went to strangers, but many were reunited with their families. After reading notices in newspapers and church bulletins, aunts, uncles, cousins and grand-parents rushed to Carmelita to find the young ones they’d given up for dead.

Toward the end of Isabella’s life, she’d brought together more than thirty families, and not just her orphans. Many others, old and young, made their way to her doorstep, and Isabella turned no one away.

At her death, the town’s name was changed to Trueblood, in her honor. For years to come, her simple grave was adorned with flowers on the anniversary of her death, grateful tokens of appreciation from the families she had brought together.

Isabella’s son, Josiah, grew into a fine rancher and married Rebecca Montgomery in 1938. They had a daughter, Elizabeth Trueblood Carter, in 1940. Elizabeth married her neighbor William Garrett in 1965, and gave birth to twins Lily and Dylan in 1971, and daughter Ashley a few years later. Home was the Double G ranch, about ten miles from Trueblood proper, and the Garrett children grew up listening to stories of their famous great-grandmother, Isabella. Because they were Truebloods, they knew that they, too, had a sacred duty to carry on the tradition passed down to them: finding lost souls and reuniting loved ones.

Kate Hoffmann is acknowledged

as the author of this work.

For Cristina, with thanks for your friendship

and all those mornings at Mead.

Contents

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

PROLOGUE

“MR. MADISON? Are you all right?”

Ryan Madison heard her words, even registered the concern in her voice, but the strange buzzing in his head made it impossible to form a reply.

Was he all right? This morning, when he’d walked into the trailer at Number 59, he hadn’t really bothered to consider the question. On the whole, his life was going pretty damn well. He was almost twenty-seven years old, considered a decent-looking guy without any major dental problems or personality disorders. He owned a very successful business in Midland, Texas—Madison Drilling and Oil—and made a good living. They’d just opened their fifty-ninth well. And though he wasn’t happily married with two point four children and a dog, he came from what he thought was a loving, supportive family—until now.

“I know this must be startling news,” she said, her voice lilting slightly with just a hint of a Spanish accent. “And I’m sure it will take some time to sink in.”

His attention was fixed on her mouth and he watched her form each word, as if in slow motion. She had a beautiful mouth, a shapely upper lip, like a Cupid’s bow, complemented by a soft, full lower lip. She’d introduced herself when she’d walked into the trailer, but suddenly, he couldn’t remember her name. Jane? Janice? No, Jennifer. He drew a slow breath and focused his thoughts. That was it. Jennifer Rodriguez.

When his drilling foreman had shown her in, Ryan’s curiosity had been piqued. Beautiful women didn’t wander into his trailer every day, or every month for that matter. Beautiful women were in short supply in the oil fields of the Permian Basin. And there was no arguing that Jennifer Rodriguez was beautiful. A breath of fresh air in the hot, dusty oil fields of West Texas.

When she’d introduced herself as a private investigator, he’d nearly laughed out loud. P.I.s were supposed to be balding, middle-aged men with potbellies, cigar-stained teeth and a world-weary attitude. Jennifer Rodriguez wore a pretty flowered dress that skimmed her slender figure. Her long dark hair tumbled in messy waves around her shoulders and her eyes were so brown they were nearly black. Her skin, kissed golden by the sun, looked so soft he was tempted to reach out and touch her face. Without thinking, he raised his hand and—

“Mr. Madison, perhaps it might be best if I leave you to think about everything I said. I’ll just wait—”

“No!” Ryan replied. If she left he’d be forced to face a reality he wasn’t ready to acknowledge. As long as she was here, he could allow himself the safety of a fantasy or two when doubts overwhelmed his common sense. Reluctantly, he glanced down at the sheet of paper in his hand—a birth certificate. It didn’t look anything like the document he had seen when he applied for his first passport. “I don’t understand. This isn’t me. This baby was stillborn. Why would you think this is me?”

“I’m working for a man named Ben Mulholland,” she said. “He was born on October 23, 1974, outside Austin. That’s the birth certificate of his twin brother.”

“I was born on October 23, 1974 in Austin, at a hospital,” Ryan said numbly. “And I’m an only child.”

“I’m sure if you look at your birth certificate, you’ll see the same doctor’s signature, nearly the same time of birth. We think you’re Ben Mulholland’s twin brother.”

Ryan shook his head. “Wait a minute. First, you tell me I’m adopted, that my parents really aren’t my parents. And now you tell me I have a twin brother? This doesn’t make any sense.”

“The doctor who delivered you was a baby broker. When he delivered you to your adoptive parents, he gave them a forged birth certificate. I think if you check closely, you’ll see that the doctor couldn’t have been in two separate places delivering two different babies.”

He raked his fingers through his dusty hair. “I—I don’t know— Why do you think—”

Jennifer reached out and placed her fingers on his forearm. “Mr. Madison, I realize this is—”

“Madison?” Ryan asked. He stared down at the spot on his skin where her fingers rested. They were warm and soft, delicately boned and oddly comforting. “You’re telling me my name isn’t Madison, it’s Mulholland.” A soft chuckle slipped from Ryan’s throat. The sheer absurdity of the situation was more than he could take in. “You’re wrong. You’re looking for someone else, some other guy born on October 23, 1974. Not me.” He pushed the birth certificate back at her. He was the son of Jeffrey and Rhonda Madison.

She held out another item and he noticed it was a photograph of himself—or was it? He snatched it from her fingers and stared at the image, the face so like his, yet just a bit different.

“That’s your brother, Ben. Your twin.”

“This is not my brother,” Ryan insisted. “I don’t have a brother.” But though he said the words, he wasn’t certain they were true. The man in the photo looked remarkably like the man he saw every morning in the mirror as he shaved.

“If that’s true, we can clear this up very quickly. I need you to come to San Antonio with me. There’s a doctor there waiting to give you a blood test.”

Ryan shook his head. “If you’re so sure of your proof, why do I need a blood test?”

“I haven’t told you everything,” Jennifer said. “There’s another reason we need to go to San Antonio.”

Ryan raised his eyebrow, then stepped away from her, shoving his hands into the pockets of his faded jeans to keep from touching her. “You mean, there’s more?” he asked, a sarcastic edge to his voice. He wandered over to his desk and idly began to flip through a stack of geological surveys. “Let me guess. There’s probably a case of amnesia involved. Maybe some family insanity, a few underworld connections. Hell, according to you, my life has suddenly become a cheesy soap opera.”

She grabbed his elbow and gently turned him until he faced her. “This isn’t some silly television show. This is real life. Ben Mulholland has a five-year-old daughter who has been diagnosed with leukemia. She needs a bone marrow transplant and the doctors haven’t been able to find a donor match through the network. Her father can’t donate because of a bout with malaria. If worst comes to worst and the right donor can’t be found soon, they’re hoping you might agree to help.”

He stared at her for a long moment, saw the emotion in her eyes, the hopeful expression. He’d always known someday a woman would walk into his life and change him forever. But he’d expected to fall madly in love and get married. He didn’t expect her to turn his whole world upside down and make him question who and what he was!

His gaze dropped to her mouth and he fought the temptation to kiss her. It had been so long since he’d kissed a woman, but he hadn’t forgotten how easy it was to lose himself in a warm and willing female. All the confusion that muddled his brain would slowly dissolve and he’d be left with only desire and the sweet taste of her mouth.

“She’s your sobrina,” Jennifer said quietly. “Your niece.”

“That, Miss Rodriguez,” he murmured, letting her name linger on his lips, “is yet to be determined.”

“Then come with me,” she urged. “If you’re sure it’s a mistake, we’ll prove it and you can get back to your life.” She reached into the pocket of her purse and produced a plane ticket. “We’ve got a flight out of Midland in two hours.”

“You were awfully certain I’d agree to come with you.”

A tiny smile curved the corners of her mouth, charming, enticing, revealing an impish streak that she’d kept hidden until now. “If you didn’t come willingly, I was going to knock you senseless and stuff you in the trunk of my car.” She turned and started toward the door of the trailer.

“You must be getting paid very well by Mr. Mulholland,” he said.

She turned back, her expression suddenly cool, but her eyes betraying a startling depth of determination. “This isn’t about money, Mr. Madison. This is about a little girl’s life.” With that, she stepped outside into the blazing sun, heat pouring into the air-conditioned trailer like a blast furnace.

Ryan smiled and smoothed his hands over the front of his sweat-stained T-shirt. He was tempted to slam the door behind her and refuse to follow her to San Antonio. But something in the way she looked at him, in the stubborn set of her mouth and trusting look in her eyes, made him want to do as she asked.

“I guess I’m going to San Antonio,” he murmured.

And even if he did prove Jennifer Rodriguez wrong, he’d still manage to come away with something worthwhile. He’d have spent the day with an incredibly intriguing and beautiful private investigator.

CHAPTER ONE

JENNIFER RODRIGUEZ stared up at the office building in downtown Midland. Inside was her salvation, the only person in the world who might be able to help her in this time of crisis. Though she hadn’t seen him since that day almost a month ago, she was hoping Ryan Madison remembered his promise to her as she’d left him at the hospital in San Antonio.

If there’s ever anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to call.

He’d taken her hand as he thanked her, though she couldn’t understand his gratitude. She’d walked into his life, dropped a bombshell of atomic proportions, then walked away. The chaos she’d wreaked on Ryan Madison’s life would reverberate for years to come. Jennifer sighed softly. The only satisfaction she’d found in the completed assignment was that she’d tried to help a little girl who wanted nothing more than to grow up strong and healthy. Ryan had been tested but was only a remote match.

But then just days later, a compatible donor had unexpectedly been found, a nearly perfect match for Lucy. Yesterday, Carolyn St. Clair had called from the San Antonio office of Finders Keepers, her voice filled with excitement, to say Lucy was so much better that she would be going home the very next day. She also passed on the good news that she and Ben Mulholland had exchanged wedding vows in Lucy’s hospital room. They’d be a real family now.

Jennifer thought back to the day she met Ryan, a day so full of startling revelations. She’d never expected to become so emotionally entangled in a case, her concern for both Lucy Mulholland and Ryan Madison weighing heavily on her mind. In truth, she hadn’t had a case of such magnitude since she’d started working in the tiny private investigations firm in downtown Odessa. That was probably because the Mulholland case had been her first real case—sort of.

She’d begun work at Budnicki-Morales Private Investigations a week after she’d graduated from the University of Texas-El Paso, leaving her family and hometown for an exciting life of her own in a brand-new city. The two veteran investigators had advertised for a bookkeeper and office manager at the campus job placement center and she’d found the possibility of working for private investigators intriguing. And Odessa was just far enough away from El Paso-282 miles to be exact—that her parents’ interference in her life was minimal.

Carmen and Diego had been so proud. She was the first Rodriguez to graduate college. And with a degree in accounting, she’d always be able to find work, setting a fine example for her four younger siblings. But from the first time she’d balanced the books for the two crusty old P.I.s, she’d known that she wasn’t cut out to simply count the company’s pennies. She wanted to be an investigator, just like Ralph Budnicki and Roy Morales.

She got her first break when Lily and Dylan Garrett started referring work from Finders Keepers in San Antonio. The workload doubled almost instantly with missing persons cases for the two licensed P.I.s and Jennifer found herself doing more and more investigative work. Recently she’d been promoted to assistant investigator by Ralph and Roy and had begun taking night classes to get her P.I. license.

She’d worked the Mulholland case from start to finish, and though a licensed investigator should have been the one to approach Ryan Madison, both Ralph and Roy thought Jennifer better suited to handle such a highly charged emotional situation. There was a benefit to being the only woman in the office.

Right now, Jennifer was thankful for the fates that had put her in Ryan Madison’s path. She smoothed her palms over the bodice of her cotton dress, ran her fingers through her perpetually windblown hair and started toward the front entrance to the office building. She’d reviewed her strategy over and over again, planning the exact words she would say to him, the perfect way to convince him to go along with her plan.

But there was one part of her plan she still hadn’t refined—the exact moment to tell him she was pregnant. Should she just blurt it out at the start or should she chat for a few minutes before carefully steering the conversation in that direction? Should she offer an explanation about the baby’s father or would it be better to gloss over that particular lapse in judgment?

At this point Ryan seemed her only hope. The prospect of telling her parents had been hanging over her head like a dark cloud for months, and it was only after she met Ryan Madison that she’d decided on a strategy. He had a good heart. Though he’d wanted to deny all she’d told him about his parentage, in the end, he’d done the right thing. He’d tried to give Lucy Mulholland a chance at life.

She stepped inside the quiet, air-conditioned lobby and headed toward the elevators, plucking at the damp fabric of her dress. For early October, the weather in West Texas had been unbearably hot. Though she wanted to appear fresh and confident for this meeting, she knew she looked damp and wrinkled.

As she rode the elevator to the seventh floor, she tried to slow her pounding heart. Was she really so nervous asking for his help, or was the prospect of seeing Ryan Madison again too much to bear? She couldn’t deny she found him attractive. Not just physically, though his broad shoulders, narrow waist and long legs were not lost on her. Nor was his handsome face, the high forehead and sculpted cheekbones, the impossibly straight nose.

On the outside he appeared supremely confident, but she’d seen a side of him that Jennifer suspected he didn’t show to the rest of the world. A side he kept hidden behind his striking hazel eyes. There was a vulnerability about him, and a depth of character that wasn’t apparent at first glance. He’d probably had his share of women, but she wondered if any of them knew the real Ryan Madison.

Jennifer stepped off the elevator and came face-to-face with a wide glass door. Fine lettering told her she’d found the place—Madison Drilling and Oil. Drawing a deep breath, she stepped inside and crossed the plush reception area to the front desk. “Good afternoon. I’d like to see Ryan Madison.”

The receptionist frowned. “Do you have an appointment?”

“No,” Jennifer said. “But I called earlier and his secretary told me he’d be in the office after lunch.”

“Then you have a delivery for him?” she asked.

“Not exactly. At least not right now. But I do need to talk to him.”

“I’m sorry, miss, but I’m afraid he can’t see you without an appointment.”

“Can you just tell him that Jennifer Rodriguez is here? I’m sure he’ll agree to see me.”

The receptionist regarded her suspiciously, then nodded and pushed a button on her phone. “Connie? Would you tell Mr. Madison there’s a Jennifer Rodriguez here to see him.” She waited, examining her perfectly manicured nails as she did. Jennifer glanced down at hers, nibbled short and unpolished. “What? Well, yes. I’ll show her right in.”

Jennifer gave her a smug smile before she trailed after her toward Ryan’s office. He met them both at the door, a look of astonishment on his face. “Miss Rodriguez. This is a surprise.”

“You remember me,” she said, gulping down the tremor in her voice.

He took her elbow and showed her into his office. “Of course I remember you. Though that whole day was a blur, I do remember you.”

She sat down in a chair and watched as he circled the desk. He wore a tailored suit and silk tie. His tanned skin contrasted sharply with his starched white shirt, and his hair, just a bit too long, brushed the collar of the shirt in boyish waves. The difference between the man she’d met at the drilling site and this man was startling. She’d remembered him as solid, rugged, with a blue-collar attitude about him. But this man was smooth, sophisticated, nothing like the man she’d pictured as she laid out her plan.

Jennifer pushed out of the chair, realizing that she was completely out of her element here. “I—I shouldn’t have disturbed you. I know you’re probably very busy and—”

“Please,” he said, “don’t go. I’ve actually been thinking about you.”

She slowly lowered herself back into the chair. “Did you know Lucy is going home from the hospital today?”

“Really?” Ryan asked. “I haven’t talked to Ben since that day in San Antonio. I took the blood tests, then came home the next day. Carolyn called me later in the week to tell me they found a match. I’m glad Lucy’s doing well.”

“Carolyn and Ben got married,” she commented. “They were engaged once, a long time ago, and the case brought them back together.” She drew a deep breath. “Kind of like it brought us together.”

“Right,” he murmured.

A long silence spun out around them as Jennifer scrambled for another topic. “How are things going with your parents? Have they explained everything?”

“They’ve tried to rationalize their side of the story,” Ryan replied, “but I’m not really interested in hearing their excuses. The bottom line is they paid ten thousand dollars for me in a supermarket parking lot. That’s all I really need to know.”

“They’re your parents,” she said, distractedly fiddling with the strap of her purse. “They’ve loved you for twenty-seven years. I think that should count for something.”

“Thanks to them, I’ll never know my real parents…the Mulhollands. They’re both dead.” He met her gaze squarely. “Did Rhonda and Jeffrey ask you to come here? Or are you here for Ben and Lucy?”

Jennifer shook her head. “I have a…personal reason for coming.” She clasped her hands on her lap and drew a steadying breath. “Remember, at the hospital, you told me that if there was ever anything you could do for me, I should just ask?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve got a client who needs a kidney transplant,” he teased.

His smile warmed her blood and made her heart beat a little faster. Asking for a kidney would probably sound less ridiculous than her own request. Was she crazy to think he’d agree? Maybe it was all the hormones racing through her body that had rendered her temporarily insane. With a silent curse, she rose to her feet, ready to make her excuses and leave. But the moment she turned toward the door, a wave of dizziness washed over her.

Jennifer covered her eyes with her hand and reached back for the chair. She hadn’t eaten lunch, and with the baby, if she didn’t eat something every hour or two, she got light-headed. In a heartbeat, Ryan was out of his chair and around his desk. He grabbed her arm and slowly helped her over to the sofa. “My God, you’re as white as a sheet.”

“I—I’ll be fine,” Jennifer murmured. “I just need something to drink. A glass of juice maybe. Or a cookie.”

“Lie down,” he said, fluffing a pillow behind her. “I’ll go get you something.”

Jennifer groaned and flopped back on the pillow as he hurried out. “Why not just barf on his shoes?” she muttered. “That would get his attention.” She closed her eyes and swallowed back a wave of nausea. For most of the day, she managed to forget the implications of her pregnancy—telling her parents about the baby, preparing for childbirth, raising a child as a single mother. And then the baby would speak to her from the womb, reminding her of how radically her life had changed over the past four months. And how much it would change over the coming months.

“Ay, chica estúpida,” she murmured. “You stupid girl. How did you ever get yourself into such a mess?”

* * *

“I NEED JUICE,” Ryan said, frantically rummaging through the refrigerator in the employee lunch room. “Why don’t we have any juice?”

Ryan’s secretary stood behind him, anxious to help. “There’s cranberry juice in the vending machine,” Connie said.

“I don’t know if she likes cranberry juice. Most people prefer orange juice. Or a piece of fruit. An apple would be good.” Ryan stared at the wide array of drinks they kept to offer to guests during meetings. Designer water, pop, some kind of cold coffee drink. But no juice. “Get me the cranberry juice,” he said, gathering up the lunch bags left inside the refrigerator. “And see if we have any cookies. She wants a cookie.”

Ryan turned and hurried back to Jennifer, lunch bags clutched in his hands. There had to be something decent to eat in them. By the time he got back to his office, some of the color had returned to her face. He sat down beside her on the edge of the sofa and dropped the bags around his feet. Pressing his palm to her forehead, he scanned her features. “Are you feeling better? You don’t feel warm. It could be heat exhaustion. It’s been very hot lately.”

Jennifer opened her eyes and smiled. “I’ll be fine.”

He let his palm linger for a long moment, delighting in the silken feel of her skin beneath his fingertips, soft strands of hair brushing the back of his hand.

“I don’t have a fever,” Jennifer murmured. “I’m pregnant.”

Ryan snatched his hand away, startled by her sudden confession. He opened his mouth, then snapped it shut. Had he heard her right? Had she just told him she was pregnant? “You’re…”

“Pregnant,” she repeated, glancing at his hand, which still hung in mid-air. “I don’t have the plague. I’m going to have a baby. And it’s not contagious.”

He coughed softly to cover his embarrassment. “I—I’m sorry. It’s just that…well, you don’t look pregnant.” In truth, he felt a little guilty for his fantasies, considering her condition. It was like lusting after a nun!

She stared down at her stomach with a morose expression. “I am. Nearly five months.” Pushing up on her elbow, she stared at him. “I haven’t told many people. It’s hard to say the words.”

“And—and your husband? How does he feel about this?”

Jennifer giggled. “And here I thought you were so smooth,” she teased.

“I’ve got a pregnant woman swooning in my office,” Ryan retorted. “And no juice to be had. Give me a break.”

“I don’t have a husband.” She ran her hand over her stomach, a barely noticeable swell the only evidence of her admission. “I don’t even have a boyfriend. The father, he doesn’t want anything to do with me or the baby, and I think that’s for the best.”

Connie appeared at the door with a can of cranberry juice and an orange soda. He pushed to his feet and grabbed the drinks, then returned to Jennifer’s side. “Here,” he said, offering her the juice. “Try this.”

She took a long sip, watching him over the rim of the can. “I’m really sorry,” she said, licking her lips. “I shouldn’t have come. This is my life, my problem, and I’m going to have to deal with it on my own. I shouldn’t have brought you into it.”

“You got a little dizzy in my office,” Ryan said. “That’s all.”

“That’s not all,” she said, a contrite expression suffusing her face. “I came here to ask a favor—a favor I probably have no right to ask.”

“Ask,” he said. “What do you need? Money? A place to stay? Some things for the baby? Whatever I can do.”

“I need a fiancé,” she said. “I need you.”

This time Ryan was taken completely off guard. His jaw dropped and his eyes went wide. “What?”

“My parents don’t know yet,” she said, the words tumbling out. “And I think it would be easier for them to accept if they thought I hadn’t been completely stupid. I need a fiancé, someone I can take home and introduce as the father of my baby. It won’t be a long-term job. After a few months, we’ll have a fight and then you’ll just disappear from my life. Please don’t feel any obligation. Like I said, this is my responsibility and I’m going to—”

“I’ll do it,” Ryan said softly.

“—have to deal with this sooner or later. It’s just that I come from a very strict Catholic family, and when Diego and Carmen find out they’ll—”

“I said, I’ll do it,” Ryan repeated.

The rest of her words froze in her throat and she blinked, as if she weren’t certain she’d heard him right. A slow smile curled the corners of her mouth. “You will? You’ll pretend to be my fiancé?”

“Yes,” he replied.

With a squeal of delight, Jennifer threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “¡Gracias! ¡Muchísimas gracias! Le estoy muy agradecida.”

Ryan drew back and looked down into her eyes, which were sparkling with excitement and relief. “Con mucho gusto,” he said. “You’re welcome.” Without thinking, he took her face between his palms and dropped a gentle kiss on her mouth. As soon as their lips met, he realized his mistake. But the urge to kiss her had been too much to deny and he couldn’t regret his actions.

Slowly, he pulled back, prepared to see indignation, perhaps even anger in her eyes. But her wide gaze showed only surprise—and a tiny hint of curiosity. Ryan was tempted to kiss her again, to see if she’d respond. After all, they were engaged, weren’t they? But his better judgment won out. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to—”

“No,” Jennifer interrupted, placing a finger on his lips. “It’s my fault. My family always tells me I’m too impetuous. I shouldn’t have kissed you first. I have to learn to think before I act.” Her gaze dropped to her lap. “After all, that’s what got me into this trouble in the first place.”

“But that’s what attracted me to you in the first place,” Ryan teased in a feeble attempt to lighten the moment. “Your passion and fire. The way you jump into a situation without even considering the consequences. I’m usually so careful and conservative. It’s our differences that made me fall in love with you.”

“In love?”

He grinned and brushed a strand of hair from her eyes. “I’m just practicing. Do I sound convincing?”

“Practicing for what?”

“For when I meet your parents,” he said, turning to pick up one of the lunch bags. He plucked out a sandwich bag filled with Oreos and handed her one. “I’m sure they’re going to wonder how we met. We should have a story worked out.”

Jennifer frowned. “I never thought that far ahead. I guess I didn’t expect you to agree to my plan.”

“See, you are too impetuous. Now, when is this meeting going to take place?”

“I’m supposed to go home to El Paso on Friday afternoon. This Saturday is my sister’s quinceañera. Her fifteenth birthday. It’s a big deal in our culture, kind of like your sweet sixteen and a debutante ball rolled into one. There’s a mass Saturday afternoon and a huge party with dancing and food on Saturday night. All the family will be there, my aunts and uncles and cousins. I figure my parents will be so distracted with the party plans, they won’t have time to focus on my news.”

“So when do we practice? We should at least get our story straight.”

“How about dinner at my house?” Jennifer suggested. “Tomorrow night. I’ll make pozole. It’s my specialty. Actually, it’s the only thing I know how to cook. It’s kind of like a thick soup made of pork and hominy.”

Ryan forced a smile. Hominy? He couldn’t say that he’d ever tasted hominy. “Sounds good. I’ll be there.”

Jennifer swung her legs to the floor and Ryan helped her to her feet, wrapping her delicate fingers in his hand. “I’ll drive you home,” he offered.

She tugged her hand from his, then shook her head. “I have my car. I’ll be fine. I just needed something in my stomach.”

“What about lunch?” Ryan asked. “Why don’t you let me buy you lunch?”

“Roy and Ralph need me back at the office. I’m working on a big parental abduction case and I’ve got a lot of work to do before I leave for the weekend.”

Ryan didn’t want to let her go and searched for any excuse to get her to stay. But in the end, he accompanied Jennifer to the lobby and watched as she walked out. Then he strolled back to his office, stepped inside and closed the door. A satisfied smile quirked the corners of his mouth.

Once again, Jennifer Rodriguez had barged into his life and turned it upside down. Only this time, he planned to make sure she stayed a little longer.

* * *

“MAMÁ, I promise, I’ll be there in time for Tía Yolanda’s arrival. We’re leaving right around lunchtime and we’ll be there before dinner Friday night.” She reached for the spoon and gave the pozole a stir, then bent down and adjusted the heat.

“We?” her mother asked. “Who is this we?”

Jennifer drew a deep breath, all too familiar with her mother’s nosy nature. “I’m bringing a friend home.”

“Ah, you’re bringing that sweet Elena? That girl from your building? I like her. She’s a good girl. She listens to her mother.”

“No, Mamá, not Elena. I’m bringing a…a friend. A friend who’s a…boy. A man, actually. A man—I mean, a boyfriend. I’m bringing home my boyfriend, all right?” A long silence echoed over the phone lines between El Paso and Odessa. “Mamá?”

“Who is this boy you’re bringing? What’s his name? Who are his parents?”

“He’s not a boy, Mamá. He’s a man. His name is Ryan. Ryan Madison. He’s very nice and very successful. Papi will love him.”

“Madison?”

“Yes, Mamá, Madison. Not Ruiz, not Hernandez, not Castillo. Madison, like the fourth president of our country.”

“Does he go to church?”

The doorbell rang and Jennifer glanced down at the dish towel tied around her waist. “Mamá, that’s him at the door. I’m cooking dinner for us tonight. You can interrogate him on his religious beliefs when we get there.”

“Well, I’ll tell your Papi that he isn’t in danger of losing his daughter,” Carmen said.

“And why is that?”

“Because once this man tastes your cooking, he won’t be back.”

“Goodbye, Mamá. I’ll see you on Friday evening. We’ll see you.” She dropped the phone in the cradle, then hurried over to the table and adjusted the colorful hand-painted Mexican stoneware on the bright tablecloth. She reached for the matches to light the candles, then decided candles might not send the right message.

After all, this agreement they had was strictly between friends. But they really weren’t friends yet. Perhaps acquaintances was a better description. But then, they were more than—

The doorbell rang again and Jennifer threw the dish towel onto the kitchen counter next to the stove and hurried to the door. At the last second, she raked her fingers through her hair and smoothed her palms over the skirt of her new dress. Though it wasn’t a maternity dress, it did have an empire waist. Her clothes had suddenly stopped fitting yesterday, as if she’d swallowed a basketball for breakfast, and she’d been forced to buy something new. Pasting a smile on her face, she pulled the door open.

Jennifer’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of him. She knew he was handsome—in a suit, in faded jeans, it didn’t really matter. Tonight, he wore immaculately pressed khakis and a pale-blue cotton polo shirt that set off his dark tan. His hair was still damp from a shower and it looked like he’d combed it with his fingers. “Hi,” she murmured, her knees going soft.

He pulled a bouquet of sunflowers from behind his back and held them out. “Hello, mi prometido. I’m sorry I’m a little late. I got tied up at the site.”

Jennifer laughed and took the flowers from his hand. “Come in. And it’s promitida. That’s the feminine form of fiancée. You’re my prometido.”

Ryan shrugged. “My Spanish is pretty lousy, isn’t it? I’ve been trying to learn. That way, when the guys on the drilling site are talking about me, I’ll know what they’re saying.”

“Come. Sit down. Dinner is almost ready.”

“How are you feeling?” he asked as he closed the apartment door behind him.

“Fine,” she said, grabbing a vase from an end table near the window. “No more dizzy spells.”

“Did you see your doctor?”

Jennifer shook her head, secretly pleased by his concern. “No, it’s nothing. I just have to be more careful about how I eat. Now, sit down and I’ll get you a drink. Would you like a beer?”

He nodded, slowly sat down, then frowned. “Do you smell that?”

“That’s my pozole,” Jennifer said proudly.

Ryan stood and stepped around her. “No, I really think something is—” He cursed and hurried over to the kitchen, where flames rose from the stove.

Jennifer screamed and hurried after him. “¡Ay, Dios mío! I’ll call the fire department. No, there’s a fire extinguisher… .” She paused, trying to remember where she’d put it. “Throw some water on it!”

Ryan calmly grabbed a stockpot from the rack over the breakfast bar and dropped it on top of the burning dish towel. Then he grabbed a saucepan and filled it with water, holding out his arm to keep her back. “It’ll go out in a few seconds.”

When he was satisfied that the fire was out, Jennifer hurried to the stove and pulled the cover off the pozole. But in her haste, she forgot to use a pot holder and the lid burned her fingers. She cried out and let it clatter to the floor, where it hit her big toe, which was sticking out of her sandal. The kitchen filled with the smell of scorched hominy and burned terry cloth as Jennifer’s eyes filled with tears.

Once again, the baby inside her seemed to hold the controls over her emotions, turning her from a babbling idiot to a blubbering fool in the blink of an eye. She couldn’t stop the tears from coming even though she wasn’t sure why she was crying. It wasn’t the ruined meal or her stinging fingers or even the smoke stain on her kitchen ceiling. It was…everything.

Jennifer buried her face in her hands and slid down to sit on the kitchen floor. A few moments later, she felt Ryan beside her, his fingers stroking her temple. “It’s all right,” he said. “The fire’s out. No damage done.”

She looked up at him through her tears and a giggle slipped from her throat. “I don’t care about the fire or the food. That’s the least of my worries. I’m such a mess. I can’t seem to control my emotions. I start crying at the drop of a hat. My life is in chaos and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be able to set it right.”

“I know how you feel,” Ryan said, tipping her chin up and capturing her gaze with his.

“Yeah, I guess you do.”

He grabbed her hand and gave her fingers a squeeze. “Why don’t we sit down on the sofa and relax. I’ll call for a pizza and we’ll get to work. You can make pozole for me again some other night.”

He gently helped her to her feet and led her over to the sofa, then returned to the kitchen to order the pizza. Ryan found a beer in the refrigerator and brought her a glass of orange juice. Then he settled on the sofa beside her, his arm draped over the back. “So, where do we start?”

“Well, since I know pretty much everything about you, we should start with me.”

“How do you know about me?” he asked after taking a sip of his beer.

“I did a pretty extensive investigation before I came to see you at the drilling site. A bachelor’s and master’s degree from Texas A and M, dean’s list, graduated cum laude, bought your first well with money you made in the stock market, built your business into a multimillion—”

“All right, all right,” Ryan said. “Let’s start with your family.”

“My papi, Diego, came from Mexico when he was fifteen. He worked picking vegetables in California until he found a job in a factory. He got his high school diploma going to night classes. He lived the American dream, working his way up, saving his pennies, until he and my mother bought a small electronics factory in El Paso. Now it’s huge and he makes components for the auto industry. I think you’ll have a lot in common.”

“And your mother?”

Jennifer slid down to the end of the couch and stretched her feet out in front of her, leaning back onto a throw pillow. “Mamá. She’ll be a little tougher. Her name is Carmen and she’s the glue that holds our family together. She’s lived in this country nearly all her life and she has very high expectations for her children. We all must go to college, find a good job and marry a nice Catholic.”

“Well, that will be a problem then,” Ryan said. “I’m not a very good Catholic. I haven’t been to church in ages, although I used to be an altar boy. That should count for something shouldn’t it?”

“It doesn’t make a difference since we really aren’t getting married,” Jennifer said with a smile.

He slipped her sandals off her feet and tucked her bare toes beneath his thigh. “Brothers and sisters?”

“Four. Joe is nineteen, Maria will be fifteen on Saturday, Linda is ten and Teresa is eight.”

“And Jennifer?”

“I’m twenty five,” she said. “I went to U of T in El Paso and got a degree in accounting.”

“Accounting,” he said. “Kind of an odd background for a private investigator, isn’t it?”

She sat up. “Now, there’s another problem we need to discuss. You see, my parents don’t know I’m a P.I. They think I’m an accountant for the office. I don’t think they’d approve, they wouldn’t find it respectable enough. So if the subject of my career comes up, which I’m sure it will, don’t tell them the truth.”

“I can vouch that you’re a good P.I.,” Ryan said. “Look how you tried to help Lucy. You couldn’t do something so important as an accountant, could you?”

“I guess not. It’s just that I’ve spent my life trying not to disappoint my parents and yet trying to live my own life. You don’t know the pressure of being the oldest child, the perfect little girl. I turned into a rebel at an early age.”

“You couldn’t have been that bad,” Ryan said, “to turn out so well.”

Jennifer gave him a grudging smile. “As a child, I was a tomboy. Always with tangled hair and skinned knees. In high school, I wore short skirts and ran with a fast crowd. In college, I partied a little too much. And look at me now. I was supposed to remain a virgin until I got married. Breaking that little rule will become quite obvious in another month.”

“What about the baby? How do you plan to tell them about that?” Ryan asked.

Jennifer groaned, then closed her eyes and flopped back on the pillow. “I don’t know. I was just going to wing it. Wait for the right moment and then tell them the whole thing all at once. I figured with Maria’s quinceañera and all the guests, there wouldn’t be a chance to interrogate me—or you.” She drew a shaky breath. “It’s probably going to get a little tense when we tell them about the baby and there will probably be a lot of accusations leveled at you.” Jennifer sat up and looked at him. “You can back out if you want. I’ll understand.”

He idly rubbed her leg, his palm sliding from her ankle along her calf and back again. Delicious sensations skittered over her skin at his touch. Though they barely knew each other, the action seemed perfectly natural. After all, he was her fiancé—at least for the next few months.

Still, it felt good to have a man pay attention to her. She’d been so lonely these past months, dealing with her pregnancy all by herself, wondering if she could handle so many changes on her own, frightened of what the future held. She felt safer when Ryan was near.

For the rest of the evening, they traded details of their lives and made up a few memories of their own—the night they met, their first kiss, the special spot where Ryan asked her to marry him, the first time they heard the baby’s heartbeat. And when they’d exhausted every subject and eaten the last piece of pizza, Jennifer walked Ryan to the door.

He bent closer and brushed a kiss on her cheek and then promised to be ready by noon on Friday. After she closed the door behind him, Jennifer reached up and touched her cheek, finding it still warm from the contact. She closed her eyes and sighed. Though it had been a nice kiss, she couldn’t help but wish that he’d kissed her like he had the previous day, his lips warm on hers, her face cupped between his palms.

For the first time since she’d thought of this preposterous plan, she actually believed it might work. With Ryan’s help, she felt as if she could accomplish anything. And it was clear he was a kind and charming man. How could her parents not fall in love with him? She already—

Jennifer sucked in a sharp breath and pushed the words from her brain. Yes, he was a wonderful man, the sort of man she might imagine spending her life with. But when she’d decided to have this baby, she’d also decided to raise it alone. She had her career and her own life and she’d worked hard at independence. She wasn’t about to give that all up now just because some guy had been nice to her.

“This will work,” she murmured. “I’ll tell my parents, I’ll come back to Odessa, we’ll break up and I’ll never see him again.”

But the thought of Ryan Madison disappearing from her life caused a sharp pang of regret. Was she really doing the right thing, using him like this? And would she be able to put him in the past and get on with her life as if she’d never known him?

CHAPTER TWO

“I DON’T KNOW what to say, darling. Do you want me to tell you we regret our actions? How can we? We found you. You became a part of our family.”

“You didn’t find me, you bought me,” Ryan said, his voice filled with bitterness. When the doorbell had rung, he’d expected to find Jennifer standing on the other side, ready to leave for El Paso. His heart had quickened as he pulled the door open; he’d been anxious to see her again. Instead, his mother had walked in, determined to straighten out everything that had gone wrong between them.

She was an attractive woman, trim and well-dressed, her ash-blond hair carefully styled into a simple pageboy. When he was growing up, he’d always been so proud of her. Rhonda Madison had been the prettiest mother on the block. Unlike some of the other mothers, her entire life revolved around Ryan—his school activities, sports. Anything that caught his interest caught hers as well. In hindsight, it all became clear. She’d been desperate to become a mother, and when she finally did, Rhonda Madison didn’t want to miss a single minute.

“Didn’t you ask questions?” Ryan demanded. “Like where I’d come from? What had happened to my parents?”

“He told us your mother was a teenage runaway,” Rhonda said. “We’d just turned over our entire life savings to this man. Your father might have been a little suspicious, but he wanted to make me happy and a baby was the only thing that could do that. We aren’t bad people, Ryan. And if we’d known you’d been stolen from your mother, we would have—”

“You would have bought me anyway?” Ryan asked. He waited for his mother to deny the accusation, but she didn’t.

“Have you talked to your…” The word stuck in her throat as if it pained her to say it. “The woman who gave birth to you?”

“You’ll be happy to hear she’s dead,” Ryan said, wanting to hurt her as much as she’d hurt him. “I’ll never know her, or my father. I do have a brother, though. And a niece.” Impatient to be done with the conversation, he glanced at his watch. “I have to get ready. I’m going away for the weekend.”

“Really?” his mother asked in a forced attempt at interest. “Where are you going?”

“El Paso,” he murmured. “I’m going to meet the parents of my fiancée.” Why he’d said it, Ryan didn’t know, for it was a bald-faced lie. Perhaps he’d meant to shock his mother, to draw her into another argument or maybe to drive home the fact that she wasn’t a part of his life anymore.

But she didn’t take the bait and the pained expression on her face caused a wave of guilt to rush over him. Sooner or later, he’d have to stop punishing her and accept what she and his father had done. But he wasn’t ready. Not yet. The wound was still too raw, and even after it healed a bit, he doubted that he’d ever be able to fully forgive them.

“Maybe, after you get back, you can bring your young lady to the house for dinner,” she suggested. “Your birthday is coming up. We could plan a barbecue.”

Ryan turned away from her and stuffed another shirt into his overnight bag. “Sure,” he muttered. He’d missed twenty-six birthdays with his real family, why not spend another one with the people who had been faking it? Suddenly, birthdays didn’t seem so important.

He heard her sigh in defeat and approach him from behind. When she placed her hand on his shoulder, he stiffened. He fought the urge to turn to her and gather her into his arms, to forget everything that had happened in the past month. But nothing could erase the lies they’d told.

In the end, she silently walked out the front door of his condo, leaving him to deal with his demons. Ryan furrowed his fingers through his hair and cursed softly. He’d never been a man to act on his emotions, choosing to think every word, every action out first. But since he’d learned of his true parentage, he couldn’t rely on his usual dispassionate nature anymore. Nothing made sense, and until it did, he’d just have to operate on instinct alone.

A soft knock sounded at the door and he spun around, ready to rebuff his mother again. But Jennifer stood in the open doorway, dressed in a pretty peasant blouse and a colorful skirt. She wore a straw hat on her head, her long hair tucked up beneath the crown. Like the sun appearing from behind a dark cloud, she instantly lightened his mood.

“What is it?” she asked, frowning. “You look upset.”

“Nothing,” Ryan murmured, gathering up his overnight bag and tucking his garment bag under his arm. “I just had a visit from my mother. Needless to say, it didn’t go well.”

“You shouldn’t punish your parents for this,” Jennifer said softly. “They didn’t know.”

“They should have asked,” Ryan countered.

“You can’t know what’s in a mother’s heart. Sometimes the need to have a child is so strong it hurts.”

Ryan’s jaw went tight and he fought the impulse to tell Jennifer to mind her own business. But if there was anyone he could talk to about his personal problems, it was her. And he didn’t want to break the tenuous connection they’d built between them. “I thought I’d drive,” Ryan murmured. “We can take my Lexus. I’ve got a CD changer and—”

“But I have a convertible,” she said, accepting the change in subject without further comment. “And it’s a beautiful day. Besides, I know a short cut through the desert. I bought some lunch for us and we can stop at Red Bluff Lake on our way there.”

Though Ryan would have preferred to determine the route and take his own car, Jennifer seemed so excited about the trip, he decided to throw caution to the wind and go along. After all, this was the new Ryan Madison, operating on instinct and emotion. He grabbed his bags and walked out behind her. Her little convertible was parked at the curb. It had to be at least ten years old and didn’t look as though it could make it through town, much less across all of West Texas. “Maybe we should take my car,” he said.

“Don’t worry,” Jennifer chided. “We’ll have fun.”

As they headed out of town, bypassing the interstate that went from Midland-Odessa to El Paso, Ryan realized why she’d chosen the route. It was obvious Jennifer didn’t believe in speed limits. Or stop signs or double yellow lines. She was in all probability the most aggressive driver he’d ever seen short of Al Unser or Richard Petty.

He relaxed a bit when they got out of town and sped toward Kermit. “Maybe we should use this time to brush up,” he shouted over the sound of the wind racing around them.

She turned and grinned at him, her eyes hidden beneath the brim of her hat and her dark sunglasses. “All right,” she said. “Ask me anything.”

He considered his first question carefully. He really wanted to ask her about the baby’s father, but Ryan knew he ought to leave that question for another time. “Jennifer. That’s an odd name for someone of your background.”

She laughed. “That’s my father’s doing. When he first came to this country, he loved to go to the movies. The only movie he’d ever seen in Mexico was Duel in the Sun, with Gregory Peck and Jennifer Jones. He saw it at an old cine when he was eight. And then he came to America and the first movie star he saw was Jennifer Jones, walking right down the street in Los Angeles. He took it as a sign from God that he was meant to live in this country. And that’s how I got my name.”

Ryan laughed. “All right, now it’s your turn. Ask me anything.”

“You were involved,” she said. “Nearly married a woman named Elise. Then you broke it off last year. Why?”

“You are a good investigator.” He sat back in his seat and stared out at the long dusty strip of road in front of them. “She was a friend of the family and we’d dated since we were in college. It just seemed as if we were together for all the wrong reasons. There was no…”

“Passion?” Jennifer asked.

Ryan nodded. “Yeah. Passion.”

Silence spun between them as the scenery sped by. In truth, he’d seen more passion and excitement in a few hours with Jennifer Rodriguez than he’d seen the entire time he’d been with Elise. With Jennifer, life was a series of surprises. He never knew what to expect or how she’d react. And though he’d always assumed he wanted a woman who was prudent and restrained, when he was with Jennifer, he felt more alive than he’d ever felt in his life.

Perhaps it had been the upheaval, the uncertainty that had changed his perspective. His life had been so orderly, so predictable. He knew who he was and where he was going. But since he’d learned the secrets of his birth, he didn’t feel like Ryan Madison anymore.

He glanced over at the beautiful woman sitting beside him, tendrils of hair whipping around her face, her lips curled in an impish smile. She glanced his way, then laughed, pressing her foot to the floor, the car accelerating smartly.

Ryan chuckled and tipped his face up to the intense afternoon sun. For the first time in his life, he felt completely free, unencumbered by expectations—his own and his family’s. He was a man with no past and an uncertain future, but the prospect of not knowing what was around the next corner didn’t bother him in the least.

Whatever had brought about the change, whether it was Jennifer herself or the news she’d revealed, didn’t matter. He was beginning to like the new Ryan Madison.

* * *

THEY PULLED INTO El Paso right on schedule. They’d stopped at Red Bluff Lake, and a few other towns along the way. Jennifer was beginning to realize that from now on, the baby would prevent these marathon drives. She had to go to the bathroom at least once every hour and there hadn’t always been a bathroom available. Squatting on the edge of the road had been a necessity, lightened only by Ryan’s good-natured teasing. She made a note to take the interstate home.

Compared with the flat landscape around Midland-Odessa, El Paso was like an oasis. Set on the Rio Grande and split by the Franklin Mountains, it had first been a huge cattle ranch before the railroads brought people and prosperity. On the other side of the river in Mexico was El Paso’s twin city, Ciudad Juárez. She steered the car toward the west side of town, to the lovely neighborhoods built around the Rio Grande Country Club.

The anticipation of seeing her family always brought a rush of excitement. But it was different this time. For all she knew, this might be her last visit. Once her parents learned of the baby, they might kick her out of the family. She looked over at Ryan. “Are you ready for this?”

He reached across and tangled his fingers in the hair at the nape of her neck. “As ready as I’ll ever be. I’ll just follow your lead, and if I say anything wrong, just give me a sign.”

She turned into a subdivision of spacious homes set on large lots and followed the winding streets. When she finally stopped near a sprawling hacienda-style home with melon-colored stucco and a red-tile roof, she drew a deep breath. The sound of music drifted from the backyard on the still air and cars filled the driveway and the surrounding street. No doubt the celebration had begun. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this,” she murmured.

Ryan leaned over and forced her gaze to his. “You have to do this, Jen. What are they going to say five months from now when you walk in the front door with a newborn?”

“You’re right,” she said, warmed by the familiar use of her name. She couldn’t recall hearing him say her name before and she liked the sound of it on his lips.

He smiled, then pressed a quick kiss to her cheek. “Here, I have something for you.” Ryan reached in his pocket and withdrew a small velvet-covered box, then held it out to Jennifer.

“Ryan, what have you done?” she said, snatching the box from his fingers and flipping it open. Inside, a lovely solitaire diamond sparkled in a simple platinum setting. “Oh, no, what have you done?”

“Don’t worry. I had big credit at the jewelry store. After Elise threw her ring back in my face, the store wouldn’t give me my money back. So, I guess you could consider it a freebie.”

She slipped it on her finger. In another, less pregnant time, it would have fit perfectly. But as she pushed it over her swollen knuckle, she wondered if she’d get it off again. Jennifer stared down at the diamond, twinkling in the light of the late-afternoon sun. “Thank you,” she said. Then with a soft laugh, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him hard. “This will be perfect. I’ll just wear the ring, and when they notice, we’ll tell them.”

When she finally drew back, her gaze met his. He stared down into her eyes for a long moment. As if drawn by an invisible force, their lips came together in a kiss so exquisitely soft and perfect that it took Jennifer’s breath away. She didn’t want it to end, the flood of sensation racing through her body like an addictive drug, calming her nerves yet setting them on edge at the same time.

He furrowed his hands through her hair and molded his mouth to hers, deepening the kiss. Desire warmed her blood and she melted into his arms, wishing that the kiss might go on forever. But a few moments later, he drew back and his gaze skimmed her face.

Her hands clutched at the front of his shirt. “What was that for?” she asked, her voice barely audible, her lips damp from his kiss.

“That was for luck,” Ryan said, leaning back into his seat.

“Maybe we should just turn around and drive back to Odessa,” she suggested.

Ryan gave her hand a squeeze. “We’ll get through this.”

With that, Jennifer gathered her resolve and opened her car door. Ryan did the same, then grabbed their bags from the back seat and followed her up to the house. But just as she put her hand on the doorknob, the door swung open in front of her.

Maria screamed and launched herself into Jennifer’s arms. “Mamá, Papi, Jenny is here!” She pulled her sister inside and Jennifer was swallowed up by her family’s greetings. Her brother, Joe, shouted at her from across the foyer and Teresa wriggled through the oncoming crowd of aunts and uncles and cousins to hug her legs. Linda followed close behind and picked Teresa up so that she could kiss Jennifer on the cheek.

As the crowd moved toward the kitchen, where they were sure to find Carmen and Diego, Jennifer looked over her shoulder and sent Ryan a pleading look. “Wait there,” she mouthed.

When she’d finally run the gauntlet of kisses and hugs from all the relatives, she made her way to her parents and hugged them both. Her father was a bear of a man, strong and solid, full of the same passion and spontaneity that Jennifer possessed. Her mother was the opposite, cool and controlled, a patrician woman who held her children to strict standards.

“Niña,” her father shouted, gathering her in his arms. “Your mother says you’ve brought a young man home. Where is he? He wasn’t scared off already, was he?”

“He’s waiting in the foyer, Papi,” she said, ignoring his good-natured teasing.

Her mother drew a dramatic breath and smoothed her silver-gray hair. “Well, Diego, let us go meet the boy.” She grabbed her husband’s arm and started toward the front of the house, giving Jennifer no choice but to hurry after them. Her parents stopped short when they saw Ryan standing in the spacious foyer, bags surrounding him.

Carmen nodded curtly, her gaze raking Ryan shrewdly. “Bienvenido. Welcome to our home.”

Jennifer quickly stepped around them and took her place at Ryan’s side. “Mamá, Papi, I’d like you to meet my…friend, Ryan Madison. Ryan, these are my parents, Carmen and Diego Rodriguez.”

As the three of them exchanged pleasantries, Jennifer chided herself inwardly. What a wimp she was! Why not just introduce him as her fiancé and get that out of the way? She’d have been halfway there after barely walking in the door. She twisted the ring around on her finger until the diamond was cradled in her palm.

“Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” Ryan said, reaching out to shake their hands. “Jennifer has told me so much about you.”

“Funny, she hasn’t told us a thing about you,” Carmen murmured, grudgingly impressed with his easy charm and impeccable manners but still reserving judgment for later.

“Carmen, haven’t you forgotten something?” Diego teased.

Jennifer’s mother looked over at her husband. “And what is that?”

“You’ve forgotten to tell Jennifer she hasn’t been eating.” He turned to Ryan and chuckled. “It’s part of their little ritual. Carmen tells Jennifer she’s too skinny and Jennifer tells Carmen that she eats plenty. Jennifer tells Carmen to mind her own business and Carmen tells Jennifer to mind her elders.”

“Well, I didn’t say anything because Jennifer looks fine. In fact, she looks as if she has gained weight.” Carmen nodded. “You look healthy, niña.”

Jennifer sent Ryan a sideways glance and he returned a reassuring smile. “Actually, Mamá, I have gained a few pounds.” She slipped her hand around Ryan’s arm. “And I’m sure you have lots of things prepared to fatten me up even more.”

“Come along, then, Ryan,” Carmen ordered. “We will introduce you to the family and get you both something to eat.”

They followed a few steps behind her parents. “Coward,” Ryan whispered.

“Don’t rush me,” she muttered. “All in good time.”

But as they were both drawn in to the whirl of the barbecue, the right time never seemed to appear. Jennifer tried to keep an eye on Ryan as she mingled with the guests. He’d found a friend in her eight-year-old sister, Teresa, who dragged him from spot to spot in the backyard, introducing him to curious relatives and showing off her special hiding places. Like Jennifer as a child, Teresa was a tomboy and preferred to spend her time up trees or crouched behind bushes, knees muddied and hair tangled.

When they finally met up near the edge of the swimming pool, Jennifer felt compelled to apologize. “I know this is a little overwhelming. There have to be at least a hundred people here.”

“It’s quite a celebration,” Ryan said, casually slipping his arm around her waist as he stared out at the boisterous crowd. “Are they all relatives?”

“Relatives and friends. Some are Maria’s padrinos—her sponsors. They help pay for the quinceañera celebration, at least in spirit, since Papi won’t let them pay for anything big. They contribute little things like the bouquet for the Virgin Mary and the souvenirs for the guests and Maria’s crown and ring. They also give her the capias and the capia doll.”

“Capia?”

“The capia doll is like a keepsake, a doll made up to look just like the quinceañera in all her birthday finery. And the capias are ribbon favors with Maria’s name and the date printed on them. The doll is covered with the ribbons, and after they’re all distributed to party guests, the doll is revealed.”

“And you went through this when you were fifteen?”

Jennifer smiled and shook her head. “No. I was the family rebel. Of course, I had the mass and I was forced to wear a pretty dress. But I insisted on a small party with just close family. And I made my father give all the money he’d put aside for my quinceañera to a homeless shelter. Maria, on the other hand, prefers to follow tradition and spend as much of Papi’s money as possible.”

“I didn’t expect anything quite so elaborate.”

“If you think this is big, wait until tomorrow. There’s the mass and then the party. Tomorrow morning the party planners and caterers and musicians will come and transform the backyard into something resembling a fairyland. Maria will have her court of honor—probably fourteen damas and chambelanes, plus Teresa for her flower girl and Linda for her princess. After the mass, they’ll all walk in with her and Mamá and Papi and the padrinos. That’s called la marcha. Knowing Maria’s flair for the theatric, there will be choreographed dancing. It all leads up to the big moment—the presentation, when la niña is transformed into una señorita. When she changes from a girl to a young lady.”

“How does that happen?” Ryan asked.

“She changes her shoes,” Jennifer said.

“No, really, I want to know.”

“That’s how it happens. She’ll begin a waltz with Papi and then the music will stop and she’ll walk to a chair in the middle of the dance floor in flats. Then Mamá will change her shoes to heels and she’ll finish her waltz with Papi. And after that, she’ll dance with all her chambelanes, the boys on the court. Those are mostly cousins and sons of Papi and Mamá’s friends. She saves the last dance for her chambelán de honor, which will probably be my brother, Joe.”

Ryan released a long breath. “Wow, it’s like a wedding.”

“It’s bigger than a wedding,” Jennifer said.

He turned to her and tugged her closer. “I’m glad you asked me to come. Meeting your family gives me a keener insight into you.”

“And what have you figured out?”

“That you’re a pretty fascinating woman,” he said.

She playfully bumped against him. “You are too charming, Ryan Madison. No wonder my sister Teresa is in love with you.” Jennifer pointed to a tree at the other end of the pool. “She’s watching us. Why don’t you go over and ask her to dance. You’ll make her day.”

Jennifer watched as he circled the pool and stood beneath the old cottonwood tree. He held up his arms and Teresa jumped into them. He set her down and she wiped the dirt from her hands on her pretty white dress. Before long, they were dancing the night away on the makeshift dance floor.

Jennifer managed to steal a dance with him, a pretty Julio Iglesias ballad, after Teresa was ordered to bed. They moved around the terrace to the soft sounds of the small mariachi combo and the high, wavering voice of the singer. Jennifer looked over to the house to find her parents watching them both from the terrace. “Maybe we should tell them now,” she murmured, resting her cheek against Ryan’s chest, exhaustion suddenly overwhelming her.

“Not just yet,” he said, his breath soft on her temple.

She sighed softly, then drew a deep breath, enjoying the scent of his cologne. “All right,” she murmured. “Not just yet.”

In the end, they danced until the band stopped playing, both of them anxious to avoid the conflict that would surely accompany Jennifer’s revelations. As the party guests slowly made their way home, she walked with Ryan to the house, then showed him to one of the three guest rooms that her mother had prepared.

“I guess we’ll tell them tomorrow,” she said, standing outside the door. “Maybe that’s for the best.”

Ryan pulled her into his arms and gave her a hug. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he said, his fingers skimming her cheek. He wanted to kiss her then, she could see it in his eyes. And she wanted him to capture her mouth and send sweet, stirring sensations racing through her body. But during the party, they’d been playacting, pretending to be a devoted couple for the benefit of her family.

Here in the hall outside his room, it was just the two of them. Two people with nothing more between them than a simple favor. “Yes,” she murmured. “I’ll see you at breakfast.”

He slipped inside his bedroom and closed the door behind him. Jennifer groaned inwardly and leaned back against the wall. Then she glanced down at the diamond she’d kept hidden all night long. She’d never thought much about marriage, never dated a man with whom she’d consider spending her life. But this little game they were playing had given her a taste of what a real relationship might be like.

A soft sigh slipped from her lips and she reached up and rubbed her forehead. It would be so easy to fall for him. But was this really the first stirrings of love she felt? Or was it just desperation? Was she looking for a man to spend her life with or was she simply looking for a father for her baby?

She pushed away from the wall and slowly walked toward her room at the end of the hall. The only thing she knew for sure was that she wouldn’t figure it all out in one night.

* * *

THE NIGHT WAS perfectly silent, so quiet Ryan could almost hear the stars twinkling in the dark sky. He stretched out on a chaise longue at the far end of the pool and stared down into the illuminated water. The reflection cast wavering shadows all around him, lulling him into a contemplative mood.

His thoughts turned to Jennifer and he glanced out across the wide lawn to the house and tried to imagine her lying in bed, her hair tumbled across her pillow in silken waves, her lips parted slightly as she slept, her body warm and inviting.

As he’d tossed and turned in his own bed, he fought the urge to slip into her room. To wake her and spend just a few more hours in her company, holding her, talking in quiet words. He’d grown to love the sound of her voice, the lilting trace of Mexico that made every sentence like a tiny phrase of music. And her eyes, glittering with mischief or filled with emotion, so dark and deep he could disappear inside them…

Ryan closed his eyes, drawing deeply of the cool air. The sounds of the night surrounded him, and when he opened his eyes again, his gaze came to rest on a vision…a dream that had suddenly become real.

She walked down the steps of the terrace, barefoot, her hair blown by the soft breeze, her nightgown made translucent by the light behind her. He watched her limbs move gracefully beneath the thin fabric as she strolled toward him. When she reached the pool, the light from the water illuminated her face. At that moment in time, Ryan was certain he’d never seen anything or anyone quite as beautiful.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked.

“I couldn’t sleep,” he said, ignoring the flood of desire that had pooled in the vicinity of his lap. “Strange room, strange bed.”

“Strange situation,” Jennifer added. “But you did a good job tonight. I think everyone believed we were a couple.”

“Good. It wasn’t too difficult. You’re pretty easy to be nice to.”

Jennifer smiled. “Have I told you how much I appreciate what you’re doing?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Several times.”

She crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “It seems like a lot to do. I mean, in comparison with what I did for you. I turned your life upside down and you’re trying to help me keep mine upright.”

“It’s all right.”

“No, it’s not,” Jennifer said. “I feel like I owe you an explanation.”

He patted the cushion between his legs. “Sit.” Jennifer did as she was told, settling between his legs and leaning back against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her bare shoulder, the scent of her perfume tickling his nose. God, he loved holding her. Her body seemed to fit perfectly against his. “You don’t have to say anything. I don’t need explanations.”

“But I want to tell you,” she said. “I haven’t told anyone and maybe it’s time I talked about it.”

“All right,” Ryan said softly.

She paused for a long moment, as if putting all the words in order before she began. “We met at a lunchtime concert at Odessa College right before Memorial Day. Our offices are close by and I picked up lunch and decided to go listen to this bluegrass band. He sat down beside me and we started talking.” She paused again. “His name was Jim Kestwick and he was a nice guy, clean cut, well-mannered. It turns out he’s an officer in the Navy and he serves on an aircraft carrier. He was visiting his parents on leave. We spent three days together and he was charming and exciting and I thought I knew what I was doing. Then he told me he was engaged to a woman who lived out East. God, what a cliché I am! I thought I was smarter than that.”

“It’s not your fault,” Ryan said, smoothing her hair with his fingers. “Men can be such jerks.”

She glanced over her shoulder, twisting in his embrace until she could look at him. “I’ve never done anything like that in my life. When I realized I was pregnant, I called him. He came home once more before his ship was deployed again, so I met him and we talked. First, he didn’t believe the baby was his. Then he didn’t want anything to do with either one of us—me or the baby—and I guess I was glad that he’d made that decision. It made my life simpler.”

“So you decided to have the baby alone,” he murmured.

“There was no decision to be made. I know I can be a good mother. And though this isn’t the traditional route to parenthood, I’ve never been a very traditional person.” She drew a ragged breath than let it out slowly. “It feels good to tell someone. I’ve been so reluctant to talk about it. I didn’t want people to think less of me, although they’d have good reason.”

“I don’t think less of you,” he said.

“Somehow, I knew you wouldn’t. That’s why I wanted to tell you.”

“Now you just have to tell your parents.”

Jennifer stiffened slightly as she turned back to stare at the pool. “And how do you think I should do that?” She sat up. “‘Mamá and Papi, I’ve got a bun in the oven,’” she said in a firm voice, emphasizing the statement with a sweep of her arms. “‘I’m knocked up,’” she said a little louder. “‘I’m expecting,’” she said, her voice carrying in the still night air. “‘Surprise, surprise, I’m going to have a baby!’”

“Any one of those would probably do the trick,” Ryan said. “And if you shout any louder, you’ll wake up the entire household. Now, what am I supposed to say?”

“You don’t have to say anything,” she said.

“But it takes two to make a baby, Jen. Don’t you think they’ll want some type of explanation…or apology…or a nice pound of flesh? After all, I’m the one who put the bun in the oven—or at least that’s what we want them to believe. Your father doesn’t own any guns, does he?”

“You’re a man. According to my mother, it’s part of your nature to seduce every woman in your path. At least that’s what she’s been telling me since the moment I started noticing the opposite sex. Too bad I didn’t listen. I might not have ended up in this predicament.”

“And what happens after we tell them?”

“We’ll say we want to wait to get married until after the baby’s born. After a couple of months I’ll explain that we broke up. Maybe we had an argument about my job. Or how to raise the baby. It doesn’t really matter.”

“They’re not going to like me much,” he murmured. “That’s too bad, because I kind of like them.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. Your family is great. I mean, they’re so…real. So big—their laughter, their love. It’s different from what I’m used to. My parents always seemed so proper, as if they followed some manual on how to be the perfect parents.” He smiled. “When I was a kid, I used to ask my mother and father for a brother. All my friends had siblings and I wanted one of my own. I remember once when I asked my mom got all teary-eyed and ran out of the room. My dad said she had a cold, but I knew she was crying. I guess that wasn’t in the manual. After that, I didn’t ask anymore.”

“Was it hard? Growing up an only child?”

“I didn’t know any differently.”

She placed her hand on her stomach. “I hope that my baby has brothers and sisters.”

“I’m sure someday you’ll find someone. Someone who’ll be a wonderful father to your baby and give you a huge and happy family.”

“Do you think so?”

Ryan nuzzled his face into her hair, so gently she didn’t even notice. “You’re a beautiful, intriguing woman. A man would be lucky to spend his life with you.”

Jennifer sighed softly and leaned back against him. He wrapped his arms more tightly around her, and as they sat staring up into the night sky, the truth of his feelings drew into sharp focus.

Though he wanted to believe that Jennifer’s happiness was foremost in his heart, he couldn’t ignore his own selfish motives. If Jennifer’s baby needed brothers and sisters, he wanted to be the one to provide them. And if Jennifer spent the rest of her life with just one man, then he was going to make sure that man was him.

Now he just had to figure out how to make it all happen.

CHAPTER THREE

“WAKE UP, wake up! Today is my quinceañera!”

Jennifer groaned, then grabbed her pillow and pulled it over her head. “Go away,” she muttered. “It’s too early.”

“It’s nearly ten,” Maria countered. “Mamá says to come down. Everyone is here for almuerzo and Mamá won’t let us eat until you come down.”

More food, Jennifer mused as she rolled over. This time, a late breakfast.

Maria tugged on the pillow. “Your sweetie is up. He and Papi are standing in front of the garage having a very serious talk.”

She bolted upright, tossing the pillow aside. How could he already be up? They’d stayed outside talking into the wee hours before dawn. It was only after she’d fallen asleep in Ryan’s arms that he’d insisted she go to bed, tucking her in before he disappeared to his own room. “What are they talking about?”

“How should I know?” Maria said, scrambling from the bed. She stood in front of the dresser mirror and piled her shoulder-length hair on top of her head. “How do you think I should wear my hair? Mamá told me I have to wear it down, but I think I should wear it up. What do you think?”

“I think I’m way too intelligent to get in the middle of an argument between you and Mamá,” Jennifer replied, searching her garment bag for a dress that wasn’t too wrinkled.

Maria put on a pretty pout. “But you have a way with Mamá. She listens to you.”

Jennifer glanced over her shoulder. “What? Mamá doesn’t listen to me.”

“Yes, she does. She thinks you’re very independent and very together. She’s constantly telling me I should be more like you. That I should take my life more seriously and think about my future.”

Stunned by the revelation, Jennifer didn’t know what to say. She gnawed on her bottom lip. Her mother had always been so disapproving of her choices—at least on the surface. What would she have to say about the very independent notion of a single mother in the family? Jennifer certainly wasn’t setting a good example for her younger sisters on that score.

“I think you should follow your own path,” Jennifer said, crossing the room to stand beside Maria at the mirror. “And if you want to wear your hair up, then that’s what you should do.”

“Yes, I think I will.”

Jennifer slipped her arm around Maria’s shoulders and smiled. “Feliz cumpleaños, hermanita. Happy, happy birthday.”

Maria kissed her cheek, then ran out of the room, her mind already on other, more important events of the day. Before the late-afternoon mass, she’d be primped and pampered, her hair coiffed, her nails and toes buffed. For today, Maria was the center of the universe. Jennifer tugged her dress over her head. Was it fair to disrupt the celebration with her own news? She glanced at the engagement ring Ryan had given her. Maybe she could wait until right before they left tomorrow morning. That way if things got too heated they could just drive away.

She washed her face quickly and ran a brush through her hair, dabbed on a bit of lipstick and grabbed her shoes before running downstairs barefoot. Following Maria’s direction, she found her father and Ryan standing in front of the garage, deep in conversation. She hurried over. “Good morning!”

Her father grinned and opened his arms. “¡Buenos días, niña! Did you sleep well?”

Jennifer smiled at Ryan. “Very well, Papi.”

As an afterthought, Ryan brushed a nervous kiss on her cheek. “Morning,” he murmured. He reached down and wove his fingers through hers. “Your father and I were just having a nice talk.”

“Ryan was telling me all about his business. And I was telling him all about mine. This young man has a very bright future. Fifty-nine oil wells. Don’t let him get away, niña, or he’ll make a fine husband for some other girl.”

“I—I won’t, Papi,” Jennifer said. “Maria says brunch is almost ready. Everyone is gathered on the terrace.”

“Well, then we better hurry. Your mamá has a strict schedule for today. We wouldn’t want to do anything to upset it, now, would we?”

“No, Papi.”

Diego set off for the backyard and Jennifer and Ryan followed. “How did you really sleep?” Ryan whispered.

“I didn’t,” Jennifer replied. “Just a few hours. I couldn’t stop thinking about my announcement. I’ve decided we should at least wait until late tonight, after the party. That way, my parents will be so exhausted, they won’t have the energy to argue. What do you think of that plan?”

“Whatever you decide,” Ryan said.

“And then I was thinking, we could wait until tomorrow morning, right before church. That way Mamá can go to the priest for consolation and I can go to confession. That might make it easier. Or maybe, right before we leave for home. That way, we can make a quick escape.”

Ryan drew her to a stop and turned her to face him. “Jen, there’s never going to be a good time. You have to tell them this weekend, and if you wait much longer, there won’t be any weekend left.”

“I—I will. I promise.”

“Would you rather I took your father aside and told him first? Maybe he could tell your mother and break it to her gently?”

“You’d do that?” Jennifer asked, her voice filled with relief and gratitude. “That might work. Papi already likes you. And he has a way with Mamá. Oh, yes, let’s do it that way. You can tell him tonight, after the party.”

Ryan nodded. “All right. It’s a plan. Now, let’s go get some breakfast.”

When they arrived in the backyard, nearly everyone was seated at the long tables her mother had set up. Only close relatives had been invited to share in the meal—Jennifer’s aunts and uncles and cousins, totalling nearly thirty. Once again, her mother had gone overboard with the food. The tables were loaded with tasty dishes—huevos rancheros, jamón and salchichas, and pan dulce, her mother’s famous homemade sweet rolls. Baskets of corn tortillas were placed in the center of the tables and platters of fresh fruit were passed from guest to guest while her mother poured orange juice and coffee.

Jennifer slid into a spot next to Tía Yolanda, her father’s only sister, kissing her cheek as she wished her buenos días. Ryan sat beside her, and Teresa, hovering in the background, took the last empty spot beside Ryan. She looked up at him with adoring eyes and Jennifer shot her a scolding look.

When everyone was settled, Diego rose solemnly. “Familia, amigos. With this meal, we begin a very special day for my niña, Maria. I hope you’ll join me in wishing her feliz quinceañera.” He held up his glass of orange juice. “May the Lord bless this day and may he bless our girl, Maria.”

The rest of the guests held up their glasses and joined in the toast. After a short prayer, the meal began in earnest. Tía Yolanda, known for her great appreciation of food, piled Jennifer’s plate high. When the pan dulce made its way to their side of the table, she took two sweet rolls for herself and handed one to Jennifer. “Your mama has a way with her oven,” she said, laughing boisterously. She turned to look for Carmen. “Carmen! I was just telling Jennifer that you have a way with your oven!”

Carmen smiled and made her way over to Yolanda. “Yolanda, you like my baking?”

“¡Muy buena! ¡Me gusta!”

“Jennifer has a bun in her oven,” Teresa piped up, a gap-toothed smile splitting her eager face, her brown eyes sparkling.

Jennifer’s heart stopped and her jaw dropped. Orange juice, halfway down her throat, came back up with a cough and she pressed her napkin to her mouth, her eyes watering.

“Niña, we all know Jennifer is not so good in the kitchen,” Carmen said, ruffling Teresa’s hair.

“No, she is,” Teresa insisted. “I think she’s taking cooking lessons.”

“Teresa, shh!” Jennifer hissed, watching as the rest of the guests began to turn their attention toward her youngest sister.

Ryan handed the little girl a sweet roll, waving it in front of her face. “Have something to eat, Teresa. Aren’t you hungry? If you eat that whole roll, I’ll play fútbol with you after breakfast.”

Teresa took the roll. “Jenny and Ryan were in the garden last night and she told him she had a bun in her oven. I was listening from my tree house.”

Carmen’s eyes went wide. “And what else did Jenny say?”

“She said she’s knocked up, too. And she’s going to have a baby.”

“Oh, God,” Jennifer murmured.

“There it is,” Ryan said.

“¡Dios mío!” Carmen stumbled backward, the pitcher of orange juice slipping from her fingers and shattering at her feet. “Is—is this true, Jennifer? Did Teresa hear right?”

Jennifer looked from her mother to her father, who was slowly rising from his chair, then to all the relatives, who were waiting with undisguised curiosity for her reply. Frantic to repair the damage done by Teresa’s announcement, she scrambled for a way to cover. She slowly stood and cleared her throat. “Mamá, Papi, I—I have something to tell you both.” She pasted a bright smile on her face, but it did little to alter her parents’ glowering expressions. Then, she glanced down at Ryan and he rose to stand beside her.

Tears pressed at the corners of her eyes, but she brushed them away. Now was not the time to turn into a blubbering idiot. She glanced down at the ring, twisting the diamond onto the top of her finger. Trembling, she held out her hand. “Ryan and I are engaged,” she murmured, emotion clogging her throat. “And—and we’re going to have a baby.”

The guests fell quiet, everyone except Tía Yolanda, who groaned softly and fanned her face with her napkin. But the silence didn’t last long.

A wail burst from Maria. “Mama, she’s ruined my quinceañera!”

The guests’ silence dissolved into excited chatter. Linda began to whine that she didn’t understand what buns had to do with a baby. Joe sat at the end of the table, chuckling and shaking his head. Diego shoved his chair back and stalked around the table to join Jennifer’s mother. “Is this true?” he asked Ryan. “Have you ruined my daughter?”

Ryan drew a deep breath and slipped his arm around Jennifer. “Mr. Rodriguez, I love your daughter. And though we may not have followed the traditional route, we are both devoted to each other and to this child. Now, you can accept that or you can send us both from this house. But this baby is your first grandchild and I would hate to think that you’re going to miss out on a single moment of his or her life.”

Jennifer stared up at Ryan, caught by the power and candor of his words. She couldn’t help but wish they were all true. That he did love her and that they were devoted to each other, that this wasn’t all a big lie. Her gaze jumped to her father, whose expression had softened slightly. Her mother, on the other hand, looked completely aghast, as if she’d just seen Tía Yolanda strip off her clothes and dance naked on the breakfast table.

“Can we discuss this in private?” Jennifer asked.

Carmen shook her head. “Diego, this is Maria’s day and I do not want anything to spoil it. We will discuss this later.” She sent Jennifer a glare that made daggers look dull. “I will deal with you later.” Sucking in a sharp breath, she forced a smile and glanced around the breakfast table. “Well, this is wonderful news, is it not? We have many things to celebrate today, but most important is Maria. Now, we must eat. The food is getting cold. Maria, go get your crown and show Tía Yolanda how pretty it is.”

With that pronouncement, the guests understood precisely what Carmen Rodriguez expected of them. Jennifer’s news was to be pushed aside for the more important events of the day. It was not to be mentioned until after Maria’s quinceañera.

Jennifer and Ryan slowly sat back down in their places and smiled wanly as the dishes were passed to them.

“Well,” Ryan murmured after the conversation had turned back to Maria. “Though that didn’t exactly follow the plan, I think it went well, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Jennifer replied numbly. “I think it went very well.”

* * *

“THIS BABY will not be born outside the sanctity of marriage! We will plan a wedding for the beginning of November. Four weeks should give us plenty of time to make all the arrangements, to post the banns, and for you to take your classes with the priest.”

The house was silent. The last guest had left a half hour ago, just before midnight. The belle of the ball, Maria, had wearily kissed her parents good-night and wandered up to bed, her pretty white dress wilted and her crown askew. Teresa and Linda had retired before ten, and Joe had gone for a late-night pizza with a few of his cousins, who had served as chambelanes.

Jennifer groaned. “Mamá, we can’t possibly plan a church wedding in four weeks. Ryan and I have decided that we’ll wait until the baby is born before we get married. That way it won’t be so obvious to all the wedding guests.”

“Well, it will not be obvious if we rush the wedding along,” Carmen insisted. “If Teresa would not have blurted out your condition for everyone to hear, I never would have suspected. Of course, there will be whispers. Siete mesino.”

At Ryan’s confused expression, Jennifer leaned closer. “Seven-month baby,” she whispered. Considering how her plan was going so far, she wasn’t about to inform her mother that it would be more like cuatro mesino, an even greater scandal. Jennifer had assumed the notion of a pregnant daughter walking down the aisle of St. Benedict’s, dressed in the obligatory gown and veil, was something her mother would never endorse. Though her parents would not consider her a married woman unless she exchanged vows in front of Father Juan, the Rodriguezes’ family priest, she’d been certain they’d agree to a ceremony after the baby was born.

But this turn of events threw a serious kink into her strategy. She’d have to announce her engagement and “breakup” with Ryan in the course of four weeks. Little more than a week or two if she wanted her parents to recover a small measure of their investment in a hastily planned wedding.

“Mamá, we can’t pretend that everything is proceeding in the right order. The entire family knows, and if they know, most of El Paso will know by tomorrow evening.”

Diego exhaled slowly and sat back in his chair. Everyone looked to him, waiting to hear his first words on the subject. Jennifer was afraid he’d tear into Ryan, blaming him for the mess she was in. She reached over and covered Ryan’s hand with hers to show her support.

“Though I am disappointed in your behavior, Jennifer, I am happy to see that you’ve found yourself a fine man to take care of you. You know I’ve never liked you living alone in a strange city, and now my fears are calmed. With Ryan to watch over you, you won’t be making any more mistakes.”

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