Even from a distance, he heard the baby’s delighted laugh and Maggie’s soft chuckle, and the mingled sounds went straight to his heart. If she was lying, how the hell was Justice going to stand losing her and the baby?
Nine
M aggie was putting her laundry away when she noticed the corner of a brown envelope peeking out from beneath a stack of T-shirts.
The signed divorce papers.
She set the laundry down, reached into the drawer for the large manila envelope and carefully opened the metal tabs. Pulling the papers free, she let her gaze drift over the legalese that would have, if she’d only filed the damn things with the court, ended her marriage.
But then, that was the problem. Despite going to the trouble of getting the papers, of having Justice sign them, Maggie never really had wanted the marriage to be over. So now, she simply kept the signed documents with her. As a sort of talisman, she supposed. As long as she had them, she was still connected to Justice. Jonas still had a father. And she had a chance at getting back what she and Justice had lost. Was she just fooling herself, though? Torturing herself with thoughts of reconciliation?
Sex between them was still off-the-charts great. But was that it? Was that all they shared now?
Sadly, she slid the papers back into the envelope, then dropped the package back into her drawer. Turning from the dresser, she walked to the open window overlooking the front of the house and stared out at the storm blowing in off the ocean.
The white sheers at the window billowed in the wind gusting in under the sash like ghosts fighting to be free of earth. Tree limbs clattered and seagulls wheeled and danced in the sky, taking refuge inland from the approaching storm. She closed the window against the cold wind and told herself firmly that when she got back to her own apartment, she had to file those divorce papers. But even as she thought it, she knew she wouldn’t do it.
“You’re crazy, Maggie,” she whispered.
“I always liked that about you.”
She spun around quickly, hand splayed across her chest as if to keep her heart in place. “Nothing like a jolt of adrenaline to get the morning off to a great start.”
“Didn’t mean to startle you,” Justice said as he walked into her room with slow, but even steps. “Thought you would have heard me coming down the hall.”
She watched him as he moved without hesitating, or limping. He was nearly back to normal and hadn’t used his cane in a couple of days. Soon, he wouldn’t need her at all. Well, wasn’t that a cheery thought?
“No, without the tapping of the cane giving you away, you’re pretty stealthy.”
He nodded, reached down to rub his thigh and said, “It’s good to be rid of it.”
“I’m sure it is.” She moved back to the dresser and tucked her laundry into the proper drawers, then straightened, gave him a bright smile and said, “Well, I really should go down and get Jonas. Mrs. Carey’s had him most of the morning.”
“It can wait another minute.” He moved to stand between her and the door and Maggie knew the only way she’d get past him was to brush up against him. And she didn’t think that was a good idea. Not since her body remembered their time in the hot tub all too well and was just itching for more.
So instead she stopped, hitched one hip higher than the other and folded her arms over her chest. “Okay. What do you need, Justice?”
His gaze locked on hers, he said, “I think it’s time you and I had a talk about what’s going to happen when the test results come in.”
“What do you mean?” Wariness crept into her voice, but she really couldn’t help it.
“I mean, in a few days we’ll know the truth. And if it turns out that Jonas really is my son…”
She bristled. God, she hated that he didn’t trust her and instead needed substantiating proof from a laboratory.
“—then I’m going to want him raised here,” Justice was saying and Maggie listened up. “On the ranch.”
A sinking sensation opened up in the pit of her stomach and her heart dropped into it. She shook her head. “No way.”
“What?”
“You can’t just take my son.”
“If he’s my son, too,” Justice argued, “I can take my share of him.”
She laughed shortly, a harsh scrape against her throat. “What do you plan to do? Cut him in half?”
He scowled and walked past her to sit on the edge of the bed. Rubbing his leg, he said, “Nothing so dramatic. If Jonas is mine, I want him raised here. I want him growing up where I did. This ranch is his heritage, and he should get to know it and love it like I do.”
“All of a sudden you’re worried about his heritage?” Maggie stalked across the floor toward him and stopped just before she got within strangling range. Because the way she was feeling at the moment, she really didn’t trust herself. “Up until last week you wouldn’t even admit to the possibility of his being your son. Now he has a heritage and you want to take him from me? I don’t think so.”
“Don’t fight me on this, Maggie,” Justice said, wincing a little as if his leg was paining him. “You’ll lose.”
For the first time since she’d arrived at the ranch, she wasn’t concerned with Justice’s pain. With the discomfort of his injury. In fact, she hoped his leg ached like a bitch. Why should she be the only one in pain here? All she knew was that he was going to take her baby from her. Well, it would have to be over her dead body.
She took a deep breath, held on to her heartache like a shield and said, “Oh, no, I won’t lose. He’s mine, Justice. He’s nearly six months old and up until little more than a week ago, you’d never seen him!”
“Because you didn’t bother to tell me of his existence.”
“You didn’t believe me when I did tell you.”
“Not the point.” He waved that argument aside with a flick of his hand.
“It’s exactly the point, Justice, and you know it.”
Outside, clouds rolled in, the wind kicked up into a fierce dance and rain suddenly pounded on the windowpanes with a vicious rhythm.
Feeling as ragged and frenetic as the storm, Maggie stepped back from him and said firmly, “Jonas is going to be raised in the city. By me. My apartment is lovely. There’s a park close by and good schools and—”
“A park?” Justice pushed off the bed and grimaced a little but kept coming, walking toward Maggie until she backed up just to keep a distance between them. “You want to give him a park when I’ve got thousands of acres here? The city’s no place for a boy to grow up. He couldn’t even have a dog in your apartment.”