Her Homecoming Cowboy by Debra Clopton Page B

go back and change my behavior, I would. But that’s not going to change the facts. No, I shouldn’t have expected anything. I take full responsibility. But that doesn’t change the way I feel. I feel cheated.”
    “The past is the past,” Jess said, his jaw tensed. “What happens now?”
    “I start supporting my son. I take financial responsibility for him, and that means I get a job that’ll pay those expenses.”
    Luke looked thoughtful. “How did he take the news that you’re his dad?”
    “I haven’t told him.”
    “When are you going to do that?” Luke prodded him.
    Colt took a deep breath and prepared for the worst. “I’m not.”
    Jess cocked his head to the side and his blue eyes narrowed. “Did I hear you right?”
    Luke’s eyes darkened like muddy waters but he didn’t say anything, just waited for Colt to explain himself. He had known they wouldn’t understand. “You heard me right. I’m taking financial responsibility, but he doesn’t need to know anything else.”
    “Yeah, he does.” Luke stood, a challenge in his eyes. “That boy is yours, Colt Holden. You fathered him and he deserves to know who his father is. He deserves to wear the Holden name. I don’t care if you want him to or not, you need to take responsibility and do the right thing.”
    Colt had always idolized his oldest brother. Looked up to him as if he was his dad, because for all intents and purposes Luke had been the one to make sure he was fed, clothed and got to school on time. Seeing the disappointment in him caused a rip of regret inside Colt. “It’s for the best. I killed that family. I don’t deserve to be called a hero, much less Leo’s daddy,” he said, repeating the words he’d said to Annie. Both brothers glared at him.
    “Come on, man,” Jess snapped. “What do we have to do to get it through your thick skull that you need to move on? That wreck was a stinkin’ horrible tragedy, but I’m tired of tiptoeing around the fact that it wasn’t your fault. There wasn’t a thing you could have done about it. Do I feel sorry for that family? Yes, I do. But what you’re doing is a waste. You’re taking on something that isn’t yours to carry. You were just as much a victim of that drunk as they were.”
    Colt clenched his jaw and held Jess’s glare. “I didn’t expect y’all to understand. The thing is, I don’t need you to. I’m here to find out what I should be doing on the ranch while I figure out what my next move is going to be. I have some job opportunities that I’ve been offered. I just need to decide which is the right one.”
    Luke had remained silent, sitting back in his chair. Then he said, “Jess is heading out tomorrow and has several loads scheduled over the next few weeks before his wedding. You can take over feeding the cows.”
    “I’ll start this afternoon.” He was glad that at least Luke was holding his opinion to himself. Luke didn’t have to say anything for Colt to know he wasn’t happy. But, unlike Jess, Luke was staying out of it. At least for now.

Chapter Nine
    A nnie took Leo to eat at Sam’s diner for breakfast on Saturday morning. She’d heard it was a really neat little place and had the best breakfast in the area. She’d also heard about Applegate Thornton and Stanley Orr. Having met them briefly when she and Leo had attended church, she was curious to see them playing checkers, which, to quote Norma Sue and Esther Mae, “was all the two old coots did.”
    “Aw, wow,” Leo gushed the instant they stepped through the doors of the rustic diner. “That smells awesome!”
    Annie’s stomach growled at the scent of eggs and bacon and sweet molasses wafting from the kitchen. At a nearby table a cowboy was coating a tall stack of pancakes with thick syrup. There was no mistaking what Leo was going to order the instant they sat down.
    “Howdy there, little lady and little fella,” Stanley said, sitting across from the thin, dour-faced Applegate. “Y’all