Her Sweet Talkin' Man by Myrna Mackenzie Page A

feel comfortable. It was a road that would be very wrong for a woman with a child. So he had no business zeroing in on her. Besides, he needed all his wits about him to deal with the man who was waiting for him.
    He turned toward Ford. As if his glance were a homing beacon, Ford also turned and looked at the man he had fathered thirty-six years ago. He walked toward Ace. When he was three feet away, he stopped.
    â€œLooking for a car, Ford?” Ace asked.
    â€œLooking for you.”
    â€œWhy is that?”
    Ford shook his head as if shaking off a pesky fly. “I just wanted to tell you… Yesterday when wetalked, I didn’t tell you one thing. I do remember her.”
    â€œBut she was just one of your women.” Ace couldn’t keep the ugliness out of his voice.
    Ford narrowed his eyes. “That wasn’t the way of it.”
    â€œAre you going to tell me you were in love with her? That even though that was true, you got her pregnant and left her alone to face the consequences?”
    â€œWe weren’t in love, no. That wasn’t the way it was.”
    â€œFor you. It was different for her.”
    Ford nodded. “Well then, I didn’t know that.”
    â€œShe was your housekeeper. You took advantage of that.”
    Silence. “I did.”
    Ace wanted to hit him, but this wasn’t like handling Branson last night. And Ford was not a young man.
    â€œLet me ask you one thing. Did you know she was pregnant?” Ace’s voice didn’t waver, though it was shot through with anger.
    â€œNot at first.”
    Not at first. Which meant that he had known somewhere along the line.
    â€œShe wasn’t good enough for the Carsons,” Ace said as calmly as he could. “That was what your father told her when he overheard her crying to a friend on the phone about her condition. He couldn’t have his son marrying her kind, not the hired help who slept around. Instead, he gave her money and sent her away without a reference. She took it because her mother was sick and needed medicine—and maybebecause she knew she had already lost. You didn’t stop it, any of it. Even if you didn’t know what was happening, even if you didn’t know she was pregnant, you must have known there was a chance she was. Especially after she left.”
    A muscle twitched in Ford’s jaw. “That’s true. I should have known.”
    â€œAnd when you did—finally—why didn’t you go to see her?”
    Ford shook his head. “No good answer to that, son. None that would satisfy you.”
    But as Ace watched the man who had fathered him walk away, he knew the answer. His mother had never been good enough for Ford, just as his grandfather had said. She had been reaching above her “station,” a term he’d heard all his life.
    Arriving at the door, Ford turned and looked back. Across what seemed like the miles of showroom he spoke. “I’ve made mistakes in my life. Lots of them. Maybe this was the biggest.”
    â€œAnd if you could change things?” Ace asked.
    Ford turned. He glanced at Fiona, then back at Ace, strain written in every line of his face. “No, I wouldn’t change things. Not in the way you mean.”
    And he left the building.
    Fiona walked up to Ace, her eyes big and sad. “Eventually we’ll have to talk. You know that,” she said, and then she went out the door after her father.
    Ace stood there as seconds ticked by, unable to move, or even to think. Finally he turned toward Crystal. There were unshed tears in her eyes. He felt a bit like crying himself, but that wouldn’t help athing. One thing he knew. He didn’t want Crystal feeling sorry for him. He didn’t want her to be sad at all.
    So he drew on old resources. He forced a smile and walked up to her. “Looking for a car? I can offer you something with white leather seats and all the luxuries of home,” he