“I’m ready, too,” she said, wondering if she’d ever be ready to face Jesse Hawk again.

The old Garrett farm came into view nearly thirty-five minutes later. It held an address in Hatcher, although the acreage spanned into Arrow Hill. How fitting, Patricia thought, that Jesse would choose a home located on the dividing line between dusty country living and opulent wealth.

Opulent wealth? Good Lord, her father was the most successful man in the county. He owned real estate—houses, apartment buildings, neighborhood shopping centers.

As Patricia steered her Mercedes down the graveled drive, she took note of the house and its condition. Habit, she decided, and a means to keep her mind on something other than her fluttering stomach. Although the wood structure had been neglected for some time, the splendor of the primitive architecture shone through. The house resembled a homesteader’s cabin, small and rustic, and currently, it appeared, under renovation. She parked where the driveway forked, the other path leading to a newly constructed building behind the house, not nearly as rustic, but still charming.

She stepped onto the porch, fighting the urge to flee. Sooner or later she and Jesse would cross paths. It wouldn’t be long before people realized her son and the new resident in town shared the same last name. And then there were those who knew the truth. Wasn’t that how she’d learned he was back? A discreet female colleague had quietly mentioned that a man named Hawk was restoring the old Garrett place.

When she knocked on the door, the sound of barking dogs followed. She waited, waited some more, then headed toward her car. If Jesse was home, surely he would have responded to the yapping hounds.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know anyone was here,” a deep voice said behind her. “I was working on the kennel out back. I’ve got a house full of strays.” He chuckled. “But then I always do.”

Patricia exhaled a shaky breath. She turned to see a tall, dark-skinned man squinting in the sun, his hand shielding his eyes, a dog—a sturdy rottweiler—at his side. When he moved closer and lowered his arm, her knees nearly gave way.

Jesse, in faded jeans and black construction-style boots, his bare chest a hard mass of sinew and muscle. The lean eighteen-year-old was gone. In his place stood a stranger.

“Oh, God,” he said, and stopped dead in his tracks. “Tricia.”

The nickname flowed through her like wine—a long-forgotten vintage. Sweet yet bitter. No one had ever called her Tricia but him. She lifted her chin, strode toward him, and extended her hand in a businesslike gesture. “It’s nice to see you, Jesse.”

Clearly caught off guard, he placed his hand in hers. “I hadn’t expected you to come around here.”

The handshake made them both uneasy, so she ended it quickly, choosing to adjust her purse strap instead. “Why not?”

“Just didn’t.”

“You could invite me in.” After all, damn you, I am the mother of your child. The innocent who waited for you all those years, believing like a fool, that you’d come back for me. Waited until hope turned to despair.

He slid his gaze over her in one slow sweep, reminding her of the day they had met. Only this time, there was no glimmer in his eye, no young, flirtatious smile. “The other dogs will just jump all over you.”

“I like animals.” She glanced at the loyal rottweiler beside him. It made no move toward her. It was an attractive dog, fit and muscular, its black coat gleaming in the sun. Jesse, too, had a gleaming mass of ebony hair. He still wore it long and flowing across his shoulders, but neatly trimmed sideburns added an air of maturity.

“What are you doing here, Tricia?”

“I thought it would be awkward if we ran into each other in town.” She shifted her feet, stirring the gravel below. “I was hoping we could talk. Catch up a little.” She needed to know what sort of man Dillon’s father had become. Eventually she’d have to introduce them. Marlow County was too small for secrets.

Although Jesse frowned, he accommodated her. “We could sit on the porch a spell, I suppose.” As he turned in the direction of the house, so did the dog. “Do you want a cold soda? I’ve got a cooler out back.”

“No, thank you. I’m fine.” She followed him up the stairs and sat beside him in a twig-style chair.

The rottweiler curled up at Jesse’s feet, clearly content to be near its master. “What’s his name?” she asked, assuming the massively built canine was a male.

“Cochise.”

“That fits him. A warrior’s name.”

“In a sense, he is a warrior,” Jesse said. “He’s trained to know the difference between friend and foe. And he’s been socialized since he was a pup.”

Naturally, Jesse was a responsible pet owner. He wouldn’t own a dog as powerful as a rottweiler without having it professionally trained. As for the strays he claimed to have, they made sense, too. Tricia remembered how he used to bring abandoned kittens into his apartment and feed them, even though he could barely afford food for himself.

“Are all the dogs inside the house strays?”

“Yeah.” He tapped the windowpane and grinned. A curious mutt had its nose pressed against the glass. “I picked them up at the Humane Society just this week. I was in the process of building another kennel when you arrived.”

He turned toward Patricia. She gripped the chair and steadied her breath. Dillon had flashed the same handsome smile earlier that morning. As their gazes met and held, Jesse’s grin faded.

His eyes were guarded, she noticed, but still breathtaking. Most people would call them gray, yet Patricia knew they turned silver when he made love, glittered sensuously when he lowered his head to kiss a woman—touched his tongue to hers—filtered his fingers through her hair.

How many women had there been? she wondered. How many had watched those eyes change color, enjoyed that staggering touch?

Patricia smoothed her skirt. Jesse Hawk should have been hers. He should have come back, kept his promise. On the night he’d taken her virginity, he’d pledged his love forever. They had snuggled in each other’s arms, tasted each other’s skin, made secret vows. Young, romantic vows. And she’d kept hers, kept them locked in her heart until she’d cried herself to sleep at night. No, she hadn’t agreed to move in with him when he’d asked, but she’d had her reasons—good reasons. The young man she’d loved needed a fair chance to pursue his career, and the baby in her womb needed some sort of financial stability. So she’d sent Jesse away, believing he’d return for her.

I’ll never forgive you, she wanted to say. But Dillon has the right to meet you. She had told her son about his father, promising Jesse would be back someday. They just had to be patient and let him finish college.

“I’d heard this place sold a few months ago,” she said, unaware then that Jesse had been the buyer. The property had been purchased under a corporate name.

“I’ve been coming back and forth from my rental in Tulsa, spending weekends out here, trying to get the renovations done. I hired a crew to build the clinic, but I’m doing most of the work on the house myself.”

Immediately she thought about Dillon’s interest in architecture. “I didn’t know you had experience in carpentry.”

He shrugged. “I did a little construction work during college. It put food on the table, paid the rent.”

Patricia wanted to ask him about his education, if his studies had been difficult. She knew dyslexia made reading a struggle. Her son suffered from the same confusing disability. But asking Jesse about college would probably rehash their past and the part her father had played in it—a moot point after all these years. “So I can assume the building out back is a veterinary clinic.”

He nodded. “I share a practice with three other doctors in Tulsa. We decided it was time to open a facility in the country.”