Her Secret, His Child: A Little Secret by Tara Quinn (rosie project .txt) 📕

needed to know about. And acknowledging, the next instant, that she was, by omission, lying to him. Acknowledging, too, that a relationship built on lies would never survive.

She couldn't blame him for getting a little impatient with her, a little frustrated with the mixed messages she was sending. But neither could she quit sending them. She was in an untenable situation. For Ashley's sake and in fairness to Kyle, she had to facilitate meetings between them, all the while knowing their easy contentment existed on borrowed time.

They played the happy family so often during the weeks following that Friday night Jamie occasionally found herself believing the fantasy they were creating. They ate together a couple of evenings a week, went to movies, played in the park, visited the ice-cream shop, even went grocery-shopping

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once when Kyle stopped by as Jamie and Ashley were on their way to do that weekly chore.

There'd been a bit of gossip about town when word got out that Ashley's father wasn't dead after all. But Kyle covered up any awkwardness with his five-long-years-of-searching story—and a refusal to answer any other questions. Even Dean Patterson was left to draw his own conclusions. None of which seemed to hurt the way any of Jamie's acquaintances felt about her. She'd been prepared for cold shoulders and averted eyes, but none of them treated her any differently. Except maybe to smile at her more. Everyone liked being in on the happy ending.

Ashley was acting like a little imp these days, exploring her boundaries with her daddy, seeing what rules she could circumvent with him as an ally. And soon discovered that she couldn't get around any of them. In fact, the more time they spent with Kyle, the more rules tended to appear.

As Jamie had known he'd be, Kyle was a wonderful daddy, warm and loving, yet firm. Ashley adored him.

When she let herself, Ashley's mother adored him, too.

Spring break came the third week in March. Kyle had really pushed for a family vacation, four days in the mountains, and though she knew the forced intimacy would be dangerous, Jamie had finally let him talk her into it. He was so excited about the idea, so anxious to get away someplace where no one knew anything about them, she hadn't had the heart to turn him down.

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But as they drove up into the mountains north of Denver, to the resort where Kyle had made reservations, Jamie couldn't help wondering if this break was going to become a breakup, too.

Kyle had told her that morning when he'd picked them up that he'd reserved a one-bedroom suite for the three of them. She'd been on edge ever since. Was he telling her that he was done waiting? That her hands-off policy was no longer in effect?

Not even for Kyle could she take pretending any further than they'd already taken it. She wasn't his wife. With her past, she wasn't ever going to be. And she wasn't going to sleep with him as if she were.

"You cold?" he asked, adjusting the T-Bird's thermostat.

"I'm fine." Jamie shook her head. The cold she was feeling came from inside—nothing a thermostat was going to help.

Kyle glanced in his rearview mirror, grinning at Ashley hunched over the padded safety bar of her new booster seat. "She always sleep like that in the car?"

After a quick peek, Jamie smiled, too. ' 'Any time we drive more than twenty minutes."

' 'Is she a grouch when you wake her up?''

Watching her daughter, Jamie shrugged. "Sometimes. Not usually."

"Must be rough when you have to go into Denver."

Denver wasn't a trip Jamie made often. She liked the suburbs. "Actually, it was a blessing when she

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was little," she told him, eager to share—as had become habit whenever they were together now— everything he'd missed in the first four years of Ashley's life. "She was colicky for a while and when nothing I tried seemed to calm her down, I'd take her out for a drive. That always did the trick."

"Where'd you go?"

"Anywhere, nowhere, around in circles."

"That's what I'd call dedication."

"You telling me you wouldn't have done the same?"

"No." He glanced into the back seat again. "I'd have done it."

Jamie smiled at him. "I thought so."

"You said she was colicky. Did you breast-feed her?" He looked over at her and Jamie heated up instantly. She'd never forget how enamored he'd been of her breasts that long-ago night, the loving attention he'd given them.

"I did."

"For how long?"

"Almost eighteen months."

Kyle whistled. "That's a long time." He peered back at Ashley, as if there'd be some visible consequence of having nursed so long.

"Actually, my pediatrician said that the longer she breast-fed, the healthier she'd be," Jamie reported. ' 'He said it was best, emotionally and physically, for Ashley to wean herself. And that she'd do it when she was ready."

' 'Did she?'' He looked over intently, soaking up, as always, every tidbit she gave him.

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' 'Yes, and what he said about its being better for her health must have been right, too. Ashley's never even had an ear infection."

They were on the highway, traveling a desolate piece of land, a few road signs their only companions. Kyle glanced at Jamie again, that particular light in his eyes.

"How'd it feel?" he asked. "Nursing her?"

Jamie supposed she should've been embarrassed at the intimate question, but she wasn't. "Incredible, weird, wonderful," she said, remembering those first few times she'd held her daughter to her breast. The experience was incomparable.

"Did it hurt?"

"Only after she started getting teeth." Jamie's nipples tightened. She was glad of the bulky sweater she'd pulled on over her jeans that morning, hoping the faded beige garment hid her reaction.

"She bit you?"

"Once or twice." Jamie grinned at his horrified expression. "She quickly learned that if she tried to chew, she didn't get her dinner."

"Well, I should think so."

The rest of the trip passed uneventfully. Kyle was full of questions Jamie was happy to answer—all concerning the child they