The Secret Truth at Dare Ranch Read Online Free

at the stubborn set of his jaw and the grim line of his mouth. "We
didn't love each other, Mitch. That night we were just two people reaching out
to one another. When I asked you to marry me, I was desperate," she said
with a slight lift of her hand. "Nothing more. I realized later it
wouldn't have been fair to you. Or to me. And certainly not to Dani.” She
prayed with all her might that he would understand.
    He
stared at her. "Fair? That's a lousy excuse." He spit the words out like
chunks of ice.
    Lexie
straightened and refused to let him make her question her decision. "I did
what I thought was right."
    "You
think it was right to keep my child from me?"
    Lexie’s
heart panted in her chest. I did the right thing. She rose from her
chair and walked to the kitchen window. She stared at the rose bushes in the
back yard, their once bright yellow petals turning brown. She turned her head
and looked at Mitch. "I know you're mad, but please try to understand."
    He
laughed, a cold, mirthless sound that chilled her to the bone. "Understand?
I'm Dani's father for Christ's sake and I never knew about her until today."
    His
scathing words clawed over her already frayed nerves. He exhaled in frustration.
"Tell me what happened. Tell me everything."
    Lexie
walked back to the table and sat down. She put her palms together and clasped
her hands between her knees to keep them from trembling. She hated confrontation.
Her stomach churned. "Eight weeks after you left I started getting sick to
my stomach first thing in the morning. I went to the doctor and discovered I
was pregnant."
    She
looked at Mitch. The lines around his eyes had softened, the anger had faded. "How
did you feel about it?"
    Lexie
massaged the muscles in the back of her neck. "I was terrified, excited,
happy. I told Vivian right away since she was my best friend and swore her to
secrecy. When I knew I could no longer hide my pregnancy I told your father.
    "They
both wanted me to tell you and tell my father. I refused both. They threatened
to tell you if I didn’t, but I begged them not to. I knew in my heart you
didn’t want to be caught in a loveless marriage."
    "How
did you know what I wanted? You never asked me.” His words were brittle and dry
like fallen leaves.
    "I
wanted you to get an education and to succeed. If you had been saddled with a
wife and child you would have ended up resenting us both.” Lexie paused to
restore her composure. Her voice broke with emotions she’d kept bottled up for
years. Didn't he understand the she had cared enough about all three of them to
let him go? "We both would have suffered, but Dani would have suffered the
most." Her voice was steadier now. "I didn't tell you because I knew
you didn't want a commitment and I wasn't sure about my feelings for you. I was
sure of only one thing: I wanted to have the baby."
    Mitch
shifted in his chair. His jaw locked. A tiny muscle twitched beneath his right
eye. A sure sign he was about to explode. She understood why. He’d just found
out he was a father.
    Lexie
looked down at her jeans and molded her fingers over her knees. "Dad blew
a gasket." She’d longed for him to fold her in his big arms and tell her
everything was going to be okay. But no, that was too much to ask of Mason
Dare. "He got raging drunk and called me a whore.” The hurt in that long
ago moment still stung like a needle pricking her skin. She swallowed against
the anguish and blinked back her tears. "He couldn't bear the thought of his
daughter bearing your child, the son of the man he blamed for killing
Parker, his only son.” Her voice was fragile to her own ears. She inhaled a
deep breath to help ease the hurt.
    Mitch’s
gaze cut to hers. "Go on," he demanded in a rigid voice.
    She
licked her lips and swallowed. "He kicked me out. I had no place to go except
to Vivian. I lived with her until Dani was born. The night she was born a snowstorm
blew in. We barely made it to Doc Grant’s clinic." She smiled