The Durango Affair - Brenda Jackson [52]
“Um, what drastic measures would those be?”
“How does catching the next plane to Montana to check out things for myself sound?”
Not too good. Durango sighed, knowing Jared was dead serious and because of that he decided to come clean. “Savannah is pregnant.”
He heard his brother’s deep sigh. Then for a few moments Jared was silent, evidently taking it all in.
“How far along?” Jared finally asked.
“Going into her third month.”
Silence again. Then Jared said, “It happened Christmas night.”
Durango lifted an eyebrow. “How did you know?”
“For Pete’s sake, Durango, do you think you weren’t missed at the card game that night? Hell, we’d all been counting on winning all your money. And besides that, I couldn’t help but notice you were attracted to the woman and we all saw you leave the reception to walk her to her room.”
Durango smiled, remembering. “You all saw too much that night.”
“Whatever.” Then moments later Jared asked, “The two of you made a decision to get married for the baby’s sake?”
“Yeah, that just about sums it up. But our marriage is only temporary.”
“Temporary?”
“Yes, until the baby is around six months old. I didn’t want my child born illegitimate and I wanted to be around during Savannah’s pregnancy to bond with it and spend some time with them for a while afterward.”
“And what happens after that?”
“Then we part ways. But Savannah and I have agreed to always be there for the baby. She knows I want to be a part of its life and Savannah wants that, too. It won’t be easy with us living so far apart, but we’ll manage.”
There was another long pause and then Jared asked, “And you’re okay with the temporary setup?”
Durango frowned. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I saw those pictures Mom is so proudly brandishing about town. At your wedding, you and Savannah looked good together, actually happy. If I didn’t know better, then I—”
“But you do know better, which is why you made this call. Don’t let those pictures fool you, Jared. The only thing going on between the two of us is the baby. Six months after it’s born Savannah will go her way and I’ll go mine.”
“And until then the two of you will live together happily as man and wife?”
“More or less.” And at the moment he was thinking more because he was discovering that Savannah was such a giving person, he couldn’t imagine her giving less.
“Be careful, Durango.”
Durango’s eyebrow lifted higher. “Be careful of what?”
“Discovering the fact that your heart isn’t really made of stone and that it might be putty in the right woman’s hands.”
Durango frowned. “Trust me, it won’t happen to me.”
Jared laughed. “I thought the same thing. Although I’m not complaining now, mind you. I discovered the hard way that the worst types of affairs are the pretended kind.”
“What are you talking about?”
There was another pause and Durango thought he heard the sound of his brother sipping something. Probably a glass of the finest wine. He could imagine Jared doing so in that million-dollar home he owned. Jared was a hotshot Atlanta attorney who over the years had made a name for himself by handling high-profile cases involving celebrity clients. Up until a year ago, Jared had been determined to stay a bachelor like Durango, and then Dana Rollins happened, surprising the hell out of everyone in the Westmoreland family who’d known Jared’s stand on marriage. He’d always claimed it wasn’t for him. He was a divorce attorney who ended marriages, not put them together. But now he was a happily married man who didn’t care if the world knew how much he loved his wife.
“My engagement to Dana,” Jared finally said, pulling Durango’s thoughts to the present then tumbling them back to the past when he remembered Jared’s surprised announcement of his engagement at their father’s birthday party last Easter.
“What about your engagement?”
“There never was one, at least not a real one.”
Durango frowned, wondering what the hell his brother was saying. He was too tired, not in the right frame of mind to try to figure out anything tonight. “What do you mean there never