Diablo danced sideways, his ears slanting backward.
Shes driving all the way out here, expecting you to give her a riding lesson.
Noah ran a hand along the horses neck, murmuring soothing sounds until the animal settled and let him reach beneath him to snag the girth. Hell, you can give her the riding lesson.
She prefers having you as her instructor, Jackson.
Noah. My name is Noah.
Landry nodded. Noah. I have to admit I have a hard time thinking of you as Jackson.
Because thats not who I am. A couple days ago, Noah had known who he was and what he wanted to do: continue his import-and-export business on the side while working with his cousins at Adair Acres, where he could be around the horses and cattle he loved.
Now, he was reeling with the knowledge he wasnt who he thought he was. His real name was Jackson Adair. The long-lost son of the man whod owned the ranch hed been working. The man he thought of as his uncle.
Jackson Adair. How would he ever get used to it? Hed spent the past thirty-seven years as Noah Scott. A man didnt change his name overnight. Hell, his entire life. He didnt bother facing Landry Adair, his half sister; instead, he focused his attention on the girth he cinched around the horses belly. Once the girth was tight enough, he let the stirrup drop in place on the stallion hed adopted as his favorite since coming to work at Adair Acres three months ago.
Landry touched his arm. Are you going to be okay?
Im fine.
He led Diablo out of the barn.
Before he could mount, Landry spoke again. Im here for you, if you need someone to talk to. She smiled, hesitantly. After all, were related. Im your sister.
Half sister, he corrected automatically, regretting it as soon as he noted the slight frown between her arched brows. Landry had always been nice to him and, though he had thought they were cousins, shed been more like the little sister hed never had growing up. Now that he knew it was true, it changed everything about their relationship.
But should it?
God, how could this happen to him? How could he have spent the past thirty-seven years of his life oblivious to the truth?
If it makes you feel any better, none of us knew, either. We had some suspicions but that was pretty recent, Landry said as if reading his thoughts. Now that we do know, were glad youre the missing Jackson wed always heard about. We love you. I cant think of anyone Id rather have as my oldest brother. She emphasized brother, negating his attempt to make the distinction.
A knot formed in Noahs throat. Landry accepted him as part of her family. Hed yet to get a real reaction from her brothers, Carson and Whit. They might not be as thrilled to have to share their inheritance with him. Maybe he was being paranoid.
Now that the truth had been revealed and the terms of Reginalds will spelled out to him, he found it incredibly hard to believe he had a share in the ranch hed come to work for.
Gathering the reins, he started to raise his foot to the stirrup, but a hand on his arm stopped him.
I wish my father could have been here to know it was you all along, Landry said softly. He only had good things to say about you. Hed have been proud to call you his son.
Well, well never know that now, and guessing what he might have said or felt is as empty as guessing what the weather was the day I was born. He glanced down at her hand on his arm. If youll excuse me, I want to check on a fence in the north pasture.
Landry stepped back. Of course. You need time to sort this all out. If you need to talk, you know where to find me.
Noah swung up into the saddle, nudged his horses flanks and rode away from the Adair barn, all his motions from rote memory.
Thoughts and memories ricocheted through his mind as he gave the stallion his head. Soon they were racing across the fields, nothing but the sound of the horses hooves and the creak of saddle leather to interrupt the chaotic feelings rattling around inside his head.
He leaned forward, the wind in his hair, the breeze taking the heat out of the warm morning sun already bearing down on his back.
For the hundredth time since hed learned of the results of the DNA test, he shook his head. It couldnt be true. He wasnt one of Reginald Adairs children. The woman he knew as his mother wouldnt have hidden him as a baby from his biological father and mother. Hell, Reginald was her brother. And Ruby, Reginalds first wife, had been her sister-in-law.
All his life, Emmaline Adair Scott, the woman hed called Mother, had sheltered him, kept him secluded from other children and other families. Hed assumed shed done it to protect him because she loved him so much. Now...holy hell, shed been hiding him from his real family. Theyd never lived in any one place for very long. His mother had him in small private schools in France, or homeschooled him to keep anyone from suspecting he wasnt her child.
If not for the summer his mother had taken ill and required major surgery, shed have kept him from the rest of the Adair family. But she couldnt care for him while she was laid up for several months. His grandparents had sent him to stay at his uncles ranch in California.
That summer, surrounded by the Adair siblings, was the first time hed felt part of a family. Reginald Adair had been kind to him. For a few short weeks, he understood what it might have been like to have a father to look up to. A man who cared about him and wanted to teach him the things a father taught his sons.
Working with and hanging around Reginalds children, whom hed thought were his cousins, hed finally gotten a feel for what it would be like to have siblings and be a member of a large family. Growing up as an only child, hed always wished he had a brother to go fishing with or a sister to tease and protect.
Hed envied Reginalds children, wanting what they had. Not the money or the lifestyle of the rich, but a big family, people he could count on to always be there for him.
If he really was Reginald Adairs long-lost son, he had two half brothers and a half sister. The two boys and the girl, now grown, hed come to respect and care for when hed been there that summer so long ago.
If? His thoughts churned. The DNA test had been conclusive. There was no if about it. He was Reginalds son.
In this day and age, how could someone get away with stealing a child and hiding him for all those years? Everything he knew about his life had been a lie. All the times hed asked his mother about his father, shed lied to him. Shed told him that his father died before shed given birth. All the while his father and his mother had been alive and well, grieving the disappearance of their son.
That his fake mother was related to his fatherand knew how devastated hed been by the loss of his sonwas impossible to fathom.
All those years, growing up isolated in France, he could have known the joy of having brothers and sisters, sitting at a table filled with family, laughing, joking and sharing each others lives.
All the years he could have spent with his family, getting to know and love them, were lost. Now that he knew who his real father was, the man was gone. Murdered before Noah had the chance to get to know him as a father.