Sutherland’s Pride by Kathryn Brocato Read Free Book Online Page A

cousin at home with four small children. I don’t want to leave her alone any longer than absolutely necessary.”
    Morgan Sutherland was unaccustomed to refusals. “Perhaps tomorrow night. You can bring your cousin and the children. It’s been too long since we’ve had children in the house.”
    “If you’re wise, you’ll make it a while longer,” Pride said, still smiling. “Placing four small children together in one place is asking for mayhem of the worst kind.”
    “It sounds wonderful,” Morgan said, satisfied. “Tomorrow night. It’s settled. Bettricia will be thrilled.”
    Pride wasn’t. That much was obvious to Flynn.
    “I’m afraid it won’t be possible,” she said, “but thank you all the same.”
    Morgan immediately began to present ways and means by which it was possible, and Pride just as adroitly evaded them.
    “I don’t think you want to have coffee with us,” Morgan said, balked.
    Pride, still smiling said, “No, sir. I don’t.”
    Morgan stared.
    “That’s honest enough for you, Dad,” Flynn said, laughing at his father’s astounded expression.
    “If that’s so, then I’m sorry,” Morgan said. “I had hoped we could forget the past and make a fresh start. Bettricia and I always thought very highly of you, until you claimed Flynn as the father of your child.”
    “That’s really very kind of you,” Pride said. “As I recall, I made quite an uproar.”
    “You did,” Morgan said grimly. “It was damned embarrassing. What on earth got into you, young lady?”
    Pride’s face took on a set look of remembered suffering. “At the time, it seemed the only thing I could do.”
    “Dad.” Flynn stared at Pride, once more conscious of something he couldn’t yet define. “Leave it alone, please.”
    Morgan Sutherland had been ignoring his son’s advice for years. Flynn wasn’t surprised when he continued to do so.
    “Flynn told us he had informed you long before you claimed you were pregnant that he couldn’t possibly father a child,” Morgan said. “Whatever possessed you to claim that he had? Surely you realized we’d all know you were lying.”
    Pride’s sudden smile lit her face in the old way. “Did it ever occur to you that I thought Flynn had been lying to me? He told me he couldn’t get me pregnant, and he did. How do you think I felt when that happened?”
    There was an appalled silence. Flynn felt as if he had been turned to stone.
    Morgan said at last, “I’m terribly sorry, Pride. There isn’t much we can say to you, is there?”
    • • •
    Pride watched Morgan Sutherland march back to his table with a combined sense of regret and relief. She loved the older man and his wife, but she could not imagine spending several hours trying to pretend she was the girl they remembered, all in the presence of her little boy.
    Besides, for all she knew, Morgan and Bettricia Sutherland might well take one look at Johnny and realize the truth.
    Not that it would make any difference to Flynn. He might well deny the possibility that Johnny was his child.
    Flynn stared at her as if he had just noticed her. Pride met his eyes briefly then looked away and watched the waiter set out water and offer Flynn the wine list.
    Flynn started and took the list, swiftly placing orders for both wine and food. The moment the waiter left, he leaned forward. “Did you really think I lied to you?”
    “The thought crossed my mind.” She faced him and told him the absolute truth. “Come on, Flynn. What would you think if a woman told you she couldn’t get pregnant because she was on the pill, then she said she was pregnant?”
    Flynn sat in appalled silence a moment.
    “I see,” he said, at last. “So you thought I was taking advantage of your innocence just so I could get you into bed with me?”
    Pride smiled. “Yes, I did think that for a while. Then I realized you really believed in that sterile bit, so I had to acquit you of being out to seduce me.”
    “What did you