Sutherland’s Pride by Kathryn Brocato Page B

son?”
    “When Flynn gets an idea into his head, it’s a major impossibility to get it out,” Pride said. “I’ve decided to go ahead and tell him the truth tonight. Not that it’ll change anything,” she added. “He’ll still think I was running around with someone else.”
    “What would be interesting might be Flynn’s parents’ reaction to Johnny,” Gloria said, in thoughtful tones. “I’ll lay a bet Flynn looked just like Johnny when he was two.”
    “Children look alike at that age. They’re all adorable.”
    “True. Is Tracy Eric going to explore her feelings upon seeing the father of her child once more?”
    “Tracy Eric has already done so,” Pride said, in dry tones. “With Killeen Ross reading every word Tracy writes let’s just hope Flynn doesn’t catch sight of that particular column.”
    “Maybe I’ll mail it to him, all underlined.”
    Pride laughed. “Now that would really be interesting.”
    “I still think you ought to have told him two years ago, when Johnny was born,” Gloria said. “However, no one ever listens to me.”
    “At the time, I couldn’t have handled it.” Pride gave her cousin a wry smile. “If Flynn had made one of his scathing remarks, I might have brained him. Then Johnny would lose his mother as well as his father.”
    “Do you know what would really be funny?” Gloria began to chuckle. “What if Johnny starts screaming for ‘Mommy,’ and you automatically come running?”
    “Nothing would change,” Pride predicted. “Mark my words, Flynn would assume it was because I’m playing favorites among your children.”
    “I can’t wait to tell Eddie about this,” Gloria said, shaking her head.
    They sped along the Gulf Freeway, heading directly into downtown Galveston. Salt water marshes surrounded the highway as they approached the bridge across the bay that would take them into the city.
    They reached the city of Galveston and followed Flynn to the marina. Pride pointed out various historically important, Victorian structures and savored the once-familiar surroundings as she parked beside Flynn’s Bronco.
    She hadn’t been here since the morning she’d driven to this same marina and sat all day waiting for Flynn, who had taken his boat out to get away from her. When he had finally docked, salty and weary, she had been standing on the dock. While he tossed his lines to a dock official, she had shouted that the problem was not going to go away if he ran from it.
    Flynn had absolutely congealed with fury. The scene that had ensued was one she preferred not to remember.
    Pride gripped her hands on the steering wheel and fought off the memory as Flynn climbed out of the Bronco and cast a helpless glance their way.
    “He looks shell-shocked, poor man,” Gloria said, and hurried toward him.
    Pride closed her eyes and sought to blank her mind, only to discover Flynn standing beside her when she opened them. His narrowed gaze told her he remembered also.
    “Forget that,” he said, and lifted her bodily from the car seat. “From now on, we start fresh. Pride, will you marry me?”
    Her mouth fell open. “What?”
    “You heard me. I still love you, as much as ever, it seems. Marry me, and I’ll make everything up to you. I promise.”
    Her mind went blank. She struggled to remember exactly why she should say no, which in itself warned her that she was in deep, deep trouble.
    “Say yes,” Flynn urged, and kissed her.
    Pride found herself caught in a vortex of thundering, roiling emotions. She trembled in his arms, and for an instant veered between a longing to strike him and a longing to make love with him. He deepened the kiss, holding her against him so tightly he left her in no doubt how much he wanted her.
    He lifted his head at last. “This is what I should have said to you when I found you waiting for me on the dock.”
    Jolted back to reality, Pride turned her face away. “That would have been nice. Too bad it didn’t happen that