Christmas at Colts Creek

by Delores Fossen

  “Right,” Brody assured her.

  “And he’ll stay gone,” Margo said as if it were gospel instead of wishful thinking. “That boy’s probably figured out that trying to come back here would mean taking on the whole ranch. Me included.”

  Margo stopped, and making oh-how-cute sounds, she peered down at Janessa’s shoes. “You wore them. They look perfect with your outfit.”

  Brody should have known the footwear was Margo’s doing, and while he couldn’t say they were perfect, they did suit the occasion.

  Margo turned from her shoe admiring and pointed to a couple about ten yards away. “There’s Millie Parkman and Joe McCann.” Since Brody knew both of them, her info was obviously aimed at Janessa, and Margo pointed to the couple holding hands and looking seriously starry-eyed at each other. “Remember, I told you about them. They fell in love when they were doing research for the Last Ride Society.”

  Margo then turned a sly smile toward Brody and Janessa. “All sorts of good things can happen when you’re not expecting it.”

  He lifted an eyebrow and nearly pointed out that all sorts of bad things could happen, too. Case in point, Abe’s sudden death and his will. But Brody didn’t want to stir up any more fear for Teagan.

  Joe lifted his chin in greeting when he spotted Brody, and Millie, he and Joe’s six-year-old nephew, Tanner Parkman, Jr., came over. Even though Joe was a year older than Brody, they’d become friends playing football in high school, and their friendship had continued.

  “Janessa,” Millie said. “It’s good to see you again. I met her at the drawing,” Millie added to Brody.

  He’d heard all about that. Brody had also heard rumblings that Joe was smitten with Millie. Yes, smitten. It was a good thing to see since Brody knew Joe had been through a tough time after losing his wife in a car accident over two years ago.

  Brody climbed over the fence, dropping down next to Janessa. He made introductions, even though he was certain that Janessa remembered Joe from the summer she’d spent here. However, when he got to the boy, Brody used the name that most people called him. Little T.

  “You rode a bull with a big hump on its neck,” Little T announced with the sugar high and enthusiasm of a six-year-old. “Can I ride it, too?”

  “When you’re thirty and eleven feet tall,” Joe automatically answered.

  Little T came up on his tiptoes and stretched his neck as if he might be able to grow those extra feet in the next couple of seconds.

  Millie took a business card from her purse and handed it to Janessa. “In two and a half weeks, we’re having a pre-holiday party at my antique shop, Once Upon a Time, and I’d love for you to come. It’ll be a chance to see some of the new art we’ve put up in the local artists’ gallery. You come, too, of course,” she said to Brody, Margo and Teagan, and she gave all of them cards, as well. “Some of Darcia’s pottery pieces will be on display.”

  Until she’d said that last part, Brody had been about to decline. He wasn’t a fan of parties, but he’d go to support his mother. Especially since she loved making and teaching pottery as much as she did nursing.

  Janessa looked at Teagan and Margo and got eager nods from both of them. “We’d love to come,” Janessa told her.

  “Great,” Millie answered. “We’ll see you then.”

  Joe, Millie and Little T had barely taken a step away when Brody saw someone else walking toward them. Someone he definitely hadn’t expected to see here.

  Sophia.

  Brody had figured she’d avoid anything named after a man she loathed, perhaps keep avoiding her daughter, too, but Sophia made a beeline toward them. She greeted the four of them but then stopped a moment, though, to smirk at the banner that cracked and snapped in the evening breeze.

  “Gala,” Sophia mocked. “Because it sounds more important than festival. I guess there wasn’t enough room on the sign for Display of Pompous Assery by a Pompous Ass.”

  “Probably not,” Margo agreed, “but maybe we can do that next year if we use a smaller font.” She gave Sophia a gentle nudge with her elbow. “I didn’t think you were coming.”

  “Changed my mind. Curt asked me to meet him by the longhorn sculptures made entirely from root vegetables.” Sophia said that with a straight face. Mostly.

  Brody hadn’t seen this year’s displays, but they were usually impressive in a small-town gala sort of way. He also didn’t miss the lift in Sophia’s voice when she said Curt’s name. He’d heard rumors about the two hooking up and not just for legal discussions about Abe’s will, either, and he hoped that didn’t come back to bite them in the butt. If things fizzled and then fizzled between Sophia and her fellow lawyer, then it might spur Sophia to head out of town.

  “You’ve been dodging my calls,” Janessa told her mom.

  “Yes, I have,” Sophia readily admitted.

  That admission seemed to be enough to get Margo to make a comment about Teagan and her being just as eager as can be to get a look at the turnip-and-carrot longhorn sculpture that people were buzzing about. Margo and Teagan headed in that direction with Sherry right behind them.

  “Alone at last,” Sophia remarked. “Judging from the voice mails and texts you left me, you want to know about a blog post that Jimmy wrote years ago.” She plucked off a tiny bit of the fried cotton candy and popped it into her mouth. “Well, my name was there because I was Jimmy’s lawyer.”

  In a no-shit surprise contest, Brody wasn’t sure who would have won. Him or Janessa.

  “How’d that happen?” Janessa asked.

  Sophia shrugged. “Jimmy came to me and asked me to file a lawsuit against Abe. I suppose he knew how I felt about Abe and he thought that I’d jump at the chance to get back at my ex.” She paused. “And I jumped.”

  “You never mentioned any of this to me,” Janessa pointed out.

  “I often don’t mention things about my clients. Besides, you were young, just a child, and you didn’t even know Brody back then. It happened around the time Abe gave up his custody fight.”

  Brody did the math. That would have been when Janessa and he were twelve so his father would have gone to Sophia about two years after he’d already lost his business and left Last Ride.

  “According to the blog, the lawsuit was filed in San Antonio, but you’re in Dallas,” Brody pointed out.

  “That’s where Jimmy was living at the time so I did all the paperwork as he requested and had a colleague in San Antonio file it. We lost the suit,” Sophia added, “and that’s when Jimmy and I put together that blog post.”

  Janessa made a sound that had a let-me-see-if-I’m-getting-this vibe to it. “So, after I came home from Last Ride that summer and doodled Brody everywhere, you ran a background on him. You would have found out that he was Jimmy’s son.”

  “Doodled?” Brody asked. He wasn’t sure if that was literal or what.

  “I’ll explain later,” Janessa muttered to him and then faced her mother again. “You knew he was Jimmy’s son.” And it wasn’t a question.

  “I did,” Sophia admitted not with any embarrassment that she’d kept something like that from her daughter. “I knew, and it was why I was glad you were no longer involved with him. I’m sorry,” she added to Brody, “but Jimmy is a very angry man, filled with hatred for Abe. I didn’t want Janessa caught in the middle if Jimmy blew up over his son getting involved with Abe’s daughter.”

  Brody could see a mother feeling that way, but there was still some puzzling parts about this conversation. The doodled part he’d put on hold since Janessa had said she’d explain that, but he didn’t want the other bit to slide.

  “You ran a background check on me?” Brody asked Sophia.

  “I did,” Sophia repeated, and again there wasn’t even a smidge of remorse. “I wanted to know all about the boy who’d hurt her and caused her to cry herself to sleep at night.”

>   “Mom,” Janessa scolded, sounding very much like a teenager.

  “Well, you did, and I can’t see why Brody shouldn’t know that. You got hurt. Heck, maybe he did, too. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from all of my bad relationships, it’s don’t make the same mistake twice.” She checked her watch and started walking away. “I need to get to the longhorn booth because Curt is probably waiting for me.”

  They stood there, watched her go, and Brody gave it a couple of seconds before he asked, “Doodled?”

  Janessa sighed. “I was a teenage girl, and I took out some of my angst by scribbling your name in places where my mom obviously saw it.”

  Okay, he could see her doing that. He’d certainly cursed Janessa’s name often enough back then for her running out on him.

  “And the crying yourself to sleep?” he pressed.

  “Once or twice,” she admitted. “Three times, tops. Sophia obviously had Mom ears because she heard me.”

  Well, hell. That made him feel like a dick. Of course, at the time he’d thought she was the dick after she’d left. He hadn’t known that the real dick in all of this had been Abe.

  Some static crunched through the air, and a couple of seconds later a voice came through the huge speakers positioned throughout the fairgrounds. “Might want to find a comfortable spot, folks. Fireworks will start in ten minutes.”

  Brody thought they might end up missing the bulk of those again, but for a different reason this time. Not so they could run off to make out but because the conversation with Sophia had put a serious damper on his mood.

  “I should probably find out where Margo and Teagan are,” Janessa muttered. She took out her phone and sent a text to Margo.

  Within seconds, Brody saw Margo’s response on Janessa’s phone.

  We’re all sitting with the Last Ride Society ladies at the big picnic table by the fried-spaghetti booth. Join us. They’ve got heaters, and we have a great view for the fireworks.

  “I wish they’d picked a table by a better booth,” Janessa mumbled, and she tossed the rest of her fried cotton candy in the trash. “You’ll sit with us?”

  Brody was trying to find a polite way to turn her down when someone called out to him. Not Alyssa this time. It was Dewayne Milton. Along with owning a portrait studio, he also took pictures for the town’s weekly newspaper.

  “I was hoping I’d run into the two of you,” Dewayne greeted as he pulled something from the enormous canvas bag he had hooked over his shoulder.

  A photo.

  “It’s Brody and you way back when,” Dewayne told Janessa.

  It was indeed a picture of them that’d been snapped during the fireworks display. There were plenty of other people in the shot, most sitting on blankets or in lawn chairs they’d brought out for the occasion, but Janessa and he were standing. Or rather leaning against the old oak tree in the picnic area of the fairgrounds. They had the tree to themselves because the huge branches obstructed the view of the night sky and therefore the fireworks. But they clearly weren’t focused on anything that was happening above them.

  Nope.

  They were facing each other, eyes locked, hands on each other’s waists, with lust waves spinning around them. Brody couldn’t recall the exact moment, but he was betting he’d been about to move in for a kiss.

  “I thought you two would like that,” Dewayne said, handing Janessa the picture. He started glancing around. “I’ve got one of Margo, too.”

  “She’s by the fried-spaghetti booth,” Janessa answered with her attention still on the photograph, and she added a “Thanks,” as Dewayne hurried off.

  “Well,” Janessa murmured when they were alone. “Well,” she repeated, and she looked up at him.

  Again, they were face-to-face, eyes locked, and the lust waves were hot and plentiful. “Well?” he questioned, not because he wanted her to answer it, but because he figured if he was using his mouth for talking, he wouldn’t kiss her.

  But he was wrong.

  He’d barely spoken that well when there was a loud boom, and from the corner of his eye, Brody saw the first of the fireworks burst overhead. It was followed by lots of squeals, oohs and aahs.

  And a kiss.

  Janessa moved toward him just as Brody moved toward her, and it was pretty clear they had the same goal in mind. To do a very dumb thing in a very public place. Their mouths met and just kept on meeting until they sank into the kiss.

  She tasted sweet, of course, but it wasn’t all from the deep-fried cotton candy. This was Janessa, and that taste dipped right into all his hot spots, all his needs, all the stupid parts of him. Their tongues met, played around and just kept on playing until all those stupid parts of him made some decisions. That this was the best idea he’d ever had and that he should deepen the stupidity by taking hold of her hips and pulling her even closer to him.

  The fireworks continued to boom and burst. The sounds of the festival-goers continued, and in the back of his mind, Brody hoped everyone had their attention on the sky show and not on Janessa and him.

  But he was wrong about that, too.

  When he heard a throat clearing, Brody pulled back from Janessa and saw Rowan standing right next to them. Brody expected his brother to flash a grin and dole out some kind of smart-ass remark. He didn’t. Nor was Rowan oohing or aahing over the fireworks.

  “It’s Mom,” Rowan said.

  Brody’s stomach dropped. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

  “Somebody sent her a picture of Layla.” Rowan stopped, dragged in a deep breath. “There was no note or anything. Just a picture of Layla from her high school yearbook.”

  Brody didn’t relax, not even a little. While it wasn’t the bad news that he’d been braced to hear—a car accident, a heart attack, etc.—he figured it must have upset his mother to get something like that.

  “Who sent it?” Brody asked.

  Rowan shook his head but gave Janessa a split-second glance. “Mom thought it might be Janessa’s mother. I told her it was probably just some kid playing a bad joke, but it rattled her. She’s at home now, and she said I shouldn’t tell you, but I knew you’d want to know.”

  “I do. How’d you get here?”

  “Rode my bike,” Rowan answered. “It’s chained up by the entrance.”

  “Get it,” Brody instructed, “and meet me at my truck. I’m parked just over there. We’ll load it in the back, and I’ll drive you home.” He motioned to the other side of the arena, and his brother hurried off.

  “My mother wouldn’t have sent something like that to Darcia,” Janessa insisted.

  He believed her, but that left him with a huge question. Who the hell had done it? Because this didn’t feel like a kid’s prank.

  “I have to go,” Brody told her.

  Janessa nodded. “If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know.”

  Brody wished to hell there were something she or anyone else could do. But the core of this wasn’t fixable.

  “What have you heard about Layla?” he asked.

  She kept her eyes locked with his. “Only bits and pieces. That Abe had loaned her the car even though Darcia hadn’t wanted him to do that.”

  Brody nodded. That was one piece all right. But there was a bigger one. One that would cause him and his family grief for the rest of their lives.

  “I’m the one responsible for her death. Abe might have been the one who lent her the car, but I’m the reason Layla’s dead.”

  While the fireworks lit up the sky over the Abe Parkman Holiday Gala banner, Brody turned and walked away.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  JANESSA GLANCED AROUND Abe’s office and sighed. Velma Sue had prompted her, again, to come in here and start sorting through Abe’s things, but the room just felt creepy to her. At the top of the creep pile was the portrait of Abe, staring down
at whoever deemed to walk into his space. He might as well have hung a huge Bow Before Me, Peons sign.

  Someone, probably Velma Sue, had left empty boxes around the room. No doubt meant for packing up anything Janessa didn’t want to keep. Which would probably be everything. She couldn’t imagine hanging on to anything in here unless it was a photo of Abe and Sophia or if it had something to do with answering all the questions she had about the man who’d fathered her.

  Teagan stepped into the doorway with her, and as Janessa had done, she made a sweeping glance around the room. “It kind of reminds me of the lobbies in fancy hotels.”

  That was better than the comparison Janessa had come up with. It was like walking into a really big mausoleum, similar to those she’d seen at the Parkman cemetery.

  “I can help,” Teagan said. “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

  It wasn’t the girl’s first offer. Teagan had done that at breakfast when she jumped in to volunteer after Velma Sue had mentioned sorting through Abe’s stuff. Janessa did have some work to do for Bright Hope and she needed to take Teagan to her doctor’s appointment in a couple of hours, but she could get started on this particular chore.

  But where to start?

  In addition to the desk with all its drawers, there were filing cabinets, bookshelves and not one but two computers. Janessa couldn’t imagine this would be any fun for a teenage girl.

  “You could open the gifts in the storage room if you want,” Janessa suggested.

  “No. That’s something you should do. I’d like to watch, though, or help you when you do it.”

  Janessa wasn’t exactly in a gift-opening mood, and when she glanced out the massive bay window, she saw one of the reasons for her mood.

  Brody.

  He was getting out of his truck and heading to the barn. Where he would no doubt continue to avoid her. Something he’d been doing for the past two weeks since the gala. Since he’d dropped that bombshell and walked away.