Violet’s phone rang in her pocket, startling her. She saw Marcus’s name on the screen and swallowed down her panic. There was no way he could possibly know that she’d been in the master bedroom snooping around.
No. This wasn’t snooping.
It was discovery. She had known all along how much he’d loved Brie. This only served as a reminder that Violet could not allow herself to fall for a man who was no longer hers.
* * *
“Hello,” Violet said, when she finally picked up. Marcus had waited for so many rings, he’d half expected the call to go to voice mail. But hearing her voice on the other end sent a wave of contentment through him.
“How’re the boys?” Marcus leaned back against the pillows of his hotel bed.
“Asleep. We had a fun and busy day. I’ll send you some of the pictures I took. How is everything going over there?”
“Good, actually. My mom and Freckles’s plan actually worked. Grayson proposed to Tessa right there in the Rose Garden, and the media finally got the buzzworthy story they’d been waiting for. MJ and I went out to dinner, just the two of us, and then he took me to this random yoga studio on the other side of the Potomac. He said he used to go there when he wanted to get away from all the tourists and what he called the political noise. I had no idea he was into yoga.”
“Good! I’m glad you guys are spending some time together and getting to know each other.”
“I know, I know. As much as it pains me to admit it, you were right about our relationship.” Marcus grinned listening to her chuckle in response. “But don’t get too used to hearing me say it. Your client still has to go before the new judge.”
Secretly, Marcus was hoping for another delay in the trial. The longer Violet stayed on at the Twin Kings, the more time he had to convince her to... What? Give up her life and career and move to a small town in Wyoming to be with a single dad who’d once broken her heart?
“Don’t worry,” she replied. “I’m looking forward to our day in court. I might even decide to call you as a character witness on your brother’s behalf.”
“Good try, counselor. But I think I’ve already proven that I’d make a terrible character witness. I’m as impartial as I can be when it comes to enforcing the law.” Marcus rubbed the back of his neck, debating whether he should even risk saying his idea out loud. Why not? If it meant keeping her in town longer, it was worth a shot. He cleared his throat. “In fact, with the way my family has been behaving lately, I might even have a couple of new clients for you.”
“Oh, no. What happened?”
“Do you want me to tell you as the sheriff? Or as a big brother who couldn’t stop laughing when I first heard the story?”
“Definitely the big-brother version.”
“You know how Dahlia has been seeing that new rancher out on the Rocking D? The one who my mom made stay for dinner a couple of Fridays ago?”
“Connor Remington?” Violet asked. “I thought I was the only one who’d figured out that there was something going on between him and your sister.”
“I’m pretty sure everyone knows.” Just like they all had probably figured out he and Violet were sneaking around again. “Anyway, somehow my sweet little niece Amelia convinced both Micah and Connor to rescue some stuffed animal from Jay Grover’s place. When he wasn’t home.”
Violet’s jaw dropped. “You mean to tell me that your sister’s boyfriend and her ex-husband broke into someone’s house? Together? And you’re laughing about it?”
Marcus snorted. “I don’t know why I think it’s so funny. Dahlia is furious. Deputy Broman is annoyed because my family is indirectly involved. Again. And I’m out of town and can’t do a thing about any of it.”
“No, you can’t,” she agreed. “Which might be a good thing. You don’t always have to be the fixer.”
He let out an exaggerated breath. “I wish I could fix us, Vi.”
There was no response, and he looked at his phone to see if the call had been disconnected. It hadn’t. “Are you there?”
“I’m here.” Her voice was soft, hesitant.
Had he gone too far?
“Are you going to answer my question?” he asked.
“Was it a question? Because it sounded like a statement.”
“I guess it was.” He ran his hand through his hair. “What I should’ve said was Do you think I can fix us?”
“No.” Her one-word response would’ve sent him to his knees if he wasn’t already lying down. Then she continued, “I think that you alone can’t do anything, Marcus. If anything needs to be fixed, it would take both of us to do it.”
Okay. That sounded slightly more promising. “Do you think we should try?”
“Before I answer that, let me ask you a question.”
“Go for it.”
She paused, further increasing the suspense already zapping through his nerve endings. Then she threw him for a loop by asking, “Why didn’t you ever take me to your bed?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Here at your house. We slept in the living room the first night. Then, today, you put my stuff in the guest room. Is there a reason you don’t want me in your bed?”
“That is my bed, Vi. That’s the room I use at the cabin,” he said. When she didn’t respond right away, he added, “Go look in the closet. All my uniforms are in there.”
He could hear some background noise and then the unmistakable slide of the closet doors.
“Oh. You don’t use the master bedroom?” As soon as she said the word master, he pictured the room in his head and wished he hadn’t waited so long to go through Brie’s stuff.
“No. But I know what you’re thinking.”
“What am I thinking, Marcus?”
“That I’m some sorry sap that can’t move on from the memory of his dead wife.”
“Are you?”
A blast of air expelled from his mouth. “When Brie died, it hit me hard. She was my best friend and the mother of my children. Sure, living in our house without her was overwhelming at the time. I had two toddlers and a full-time job. Moving into the main house with the rest of my family there as a sort of built-in backup helped me get through those first couple of months. I told myself that the twins and I would move back into the cabin at some point, and I even talked to Dahlia about helping me redecorate. But she’d just had Amelia and was in the middle of refurbishing Big Millie’s. Eventually, months turned into years, and I became the sheriff. Looking out for everyone else took priority. A couple of winters ago, Tessa’s TV network was holding a national coat drive, and I thought it would be the perfect time to finally go through Brie’s clothes and give them away. Finn came to help me, and we made it halfway through the closet when I got a call from the preschool telling me that Jack got his head stuck in the opening of the puppet theater.”
He heard what might’ve been a snort of laughter on the other end.
“Anyway, I thought Finn had stayed back to finish the job, not that it was her responsibility. It wasn’t until you moved into the main house that the boys and I returned to the cabin full-time. I didn’t really want the boys running in and out of the master bedroom and getting sad seeing all their mom’s stuff. So I took the spare bedroom and figured I’d get around to dealing with the rest later.”
“Oh.”
That was it? Marcus thought. All Violet could say was oh?
No. He wasn’t going to be the only one put on the spot in this conversation. If they were going to talk about the things standing between them, then he had a few things he wanted some clarity on, as well. “Now can I ask you a question?”
“Hold on. I’m still processing,” Violet replied. Processing what? Whether she believed him or whether she thought he was holding on to way too much baggage? At least thirty more seconds went by and then she said, “Okay. Go ahead
and ask.”
“Does your mom still think you’re moving back to Dallas when MJ’s case is over?”
“I didn’t tell her that I wasn’t.”
“You might want to consider talking to her about that,” Marcus suggested.
“Why?” He could hear the dread in Violet’s voice, which would’ve made him laugh if he wasn’t worried about how she was going to react to his warning.
“Because my mom saw her at the Capital Grille today having lunch with the chairman of the foreign-affairs committee. Mom handed over her real estate agent’s card and told the senator to start looking at investing in a vacation home in Jackson Hole so that she could come visit you more often.”
“Crap,” Violet said. Then added, “Double crap. That’s my mother ringing through right now on call-waiting. I’ve got to do some damage control. We can talk about this tomorrow when I see you at home.”
The call disconnected, and he would’ve been left feeling dejected that she’d referred to explaining things to her mother as damage control. Except he wasn’t disappointed. Instead, a thrill of excitement shot through him.
She’d said home. Not your home. Not your family’s home. Just home. As though she was already thinking of it as her own.
Chapter Twelve
“Why do our moms do this, Marcus? We’re thirty-two years old, and they’re still using us as pawns. Clearly, we need to stage some sort of intervention to prove once and for all that neither one of them are calling the shots on our relationship.”
Violet was pacing back and forth in his office after Connor’s and Micah’s bail hearings. The charges were probably going to be dropped, but that didn’t mean Violet was backing down as his adversary. At least not in public. But first she needed to deal with the latest development of their quarreling mothers.
“Our relationship?” he asked. “You mean the one we’re currently involved in?”
“Sure. That one.”
“No, Violet. I want to hear you say it.”
“Don’t you think we’re a little too old for me to call you my boyfriend?”
“You think I’m your boyfriend,” he sang. “That means you wanna be my girlfriend.”
“This is so mature.” Violet narrowed her eyes. “Besides, when we were on the courthouse steps a few minutes ago, I didn’t hear you telling Dahlia, Connor and Micah that I was your girlfriend.”
“MJ’s trial starts tomorrow, and we were out in the open. Everyone expects us to stick with the routine that we can’t get along. No special favors, remember? As soon as that’s over, we can come clean and let everyone know.”
“Do you seriously think your family doesn’t already know what’s going on with us?” This was the first time they’d been able to speak alone since he’d returned from Washington, and neither one had wanted to mention what was said during that emotional phone call the night before. “If your mom is giving my mom business cards for Jackson Hole real estate agents, then she knows.”
“Not everyone in my family has figured out that I’m your boyfriend.”
“Stop calling yourself that.” Violet tried to sound disapproving, but deep down, her stomach got all fluttery when he said the word.
“Make me,” he said, acting even more juvenile as he slipped his hands around her waist and pulled her closer.
Violet’s attempt at a stern expression turned into a sigh as he traced his lips down her neck in a series of light kisses. A booming knock sounded on his door, and they jumped apart before Rod entered the office.
“Here’s that surveillance footage a so-called anonymous source gave the DA to get those charges reduced to trespassing.” The V-shaped crease between Rod’s overgrown eyebrows was meant to remind Violet that he didn’t approve of defense attorneys fraternizing with law-enforcement officers. The few times she’d been at the sheriff’s station, the older volunteer’s hawk eyes followed her wherever she went, as though he was expecting her to do something sneaky and nefarious, such as take an extra handful of M&Ms from the candy bowl on the front desk.
“Oh, thanks, Mr. D’Agostino.” Violet held up a thumb drive with the video of Jay Grover breaking into his ex-wife’s house the same night Micah and Connor had broken into his. Reed Nakamoto had known the case would be flimsy and had been eager to reduce the charges to trespassing well before he’d found out the alleged victim was going to make a very unreliable witness. “I brought my own copy to show the sheriff. But I’m certainly not an anonymous source. Just a concerned citizen hoping to see justice done.”
“Hmph,” Rod said before turning and purposely leaving the office door open. Probably so that he could keep her clearly in his sight.
“Concerned citizen?” Marcus asked. “As in a permanent citizen of Teton Ridge?”
Violet’s stomach fluttered again, but then the sensation moved to her chest and caused a tight knot of anxiety. “I know what you’re trying to get me to say, Marcus. But I’m not ready to commit to anything yet. Especially nothing as big as uprooting my life and moving to Wyoming.”
An obvious cough sounded as Rod passed by the open office door on his way to the copy machine.
“Sorry about that,” Marcus mumbled. “Rod thinks that every time you stop by, I’m consorting with the enemy. He’s worried that you’re going to use your big-city defense-attorney charm to manipulate me into doing your bidding.”
“How does he know I haven’t already?” Violet gave the man a friendly wave on his way back to the desk, almost enjoying feeding into his suspicions about her ulterior motives. Then she raised her voice so that Rod could hear. “So you think about what I said, Sheriff, and I’ll meet you later tonight at our usual location. I’ll be sure to bring that special thing you requested.”
While Violet and Marcus both knew that neither of them had broken any ethical rules by being together, let him be the one to explain to his staff that their usual location was the main house at the Twin Kings for a family dinner. And the special thing he’d requested was a plum pie from Burnworth’s Bakery.
Turning on her heel, she tried not to laugh at Marcus’s painful groan behind her as she walked away. Too bad. He couldn’t have it both ways. He couldn’t call her his girlfriend in private, while at the same time want everyone else in town to think that their relationship was only professional until after the trial. He’d have to decide what he wanted—and soon.
* * *
Later that evening, Violet was sitting in the formal living room at the main house, having predinner cocktails with Tessa, Dahlia and Finn as Sherilee King shoved glossy bridal magazines under their noses. Duke had flown back to Wyoming with the family after meeting them in DC and was now trying to include Grayson, Tessa’s new fiancé, and Connor, Dahlia’s boyfriend, in a conversation that wasn’t all about Micah’s and Marcus’s glory days on the high school football team.
Freckles was in the kitchen doing what she loved, and Rider was doing what he loved—taking Jack, Jordan and Amelia out for a ride on their horses. Violet tried to focus on what Sherilee was saying about bridesmaid dresses and flower arrangements, but she couldn’t stop sneaking glances at Marcus. Every time their eyes met, his filled with a heat that promised what he intended to do to her once he finally got her alone.
MJ was too nervous about the trial starting tomorrow, so he’d gone back to his bedroom to be alone. And probably to call Kendra. Violet was just thinking that she should probably head back to her room, as well, and put the final tweaks on her opening statement. But before she could make her excuses, Micah strode into the room, his eyes filled with panic, and announced, “Hey, Rider and the kids aren’t back yet. They were expected at the stables over thirty minutes ago.”
Marcus immediately turned to Violet, and she watched all the color drain from his face. It was nearly dark, and his uncle’s rides with the children never lasted this long. This wasn’t good.
“I
’ll go find them.” Connor, who had once been a tracker in the military, was the first to head to the door.
“We’ll all come,” Finn said, taking off after him.
Marcus was also gone before Violet could cross the room to him. Everyone was hurrying to the stables, and she tried not to think of the kids lost somewhere on the trail, all alone in the dark.
Mike Truong, the stable manager, was already saddling horses, while Marcus and Grayson were organizing who would be going on horseback and who would be taking the ATVs. Many of the riding trails on the ranch were too narrow for vehicles, and Connor and Finn immediately rode off on horseback with radios clipped to their belts.
“I’ll take Dahlia to the airfield to meet the helicopter pilot,” Duke said. “We’ll get a searchlight up in the air so you guys on the ground can see where you’re looking.”
Even Freckles had come from the kitchen, prepared with granola bars and protein snacks to put in the emergency-kit backpacks. Sherilee did the same with bottles of water before hopping into the back seat of a departing ATV at the last minute. No way was the King matriarch going to sit back and wait patiently for her grandchildren to be found.
Violet stood there in the stables, watching helplessly as everyone sprang into action and got their job assignments. She couldn’t ride a horse, and there were only so many ATVs. Only a few Secret Service agents remained on the ranch, and along with the other cattle hands, they knew the trails and the terrain way better than her. Other than being an extra set of eyes, she couldn’t really offer the search team much value. But the boys were out there, possibly alone, and she needed to get to them as soon as possible. She didn’t want to waste time changing into her running shoes, so she grabbed a flashlight and a radio from the table of supplies and was about to set out on foot when Marcus’s voice stopped her.
Not Their First Rodeo Page 18
