“FYI.” Leyton lowered his voice and leaned in closer to Austin. “Howie and Edith will get wind of this.”
Austin nodded, groaned and looked as if he wanted to start digging the hole to bury himself in. It took McCall a moment to realize that she recognized the names. They were Howie and Edith Marygrove, Zoey’s parents.
“Shit,” Austin muttered once Leyton had the girls out of earshot and back in the house.
She didn’t know the specifics as to what was going on, but McCall remembered Granny Em mentioning something about Zoey’s parents wanting to raise the twins. Crap. If there was some kind of custody struggle going on, this free-for-all certainly wouldn’t help.
“I’m so sorry,” McCall said. “I honestly didn’t mean to involve your girls in this.”
He didn’t give her a “that’s okay” or any other sign that he wasn’t riled to the bone about this.
“If you think it’d help, I could talk to Mr. and Mrs. Marygrove and explain none of this was your fault,” McCall pressed.
Austin slid glances at her, Cody Joe, the cop and Boo. “Just wrap this up. I want as little getting back to them as possible.”
That was her cue to get moving again, so with Austin on her heels, McCall went back to Cody Joe and Officer Hatcher.
“As I was saying, if Cody Joe leaves now, then I won’t press charges.” McCall motioned toward the Shetland. “And if Austin agrees, you’ll leave the pony for his daughters. Send me a bill and I’ll reimburse you for the cost.”
Even with the blue lights from the cruiser swirling across his face, McCall saw the glimmer go through Cody Joe’s eyes. A glimmer that let her know he thought this was a time to bargain with her.
“The kids can have the pony as a gift,” he said, “if you’ll give me another chance and forget all about what happened in San Antonio.”
It was such a ridiculous attempt at bribery that McCall couldn’t even muster up another round of temper. Boo could, though. She made a sound of outrage and lunged toward Cody Joe, but Officer Hatcher hooked an arm around her waist and held her back.
“You were going to marry this guy?” Austin said, tipping his head to Cody Joe, who was attempting his “gotta love me” grin.
“No.” McCall couldn’t say that fast enough. “But we were a couple,” she was forced to add.
“A couple of what?” Austin asked.
A burst of air left her mouth, not quite a laugh, but it was as close as she would come to one tonight.
Austin turned and looked at her. The blue lights were swirling on his face, too, but she didn’t see a glimmer there. However, she did see the hot cowboy who’d once been her biggest crush.
“Cody Joe and McCall are cofounders of the Saddle Up for Tots Foundation,” Boo pointed out. “Cody Joe’s the poster-boy celebrity, and his name brings in a lot of money.”
Austin made a sound to indicate that explained a lot. It did. But it didn’t explain why the foundation was so important to McCall. Or that she’d known from the get-go that Cody Joe was irresponsible. However, this was the first time he’d put the foundation in the center of what would almost certainly be a scandal.
“Me and you together can still pull in a lot of money for those kids,” Cody Joe went on, obviously trying to sell an unsalable plan. “I love you, McCall. Just give me another chance.”
Deciding that he just wasn’t going to get it, that he’d done something that couldn’t be undone, McCall shook her head and turned to walk back to Prego Trail. Cody Joe made another move toward her, and this time it was Austin who stepped in. He caught on to Cody Joe’s arm, but all of Cody Joe’s charm vanished, and he tried to push Austin away.
Enough was enough.
McCall turned to give him another “kick to the nuts” threat, but Cody Joe took a swing at Austin. He missed. Then he pulled back his fist to try again. Boo, McCall and Officer Hatcher all went rushing in.
And Cody Joe’s punch caught the cop right in the face.
A wise man would have stopped right there and started apologizing, but Cody Joe decided to lunge at her again. Since now both Austin and Officer Hatcher had hold of him, his momentum sent them forward.
Toward Boo and McCall.
They all went to the ground, landing in a tangled heap of bodies. McCall’s shoe did indeed land in the area of a man’s nuts but not Cody Joe’s. Instead, she connected with the cop’s. He howled in pain, and McCall wanted to do the same when Boo’s seriously hard elbow slammed against her cheekbone.
There was some cursing from all of them, coupled with the sound of the pony, who was neighing over the melee. But there was another sound, too. A car engine. A moment later, a sleek silver Mercedes came to a stop, the tires kicking up the gravel in the driveway, and the headlight spotlighting the human heap.
McCall managed to crawl out on all fours. So did Austin. His mouth was bleeding, the tutu practically ripped to shreds, but he’d clearly fared better than Officer Hatcher. His nose was gushing blood, there was a cut on his forehead, and he was using both hands to clutch his balls while he writhed in pain and rolled from side to side.
“Shit,” Austin grumbled, and he groaned as the two people stepped from the pricy car.
Howie and Edith Marygrove.
His former in-laws.
And McCall could tell from their horrified expressions that this circus had gotten a whole lot more monkey crap.
CHAPTER THREE
AUSTIN HEARD MCCALL muttering something about monkey crap right before she asked him if she should try to smooth things over with Zoey’s parents. He didn’t even have to think about his answer to that.
No.
Because any smoothing-over attempt would be a waste of time.
Normally, Edith nitpicked his parenting—everything from lax bedtime hours to the twins’ food choices. But Edith would take this many, many steps past the nitpicking stage. There’d been a brawl in his front yard, and while the girls hadn’t actually witnessed it, thank God, they’d seen and heard enough to have their night disrupted.
“I’ll deal with them,” Austin told McCall.
Her shoulders dropped, so did her expression, and she nodded in a gesture that he had no trouble interpreting. Resignation and regret. Yeah, he was right there on the same page with her. But he also had a side order of pissed off added to everything else he was feeling.
“I’m sorry,” McCall called out to no one in particular, and using the flashlight on her phone again, she motioned for her assistant, Boo, to follow her.
His former mother-in-law had no doubt noticed Boo’s choice of clothing and would nitpick about that, as well. It didn’t matter that Austin hadn’t a) chosen Boo’s clothes, b) invited anyone other than Leyton here tonight, or c) wanted any of this to happen. There’d be hell to pay and he was the payer.
Maybe he was just stalling, but Austin watched as McCall traipsed through the yard and into the line of trees that concealed the trail. He couldn’t hear what Boo was saying to McCall, but Austin doubted there was anything that could be said that would console her.
Officer Hatcher did some consoling, though, in his own cop way. He handcuffed Cody Joe and put him in the back seat of the cruiser.
“You have to help me, Austin,” Cody Joe said, saying Austin’s name as if they were old friends. That, of course, caused Howie and Edith—especially Edith—to harden their expressions even more.
Austin resisted shooting Cody Joe the bird or barking out that the only help he’d give him was a kick to the ass to get him out of there faster. Instead, Austin just waited and watched as the cruiser pulled away before he turned to Edith and Howie. They were wearing “church clothes.” A suit coat, jeans and bolo tie for Howie. A yellow dress and matching shoes for Edith.
Since it was a weekday, they likely hadn’t come from church but a meeting or some kind of social function. Along with owning a cattl
e ranch, Howie was the mayor, and Edith was on any and all committees in Lone Star Ridge. If there was a baby shower, book club or guild meeting, Edith would be there and almost certainly chairing or hosting it.
Considering they were grandparents, they weren’t old, only fifty-four. They’d had Zoey when they were twenty-three and apparently hadn’t been able to have other children. Austin figured that played into the woman’s obsession with the twins. That, and losing Zoey.
Of course, losing Zoey played into a lot of things.
“McCall had some personal issues,” Austin volunteered, knowing his in-laws would want an explanation. “A cop from San Antonio followed one of those issues here and arrested him.”
“McCall Dalton,” Edith grumbled. There was no “old friends” tone for her. “The girl who was on that TV show?”
“Little Cowgirls,” Howie supplied. “Did McCall and the girl with her lose a bet and have to wear those costumes?”
Austin frowned at Howie’s guess. “No. They were in a contest for a fundraiser.”
“She was dressed like a hooker.” Edith again, and yeah, she grumbled that, too.
“That was McCall’s assistant,” Austin explained. Well, unless Edith thought a fairy could be a hooker. “I need to go inside. Leyton’s with the girls.”
Edith’s disgust turned to horror. “Oh, I hope he doesn’t have on his gun and badge. It’ll scare the girls.”
“No gun.” Not a visible one, anyway, since Leyton used a slide holster in the back of his jeans to carry his service weapon. “And the badge won’t scare them.” In fact, the twins liked to use it to play various games about sheriffs and bad guys, but he wouldn’t mention that to Edith.
Edith hurried ahead of them, not actually running but close. She wasn’t an athletic woman and wasn’t in tip-top shape, but she always seemed to be able to move fast when it came to her grandchildren.
“Is there anything you can tell me about this situation that’ll help calm Edith down?” Howie asked once Edith was far enough ahead that she couldn’t hear them.
“Nope. McCall got into a tight spot and ended up here.”
When Austin reached the pony, he took the reins and hooked them around a porch post. Once he got Edith and Howie to leave—whenever the heck that would be—he’d put the Shetland in the barn, give it some feed and deal with it tomorrow.
“A tight spot that involved Cody Joe Lozano?” Howie asked, keeping his voice low.
So, apparently Howie had recognized the rodeo star, and here was one area that Austin could clarify. “Cody Joe put bruises on McCall. She got away from him and came here because she didn’t want to worry Em.”
“Shit,” Howie mumbled.
That was Austin’s sentiments exactly, and it still riled him that he hadn’t given the idiot a solid punch.
Howie stopped on the porch, turned and faced Austin. “Are you starting up with McCall again?”
Despite the way he’d phrased that, Howie didn’t seem to be passing any judgment on the “starting up” if that was indeed what was happening. The man was likely just wanting to know what he was up against when they faced Edith. Some of the time, it felt as if Howie and he were on the same side, but Austin knew Howie wouldn’t try to rein in his wife and risk disharmony in his marriage.
“No,” Austin assured him. “I’m not seeing McCall.”
The moment he issued that quick denial, he felt the slide of heat go through his body. But it wasn’t necessarily heat for McCall, he assured himself. It was just because it’d been so long since he’d been with a woman. McCall was attractive.
Damn attractive.
However, he didn’t have time for a relationship with a woman who appeared to have more on her plate than he did.
Howie and he went inside, and they made a beeline for the girls’ bedroom where they knew they’d find Edith. Leyton appeared to be holding her at bay by staying close to the beds where Avery and Gracie were sacked out. That was something at least. The events of the night hadn’t wired them up enough to keep them awake.
Leyton put his finger to his mouth in a stay-quiet gesture, one that just Edith needed because she was the only one of them doing something that might disturb the girls’ sleep.
Edith adjusted the covers that in no way needed adjusting, brushed back their hair from their faces. Again, no adjustment had been needed. And finished it off by brushing kisses on their heads and murmuring, “Everything will be okay now. Grandma Edith is here.”
“Gracie’s hair is taking its time growing back,” Howie remarked.
It was indeed, and Austin figured that would earn him another nitpick since Avery had been the one to cut her sister’s hair. Not a good cut, either. It had been done with plastic scissors but looked as if Avery had used a weed whacker. Gracie hadn’t minded, had actually seemed to enjoy the shorter style, but Edith hated it.
Secretly hated it, anyway.
Since his mother-in-law had never been able to tell the girls apart, this gave Edith the advantage of being able to do that. However, Edith would never admit it.
Walking backward so that she could keep her eyes on the twins, Edith crept out of the room, and once she was back in the hall with Leyton, Austin and Howie, Austin eased the door shut.
“Gracie’s poor hair,” Edith remarked. There was an unspoken tsk-tsk after that. “You really should have been more careful, Austin.” She paused only long enough to draw breath. “In case McCall and that man come back, the girls should spend the night with us.”
Austin had already anticipated that demand, and he shook his head. “The girls have preschool tomorrow.”
Not the best excuse since they’d be up by six and wouldn’t have to be at school until ten, but Austin limited the sleepovers to Friday or Saturday nights. And he never allowed two nights in a row. The girls didn’t press for that, either, preferring to be home with him, but Edith certainly did some pressing.
Austin suspected if the woman kept the girls for more than one night, she’d only push for more and more until she could squeeze Austin out of the picture and into the background where she thought fathers belonged. It was an old-fashioned notion that Austin had no intention of passing on to his girls.
“I need to head out now,” Leyton said, checking the time and then looking at Austin. Austin gave him a nod to let him know that he’d be okay, that he didn’t need moral support to face down whatever Edith was about to dole out. “I’ll run by Em’s and make sure McCall got there okay,” Leyton added.
Austin thanked him. A genuine thanks, too. And no, it didn’t have anything to do with the slide of heat he’d felt. Austin was genuinely worried about McCall.
He walked with Leyton to the door, closing it behind him, and when Austin turned back into the living room, he saw Edith at the fireplace. As usual, she was looking at photos on the mantel, a row of shots taken of Zoey, him and the twins.
The last twelve years of his life were on that mantel. Zoey and he had started dating when they’d been twenty, and there was a photo of them on the first vacation they’d taken together. Another photo of Austin at her college graduation. Then a wedding shot of them the following year. The pictures after that were all of them with the twins that they’d finally managed to get after a couple of years of fertility treatments. The girls had been born the week of Zoey’s thirtieth birthday.
Then two years later she was dead.
Of course, there were no pictures of her after the breast cancer had started to ravage her body, but Austin could see it just as clearly as if it’d been in a silver frame on that mantel. He saw it, too, most nights when he closed his eyes to sleep. No reprieve in sleep, either, because she was in his dreams. Just once, he wished his dreams would be of any of the moments actually captured on that mantel.
Edith ran her fingers over Zoey’s face in one of the pictures, and then she backed away, turnin
g toward him. There were tears in her eyes, and Austin was neither surprised by them nor immune to them. Edith’s heart was broken, too, and seeing her tears always brought the grief down harder on him.
“I’m glad Zoey wasn’t here to witness what went on tonight,” Edith said, and there was a bite in her voice now. “It would have upset her.”
No, it wouldn’t have. Zoey would have had a good laugh about it. Well, not a laugh about her pissed-off parents, but Zoey would have spun it into a story to tell the girls. That’s what she’d done with other turns and disasters that life had thrown at them.
But the girls wouldn’t remember that.
Because Zoey had died when they were barely two years old, they wouldn’t remember their amazing mother. And sometimes that realization felt like a fist that had just squeezed all the air out of him.
For better or worse, he’d married Zoey. They’d gotten plenty of the “better,” and now he was dealing with the “worse.” Of course, she’d left him plenty of the “better” with their daughters.
“Leyton said McCall would be at Em’s,” Edith threw out there. “Does that mean she’ll be staying for long?”
Austin shook his head. “I couldn’t say.” Though he was certain he’d soon know because the gossips would spread anything there was to be learned.
“Well, I hope not,” Edith went on. “Lone Star Ridge doesn’t need the kind of publicity that McCall or the rest of the Daltons brought to this town.”
Edith was no doubt referring to the fact that McCall’s sister Sunny had recently had her teenage diaries stolen by a reporter, and the reporter had then published a sexually charged entry from one of them.
“McCall didn’t have anything to do with that,” Austin explained. “She’s a counselor. A respectable one who does charity fundraisers.”
Edith’s raised, overly plucked eyebrows let Austin know either that didn’t matter or she didn’t believe him. “She comes from a family with questionable ethics and an equally questionable reputation,” Edith argued.
It was an okay argument, considering that McCall’s parents were basically money grubbing assholes who’d exploited their triplet daughters through not only the reality TV show but also later when they’d taken most of the money that the show had earned. But McCall’s grandmother, Em, was a decent person who’d always tried to do right by her grandchildren.
Chasing Trouble in Texas Page 3
