“You’re being stupid,” Sawyer said.
Julien looked at him. “Yeah. I know that now. Thanks, kid.”
“You can’t go to her empty-handed. She’ll probably be mad at you for a while.”
“Yeah. You’re probably right about that, too. Any suggestions?”
Sawyer thought a moment and then said, “Yeah. I have an idea.”
* * *
Working her usual routine, Skylar was finished for the day but didn’t feel like going home just yet. She rode along the fence line, not because she had to, but because she couldn’t escape her mind and heart. It was happening. Her heart was breaking. Her relationship with Julien had caused it. Exactly what she’d feared the most and tried the hardest to prevent had descended upon her. She couldn’t fight it any longer.
Looking around at the Chelsey property, she realized none of it mattered compared to him. She would give up the ranch for him. For their child. The ranch wasn’t hers. It belonged to her parents. She’d eventually inherit her share, but it was never her dream. She had never followed her dream. It wasn’t too late to start.
She would probably have never come to this realization had she not met Julien. He’d changed her, made her grow. Had she changed him? Had she made him grow?
Returning to the stable, she handed Bogie over to a groom and then went to her deputy ranch manager.
She spotted him just outside the stable, getting ready to enter the corral. “Mr. Garrison?”
“Skylar. Hello.”
“I need a word with you.”
“Okay.” He led the horse inside the corral and tied him to a post before facing her.
“You have been doing an excellent job here,” she said.
“Thank you. Always good to hear.”
“All of the workers and the animals seem to like you. I like you.”
He didn’t say anything but he could tell she was about to broach something important.
“How do you feel about taking over as the lead manager?”
“I’d be thrilled. Did something happen?”
“I’m thinking about taking a break or maybe just working part-time.”
“Ah. Well, to be honest, I was looking for more than a deputy role.”
“Why don’t you come by my office tomorrow at ten and we’ll finalize everything.”
“Sure will. Thanks.” He tipped his hat at her and she left the stable area.
Seeing the time was after six, she drove home. As her house came into sight, she saw Julien’s BMW parked in the front but no sign of him.
She entered and both heard and smelled something cooking.
In the kitchen, she found him at the stove, searing some beef. Through the doorway, she saw that the dining room table was set.
“I had a key,” he said.
She remembered giving him one. “What are you doing here?”
“Making dinner.” He brought over a wineglass. “Ginger ale.”
She took it with a smile. “Thanks.”
“Sawyer and I had a man-to-man talk and he made me realize some things,” Julien said.
“Where is Sawyer?”
“He’s at my apartment. He shoved me out the door.”
“What things did his wise young soul make you realize?” she asked.
“That I’ve been a major fool, for one.”
“Major, huh?”
“Yes.”
She sipped and felt a twinkle make its way into her eyes. He made her feel so good. And his eyes held a twinkle, too. She was so glad he was there.
“Your timing is perfect. I’ve got almost everything ready.”
Skylar took her glass with her into the dining room. Julien had prepared a green salad and scalloped potatoes. She stilled when she saw a ring box on one of the plates.
Putting down her glass, she turned to see him standing behind her.
“Yes, that’s for you,” he said.
She picked up the box and opened the top. A big round diamond flanked by two sapphires sparkled. It was beautiful.
“Julien...” She didn’t know what to say.
He took her hand and brought her around to face him. Taking the box, he removed the ring and slid it on her finger.
“I’m not asking because you’re pregnant,” he said, “I’m asking because I love you.”
Tears of happiness stung her eyes.
“Will you marry me?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes!” Then she threw her arms around him.
He lifted her off the floor and kissed her. As always with them, the impassioned heat spread through her. She wrapped her legs around him.
Free to love him without fear of being left in the cold, she kissed him back with fervor she had not experienced before.
“I’m not hungry,” she said against his mouth. “I only want you right now. I thought I had lost you.”
“Dinner can wait.” He carried her up the stairs to her bedroom, putting her down on the mattress.
She put her hands on his face and kept kissing him as he unbuttoned his shirt.
“I was going to tell you this over dinner,” he said as he threw his shirt aside. “I’ll live anywhere you want. Here on the ranch. Anywhere.”
She kissed him. “I just offered my deputy the lead manager role.”
He returned her kisses, giving her room to remove her flannel shirt.
“Are you sure?” He stood to remove his jeans.
“Yes. I’m not sure if I want to live in a house you bought for another woman, but I at least want to see it.”
“I didn’t buy it for her. I bought it with kids in mind.”
She shimmied out of her jeans and underwear and he unclasped her bra.
“Well, lucky for us we already have one on the way.” She laughed lightly.
“Are you happy about that?” He kissed her. “That was something else I wanted to bring up over dinner.”
She laughed again, slipping her hands in his underwear and pushing them down. “I was shocked at first, I have to admit. But the fact that it’s yours changes everything.” She met his smoldering eyes. “Yes. I’m happy.”
He grinned his satisfaction. “You haven’t said you love me yet.”
“I love you. Now make love to me.”
He pressed a hard kiss to her mouth and spread her legs with his. “Yes, ma’am.” Without hesitation, he sank into her, going in deep and then withdrawing.
She was instantly transported to another world where only the two of them existed. He moved slow, drawing out the sweet tension. He met her eyes as he moved.
Their joining felt so much more powerful than the first time—if that were even possible—and Skylar knew the reason was that they had nothing to fear anymore.
Epilogue
Typical of her mother, Francesca had planned a whopper of an engagement party a month later. She’d invited all their friends and neighbors. So far, no one knew Skylar was pregnant. She wasn’t sure when she wanted that news out. This was all so new to her. Never in a million years would she have anticipated her life would take such a drastic turn. But it did feel right. For the first time ever, she had no doubts whatsoever. Marrying Julien and starting a family was all she wanted or needed. Embarking into interior design would be secondary but something she looked forward to trying.
Skylar saw her brother come into the rec room where people mingled at the bar and played pool. A woman appeared from behind him. Tall, with flowing black hair and a stunning though heavily made-up face, she walked like a model. Skylar reserved judgment until she talked with the woman.
Corbin saw her and walked over. “Engaged, huh?” He leaned in for a kiss on her cheek.
“Yeah. Who would have thought?” She glanced at Julien, who smiled proudly.
“Amber, this is my sist
er, Skylar, and her fiancé, Julien.”
“Hello,” Amber said in a singsong voice.
Skylar shook her hand. “How did the two of you meet?”
“At the Rusty Lantern,” Corbin said. “I bought her a drink and we hit it off.”
“What do you do?” Skylar asked the woman.
“I don’t have to work,” she said loftily.
“Lucky you. How did you manage that?”
“I married well when I was eighteen. Unfortunately, we grew apart as we got older.”
Was she saying she married for money at the young age of eighteen? Skylar met her brother’s look. He seemed headed toward the same mistake. She would talk to him later.
Just then she spotted Wes McKann enter the room. “I don’t believe it.”
Julien followed her gaze.
Wes saw them and approached.
Corbin left them to head for the bar with his new girlfriend.
“Wes, how nice of you to come,” Skylar said.
Wes shook Julien’s hand. “I figured I needed to make an appearance to smooth over my behavior of late.”
“We’re just happy to know your wife is all right,” Skylar said. “I’m sorry I thought you killed her. Convinced, actually.” She smiled in a way that might soften the words.
Wes let out a laugh. “That’s the thing I like about you most. You say it straight and true.” He sobered. “I wanted to tell you I’m sorry for the way I treated you both. I wasn’t expecting Charlotte to leave me and I struggled a little with that.” His somber face said he still wasn’t over her. “Anyway. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
A woman approached that Skylar didn’t recognize. She went straight for Julien and hugged him.
“Hey, Jules. Congratulations.”
“Hi, Indie. This is Skylar.”
“So you’re the lucky lady. There have been a lot before you who’ve tried to snare him. You must be someone very special.” She was a striking blonde with blue eyes.
“This is Indiana Deboe. She’s a private investigator at DAI,” Julien said.
Skylar didn’t feel so curious anymore that this beautiful woman knew Julien so well. “Hello. This is Wes McKann, he owns the ranch next to ours.”
“Ah.” Indie looked at Wes, her gaze lingering. “Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.” Wes’s response sounded stiff and a little unapproachable.
Skylar saw Corbin looking at Indie with more than casual interest.
“Can I get the two of you something to drink?” Skylar asked.
“I can get my own,” Indie said, looking back toward the bar. She saw Corbin and her gaze stayed connected with his awhile before she headed over in that direction.
Wes left to talk to a man who had just arrived, leaving Skylar and Julien alone a few minutes.
“This is turning into an interesting party,” Julien said.
“Very.”
Romance was in the air. She hooked her arm with Julien’s. She had hers right here.
He met her eyes and smiled before kissing her softly.
* * *
Don’t miss previous titles in
Jennifer Morey’s Cold Case Detective series:
Cold Case Manhunt
Hometown Detective
Runaway Heiress
Taming Deputy Harlow
Cold Case Recruit
Justice Hunter
A Wanted Man
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Colton 911: Detective on Call
by Regan Black
Chapter 1
At the reception desk of the women’s prison, Pippa Colton waited, smothering her brewing impatience under a professionally unflappable demeanor. Probably the most important lesson of law school: never let them see you sweat.
Though she wasn’t sweating in her charcoal slacks and tailored jacket, it was impossible to ignore the ripe smells of the countless bodies that had passed through. Thanks to its overcrowding and pervasive violence, she could not consider the prison system as anything other than inhumane. No matter how clean on the surface, every prison had a distinct odor of fatigue, resignation and stress that never faded. Her client would have likely thrown a fit and demanded air freshener upon arrival.
The guard on the other side of the window frowned at her credentials, shifting his gaze to a computer monitor and back to her. “You’re not listed on the visitor log today.”
“There must be a mistake.” She reached into her briefcase for the confirmation she’d printed out after registering this meeting through the online portal. This wasn’t her first trek to a prison. “I have the details right here.”
She slid the page through the gap in the protective window, and on the other side, the skinny man’s thin upper lip curled. He seemed bent on turning her away, but jumping through hoops was part of the job. Soon she would be heading deeper into this monstrosity of a facility, and the attitudes aimed her way from both inmates and guards were likely to get surlier along the way.
With a put-upon sigh, the guard keyed in the number at the top of the page and waited. Shaking his head, he pushed the paper back to her, along with her credentials. “Nothing here, ma’am.”
“But—”
He shrugged. “There’s nothing here. You’ll have to reschedule.”
She reined in her temper. No one in the legal system wanted to befriend the lawyer trying to overturn a conviction. Especially when that conviction meant freeing the woman everyone loved to hate, Anna Wentworth, who had been transferred to the prison two weeks ago after a jury found her guilty of murdering her lover, David Hicks.
Public opinion had been working against Anna from the start. A prominent married socialite in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Anna had been dubbed the Queen of Mean long before being labeled as a killer. Oddly enough, no one cared that she’d been unfaithful to her husband, Ed, only that she’d allegedly offed Hicks when the younger man ended the affair.
“Could you please double-check?” she asked with a polite smile. Her mind was envisioning outrageous methods of getting to her client. But she wasn’t an action hero, just the least popular attorney in Michigan today.
The guard walked away without a word, paper in hand. She had no idea if the man would return to the window or how long it would be until someone else stepped up to return her credentials.
She’d never been outright denied a visit. To get Anna released, she had to give the court the real killer and proof to clear her client. Unfortunately, the case file and collected evidence had yet to point her in the right direction. Why was she the only person who could look at the evidence and see it was too neat and tidy to be true? Her hope was that Anna would cooperate today in ways she hadn’t done with her original defense team.
At the time of her arrest and trial, Anna had been certain being innocent—and wealthy—would be enough to get the charges dismissed and the case thrown out. No one could convince her of the severity of the evidence against her. As a strategy, being too wealthy to go to prison was terrible. As a lifestyle it was worse. Though Pippa had also been raised in a wealthy family, she detested Anna’s elitist and privileged attitudes. But no one deserved to be in prison for a crime they didn’t commit.
The skinny guard returned, looking annoyed that she hadn’t given up. “Sorry, ma’am. I double-checked.” He pushed the paper and her credentials back across the counter for her. “You ca
n’t see your client today. In the future you’ll need to schedule an appointment with the new form.”
“I scheduled today’s appointment with the current form,” Pippa said. She pulled up her phone and opened her email app. Briskly, she read aloud the dates of her emails and the positive responses from the prison. “Shall I forward these to you?” she queried.
“No, ma’am. I can’t accept that as authorization.” His gaze fell and he looked a bit sheepish, and she pounced on the first sign of weakness.
“What can you accept? I’ve driven over two hours to see my client after filing everything properly. You do know she and I have a legal right to confer.”
“Yes, ma’am—”
“Great.” She cut him off. “In the past, I’ve been able to fill out visitation paperwork right here. Is that an option today?”
“No, ma’am. New policy is in effect. I can’t let you in without the correct paperwork, completed twenty-four hours ahead of the requested time. Sorry. Ma’am.”
His diligent use of “ma’am” struck her ears like nails on a chalkboard, and she was sure that’s why he kept it up. She pressed her lips together and started over.
“I respect your position and the system,” she began, ignoring the guard’s sneer. The anti-Anna movement was in full force today. Again, she mentally scolded her client for making this all so much harder than it needed to be. Clearly, the woman’s superiority complex wasn’t making her any friends in prison either. Only more enemies.
Elizabeth, Anna’s daughter and Pippa’s good friend, would be terribly disappointed if Pippa couldn’t get inside today. For Elizabeth, she reminded herself, infusing her voice with steel. “You, sir, are hindering the legal process,” she snapped. “May I speak with your supervisor?”
Her P.I. Protector Page 19
