Thunder Canyon Homecoming

by Brenda Harlen

  “I’m here because I was invited.”

  “So why were you hovering around me rather than visiting with your friends?”

  “Because the minute I saw you walk through the door, darlin’, I realized how much I’ve missed you.”

  Her traitorous heart bumped against her ribs. She couldn’t do this—she couldn’t let him get to her. She didn’t have any emotional reserves left to deal with him right now.

  “You were the one who walked out,” she reminded him.

  “I made a mistake.”

  Oh, she wanted to believe him. She needed to feel as if she had someone on her side when all of her family allegiances suddenly seemed so uncertain. But he’d hurt her already, and her heart was still feeling too bruised to endure another beating.

  “Look, I appreciate the rescue in there, but if you don’t mind, I’d really just like to go home now.”

  “But it’s your birthday,” he reminded her. “And I’d really like to take you out to celebrate it.”

  She didn’t feel like celebrating, but the thought of spending the few hours that were left of her birthday alone was too depressing to contemplate. And while the thought of spending those hours with Corey was tempting, she knew it would be dangerous to do so.

  “Come on, Erin,” he cajoled. “You didn’t eat anything at the party. Let me at least buy you a burger.”

  “A burger?”

  “Or steak and lobster—whatever you want.”

  She was too raw and vulnerable right now to resist him—and too pathetically needy to refuse. And she was kind of hungry. “I think I’d like a burger.”

  He took her hand, linking their fingers together. “Just a burger—or are you going to go crazy and order a side of fries?”

  “Maybe onion rings.”

  “A woman after my own heart,” he teased, squeezing her hand.

  Erin forced a smile as she let him lead her to his truck.

  Maybe she did want his heart—but she no longer believed that he would ever give it to her.

  Chapter Thirteen

  They went to the Hitching Post. Being a Saturday night, they expected to have to wait for a table, but they lucked out by walking in just as another couple was getting up to leave.

  Corey helped Erin with her coat, hanging it on the hook beside their booth.

  “Is that a new dress?”

  She glanced down, as if she wasn’t sure what she was wearing, then shook her head. “The only thing I’ve bought new since I came to Montana are jeans, flannel shirts and boots.”

  He slid onto the bench across from her. “I guess a California girl’s wardrobe is pretty short on those.”

  “If by ‘short’ you mean ‘nonexistent,’ then yes.”

  “Well, you sure know how to wear them,” he told her. “Although I must admit, I really like the way this fluttery little skirt shows off your legs.”

  She glanced at him over the top of her menu. “Are you flirting with me?”

  “Why do you sound so surprised?”

  “The last time I saw you, you made it pretty clear that we were done.”

  Corey started to respond, then noticed the waitress approaching. They ordered their drinks and burgers with a side of onion rings. When their server had gone, he said, “I was caught off guard by Delores’s visit and my response was probably both impulsive and unfair.”

  “Is that an apology?”

  “I am sorry,” he told her. “And I don’t want to lose what we had.”

  “What did we have, Corey?”

  “If you’re trying to make me squirm by asking me to talk about our relationship, you’re going to be disappointed, darlin’.”

  The waitress returned with their drinks. Erin picked up her glass of wine and took a sip.

  “I came here for a burger, not a relationship analysis,” she told him.

  “I’m not sure how much longer my business is going to keep me in Thunder Canyon,” he said.

  “I never expected you would stay here forever.” Her tone was casual, but she looked away, giving him hope that she wasn’t as unaffected by his announcement as she wanted to seem.

  “How about you?” he asked. “How long do you think you’ll be in Montana?”

  She shrugged. “Right now, I don’t have any plans to be anywhere else.”

  “Ever thought of spending some time in Texas?” he asked.

  “No,” she said bluntly.

  “You’re determined to make this difficult, aren’t you?”

  “That’s not my intention,” she denied.

  “Just a lucky coincidence?”

  “You would think it was a coincidence.”

  He winced. “Okay—I deserved that.”

  She sighed. “No, you didn’t. I’m just not very good company tonight.”

  “Turning twenty-six is getting you down?”

  Her lips curved, just a little. “That must be it.”

  He reached across the table, touched her hand. “Are you missing your family?”

  “I guess I am. Which is silly because they’re coming for Thanksgiving, but I’ve never been away on my birthday before.”

  “Tell me some of your favorite birthday memories,” he suggested.

  “Why?”

  “Because it might help you feel less homesick.”

  “I’m not homesick,” she denied automatically. Then, when his brows rose, she relented, “Not really.”

  “Would you have gone out for dinner if you were celebrating your birthday in San Diego?”

  She shook her head. “My mother would have cooked—anything I wanted. And she would have made her famous triple-layer dark-chocolate coconut cake.”

  “Instead you’re getting a hamburger.”

  Erin smiled as the waitress set her plate in front of her. “Yeah, but it’s a really good burger. And onion rings,” she said, plucking one from her plate and biting into it.

  They didn’t talk much while they ate, but the silence wasn’t at all uncomfortable. Corey wasn’t entirely sure that Erin had forgiven him for his dismissal of her baby-switch theory, but she seemed to be warming up to him, at least a little.

  He excused himself when he’d finished his burger but detoured on his way to the men’s room to track down their server and arrange for dessert. When their plates had been cleared away and Erin was finishing her second glass of wine, the waitress brought a chocolate fudge brownie with coconut sprinkled on top and a single candle stuck in the middle.

  Erin’s eyes widened.

  “I’m sure this can’t compare to anything your mother would have made, but it was the best I could do on short notice.”

  “You didn’t have to do anything,” she told him.

  He nodded toward the dessert. “Make a wish and blow out your candle.”

  She focused on the candle, closed her eyes and blew softly. The flame flickered, then disappeared in a wisp of smoke.

  She cut the brownie in half and insisted on sharing it with him. He didn’t really like coconut, but since it was the first overture she’d made in his direction, he accepted happily.

  When the plate was empty and the bill had been paid, he helped her into her coat again.

  “Thank you,” Erin said as she walked beside him toward the exit.

  “For what?”

  “For the rescue, for dinner and for hanging with me so that I didn’t have to spend my birthday alone.”

  “Anytime,” he told her.

  She puzzled over his response.

  A few days earlier, Corey had refused to consider the possibility that there had been a mix-up at the hospital. Of course, a few days earlier, Erin hadn’t known about Elise’s birthmark and proving that Jake and Josh had the same mark might have helped Corey see things from her point of view. But she hadn’t shown him the photos of her brothers until after they’d left the party, after he’d unexpectedly come to her rescue.

  So what had caused his change of heart? Did he really want to pick up their relations
hip where they’d let off? Why was he suddenly willing to forgive her deception?

  She had no idea how to answer those questions and too many other things to worry about right now. Top of the list of her worries was how to tell her parents—Jack and Betty—what had happened at the hospital on the day that she was born. Thankfully, she had a few days to come up with the right words.

  She was quiet on the drive back to her condo, thinking about their upcoming visit. And maybe it was because they were on her mind that she didn’t find it strange when she saw their car in her driveway.

  “You have company,” Corey said.

  His words made her realize that what she was seeing was real and not an illusion.

  “My parents,” she said.

  “Did you know they were coming?”

  She shook her head. “Not today.”

  Her hand was on the door handle even before he’d come to a complete stop, and then she was flying down the driveway and into her dad’s arms.

  “Dad.” Tears filled her eyes as she moved from Jack’s embrace to Betty’s. “Mom. I thought you weren’t coming until Wednesday.”

  “Well, that was the original plan,” Jack admitted.

  “But your birthday is today,” Betty pointed out. “And there was no way I was missing my little girl’s birthday if I didn’t have to.”

  “What time did you get here? Why didn’t you call me and let me know you were coming?”

  “We wanted it to be a surprise.”

  “Well, it is,” Erin said and hugged her again. “A wonderful surprise.”

  “Then you don’t mind that we didn’t get you a present?” Jack teased.

  “Just having you here is the best present ever,” she assured them.

  “You’re sure it’s okay that we came a few days early?” Betty asked, glancing pointedly at Corey.

  “Of course it is,” Erin said, but she felt her cheeks flush as she imagined what they were thinking and how to introduce the man who had been her lover and now…was not. “This is Corey.”

  He shook hands with each of her parents, who didn’t even try to be subtle as they sized him up. Her father’s narrow-eyed gaze warned her that he was reserving judgment; her mother’s warm smile suggested a willingness to be accepting. Of course, her mother had been willing to accept Trevor, too, and now that Erin was twenty-six years old (officially “over-the-hill” to a woman who had married when she was barely twenty), her matchmaking efforts would undoubtedly kick into overdrive.

  “Are you going to make your parents stand in the driveway all night?” Corey asked her.

  “Of course not,” Erin denied. “Although as I stand here, I am wondering if I left my breakfast dishes on the counter this morning.”

  “I won’t be surprised if you did,” Betty said.

  “And I don’t care if you did,” Jack said. “I’m just hoping you’ve got a cold beer in your fridge.”

  “I’m sure we can find one,” Erin said, digging in her purse for her keys.

  “I’ll say goodbye then,” Corey said to her, “so that you can have some time alone with your parents to catch up.”

  Erin was relieved by his offer. She didn’t want her mother making more of her relationship with Corey than it was—especially when she had no idea what exactly it was right now.

  “Thanks again for dinner,” she said.

  “You don’t have to run off on our account,” Jack said, obviously wanting more time to make up his mind about the man who’d been out with his daughter.

  “And you can’t go until you’ve had cake,” Erin’s mom insisted, reaching into the backseat for a covered plate.

  “Triple-layer dark-chocolate coconut?” Corey asked.

  Betty positively beamed. “Erin told you?”

  “She said it didn’t feel like her birthday without it.”

  “Then you really have to try a piece,” she insisted.

  So Corey came in and had a piece of cake and a cup of coffee.

  Erin had thought it would be awkward to have him there, but her thoughts were so preoccupied that she was grateful for his efforts to keep the conversation flowing. While he was chatting with her father, she went upstairs to put sheets on the bed in the spare room. She was just pulling up the comforter when her mom came in.

  “Your young man is helping Jack with the bags,” Betty told her.

  And so it begins, Erin thought, but with more indulgence than annoyance. “He’s not my young man,” she warned.

  Not unexpectedly, her mother sighed. “Only because you’re not trying hard enough, I’m sure.”

  She had to smile. It was either that or take her mother by the shoulders and shake her. But she couldn’t deny that Betty had her best interests at heart—they just didn’t always agree on what was “best” for Erin.

  Thankfully, the arrival of Corey and her dad with the suit cases saved her from having to answer. While her parents got ready for bed, she saw Corey to the door.

  “Should I apologize?” she asked him.

  “For what?”

  “Whatever my father may have said to you outside.”

  He grinned. “No need. In fact, I think we came to something of an understanding.”

  “What kind of understanding?”

  “I understand that if I make a move on his daughter while he’s sleeping under her roof, he’s going to kick my ass.”

  “He’s always been a little overprotective.”

  “You’re his little girl,” Corey said simply.

  But was she? The automatic question brought tears to her eyes.

  Corey tipped her chin up. “You are,” he said, somehow reading the doubts that were in her mind. “And I suspect that you always will be, no matter how many birthdays you celebrate and no matter what a DNA test might prove.”

  She nodded.

  “I’m glad I got to meet them,” he told her.

  “If I don’t have to apologize for my dad, I should at least warn you about my mom.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you made a very favorable impression on her and, if you’re not careful, she’ll have me out shopping for china patterns before the end of the week.”

  “Maybe I don’t want to be careful,” he said.

  “Corey—”

  “I know. I’ve done a complete one-eighty and you’re trying to figure out why.”

  She eyed him warily.

  “I’m not sure there’s a simple explanation. As a result of my own history, I can handle almost anything but dishonesty. And when I thought you’d lied to me, well, I may have overreacted,” he admitted. “But after I’d had some time to think about it, I realized that even if you had promised not to pursue the truth about the circumstances of your birth, I had no right to ask you to make such a promise.”

  “I needed to know,” she said, needing him to understand how important that knowledge was to her.

  He nodded. “And maybe you had a point when you said that I couldn’t know how you felt because I’d never had reason to question where I fit in my family.”

  “Are you saying that you understand now?”

  “I’m trying,” he promised her. “But mostly, I’m saying that our relationship is worth the effort and if we have differences of opinion, we should work through them.”

  “You were the one who gave me the ultimatum,” she reminded him.

  “I was wrong.”

  “And if I told you I was taking out a billboard to announce that I’m Helen Clifton’s daughter?”

  “I’d try to talk you out of it,” he said. “But only because I think the situation should be handled a little more discreetly.”

  She must have frowned, because he rubbed his thumb over her brow. “You’re tired and you’ve had a long day. Don’t stress about it now, darlin’.”

  “How can I not?”

  “Try to think of something else,” he said, and touched his lips to hers.

  It was a fleeting kiss—filled with more promise than passi
on. She only wished she knew what he was promising.

  Erin woke up the next morning to the mouthwatering scents of frying bacon and perking coffee. She slipped out of bed and into her robe and followed her nose downstairs to the kitchen.

  “I didn’t think I had any bacon,” she said, pouring herself a cup of coffee from the pot.

  “You didn’t,” Betty agreed. “You never have much more than the bare essentials, so I brought a few things in a cooler.”

  Erin opened the refrigerator to get the milk to add to her coffee and immediately realized that her mother had brought more than a few things—her fridge had never been so thoroughly stocked.

  “Even out here in the wilds of Montana, there are grocery stores,” she told her mom.

  Betty stacked a couple of slices of French toast on a plate, added a few slices of bacon, then passed the plate to her daughter. “Sit and eat.”

  Erin sat and ate.

  Usually breakfast was a bowl of cereal or some fruit and yogurt. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had French toast. And as much as she loved bacon—she took another bite of the deliciously salty meat—she never took the time to cook it for herself.

  She picked up the bottle of maple syrup, poured some more onto her plate and swirled a piece of toast in it. “There are probably a gazillion calories in this breakfast.”

  “Calories don’t count when food is prepared with love,” Betty said.

  “You always say that,” Erin noted, dropping her gaze to her plate again so her mom wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes.

  “And you look like you could use a good meal—honestly, Erin, you’re little more than skin and bones now.”

  She smiled at that because she knew it was far from the truth. She weighed exactly the same as always, but if Betty wasn’t personally feeding her daughter, she had a tendency to assume that Erin wasn’t eating.

  “Where’s Dad?” she asked, as much to shift the conversation as because she wanted to know.

  “He had his breakfast already and went out for a walk—he was curious to check out the resort property.” Betty carried her own mug of coffee to the table. “If you had to leave San Diego for a while, you couldn’t have picked a prettier spot.”