Lone Star Blues

by Delores Fossen

  Karlee apparently thought that was her cue to give Dylan and her time for a private conversation. “Corbin, why don’t we see if there are any cartoons on TV?”

  That made the boy smile and nod, and he waved at Dylan before Karlee, Booger and he headed for the sunroom. There was a TV just steps away in the family room, but Karlee probably thought it was wise to move out of earshot in case Dylan and she got into an argument.

  “I hope you’re as pissed off at Regina as I am,” Dylan threw out there.

  Jordan smiled before she could stop herself. “Karlee and I just had this conversation. I’m poopy-frog-in-the-backpack mad times infinity.”

  He winced, then smiled. Great. It was the full thousand-watt Dylan smile. Subtle but somehow dazzling at the same time. It accompanied a full dose of the Dylan charm. The little dip of his head. A slight lowering of his eyelids. All blended together with the sexy stubble and tousled hair.

  Damn him. She still wasn’t immune to it after all this time. It helped, though, when she remembered the arguments.

  “If my mom doesn’t back down,” he said, his smile disappearing, “I’ll fight her. But I don’t want to have to fight you at the same time.”

  If she’d still been in middle school, Jordan would have gotten detention for the curse word that left her mouth. “This could be exactly what your mother wants—me and you working together.”

  Dylan didn’t hesitate. He nodded. “Could be. The woman can be sneaky. And that’s why we might be able to stop her in her tracks.”

  It didn’t take Jordan long to see where this could possibly be going. “Oh God. You’re not suggesting we pretend to be a couple so she’ll back off?”

  “No. But that was one of the ideas I came up with. Don’t worry, I nixed it. That and several other ones that were even worse. Like us remarrying.”

  She choked on the breath that she sucked in too fast, and it caused Dylan to smile again and give her a fake pat on the back. “Then I remembered why that couldn’t happen.” He paused. “Wanderlust and roots as deep as Texas don’t make for a peaceful home.”

  It wasn’t the first time she’d heard him say that. Of course, she was the wanderlust part of that. “I’m the reason things fell apart.” And she added a little snark to that.

  He hiked his thumb to his chest. “Roots as deep as Texas,” he repeated. “I’m the reason things fell apart. That, and I kept letting my family interfere.”

  That cooled down some of the snark that would have almost certainly found its way to her mouth. But Jordan quickly realized that a cool-down snark wasn’t much of a wall, and she needed a wall between Dylan and her because of her lacking immunity to his smile.

  And the rest of him.

  For a moment, she didn’t keep the memories at bay. It was a whopper of a mistake. Because whenever Dylan was this close to her, it was always easier to remember the way he kissed her way back when. The way it felt to be in his arms. Easier to remember the sex, too.

  Jordan was still trying to pull herself out of the memory mess she’d created when she heard a tap on the front door. She stepped way back from Dylan even though there’d already been three or four feet of space between them. Despite that space, though, it felt as if they’d been caught doing something wrong.

  “That can’t be my mother,” Dylan said, checking the time. “Unless she got a quick flight out.”

  Jordan hoped that wasn’t true, but it was too early for a mere visitor. Too bad because she’d wanted to have a chat with Adele and a lawyer before Regina got there. She also wanted to steel herself up.

  Dylan was on the way to the door when there was another tap. Maybe Regina had forgotten her key. But it wasn’t Regina.

  It was a tall, curvy blonde that Jordan didn’t recognize. Not at first anyway. She picked through the features, did a mental age progression and realized this was Melanie Turley. She’d been four grades behind Dylan and her in school so Jordan didn’t really know her.

  Obviously Dylan did, though.

  The moment he had the door fully open, Melanie practically flew into his arms. Or rather she would have if his arms had been open. They weren’t. Melanie’s breasts ended up smacking against his chest, and Dylan staggered back. Melanie caught onto him. He caught onto her. And the woman ended up in his arms after all.

  “I didn’t want to ring the doorbell because I didn’t want to wake everyone,” Melanie said. “Dylan, we have to talk.” She was still on the last syllable of the final word when her attention landed on Jordan, and Melanie sort of froze.

  Jordan felt herself freeze some, too, and she felt other things, as well. The punch of jealousy that was no doubt left over because of the lust.

  Dylan moved back from the woman, much as he’d done to Jordan just seconds earlier, and he followed Melanie’s gaze to Jordan.

  “Jordan,” Melanie said on a rise of breath. “Dad told me you were back for a visit, but I thought you’d be staying at the inn.”

  Jordan shook her head. “There were no rooms available for last night. And then there were the snakes.” Of course, that sounded like lies. Jordan wasn’t concerned about that, though.

  Apparently, Melanie wasn’t concerned about it, either, because she only glanced at Jordan before turning back to Dylan. “Your mother called my dad, and she wants him to try to help her get custody of your son.”

  Jordan had been about to head to the sunroom, but that stopped her. Walter Ray was a judge, and he’d visited Dylan just the day before.

  Dylan cursed and scrubbed his hand over his face. “What’d your dad say?” he asked.

  “That he’d think about it.” Melanie’s forehead bunched up. “Dylan, I think he’ll do it. Not because Regina would make a better parent but because he’s upset with you.”

  Now it was Jordan who cursed. “Would Walter Ray have any kind of influence in something like this?”

  But she already suspected the answer was yes before Melanie gave her a flat look. After all, the man was a judge, which meant he probably knew plenty of lawyers and other judges.

  “My dad can be an asshole,” Melanie spelled out for her. “And Dylan’s not exactly in his good favor right now.”

  Jordan wished now that she’d stayed to hear what the trouble was between Dylan and Walter Ray. But she suspected it had to do with Melanie.

  Melanie turned back to Dylan. “I think I know a way to fix this. A way that’ll make my dad happy and will get both him and your mom to back off.” Melanie took a deep breath. “Dylan, let’s get married.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  FROM THE MOMENT that Dylan had seen Melanie in the doorway, he’d figured something was up that he wouldn’t like. And he’d been right.

  “Married?” he repeated just to make sure he’d heard Melanie correctly. After all, he was functioning on only an hour or two of sleep and no caffeine. He was surprised he could stand upright.

  “I’ll just be going,” Jordan said, fluttering her fingers toward the sunroom. “I’ll check on Corbin, and then I need to drive into San Antonio to see Adele.”

  Dylan wanted to see Adele, too, but obviously Jordan had coffeed up because she jetted out of the foyer so fast that he didn’t get a chance to say anything else to her. She might have thought he needed time to mull over Melanie’s proposal. He didn’t.

  The answer was no.

  But Jordan didn’t wait around to hear that, and Dylan was betting as soon as she looked in on Corbin that she’d be heading out through the back door so she could avoid Melanie. And him. That was too bad because before Melanie’s interruption, he’d thought Jordan and he were making some progress. They hadn’t glared at each other anyway, but he was betting that would change if Jordan thought he was teaming up with Melanie to shut her out of the custody battle.

  Of course, Jordan might be plotting her own shut out. Since she was going to see Adele, it
was possible she could talk her cousin into changing her mind about who would raise Corbin. And Adele just might do it, too.

  That put a big knot in his stomach.

  “Well?” Melanie prompted. Obviously, the woman couldn’t tell from his uncaffeinated, bleary-eyed expression that he was so not in a marriage proposal kind of mood and might not be for the next decade.

  Because Melanie was a nice person, he tried to say this as gently as he could. “I can’t marry you. No, not even for the sake of custody,” he quickly added when she opened her mouth, no doubt to argue her case. “If Walter Ray casts his lot with my mom, then so be it.”

  Though he hoped like hell that didn’t happen. Especially since he was sure both Walter Ray and his mom were doing this for all the wrong reasons. Walter Ray, so he could get Dylan to marry his daughter. And his mom, so she could get him to marry his ex.

  “But I don’t want you to lose custody of your son,” Melanie pointed out.

  Neither did Dylan, and he did think it was mighty big of Melanie to have that much concern about a child he’d had with another woman. Or maybe she just figured this was her best shot at becoming Mrs. Dylan Granger.

  “Look, Melanie, I’m no prize,” he said. “You don’t want to marry me. I suck at marriage and relationships.”

  Her sigh and the look in her eyes disagreed with that. “That was a lifetime ago,” Melanie interrupted. “You’re not the same man you were then.”

  Yeah, he was afraid he was. He’d cut down on the partying some, but he was still anchored to this house, to this life and to the family that he sometimes wanted to fling into an alternate universe. And the real butt-kicker, he was the same person who’d failed at the biggest and most important thing he’d ever done—promising Jordan that he’d be with her until death us do part.

  Of course, plenty of people went through a divorce and were just fine. Those same people probably hadn’t gone from one screwup to another in their lives, either. Most people got past it.

  Dylan hadn’t.

  Because every time he looked at his wedding band in his nightstand drawer, he knew that the screwup label would stay with him forever. And that’s why he had to try to stop the cycle now. He had to do better by Corbin than he had with Jordan and himself.

  “Just think about what I said,” Melanie pressed. She would have also pressed a big kiss on his mouth, but Dylan turned at the last second. Her lips landed on his cheek.

  Melanie looked disappointed when she pulled back. Dylan figured he just looked as if he’d dodged a bullet. A kiss, a real one, could give Melanie hope that he didn’t want to give her. Then again, sometimes his breathing seemed to give her hope, too.

  When Dylan finally managed to get Melanie out the door, he immediately headed to the sunroom, not only to check on Corbin but also to see Jordan. He wanted her to know that he hadn’t teamed up with Melanie in this custody mess. But Jordan wasn’t in the sunroom.

  However, Lucian was.

  And judging from his expression, he wasn’t a happy camper. His brother was pacing and talking on his phone while Karlee and Corbin sat on the floor in front of the TV. Karlee had managed to find a cartoon, and both Corbin and Booger were glued to the set.

  Karlee immediately got up and went to him when he glanced around the room, looking for Jordan. “She went to see Adele,” she said when she reached him.

  Since he’d been expecting that, it wasn’t a surprise. What was a surprise, though, was that he actually felt disappointed. Obviously, certain parts of his body had wanted to see her, a reminder that he needed to have a long talk with those parts. It really wasn’t a good idea to be lusting after his ex this way, especially since he’d just had that “I suck at relationships” chat with Melanie.

  “The visit with Adele will be hard for her,” Karlee went on, whispering now. “Hard on Adele, too, I’m sure.”

  Yeah, and Dylan needed to keep that in mind when he paid his own visit to Adele. The woman wasn’t just in jail, she’d also had to give up her little boy. Even if Adele wasn’t up for mother of the year award, that had to cut her to the core.

  “Lucian’s on the phone with your mom,” Karlee added.

  Yet another woman out of the mother of the year competition. And it explained the intense scowl on his brother’s face. Dylan was doing some scowling, too, but that ended when Corbin burst out laughing at something that happened on TV. It made Dylan smile and remember that he, too, had been a burst out laughing kind of kid.

  “Thanks for watching him,” Dylan told Karlee.

  She nodded. “I’ll do what I can to make this easier for all of you.”

  That applied to pretty much everything Karlee did. She was devoted to Lucian, which meant all the Grangers, including him, reaped the benefits of that.

  Dylan slipped his arm around Karlee and hugged her. “Maybe one day Lucian will wake up and see that you’re a keeper.”

  Her eyebrow came up. “Who says I want him to wake up? I’m fine with the way things are now.” Dylan might have argued that, but Karlee continued. “Besides, the Granger men don’t have good track records when it comes to commitments.”

  They didn’t. Lots of divorces and broken hearts. His included. It was the reminder he needed to quit thinking about Jordan and the tug she had on his body.

  “I’m worried about Jordan,” Karlee threw out there.

  Well, hell. That wasn’t a good start to his quit thinking about her reminder.

  “You saw on the news what she went through,” Karlee went on. “That only happened a little over a month ago, and Jordan still has to be dealing with it.”

  Yeah, she did. And he’d seen the news. Hadn’t been able to turn away from it despite it giving him a sickening helpless feeling. During those hours that she was held captive, there was all kinds of speculation about what might be happening to her. Torture, rape. Execution. That’s why Dylan had been beyond thankful when she’d been rescued and a picture of her showed no signs of injury.

  That didn’t mean Jordan came out unscathed, though.

  Dylan was more than a little bothered by that. Bothered that he might be contributing to her stress. It was a loop of guilt and frustration added to the other loops of lust and being pissed off.

  “You’re not suggesting I give her custody because she’s a military hero,” Dylan said to Karlee.

  “No.” Karlee didn’t hesitate. “In fact, that might not be the best thing for her. I know she loves Corbin, and he’s family, but...” She waved the rest of that off.

  Dylan filled in the blanks. Either way, this could break Jordan. Or at least it could do that to a weaker woman. But Jordan wasn’t weak. She’d known right from the get-go that she wouldn’t be happy in Wrangler’s Creek. Too much had gone on in her childhood. Too much pain. Yet, she’d tried to set that aside when she’d married him.

  And she’d failed.

  That didn’t make her weak, though. Because as soon as she realized that they couldn’t make a go of it, she’d cut her losses and gotten on with her life. She’d do the same now if she didn’t get custody of Corbin.

  He hoped.

  But Dylan would try to keep an eye on her just in case.

  “Lucian wants to talk to you,” Karlee said, patting his arm. She went back to the TV area and Corbin.

  Lucian had indeed finished his call and was motioning for Dylan to move to the other side of the room with him. Great. More bad news was coming, and it was bad enough that Lucian didn’t want a toddler to overhear.

  “That was Mom,” Lucian started—after he groaned and muttered some profanity. “She’s already had a chat with one of our lawyers about Corbin’s custody.”

  He didn’t even bother groaning since this was just the tip of the iceberg. Dylan would save up his groans and give a big, collective one when the crap news stopped pouring in.

  “Mom talked
to Walter Ray about it, too,” Dylan explained. “Melanie was just here to try to coax me into marrying her with the notion that it would stop Walter Ray and Regina from teaming up against me.”

  “She’s gone batshit crazy,” Lucian grumbled.

  Dylan didn’t know if Lucian meant their mother or Melanie. He could see an argument for both. “Even if Mom and Walter Ray do try this, it shouldn’t matter. I’m the one with the strongest claim to raise him because I’m Corbin’s father.”

  Lucian stared at him. “Are you? And before you get mad at me pointing that out, let me have a DNA test done. He doesn’t look like you—”

  “Because he looks like Adele. And until I have a reason to doubt her, there’ll be no DNA test.”

  Dylan said that a little louder than planned, and it got Karlee’s attention. She started walking their way.

  “Adele’s a criminal,” Lucian pointed out. “That and that alone should be grounds to doubt her.”

  It wasn’t. And Dylan hoped his glare not only let Lucian know it but that it would also get his brother to back off. For once he was not going to let Lucian browbeat him into doing something. He was just going to accept Corbin as the incredible “gift” that he was. He wasn’t ready to deal with DNA tests and any other legalities that Lucian wanted to ram down his throat.

  Dylan had to continue the glare when the doorbell rang. Hell. Had Melanie returned for round two of an argument she stood no chance of winning?

  “I’ll get it,” Dylan grumbled.

  The bell rang again, followed by a heavy-handed knock. If it was Melanie, she was either impatient or madder than a hornet, and Dylan was quickly reaching that “hornet mad” threshold, as well. That’s why he threw open the door, ready to tell Melanie to back off.

  But it wasn’t Melanie.

  It was a tall guy in a military uniform. And he was smiling, though Dylan couldn’t see diddly to smile about. It was still way too early for visitors.

  “Lieutenant Colonel Theo Shaw,” he said, thrusting out his beefy hand for Dylan to shake. “I’m here to see Jordan.”