Lone Star Blues

by Delores Fossen

  Focused but flighty.

  Not a good combination when it came to raising a child. Adele and she had both had bad childhoods, and Jordan hated that Corbin might have to go through anything even remotely like that.

  “Regina wants custody of Corbin,” Jordan told her.

  Adele didn’t seem surprised by that, and she nodded right away. “Yes, her lawyer’s already called here, asking to see me. We’ve got an appointment this afternoon.”

  Regina wasn’t wasting any time. “I hope you’ll tell the lawyer to take a hike.”

  Adele shrugged. “I’ll listen to what he has to say.”

  Jordan groaned. There were already enough complications without Regina doing a full court press.

  Adele’s expression changed when she looked at Jordan again. Not a smile exactly, but it was a good attempt at one. “How are you?” Adele asked. “I saw the reports on the news and organized a candlelight vigil for you. Nearly a hundred people showed up. We chanted and did yoga.”

  “Thank you.” Jordan meant it. She was grateful to anyone and everyone who’d tried to give her spiritual support during her captivity. But it wasn’t what she wanted to discuss now. “You knew I’d been rescued and that I was coming here on leave. I told you my flight number and the time I’d arrive. Why didn’t you just wait and hand Corbin over to me? I’m your family, Adele.”

  Adele dragged in a long breath, and the teary eyes returned. “I love you. You know that.”

  “But?” Jordan questioned when Adele didn’t continue.

  “But I want Dylan to be the one to raise Corbie. I know he’s not perfect,” Adele quickly went on before Jordan could say anything. Especially say anything about how hearing that crushed her heart. “But he can give Corbie a home. And I believe Dylan can love him.”

  There it was. All spelled out for her. And the problem was that it was all true. The Granger money wouldn’t hurt, either, and while Jordan would have liked to blow that off, she couldn’t. She’d grown up poor and knew that it sucked. Of course, money alone wouldn’t fix things, but Dylan did indeed seem to care for the little boy.

  Jordan wasn’t ready to give up on this just yet, though. “I love Corbin, too.”

  “I knew you would. Corbie’s a real sweetheart.” Adele paused again. “He deserves the best.”

  “And I’m not the best,” Jordan said in a mumble. That stung, bad, and in the heat of the moment, she nearly started to point out all of Dylan’s flaws.

  But in Adele’s mind, Jordan’s flaws outnumbered his.

  “This way, you don’t have to give up the life you love,” Adele went on. “You know you’d never be happy in just one place. You never have been. And Corbie needs stability.”

  “I don’t have to live in Wrangler’s Creek to give Corbin stability,” Jordan pointed out. “That can happen anywhere he and I happen to live.”

  Adele looked her straight in the eyes. “But it’s what I want for my son. Honestly, it was the only home I ever had, and despite how bad things got with your mom, it was a home I loved. I want that for Corbie. I certainly don’t want him being moved all over the world with you on assignments.”

  Jordan opened her mouth to say that military kids were usually well-adjusted, but Adele continued before she could say anything.

  “There’s only one way I’d change my mind about custody,” Adele insisted. “You get out of the military and move back to Wrangler’s Creek to be with him.”

  Stunned, Jordan stared at her. “Is that all?” she asked with just a touch of sarcasm.

  “No.” Still staring into Jordan’s eyes, Adele leaned in closer again. “You’d have to promise me to raise Corbie with Dylan. Not as his ex but as a family. The three of you together. Until I’m sure it’ll actually work, Dylan will keep full custody of him.”

  That certainly didn’t sound flighty. It sounded like a decree. And Adele must have thought she’d made that decree crystal clear because she got up and walked out with the guard.

  Jordan waited a few seconds to see if Adele would return, but when she didn’t, she headed back through the security checkpoint so she could gather her purse and phone.

  “Done already?” the guard asked. He was the same one who’d searched her when she’d first come in, and like before he gave her that look of sympathy that she got from anyone who recognized her.

  “Yes.” Jordan checked the times. She’d only used half of her allotted thirty minutes with Adele.

  “I hope it wasn’t too hard on you,” he went on. Yes, definitely sympathy.

  “It was okay,” she lied.

  “Good,” the guard said, handing Jordan her things. “Now I’ll be able to get your cousin’s other visitors in as soon as they’re done with the paperwork.”

  Jordan had already taken a step, but that stopped her. “Other visitors?”

  The guard nodded, and even though he didn’t tell her the visitors’ names, Jordan got a glimpse of them on the screen.

  Heck.

  What were they doing here?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  JUDGE WALTER RAY TURLEY and Regina Granger.

  Jordan doubted there was a good reason for the duo to be visiting Adele unless they were actually pairing up now to bark up this custody tree. She’d considered waiting around to confront them, but Jordan had left, figuring it wasn’t a good idea for her to get in a shouting match in a jail. Especially when that guard had already thought she was fragile and maybe unstable.

  Unfortunately, Adele thought that, too.

  Family.

  That word sure took on a different meaning than it had before Jordan’s visit with Adele. Her cousin had used family as strings to tie around Jordan’s possible custody request. Strings that involved Dylan and Jordan playing house. And if Jordan didn’t play, then she wouldn’t get the chance to raise Corbin.

  Twenty-four hours ago, Corbin hadn’t even been on Jordan’s radar, but now that he was, it hurt to think she could lose him. But what hurt even more was that Adele didn’t have enough faith in her to believe that she would be the right choice as a parent. Instead, Adele had chosen Dylan.

  Jordan heard the dinging sound on the dash of her rental car and saw the low gas gauge. Good thing she’d gotten the warning, or as distracted as she was, she might not have noticed. That definitely wasn’t good. She needed to get her mind back on not only her driving but also what she was going to say to Dylan about the visit with Adele. She’d have to tell him the truth.

  Wouldn’t she?

  Of course, she would. And Jordan silently cursed herself for even that blip of a thought to keep it from him. But maybe once Dylan heard Adele’s decree, he would still be able to see Jordan’s side of this. And that side was she thought she could be the better parent.

  While she thought about the argument she could give him, Jordan pulled into the Pump and Ride, Wrangler’s Creek’s only gas station. Like everything else in town, there’d been no changes here. In fact, there were the familiar cobwebs. When she’d been a teenager, they’d made fun of the spidery blobs in the corners of the windows, and they were still there.

  Even the sign on the pump hadn’t changed. It still said “pay inside before you pump” so Jordan went in to see another familiar fixture. Arlo Betterton, the owner. Same white hair and beard, same round belly stuffed like a sausage into his too-tight overalls. The overalls might even have been the same ones he’d worn fourteen years ago.

  “Well, looky here,” Arlo said. “I got a war hero in my place of business.”

  “I’m not a hero,” Jordan automatically grumbled, but she didn’t say it loud enough for him to hear. She’d learned from the looks she’d gotten that people didn’t want her to be bitchy about the hero label. Maybe because it made her seem ungrateful for being alive.

  “I need some gas.” And she did say that aloud. Jordan took out her
credit card and handed it to Arlo to swipe on the antique-looking machine.

  “You home for good because of Adele’s boy?” Arlo asked. He didn’t swipe the card. He stood behind the counter grinning at her.

  “Right now, I’m just on leave. And I need to get back to the Granger Ranch,” she added.

  That addition did no good whatsoever in getting him to hurry. “Well, I’m sure that mess with Adele will all work itself out. That girl always was spirited.”

  That was one way of putting it. If spirited was code for pain in the butt. But even now, Jordan felt guilty about thinking of Adele like that. After all, Adele was behind bars and could be there for a long time, and she didn’t want to kick her when she was down.

  “So, your fella came to town with you,” Arlo said a moment later.

  Jordan shook her head.

  “The Air Force fella,” Arlo added. “He was by here this morning getting gas.”

  It was possible that her heart skipped a couple of very necessary beats. Jordan whipped out her phone to call Theo to make sure he was anywhere but here, but then she remembered she’d turned off her phone when she was at the jail. She had three missed calls from Theo and one from Dylan.

  Oh mercy.

  Had Theo actually gone to the Granger Ranch? Probably. Because the way her luck was running, he wouldn’t have gone anywhere else.

  “Uh, I’m in a hurry,” she spelled out to Arlo. “Just swipe my credit card so I can get the gas and go.”

  “Will do.” But Arlo still moved at a snail’s pace. “I’m guessing Wrangler’s Creek’s looking pretty small to you now that you’ve been all over.”

  She made a noncommittal sound and tapped her fingers on the counter. Or rather she tapped them on the paper that was there. Not just mere paper though, Jordan realized. It was one of the Dylan Granger Sex Bingo cards.

  Jordan hadn’t expected to make the small gasp that escaped from her throat, and Arlo quickly saw what had gotten her attention. He cursed. “Genie Busby musta left that here. That girl’s always up to something. Of course, most girls are up to something when it comes to Dylan.”

  He laughed.

  Jordan didn’t.

  Since Arlo still hadn’t processed the credit card, she took it from him and handed him a twenty-dollar bill. That wouldn’t fill up her tank, but it was plenty enough to get her to the ranch.

  “You can take the bingo card if you want,” Arlo said. “Of course, you wouldn’t have any trouble winning. Not that you’ve done any of those things in recent years, mind you, but from what I’ve heard, there’s no expiration date.”

  Like the gasp, Jordan hadn’t intended to take the card, but she changed her mind at the last second. Seeing it would be a reminder that she should think hard before just giving up on her bid for custody.

  As soon as Jordan got the gas, she drove away from Arlo’s, heading for the ranch. She’d intended on stopping in town to see the lawyer Karlee had recommended, but that could wait. First, she’d need a private word with Theo to tell him that this was not a good time for him to be there. And then she’d need a private word with Dylan.

  But privacy wasn’t going to happen.

  Jordan realized that as soon as she got to the ranch and the main house came into view. There were people all over the front yard. And a horse. Dylan was on that horse, and he had Corbin in the saddle with him. There were smiles and some picture taking going on.

  Since she couldn’t actually pull into the driveway because of all the people and vehicles, Jordan parked on the road and walked up. As she got closer, she had no trouble recognizing the others. Karlee and Lucian were there. Then, beside them were Dylan’s other brother, Lawson, and Lawson’s soon-to-be wife, Eve Cooper. Lawson was holding a baby who looked to be about a year old, and there was a teenage girl standing on the other side of him. Dylan’s sister, Lily Rose, was also there and her husband, Jake Monroe. Lily Rose was also holding a child.

  Apparently, this was some kind of family reunion, no doubt so that Dylan could show off his cowboy son. There was no sign of Theo, though.

  Jordan got smiles from Karlee and Eve. The others were a little frosty, though, probably because they still saw her as the woman who’d broken Dylan’s heart. It didn’t help that they likely knew she had returned to try to take the smiling little boy, which would only hurt Dylan even more.

  “Horsey,” Corbin proudly announced.

  “Yes, I can see that.” Jordan managed a smile, too, and it extended to Eve when the woman hurried over and pulled her into a hug.

  “I’m glad you’re home.” Eve didn’t ask if she was okay, but Jordan could see the question in her eyes.

  “I’m fine,” Jordan lied. “Congrats on getting married. You and Lawson are finally saying ‘I do,’ huh?”

  “Long past due.” She tipped her head to the teenager. “That’s our daughter, Tessie, but I suspect you’ve read about her in the tabloids.”

  She had indeed. Eve had been the star of a TV show that had long since ended, but she was still apparently fodder for the tabloids, especially when it’d come out that Lawson and she had had a love child together when they were just teenagers. The girl was the spitting image of him.

  “Please come to the wedding, a week from Saturday at two o’clock,” Eve went on. “It’s nothing formal, just friends and family. It’ll be in the rose garden at my house. And Corbin’s going to be the ring bearer.”

  Until Eve had added the last part, Jordan had already geared up to decline. No way would most of Dylan’s family want her there. But since Corbin was going, that changed things. “I’d love to come. Thank you.”

  Eve hooked her arm through Jordan’s and led her into the lions’ den, aka the wall of Grangers and Grangers-in-laws. Jordan looked up at Dylan, and though he almost certainly wanted to know how her meeting with Adele had gone, he, too, managed a smile, and he tipped his hat.

  Damn him.

  He was too charming, considering they were at odds. Of course, he was probably hoping to beat those odds by showing her the best side of him. In this case, the best side was his butt in those jeans, and she got a nice view of it when he handed Corbin to Karlee and then climbed out of the saddle.

  Jordan went to him, hoping now that Corbin’s debut ride was over that the others would start to leave. They didn’t. They stayed, chatting, taking pictures and occasionally giving her a wary glance.

  No wariness for Corbin, though. “I ride de horsey,” he gushed. And clearly, he’d loved it because he would have gone right back to the mare if Karlee had let go of him.

  Even though talking to Dylan was important, Jordan took a moment to kiss Corbin’s cheek and listen to the boy go on about the ride. She only understood half of what he said, but that didn’t matter. He was happy, and that both helped and hurt her. It helped because he wasn’t fussing and fretting about missing his mom. Dylan had obviously seen to that. But it hurt, too, because if she got custody, she’d be taking him away from all this.

  Dylan walked toward her, and with each step he got to listen to his family praise him about Corbin. Of course, the praise was for Dylan, too, and she didn’t think it was her imagination that his siblings were seeing him in a different light.

  Again, that was both good and bad for her.

  Good because she wanted Dylan to see his worth, that while Lucian might be in charge of running things, it was only because of Dylan that those things ran smoothly. She just wished he wasn’t seeing it now because it would make him a more formidable foe. He was already too formidable as it was.

  Jordan opened her mouth to tell Dylan that they needed to talk, in private, but before she could get a word out, she heard someone call her name.

  Theo.

  He came out of the front door, and the moment he reached her, he picked her up and twirled her around. “That’s a Texas-size hello,” he joked.r />
  And perhaps the start of a Texas-size puking. Jordan hadn’t managed to eat anything yet, and her stomach was churning from all the acidy black coffee she’d had to fight off a headache. The twirling didn’t help. Actually, Theo being here didn’t help, either.

  Jordan maneuvered herself out of his arms so that he could get her feet back on the ground. She glanced around to see everyone’s reaction. They were all staring at her. Even Corbin and Dylan.

  “I was about to mention that your boyfriend was here.” Dylan didn’t just say it, though. He drawled it. But she thought there was an edge to that charming speech pattern. And the look he gave her dared her to deny that boyfriend was the right label.

  Even though it wasn’t.

  Theo seemed to be giving her the same dare. Maybe because he was going on past history here. Theo and she had indeed been lovers, but that’d been nearly two years ago, and before her rescue, it’d been months since Jordan had seen him.

  “Why did you come after I told you not to?” she asked Theo. “How did you get here so fast?” Jordan had another question that she didn’t add—how soon will you be leaving?

  “I’m here because of you, of course. I called in plenty of favors to make this trip. Did you know that Wrangler’s Creek isn’t even on the GPS?” But he didn’t wait for her to respond to that trivial comment. Theo took her by the hand, leading her inside. “Come on. I’ve got something to ask you. Something that will solve your problems.”

  Oh God. She didn’t like the sound of that, and that’s why Jordan held her ground. She turned back to Dylan to see if he knew what was going on.

  She would bet her eyelashes that he did.

  “Did you have anything to do with this?” she asked him.

  Dylan held up his hands. “Hey, I got my own troubles. Melanie wants me to marry her so that Corbin can have a two-parent family.”

  Jordan mentally repeated that Oh God. She repeated it again when she realized why Dylan was telling her that.