“Eve’s living room isn’t big enough,” Lawson went on. “Neither is the one in my house so we’re stuck having the ceremony here.”
Stuck said it all. This was probably the last place Lawson wanted to marry the love of his life, but he’d put up with being here because he was, well, marrying the love of his life. Doing something like that canceled out a lot of negatives.
“Need me to do anything?” Dylan asked.
Lawson usually had a laid-back kind of intensity about him, but there was nothing laid-back about him right now. The nerves were firing all through his eyes. “Yeah, you can save my ass.”
“I’m not marrying Eve for you,” Dylan joked, though he knew that was the last thing Lawson would want.
“I lost the wedding rings,” Lawson blurted out.
Dylan had already gotten up from his desk, ready to do some tie tying or whatever it was he needed, but that stopped him. “Rings, as in plural?”
Lawson gave a choppy nod, and Dylan realized this was the first time he’d seen his older brother ready to lose his lunch. “They had to be resized. All of them. My ring, Eve’s and her engagement ring. I picked them up from the jeweler yesterday, but now I can’t find them.”
Yeah, definitely unnerved. “They’ll turn up, I’m sure. In the meantime, I’ll find something you can use for the ceremony.”
Lawson gave another of those choppy nods and headed off, probably to try to fix whatever else had popped up with this change of location. Dylan headed off, too. Upstairs and to his bedroom.
He passed Corbin’s room along the way, but Jordan and Regina didn’t notice him because they were working to get on Corbin’s cowboy boots. At least Regina was. Eve and her daughter, Tessie, were now in the room with them, and Jordan was fiddling with Eve’s dress while Eve read something on her phone.
“Lawson can’t find the rings,” he heard Eve grumble.
Dylan didn’t wait to hear how the rest of that conversation would go since he had a fix for the ring issue. He went to his bedroom but didn’t bother to turn on the lights. No need. He knew the exact location of what he was after since he looked at it probably more often than he should. And there it was—beneath a layer of boxer shorts and some condoms.
His wedding band.
It was possible that Jordan would recognize it and wonder why he’d hung on to a relic from their failed marriage. The answer to that was simple: Dylan didn’t have a clue why.
He took the ring, shoving it into his pocket, and he was about to make his way downstairs when he heard the movement in the doorway. It was Jordan. She was turned away from him and backed into the room. Dylan was about to say something to let her know he was there, but then she hiked up her dress, and he saw something that stunned him to silence.
Jordan had a penis tat on her lower back. A huge penis, too, on a skinny little stick figure body. It was butt ugly. And speaking of butt—it was aimed at hers.
Dylan was betting alcohol had been a major factor in her decision to get that done. As he well knew, alcohol and lust often led to unwise choices.
She yanked the dress up even higher, and while Dylan couldn’t see exactly what she was doing, Jordan was tugging at something. Making soft sounds of discomfort, too. Actually, he was making some of those same sounds because despite the ugly penis staring at him, he was also getting a view of Jordan’s backside. A view he shouldn’t be getting because he shouldn’t be staring at her. He cleared his throat so that she’d know he was there.
And Jordan yelped as if he’d gutted her.
She followed that yelp with some garbled words about him scaring the bejesus out of her and never, never, never doing that again. It didn’t take long before his mom and Eve came running. Corbin, too, but thankfully Eve held him back when she saw Jordan with her dress pulled up to her waist.
“What happened?” his mother immediately asked, and she took note of the dark room. Of Dylan’s questioning, lurking pose. Of Jordan’s exposed stomach. “Oh, you have a ring there.”
“I was trying to get it out so that Eve could use it for the ceremony,” Jordan mumbled. “I was going to sterilize it,” she added when Regina made a face.
Actually, his mom made a face at the ring itself. God knew what her expression would be if she saw the inked penis.
Regina nodded, paused, nodded again, and then she ushered Eve and Corbin back into the other room.
“Need some help?” Dylan asked Jordan. He hadn’t intended to sound so cocky, but he’d figured she could use some humor right now.
But she apparently didn’t see the humor in it because she scowled, reached for the light switch, and then gasped. That was likely about the time she realized what he was seeing on the backside view because Jordan yanked down her dress.
“How much did you see?” she snapped.
“Nothing.” The lie would have been much more believable if he hadn’t snickered, but he couldn’t help himself.
Her scowl would have been much more effective if her mouth hadn’t twitched, threatening to smile. “I know. I want to have it removed, but I’m embarrassed to show it to anyone.”
“It’s not that bad,” he lied again.
Jordan lifted her head a little, their eyes connecting, and it seemed as if the air changed between them. It got a lot hotter, and that was no easy feat after seeing that tat.
“Why were you in here?” she asked.
Uh. That was his cue to get moving. Hot air and recent memories of Jordan’s partial nudity were not a good time for him to tell her that he’d kept his ring after all these years.
“I was getting something for Lawson.” After two back-to-back lies, he’d wanted the truth. Well, the “keeping it vague” truth anyway.
Dylan started for the door, but she caught onto his arm. He was pretty sure this was going to fall into an unwise choice category. And yeah, lust could easily get involved.
“I proposed to you because I didn’t want you getting in a fight with Theo,” she said.
He didn’t say “duh,” but that’s exactly what he was thinking.
“Theo’s a martial arts expert,” Jordan went on. “It wouldn’t have been a fair fight.”
“Ouch. If you’re trying to smooth over my battered ego, you’re not doing a good job.”
“There’s nothing battered about your ego,” she mumbled.
Well, there was now.
“Anyway, we were all upset that day.” Jordan glanced away from him, and she began to study the door hinge with the same intensity as if it were a prized painting. “I know what Adele said hurt you. The part about her thinking that you wouldn’t want to know about Corbin.”
Yeah, that had been a deep dig, one that played right into the other thing that was pissing him off—that no one in his family seemed to believe he was capable of changing and becoming someone who, well, someone who didn’t sleep on a woman’s naked butt.
“I’ll prove Adele wrong,” he said, and then he added to himself, “I’ll prove them all wrong.”
Dylan again started to leave, but then he realized he’d only fixed half of Lawson’s problem. He tipped his head to her stomach. “Any chance you’ll be able to get out that navel ring, or should I see if Mom has something Lawson can use for Eve?” He touched the gold chain around her neck. “Or maybe we can just have Lawson wind this on Eve’s finger.”
Jordan froze. A deer-caught-in-the-headlights kind of freezing. “Maybe.”
It was the most lukewarm agreement in the history of lukewarm agreements.
That possibly meant that it was special to her as in maybe a gift from Theo. Of course, she hadn’t exactly shown a lot of warmth and fuzziness to Theo so it could have some other sentimental value.
“I’ll talk to Eve about some options,” Jordan said, heading in the direction of Corbin’s bedroom.
Dylan followed her so he
could check on his son before he went in search of Lawson—who was probably about to bust a gut right about now. Corbin was all dressed in his cowboy suit and was looking at himself in the mirror. Apparently he approved because he was smiling.
“’Ook, Daddy,” he said. “I a towboy.”
Dylan wondered if he would ever be able to hear that word, Daddy, and not feel the emotional punch that came with it. Talk about warm/fuzzy overload. But Dylan knew he’d never grow tired of it even if he heard it at two in the morning when Corbin sometimes woke up.
“You’re a good-looking cowboy,” Dylan told him, and he shifted his attention to Eve. “Standing next to a fine-looking bride.”
“Really? You think so?” Eve immediately asked. “Is this dress okay?”
“The dress is great,” Dylan and Jordan said in unison. And it was. It was pale pink lace, and it skimmed those curves that Dylan was certain would make Lawson truly appreciate it.
Because Eve’s nerves were showing just as much as Lawson’s, Dylan went to her and brushed a kiss on her cheek. “It’s about time you made an honest man of my brother,” he whispered to her. “You’ve made him a happy one, too. Well, except for this whole losing the rings thing. If we can’t find something, I’ll make you one from aluminum foil,” he added with a wink.
Dylan kissed Corbin, too, scooping him up so he could see how they both looked in the mirror. Pretty damn fine, if Dylan had to say so himself.
His mom came hurrying out of the adjoining bathroom, and she had a wad of Q-tips in her hand. “Corbin needs his ears cleaned,” Regina explained.
When she got close to the boy, Corbin immediately took one of them, but he didn’t go for his ears. He put it in his mouth and swirled it around.
“Like Nunk Luc-shen did,” Corbin said.
“Nunk Luc-shen,” Regina repeated. “That’s what he calls Lucian. Isn’t it cute?”
Maybe. But it wasn’t cute that Corbin was swabbing his mouth.
Eve, Jordan and Regina all looked first at Corbin, then at Dylan as if he had an explanation for what was going on. Dylan didn’t know, but he soon came up with an answer.
One that Dylan didn’t like.
Hell.
Dylan hurried out of the room to look for Lucian, and he was reasonably sure there’d be nothing warm and fuzzy going on in the next couple of minutes.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“DID YOU KNOW Jordan Rivera’s got a dick tat on her back?” Grady Tanner asked.
That wasn’t a question that Lucian had ever gotten before, and he was reasonably sure it didn’t have squat to do with the info he actually wanted from the private investigator who was standing in front of his desk. Grady and his father, Elwin, had been on Lucian’s payroll for years, and it wasn’t unusual for Grady to stray off the subject, but this was a big-assed detour.
“Is Jordan’s dick tat connected to Corbin or Adele?” Lucian countered, and yes, he barked it, adding a scowl, too. Over the years, he’d found that people cut through the bullshit faster when they were facing him when he was in one of his unpleasant moods.
Which was about 95 percent of the time.
Grady lifted his shoulder. “No, but I thought it was interesting. Wanta know how I found out?” But he didn’t wait for Lucian to say he didn’t care a rat’s ass how he’d come by that tidbit. “Her boyfriend got drunk at the Longhorn and mentioned it to one of the waitresses.”
Theo might as well have taken out a full-page ad in the local paper because there was zero chance that info like that wouldn’t be gossiped about. But it did make Lucian wonder why she’d chosen a tat like that. Jordan might have crushed his baby brother’s heart way back when, but she didn’t seem the dick tat sort.
Since he wanted to make sure Grady stayed on topic, Lucian stood, staring the PI down and repeating the scowl. “What’d you find out about Adele? Is she running some kind of scam on Dylan?”
Grady smiled, obviously not as intimidated as Lucian would have liked. “Adele,” he repeated. “Now, there’s a piece of work. Her arrest record reads like stuff a stand-up comic would use. Did you know she once got arrested for peeing on a CEO’s car? She was protesting the way he treated his employees.”
Lucian made a circling motion with his finger for Grady to continue. “Before you say anything, though, ask yourself if it gives me any info that I paid you to get. If it doesn’t, then keep it to yourself.”
“Sure. Right, boss. Will do.” And then Grady went silent for a couple of moments. He shook his head twice, obviously ruling out some useless drivel that he’d been about to dish out. “Okay, so I didn’t find anything about Adele running any scams. Still, she’s a thief and a troublemaker so there might be something that I’m not seeing.”
“If there’s something to see, then see it ASAP,” Lucian ordered. He didn’t want anything connected with Corbin or Adele to come back to bite them, and he had a bad gut feeling about this.
“Will do, boss,” Grady repeated. “Want me to go out the same way I came in, through the side door?”
Lucian nodded, though no one would have any suspicions about Grady being in the house. Especially since the sunroom was currently in chaos while it was being set up for Lawson and Eve’s wedding. Which was only an hour from now if the ceremony happened on time, that is. Too bad that he had a gallon of work to get finished before then.
Which might not happen.
Just as Grady made his exit, there was a soft knock on his office door, and a woman poked her head in. Bianca Turley, the judge’s oldest daughter. Bianca was the woman he was currently seeing and also his date for the wedding. She was a half hour early, but Bianca went straight to Lucian and kissed him. If he hadn’t been so annoyed at her being there already, he might have enjoyed it.
Or not.
Bianca and he had been seeing each other almost a month, which meant they were at the tail end of their relationship. Dylan might have sex bingo cards, but Lucian knew that his poker buddies had running bets as to how long he stayed with a woman. His record was thirty-four days. Bianca was at twenty-nine.
“You’re put out because I didn’t show up at the last minute,” Bianca said, obviously picking up on his tight body language. “Sorry, but the storm’s going to get worse, and I didn’t want to drive in a downpour.”
She kept her tone and expression pleasant. It was what he liked best about her. Very little drama, and she was well aware that things weren’t going to last between them.
“It’s okay,” he assured her.
Bianca smiled. “No, it’s not, and that’s why I’m going to drop off these things and go mingle with whomever I can find.” She set her purse and wet umbrella on the floor next to his desk.
The bending down motion caused him to notice her dress. Snug, pale blue and with a little shimmer. The mile-high heels she was wearing managed to look slutty and proper at the same time.
Bianca had once told him that two things had helped make her who she was. Her daddy’s money and her grandma’s pearls. She was wearing those pearls today, and her daddy’s cash had likely paid for the dress.
“FYI, I thought you should know,” Bianca said. “I stopped by Arlo’s gas station on the way in, and he was prattling on about something he’d heard about Jordan. That she has a penis tattoo with balls and everything. And by everything I mean a place for that penis to be inserted.”
So the gossip had already reached the embellishment stage. Hardly fitting for Jordan, who was a military hero.
Maybe a damaged one, though.
That was something he had Grady’s father working on. Lucian wanted to know just how much being a captive had hurt her. Then, Lucian might be able to figure out what they’d be up against if it did come down to a custody battle. If Jordan was a mental mess, then she shouldn’t get custody of Corbin. Of course, that was assuming the Grangers had a say in Corbin’s futur
e. They might not if Adele was trying to pull something.
The talk about Jordan’s tat must have reminded Bianca that he, too, had balls and everything because she kissed him again and ran her hand from his belly to the front of his jeans. Four weeks ago, that would have caused him to clear out a spot on his desk and take her there, but today he held back. Good thing because there was another knock at the door, and Karlee came in.
Karlee took one look at the close proximity of Bianca’s hand to his balls, and her right eyebrow came up. “Do you two need a minute?”
Bianca blushed, dropped a quick kiss on his mouth and headed for the door. Karlee didn’t blush, probably because she’d walked in on too many instances similar to that one. Once, she’d walked in on desk sex. That had taught Lucian a lesson: lock his door before unzipping. When he’d mentioned that to Karlee, she’d had it needlepointed on a pillow that was now hidden in his closet.
“Oh,” Bianca said, turning back around. Not to face Lucian, though, but Karlee. “Wow, you look really nice.”
That caused Lucian to give Karlee another look, and he agreed. A green dress and high, sex-against-the-wall heels like Bianca’s.
“I brought my business partner, Malcolm Day,” Bianca added to Karlee, “and I want to introduce him to you. He’s someone who’s pulled himself up by his own bootstraps.”
Shit. Bianca was matchmaking, and while he figured her intentions were good, Karlee would silently bristle at the bootstraps remark. Because it was a reminder that she’d had to do that after her mother had run out on the family.
Of course, it was a reminder, too, for Lucian since the running out had been with his own father, Jerry. Even though that’d happened years ago when Lucian and Karlee were teenagers, folks still gossiped about it. Despite that, though, Karlee and he had managed to put it behind them and work together just fine.
Lone Star Blues Page 15
