by Nicole Helm
“Yeah, yeah.” Micah’s expression did that blank thing again, the one that made her heart twist so hard she wanted to cry. “If he knew, he probably wouldn’t want us around, you know.”
Cora swallowed at the lump in her throat, wishing she could pretend she didn’t know what he meant. “I don’t believe that. He’d treat us differently, but he wouldn’t disappear.”
Micah shrugged, and she couldn’t have that conversation. Not when she was so hung up on Shane. She had to find a way to arrange these pieces in herself a little better. Then she could calmly and rationally discuss it with Micah.
Dr. Grove would be proud.
A knock sounded on the door, and Cora forced herself to breathe in and let it all go out. She had a job to do with the dresses, then she had some fun to have with her boyfriend and son.
End of story.
She opened the door to find Shane standing there, cowboy hat pulled low. Her heart just flipped at the sight of him, but she’d be careful with that feeling. She would. No old Cora allowed. Shane would make all the first moves.
The scariest part was she trusted that he would. She trusted this feeling between him and her, no matter how many times the nasty voices in her head told her she was crazy and foolish.
“Hi.”
His mouth curved into that knowing, sexy smile. She wondered if he was thinking about the last time he’d been here. She certainly was. “I don’t suppose we could ditch everybody and head upstairs?” she asked on a whisper so Micah wouldn’t hear.
Shane chuckled. “No, I don’t think that one would fly. You guys ready?” He glanced at his watch. “Mom’s getting antsy about making her appointment.”
“Yup. Come on, Micah,” she called, rechecking her bag one last time.
Micah trudged to the door. His response to Shane’s greeting was a grunt, but Cora had to admit she was surprised he’d given that much.
She stepped out onto the porch, shoving her key into the doorknob to lock it. When she glanced at the two cars parked in front of her house, she squinted. “Is that Ben?”
Shane glanced back at the truck parked behind the little sedan. Ben was indeed in the front seat, Gavin standing next to the back door, waiting for Micah to crawl into the middle seat next to Boone.
Micah bounded over, clearly happy with the seating arrangements.
“Uh, yeah, Ben and I had a bit of a talk the other day.”
“And you’re just telling me about it now?”
“We need some alone time. Which is why I have a surprise for you tonight.”
“Go on.”
“It’s called a surprise, Cora. I don’t explain it to you. You wait and see what it is.” He grinned down at her as they walked down the stairs of the porch.
“Hmm. I’m not sure I like surprises.”
“Well, you can tell me after this one shakes out if you want more. You girls have fun now.”
“Good luck with the troublemaker,” Cora offered, nodding toward the truck.
Shane raised an eyebrow. “Which damn one?” he asked on a laugh.
“Would you hurry up?” Boone yelled irritably.
“He has to kiss her good-bye first,” Molly shouted from her rolled-down window.
“A good one too,” Deb added from the driver’s seat.
“Don’t listen to the women,” Gavin called. “Brainless creatures.”
“Don’t think I won’t kick your ass when we get to Denver,” Molly shouted back at him.
“Be glad we’re separated,” Shane said quietly, brushing his mouth across her cheek. “Enjoy your day. See you at the game.”
She couldn’t help but grin all the way to the car, where she slid into the back, trying not to blush and look like, well, what she was. A besotted moron.
Molly grinned back at her. “You two are the sweetest damn thing.”
Cora blushed deeper, her cheeks practically on fire. “Well, anyway.” Then she heard the unmistakable sound of Deb crying. Cora’s eyes widened. “What? What’s wrong?”
Deb sniffled, wiping at her cheeks. “Oh, you two just make each other happy. I was starting to worry Shane wouldn’t find that for himself.”
Then Molly sniffled.
“No, don’t start,” Cora begged. “My God, we’re just dating. It’s nothing to get all . . .” But her own tears were starting to well up. “Well, hell, I didn’t think I was going to find much romantic happy for myself either.”
They all laughed and cried at the same time as Deb pulled the car onto the street. “Second chances are a beautiful thing.” With one hand she reached over and patted her daughter. “You’ll find one too.”
“Oh, I’m not ready to think about that,” Molly said, passing a box of tissues back to Cora. “But it’s nice to know it’s possible, I guess.”
“I was incredibly blessed to love my first husband, and we lost him too soon, but he and his parents made me realize love is the best gift we can give each other. And the hardest damn thing we give to ourselves, but worth it. When you’re both in it, it’s so darn worth it.”
The hardest damn thing we give to ourselves. Oh, wasn’t that the truth.
* * *
“Fuck, are we ever going to get there?”
Shane glared at Boone in the rearview mirror. He opened his mouth to scold him on his language, but what was the point? Boone probably only swore more to piss Shane off.
They’d made it to Denver, eaten lunch, and walked around town a bit. Micah had slowly eased his Shane is the devil attitude, and Shane hadn’t been able to resist buying him a cowboy hat.
Micah wore it now in the back seat as Shane navigated traffic for the baseball game.
“What, you worried about missing batting practice? Didn’t remember your having much patience for baseball,” Gavin said.
Boone shifted in the seat. “Sitting and walking around is killing my leg. You try getting trampled by bulls and then being shoved into a tin can of a back seat.”
“How many bones have you broken?” Micah asked, though Shane noticed there was an odd note to his voice. Not that same hero worship, but something more . . . calculated. Weird.
“Lost count somewhere along the way. Bet I’ve got a fan out there who could tell you though,” Boone offered.
Shane tried not to roll his eyes.
“Mom’s had a ton of broken bones too,” Micah said.
“Yeah, she a brawler on the side?” Boone asked, tousling Micah’s hair.
There was a beat of silence, and, when Shane glanced in the mirror again, Micah’s gaze was right on his. “My dad,” he said precisely, carefully, as if he really wanted Shane to get those two words lodged into his brain.
Shane couldn’t make sense of it at first, but a dread crept around the edges as it slowly clicked into place. The air in the car seemed to grow heavier as they all came to realize what Micah meant.
The truck hit the rumble strip, and Shane had to rip his gaze back to the road. He had to think, and breathe. Funny, he couldn’t manage it until he cleared his throat. “Your dad . . .” He couldn’t say it. Couldn’t physically push the words out of his mouth.
“Used to beat her up all the time,” Micah said, as though talking about a slight inconvenience. “Only did it to me once.”
Christ. He wasn’t sure if he thought the curse or said it out loud. Shane stared hard at the road. He could feel Ben’s gaze on him, but Shane had to focus on navigating the baseball game traffic.
No one said anything else, not as he drove, not as he parked. They filed out of the truck in a grim silence. Micah was the only one who seemed okay.
Shane didn’t know what to do with that any more than he knew what to do with the information.
They started walking for the stadium entrance, Ben and Boone flanking Micah and Gavin and Shane walking behind them. While jovial attendees filed in around them, their little group was completely silent as they handed over their tickets at the gate, then found their seats.
“Hey, you wa
nt to come with me to get some snacks, kid?” Ben asked, standing and looking around.
“Sure,” Micah offered, following Ben back up the stairs.
Shane let out a breath he hadn’t realized had been caught in his chest. He couldn’t . . . It didn’t . . .
“You didn’t know?” Gavin asked in a low tone.
Shane shook his head once. He couldn’t manage anything else. Couldn’t fathom this. What it meant. Why she wouldn’t . . . Why hadn’t she told him?
“Guess she’d have her reasons,” Boone offered.
Reasons? For keeping something like that from him? He couldn’t fathom what reasons she’d have.
How could she have . . . How could that vibrant, happy, sexy as hell woman have . . . How could she have survived it? Come out of it and still been . . .
He didn’t even know, because he didn’t know what she’d been through. He had a twelve-year-old’s perspective. God, he wanted to believe that perspective was wrong, but too many things made sense.
The way she’d reacted to his lecture to Micah on violence. The way she went pale when he gave her a compliment. He didn’t want us.
Why wouldn’t she have told him? It burned through his gut like acid.
Ben and Micah returned to the seats, and if Shane had been more with it, he might have been surprised and impressed by the amount of crap Ben had bought for the kid.
“There are the girls,” Gavin said in a low voice.
Shane glanced up to see Mom leading Molly, Lindsay, and Cora toward them. They all looked happy, talking and laughing to each other as they filed in, filling up the rest of the row.
Cora slid into the seat next to him, smiling up at him. “I hope you know you’re on the hook to buy me a hot dog and some cotton candy.”
He tried to smile, didn’t allow himself to speak, afraid all that would come out was a demand to know what the hell Micah was talking about.
“You’ll be thrilled to know, your mom found the most gorgeous dress. Now I just have to find someone who can alter the hem in Benson, and things will be set on that front,” she chattered, digging through her purse for something.
She pulled out a little piece of metal and handed it to him.
He took it and inspected what looked to be the remains of a horseshoe fashioned into a T. Small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.
“You’re supposed to carry it around for good luck. I got one that looks like a horse for Micah.” She grinned up at him, happy and sweet, and a lot of that anger leaked out of him. He loved this woman, and if she hadn’t told him about things, maybe there was a reason for that. She didn’t trust him yet.
It hurt, but it was okay. He’d make it okay.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cora couldn’t say she was a baseball convert, but she had a sneaking suspicion Micah was. At least a convert to the array of food offered to him over the course of nine rather long innings.
But the Rockies had won, and there was an air of joviality to the crowd funneling out of the stadium that she found a bit contagious. Maybe it was because Micah had been his normal self, well, mostly. A few times he’d glanced over at Shane and her with that look she hadn’t figured out yet.
But she felt like she would. She just needed time, and they had time. Time to figure it all out and make it work.
Shane linked his fingers with hers as they walked to the car, and she managed to snag Micah’s hand despite his trying to jerk it away. She pulled him to her side, until he gave in a little and leaned against her, though he did finally free his hand. They reached the truck the boys had driven in, and Deb tugged Micah out of Cora’s grasp.
“All right, we’re kidnapping this one for the ranch tonight and tomorrow. I don’t know what you two are going to do, but you better make the most of it.”
Cora laughed, thinking it was some kind of joke she didn’t get, but Shane’s grip on her hand tightened. “This way.”
“But . . . What?”
“You two enjoy yourselves,” Deb said, waving her away. “I don’t want to see you before five o’clock tomorrow.”
“But, Mi—” Micah was already walking to the car, happily chattering with Molly and no doubt making plans for horses, horses, and more horses. He glanced at her quickly enough to wave and offer a lame good-bye.
“Where are we going? How will we get home? How . . .” Cora asked, trying to make sense of it.
Shane kept tugging her in the opposite direction of his family. “The hotel is less than a mile away, so we can walk if it’s okay with you. There’s a rental at the hotel for us to drive home, or wherever we want to go tonight. I figured we could maybe make it to a restaurant this time since we have some time tomorrow too.”
“This is . . .” She looked up at him in the middle of the baseball stadium parking lot. “Shane, this is too much. Cost and time and—”
“You try arguing with my mother.” He stopped pulling and grinned at her. “This was not my idea, FYI. I mean, I agreed with it a lot more easily than you are, but Mom set everything up. Well, not everything. I had a say in a few things.”
Cora opened her mouth, then shut it. Yes, there was no arguing with Deb, and Micah did seem more than happy to head off with the Tylers.
She shook her head, awed and a little dizzy with it. “It’s so . . . We only had Lilly to rely on for so long, and then in this past year we’ve had this whole Mile High family, and now yours.” She looked up at him, and some of her joy faded at the odd, serious look on his face. She traced a groove next to his all-too-serious mouth. “What’s wrong?”
“I love you, Cora.”
Someone bumped into her, and far off in the distance a drunk man yelled something really vulgar, and all Cora could manage to do was gape at him.
“This wasn’t the venue I meant to confess that at,” he added, but those dark, serious eyes never left hers.
“You . . . you love me.” Love. That word she’d . . . Well, for so long she’d been desperate to hear it, or at least hear it on a day she hadn’t also been smacked across the face. And he’d just said it. And gave her surprises like nights in Denver because his mother was wonderful.
“It’s okay if you think it’s too soon.”
She laughed then, because too soon? “I’ve been trying not to say it for weeks, I think. Forever maybe.”
His mouth finally curved at that, and he pulled her closer. “Say it then.”
She kept her fingers on his face, brushing them across his jaw, keeping her gaze on his. “I love you,” she said, and wasn’t sure he could hear over the song more drunk people were singing next to them.
“Come on, let’s get to the hotel.”
They walked hand in hand, and Cora trusted Shane to lead them where they needed to go in the quickly fading twilight. It was weird not to see much of the sky, the mountains, weirder still to miss it. But Gracely and the Tyler ranch had changed her entire view of the world, and she couldn’t help but be glad.
Shane stopped in front of an elegant building. It was the kind of place she’d spent so much time dreaming about. Fancy and sparkling. The kind Dad had always promised a trip to, and always failed to deliver. The kind Stephen would hold out like a pretty carrot, then always find fault with her and yank it away.
And Shane was the one who’d brought her here—without a promise or a threat or a manipulation. He’d just done it.
“This hotel?”
“I don’t get off the ranch very often,” he was saying as he walked inside and toward the elevators. “I’m not going to stay in a cheap roadside motel.”
Cora could only stare at the lobby as they walked. Chandeliers and gleaming floors and people in pretty dresses.
“You don’t have to check in?”
He pulled a key out of his pocket. “Lindsay took care of everything before she met you guys at the dress place.”
“You Tylers are quite the handy, organized bunch.”
“Most of us anyway.”
They stepped i
nto the elevator with a small group of people. Shane’s arm stayed around her waist, a nice, tight grip. When they reached their floor, he confidently headed down the hall.
He stopped at a door and smoothed the key in front of the pad. They stepped into the room. A king-size bed dominated the space. The only impression she had of the bathroom was gleam and white as she stepped toward the window.
Denver sparkled to life outside, and Cora had the profound realization that her life had well and truly changed. She had changed, and the world had opened up to her, and suddenly she felt like she really could accomplish anything.
“Mom said she’d call when they got to the ranch, so you’ll get a chance to talk to Micah tonight. I know she kind of whisked him away before you could get a nice good-bye in.”
“He seemed okay with it,” Cora replied wryly.
“Yeah, but I was worried about you in this case.”
Because he would. Worry about her and take care of her and protect her. Love her, without her even having to try or manipulate or beg.
He came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her, pressing a kiss to her neck. It was like some impossible dream, and for a brief, panicked moment she wanted to tell him everything, what a mess she was, what mistakes she’d made. How she’d hurt Micah and herself for so long and was only just now coming out of it, and God, why would he love her?
Because you are coming out of it. Because you got strong, and you moved on, and you’re a damn good person now. That’s why he loves you.
So, he didn’t need to know, because none of that old stuff mattered. She was a new woman, and this was her new life. He loved her, and she loved him, and things could work out. They would.
She turned in the circle of his arms and pressed her mouth to his, maybe a little on the side of rough and desperate, but she needed to convince herself that was true.
“I love you, Shane,” she murmured against his mouth.
His arms slid down over her ass, then he hefted her up and against him, exactly the same as the last time they’d had a night alone together.
He lay her out on the bed, his long, gorgeous body sliding over hers. He smiled down at her, sweet and soft. “I love you, Cora.”
