by Merry Farmer
Andy’s scolding look cracked. “It slipped my mind.”
Slipped his mind? Elvie was inches from really laying into him, but then his expression shifted entirely. He glanced past her shoulder, and it was like he had suddenly beheld the Holy Grail. He stood straighter, his brows lifted, and something like a smile turned up the corners of his mouth.
“You!” he exclaimed.
Frowning, Elvie pivoted to look back at Evan. Where Andy looked suddenly overjoyed, Evan looked as though he’d stepped in something nasty…and potentially toxic.
“I’ll, uh, see you later, Elvie,” Evan said, taking a few steps backwards. “Some other time.” He turned and practically bolted for his truck.
“Wait!” Elvie hopped off the porch to pursue him, all her sizzling ideas for making mischief going down the drain. “Evan, it’s just my ex-fiancé. He’s nothing.”
“I’m what?” Andy called from the porch.
Elvie ignored him, racing all the way to the driver’s side of Evan’s truck as he started the engine. “I’ll get rid of him. I don’t even know why he’s here in the first place.”
For the briefest second, Elvie thought Evan muttered, “I do.” Before she could question it, he put on a weary smile and said, “Let’s do this some other time. I should really be getting back to the Culpepper ranch. They’ve got work for me tomorrow, so I need a good night’s sleep. Bye.”
He stretched out through the window to peck her cheek, then shifted the truck into reverse. Elvie had to jump out of the way to stop her toes from being run over. Three seconds later, Evan was tearing down the driveway, kicking dust up into the darkening night as he went and leaving her completely baffled.
That bafflement quickly turned to frustration. Elvie spun to face the porch and Andy, who continued to stand in the light, a calculating look in his eyes. She marched toward him, fists clenched at her sides.
“All right, what gives?” she demanded. “You haven’t bothered to come looking for me for months, you barely bothered to call me after I broke things off, and you pretty much ignored me for the last year of our relationship. Why are you here?”
Andy continued to stare off into the darkness where Evan had driven away. He rubbed his chin. At last, he glanced at Elvie. “You two dating?”
Such a blunt question coming from someone who had no right to ask her anything about her romantic life was more than Elvie could stand. “It’s none of your business, Andy. And don’t you stop for a second to get jealous over anyone I may or may not be seeing. It’s over between us.”
Another long pause followed before Andy turned to face her fully. He was short and stocky, but wore expensive clothes. The irritation in his expression only made him seem that much more out of his depth in the ranchland that surrounded them. “You walked out without any warning and with hardly a backward glance.”
“You ignored me for weeks on end for more than a year,” she countered.
He shrugged. “I was busy. I made partner, and my case load doubled.”
“And as we both know, your case load is a thousand times more important than me, mister big-shot lawyer.”
“I worked hard to get where I am.”
The worst, most aggravating part of Andy’s statement was that he was right. He had worked hard. So hard that it ruined their relationship and left her with a seething pile of resentment where once there had been at least a little bit of affection. It didn’t make up for the crappy way he’d treated her, though.
“Why are you here, Andy?” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “Everything is completely over between us. What could possibly land you on my doorstep after dark?”
For what felt like no reason, he blinked rapidly and stared at her. “I didn’t want to break off our engagement, you know.”
“Tough.”
“I thought we were good together.”
“Yeah, when you came down from your ivory lawyer tower long enough to notice I existed.”
“You would have made a great lawyer’s wife. I still think you would.”
She laughed out loud at that, not willing to dignify it with a reply.
“What are you doing chasing after a…” He snapped his mouth shut, sucked in a breath, then went on with, “A guy like that,” as if choosing his words very carefully.
Alarm bells went off in Elvie’s mind and prickles raced down her arms. “Do you know Evan?”
He took too long to reply. “I know of him,” he said at last.
Something wasn’t right about that answer. “What do you know?”
Andy hesitated. “Why don’t we sit down, sweetie?”
“I’m not sitting down with you,” she snapped, more alarmed than ever. Something was definitely going on. She didn’t like it.
“Elvie, honey, come on.” He used his most condescending, lawyer tone with her.
When he reached for her arm, she tugged away. “Spill it, Andy. I’m not going to sit here and deal with any of your courtroom theatrics.”
Andy held up his hands in surrender. “I’m not trying anything.”
“Could’ve fooled me.”
“I’m trying to look out for your best interests.”
“You never looked out for my best interests,” she laughed. “Only your own.”
“So what if I thought we were good together?” He paced away from her, then paced back. “I’m sorry that you needed so much attention.”
She was seconds away from bopping him in the nose for his arrogance. “What do you know about Evan?” she growled through clenched teeth.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “You sure you won’t come back? I’ll get you a bigger ring. I’m making that kind of money now.”
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so insulted. She couldn’t believe he still wanted her. “You came all the way out here to offer me a bigger ring?”
Andy suddenly looked sheepish. “Actually, no, that’s not why I came out here at all.”
Elvie blinked. “You didn’t come out here to get me back?”
He winced and made a guilty, reluctant noise. “I figured that as long as I was in the neighborhood, I might stop by to see if we could, you know.”
Elvie’s brow flew up. “I sure as hell hope ‘you know’ doesn’t mean what I think it means, buster.”
Andy shrugged. “We always did have chemistry.”
“No. No, no, and no. Get off my property!” She threw a pointed finger off toward the road.
“I can’t leave until I finish the business that brought me out here,” he said, completely unmoved.
“You have business in Culpepper, Wyoming?” The very idea was ridiculous.
“As it turns out, yes.”
Something about the way he said it left her cold. Elvie frowned. “It doesn’t have anything to do with Evan, does it?”
He didn’t answer.
“How do you know Evan?”
She’d hit a nerve at last. His lawyer face came back in full force. He shifted his weight, then crossed his arms. “You need to stay away from him.”
Suspicion crawled down Elvie’s back. “Why?”
“He’s bad news.”
Nothing about the situation felt right, least of all how squirrely Andy was being. “How do you know him?”
Andy groaned and rubbed his hand over his face. “I can’t tell you. Client confidentiality and all that.”
Dammit. As rotten and arrogant and selfish as Andy was and had always been, he had a point with the client confidentiality thing. “So you’re involved in a case that Evan is involved in.”
“I can’t say.” There was too much mystery in Andy’s eyes, too much cunning. He always had been a slippery little lawyer.
“If you can’t say, that means he’s involved in something.”
“I can’t say.”
“Is it something bad?”
“I can’t say.”
“Stop it!”
“Stop what? I’m a lawyer. I can
’t talk about my job.”
“Is he in trouble?”
“I can’t say.”
“Should I be worried?”
“I can’t say.”
“Goddammit, Andy! Get off my porch and off of my property.” Frustration propelled her to grab his arm with both hands and jerk him toward the steps.
“Okay, okay, I’m going.” He kept moving even after she let go of him, stepping down from the porch and out of the light. “And I’m sorry that I can’t make you feel better about that guy, but are you sure you know enough about him?”
“Yes,” she snapped, although part of her whispered, no. “Get lost, Andy.”
He walked halfway to his car before turning back to her. “Are you sure we can’t work things out, honey? You know I’ve always really liked you.” He spoke directly to her chest.
The comment and the ogling crossed the line. Elvie sighed, shoulders sagging. “Liked, but you never loved me. I should have picked up on it ages ago.”
“Maybe.” He turned to continue on to his car.
That was it? Maybe? Elvie’s anger flew back on her, turning her stomach. She wanted to run after Andy’s stupid car and kick the bumper a few times, but he’d already started it and backed out, shifting to drive away. What a jerk. She couldn’t believe she’d dated him for so long, been engaged to him. Stupid lawyer.
Stupid lawyer who knew something about Evan that she didn’t know. He’d managed not to even hint at what it was either, only to warn her off. But was that warning real or was it part of some twisted effort to win her back?
She turned and stomped into the house, convinced it must be the latter. Evan was such a nice guy. He was so sweet and genuine and honest. Elvie had never been one for weird, esoteric things, but Evan had good vibes. He couldn’t possibly be a criminal or in trouble with the law, even if he had a lawyer on his tail, could he? There were just too many questions she didn’t have answers to. But she was sure of one thing—she’d get those answers tomorrow if it was the last thing she ever did.
4
It was a long night. Longest night of Evan’s life, in a lot of ways. And it had started out so, so good. But one look at Andrew Ball, esquire, Aunt Kissie’s probate lawyer, had killed all of that. Mr. Ball was the reason Evan hadn’t been able to stay in one place for more than a few days. The man was like a pit-bull with his eye on a bone. He’d had to run away from what could have been the night of his life.
Linda’s house was dark when he returned—not because she’d gone to bed, but because she was out, probably painting the town red with Roy—so Evan slunk quietly to his room. Then proceeded to toss and turn all night. By dawn’s first light, he knew what he had to do.
“Linda, have you seen my dark jeans?” he mumbled, keeping his head down as he entered the kitchen. To his surprise, all four of Linda’s sons and their wives were over for breakfast.
“I put them in the wash,” Linda told him, patting his cheek as she walked past him with a platter of pancakes. She set it in the center of the kitchen table—where Faith and Joy sat, both hugely round and pregnant—then returned to the counter for a second platter loaded with bacon and sausage. “You can check, but they might not be dry yet.”
Evan frowned and turned to check. It would be a pain if he had to pack a pair of wet jeans, but he’d do whatever he had to.
Karlan stopped him before he could get halfway down the hall. “Hey Evan, I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”
Bristling with the urgency to get on the road again, it was all Evan could do to hold his temper as he turned to face the oldest Culpepper son. “About what?”
Karlan grinned, slapped a hand on Evan’s back, and drew him back to a part of the hall where he could see and be seen by the family around the kitchen table and those who had taken their breakfast into the living room, where the TV was on, Saturday morning news playing.
“So we’ve talked about it,” Karlan went on, making eye contact with Kolby in the kitchen, “and we’ve decided we’d like to hire you on full-time.”
A bitter-sweet ache formed in Evan’s gut. Nothing would have pleased him more than to work for the Culpepper family. But he said, “Thanks for the offer, but I’m going to have to decline.” He rubbed the lower half of his face, glancing down the hall toward the laundry room.
“What?” Cooper called from the living room. He picked up the remote to turn the volume down on the TV. Chris picked it up a second later, but twisted to stare at Evan with a puzzled frown instead of doing anything with it.
“I…I really need to be on my way,” Evan told them all, hating every word.
“On your way?” Karlan blinked and shifted his weight. “I thought you liked Culpepper.”
“Yeah,” Chastity added from the sofa by Chris’s side. “I thought you liked Culpepper a lot.” She wiggled her eyebrows.
“I do, I do,” Evan said, then added in a murmur, “More than you know.”
“So what’s the problem?” Karlan faced the problem head-on, no nonsense. “I can offer you good money. Well, more than you’re probably making drifting and doing odd jobs.”
Evan sighed. How could he possibly explain that money wasn’t the problem?
No, money was exactly the problem. Just not how any of the Culpeppers would imagine.
“I truly appreciate the offer,” he said. “And believe me, if circumstances were different, I would take you up on it in a heartbeat.”
“Different?” Cooper’s frown deepened.
Karlan gripped Evan’s arm and walked him out of the hall and into a corner of the living room. Cooper jumped up from the couch and came to join them in their confidential pow-wow.
“Level with me, Evan. Are you in trouble?” Karlan asked.
“Yeah,” Cooper was quick to add. “Because if you are, there’s got to be a way we can help.”
“I’m not in trouble,” Evan sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. It wasn’t a lie, but he hated hiding so many things from a family that had been so good to him.
“We’ve got a lot of friends around here,” Karlan went on. “Including friends in law enforcement if…if that’s what you need.”
“I swear, I’ve never done anything illegal,” Evan assured him.
Thankfully, they both seemed to believe him.
“Is it a woman?” Cooper asked, lowering his voice to a mumble. “Is that why you’re walking out on Elvie O’Donnell just when things are looking good?”
Dread and agony whipped through Evan’s gut. Did everyone know about him and Elvie? “Not exactly,” he said, squirming the way he had back in school when he’d had to show his parents a pitiful report card.
“Whatever it is—”
Karlan was cut off by Chastity’s sudden yelp of, “Oh! Oh! Look!”
Evan, Karlan, and Cooper turned toward the TV as Chris clicked the volume up. Chastity was practically giggling with excitement as the announcer said, “There’s been a development in the odd case of the missing Kissie Lips heir.”
Evan winced, wishing he could sink into the floor and disappear.
“What, this old cockamamie story again?” Kolby said, coming in from the kitchen with a piece of bacon in each hand.
“Sources close to the case report that the whereabouts of the mysterious heir have been narrowed down,” the announcer went on. “Though why the sole recipient of such a large and profitable inheritance is avoiding lawyers continues to baffle.”
Evan tried hard not to huff with humorless laughter. The answer to the announcer’s question was sitting on the sofa right in front of him.
“I wonder how much money those wax lips make?” Chris asked.
“I bet whoever that heir is, they probably have gigantic lips,” Chastity giggled.
“Do you think they’re the model for the wax lips?” Chris joked making kissy faces at her.
“Oh, I hope so!” She met Chris’s kissy face with one of her own, jumping in to sucking face with him.
But before they coul
d get truly embarrassing, Chastity stopped, pulled back, and gasped, “Oh! If people out there are looking for models for various products, I know one that you would be great for!”
The rest of the family erupted into groans and grimaces, waving their hands and making random noise to get the two of them to stop. Evan took the opportunity to slip out. He fled down the hall to the laundry room in search of his jeans. Fortunately for him, they were in the dryer, more or less dry. He took them out and shook them to get all the wrinkles out. At least when he tucked his tail between his legs and left town his clothes would all smell mountain fresh.
If only he could stay. He would have given his eye teeth to stay. But the story on TV was all the proof he needed that he had to go. It hadn’t taken Chris and Chastity more than three seconds to make fun of whoever the Kissie Lips heir was. He couldn’t go living his life always the butt of jokes. He didn’t even know what his life would look like with that much money, let alone a company that he was partially responsible for running. He knew farming, ranching, not business. He—
“All right, spill it.” Linda’s curt command coming from directly behind him had Evan jumping out of his skin. He whirred around to face Linda just as she said, “Why are you skipping out on us like you’re planning to?”
Evan gaped like a fish on the sand, searching for words that would justify what he knew full well was a low-down thing to do. All he could think of was, “I have to go.”
Linda planted her fists on her hips. “That’s not an excuse, son. That’s barely even a reason.”
Evan squirmed. “I’m sorry, ma’am, that’s the best I can do. It’s for the best if I head on.”
“Nope.” Linda shook her head. “You’re going to have to do better than that. I’ve raised four boys, and I wouldn’t let a single one of them get away with the kind of disappearing act you’re about to pull.”
He was well aware of being cornered, by his own conscience as much as by Linda. “There are a few things that I’m trying to avoid,” he said, working out a way to make Linda feel better without telling the whole, embarrassing story. “I’m not really comfortable talking about it, and I swear to you I’m not in trouble with the law or anything like that. It’s just…just…” He let out a breath, shoulders sagging.
