Front Range Cowboys (5 Book Box Set)

by Evie Nichole

  “Cal!” Darren turned and spotted Cal a short distance down the hallway. He waved Cal over. “We were just talking about you.”

  “Talking about me?”

  Cal felt uncomfortable with all of the attention. Although, why should it matter? They all talked about him anyway because he was the brother that never came into town. He hadn’t participated in family events or joined family dinners or other get-togethers. Sometimes he wondered if anyone really missed him. He was that guy who stayed back on the ranch where none of them wanted to be anyway.

  “Yes.” Laredo’s subdued smile did not make Cal feel any better. Their last conversation had been bad. This did not promise to be any better.

  “I can’t imagine why you’re talking about me.” Cal hooked his thumbs in his belt loops and rocked back and forth on the heels of his cowboy boots.

  Laredo’s gaze narrowed. Those blue eyes were just as bright as every other Hernandez brother, but Laredo’s were laser sharp. He stared at Cal as though he were trying to eviscerate him. “I’ve been telling our family members what you refuse to talk about.”

  “Oh, really?” Cal could barely contain his anger. “Are you telling them your version of events, or are you telling them the facts that you don’t have a freaking clue about?”

  “Excuse me?” Laredo snorted. “We’ve talked about this. You wouldn’t even stick around to listen to reason or do the right thing.”

  “You were wrong, Laredo,” Cal said in a clear, concise voice. “You were spouting bullshit that you don’t know anything about. You think you know, but that was the problem with Dad. You might think that you know, but you never really do. And believe me,” Cal said bitterly. “That man took his most important secrets to the grave. Although, since I was standing there when he died, I will tell you that our mother’s grieving is a bit on the bullshit side. She’s the one who got him nice and worked up. Then she wouldn’t let it drop until he went into cardiac arrest. Pretty convenient for a woman who wanted to leave him anyway, don’t you think?”

  Aria Callahan reached out hesitantly to touch Cal’s shoulder. “Cal, think about what you’re saying!”

  “I know what I’m saying. I stood right there and watched it happen.” Cal suddenly realized that Aria might be the one person who would care enough about Jesse to go and make sure that she was all right. “Jesse left the floor and headed down to find some food. Aria, could you please go and find her? I’m sorry to ask, but I don’t want her to be alone, and this is going to take a lot longer than I first thought.”

  Aria glanced up at Laredo. It was obvious that he didn’t have any interest in her being anywhere but at his side. Fortunately, Aria was very much her own independent-minded woman. She touched Cal’s arm again and nodded before heading back to the elevator.

  At the last second, Aria pointed at Laredo. “Don’t you dare do or say anything stupid. We talked about this!”

  Cal frowned as he tried to put that together. They had talked about what? Laredo’s dedication to his version of events? If that was the case, then they needed to talk a little more. With that in mind, Cal glared at his next youngest brother. Why did he have to be such a pompous ass all the time? He’s been better lately, but sometimes he was still insufferable.

  “Now.” Cal pointed in Laredo’s face. “We’re going to go in there, and we’re going to talk to Mom. So help me God, Laredo. You are not going to breathe a word about Amelia Collins or Jesse. Do you understand? It will set Mom off, and we can’t afford for that to happen again.”

  “Fine.” Laredo held up his hands. His expression was mild, but Cal could tell from the dubious stare of his brother Darren that things were not exactly what they might seem.

  Cal, Laredo, Darren, and Maggie walked down the hallway. As they got closer and closer to the family waiting room, the sound of Avery Hernandez’s voice grew clearer and clearer. She was obviously having more than a little trouble processing everything that was happening. The tone of her voice went from shrill one second to low and sobbing the next.

  “Holy crap,” Darren muttered. “Is that Mom?”

  “Yeah.” Cal wondered if there was any way for him to just turn around and leave. Except he wasn’t letting his mother get away without telling the truth about what had happened to Joe Hernandez. Cal wasn’t letting her get away with blaming Jesse.

  Laredo was the first one to reach for the door handle. He pushed it open and stepped inside. At that point, Avery spun around and flung out her arms. It appeared that she’d been pacing through the center of the room’s worn linoleum. Now she held out her arms and embraced Laredo and Darren as though they were her favorite people on the planet.

  “Oh, my boys are together at last!” Avery gushed. “It’s so wonderful to have you here! And Maggie! Welcome!” Avery grabbed Maggie’s hand and gave it a squeeze.

  At least Laredo and Darren looked as confused as the rest of them felt. Apparently, Avery had been ranting or something similar the entire time Cal had been out of the room. Met and Cisco sidled closer to Cal, and Met flung his arm around Cal’s neck.

  “Finally,” Met muttered. “Now Laredo and Darren can absorb some of this crap. What’s wrong with our mother, Cal? It’s like her mind has snapped or something.”

  “Let’s see if Maggie will stay with her for a minute while we go back to Dad’s room to view the remains,” Cal said darkly. “That way we can hopefully keep Mom from lying about what really happened.”

  “Maggie?” Cal motioned to Darren’s fiancée. “Could you stay with Mom for a minute? My brothers would like to pay their last respects to Dad.”

  “Of course!” Maggie focused her full attention on Avery. Since she was an actual mental health professional, maybe this was for the best. Sure. She was a school counselor, but at this point, Avery was just acting crazy and needed help of any kind.

  The five brothers filed out of the family waiting room and went back into the hallway. Cal led the way across that sterile expanse of white tile to their father’s hospital room. There was a nurse inside tidying up the room even though the sheet-covered body still lay on the bed. She took one look at the brothers and politely excused herself with nothing more than a nod.

  Once the room was closed, Laredo walked over to the bed and flung the sheet back. Their father’s slack-jawed, pale appearance was probably more shocking than anything Cal had ever seen. He’d just gotten done hauling dozens of dead animals from a low spot on the ranch, and that did not begin to compare to this moment or this sight.

  “Well, hell,” Met muttered. He put his hands on his hips and sighed as though he were trying to fight back tears. It was unexpected from the one brother who had been the most vocal in criticizing their father over the years. “I hated the old bastard,” Met said hoarsely. “But seeing him like this is disturbing.”

  “It sure is,” Darren murmured. “He doesn’t look like Dad.”

  Laredo was still all business. Cal could have sworn it was his brother’s personal coping style. “So, Cal, tell us what happened.”

  “Mom and Dad were arguing. Jesse and I came to visit. Mom got upset that Jesse was here. She started in on Jesse’s mother and saying how she didn’t want Jesse around, that they’d done as much as they could for her, but that she was no better than her mother. And since her mother had an affair with Dad, that made Jesse no good for me and no good for our family.”

  “For you?” Darren raised his eyebrows. Then he looked around at the other brothers. “So, are we acknowledging that now? Are we all saying out loud that Cal and Jesse are a romantic couple?”

  “We can’t,” Laredo said shortly. “Jesse is our father’s child. They’re biologically related.”

  “Bullshit,” Met said loudly. “That’s not true, Laredo. Do the math. Do you really think Dad was screwing Amelia for over twelve years?”

  Cal almost laughed out loud at the expression on Laredo’s face. It was plain to him that he’d had it all figured out but hadn’t really considered the timeli
ne. This was where things got murky.

  Cal pressed his lips into a line and tried to figure out the best way to say what had to be said. “Dad was arguing with Mom about his relationship with Amelia. He was stressing that it was something beautiful and not something sordid. I hate to say it, but I think he really loved her. For a long time.”

  “I don’t believe it.” Laredo shook his head. “Our parents wouldn’t have stayed together if things were really like that.”

  “Mom pushed him into dying,” Cal announced quietly. “I kept telling her to stop talking. I kept telling him to calm down. They were arguing about Jesse and about Amelia. Mom told him that she wasn’t going to leave him. She was going to stay with him to make him follow her rules for the rest of his life now that he was too sick to care for himself. She was spiteful. She was mean. And you could see it in her eyes.” Cal hated having to say this to his brothers, but it had to be said. “I think our mother did everything she could to give our father a massive heart attack. And I don’t think she’s sorry that he’s gone.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jesse poked at the green gelatin and watched it jiggle in the little round bowl. It was about the most unappetizing thing that she’d ever seen, but for some reason, she had put it on her tray in spite of its looks. Most of the plastic-covered items on her tray were leftovers from the day. It was too late for the kitchen to be open. They had been gracious enough to sell her their overstock. Jesse was trying to be appreciative, but it was very hard when what she really wanted to do was walk out the front door of the hospital and never come back.

  “Hey.”

  The familiar voice was a surprise. Jesse glanced up at her friend Aria and felt nothing but relief. “Hey yourself. What brings you here? The food?” Jesse poked at the piece of fried chicken beneath its tight plastic wrapping.

  “Oh, for sure.” Aria plopped down into the chair across from Jesse. “More like you brought me here. I came with Laredo, but Cal said you were down here after an incident.”

  “Incident,” Jesse mused. “That’s one way to put it. More like the woman who adopted me after my parents’ deaths is now blaming me for what were apparently my mother’s poor romantic choices.”

  “You know,” Aria said slowly. “We’ve all talked about Joe Hernandez and his sins, but nobody has really talked about how you feel about your mother’s.”

  “What do you mean?” No. Jesse didn’t really want to talk about her mother. She didn’t want to admit what had to be the truth. Who wanted to face something like that about their parent?

  Aria sighed. Then she reached over and picked up a gelatin square between her index finger and her thumb. She lifted it to her mouth and made a big show of swallowing it down. “You loved your parents. I think that’s pretty normal. Don’t you? And obviously, your mother had a relationship of some kind with Joe Hernandez. But we don’t know what that was. We don’t know why. And everyone is treating her like some kind of whore. That isn’t fair.”

  “She kept journals,” Jesse said heavily. She reached for the banana cream pie and ignored the rest of the food on her tray. Using a fork, she slit the plastic open and then began scraping the meringue off with a fork. “I found them in the house. But the very first and the very last are missing. Someone took them.”

  “Who?” Aria frowned. She snagged another piece of gelatin and swallowed it down. “Who would do that?”

  “Avery.” Jesse felt so certain of this that she could even hear the resolve in her own voice. “In the room upstairs, I saw her with a handkerchief. She was mopping up her face with it. It’s a beautiful piece of needlework that my mother’s dear friend Mrs. Farrell made for her.”

  “Mrs. Farrell?” Aria frowned. “Are you talking about Melody’s grandmother? Like Cisco’s Melody?”

  “Yes. I told Melody that I remember her grandparents. I even remember them talking about her mother. They were close to my parents. I think my mom missed her parents. The Farrells became like stand-in parents to her.”

  “So, Melody’s grandmother—that’s so weird, by the way—makes some fancy needlepoint handkerchiefs for your mother, and you find them in Avery’s possession all these years later?”

  “Yes!” Didn’t Aria get what this meant? “Someone had to pack up my parents’ house. Right? Cal says he doesn’t remember who it was but that it was likely either his mother or his father. If Avery really felt that much animosity toward my mother, do you really think she was going to let her husband anywhere near my mother’s stuff?”

  “Okay, you have a good point there.” Aria finished off the gelatin and reached for a little dish of carrots. “No woman is going to want her husband anywhere near his former lover’s stuff. Not even when that lover has just died in some mysterious accident. Did Joe say anything about that before he passed?” Aria sounded irritated. “I still think it’s weird that nobody has ever told you exactly what happened that night.”

  “I suppose I need a police report.” It seemed like such an obvious place to start that Jesse wondered why she had never thought about it before.

  “Then, that’s your next step,” Aria pointed out.

  Jesse slurped up half the pie filling in one bite. It tasted like very fake banana, but it was at least edible and took the edge off the ache in her belly. “And this whole thing with Avery and Cal’s family? What about that?”

  “You love Cal.” There was a quiet note of finality in Aria’s voice. “We’ve always known that. You never say it. But I’ve known it as long as I’ve known you. And that’s a long time now. Everyone knows it. They don’t talk about it, but it isn’t a surprise.”

  “Now everyone is convinced that I’m Joe Hernandez’s child.”

  “Are you?”

  “I don’t know.” Jesse felt so conflicted. “That’s a long time to have an affair.”

  “Yes. It is.”

  “But I look as much like my dad as I do my mom.”

  Aria was already nodding. “Yes. You look like Rawling Collins. Don’t you think it’s possible that Joe just liked you and felt a connection to you because you reminded him of his lost love?”

  “That’s creepy as hell, but maybe.” Jesse put her hands over her face. “Ugh! I don’t know what to think.”

  “Do you need a paternity test? Some kind of DNA testing?” Aria asked quietly. Her friend was munching carrots as though she were just as fond of them as the horses she loved so much. “I think anyone would understand if you said you did.”

  “I don’t want to know.” The words slipped out, and Jesse felt as though she might cry. “I don’t want to know the truth if it means that Cal is off-limits to me. I would feel so lost and so—I don’t even know how to describe it! It would be awful.”

  “But that’s not like you.” Aria reached across the table and took Jesse’s hand. “This is your chance to know for sure. It wouldn’t be quick like the movies, but it probably wouldn’t take months either.”

  “And what would happen if I took that test and then I knew? Would anything change?” Jesse was feeling panicky. Of course things would change! How could they not? They would change because she would change. She would know the truth about her relationship to Joe Hernandez. And that would put a firm and unshakable set of boundaries on her relationship with Cal.

  “You love Cal.”

  “Yes.”

  Aria shrugged. “Then, you need to know. Not just feel like you know, but actually know. You need to have no doubts. That way the two of you can either move forward or decide not to, but you can do it because you know the truth.”

  “It’s scary,” Jesse admitted.

  Aria threw a carrot at Jesse. “Don’t be a coward. You’ve done way scarier stuff than this.”

  “You carroted me!” Jesse said indignantly. Without a second thought, she flicked a blob of meringue at Aria. It landed on her right cheek.

  Aria reared back and opened her mouth wide with shock. Then she started laughing. The two of them laughed together until Jes
se felt as though she might start weeping. It was so good to sit here with a friend and feel normal.

  “You’re right,” Jesse whispered. “I should just ask for the test and be done with it.”

  “Then, I look forward to hearing the results.” Aria stood up. “But I think we should go back upstairs now. You’re obviously not going to eat the rest of that.” Aria gestured to the contents of Jesse’s tray.

  “Do you blame me?” Jesse poked at the chicken. “I feel like it’s going to get up and walk off the plate.”

  “That would make it zombie chicken,” Aria said with grave sincerity. “I don’t think we need to worry about that. This isn’t that kind of hospital.”

  The two women continued to laugh and joke together as they headed upstairs. In the elevator, they began to make jokes about funny things to do in an elevator when you knew you were being videotaped. Then it moved from there to would you ever make out in an elevator when you knew you were being videotaped.

  Jesse didn’t have another moment’s misgiving until she saw the pale blond wood door of that family waiting room. Avery’s voice could be heard inside. She was shouting about something.

  Reaching out, Jesse caught hold of Aria’s arm. “I can’t go in there.”

  “Why not?” Aria’s voice was fortified with iron. “You were adopted by those people. And as I recall, they were pretty insistent about it even though it wasn’t necessary.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So, you have a right to be there,” Aria insisted. “Just because Avery Hernandez has her nose all bent out of joint because she found out that her husband was having an affair with your mother at some point in ancient history—because that is a long time ago, sweetie. It isn’t your fault!”

  Jesse knew that Aria was right. It still just felt so wrong and so very frightening to walk in there. Then Aria grabbed Jesse’s hand and held on tight. She reached for the doorknob and turned the latch. Then the two women walked in together.