Sugar Springs

by Kim Law

  Also By Kim Law

  Caught on Camera

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Text copyright © 2012 Kim Law

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Montlake Romance

  P.O. Box 400818

  Las Vegas, NV 89140

  ISBN-13: 9781612186979

  ISBN-10: 1612186971

  This book is dedicated to Debra Hayes for always being willing to jump in and help when I need it most.

  The idea for this one wouldn’t have sparked without you. Thanks for being the best kind of friend.

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  “He’s back.”

  Chilly November air whipped over Lee Ann London as her mother hurried through the kitchen door and slammed it shut behind her, the action rattling the copper-bottomed pots hanging above Lee Ann’s head. Continuing her methodic motions with the rolling pin, she tucked her smile away and focused on the dough. “Hey, Mom. Who’s back?”

  “I should have said coming back,” she bristled.

  “Okay, who’s—”

  The thud of a heavy coat hitting the floor cut Lee Ann off midquestion and pulled her attention from the kitchen island.

  Reba London’s eyebrows puckered as she stood still in the middle of the room, concern etching her blue eyes and turning them a shade darker, erasing the natural twinkle normally found there. Agitation had her wringing her hands together. Over-the-top drama was one thing with her mother, but her stiff posture indicated this was actually serious.

  Lee Ann pushed the rolling pin to the side and wiped her fingers on her apron. She propped her hands on her hips and studied the helpless expression on her mother’s face. Rarely did anything cause Reba such distress these days. Nothing had in ages. Not since those first few years of the two of them figuring out how to make ends meet as they’d struggled to care for the twins.

  At the thought of the girls Lee Ann had been raising since birth, she glanced at the clock. Five o’clock. They would be home soon. Candy from basketball practice and Kendra from cheerleading. And then another thought struck. She hadn’t seen her mother this agitated since the day her half sister had proclaimed the kids’ father was...

  Lee Ann froze, an icy path slicing over the back of her neck. No.

  She blinked and shook her head once, determined to shove aside the face that had popped to mind. Just because her mom’s look reminded her of that day so long ago didn’t mean she was talking about him being the one who was coming back to town. He hadn’t stepped foot in Sugar Springs, Tennessee, in over thirteen years. It would make no sense for him to be there now.

  But what if he was?

  Her chest tightened. The thought was insane. Of course he wouldn’t have decided to come back after all this time. There was nothing more for him there today than there had been all those years ago. Certainly not the possibility of having anything to do with the girls he’d turned his back on.

  Reba took a hesitant step toward Lee Ann but stopped. She twisted the large flower-petal ring around her finger, hitched her mouth in an unattractive twist, and slowly nodded her head.

  After several long seconds of silence as Lee Ann gave her mother a hard stare, the anxiety on the woman’s face shifted and began to falter, allowing in a bit of her “everything will work out” look. She lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. She didn’t seem exactly sold on the idea but more as if she was trying to convince both herself and Lee Ann that it had to be the case.

  “Mom?” Lee Ann couldn’t control the tremor in her voice.

  Reba squared her shoulders, going for brave, but her eyes were as worried as Lee Ann had ever seen them. Sharp prickles worked their way over Lee Ann’s scalp. She closed her eyes. She did not want to hear his name.

  “Who, Mom?” she asked. “Who is coming back to town?”

  A tiny pause, then words spoken so quietly they were almost indecipherable. “Cody Dalton.”

  Pain jabbed the back of Lee Ann’s eyelids. The bastard. He had no business coming back there and disrupting their lives. She opened her eyes and moved with controlled motions until she sank into a kitchen chair, where she proceeded to stare straight ahead, focusing on the bare branches intertwined outside the kitchen window instead of the images of Cody currently daring to flit through her mind.

  Okay, fine, she could deal with this. Nothing was insurmountable. The fact was she’d dealt with far worse before—those times being his fault, too, of course. She inhaled a breath into her lungs, deep enough to expand her chest as she continued to get herself under control, then she let it out slowly with the backward countdown from ten.

  There was an easy solution. She simply had to keep him the heck out of their lives.

  He hadn’t wanted to be there before, so there was no reason she should open the door and let him come strolling in today. As she worked through the ins and outs of living in a town with less than six hundred people, she knew there was no way they could keep completely out of each other’s path, but she would do everything possible to limit the run-ins. Her mom perched on the seat beside her and reached out a hand to pat Lee Ann on the back as if she were a child.

  “Why is he back?” Lee Ann asked. “And why now?”

  Had he experienced some lightbulb moment that made him suddenly develop the urge to be the father he’d never wanted to be before? She gritted her teeth at the thought. His children were only a few weeks shy of becoming teenagers. It wasn’t as if missing the first thirteen years of their lives was going to endear him to them.

  The fingers resting on her back slid away. “He’s the new vet, hon, filling in for Dr. Wright for six weeks so she can be home for a spell after the baby comes.”

  “Veterinarian?” Shock weighted her body down as the cheerful colors of the room blended together to form a depressing blue, green, and yellow haze. Like a three-day-old bruise. “He’s a vet?”

  Unimaginable.

  Yet strangely comforting. Warmth poked through a tiny spot deep in her belly. He’d actually done it. Then coldness slammed back into place as Lee Ann registered the other words her mother had spoken.

  Six weeks?

  In Sugar Springs?

  Lee Ann rubbed her temples. How was she going to handle this? There was no way he wouldn’t at least ask about the girls. Heck, half the population would tell him all about them, none the wiser that they were talking to the kids’ actual father. Thankfully, only her mother and best friend knew that he’d even been with Stephanie that way.

  The big question, though, was would he want anything to do with them? Or would he merely be curious?

  And honestly, she didn’t know which answer she wanted to be correct.

  Reba used her thumb to wipe flour off Lee Ann’s cheek, veiled hope leaking out of her n
ow. “It’ll be okay, sweetheart. Maybe he’s finally grown up. The girls will get the dad they’ve always needed.”

  “No!” Lee Ann stood, dumping her chair over. She backed away until her head cracked against the cuckoo clock hanging on the wall. She righted the heirloom, then rubbed the sore spot on the back of her head as she eyed her mother. The woman may have still harbored resentment over the mess Cody had left their family in years ago, but she also managed to always hold on to that ridiculous thread of optimism that had once gotten her nothing but two kids—one not even hers—to raise on her own, and not one dollar of child support anywhere to be found. If anyone should know better, it was her.

  No, they weren’t going to do this. They would not hunt him down and beg him to finally be a father. As far as Lee Ann was concerned, Cody Dalton had already walked out on his responsibilities once, and he wouldn’t get a second opportunity.

  “Don’t you dare tell him a word about them, Mother.” She made it clear this was not a subject open for discussion. She’d made all decisions for Candy and Kendra since their births, just as she’d taken the lead so many times with her mother and sister as she’d been growing up. She’d had to, otherwise her mother—whose head seemed to stay in the happy clouds more often than not—would forget to make sure they had clean clothes for school or, worse, forget to pay the electric bill. It hadn’t been lack of money, simply lack of concern to remember the silly details. “It will all work out” had always been her motto.

  No, Lee Ann wouldn’t stand for her mother closing her eyes to reality now and getting in the way of her kids’ stability.

  “He walked out on them, Mom. He doesn’t deserve to know them. Plus, he’ll be gone soon.” She shook her head at the argument she could see forming. “We’ll simply keep our distance while he’s in town, and the kids will remain as happy and well adjusted as they’ve always been. I will not let him walk in here and hurt them.”

  She ignored the voice in the back of her head that asked if she wasn’t also afraid he would walk in and hurt her. That wasn’t a valid question. Doing it again wasn’t possible.

  “No matter what he did, sweetheart, he is their father,” her mother said quietly as she bent over and righted the fallen chair. “He deserves to know them if he wants to.” Reba had always believed the best in people and it galled Lee Ann every time her gullibility rose to the surface. Did she never learn from her mistakes? Then her mother’s words made Lee Ann realize that even after her father had walked away when she was four, Reba would have let him back in their lives if he’d shown so much as an ounce of interest. Thank goodness for small blessings. After he’d walked out the door, he’d never glanced back.

  She didn’t need people who’d already turned their backs on her once. That meant she didn’t need Cody.

  And she refused to let him hurt her children.

  After a pause, Lee Ann had herself back under control and decided to point out the likely truth, hoping that would get the point across to her mother. She softened her voice. “What if he doesn’t actually want to get to know them, Mom? What then? He could be here purely for the job. And more importantly, what makes you think, given the kind of person he was when he left, that he is anyone we’d ever want around them?”

  The knowledge of the kind of person Cody truly was still hurt. She’d once been his biggest supporter, certain that his crappy upbringing afforded him a bit of the chip on his shoulder he’d carried so proudly. She’d also believed she’d been the only one—aside from possibly his foster parents—who’d been able to see his real potential.

  The fact that he’d ended up sleeping with her half sister instead of her, then raised complete hell on his way out of town, had actually surprised her more than it had anyone else. When Stephanie had informed Lee Ann and her mother months later that he’d declared he wanted nothing to do with his kids, Lee Ann had finally accepted that she’d been the idiot all along. He was the bad seed the majority of the townspeople had declared him to be.

  And now he was coming back. No way had he redeemed himself, no matter what he’d done with his life since.

  Her mother studied her with a mixture of understanding and regret, then gave an encouraging—though just barely—smile. “If that’s what you want.”

  “It is.” Lee Ann gave a decisive nod, glad to know she had her mother’s support but also slightly irked with the tone eking out along with her mother’s words. It was almost as if she were implying that Lee Ann always had to have her way. And that simply wasn’t the case. It was purely the fact that if she didn’t watch out for the girls, no one else would.

  Stomping feet on the outside steps snagged Lee Ann’s attention. The girls were home. She narrowed her eyes at her mother. “This conversation is on hold.”

  With a loud clatter, Kendra and Candy London tumbled through the door, backpacks, gym bags, and preteen awkwardness windmilling in with them. “Grandma!”

  The girls dropped everything to give brief hugs to their grandmother, as if they didn’t see her every day. Not only did Reba live next door, but whenever Lee Ann had photography appointments outside the home studio she’d added on a few years before, the girls stayed with their grandmother. And with Grandma they got away with everything. This accounted for their always being thrilled to see her.

  Two sets of identical brown eyes faced Lee Ann, and a tiny shiver lit down her body as she recalled how very much those eyes matched Cody’s. “You got a job tonight?”

  Laughing, Lee Ann once again attempted to push Cody from her mind, and returned to the cinnamon rolls she’d been making before she’d gotten sidetracked. “Sorry, squirts,” she said, calling them by the nickname she’d used since they’d been toddlers. “You’re stuck with me tonight.”

  Good-natured groans came from both before they turned back to their grandmother. As Lee Ann spread melted butter on the dough, she fought back the clawing fear over what might happen if Cody insisted he wanted to get to know his daughters. Unless he proved himself completely inept, she knew that she couldn’t keep them from him. More aptly, she couldn’t keep him from them. She’d never be able to live with herself knowing that their father had been within spitting distance and she hadn’t so much as introduced them.

  Of course, that was assuming he wanted anything to do with them. He also had to prove that over the last thirteen years he’d learned to think of those other than himself. Because whether he was here in town or not, she would not do anything to put the girls’ hearts at risk. She knew too much about what that kind of pain could do to a person.

  She picked up the cinnamon and sugar mixture and sprinkled it over the butter. She couldn’t help but play over the times in the past when the girls had asked about their father. The first had been when they were four. A child at their day care always got picked up by his father, and they’d finally asked about it. Telling them they simply had no father had been good enough at that point.

  The subject had come up additional times over the years, mostly out of curiosity. Each occasion she’d given them a bit more of the truth. He’d chosen to move somewhere else. He was working in a different part of the country. He couldn’t do what he wanted and stay in Sugar Springs at the same time.

  She had never mentioned that she’d twice looked him up. The first time she’d gotten nowhere. The girls had just turned one and she still couldn’t believe he was the type of person who’d turn his back on his offspring. No matter what he’d done to hurt her, she would have put that aside if he’d changed his mind and wanted to be involved in the kids’ lives. She’d searched for him on the Internet but found nothing.

  The last time they’d been three. She’d found a phone number registered to his name in Indiana and had almost called him that night. After a couple glasses of cheap wine long after the kids had gone to bed, she’d come close to convincing herself that Stephanie had lied. Not about him being the father. No, she’d walked in on that particular episode and had seen it with her own two eyes.

&nbs
p; But about him not wanting anything to do with the girls.

  It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time her half sister had made up a story.

  In the end, Lee Ann had put the phone down and had one more glass of wine instead. She’d simply wanted to talk to him more than anything else. Life as a single mother wasn’t easy, and she was often lonely. Those times brought back memories of her high school senior year and the boy she’d once planned to spend the rest of her life with.

  Instead, she was spending it with his kids.

  Kendra cackled out with laughter at something Reba had said, and Lee Ann couldn’t help but say a silent prayer of thanks for her daughters’ health. Stephanie had come home at five months pregnant, sick around the clock and barely able to keep anything down. Lee Ann had left college on the weekends to help take care of her, yet nothing they’d tried had ever allowed Steph to gain more than a minimum of pounds.

  Finally, six weeks early, the girls had been born. They’d been taken by Cesarean, and during the procedure the doctor had discovered that Stephanie’s insides were eaten up with cancer. The months-long sickness hadn’t been solely due to the pregnancy, and no one had known until it had been too late.

  Somehow, though the kids had been born with low birth weights and had been growing alongside fatal cancer, their health—both then and since—remained relatively unscathed.

  “Mom!” Fingers snapped in front of Lee Ann as Candy got her attention. “Geez, Mom. Where’d you zone off to? We asked a question.”

  She smiled at the long, tall young ladies standing before her, now trying their best to appear too bored to be in the same room with her. They didn’t have to fake the annoyance, though. They had that one down to a tee. Swirling her fingers into a pyramid of soft flour piled on the countertop, Lee Ann lifted her hand and flicked, sprinkling both girls with powder. “What do you want?”

  Fake outrage followed by instant giggles ensued as the girls dragged their own fingers along the flour-covered laminate and returned the onslaught. They may be developing teenage girl attitudes she rarely cared for, but they were still her fun little girls.