Sweet Summer Sunset

by Delores Fossen

  “Don’t make a public announcement about it,” Callen warned. “She wants to keep it a secret until she’s past the third month, just in case there’s a miscarriage.”

  Callen was usually a serious person so it wasn’t unusual to see his stern expression or hear his firm tone, but this was different. “You’re worried about her?” Nico asked.

  There was a long silence. “Scared shitless, not because of the pregnancy but because I’m worried I’ll suck at fatherhood. But if you tell her that, I’ll drown you in a pool of bull piss while I beat you with a shovel.”

  Nico smiled not just in spite of the threat but because of it. It was going to be fun to see the unflappable Laramie brother get a little flapped. Besides, Callen wasn’t going to suck at parenthood. Neither would Shelby.

  “You’ll be a good father,” Nico told him. “And I’m happy for Shelby and you. Really happy,” he emphasized.

  Callen nodded and muttered a thanks, but Nico made a mental note to repeat that “good father” assurance to his brother at least a dozen more times.

  “Gotta go,” Nico said, checking his watch again. “I need to get to the cabin and make sure it’s ready. Rayelle and Piper will be here in a couple of hours.”

  Callen nodded. “Rayelle called about that, too. She wanted to make sure the place wasn’t a dump. Judd sent Beckham over to see if anything needed to be cleaned.”

  He didn’t mind the boy’s help. Beckham was a good kid, but this wasn’t his responsibility, and a teenager likely had something better to do on a nice summer day than clean a cabin.

  Nico left his office, calling out to Hog that he’d be gone for the rest of the day, and he barreled out of the building to find the protesting Liddy Jean. She wasn’t alone today. There were two other women with her, and all three were carrying Equality for Rodeo Heifers signs.

  Minus the cowbells.

  Apparently, Kace’s injury had caused Liddy Jean to rethink the way she expressed herself on a sign. However, it obviously hadn’t stopped the protest itself. When he had more time, he would ask the woman how she’d managed to recruit supporters for her strange cause, but for now that was a question for the ages.

  Nico drove his truck out of town and toward the cabin, passing his own house and ranch along the way. It wasn’t much of a spread, only ten acres, which was postage-stamp size by Texas standards. Eventually, he’d need a bigger place. Maybe even sooner than eventually since he wanted to make sure he had enough pasture for his livestock and an adequate training area for the bulls.

  His business wasn’t in the booming stage. Not yet. However, he’d rented the office space from Callen with the hopes that someday Hog and he would have so much business that they’d need room to grow. But neither the business nor his ranch was likely big or successful enough to impress Rayelle. Of course, that wasn’t a news flash since not much impressed the woman.

  The cabin sure wouldn’t.

  Nico took stock of the place as he pulled to a stop in front of it. Small was the first word that came to mind. Only about a thousand square feet and made out of rough-hewn logs that would appeal to a camper but not necessarily someone like Rayelle. But it did have two bedrooms and a fully functioning kitchen. And then there was the view.

  Even the disapproving Rayelle wouldn’t find fault with that view. The cabin was right on the edge of the creek lined with a small sandy bank and dotted with plenty of live oaks, mountain laurels and cedars. The limestone rocks in the bend of the creek formed a ledge, creating a small waterfall. The sound it made was something people paid for in those sleep machines.

  Nico pulled to a stop behind a truck that he instantly recognized as belonging to his brother Judd. Judd was there all right, nailing a board in place on the porch. There was no need for Nico to tell him that his help wasn’t necessary. He could have gotten it all done himself, but he did appreciate it.

  “Did Callen bust your balls?” Judd asked when he looked up from his task. “He lost the coin toss.”

  “Some ball busting took place,” Nico assured him. Some movement on the creek caught his eye, and he spotted Beckham’s Lab, Mango, darting in and out of the water. “Did you cheat on the toss?”

  Judd nodded. “Damn straight I did. I don’t want to talk to you about keeping your jeans zipped. The only thing I want is for you to convince Rayelle to quit bugging me.”

  It was a reasonable request, especially considering that Brenda had never been Judd’s foster mother. Brenda, and therefore Rayelle, were part of Nico’s past. A good part with a few exceptions. Piper definitely fell into the good category, and thankfully his brothers had always been accepting of her. Judging from Judd’s scowl though, his patience was wearing thin.

  “I figure Rayelle will put in a token stay,” Nico explained. “She’ll be around just long enough to fulfill the deathbed promise she made to her sister. Piper will likely get bored, too. I mean, this isn’t exactly a haven for a teenage city girl. Then, they’ll return to San Antonio and things will go back to normal.”

  Nico frowned. Normal didn’t sound as good as it should have. And besides, he wasn’t sure going back to the way things were was even possible. He got a reminder of why that was when he heard the approaching car. Not Rayelle. But Eden.

  She got out of her gray Ford Focus, dragging two bags of groceries from the backseat. She smiled when her attention landed on him, and while Nico thought it looked genuine enough, he still studied it for any signs of pretense. There didn’t seem to be any.

  After he gave a nod of greeting to Eden and a silent, narrow-eyed warning to Nico, Judd went back to hammering and Nico went to help Eden.

  “You didn’t have to do this,” he told her, glancing in the bags. Not chips and such as he’d figured. There were fresh cherries, wrapped deli sandwiches and some salads.

  “I didn’t have to work at Roy’s this morning so I drove into San Antonio to that gourmet marketplace. And, yes, I did that to get in Rayelle’s good graces.”

  Eden had obviously also taken her clothes into consideration for the good graces. She was wearing a perky yellow dress with sandals instead of her usual cowboy boots. For reasons that Nico didn’t want to explore, it made him notice her legs.

  Well, hell.

  Was this how his life was going to be now? He was going to see Eden and think of things that should never be on his mind when it came to her.

  “Are you looking at me with clown blinders right now?” she whispered as they walked toward the cabin.

  Nico considered a lie, but what would be the point? “Yeah, squeaky red nose and everything.”

  He hoped she wasn’t imagining him with his hands in his pants, though. Which made him want to ask her about that. When had she seen that anyway? It was a burning question that he might not ever get answered because talking hands in the pants or sex with Eden was not the way to cool him down.

  “You’ve been avoiding me,” Eden added, and she set the grocery bags on the small kitchen counter.

  “I have,” he admitted, and he wanted to wince. This was the problem with crossing a line with a friend. He wasn’t used to putting on mouth filters when it came to Eden. “I wanted to give us both some time.”

  Her eyebrow came up, and she huffed before she mumbled some frustrated profanity under her breath.

  “See?” he snapped, as if that proved all the arguments going on in his head. “We’re uncomfortable with each other, and it’s all because of the kiss that shouldn’t have happened.”

  She stared at him a moment, caught on to a handful of his shirt and yanked him to her. She kissed him. Hard.

  Nico felt his body jolt, an almost involuntary reaction that nearly made him dive in for more. After all, good kisses should be deep and involve some tongue. It was like stripping off a layer of clothes or going to the next level. But those were places that Nico stopped himself from going. Before their tong
ues could get involved, he stepped back from her, and she let go of him, her grip melting off his shirt.

  He felt the loss right away when her mouth was no longer on his. The loss and the realization that Eden was a real, live, breathing woman. An attractive one with breasts, legs and everything.

  Oh man.

  He didn’t want to realize that. He wanted his friend. And he wanted that friendship almost as much as he wanted to French-kiss her.

  “Now, we can also be uncomfortable because of that kiss I just gave you,” she said, as if that proved whatever point she’d been trying to make. It proved nothing. Well, nothing that should be proved anyway.

  Nico stared at her. “Eden, you’re playing with a thousand gallons of fire,” he warned her—after he’d caught his breath.

  “I know, and I’m going to be honest about that. In fact, I’m going to insist we be honest with each other so that we don’t ruin our friendship.”

  That was very confusing, and Nico wondered if this was some kind of trick. Except Eden wasn’t a trick-playing kind of person. “What the heck do you mean by that?”

  Her gaze stayed level with his. “It means if you want to kiss me, you should. If you don’t want to kiss me again, then don’t.”

  He was still confused. About what she was saying anyway. Nico was reasonably sure that the wanting-to-kiss-her part was highly charged right now.

  “I just don’t want you to avoid me because you’re struggling with this possible curveball that’s been tossed into our friendship,” Eden went on. “That kiss makes us even,” she added with a firm nod.

  No. It didn’t. And Nico was certain he could have come up with a good answer to that. Something along the lines of there shouldn’t be a curveball at all, but this seemed a case of closing the stable door after the horse was already out. The ball had been thrown, and it had smacked him upside the head along with letting the horse out.

  This was one of the few times in Nico’s life that he was actually glad for an interruption. He heard the sound of an approaching car engine, followed by Judd’s gruff announcement. “Rayelle and Piper are here.”

  Judging that there wouldn’t be enough time for him to say anything significant to Eden and also because he still didn’t have a clue what to say, Nico just hit the pause button of, well, whatever the heck was happening, and he went out on the porch to greet his guests.

  Nico couldn’t help but smile when he saw Piper. She was petite, barely five-one, and built like a fairy. She sort of looked like one, too, with her golden blond hair and sky blue eyes.

  Piper returned the smile, not with a very big one though, but she bounded out of the car and up the steps to throw herself into his arms. “Thank you so much for talking Aunt Rayelle into this,” she whispered.

  Despite the fact that there could be multiple problems with this visit, Nico brushed a kiss on her temple. “It’s good to see you. You’ll behave yourself while you’re here?”

  That should have earned him at least some stink eye, a sarcastic chuckle or an elbow nudge. It didn’t. “Thank you,” she repeated.

  The words were right, but she seemed... Well, he wasn’t sure. Something was off. Maybe she was just having a bout of grief over Brenda. He’d certainly had his own bouts over the past couple of weeks.

  “You’re sure you can handle being in this cabin with Rayelle?” Nico kept his voice at a whisper even though Rayelle was too far away to hear them. She had popped the trunk on her car, and Judd had walked out to help her with some luggage.

  “Well, I was hoping I’d get to spend some time at your place,” Piper answered.

  Nico had no problem with that. The trick would be to convince Rayelle that Piper wouldn’t be walking into a den of sin.

  With his arm looped around Piper’s shoulders, Nico led her down the steps so he could take the suitcases from Rayelle. Or rather try to do that, but Rayelle held on. “It’s okay.” She paused, glanced away. “I have some personal things in there.”

  Of course she did. Suitcases often carried personal things, and in Rayelle’s case, she must mean her underwear. It wasn’t as though he was going to get a clear mental picture of them just by touching the container that held such things. Still, maybe she just didn’t like a man, any man, being within fondling distance of her panties. Not that he would ever have any intentions of doing that.

  Piper went around them, going after her own suitcase so she could haul it into the cabin. Rayelle didn’t follow her, and her attention settled on Eden when she came up behind Nico.

  “I understand Brenda and I made the wrong recommendation when it came to Nico,” Rayelle said.

  It took Nico a moment to connect the dots on this, but Eden picked up on it right away. “Mimi Bakersfield is engaged to my ex-husband.”

  “Yes,” Rayelle muttered. She took slow steps toward the cabin. “Well, obviously Mimi was the wrong recommendation if she’s taken up with a man so soon after his divorce.”

  That was something at least. Rayelle wouldn’t be trying to push Mimi at him, but that had to sting Eden because she was the second half of that divorced team, which probably meant Rayelle would consider her off-limits, too.

  “It’s going to be okay,” Nico told the woman, and yes, he cheated and used some of that charm people were always telling him he had. He smiled at her and gave her hand a gentle squeeze once she’d set her suitcases in the living room.

  Rayelle glanced around the place, but her attention settled back to him. “Please tell me you’ll do everything to make sure this visit isn’t a mistake for Piper.”

  “I promise.” And to seal that, he pulled Rayelle into his arms for a hug. She wasn’t exactly the hugging sort, but Nico thought in this case they could both use it. It felt surprisingly good, and Rayelle didn’t go stiff.

  But Nico did.

  With the way they were standing, he had a perfect view through the big window in the kitchen that overlooked the lake. In fact, it was one of the best views in the cabin, and he had no trouble seeing Piper, who’d obviously gone out back. She had her hand braced on one of the trees, her phone pressed to her ear, her head down.

  Everything in her body language was a Texas-sized red flag for Nico, and he needed to check on her. First though, he had to distract Rayelle because if what had upset Piper was something she wanted her aunt to know, it would already be out in the open.

  “Rayelle, why don’t you let me help you get settled into your bedroom?” Eden asked. Nico saw Eden’s glance flick to the window, probably to let him know that she’d also seen Piper and was now giving Rayelle the distraction that he needed to go to the girl.

  Eden didn’t take no for an answer, either. She tried to pick up one of the suitcases, but as Rayelle had done to him, she stopped that and snatched them up herself. That’s when Nico noticed there was a little lock on one of the bags. That seemed extreme even for Rayelle.

  Putting her hand on the small of Rayelle’s back, Eden got the woman walking toward the bedroom. Eden was persistent, too, and even launched into some small talk about the food she’d brought from that gourmet place.

  Nico didn’t waste any time. He hurried out the back door and made a beeline for Piper. She no doubt heard him coming because she issued a quick goodbye to the person on the other end of the phone line. What she didn’t do was look at him, but Nico had no trouble hearing the sniffing sound she made.

  Hell.

  He went to her, pulling her into his arms. “What’s wrong?”

  She shook her head, either attempting a denial or letting him know she didn’t want to talk about it. Tough. She would talk.

  “Is this about Brenda?” he asked.

  Piper went still and with the seconds crawling by, she finally looked up at him. “Yes,” she said.

  Nico groaned. He had no doubts that her grief was part of the reason for those tears she was blinking b
ack, but there was something else. He’d held enough crying women to know that.

  “Spill it,” Nico insisted, and it wasn’t hard for him to use his big brother tone for that demand.

  There was more head shaking, even some gaze dodging, before her eyes finally locked with his again. “God, Nico. I’ve really screwed up.” The words rushed out, along with a stream of breath.

  Nico wished he’d done a better job of reining in whatever expression formed on his face. It had to be a bad one—one laced with shock and, yes, fear—because it caused Piper to gasp and back away from him.

  “Sorry,” she quickly added. “It’s okay. I swear, it is.” She dismissed it not only with the wave of her hand but a little bobble of her head. “I just broke up with my boyfriend, that’s all. That’s a good thing. I’m better off without him,” she added. “I’d better go in before Aunt Rayelle comes out looking for us.”

  Nico didn’t stop Piper when she flashed him a fake smile and hurried back to the cabin. He wouldn’t press things. For now.

  But Nico sure as hell knew bullshit when he heard it.

  CHAPTER SIX

  EDEN WAS ARMED and ready for the town’s Bluebonnet Rodeo where she knew she’d run into (1) well-meaning folks who would pity her or ask her about kissing Nico, (2) her parents, who’d also quiz her about that kiss, (3) Damien, (4) Mimi, (5) Nico, (6) Rayelle and (7) Piper.

  She didn’t mind seeing Nico or Piper, but maybe she could stave off having close encounters with the rest. Her weapon of choice was the stench coming from the deep-fried onion blossom on a stick she’d bought from one of the food booths. It smelled more burned-grease than savory, but just in case that didn’t do the trick, Eden had also bought a huge cone of fungus-green cotton candy.

  She wasn’t sure why the All Things Sugar booth had decided to use that particular color dye, but hopefully it was enough of a repellant that it would keep at least some of her persons of concern at a distance. If that didn’t work, she’d go for an off-putting slab of the bacon and pickle ice cream that the vendor was using a machete to cut.