Sweet Summer Sunset

by Delores Fossen

  Even though Eden would have liked to clear the air with Nico, after another look at Rayelle’s face, she knew it would have to wait. Something was wrong. Well, wrong with Rayelle anyway. Piper was smiling, and the girl ran to Nico to hug him.

  “Aunt Rayelle talked things out, and we’re moving back to the cabin,” Piper said, and she shifted her hug to Eden. “Thank you for everything.”

  Eden hadn’t thought she’d done that much, especially not with Rayelle, and she wondered what had caused the woman’s change of heart.

  “Maybe Roy will let you use his office,” Eden suggested. That would give them a better place to talk, if indeed that’s what Rayelle wanted to do. Of course, any place was better than the ladies’ room.

  Clearly though, Rayelle didn’t feel that way about changing locations because she stepped in and closed the door behind her. She bracketed her back against it as if standing guard and preventing anyone else from entering.

  Or leaving.

  “I didn’t want to tell Piper until we got here,” Rayelle said.

  That put a fast end to the hugging, and Piper, Nico and Eden turned to face the woman. Rayelle was as white as paper and looked even dizzier than Eden felt.

  “I’m just going to blurt this out before I lose my nerve,” Rayelle added. She shifted toward Piper, swallowed hard and said, “Piper, I’m your mother.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  ONCE AGAIN, NICO heard himself saying, “Oh shit.”

  He reeled toward Eden to see if she had a clue about what Rayelle had just said. She didn’t. Eden was shaking her head, muttering her own version of “oh shit” and was as dumbfounded as he was.

  But their shock was a drop in the bucket compared to Piper’s.

  His sister wasn’t muttering nor shaking her head. She was just standing there, seemingly frozen, her stunned gaze fixed on Rayelle.

  Her mother.

  Part of Nico wanted to believe this was some kind of joke, a really bad one, but Rayelle wasn’t the joking sort. Plus, there were tears in her eyes, and she was pulling that little silver box out of her purse. The one with the secret baby stuff in it. Apparently, the woman had decided that it wasn’t going to be a secret any longer.

  “Uh, I should be going,” Eden muttered.

  Nico didn’t want her to leave, especially not after what she’d said. That’s because I’m in love with Nico. Eden had seemed damn adamant about it when she’d blurted that out to her mother, and now Nico needed to find out if it was true. Hell, he hoped it wasn’t true.

  Didn’t he?

  But even if it was, he couldn’t deal with that now. Not with what Piper and Rayelle were about to face.

  “You’re lying,” Piper said to Rayelle. When Eden started to walk out, Piper caught on to her hand, stopping her. “Aunt Rayelle’s lying, right?” Piper then turned to Nico, silently posing the same question to him.

  Rayelle was the one who answered it. She walked closer, opening the little silver box she carried, and she showed the contents to Piper.

  “I was in college when I got pregnant with you,” Rayelle said, her voice thin and watery—a lot like the pallor on her face. “Your father was married. I didn’t know that when I was seeing him, but I found out later. After I told him I was pregnant, he abandoned me, and I allowed myself to be pressured into giving you up for adoption.”

  Piper continued to shake her head, and it got worse with each word that Rayelle said. “But I wasn’t adopted. My parents were killed in a car accident. That’s why I went to live with Mama Brenda.” Unlike Rayelle, there was nothing thin and watery about her. By the time Piper had worked her way to that last sentence, she was practically shouting.

  Nico put his arm around her, to try to soothe her. Eden did the same on the other side of the girl. But Nico wasn’t even sure Piper felt them. She had her very steely eyes pinned to Rayelle.

  “Your parents adopted you,” Rayelle insisted, and she lifted the hospital bracelet from the box, extending it out for Piper to take. Piper didn’t touch it. “If you look at it, you’ll see my name on it and your birth date. Of course, you hadn’t been named yet so that’s why you’re listed as Baby Devereux.”

  Piper still didn’t touch the bracelet, but she did look at it. So did Nico, and yeah—Piper’s birth date was indeed there. And on a scale from one to infinity, Nico was infinity sure that Rayelle was telling the truth about all of this. This was a hard moment for both Piper and her, and if there’d been any doubts that Piper was her daughter, Rayelle wouldn’t have just made that confession.

  Piper made a hoarse sobbing sound, and she sagged against Nico.

  “You lied to me,” Piper murmured, her attention still fixed on Rayelle. “All this time you lied.”

  Rayelle nodded, and she didn’t even attempt to wipe away the tears that were spilling from her eyes. She just let them fall. “Because I’m a coward. Because I was afraid you’d hate and reject me.”

  Piper certainly didn’t do anything to dispel that notion. She broke loose from Eden and him and, storming past Rayelle, she ran out of the ladies’ room. Because Rayelle looked ready to collapse, Nico hesitated a split second, wondering if he should at least make the woman sit on the floor before her feet gave way.

  “I’ll take care of Rayelle,” Eden assured him. “Go after Piper.”

  With that split-second debate over, Nico didn’t even take the time to thank her. He hurried out after his sister.

  Nico glanced around the reception area. No Piper. But the front door was still jiggling a little to let him know that she’d gone outside so he raced out, his gaze slashing from one end of Main Street to the other. He spotted her—running in the direction of the diner. He didn’t think she would stop there, though. Nope. This wasn’t something that a Coke and burger were going to cure.

  “Piper?” he called out, well aware that he was drawing attention that would lead to speculation and gossip, but he didn’t give a rat’s ass about that. Right now, he only cared about getting to his sister and trying to talk her down from this emotional ledge she was on.

  It was a pain running in cowboy boots, but Nico pushed himself as hard as he could, and he caught up with her at the end of the street. He expected her to fight him, to try to bolt away again, but the moment he took hold of her, Piper just dissolved into his arms. And, of course, she was crying.

  Nico brushed a kiss on the top of her head and glanced around for the nearest place where they could have some privacy. There weren’t a lot of options unless he wanted to walk her back to his office. Since that would mean not only crossing the street but also facing anyone who might be there, Nico opted for the back of the alley.

  This wasn’t ideal, but he led her to the stone retaining wall between Joslin’s Feed Store and Patty Cakes Bakery. It was a strange combination of scents what with cattle feed grains and what Nico thought might be freshly baked snickerdoodles.

  He sat on the retaining wall with Piper, and he kept his arm around her, but Nico didn’t speak. Neither did Piper. She just kept crying.

  The lull in conversation gave Nico some time to realize that he didn’t have a clue how to handle this. Nor the “I love you” situation with Eden. He was good with most rodeo bulls, but try as he might, he couldn’t see how to apply any of that skill set with Piper or Eden. Thankfully, silence brought on by his cluelessness seemed to be the way to go because after about ten minutes, Piper finally lifted her head from his shoulder and looked at him.

  “Aunt Rayelle isn’t lying about this, is she?” Piper asked.

  “No.” And he left it at that.

  Piper nodded, and she seemed to be trying to steel herself up. At least she wiped her tears, and Nico helped her with that.

  “I felt...something,” Piper added a moment later, getting his attention. At first, he thought she was talking about the baby she was carrying, but she clarif
ied that a moment later when she added, “I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I always felt that Aunt Rayelle looked at me and saw something that no one else did.”

  Well, that was news to Nico. He’d never felt or noticed anything like that. Only Rayelle’s rigid stiffness that he now figured was a facade.

  “She always seemed to keep me at a distance,” Piper went on, “but there were times when I would catch her looking at me, and I’d see something different in her eyes. Regret, maybe.”

  That sounded promising if Piper could put that together and understand where Rayelle was coming from. Very adult of his little sister. Of course, since Piper was going to be a mom soon, the adulting was a good sign. Piper didn’t need to be fighting battles on two fronts.

  “Aunt Rayelle... Rayelle,” Piper amended, “would have been what—about twenty when she got pregnant with me?”

  Nico nodded, and he thought he knew what Piper was thinking. Rayelle had been an adult. Unlike Piper. And here Piper was planning to keep her baby while Rayelle hadn’t.

  “You can’t compare your life to hers,” Nico advised her. “Giving you up might have been the best choice she had. After all, you had great adoptive parents, right?”

  “Right,” Piper verified. “And life as I knew it was over when they died. Then, I went to live with Mama Brenda and started a new life.” She paused. “Why wouldn’t Rayelle have stepped up then to take me? Why did she let me go into foster care?”

  “Can’t answer that for sure, but I believe she thought she wouldn’t be good at the mothering thing.”

  “She’s not,” Piper quickly said. “She’s too uptight.”

  No argument from him on that. Rayelle was the textbook definition of uptight. But what he’d seen in the ladies’ room was a broken woman. One who had her crushed heart on her sleeve. Maybe that would help with her other character flaws.

  The minutes crawled by, and new smells hit the air. Jaylene at Patty Cakes now had something chocolate baking.

  “Any idea who my biological father is?” Piper asked.

  “Not a clue, but you could ask Rayelle. She did say he was married when he got her pregnant and that he abandoned her, so if you find this guy and want to see him, I’ll go with you.”

  Piper didn’t hesitate with the sound of agreement she made. Good. Nico didn’t want her facing down a potential asshole on her own.

  More minutes passed before Piper groaned and scrubbed her hand over her face. “What should I do?”

  Oh, this was the sucky part about being a brother. “Can’t tell you that.” But man, he wished he could fix this and everything else for her. “This is one of those times when the ball is in your court.”

  He didn’t groan out loud, but Nico figured that was the lamest advice in the history of lame advice. He almost expected Piper to tell him that, too, and maybe give him a not so playful punch on the arm, but she got to her feet and nodded.

  “Please come with me,” she said. “I have to go see Rayelle.”

  * * *

  EDEN CLOSED THE silver box and slipped it back into Rayelle’s purse. “Come with me,” Eden insisted, getting a firm grip on the woman’s arm.

  She knew there’d be pitfalls on this trek to take Rayelle to her house. It would mean a walk up the street, but since Eden hadn’t brought her car to work, walking was her best immediate option.

  It didn’t make sense for them to stand around in the bathroom, waiting for either Nico or Piper to return. It could be hours before that happened. Or in Piper’s case—never. The girl was already on overload what with the pregnancy, and heaven knew what this could do to her emotional state.

  It certainly wasn’t doing much for Rayelle’s.

  The woman was no longer crying, but there was a stunned silence about her. Maybe she’d gone into shock. If so, that was even more reason for Eden to take Rayelle to her place so she could get her to lie down and maybe coax her into having something to drink.

  Speaking of drink, Eden had to fight off the effects of the alcohol she’d guzzled down so she could try to think straight. Soon, she’d need to know what to say to Rayelle. Even offer some sympathy. And right now, it was hard to focus with the booze buzz still playing havoc. Too bad that buzz couldn’t blank out that she’d told Nico she was in love with him. It was the truth, but that particular revelation would have been best saved for a day that hadn’t also included Rayelle’s revelation about being Piper’s mother.

  As they walked, Eden kept glancing at the woman, trying to pick through her features to see if there was any resemblance between Piper and her. Nope. Well, maybe around the mouth and the shape of their eyes.

  “Piper looks like her father’s sister,” Rayelle volunteered. She’d obviously caught Eden’s glimpses and knew what this was about. “I haven’t been in touch with him. His name was Ted Draper,” she clarified, “and I didn’t know anyone in his family, but I saw pictures of his sister. Piper definitely has his DNA.”

  Eden heard the sadness in Rayelle’s voice, and her comment seemed to be some kind of conclusion that because of that DNA, Piper would reject her. Just the way this a-hole Ted had done.

  Maybe her quick trigger burst of anger was liquor induced, but Eden suddenly wanted to kick him in the balls. The man hadn’t just rejected Rayelle. He’d also rejected his own child. She’d seen firsthand what that sort of thing had done to Nico and his brothers. It had landed them in foster care—some of it really god-awful, too—and it had caused them years of pain and plenty of baggage to go along with it. That could have easily happened to Piper if Brenda hadn’t taken her.

  Eden mentally stopped on that last thought but kept walking. People were staring at them, and if they stopped, someone might want to chat.

  “You convinced Brenda to take Piper?” Eden asked.

  Rayelle nodded but continued her blank stare. Which was a good thing since the woman didn’t seem to see the behind-the-hand whispers of Silla and her mean girl pack who were walking on the other side of Main Street.

  “Brenda was already doing foster care by then,” Rayelle quietly added. “And she was so good at it. All her foster kids loved her.”

  Nico and Piper certainly had so maybe that had been the best solution for Rayelle. That way, her daughter would be in a good home, and she could keep an eye on her. Of course, that wasn’t a rationale that Piper was likely to accept.

  Rayelle and she were still trudging along, one slow step after the other, when Eden had to stop. Not mentally this time, either. That’s because she saw a very unexpected sight. Mimi was scraping what appeared to be tape residue off a utility box, and some of the tape bits were stuck to her face and hair. She was a mess. Mimi didn’t say a word to her, but she gave Eden a hard glare.

  Eden stuck out her tongue at her. Again, maybe the booze had prompted that, but Eden was tired of Mimi’s antics even though there could be an advantage in not having to hide her secret blog life. That could be booze thought, too, but Eden was going to choose to see things that way. Especially in light of Rayelle and Piper. Their dilemma was Nico’s dilemma, and that in turn affected Eden, as well.

  Because she loved him.

  God, she loved him.

  And she hoped soon that would cause her at least some small shred of joy and not just the dread she felt now at facing him. Dread, too, that he might just end things with her so as to spare her heart. Of course, he would know by now that there’d be no heart-sparing for her.

  When her house finally came into view, Eden groaned. There were people milling around. Lots of people. The first one she noticed was Liddy Jean and a trio of other female protestors Eden didn’t recognize. They had Equality for Rodeo Heifers signs and were holding them high as they marched in front of her house.

  “There were more people here than in front of Nico’s office,” Liddy Jean promptly explained with an indignant nod. “We take our message
to the crowd.”

  Well, that explained things. Eden hadn’t been sure which had come first—the protestors or the people. So, that meant her friends and neighbors were there to get more gossip or to make sure she was okay.

  “I’m fine,” Eden assured anyone who was there for that facet. “And I’m not going to discuss the blog right now,” she added for the others.

  At least three-fourths of the crowd grumbled and walked away. One who didn’t do any walking was the guy sitting on her porch steps.

  Jax.

  “I don’t have jumping body lice or strep,” Jax announced in a loud voice, letting Eden know that maybe he’d gotten some flak about that. Well, Silla was a mean girl so it was possible she’d already started gossip about it. Eden would have to issue a correction on that soon. “No jumping lice,” he emphasized, his voice even louder.

  Maybe there were some in the crowd who didn’t believe him or were just icked out by the possibility of such a thing because that caused a few more folks to scurry off.

  Good, the herd was thinning.

  “I need to see Piper,” Jax went on. “She’s not answering her phone and I have to make sure she’s okay.”

  “She’s with Nico. I’m sure she’ll call you back soon.”

  Eden wasn’t sure of that at all, but she didn’t want to get into all of this while they still had an audience. Besides, anything he heard should come from Piper.

  “Come on,” Eden told Rayelle, getting her onto the porch. She unlocked the door, moved Rayelle inside and turned to Jax to tell him this wasn’t a good time for a visit. But, heck, he looked as beaten down as Rayelle did.

  “Find something to do in the kitchen,” Eden instructed the boy. “Make yourself a snack or something. I need to talk to Rayelle.”

  Jax nodded and didn’t give her a word of flak about that. However, he did hesitate even after Eden closed the front door and sent Rayelle into the living room.