Spring at Saddle Run

by Delores Fossen

  Setting aside the test packet, Millie opened the laptop next and started looking through the emails and files. They’d had separate bank accounts and credit cards, but Asher had dealt with closing Royce’s accounts and then transferring the assets to Millie since according to Royce’s will, she’d been his sole heir. It was a will Royce had made shortly after they’d married, and he hadn’t made any changes to it.

  Millie didn’t see anything in the files that were of a personal nature. All were related to his work, but her scrolling came to a quick halt when she came across an invoice for payment to La La Land for a painting. There were no specifics about said painting, but Royce had sent an electronic payment of two thousand dollars.

  So, maybe the painting Joe had seen in the storage unit hadn’t been Ella’s portrait of her lover.

  The portrait might have been something Royce had commissioned online after browsing through the La La Land website. Ella’s paintings had certainly impressed Millie when she’d looked at them online so maybe they’d done the same to Royce. In fact, it was possible she’d even mentioned the La La Land site to him when she’d purchased the three paintings for the shop.

  Still, if it was something as simple, and innocent, as that, why hadn’t he mentioned it to her? And why hadn’t Ella said anything about it to Joe?

  Millie continued scrolling through the emails. Mercy, what was it with the penis enlargement spam? She stopped again when she saw the emails from the ancestry company that’d supplied the test. Apparently, they’d provided Royce with DNA matches, and some of those matches had reached out to him, touting their connection of being his cousin, many, many times removed. There were hundreds of them, and many weren’t identified by name but rather a code number.

  Hundreds.

  And that got her thinking. It was an out-there theory, and maybe she was grasping at straws that fit into the many, many times removed category, but what if one of those matches had been with Ella?

  It was possible.

  Ella wasn’t from Last Ride, but Royce and she could have had a shared ancestor. It wouldn’t have spurred Royce to meet her for a family reunion, but it could explain how they’d connected. First, through the ancestry site and then maybe to get together in a friendly distant-cousin sort of way.

  Millie wasn’t sure why knowing that sort of thing even mattered, but it was a thread that she wanted to tie off. She took out her phone and texted Joe.

  Any chance you can come over to my place or come early for our date?

  For some Civil War porn? he texted back.

  She sent him a laughing emoji. Maybe afterwards. First though, we need to talk. I found some things in Royce’s office that I need to tell you about.

  Millie wasn’t surprised when it took Joe a long time to answer. He was probably thinking the worst. Dara’s home, was his next response.

  She’d figured that, and it was why she’d asked him to come to her place. It’s nothing bad, she explained. I just have some questions, and you might be able to help.

  Finally, Joe responded. I can’t leave right now. I’m waiting on a delivery that I’ll have to sign for. I don’t want Dara to have to deal with that, but you can come over right now if you want.

  I’m on my way.

  Millie had just hit the send button when she heard the front door open, and she groaned when Laurie Jean called out for her. She automatically braced herself, answered with a brisk “In here.” It didn’t take her mother long to follow the sound of her voice to the office.

  “What are you doing?” Laurie Jean asked. She didn’t gasp, but it was close. “Are you going through Royce’s private things?”

  There was probably nothing that Laurie Jean could have said that wouldn’t have caused Millie to bristle, but that accusation was very high on the list of bristle-worthy stuff.

  “Royce is dead. He doesn’t have any privacy,” Millie flatly reminded her.

  “This is his office,” Laurie Jean fired back as if that were a logical argument.

  “His office, my house,” Millie fired back as well because that was logical. Dead men didn’t need offices.

  Then, Millie sighed and reined in her temper before this escalated to something that would take her a lifetime or two to undo. Millie didn’t ascribe to the “making waves brings shame” theory, but making waves with Laurie Jean created a lot more trouble than another cliché of battening down the hatches and weathering the storm. She didn’t have time for a long drawn-out anything with her mother because she wanted to go to the ranch.

  “I was in here to see if there were any loose threads that needed to be tied off,” Millie said as calmly as she could manage.

  Actual alarm went through her mother’s eyes. “And did you find any?”

  Millie shrugged and lifted the ancestry packet. “I learned that Royce had his DNA tested.”

  “Those things are a hoax,” Laurie Jean snapped. “The company takes your money and they make up the results. You should toss that in the trash and put it out of your mind.”

  Millie tucked the packet underneath her arm. “I was on my way out,” she said, heading to the office door.

  But Laurie Jean didn’t go out of the room. With a look of horror and disbelief on her face, she hurried to the rings and picked them up.

  “You should be wearing these,” Laurie Jean muttered. “If not on your finger, you should wear them on a chain around your neck.”

  Millie rolled her eyes. “And why is that exactly?”

  Her mother whipped back around to face her. “Because you should respect your marriage. The good parts of your marriage,” she amended. “And don’t tell me there weren’t good parts because there were.”

  Millie sighed again. “Yes, there were good parts, but they’re over. My marriage is over, and I’m trying to move on with my life.”

  “By seeing that cowboy.” The anger relit in Laurie Jean’s eyes.

  Millie was oh so tired of her mother dissing Joe and using that holier-than-thou tone. “Yes, by seeing that cowboy.” She certainly didn’t mimic her mother’s tone, but there was probably some anger in her eyes. Enough anger in the rest of her, too, that she decided to try an experiment. “Mr. Lawrence,” she tossed out there.

  Laurie Jean pulled back her shoulders, and while she wasn’t especially throwing off any “yes, he’s my lover” guilt vibes, she did look very uncomfortable. For a moment, anyway. She quickly recovered.

  “You’re a widow,” Laurie Jean went on, obviously sliding right back into the lecture mode. “You shouldn’t be seeing other men for at least five years, and even then, it shouldn’t be someone like that cowboy.”

  Well, that relit Millie’s own hot button. “Mom, I won’t lecture you about your affair or blackmail if you won’t lecture me about Joe.”

  Laurie Jean gasped. “You’d dare say that to me?”

  “Yes, because I need you to hear me. Butt out of my life and focus on solving your own problems. I’m not a married woman having an affair, and I’m not being blackmailed.”

  “But you’re a widow having relations with Joe McCann.” Laurie Jean shouted all the words except relations. That one she whispered.

  Millie met her gaze and spoke as clearly and calmly as she could. “Yes, I am, Mom.”

  And with that, Millie headed out the door to get started on another round of those very satisfying relations.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  WHEN JOE HEARD the approaching vehicle, he got up from his desk so he could go outside to welcome Millie. He wanted to see her. Maybe even kiss her. But right now, he was very much interested in hearing what she’d found in Royce’s office.

  However, it wasn’t Millie.

  Tanner pulled to a stop in the driveway. Hell. Joe’s first reaction was that something had happened to Millie because she should have been here by now, but he forced his worst-case scenario
s to calm the heck down.

  “Is everything okay?” Joe asked from the porch.

  “Not really. You got a minute to talk?” Tanner started across the yard.

  “Yeah, I got a minute, but Millie should be here soon.”

  The corner of Tanner’s mouth lifted. “I’m glad you two are seeing each other.”

  “Well, that makes five of us. Dara, Millie, Frankie, me and you.”

  Though Joe wasn’t sure exactly how “glad” he was that he’d turned his life upside down and was well on the way to hurting a woman who didn’t deserve to be hurt.

  “You want something to drink?” Joe asked. “Dara’s inside,” he clarified in case this wasn’t a discussion Tanner wanted the teenager to hear.

  Tanner waved that off, stepped onto the porch and sank down onto one of the rockers.

  “Thanks for watching Little T this morning,” Tanner said. “I appreciate it.”

  “Anytime.” But Joe was a thousand percent sure that Tanner’s gratitude was simply a way of easing into what would no doubt be a hard conversation. Something was definitely wrong and rather than press him on it, Joe just waited him out.

  “I broke up with Skylar,” Tanner finally said.

  Joe just kept on waiting. No way had a breakup with a woman Tanner had only been dating a couple of months put this look of total gloom and doom on the man’s face.

  “I shouldn’t have ever started up with her,” Tanner went on. “But she was hard to resist.”

  Welcome to the club. He was having the same problem with Millie, but Joe kept that thought to himself.

  “Anyway, I hurt her bad.” Tanner sighed, cursed. “She’s spitting mad right now, but it won’t take long for that hurt to set in.”

  Welcome to the club, Joe mentally repeated. Millie might not be mad, spitting or otherwise, when things ended between them, but there’d be hurt—on both sides of this relationship coin.

  Tanner paused, the seconds ticking off, and the sweat starting on every sweat-able part of their bodies. “I had to end things with her, well, because I slept with Frankie. Now, don’t get out your axe,” Tanner quickly added. “It happened right before I started seeing Skylar. In fact, that was one of the reasons I asked Skylar out. I just figured I needed to put some distance between Frankie and me, and that Skylar would be the fix for that.”

  Joe thought back to the hickey he’d seen on his sister’s neck. Yeah, the timing was right for Tanner to have been the hickey maker.

  “Why are you telling me this?” Joe finally came out and asked though he doubted it wasn’t anything more than his former brother-in-law wanting to vent his guilty conscience over having ex-sex.

  But Joe was wrong.

  Tanner looked up at him. “Because I’m still in love with Frankie.”

  Joe couldn’t have been more surprised if Tanner had just confessed to being a dancer on Broadway. On a heavy sigh, Joe took the rocker next to him.

  “Bottom-line this,” Joe said. “Do you want me to talk to Frankie and tell her how you feel, or would you rather I try to talk you out of being in love with her?”

  Tanner groaned, and there was both determination and confusion on his face when he looked at Joe. “I want her back, and I need you to tell me why that can’t happen. Go over all the times I screwed up with Little T and her. Tell me what a dick I am and what a dick my folks will continue to be to her if Frankie hooks up with me for another round. Convince me that I messed up her life once, and that there’s no way in hell she should give me the chance to do that again.”

  Well, Tanner had definitely bottom-lined it, and all of those were valid points. “You have been a dick,” Joe confirmed. “So have your parents, and they acted like dicks with Frankie.” Again, all valid, but the next point was the cherry on top. “There are no guarantees whatsoever that Frankie will ever take you back.”

  Tanner groaned again. “I know. I have no trouble getting her into bed, but I’m not sure she’ll want me ten minutes after she’s gotten off.”

  Joe had to clamp down the urge to punch Tanner for that. Or remind Tanner that he really didn’t like discussing his sister getting off. Instead, Joe went with his own bottom line as it applied to Tanner.

  “You’re really in love with her?” Joe asked.

  “Yeah, really, really in love with her.”

  Joe nodded. “Then, I’m thinking you’ll have to tell Frankie and try to convince her that you deserve another shot even if you’re not sure you actually deserve anything. But this time,” he added in a snap, “you need to stop being a dick.”

  Other than making a sound of agreement, Tanner didn’t respond to that. Probably because they both saw and heard Millie’s car turning into the driveway.

  “I’ll go,” Tanner said, getting to his feet. “I don’t want to mess up your afternoon with her.”

  Joe was worried it might already be messed up, with whatever she had to tell him. Even non-bad things about Royce didn’t make for pleasant conversation. In fact, it might bottom out their moods so much that Millie could cancel out of their sex date.

  Something that he should be hoping would happen.

  He obviously wasn’t capable of resisting her so it would have to be Millie who put a stop to things. If she didn’t, these sex dates would run their course, the guilt would roll over them like avalanches and they’d ruin what passed for their lives.

  Millie looked at him. Smiled. And once again, he was a goner. Yeah, it would have to be up to her to put a stop to this.

  However, she didn’t stop one bit. When she made it up the porch steps, she kissed Joe with that smile still on her mouth.

  “I was just leaving,” Tanner muttered.

  Millie took her mouth from Joe’s and stepped in front of her brother. “So, you broke up with Skylar. I saw her in town, and she told me,” Millie added when Tanner cursed and grumbled something about news traveling fast. “Are you here to ask Joe for advice?”

  “Sort of.” Tanner’s chin came up. “I’m going to try to get back with Frankie. Got any complaints, bitches or gripes about that?”

  “None whatsoever.” Millie shrugged. “Frankie’s in love with you.”

  Tanner’s eyes went wide, and he grinned like an idiot. “She is?”

  “She is,” Millie verified. “Why, I don’t know. I think you might be that one guy she just can’t manage to get over.”

  Tanner’s grin got even goofier. “Is that sort of like saying I’m the love of her life?”

  “Or the dick of her life,” Joe contributed, but even that didn’t tone down the wattage of all that brightness Tanner seemed to be feeling.

  Joe nearly reminded him about all the doubts he’d just had, about all the reasons why a reunion was a shitty idea. But apparently “Frankie’s in love with you” was the cure for all doubts.

  “Dick of her life,” Tanner said, holding out his hands as if weighing them. “Love of her life. It’s all about perspective. I need to get to work on perspective. Good timing for it, too, since Dara is babysitting Little T tonight.”

  Whistling and looking as if he could actually do the ballet, Tanner hurried off the porch and to his truck. Apparently, Dara’s babysitting was allowing the possibility for two sex dates. Tanner and Frankie’s. And Millie’s and his.

  “Did he come over to have you try to talk him out of getting back together with Frankie?” she asked, watching her brother drive off.

  “Pretty much.” Their gazes met when she turned back to him. “What’d you find in Royce’s office?”

  “This.” Millie took out the large white envelope she’d had tucked under her arm. “It’s from one of those genealogy sites. Apparently, Royce had his DNA tested shortly before he died.”

  Joe felt himself frown. Millie had told him this wasn’t bad, but he’d thought it’d at least have a connection to the car wreck
or the secrets he’d kept from her.

  “Did Ella ever do a DNA test?” Millie asked.

  Still drawing a blank on why Millie had made a visit to tell him this, Joe shook his head. Then, stopped shaking it when he recalled something. “Frankie gave her one of the kits for her birthday. In fact, she gave us both one. I didn’t use mine, but Ella might have. Why?” he immediately tacked on to that.

  She waved that off. “It was just some out-there, stupid idea I had. One that could have explained why Royce and Ella were together. I mean, an explanation other than the obvious.”

  “I’m listening,” Joe assured her. And he was. Every bit of him was tuned in to her. Because an idea, stupid or otherwise, was more than he had now.

  Millie bobbed her head from side to side, gave a nervous little laugh. “I thought maybe both had done the DNA tests and they’d learned they were related. Judging from what I found on Royce’s computer, he was making at least email contact with some of his genetic cousins. If he’d found out that one of those cousins was right here in Last Ride, he might have suggested they get together. You know, like for lunch so they could go over their family trees.”

  Joe went through every nerve-filled, babbled word she’d just said. And he wanted to latch on to those words as gospel. He wanted this to be the answer to the “Why” he’d asked Ella.

  But there was a problem with that.

  Not once had Ella ever mentioned any DNA results, and if she’d found out Royce was indeed a relative, why hadn’t she just told Dara and him? That wouldn’t have been something she’d feel the need to keep secret.

  Joe was trying to figure out the best way to break that news to Millie, but he spotted the large truck coming up the drive. “The delivery’s here,” he said. “Go on inside and get out of the heat. This won’t take long, and we can talk this out.”

  “Good, because there’s more I need to tell you about.” With that cryptic comment, she gave him a quick kiss, took the DNA packet from him and headed indoors.