Western Hearts: A sweet, cowboy romance (Cowboys of Aspen Valley Book 1)

by Carolyne Aarsen

  “According to what Hayes wrote in her journal, Scott wasn’t their biological father.”

  Disbelief and anger battled with each other. “That I refuse to believe,” he barked. “My brother loved those boys. They are his. You can’t prove otherwise. Your sister is a liar.”

  Nicole’s eyes narrowed, and Kip knew he had stepped over a line. He didn’t care. This woman waltzes into their lives with this complicated lie and he’s supposed to be polite and swallow it all? And then let her take the boys away?

  Over his dead body.

  “So how do you want to proceed on this?” Nicole asked, arching one perfectly plucked eyebrow in his direction.

  Kip mentally heaved a sigh. For a small moment he’d thought this woman was the solution to part of his problems.

  Not only was he back to where he started, even if she was lying, he now had a whole new legal tangle to deal with.

  Dear Lord, I don’t need anything else right now. I don’t have the strength.

  He held her steady gaze, determined not to be swayed by the sparkling in her eyes that he suspected were tears. “The boys were left with me as per my brother’s verbal request before he died,” he said. “I’m their guardian, and until I am notified otherwise, they’re not going anywhere and you’re not to come back here.”

  He turned and walked away from the corral. The corral that brought back too many painful memories.

  Well, add one more to the list. Somehow, he had to tell his nephews that their mother, who had always been a shadowy figure in their lives, was officially dead. If he could believe what this Nicole woman had told him, then he had to tell his mother that the woman they had thought was their salvation was anything but.

  He shot a quick glance behind him.

  Nicole stood by the corral fences, her head bent and her arms crossed over her midsection. Dusty fragments of sunlight gilded her hair and in the silence, he heard a muffled sob.

  Sympathy for her knotted his chest. Regardless of what he felt, she’d found out about her sister’s death only a few weeks ago. Not long enough for the pain to lose that jagged edge. Not near long enough to finish shedding the tears that needed to spill.

  For a moment he thought he should go over to her side and offer her what comfort he could. Then he stopped himself.

  She wants to take the boys away, he reminded himself. She claimed they weren’t his nephews. And that reminder effectively doused his sympathy.

  “I’m sorry, Nicole, but I’d like to ask you to leave,” he said, hoping his voice projected a tiny bit of sympathy. “I would like to believe you. But I don’t know who you are. I don’t know how you found us, but you can’t mess up my nephew’s lives with this story.”

  She drew in a shuddering breath and looked up, a streak of mascara marring her ethereal features.

  “I have pictures,” she said.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means I can prove who I am. That I am Hayes’s sister, that the boys are hers and that we have rights.” Nicole wiped at her cheeks with the tips of her fingers, a delicate motion belying the strength of conviction in her voice. “I also have a signed letter from my sister along with a copy of her last will and testament.” Nicole took a few steps toward him, wrapping her arms around her waist. “So I’m not without ammunition myself.”

  “I’d like to see all that.”

  “Fine.” She walked past him, the scent of lilacs trailing behind her.

  Kip followed her as regret lingered a moment.

  She was a beautiful woman. When he still thought of her as his future housekeeper, he had thought having her around every day might have been a distraction. He was lonely, she was beautiful. Maybe not the best mix.

  But now?

  Right now she was a complication he didn’t know how to work his way around.

  She yanked a key ring out of her coat pocket, pointed it at the car and unlocked the door. Ducking inside, she pulled out a briefcase, which she set on the trunk of the car.

  Kip came closer as she drew an envelope out of the case, opened it and took out series of pictures.

  “This is my sister, the boys, and your brother. I think the boys are about six months old there. We found it in Hayes’s diary.”

  Kip took the laminated photo, and as he glanced at it, he felt as if spiders scuttled across his gut.

  The picture was identical to one he’d had blown up, then framed and hung in the boys' room. The only picture the boys had of their mother.

  Nicole pulled out her phone and scrolled over the screen, then handed it to him. “And here’s a photo of me and Hayes. Before…” her voice faltered. “Before she left.”

  Kip gave the picture a cursory glance, knowing it would underline what she was saying.

  He had to assume the only way she would have gotten a copy of that picture was from her sister’s belongings.

  As he handed the picture back, sorrow mixed with his anger. Two of the people in the picture were dead. The boys were officially orphans.

  Nicole put her phone back in her purse, tucked her hair behind her ears, tugged on her jacket and looked him in the eye. “I’m leaving your ranch like you asked me, but I’m not going far. I have a room in a motel in Aspen Valley and I intend on coming here every day to see my nephews.”

  “I’m not discussing anything to do with the boys without my lawyer present. So, until then, as I said before, I’d like you to stay away.”

  She looked like she was about to protest, then gave a delicate shrug. “Fine. When do you want to see your lawyer?”

  Never. He had cows to move to other pastures. A tractor to fix, a stock waterer to repair, and a sister who would be peeved when she discovered they didn’t have a housekeeper after all.

  “Tomorrow,” he said, mentally cringing. He’d just have to work later in the evening to make up for lost time. Hopefully he could get in with Aria, his lawyer. If not, well, she’d have to wait.

  “What’s his name and number?” She pulled out a phone, then punched in the information he gave her. “And what time?” she asked, looking up.

  “I’ll give you a call. And my lawyer is a she.” He wondered what Aria would have to say about the situation.

  Nicole put the phone away, then reached into a side pocket of the briefcase she had taken the papers from.

  She pulled out a business card and handed it to him.

  He glanced down at the name embossed on the card.

  Nicole Williams. Director, Williams Foundation. The information was followed by several numbers—home, office, cell—and an email address, and a website.

  Very official and a bit intimidating.

  “Director of the Williams Foundation?” he asked, flicking the card between his fingers.

  “My adoptive parents started it.”

  “Adoptive?”

  “Sam and Norah Williams adopted me when I was five” Nicole said, her voice matter of fact. “My father started the nonprofit in memory of my adoptive mother.”

  “Admirable.” He tucked the card in the back pocket of his worn jeans, hoping this wasn’t the pair with the hole in the pocket. “I’ll let you know what’s up.”

  “Can I come tomorrow to see the boys?”

  “Let’s wait to see what my lawyer says.”

  Nicole squeezed the top of her briefcase, averting her eyes. “They’re my nephews too,” she said quietly. “My sister’s boys.”

  “Boys she abandoned, that no one bothered to find.”

  Nicole’s eyes grew hard. “They were taken away from her. The lack of communication is hardly my fault considering we found out about these boys only a few weeks ago.”

  Kip was about to say something more when a truck turning onto the yard caught his attention. Isabelle.

  His younger sister pulled up beside Nicole’s car, putting it between her and her brother. A strategic move, he thought, fighting his anger and frustration with her.

  “Hey, Nicole. How’d things go toda
y?” Isabelle called out as she jumped out of the truck. “Had to get groceries,” she said to Kip holding up a solitary plastic bag as if to underline her defense.

  “Dressed like that?” Kip asked, eyeing her bright red lipstick, snug T-shirt that sparkled in the sunlight, and her too-tight blue jeans.

  Isabelle’s face grew mutinous. “I didn’t think I had to stick around here. Especially since Nicole showed up.” She pulled another bag out of the truck and flounced up the walk to the house, her dark hair bouncing with every step.

  Kip bit back whatever he wanted to say to his little sister, fully aware of his audience.

  Too many things going on, he thought, fighting his frustration with his sister and this new, huge complication.

  “I’m going now,” Nicole said, her voice quiet, well-modulated. She gave him a tight smile, then pulled her briefcase off the trunk of the car. “I’ll wait to hear from you.”

  Without a second glance, she got in, started the engine and roared away from him, dust roiling up behind her, lingering in the air.

  Kip pushed back his hat as he watched her leave, frustration clawing at him.

  Please Lord, don’t let my family be broken up, he prayed. Don’t let her take my boys away from me.

  And please don’t let me lose it with my sister.

  He stepped into the house just as his mother wheeled herself into the kitchen. Her long, graying hair was brushed and neatly swept up into a ponytail, her brown eyes sparkled, and the smile on her face was a welcome respite from the resignation that had been his mother’s default expression since her surgery.

  “Where did Nicole go?” his mother asked, sounding happier than she had in a while. “She seems like a lovely girl. I’m looking forward to having her around to help out.”

  Kip glanced at the clean countertop and shining sink. When he first saw how clean the house was, he couldn’t believe that businesslike woman had done all this. Now he knew she was simply trying to weasel her way into his mother’s good graces.

  “Where’s Isabelle?”

  “In her room.”

  “When did she leave the ranch?”

  Mary Cosgrove tapped her finger against her lips. “About one o’clock.”

  Three hours to pick up one bag of groceries. He was so going to talk to his little sister. Leaving his mother alone with a stranger was incredibly irresponsible.

  Not only a stranger, a woman who had come to completely disrupt their lives.

  “I’m so glad you decided to take on a housekeeper,” his mother continued, sounding hopeful. “She seems so capable and organized.”

  Kip hated to burst her bubble. “I still think Isabelle should learn to pull her share of the housework.”

  His mother sighed. “I know, and I agree, but it’s so much work to get her motivated and Nicole seems so capable. Like I said, she was an answer to prayer.” Mary looked past Kip. “Where is Nicole now?”

  “She left.” Kip blew out his breath and dropped into a chair across from her mother. “Truth is, she didn’t come for the housekeeping job. She came…” He hesitated, glancing up at his mother, who seemed more relaxed than she had in months. Scott’s death had been devastating for her. This new piece of information wouldn’t help. “Nicole, apparently, is Hayes’s sister.”

  His mother frowned. “Hayes? Scott’s old girlfriend? The one with the drug problem?”

  “Yep. The mother of the boys.”

  Mary’s fingers fluttered over her heart, her eyes wide in a suddenly pale face. “What did she want?”

  Kip wrapped his rough hands around his mother’s cold ones. “She claims she has a will granting her custody of Justin and Tristan.”

  “But the boys’ mother…Hayes…” Mary squeezed her son’s hands. “Where is she?”

  “She’s dead.” The words sounded harsh, even though he’d never met the woman. But she had been the mother of his nephews.

  The nephews that Nicole claimed didn’t belong to Kip’s family. Kip’s heart turned over in his chest.

  There was no way he was telling his mother that piece of information. He didn’t believe that fact for one minute anyhow. Scott had loved those boys. Doted on them.

  Since Scott died, Kip had fought to keep this family together, but lately he felt as if everything he worked so hard for was slipping out of his fingers.

  There was no way he was letting Nicole take his mother’s only connection to Scott away. No way.

  Chapter Three

  “I found them. I found the boys.” Nicole tucked the phone under her chin as she sorted through her clothes. The motel room held a small dresser and minuscule closet she could hang some clothes in. She had packed a variety of clothes, unsure what she would need.

  She closed the closet door and glanced around the room. It was the best, supposedly, in Aspen Valley, and she guessed it would do. She hoped she wouldn’t have to stay here long. Staying here resurrected memories she had relegated to the “before” part of her life.

  Before the Williams family took her in.

  “Are they okay? How do they look?” Her father sounded a bit better, as if the news sparked new life in him.

  “They’re fine.” Nicole thought of Justin and Tristan, and her heart contracted.

  She knew the Cosgroves wouldn’t simply hand over the boys to her as soon as she had arrived. From what she had discovered, the boys had been at the ranch since Scott took them away.

  Kip’s family was the only one the children knew. A family, she discovered as she spoke with Mary, which included Kip’s mother, a younger sister, and a married sister with six children.

  Nicole couldn’t stop a nudge of jealousy at the thought of Kip’s large family, then quashed it. She’d had a full life with the Williams, and she owed her adoptive parents more than she could ever repay. That Sam’s natural daughter was the one gone only increased her guilt.

  “Is the family treating them okay? Do they seem to have a stable home life?”

  “The farmhouse is a bit of a wreck,” Nicole said, thinking of the worn flooring, and the faded paint. “It looks as if no money had been spent on the house in a while.”

  Yet in spite of the mess, when she walked into the spacious kitchen of the Cosgrove house, she felt enveloped by a sense of home. Of comfort and peace.

  Something she seldom experienced in her father’s cavernous house.

  “They’re well taken care of.” She tucked the phone under her ear, pulled her laptop out of the bag and plugged it in to charge it up. Thankfully, she would be able to do much of her work for the family’s foundation while she was here.

  “You sound like you think they should stay.” Her father’s voice held an accusatory tone.

  “No. I don’t,” Nicole assured him. “But we can’t simply remove them immediately. They have a bond and connection with that family.” She knew she sounded practical, however, her feelings were anything but.

  When she saw the boys, a feeling of love, almost devastating in its intensity, bowled her over. She wanted to grab them, hold them close, then run away with them. She couldn’t understand or explain the unexpected power of these feelings. The only time she’d experienced this before was when she saw her little sister, Hayes, for the first time.

  “It was what your sister wanted,” her father said, a hard note entering his voice.

  “I know. It’s what I want as well, but we have to proceed carefully. The boys don’t remember their mother and they most certainly don’t know who I am.” She highly doubted Kip would tell them in the next few days.

  “I should be there,” her father said, his voice harsh. “I should be meeting with that lawyer.” This was followed by a bout of coughing that belied his insistence.

  “You know yourself that once lawyers get hold of things, the process grinds to a halt.” She ignored a sliver of panic at the thought. When she arranged to come here, she had given herself three weeks to bring the boys back. Sure, she could work from here, but she also needed to spend t
ime with the boys so the transition from here to Toronto wouldn’t be so difficult.

  “Who do the boys look like?” Sam asked, a thread of hope in his voice.

  “They look exactly like Hayes.” Nicole pressed her fingers to her lips, restraining her sorrow.

  “You have to bring my boys back, Nicole. They are all I have left of Hayes. Those boys don’t belong there. They’re not even blood relatives.”

  Nicole knew her father spoke out of sorrow, but his words struck at the foundations of Nicole’s insecurities. Hayes was Sam and Norah’s natural daughter.

  Nicole was simply the adopted one.

  “Tomorrow I’ll see Mr. Cosgrove’s lawyer,” Nicole said, opening her laptop and turning it on. “We’ll have to take this one step at a time.”

  “When you talk to him, you make sure to let him know that James Feschuk is working for us. His reputation might get things moving a bit. I also want a DNA test. If they don’t believe us, then we’ll get positive proof that Scott Cosgrove was not the boys’ father.”

  “How will that happen?” Nicole asked.

  “James told me that you can get DNA tests done locally. He suggested one called a grandparent’s test. Get that grandmother to get tested and we’ll find out. I’ll get tested too. Then we’ve got some teeth to our argument.” His voice rose and Sam started coughing again.

  “I’m saying goodbye,” Nicole said. “And you should go to bed. Make sure you take your medication and use that puffer the doctor gave you.”

  “Yes, yes,” Sam said. “I’ll get James to phone that lawyer. Tell him we insist on a DNA test. Give me his name and I can take care of it.”

  Nicole pulled out her cell phone. “Her name is Aria Waldren. I’ll text you her contact information and let you know the minute I hear anything.”

  Nicole said goodbye. She turned back to her computer, but only sat and stared sightlessly at the screen, her work suddenly forgotten as she thought of Justin and Tristan. Hayes’s boys.

  Seeing them had been heartwarming and heartrending at the same time.

  Again, she felt the sting of her sister’s betrayal when Hayes had left without a word those many years ago. Nicole had hoped and prayed for an opportunity to talk to her face-to-face, to apologize. But the only letter in the envelope was one to her parents pleading for forgiveness. Nothing for her.