That had been the plan but by the time I had gotten back up to the room, Matt had not only himself packed but me as well. In a cold tone, he had informed me that his brother, Dalton, had gotten us three earlier flights back home and that we needed to leave in twenty minutes
So, forty minutes and a silent car cab ride to the Dublin airport later, I found my myself standing next to two brooding men, luggage had that held a huge dog carrier with my new dog, happily slobbering all over the grey plastic and a Virgin Atlantic counter woman; who was swiping my credit card for the unbelievable extra cost of flying my new companion home with me.
“Ugh, I hate dogs. They’re messy, slobbery and need so much attention,” the woman who’s name tag said, Erin, complained as I pull the cart closer.
I stooped down on my healthy knee and whispered some words of encouragement to the happy Labrador, then stood to smile sweetly at the grouchy woman.
“They’re also, intelligent, comforting and loyal,” I pointed out. Matt snorted from behind me, and I whipped my head around in time to catch his angry smirk.
Bitchy airline agent forgotten, I turned toward Matt, my hands on my hips and growled. I was over the silent treatment, he was acting like a child! We were about to board separate planes, his to Reno and mine to Las Vegas and here he was stomping around and grumbling like I had somehow committed murder! Jesus, had I known he’d freak out about having unprotected sex this badly, I would have given him a signed affidavit stating any unexpected baby would be mine and mine alone.
“Okay, out with Matt, you’re acting like a child,” I told him through clenched teeth.
Apparently, not caring about an audience, Matt threw his head back and laughed. Still about ten feet away from me, he drew the attention of several people. “Gee, I’ll try to respect my elders, Alison.” He sneered in a tone I had never heard from him before.
I reared back as if he had slapped me. Had he just alluded to the fact that I was older than he was? Dammit, not more than six hours ago he had assured me that wasn’t an issue, had he been lying? Was the idea of getting a partially disabled and scarred woman pregnant so repugnant that he was going to resort to cruel remarks? Maybe I had been wrong about Matt Hudson.
Dalton must have felt that Matt was out of line because he punched his brother in the arm and warned him to back off with the remarks.
“No, it’s okay Dalton, this is good. Let’s get it all out in the open, this is the real Matthew Hudson folks,” I announced to the gathering crowd. “No need to pretend anymore Matt, tell us all how you really feel,” I shouted not giving a flying fuck about his lethal stare.
He took two steps forward, his fists clenched at his sides and would have gone further but Dalton blocked his path and pushed Matt backward. Matt flailed for a moment then regained his balance and shoved Dalton out of the way and stepped up to me so fast he almost blurred in my vision.
“Okay, let’s! How could you do it, Alison? Are you really that desperate?” He hissed so close to my face that I could feel his breath on my cheeks.
Desperate? What the hell?
“Fine, I’m sorry. I got carried away, I didn’t plan any of it. It..it ..just happened but you don’t have to do anything Matt, I’m not going to ask you for anything!” I choked out a sob as my heart shattered into a million pieces. There, now he wouldn’t have to worry about getting the broken woman pregnant, I would absolve him of any consequences and deal with things on my own like I always had.
Instead of relief, Matt looked more enraged. His face blushed red, and his green eyes narrowed to where they were barely visible. Instinctively I took a step back and then another.
“That’s just it Alison, all you had to do was ask. Instead, you decided to give me a taste of my medicine and become my fantasy! Only once you had me hooked you destroyed me!” he shouted and came forward. Right before he reached my frozen form, Dalton tackled him to the ground.
Wait! What? Suddenly, I felt like we were having two separate conversations.
“It’s okay Alison, just go through security and I’ll stay here until Matt calms down,” Dalton told me, his light green eyes shone with sympathy as he literally sat on Matt’s struggling body.
Not wasting the moment, I leaned down, kissed the dog through the cage, and took off for security at a run. I didn’t know if Matt was crazy or just afraid of the possibility of fatherhood but he was no fantasy of mine!
I hurried through security and practically ran to the gate number listed on my ticket, I could only hope that Matt and Dalton’s gate was on the other side of the terminal.
Sighing, I felt my leg twinge and the give way beneath me. Luckily I was able to simply fall back in one of the chairs that lined the waiting area. I let my head roll back and pulled my hands into the sleeves of my sweater. My throat felt raw and swollen and the heat coming off my body was more than just from anger. I definitely had a fever.
I should have brought my vitamin C or some flu meds with me. Ever since I was a child, I would get sick when we went from the dry Vegas climate to a different one. Heck, just a trip to the beach in California had me sneezing or coughing by the time we returned home. In my worry about talking to Matt, I had ignored the achy feeling in my body and tried to tell myself that it was the two sweaters that were making me feel warm in forty-degree weather.
Wonderful! Matt Hudson thought I was the anti-Christ, the poor dog was going to have to endure a long flight and then an hour drive home to my ranch, I maybe…sort of...might end up pregnant by a man who thought I did it on purpose, and I still did not get my damn notes!
Fuuuuck!
Matt
Three months later I was still brooding over how Alison had played me. Synclair and Sara’s grand opening of the new restaurant they had partnered in was only hours from opening, my little nephew Wyatt was perched happily in Reece’s arms, and even Dalton had a smile on his face.
“Here, it looks like you need this,” Synclair’s voice boomed from across the room. I watched her stride up to Reece, kiss his cheek, extract baby Wyatt from his father’s protesting arms and brought the smiling, drooling cherub over and I immediately put out my hands to take him. Holding him away from me for a second, I watched his hazel green eyes twinkle with joy when I made the silly faces he loved so much.
Putting the little man up on my shoulder, I patted his little body with my hand and inhaled the baby fresh scent that always made me think of Alison. I hadn’t heard from her, but then I hadn’t expected to. Surely, if she had gotten pregnant she would have told me, but then I was basing that assumption on the woman I thought she was. It seemed I didn’t know Alison Collins at all.
“What?” I asked noticing that Synclair was eyeing me strangely. She smiled and kissed me on the cheek and sighed. I had to grin despite my black mood. Ever since Synclair had gotten pregnant, she had gone from stiffening up when you hugged her to becoming an affection monster. Whenever she was in a room, she was touching or hugging one of us, and we couldn’t be more thrilled. Synclair’s fears that she would suck as a mom were all for nothing, she was a great mother, and I was happy to have her as my sister.
“Ohhhh! You’re in trouble now!” Synclair nodded toward the door, and I barely handed off baby Wyatt to Synclair before the heat-seeking missile of Taylor Duke shoved me back in the booth so hard I landed on my back like a turtle.
“Whoa! Whoa! Easy Ty,” Synclair shouted, and I smiled at the thought of her defending me. “I need him to help set up tables back at the house for the reception…restaurant opening…happy 3-month birthday thing!”
Yep, should’ve seen that one coming. Not sure what could have set off the livid woman, who I knew for a fact could skewer my balls from a mile away with her crossbow, but I was sure Alison was involved.
“Okay, I give. Alison is your friend. I get it. I gave you her research notes, so I’m not sure why you’re mad at me! I was the injured party,” I grumbled as I got myself upright.
I ignored the curious look
s from my family and concentrated on the pissed off, weapon trained woman standing in front of me.
“Injured? You’re the injured party?” she laughed, and the way it washed over me gave me chills. “You know nothing about injuries, Matthew Wolf Hudson! She’s in love with you and you treated her like she had a disease! Why? Because she wasn’t on birth control? Well, it takes two to do the sexy dance asshole! If you were that freaked out about getting her pregnant because of all her scars and leg problems then you should have worn your raincoat, asshat!” she poked me in the chest and turned to walk away. Confused, I grabbed her arm but immediately released it when she gave me a look that told me I was dangerously close to losing my hand.
“Is that what she told you? Yes, I was worried about pregnancy but only because I was afraid she’d think I wanted her only because of it! That wasn’t what happened! She used me, she’s married and only strung me along because she already told the courts that the Hudson family had given her a donation that would allow her to fortify her animal habitats.” I told an open-mouthed Taylor. She looked at me as if I had antlers on my head.
“You're wrong,” Taylor insisted shaking her head.
“I’m not wrong! I saw the marriage certificate, I saw the letter to the court, she signed it, and she specifically said that the Hudson family had donated money!” I told a disbelieving Taylor.
“That’s because the Hudson family did make a donation,” came a voice from the door of the new restaurant.
The rest of the family and I followed the sound to a familiar face.
“Ghost?” I asked. I hadn’t seen my cousin John or Ghost as we had called him back in our SEALS days, in about a year. When Dalton and I had left the service, John had founded some security unit made up of guys we had served with in the Navy. I wasn’t sure what his California-based company did, but I was pretty sure it was some scary, black ops, government contracting shit that I didn’t want to hear about.
Ghost was the second son of my Uncle Felix on my father’s side. His family lived in Northern California, and Ghost had spent many summers here at the ranch before my parents had died. As glad as I was to see him, his statement confused me.
“Okay back-up, what did you say?” I wasn’t the only one confused. As Ghost made his way through hugs from Dalton, Sara, Rachel, Lucas, and Reece and introductions to Synclair, Taylor, and little Wyatt, I barely contained myself as he stopped for yet another greeting. Jake Summers stuck out his hand, and Ghost grabbed him up in a big hug. Ghost and Jake were about the same age and had always gotten along.
“Okay, now that the reunion is over, tell me what you meant when you came in,” I demanded.
Ghost leaned back against the pristine counter and raised one eyebrow. Green eyes that I knew matched my own stared back at me.
“I said. You. Are. Wrong.” He grinned as he spoke. “I..John Hudson made a donation of one hundred thousand dollars to the Lions & Tigers & Bears Animal Sanctuary a few months back.” He was talking like he was familiar with Alison.
“You know her,” I said dumbly.
The mountain of a man grinned, and I wanted to punch his teeth in. “She’s my neighbor, I met her parents when I bought the land next to hers. I use the cabin I built as a place to recharge and sometimes recover. Ali doesn’t ask questions that she knows I can’t answer, and she always makes sure I’m okay when I stay up there.” John shrugged, and I wanted to scream at the easy way he spoke about her.
Neighbors? What were the odds that my cousin and the woman who stomped all over me were neighbors, friends even? How good of friends?
My eyes narrowed, and John put his hands up in surrender, “Hey cousin, knock that shit off! Alison is good people, she’s a good friend, but that’s all she is. I come over and help her ranch hand make repairs and work with the animals when I’m in town. I didn’t know you two even knew each other until Dalton forwarded me some of the wedding pictures.” He explained giving me a look that told me to rein in the green-eyed monster of jealousy that was bubbling to the surface.
Apparently, I was still glaring because Taylor walked up to my side and slapped me in the back of the head.
“Ouch, shit! What was that for?” I growled as Taylor ducked out of my reach and came to stand next to Ghost.
I looked around the room, and Dalton was laughing, Reece was shaking his head, and Lucas was watching everything in that quiet, observing manner that drove me nuts. My sister Rachel, however, was glaring.
“Okay, I know I couldn’t have done anything to piss you off, you’ve only been here for about an hour,” I grumbled. Rachel had come down from school to spend the weekend at the ranch to celebrate the restaurant opening to be held at the ranch later that day.
Instead of answering, she lobbed a cup at my head and just as I was about to duck, Jake snapped it out of the air. Rachel’s eyes widened, and Synclair cheered.
“Are we talking about Alison Collins? You thought you got Alison Collins pregnant and then accused her of using you?” Jake asked with a death grip on the mug he had just snatched out of the air.
Jesus, was no one on my side? Jake didn’t even know Alison, and he was looking at me like he was considering smashing the damn mug in my face.
“Yes, okay yes! We were in Dublin, and things were great, but then her phone rang, I answered it, and some dip shit claiming that he was her husband was thanking me for giving her the money for her ranch. Of course, he went on to tell me how she had played me and even sent me their damn marriage certificate. You can’t fake that!” I shouted to the room.
Okay, maybe John was the Hudson that had donated to her sanctuary, but it didn’t explain the fact that she had a husband or did it?
“I have to go,” Jake said suddenly. He tossed the cup to Rachel who caught it while shooting daggers at his retreating form.
“Running away again, so typical,” Rachel hissed bitterly as he strode for the door.
I knew Rachel was still pissed off at Jake for ignoring her after they had spent one night together. Shit, my brothers and I had slammed into his bar ready to give him a deserved beat down for taking our baby sister’s virginity and then casting her aside. It was in the jail cell a few hours later that Jake admitted that he felt that Rachel was too young to be tied to a man with so much baggage. At the time I hadn’t argued with him.
Jake and Dalton were pretty close in age, but all of us had grown up with Jake and we’d all witnessed his father losing his mind after coming home from a POW camp when Jake was still just a teenager. Then the drinking had kicked in, and Jake ran the bar more than he went to school. I never asked why no one ever stepped in and forced his father to keep Jake out of the bar, my dad had told me that no one wanted Jake’s dad to lose the only two things he had left, the bar he’d named after his son and his son himself. So the baggage that Jake spoke of was real, but when he turned back and looked at Rachel, I knew he wanted her more than anything, but he’d never let himself have her.
“Best favor I could ever do you,” he whispered as he turned back and swung open the door.
“Hey Jake, you promised to run the bar for me back at the house,” Synclair called from her perch on Reece’s lap.
I smiled and dropped my head. I knew the last thing Jake wanted was to be around all of us again, whatever spooked him had him wanting to disappear. However, I also knew that my new sister would hunt him down and drag him back to the house if he refused. No one denied Synclair, she was a five-foot bundle of trouble and one was wise to stay on her good side.
With a curt nod, Jake slammed out of the restaurant, and everyone’s attention turn back to me. Wonderful! Public humiliation!
I lifted my head and caught my oldest brother, Lucas, grinning at me like a lunatic.
“I suppose you have something to say, oh wise one?” I spat.
Placing his young son, Logan, on the counter top, he tweaked the little guy’s nose and walked toward me with so much arrogant, swag that I itched to sweep his legs from under his
so he’d land on his ass.
“You little brother have been played.” He announced with a smug grin. He leaned back on the counter next to John, their matching smirks were really starting to get on my last nerve.
Finally, someone who agreed with me, “Yes! Thank you, Lucas. At least someone in this room has a sense of loyalty,” I griped looking around the room at all of the people still glaring in my direction.
“No Matt, not by Alison Collins but by her ex-husband, Richard Taggart!” Lucas growled shoving me back down in the booth. Pissed I went to push Lucas back, but he just laughed and pushed me back down again. Apparently, all that time working the ranch had made the bastard just a tad bit stronger than I was.
“You’re as thick as two planks!” Dalton chimed in a terrible Irish accent.
“Hey, no shit from you Dalton! Until you get off your ass and make things right with my cousin, you’re still on my-needs a swift bat upside the head- list,” Synclair smiled when Dalton shot her a huge, pearly white smile.
“I got it all covered sis, you just make sure that Cami is on that plane landing in Reno in about an hour, and I’ll give you the happy ending you want.”
Seemingly satisfied by whatever secret conversation she and Dalton were having, Synclair perched herself back on Reece’s lap with Wyatt sleeping on her shoulder and smiled.
“Okay, would someone please start making sense, this ribbon cutting ceremony is supposed to happen in twenty minutes,” I told them impatiently.
“Richard Taggart is the head animal trainer for the large hotels in Vegas, the ones that still use lions, tigers and any other deadly predator in their shows,” John explained as he crossed his massive arms over his chest. I swear they should change his nickname to Tank.
No Refunds No Exchanges: A Hudson Family Series- Book 4- Matt and Ali Page 22
