by Sophie Oak
When was the last time Lexi had simply sat down and talked about anything but business? When she got together with Jessica, they talked about upcoming conventions. She had made friends in Dallas with some writers and she loved to talk to them, but they inevitably spent their long phone conversations helping each other with plots and problems with their characters.
She used to talk to Lucas about things like that, but somewhere along the way she’d lost touch even though he was only in the next room.
And now she was a jealous hag because she’d watched Lucas talking to their host, and just for a minute, his whole face had lit up and he’d been her Lucas again, smiling and charming and witty, and that smile had not been for her.
Her heart had tightened, and she’d been ready to march straight up to Lucas and ask him what the hell he was doing smiling at another woman when his wife was standing not a hundred feet away.
And she’d forced herself to stop because she really didn’t have that right anymore. She sure as hell didn’t have the right to complain about Lucas’s lack of attention when she didn’t have a minute to spare for either of her husbands.
Why couldn’t they understand? Aidan had shot her a look of pure anger when she’d shooed him off. Contracts were important. She had to make as much money as she could. If things went poorly, they would need every dime to fight to save the ranch. That land had been in Aidan’s family for a hundred years. She couldn’t let them lose it. It was her children’s legacy.
She looked down at her phone. She had to be resolute. Her men weren’t thinking in the long term, and if they didn’t, then she had to.
“Don’t you dial another number, baby girl!”
Shit. Her mother was marching across the yard, a stubborn look on her face. She was dressed beautifully in a designer suit, but she was carrying her heels in her hands as she stalked toward Lexi.
This was why she’d been more than happy to find out they were staying with Trev and not Stef Talbot. The whole Dallas gang was at the Talbot estate where none of them could lecture her on how her career was ruining everything.
God, when had talking to her mother become a chore? When had she started avoiding anyone who had an opinion? She hadn’t been to the ranch in Willow Fork in almost a year. She got a little annoyed when her parents descended because they were a drain on time she should spend working.
Guilt settled into her gut.
“Alexis Ann, you have been avoiding me and I want to know why.”
“I haven’t been avoiding you, Momma. I’ve been working.” The words sounded weak even to her own ears.
“You’re always working. Did you talk to Lucas before he left?”
“I was on the phone. I waved.”
“Do you understand what you’re doing to him?”
“To Lucas? Momma, I’m not trying to hurt Lucas. He knows I have to deal with problems as they come up. And I need to call my agent back. Those contracts won’t wait forever.”
“Does Lucas look at your contracts? Why are you dealing with this? Lucas is your lawyer.”
“I’m not going to bother him with something I could do myself. Lucas has enough to deal with.” She looked down at her phone. No bars. She was a little startled. She hadn’t lost coverage once. “Hey, do you have a signal?”
“Lexi, I am talking to you.”
“I know, Momma, but this is important. My cell phone is dead.”
“Well, thank the good lord. Maybe you’ll get your head out of your ass long enough to understand that you are treating Lucas like he is meaningless and it’s going to kill him.”
“Lucas? Meaningless? That’s insane. I love Lucas.”
“Then why are you treating him the same way his father did?”
The truth hit her like a baseball bat to the head. Lucas’s father had treated him horribly by shoving him to the side in favor of his other children. And she could see where Lucas might feel the same way now. She’d marginalized him even as she was trying to build a better world for them all. She’d shut them out. She’d tried to take it all on.
Because it was what she’d watched her mother do. Her mother had worked her ass off, but she’d had to.
“I’m trying to live up to you.”
Her mom shook her head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
She felt a little light in the head, the revelation having an actual physical effect on her body. “All my life I looked up to you because you took care of things. You didn’t complain. You didn’t whine. You did what had to be done. You made sure everyone had what they needed.”
“Oh, honey, everyone was you and me and I didn’t have a choice. Trust me, if your father had lived, I would have leaned on him. Adam took damn good care of me before he died. I might have still gotten a job, but I certainly wouldn’t have expected to take care of you alone.”
“Lucas and Aidan have their own concerns. They have to take care of the ranch. You know how ranching is. It’s precarious. It could all go under with one bad winter.”
“No, it can’t because Jack’s made sure of it. Why do you think he brought Aidan and Trev and James Glen in as partners? They share the reward and they share the risks. If one has a bad year, the others help out. No one is going under. Honey, why are you worried about this? Lucas makes good money.”
“He doesn’t make enough to cover us if we go under. Or if someone tries to get rid of us.” The minute the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back. She’d kept the secret inside for so long that it felt odd to say the words.
Her mom’s eyes widened. “Who is trying to get rid of you?”
The question wasn’t asked with a breathy curiosity, but rather an undercurrent of potential violence. Her mother wasn’t exactly the world’s most docile human being. She fought for the ones she loved. She sheltered them, and she’d taught Lexi to do the same.
The way she was trying to shelter her husbands from the truth.
Lexi shook her head. It would do no good to involve her mother. “It’s nothing. It’s just some stupid shit. You know how the locals can be.”
Her mother was still considered a woman of ill repute in Willow Fork, though everyone was too afraid of Jack to say it to her face. Deer Run was just like Willow Fork.
Would they really go through with it? Would they really take away her husbands’ home because they didn’t approve of her lifestyle? God, she couldn’t be the reason Aidan lost his ranch.
The only thing that would make them safe was money and a whole lot of it. If they had the money to buy off the damn city council, then no one would come after O’Malley Ranch.
She looked back down at her phone. Why didn’t she have any damn bars? She had a book coming out in two weeks and everything depended on it. The city council would take their vote in a month, and she needed time to get her fucking bribes together so Aidan might never know how close they came.
“You need to start talking now, baby girl.” Her mother was a dog with a bone. This was why she’d avoided her, why she’d avoided her dads. Jack and Sam had become her fathers over the years, and she didn’t even try to call them stepdads anymore.
“Mom, it’s nothing. I’m more worried about my cell phone not working. Can I see yours?”
Her mom pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and looked down. “I have three bars.”
“Can I borrow it?”
“No.”
Olivia ran up. She was wearing her version of her Sunday best, a pair of clean jeans and a T-shirt without stains on it. “Hey, Momma. Hey, sis.”
Lexi’s heart swelled. Her baby sister was a ball of chaos, and Lexi loved her so much it hurt. And she hadn’t seen Olivia since she’d started avoiding her mom. God, how much was she going to give up to try to save the ranch? “Hey, Liv. How are you doing?”
“I’m good, but I need to find a dress. I think I should start wearing dresses, and I want to take a bunch more science classes.”
Her mom’s eyes widened. “You hate sci
ence.”
Olivia shrugged. “No. It’s kind of fun.”
“Oh, god, who’s the boy?” Lexi asked. No tomboy ever hung up her jeans for anything other than a boy. She really wanted to meet the boy who could handle Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood.
Olivia frowned. “There’s no boy. Ewwww. I was just talking to Will and Bobby.”
The names were said with the casual tone of a girl who didn’t really care. Which meant she cared. A lot.
“Oh. My god, she’s going after the twins.” Lexi couldn’t help it. She’d never had a little sister before and teasing her was totally fun.
It was far better than ignoring her.
Olivia put her foot down, stomping on the ground. “I am not going after anyone. I was just talking to them because they’re real nice.” She stared at Lexi’s phone. “Are you going to make a call? You’re always on the phone.”
It was true and now she felt a little naked without a working phone. “I can’t call anyone. I don’t have a signal.”
Her mom got to one knee. “Livie, baby, can you go and find Aunt Danielle? I need to talk to your sister.”
Olivia got a brilliant smile on her face. “Sure, Momma. Gee, sorry about your phone, Lexi. I guess it just doesn’t work anymore.”
Lexi felt her eyes narrow. Olivia wasn’t just a ball of chaos. The older she got the more sneaky she was. “Did you do something to my phone?”
Olivia just grinned and ran off toward the main house.
How the hell had she managed it? Lexi stared down at her phone. It was seventy-five percent charged. One minute it had been working perfectly and the next the whole thing had shut down. It was as if someone had simply turned it off.
“Momma, I think she somehow got my account canceled. The little shit. Olivia, you come back here!”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “God, I am so glad I had you two twenty years apart. You still fight like siblings. And if Livie managed to get your phone turned off then I’m raising her allowance because she’s the only one who’s had the guts to do it. Now tell me what’s wrong in Deer Run.”
But her mind was flying through the scenarios. “I have to go. I think the closest place I can get a new cell is Alamosa. Damn it. Lucas and Aidan took the car. Maybe Beth will run me into town.”
“Lexi, if you walk away from me now, I’ll explain to Jack that I need him to figure out what’s going on.”
Lexi stopped in her tracks. Damn it. Jack was the one threat she couldn’t counteract. “Please don’t tell Dad.”
Her mom smiled. “You know he melts a little when you call him that, but it won’t make a damn bit of difference. You’re lucky that Lucas has been hiding this from him or he would have already gotten involved.”
She did not want to bring her father into it. She didn’t want Jack to know how stupid she’d been.
“Please don’t tell him.”
Her mother’s foot tapped against the ground, a sure sign of her growing impatience. “Then you should get talking.”
“Promise me you won’t tell him.”
Her mother shook her head shortly. “I can’t, baby girl. You know I can’t make that promise. I promise I’ll try to help you without involving him.”
Lexi took a deep breath and finally confessed to her mother.
Chapter Twelve:
Leo, Shelley, and Wolf
Shelley stepped out on to the porch and looked over the grounds of the Talbot mansion. It was almost dusk. Her shower was just about done. She closed her eyes and tried to memorize the moment. The afternoon had been sweet, filled with friends old and new. She wanted to remember everything.
Except the crap with her mother-in-law.
She enjoyed the silence for a moment and then her eyes got wide as she opened them because a big black truck pulled up, carefully maneuvering its way through the multitude of cars parked on the driveway and lawn. It drove past the circular drive and up to what looked to be the guesthouse.
Jennifer Talbot hurried across the lawn as though she’d been expecting that truck to show up. She stopped when she got to the truck bed, looked down, and then began to unleash holy hell on the men who stepped out of the truck.
The cowboys held up their identical hands as though pointing to each other to take the blame.
Shelley couldn’t hear the argument, but there was no way Jennifer was happy with whatever they had done.
She turned away and wondered if Leo and Wolf were having fun at their party. Shelley loved spending time with all the women from Bliss and her friends from back home, but she was craving a couple of minutes to herself. The wedding had become the whole center of their world, and she couldn’t wait to get back to focusing on her men. She missed their mornings together.
Leo would get up first, putting on the coffee for her while he went on the balcony and practiced some yoga. She would get up and watch him, his lean and limber body moving with such grace.
Then Wolf would walk in, scratching his belly. He would lie down on the couch, put his head in her lap, and go back to sleep for a while.
She missed those sweet mornings. What would mornings be like when she had some kids? Would it be hectic and chaotic? Or would she find a deep peace in sitting down with her family and eating breakfast?
The way she had with her momma and daddy and Trev. Her mom and dad were gone now, but there had been a piercing sweetness to sitting across from her brother and having him pass her the syrup.
And now Trev was a dad. He had a baby girl. Shelley was an aunt. It was a responsibility she didn’t take for granted. She had a place in that girl’s life. She just wasn’t sure it was a good one.
Was she really still afraid of her choices? Had Bryce damaged her so badly that she was worried about what she would do to a child?
“Ma’am?” A masculine voice pulled her out of her thoughts.
Shelley turned and saw a man walking across the porch. He was dressed in jeans and a Western-style shirt. His hair was gray and cut in a severe style. She didn’t recognize him at all. “If you’re looking for the men’s party, you’ll have to go up the mountain.”
He shook his head. “No, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be welcome up there, but I might have better luck with you.”
“With me?” She kind of didn’t like the sound of that. Had Cassidy sent another crazy to plead her case?
“Yes. You’re Shelley McNamara, ain’t you?” His eyes narrowed, looking her up and down.
Yeah, she really didn’t like that look. And now Jennifer Talbot was gone and there was no one on the lawn. She definitely didn’t like how quiet it was. She could hear the party going on in the back, but she’d been through enough crap in her lifetime to know when it was all right to be alone with a man she didn’t know.
Never.
“I think I saw her in the back. I’ll go get her for you.” He might be the kindest man on the planet, but she wasn’t taking chances.
She started to move toward the door to the house, but he stepped in her way.
“I know you’re Shelley and I know you’re marrying my boys.”
That stopped her in her tracks. “You’re Leo and Wolf’s dad?”
He shrugged a little. “Not that they acknowledge it. Probably best for them, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist on a little family time with them. Leo is being real stubborn about everything. He’s just like his good-for-nothing mother.”
Tears pricked at the back of her eyes, but they weren’t about sadness. Anger started to burn through her. She knew exactly what it felt like to be told she was useless. Bryce had tried to make her feel utterly worthless. She’d wasted years on him, trying to be a good wife when there was nothing she could do.
Had Cassidy’s husband done the same?
“What do you want?”
He put a hand on his hip and stared at her for a moment as though trying to assess the best way to answer the question. “I want what’s coming to me. Now the way I see it, you three have yourself a mighty nice setup. Y
ou all work for that fancy city slicker, the one with all the money.”
“Are you talking about Julian Lodge?”
“Yeah, that fellow. I read about him. He’s got a pretty wife.”
He was really setting off her every ick factor. If the man in front of her knew exactly what Julian Lodge would do to him if he laid a hand on Dani, he wouldn’t think she was so pretty. He would think she looked like his painful death. “What about Julian?”
“My boys both work for him, right? When I heard about this wedding, I did a little checking because I thought it was weird that Stef Talbot would be hosting my white trash boys. Turns out they ain’t so white trash anymore.”
She hated the term. She’d grown up fairly poor and in the South, so she’d been called by that name more than once. “They’ve been very successful.”
“Real rich now. Leo’s got some sort of fancy degree. He was always a smart kid. Must have got that from me. Wolf is just as dumb as his momma, though. If I went to him, he would probably just try to kick my ass. So I have to think you’re going to be the reasonable one. I mean, you like your life, dontcha, girl?”
Yep, her rage was getting pretty volcanic now, but she put a blank face on. Leo had been keeping this from her, and maybe from Wolf. She knew why he was doing it. He was trying to make sure their wedding was as happy as possible for her, but it looked like she would be the one handling this small problem. Because there was no way she was letting this asswipe anywhere near her men again. He’d done enough damage. She needed to find out what his plan was. “I like my life a lot.”
His eyes roamed up and down her body, making her wish she had a turtleneck sweater on and maybe a suit of armor. How this man had produced the two kindest men she knew, Shelley had no idea.
Except she suddenly did. Cassidy had made them kind. Cassidy had raised them to be gentlemen and true friends to all those around them. DNA had nothing to do with it. Cassidy’s will and perseverance had ruled the day.
“Well, the way I look at it, you should probably want to keep that nice life with your pretty clothes and shoes and such.”
