by Dana Nussio
“Does she always sound like that when she’s crying? If so, I need to come up with more one-liners.”
Willow gave him a mean look but then shrugged. “Further proof that I don’t know anything today.”
“Me, neither. I feel like I’ve just been kicked in the head by a horse, and I’m still expected to make life decisions for my kid.”
Automatically, his gaze shot to Harper, who was still chewing on her toy, but he couldn’t help but to look back at Luna again. Was it possible that she was his child instead? No. Harper was his. He was certain of it.
When he glanced up again, he caught Willow studying Harper, her brows drawn together. He knew the questions in her eyes were mirroring his own. Their gazes connected for a few seconds, and then they both looked away.
He could have kissed Luna, who picked that moment for another round of giggles. Until she lifted both arms. To him. He swallowed, his gaze flitting to the child’s mother. Her frown made it clear what she thought about that.
“Looks like you’ve won my daughter over.”
But not you. He shrugged. “You already said she hates the stroller. She’s just thinking I’m the patsy who’ll help her escape.”
She scoffed, but he figured that was the best answer he could expect to get from her.
He gestured toward the hospital door. “Everything in there was, well, crazy. The news. The delay on testing. All of it. I don’t know about you, but I’m going out of my mind.”
Though her gaze narrowed, she nodded. “Yeah, me, too.”
“Do you think we could go somewhere and just, you know, talk about it? I could use someone to talk to right now, and if you’re half as freaked out as I am, maybe you could, too.”
She didn’t say yes, but she hadn’t automatically refused, either, so he licked his suddenly dry lips and tried again.
“We have some brand-new calves on the ranch. Maybe we could take the girls out to one of the barns to see—”
“Pigs will fly before I step foot on the Triple R.”
“Okay.” He stretched the word out. “That’s a long time.”
“Look. Sorry. I don’t mean to be rude, but...” She shook her head and pushed her stroller forward. “I’ll just see you tomorrow—”
“I know the ranch can be, well, big. How about we talk at your place, then?”
She stopped but didn’t look back at him. “Not going to happen.”
“It’s not like that. I mean... Well, how about somewhere neutral? Like Bubba’s Diner.”
“I couldn’t eat.”
“Then what about Java Jane’s? Just coffee. Half an hour. Tops.”
She was still shaking her head. He’d never begged a woman to stay with him before, except Nora, and she’d left anyway. Those two situations were nothing alike, but that didn’t explain why it had become so critical to him that Willow would say yes.
Was it more than that she owned a childcare facility and he needed to find a new nanny for his daughter? Or even how she’d reacted when she’d found out about his family? Could it have been because she was the only one who might understand the fear and misgivings inside him that threatened to eat their way out?
For what felt like hours, she didn’t answer, but finally she looked back at him.
“Just thirty minutes?”
“Absolutely.”
“I’ll meet you there.” This time she headed down the walk.
He’d won. He should just keep his mouth shut and wait for a better time to ask, but the words escaped all on their own.
“And when we get there you can tell me why you automatically hate me because I’m a Colton.”
Chapter 4
Willow yanked open the door to Java Jane’s, propped it with the stroller wheel, pushed the door wider and angled the contraption inside. She pulled off her sunglasses and waited a few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the muted industrial lighting in the building with its black-painted ceiling, bare brick interior walls, long counters with high-back stools and a spattering a tables and chairs.
Asher stood up from the table in the corner and hurried over to her.
“Sorry. I would have gotten that door for you.”
“I could handle it perfectly well by myself, thank you.”
“I see that.”
He flattened his lips into a line as if attempting to suppress a smile. He failed.
“I figured you’d decided not to come.”
“I almost didn’t.”
She’d also parked down the street with the air-conditioning running long enough to blow through a quarter tank of fuel, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.
“You weren’t needed at the ranch?”
“I could step out for an hour or two. What about you at the center?”
“I checked in. The staff said it’s been an uneventful day. After I left anyway.” In fact, Candace Hill, her longtime employee and friend, had told her to take her time getting coffee after the harrowing morning she’d spent.
“Hello, darlin’.”
Willow blinked, and her arm jerked back, but Asher missed all of it, already crouching in front of Luna’s stroller. Her daughter beamed and lifted her arms for him to pick her up. The traitor. She would have to teach her to be more cautious around handsome men. If the test results gave her that chance to educate Luna about anything.
“We’re over here.”
Instead of lifting the child, he guided them to the table where Harper sat, holding a toy in her hands and guiding it to her mouth. A second high chair had been arranged near the first, and he’d pushed the next table over to allow for stroller parking.
“Thought you said you didn’t expect me to come.”
He shrugged, then pointed to the seats for the infants. “I thought Luna might prefer to sit in one of those.”
Good guess. She continued to frown instead of saying so.
“I hoped you would come,” he admitted finally. “Though I had time to change Harper and get her settled before you finally showed up.”
Neither said more as she shifted her squirming daughter from one piece of equipment to the other and lowered into a seat with the babies between them. She reached in her bag and handed Luna a teething ring, which her child quickly dropped on the floor.
“You’ve already learned the Parent Pickup Game, Miss Luna?” Asher chuckled.
“Oh, yes. She’s an expert at uh-oh.” She grinned. “Luna knows that Mommy will pick it up for her.”
Willow did just that, but she stuffed the ring in her diaper bag instead of handing it back to her daughter. She pulled Luna’s pacifier out and helped the infant guide it to her mouth, clipping its leash to her shirt, just in case. The baby sucked hungrily on it, hinting that she would need to be fed soon.
“Let me get you something to drink.”
Asher reached for his wallet, but Willow removed hers from the diaper bag. She handed him a five-dollar bill and an extra single for a tip.
“Coffee. Black. But if you’ll get both drinks, I’ll watch Harper for you.”
“Anything for Luna?”
“Double-sided tape for her hands?”
He grinned over her joke. “I’ll see what they have.”
Harper’s gaze followed her father as he crossed to the shop’s counter, but she didn’t cry out. Clearly, she was used to being left in another’s care.
Asher returned a few minutes later carrying a lidded paper cup and a large plastic one containing some frou-frou drink with chocolate and whipped cream.
At her lifted brow, he shrugged.
“I can get black coffee at home. Even great coffee. Our cook always makes sure there’s a fresh pot. But this?”
She shook her head and then stood to accept her drink from him, away from the babies so they wouldn’t risk spilling on them. When his
calloused fingers accidentally brushed hers, she pretended not to notice. Instead, she took a drink right away. It burned all the way down. She closed her eyes but managed not to squeal.
“By the way, that’s really hot.”
“Thanks for the warning.” After setting the cup on the table, out of the reach of either baby, she pressed her sore tongue to the roof of her mouth.
“I still can’t believe you showed up. I figured I’d scared you off by throwing out that question.”
“It was only reason I did come.” Unless curiosity counted, which it didn’t. “At least one Colton needs to hear what I have to say.”
Asher set his drink in the middle of the table, next to Willow’s, settled back in his chair and crossed his arms.
“Then hit me with it. There are plenty of reasons someone in Mustang Valley might not be in the Colton fan club. Probably dozens.”
Her expression must have given away her surprise because he laughed.
“No powerful business ever became that way without its leaders stepping on some toes, necks and even a few heads in the process.”
Though Asher didn’t mention that someone must have had something significant enough against Payne Colton to want him dead, his silence suggested that he was thinking about his dad.
“This ‘stepping’ happened closer to home.”
“Which of my brothers is responsible?” He held his hand across his rib cage in a mini bow. “Whatever he did, I apologize on his behalf.”
“It was your dad.”
“Oh, God. You’re not his—you’re not my...?”
“Your sister? Hardly.” She couldn’t bring herself to say father’s lover, which probably was what he’d meant at first. Her chuckle couldn’t have sounded more awkward. “Now that would have complicated all those genetic markers that Anne was talking about earlier.”
“I don’t even want to think about that.”
Neither did she, especially after she’d been checking Asher out when he’d first arrived. “It’s plenty screwed up already.” He lifted his cup off the table, popped it open and took a drink from the top, getting whipped cream on his lip. With the back of his hand, he wiped it away. “Then what did my dad do?”
Though he’d seemed to give voice to her thoughts, Willow blinked over the second part of what he’d said. From what she’d heard about the Coltons, right or wrong, they always circled their wagons whenever one of them was under attack.
“My mom worked as a maid at the Triple R. For years.”
He leaned his elbows on the table and rested his chin in the vee he’d formed between his hands. “I probably should apologize just for that part. It can’t be easy cleaning up after some of the animals I live with. What’s your mom’s name?”
“Kelly Johnson.”
“Johnson. Johnson?”
He appeared to be searching his memory for the name, but his gaze narrowed with a different question. One she was familiar with.
“My mom was Scottish. She never married my father, who was Latino. I got my coloring from him, but I don’t know many specifics about him, other than he was a ranch hand on the Triple R and blew out of town right after she told him she was pregnant.”
Asher squinted. “I still don’t recognize your mom’s name or remember hearing this story.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-three. Why does that matter?”
“Because it happened two years before you were born.”
Besides clearing up why she’d been unable to remember him from the short time she’d attended Mustang Valley High, it also made her two years older than he was.
“That makes sense.”
He must have been trying to recall her from high school. That had to be his reason for staring at her that way.
“Well? Your mom?”
He only wanted her to share her story. She should have been focused on that, as well. If she didn’t tell it soon, she wouldn’t get the chance, with as antsy as Luna was becoming in her high chair.
“Payne’s first wife, Tessa, hired my mom. After Tessa died, Mom worked for his second wife, Selina, who was vicious but for some reason liked her. She even gave her a big raise.”
“Your mom must have been great. I’ve heard horror stories about Selina from back then.”
“After those two divorced, she continued to work on the ranch once Genevieve came into the picture.”
Asher held both hands up in a plea for her to stop. “Please don’t tell me that my mom was part of this, too.”
She shrugged at that. “Sorry. Genevieve usually treated the staff with respect, but Payne stepped in.”
“What did he do?”
“This one night while your family was out, Mom did something stupid. She’d just found out she was pregnant, and the guy had abandoned her. So, to cheer herself up, she tried on one of your mom’s fancy dresses and some of her jewelry.”
She sat back and crossed her arms, waiting for his judgmental comment. When he nodded instead, she licked her lips and continued.
“Just once, she wanted to know what it was like to look and feel like a princess. To imagine she lived a different life. Like the royal Coltons.”
“We’re not like that.”
He looked away and reached for the slobbery toy Luna was about to drop and centered it between her hands again. “Sorry. Go on.”
“Unfortunately, your family came home early. Mom didn’t have time to take off the dress or the jewelry. Payne accused her of planning to steal all of it and fired her on the spot.”
Asher shook his head, his brows furrowing.
“Didn’t she just explain it all to him?”
“She tried, but he wouldn’t listen. Though Genevieve defended her, too, she might as well not have bothered with the weak appeal she gave. My mother left the ranch jobless, homeless and pregnant.”
“Did she tell them the last part? They didn’t send her packing after that, did they?”
The obvious compassion in his eyes surprised her. A Colton who cared what had happened to a staff member and her unborn child?
She shook her head, both in answer to his question and in her attempt to make sense of what he’d said. “She had too much pride to tell them about the pregnancy.”
He blew out a breath. “What they did was bad enough already. I’m sorry—”
“Mom told me that story so many times,” she rushed on, interrupting his apology. She finally had the chance to share it with someone else, and now that she’d told him all he needed to know, she couldn’t stop herself from saying more.
“It was her cautionary tale to remind me that I should create security for myself. She was always chasing it for us. Different cities. Different schools. She even married some guy for a few years, looking for a better life. That didn’t work out.
“So, she used to preach about the important things. An education. A home. Maybe a business. Things that no one could ever take away.”
Finally, Willow stopped herself, blinking. She’d agreed to have coffee with Asher because she finally had the chance to call out one of the Coltons about the injustice to her mother, but no way had she initially planned to share so much.
He nodded, his incisive gaze making her squirm.
“You said ‘was’ and ‘used to.’ Is your mom...?”
“Yeah. A kidney condition. Four years ago.”
“She never got to see her granddaughter?”
At least he didn’t make a comment about the baby they thought was her mom’s grandchild. That would have been too much to handle.
“I’m sorry about your mom. And I’m sorry for what my parents did to her. And you. I’m glad that my mother tried to stand up for yours, even if she was bad at it.” He shook his head. “But Dad... What can I say? He jumps to conclusions, and then he doesn’t want to admit
he could ever be wrong, so...”
“He makes enemies,” she finished for him. She took a long sip of her coffee, which was already getting cold. “Thanks for the apology. I shouldn’t have snapped at you when you mentioned going to the ranch. Or when Anne revealed your last name. All that happened a long time ago. It’s just that I’m so freaked out after everything this morning.”
“Believe me, I get it.” He slurped the last of his sweet drink through the straw. “But you kind of sound like one of those enemies you mentioned, so I wouldn’t tell your story to anyone else for a while. You’ll end up repeating it as a potential suspect to my future sister-in-law, Junior Detective Kerry Wilder.”
“Is she the one investigating your dad’s attempted murder?”
He nodded, but he looked around as if he was suddenly concerned that they might be overheard. “I shouldn’t even joke about suspects.”
“Your brother’s been questioned, right?”
This time, he didn’t answer.
“You’re probably not supposed to talk about it at all.”
“Not if we can help it. Why do you know so much about it?”
“I read. Maybe it’s not the New York Times, but I get something that resembles news from the Mustang Valley Times and the Bronco Star. I even sometimes get the chance to sit down and watch WXVY-TV.”
“The Valley,” they chorused, repeating the local TV news station’s tagline.
“Do you think I should be questioned?”
She didn’t even know why she asked it. An hour ago, she was disgusted to find out she was dealing with another Colton. Why did she suddenly care what he thought about her?
“No. I don’t.”
She needed to look away, but she could no more make herself do that than she could force everyone with the last name “Colton” to move out of Mustang Valley. This was crazy. He’d only admitted that he didn’t believe she was an attempted murderer, not that he thought she was beautiful or sexy, yet her body hummed with a certain something. She would rather plan a dinner party for his whole family than to define it.
Her high-strung baby saved the day by crying out. This time, at least, she appreciated the outburst.
