by Kelly Moore
“Are you leaving Daddy again?” Her eyes mist over.
“No, sweetie. I’m not going anywhere,” Nita tries to assure her.
“Maybe you two should go talk to my therapist.” She tilts her head.
“We were thinking the same thing. I think we could all use some help.” I squeeze Nita’s thigh.
“Are you going to Grandpa’s house before school to gather the eggs?” she asks Missy.
“Yes.”
“I’ve got a few chores to do for him this morning. Can I walk you to his house?”
“Is that okay, Daddy?”
“Thank you for asking, but you can go with Nita any time.”
“After school, Uncle Boone has promised that I could ride Moonshine. Will you come watch me?”
“I wouldn’t miss it.” I kiss the top of her head. “Now, go get ready for school while I fix your breakfast.” She scoots off my lap. “And please brush your rat’s nest of hair.”
“Can you help me with it?” She bats her eyes at Nita.
“Sure I can.” She gets up, and I snatch her hand.
“I’m sorry,” I say softly.
She leans down, kissing me. “Me too.”
I cook eggs and bacon and scoot both of my girls out the door. Grabbing the keys to the four-wheeler, I head to Wyatt’s house. I don’t bother knocking. Voices are coming from his kitchen, and I follow the sound.
“Bear,” Wyatt says when he sees me. Ian glances over his shoulder.
“You two are up to no good early.” I walk past him to fix a cup of coffee since my other cup got poured down the sink rather than my belly.
“We’ve been going over the list of men in the ledger. I sent it to Ethan. He and Clem are going to investigate them.”
“We might as well keep all the crime in the family.” I laugh.
“I don’t know if it will lead to anything or not.” Wyatt runs his hand through his hair.
“I can do some snooping at work,” Ian volunteers.
“Watkins doesn’t know you were involved. I think you should keep your nose clean,” Wyatt says.
“I’m going to cancel my contract with him. I don’t want to work for a man that would destroy this family and our town.”
“No. He’ll sue you and win. Stay working for him, but keep your eyes and ears open.” Wyatt points at him.
“What about Ellie?” I take a seat.
“You know that woman has a mind of her own. I can’t make her do anything.” Wyatt snorts.
I angle toward Ian. “You can.”
“I have no control over her, either.”
“You’re the only man that has any influence over her whatsoever.”
“If she thinks she can protect this family by being involved with Watkins, I can’t stop her.”
“You need to try,” Wyatt adds.
“She hates the sight of me most days. What am I supposed to do? Tie her up?”
“That might not be a bad idea,” Wyatt states.
“At least keep her in your bed.” I chuckle.
“I hear I missed a break-in last night.” Boone’s deep voice fills the room.
“Who told you?” Wyatt slaps his hand on the table.
“Are you kidding me? News travels fast around here. You told Ethan, Ethan told Clem.”
“Does that mean…”
“You bet your ass it does,” my dad says. “What the hell were you boys thinking?”
“This coming from the man who totes a gun around threatening people,” I say.
“This was your dumb idea, wasn’t it? First, a car thief, now a cat burglar.” He smacks me in the back of the head.
“Would you rather I sit around and do nothing?” I rub my head. “This man is out to get us, and I’m not going to sit around trying to guess his next move.”
“That’s exactly what you’re going to do,” Wyatt interjects. “You need to stay away from Watkins, or he’ll never agree to dropping the charges against you.”
“Did you recognize any of the names in the ledger?” Boone asks.
“No. The men were all out of California.”
“Clem and Ethan will get us what we need.” Boone grips my arm.
“And when he does, you’ll take care of Watkins.” Dad points at Boone.
“No. Things have changed since Clem has come back. He’ll do no more of your dirty work, and I won’t have this family tarnishing my name as mayor.” Wyatt stands.
“You wouldn’t be mayor if it wasn’t for me paying your way through law school. You work for me!” Daddy yells. “And don’t you forget it.” He places his hand on Boone’s shoulder. “As far as my daughter is concerned, she’ll give in to our ways.”
“I’m not so sure about that.” Boone lowers his head. “But you know I’m a loyal man, and I’ll do whatever needs to be done.”
“See!” Dad slaps him on the back. “Why can’t you boys be more like him?”
“Speaking of your sons, Noah was arrested along with Bear last night.”
“What the fuck does he have to do with any of this?” Daddy barks.
“You’re joking, right? A man shows up, claiming to be your son, and you have the audacity to be asking us anything about him!” I lose my shit.
“Watch your tone with me, boy.” His face scrunches with his snarl.
“Who the hell is Mae Thatcher?” I do something I’ve never done before. Stand toe to toe with my father.
Wyatt’s on his feet, pulling me away from him.
“That is none of your business!” he howls.
Wyatt looks at his watch. “I’m afraid you’re wrong about that.”
Just like clockwork, the doorbell rings.
“What have you done?” Daddy grits through his teeth.
“All of you go into my office and wait.”
Boone tugs Daddy’s arm, and one by one, we follow them.
Wyatt disappears, and a few minutes later, he walks in with Clem, Ellie, Ethan, and Noah. “Even though I wasn’t expecting any of you to be here, it’s time we cleared the air. We can get it all out at once.” Wyatt motions for them to sit.
He walks Noah around the desk, facing us.
“Daddy, this is your one chance to tell your side of the story.” Wyatt gives him the floor to speak.
He grumbles to himself as he twists his gray mustache between his fingers. “It was years ago, not long after Wyatt was born. Amelia didn’t like the way I was running the ranch. Not unlike now, there’s always been someone trying to steal our land. We had a disagreement, and she took Wyatt and left.” He looks around the office as if he’s trying to gauge our responses.
“So, you took up with another woman?” Clem shouts.
“I thought things were done between us. Your momma hadn’t spoken to me in months. I got drunk one night and did something foolish.”
Noah’s hands turn to fists.
“No disrespect to your momma, boy.” Daddy holds out his hand. “I was the one that messed up. Mae was a sweet young thing, but Amelia was the love of my life. When she decided out of the blue to move back home, I was a happy man. We worked things out. I thought I did the right thing by going to see Mae face to face to tell her that I’d made a mistake. She was angry, and after that day I never saw her again.”
“Did Momma know about her?” Ellie asks.
“I owned up to it even though I thought she’d leave me again. It took a long time for things to heal between us, but they did. Amelia chose to love me despite my ways.”
“Did you know Mae was pregnant?” Clem is sobbing.
“No. I didn’t find out until years later. She wrote me a letter asking me for money. That’s when she told me she had my children.”
“Children?” Clem gasps. She stares at Noah.
“I have a twin sister, Jane.”
“Did you question Mae? How do you know for sure they’re yours?” I blurt out in anger, more for Momma’s sake than his.
“I didn’t, for sure. But the woman I knew all those years ago w
as honest, so I believed her.”
“He’d been sending her money up until a few years ago when things went bad at the ranch,” Wyatt states.
“You knew about this?” Clem’s panties are in a wad, and I’m pretty sure she might go batshit crazy on his ass.
“I did.” Wyatt nods.
“Did Momma?” Her voice goes up about five octaves.
“She did. We decided that it might make things worse for us to be involved in their lives. They were grown by then.”
“You decided!” Ellie’s arms are flailing in the air. “What about him?” She points to Noah. “Did you ever bother asking him what he or his sister wanted?”
Clem’s hand covers her mouth. “We have another sister.”
I step in the middle of everyone. “Why did you come here now, Noah? Do you need money, or are you here to hurt him?” I hitch my head in the direction of my dad.
“Neither.”
Boone steps up beside me. “What do you need from us?”
“Jane is sick. She needs a kidney transplant. We don’t have any other family. Momma never married and had no kin. I’ve been tested, and even though I’m her twin, we aren’t a match.”
“So, you didn’t come here for yourself?”
“No.” He hangs his head. “I didn’t even know my father’s name until I read the letter my mom left me. I didn’t want to come here to face a man that didn’t want anything to do with his own kids.”
Ellie walks around the desk to his side. “I can’t imagine how you must of felt when you found out he had four other children.”
“I hated him.” One lone tear slips from his eye.
“Right now, I’m with ya.” Clem glares at Daddy with a look of piss and vinegar in her eyes.
He stands and moves to Noah. “I’m sorry that I didn’t contact you. I was angry at Mae for not telling me, but I should’ve been the bigger man. Whatever you need me to do for your sister, I will.”
“We all will,” I say. “No matter how it came about or how foolish our old man was, you’re Calhouns. We take care of each other.”
“Thank you,” Noah says.
“Write down the name of Jane’s doctors. I’ll contact them and find out what tests they need to run.” Wyatt hands him pen and paper.
“Where is Jane?” Clem asks.
“Back home, in Texas.”
“When she’s ready, tell her she has brothers and sisters that want to meet her,” Ellie adds.
“I will.”
“There’s no need for you to stay at the Magnolia any longer. Watkins will make Ian fire you.”
Ian nods in agreement.
“You can stay at the main house with me until we’ve done everything we need for you and Jane,” Daddy says.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. He needs to get to know you in doses.” Clem isn’t going to cut the old man any slack.
“He can stay at 102 with me,” Ethan volunteers.
“That would be great. Thank you,” Noah says.
Chapter Eleven
Ellie
“I swear, if I hear our old man put down any one of us for our mistakes ever again, his shotgun is going to be put to good use.” I storm out of Wyatt’s place with Ian right behind me.
“I need to speak to you.” He catches me by the arm.
“No time for talking. I need to get to work before Watkins becomes suspicious.”
“You need to quit working for him before things get too dangerous.”
I spin around to face him. “You think because you fucked me, you have the right to tell me what to do?”
He takes a step back as if I’d slapped him. “I’d like to think it was more than that to you.” A hurtful look mars his beautiful face before his gaze averts to the ground.
I reach out to touch his hand, but he flinches away. “It was more.”
He digs his boot into the dirt. “You and I need to have a conversation before it happens again.”
I softly lay my hand on his stubbled cheek. “Why do we need to talk? There’s no issue between us in bed.”
He jerks his head away. “I left because you couldn’t simply say three words to me. It’s still what I need from you. So, unless we talk, this thing between us is over.” His mismatched eyes look back and forth between mine.
“You deemed us over when you left.” I get in my car, slamming the door. I go to back out, and Ian is jumping into the passenger side. “What the hell, Ian? I could’ve run you over!”
He fastens his seat belt. “You’re not getting away that easy.”
“Easy! You think any of this has been easy?” I squeal out of the drive, headed for work.
“Did you ever once stop to think how I felt? Leaving you was the hardest thing I’d ever done.”
I cast an evil glare at him.
“But coming back here is by far the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”
I listen to him ramble.
“When Watkins offered me the contract, I jumped on it for one reason and one reason only. I’d get to be near you again. I’ve been half a man since I left Salt Lick. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t want you. Every time I closed my eyes, there you were, haunting me. I couldn’t even look at another woman without seeing you. I damn near worked myself to death trying to forget you.” He stops for a second, running both hands through his mop of hair.
“Then I come back here and get the lowdown from an old friend on the tales of Ellie Calhoun. Gone is that sweet, innocent girl I left behind. My bad though, I always knew you had a wild side. I just thought it was reserved for us. But no, you flip your skirt for any man with a shiny buckle.”
I stomp on the brakes, and he barely catches the dashboard with his hand, stopping him from slamming his head into it.
“I changed because of you, asshole! You left, taking my innocence with you. I wanted you, then I hated you. Living without your touch drove me mad. I needed to wipe you from my skin, and the best way to do that was to find someone else!”
“And did you?” He unbuckles.
“No.” I hang my head in shame. “Lord knows I tried. None of them made me feel the way you did.”
He scoots closer to me. “How did I make you feel, Ellie?”
“Loved,” I sniff.
“That’s all I ever wanted from you.” He brushes back a tendril of my hair.
“Why couldn’t you feel it? Every time I was near you, my heart pitter-patted. You’d make me lose my breath, and my skin would feel like it was on fire. You wouldn’t even have to look at me, and I knew what you were feeling. I wanted to be the air you were breathing. Hell, I was even jealous of the clothes that laid against your skin.” I face him.
“And when you left me, I didn’t think it was real. I thought you’d come back and beg my forgiveness.” I wipe away a tear. “I would’ve done it too, even though I could hardly stand the thought that you were laying next to someone else at night. You didn’t come back here to tell me how miserable you were without me. Instead, you slipped back in without a word, the same way you left me. Why weren’t all those things enough for you to know how I felt without speaking them?” My voice is thick with so many raw emotions.
“Because I need to hear them. Still do.”
Gawd, I love this man even after all the heartache. I slip my fingers between the buttons of my blouse, undoing them.
“What are you doing, Ellie?” His words are a warning, but his gaze is glued to my chest.
“I’m showing you how I still feel.” I take his hand, placing it on my thigh.
He swallows hard as his fingers press into my skin. For a moment, he’s with me, then he draws his hand away as if he’s been singed. “No. This is not what I want.”
I reach between his legs, firmly grasping his manhood. “I beg to differ with you.”
“You and I will not have sex again until I get what I need from you.” He moves quickly, opening the door.
“You’re seriously leaving me agai
n?” I yell.
“I’m not leaving town. You know where to find me.” His turn to slam the door on me.
I roll down the window. “I hate you, Ian Daughtry.” I childishly show him my middle finger.
“Well, I hate you too,” he barks back, stomping back to the ranch.
I drive off, watching him through the rearview mirror. His entire body is tight with anger as he moves until he makes it to the ranch sign. He places one hand on the wooden pole and hangs his head. His body relaxes, and his head slightly bobs.
My breath gets caught in my lungs, trying to hold back my tears. I want to go back to him, but my car seems to have a mind of its own as it heads further down the road.
I dry my tears before I walk into the building. Watkins is chatting with his secretary when I try to ease by him without saying a word.
“Ellie. Do you have a minute? I’d like to discuss an issue with you.”
I know he’s not really asking. Plastering on a fake smile, I change directions and go to his office. I sit, crossing my legs, and smooth my skirt down. I have to keep myself from stiffening when his fingers squeeze my shoulder.
“I’m so thankful you weren’t part of your brother’s illegal entry into my home last night. You wouldn’t happen to know what he was searching for?”
“As you just said, I wasn’t part of his scheming.” I tilt my head up to look at him.
“I’ve tightened up my security at the office. Cameras are being installed as we speak.” He skirts around the desk to sit.
“I’m sure my brother learned a lesson.”
“One of Ian’s men was with him.”
“Are you pressing charges?”
He picks up a pen, clicking it a few times. “No. Mr. Mayor convinced me not to. Nothing was stolen.” He opens up his laptop. “I have a company I want to purchase seventy-five percent of their shares.”
“So call your stockbroker.”
“I need you to move money for me to make the purchase.”
“How much money are we talking about?”
“Two million.”
“You don’t have enough liquid assets to come up with that amount of cash.”
“I emailed you the name of an investor. He’ll give me whatever I need.”
“What company are you purchasing?”
