Tempting in Texas

by Delores Fossen

  Shaw.

  He cleared his throat, and when Cait managed to get her vision clear, she saw he was in the yard. He had a toolbox in one hand and was sporting an expression of brotherly disapproval. Of course, that only made her want to French Hayes just to show Shaw that he didn’t have any say in her love life. Or rather her kissing life. But she wasn’t stupid and didn’t want to get scorched playing with the fire whose name was Hayes Dalton.

  Hayes looked back at Shaw but didn’t offer any kind of apology, either. “I was just asking Cait out on a date.”

  Shaw’s eyebrow rose while his mouth bent into a deeper frown. “If I tell her that’s a shitty idea, she’ll do it to spite me.”

  Her brother clearly knew her well.

  “So,” Shaw went on, “it’s a shitty idea.”

  The smile he added to that had her doing a mental double take. Was this some kind of reverse-reverse psychology, or did he actually want her to go on a date, one that was probably a shitty idea, with Hayes? She doubted it was the latter. After all, Shaw knew Hayes’s reputation when it came to women, so it was obvious that her brother was trying to be sneaky.

  “All right,” Cait said, flashing her own smile. “Hayes, I’ll go out with you.”

  She wasn’t sure who was more surprised by her acceptance, Shaw or Hayes, but Hayes quickly recovered. “Friday night around six?” he asked, quickly nailing down the date and time.

  “That works for me,” she assured him, keeping her gloating gaze on Shaw.

  However, Shaw was no longer looking at her. He had his attention on the white sedan that was turning into the driveway. It wasn’t a vehicle that Cait recognized, but it could be someone who’d come for ranch business with Shaw. Or maybe even a “fan,” since her brothers had been getting a lot of press because of the upcoming weddings.

  The car pulled to a stop, and even though the driver turned off the engine, it took several long moments before she stepped out. Correction—before they stepped out. It was a silver-haired woman who appeared to be in her sixties and a lanky teenage boy with dark brown hair. They both took deep breaths before they started walking toward the house.

  “Can I help you?” Shaw asked, but then she saw her brother freeze. It was almost comical the way his mouth dropped open.

  Almost.

  But Cait figured her own mouth had done some dropping open as well before the muttered cursing started. Not just from her but also from Shaw.

  “What?” Hayes asked, following her gaze to the approaching visitors.

  Cait hadn’t thought Hayes would see the connection that Shaw and she had already made. After all, Cait and her brothers had had a lot of experience with this sort of thing. Still, Hayes worked it out, no doubt when he saw the strong family resemblance between the boy, Shaw and her.

  She went down the porch steps, not hurrying—more like resigned—and she joined Shaw in the yard. Neither of them said anything. They just waited for this particular bowling ball to come rolling at them.

  “I’m Debra Randall,” the woman greeted them, her voice cracking. “You’re Marty’s children?”

  “Yes,” Cait verified. “This is my brother Shaw, and I’m Cait.”

  Like her voice, Debra’s nod was plenty shaky. So was her hand that fluttered toward the boy. “This is Adam Wallis. He’s, uh—”

  “My father’s son,” Cait provided, and she bit back the litany of curse words she wanted to aim at Marty. Shit on a stick, would the man never learn to keep his jeans zipped?

  Debra shook her head. “No.”

  Cait cut off the spate of mental profanity that was about to flow and did another double take of the boy. He was about thirteen or fourteen, she guessed, and he had the same color of hair as Shaw and her. Same gray eyes, too. He was also the spitting image of her dear ol’ dad.

  “Not Marty’s son,” Debra corrected. “This is his grandson.”

  “Oh,” Cait muttered, and that was pretty much all she managed to get out.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to need to ask a big favor,” Debra continued. “I’m going to need Marty to take temporary custody of Adam.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  FOR YEARS, HAYES had heard about the steady flow of Marty’s offspring showing up in Lone Star Ridge, but apparently he was now a firsthand witness to it.

  Or rather a witness to the next generation of the man’s offspring.

  Hayes was betting that Cait and her brother hadn’t seen that one coming. But it made sense in a Marty sort of way. Marty was in his sixties, and since he’d been sleeping around for decades, it seemed inevitable that one of his “love” children would have a child of their own.

  “You want Marty to take custody of him?” Cait repeated. “Of Adam?” she amended, staring at the boy.

  Adam, however, didn’t look at Cait or Shaw. He was doing some serious gaze dodging, along with looking as if he wanted to be anywhere but here.

  Debra nodded. “I don’t have any other options. Marty has to take Adam for a couple of months.” She wasn’t dodging anyone’s gaze. In fact, she continued to shift direct eye contact between Cait and Shaw. “May we go inside and talk?”

  Shaw didn’t budge because he might be considering if this would upset his mother. Then again, this whole offspring showing up wouldn’t be Lenore’s first rodeo.

  “Mom and the others are in the dining room,” Hayes heard Cait tell Shaw. “Doing wedding stuff,” she said to Debra. “Shaw can’t go in there because his fiancée doesn’t want him to see the dress.”

  Shaw nodded, and he motioned for Debra and Adam to follow him. “We’ll go in through the kitchen,” Shaw suggested. Then he added to Cait, “Let the others know what’s going on but tell them to stay put. I’ll handle this.”

  After some hesitation of her own, Cait mumbled an agreement. “Go with Shaw,” she whispered to Hayes. “I’ll be there in a few minutes,” she added and then went back into the house through the front door.

  Hayes couldn’t imagine why Cait would think he would be of any help when it came to something like this. But then maybe she just wanted Shaw to have some moral support while she dealt with her mother. With Kinsley, too. After all, Adam was the girl’s nephew.

  Debra fell in step with Shaw as he started toward the back of the sprawling house. Hayes trailed along with Adam. The boy glanced at Hayes, and when Adam did a quick double take, Hayes saw the recognition in his eyes.

  “You’re Slade McClendon,” the boy said with a little awe in his voice. “I mean, that’s who you play on Outlaw Rebels.”

  Since the kid looked as if he could use it, Hayes smiled and extended his hand in a friendly greeting. “I’m Hayes Dalton.”

  For the first time since Adam had stepped from the car, he seemed to relax a little. It didn’t last. After the handshake, they walked into the Jameson kitchen, and Hayes could practically see the nerves jumping off the boy.

  “Have a seat,” Shaw offered, motioning for them to sit at the table that was just as sprawling as the rest of the house. “You want something to drink?”

  Debra shook her head. Adam muttered something that sounded like a no. They sat, but Shaw poured himself a glass of ice water and was probably wishing it was a stiff shot of whiskey. Hayes helped himself to a Coke and got out two extras in case Adam and Debra changed their minds.

  “This is my soon-to-be brother-in-law, Hayes Dalton,” Shaw said, making introductions. He stayed standing.

  Debra gave him a polite nod, and as Adam had done moments earlier, Hayes saw the recognition hit her. “Yes. I’ve read about you. I’m sorry about your friend dying. Ivy Malloy. The stories say you’re having a hard time getting over her death.”

  Hayes hadn’t expected Ivy’s name to come up, so he hadn’t steeled himself for it. As always, he felt the thick layer of grief wash over him. This wasn’t about him, he reminded himself, but o
bviously the tabloids were still playing up the story. And as long as they did, there’d be people like Debra doling out sympathy. Most people meant well, but each reminder was like getting a sucker punch to his cracked ribs.

  “Thank you,” Hayes muttered to the woman, even though he certainly wasn’t grateful to her for bringing up the subject.

  Debra nodded again and turned her attention back to Shaw. She also dragged in a long breath. “Marty and I were together years ago. I read about his engagement to your mom the day I found out I was pregnant. I didn’t want to disrupt his life, so I didn’t tell him. My daughter, Renee, is Marty’s daughter and Adam’s mother.”

  Hayes didn’t want to pass judgment on someone he’d just met, but he hoped like hell no woman ever did that to him. If he had a kid, he’d want to know about it. Then again, he wasn’t Marty Jameson. Marty probably considered it a blessing that Debra had kept such monumental news to herself.

  “I never got married,” Debra went on. “Neither did Adam’s mother. Adam’s father has never been in the picture, and I don’t even know how to get in touch with him. I don’t have anyone else to turn to.” She paused, swallowed hard.

  “My mom’s in jail,” Adam filled in for his grandmother just as Cait walked into the kitchen.

  Hayes had to hand it to her. Cait didn’t look shocked at the jail revelation. Then again, they’d dealt with a lot of fallout from Marty’s crap over the years, so maybe this was a version of old news. Marty was the one person who could give his own mom a run for the “worst parent ever” title. At least, though, Marty hadn’t robbed his kids the way Sunshine had, but then, to the best of his knowledge, Sunshine hadn’t left a string of offspring.

  “The others won’t come in here,” Cait relayed to her brother. She took Hayes’s Coke, downed a long gulp the way one would take bad medicine and turned back to Adam. “Your mom’s in jail?” she repeated, no doubt to prompt the boy to continue.

  However, it was Debra who took up the explanation. “Renee and I had a little flower shop in San Antonio. We worked hard at it, built it from scratch, but we allowed the wrong person to help us run it.”

  “My mom’s boyfriend, Eddie,” Adam supplied, his voice a disapproving grumble.

  Debra nodded. “Renee and I had Eddie manage our finances, and he used our business. Used us,” she amended and then paused. “We were all convicted of money laundering.”

  Hayes held back a wince. It wasn’t the most serious crime you could be arrested for, but it was still big.

  “Eddie got the longest sentence, ten years,” Debra continued. “Renee got six months and has already started serving her time. I have to surrender myself next week. I only got three months, and the court gave me some time to put our personal matters in order.”

  Hayes didn’t have any trouble following the dots on this one. Neither did Cait. Adam was the personal matter, and that’s why Debra had brought him here.

  “And you thought Marty would take his grandson for those three months,” Cait summarized.

  Debra’s next nod was even shakier, and she was blinking back tears. “Marty wouldn’t have to do much, just give Adam a safe place to stay. I’ve already gotten permission from his school so he can take his courses online.” Her words ran together with her rushed breathing. “I’ve been trying to find someone else to take Adam, but I don’t have anyone. I asked the parents of all of Adam’s friends, but—”

  “I don’t have friends anymore now that my mom’s in jail,” Adam interrupted.

  Kids could be Satan’s spawn when it came to things like this, but Hayes suspected those kids’ parents wouldn’t want to take in Adam when his mom and grandmother were criminals.

  “Then I read in one of the tabloids that Marty was raising a child, a teenager, who he recently found out was his,” Debra went on. “So I thought maybe he could take Adam for a little while, too.”

  Cait’s face and entire body language was a scowl. “The tabloids got it wrong. Marty didn’t take in a teenager. My mother, Shaw and his fiancée are raising my sister, Kinsley.”

  “Oh, I see.” Debra’s voice had gone even quieter, and she was losing the battle on blinking back those tears.

  “Gram, they don’t want me here,” Adam said. No tears for him. No bitterness, either, though Hayes thought it wouldn’t be an overreaction for the kid to feel some of that, what with his mom and grandmother headed off to jail.

  “It’s not that,” Cait insisted. She stopped scowling when she turned to Adam. In fact, she seemed to turn a little sisterly. There was plenty of sympathy in the look she gave him. “It’s just that Marty doesn’t live here. He doesn’t really live anywhere. He owns several houses, but he’s rarely in any of them. He spends most of his time in his tour bus.”

  Debra nodded. “But one of the articles said he’d be back for his sons’ weddings. Since that’s only in a couple of weeks, I thought he might be around.”

  “He might come,” Shaw said on a huff. “Or not. Marty’s not reliable.” He took out his phone. “But I’ll try to call him.”

  “No, I’ll do it,” Cait insisted. She yanked her phone from her pocket and walked out.

  If there were a picture of awkward silence, Hayes decided it would be what was going on in the kitchen right now. Debra was obviously humiliated and desperate. And Hayes had to feel for the boy, especially since he doubted Marty would just come rushing back to help.

  Cait might have stepped out to have some privacy when she made the call, but she hadn’t gone nearly far enough into the house. Her voice carried into the kitchen, and all of them heard her once the conversation got started. It was possible that people two counties away had heard it.

  “Your grandson’s here and he needs your help,” Cait snapped, and then she paused, obviously listening to what her father had to say. “That’s right, your grandson.” Another pause. “Debra Randall.” More pausing. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember her because this kid is your grandson. He’s the spitting image of you.”

  He was. Hayes thought Marty wouldn’t dispute that if he got one glimpse of Adam.

  “You need to come back to the ranch and deal with this,” Cait added to her father several seconds later. “Adam’s grandmother and mother are in legal trouble, and they need a place for him to stay for a while.” A very long pause followed. “No, you need to come back now. Not your agent. Not a friend. And that’s now as in normal time, not Marty Jameson time of whenever it suits you.”

  Hayes didn’t need to hear Marty’s side of the conversation to know that the man was trying to put Cait off, and he wondered just how often they’d gone through similar conversations.

  Shaw groaned when he heard Cait grumble some profanity, and on a heavy sigh, he excused himself and went in the direction of his sister’s voice. Hayes considered starting some small talk with Debra and Adam, but he doubted it would help put them at ease. The boy’s immediate future was on the line here, and Cait’s call was the focus of their attention.

  “I didn’t have Marty’s number,” Debra said softly. “Do you think it would help if I tried to talk to him?”

  Considering that Marty didn’t seem to even remember the woman, the answer to that was no. “It’s probably best to let Cait and Shaw handle this,” Hayes settled for saying.

  “No, you can’t wait until the weddings to come,” Cait told her father. Whatever Marty’s response was, it caused both Shaw and her to groan. “For once in your life,” Cait snapped, “man up and do the right thing by at least one person in your gene pool.”

  Debra and Adam probably thought Cait was being rude by speaking to Marty like that, but they didn’t know the family history/gene pool that Marty had created.

  “I didn’t want to cause trouble for anyone,” Adam murmured just as Shaw came back into the kitchen.

  “You didn’t,” Shaw assured him. “None of this is your fault,
and we’ll work it out.”

  Hayes wondered how many times Shaw had said that, too. Plenty. And, yep, for the most part, he’d worked it out with the help of his siblings. Marty hadn’t raised any of his own kids, but his kids had basically raised each other. Cait hadn’t credited herself with that when she’d named who was taking care of Kinsley. Cait did plenty for her sister. Just as she’d likely do plenty for Adam.

  Cait was a little flushed when she came back in and muttered, “Sorry about that. Marty says he’ll try to clear his schedule so he can come home. He’s supposed to call me back to let me know.”

  That was Hayes’s cue to leave and let them finish sorting this out. He wanted to go to Cait and hug her. Wanted to try to cool down that anger he saw bubbling inside her, but she might not appreciate any PDA right now.

  “I should be going,” Hayes said, checking his watch for no particular reason. “I’ll take Em’s truck, and when she’s finished with the sewing, I’ll come back and get her.” He snagged Cait’s gaze. “If I can do anything to help, let me know.”

  He left them there and considered going in to tell Em about the truck, but he wasn’t up to answering any questions about their visitor. That should come from Cait and Shaw once they’d decided how to deal with it. So Hayes left Em a note to let her know he had her truck.

  As expected, he found the keys in the ignition, right where his grandmother always left them because there was no chance of anyone stealing the vehicle. He felt a twinge of pain in his ribs when he shifted the gears on the old manual transmission and started the drive back to Em’s ranch. It was a reminder that he was healing but wasn’t 100 percent. That in turn gave him another reminder of something that’d happened before Adam and his grandmother had shown up.

  His date with Cait.

  Since he wasn’t an idiot, he knew the only reason she had agreed to go out with him was because Shaw had been giving a warning glower. So Hayes owed her “yes” to Cait’s defiant streak, but maybe once he had wined and dined her...