by Juanita Kees
Sheriff Hutchins led her father away. At the door into the showroom, he turned to Ronan. “I’ll need to take a statement from you given that you came here with the intention of aiding your father in this transaction.”
“I had no idea there was money involved.” Ronan’s protest was silenced with a warning look from the sheriff.
“You showed up with him knowing what it was about. That’s enough for me. I’ll give you ten minutes to make your apologies. When you’re done here, come down to the station. Young Mason will bring you in. Don’t even think about trying to leave town,” he warned.
As the showroom door closed behind them, reaction set in, relief flooding Charlie. They’d won. Her baby was safe. She could keep Zoe. Ronan reached out to touch her, but Charlie pulled away. “Don’t touch me.”
He let his hand fall away. “Charlotte, I had no idea what Dad had planned. I swear I never knew about the deal. I can’t believe he’d sink that low.”
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. You’ve been right there with him for years. Making my life hell, making a fool of me at every chance you had.” Years of bottled anger bubbled up and spilled over. “Do you think an apology will be enough? Just because you made one right choice in your life doesn’t mean everything else you’ve done to me is erased, Ronan.”
He toed the floor with his boot. “I get it, Charlotte. I didn’t before, but now I do.”
“Shoulda got your head out your ass a long time ago, Jackson.” Chase’s presence warmed her back, filling her with strength. She leaned into him and welcomed the weight of his arm around her shoulders. “You have got some big bridges to mend.”
Ronan agreed. “I know, but you need to know that it hasn’t been all sunshine, rainbows and lollipops for me either.”
Looking down at Zoe, Charlie sighed. “I don’t know anything of your life because I was never a part of it. I don’t even know you, Ronan. I’m not even sure I want to know you.” Her voice cracked on the words, her throat tight. She looked up to see regret in her brother’s eyes.
“I guess I deserve that.” He blew out a shaky breath. “Maybe one day when things have settled down, you’ll give me a chance to make it right.”
Chase squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, the warmth in them seeping through her. “It’s over, Charlie. Your baby is safe and your future secure. Don’t you think it’s time to let go of the past?”
“I’d like to, but I can’t erase years of bullying and manipulation. We have to find each other again. Find ourselves.”
“Then take that chance with both hands. I know what it’s like to lose a brother and a mother, and I’d give anything to have them back. You have a chance to make things right, be the bigger person. To forgive. You’ve grown so much in the time you’ve been away from them. For the better. Look how much you’ve done for us in the time you’ve been here. Mistakes have been made, Charlie, but you can’t hold that against your brother when some of the choices he made were not his own.”
Charlie looked up at him and soaked up the affection she saw in his eyes. “I need time.”
“Then let your brother stay awhile. Take all the time you need.”
Chase’s arm tightened around her and she pressed closer into his side. “What about the threat to Trinity? Can you forgive him for that? Because I’m not sure I can,” she said.
“What threat?” Ronan shifted closer.
“Don’t pretend you don’t know, Ronan.” Disbelief edged her tone.
“I don’t know. What threat?”
Chase held Charlie a little tighter. “That you would force Trinity off the track if Charlie didn’t obey your father.”
“He said that?” Ronan paced the floor, his hands dragging through his hair. “Damn it, Charlotte, I’d never do that.” He turned back to her. “You know how it works out there on the track. You’re blind without the spotters telling you what’s happening around you. Dad tells me the moves to make and when to make them. And, yes, some of those moves caused crashes, but I never once had reason to believe they were anything more than miscalculations. Mistakes. That’s what racing is all about—skill, error, winning beyond all the odds against you. When you’re so close in a pack, one wrong move is all it takes. Adrenalin takes over and someone else has to do the thinking for you. I was cleared of all fault by the race officials.”
Chase shook his head. “Your father has been doing your thinking for a long time, even off the track. I think we proved here today that he has at least one of the officials tied up and more on the take. You and your sister have been puppets under his control for a long time, Ronan. It’s time to cut those strings.”
Ronan nodded. “I can start by going down to the station and giving my statement. Start sorting things out.”
Chase pressed a kiss to Charlie’s forehead. “Good idea. Now we’ve got some sorting out of our own to do. Will you trust Carter to take Zoe, Charlie? They’ll go over and hang out at Molly’s while Mason walks Ronan to the sheriff’s office.”
“Why Carter? Are you saying I’m not grown up enough to handle a baby? Carter’s younger than me and he’s the one with the gun,” Mason protested.
“Yeah, that’s not it, Mase. Have you seen your hands? Carter’s are at least clean.” Chase took the shotgun from Carter’s hands, unloaded it, and placed it against the pickup. “And we’re not going to need the shotgun. Not today.”
Mason studied his hands, covered in grime from working on his pickup. “Right,” he agreed, drawing the word out.
Charlie handed Zoe over to Carter. “You take good care of her, okay?” She reached out to hug Marty hard. “Thank you for having my back. We have a lot to learn from your family.”
“You are our family now.” Marty patted her hand then followed his sons out the door.
Charlie watched them leave the garage, comfortable in the knowledge her baby would be safe in the hands of her new family. She turned to Chase and found him leaning against Mason’s pickup, arms folded, boots crossed at the ankles.
“It’s all over,” he murmured, arms folded over the Calhoun logo on his chest.
“I guess. I don’t know what to think.”
“There’s a lot to work through. It’s not going to be an easy time ahead.”
She studied his face, the frown on his brow, the eyes that knew her deepest secrets and had seen her worst scars. “I have bridges to mend too. I thought my mother was simply cold and distant, disinterested in her children. More interested in her celebrity lifestyle. If only she’d told me, but she was never one for heart-to-heart talks.”
“Keeping secrets would do that. She’s had a lifetime of pretending to be someone she’s not. Not too different from you, Charlie.” He held out his hands for hers.
“I guess you can never tell what’s behind the masks people wear, can you?” She stepped closer to him.
“And now it’s time to throw those masks away and start afresh.” He uncrossed his boots.
“I like it here. Bigfork feels like home in a way Florida never did.”
“Then stay.” He smiled that smile that made her heart leap.
She took another step closer, boot-to-boot with him. “Where will Zoe and I stay?”
“Where do you want to be?”
“With you. In the cabin on the ranch.”
He spread his legs, held open his arms for her to step into warmth of the space he created. “I think I can work with that. But we’re moving to your room. I don’t want you up and down the stairs in the night, checking on Zoe. I’ll add another room for her. Maybe a few more bedrooms too. Are you okay with that?”
She linked her fingers behind his head, brought her face close to his. “How many bedrooms?”
“Does six seem like a good number?” He whispered the question against her lips, making her shiver.
She pressed further into his embrace as his arms tightened around her. “I think it’s a good solid number.”
“I think we should get some practice in.
I know a place upstairs with an old back seat out of a Dodge Charger. It’s where I found a sandwich thief once.”
Charlie grinned against his lips, love for him warming her through, chasing away the last shadows of doubt. “I love you, Chase Calhoun. And your crazy brothers. And your father and Molly. For the first time in my life, I feel like I truly belong, that I finally have a real family.”
“A custom-designed family.” He kissed her long and slow, heat simmering between them with all the time in the world to ignite to a flame. She sank into the taste and feel of him, his hands and the magic they weaved on her skin. “How long do you think they’ll give us alone?” he asked, coming up for air.
“I hope at least a little while, because I’ve got a lot to thank you for right now. But I’ve got a lifetime for that.” She let her hands trace the contours of his face, a view she would wake up to every morning for a lifetime.
His hands cupped her hips, traced her curves until he reached the zipper on her denims. He pressed his face into her throat and trailed kisses along her skin. “I love you, Charlotte Jackson.”
“Charlie. Charlotte ran away and grew up. Charlie is here to stay.”
“Charlie Jackson, will you stay with me forever and steal my chicken salad sandwiches for the rest of our lives? In return, I will love you for who you truly are and be the best dad to Zoe I could possibly be.”
“How can I refuse an offer like that? Charlie Calhoun—custom designer, wife, partner, future mother to another generation of Calhouns. It has a nice ring to it.”
She kissed him until the last of her fears faded, happy he held her tight because her knees had turned liquid. She didn’t object when he swept her up in his arms and carried her to the back of the garage, or when he made her walk up the stairs to the attic, staying close behind her in case she took a misstep.
And when they reached the seat of the Charger with the blanket still thrown across it, he whispered, “The ghosts are gone, Charlie. I’m no longer afraid of the attic. And it’s all because I found you here.”
Love filled her heart. “I’m glad.” And when she kissed him to make him forget any fears that remained, she could have sworn she heard his mother’s sigh, before it faded, and the only sounds left were their own whispers.
The End
Book 2: Fast Lane
Trinity Calhoun is a name everyone knows on the race circuit, but her days in the hot seat are numbered. She’s tired of the limelight, meaningless relationships and long hours behind the wheel. When her father calls her home, she’s ready. She slips right back into the family business, finishing off the custom car projects her father has lined up. But racing is in her blood and she’s lured back to risking her life on the hot rod drag strips outside of town. It’s there she meets paramedic and volunteer firefighter, Reece Balmain, who has her re-thinking the road her life is taking.
Reece Balmain arrives in Bigfork a broken man. He’s lived and breathed through horrific accidents, haunted by the faces of the people he’s cut from vehicles. He knows one thing–speed kills. He’s hoping not to see too much of it in small-town Montana, until he hears about the drag races taking place outside of town. He knows Trinity Calhoun. He’s watched her race, seen her win, held his breath when her car somersaulted into barriers at Daytona Beach. He doesn’t like what she does, but he can’t stay away from the woman who’s claimed his heart.
Calhoun Custom Garage Series
Book 1: Overdrive
View the series here!
Book 2: Fast Lane
Buy now!
Book 3: Coming soon
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About the Author
Juanita graduated from the Australian College QED, Bondi with a diploma in Proofreading, Editing and Publishing, and achieved her dream of becoming a published author in 2012 with the release of her debut romantic suspense, Fly Away Peta (recently re-released as Under Shadow of Doubt).
Under the Hood followed in 2013 as one of the first releases from Harlequin’s digital pioneer, Escape Publishing.
In 2014 Juanita was nominated for the Lynn Wilding (Romance Writers of Australia) Volunteer Award, and was a finalist in the Romance Writers Australia Romantic Book of the Year and the Australian Romance Readers Awards in 2014 and 2016. Her small-town romances have made the Amazon bestseller and top 100 lists. Juanita writes mostly contemporary and rural romantic suspense but also likes to dabble in the ponds of Paranormal with Greek gods brought to life in the 21st century.
She escapes the real world to write stories starring spirited heroines who give the hero a run for his money before giving in. When she’s not writing, Juanita is mother to three boys and a Daschund named Sam, and has a passion for fast cars and country living.
Author Site: juanitakees.com
Facebook: facebook.com/juanitakeesauthor
Twitter: @juanitakees