Unexpected Vows

by Paige, Victoria

“Can I take this glass to my room?”

  “Go ahead.”

  Colt and I watched his retreating back, then we watched each other, remnants of our earlier sexual encounter lingering in the air.

  “Ass?” I said.

  “What?”

  “You said kicked the ass. Language, Montgomery.”

  “Saying ‘butt’ is so wrong,” he murmured in a wry smile. Looking at me beneath his thick lashes and clasping his nape, he asked, “So, are we going to talk about it?”

  “What? How we nearly scarred an eight-year-old boy for life if he’d found us making out on the couch? A few minutes more and he’d be needing therapy.”

  He smirked. “I wasn’t the one who tried to get me naked.”

  Shaking my head, I left him in the kitchen and walked to the living room. I threw back my remaining whiskey, grabbed my messenger bag, and slung it over my shoulder. I felt Colt behind me before I turned.

  “Look,” he said. “I only meant to kiss you and even that wasn’t planned, but you went from zero to sixty. You expect me not to respond to that?”

  “Uh … yes?” This was said with a brow-lift.

  “Not made of stone, babe.”

  “No more late-night whiskey while lounging on the couch,” I decreed.

  “We’ll just have to be more creative,” Colt muttered.

  I really wondered how parents with children managed to have sex. They did have to be creative.

  “I’m going to bed. Might be the best idea at this point.” And maybe take care of myself in bed with my trusty vibrator. My skin prickled with the need to be touched.

  “Don’t trust your self-control around me?”

  I stared mournfully at the delectable man in front of me and remembered the warmth of his skin under my fingers. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  This time, it was Colt who quirked a brow. “Yeah? Then mind telling me why you’re staring at me as if you want to eat me up?” His heated gaze dropped to my mouth.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” I mumbled and tried to push past him, but he body-checked me.

  “I know this is not the time to push you,” he said gently. “But don’t think I’m going to let you make this little incident more than it is. We’re just navigating us at the same time we’re figuring out how to handle the kids.”

  “You make it sound so easy.”

  Colt let go of my arm. “The only easy day was yesterday.” He planted a chaste kiss on my lips. “Sweet dreams, Kate.”

  He backed away for three steps, holding my eyes, before he turned and walked into his study.

  I watched his door close as I touched where he kissed me. My heart skipped. I had a physical not too long ago and I knew for sure I didn’t have arrhythmia. Nope, these irregular heartbeats were something else. I was falling for the handsome rancher. Whether my developing feelings had staying power, or if they were simply a chemical reaction that would burn fast and fizzle faster, remained to be seen. As I made my way to my room, I found myself grinning like an idiot.

  13

  Kate

  Over the next two weeks, Colt and I fell into a routine so we could give the twins a semblance of stability. Colt was an early riser. By five a.m. he’d head out for a run or hit the gym at the Annex. For the first few days, I tried to cook breakfast and failed miserably. The kids ended up eating Pop-Tarts or Eggo waffles. After I nearly torched the house by causing a grease fire attempting to cook bacon, Colt decided to step in. I wanted to cry in frustration, but sucked it up when I saw Josh’s worried expression.

  Colt declared breakfast his domain and I thought it was fair because I got to spend all day with the twins. The kids loved their lunchtime meals at the bunkhouse, and, more recently, our trips into town. Working on Josh’s exposure to people, we visited the town’s laundromat before graduating to more challenging environments like the general store and the diner during peak hours.

  The admiral had given us the all clear to take the twins outside of Misty Grove. I wondered about the threat from Alex. I didn’t fear my ex-lover, but I was certain the CIA struck a deal with Russian Intelligence. My distrust of the agency reared its ugly head, but I stilled myself from saying anything to Colt, gauging just how far his loyalties were to the admiral.

  Would he choose me and the twins over Porter’s agenda?

  I’d worry about that later. My focus was getting a handle on Josh’s empathic skills. One morning we took on the mall.

  “Wow, this is bigger than Walmart,” Liv breathed. I pulled my Suburban into a parking spot close to the entrance of the food court.

  I looked at the rearview mirror. Olivia—or Liv as I now called her, still needed a booster seat and had her face plastered against the window. Josh was tall enough not to require one.

  “You ready for this, Josh?”

  “Not really,” he muttered. I could see the top of his head behind me.

  “You can do it, Joshy,” Liv said.

  “Say the word, kiddo, and we can go home.”

  Liv huffed and I shot her a sharp look. She squinted a look at her brother instead.

  “I guess we can try it,” he said.

  “Yay.” Liv unbuckled her belt.

  “Wait for me to get out of the car,” I warned.

  Did Olivia listen? Of course she didn’t. She simply opened the door and hopped out the vehicle. Her brother exited slowly and when I saw his expression, I almost called the whole trip off.

  The poor boy was green around the gills.

  It was Wednesday around noon. The mall wasn’t as busy as it was on the weekends, but there was enough foot traffic from the lunchtime crowd to challenge my empath.

  I put my arm around Josh and ushered him to the front of the vehicle. Olivia was nowhere in sight. My heart jumped out of my chest as I frantically looked ahead.

  Her golden curls bounced as she ran up to the mall’s sidewalk.

  “I’m going to murder your sister,” I mumbled. Technically she was old enough to handle herself in a crowd as long as I could see her. With the twins’ sheltered background I realized there could be only two reactions. They could be cautious around people or they could throw caution to the wind. The difficult part was the twins were on opposite ends of the spectrum. One barreled ahead while the other stuck to my side like a barnacle. If only I could split myself in two.

  “Olivia!” Josh called.

  She turned to face us and rested her hands on her hips, impatience written all over her face.

  I sighed. This was going to be an interesting field trip.

  We finally caught up with her and entered the mall together. The food court was buzzing with people. A corner was sectioned off as a children’s area and it was already filled with young kids. Parents gathered around the perimeter. A mom in yoga pants was talking to a pregnant woman who looked big enough to give birth. A man with glasses sat on a bench fiddling on his phone. And yet another woman stood by herself, keeping an eagle eye on her kid. I grinned at the disparity of parenting attention.

  I glanced at Josh.

  “Okay?”

  He nodded jerkily. Josh still looked like he was about to puke, and he was staring at the Asian couple who was arguing at one of the fast-food kiosks.

  “Tune them out,” I said.

  “Trying,” he mumbled but I felt him grow more agitated.

  A child wailed and screamed.

  Olivia looked worriedly at her brother.

  “Come on.” I led Josh away from the food court and kept my own apprehension in check. A water fountain stood right at the entrance to the dining area.

  Perfect.

  “Listen to the sound of water, Josh.”

  “They’re too loud.” He scrunched his face in the direction of the stimulus.

  “Try,” I said firmly.

  “I can’t …”

  “Try …” I repeated. “Remember at the laundromat when there was this couple who was fighting?”

  “Yes.”

  “What
did you do?”

  “I watched the dryer spinning, listening to its sound.”

  “Why not this fountain?”

  Josh moved away from me and went around the fountain so it was between him and the food court. Several people were sitting down on its ledge and, after debating where to settle, he sat beside a bald man with a goatee. Josh stared ahead where there was a steady influx of people going in and out of the mall. His lips were moving.

  Was he counting? Chanting?

  Whatever he did, after maybe five minutes, his shoulders relaxed. He looked at me and gave me a thumbs-up. He was still pale, but he didn’t appear upset.

  “Ready to go back to the food court?”

  He frowned, but eventually nodded.

  It took several attempts, helped along by the fact that Olivia was about to throw a tantrum because she was getting hungry. This gave her brother enough incentive to brave the food court again and we’d gotten through the experience okay.

  We ate. Children cried. Josh winced, but he didn’t feel the need to escape.

  “You like music, right?” I motioned for him to pick up their tray so we could dispose of our trash.

  His green eyes lit up and he grinned wide. Josh liked listening to music on Colt’s entertainment center. He was too young to contemplate getting him a smartphone, but one of those portable music players and a good set of noise-cancelling headphones should be okay.

  “Come on. I have an idea,” I said.

  We headed to the escalator adjacent to the food court. Josh and Olivia were chatting and I smiled at the success of our little field trip. At the bottom of the escalator, I motioned for the kids to go ahead. Josh stepped on, Olivia was hesitant, but I gave her a nudge that was more like a shove. She turned to glare at me and I frowned, wondering why I had pushed her.

  A blond woman in the opposite escalator drew my gaze.

  A woman who looked exactly like me and who was staring at me.

  Her hair was perfectly styled, her off-the-shoulder white dress showed off perfect skin.

  Holy crap! Is this Mya?

  We passed each other on the escalator, and I smiled weakly before forcing myself to look away.

  I couldn’t define what was between Colt and me just yet, but coming face-to-face with his ex—if indeed that was Mya—was weird.

  The kids seemed oblivious to my turmoil and were more interested in the Disney characters hanging from the rafters. When we reached the second floor, the kids immediately skipped ahead.

  Cursing at my distraction, I hurried after them.

  * * *

  “How did it go?” Colt asked me later that evening.

  I saw your ex. I tried not to dwell on seeing Mya, after all he dated her because of me.

  But what bothered me more was my malicious impatience with Olivia.

  “Fine,” I replied curtly, not looking at him. I pretended to be occupied by what the kids were doing with Millie. We were in the kitchen at the diner. Millie was showing the kids how to make homemade ice cream.

  “Okay,” he said in that firm no-nonsense tone. “What’s going on?”

  “Did Josh show you his headphones?” I rebutted instead.

  “You know he did,” Colt replied. “You were there, and, yet, not there.” His hand gripped my bicep and turned me so I was facing him. “You’re miles away, Goldilocks. Tired?”

  I took the easy way out. “Yeah.”

  Colt inclined his head then looked over to the three ice cream makers. “Millie, I’m taking Kate out for dinner.”

  Millie glanced up and scowled. “You do know, Montgomery, that this is a diner?”

  Colt chuckled. “No offense, but sometimes we crave mediocre food, not the exalted perfection of your cuisine.”

  Despite myself, I couldn’t help smiling.

  The other woman rolled her eyes. “You’re so full of shit. Go. Shoo. I’ll take the kids home.”

  “Thanks, Millie,” he said, grabbing my hand.

  “You two behave,” I called to the twins as I was pulled out of the kitchen.

  Josh barely acknowledged me; Olivia continued looking at the simmering pan of custard.

  “Wow! To be so quickly reduced to chopped liver,” I quipped before noticing my feet shuffling faster than a walk to the door would normally take. “Why do I feel like we’re a couple of teenagers escaping from the eyes of a parent?”

  I saw the brief flash of a grin as he pushed the diner door open.

  “Taking advantage of a babysitter.” We reached his Raptor and he opened the passenger door.

  “Millie is not a babysitter,” I chided.

  “Up you go,” Colt said, boosting me into the truck, his hands warm against the curve of my hips.

  “I can climb in fine, you know? You just want to cop a feel.”

  He winked before he shut the door, then I proceeded to admire the ease with how his muscular frame rounded the truck and climbed in beside me. If I were a teenager, I’d say I was crushing on Colt Montgomery.

  “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “I’m really not that hungry.”

  Colt cast me a look. In the dim light of the cabin, I was pretty sure it was one of exasperation. I huffed and shrugged instead.

  “Something’s bothering you,” Colt said. He was staring straight at the road, but his voice was steely.

  “I’m just not sure I’m the right person to raise the kids,” I admitted.

  “It’s normal to have some doubts.”

  “I got impatient with Olivia and pushed her onto the escalator,” I blurted out.

  “Was it a nudge?”

  “More like a shove.”

  “Have you been beating yourself up this whole time because of it?”

  “Stop with that gentle tone,” I snapped. Then I saw where the truck turned in. “Why are we at TAC?”

  “Because I think you’re wound up tight and you need to get your frustration out. Kids are hard.”

  “And you know this how?” I challenged.

  “I raised teenagers … well, they were eighteen.”

  “Were Cassie and Lucas that difficult?”

  “Lucas was easy. Cassie was a pain in the ass,” he said without skipping a beat. “Come on.”

  We stepped down from the truck and saw Trent coming out of TAC. He spotted us and headed our way.

  “What are you guys doing here?” the sheriff asked.

  “Lady here needs some stress relief.”

  “Raising twins getting to you?” Trent laughed.

  “They’re great kids,” I acknowledged. “They’re just on opposing ends of the spectrum. I have trouble keeping up with both of them.”

  Both men laughed this time, but I wasn’t finding anything amusing.

  “Where’s that damned shooting range,” I muttered and stalked into the building ahead of Colt.

  Using an imagined Aleksey Romanov as a target was cathartic. I used up almost one hundred rounds and switched up five paper targets, totally annihilating center mass and head shots of each. What I really wanted to do was castrate the bastard, but since he was unavailable in person, this would do.

  I exhaled a breath of satisfaction when the target split horizontally and lowered my nine millimeter, pointing it down range.

  I lowered my ear protection around my neck.

  “Feeling better?” Colt murmured by my ear.

  I turned slightly, his face was an inch from mine and I nodded. Yes, I hated Alex for what he had done, but I couldn’t say I regretted the twins. They were the best thing to come out of this mess.

  Colt stepped back and signaled for us to leave the shooting range.

  Again, I nodded.

  I was famished.

  “Slow down,” Colt laughed as I wolfed down the plate of pasta in front of me.

  We were in a cozy trattoria in an eclectic neighborhood in Edington. Clusters of empty wine bottles were on display at varying heights of wooden shelves on Fresco walls.
Little Italian knickknacks were featured all over the tiny space, but at that moment, my focus was on the steaming plate of Linguine ai Frutti di Mare. I wasn’t a fan of pasta, but I loved seafood second to pork chops, and, I must admit, this Italian classic was exactly what I needed.

  Pure comfort food.

  I swallowed the pasta I was chewing, swiped a finger on my lower lip to make sure I didn’t have sauce on my mouth and said, “Sorry.”

  “I love seeing you eat.” His chuckle wrapped around my heart like warm caramel as his eyes crinkled at the corners. “But there are shrimps in there and it’s a choking hazard.”

  “I reckon you know the Heimlich maneuver?” I sassed.

  “Yeah, but I’d rather not use it on our first date.” He dropped the word “date” casually as he took a swig of an Italian dark beer.

  “Didn’t realize this was a date.” I narrowed my eyes at him, but my tone was playful.

  His grin was cocky. “I told you we were happening.”

  I want to punch him and kiss him. Grr…

  I raised my glass of red wine to my lips, pausing as I contemplated his words and then took a sip. Lowering my wine glass, I met his gaze head-on.

  “I guess we are.”

  14

  Colt

  “Cheese and pepperoni.”

  The night before, during their date at the trattoria, Kate suggested starting traditions. The first one: Thursday movie nights.

  Colt was all over that.

  He’d also discovered that the kids had never eaten pizza.

  He laid the boxes on the coffee table and flipped the lids open. They were in the TV room. The kids were on their knees, their noses repeatedly inhaling the food before them.

  Liv’s eyes were round as saucers as she stared at the mega pies. “Um … I don’t think it’s gonna fit in my mouth.”

  “These pies are meant to be folded,” Kate told her as she set out some melamine plates.

  “These are new.” Colt tipped his chin at the purple and green dinnerware.

  Kate smiled sheepishly. “I added to your kitchen stuff. Hope you don’t mind. The stoneware ones were too heavy.”

  This pleased him. “Have at it.”