CHAPTER FIVE
JORDAN GLANCED AT the clock on the nightstand and groaned. Five thirty in the morning. It was a full hour earlier than her normal time to get up, but the cold sweat had woken her. Sweat that had wet her camisole to the point where it was uncomfortable. She got up, shucked it off and went to the shower.
Maybe it wouldn’t be too long before Dylan and Corbin got up, too, and then she could resume the chat that Dylan and she had had on and off the night before. The chat where he’d let her know that he was pissed off at what was happening.
And Jordan couldn’t blame him.
She’d thought Regina’s out-of-the-blue custody demand was a bad idea from the very moment the woman had made it. She believed it was an even worse idea when Dylan and his mom had gotten into an argument that ended with Regina standing her ground. And now that it was morning, Jordan still believed it was bad. That’s why she was here, at the ranch, in one of the many guest rooms so that eventually Dylan and she could work out what they were going to do.
Jordan hadn’t gone to the inn in town as she’d planned because there hadn’t been a room available. Plus, she hadn’t wanted to be that far away from Corbin. She was worried that once he realized his mom wasn’t around, he might feel abandoned, and Jordan wanted to be there for him.
Of course, Dylan wanted to be there for the boy, too. And he was. Dylan had stayed right there through the pizza dinner, Corbin’s bath and putting him to bed in the room next to Dylan’s. Dylan had insisted on that, and then had also insisted that he would sleep on the floor next to Corbin’s bed in case the little boy got scared about being in unfamiliar surroundings.
Jordan had also wanted to stay with Corbin, but she hadn’t intended to compound Regina’s bad idea with one of her own. It just wouldn’t have been good for her to be that close to Dylan. Because despite their dispute, and now their joint dispute with Regina, there was still lust in the air.
For some stupid reason, she kept thinking about kissing Dylan. Probably because kissing had been one of his best talents. She wasn’t sure how a man became good at something like that. Plenty of practice, probably, but he’d been a downright pro even back in the days when she’d been the recipient of some of Dylan’s first kisses. Maybe it was the shape of his mouth. Or the gentle but coaxing pressure. Or that taste.
Mercy, that taste.
She’d never been able to label it, but it was some sort of version of cowboy sin.
Which was exactly why she should stop thinking about it.
Jordan finished her shower and dressed as quickly as she could. And the quickly included not looking in the mirror any longer than necessary. She was having trouble with mirrors these days because she didn’t want to see her own face. After she’d been rescued, she had seen her reflection in the helmet-visor of one of her rescuers. That image of her stark fear was what she saw now whenever she caught a glimpse of herself. No need for her to relive that. Instead, she focused on the shimmer of gold from a navel ring as she pulled on her jeans and top.
In hindsight, getting the ring seemed silly. Like a mistake that she should fix by just taking out the little circle and letting the piercing heal. But she’d wanted to do something, well, different. Something that got her mind off what’d happened, so the day she’d gotten out of the hospital, Jordan had found a place to do it. The piece of jewelry had gotten her through some tough mornings while she’d dressed.
And it was large enough that it sort of looked like a much-thinner version of her old wedding ring.
A reminder that kept troubling her a little.
Since she didn’t want to deal with her inability to remove unwanted body jewelry, she switched her attention to Dylan’s mom. Instead of labeling the taste of his kiss, she should be figuring out Regina’s angle. Or if there even was an angle. The woman had said a boy needed a mom, and that since Adele was locked up and Jordan was in the military, that she—as Corbin’s grandmother—should get custody.
It was an old-fashioned idea that a woman/mother would be a better parenting choice, but then Regina could be set in her ways. Ironic though, that after her own divorce, Regina hadn’t been around much afterward to actually raise her own kids. Neither had her ex-husband. Child-rearing responsibility had been pretty much left to Lucian. But according to what Karlee had said, in recent months Regina had seemingly wanted to make up for lost time with her kids. Karlee’s theory was since Regina’s brush with death from breast cancer, she was now trying to be the mom she probably should have been all those years ago.
And Regina was extending that mom-hood to being a hands-on grandmother.
During the arguments that Dylan had had with his mom the night before, he’d accused Regina of matchmaking. Jordan also agreed that could be a possibility. And trying to interfere in her son’s love life was a lot easier to swallow than believing the woman wanted to keep Dylan from getting custody of his son. That meant Regina likely thought the same thing as everyone else.
That Dylan wasn’t responsible enough for fatherhood.
Jordan was sure that stung for him. The same way it stung for her when people gave her that poor, pitiful you look. But in Dylan’s case, folks might be right.
Might.
She didn’t really know the man that Dylan had become, but the preliminary signs weren’t good with the sex bingo card that the dog had brought in. Of course, maybe the card was a prank and there weren’t others floating around out there, waiting to have enough sex boxes ticked off.
Jordan put on some makeup and a dress since she’d have to see both Adele and a lawyer today. She also wanted to spend as much time with Corbin as possible. Dylan had had extra hours with the boy, and while this wasn’t a competition, Jordan wanted Corbin to know her as well as he did Dylan. Besides, it probably wouldn’t be long before Regina arrived and threw things into even more chaos.
Before she headed downstairs in search of the coffeepot, Jordan gave herself a final but fast check in the mirror, and she wanted to curse when she saw what was dangling out from the neck of her dress.
The wedding band and engagement ring.
The very ones that Dylan had given her over fourteen years ago.
They weren’t something she usually wore. In fact, she normally opted for no jewelry at all, but when she’d decided to fly from Germany to San Antonio, she’d put them on the gold chain with the intention of somehow getting them back to Dylan. After all, the diamond was huge, probably two carats, and since she had been the one to end things, it’d never seemed right to keep them. Now that she had finally seen him, she would be able to return them to him.
For now though, she shoved the rings back beneath the dress and tiptoed out of the guest room and into the hall. Since everyone was probably still asleep, she kept tiptoeing past Corbin’s room, but when she saw the door was open, she peeked inside.
And her heart went to her toenails.
Because he wasn’t there. Neither was Dylan. The room was empty. So was the adjoining bathroom because Jordan had a quick, frantic search in there before she went running down the stairs. My God. She hoped Dylan hadn’t run off with the boy as a way of avoiding custody showdowns with her and his mother.
Jordan definitely wasn’t tiptoeing now. She was taking the steps two at a time and trying to stave off the thoughts that something bad had happened when she spotted Karlee.
Karlee was wearing pj’s and looked as if she’d just gotten out of bed. She immediately put her index finger to her mouth in a “stay quiet” gesture. Then, she motioned for Jordan to follow her. Since Karlee wasn’t alarmed, Jordan tried to tamp down the panic bubbling up inside her. She didn’t succeed in doing that until they got into the kitchen and she saw Corbin.
And Dylan.
The two were asleep. Dylan’s head was resting on the kitchen table while Corbin was sacked out in the booster seat that one of the housekeepers had located
in the attic. His head was on the plastic tray. There were cereal bowls next to each of them, and Booger was napping underneath Corbin’s chair.
“Corbin got up at four,” Karlee whispered. “I heard Dylan bring him down here so I came to check on them and make some coffee.”
Instant guilt. Jordan felt a boatload of it because she hadn’t heard a peep from either of them. Though Karlee obviously had.
“Dylan should have woken me,” Jordan muttered.
Karlee lifted her eyebrow. “You really think it’d be wise for Dylan to come to your bedroom? If I recall our teenage years, you used to sleep practically commando.”
Jordan still did. Usually she just wore panties and maybe a camisole. So, Karlee was right—it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea for Dylan to knock on the guest room door since he would have been looking all sleepy and hot.
As opposed to his usual hot and awake.
“When I came back down a couple of minutes ago,” Karlee went on, still keeping her voice low, “I found them like this.” She quietly went to the coffeepot, poured Jordan a cup, and then topped hers off. “You think I should wake them?”
Jordan shook her head. Though it was tempting. She would have liked to talk with Corbin. Even have cereal with him. But he was sleeping, well, like a baby. So was Dylan, for that matter. And yes, he was in the hot and sleepy mode.
Karlee and she took their coffee into the foyer. That way, Jordan could still be close enough to Corbin if he woke up, but she could also talk to Karlee without the risk of the boy hearing.
“I didn’t think you’d be here,” Jordan said. “I thought Lucian and you were going back to San Antonio.”
“Lucian wisely delayed the trip.” She stared at Jordan from over the top of her coffee cup. “So, just how riled is Dylan about Regina? How pissed off are you?”
It didn’t surprise her that Karlee knew about Regina making her own bid for custody of Corbin. Karlee probably had heard Dylan talking to his mom on the phone. In fact, it was possible that people in Kansas had heard it. Jordan hadn’t yelled, but that’s exactly what she’d felt like doing.
“How pissed off am I?” Jordan repeated. “Remember that time when we were in middle school and Dylan put a frog in my backpack as a joke to scare me?”
Karlee quickly nodded. “And it peed and crapped all over your homework and ruined it. Ruined your backpack, too, and then you got detention for yelling and cursing when you saw what’d happened.”
Yep, that was the incident all right. What Karlee had left out was that the detention had in turn gotten her grounded. “Well, that anger was a drop in the bucket to how I feel about what Regina’s trying to do.”
Karlee fought a smile. “At least Dylan did the frog thing to show how much he liked you.”
Dylan had indeed claimed that several years later after they’d started dating. But Jordan had always suspected it’d been more of a dare or bet.
“I think Regina might have a different motive,” Karlee continued. “She’s up to something.” Jordan made an immediate sound of agreement. “Last year she tried to fix Eve Cooper up with Dylan,” Karlee added.
Jordan nearly choked on her coffee. Eve and Dylan’s brother Lawson had not only been lovers, they’d been in love. Or at least they had before they’d broken up when Eve had moved to Hollywood to be a TV star.
“And now Lawson and Eve are getting married in two weeks,” Karlee went on. “I’m positive Regina tried to throw Dylan at Eve just to make Lawson realize that he couldn’t live without her.” Karlee lifted her eyebrow as some kind of warning.
A warning that Jordan thought she had figured out after a long sip of coffee. “She wants Dylan and me to team up and fight her. That’ll put us on the same side.”
Now it was Karlee who agreed. “Don’t be surprised if Regina doesn’t bring up that Dylan and you should remarry for the sake of the child.”
That wasn’t going to happen. Dylan and she had had their shot—at a time when she didn’t have the baggage she had now. Besides, she didn’t need to be married to be good at raising her cousin.
“Be honest. Does Regina actually stand a shot at getting custody?” Jordan asked.
Karlee lifted her shoulder. “She’s got money to fight this if it comes down to it. Of course, Dylan’s got money, too, but Regina’s probably better connected with the right people if this actually turns into a court battle.”
Well, Jordan didn’t have money or the right connections, but she had something else. Adele. They’d been close, once, and while Jordan definitely didn’t care for Adele sleeping with her ex, she would put that aside. Somehow, Jordan had to convince Adele to give her custody. That would shut down any fight that Regina tried to start.
“I need to go into town,” Jordan said. “I don’t have a lawyer, but I have to find one. Got any recommendations?”
“Anna McCord-Moore,” Karlee quickly provided. “She has a new practice, is new in town, too, but she’s the only one in a hundred-mile radius who doesn’t have ties to the Grangers.”
Then Jordan would definitely be seeing the newcomer. “I also need to check if there’s a room available at the Red Rooster Inn. Best if I don’t stay here—” Jordan stopped when Karlee kept shaking her head.
“Don’t stay at the inn. A group of kids from a rival basketball team released a dozen green garden snakes into the inn as a prank, and they’ve only found eight of them. The snakes, I mean. They rounded up all the pranking kids.”
Jordan shuddered, cringed. She’d been in combat zones and could handle the bloodiest field injuries, but there was no chance she’d walk into the inn knowing there could be snakes.
“You could stay in the guesthouse,” Karlee reminded her. “I set up my office in there, and I sleep there sometimes when Lucian’s in town, but you can just shove my stuff to the side to make room for your things.”
Great. The guesthouse. The very place where Dylan and she had been newlyweds, and it was only a stone’s throw from the main house.
No chance of escaping old memories there.
Still, she’d be close to Corbin so she had to keep it on her list of possibilities. While she was in town, though, she would look for something else, maybe a short-term rental. If she had time, that is. She didn’t want to be away from Corbin for too long, but there were still things she had to do.
“I need to go into San Antonio to drop off some paperwork at the base, and then visit Adele at the jail.” Jordan added.
Karlee sighed, patted her arm. “I can go with you.”
“No. That’s a kind offer, but I’d rather you stay here with Corbin. I feel like you’re the only person on my side.”
Karlee didn’t jump to agree to that.
Oh no. “You’ll take Dylan’s side because of Lucian,” Jordan said.
Karlee frowned. “I’m taking Corbin’s side because of Corbin. Maybe you’ll get good news at the jail. Here’s hoping the charges against Adele aren’t as serious as we’ve heard.”
Maybe. But even if they weren’t, Jordan had to look at the big picture here. This was Adele’s third arrest, and even if she did get out of jail soon, the courts might not grant her custody. Heck, Jordan might not want her to have it, either. Like Karlee, Jordan really did want what was best for Corbin, and Adele might not be in that “best” category. Neither was Regina. Or Dylan.
Heck, she might not be in it, either.
With that dismal thought now firmly planted in her head, Jordan took out her phone to make the call to the jail, but the sound of little hurried footsteps stopped her. It was Corbin coming into the foyer, and Booger was right on his heels.
Just seeing the little boy instantly improved her mood. A mood that got slightly dampened, though, when there was the sound of big hurried footsteps and Dylan came in right behind Corbin and Booger.
Corbin didn’t stop. He only s
pared Karlee and her a glance before he ducked into the powder room. Dylan did more than glance at Jordan, though. He didn’t give her a glare. It was more of a mix of fatigue and frustration.
Jordan was right there on the same emotional page with him.
Which caused her to silently groan. If Regina’s plan was indeed to get them together, then this was probably the first step.
Dylan went to the bathroom to look in on Corbin, a reminder for Jordan that she didn’t know much about the toileting habits of a toddler. Dylan seemed to be comfortable with it, though, and when Corbin came out, drying his hands on his pj’s, she finally got a smile that warmed her from head to toe.
How was it possible to love someone this much?
Jordan didn’t know, but she thought Dylan might be asking himself the same question.
She stooped down to get on his eye level, but despite the smile, Corbin didn’t come to her. He stayed close to Dylan, hooking his arm around Dylan’s leg.
“You look so much like your mom,” Jordan told him, touching her fingers to his hair. But she immediately regretted saying that.
Corbin looked up at Dylan. Definitely no smile now. “Where’s Mommy?”
Good grief. Now she’d upset him. Dylan scooped him up and brushed a kiss on his forehead. “Mommy’s on a trip. You’ll get to stay here for a while, and it’ll be fun. Booger will be here with you.”
Until Dylan added that last part, Corbin still had that sad look on his face, but one mention of the dog perked him up. Corbin reached for Booger, and Dylan placed the child on the floor so the playing could commence. It was the same kind of play that had gone on the night before with Corbin running around in the foyer while Booger chased him. It was loud, and giggles and some barking were involved. If Lucian was still sleeping, he soon wouldn’t be.
Dylan smiled at them, but then he took a deep breath and turned his attention to Jordan. “Mom texted me earlier this morning. She’s at the airport in Costa Rica, waiting on standby for a flight out.”
Lone Star Blues Page 7