Lone Star Blues

by Delores Fossen

  That had indeed been the deal. A deal that all the hands and the two housekeepers had turned down. Only Abe had agreed to go around collecting them, and that was after he’d negotiated for paid time off to do it. While Dylan would gladly pay every penny to get the cards, it was disturbing that there were so many of them.

  And not all of them were blank.

  In the couple that Dylan looked at, some of the boxes had been filled in, including one that claimed he’d given someone a belly hickey. Since there were no names or dates on the card, he didn’t have a clue who’d marked it. Or if it was even true because he was certain he’d given a belly hickey or two over the years.

  Yeah, celibacy was looking pretty darn appealing.

  “Where and how did you get these cards?” Dylan asked, and he hoped the cook hadn’t resorted to thievery.

  “I stole some of them,” Abe readily admitted, causing Dylan to wince. “And in a couple of cases, I bribed a sibling to get them.” He paused. “I figured you’d pay me back for the bribes. That’s another eighty-one dollars and sixteen cents.”

  Dylan nearly asked why the odd number, but he really didn’t want to know. He just wanted the damn cards. He’d already called Tiffany Kelly and demanded that she not print any more. Tiffany had blown it off with a flirtatious giggle and a request for thunderstorm sex, but she’d finally understood when Dylan had told her that something like this could jeopardize custody of Corbin.

  “I’ll keep looking for more,” Abe went on. “Should I search outside of Wrangler’s Creek?”

  “Not for now. Keep it local.” But if the cards continued to show up, he might have to hire a team of gatherers like Abe to scour the state.

  Dylan wrote Abe a check from his personal account. Money well spent. Plus, it was the most work he’d ever known Abe to do. For a cook, Abe didn’t spend much time in the kitchen. Actually, the bulk of his day was devoted to napping.

  After Abe left his office, Dylan started shredding the cards, and since the paper was thin, he was able to triple them up to make the process go faster. Each grind of the blades felt like a victory. What didn’t feel like a victory was the call he got while he was still shredding.

  Melanie.

  Since it was so close to his time with Corbin, Dylan let it go to voice mail. But eventually he was going to have to talk to her and repeat his refusal of her marriage offer. He had to believe that eventually it’d sink in.

  Once he’d finished with the shredding, he stood and looked out the window, expecting to see Jordan and Corbin playing. They weren’t there. Even Booger was no longer doing his pee-markings.

  Dylan felt a quick tug of panic that caused him to frown. He’d known about his son for only two days, and yet his go-to response was that something god-awful had happened. That he’d gotten hurt while playing and Jordan had had to rush him inside. And in the next couple of seconds, Dylan realized how parents got from worrying about a child to that whole “in a ditch” thing they were always coming up with.

  Great. At this rate, he’d be a celibate teetotaler with an ulcer.

  Running now, he made his way through the house, in search of them, and the relief came when he heard Jordan’s voice. Or at least it came until he actually heard her words.

  “I just need to put a bandage on it,” she said. “Don’t cry, Corbin. It’ll be okay.”

  That put his worrying into overdrive, and he raced toward the sound of her voice. She was in the bathroom near the back porch. The door was open, and when Dylan went bursting in, he saw something he darn sure didn’t want to see.

  Blood. It was on a tissue next to the sink. Next to it was a first aid kit.

  Corbin was sitting on the counter with Jordan right in front of him, and the boy did look on the verge of crying. Dylan immediately searched him for signs of injury. None. But then Jordan turned, and he saw the blood on her arm.

  There was no alarm in her eyes until she saw the alarm in his. “Is something wrong?” Jordan blurted out. But then she followed his gaze to her arm. “There was a rock in the yard, and I fell on it. It’s just a scratch.”

  The relief came. Then, more panic. He needed to check the yard for rocks and such, so that this didn’t happen again. It was indeed just a scratch, but it could have been much worse if Corbin had fallen on it.

  “Jordy got boo-boo,” Corbin said, and he still looked as if he might cry.

  “It’s okay, really,” Jordan assured him, and as soon as she had the bandage in place, she brushed a kiss on Corbin’s head. Corbin sort of melted against her, going right into Jordan’s arms.

  “He asked about his mommy,” Jordan mouthed to Dylan.

  Hell, that caused panic, too, even though he’d expected that to happen. Despite everything, Adele was still Corbin’s mom, and he had to be missing her.

  Dylan heard the movement outside the door and saw Regina. He wasn’t sure how long she had been there, but Booger was next to her. Neither of them came closer. Maybe she was observing him to see if he was going to screw this up. Booger was trying to see if he could chew the heel off Regina’s right shoe. Dylan ignored both and focused on Corbin.

  “Are you okay, buddy?” Dylan asked.

  Corbin nodded, but he also wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. Dylan had seen him do that when he was tired, but this looked to be more from the threatening tears than fatigue. He nearly asked Corbin if he wanted some ice cream, but that probably wasn’t a good way to handle sadness. Though Dylan might try some on himself just to see if it worked. It broke his heart to see Corbin like this.

  “What happened?” Dylan whispered to Jordan. “What brought this on?”

  “Adele used to play chase with him.”

  Dylan’s first reaction was to think—no more chasing games—but he’d seen how much fun it had been for Corbin. So maybe the way to deal with this was head-on. “Your mommy can’t be here right now, but Jordy and me will take good care of you. And Grandma Regina will, too,” he added.

  Corbin stared at him. An “I’m giving this some thought” kind of stare. “O-tay.” He hugged Jordan and then Dylan.

  The kid sure had a whole lot of trust in them, considering they were all still just strangers to him. And Dylan wanted to make sure that trust wasn’t misplaced. That meant he needed to do something.

  “I’ll call and see when we can take Corbin in for a visit to see Adele,” he said. “Then, I...we need to work on something more permanent for his bedroom.”

  Dylan didn’t mind sleeping on the floor next to Corbin, but the boy needed a bed that was geared to his age.

  “I can take care of his room,” Regina offered.

  He nearly told her no, but that was a knee-jerk reaction to her screwing things over with the custody. Plus, his mom would be a lot better at that sort of thing than he would.

  “I can call about getting us in to see Adele,” Jordan said.

  No knee-jerk reaction that time, though there was a reaction when Dylan glanced at the front of her shirt. Or rather he glanced in the direction of that navel ring.

  “Maybe we can also talk about Corbin’s ring bearer suit,” Regina added, getting Dylan’s attention off what it should have never been on in the first place.

  Dylan looked at Jordan to see if she knew anything about that, but she shook her head. “A ring bearer?” Jordan asked his mom. “You mean for Lawson and Eve’s wedding?”

  His mom nodded and came closer. “The wedding’s just a little over a week from now, but I thought it’d be cute if Corbin was part of it. Lawson and Eve agreed.”

  Dylan suspected there was some coercion involved in that. Both Eve and his brother wanted everything low-key, but maybe they’d all decided that it would make Corbin feel more like a part of the family.

  “Eve mentioned it to me,” Jordan explained. “When she invited me to the wedding.”

  Again
, more coercion. It’d started with his mom, but now it would ensure that Jordan was at the ceremony. Dylan didn’t mind. Eve and Jordan were old friends, but he didn’t want this to be too much for Corbin.

  “I can order him a little cowboy suit to wear,” his mother added. She held up a tape measure. “I just need to make sure I get the right size.”

  “What about it?” Dylan asked Corbin. “You want to be in the wedding and help carry a ring or two?”

  Corbin probably didn’t get all of that, but he nodded. “We’ll ride de horsey?”

  Dylan had to smile. “Yep, we can do that afterward. And there’ll be cake at the reception.”

  You would have thought he’d just offered Corbin the sun, stars and a moon or two because his whole face lit up. This time his nod was a lot more enthusiastic.

  Jordan stood Corbin on the floor, and the boy went to Regina, who was motioning for him to come to her. Corbin did, but only after Jordan and Dylan walked in that direction with him. They stayed back a little though, so that they weren’t hovering over him.

  “I’m sorry about last night,” Jordan whispered to him.

  Dylan had wondered if she was going to bring that up. “Don’t worry about it. You helped me with my vow of celibacy. I had trouble walking this morning when I got up.”

  Jordan gave him a funny look. Then, glanced down at his zipper region. And that’s when Dylan realized this wasn’t about his sore nuts. It was the birthday suit thing.

  “That didn’t help with my celibacy,” he joked.

  Her mouth moved a little as if a smile was coming on, but it didn’t quite spring to life because his phone rang. When he took it out of his pocket, he saw Melanie’s name again on the screen. Two calls from her in the past ten minutes.

  “Go ahead. Answer it,” Jordan insisted, stepping away from him and heading toward Corbin and his mom.

  Since his time had already started with Corbin, Dylan almost declined the call, but maybe he should just go ahead and tell Melanie that he was busy and would have to get back to her. But he didn’t get a chance to say anything to her because Melanie started the moment he answered.

  “Don’t be mad at me, please,” Melanie begged. “Everything just sort of happened.”

  That was not the way he wanted any conversation with anyone to start—especially from a woman who kept trying to marry him. “What are you talking about?” he asked when he stepped away from the others.

  Melanie made a sound, dread mixed with frustration. Yet something else he didn’t especially want in conversation. “I was out gathering up those bingo cards for Abe. He said you wanted the game to stop.”

  “You gathered the cards?” Dylan clarified.

  “Yes. And FYI, I think it’s a stellar idea that you’re finally putting a stop to that stupid game.”

  Apparently, he needed to have a little chat with Abe about subletting his bingo-collecting duties, especially since Abe had gotten paid for it.

  “Anyway, I was on one of the card missions,” Melanie went on, “when I ran into Theo at the Longhorn. You know, Jordan’s boyfriend.”

  “I know him. You mean you ran into him yesterday before he left?”

  “Oh, Theo didn’t leave. He’s still here in town. He’s staying at the inn.”

  Well, that was a surprise, and he wondered if Jordan knew that. If so, she hadn’t said a peep about it. Nor had she shared Theo’s room because she’d been at the ranch the whole time.

  “Theo was drinking,” Melanie went on. “And he started telling me things. I swear, I didn’t mean to hear what he said, but he wouldn’t shut up.”

  Again, Dylan had to ask, “What are you talking about?”

  “Theo.” Melanie stopped again, and it sounded as if she’d gathered her breath. “He said that he’d slept with Adele a few years ago and that he thought he might be Corbin’s father.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  GOAT SNOT. WORM PISS. And toad puke.

  Jordan had heard those words often. They’d been some of her mom’s favorite terms of endearment for men who’d seemingly done her wrong. Which had happened much too often. Obviously, when it came to insults, her mom had preferred to pair various critters with their disgusting bodily fluids.

  She didn’t want to put Theo into that “done her wrong” box. Mainly because he wasn’t her actual boyfriend. But he had been once. And until Jordan talked to him, she didn’t know if his boyfriend status had overlapped with his sex with Adele. Or even if sex had actually happened with her cousin. It seemed like too much of a bad coincidence that Adele had been with not one but two of Jordan’s exes.

  Theo and Adele knew each other, of course, and shortly after they’d met, the three of them had spent that “interesting” evening together when Theo had bailed Adele out when she’d gotten arrested. Maybe that had created some kind of bond between Theo and Adele. A bond that had led to sex.

  While Dylan drove them to San Antonio to the jail, Jordan tried to call Theo for the umpteenth time to get his side on what Melanie had told Dylan. No answer. That could be because he was on his way back to Germany or else he was avoiding her. Avoiding Dylan, too, since he’d also tried to call Theo a couple of times, as well.

  “I think Melanie’s dead wrong,” Regina said. “Either she misunderstood Theo, or maybe she said that so she could get Dylan back. If he’s not tied up with raising Corbin, then Melanie might think it’ll improve her chances of mending their relationship.”

  It was a repeat for the umpteenth time of variations of what Dylan’s mother had already said. Regina had insisted on going with them to the jail to talk to Adele, and she was in the back, next to Corbin, who was sacked out in his car seat. Jordan doubted anything good could come from Regina accompanying them, but the woman probably couldn’t make things worse, either. Things were already pretty rock-bottom in the emotion department.

  At least that’s how Dylan felt.

  She had seen that look on his face before. When she’d told him that their marriage was over and she was leaving. He’d looked crushed, just like now, and while he’d clearly gotten over their breakup, this one might not be so easy to get past. Band-Aid sex fixed broken relationships, temporarily anyway, but nothing could fix losing a child that you loved. And she had no doubts that Dylan loved Corbin.

  “I don’t think Adele would have lied about me being Corbin’s father,” Dylan mumbled. That, too, fell into the umpteenth time repeat category.

  Jordan wanted to believe that. Adele could be impulsive and irresponsible, but she wasn’t a liar. Well, except she hadn’t mentioned her previous arrests to Jordan. Or Corbin. So maybe Adele had slept with both Dylan and Theo and didn’t know the father of her child. Of course, she had named Corbin after Dylan so maybe there was no uncertainty about paternity in Adele’s mind. That’s why she had to talk to Adele and find out if Theo had any chance of being part of Corbin’s gene pool.

  “I know this is going to be a hard visit,” Regina went on, “and Adele will want to see Corbin. But it’s best if there’s no conversation about daddy-hood in front of him.”

  Finally, they all agreed on something. Jordan wasn’t sure how much of this Corbin could actually understand, but they couldn’t take the risk of upsetting him. Especially since the boy did indeed call Dylan Daddy.

  “You two can go in and talk to Adele first, and then I can bring in Corbin after I’m sure there won’t be any more yelling,” Regina added.

  Again, they were in agreement, though Dylan only voiced his with a grunt. He hadn’t said a lot on the drive from the ranch, but then there wasn’t much to be said until they spoke to Adele and Theo.

  While Dylan pulled into the parking lot of the jail, Jordan tried once again to call Theo. Still nothing. Too bad because she would have liked to get his side of the story before this visit even started. Maybe, just maybe, Theo’s comments were just said by
a man who’d had too much to drink.

  Dylan gently hoisted a still-sleeping Corbin out of his seat, and with the boy resting against his chest and shoulder, they went in, making their way through the rungs of security. Jordan had called ahead to get the paperwork started, but it still took them a good fifteen minutes to get back to the visitors’ section. Once they were in the waiting area, Dylan brushed a kiss on Corbin’s forehead and handed him to Regina.

  “Remember the safe words that we had when we were together?” Jordan asked him as they walked toward the visiting room.

  Dylan glanced at her and frowned.

  “Not those safe words,” she amended. “These didn’t have anything to do with sex. They were for when things were getting too heated between us during an argument. We thought it would keep us from saying plenty that we might regret.” Which had happened way too often when they were nineteen. “Yours was—”

  “Sasquatch,” he provided, “and yours was Popsicle.”

  It was surprising that he remembered them after all this time. Even more surprising that he didn’t verbally object to using them now. After all, they hadn’t worked so well back then. They’d still argued, and the escalated arguments had led to their split-up.

  When they went into the visiting room, Adele was already there and seated at the table. She smiled, but that quickly faded when she saw their expressions. “Did something happen to Corbin?”

  “He’s fine,” Jordan assured her. Dylan and she sat across from Adele. “You’ll get to see him in a few minutes, but for now we need to talk about Theo.”

  Jordan had held out hope that Melanie had been totally wrong about all of this, but one look at Adele’s face, and she knew there was at least some truth to it. Dylan figured it out as well because he groaned, and Jordan felt every bit of his pain in that sound. That’s why she threw some caution to the wind and gave his hand a quick squeeze. Dylan didn’t pull back, but his muscles were so stiff that it was like touching a rock.

  “Do you need any questions from us to get started on an explanation?” Jordan prompted when Adele didn’t say anything.