Adele shook her head. “I guess Theo told you that we slept together.”
Dylan muttered some profanity, and since he looked ready to do more than mutter it, Jordan gave him the safe word. “Sasquatch.”
Of course, that caused some confusion to go through Adele’s eyes, but Jordan didn’t bother clarifying. Not when it was Adele who had a mountain of clarification to do.
“Why did you lie about Corbin?” Dylan growled.
Adele’s eyes widened a moment, and her attention volleyed from Dylan to Jordan. “Did Theo tell you he was Corbin’s father? Because he’s not. I swear, he’s not,” she repeated to Jordan.
Jordan didn’t feel any relief yet. In fact, she wasn’t sure what she should feel. It didn’t matter who Corbin’s father was—the boy would always be her cousin. But she hated the idea that Adele could have been yanking Dylan’s chain about fatherhood.
“I slept with Theo, sure,” Adele went on, “but that happened months before I got pregnant with Corbin.”
Finally, she felt Dylan’s muscles relax, and he quit with the under-the-breath profanity. Jordan, however, wasn’t anywhere near the point of relaxing yet.
“Any reason you didn’t tell me that you’d had sex with my boyfriend?” Jordan asked.
“The same reason I didn’t tell you that I’d had sex with your ex-husband. You weren’t with them at the time. You’d broken up with Theo months before that, and he called me when he was in San Antonio. And as for Dylan, well, that was long over between you two.”
Her mind promptly reminded her of the very recent memory of the barn kiss. And Dylan being on her bed. Heck, the nonrecent memories came back, too, causing Jordan to mumble her own round of profanity. Some of it wasn’t mumbled, though.
“Popsicle,” Dylan said to her.
In that moment, she hated safe words. Hated Adele. And Jordan especially hated memories that were messing with her head.
“And FYI,” Adele went on, “I didn’t plan to sleep with Theo. It just sort of happened.”
Had this been any other person, Jordan could have argued that sex didn’t just happen, but this was a woman who’d stolen flip-flops and Twizzlers. Adele’s life had seemingly been a string of things that’d “just happened” or else really stupid things that she’d planned.
That didn’t stop this from stinging, though. And it riled Jordan that it stung. She should be past these feelings, and she was with Theo. He’d only been her boyfriend, but Dylan, well, he was a different matter. It was that damn kiss again. Her being next to him didn’t help, either.
“I’m sorry,” Adele said to her, and after she paused again, she opened her mouth as if she might say more. She didn’t. Adele seemed to change her mind when she glanced at Dylan.
“Are you doing okay with Corbie?” Adele asked him. “Is he being a good boy for Jordan, Regina and you?”
A muscle flickered in Dylan’s jaw. Maybe because Adele had included his mom and her in that question. Or it could be because Adele didn’t seem as bothered as she should about all of the lives she’d disrupted. Of course, it was hard to feel too disrupted because Corbin was also in that equation. At the very center of it. Without Corbin, there would be no safe word strong enough to keep Jordan from venting about what Adele had done.
“He’s being very good,” Dylan answered, his jaw still twitching. “Now, why didn’t you tell me about him before you landed in jail?”
Adele lifted her shoulder. “I didn’t think you’d want to know.”
Oh no. Definitely not the thing to say to Dylan. Yes, he was a player, but he didn’t shirk responsibility. That’s why he still ran the family ranch when some of his other siblings had long moved on.
“Sasquatch,” Jordan whispered to him before he could get out a single curse word.
Adele smiled as if there was actually something to smile about. “Is that some kind of lover’s word you two are using?” Her smile widened. “And are you two getting back together?”
There was nothing flatter than the flat look Jordan gave her cousin. “No and no,” she said, answering the question. But then something occurred to her. Something that might make her need the safe word, too. “Please tell me that you didn’t mean for this custody arrangement to be a way to play matchmaker for Dylan and me.”
“No,” Adele jumped to say, but her next pause had Jordan bristling. “Well, it wouldn’t be the worst thing, would it? I mean, I always thought Dylan and you should have given it another try.”
“Yet you had sex with him.” Jordan regretted that the moment the words left her mouth. She sounded jealous. She wasn’t, but since she didn’t know what she was, she waved it off. “Quit playing with our lives. With Regina’s, too. Did you think she would help with your matchmaking?”
No smile this time. Adele’s face bunched up. “No, I told her she could share custody because she was threatening to take Corbie. And Walter Ray was egging her on to do it.” She turned to Dylan. “I definitely don’t think Walter Ray wants Jordan and you back together. Did you know he’s trying to pair you up with his daughter?”
Dylan beat Jordan in the flat look department. “I knew,” he grumbled. “So, you only included my mom in the custody because she pressured you. Well now I’m the one who’s pressuring you. Regina’s about to come in here in a few minutes, and you can tell her that the shared custody deal is off. I’m Corbin’s father, and I should be raising him.”
Dylan stopped and looked at Jordan. “Sorry, but it’s how I feel,” he added.
Jordan hadn’t doubted that. But she didn’t want to be booted out of this arrangement, either. She was about to tell Adele that, too, but her cousin held up her hand.
“I want to keep things as they are for now.” Adele definitely wasn’t using her flighty voice, and she spoke directly to Dylan. “Regina can be stubborn, but Corbie needs a grandmother. He needs family, and that includes a father and someone who can stand in for me as his mother. That’s why I wanted Jordan to be part of this. Temporarily, anyway. I figure a month is all she’ll be able to take in Wrangler’s Creek before her wanderlust kicks in.”
Normally, Jordan could have easily seen that happening. But “the hole” had changed her. Heck, Corbin had changed her.
“I’ve been thinking about getting out of the Air Force,” Jordan threw out there. “Seriously thinking about it. In fact, I’m going to the base first thing next week to see what I’d need to do to make that happen.” She had gone over it so many times in her mind that she hadn’t realized it would be a surprise to Dylan and Adele.
Still no smile from Adele. Definitely not one from Dylan, either. That’s because they didn’t believe she could do it. This was like Dylan ending his womanizing ways. Obviously, no one had a lot of faith in either Dylan or her. For a good reason, too.
Because Jordan herself wasn’t sure she could pull it off.
Even now, she could feel the tightness in her chest and the flood of old memories. Not just those of her not being able to make a go of it with Dylan, either.
Plenty of those memories involved her mother and her need to call men those vile names. There’d been chaos and neglect. No safety net. And while it wasn’t exactly something others might understand, all of that had gotten rolled into being in Wrangler’s Creek. She’d always thought if she could just get out, that the bad stuff would fade enough for her to forget it.
Most days, anyway.
It had, too. The memories had faded. The fear of having no safety net had lessened. Until those men had put her in the hole. Then, it had all come crashing down on her and was still crashing. Smothering her. Making her want to run to try to find another net.
“Jordan,” Adele said, her voice doused with concern. “Are you okay?”
That’s when Jordan realized she was breathing too fast, and judging from the way Dylan and Adele were looking at her, they thought she m
ight be on the verge of a panic attack. Which she probably was. It certainly didn’t help that she was locked into this place and this room.
“It’s probably time for Adele to see Corbin,” Dylan told Jordan as he helped her to her feet.
That’s when Jordan realized something else—that she actually needed help to stand. She cursed, and even though it was pretty raw, Dylan didn’t scold her with a safe word reminder.
“I’ll come back for another visit so we can talk,” he added to Adele.
Adele gave a shaky nod as if she wasn’t looking forward to that or maybe the nod was just because she was worried about Jordan. Jordan knew how she felt because she was worried, as well. It’d been a too-extreme reaction.
Dylan kept his arm looped around her while he walked Jordan to the door. “I was just thinking about that time we were having sex in my truck, and you accidentally kicked the gearshift.”
Jordan frowned. She’d expected words of comfort. Words that probably wouldn’t have helped, but this certainly wasn’t helping, either.
Why the heck was he bringing that up now?
It reminded her of something Theo would say that he thought would make things better but never did. Remembering the gearshift incident definitely wouldn’t make this better. Because when she’d kicked the truck into gear during the throes of foreplay, they had ended up rolling into the creek.
They’d gotten out just fine, but Dylan’s truck had been ruined and their clothes and phones had washed away in the swift rain-bloated current. Dylan had still had on his jeans and boots, but she’d been butt naked. He’d given her his wet boxers to wear, and she had used his socks for a makeshift bra so they could walk to get some help. Or rather he’d walked and carried her since her flip-flops had floated away, too.
And that’s how his brother, Lawson, had found them.
Lawson had given them a ride—after he’d snapped a picture that her mother and half the town had ended up seeing because Lawson hadn’t been especially careful about showing it around.
“One of the squares on the Dylan Granger Bingo Sex game is to wear my boxers while being carried by me,” Dylan added. “There’s probably a sock-bra one, too, but I haven’t seen it yet.”
It was such a ridiculous thing, and that’s probably why it made her smile. A ridiculous memory as well, but it eased away the other stuff, and Jordan no longer felt as if she was in that hole or on the verge of a panic attack.
“Thank you,” she said.
Dylan also smiled, and as usual his was a lot better than hers. “Anytime. If you need another distraction, we can talk about the time you put me up against a tree, and I ended up with a poison oak rash on my ass.”
Yes, that would indeed be a distraction since she’d ended up being the one to doctor his butt with calamine lotion. It was a distracting memory and a smile all rolled into one. Jordan was still smiling with Dylan’s arm still around her when they walked back into the waiting room.
And Theo was there.
Jordan was so stunned to see him that she froze. And, yes, she did that while still smiling. Something that Theo definitely noticed. Ditto for the hold Dylan had on her. Regina also noticed because she got to her feet while she had Corbin in her arms.
“I’ll just take Corbin in to see Adele,” Regina said at the same time Theo said, “I’m sorry.”
Dylan wasn’t staying quiet because he spoke right in sync with them. “Corbin’s not your son.”
Dylan’s comment caused Theo to snap toward him. “But I was with Adele.”
Regina mumbled a repeat of her going to see Adele, and she took Corbin out of the visiting room. Probably because she thought things were about to get heated. They weren’t.
“Adele said you weren’t the father,” Jordan stated as plainly as she could. The plainness involved some anger, though. She couldn’t imagine how much worse the anger would have been if she’d actually been in love with Theo.
Theo shook his head. “She was positive?” But he didn’t wait for an answer. “I want a DNA test done. You should want it done, too,” he added to Dylan. “Adele might not even know which of us fathered the kid.”
Dylan showed a lot more anger than she did. He took one step toward Theo. One very calculated, menacing step that put him close enough to Theo to violate plenty of the man’s personal space.
“He’s not the kid,” Dylan said through clenched teeth. “He’s Corbin Dylan Rivera. Do I need to explain that to you in a way that doesn’t involve words?”
Oh no. Not this. A fight in a jail definitely wasn’t a good idea. Jordan compounded that idea with one of her own. Facing Dylan, she wormed her way between them just as they went forward and squished her like a human Oreo.
“I’ll get a court order to get a DNA test,” Theo snarled.
“Why?” Jordan snarled back. “You’ve told me countless times that you didn’t want to have children.”
Theo didn’t respond to that. But Dylan did.
“If he has Corbin, Theo thinks he’ll get you,” Dylan said, and yes, his teeth were still so clenched that his words were a little garbled.
Jordan glanced over her shoulder at Theo to see if that was a possibility. Crap. It was. Worse, Theo was smirking now as if daring Dylan to escalate this pissing contest to the point that it would result in no winners. Especially not Corbin if there was indeed a long drawn-out custody fight. Theo might not be the only contestant in that fight, either. Regina might not back off.
“I think Adele said you were the dad because you’re rich,” Theo said, still aiming that smirk at Dylan.
Dylan wasn’t smirking back, but his muscles were getting so tight that his eyes were practically pinched together. He wasn’t quick to fight, but Theo was testing the limits here.
“Sasquatch,” she tried, hoping that would make Dylan back off.
It didn’t.
Dylan inched forward, his muscles still reacting to the anger he was no doubt feeling. Anger that would almost certainly lead to a face punching if she didn’t do something to stop it.
Jordan hooked her hand around Dylan’s neck, forcing him to look down at her. This called for something drastic. Unfortunately, she soon realized that she just wasn’t very good when it came to non-work-related drastic situations. But at least she stopped a potential fight with what she said.
She also opened a big-assed can of worms.
“Marry me,” Jordan blurted out to Dylan. “And we’ll raise Corbin together.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
DYLAN HAD GONE thirty-four years without a marriage proposal, and now he’d gotten two in the same week. He’d dismissed Melanie’s right off, not giving it any more thought since she’d dropped that particular bombshell. Jordan’s “marry me,” from the previous week, however, was a whole different story.
It hadn’t taken Dylan long to dismiss her proposal, either, figuring it was just another version of a safe word to stop him from punching out Theo’s lights, followed by what would have almost certainly been his arrest. But there’d been no dismissing the proposal in his thoughts. It had flicked its way into his thoughts for the past four days, and it was still flicking like crazy. Not because it was a good idea.
It wasn’t.
But it sure brought back memories of when he and Jordan had actually been married. Of course, most of those memories were of sex so he supposed that didn’t actually count, but it was hard to stop mulling them over.
Outside the window of his office, he saw another crack of lightning, followed by more thunder. The storm was moving in fast, and it was practically dark outside. He checked the baby monitor to make sure the sound hadn’t upset Corbin. It hadn’t. Jordan and his mom were dressing him in his little cowboy suit so he’d be ready for Lawson’s wedding.
The monitor with the camera was a new addition. Or rather, monitors. They were scattered all over t
he house in any of the rooms where Corbin might be at any given time. It cut back on some of their privacy, but it was worth it to make sure Dylan had eyes on him at all times. That hadn’t really been an issue, though, since someone was always with him, but Dylan liked being able to peek in on him.
In this case, the peeking also included Jordan.
She was sitting on Corbin’s bed while she adjusted the boy’s jeans. Regina was playing around with the angle of the red cowboy hat. Both women were engrossed in what they were doing, but Dylan knew Jordan well enough to see the occasional troubled look that would cross her face. She always made sure the look was gone when Corbin turned to her.
Maybe Jordan was blue because there’d been no resolution with the custody. Or it could be that weddings, any weddings, brought back memories of their own ill-fated “I do’s.” If it was either of those, then Dylan figured that was normal. What wasn’t normal was the way she’d reacted in jail, right before the blowup with Theo.
It hadn’t been merely a troubled look he’d seen then.
Jordan had been on the verge of some kind of anxiety attack. Perhaps from the combination of events, but it could also be from what’d happened to her when she’d been on deployment. He knew it was bothering her because he’d been on the receiving end of the ball-crushing when Dylan had interrupted her nightmare.
Hole, she’d said.
And he doubted she’d been referring to a doughnut or the metaphorical one he’d dug with his argument with Theo. No. That panic-laced word had to do with her being taken captive.
Hell, had they really put her in a hole in the ground?
That thought didn’t torment him for long because Dylan looked up from the monitor when he heard the hurried footsteps outside his office. Several moments later, Lawson appeared in the doorway. “We gotta move the wedding indoors so we’re taking over the sunroom.”
Dylan figured there would have to be some adjustments made since Eve and Lawson had intended for their vows to take place in the rose garden next to her house. That was neutral ground, since his Granger cousins, Garrett and Roman, were at odds with Lucian. Since just about everybody fell into that “at odds” category with some family member or another, it wasn’t usually a big deal. However, Eve hadn’t wanted it to be an issue because Garrett and Roman were like brothers to Lawson. Actually, they were more like brothers to Lawson than Lucian.
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