The Texas SEAL's Surprise--A Clean Romance

by Cari Lynn Webb

  Wes shook her hand. “I was expecting a phone call or text with an update from Brad, not an actual visit from his team.”

  “Things took a bit of a turn.” Gwen set her hands on her hips. Her gaze never settled and continued to scan the area. “Common side effect of my job, but this time it was a good turn. My partner, Thomas Cochran, is waiting over by the church.”

  “Did you locate my brother?” Wes gripped the back of his neck, trying to anticipate the next words that would come out of Gwen.

  “We did more than that.” She looked at him, the slightest smile disrupting her serious features. “We brought your brother to you.”

  “Dylan is here?” His palms dampened. Wes ran his hands over his jeans. He’d been dropped into active war zones, his very life at stake, and he’d never flinched. Never hesitated. Never trembled. Not one time. His brother waited somewhere nearby, and now Wes trembled. And hesitated.

  Abby called his name. Reached for him and curved her fingers around his, grounding him. Steadying him. Wes exhaled the breath he’d been holding.

  “Everything okay?” Abby asked.

  Wes introduced Gwen Reyes to Abby. “My brother is here.” And time was up. Dread chilled him. What if Dylan wasn’t sorry? What if he wasn’t the same brother Wes had loved all those years ago? He wanted to see him, and he wanted to run in the other direction. He’d never run from anything. He held onto Abby instead. “Thanks to Gwen and her partner. They found Dylan.”

  “There are things you should know,” warned Gwen. “Dylan has outstanding warrants against him in Oklahoma. This can’t be an extended visit.”

  “But Wes can see him now?” Abby’s voice was strong and unwavering.

  Her grip on his hand tightened. Or maybe that was Wes, needing the connection. Requiring the certainty of Abby’s touch. He’d never questioned her heart, but doubted family bonds, blood ties and loyalty. He wanted to believe. Believe like Abby. What if...

  “Dylan is right this way.” Gwen pointed toward the church.

  The PI escorted Abby and Wes across the street and around the side of the historic church, then she melted into the background. Silently and effectively. His brother rose from sitting on an iron bench. His hair was longer, sun- and chemical-bleached. More tattoos covered his arms from his shoulders to his fingers, each one connected intricately to the next. A pair of tinted sunglasses blocked Wes from seeing what was happening in his brother’s eyes. Still, Wes searched for a connection, one brother to the other, and worked through introductions. Dylan offered Abby no handshake, no personal welcome, only a barely there dip of his chin.

  Wes recorded the slight. The anger—the bitterness—stirred inside him. “Dylan. You haven’t been easy to find.”

  “You weren’t looking in the right places.” Resentment anchored Dylan’s words and his deep frown.

  Why did Wes feel as if he was on the defensive? He hadn’t stolen from his brother. Betrayed him. Or abandoned him. “Where do you call home these days?”

  “The road.” Dylan stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets and tucked his arms against his sides. Closing himself off as if he was somehow the wronged party. “It’s where I’ve always belonged.”

  Wes lost what little patience he had left. This wasn’t the same person Wes had grown up with. Not the brother he’d taught to fish or built tree forts with. Or the one he’d sung to sleep on storm-ravaged nights. So much animosity. So much anger. Where had it all gone wrong? And the sudden sadness. It encased Wes like a suffocating shadow.

  Wes released Abby’s hand and crossed his arms over his chest, unwilling to taint her. “So you sold the ranch to hit the open road?”

  “I had to fund my travels somehow.” Dylan’s mouth pinched together even more, turning his words into sharp bites.

  Wes ignored the stab of his brother’s indifference. “That place was our home.”

  “It was my prison,” Dylan spat.

  Wes winced and rocked back. Beside him, Abby gasped. Wes had never known how his brother had felt. Wes had enlisted and found a place he’d belonged right after high school. He hadn’t really looked back, or perhaps he simply hadn’t wanted to.

  Dylan had been a freshman and most likely believed Wes had abandoned him. There was so much Wes suddenly didn’t know. He should’ve been there. Should’ve...

  “That land you love so much killed Mom,” Dylan charged on. “Even Dad didn’t want anything to do with it. It was bad from the start.”

  Their dad hadn’t wanted anything to do with their family. It hadn’t mattered whether they’d lived on the ranch or in the suburbs. Their father wasn’t ever coming home. Wes had accepted that long ago. Now they also had no home to return to. A place to repair and rebuild their relationship. Just as Wes had feared, there was nothing left but a bond that had fractured long ago. Regret tugged at him. “Where’s my share of the profits, Dylan?”

  “Gone.” That one word smacked between them like a gloat. A boast.

  “You spent it all?” Wes widened his stance, steadying himself. There really was nothing left. The more Wes searched, the more he failed to find any trace of the brother he once knew. Not a sliver of the boy he’d grown up with and still wanted to hold onto. It was all gone.

  “I’ve been racing.” Defiance tipped Dylan’s chin up. “Trying to win it back.”

  What had happened to them? There was right, and there was wrong. He refused to accept the blame for his brother’s actions. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

  “When I had something to tell.” Dylan shrugged as if he hadn’t planned anything. “I only needed a few more wins.”

  “Then what?” Wes dug his fingers into his skin. He wanted not to care. To be as remote and detached as his brother seemed. “You’d mail me a check and an apology?”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t matter much now, anyway.” Dylan eyed him. A tic worked along his jaw. “Why did you keep searching for me?”

  “I truly don’t know. It doesn’t matter much now, anyway.” Wes launched his brother’s bored words back at him. But his anger found its own voice. “That’s not true. I wanted the money. And I wanted to understand what happened to us.”

  Dylan flinched, his eyebrows pulling together behind his tinted sunglasses.

  Abby stiffened next to Wes. But Wes fully embraced the pain. The hurt. Better that than admitting he’d let down so many people.

  “What now?” Dylan kicked at a pebble on the sidewalk.

  “Seems your road is headed to Oklahoma and your overdue court appearance.” Wes glanced toward the shadows and nodded to Gwen and her partner. “It seems racing isn’t all you’ve been doing.”

  “Come on, Wes. I’m your brother.” Dylan slapped his palm against his chest. A plea wove through his words. “Can’t you tell your friends to look the other way while I disappear into the night?”

  “No.” Wes shook his head. He couldn’t look the other way anymore. Couldn’t avoid his own truths. “I can’t do that.”

  “You won’t,” Dylan charged. “You always were the saint in the family.”

  “Get in the car, and take some responsibility for your actions.” Wes had to do the same. He stepped to the side, letting Gwen and her partner approach his brother. “A piece of advice, Dylan. When you’re in front of the judge, try leading with an apology.”

  “Look, I’m sorry.” There was more panic than regret in Dylan’s words.

  “It’s a little late for that.” It was too late for so much. “Good luck, Dylan.”

  Gwen and Thomas escorted Dylan to a black SUV. Gwen’s partner climbed in the back seat with Dylan, while Gwen jumped into the driver’s seat. The vehicle soon turned onto a side street, away from the town square and Wes. He watched until the taillights had disappeared.

  “You can’t leave it like that,” Abby whispered beside him.

  “He broke
the law, Abby.” Wes ran his hands through his hair, resisting the urge to take her into his arms. He didn’t deserve her. “Dylan has to answer for that.”

  “He’s also your family.” Abby reached for him. Her palm landed on his chest. Just above what was left of his heart.

  “There’s no money.” Wes leaned in to her touch. One breath. One last time and stepped back. “Nothing left to say.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she stated. Her hands flailed in front of her as if she wanted to catch those pieces of his heart. “It’s been about more than the money. What about your mom?”

  She made what he’d said sound colder. More ruthless. More heartless. As if only money drove him. If only it had. Maybe he wouldn’t ache so much right now.

  Wes lashed out against so many disappointments. “I was going to buy back my family’s ranch in Colorado. Honor my mom. Don’t tell me I never thought it wasn’t about family.”

  Surprise stole across her face. He knew she’d thought he’d use the money to buy out Boone at the Owl. He’d never corrected her. Never set her straight about the rest of his intentions. Convinced himself it was in her best interest not to know. Perhaps it had just been in his.

  There wasn’t any money now. He couldn’t keep Boone in his home. Or buy full ownership of the Owl. He had nothing. He’d failed his family. Boone. Had nothing left to give Abby. Nothing that was worthy of her.

  “Don’t you care what happens to your brother now?” Her voice softened. Her gaze searched his.

  “Abby, you’re reading too much into all of this. I can’t change anything.” He rubbed his hand over his face.

  “No. I don’t think so.” A different quiet framed her words. Dull and somber on the edges. But at its core, a resignation that tore through him. She saw his truths now.

  He faced her. Arms at his sides, fully exposed.

  She considered him. “I think I’m finally seeing things clearly for the first time.”

  She was finally seeing that he wasn’t worth loving. That his love came with a cost. He’d let her down too, eventually. “What’s that?”

  She ignored his question and launched her own. “What now, Wes? You just walk away?”

  He’d been running his whole life. Perhaps that was all he knew. All he was good at. “This place was always temporary.”

  “You didn’t want to find your brother. Not really.” She pushed into his space. Breached those boundaries until only a wish separated them.

  A wish he was someone different. Someone she deserved. Someone whose heart was more than jagged pieces.

  “You have to be relieved there isn’t any money.” Defiance and distress burst into her flushed cheeks and sparked into her gaze. “Now you don’t have to worry about those pesky roots and putting them down anywhere.”

  She wanted roots. Family. She wanted to build something. With someone. It couldn’t be him. Surely, she understood that. If not now, in the end she would. She’d walk away. And that he couldn’t handle. Better she fly now.

  “Well, the joke is on you.” Abby pushed on his chest, then jerked herself away as if he wasn’t worth the effort. “You’ve been putting down roots here in Three Springs this entire time. Are you honestly going to run from all that?”

  He was letting her go. There was no running from the hole splintering inside his chest. He stepped inside it. Knew it was for the best. She couldn’t want him. Not like he was. “What about you?”

  She blinked and straightened. “What about me?”

  “Since it seems like we’re offering insights, as friends do...” There was a harshness to the word friends. He watched her recoil, the tiniest of cringes around her eyes and hardened himself against it. This was for her own good. She couldn’t really want him. His own family hadn’t wanted him. “I’ve got some of my own to share.”

  “Do your best.” There was nothing yielding in her stance or her words.

  “You’ve been so busy trying to be who you think everyone else wants you to be, you can’t see who you really are.” But he saw. He’d always seen her. Been drawn to her from the first time he met her. Always would be drawn to her. Didn’t make it right. She was made for a love story for the ages. Hearts like his weren’t made for loving.

  “And I suppose you know who I am?” Her words challenged him.

  “Who you are is the woman leading a scavenger hunt, playing pin the tail on the bull and taking care of an entire town’s well-being on her own.” Who she was was amazing, inspiring and everything he would’ve wanted in a different lifetime. In a different time.

  She inhaled. Never looked away from him.

  He stepped forward. Close enough to know their breathing matched. Every inhale, every exhale in tune. In sync. As if they were made for each other. “Who you are is enough, Abby James.”

  She closed her eyes as if absorbing his words. Imprinting them inside her. Her gaze returned to his. “Except I’m not enough for you, am I?”

  Wes swallowed his denial. Something inside her gaze deflated. Wes tumbled into that hole inside himself. The last of his heart crumbled.

  She lifted her chin and turned her back on him. She never paused; she just walked away. Her unrushed steps wrapped in so much pride and so much poise.

  Wes let her go and watched until she melted into the crowd of dancers. Watched until his own gaze blurred and his own composure wavered. Then he headed toward the Owl.

  It was complete. He’d finally lost everything.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  IT WAS FRIDAY and the last day of Abby’s first full week as Corine’s assistant. Abby closed her laptop and stood up behind her handcrafted oak desk. Its brass pulls and deep walnut-stained wood matched the vintage vibe of her office inside the historic town-hall building.

  Abby picked up her purse and phone, then glanced at the calendar she’d tacked on her bulletin board. Weekly movie nights in the square were booked for the next while. Along with a Halloween bash. Christmas decorations were being discussed for downtown, and a holiday festival was in the works.

  She also had meetings scheduled every day right up until Labor Day weekend. Rebooting Three Springs Reunion Rodeo Days was going to be the best thing to ever happen to this town. She hoped.

  That morning, Evan had even texted to inform her that he’d signed them up for September’s trivia night, happening in two weeks. And she’d been tasked with providing a side dish for tomorrow’s Roots and Shoots Garden Club meeting.

  Her to-do list was lengthy. Her calendar full. She was satisfied. Perhaps not completely content, but that she would learn to live with. She’d already taken steps in that direction. She’d started making her own lemon and ginger tea and given up her decaf-coffee obsession. She couldn’t avoid Wes forever, but she wanted to avoid him until she didn’t ache quite so much. Until that pang inside her chest every time she thought of him wasn’t quite so sharp.

  Her cell phone buzzed. A hitch caught in her throat. The tiniest of catches. The smallest snag of hope. She swallowed around it. One day soon, she’d congratulate herself for not thinking it might be Wes every time her phone rang. Today was not that day. She cleared her throat, opened the text from Trey Ramsey, and scanned the pictures he’d sent.

  A knock on her door startled her. She forced a smile for her cousin standing in the doorway and returned to her phone. “One sec. It’s Trey. He’s got several leads on cars for me. I’m thinking a small SUV or maybe something bigger like a full-size one. Something the baby and I can grow into.”

  Tess set a cardboard moving box on the side of Abby’s desk and hugged Abby. “I know what you’re doing.”

  “It’s not a secret.” Abby had hung her to-do list on the refrigerator in the apartment. It was a reminder to keep herself focused and on task.

  “But it’s also not a five-alarm fire.” Tess squeezed Abby’s shoulder and focused on Abby’s ph
one screen. “You don’t have to rush into everything all at once.”

  “I’m not.” Not exactly. But Abby had arrived in Three Springs determined to prove she could do things on her own. That’s what she intended to do now. Now that she wasn’t distracted. No longer sidetracked by a rambling cowboy and all the things she didn’t need in her life. Like a relationship. Or love. “But we do need to hurry to meet Frieda’s cousin at the house. Nora only has an hour for lunch and a firm one-o’clock appointment at the bank.”

  “The baby won’t be here for months,” Tess said, caution in her tone. “You don’t need to find a place to live today.”

  “True, but I’d still like to get a quick look at the house.” She had to have a home to raise her child and build memories together. It was part of proving she could do it all on her own. This was top of her to-do list. Maybe she was rushing. But was it ever too soon to prove herself? “Besides, Frieda said their great-aunt Esther has impeccable style and remodeled the interior. Aren’t you a little curious to see it?”

  “Fine. We’ll have a quick look.” Tess pointed at Abby. “Just remember you don’t need to sign a lease today. It’s not urgent you get out of my place.”

  It wasn’t long before, charmed by the white bench-style swing and thick columns on the front porch, Abby followed Nora and Tess through the two-story craftsman. She peered into the furnished upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms. Each room charmed her more. She explored the downstairs office, then moved through the family room with the fireplace and built-in bookcases to the back of the house.

  “The kitchen was our aunt’s last big project several years ago.” Nora led the way into the kitchen. “Before the dementia set in. She worked so hard on this as if she knew her time in this house was coming to a close.”

  Nora and Frieda’s great-aunt had been moved to a full-time care facility, so the two cousins had banded together to look after their relation’s property and finances. Abby ran her hand over the farmhouse sink and marveled at the round stained-glass window tucked in an alcove with a bench seat. Metal panels remained in the white kitchen cabinets as a nod to the past. “This room makes you want to cook and invite the neighborhood inside to eat.”