by Christa Wick
“Mom, Dad,” Siobhan said, leading her parents into the great hall to where Sage stood by the fireplace. “This is Jake’s sister, Sage. My slowpoke siblings will be along shortly. I think Cassian is still wrapping his gift to Leah.”
“Claire and Boone, correct?” Sage asked, shaking their hands.
The introduction looped a garrote around Sage’s throat. She couldn’t say Jake had mentioned them to her without inviting, at a minimum, the thought in their heads that Jake hadn’t mentioned her to them or anyone else. And, of course, everything he told her about Dawn’s family was only since her arrival in Willow Gap. He hadn’t covered all of Boone’s kids. The entire day was going to be a minefield in terms of what Sage felt comfortable asking while carefully avoiding someone turning any particular question back on her. Every workday would be the same until she convinced Jake to come clean.
Leah saved Sage from having to say anything more at the moment to Boone and Claire. But the little one was merely slinging her aunt from one fire to the next when she came and grabbed Sage’s hand. Leah led her over to a desk along one side of the great room. A computer keyboard and mouse occupied the surface, as well as a large monitor. The screen was split with two windows open, a different handsome face filling each.
The screen on the left had a live feed of a male in an Army uniform, the area behind him appearing to be a tent with no hint of sunlight outside. To the right sat a male in a shirt and tie, the space beyond the screen filled with overflowing bookshelves and an old metal file cabinet.
“Aunt Sage,” Leah said by way of introduction, then pointed at the soldier. “Sutton.”
Slowly her finger drifted right.
“Em-er-son.”
These were the twins, Sage realized. They might have been conceived and born at the same time, but they weren’t identical. Sutton had red hair like Adler, but their mother’s green eyes. Emerson had dark hair like Walker and the midnight blue gaze of his oldest brother. Otherwise, they were very much alike, strong jaws, thick brows, and firm, full mouths that had probably entertained many a female.
“Nice to meet you,” Sage said, hyperaware that there was a camera atop the monitor pointed at her, the men’s first impression clearly expressed in Sutton’s quirked brow and the downturn at one corner of Emerson’s mouth.
Lifting Leah up, she placed the toddler in the desk chair. “Technology is so wonderful, isn’t it, that Leah can talk with you on her birthday?”
Moving out of camera range, Sage took a step back and bumped into the broad chest and narrow hips of Adler Turk. She knew who it was without turning her head. His scent was permanently scarred along the soft linings of her nose and she felt the hot flash of electricity as their bodies made contact.
Sage sucked in air as Adler stepped to the side, his hand landing on the small of her back as he leaned forward and nodded at his brothers.
“You guys can entertain the birthday princess. I need to steal Miss Ballard away on work matters for a few minutes.”
As Adler walked her toward the hall that led to Dawn’s old office, she could have sworn she heard one of the brothers snicker.
Nice work if you can get it.
Her cheeks were absolutely flaming as they reached the area outside Dawn’s office. The temperature went up a notch when Adler passed the door and went on to the next.
“My office,” he explained, waving her in.
Sweet Heavens, she wondered, was she going to have to work that close to Adler Turk? Wasn’t he supposed to be out riding cows and roping horses, or whatever it was cowboys did?
He plopped into a comfy leather seat, opened a drawer and poked around. Pulling out a couple of key chains, he picked one and slid it toward the center of the desk.
“I might have heard you were looking at Jimmy Hunt’s junker. I’m not letting my niece—or you—ride around in it.”
Sage’s mouth flattened and she offered an eye roll, but she didn’t ask if Betty Rae had blabbed about that, too. She assumed the woman had. Jimmy Hunt lived on Jake’s street and Sage hadn’t mentioned the potential purchase to her brother yet. For the time being, he had agreed he would drop Sage and Leah off at the ranch on his way to work. But that meant getting the little girl up early and home late.
“She means well,” Adler offered, reading Sage’s mind as to the rumor’s source.
Saying nothing, she picked up the keys.
“There’s a log book in the glove box. I don’t care how much you drive it and what percent is for business, just record the miles daily. There’s also a company card for filling up at Tumbleweed. Keep the receipt if you fill it up anywhere else and submit a reimbursement request to me.”
She nodded, her heart breaking into a gallop when he unexpectedly sighed.
“Seeing as it’s a company car—I’m supposed to run your driver’s license for insurance purposes.”
And so it begins, she thought, chiding herself for believing she could take the job without exposing more of her background to the family.
Frowning, Sage placed the keys on the desk.
Adler raised his hands in surrender. “I’m not asking you to spill your brother’s secret. That’s between him and me.”
He nodded at the keys. “Take them. I’ll square it with the insurance company. Just drive safely.”
“Of course.”
“It’s parked by the garage if you want to take it home today.”
“That would probably be the simplest way to handle it,” Sage agreed.
“Car seat is already in place, so you won’t need to run to Billings or take the one out of Jake’s truck.”
Nodding, she felt a pinch in her nose. The man didn’t need to be so considerate. Of course, he was doing it for Leah’s safety and not for Sage’s convenience, but with the kind of assets the Turk family had to call on, they could take the issue of Leah’s safety entirely out of Jake and Sage’s hands.
She needed to convince Jake that no one wanted to take his daughter away. They only wanted to make sure she was happy and secure. If Sage could get her brother to recognize that the Turks’ motives were good, then she and Jake could clear the past and make way for the future, one where she would be allowed back in Jake’s life.
She couldn’t return to being alone again, not after holding Leah.
Vision blurring, Sage heard Adler slide his chair away from the desk. His hip bumped against the furniture as he quickly rounded its corner to wrap his hands around her biceps.
“Tell me why you’re crying,” he demanded, thumbs stroking just below her shoulders. “What did I say or do that was wrong?”
She shook her head. The man was certainly overbearing at times, but, at that moment, in that room, he was doing everything right.
“Tell me, Sage.”
She shook her head again, flinging the tears that refused to remain confined. Her mouth bobbed open and shut, trying and failing to find the right words.
“I hate that you’re stuck in the middle of this,” he said, pulling her close to him.
Her chest pressed against his. Her hips followed. A warning bell went off in her head, but she didn’t pull back. Tilting her face up, she tried to see through the tears.
Adler slid one hand to curl around the back of her neck. His breathing had slowed and deepened, so had hers.
“Family doesn’t lie to one another,” he said.
She could feel the sweet-scented breeze of his words against her lips, feel the heat of his body burning through their clothes.
“There’s no relationship without truth,” he pressed.
Sage blinked fresh tears. She wanted to tell him he was wrong. Almost half her life had been a lie—and it had been a better life in most ways before the truth came out.
“You don’t understand…”
“What?” Adler pleaded, his other hand moving up to cup along the side of her chin. He took a step forward, moving Sage backward until the desk pushed at her flesh.
The maneuver reminded
Sage of being in the bathroom with him and how badly that had ended, but only for a second. Wanting to give herself over to this man, a sob ripped through her.
“Jake told the truth before and it ruined everything—”
She looked up at Adler, her gaze wide, tears still flowing freely. He kissed her wet cheek, murmuring that it was okay, that it didn’t matter what the truth was. There was no denying Jake loved Leah and had loved Dawn with all his heart. It only mattered that the truth was being withheld. Trust was a two-way street.
His hands and words soothed, so did the warm press of his lips against her face. She turned limp in his embrace, her mouth sliding to find his.
Sage opened to him, savored the first tentative nibble at her bottom lip then the gentle, exploratory sweep of his tongue. Her hands fisted his shirt, her entire being clinging to this man.
And then she pushed him away.
“Sage…I wasn’t…I mean—” He exhaled in a hot rush. “I only wanted to comfort you.”
“I know,” she said, believing him. What had happened between them in the bathroom wasn’t a tactic to get the truth from her. She understood that at last.
But that fact no longer mattered. Adler was right—there could be no relationship without truth. But she wouldn’t force Jake to say anything before he was ready. More than her, he had been hurt by their past. He had been the one to make public their mother’s relationship with a powerful man. He had been the catalyst for the two of them visiting their father’s home, standing in front of their father’s wife and being judged by the bitter woman as nothing more than trash. Throwaway children from a throwaway affair that had lasted nineteen years.
As much as she wanted to feel the sweet caress of Adler Turk’s lips and hands, there could be nothing between them while her past, and all the trouble carried with it, remained hidden.
She pulled further away, leaving the circle of his arms. Forcing a trembling smile, she wiped at tears that hadn’t dried. Moving to the door, she looked at him over her shoulder.
“We’ve been gone too long. We need to get back.”
9
Reaching the ranch Monday morning, Sage bypassed the circular drive out front and parked next to the four-car garage. With the towering house looming over her as she unbuckled Leah from the car seat, Sage felt like she was going to work in a rustic palace. Only there was no prince inside, just Adler Turk, a man who was both her new boss and her brother’s brother-in-law. That was all Adler could be to her. Last night’s kiss had been nothing more than a mistake—no matter how perfect it had felt.
Kneeling outside the car, she helped Leah shoulder her backpack then grabbed her own bag from the back seat. Determining that there was nothing left to delay their entry into the house, she drew a deep breath and hooked her finger around one of Leah’s. With so much tension running through her body over the prospect of seeing Adler so soon after the kiss, she didn’t trust herself to hold the small hand without squeezing too hard.
“Do you know the way to Gam-Gam’s kitchen from here?” she asked.
Leah nodded and pointed to a stone path that led around the garage. Together, they followed the walk to the rear porch. Lindy was there, seated at an outdoor table with a tumbler of lemonade, a teapot and some breakfast biscuits that smelled of blueberries and bananas. One of the chairs had a step stool in front of it. Leah climbed up, wiggled out of her backpack and reached for a biscuit, dainty and meticulous in the way she lifted it with her thumb and index finger, the other fingers fanning upward.
“Tea,” Lindy offered, lifting the ceramic pot off its warmer.
“Yes, please.”
As Lindy poured, Sage looked over the lake. She imagined all the mornings Dawn had started her workday this way. Her beautiful little girl, her loving mother, fresh air blowing off a lake that rippled with early sunlight.
It was a different world than the one Sage had grown up with. Small apartments, cold cereal, a mother always rushing to and from work except for the rare nights she had a sitter come by to watch Sage and Jake while she went out, the even rarer nights when her date stopped by for a few minutes, always the same man who would stare intently and ask how Sage and Jake were doing in school, maybe ruffle their hair before her mother checked to make sure the outside hallway was clear so he could leave.
How much of an outsider Jake must have felt walking into Lindy’s home and watching all the affection bubble over. At least that was how she felt despite Lindy’s kindness and Adler’s generosity. That feeling could only grow the longer she was there while Jake’s lies remained unexplained.
“You’re not nervous about work are you, dear?” Lindy asked as Sage stared at her untouched mug of tea.
Sage shook her head and counted out two spoons of sugar then added a little cream.
“Good, Adler seemed very impressed with the type of work you were doing in Baltimore. He’s worried you might get bored with what he has to give you.”
“I’m sure I won’t,” Sage answered between sips, her mind running in a dozen dirty, salacious directions. “I mostly worked with companies that were all in one industry. This is a whole new world to learn, to look for efficiencies…”
She took another sip, a blush creeping across her cheeks at the implication there were efficiencies to be found. Judging by the property and furnishings, the family was good at what they did. They continued to work their business instead of eroding the base provided by the generations before them. To think she could improve the Turks’ processes without even looking at them was no small measure of hubris.
Lindy reached across the table and gave her hand a reassuring pat. “There’s always something to improve, especially when everything keeps changing. Used to be you grazed your cattle then sent them off for processing. Now we’re part of a study adding seaweed to their diet to reduce the methane production.”
“Farts!” Leah chimed in, putting down her biscuit long enough to pinch her nose and roll her eyes.
Lindy smashed her lips together, a smile dancing in her gaze.
“That was two, love,” she said as Leah reached for another breakfast biscuit. “Did you want some, Sage?”
Sage waved off the offer as Leah finished the last of her lemonade and climbed down from her chair. Sage helped her put the backpack on once more then let Leah lead her through the kitchen and great room to the hall with all the offices and the playroom.
“Adler should be by soon,” Lindy said, staying in the hall. “He had some paperwork to pick up from the stables. I’ll be back in a few hours with snacks.”
Taking a step back from the doorway, she pointed further down the hall. “In the meantime, if there’s anything either of you needs, there’s a galley kitchen just past Adler’s office and, right after that, the restroom.”
Bending down, she beckoned Leah forward for a kiss then left. Leah escaped her backpack and placed it on a drawing table then went over to the bookcase with the stuffed animals. Each of the three she had introduced to Sage before that first Sunday dinner received a few gentle strokes. Moving on, she stood on her tiptoes to pull down a slim picture book and handed it to Sage.
“Do you want me to read this Honey Bee?”
Leah answered by hooking Sage’s fingers and leading her to where two beanbags rested side-by-side. Sage sat down. Leah climbed onto her lap then opened to the first page. Sage began to read.
I spend my day where dolphins play.
Outside my door, along the shore.
Listening, Leah toyed with the bracelet Sage wore, a string of azurite beads, their color matching the water in the pictures of the book’s pages.
They jump for me, they jump so high.
From deep green sea to pale blue sky.
Leah snuggled closer. Her hand surfed up Sage’s sleeve to fist the material like she would a favorite blanket. Sage drew a deep breath, the strawberry scent of Leah’s shampoo coaxing Sage’s muscles into relaxing. When it was just her and Leah, it was the simplest thing in
the world to be at ease.
Reaching the last page, Sage closed the book and Leah put it up. When she returned, Sage gently took hold of her hands.
“Your uncle Addy needs help,” she started, refining the words she had practiced in the guest room as she fell asleep the night before. “Is it okay for me to be at your mommy’s desk?”
A frown marred the child’s features. Slipping from Sage’s grasp, Leah walked into the office, stretched high up on her tiptoes again and rested her arms on the desk without saying anything.
Sage came to stand by her side.
Leah looked up.
“Mommy no come back, mommy no…”
There was a question in the toddler’s tone. Swallowing down the thick lump that suddenly clogged her throat, Sage shook her head.
“No, Honey Bee. She loves you more than anything, but she can’t come back.”
Leah captured Sage’s hand and guided her over to the chair. Looking up, she pushed lightly at Sage’s hip.
“You work,” she ordered with a soft rasp in her voice.
“Okay, thank you, Honey Bee.”
Leah returned to the playroom, shoulders sagging until she picked up Quigley and the book Sage had just read and began describing to the stuffed rabbit how the dolphins played all day long, but there weren’t any dolphins in lakes, only oceans.
From the office doorway, Adler cleared his throat.
“Thank you for that,” he said with a tilt of his head toward the playroom. “It didn’t cross my mind.”
“I wasn’t sure…” Faltering, she shrugged. “I mean, the reminder, you know?”
“Yes. But it was the right thing to do.”