Training Summer [Passion Peak, Colorado 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Tara Rose

  Summer kissed Gran’s paper-thin cheek. “I love you, Gran.” She had to get outside and breathe in fresh air or she was going to pass out. “I’ll see you tomorrow or on Thursday.”

  “I love you, too, Summer. Have a nice date, you two.”

  As soon as they were outside, Summer collapsed into Wes’s arms, but he might as well have been made of stone. She started crying and couldn’t stop. Wes was talking to her, but she didn’t even hear the words. She only knew one thing for certain. There was no way she was going to Dalton’s house tonight, sit down to dinner with him, and pretend that everything was all right. No fucking way.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Summer pulled out of Wes’s embrace and wiped her eyes. She sucked in huge gulps of fresh, rain-soaked air. It had sprinkled all day, and the ground was still wet. Everything smelled clean and crisp, but she couldn’t even enjoy it. Right now, she needed to be a in a warm, dark place so that she felt safe and secure again. She wanted to snuggle up with Yosemite Sam, who loved her even when she didn’t come home all night. “I want to go home. I’ll heat up some spaghetti or something for dinner.”

  “Summer, I am not taking you home so that you can eat canned pasta.”

  “Then I’ll walk, Wes. I live ten minutes away.”

  “Please don’t go. Please. I need to talk about this, too. I’m just as upset as you are.”

  She hadn’t considered that. “Of course. Wes, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to trivialize your part in this. You were there, too, when I told Dalton all those things about myself.”

  “Exactly. And I saw his reaction Sunday when your gran asked if he was any relation to Bryce.”

  Summer nodded. “I’m glad to hear you say that. I had convinced myself that I’d imagined it.”

  “You didn’t. But, Summer, that doesn’t mean that Dalton knows the whole story of his grandfather and your gran. Who knows what he was told about it? Don’t you think we owe him the benefit of the doubt, at the very least? Give him a chance to explain his side.”

  Summer was stunned into silence for a moment. “I thought you hated him, Wes. I really did. Or at least, didn’t like him. I mean, I’m very glad you don’t, but I didn’t think you’d care what he thought about all this.”

  “Well, I care more for how upset you are right now, but no. I don’t hate Dalton. I do want to hear his side of this, though. And, I think he would be very hurt if you didn’t at least give him a chance to tell it. He cares about you, Summer. A lot.”

  “Like his grandfather cared about my Gran?”

  Wes pulled her close again and stroked her hair, and this time she didn’t pull away. “Summer, it’s not the same thing, sweetheart. Surely you know that, right?”

  “I don’t know anything right now, Wes. I only know my heart is breaking for her. She must have been devastated.”

  “I know. To still talk about it all these years later with that much passion and emotion in her voice, she must have been deeply in love with him.”

  Just like she was in love with Dalton and Wes. She gazed up into Wes’s face. There was no point in denying the truth. She’d fallen in love with two men, in a very short amount of time. Had her mother loved her father? She wished she knew. Gran had loved Bryce. Wes was right about that. She’d heard it in Gran’s voice.

  Summer was doomed. Doomed by DNA that caused her to make a damn fool of herself with men who could never be hers. Just like her mother and her grandmother had done.

  “What are you thinking right now?” he asked. “You have the saddest look in your eyes.”

  “What if Dalton feels the same way about me? Poor little Summer from the wrong end of town. Can’t afford to buy clothes at Pinque Boutique on her own. She’s fine to fuck, but not…But not for a serious relationship.” She’d almost said, “But not to love.” She couldn’t go there. Not today. Maybe not ever.

  Wes brushed a finger across her cheek and gazed at her with a combination of sadness and tenderness that nearly took her breath away. “Summer, I know you don’t mean that. Dalton wants to be one of your Doms. He told you that. He wants to care for you and protect you. Do you really believe he’d lie like that, right to your face, simply because you didn’t grow up the way we both did? Do you think I give a shit about that? I don’t, by the way.”

  “I know you don’t, Wes.”

  “And what about Dalton? Do you really believe that matters to him?”

  She averted her gaze. “I don’t know.”

  “Then let’s go. Let’s go confront him about what your gran said. Let’s ask him if it matters. We’ll make him tell us the truth.”

  “What if I can’t handle it, Wes? What if I’m right?”

  “I don’t think you are.”

  She wanted desperately to believe him, but she was paralyzed with indecision right now. Every emotion she’d felt each time she’d missed a school dance or a party came rushing to the surface. All the times she’d driven past The Cranberry Roost—Passion Peak’s exclusive, expensive restaurant that she’d never set foot in—or heard someone mention an event that she’d love to attend but could never afford, suddenly seemed as current as that morning’s sunrise or the eggs she’d had for breakfast.

  They were no longer memories that were months, or in some cases, years old. It was as if each of them had happened yesterday. The anger of never having enough money for even the smallest luxuries was all mixed up with her feelings for Dalton, until she couldn’t tell which made her more despondent. The fact that she’d never had what she secretly envied in others, or the fear that he was only playing a game with her, and could never love her as she now realized she loved him.

  “And if you are right,” said Wes quietly. “If he really doesn’t care for you as much as I believe he does, and if he never could because of how you grew up, then fuck him. Because…Because…Summer, I care for you. With my whole heart and soul I care for you. And even if he doesn’t want you, I most certainly do. So fuck him, then.”

  Summer’s jaw dropped open at the passion in Wes’s voice. Fresh tears stung her eyes as she stared into his handsome face, so full of emotion. It was as close as any man had ever come to telling her that he loved her. She wasn’t even disappointed that he hadn’t actually said the words. He didn’t have to. They were written on his face. She’d heard them in the tone of his voice. And now she felt them in the way his lips brushed hers, tentatively at first, and then with lust and desperation.

  She heard a car horn honk, birds singing, and the soft pat-pat of rainwater dripping from the downspout onto the tile catch basin that had been placed at the bottom, so that the water would drain into the landscaping rather than soak the sidewalk on which they now stood. But all that faded away as Wes kissed her, moving his lips and tongue over hers with expert precision.

  She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close, not caring that several people brushed past them on their way inside the building. No one existed right now except Wes. She longed to tell him that she loved him, but if she did, she’d have to tell him that she loved Dalton, too. And right now, until they knew where Dalton’s heart truly lay, she couldn’t do that to Wes. Not after what he’d just said to her. She would never, ever hurt him like that.

  Their kiss was broken only when Summer’s cell phone chirped. It was Dalton’s ring tone. She handed it to Wes because she couldn’t talk to Dalton right now. She wanted a few more minutes of having Wes to herself so that she could place his beautiful words in her heart and keep them there, to take out and hear over and over again, just in case this night ended with Dalton telling her to get lost. She would need more than Wes’s words if that happened.

  “We’re on our way now, Dalton. And, dude, we need to talk.”

  Summer heard Dalton’s voice on the other end. “What’s going on?”

  “We’ll tell you when we get there.” Wes disconnected the call and handed Summer her phone as they walked toward his car in the parking lot.

  “That was kind of mean,”
she said, even though secretly she loved the fact that he hadn’t tried to sugarcoat his anger.

  “Well, maybe, but I’m pissed off right now.”

  “My protector.” She smiled at him. “You’re better at doing that than Yosemite Sam is.”

  Wes laughed. “I like your cat. He’s a cool-looking dude.”

  “I feel guilty leaving him alone so much lately. Winona and Felicity have been checking on him, but he’s never been left alone this much.”

  “Bring him over.”

  She slid into the passenger seat and waited until he’d started the car and was driving toward the Metcalf estate on Sunflower Trail. “What did you mean, Wes? About Sam? You said I should bring him over.”

  The street curved around behind Nash’s property. Summer had always loved it because you could see the mansions through the trees in the winter. In the summer, when they were hidden, she used to pretend they were magical places that only became visible at certain times of the year, like Brigadoon. She’d watched that movie once with Gran and had been fascinated by the concept.

  He gave her a quick glance. “I meant bring him over, Summer. With you, when you spend the night. That way he won't be alone. I like cats.”

  “You amaze me, Wesley Danbury.”

  “Ugh. Thank you, but please don’t call me ‘Wesley.’ Always hated my full name.”

  “Why?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s so pretentious. My brothers got normal names. Adam. Seth. One syllable. Quick and easy. Biblical names, yet. But me? I get Wesley.”

  Summer couldn’t help but laugh. “At least you didn’t get Cain or Abel.”

  Wes snorted. “Yeah. Okay. You’re right. It could be far worse. Here we are.”

  Summer held her breath as Wes made his way up a circular drive lined with flowering crabapple trees. Even though it was too late in the season for any of them to still be in bloom, Summer easily imagined what it must look like when they were. At the end of the driveway stood a gatehouse, and as they approached, a man emerged and stood right on the pavement. When he saw it was Wes, he stepped aside and waved them past.

  “Ah, does he stay in that tiny building all the time?”

  Wes nodded. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “Talk about pretentious, eh?”

  Summer started to laugh but then put a hand to her mouth as guilt washed over her. “I’m sorry. That’s mean.”

  “Well, it’s not Dalton who hired full-time guards. It’s Leland, his father.”

  “You don’t like him, do you?”

  Wes gave her another sideways glance. “Summer, not many people in this town do.”

  She thought he was going to pull up to the main house, but then remembered that Dalton lived didn’t live in it. Wes drove around to a cluster of smaller homes off to the left. Summer swiveled in her seat to gawk at the main house. It was stucco with cedar trim, and the wrought-iron railings and curved windows reminded her of Spanish haciendas in old Westerns.

  “He likes his privacy, and this way he and his father aren’t butting heads all the time.”

  “Wes, I don’t know if I can do this.”

  “Deep breaths, Summer. We'll get through it.”

  She shot him a look of what she hoped came across as gratitude. He was going to stand by her, no matter what happened, and she couldn’t ask for more than that from any man. As they exited the car, Dalton came out on the front porch and smiled as they approached. Summer’s heart fluttered and her pulse raced. He was so damn gorgeous, and looked so happy to her, that she sent up a silent prayer he’d known nothing about what Bryce had done to Gran.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “About time you got here,” said Dalton, grinning in a way that an hour ago would have had her begging him to take her. Now, it only made her angry.

  He opened the front door and waved them through. Summer dropped to her knees, only because Dalton didn’t yet know how upset they both were, and she didn’t want to put him on the defensive, but Wes lifted her to her feet.

  “That can wait, Summer. Dalton, we need to know something. And I’m asking you both as your friend, and as the other man who also wants to be Summer’s Dom, to come clean and tell us the truth.”

  The quick sliver of fear that passed over Dalton’s face forced a loud sigh from Summer. She glanced around at the lush surroundings and expensive furniture. This was the kind of house that, if she’d visited as a child, Gran would have warned her not to touch anything or sit on the chairs, in case she broke something or got it dirty. But she wasn't a child anymore. As her legs began to tremble, she took a seat in the nearest armchair. It wasn’t at all comfortable, but right now she didn’t care. Right now she only wanted to hear Dalton say he hadn’t known the whole story.

  “What’s going on?” asked Dalton, his voice not full of annoyance as she thought it should be right now. Instead he sounded insecure, and that wasn’t like him. He pulled another chair over so that he was sitting directly across from her.

  Wes perched on the edge of her chair, and draped his arm across her shoulder. “I took Summer to see her gran before we came here since she didn’t get to visit her yesterday. Your name came up when she asked where we were going tonight. She reacted much the same way as she had on Sunday when she asked you if you were related to Bryce Metcalf, so I asked her to elaborate.”

  “Fuck.” Dalton ran a hand through his hair, averted his gaze, and he then rose and began to pace the room. Summer started to cry again. She couldn’t help it. She stared at him, willing it not to be true.

  Wes rose as well and stomped toward Dalton with his hands curled into fists. Summer wanted to put her hands over her face as if she were a child, afraid of a scary movie. If they got into a fight, she wouldn’t be able to handle it.

  “What the fuck, Dalton? How could you sit on this and not say anything?”

  “What? What a minute. Let’s slow down. Tell me exactly what Ruth said.”

  “Why? Seems to me you already know the story.”

  “I know my grandfather didn’t marry her even though they were supposed to be seeing each other for quite a while, and instead he went for the cash and married my grandmother, whose family owned half of Denver, apparently.”

  Wes stared at him for a few seconds, confusion filling his dark eyes. Summer did the same as hope began to build. Was it possible that he hadn’t been told the entire truth?

  “Wes, please tell him what Gran said.”

  Wes’s eyes filled with pain, and Summer didn’t think he was going to say it, but she knew she couldn’t. “Are you sure?” he asked quietly.

  She nodded. “Yes, Sir. Please tell him. I have to know the truth.”

  Maybe it was her use of the term of respect, but something finally shifted in Wes’s facial expression. His hands uncurled and he hooked his thumbs in the loops of his belt, which was a sexy gesture. But Summer forced her gaze away from Wes and onto Dalton’s face. She watched him carefully as Wes spoke, telling Dalton word for word what Gran had told them. As he did, the most horrible expression of disbelief and anger came over Dalton’s face, and Summer rose to stand in front of both men. She placed one hand on Dalton’s arm, running it across his tat.

  “You didn’t know, did you? Please tell me you didn’t know.”

  He looked at her with a mixture of tenderness and pain. “I knew some of it, Summer, but not all of it.”

  She removed her hand from his arm. “Which part did you know, exactly?” She wasn’t going to call him “Sir” right now. Maybe not ever again. It all hinged on what he said next.

  Dalton swallowed hard. “I know he made the quip about breeding stock, but I didn’t know about the other things he’d said to her. The stuff about marrying a saloon keeper and calling her low-life trash.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me, Dalton?”

  “Summer…I don’t know what to say right now.”

  “Tell me why I should believe you don’t think the same things about me.” Her voi
ce caught at the end because she could barely get the words out.

  His eyes filled with pain again as he glanced at Wes, and then back at her again. “Because I’m not my grandfather or my father. I don’t give a shit about any of that.”

  She wanted desperately to believe him, but she was very confused right now. “How do I know that, Dalton?”

  He tried to touch her face but she flinched and he finally put his hand down. “Do you honestly think I could have held you, and cared for you, and made love to you the way I have if I thought those things about you?”

  She thought about everything they’d all been through, and she knew that part, at least, was true. His reactions and emotions had been too genuine. But why hadn’t he told her?

  “When you came over here, you thought I knew all of it,” he said. “Now I understand why you were so upset.”

  “We had hoped you didn’t,” said Wes, his voice still hard and angry. “But Sunday we both saw your reaction, and so we had to find out.”

  Dalton addressed Summer. “I reacted that way because I never wanted to have to tell you that my grandfather had treated your gran like dirt. I am so sorry, Summer. I swear to you I had no idea the full extent of what he’d said to her. And I swear to you that I had no idea he’d been seeing my grandmother in secret, and I didn’t know he’d been intimate with your gran. People weren’t the same back then. They courted. Sex outside of marriage wasn’t unheard of, but it wasn’t as accepted as it is now. I would have expected that if they’d been in a physical relationship, he would have fully intended to marry her.”

  Summer was taken aback by how sweet and old-fashioned Dalton sounded. She never would have imagined such flowery words from him. “Thank you for telling me that, Dalton.”

  He searched her face carefully, and the intensity of his gaze almost made her squirm. “You still look like something is bothering you. Please tell me what it is. Did your gran tell you something else?”