Live-In Mom

by Paige, Laurie

“There’s enough trouble here without adding more.”

  Puzzled, she glanced at Tina, then Shane. Neither of them offered any insight into Ty’s strange behavior.

  “I didn’t know about Jonathan until I got here,” she said. “There wasn’t anything on the radio about it.”

  “We’re keeping it quiet until we get more details from the kidnappers on what they want,” Shane told her.

  “Oh, yes. I see.”

  She clamped her teeth into her bottom lip to stop its trembling. Ty looked as if he hated everybody, including her. A sickening thought occurred to her. Had Jonathan been taken because of her? Was Hodkin getting revenge on Ty for interfering in his vendetta on her when she clobbered him with a rock?

  “Ty,” she whispered, “Jonathan is smart. He’ll be okay.”

  His knuckles turned white as he gripped the chair. “A six-year-old? What can he do against someone like Hodkin?” He turned to the deputy who’d followed her into the house. “Get her out of here. We don’t have time for guests.”

  The man looked at Shane, who nodded, then at Carly. She stared at Ty, unable to believe this was the man who had held her and kissed her a thousand times last Sunday night. Gathering what dignity she could, she walked out.

  “Carly, wait.”

  She faced Tina, who followed her across the lawn to her car. She trembled uncontrollably, knowing she shouldn’t have barged in. She loved Ty and Jonathan, but she was the outsider here….

  “He’s hurting,” Tina said gently, patting the baby’s back so it would burp. “He doesn’t mean it.”

  “He blames me,” Carly choked out.

  “He’s lashing out at anyone who comes close. Don’t let it hurt you. He knows, in his heart, that it isn’t your fault. No one can predict what an evil person will do. Hodkin posted bail and was released. He took Jonathan hostage, and wants a plane to take him to Mexico. He says he’ll turn Jonathan loose after he’s out of the country.”

  “Oh, God.” Carly closed her eyes.

  “Shane and Ty are going to track them,” Tina explained the plan to her. “Hodkin is holed up somewhere in the mountains. He called from a cellular phone, that much we know.”

  “What can I do?” Carly asked anxiously, wanting so badly to help. “It will kill Ty if something happens to Jonathan.”

  “He needs you, but he can’t admit it. Stay. If things go wrong…” Tina swallowed hard. “If things go wrong, he’ll need you very, very much. Stay close.”

  “When are he and Shane leaving? I’ll go with them—”

  “Stay with me. We’ll wait together. It will be a long night, I’m afraid.” She looked toward the house. “They’re going now, I think. Wait here.”

  Tina handed Carly the baby and hurried toward her husband and brother-in-law. The child started to fret. Carly automatically patted his back and swung her body to and fro to rock it.

  Shane kissed his wife goodbye. He accepted a backpack from a deputy. Carly noted a rifle strapped to the pack. Ty had one on his, too. So did six other deputies.

  They were going on a manhunt.

  She suppressed a desperate need to go to Ty and touch him, however briefly, before he left. He didn’t glance her way.

  When the men left after listening intently to instructions from the sheriff, Tina came back to her. “Let’s wait inside.” She led the way into Ty’s house. No one tried to stop Carly.

  Tina put the sleeping baby in a carrier and removed a roast from the oven. “Let’s have dinner.”

  “I’m not hungry.” Carly stood by the window.

  “It doesn’t do any good to starve. You’ll only make yourself less effective.” She dished up two plates and set the table. She took her place. “You’re right. Jonathan is a smart kid. He won’t do anything foolish. It wouldn’t surprise me if he got away and came home on his own.”

  Carly nodded, but her confidence had faded. She strained to see the men, but they had disappeared into the woods, following a logging road. She studied the sky.

  The sun was setting. Soon the light would fade and the darkness descend. If Jonathan did get away, what might happen to a child in the woods at night? She couldn’t bear to think on it. Turning, she went to the table.

  With an effort, she managed to get some of the food down. Ty had prepared an assortment of vegetables with the roast, and she ate a bite of each before putting the fork aside. This was to have been their supper, she realized.

  “He’s incredibly special,” she murmured as if realizing it that very moment. “How could any woman give up a man who can cook a pot roast?” She tried to smile at Tina, but her mouth wouldn’t hold the pose. Her lips wobbled precariously before she pressed her napkin to them.

  “Ty’s learned a lot about himself the past couple of years,” Tina replied. “He’s learned to be a father. I think that’s what saved him—his love for Jonathan.”

  “He used to drink quite a bit, I understand.”

  “Yes. That was during the final year of his marriage. Things were pretty rocky with him then, but he came through.” She smiled wisely. “People do, you know. We live through some awful times, but we make it. Jonathan will, too. And so will you and Ty.”

  Carly shook her head. “He hates me, and he has a right. I did come here under false pretenses, thinking a ranch would be the perfect hideaway, as if the people were put here for my amusement. I interfered even though Elena told me to stay out of it.”

  “But what if you hadn’t? What would have happened to Venita if you’d ignored her problems?”

  “Does Shane know it’s Hodkin who has Jonathan?”

  “Yes. He’s the one who called and demanded safe passage to Mexico. Two others have been arrested.”

  “Was William one of them?”

  “I don’t know anyone by that name.”

  Carly shook her head sorrowfully. “Venita is in love with him, I think. He told her to warn me. Ty protected me, thinking I was at risk. We never thought they’d take Jonathan.”

  Tina sighed and looked at the clock. “Why do the hours creep by when you want them to fly and fly when you want them to crawl?”

  Carly woke to a shout from the backyard. She leapt from the sofa in the study and ran to the kitchen. Men were everywhere in the yard. More patrol cars arrived while she watched. She couldn’t tell what was going on.

  Then she saw Ty… and Jonathan.

  He held his son in a tight embrace while the other deputies clapped him and Shane on the back and shoulders. She realized they were grinning. While she watched, Shane pushed Hodkin, whose hands were handcuffed behind him, toward a squad car.

  The young officer who’d stopped her earlier that evening got in the driver’s side. Another deputy climbed in. With lights flashing, they turned and headed out toward the road. Taking the culprit to jail, she assumed.

  Tina came over to stand beside her. “Thank God,” she whispered. She smiled. “I knew Shane would get him back.” She dashed out the door, going first to Jonathan and Ty. After giving them both a kiss, she went to her husband. Shane opened his arms and drew her inside. They kissed, briefly but passionately.

  Carly became aware of the ache of tears in her throat. She waited nervously for Ty to come in the house.

  After a few minutes, Shane spoke to his brother, then came into the house for the baby. He paused for a minute. “It went off without a hitch,” he told Carly. “We found them at the cabin where Ty thought Hodkin would hole up. When he stepped outside, leaving Jonathan in the cabin, we simply surrounded him. He had no weapon, so it wasn’t even a standoff.” He grinned and headed out.

  She watched as the other cars left. The sheriff took his family home in his patrol car. Jonathan and Ty came into the house.

  “Carly,” Jonathan said, his eyes alight with excitement, “I was kidnapped. Daddy and Uncle Shane rescued me.”

  “Yes, I see they did,” she said unsteadily. Now that the danger was over, her control was slipping badly. She held her breath and waited for
Ty to say something.

  “I wasn’t scared… well, not much. I was going to run away when he went to sleep.”

  The tears surged to her eyes. She blinked them back with an effort. “You’re smart,” she said, “like your father and uncle.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “It was neat. But I’m glad to be home.” He smiled at his father, then yawned hugely.

  During the conversation, Ty hadn’t glanced her way. When she stepped forward, wanting to go to him, he stopped her with a frown. “Jonathan needs to get to bed. He’s had enough excitement.” He paused. “Sorry about dinner.”

  “That’s okay.”

  With blurred vision, she found her purse and went to her car. During the drive back to the inn, the tears insisted on forming. She overcame them by willpower. Tears never solved a thing. They hadn’t brought her parents back. They hadn’t made her relatives want her. They certainly wouldn’t dissolve the wall of distrust between her and Ty Macklin.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Brody, I’m fine. Really,” Carly spoke into the telephone to her foster brother. She tried to inject a mixture of firmness and lightness into her voice to dispel his concern for her.

  “I don’t think so,” he stated in his usual manner, forming his own opinion no matter what she said.

  The hum of electronic static came through the line as they both fell silent. “Well, I am,” she insisted. “Listen, I’ve got to run out to the store. Opening day is this Friday. I’ll talk to you later.”

  There was another brief silence. “Why don’t you visit the ranch for a while?”

  “Are you there?” she asked.

  “For now. I’ll be heading for New York in a couple of days.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Checking out some things for a client.”

  “Is it dangerous?” She couldn’t keep the worry out of her voice. Brody could be reckless at times, and a private investigator could get into sticky situations.

  “No, merely boring…but rewarding.” He laughed softly.

  “What are you going to do with all your money?” she teased, half-seriously. “You can’t take it with you.”

  “I’m working on that.”

  She smiled. Brody was determined to have enough money to be independent of anyone and anything. She wondered what would happen to his fierce need for freedom when he fell in love.

  “Yeah, right. Good luck. I’ve got to go. I still have a million things to do before Friday.” She paused, wishing he were there so they could really talk. “Come see me when you get a chance, okay?”

  “I will.”

  “Promise?”

  “Yes.”

  After they said goodbye, she sat by the phone and felt the loneliness of her life crash in on her. Gritting her teeth, she dressed and headed for the shop to rearrange it for the seventh time in two days.

  On the car radio, the big story of the week was winding down. To everyone’s surprise, William turned out to be an undercover FBI agent who was also investigating Hodkin. It seemed the petty thief was low man in an international ring. They stole farm equipment, took it to Mexico, where the equipment was stripped for parts that were then sold to eastern markets.

  Shane and Ty were the local heroes because of the rescue of Jonathan and the capture of Hodkin, who’d been left behind by his other two companions in crime when they made their getaway. William had picked them up before they crossed the state line.

  For the first time in her life, Carly found herself the object of national interest when her part in Hodkin’s revenge became known. He’d come to the ranch to force her to drive him on his escape route, but had seen Jonathan and decided on a better plan.

  After giving an exclusive interview to the local station on her contretemps with the desperado, she’d been bombarded with questions when other news services jumped on the story of her defense of Venita and Ty’s defense of her.

  For two days, the kidnapping had been the prime-time story, then the wreck of a cattle truck on the interstate highway had superseded it. Such was life.

  She’d seen Ty once during the weekend. They had been at the TV station at the same time. He was leaving as she was arriving. He’d spoken to her as if they were casual acquaintances and had introduced her to his ex-wife.

  His former wife had flown in to see that her son hadn’t suffered a trauma from the ordeal. She was a beautiful woman.

  Carly had watched her being interviewed on television, seated between Ty and Jonathan. They looked like a model family—father, mother and son.

  She pushed the hurtful thought aside. She had places to go and people to see, she reminded herself, passing a truck on the winding road to the resort. But she kept remembering those few wonderful days she’d spent at his house.

  Men burn and women yearn….

  He’d cooled off fast enough when his former wife had appeared. The woman was staying at the ranch. Naturally.

  Carly bit back the thought. She sounded like a jealous shrew and she had no right, none at all. That was the thing to remember in an affair. Neither person had any rights over the other.

  She summoned anger to keep other emotions at bay while she parked and went inside the resort lodge.

  A new box of jewelry had arrived. She opened it and sorted through the items. Elena and her daughters had done a lovely job, using the colors Carly had suggested to go with the sweaters she’d purchased. There were earrings and bracelets to match, too. She arranged the new items in artfully casual displays with necklaces trailing out of dresser drawers amid an array of colorful scarves.

  Hours later, she stepped back and admired the display of goods in the tiny store. Perfect. She couldn’t think of another thing to do. The owner of the resort had planned a media event for the grand opening tomorrow, including a spot on the midday news. She had to find something to wear.

  Going to her car, she contemplated the evening ahead. After shopping for an outfit, she had nothing to do but go home.

  Alys would be disappointed in her. The young woman thought the life of an entrepreneur must be exciting and glamorous.

  Carly smiled, feeling the irony all the way to her soul. Well, she’d learned not to expect too much of life….

  “Miss Lightfoot?”

  She whirled around. She was getting darned careless when a man could approach within five feet without her noticing.

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve been trying to get in touch with you, but no one would tell me your number.”

  “It’s unlisted.”

  He nodded. “I’m Samuel Jumpers. My family owns several department stores….”

  “How much did you say?” Carly was incredulous.

  He named a salary that would have knocked her off her feet had she been standing. Fortunately, she was seated in a comfortable booth at the Rogue Mountain Resort while the corporate mogul tried to talk her into taking a position in marketing.

  The Jumpers family owned three large department-store chains, each catering to a different clientele. Sam told her they were aiming for number one in the Western retail market in each chain, and she was part of that effort.

  She shook her head. The offer was three times what she’d ever made before.

  “Don’t decide now,” Sam cautioned, taking her negative shake to mean she was saying no. “Think about it.”

  She was so stunned she couldn’t have thought her way out of a paper bag at the moment. Her mind boggled as she thought of the money she would make.

  There was only one catch. The family headquarters was in St. Louis. They wanted her to work out of the home office.

  So they could keep an eye on her?

  Probably. However, she’d have free rein to set the shops up, hire managers and choose their suppliers and merchandise.

  It was too much. She needed to share the news, to mull over the possibilities with someone before making a decision. She’d call… who would she call? Isa was at the theater, doing the play. Brody was busy….

>   “St. Louis isn’t high on my list of priorities,” she told Mr. Jumpers. “I don’t like cities.”

  “Would another fifty thousand sweeten the deal?” he asked.

  Carly shook her head in disbelief again. The family must be desperate if they were willing to pay that kind of money for an unknown to come in to advise them.

  “I know this isn’t your first offer,” he continued when she said nothing. “You got prime-time national coverage last week, and your success in Chicago was pointed out to me by my banker. He mentioned you were sure to be in high demand.”

  “You seem to know a lot,” she murmured, concealing surprise. She’d had a call from the head of a group of venture capitalists who wanted to start a chain of vacation boutiques patterned after The Cricket Cage. She was supposed to be thinking over their offer, too.

  “It’s my business,” he reminded her, his smile confident.

  “Mr. Jumpers—”

  “’Sam,’” he corrected.

  She realized the look in his eyes was one of interest, male to female interest. It startled her.

  “Sam. I’m grateful—and I admit I’m tempted—but I think I’m going to pass on your generous offer.”

  He shook his head. “I refuse to accept that. You haven’t thought about the advantages. You’d have money available to develop your ideas on a grand scale, as well as a showcase for your talents. The opportunity to explore new terrain—”

  His persuasive words were interrupted by the arrival of several people at the table next to them. Her throat closed when she saw who it was, and for a second, she couldn’t breathe.

  Ty Macklin, his sister-in-law, Tina, and his ex-wife were among the group. Ty sat at the end of the table…no more than three feet from her. He hadn’t seen her yet. She gazed out the window as if spellbound by the view of the mountains, thus keeping her back to the room.

  When the newcomers were seated, Sam Jumpers renewed his argument. “It’s a good time to move. Houses are at their lowest in years. The interest rates are good, too.”

  Carly shifted nervously, not liking the thought that Ty could overhear every word they said. “I’ll think about it,” she promised, and tried to turn the conversation. “I hope our meal arrives soon. I was so busy today I forgot to eat lunch.”