Emily felt almost weak with relief.
#
Joe slammed the back door of the Long Branch when he entered, stalked through the kitchen and into the office and slammed its door as well. He felt his brothers’ eyes on him as he passed through the gleaming kitchen, but he didn’t acknowledge them.
He opened the desk drawer, took out a bottle of expensive Scotch whiskey and poured three fingers worth into a crystal glass.
The tap on the office door came before he even downed his first sip. He sipped anyway, then looked up to see his brothers looking at him.
He didn’t invite them to come in. They came anyway.
“What’s going on, Joe?” Jason asked, looking around the office that had once been mainly his, and had gradually become more and more Joey’s.
Joe looked up, met Jason’s eyes, then Rob’s, then lowered his head and shook it slowly. “It’s not for public consumption.”
“We’re not public. We’re your brothers,” Rob said. He came further in and pulled one of the chairs closer to the front of the antique wooden desk. “And we’re not going tell anyone if you ask us not to. Maybe we can help.”
“I don’t need help.”
“You’re drinking before noon on a weekday.” Jason perched on the edge of the desk. “You either need help or an intervention.”
“I’m not drinking. I’m having a drink.”
“Subtle distinction,” Jason said.
“What did that girl do to you?” Rob asked.
Joey sighed heavily, opened the bottom drawer and fetched two more glasses from it. He set them on the desk and poured. Then he handed one to each brother, and lifted his glass.
Frowning at each other, his brothers picked up theirs.
“Congratulations,” Joey said, lifting his glass a bit higher. “You’re uncles.”
Then he slugged back the entire contents and smacked the tumbler down onto the desk.
His brothers gaped at him, maybe still not getting it. “I’m a father,” he said. Emily has a little girl with her. My little girl.”
“Holy smokes,” Rob said, and he downed his drink as well.
Joey would’ve smiled at that on any other day. It was something his pretty little Kiley was always saying, and Rob had picked up the habit.
“Wait, wait now.” Jason set his glass down without so much as a sip. “She has a child with her?”
Joey nodded. “Matilda Louise,” he said. Then something in him went soft, and his anger faded into the background. “She’s three and a half, and she’s the prettiest little thing this side of the Pecos. All big brown eyes and goldilocks curls.” And then his anger returned. “I never would’ve believed Emily could do something as rotten as to keep a little girl from her daddy.”
Rob got up from his chair, looking thunderstruck. “Did you ask her why?”
Joe shrugged. “Like there could be a good enough reason?”
“I can’t imagine one,” Rob said. “But you can’t be sure until you ask her.”
Jason said, “A better question is why she’s changed her mind. Why is she here? Why now? What does she want?”
“You stormed out of there without even asking for an explanation, didn’t you?” Rob asked.
“Tell me you didn’t scare the kid.” Jason was looking at him as if he thought that was a real possibility.
“Of course I didn’t scare that sweet little angel,” Joe said. “I held my temper so hard I think I broke something. But I’m not gonna take this sitting down, I’ll tell you that.”
“What are you gonna do?” Rob asked softly.
“I’d suggest getting proof she’s yours, to begin with,” Jason said. “Sophie can probably facilitate a DNA test for you. Once that’s done, assuming she’s yours, you need to find out what Emily wants. She keeps the baby a secret for three and a half years, and then she just shows up out of the blue to tell you about her? She’s after something, Joe.”
“Cynical much?” Rob asked.
“She’s after something,” Jason repeated.
“What are you gonna do?”
Joe reached for the bottle, but instead of pouring from it as he’d first intended, he put the cap back on. “I’m gonna take her to see Santa Claus this afternoon. In between, I think I’ll go pay Caleb a visit.”
“You might not need a lawyer, Joe,” Rob said. “Why don’t you talk to Emily first? Maybe there are factors you don’t know–”
“Talk to Caleb,” Jason said. “At least you’ll know what your options are.”
Joe nodded. “This doesn’t go any further. Not until I’m ready. I don’t need the whole fam-damily meddling in my business. They’ll send Emily running scared.”
The boys nodded. Jason clapped him on the shoulder. “We’re here for you, Joe.”
Rob nodded hard. “Whatever you need, man. Just say the word.”
Joey believed them. His brothers were his best friends. They’d always have his back, and he’d always have theirs. He met their concerned eyes, and then smiled a little crookedly. “Wait till you see her,” he said. “She’s smart as a whip, and pretty as a daisy.”
“I’ll bet she is,” Rob said.
“Who’d have thought little Joe would be the first of us to become a daddy?” Jason asked.
“Not me, that’s for damn sure.” The phone started ringing. Jason said, “I’ll get it. Take some time, Joe. I’ve got the place for today. All right?”
Nodding, Joey got up and left them in the office. He walked through the saloon, to the wide staircase that spilled into it, and then up to the second floor and into his room up there. It was just a guest room, small with an attached bathroom, but he’d had great plans. The drawings were taped to his wall. He’d planned to convert the entire second story into living space, sprawling, spacious and as opulent as the upstairs of a saloon could get. He was the son of a billionaire, one of the two most eligible bachelors in Big Falls, and he’d intended to live up to that.
Now, he didn’t know what the hell he wanted.
There were also drawings of his plans for the outdoor additions to the Long Branch. Dodge City Shootout, a paintball range with bad guys and innocent bystanders that popped up randomly. A stagecoach-playhouse you could climb all over. A Cherokee themed mini-golf course.
He could imagine Matilda Louise playing on all off it, and him carrying her around on his shoulders, keeping her safe, playing with her, teaching her.
She didn’t even know he was her daddy. Would he be within his rights to tell her? He didn’t need Emily’s permission or approval to do that, did he? The poor little thing ought to know she had a father. Or had Emily cast some other man in that role? Was his little girl calling another man Daddy?
Sighing heavily, he put his hat back on and headed out to talk to his cousin-in-law, the lawyer.
#
Hours later, Joey sat in a booth near the front of the Big Falls Diner. His very new sister-in-law Kiley, sat across from him. She had cocoa. The chocolate mustache on her upper lip went really well with the freckles across the bridge of her nose.
Emily and his little girl hadn’t arrived yet and he was getting antsy, looking every few seconds at the door, then at the big old schoolroom style clock on the wall above it. It was only five of. He shouldn’t be nervous yet. But he couldn’t stop worrying that she might just up and leave for parts unknown, taking that sweet little girl with him and robbing Joe of even more time with her.
“So this Emily Hawkins,” Kiley said, interrupting his thoughts. Old flame?”
He shifted his attention back to her. He liked her, had from the start, even when she was a con artist. “Worse yet. First love,” he said.
“She break your heart, Joey?”
“She did. Turns out it was a narrow escape though. She’s not the girl I thought she was.”
The door jangled, and when it opened a flash flood of noise swept right through it. His stepsisters Maya and Kara and their kids came right along with it. Tyler was pr
etty quiet, but then he was eleven now. The twins, Cal and Dahlia, one on each side of their mamma, were bouncing up and down and talking at once.
“I wanted to go to Sunny’s! I want a half-moon cookie!”
“I want pie! Aunt Rosie’s has the best pie!”
Rosie, who managed the place—though most people thought she owned it—cut loose a whistle, and when they went silent and fixed their wide little eyes on her, she said, “I have half-moons from Sunny’s right here in the case, Dahlia.”
“You do?” Dahlia asked.
“What, you think I bake all this stuff myself?”
The two moms sent her grateful looks and proceeded to order, a process he knew, from experience would take a full five minutes as each child asked questions and changed choices.
“What did she do to you, Joey?”
Kiley pulled his attention back to their conversation. “You’ll find out soon enough. I might need a day or so.” She was too curious, and he knew better than to think she’d let it drop. Time for a new topic. “How are you, anyway? Have you heard from your father or sister since they skipped town?”
She took a long breath, averted her eyes. “Kendra says Dad figured out what I’d done before they’d gone ten miles. Wanted to come back right then, but she talked him out of it.”
“Come back and do what?” he asked, suddenly concerned. Kiley’s dad was fresh out of prison. He’d swindled the town out of a fortune, and Kiley had managed to swindle it right back. There was no telling what the man might be capable of.
She shrugged. "Doesn't matter. Kendra will let me know if I need to worry.”
“And you'll let us know.”
She nodded hard, then performed an adept topic change of her own. “You remember Dax? How he helped us out with that whole thing?”
“I remember him better by how he beat the crap outta my brother.”
She waved a dismissive hand, “Shoot, Rob’s over that. They’re friends now.” She sighed. “I think he’s in trouble.”
Joey not only remembered Dax. He was a hard guy not to like. Big and kind of goofy from time to time. Sweet natured enough to have been conned by Kiley’s twin sister, and then still step up to help them both out of a fix all the same. “In trouble how?”
“He’s drinking, Joe. A lot.”
A good woman could make a man’s world. A bad one could do just the opposite. And Kiley’s sister Kendra Kellogg was a bad woman. “I’ll check up on him. You know where he’s staying?”
“Tucker Lake Hotel, but I’d like him here, where I can keep an eye on him. He’s been helping Rob with the horses a few days a week, but lately…he’s just stopped showing up.”
“I’ll check on him.”
Kiley lifted her brows. “You will?”
“Of course I will. If you want, I’ll even go fetch him back here, tuck him in one of the rooms upstairs. Haven’t started remodeling the place yet anyway. And hell, I need help around the Long Branch like nobody’s business.” He shrugged. “Besides, you’re family. Your friends are my friends.”
Maya, Kara, and the kids came to the table, but walked right on past. “Restroom,” Kara shout-whispered. They moved through the place like a herd of bison.
The door jangled again, and he and Kiley both looked up at once.
And then his breath got caught in his throat, just like it always had when Emily stepped into his line of sight. She was as beautiful as ever. Her hair was a mingling of tones from copper to gold, and crazy curly. He could imagine her running wild in some Scottish moor in days gone by. She met his eyes, and hers were guarded, wary. She gave a nod.
“Can I get one of those, Mommy?”
He looked down at Matilda standing by her side, holding her hand, and pointing at the half-moon cookie Rosie was pulling from the case.
“Holeee smokes,” Kiley whispered.
“You can have anything you want, Matilda Louise,” Joey said, clasping the envelope on the seat beside him, and sliding out of his booth. “You’re hanging out with me today.” He went to the counter and handed the envelope to Emily. Her eyes widened and snapped to his.
“What is this?”
He thinned his lips and shifted his gaze to Matilda. And then he forgot to be angry. He melted every time he looked at her. She was standing on tiptoe to accept the big, tissue-wrapped half-moon cookie Rosie was handing down to her and smiling big enough to light a small city.
“That’s enough sugar to put a horse into overdrive,” Emily said.
Rosie laughed softly. “We’ll get the whole crew tanked up for their visit with Santa,” Rosie said, sending Joey a wink. “After all, it’s Uncle Joey’s problem now, isn’t it kids?”
She looked toward the back, and he turned to see that the crew had come out of the restroom. The kids came running at him yelling “Uncle Joey!” all at once, and then they were all wrapped around every appendage, hanging on and giggling.
His stepsisters were looking from him to Matilda Louise and back again, and their eyes were as big as his little princess’s had been when they’d first spotted that cookie.
“Holeeeeeee smokes,” Kiley said again.
Hell. She knew.
“Who’s those kids, Uncle Joey?” Tilda asked. She stood a little apart from them, her cookie in a two-handed grip with a big bite out of the top, her mouth already frosting-coated.
It brought a lump to his throat to hear her call him that. Yeah, he knew she was just imitating his actual niece and nephews. But he wasn’t her uncle, dammit. He was her daddy. And he told Emily so with a swift look he hoped was unmistakable.
But then he pushed all that aside, and opened his arm wider to rest it around Tilda’s shoulders, very lightly. She snuggled right into the group hug, so he guessed it was all right, and then he straightened. “This big guy is Tyler,” he said, cupping Ty’s head with his palm. “He’s eleven years old. And this guy,” he cupped Cal’s much smaller noggin, “is Cal and he’s gonna turn five on Christmas Eve. And this gorgeous little girl is his twin sister, Dahlia, same exact age.” He stroked Dahlia’s pretty hair, and gave her nose a tweak, making her giggle.
“Kids, this is Matilda Louise.”
“You can call me Tilda,” she said, twisting her hands in front of her and moving her upper body side to side.
“Tilda’s gonna come with us to see Santa.”
“Cool!” Tyler said. “Hi there, Tilda.”
“How old are you?” Dahlia asked.
“Three and a half. So Midas well say four.”
He smiled at the mixed up words, then glanced up at Em, who seemed to be seething, and his joy died a little. “Emily Hawkins, these are my sisters, Maya and Kara, and you’ve already met my sister-in-law Kiley.” He nodded toward each woman as he spoke and considered his duty done. “You kids ready?”
“Sisters?” Emily said. He was ignoring her, and she put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. “Stepsisters or half?”
“Sisters,” he said. “I don’t qualify it. They’re family. Try to be nice to them. Come on kids, take your treats to go and let’s get in line before it’s around the block.”
#
Emily was in enemy territory and she knew it. She watched the kids march past the counter, each taking his or her treat from the woman behind it, and heading for the door with Joey leading the way like some kind of cowboy pied piper.
She lifted her head, looking toward the three women who were still standing near the back, still looking kind of stunned.
The taller of the two beautiful brunettes said, “Stepsisters. Selene’s his half sister. Nice to meet you, Emily. Sorry Joey’s manners aren’t better. He tends to forget the rest of us when he’s with the kids. Why don’t you come join us?”
The redheaded waitress—or maybe owner—came out from behind the counter with a big tray full of coffee and pastries, pausing behind Em and whispering. “Courage, now. They’re good women. Best I know.” She brought her head level again, beamed a bright smile, and
carried the tray to the table as the two brunettes slid into the booth facing the front and the strawberry blonde on the side facing the back.
Emily stiffened her spine and went to join them. She’d seen their eyes, the way they’d been looking at Tilda and Joey. They saw the resemblance. She’d wondered if Tilda really looked as much like her father as she’d always thought, or if it was just her imagination. Now she knew.
When she reached the table, a polite smile plastered on her face, she remained standing. Rosie set the mugs on the table, added a large pot, and dropped platter of assorted cookies and brownies in the middle. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
“You have any jeans back there bigger than the ones I’m wearing?” Maya asked. “Cause I’m clearly not gonna fit these by the time I leave here.”
Rosie winked and headed back to her station.
Kiley patted the bench beside her. “Come on, we can’t eat all these cookies ourselves.”
“Okay, but um, Maya, is it?” she asked the one on the outside of the front-facing side of the booth. “Would you mind letting me sit there?”
“Of course not.” Maya got up, grabbed her bag from the seat, and moved around to sit beside Kiley on the other side.
“Thanks.” Emily slid in beside Kara and immediately scanned the line of kids across the street. There was a circular town park that bisected Main Street, with a giant, decked-out Christmas tree at its center. Santa Claus sat on a red velvet upholstered throne in a tooled wooden pavilion suitable for a Hindu God.
She spotted Tilda right away, bouncing and fidgeting with the three other kids who surrounded Joey. He stood taller than most of the parents in the line and was talking and laughing with the kids. He seemed as excited as they were.
She didn’t understand any of this. His reactions made no sense.
“So, does Joey know she’s his?” Kiley asked.
Emily looked at her quickly, then at the others.
Kara whispered, “Kiley.”
Maya pinched the bridged of her nose and closed her eyes.
“Well? We all saw it, didn’t we? We gonna pretend we didn’t? She’s like his tiny female mini-me.”
“I’m sorry, Emily,” Kara said. “You don’t have to tell us anything if you don’t want to.”
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