Spring at Saddle Run

by Delores Fossen

  “I haven’t tried it yet.” In fact, Millie had forgotten about it, but she added a smile to her comment for Skylar to offset Frankie’s reaction.

  Even though Millie didn’t think Skylar was anywhere in or near the right wheelhouse for her brother, she wasn’t going to be unfriendly to the woman. Unlike the unfriendliness Millie was aiming at Tanner. For him, Millie wouldn’t spare his feelings.

  Her brother had known that Frankie would be at this dinner, and he shouldn’t have brought a date. Especially a date that he should have realized would rile his ex. Of course, just about any date would do that because Millie was dead certain Frankie was still in love with the man who’d already crushed her heart six ways to Sunday.

  “Dara’s giving me horseback riding lessons,” Millie announced when the conversation lagged again.

  “How fun.” That from Skylar. “You’re doing that at Joe’s ranch?”

  The woman eyed her over the rim of her water glass but probably wasn’t fishing for details about whether Millie was doing more at the ranch than mere riding. Then again, Little T had likely blabbed about the kissing he’d seen Joe and her do. Tanner, in turn, might have re-blabbed to Skylar.

  “Yes, at Joe’s,” Millie confirmed.

  “I love the name of his ranch,” Skylar went on. “Saddle Run. Though it sounds more like a name for a horse ranch than one for cattle.”

  “I came up with it,” Dara spoke up. “I was really little, maybe four or five, and Mom said I should think of a name and she could paint a sign to put out in front by the mailbox. I was just learning to ride, but I guess I wanted to go faster so I told her Saddle Run.”

  Millie smiled and looked at Joe to see if he intended to add anything to that.

  He did.

  “Ella did the trio of paintings that you have in your shop,” he said in a voice as flat and calm as a lake.

  Millie definitely hadn’t expected him to add that, and she felt her mouth drop open. “The landscapes from La La Land?”

  He nodded, crammed a forkful of broccoli with cheese into his mouth and chewed as if he’d declared war on the vegetable.

  “Mom’s paintings are in Once Upon a Time?” Dara asked. Her eyes lit up. “I want to see them. She’d be so happy that you’ve hung them in the shop.”

  Millie sure as heck wasn’t happy. She was confused and shocked, and she was pretty sure Joe was feeling some of those things, too. “You didn’t say anything about Ella when I showed them to you,” Millie reminded him.

  He swallowed first, then drank some water. “I only recently found out that she’d sold them to you.”

  Well, wasn’t this special? Her favorite paintings in the entire shop of thousands of things had been done by her dead husband’s lover. By the wife of a man she was lusting after on a minute-to-minute basis.

  Millie was aware that nearly every eye at the table was on her, waiting for her reaction. Every eye except Little T’s. Her nephew was using his food to build towers and construction around his smashed-in bread roll. Joe was looking at her, but it was obvious that no answer was expected.

  Son of a monkey.

  This had hurt him. Of course, it had. And it had likely snowballed in that million other pounds of grief because it was yet another part of his wife’s life that he hadn’t known about.

  Because there was nothing she could say to him that would make this better, Millie instead shifted her attention to Dara. “You’re welcome to come by the shop anytime and see the paintings. In fact, I want you to have them. They were your mother’s, and they should belong to you. I can bring them to the ranch tomorrow when I have my next riding lesson.”

  “No,” Dara quickly disagreed. “They should be exactly where they are—in an art gallery.” She smiled and looked giddy. “It’s like a little piece of Mom is still here, and everyone will get to see that.”

  Oh, yes. Everyone including Millie. No way could she be petty enough to crate them up and stuff them in storage where they’d be out of sight and hopefully out of mind. No, they’d stay put, but Millie doubted she’d be going in the local artist room anytime soon.

  The meal finally ended when Skylar got a call that she said she had to take, that her grandmother was sick and the call was an update about her condition. She scurried out of the dining room while Little T latched on to Dara to take her to his room that he used when he stayed over. No doubt to show Dara the latest train wreck he’d set up. Apparently, this one involved the dinosaur collection Millie had bought for him. The boy had also whispered to Dara that he knew where Millie kept her hidden supply of Jolly Ranchers suckers. Since Millie hid that supply in plain view on her desk in her home office, it wouldn’t be hard to find.

  “I need to make a call, too,” Tanner said to no one in particular, and he headed toward the back porch.

  Her brother had gotten several texts while they’d been eating. Texts that he hadn’t answered, but it was as obvious as the nose on his face that he was ducking out now because he didn’t want to be with Frankie so she could take snipes at him. However, his leaving turned out to be unnecessary. Frankie immediately excused herself to go to the powder room, muttering that she’d be back in a couple of minutes to help Millie clear the table.

  And then there were two.

  Joe and her.

  “I’m sorry,” they said at the same time.

  She couldn’t help it. She smiled. “Simultaneous apologies seem to be a habit of ours. Anyway, I’m sorry you didn’t know about the paintings.”

  “And I’m sorry you now own something you probably want to burn to ash.”

  Millie lifted her shoulder and started gathering up the dishes. “I’d go with the crating up option if I needed them out of the shop. But I want Dara to be able to see them, to be able to show them to others. She’s proud of her mother.”

  He cursed softly, shook his head. “You’re good to my daughter. Thank you for that.”

  “No thanks needed. She’s a good kid, and she’s helping me. I wouldn’t own a peach lace bra or have Raunchy Rose lipstick if it weren’t for her.”

  As she’d hoped, that made Joe smile. It didn’t last, but it was something. A moment that wasn’t fate taking another painful poke at them.

  She took some of the dishes into the kitchen, and when she came back to get the rest, Joe was gathering up the plates and glasses. Millie snagged the rest, and they went into the kitchen together.

  “I probably should have waited until we were alone before I told you about the paintings,” he said, putting the dishes on the counter by the sink and the dishwasher.

  “It’s okay. I knew something was bothering you. Good to know that it wasn’t me.”

  “You bother me,” he admitted. Their eyes met. Held. “But in a whole different kind of way.” The corner of his mouth lifted, and she didn’t have to ask if that was a sexual way.

  It was.

  “I think we have a ‘kiss and run’ thing going on,” she pointed out, keeping her voice at a whisper in case the others returned. A throaty whisper because, hey, this was Joe, and he had a way of making her tingle. “We kiss, and then I don’t see or hear from you for days. Is that because of me or because of you?”

  “Me,” he readily admitted. He whispered as well, but his was a thousand times sexier than hers. “Sometimes I want you more than my next breath. Other times, I’m not sure I’ll make it to my next breath.”

  And just like that, she went from sex thoughts to worry. Millie ran her hand down the length of his arm and then linked their fingers together. “I won’t push you for more than you can give me. No tomorrows. No tonight. Just this very minute.”

  “I know.” He said that like the profanity he often muttered. Then, he leaned down and pressed his forehead against hers. “But I can’t keep jacking you around like this. It’s not fair. You deserve better.”

  At the m
oment she couldn’t think of anything better than Joe. She ached to kiss him. To hold him. But the truth was, he deserved better, too. She might be attempting to move on with her life, but she was still mentally a mess. Too bad she couldn’t just shove all that aside and haul him off to bed. She thought it might do both of them some good.

  Well, maybe.

  Sex with Royce hadn’t been anything to rock her world. That meant she likely hadn’t rocked him, either. And that was a whole different guilt trip on Regret Road that she needed to avoid for now.

  Joe moved away from her when Skylar came walking in. “Good news,” she announced. “My grandmother’s doing better. She’ll be getting out of the hospital in the morning.”

  “That is good news,” Millie said with Joe repeating something similar.

  There was no need though for them to make small talk with Skylar because Tanner came in from the back porch. “I tracked down the parts I need to fix your Harley,” her brother immediately said to Joe. “I can get started on the repairs in a day or two.”

  This was the first Millie was hearing about Joe having a motorcycle, but she had vague memories of him riding it around town way back when. Maybe before Dara had even been born.

  When Joe and her brother started talking about those repairs, Millie excused herself to go find Frankie. Her trip to the powder room had likely been BS, and Frankie was probably holed up in there, seething about Skylar and waiting for Tanner and the woman to leave. However, before she even made it to the hall, Tanner caught up with her.

  “Are you sleeping with Joe?” her brother came out and asked.

  Millie put on the best shocked, annoyed, “none of your business” face that she could manage. “Why would you ask that?”

  “Little T,” Tanner answered.

  Millie added a huff and folded her arms over her chest. “Little T said I was sleeping with Joe?”

  “No, he said you were kissing him, but I figure if you’re kissing, you’re doing other things.”

  “Then, you figured wrong.” She dropped the attitude and sighed. “You figured wrong,” she repeated in a much softer voice, “but since you’re poking your nose into my personal business, I’ll do some poking into yours. Why would you bring Skylar here tonight? You must have known it would bother Frankie.”

  He sighed, too, and groaning he leaned back against the wall. “I didn’t want to bring her, but Skylar was down about her grandmother. She’s nice, Millie. Too nice,” he added.

  “You’re sleeping with her, of course.” It definitely wasn’t a question.

  “Of course,” he verified. He opened his mouth as if he might elaborate on that, but then he stopped and stared at her. “Have you talked to Mom or Dad lately?”

  Millie certainly hadn’t seen that question coming, and her first thought was that this was some kind of deflection because he didn’t want her pushing him about his relationship with Skylar.

  “I haven’t talked to either of them in the last week or so. Why?” Millie countered.

  “Something’s going on,” Tanner said.

  That was certainly cryptic. Then again, something was usually going on with their mother.

  Millie made a circling motion with her finger for him to continue when his pause dragged on for way too long. “What’s going on?”

  The muscles flickered and tightened in Tanner’s jaw. “I think Mom’s having an affair.”

  Millie couldn’t stop the laugh from practically bursting out of her. A laugh that went on, and on.

  “It’s not a joke,” Tanner snarled.

  “It has to be.” And she just kept on laughing.

  “It’s not a joke,” Tanner repeated, and this time, he got right in her face. He definitely wasn’t sporting a “ha ha” expression. He could play pranks and wasn’t above doling out some BS, but he wasn’t doing either of those now. “I think Mom’s having an affair,” he repeated.

  This time, the words sank in. Slowly. And they didn’t sink in well.

  Wow. Just wow. The news of the paintings had stunned her, but this had made her knees dissolve. Well, they dissolved until Millie actually considered it. Then, dismissed it. Laurie Jean was too worried about appearances to risk cheating on her husband.

  “Why would you possibly think that?” Millie demanded.

  Tanner didn’t hesitate. “Because last night, I saw her sneaking out of the back of Once Upon a Time. It was late, close to midnight, and Skylar and I were walking from Three Sheets to my place.”

  Millie couldn’t think of a single reason why Laurie Jean would have been at the shop at that hour, but her mother did have a key to the place. Both of her parents did.

  “I think she was fooling around with somebody in that upstairs bedroom where you sometimes sleep,” Tanner added.

  She shook her head and just kept shaking. “You don’t know that—”

  “The light was on in that bedroom, and I saw her kiss a man who was just inside the doorway,” he interrupted. “I only got a glimpse of him and it was dark, but it sure as hell wasn’t Asher. This guy sort of looked like Elvis. Black hair, a white suit and he was carrying a shoulder bag. She kissed him,” Tanner emphasized.

  It took Millie a moment to gather her breath and swallow the lump in her throat. “Yeah, I heard that part. I don’t suppose you asked her about it?”

  “No way in hell. I got Skylar out of there.”

  “Skylar saw this?” Millie pressed.

  Tanner nodded. “It’d been hard for her to miss it since it happened right in front of us. There’s more,” he said while she was still reeling from trying to process all of this. “Those texts I got at dinner were from Aunt Freida. She says this afternoon Mom asked Freida to lend her some money.”

  That was laughable. But Millie didn’t even snicker this time. “Mom doesn’t need to borrow money. Dad will give her any amount that she wants.”

  “Think it through. Mom didn’t ask Asher because she didn’t want him to know.” He stopped, cursed and shook his head. “Aunt Freida said Mom was upset and that she needed the money right away.”

  Some bad thoughts started to go through Millie’s mind. “You don’t think Mom is going to run off with this man she was kissing?”

  Tanner leveled his gaze on her. “No, but based on what Aunt Freida said, I think someone’s blackmailing her.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  IT WASN’T A common occurrence for Millie to want to talk to her mom, but this was one of those times. And, of course, Laurie Jean hadn’t returned her call. Ditto for not being home when Millie had dropped by to see her before she’d gone into work at the shop.

  She wanted to think her mother was just busy and wasn’t avoiding her, but since Aunt Freida hadn’t returned her call, either, Millie figured everything Tanner had told her the night before was true.

  But how could it be?

  No matter how Millie tried to play all of this out, she just couldn’t wrap her head around the possibility of Laurie Jean doing something sordid like this. Then again, she didn’t want to imagine her mother having sex. Especially sex with a guy who looked like Elvis.

  After her dinner party guests had left, Millie had walked over to Once Upon a Time and had gone upstairs to the bedroom. The light wasn’t on, but she had noticed that some things were out of place. The trio of throw pillows on the bed weren’t in the usual order, and the antique Turkish rug was slightly askew.

  Millie had ruled out Monte and Haylee having made the “adjustments” by subtly asking them if they’d been upstairs, maybe to look for something stored there. But neither had, leaving her with the unsettling, strong possibility that Tanner had indeed been right.

  Damn.

  He could be right.

  Millie fired off a text to Sherry Parnell, owner of the cleaning service she used for the shop and her house, and asked Sherry to add the room
to the next scheduled service. Hopefully, during that cleaning, they wouldn’t find anything that’d be an obvious pointing of the finger at Laurie Jean.

  She didn’t want to speculate how her mother’s affair could play out. Or who would know about the affair and blackmail Laurie Jean. Those were things she could try to suss out later if anyone in her gene pool actually returned her flippin’ calls. And she was extending that gene pool to Frankie, who was dodging her, as well. Millie needed to find out what was eating the woman. For now though, she changed into her jeans and boots and drove to Joe’s for her riding lesson.

  She steeled herself for this visit, something she didn’t usually have to do because she looked forward to the lessons and seeing Joe and Dara. She still wanted to see them—mercy, did she—but she was worried about Joe, about how down he’d been about Ella’s paintings.

  It had taken all of her willpower not to drive to his house and check on him after she’d made the visit to her shop. But Millie had decided Joe might need time to try to come to terms with it. So did she. It put a nasty, tight ball in her stomach over the possibility that Ella might have sold her those paintings while having an affair with Royce. Millie hadn’t known the identity of the artist, but Ella had certainly known she was the buyer since the paintings had been delivered to the shop.

  Millie drove to the ranch, and when she got out of her car, she started toward the house to let Dara know she was there. But before she made it to the porch, Joe called out to her.

  “Dara’s running late,” Joe said. He was in the doorway of the barn. “She’s having a study group at the library, and they have a couple more chapters to get through. If you’re in a hurry, I can give you the lesson.”

  Millie heard what he said, every word of it, but those words sort of floated in her head because just the sight of him brought on another round of brain fuzz.

  And heat.

  Oh, my.

  He was naked. Well, his upper body was, anyway, and she got a long, lusty look at all those manly delights. She seriously doubted that Joe had stepped foot in a gym since high school, but he was toned, tanned and tempting. Very, very tempting.