“I need some time to think about this,” she muttered. “God, Joe. I have to rethink the last two years.”
She dried her eyes and dug out a tissue from her purse so she could blow her nose. With Joe’s help, she got to her feet. She had no idea what to say to him or how to offer any comfort, so she just wrapped her arms around him and hugged him. He hugged her right back until Millie finally eased away from him.
“I’ll walk you home,” he insisted. “That way, maybe no one will stop you and try to talk. Then, once you’re inside, you can have that time to think.”
Millie nodded, understanding that he needed that time, as well. That “I love you” was no doubt weighing on him. Just as it was on her. In fact, everything seemed to be weighing on her at the moment.
“Does Dara know?” she asked when they reached her porch.
“Not yet. I needed to settle myself down first.” He followed her up the steps. “But I’ll tell her today.”
“Good,” she murmured as they walked. The girl would be overjoyed. Then again, Dara hadn’t seemed to believe that her mom had cheated on her dad. Smart girl. Millie wished she’d hung on to that same faith.
Her hands were shaking when she grabbed her key, so Joe took it from her and unlocked the door.
“I’ll wait to tell my parents until after Dara knows,” Millie said. She opened the door but stood there while she finished. “Because once Laurie Jean gets hold of this, it won’t take long for everyone in town to hear that Ella and Royce weren’t lovers, that Royce was simply doing legal work for her.”
The sound of someone gasping stopped Joe in mid-nod, and both Millie and he turned toward her foyer. In the same motion, Millie switched on the light.
Joe and she definitely weren’t alone.
There were at least a dozen people crowded into the foyer, and more were peering out from the living room. She spotted her parents, Alma and her husband, Frankie, Tanner, Monte, Haylee and even Aunt Freida.
“Surprise!” Little T shouted through the stunned silence.
No. Not now. Millie couldn’t handle this now.
“It’s another birthday party,” Little T informed her. “Can we have cake now?” he asked.
No one responded. Everyone just kept their eyes on Joe and her.
“It’s true?” Laurie Jean finally said. “Royce and that McCann woman weren’t lovers?”
Even with the grief, Millie felt the anger over her mother’s tone. “Ella and Royce weren’t lovers. Joe found proof that Royce was doing some legal work for her.”
Laurie Jean stared at Millie for a moment and then started applauding. “I knew it. I just knew it.” She hurried to Millie and spun her around in a happy twirl.
It was totally out of character for her usually dignified mother, but the glee caught fire, going through the party guests, and Millie was suddenly engulfed in hugs, more twirls and lots of gushing joy.
Joe didn’t get left out, either. Frankie hurried to her brother to do the same celebration with him. So did Alma.
Aunt Freida tugged off her gloves while she waited her turn for a hug. “I’m so happy for you. When I planned this party for your birthday, I had no idea we’d have so much to celebrate. Wonderful news, just wonderful.”
Everyone was talking at once, the words firing like buckshot in Millie’s head. She was still shaking, too, and that’s probably why she didn’t put up an objection when Laurie Jean took hold of her and ushered her away from the other guests and into the living room.
“It’s true,” Laurie Jean repeated. She was smiling, really smiling, and she let go of Millie so she could fold her arms over her chest. “This changes everything. Everything. You won’t have to donate the house. You can keep living here, and you won’t have to live in those horrible little rooms over the shop.”
That gave Millie a mental slap, one that allowed her to shut out everything else except what her mother was saying. And Laurie Jean just kept on saying.
“You should put your wedding rings back on,” Laurie Jean went on, “and wear black at least for a few months. I know it’s been two years, but this will restart the grieving cycle.”
Unfortunately, that last part rang true-blue. But that was the only thing she was in complete agreement about.
“I don’t want to live here,” Millie stated. She didn’t need a grief cycle to know that.
That wiped the glee out of Laurie Jean’s eyes. She leveled her now-firm gaze on Millie. “Your husband didn’t cheat on you. He was a good man just as I always knew he was. You need to respect him by mourning his death.”
Millie sighed. The timing sucked for this discussion, but she wanted to get some things straight. “I have and will mourn Royce’s death. I just won’t do it in this house or while wearing black or my wedding rings.”
As Millie had expected, her mother’s level gaze slid into the “that just pissed me off” realm. Then, Laurie Jean spewed out her favorite quote. “Making waves brings shame, and you’re bringing nothing but shame to yourself and your family by running around with that Joe McCann. It doesn’t matter that his wife wasn’t a harlot and didn’t throw herself at Royce, you shouldn’t be disgracing Royce’s good name by seeing that man.”
That was not the right thing to say. Millie was certain her own gaze jumped straight into the seriously pissed-off realm. “I care very deeply for Joe. Very deeply. Hell, I think I could be in love with him. I’m sure as hell having sex with him.” Millie didn’t even try to lower the volume of her voice. “But you know what, Mom? It’s none of your business.”
Then, Millie said the word that had stunned the drawers off the members of the Last Ride Society. Only this time, she added a “you” to it.
Other than Laurie Jean’s extremely loud gasp, everyone else hushed. Dead silence. But even in her fury, Millie glanced around to see if Little T had heard her f-you blast.
“Little T’s in the kitchen looking at the cake,” Tanner supplied as if he’d known exactly what her concern would be. He grinned, gave Millie a thumbs-up, and then hooked his arm around Frankie to give her a tongue kiss.
That caused Laurie Jean to bubble and stew, and she would have no doubt included Tanner on her next round of bashing. But Millie slung off the grip Laurie Jean had clamped on her arm, and she went out to look for Joe. If he was still around, he would have heard her confess that she might be in love with him, and she didn’t want that particular weight on his shoulders now.
Not when he was grieving for Ella.
Millie was about to step onto the porch to see if Joe was there, but Skylar nearly knocked her down. The woman looked better, appearance-wise, than she had the last time Millie had seen her, but there was an “I’m riled” look in her eyes that would have paled Laurie Jean’s.
“It’s all here,” Skylar exclaimed, holding up a tablet. Some smugness crept into her expression. “Come on, everyone. Have a look. Trust me, this is something you’ll want to see.” Pressing something on the tablet, she held it up like a prized trophy.
Millie couldn’t imagine that there truly was something everyone wanted to see, but then she heard Laurie Jean gasp again. No gasp for her father, but the color drained from Asher’s face.
“Come on, everybody,” Skylar invited, “take a look at Laurie Jean playing sex games.”
Millie stopped in her tracks, and it was a stunned Tanner who pulled her forward. There, on the tablet screen, was Laurie Jean, bare-assed naked except for some pasties that were even more noticeable because she was swinging her breasts around like a stripper.
“Stop it!” Laurie Jean yelled.
Her mother ran to Skylar and tried to rip the tablet from her hands. Considering though that Skylar had a good six inches on her, she failed. Laurie Jean flailed around, jumping to reach it all while the sex tease played out on the screen.
Laurie Jean wasn’t alone, either.
Millie fastened her attention to the dark-haired man, who was wearing only boxers and sporting an erection. Judging from the angles of the footage, a camera had been positioned on the Victorian pleasure action saddle that had until only recently been in one of the storage rooms above the shop.
Millie’s stomach bottomed out, and her gaze flew around the room to locate her father. Surely, he’d be devasted that his wife was about to jump in bed with another man.
Asher was there, his eyes frozen on the screen, and he cursed. However, Millie didn’t hear the shock and anger she’d expected to hear. No, this was embarrassment.
“It’s Dad,” Tanner said, drawing Millie back to the screen. “It’s Dad wearing a black wig.”
Millie shook her head, trying to make sense of that. Trying to see. Hard to do though with her mother still jumping up to try to get the tablet.
“Yes, it’s your dad,” Skylar verified. Her smile was not nice. It was definitely a mean-girl smile. “They made a sex tape. Two old people screwing each other’s brains out. Not very dignified for an almighty Parkman, is it, Laurie Jean?”
No, it wasn’t. In fact, it had the biggest yuck factor possible. Not because of their age or because they were having sex but because they were her parents and had filmed this.
“Why?” Millie asked, volleying the question at both her mother and father.
“That’s personal business!” Laurie Jean shouted, and she punched Skylar smack-dab in the face.
The punch wasn’t even enough to snap back Skylar’s head, but the woman’s eyes narrowed to tiny slits. Skylar balled up her fist, no doubt to return the favor, and would have succeeded had Monte and Tanner not taken hold of her. Aunt Freida and Alma had to grab Laurie Jean, who was obviously ready to turn this into a brawl.
Frankie hurried off in the direction of the kitchen, muttering that she needed to make sure Little T didn’t see or hear any of this. Since Millie wasn’t sure she wanted to see or hear any of it, either, she nearly went with her. Instead, she reached over and hit the pause button on the video.
“Where did you get that?” Asher asked Skylar. Except it was a demand, not a mere question.
Skylar gave an indignant wobble of her head. “I found it, and don’t think about trying to break my tablet. I’ve uploaded the video to YouTube. Soon, everyone will see it and know just what a sick bitch your wife is.”
Millie rarely found herself on her mother’s side, but she didn’t think it would earn her the sick bitch label. Maybe the label of a horny wife playing sex games with her husband.
Which, of course, brought on more yuck and ick.
“Laurie Jean and I just wanted to spice up things,” Asher said, sounding unapologetic and somewhat reasonable. “There’s no harm in that.”
Well, no harm unless you didn’t take steps to keep the recording private. “Did you use a digital camera?” Tanner asked, clearly picking up on what Millie was thinking. “Or that old camera that uses discs that can be uploaded to a computer?”
“The old camera,” Asher supplied, his jaw tightening now.
“You bitch!” Laurie Jean shouted, pointing her finger at Skylar.
Several people were still having to hold her back, and she was kicking so hard that it caused her dress to fly up and expose her panties. Millie figured when her mother finally looked back on this that many things, including the panty shot, would embarrass her to the bone.
“You’re the one blackmailing me,” Laurie Jean added to the shout.
And that, too, would add to the embarrassment.
“Not me,” Skylar insisted. “I wouldn’t take one penny from you, you petty old hag.”
Ignoring that insult and the one that Laurie Jean fired back at the woman, Millie turned back to Skylar. “You found the disc with the sex recording?”
Skylar was still sporting plenty of mad and indignation when she turned to Millie. “Not exactly. But I found the person who had it.”
The woman was obviously picking and choosing her words. Probably because she didn’t want to come right out and confess to hacking. But that’s almost certainly what Skylar had done. She’d put her stellar computer skills to good use and found it.
“The person who had the disc was blackmailing Laurie Jean,” Millie pointed out—which was obviously news to plenty of the people in the room. “Where did you get it?”
Skylar just kept that smug expression. Until Tanner stepped in front of her. “Where did you get it?” he repeated.
Maybe it was the sight of Tanner, but something seemed to click inside Skylar. The realization of what she’d just done. Millie doubted Skylar regretted exposing Laurie Jean, but she probably hadn’t intended to do that at Millie’s surprise birthday party.
“I found the emails the blackmailer sent to your mother, and the recording was attached to one of them,” Skylar answered in a whisper. Yeah, definitely a hack job. “I downloaded the video and then tracked the emails to the source.”
“And the source would be?” Tanner pressed when Skylar didn’t say anything else.
With her head dipping down, Skylar lifted her hand. “She’s the one blackmailing your mother.” And then Skylar pointed to the woman next to Laurie Jean.
Aunt Freida.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
SIPPING HIS BEER, Joe sat in the dark in his man-shed and didn’t even pretend to himself that he wasn’t brooding. He was doing exactly that and had been for the past two weeks. Since he’d learned that Ella hadn’t cheated on him.
It’d been a crappy two weeks, filled with guilt, grief, regret. And a whole lot of cursing. His swear jar was spilling over, so Joe had just started tossing twenties at it. At the rate he was going, he’d need a swear vat before this was over.
If it was ever over, that is.
I’ll have to rethink the last two years, Millie had said to him, and she was right. He’d had to rethink them, too. Every last day of them.
Millie was no doubt doing the same thing except she had a crapload of other stuff to deal with. Wanting to give her that rethinking time, Joe hadn’t talked to Millie other than some short texts to ask her if she was okay.
Okay-ish, she’d texted back. You?
Okay-ish, he’d replied.
When she hadn’t responded with anything else, Joe had figured she was neck-deep in dealing with the fallout from what had happened at her surprise birthday party. Fallout he’d heard plenty about because Frankie had seen fit to keep him informed.
Apparently, after Joe had slipped out from the party, Skylar had burst in and shown a sex tape. Of Laurie Jean and Asher. Joe truly wasn’t sorry he’d missed that particular showing. Sorry though that he hadn’t been there to give Millie support. If that was possible, that is. It was more likely that his being there wouldn’t have helped one bit.
According to Frankie, things had gone from bad to worse after the sex tape. Skylar had skirted around how she’d gotten the recording, but the general consensus was that hacking had been involved. Hacking that had led to Freida being ID’d as the blackmailer. Freida had then confessed to finding the disc recording in Laurie Jean’s driveway where the woman had likely dropped it. Freida had watched it and had been so appalled that Laurie Jean would do such things while bashing her kids for their sexual behavior. Freida had said she wanted to teach Laurie Jean a lesson.
Joe wasn’t a Laurie Jean fan, but it was a hard lesson as far as he was concerned. Ditto for the public viewing of the recording. It had likely sent Laurie Jean into a downward spiral, one that had then sent the woman and her husband on an extended trip to an undisclosed location. They probably hoped while they were gone that everyone in Last Ride would develop amnesia. It wouldn’t happen, of course, but folks would move on to other gossip. He was betting that Frankie and Tanner’s reunion was already sparking some talk.
Probably talk about Millie and hi
m, too.
But that would die down if people realized there was nothing new to add to the gossip mix. Two weeks was a long time to go without any new fuel. A long time, too, for him to not talk to Millie.
A couple of days after their “Okay” exchange, he’d texted Millie again with the question, Staying sane?
Her answer had been, More or less. How about you?
If he’d told her the truth, his response would have been “mostly less,” but he hadn’t wanted to worry her. Definitely hadn’t wanted her to think that he was sitting around brooding so he’d answered, Staying busy with the ranch.
At least it was the truth. Summer was always a busy time on the ranch what with hay that needed to be cut and cattle that had to be moved to other pastures to prevent overcrowding and overgrazing. Joe always hired several hands to help him with that, but he didn’t mind doing a chunk of the work himself. Usually, the routine settled him.
But not this time.
Nothing about him was settled right now.
The door opened, the sunlight spearing into the shed. Joe had purposely left off the lights because it better suited his mood, but Dara turned them on now. She took one look at him, sighed and then dropped something into his lap. Something in a thick envelope.
“It’s the research report Millie did on Mom,” Dara explained. “It’s due day after tomorrow before the next drawing, and she wanted to give me a chance to read it and make any changes before she turned it in.”
Joe sat up straighter in the recliner. “Millie was here?” And damn it, his heart did a little leap over that.
But Dara dashed his excitement by shaking her head. “Monte dropped it off about two hours ago when you were out in the pasture checking on the new calves. I read it,” she added. “It’s really good. Millie used all the stories I gave her and then added quotes from the art gallery guy about how talented he thought Mom was.”
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