“Oh, Ed, I’m so glad you’re here.” Jen turned and reached for her brother, a fresh set of tears claiming a path of skin beneath her eyes. She allowed her brother to gather her into his safe and strong arms, soaking up the warmth and familiar scent of him.
“Where else would I be, little sister?” Her brother set her slightly away from him, staring into her tear-filled eyes before he unlocked her arms from around his neck and pushed her numb body to Adam. “Here, comfort your woman. I already have two crying females at home I’ll have to see to when I return.”
“You told your wife and kids?”
Ed nodded. “Megan was standing right there when Dad called me. And the kids heard us talking about it.” Ed looked over at the charred building. “They started to pray for you and Granddad as soon as they heard the news.”
“You’ve got some wonderful kids.”
“Yes.” Pride shined in his eyes, sounded warm and true in his voice. “Jessica and Brad are great kids.”
“They have a great father.”
His smiled deepened. “Thanks, sis. Now, where are you going to stay?” Glancing over at Adam, he said, “Will my sister be staying with you?”
“No.” She almost screamed out the word, startling both of the men. “I mean, I’m going to stay with Barb and Rose in the RV, at Winter Creek.”
“You could always stay with me and Megan and the kids.”
“No, I want to stay in the RV.”
Ed grinned so suddenly Jen felt relief coursing through her system. As usual her brother left his nose out of her private business; it’s what she’d always loved about him. He left her alone. “I bet you Dad wasn’t too thrilled to hear that.”
“He wasn’t thrilled at all.” A hint of disbelief leaped in her voice. “Do you know what he asked me?”
“I can only imagine.”
“He asked me if I wanted to stay with him.” Jen frowned. “I still can’t believe he asked me.”
“I’m confused.” Adam stared hard at her, briefly swinging his gaze to her brother before focusing once again on her face. “Why are you acting so surprised by your father caring about you?”
“My dad didn’t show much love for any of his kids, Adam,” Ed volunteered. “Especially Jen.”
Adam’s concern warmed her heart.
“Dad had Ed,” she said, not feeling any pain at the memory now. “Mom had Kimberley, I didn’t have anyone.”
“You had Granddad, Jen.”
Jen disagreed with him. “He never picked a favorite. He loved us all the same.”
“No,” Ed said, leaning closer to her. “Granddad always thought you were special.”
The crunch of gravel against fat tires gave her a reprieve from commenting. If a family consisted of more than one mom and one dad, then she would’ve had a parent all for herself too.
“Ma’am, we’ve got everything under control here.” The fire chief stood tall in front of her. “We’ll be going now. I hope your grandfather will be all right.”
“Thank you.”
She watched the fire truck as it turned and moved down the narrow road until it reached the main street. A dark-blue SUV squealed its brakes when the truck turned left at the intersection. An angry female screamed out at the firefighters. A cultured second voice soothed the angry one with a harsh reproof. Two voices, two familiar voices Jen had hoped never to hear again.
“Oh, shit!” Her brother recognized the females at the same time. “Dad must have called Mom and Kimberley.”
“Damn.” Jen sensed Adam’s frown as he watched the new arrivals, but she didn’t dare look his way. She couldn’t look his way. She was beginning to believe she’d been wrong about thinking her sister had shown up in Helena, hoping with this man it would be different. She should’ve known better. Kimberley would never change. “Why did Dad have to call them?”
Chapter 17
Adam was at a loss for words, not because the two arriving women took his breath away, but because of the way Jen seemed to be studying his reaction to their arrival under the lids of those gorgeous eyes of hers. He would so much rather just get lost in those deep green eyes and watch their color change with her different moods, than to look at the two thin, blonde women walking toward Jen and her brother now.
“Mom,” Ed said. “Kimberley? What are you doing here at Jen’s house?”
“I can’t come to see my oldest daughter?” the older woman said. “And her house mate is my father, after all.”
Cool and hard, the voice lacked all sense of warmth to Adam. Nothing at all like her eldest daughter’s sexy deep alto one, he mused. He stared at Jen and waited for her cutting remark. If ever a time asked for one from this lady, it was now. When one didn’t come, Adam glanced over at the new arrivals and swore softly under his breath.
“You,” he said, darkness lining in his voice. “What the hell are you doing here?”
The cool blonde manager of the hotel up the road from Winter Creek turned to face him, one thin hand fluttered up to settle lightly on his arm. He jerked from her touch and moved behind Jen.
“Oh, I see you’ve met my sister,” Kimberley said. “Jen, you’ve been holding out on me. I hadn’t realized you’d met Adam.”
“You’re Jen’s sister?” He couldn’t believe this. Why didn’t Jen tell him the bitch from the hotel was her sister? “I told you I knew Jen yesterday, after the accident with the cows,” he said to Kimberley.
“I remember.” Kimberley waved her tiny hand disdainfully at him before turning around to face Jen and Ed. “How is Grandfather, Ed? Dad called Mom, and Mom called me, saying our beloved grandfather was involved in a bad fire.”
“It was only the kitchen,” Jen said. “The paramedics just took him to the hospital. Dad is going to met them there.”
“Only the kitchen,” her mother fumed. “Where were you at while my father’s life was in danger?”
Adam felt her body stiffen against his front. He placed his hand gently on her upper back, rubbing the rigid steel of her spine. Her mother glared at his caressing hand for a moment before wrenching around to her son. Adam ignored her reaction but couldn’t as easily ignore the way Kimberley stared at Jen’s flushed face, and the way Jen’s whole body trembled under her sister’s intense stare.
“Relax, beautiful.”
Kimberley laughed under her breath. “Interesting.”
“So what are you going to do?” The older woman glanced quickly at her son before twisting around to face her eldest daughter. “I would have you stay with me and Roger, but I’m afraid we haven’t got the room now. All of his family is in town for his seventy-fifth birthday, and we cannot possibly find room for even one more person.”
“Not even a room for your daughter?” Adam tried not to dislike a person at first glance, but this woman pushed at his last nerves. “It seems like you’d be willing to find room for your own flesh and blood.”
“Kimberley is staying with me,” she said simply. “Helena is way too far for her to travel day in, day out, but staying at the hotel isn’t good for her either.”
“How long have you been working there, Kimberley?” Voice like ice, Jen moved a step from his caressing hand. “Were you ever going to tell me you were in town?”
“You mean,” Kimberley said, the wicked smile back on her face, “you didn’t know I was here?”
“Don’t be crude, Kimberley.”
“Mother, I’m sorry.” She turned toward her mother, piercing laughter blocking out the hush of the winter air. “But she does still claim to have a sixth sense, doesn’t she? I thought for sure she would know I was near Winter Creek, especially after I tried to talk delicious William into selling the land to my company.”
“Kimberley,” the older woman said. “That’ll be enough now.”
“But then,” Kimberley continued, “my psychic sister always had a hard time reading me. Didn’t you, Jennifer?”
What was the bitch talking about now?
And why was hi
s lady moving even further away from him?
Damn, he didn’t need this from her.
“Kimberley, why don’t you just shut up?” Ed stepped in front of his oldest sister, and glared at his younger one before raising his hands to pull at the short ends of his hair. “Six years hasn’t been enough time.”
Jen stepped a few paces further from him, and Adam ached to pull her back.
Twisting his hat in his fists, he stared at the three women before settling his gaze on the prettiest of them. Jen ignored his questioning look, ignored his very presence.
“So where are you going to stay, Jennifer?” Her mother’s haughty look focused on Jen. “You’re certainly not going to stay in this filthy place.”
Kimberley swerved her entire body toward Adam, sending him scrambling out of her reach. “Maybe she’ll be staying with Adam. I know I would be if I had the chance.”
Adam glared hard at her, then tore his eyes off her well made-up face to study her mother. If ever there was a time for the older woman to chastise the younger one, this was it.
The ex Mrs. Ferguson said nothing.
“No, Kimberley.” Jen wheezed out a tight reply. “I won’t be staying with Adam and his family. I’m going to stay at Winter Creek, with Barb and Rose.”
“Oh,” she huffed softly. “Those two friends of yours.”
Adam had enough of the barbed comments. “No, she’ll be staying with me. My mom has already fixed up one of the guest rooms for her.”
“No.” Jen pulled from his grasping touch. “I don’t want to stay with you and your parents, Adam.”
“Honey?”
Kimberley laughed at his endearment. Jen frowned and jerked out of his grasp.
“My parents will be happy to put you up for a few days.”
“You don’t seem to understand, Adam,” she said, her tone chilly. “I don’t want to stay with you.”
“You don’t want to stay with me?” He didn’t believe this. “You’re right, Jen, I don’t understand.”
Her voice softened, warming a few degrees. “It’ll be for the best, Adam.”
* * * *
Jen had to do it.
She had to leave before Kimberley could use her magic on Adam.
But it was tearing her heart apart to walk away from the sexy cowboy. His unbelieving eyes followed her all the way to her dark Saturn, lingering on her longer than she thought possible. He didn’t say a word, didn’t try to call her back. He didn’t move away from her sister’s enticing character.
Was it already too late?
Had Jen already lost the man to her sexier sister?
Ed called out her name then, stopping her from slamming the gas pedal all the way to the floor and peeling out of the parking lot. She gripped the wheel and looked straight ahead, silently pleading for the telltale sign of her heartbreak to stay hidden behind her closed lids for a few more minutes. She didn’t need her brother to see her pain now.
“So you’re giving up on him too, like all the others?”
A tear escaped her tightly closed lids. Swallowing hard, Jen twisted her head away from her brother. “It’s for the best.”
“He’s a good guy.” Ed crouched near the window of her car, reaching a gentle hand to turn her face his way. “Kimberley wins because you don’t fight back, Jen.”
Another tear sneaked past her barrier. She opened her eyes and glared at her brother. “How can I fight her, Ed? Sam thought she was a bitch the first time they met. Two weeks later, I found her fucking him. What’s different about this time? Adam thinks she’s a bitch too. I can’t handle catching him with her. Not the way I caught her with Sam.”
“Adam’s not like him, Jen.” Ed said. “He’s not a weak man like your ex. I think he really cares for you.”
“I thought Sam loved me,” Jen said. “And look what happened to him after Kimberley got her claws into him.”
“Adam won’t do that to you.”
Free flowing now, the tears ran like rain water from the sky. “They were all like that, Ed. Every single one of them. I can’t go through it again. I can’t. I won’t.”
“Don’t you think it’s already too late to wish that?”
Jen wiped at her wet face as she warned her brother away from the car and pressed her foot hard on the gas. Speeding out of the parking lot, she didn’t care if one of Montana’s finest caught her or not.
Her body numbed as a picture formed in her mind. The picture of her sister riding rough and wild on top of her ex-fiancé changed slowly into one with her and Adam fucking each other like wild beasts.
The numbness spread into her entire body, wrapping itself first around her roughly beating heart before moving like a slow virus throughout her being. Blanking her mind, closing her feelings off from her abilities, she focused on the physical smoothness of the steering wheel, the twists and turns of the freeway, the cold wind of the October night blowing in her open window. Focused on anything, and everything, except the one thing her mind wanted her to see.
Adam’s incredulous expression when she walked away from him.
Low laughter roared from the tents on the opposite side of Winter Creek when she pulled into the parking lot a little over an hour later. She opened the car door and stepped from her vehicle. Outrageous giggles, loud snorts of glee, the slow playfulness of youth sounded in the frosty air around her. She leaned into the freezing side of her Saturn and listened to the joyful voices.
Peacefulness moved through her.
Jen had made the right choice to come to this ghost town tonight.
The turmoil of the last few hours seemed to settle into her core as the spirit of the town overtook her. No visions weakened her knees, no amorous ghost entered her body, no unfulfilled desire threatened to overwhelm her senses, and no hundred-year-old mystery waited to be solved. All Jen felt now was peace and understanding.
The need to be alone suddenly hit her. Barb and Rose meant well, and she knew they cared about her, but she wasn’t ready yet to tell them about the fire. Or about Kimberley’s arrival. She didn’t even want to think about it all now.
She would be all right after a night alone here, in the saloon.
Grabbing her purse from the top of the passenger seat, she searched for her laminated name tag before moving out from the safety of the street lamp. A newer guard stopped her at the gate this time, a fierce protective expression on his earnest face. She waved the badge in front of him and waited for him to study it. He gestured her through with a flourish.
No gentlemanly offer to take her to the saloon from this guard. He reentered the guard shack without a second look at her.
And that was fine with Jen. She needed to be alone now, with only her troubling thoughts for company.
And time to figure out what to do about her current situation, she thought as she walked the short main street to her dark saloon. Was her brother right about her feelings toward Adam? Was it already too late to stop the pain when Kimberley took him away from her?
Or could Adam Craine be the one man capable of saying no to her sister?
* * * *
“But she isn’t here, Adam,” Barb said through a small crack in the RV’s door. “Maybe she went to the hospital to make sure her grandfather is okay.”
“I checked at the hospital.” Where in the hell is Jen? “That was the first place I went when I finished talking with her brother.”
“Did you try calling him again?” Barb offered. “Or her dad?”
“I don’t have their numbers.” Distress sharpened his voice, deepening the tremor of it. “Man, you or Rose have to know where she is. Jen told me she was going to be staying here, in this RV with the two of you.”
Sudden inspiration scorched him, and he grabbed the edge of the metal door with abandon. Barb leaped back a few inches, bumping into the blonde woman behind her. “You’re not hiding her in there, are you? I just want to talk to her, that’s all.”
“Why would we be hiding her, Adam?” She drew in
a deep breath before opening the door a few inches more, pushing him back from the single step. A bright orange pajama top and short white bottom came into Adam’s view. He almost grinned at the outrageous short, bright outfit until he spied her roused temper. “Okay, what have you done to her?”
He inched a bit further from her. “I didn’t do anything.”
She didn’t believe him. “If you didn’t do anything, why would you suspect us of hiding her?”
Barb had a point.
“Well?” He didn’t know what she wanted to hear. “Remember when William came back after meeting the manager of the hotel up the way there?” Indicating the general direction with his hand, he added, “And how pissed off he was with the way she’d treated him?”
“Yes,” Barb said, opening the door all the way. Rose stayed hidden behind the smaller woman. “But what does that bitch have to do with Jen?”
“I just found out that bitch,” he said, disbelief still darkening in his voice, “is Jen’s younger sister.”
“You’re kidding?” Barb looked back toward Rose. “Did you know Kimberley was here?”
Rose shook her head.
“Jen acted like she didn’t know she was around either.”
“She probably didn’t know it,” Rose volunteered softly. “I got the impression the two of them didn’t get along.”
“Had something to do with her ex-fiancé,” Barb said simply before shaking out of her stupor to glare hard at him. Adam froze his feet to the ground, refusing to step back at her fierce look this time. “Please be truthful with me, Adam, do you think her sister is good looking?”
He stood rigid, stunned at the question. “What?”
“Just answer my question.”
“Truthfully?”
“Yeah.”
“Truthfully,” he said a bit louder than he wanted to, “I think she’s a royal bitch, nothing like Jen at all. It’s hard for me to believe she has a sister like her. And her mother isn’t much better.”
Barb relaxed, glancing back at Rose. “We’re glad to hear that.”
“Why did you need to know that?” Adam asked.
Forgotten Memories Page 20