Coming Home to Crimson

by Michelle Major

  When her vision blurred to the point she couldn’t see the road in front of her, she pulled off to the side, jolting as the car’s tire scraped the edge of the curb. Where had these tears come from? Declan Crenshaw wasn’t worth crying over—that’s what her mother would say.

  She took several deep breaths, took a wad of napkins from the glove compartment and wiped her face. Grabbing her cell phone from the passenger side seat, she punched in a number and hit the speaker button.

  “You’ve been avoiding my calls.” Her mother’s crisp tone fairly dripped with censure.

  “I have bad service up here,” Sienna lied and heard Dana’s disapproving tsk across the miles. Felt the subtle reprimand to her core.

  “Kevin spoke with your father this morning. He mentioned you had a spat.”

  “It was more than a spat.” Sienna drummed her fingers against the steering wheel. “I broke up with him.”

  A soft hiss from Dana.

  “I found him in bed with another woman,” Sienna added before her mother could tell her she was making a mistake.

  “These things happen,” Dana said quietly, her lack of emotion communicating far too much for Sienna’s taste. “You’d do well to give him a bit of warning when he isn’t expecting you.”

  “You can’t be serious,” Sienna said through her teeth before remembering that her mother was always serious. “He cheated on me and somehow it’s my fault because I surprised him at the hotel?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Dana insisted in her usual measured tone. “Not exactly. Kevin is important to your father’s business, Sienna. Especially with him heading up the merger. You know it’s scheduled to go through in a month. He can’t afford to have you disrupting the status quo. Remember your place.”

  “My place.” Sienna raised a hand to her head, pressing fingertips against the bump there and trying to pretend that the headache was the reason she felt like crying again. “Craig Pierce isn’t my father, Mom. Let’s not act like—”

  “He raised you from the time you were a girl.”

  “He tolerated me because he wanted you,” Sienna clarified. There had never been any question as to her value with her stepfather. Mostly she hadn’t minded. Dana had made sure she understood they were to be grateful for Craig’s largesse and the opportunities being part of the powerful Pierce family opened to them.

  “You never wanted for anything,” Dana insisted, the words coming out fast and with traces of the Alabama accent she’d tried so hard to erase. As far as Dana was concerned, she didn’t have any past before meeting Craig Pierce. It was as if she’d been sprung fully formed as a society wife out of the mold Craig created.

  But Sienna remembered the months before her mother had met Craig, when she’d managed to secure a job as a hostess in one of the toniest restaurants in Chicago. It was the type of stuffy, wood-paneled spot where local businessmen came for power lunches and drinks after work. Dana had spent hours with old magazines and CDs she’d borrowed from the library, studying Jackie Kennedy and Grace Kelly, modeling her appearance, the way she dressed and even her mode of speaking after the two women.

  Within weeks, all traces of Dana Crenshaw, hard-living party girl had been wiped away. Sienna remembered being mesmerized by her mother’s transformation. Back in Crimson, she’d always been vaguely embarrassed by her parents—Declan and Dana were too loud, hanging all over each other when they weren’t fighting in a way most parents didn’t. Plus they’d lived in the shabbiest trailer in the trailer park, when Sienna’s classmates came from town or the outlying ranches around Crimson.

  So it had been true that she’d never wanted for anything material once her mother met and quickly married Craig. But love and acceptance were another story, one Dana had shoved onto a high shelf to gather dust in the pristine mansion they’d moved into with Craig. Out of necessity, Sienna had quickly forced herself to forget where she’d come from and anything else but that gratitude she was meant to feel for her new life.

  “I saw him today,” she said suddenly.

  From her mother’s sharp intake of breath, she knew Dana understood whom she meant.

  “You need to come home,” her mother said after a weighted pause. “You don’t belong there.”

  “That’s kind of the problem.” Sienna swallowed against the emotion that threatened to choke her. “I don’t belong anywhere.”

  * * *

  She drove around for hours, up and down the streets of Crimson and out toward the mountain pass and the farms and ranches that surrounded the town. There was the turnoff for Crimson Ranch, a property she knew was owned by some famous actress. She’d read about it in a magazine a few years ago, and the casual mention of her hometown had been the thing to reawaken her curiosity about where she’d come from and the father and brother still there.

  Even with that curiosity, she’d kept herself distant when Jase had come to visit their mother last year after Dana had finished her cancer treatments. Much like today, the reality of her past and her present colliding had been too much for Sienna.

  She’d hidden out in her apartment for an entire weekend, as if she’d spontaneously stumble upon him at one of her favorite neighborhood haunts. Which was stupid because Chicago was enormous.

  Unlike Crimson. She was tired and hungry and had squatted to go to the bathroom on the side of a deserted Forest Service road because she was too scared to even run into the local gas station and take the chance on an encounter with Jase.

  She could return to The Bumblebee. Paige had told her she planned on painting one of the upstairs bedrooms today. No doubt her new friend would be happy to see her and to hear all about how the meeting with Declan had gone.

  Which was what kept Sienna from going back. How could she admit that she’d run away after only a few words with him? She hated that he’d surprised her instead of the other way around. He’d known she was in town to see him, and for some reason that seemed to take away the power she’d expected to feel in the moment.

  As she did another loop through downtown Crimson, past painted Victorian houses that had been converted into businesses and the tourists milling along the picturesque shop fronts, she spotted a white Jeep parked at the curb, the words Crimson County Sheriff emblazoned on the side.

  Her frustration coalesced into anger in an instant. She should be able to approach her father and brother in her own time, on her own terms. But that choice had been taken away from her because they’d been warned about her.

  Warned.

  As if she were some criminal or loose cannon intent on trouble.

  Cole Bennett had called her a troublemaker, and obviously he believed it because he’d taken it upon himself to tell Jase she was in town. He’d stripped her of the only power she had in this situation, and for that all of her wrath narrowed with laser precision to focus on him.

  She parked the rental car on a side street and stepped out, surveying the block where Cole’s Jeep was parked. There was a florist on one side and a toy store next to that. Several gift shops had wares displayed out on the sidewalk, displays of home goods or racks of colorful T-shirts.

  About halfway down the block, she saw the sign for Life is Sweet bakery and started walking. Cops and doughnuts might be a stereotype, but she figured a coffee shop was as good a place as any to start her search.

  She pushed open the door, ignoring the way her stomach growled at the mouthwatering scent of yeasty dough and sugar that enveloped her.

  A woman from behind the counter called out a greeting, but Sienna ignored her. She stalked toward the table at the far side, where a man sat, his caramel-colored hair tousled. His shoulders were so broad under his sheriff’s uniform, they made him look almost out of place at one of the small café tables in the cheery space.

  “You did this to me,” she said, her voice trembling slightly.

  Cole looked up like he didn’t have a care in the world, arched a brow. “There are a lot of things I’d like to do to you, sweetheart. Care to elabo
rate on what you’re talking about at the moment?”

  Butterflies zipped through her stomach at the intensity in his gaze, and she hated him even more for being able to so casually defuse her righteous anger. Now she was distracted by him—his brown eyes studying her, the shadow of stubble that covered his jaw, his big hand holding tight to a thin ballpoint pen. He looked strong and sure, and Sienna craved that like she imagined her father still wanted a drink, despite his sobriety.

  It made her feel weak and unsteady, one more reminder that the mask of confidence and poise she’d worn all these years was nothing but her pretending to be someone she wasn’t.

  “You told them I was coming.” She lifted a hand, jabbed a finger at him. “You warned them.”

  He wrapped his giant hand around hers, folding her fingers into her palm, then gently tugged her into the seat across from him.

  She didn’t fight because she was suddenly weary to the bone and grateful for the chair. The other customers had turned to stare, obviously curious about the crazy woman who’d go toe to toe with the hulking sheriff.

  Cole pasted on a casual, good ol’ boy type of smile, although his eyes told a different story. “Katie, would you mind sending over one of those amazing chicken salad sandwiches and a couple of lemonades?” He turned toward the counter. “Looks like I’m here for lunch after all.”

  “Sure thing, Sheriff,” the pretty brunette at the cash register answered. “Chips or pasta salad on the side?”

  Cole tossed a questioning gaze at Sienna. “Pasta salad,” she mumbled after a moment and Cole put in the request.

  “But I don’t want anything,” Sienna insisted, even though she could feel her hands trembling due to hunger. “I can handle myself just fine without your help.”

  “Marlene,” Cole began conversationally. “She’s my office manager and pretty much runs everything at the department. I might have mentioned her before?”

  Sienna narrowed her eyes.

  “Right.” Cole sat back and studied her for a long moment. “Marlene is an undisputed genius and normally easy as pie to get along with. But if she gets too hungry... Well, she has a term for it. She calls it hangry.” He inclined his head. “It’s a mix of hungry and angr—”

  “I know what hangry is,” Sienna said, irritated that her snappish tone made her sound even hangrier than she was. “I had oatmeal for breakfast. I’m fine.”

  “What time did you eat breakfast?”

  “Seven.”

  “That’s five hours ago.”

  “A lawman and a mathematician. You really are all that and a bag of chips.”

  “Chips are good, but you made the right choice with pasta salad. It’s homemade, along with the chicken salad. This place only recently started serving lunch. Katie Crawford, the owner, bakes all the bread herself. The fact that she’s serving lunch has been kind of a game changer around here.”

  Cole Bennett was the biggest game changer Sienna had ever met. She’d come into the bakery to tell him off and somehow now they were having a casual conversation about food and hunger. She crossed her arms over her chest, unwilling to allow herself to be distracted any longer. She had business in Crimson, and she was done with the town’s hottie sheriff inserting himself into it.

  “I don’t know—”

  “Here’s your sandwich. Hope you enjoy.”

  Sienna glanced up at the woman who’d approached the table, ready to snap out a scathing reprimand for being interrupted. One of the first things Craig Pierce had drilled into her was that good waitstaff should know their place. And interrupting a customer’s conversation was tantamount to spitting in the food as far as her stepfather was concerned.

  Sienna had never bought into the idea and had always been polite to everyone she met. Even though she’d been a “have” for over half her life, she never forgot what it felt like to be a “have not.” But her temper was practically boiling over, and she didn’t much care who bore the brunt of it.

  Except all she could do when she turned to Katie Crawford was offer a small smile and a muttered “thank you.”

  Cole chuckled, as if he knew what she’d intended and was amused that she couldn’t lash out at the bakery owner. But to unleash her temper on Katie would have been like kicking a week-old puppy. Maybe it was because she’d grown up in a big city, but Sienna didn’t think she’d ever seen someone who oozed sweetness and inner goodness the way Katie did. It was a wonder she didn’t have tiny bluebirds flitting around her head chirping a merry tune and anointing Katie with a crown of woven flowers.

  “What’s so funny about my chicken salad?” the woman asked Cole, hands on hips.

  “Nothing at all,” Cole said quickly. “Your food is always delicious and everyone in town knows it.”

  Katie beamed at Cole, then stuck out her hand toward Sienna. “Maybe not someone new to town. I’m Katie Crawford.”

  “Sienna Pierce.”

  “Nice to meet you, Sienna. What brings you to Crimson? How do you and Cole know each other? Can I bring you dessert for later?”

  “That’s a lot of questions,” Sienna said, her stomach growling as she inhaled the delectable scent of tangy chicken salad and fresh bread.

  Katie’s smile widened even farther. “My husband says I’m too curious for my own good, but it’s part of owning a business.” She scrunched up her pert nose. “Plus we have a little one at home now, so work hours are about all the time I get to socialize.”

  “I saw the other ladies at monthly Mexican a couple of weeks ago,” Cole said. “Noticed you weren’t part of the group.”

  “Willow had a bad cold,” Katie told him. “Noah was on an overnight doing trail maintenance on the other side of the pass, and I didn’t want to get a sitter.”

  Sienna took a big bite of the sandwich, moaning softly at the explosion of flavors that hit her tongue. She listened absently as Katie and Cole discussed Willow’s cold and the various remedies Katie had tried to make her better.

  “She’s finally sleeping through the night again,” Katie reported, then glanced toward Sienna. “Do you like it?”

  “There aren’t words,” Sienna said around a mouthful, “for how much.”

  “I’ll bring you a brownie for later. I don’t think you ever mentioned what brought you to Crimson.”

  Sienna placed the uneaten portion of sandwich on the plate, then wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I’m visiting family.”

  “That’s great.” Katie clapped her hands together. “Anyone I know?”

  Sienna shrugged and shot a look toward Cole.

  “Katie is married to Emily’s brother,” he told her.

  Her stomach pitched. “Of course she is.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then forced herself to meet Katie’s friendly gaze. “Jase is my brother.”

  She waited for Katie’s expression to change, but if anything it gentled even more. “It’s good to have you back in town. It can’t be easy after all this time, but family is important no matter how much water has passed under the bridge.”

  Sienna opened her mouth to argue but found she couldn’t. Although it was silly, the simple blessing from a relative stranger meant something to her.

  “Isn’t that right, Cole?” Katie asked quietly, and for the first time Sienna saw the unflappable sheriff look rattled.

  “Sure, Katie. I’ll have an iced tea if you don’t mind?”

  “Coming right up,” Katie answered and turned away.

  “You’re hiding something,” Sienna said, leaning forward across the table. “And Little Mrs. Sunshine knows what it is.”

  Cole made a dismissive sound low in his throat. “I’m not hiding anything.” He snagged the remaining half a sandwich. “I also appreciate that you look less like you’re going to claw my eyes out now that you’ve had something to eat. Want to tell me how that started?”

  She picked up a fork and stabbed a piece of pasta. Her body was no longer bristling with anger now but the reminder of why she’d come in here in the
first place made her chest ache.

  “I saw Declan.”

  “It didn’t go well?”

  She took another bite of pasta salad, stared out the window of the bakery as she chewed, then turned back to Cole. “Before I could gather my courage to approach the door, he saw me. Went out the back door and slipped around my car to knock on the driver’s side window.” She blew out a breath. “Scared me half to death.”

  “Sounds like Declan. How did the conversation go?”

  “Terrible. I freaked out. I wasn’t ready. But he knew to expect me.” She pointed a finger at Cole. “Because you warned Jase.”

  He closed his eyes for a moment, then said quietly, “I’m sorry, Sienna.”

  “Are you?”

  “Jase is my friend,” he told her as if that explained everything.

  But the words only fueled her temper again. Jase was his friend. Katie was his friend. Crimson was his home. And Sienna was nothing.

  It shouldn’t surprise her or hurt her feelings, but it did. To the point that the pain and loneliness were like a tidal wave, crashing over and pulling her under. She couldn’t breathe. She certainly wouldn’t stay here and casually enjoy the food he’d ordered because he could read her better than anyone had done in ages.

  Like that meant something. Like she meant something.

  “Stay out of my business,” she said, pushing back from the table. “My time in Crimson has nothing to do with you, Sheriff.” She purposely used his title instead of his name, watching his eyes snap in response.

  A tiny victory, but she’d take anything she could get at this point. She walked out of the bakery and away from Cole before she could change her mind.

  Chapter Six

  “It’s bad in there.”

  Cole nodded as he tightened his flak vest. “You don’t have to go in, Grant. Melody and the kids—”

  His top deputy snorted. “Don’t do that, boss. I knew the risks of this job when I took it, and so did Mel. You can’t treat me like I’m a rookie.”

  Turning toward the darkened warehouse that sat on an abandoned property outside of town, Cole shook his head. “This is Crimson,” he said, anger making his voice low. “We shouldn’t have to be dealing with scumbags like this up here.”