“Between our two families, he’ll manage.” Perci had Ivy in her arms again. The little girl was obviously enjoying having the cuddles. “If he...wanted.”
The look Perci shot the doctor broadcast everything the woman was feeling.
Jude felt for her—she truly did.
And Nate Masterson was apparently putty in Perci Tyler’s hands. “Ivy will be welcome here as long as needed.”
If Jude hadn’t sworn off romance of any kind, she’d be envious of the other woman. To have a man like that look at you in that way...well, Perci was one lucky woman. No doubt about that.
25.
RHEA PLACED THE LETTER shamelessly in front of her son, enjoying the perturbed look he’d sent her. She’d shown up a few minutes after she’d known he’d be out of bed, on the excuse that the letter had come to her house instead of his by mistake.
She’d snagged it out of the mail yesterday. She’d gotten enough of those damned service-to-the-community-awards envelopes from Masterson to know exactly what it most likely was. Someone on the hospital staff got one every year, it seemed.
It was perfect.
Nate would have to go, of course, and he would need an escort.
He opened it and read it with the irritation she’d expected from her surliest son. She hadn’t resorted to opening the letter, of course. But she knew...
Perci was at the stove, making breakfast for Ivy. Rhea took a moment to study the girl. She was such a pretty little thing, with just enough fire to combat Nate’s fierceness. The two were good for each other. Why wouldn’t they just admit that?
“You’ll need an escort, of course. I suppose you can ask one of your sisters-in-law, but that might be a bit too confusing. And I’m sure Phoebe and Joel are already going. Pan may not even be in town. Perci, would your twin be willing to spend the evening with Nate at the country club?”
“Probably not.”
“So, unless Nate has someone in mind, I can go. Unless...Perci, would you be willing to go with Nate and represent the hospital?” Rhea sent a smile at the girl. “It would save him from the embarrassment of going with his mother.”
“I can get my own dates just fine, Mother.” Nate’s irritation was clear. “Perci may be busy that night.”
“Not with that attitude you won’t. What woman would have you?” Rhea sent a bland smile at him next, then reached over to brush the blond curls of her future grandbaby. Ivy gave a shy smile in return.
“When is it?” Perci asked, her wariness very evident. Her son saw her as irritating at the moment, meddling. But Perci...her future daughter-in-law knew exactly what Rhea’s intentions were. Suspicious girl, this one. More so than the others.
Now, how was she supposed to use that against the two of them? “I would happily stay here with the little one. You two go represent the hospital we all love. As the next generation. Your father and I went so many times.” Rhea let herself get choked up, knowing it would push her son’s buttons perfectly. Nate was such a sensitive, compassionate soul under all that gruff. “I don’t know that I can go again. Not so soon.”
Daniel was probably spinning in his grave, seeing what she was doing to their boy, but it was worth it. Her husband would want her sons to be happy. The same way they had been.
Nate wasn’t truly happy. Not yet. He was just too alone. But Rhea had a plan.
She shot another look at the young woman across the room. Yes. She’d guessed right. The compassion in Perci Tyler was enough to have the girl falling in line exactly as Rhea needed.
She masked her satisfaction by bending over and kissing Ivy’s sweet little blond curls. A sweet new daughter-in-law, a precious new grandchild—what more could a woman ask for?
26.
THE LAST TIME SHE HAD had a date was two months before her mother had died. It had been with Thomas Jacobi, a nice boy a few years older than her then twenty. He’d married a girl two counties over six months later. They already had four kids, and she’d heard there was another on the way.
Thomas had never made her feel like this.
And it wasn’t even a real date.
To be honest, she didn’t know what she was doing. Or why she had gone to the trouble of borrowing a dress from Phoebe.
Phoebe, who had attended several events with her husband, had had far more appropriate clothing than Perci now.
She didn’t want to embarrass Nate, or the hospital, by arriving in any of her well-worn dress clothes. She usually only wore them to church. And they were starting to show their age and abuse from the multiple washings they’d endured.
But the blue dress she’d borrowed from her sister—that was cut way lower than anything Perci had ever worn before—was perfect for an evening at the Masterson Country Club.
Country clubs weren’t exactly where Tylers belonged. Unless they were on staff. She thought her cousin Maggie had worked at the country club for about a month a few years ago—before Maggie’s brothers had shown up and gotten her fired.
Perci had never been at the country club before. The mere idea of it had her feeling a bit more nervous than she wanted to admit.
Even if her sister had done just fine the times she’d been there with Joel.
She finished her hair and makeup and stepped out of the room she’d been using.
Nate waited in the kitchen with his mother and Ivy.
Perci stepped closer and brushed a kiss against Ivy’s blond hair. The little girl had jelly on her fingers. Nate scooped Ivy up before that jelly could get on Perci’s dress. “Hang on, kiddo. Let’s clean you up. We don’t want to mess up that pretty dress.”
“Bootibul.”
“Yes, she is.” Nate shot a look at her out of those Masterson green eyes of his. A look filled with more heat than Perci wanted to think about. “Very nice.”
“Not so bad yourself.” Talk about understatement. Nate filled out his tux in ways made to cause a woman to lose her breath. She’d seen him in a tux before.
Each time he’d looked better than the last.
“You are going to be the most stunning couple there.”
Perci had forgotten his mother was there while she was staring at Nate. Heat hit her cheeks. She’d just ogled the man, in front of his mother. Pitiful. “Thank you.”
His mother smiled. “You two had better go. The guest of honor can’t be late.”
Perci just felt like an idiot when she nodded. There really wasn’t anything else to say.
NATE’S EVENING WAS tedious, and he knew it. The only bright spot at all was the woman at his side. Perci had been greeted by many that he knew she didn’t know, but she’d held her own. Charmed the lot of them.
Probably a bit too much. Nate scowled when an obviously tipsy relative of the mayor tried to look down that blue dress.
He recognized it, of course. Her sister had worn it before. But never had he drooled over Phoebe because of it.
On the slightly taller Perci, it was just a bit shorter and a bit more daringly cut. Perfect.
He wanted to ditch this event and take her somewhere where he could explain to her what that dress did to a man like him.
What would she do if he did just that?
He was still watching her when she excused herself and headed to the restroom. She sent him a look and a smile, and held up her hand, indicating she would be with him again in five minutes.
He smiled back.
It was so much nicer when they weren’t fighting each other.
He watched her cross the room, her red hair easy to spot in the crowd.
27.
CLIVE SAT AT HIS TABLE and watched the crowd. He’d been a member of this country club since before Perci Tyler had even been born. His membership had almost been revoked a time or two, but he was still a member. Barely.
Since the Mastersons had taken everything from him.
But there she was. A damned Tyler. Right in the middle of everyone who mattered in this county.
Her sister was there somewhere, clingi
ng to the new sheriff like a damned limpet. The two had charmed every bigwig in the county, with that girl’s different way of talking and those big blue eyes of hers.
No doubt securing funding for the sheriff’s next run for office in a few years or for the hospital itself.
Nate Masterson, the doctor who had let Jay suffer and die, had been honored for all of his good work for the county. The whole evening had been about Mastersons, practically.
Shit.
Damned Mastersons were taking everything.
While he was stuck at a table with Clint and Maria.
The boy was also being honored for his recent bravery during an arrest Clint had made. Clive was proud; of course, he was. Or so he told himself. Clint was a damned fine nephew and not a half-bad stepson, even if Clint had definite opinions that didn’t always match Clive’s.
Clint would never be Jay.
And they both knew it.
That doctor had overshadowed what his stepson had accomplished.
Mastersons were taking everything.
It would serve that doctor right if someone took everything he had away, too.
Perci: Clive watches of Error! Bookmark not defined.
28.
NATE WATCHED HER WALK across the room, thinking how much he wanted that woman. And not just because of outward appearance. It was the way she breathed fire at him, the way she made him feel, the way she terrified him right out of his tux.
He would always burn for Perci, and he didn’t think that was going to change anytime soon.
Someone bumped him while he was staring at her.
Nate turned. Clint Gunderson was standing too damned close.
Nate tensed immediately. He never personally had had anything against Clive Gunderson’s oldest son. The guy seemed like a decent sort. Joel hadn’t mentioned any problems with the man, either.
As far as Nate knew, Clint stuck to himself, working for the Wyoming Highway Patrol and part-time ranching somewhere in the northeastern part of the county.
“Gunderson, didn’t see you standing there.”
“No problem. Noticed you came with one of the Tyler girls. She doing okay? Healed all right?”
Nate’s attention sharpened. “She’s fine. They all are. We’re seeing to that.”
The other man held up a hand. They’d gone to school together, him and Clint. They hadn’t been friends, but they had known each other. “I meant nothing by it. Just concern. I know those girls didn’t have a damn thing to do with what my idiot brother did. And I’m sorry that I didn’t see it. Not in time to help, anyway. I knew my brother had some problems, but I’d never imagined he would go off the deep end like that. Or be so obsessed with your sister-in-law. I want your family and the Tylers to know that I am genuinely sorry for what he did. Hell, for what I learned my father did to them, too. I wasn’t even living in the county when Jay attacked that girl back then the first time. I didn’t know about any of it. I know it’s not an excuse, but I want you to know that I have no ill will toward those girls at all.”
There was genuine regret in Gunderson’s eyes. Gunderson looked past Nate’s shoulder and cursed. Nate turned to follow his gaze. That’s when he saw two beautiful redheads, practically cornered near the back of the room by none other than Clint’s father.
Both men started across the room. It took all Nate had not to make a scene. He looked for his brother, surprised that Joel wasn’t right there at Phoebe’s side already. Joel took overprotective to the next level.
He found his brother stuck between several local councilmen. Joel was not going anywhere for a while. His brother caught his eye and jerked his head toward Phoebe and Perci. Nate nodded.
He’d get his sister-in-law away from Gunderson as fast as possible. And Perci.
The look Perci sent him when he approached told its own story. He held out a hand to her, while dropping the other on Phoebe’s narrow shoulder. Gunderson was not going to do anything to hurt the women he cared about ever again. “Sweetheart? Gunderson.”
PERCI STEPPED IN FRONT of Phoebe without thought. But it wasn’t her older sister that Gunderson had fixated on. It was her. Clive Gunderson looked at her just like he had the night her mother had died, and in the dozens of times he’d pulled her over since.
She would never share the terror that had filled her those late nights when he’d harassed her. Shortly before he’d lost the election to Joel, he’d made her get out of her car and kneel in the mud while he’d searched her car.
Searched her.
After that incident, it had gotten to the point where she’d almost asked her father to pick her up each night.
But if she had, she’d have had to explain why.
Her father wouldn’t have stopped until he’d killed Gunderson for what he was doing to her. Perci had known that without a shadow of a doubt.
Gunderson’s eyes burned with the hatred she had seen before. She was just about to say something to him, when a large male body moved closer. She knew who it was without having to look first.
Nate was there. Just like she had known he would be.
The instant Gunderson had cornered her and Phoebe, Perci had looked for him. And found him. He had already been on his way to her side. The knowledge that he was coming to her had helped strengthen her spine and made it easier for her to look at the man who had flat out told her that her mother had deserved to die. Nate was there. She wasn’t dealing with this alone, even though her sister was right next to her.
She trusted him.
Would always trust him. Even though he irritated her more than any man on earth ever had. She trusted him, and she always would.
That thought hit her like a bullet.
A little thrill of something went straight through her. He held out a hand to her, and she took it without hesitation. Now she could deal with Clive Gunderson. Without the fear that she had hidden from her family for so long.
They all had their nightmares. Clive Gunderson had been in hers for the last four years.
29.
CLIVE FORCED HIMSELF to breathe, to behave himself. Clint was watching him like a hawk. His stepson wasn’t stupid; that was one thing the boy had going for him.
Clint was probably the smartest Gunderson in a long time.
Clive wanted to tell that girl exactly what he thought of her. To rip into her, put her back in her place, exactly where she deserved to be. Tylers were trash; had always been. He’d arrested more Tylers in his county during his tenure as sheriff than any other family. Good arrests, deserved arrests; Tylers were trouble. Every last one of them.
These girls were no different.
Why didn’t the rest of the town see that?
Clint drove him home. Boy didn’t say much until they were almost there. “You need to leave those Tylers alone. Those girls are not responsible for what Jay did. He made the choices. I’ve read the reports. I’ve been to the scene myself. Jay did it. Not those women. You need to be apologizing to them instead of harassing them. It was damn lucky that Perci and her twin and Masterson’s brother weren’t killed in the fire. Did you know a beam fell on the twins? A burning beam from a fire Jay set. Hell, if you were still sheriff, you’d have had to arrest him. Did you know that Pip and Matt went back in to get Jay? They could’ve left him to burn. And they didn’t. Those girls will always have the scars from what he did. They don’t need you making things worse. Leave her and her sisters alone. I mean it. You harass them in any way. and I’ll arrest you myself on something. Mark my words; I’m not joking with this. Enough.”
Clive didn’t say anything. No matter what Clint said, those girls were responsible for Jay. If Jay hadn’t seen them four years ago, his son would still be alive. That was indisputable.
“Those Tylers are trouble. Don’t you go looking in that direction. They may look nice, but they get men killed.” Tom Rutherford and Jay were indisputable proof of that.
Clint snorted. “I have no intention of looking at a Tyler woman. No matter how
she gets under my skin. I don’t intend to look at a woman again for a very long time. I got problems of my own that I need to deal with first. But even if that wasn’t the case, a man would be damned lucky to get one of those girls. They are hard workers, kind, and loyal. Not to mention the whole lot of them are beautiful. They don’t need you making trouble for them. Not like you did before.”
Clive looked at the boy. Thinking once again how much like Clive’s younger brother he looked.
How can anyone not look at the boy and realize that this man was not Clive’s son but his nephew? Of course, he had covered the truth of Clint’s parentage up since the boy had been born. He didn’t see that changing anytime soon. He didn’t have his son anymore, but he had his nephew—who also happened to be his stepson. Why couldn’t he be happy with that? At least content.
Clint was all the blood relation Clive had left in the world—him and that baby girl.
Clive would never get Jay back. It was time he accepted that.
Because Clint would never be Jay. There were no other words to be said. Clint was never going to be his son. Because those damn Tyler women and those Mastersons had taken Jay away from him forever.
He didn’t have anything else to say until Clint dropped him off in front of his house. Clive had no intention of going in. He needed to get out. Underneath the Wyoming sky. To breathe. To think. He needed to do something.
Something to get the rage inside of him out. He just drove. Until he ended up right outside the country club. He waited until he saw the doctor’s truck go by, Masterson and that redheaded bitch inside.
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