by Cat Johnson
“What the hell do you do for a living that you have to start right after dawn?”
He laughed. “Spoken like a true city girl. Ranching starts early, darlin’. There are animals to be fed and watered and turned out. Horses to be broke. Fences to check and repair. Hay to cut and haul and stack. There’s equipment to maintain and fix when it breaks. We got fields to plow to prep for next season—”
Phoenix held up her hand. “All right. Okay. I get it.”
He grinned. “Just answering a question, but if you’re done talking, I got something else in mind to do.”
“Oh, do you?”
“I do.” He rolled her over. “At least I’m up for it, if you are.”
She laughed. “I see you’re up for it. Are you sure you have time?”
“Oh, yeah.” He smiled, loving that she could take his joking and give it right back to him. But the time for talking was done. His ideas for this morning’s predawn activities relied less on conversation and more on cardio. Phoenix was the best way he could think of to raise his heart rate.
* * *
It wasn’t until they were sweaty and breathless a long while later that Justin had the opportunity to look at the time again.
“Shit. It’s late.” Justin flipped back the covers and swung his legs over the side of the mattress. Standing, he looked at the mess of clothing on the floor. He kicked his jeans to the side, trying to find his underwear and socks.
Phoenix watched from the bed. “I warned you we wouldn’t have time.”
“Oh, hush up. No one likes a know-it-all.” He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her lips before he sat on the edge of the bed so he could pull his socks on. “So, you decide what you’re gonna do?”
“Yeah. First I’m going to go to the office and tell hopefully a different desk clerk I’m keeping the room for another night.”
He glanced back at her. “You are?”
“You think it’s a mistake?”
“Hell no. I was just wondering.”
“Well, the guy fixing my car said it’s no problem to keep it there a few days until I can get a bus back to Arizona.”
He nodded, happy she was thinking about alternate modes of transportation so he didn’t have to worry about her driving a rental car all that distance alone. “A’ight. That’s good.”
“And I really don’t want to rush this thing with Bonnie.”
“What’s your plan on that front?” He stood to pull on his underwear, not missing how Phoenix’s eyes followed the move.
“I want to meet her. Today.”
Bending to grab his jeans, Justin stopped in midmotion. “How you reckon you’ll go about that?”
Her expression had him wary even before she said, “I was hoping you’d help me.”
“Help you how?” Crap. He was already in this thing too deep. There was no getting out of it now.
“Maybe text me when Bonnie is alone. Without Rohn. So I can approach her without an audience. Unless you think that’s a bad plan.”
There didn’t seem to be any good plan in this situation. Her idea was probably the least undesirable. At least if Bonnie was alone, and she wanted to keep her secret from Rohn, she’d have the option—the freedom—to do so.
“No. It’s fine.”
“So you’ll text me?”
“I will.” He tucked in the T-shirt he’d pulled on and buckled the belt on his jeans. “But now I really gotta git. Okay?”
“Yeah.”
He leaned on the bed, close. “You sure you’re gonna be okay here?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” He had to hurry if he wanted to get home, then to work. Maybe he should take today off, as Rohn had suggested.
“Justin, stop worrying.”
“I’m not.”
“You are. I can see it.” She ran a finger over his forehead. “Go. I’ll be fine.”
“A’ight.” He pressed one hard kiss to her mouth before straightening. Grabbing his phone, which he put in his pocket, and his hat, which he shoved on his head, he glanced back at her. She looked all too tempting on the bed.
He moved to the door, regretting every step. “I’ll text in a bit.”
“Okay.” She looked so serious he thought she was going to say something else, but all she said was, “’Bye.”
“’Bye. Don’t wreck my truck.” He grinned as he unlocked and opened the door.
She smiled. “I’ll try not to.”
He closed the door behind him. Leaving her was harder than he’d thought and he was only going to work.
How the hell was he going to feel when she headed west? He didn’t even want to think about that.
As he unlocked the door of Jeremy’s truck, he told himself all these feelings must be caused by the sex. He’d gone too long without. Now that he’d had some again, it was messing up his head.
The certainty of her leaving made all these feelings damned inconvenient, if you asked him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Justin peeled into the driveway of the ranch, shooting gravel from beneath his tires as he went. It had already been a hell of a morning, and theoretically his workday was just beginning.
“Crap.” He breathed the cuss beneath his breath. Both Tyler and Colton’s trucks were already parked by the barn. He didn’t need to be the first one there, but he’d hoped he wasn’t going to be the last to arrive. He was late and he knew it. His one hope had been that one or another of his coworkers would be later.
But he had done Rohn a favor, driving all the way to Arizona, so he should get a pass from his boss. It was the other guys who were going to give him shit. He knew that with certainty, right down to his bones.
He’d just cut the engine of Jeremy’s truck and swung down to the ground from the driver’s seat when Tyler came out of the barn.
“Welcome back. And you’re late.”
“Yeah. And you were late two days last week. So?”
Tyler grinned. “What can I say? Janie made me late.”
“Don’t blame Janie.” Justin knew Tyler, and there was no way Janie was responsible for his being late.
This was just Ty’s way of rubbing it in his face that he had a woman in his life to make him late while Justin and Colton didn’t.
For once, Justin had a female making him late and he couldn’t say a word about it. He just had to stand there and take the razzing. Though memories of the night before took a bit of the sting out of it.
Colton came out of the barn. “Hey, you’re back.”
“Yup.” Justin braced himself for more questions and comments from his other buddy.
“I wasn’t sure you were home yet when you didn’t get back to me last night.”
Justin cringed. “Yeah, sorry. I was beat from the drive.”
Not exactly a lie. The drive was a bitch, but he’d managed to overcome the exhaustion with a little help from Phoenix.
“We already took care of the morning feeding. You’re welcome.” Tyler scowled.
“Thanks.” Justin rolled his eyes at Tyler’s making a big deal out of throwing some feed and hay at the stock. He wasn’t even that late. It was just that by the time he’d driven home from the hotel and spent a little time with his mother to make sure she was doing all right, he was later than usual. “And FYI, Rohn told me I could take the morning off if I wanted, and I said I’d come in anyway, so lay off.”
Tyler made a point of looking up at the sun. “Looks to me like you did take the morning off.”
Justin drew in a breath and held back his annoyance. The only person whose opinion he gave a damn about was Rohn, and as luck would have it, Justin spotted him coming out of the house.
The older man headed toward the group standing by the barn. “Hey, I see you made it in.”
“Yeah. Sorry I’m a little late.”
Rohn waved off Justin’s concern. “I told you to take whatever time you needed.”
“Thanks.” Justin shot Tyler a look and then brought his atten
tion back to Rohn. “We unloading the trailer?”
“That’s the plan. I went over yesterday and took a look. It was all I could do to keep Bonnie and her momma from starting. They’re chomping at the bit to pretty up that old house. I had to get creative to keep them from it last night.”
“Oh, really? Whatcha do?” Tyler waggled his eyebrows suggestively.
Justin cocked a brow. He could come up with a few ideas of creative ways Rohn could occupy Bonnie, but not her momma, too.
“Not what you’re thinking. I took them out to dinner and made sure we weren’t done until it was too late to be unpacking anything.”
“Aw, that’s no fun.” Tyler grinned, probably knowing he was annoying Rohn and enjoying every moment of it.
Rohn raised one graying brow. “Whatever. And I’ll ask you to stop talking shit about Bonnie. She’s my future wife, thank you.”
Rohn’s future wife. For the dozenth time in as many hours Justin hoped that if Bonnie had given up a baby for adoption twenty-five years ago, it wouldn’t change things for her and Rohn.
“So, are we heading over to Bonnie’s house or what?” Justin decided to move this little party to town.
The sooner they got the truck unloaded, the sooner Rohn and the guys would go back to the ranch, leaving Bonnie at the house so Phoenix could talk to her.
Colton turned to Justin. “You in some kind of hurry?”
“Hell no. If Rohn wants to pay us to hang around and shoot the shit, that’s fine with me.” Justin folded his arms and leaned back against the fence rail, settling in for the long haul.
As Justin had hoped, that kicked Rohn into action. He turned on a bootheel and headed for his truck, glancing over his shoulder as he walked. “Come on. Justin’s right. Y’all got a full day of work ahead of you after you get that truck unloaded, so let’s get going or you’ll be here half the night finishing up.”
“What? Hey.” Tyler’s brow furrowed.
“Hush up. You know he never sticks to the shit he threatens. He’ll probably let us go early.” Colton followed Rohn, Tyler scowling next to him as they walked.
Justin jogged to catch up to Rohn. “We taking one truck over?”
“We better take two. I might stay to help the girls and send you three back to work.”
“Oh.” Justin was going to have to play it by ear regarding Phoenix’s plan. If Rohn stayed with Bonnie, she’d have to wait.
“Justin can ride over with me. Ty and Colt, you two can follow us over.”
Colton nodded. “Got it. We’ll meet you there.”
Justin followed Rohn to the truck and climbed into the passenger seat. They were barely out of the driveway when Rohn turned to him. “So, that truck must’ve treated you okay on the trip because you’re still driving it today.”
Rohn was referring to Jeremy’s truck. The one Justin had, before this trip, only driven once a month or so when he was feeling low and missing his brother. The man had noticed that Justin was using it now.
Justin nodded. “Yup. She ran just fine.”
What else could he say? This wasn’t the time or place to discuss how he was trying to get himself over the mental hurdle of what that truck represented to him. How, healthy or not, it had become some sort of shrine to his brother.
And Justin sure as hell couldn’t get into the quagmire of the Phoenix and Bonnie saga, or why a strange woman he’d just met was currently driving his truck. Or how this mysterious woman, whom he was having sex with, could be Bonnie’s love child.
Nope. Justin wasn’t touching any of those topics with a ten-foot pole.
It wasn’t a long drive from Rohn’s ranch to Bonnie and her mother’s place. It had been Bonnie’s father’s farm back when she was little, but he’d sold off most of the fields right before he died. All that was left was the house and some acreage.
The trailer was in the driveway, right where he’d left it parked the night before. Next to it was Bonnie’s car.
He glanced over and saw Rohn smiling and wasn’t sure why until he looked at the house and saw Bonnie standing in the front doorway. Just seeing the woman he loved put a smile on the man’s face.
Bonnie was smiling, too, as she lifted her arm in a wave.
They were so happy. The perfect couple. And Justin was the keeper of a secret that could ruin all that.
He felt as if he was sitting on a bomb that could go off and blow Rohn and Bonnie apart.
Would it? Would Rohn dump Bonnie for keeping the pregnancy from him? Justin couldn’t predict that.
It had all happened twenty-five years ago. Maybe it was such a long time, it didn’t matter to Rohn. Maybe they’d already broken up before she got pregnant so he wouldn’t care. Hell, maybe he was already dating Lila by the time Bonnie had Phoenix. And maybe Phoenix had the wrong Bonnie Martin altogether.
It was enough to make a man’s head spin, which was the perfect reason to stop thinking about it, so Justin said, “Let’s go. I’m ready to get to work.”
Rohn was already opening the driver’s side door and stepping down onto the driveway as Bonnie walked toward the truck. They were like two magnets. Whenever they were near each other, they moved closer together.
He sighed, wondering what that felt like. He’d never been that in to a woman. At his age, it was probably strange he hadn’t found the one yet. Then again, every generation lived longer and longer. How could he be expected to recognize the woman he’d still love at ninety years old when he was in his twenties?
What Bonnie and Rohn had found in their forties was more likely to be a relationship that would last. Justin didn’t have to worry that he hadn’t fallen head over heels for a woman. He had time. Years more before he settled down. And until then, his new friends-with-benefits thing with Phoenix made him pretty happy.
Everything except for the secret part. Hopefully that would be over soon and everything would all work out. Armed with that hope, he followed Rohn toward the house.
Bonnie was in Rohn’s embrace by the time he reached them. She pulled away to say, “Justin, I can’t thank you enough for going to get all our stuff.”
“No problem at all. My pleasure.” He waved away her thanks and glanced at the open doorway of the trailer. “You started unloading on your own.”
“I saw that.” Rohn shot Bonnie an unhappy glance. “Even though I told her to wait for us.”
Colton pulled his truck up to the curb with Tyler in the passenger side.
Bonnie eyed the new arrivals. “And I told you that you didn’t have to bring the whole crew over just to help us unload.”
“Sure he did,” Justin defended Rohn in a show of male solidarity. “I might have stacked the light boxes on top, and I see you moved those already, but the rest is man’s work. Some of those boxes are heavy, and the furniture is much too big for less than two or three men. No gentleman is going to let you struggle with that. My momma would tan my hide if she knew I let you even try.”
Bonnie smiled. “Spoken like a true gentleman. Thank you, Justin.”
Rohn frowned. “Hey, when I said you should let the men do it, you called me a chauvinist, not a gentleman.”
“You said it like a chauvinist. Justin said it like a gentleman.”
Rohn shook his head. “Take my advice, boy. Don’t fall for a teacher. You’ll never win an argument again. They’ll talk their way around you every damn time.”
Justin smiled. Phoenix was a teacher and yeah, she could talk her way out of pretty much anything. He’d already seen that. It was one of the traits he found as endearing as it was annoying. He could definitely commiserate with Rohn.
Bonnie smiled at Rohn. “Thank you, sweetie.”
He rolled his eyes. “It wasn’t a compliment.”
“Sure it was.” She patted his cheek. “Let me tell you which rooms we’re going to want the furniture moved to.”
“Yes, ma’am. Let me grab Ty and Colt so we all know where we’re going. It’ll save some steps and confusion.”
“Good idea.” She glanced at Rohn. “See. He’s organized and a gentleman.”
Rohn cocked a brow. “Do I need to be jealous of Justin? Because I have to say, I don’t know if I can compete with a young buck like him.”
“Sure you can, Rohn.” Justin laughed. “Maybe not in all things, but in some things. Age and wisdom and all that.”
Rohn lifted his brows. “Thanks, I think. Okay. Let’s all take this planning tour of the house and get moving before Bonnie here starts complimenting Tyler and Colton, too, and I start getting really jealous.”
Justin couldn’t help but smile as Bonnie stood on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to Rohn’s lips before she turned and winked at Justin. “Gotta keep him on his toes.”
He laughed, but in the back of his mind a certainty was beginning to form. Bonnie’s laugh. Her smile. Her eyes. It was like looking at Phoenix but older. All he could think was shit. This woman had to be her mother.
He could only hope that would turn out to be a good thing.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Phoenix must have paced across the narrow expanse of the room and back again dozens of times.
Waiting for something was never easy. Waiting for the text from Justin that would tell her the coast was clear for her to drive over to meet the woman who was possibly her mother was unbearable.
She’d entered the address of Bonnie Martin’s house into her phone and had gone over the route she’d have to drive from the hotel so many times she’d memorized it.
That was probably a good thing. She was nervous enough about driving Justin’s truck, on top of being worried about the encounter with Bonnie. At least she wouldn’t have to think too much about directions.
But if Justin didn’t call or text soon, she would surely lose her mind.
Phoenix’s cell phone rang, startling her out of her stress pacing. She dove for the nightstand and let out the breath she’d been holding when she saw the name on the caller ID.
“Kim. Hey.”
“Hey. What’s wrong?”
“I’m just waiting for a call.”
“And not mine, I’m assuming, judging by your tone.”