Issued to the Bride One Sniper (Brides of Chance Creek Book 3)

by Cora Seton

  He knew he couldn’t control any of that, and none of his worrying would change anything. It was up to Marlon to live his life now. To figure out how he wanted to proceed.

  Meanwhile, he had a call to make he’d been putting off. He was due to wed in two weeks, and he still hadn’t invited his mother. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to—or if she’d want to come. It would mean leaving Alabama, for one thing, and she only did that on her monthly trips to see her aunt.

  Speaking of which, was he supposed to invite Great-aunt Minnie, too? He hadn’t seen her since he was a child. His mom had always waved off his half-hearted offers to join her on her visits, saying Minnie rarely spoke much anymore and there was no sense having the two of them sitting in silent vigil while she rested.

  Still, he probably should issue that invitation. Grateful for the excuse to put off the call to his mother, he looked up the number for the Southern Skies Care Facility, punched it in and waited until a receptionist answered his call.

  “I’d like to find out how to address a letter to one of your residents,” he said. “Her name is Minnie Powell.”

  “Minnie Powell,” the woman repeated. “Hold one moment.” She came back after a few seconds. “I’m sorry; we don’t have anyone by that name here.”

  “Yes, you do. Check again,” Hunter told her. She probably was new to the job, he thought as she put him on hold again. When she came back, she was apologetic.

  “Sorry for the delay, sir. I asked the office manager and we had to search the old files. Minnie hasn’t lived here these past nineteen years, but once she saw the photograph the office manager remembered her. Says Minnie was a hoot.”

  “Nineteen years? Where’d she go?”

  “The office manager? She’s right here. Do you want to speak with her?”

  “No, I mean—” It was too late. A new voice came on the line, low and husky with age.

  “This is Sarah Dunsworth. How can I help you?”

  “I’m trying to find my great-aunt, Minnie Powell. Do you know where’s she’s gone?”

  A long silence greeted his question. “I’m sorry,” Sarah said finally. “Minnie passed away nineteen years ago.”

  Hunter was still reeling when he called his mother. He didn’t bother with pleasantries when she picked up.

  “What the hell do you do when you go to Georgia?” he demanded.

  The sound that escaped her told him she knew she’d been found out. “I go to see Drake,” she said simply when she spoke. “We spend the weekend together.”

  Everything he thought he knew—about his mother, about his relationship to her—crashed down around him. “You spend—what about Aunt Minnie?”

  “I used to visit her, too. Until she died. Now I stop by the cemetary.”

  “You never said—”

  “No. I never did. Those were the terms. That’s what Drake and I agreed.”

  “But he—he wouldn’t even acknowledge me.” Hunter couldn’t believe this. His mother had carried on a relationship with Drake all this time? “He practically threw me out of his house when I confronted him.”

  “No, he didn’t. He asked you to leave,” she said in a measured voice. “And I’m sorry you couldn’t have more than that from him.”

  “I didn’t have anything from him!” He tried to get himself under control, but he knew he was failing. This was too much. Didn’t she understand what his childhood had been like? Didn’t she know how often he’d longed for a father to complete their family? And she’d been seeing him all along?

  “You had a living from him, until you walked away from that. He paid child support like clockwork. You really think we afforded our house on a stenographer’s salary? You think my income paid for Scouts? Sports? Restaurants?”

  Hunter couldn’t find an answer. That was supposed to make up for the father he’d never had? For the shame he’d always felt?

  “How could you—?”

  “Love someone? A man who wouldn’t ditch his wife when he fell in love with someone else? Is that what you’d have had me do—force him to ruin someone else’s life when it wasn’t her fault?”

  “You think you’ve made things better for Drake’s wife by sleeping with him once a month?” Hunter was incredulous. He couldn’t believe they were even having this conversation.

  “Do you think I’m the kind of person who would think that?” his mother retorted. “Life is complicated. You should know that by now.”

  He did know that, but he still couldn’t understand. “I couldn’t hang around and wait for stolen weekends with the woman I love—the woman I’m going to marry. If she had a husband, I’d leave her alone. It wouldn’t be right otherwise.”

  “Hunter—” His mother broke off. “You’re a man, and things are so black and white for you. I don’t know if you can understand it. I hardly understood it myself when it all started. That’s why I never talked to you about it.”

  “Try me,” Hunter growled. There was nothing she could say that would make this situation acceptable.

  “Drake’s wife, Melissa—she’s the one who found me.”

  He stopped pacing. “Found you? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “She’s the one who hired me—for the stenographer position in Drake’s court. She’s the one who arranged for Drake and I to be together.”

  She waited, and Hunter didn’t know what to say. “Why would she do that?” What had his mother been involved in? Did he even want to know?

  “Do I have to spell it out for you?” his mother said exasperatedly. “Not everyone enjoys sex, Hunter,” his mother said bluntly. “She put up with it until she had her girl and her boy. Then she drew the line. Told Drake she was done. Told him he needed to make arrangements. That’s what I was supposed to be. An arrangement. We spent the weekend together once a month when the two of them were supposed to be visiting their vacation home in Orange Beach. She went and had fun with her family at the shore. He met me in Georgia. It was all supposed to be neat and tidy, except I was young. I screwed up. Missed a couple of pills.” His mother sighed. “There was hell to pay for that, but then Melissa decided it was the best thing for all of us. It tied me to Drake. Tied him to me, too. She didn’t want a scandal; didn’t want her husband carousing with a string of women over the years and she didn’t want to leave him, either. She wanted the life he gave her—a nice house, the chance to be a stay at home mom. A position in the community. She came up with a generous figure for child support. We kept all the other aspects of the arrangement the same. But now I knew the rules. No more children.”

  “And you put up with that?” Hunter was so flabbergasted, he didn’t know where to turn. His mother had always seemed so self-contained. So utterly impervious to the passions that ruled other human beings. Now he was supposed to believe she’d arranged her whole life to be a good mistress to a married man?

  “You know what? None of that makes me feel embarrassed,” his mother told him. “Here’s the only thing that does. I learned something about myself. Something that doesn’t fit with the way other people think I should be.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I don’t want a husband. Never did.” She let that sink in. “I made no bones about it. I’d had a proposal before, you know. My high school boyfriend wanted a traditional wife. I knew I couldn’t do it even back then. Maybe Melissa had heard about that. I don’t know. I’m a loner, Hunter. I don’t like to do all those things other people like to do. I don’t like groups. I don’t like big family gatherings. I don’t want to tailor my activities to what everyone else wants to do. If I had to live with Drake all the time, I’d… I don’t know what I’d do.”

  Hunter was staggered. He didn’t know what to think of any of this. The way he felt for Jo—he couldn’t get enough of her. The idea of seeing her once a month would kill him “Mom—”

  “Sweetie, I know. This is hard to hear. But it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. I let Sue-Ann Frank practically raise you. Most women wouldn�
�t allow another woman to co-opt her child like that.”

  “She didn’t co-opt me,” Hunter protested.

  “No, she saved us. Both of us. I have loved you every second of your life—with every fiber of my being. I tried so hard to be a good mother to you. I also saw right away that the Franks could give you everything Drake and I couldn’t. All those boisterous dinners and fun times you craved. Not to mention all the things you learned from working with them on their ranch. I don’t know how to ride a horse, or care for cattle, or anything like that. They stepped in and gave it all to you without me even asking.” His mother was silent for a moment. “I have thanked God every day for the last thirty-four years he put me next to Heartfelt Acres when I moved home to Finley. I’m very aware of everything good that came from that. I knew I couldn’t give you a father, or be exactly the mother you deserved, so I let the Franks fill in the gaps. I’d hoped it would be enough. I see now that it wasn’t.”

  “No, it wasn’t.” Although Hunter had to admit he’d felt like part of the family over at Heartfelt Acres, still it wasn’t the same thing as having a family of his own.

  “I can just about hear the gears turning in your head. Try to remember that everyone is different,” his mother begged him. “Melissa loves everything about Drake that I don’t. She wants him there in the morning when she wakes up and there when she goes to bed at night. She wants to hear about every part of his day and talk to him about everything to do with their kids. That’s not what I want. I want my home life to myself. I want time to pursue my own quiet passions. I want to be able to dream and think and write poetry without interruption. And when I’m with Drake I want to have fun. I want it to be separate from the cares of my day-to-day life. Does that make sense?”

  “What about me?”

  His mother sighed. “You got the short end of the stick in every way, didn’t you? I am sorry for that. More than I can say.”

  Hunter didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know what to think.

  “None of us were anticipating a child when we started our arrangement. I know this isn’t easy to hear, and I know you’ll have some thinking to do before you can come to terms with it, but I think you’ll understand in time. We all did the best we could,” his mother said quietly. “Now, this woman. The one you love. The one you’re going to marry—”

  “I’ve got to go.” Hunter hung up.

  He needed to go find Jo. She’d know how to make sense of this.

  “The cabinets arrived,” Jo said to Hunter when he met her out back. A crew from Renfrew’s was unloading their truck and she paced around them, hardly able to wait to finish the tiny house kitchen. “Do you have time to help me install them?”

  “Sure.” He seemed distracted, though.

  “Something wrong?”

  “Yeah—no. I don’t know.” He pressed both hands to his temples, then dropped them to his sides, shaking them out like he needed to shake off something disgusting. Jo became concerned.

  “Hang on,” she said. He really didn’t look good at all. Jo thanked the drivers and pocketed the invoice they gave her, and when the truck trundled off up the driveway, she turned her full attention on him. “What’s going on?”

  Hunter gave her a brief rundown of the phone call he’d had with his mother, and Jo didn’t blame him for looking shell-shocked. “So she’s been seeing Drake all this time?”

  “And she never breathed a word of it; not to me, not to anyone, as far as I can tell. Why did she do that?”

  “Because she loved him,” Jo said without hesitation. It was clear to her—especially after she’d read Gwen’s poems. “She loved him, and she loved you, too. She was willing to accept what she could get in the circumstances. She made a choice. A hard choice.”

  “I don’t see how any of them could agree to a setup like that.” He seemed to find it hard to stand still. She’d never seen him so agitated.

  “It’s not ideal, and I don’t think it was easy for her,” Jo said, wishing she could soothe him. “That’s what her poetry is all about. Have you read any of it?”

  He made a face. “Some. When I was younger. I didn’t get it.”

  “It’s about… nature,” Jo said slowly, finding it easier to understand now. “Nature in both senses of the world. What’s out there and what’s inside of us. How nature is beautiful and fierce and we are, too. How we like to pretend we have this veneer of society, but when the hard times come, that falls away and reveals who we really are. It’s about choices. Choosing the path that aligns with who you really are. I think that’s what she tried to do—be herself. Not what society wanted her to be.”

  “Why didn’t she ever tell me the truth?” he demanded.

  “Because she probably never wanted to hear what I’m hearing in your voice right now. Anger. Disgust. She loves you, Hunter.”

  “Of course I’m angry.” He ignored the second half of what Jo had said. “I grew up without a father!”

  “So have a lot of people,” she pointed out quietly.

  Hunter rubbed a hand over his mouth. “That doesn’t make it any better. I don’t know what to do.”

  Jo thought about that. “I’m not sure there is anything to do,” she said slowly, running a hand along the top of one of the cabinets the men from Renfrew’s had unloaded. “She’s your mom, Hunter. That hasn’t changed. None of the circumstances have. She still wants to be in your life.”

  “But my dad doesn’t.”

  “No. Because he doesn’t want to hurt his wife. He made an agreement with her and he’s sticking to it.”

  “His wife chose my mother to be his mistress. So what gives her the right to dictate whether or not we talk to each other?” Hunter shook his head. Lifted his hands. “I should be angry.”

  “You just said you were.”

  “Angrier.” He sounded fed up. Tired.

  “It doesn’t help,” she blurted. Unexpected pain welled inside her because it was true. Being angry hadn’t ever helped. She still wasn’t any closer to the General despite all her rage. Nothing had changed or gotten better. Quite the contrary. The distance between them had grown, if anything.

  When she looked up, Hunter’s gaze was resting on her. “We can’t change our parents as much as we might want to,” she went on. “We can’t control anyone but ourselves. All we can do is make a decision. Do we want the people we love close to us or not?”

  “Do you want the General close to you?” he demanded.

  That was hard to answer. She was so angry with him for not being there when she needed a parent. On the other hand, she understood now in a way she hadn’t when she was young how much her mother’s death had devastated him. And he’d sent Hunter to her. Had he been trying to make amends?

  “I’m… open to giving him another chance,” she said finally. “Maybe. But I won’t fight for his attention. Now he’ll have to fight for mine. How about you? Do you want a relationship with your mother?”

  “I don’t know. I shouldn’t. But… yeah,” he said raggedly. “I do. I can’t see shutting her out. No matter what she’s done. But as far as I’m concerned, I don’t have a dad.”

  “I can understand that.” Jo took both of his hands and faced him. “Maybe the important thing now is you and me. Maybe it’s time to focus on our family, and leave everyone else to sort themselves out.”

  Hunter moved to pull her into an embrace. “That makes a lot of sense to me. No matter what anyone else does, you’ve got me from now on. I hope you know that.”

  She knew that. Every touch confirmed his determination on that front. “You’ve got me, too. Whatever happens, we’ll be here for each other. We’ll stay strong.”

  He smiled suddenly. “You’re right. Who gives a damn what anyone else does as long as I’ve got you.”

  “You’ve got me.” She went up on tiptoe to meet his kiss. This was enough for her. He was enough for her.

  He was everything.

  When his phone rang early the next morning and he recogniz
ed the number as the Franks’, Hunter was reluctant to answer it. He hadn’t heard from any of them in weeks, and he wasn’t sure what they thought of him now. After yesterday’s revelations, he wasn’t sure he was ready for any more drama, either. He’d decided he’d call his mother later and formally invite her to the wedding. It would take some time to repair his relationship with her fully, but keeping her from the celebration wasn’t any way to start the next phase of his life. He’d try to be adult about this. Try to see her side.

  As difficult as that was.

  “Hunter Powell, you idiot,” Sue-Ann said without preamble when he picked up. “How could you be so stupid?”

  This was worse than he’d imagined. Hunter told himself he deserved it; he hadn’t managed to keep Marlon out of trouble, after all.

  “How could you throw away your career for my son when my son was doing his damnedest to ruin everything?” she went on. She was in full-on scolding mode, mothering him like she’d always used to when he was young.

  “I wanted to give him another chance—”

  “When someone is that determined to undermine himself, there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Don’t you know that?”

  “I do now,” he admitted. “But this is Marlon we’re talking about. You know everything he did for me—that you all did for me.”

  “Your mother lives next door to me,” Sue-Ann said as if she hadn’t heard his objections. “How am I supposed to hold my head up when my child has tanked your career? She’s going to blame me for that. You know she will.”

  “She won’t blame you. Besides, Marlon didn’t tank my career. I’m leaving the SEALs voluntarily.” Hunter didn’t think his mother would have much to say to anyone just now, anyway.

  “Thank you for everything you did to help him,” she said, softening. “You went out on a limb. I know this is all on Marlon. He took a wrong turn. Married the wrong girl. We all knew it. It took me days to brace myself for this phone call,” she admitted. “When I think of everything I said—”