In Colton's Custody

by Dana Nussio

  Willow swallowed. She’d wasted so much energy hating the Coltons without thinking of them as a family. With a different set of problems from hers, but a family just the same.

  “My other sister would have been in her office, too, if she hadn’t been on an errand.” He glanced over at her. “In the hospital lab.”

  If Asher had made the comment a few minutes earlier, Willow might have chuckled, but she no longer found any humor in it.

  He lowered his voice again. “She was there for a DNA test to determine if our guest at the ranch is my dad’s firstborn son. That baby really was switched at birth.”

  “You win.”

  Asher blinked several times. Was he as surprised as she was that he’d admitted so much?

  “What do you mean?”

  “Your day was worse than mine.” She grinned. “I take it you weren’t supposed to share some of those details with anyone.”

  “None of them. But apparently I’ll say anything to hear your story.”

  She tilted her head toward one shoulder and then the other, considering. He’d made himself vulnerable, so it only seemed fair. “It’s going to seem small by comparison, but as I told you, there was a complaint filed against the center. Someone did it online. Anonymously.”

  “What was it about?”

  “The surprise inspector wouldn’t tell me, but he did say he didn’t know how it could have been processed since the system requires all complaints to be signed.”

  “Someone was determined to make it happen.”

  “That’s what worries me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s not the first unusual thing that’s happened at the center lately.”

  Asher had been staring down at Harper, but now he glanced her way. “What else?”

  “On Sunday, I received a letter, where the writer said that Tender Years will be closed by the end of the month. It said I can say goodbye to Mustang Valley, as well.”

  “Sunday?”

  “It wasn’t mailed. I found it stuffed in my front door. Printed on plain white copy paper. It has to be related to the complaint, right?”

  “You must have pissed someone off. Disgruntled former employee?”

  When she shook her head, he squinted. “From ‘Anonymous’? That guy is sure getting around lately.”

  His words were light, but his hand—the one that wasn’t steadying his child—was fisted against his pant leg. Was he feeling protective of her and Luna? She wasn’t sure what to think about that. She didn’t need to be taken care of. By anyone, let alone a Colton. So, why was she tempted to like it just a little?

  “Willow Merrill?” a medical technician called from the open door that led to the examination offices.

  As she stood, she released the breath she’d been holding. Keeping Luna in her arms, she pushed the stroller toward the opening. She had to be off her game if she was even tempted to rely on Asher. He was on the opposite side of a potential lawsuit that could leave her childless. She needed to remember that.

  The woman smiled at them and then lowered her gaze to the paperwork in her hands.

  “Asher?”

  He stood and strode across the room with Harper. When he reached them, the woman led the way down the hall.

  “We’ll be in examination room four,” she said without looking back.

  We? She’d expected them to be in separate rooms. Privacy laws and all that. Apparently, that wasn’t the way this would work.

  The woman indicated for them to take the two seats against the wall. No one would be sitting on the examination bed.

  “I’m sorry we all have to be in here together, but you saw how backed up we are,” the technician said. “Since we need samples from all of you for the legally admissible test, we’ll do it here.”

  “Fine,” Asher answered for all of them.

  “Now, I’ll need identification from you both before we begin. A driver’s license will be fine.”

  Having been warned about the requirements for a court-admissible test, they both had their IDs ready. An assistant knocked, opened the door and handed the tech a tray with four plastic-packaged test kits on top. She took their licenses to make copies.

  “I’ll do each adult’s test first and then the infant in your lap,” the woman said as she opened the first. “It won’t hurt. Just a buccal swab test, where I’ll rub one of these around on the inside of your cheek, gathering samples of your DNA.”

  She held up a long one-ended cotton swab along with a tube it would go in when they were finished.

  “Then I will walk the tests to the lab myself to preserve the chain of evidence.”

  After placing half of a double-barcode sticker on the paperwork and the other half on the tube, she pointed at Willow. “I’ll do your test first, then the next one for—” she paused to peek at the file “—Luna.”

  Willow leaned forward and opened her mouth. The other woman swished the swab around a few times inside her cheek, not gently, and withdrew it. Quickly, she tucked it inside the tube and sealed it.

  Strange how something that didn’t hurt at all could have the ability to destroy her life.

  “You see? No big deal.” The technician opened the second test.

  Easy for her to say when she had nothing hanging on those test results. Willow slid a glance to Asher, who pressed his lips into a firm line. Clearly, they’d found something else they could agree on.

  “The results will show how your alleles, the variant forms of each gene the lab will study, compare to that of both infants. The results will look at probabilities, and the conclusions will say you are ‘excluded’ or ‘not excluded’ as the biological parent.”

  “You mean it won’t be definitive?” Asher asked.

  “Well, probabilities of up to 99.99 percent are pretty definitive.”

  Willow braced herself as the woman leaned toward her daughter with a swab. Luna usually protested when the pediatrician came anywhere near her with a tongue depressor, so she surprised her mother by barely squirming. On the other hand, Harper let out a shriek and tried to push away the swab when her turn came. Good thing they hadn’t placed bets on the girls’ reactions.

  “You’re fine, angel,” Asher crooned as he cradled his daughter to his chest and brushed back her hair.

  For a moment, Willow picture them in another place and herself as the lucky recipient of his ministrations. If she was the woman in his life, would he touch her with that same level of care, as if she was precious to him? Would he glide his fingers through her hair and whisper that it was okay to rely on other people sometimes?

  “You’re free to go whenever you’re ready,” the tech announced as she sealed the fourth tube. “We should have your results in about a week.”

  “A week?”

  Asher’s sharp tone startled Harper and yanked Willow away from the image that had no place in that room nor in any other part of her life.

  She couldn’t be having romantic thoughts about this man at this time. Or ever. She might have lost control of her good sense for a few seconds, but that had to stop now. In just seven days, they would have the answers to their questions. And if the results came out the way she prayed they would, she could forget she’d ever met the tempting Asher Colton.

  Chapter 9

  After the tech left with her tubes containing genetic truths and their futures, Asher couldn’t get out of that examination room fast enough. It was too small. There wasn’t enough ventilation. Something.

  He hurried from the room, glad he’d skipped the stroller and just carried Harper. Even she had reacted to his stress, crying out from a mouth swab when she’d barely made a peep after her six-month vaccines.

  “It’s almost over, sweetie. Everything’s going to be just fine.”

  Why did he keep promising her that? He had no idea how e
verything would turn out or if he would ever be able to make anything fine again. Strange, he’d thought he was handling the situation okay, even though he’d had to keep his personal issue from his family, particularly Marlowe and his mom. A bomb scare had seemed like enough of a Colton crisis for one day.

  So, why had Willow’s mention of the unusual occurrences at her childcare center been enough to push his fragile equilibrium over the ledge? The lights, sirens and that bomb-squad vehicle from the day before should easily have eclipsed a mildly threatening note and a bogus complaint. Why did it matter so much to him?

  “Hey, Asher. Wait up?”

  He’d already bypassed the elevator and had descended a few steps down the stairs to the first level, but at the sound of her voice, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. Willow stood at the top of the stairs with Luna’s stroller. The diaper bag was in the seat, but she carried the child.

  “What is it?” His sharp tone startled him as much as it clearly had her. “Sorry. Uh. What do you need?”

  “You okay?”

  “Sure. We’re good.”

  She studied him until he took one step down. “Yeah. Me, neither.”

  “It was strange. It seems like a test that could crush all of us should at least have stung.”

  She made a strange face.

  “Are you sure that Harper’s didn’t hurt?”

  He reclaimed the step he’d ceded.

  “You don’t think—” At her grin, he stopped. “She definitely won’t want to have her ears cleaned for a while.”

  He should have left then. It would have been his wisest choice, but when had he ever gone for those?

  “Are you taking the elevator?” Without waiting for her answer, he climbed the last two steps until they stood together on the landing. After passing by her, he headed for the bank of elevators. He reached for the button, but she must have had the same idea as their fingertips brushed when they touched the plastic.

  She jerked her hand back.

  “Sorry,” they chorused.

  The lights above the doors indicated that all four cars were on higher floors.

  “Was that all you wanted?”

  She shot a glance from his hand to his face and back to his hand that he held wide. He immediately lowered it.

  “I just wondered if you needed something else. Besides checking on me.”

  Willow cleared her throat and bent to lower Luna into her stroller. The infant kicked her feet and fussed, so she lifted her again.

  “I was just thinking about what you said.”

  “Which thing?” he asked. “I said a lot of stuff. Too much, if we’re being honest.”

  “The part about ‘Anonymous’ getting around.”

  “It was just a joke. Mostly.”

  “Well, I think you might be right.”

  “Because someone who sent a nastygram to your business wouldn’t want to sign his John Hancock? Or that someone revealing dirty little family secrets or threatening to blow our place sky-high wouldn’t want to wear a mask?”

  “When you say it that way, it makes perfect sense. No self-respecting lowlife would raise his hand and say, ‘Hey, over here. It’s me.’”

  “That would save both of us a lot of trouble if they did.”

  She seemed to accept that, which, for some reason, calmed him. He didn’t need her questioning when he was suspicious enough for them both.

  “Let’s talk about something else,” he said as the doors of the world’s slowest elevator slid open. “Did you ever decide if you can find a spot for Harper at Tender Years?”

  She had just parked the stroller in the back of the elevator, while he’d stepped over to select the floor, but at his words she spun around.

  “Wait? You want Harper to come to the center? I thought you were insisting on in-home childcare.”

  “I need something right away. There are plans for a day-care center for staff at Colton Oil, and I might be able to get in on that eventually, but for now, yours might be the best choice.”

  “Why would you want to bring her to my center after everything I’ve just told you?”

  “Compared to a shooting and a bomb threat? Anyway, Mustang Valley’s not a big place. The town isn’t overflowing with options.”

  “Well, when you put it that way. Flattery and all.” She rolled her eyes.

  “Seriously, Tender Years has a great reputation. Four and a half stars on Clamor, a day-care-review app. Sort of like Yelp for childcare.”

  “You read those?”

  “I’m pretty keyed into local day-care issues, at least lately. Anyway, Harper and I just lost our third nanny in twice as many months.”

  She pursed her lips. “Hate that missing half a star.”

  “Perfectionist much?”

  “Always. And whatever that complaint said about the center, it wasn’t true.”

  “I know.”

  She’d been staring at the floor, but at his comment, her gaze lifted, and her eyes appeared to search his for answers he couldn’t give. In this period of uncertainty, he was surprised he could be sure of anything, and yet he was. She would never put the center she’d worked so hard to protect during her marriage at risk with shoddy business practices. He wasn’t sure why it mattered to her that he believed in her, but he liked that it did.

  Seconds ticked by. He knew he should look away from her, should pierce that bubble that held them as effectively as the three walls and the door of the cramped elevator. He couldn’t. Worse, he didn’t want to.

  The doors broke the spell for him, yawning wide. He stepped out and, without looking back, held the door open for Willow. As he continued toward the exit, she pushed the stroller behind him.

  “If you still want the spot, come by the center before we close tomorrow at six thirty to fill out the paperwork.”

  “You mean you found one, even with that lengthy waiting list and all?”

  He couldn’t resist looking back this time. She scowled at first and then shrugged. He couldn’t blame her for lying about the opening. As if the situation wasn’t uncomfortable enough between them, depending on the DNA test results next week, it could become unbearable.

  “Was that the real reason you came after me? To tell me about the spot?”

  “Remember, I can only hold it for you until tomorrow night. You’ll need to bring her immunization records and contact information for anyone allowed to pick up your daughter for you.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “And you need to know that you’ll be expected to follow the rules for picking her up on time, unless there’s an emergency.”

  “Like a cow having a rough delivery?” He grinned.

  “Bigger than that.”

  “Pregnant cows are pretty big.”

  She frowned again as she passed him. Did she think he’d been serious when he’d joked about his cattle?

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be there tomorrow before you close, and Harper will be picked up on time every night, no matter what I have to do to make that happen.”

  Finally, she nodded. Whether she was thinking about her dad or her deadbeat ex when she looked at him like that, Asher had a sudden need to prove to her that he wasn’t like either of them.

  “So, I’ll see you tomorrow night.”

  He swallowed as the impact of her words hit him. She either hadn’t noticed that they’d planned a date of sorts or didn’t want him to know that she had. She pushed the stroller down the hall without looking back.

  Still in her mom’s arms instead of the seat, Luna stared at them, cautious but curious.

  Asher couldn’t look away until they’d disappeared around the corner. Willow hadn’t said why she’d changed her mind and agreed to give Harper the spot she’d clearly had all along. Well, let her keep her secret, and he would keep his.

>   He’d told himself he’d agreed to place his daughter at the center only because he had no choice. He’d even informed Willow that he had to find a childcare provider immediately, which wasn’t exactly the truth. Dulcie and Neda adored Harper. Neither would mind helping to care for her a little longer, if necessary.

  Why was he so determined for Harper to take her place at Tender Years? He could make all kinds of excuses about her needing stability and the chance to be around someone who had expertise in child development. He could even tell himself he just wanted to keep an eye on Luna after the two odd instances Willow had mentioned. The child could still be his, after all.

  But he suspected the truth might be a little more basic than any of those things. He was enrolling his daughter so he could be near Luna’s mom. And so that he could see her twice a day, every day.

  Chapter 10

  Asher tugged the reins to slow his favorite gelding, Dancer, the next afternoon. He hoped to more closely match the slower pace of Tally, the mare Jace rode. Still keyed up from the DNA test and the discussion with Willow the day before, he wished he could take Dancer out and let him fly across the open field, the shadow of the Mustang Valley Mountains calming him as they went.

  Even if Asher wouldn’t get that opportunity, patrolling the property with Jace would take his mind off his plans to see Willow again later that night. At least he hoped it would. He slowed the horse and looked over his shoulder.

  “Doing all right back there?”

  Jace closed the distance between them until his horse reached Dancer’s right flank.

  “Sure. I’m great. Just getting used to Tally. She’s so different from all the other horses I’ve ridden. There’s something wrong with this saddle, too.”

  “Yeah, those things can be awkward.”

  Since it would be impossible to keep a straight face, Asher didn’t look back at him as he answered. Tally had to be the gentlest mare in the whole Triple R stable, and they were barely cantering. Not only that, Jace had mounted the horse from the right side. Every experienced rider knew to mount a horse on the “near side,” which was another term for the left.