In Colton's Custody

by Dana Nussio

  “Yes. She’s your child.”

  This time, the older woman smiled. Willow could only nod. The memory of Luna’s sweet face as she’d left her that morning filtered through her thoughts, her heart squeezing. But then the toothless grin of a second infant trickled in, clamping her chest even tighter.

  Had she become attached to Harper, as well? She’d known all along that confirming she was the mother of one baby would mean losing the other. She just hadn’t expected it to hurt so much. She brushed her hand over her face, her fingers coming away wet.

  Ainsley startled her by reaching out and planting her hands on the edge of Anne’s desk.

  “How can you explain this nightmare the hospital has just put two families through?”

  “On behalf of the Mustang Valley General board and staff, I want to apologize for the inconvenience that this situation has caused both of your families,” Anne said. “You can rest assured that our security and local authorities are searching for whoever called in the anonymous report and will prosecute if the suspect is located.”

  “That’s the least we would expect from you,” Ainsley said.

  As the conversation about them continued as if neither was in the room, Willow peeked Asher’s way. She caught him staring, but he didn’t look away. A lump formed in her throat as she took in his ashen face and watery eyes. How had she reverted to thinking of him as the competition?

  Last night, she’d recognized him as the only other person who truly understood her dread while awaiting the test results. Now, only he could relate to the flood of conflicting emotions threatening to pull her under the surface.

  His hand shifted as if he wanted to reach for her, too, but then gripped his thigh muscle instead. Had he remembered he was supposed to be angry with her? He’d offered to marry her, no matter what the results showed today. And she’d been right to say no. So, why did emptiness expand inside her over a marriage she hadn’t wanted and a proposal she’d rejected twice?

  “I can’t believe the whole thing was another hoax.”

  Since Asher had barely spoken until then, all three women startled and looked his way.

  “A hoax. Just like—”

  “Asher,” Ainsley warned.

  He shook his head, appearing surprised that he’d nearly revealed family secrets again.

  “Sorry.”

  “Just like what?” Anne separated the papers into two piles, slid them back into envelopes and handed one to Willow and the other to Asher.

  Ainsley waved away the question.

  “It’s not important. My brother here is a little overwhelmed. But we’ll want to follow up on this matter. Clearly, someone targeted our family, and we want to know who it is. We’ll also need to determine whether to pursue a civil lawsuit against the hospital.”

  With that, the attorney stood, effectively ending the meeting.

  Willow gripped her copy and hurried down the hall. Asher reached her near the exit and brushed her arm to get her attention. Even knowing he was there couldn’t prevent her from jumping when he touched her.

  “Where’s your sister?”

  “She had to get back to the office.”

  “Nice to have an attorney in the family.”

  The side of his mouth lifted. “We’ve kept her busy lately.”

  She smiled back, her heart cramping just a little. “Well, I need to get back to work.”

  “Me, too. But I wanted to tell you that I’m sorry that you got caught up in this mess.”

  “You think the hoax was related to the other unusual happenings involving your family?”

  “Don’t you?”

  She nodded. “But what about the incidents at my building?”

  “There’s a chance that they’re unrelated. You might want to think about whether you have any enemies. They probably aren’t as obvious or as plentiful as ours.”

  “Thanks. I’ll go through my records and see if there’s anyone I’m forgetting.”

  “I’ll keep the security guards there for a while, and hopefully, you’ll figure it out soon.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  “I want to.” His hand jutted out, like it had in Anne’s office. She braced herself for the pain and relief of his touch, but he stopped as he had before. This time he slid his fingers in his pocket and gripped his belt loop. “My daughter is still under your care for now, and I want to make sure she stays safe.”

  “Right. Well, I appreciate it. For her.”

  Now that their infants’ parentage had been resolved, there was nothing left for them to say to each other that didn’t involve the day-care center.

  With a wave, Asher turned in the opposite direction, as if he’d come in the hospital from a different entrance. Willow forced herself to keep moving forward to her own car, her own life. She wouldn’t look over her shoulder and wish she could have accepted less from him than his love.

  A part of her heart still went with him.

  Chapter 21

  “Willow? Over here.”

  Fighting an overwhelming sense of déjà vu on that afternoon four days later, Willow moved toward the feminine voice inside Java Jane’s. Not only was this the second time she’d visited the shop that month, but it also would be her second meeting with a Colton there.

  That morning, though, she’d been summoned.

  She waved back at the elegantly dressed middle-aged woman with wavy long blond hair, cream-colored skin and a slightly turned-up nose. Even if Willow had never met Asher until recently, she would still have recognized Genevieve Colton anywhere from the local newspaper’s society pages. Or because she looked a lot like her oldest son, but Willow wouldn’t think about that.

  As she stepped up to the table, the other woman stood. She glanced at Willow’s extended right hand and leaned in to hug her instead.

  “Hi, I’m Genevieve,” she said when she pulled back. “I’m so pleased you agreed to meet with me.”

  Willow nodded. Once she’d hoped for an audience with any Colton to address her mother’s mistreatment. She’d never expected something like Genevieve’s call. Even if Asher’s mother had given her the chance to say no, the curiosity still would have gotten to her. Genevieve Colton had wanted to meet with her?

  Appearing not to notice the coffee drinkers from nearby tables, who stared openly at them, Genevieve lowered into her seat again and gestured for Willow to take the chair opposite hers.

  “I hope you don’t mind that I already ordered drinks for us.”

  Genevieve gestured to the table where two oversize, porcelain coffee cups had already been placed, steaming black liquid filling them almost to the brim. A small bowl containing individual creamers and sweetener packets had been set next to the cup, and two teaspoons were on a pile of napkins just behind them. Clearly, she intended the two of them to be there for a while.

  “I should have checked to see if you even drink coffee.”

  She chuckled and then nervously spun the massive wedding ring set on her finger. Willow hadn’t expected Genevieve Colton to fidget.

  “I do. Thanks.” She pulled the cup to her.

  “My son told me about the situation at the hospital. I’m sorry you got caught up in that. I’m glad everything turned out all right.”

  “Thanks for saying so,” Willow said. “And I’m sorry to hear about your husband. I hope he’s improving.”

  “I appreciate that. I just came from visiting him. He did look better today.”

  Willow waited for her next cue from Asher’s mother because they weren’t there to discuss Payne Colton. Genevieve had a faraway look in her eyes for a few seconds, and then she shook her head.

  “Where’s your daughter? I thought you would bring her with you. Luna, is it?”

  She nodded. “She was still down for her nap at the center, so I decided to leave he
r with my staff. She’s not a fan of transitions.”

  “Don’t I know what that’s like. Asher was just like that when he was a baby. He was my first, too, though I was a veteran stepmom by then.”

  “You’re not talking about Asher, are you? Laid-back, easy-to-get-along-with Asher?”

  Genevieve watched her over the top of her coffee cup.

  “Things can change, Willow. People can change.”

  “I guess I believe that.”

  Whether Asher’s mother had been speaking of something specific or just life in general, she wasn’t sure.

  “It was good that you received your DNA results before your first Mother’s Day. Did you get to enjoy it yesterday with your daughter?”

  Willow smiled at the memory of splashing with Luna in the baby pool. “I didn’t get breakfast in bed, and our brunch consisted of strained peas and peaches, but it was the best day of my life so far. How was your holiday?”

  “Lovely, like yours. Except the food at our brunch was better. A mother’s time with her children is always precious.”

  She nodded, though her own mom’s face appeared in her thoughts then, causing a lump to form in her throat.

  “Your mother was such a lovely woman,” Genevieve said. “Kind. Hardworking. I’m sorry that I didn’t do more to help her.”

  Willow startled, shaking the table and causing coffee to swill over the rim of her cup.

  “You know who I am?”

  “When Asher brought you up at dinner the other night, I remembered your name. You’re Kelly Johnson’s daughter. There aren’t a whole lot of Willows around.”

  “Asher spoke about me at your family meal?”

  Genevieve flashed a knowing smile.

  “Well, technically, my stepdaughter, Ainsley, mentioned you to get him to share about the switch nonsense, but my son was trying awfully hard not to talk about you, which is almost the same thing.”

  Willow wasn’t sure how those things were alike, but she nodded anyway. “About my mom—it was a long time ago. It doesn’t matter anymore.” She was trying not to let it, anyway, without much success.

  “Of course, it still does. I should have fought harder for her that night. It was a misunderstanding. A harmless game of dress-up. Kelly never would have taken any of it. I knew that.”

  “Then why didn’t you do more?”

  Willow sat back in her seat and crossed her arms. Since Asher’s mom appeared to be determined to share her side of the story, the least she could do was listen.

  “I was still finding my place on the Triple R and playing stepmom to four children. And I was a coward. I didn’t know yet that Payne listens to the loudest voice in the room, not necessarily the most reasonable one.” She shrugged. “I wish I’d known that then.”

  “No, that lets you off too easily.” Willow shook her head hard. “You did nothing, even after that.”

  “Well, technically, no. Not for a lack of effort, though. I tried to help her right after she left, and when I found out about you, I tried harder. But she wanted nothing from me.”

  “Can you blame her?”

  “No.” Genevieve swiped her hand through the air, grinning. “I didn’t give up, though. For years, I sent her checks from my personal account every few months. I hoped she would cash them if she ever really needed the money. Do you know what she did? She voided them and mailed them back to me.”

  None of this made sense. It didn’t fit with the story her mother had shared so many times. The one where her connection with the Coltons had ended the day she was booted off their ranch.

  “She was much too proud to accept charity from you. From anyone.”

  “You don’t know this about me, but I’m as stubborn as she was proud. So, I kept sending them. I liked to think she mailed back the checks to let me know that you were both all right.”

  “Why is that?”

  Genevieve stirred more sweetener into her coffee, though it was probably cold by then. “Think about it. She could have just torn up the checks without cashing them. Instead, she took the time to mail back each one.”

  Willow pushed her own cup aside. “Why do you think Mom never told me any of this?”

  “I think she was trying to raise a strong, independent woman, and maybe that part of the story wouldn’t have helped her narrative. And she never accepted any help, so it wasn’t a lie.” She gestured toward Willow. “Anyway, it looks as though she succeeded.”

  “She also kept me hating all the Coltons.”

  At that, Genevieve laughed. “I hope that isn’t the case anymore. We’re all just people. My family. Your mother. You. Most of us aren’t as good as some think we are and not as bad as others believe.”

  “So, why are you telling me all this now?”

  “You think it’s to relieve my guilt? Maybe a little. Mostly, though, it’s because you and your daughter are important to my son. I don’t want Asher to miss out on something he wants because of something I did, or failed to do, more than thirty years ago.”

  Her sharp eyes studied Willow until she squirmed in her seat. “From what I can see, you care about my son and his daughter, too.”

  It would have been useless to argue, so she didn’t try.

  “How do you know that Luna and I are ‘important’ to him? What did he say?” Revealing that Asher had twice proposed to her would only make Genevieve’s point, so she kept that to herself.

  “Remember, we’re talking about my son. He’s not going to tell his mother how he feels about a woman. At least not without a lot of prodding. On this, though, I knew without him saying a word.”

  “How’s that?”

  “Simple. He took you to meet his father.”

  * * *

  Asher dropped into the desk chair in his office later that night and shoved recently scrubbed hands through his sweaty hair. He desperately needed a shower after what had felt like a second full day of work, and it wasn’t even time for lights-out for those back at the house. Well, except for Harper.

  Ten calves had come into the world since he’d shared dinner with the family a few hours earlier, one even requiring the head gate to hold the mother in position and calving chains to pull out her offspring.

  Worse, though, than cows refusing to space out their deliveries was that throughout the whole time he’d been assisting with deliveries, a young mom of the human species had refused to get out of his mind. That shouldn’t have surprised him. Since their first meeting nearly two weeks before, he hadn’t been able to think about anything else but Willow.

  “Why didn’t you just tell her the truth?” he asked the four walls.

  A crunching sound outside his partially open door startled him. He’d finally told Rex, Jarvis and the other ranch hands they could head back to their cabins. Had someone else sneaked into the white metal structure of Barn Three through the small side door? He clearly remembered closing and locking that main barn door, but he was fuzzy on the other one.

  Something gripped his insides, and the odd sense of being watched crept up his neck. Was this the time that whoever had been targeting his family would do far more damage than just cutting a fence or calling in a bomb threat?

  He unlocked his desk drawer, pulled out a box of bullet cartridges and slid his bolt-action Winchester rifle off the shelf. He seldom needed it, except when he had to protect his cattle or put down an injured one, but he was glad to have it then.

  “You’ve made a mistake coming in here, my friend.” He spoke in a loud voice as he opened the gun’s bolt action and inserted the .22-caliber rounds one by one into the internal magazine, his hand hovering near the safety. “I’m armed.”

  “Don’t shoot,” came a feminine voice from outside the door.

  “Willow?” His heart thudded as he unloaded the weapon, his breath coming in rapid bursts. A few seconds more, one poor de
cision about unlocking the safety, and he could have—No. He didn’t want to imagine what could have happened.

  “Okay to come in?” she asked through the closed door.

  “Yeah. But what are you doing here?”

  The door opened, and the most harmless intruder he could have imagined stood there in jean shorts, a T-shirt and sneakers, her hair tied back in a thick ponytail. Instead of looking at him, she stared wide-eyed at the rifle, as if she expected him to turn it on her. He lowered the butt of the gun to the ground.

  “Uh. Hi.”

  Her voice sounded strange, her smile a nervous one. She crossed her arms over her body as if she was freezing in a building that was always sweltering.

  Because he was tempted to reach out to her, Asher took his time hanging the rifle back in its rack and locking the box of cartridges in the drawer. He couldn’t go to her. Not after she’d made a habit of rejecting him. But that didn’t make him want to any less.

  So much for getting Willow out of his system by making love with her once. Hell, he couldn’t think of the pleasure they’d found together in her bed as anything short of the real deal. If that wasn’t a good enough warning for him to back away, he wouldn’t be able to pick one out on a billboard.

  When he had his thoughts together, he finally turned back to her.

  “You shouldn’t sneak up on someone like that. Especially lately. We’re all on edge. You could have gotten hurt.” His gaze flitted to the gun on the wall.

  “Sorry. I didn’t expect...”

  “We have to be on guard. We don’t know what we’re up against. You or my family.”

  “I know.”

  She shook her head as if frustrated with herself.

  “Why didn’t you knock?”

  “On the door outside? I did, but you didn’t answer, and it was unlocked. I would have tried your office door, but it sounded like you were talking to someone in here.”

  “To myself. A habit of the solitary cowboy. You never said what you’re doing here. Where’s Luna?”

  “Candace is with her. And when I stopped by your place, one of the housekeepers—I think her name was Neda—said you were out in one of the barns helping a cow give birth.”