Forgiven Justice (Cowboy Justice Association Book 14)

by Olivia Jaymes

  She wasn’t trying to change that. But he needed to open his eyes to the fact that Wade Bryson was still living rent-free in her husband’s head. Years ago, she probably should have insisted he get some counseling after pulling that trigger, but it hadn’t seemed all that important at the time. All they’d wanted to do was get back to some semblance of a normal life, which had taken far too long.

  Who am I kidding? We’ve never been a normal family.

  Maybe I was too hard on him. I should at least apologize for calling him an idiot. That wasn’t nice.

  She had no clue how long she’d been in the bedroom hiding. The show that she’d originally turned on wasn’t the same one. She turned off the television and padded barefoot into the bathroom. She’d just jump into the shower and freshen up. It would make her feel better and then she’d apologize sincerely to Logan. No matter what, he hadn’t deserved to be run over like that. She should have brought it up when she was less angry and tired.

  And hungry. She still hadn’t eaten dinner yet.

  A quick shower later, she ran a comb through her wet hair and pulled on a pair of soft cotton pajama bottoms and a tank top. She slathered some moisturizer on her aging skin and made a face in the mirror, sticking out her tongue at the reflection. Growing old certainly wasn’t for wimps. Her boobs weren’t as perky, her tummy was a little soft, and she had lines around her eyes. Still, not bad for an older broad. She could still rock her husband’s world, although with their busy lives it wasn’t nearly often enough.

  Her mood had exponentially improved and so had her desire to make things right with the man she hoped to grow old with. He hadn’t come to seek her out and that wasn’t a good sign. Clearly, he was upset and she didn’t blame him.

  She walked down the hall to his office but he wasn’t there. She tried the kitchen next but it was empty as well. Then she heard the doorbell and she turned to answer it, wondering who on earth it could be at this hour on a Saturday night. Maybe one of the neighbors?

  Logan was already there, accepting several of the most heavenly-smelling bags into his arms. He tipped the delivery guy and then shut the door with his elbow. He was grinning like he’d won the lottery.

  And there was nothing like a Logan Wright grin. Sexy. Devilish. Damn charming.

  “I ordered dinner. And maybe lunch and dinner tomorrow, too. I wasn’t sure what you wanted so I ordered a little bit of everything.”

  It looked like it. From the bags he was juggling he’d ordered enough for an army.

  And just like that her insides turned to goo and she remembered one of the reasons she loved this man. He was a caretaker. He was at his best when he was taking care of someone he loved. After her appendix surgery, he’d practically worn himself out trying to make sure she was happy and pain-free.

  “I love you. And I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.”

  His expression softened but his wide smile stayed in place. “I know. I love you, too. I hate it when we argue.”

  “So do I. Let’s not do it anymore.”

  Logan just laughed as he placed the food bags on the kitchen counter. “That would be great but I doubt that’s how it’s going to work. I think we’re probably going to disagree on things now and then.”

  “I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

  “Actually, it sounds like you should have said it a long time ago.”

  “I should have said it better then. I shouldn’t have called you an idiot. You would never call me that.”

  “Because you don’t act that way.”

  “Neither do you. I was just…”

  “Frustrated? Angry? Pissed-off? At the end of your rope?”

  “Pretty much.”

  At least he hadn’t blamed hormones. The first few years of their marriage she’d lost count of the times he’d blamed her bad moods on it being the wrong time of the month. She’d quickly put a stop to that habit, telling him it invalidated her emotions. Then when she’d gotten pregnant with the twins, they’d both learned what nasty hormones could really do to her emotions.

  “Let’s dish up dinner and get some food in our stomachs. Everything always seems better when I’m not starving.”

  He was right. Thirty minutes later their argument did seem kind of silly and overwrought. They’d demolished a good portion of the food but there was still plenty left for lunch tomorrow and maybe more.

  Ava began to clear the table but Logan shook his head. “I’ll do it. It will only take a minute. Why don’t you go onto the patio and put on some music?”

  Music? Since when did her husband listen to music? Sure, he listened to music when he was in the car, and he was an accomplished shower singer, but they never turned on music in the evening after dinner. The television was their usual background noise.

  Logan was planning something. She didn’t know what but he definitely had something on his mind. She might as well just sit back and enjoy the ride. She knew from experience that she couldn’t hurry him along. He’d get to it on his own schedule.

  Leaving him in the kitchen, she went out to the patio, scrolling and finding a favorite playlist on her phone to play through the Bluetooth speakers the kids had insisted they wanted for Christmas last year. She’d been skeptical but the twins used them all the time when they had friends over, and she had to admit it was nice to have music when they cooked out. Logan loved a smoked brisket and some ribs.

  Lying on one of the chaise lounges, she sighed happily, taking in the now starry night sky. It was a clear night despite the rainy reputation of the Pacific Northwest, and there was a gentle breeze that teased her nostrils with the scents of spring - freshly mowed grass and various flowers that were popping up all over the neighborhood. She didn’t know a wit about horticulture but she enjoyed the colors and heady aromas.

  “I thought you might like this.”

  She turned to see Logan standing in the doorway holding two glasses.

  “Have you been playing bartender?”

  “I have. Give it a try and see if you like it.”

  Accepting the chilled glass, she took a sip but she already knew what it was. The smell had given it away. And the salt on the edge of the glass.

  “You make a mean margarita. This is delicious.”

  “I thought it might relax you.”

  “As tired as I am, it might relax me right into an early bedtime. But I don’t think I care. This is just what the doctor ordered.”

  Logan settled into the chaise lounge next to hers and they sipped at their drinks, listening to the sounds of the neighborhood. It was mostly quiet, just the sound of a car or a few voices now and then mixed in with the softly playing music. The lots were large enough that they didn’t live on top of each other. It was one of the main reasons that they’d chosen this home. They were used to lots of elbow room in Montana.

  Logan sat his half-empty glass on the small table next to the chair. “I think we should dance.”

  Ava looked at her husband closely. He didn’t appear to be inebriated. He could hold his liquor far better than she ever could and frankly, he could drink most people under the table.

  “You want to…dance?”

  She couldn’t remember the last time they’d danced. Dare and Rayne’s wedding, perhaps? It had been a long time, that was for sure.

  “The kids are dancing tonight. I think we should, too.”

  Ava sure as hell wasn’t going to turn Logan down. She wasn’t the greatest dancer but what she lacked in technique she made up for with enthusiasm. She drifted into her husband’s strong arms, letting her head rest on his chest. Right where his heart beat loud and strong.

  This was better than any margarita. They should do this every single night. It was a wonderful way to relax. She sighed and snuggled closer, breathing in his scent that never ceased to make her feel loved and happy.

  “Do you remember when I took you to that roadhouse?” he asked, his lips close to her ear and his breath warm on her cheek. “That first time we danced?”r />
  “The first time we danced was at Mary and Lyle’s wedding,” she reminded him. He knew all this. He just liked to get her dander up about who remembered more about them falling in love. “We had two dances at the wedding. And I only went to the roadhouse because you wanted to let one of your groupies know that you weren’t interested.”

  Actually, Christine had been a lovely woman. She’d just had the bad luck to be in love with Logan. Eventually, she’d married another good friend and had four kids. They were still married and still madly in love.

  Just like Ava and Logan.

  “Maybe I just said that. Maybe I just wanted you to go out with me.”

  She’d like to believe that but it hadn’t been the case.

  “We weren’t in love with each other yet.”

  “We were pretty close.”

  “No, we weren’t.”

  Not even in the ballpark. But it had been the beginning of seeing him as more than just a player. He’d seen her in a different light as well.

  “You kissed me that night,” he said. “In the moonlight after our ride on the bike.”

  “No, you kissed me. I just kissed you back. You were such a jerk that night. Talk about a buzzkill.”

  The minute after he’d kissed her, he’d told her it was a mistake. As if she didn’t already know that. They hadn’t known it then, but they were both goners.

  “I was a man fighting for bachelorhood.”

  To be fair, he hadn’t fought for all that long. They’d barely been dating when he’d proposed. She’d accepted it, too, happily marrying him while the town of Corville stood watching, shocked as hell. They’d assumed Ava was knocked up but when she didn’t start showing they realized that the two of them had simply fallen in love.

  “Do you ever miss it?”

  “Bachelorhood? Fuck, no.” His lips ghosted over her temple, sending a zip of electricity up her spine. “How about you, baby? Do you think about when you were single?”

  Not really. Everything in her life was separated into two buckets. Before Logan and After Logan.

  “I can barely remember back that far. I think we have a pretty damn good life so I don’t think about the past all that often.”

  “We do have a good life, don’t we?”

  He didn’t expect an answer, their feet shuffling slowly to the music. His fingers were gliding up and down her spine and she was getting those oh-so familiar tingles. She wasn’t that tired.

  “Tanner and I planned a family vacation for when school is out.”

  She been so lulled into a peaceful trance that she had to play his words through her brain several times to make heads or tails of them.

  “You did what?”

  And now she needed to make sure she understood.

  “We wanted to surprise you. You’re always saying that we never see our friends and how the kids are growing up fast and we only have a few more years with them. So we made plans for a big two-week vacation. Hopefully, everyone can go. What are you thinking?”

  His words came out in a rush but she took her time answering.

  “Honestly, until you spoke I was thinking about dragging you back to our bedroom to get naked. Now I’m thinking of something else.”

  “Killing me?”

  He was grinning again as if he wasn’t worried in the least.

  Logan Wright, what have you gone and done?

  Daniel turned out to be a better dancer than Brianna had expected. When she’d complimented him, his cheeks had turned pink and he’d confessed that his mother had given him a few lessons when he told her about the dance. Only a few of the songs were slow, however, so most of the time it didn’t matter either way.

  The group they were hanging out with didn’t stay on the dance floor much anyway, preferring to gather in a corner. One guy had snuck in a small bottle of his dad’s whiskey in his jacket pocket and when the chaperones weren’t looking, they’d take a small sip. Brianna hadn’t liked it much, the fire burning her throat all the way to her belly. She’d tried to cover up her cough but her friend Eliza had smirked and told her that it was supposed to burn.

  If this was what whiskey was, she didn’t think she wanted any part of it.

  Brianna and Colt had snuck drinks of their parents’ at home before. She’d tasted her dad’s beer and hadn’t liked it much, although Colt swore he thought it was great. She’d tried her mom’s wine when no one was looking and that was slightly better. The one drink she’d liked was when her mom and Aunt Kaylee had been working on a book and celebrated finishing it with a couple of mimosas which were made with champagne and orange juice. Those were really good.

  My mom would kill me if she knew I’d had even a sip of alcohol.

  They’d had all the talks as Brianna had been growing up. Drugs. Drinking. Lying. And of course, the big one…sex. Her mother had given her a book to read and then they’d talked about it. Brianna had been young, about ten or eleven, and honestly hadn’t been that curious yet. Her mother talked about how her parents never discussed sex with her - or anything else - and she wanted their relationship to be different. More open.

  Brianna wasn’t so sure. Her mom was pretty cool, as much as parents could be, but she had rules. Lots of them. She didn’t think Ava Wright would be happy to hear that her daughter had been sneaking sips of whiskey at a school dance. Or wine in her own kitchen when the bottle was sitting open on the counter.

  “Dylan and I are going to his parents’ house after the party,” Jaime said, keeping her voice low for only them to hear. The boys had wandered away and were horsing around the buffet. “We’ll have the house to ourselves. His family went out of town to a wedding.”

  Eliza elbowed Jaime. “So is this the night?”

  Jaime and Dylan had been dating the entire school year. They were a really cute couple and clearly in love. Jaime said that they were going to get married after they graduated from college and get a beach house in Hawaii where they’d surf and raise three kids. Two girls and one boy. Plus a golden retriever and a tabby cat.

  Jaime smiled dreamily. “We have it all planned. It’s going to be so romantic. We’re going to play our song and there’s going to be candles lit, too.”

  Alanna leaned forward, her brows raised. “Are you…you know? On something?”

  Nodding, Jaime looked around to see if anyone was listening in. “My mom took me to her doctor. But she also bought me a pack of condoms. I got the talk. She said that she would rather I waited but if I can’t, then she wants me to be safe. She doesn’t want me to screw up my future.”

  That sounded like something Brianna’s mom would say. She was always talking about putting school first and boys second. Staying focused on goals.

  They didn’t get to continue talking as the principal was up at the microphone making an announcement about a car parked in front of a fire hydrant. Daniel and the other boys came back and Brianna didn’t hear any more about Jaime and Dylan’s planned big evening.

  As he was walking up to her, Daniel gave Brianna a big smile as he reached for her hand. A tingle ran up her arm as their fingers touched.

  She just might be in love.

  6

  Logan’s wife was eyeing him as if he had just admitted to liking asparagus more than ice cream. Pure disbelief and more than a little wariness. Wondering if he might have lost his mind at some point today.

  “You…planned a family vacation? With Tanner?”

  Ava, for the most part, liked his surprises. She would admit that she wasn’t the most spontaneous person on the planet and could get easily bogged down in work and all the day to day shit that life threw at them. Every now and then, he liked to pull her out of it and do something special. This was one of those times.

  “We’ve been talking about it for weeks. Just think, babe, two weeks without a care in the world. We’ll sleep late every single day. It’s going to be great.”

  No one loved to sleep late more than Ava. She was a night owl, staying up until three and s
leeping until noon while she was working on a book. Two kids, however, had put a cramp in that schedule, although now the twins liked to sleep in every chance they got as well. Logan, on the other hand, having been woken up at the crack of dawn by Colt and Brianna for years, enjoyed waking their asses up with the sun. Brianna, especially, had woken him up at five during her toddler days to make her cinnamon toast and sliced apples. No peel allowed.

  “It would be nice to sleep late,” Ava admitted, still eyeing him suspiciously. “What did you and Tanner plan? And does Maddie know about all of this?”

  “I don’t think he’s said anything yet to her. We thought about going to Florida. A nice beach vacation, and Evan and Josie can join us. We’ve thrown the idea out to all of the guys. I think most of them are going to go except for Jason and Brinley. His parents are having their sixtieth anniversary and the family is planning a big reunion.”

  She blinked a few times and then seemed to fall back into the nearest armchair with a heavy sigh. “It sounds nice. I’m not against it. But why didn’t you tell me you were planning it? And just how long were you planning to keep it a secret? Were you just going to take me on a drive and then we end up at the airport?”

  “I wasn’t sure, but not that long. I was just looking for the best time to surprise you.” He threw open his arms and grinned. “Surprise!”

  “The kids will love it,” Ava said. “And it will be nice to see everyone again. It’s been far too long. Just how far into the planning are you and Tanner?”

  He knew what she was asking about. In past vacations, Ava had done most of the planning. And the packing. And the worrying.

  “You don’t have to lift a finger,” he assured her. “We’ve narrowed it down to two places and I’m going to make all the arrangements. I’m also going to personally supervise the kids’ packing. You only have to worry about yourself. I’ve got this.”

  Her brows rose. “You cannot even begin to imagine how sexy it is for a man to say those three words.”