by Regan Black
“Kept it and kept adding to it,” she said.
“Yes. Isaiah said Herman had a signed letter of the agreement between him and Eugene, proof of the poker game stakes, and even a confession from the man who cheated to win.”
“Herman is the one who tossed the land into the pot.”
“Haven’t you ever done anything impulsive?” he challenged.
“Sure.” She’d been having plenty of impulsive thoughts about Jarvis, but she wasn’t about to drive her only ally away by jumping him.
“Herman’s fault.” He thunked his head back against the post. “I don’t blame you for thinking it. Growing up, I heard ghost stories of how Herman cursed our branch of the family tree. It wasn’t until he was dying that Isaiah gave me actionable details.”
“Such as?”
“He described a metal box with Herman’s initials scratched into the top of it. Told me that inside the box, in addition to the proof about who should own the land, there was more family history Payne couldn’t ignore. One way or another, Payne would have to acknowledge us. Herman buried that box on the land that he felt was rightfully his and urged his sons to take it back once Eugene was dead.”
“Why wait?”
“Granddad said Herman spent years searching for the card cheat, waiting to get a confession out of him. Distracted, he relied on his family to manage the smaller plot of land, while he burned through any ready cash following a gambler around the territories. Eventually, one bad season followed by another forced them to sell out.”
“To Eugene’s sons?” she asked, certain of the answer.
He nodded. “Got it in one.”
“Wow.” The story was preposterous and plausible at the same time. In his shoes, she, too, would have been hard-pressed to let it go as an old man’s rambling. “Takes courage to follow through the way you have. Does either Asher or Payne know what you’re up to?”
“No.” His chin came up, as if he dared her to contradict the tale or threaten to blow his cowboy cover. “I’m aware dementia can do strange things to the mind,” he admitted softly. “But Isaiah talked about landmarks. So many details...” Jarvis’s voice trailed off as his gaze drifted toward the darkening mountain range. “On a spread of this size and searching by myself, I have to be realistic that even if the story is true, I might never find one small box.”
A fresh excitement twinkled through her system, like the stars popping into view overhead. She loved learning new things. “That’s why you were out there the day you found me,” she said.
“You mean, the day you were channeling Babe Ruth?” He grinned. “I was out there riding fence first and searching second. Asher’s a good man and a fair boss. If he was a jerk like his dad I might shirk the workload, but I respect him too much.”
“So you’ll work here until you find Herman’s box and can stake your claim?” She looked out over the acreage shrouded in darkness. Landmarks or not, there was too much ground for one man to cover.
“In a perfect world, yes. It would be a blast to march into Payne’s office, looking for his wife, Genevieve, and demand a fair current price on the land.”
“That’s a deal I could broker for you,” she teased. “You’d be rich in an instant.”
He snorted. “Rich divided three ways, plus your commission.” He winked. “At this point it would be just as satisfying to see Spencer and Bella react. They’d be shocked to learn that I bought into this family myth. Truth is, I feel better about the work I do here, rich or not, than I ever did at the office.”
“You loved your grandpa,” she whispered. “I want Silas to know his grandpa, to make lasting memories. Regina is bent on preventing that.” Her dad was all Silas had. Roderick’s parents had shown zero interest in being part of their grandson’s life. Anger rose up high and fast, unhindered by the choking fear of her stepmother’s threats. Something about Jarvis being around gave her hope and courage that she could find a solution Regina wouldn’t slither out of.
Silas started squirming and fretting, and she checked his diaper. “It’s that time again,” she brushed her nose to her son’s. “We’ll be back.”
But Jarvis followed her, pausing just inside the doorway. She heard him laugh and glanced over to find him eyeing the heavy stick she kept propped by the door.
“Always prepared,” he observed.
“Mothers and the Boy Scouts,” she said. Once Silas was in a clean diaper, she curled into a corner of the bunk, giving him a chance to nurse while she mulled over Jarvis’s story. It made her happy that he’d shared it, that he trusted her not to betray him. It felt good to be on even ground with their shared secrets and concerns. “Have you done any research into the records of sale for this property?”
“I did visit the records office,” he replied. “The documents on file match what everyone has accepted as truth. Per those official documents, Payne’s side of the Colton family tree bought the land generations back and built a thriving cattle operation.”
“Mmm. Okay.” Her mind was spinning, happily distracted by his search over her own problems. “You didn’t find the box out by the warming hut, so where will you look next? How do you decide where to search?”
“I’ve been working off the landmarks Isaiah described and I keep track of the locations with a geocaching type of app.”
That sounded fascinating. “Do you think I could help?”
“Why would you want to?” he asked.
She shrugged, hoping the nonchalance would hide her intense curiosity about the quest. More than anything, she wanted to thank him for helping her. Well, that was a lie. She wanted to keep seeing him. “It’s better than my current agenda of convincing potential clients to list their property for sale with a shiny new real-estate agent they can’t meet in person.”
“Yet,” he said. “We’ll figure out a way around your stepmom. I didn’t anticipate any help with the search, but if you feel like it, I’ll gladly accept.”
“Good.” Her spirit soared. “Tell me more about the landmarks.”
He pulled out his phone. “I’ll just send you everything I have. What’s your email?”
She gave him the information. A moment later, her phone chimed with the incoming message. “This will be fun,” she said, mostly to the baby. Her phone chimed again and she did a double take, checking the alert on the screen. The first message wasn’t from Jarvis at all. In fact, it looked like an email from her ex-husband. “What the hell?”
Jarvis was beside her in an instant. “More trouble?”
“I—I don’t know yet,” she admitted. She wouldn’t deal with anything negative while nursing her son. The first part of protecting Silas was putting his needs first. “It’s from my ex. He hasn’t contacted me since the divorce was finalized.”
“Not even when Silas was born?”
“Of course not,” she said.
“But you said he’s the father.”
“He is.” She deliberately kept her tone bright to remind Jarvis this wasn’t the time for a stressful conversation.
He held up a hand and backed away. “I get it. All of that can wait.”
She shot him a grateful smile. “He’ll be out soon. We might even get through a second night in a row.”
Jarvis sat down on the bunk across from her, an odd expression on his face. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what was going through his head. He didn’t avoid looking at her as she fed her son, but he didn’t ogle her or stare in an awkward way.
At last her baby’s bottomless pit of a stomach was content and quiet. Once he was tucked into the car seat that currently served double duty as his bed, she picked up her phone and headed to the table. The email from Roderick was as succinct as it was jarring. Her knees went weak and she wobbled into the first available support, which happened to be Jarvis.
His arms came around her and he eased her into a
chair at the table. Her fingers trembled as she read through the full message again. “I can’t believe this.”
Thankfully, Jarvis took the phone and read the message himself. “He’s asking for a custody hearing?”
She pressed a hand to her stomach, wishing now she’d skipped the milkshake. “He relinquished his rights before I delivered. The divorce settlement covered everything.” She swallowed a panicked sob. This couldn’t be happening. “He got everything he wanted. So did I.”
“Meaning?”
“Roderick wanted complete and total freedom. Forever. No visitation, no obligation to be a father. He agreed to set up a fund for Silas’s college expenses and he had to pay me half of the value for our house. The alimony payments were calculated and once we agreed on a number, he paid me in full so he didn’t have to think about me ever again.”
Jarvis touched her gently, his hand warm at the nape of her neck, his fingers circling gently over the knotted muscles. “I don’t want to be a dad, but I can’t imagine walking away from my wife if we got pregnant. I didn’t know my parents for long, but I remember how in love they were. Committed to each other and us as a family, through thick and thin.”
“My husband was furious when I told him I was pregnant.”
Jarvis’s hands stilled. “Why would he demand a custody hearing now?”
“Because the universe is laughing at me? Maybe his mom decided she was ready to be a grandmother after all.” She curled over, resting her head on her hands on the tabletop. Jarvis just kept kneading her neck. The man was a saint. “Mia Graves, so sure she could be mother of the year all by herself.”
Behind her, Jarvis snickered.
“Don’t laugh at me. There’s a mug and everything.”
“Sweetheart, you’re the best mom I’ve seen in ages.”
She opened her mouth to argue and a low moan came out instead. Jarvis cleared his throat and she knew she should move out of his reach. But it felt so damned good to be touched this way. He was only being a friend—a caregiver, really, but she wasn’t strong enough to resist this.
“Your hands are miraculous.” It had been so long since anyone had touched her like a woman; medical professionals didn’t count.
“This says you have to appear tomorrow. Your husband has serious clout to get a hearing in family court so fast,” he said.
“Ex-husband,” she corrected.
“Right.” His fingers changed directions, spearing into her hair and massaging her scalp. She could happily melt into a puddle of not caring about anything outside of this bunkhouse.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “What could have changed that he wants to exert a paternal claim now?”
“Usually, that kind of pull is reserved for emergencies,” he added. “When we were orphaned, it took a week for them to get everyone into the court at the same time.”
His voice was as soothing as his hands. Floating somewhere just shy of bliss, she let go, listening and surrendering.
“We stayed with Isaiah that week, but he couldn’t run herd on the three of us and he didn’t have the money to hire help. The court decided to dump us on our aunt. Amelia complained bitterly from that day forward about the burden of three children she never wanted.”
“Have things improved with her since you’re all grown up?” Mia asked.
“She died when we were twenty-one.”
She sat up now, twisting to catch his hand in hers. “I’m sorry.”
He frowned at their joined hands. “Don’t be. The four of us did little more than survive those years. My siblings and I were as relieved to cut loose at eighteen as she was to see us go. Why was your ex mad about the pregnancy?”
“He never wanted kids. We agreed not to have children before we married, so he felt betrayed. He reminded me he married a model and expected me to stay in photogenic form.”
“So he married you because you were hot, too.” Jarvis’s eyebrows jumped up and down in a comical innuendo. “Can’t fault him for that.”
The man could make her laugh, even while her ears burned at the compliment. “And my money,” she agreed. Reaching for a bottle of water, she took a long drink. She crossed to the bag of supplies on the counter and pulled out her vitamins. Silas needed her to stay healthy and strong. And calm. “Our marriage wasn’t as cold as it sounds. We did care about each other.” She paused for another sip of water. “I thought it was love. A good and solid love that would last.”
“Until you got pregnant.”
“Yes.” Her gaze went to Silas. “We were both shocked, but I saw it as a miracle and he saw it as a problem. So we parted ways. If it wasn’t amicable, it was civil.”
“You miss him.”
She sighed in defeat. “Not as much as I should.”
“Come sit down.” Jarvis pulled out the chair for her again. When she sat, he started massaging her shoulders. “Read the message again.”
Her laptop was closer, so she used that instead, regretting the loss when his hands fell away for a moment. He stood behind her, somehow without looming, as she opened the email. “Hang on.” She looked closer. “This isn’t his primary email address. There’s a dot here when it should be all one word.”
“Then let’s assume that link to the court calendar isn’t valid, either.”
She used the track pad to hover the cursor over the link without clicking it. “One way to check.” Opening a new tab on her browser, she entered the family court into the search bar. As she compared the links, it was clear someone was trying to fool her.
It was chilling that anyone would attempt this. Not anyone. “Regina,” she said with a hiss as a new wave of fury blasted through her system. She pushed back from the table, pacing back and forth across the bunkhouse. “I don’t know how she did it, but it has to be her.”
“Agreed.”
“I would’ve gone,” she said as disappointment in herself chased the temper. “I would’ve rushed Silas right into her trap.”
“What happens to Silas if, um, if something were to happen to you?”
She met his gaze and saw a flash of the wounded little boy he’d once been. “My will stipulates management of his college fund to his legal guardian along with his daily expenses. Naturally, I left him a trust fund, too, that he can access when he’s twenty-one.”
“Who’s the guardian?”
“Melody Williams, my best friend from college. She loves kids and we have similar values and philosophies,” she added. “She was my labor coach and she stayed with me at the house for the first couple of weeks. She’s done video chats with us since she had to go back home.”
Jarvis frowned. “Why hide in the warming hut instead of with her?”
“I couldn’t put her in the line of fire too,” she countered.
“Fair point.” Jarvis held his hands up in surrender. “I’m staying again tonight.”
Guilt weighed her down, sapping the benefits of the massage. “You should be in your own bed.”
“I’ll sleep there all I want later,” he said.
“Spoken like a man without kids.”
He smiled at her and tugged her up from the chair. “Tomorrow, I’ll scoot out of here early and take your car into town. Maybe I’ll even drive by the courthouse.”
“You shouldn’t do that.” If Regina did see him, she’d harass him at the very least.
“Of course I should. My brother’s a cop and I haven’t dropped in on him in a while. Trust me.” He wrapped one loose tendril of hair around his fingertip. “Please?”
“One condition,” she said. He smiled and she momentarily lost her train of thought. “Let me help you figure out where to search for Herman’s box of proof.”
She didn’t like how he dismissed her suggestion with an eye roll. “You’ve done more for me in the past few days than anyone has done in years
. It’ll be fun for me, I promise.”
“Fine,” he relented. “As long as you’re discreet.”
She leaned back. “Please. I’m a model. Discretion is my middle name. The things I could tell you about... Well, never mind.”
He grinned. “You are a tease.”
His playful tone made her want to be. “I’ve been called worse.”
“Tell me a secret. Not about any one model. I mean a trade secret.”
“Hmm.” She tapped a finger to her lips and her mouth went dry as his gaze locked onto that spot. A delicious heat shimmered through her bloodstream. Would a kiss be such a big mistake? “In the preshoot prep, nearly every model looks like the girl next door. Plain. Mundane.”
“Like I’d fall for that one,” he said, his lips tilted into a grin. His hands slid to her elbows, holding her in place. “Nothing about you is mundane or plain.”
His fingers gripped firmly, drawing them together. Her breasts brushed up against his chest. She wanted to plaster herself to him, to discover exactly how firm those muscles were.
“Please kiss me.” The words fell from her lips and she couldn’t muster any shame. He was the most genuine person she’d met in ages. Since her father had written her off as too spoiled to try to mend fences.
Jarvis tempted her, roused a desire she hadn’t known existed. Oh, she’d wanted her husband, had enjoyed a healthy sex life in those early years. But longing? She wasn’t sure she’d ever felt this intense pull. More than a little afraid she’d break down and beg, she felt her heart race as he leaned close.
At last his lips brushed over hers. Featherlight and full of promises, with a hint of challenge. She kissed him back, let herself sink into his scent and taste as her hands molded his shoulders, stroked up the column of his throat. She laced her fingers behind his neck and held on, letting the heat, the sweet, sizzling contact, burn away every unpleasantness.