Sweet Summer Sunset (A Coldwater Texas Novel)

by Delores Fossen

  “Can’t.” He tipped his head to Roy’s office. “I’ve got some business to take care of.”

  And with just that short explanation, he saw the change in Silla’s expression. Pity. “Oh, this is about your foster mother,” Silla concluded. “I was real sorry to hear about that.”

  The grief was sure working overtime today. “Thanks—”

  “Does the death of your foster mother have anything to do with the reason Eden was crying?” Silla interrupted. “I mean, I heard that Eden knew her and all, but I didn’t know they were that close. Or was she crying over Damien again?”

  Great. If Silla had seen Eden, then the crying would soon be all over town. If it wasn’t already. Eden was a private person, and she wasn’t going to like that.

  As for what had made Eden cry, Nico figured it was definitely Damien, her ex-husband. Eden had indeed known Brenda and had liked her, but it was Damien who could bring her to tears.

  After muttering an absent goodbye to Silla, Nico ran across the road. Not much of a distance and very few vehicles to dodge, considering Main Street was just two lanes and had one stoplight. The only time there was anything remotely close to a traffic jam was when the librarian’s pet longhorn broke fence and moseyed its way onto the street.

  Nico stepped into Roy’s, his attention immediately going to Eden’s desk. Empty. Ditto for Roy’s office.

  And then Nico heard it.

  The rustling around from the bathroom that was just off the reception area. He went straight there and knocked. “Eden, it’s me. Open up.”

  First, Nico heard her groan, followed by an, “I’m okay.”

  Like Hog, Nico knew that wasn’t true. Unlike Hog, Nico definitely was going to push it. He opened the door, figuring she wasn’t using the toilet, and she wasn’t. Eden was at the mirror, and there was makeup scattered about the vanity.

  “What part of ‘I’m okay’ didn’t you understand?” she snapped.

  “The I’m and the okay parts,” he snapped right back.

  Neither one of them had any real bite to their tone. No eye contact, either, since Eden stayed facing the mirror. In profile, she looked like her normal self. Her explosion of brown curly hair that she’d tried to tame by pulling it back into a clip. The loose cotton blue dress with her cowboy boots—practically a uniform for a woman her age in Coldwater.

  Eden straightened her shoulders when she turned to face him and hiked up her chin. The facade would have been a whole lot more effective if she’d had both eyes made up. One was cosmetically fixed with mascara and some shadow stuff on her lid. The other, her right one, was red and still showing signs of those tears that both Silla and Hog had witnessed.

  Nico shut the door and went to her so he could pull her into his arms. “What happened?” he asked.

  At first Eden just shook her head, causing some of those stray curls to whop him in the face, but then a sob broke from her mouth.

  “Damien and I have only been divorced six months, and he’s already asked someone else to marry him.” The words just rushed out with her breath, and they kept on rushing. “It’s Mimi Bakersfield. Did you know about this?”

  Oh that. “I knew they were dating, but I didn’t know about the engagement.”

  That was the truth. Nico hadn’t exactly cut Damien out of his life, but they weren’t nearly as close after Damien had filed for a divorce from Eden and moved to San Antonio. Damien had told Nico about dating Mimi, but he’d also said they were keeping their relationship under wraps because they were trying to avoid dealing with the folks who still wanted him to get back together with Eden.

  “Mimi didn’t say anything to you about it?” Eden pressed.

  Nico shook his head, but it was a valid question. Along with being the local minister’s daughter, Mimi was an accountant who kept the books for his business. Nico and she spoke often. Heck, she’d even had lunch with Brenda and him a couple of times when Brenda had come to town for a visit.

  “Mimi was with Damien this morning because he was bringing her to his mom’s,” Eden went on. “I was walking here, and they saw me while I was on Main Street. They got out of his car so Damien could tell me about the engagement. God, Nico. She’s barely twenty-four. Her boobs are big enough for their own zip code, and she’s got this perky little butt.”

  Okay. There was plenty in that for him to decipher, and Nico tried to figure out which of those things would have upset Eden the most so he could tackle it first.

  “How perky were her boobs?” he asked, knowing it would get Eden to push back from him and frown.

  It worked.

  She dished up a frown that was hard, fast and came with a side order of narrowed eyes.

  “Hey, tits and asses are a man’s weakness,” he added, hoping it would make her smile. Something they usually managed to do for each other. Not today, though. So, he went in another direction. “Damien’s a dick.”

  It felt a little sleazy to dick-label a man he still considered a friend, but it was the truth. That’s one of the reasons it had bothered him when Eden and Damien had gotten married a little over three years ago. Nico had been worried that it might not last.

  That’s because Damien was too much like him when it came to women.

  Unlike Nico though, Damien didn’t have any M boxes to rein him in even in a small way. Bedding women had been a hard habit for Damien, and it showed a lack of respect for Eden.

  Of course, now that Eden and he were divorced, Damien did have every right to find someone else—and get engaged. But it’d been pretty dick-ish of him to spring a fiancée on Eden.

  “Don’t tell me you didn’t notice Mimi’s butt and boobs,” Eden grumbled.

  Oh, he had. Nothing short of blindness or neutering would have prevented that, but Mimi didn’t exactly flaunt her assets. She dressed, well, like a preacher’s daughter. Probably the way that Eden’s folks would have preferred her to dress.

  “Damien’s a dick,” Nico repeated, because he thought that might be the root of all the other stuff that’d made her cry.

  His conclusion caused Eden’s eyes to fill with more tears, but he thought these were of a different variety. Not from the “kick to the gut” feeling of seeing your ex with someone else. An ex-husband you likely still loved. No, these tears seemed to be moving on to the next level and were about something other than Damien and his perky-butted sweet thing. Nico got confirmation of that a moment later.

  “Lots of people saw me cry.” Eden’s voice cracked. “Ruby Deacon, for one. She’ll tell my folks, and they’ll harp on me again to see a counselor or something.”

  Yeah, they would. Willard and Louise Joslin were pillars of the community and owned the hardware and feed store. They loved their daughter—who was their only child—and they wouldn’t want to see her unhappy. Of course, the way they would try to fix that unhappiness would likely mean some major interference in Eden’s life.

  “Silla Sweeny saw me crying, too,” Eden added. “That means soon all the mean girls will know.”

  Silla had likely fired off a mean girls group text. None of them would be nasty about it to Eden’s face. In most cases, meanness in Coldwater still had a “bless your heart” civility to it. But there’d be behind-the-hand whispers and poor, pitiful looks that would take on the critical tinge of, “You should’ve been able to hang on to your man.”

  “Look, I know how to fix this,” Nico said. “I’ll just give the gossips something else to talk about.”

  Eden’s frown returned. “You’re not going to sleep with Silla and then post about it on social media. Nico, I hate to break this to you, but your sleeping with someone won’t stir a whole lot of talk. It’s what people expect of you.”

  It was. He couldn’t argue with that, but he could turn the town’s expectations in any direction to help Eden. “I’m swearing off easy sex. When that news gets around, there
’ll be plenty of talk, and that’ll take the heat off you.”

  Eden shook her head, sighed and looked ready to spell out why she was neither impressed nor surprised by his idea, but she stopped when she heard the voices in the reception area. Nico stopped, too, because they were familiar. Roy, for one—that wasn’t much of a surprise since it was his office. But Nico was pretty sure he recognized the other one, too.

  “Rayelle,” he muttered. Brenda’s sister, Rayelle Devereaux.

  Nico turned to go see her, but Eden caught on to his arm. “Don’t let them know I’m in here,” she whispered.

  That was a given. Nico made a locked motion over his mouth. “Your secrets are safe with me.” And yes, that was plural. He hadn’t told anyone about her blog or just how unhappy she was.

  “Thanks.” Eden still kept her voice low. She paused. “I didn’t even ask if you were okay. Are you?”

  “Sure.” The lie just slid right off his tongue. But he wasn’t.

  Hearing Rayelle’s voice brought on the grief again. And more than a brushstroke of discomfort. Rayelle and he weren’t close, and she hadn’t been around at all when Brenda had fostered Nico. In fact, he hadn’t even met her until after he’d been moved from Brenda’s care and placed with Buck. Eden studied him a moment as if she might call him on the lie, and then she motioned for him to leave. Nico gave her another hug and walked out, but he’d check on her as soon as he cleared up whatever was going on with Rayelle. And there was indeed something going on or the woman wouldn’t have come to Coldwater.

  Since it wasn’t a big building, he saw Roy right away. It would have been impossible to miss the lumberjack-sized lawyer with the shock of stark white hair and an entire set of spare tires around his gut.

  Rayelle was dwarfed next to him and barely came up to Roy’s shoulder. Since she was Brenda’s younger sister, it was always a jolt for Nico to see that somewhat-familiar face on someone else. Familiar but way different, too.

  Rayelle was not someone who could light up a room.

  She had the same brown hair as Brenda, but it didn’t halo softly around her face like her sister’s. Rayelle had hers yanked back and slicked into a tight stubby ponytail, and while Brenda had practically lived in jeans and T-shirts, Rayelle’s usual was skirt sets and dresses. Plain ones.

  He supposed it was the kind of outfit Rayelle thought she should wear since she was an elementary school librarian, but she dressed a lot older than most women her age. Heck, she was only thirty-seven.

  Nico was a hugger, but he didn’t go to Rayelle and do that. Nope. Rayelle put up invisible walls when it came to emotions, and as usual she had her arms crossed over her chest.

  “I went to your office,” Rayelle said when she eased back from him, “and your assistant told me you were here to see Eden.”

  Nico nodded. “I came over here to talk to her, but guess she’s not in yet,” he lied.

  “She should be here soon,” Roy said, checking his watch.

  Good. The man didn’t know Eden was in the bathroom. If he had, Roy wouldn’t have been able to cover it. He had no poker face whatsoever.

  “Your assistant’s...not an ordinary-looking assistant,” Rayelle added with her lips twitching in disapproval.

  “Yeah, Hog and I go way back.” That probably wasn’t what Rayelle had been looking to hear, but no way was Nico going to diss the man. “Not as far back though as Brenda and me,” he added.

  Her mouth tightened again at the mention of her sister’s name as if the mere sound of it had brought back something unpleasant for her. But then Rayelle had that reaction about most things. Nico had known the woman for about ten years now, ever since she’d moved back to San Antonio to be near her sister, and he’d never seen her truly smile. The best he ever got from her was a slightly upturned lip twitch.

  Roy gave Nico a friendly slap on the back. “Brenda showed me pictures of you when you first went to live with her,” the lawyer said. “You were such a scrawny little boy. But look at you now. All grown-up. Brenda always said the ladies just couldn’t resist you.”

  Brenda had indeed said that, and she hadn’t meant it as a compliment. Probably because she’d known that Nico hadn’t done much resisting in that department, either. Brenda’s interference in his life was much more subtle than what Eden got from her folks, but Brenda had made it clear that she wasn’t pleased that Nico hadn’t settled down yet.

  “How are your brothers?” Rayelle asked. It was polite small talk, something that she no doubt thought was expected of her since she didn’t know his siblings that well. Nico had been the only one of the Laramie brothers to end up with Brenda, but Brenda had kept in touch with all the Laramie “boys,” and she had certainly kept Rayelle in the info loop.

  “They’re good,” Nico answered. “One got married, another’s engaged.” The other had just gotten assaulted by a senior citizen protestor, but Nico didn’t share that. “How’s my sister?”

  “Sister,” Rayelle repeated. “Piper.”

  Rayelle sounded as if she wanted to correct him. That’s because Piper Drake wasn’t his biological sister, but she was in every way that counted. Well, every way that counted to Nico.

  Piper was sixteen now, and Brenda had been her foster mother for more than a decade. After Piper’s parents had been killed in a car accident when she was five, there’d been no one to take her so she’d ended up in the system. Just as it had happened with Nico. Fortunately, Piper hadn’t gotten a bad placement her second time in foster care but had instead ended up with Brenda. Piper had not only moved on from her painful past but had thrived.

  Nico had gotten close to Piper over the years when he’d visited Brenda. And he’d worried about her after Brenda had gotten the cancer diagnosis. Heck, he was still worrying. Even though Brenda had talked Rayelle into fostering Piper, Nico still wasn’t sure that was the best arrangement. Not with Rayelle’s rigid outlook on life.

  Nico waited for Rayelle to answer his question as to how Piper was, but she didn’t. Instead, she pulled back her shoulders even straighter than they already were. “I need to talk to you a minute. Do you have time?”

  “I’ll make time,” he assured Rayelle, but he felt the twist in his gut. Something was wrong.

  Nico was about to leave with her, but the front door opened, and Eden came in. He sighed, knowing that meant Eden had climbed out the bathroom window into the alley and come around front so that Rayelle and Roy wouldn’t know that Nico and she had been alone in there together.

  Appearances.

  Eden was darn good at that. Even though neither Roy nor Rayelle would have gossiped about it, she wouldn’t have wanted it getting back to her folks that there might be something going on between Nico and her. It wasn’t always easy for a man and woman to have a no-benefits friendship in Coldwater, but Eden had managed to stave off the potential gossips by taking steps like climbing out a bathroom window. Even though absolutely nothing inappropriate had gone on in there.

  “Rayelle,” Eden greeted. The full appearance was in place now. Eden had redone her makeup, and there wasn’t a trace of the tears. Well, not unless you looked close enough. “It’s good to see you.”

  The woman definitely didn’t return the warm greeting. “I heard about your divorce. Brenda was upset about it.”

  Eden swallowed hard before she spoke. Then, nodded. “My ex and I are moving on with our lives.”

  Well, Damien was anyway. With Mimi Bakersfield. The jury was still out on whether or not Eden was actually doing any “moving on.”

  “Is everything okay?” Roy asked, sliding glances between Nico and Eden.

  “Fine,” Nico answered, and he figured everyone knew that wasn’t quite the truth. Still, he wasn’t sure yet just how un-okay things were and wouldn’t know until he’d spoken with Rayelle.

  “I was about to take Rayelle to my office so we could visit for a wh
ile,” Nico volunteered. “I’ll call you later,” he added to Eden.

  Eden nodded but didn’t thank him for the bathroom TLC. No need. And besides, it would mess up the whole appearances thing.

  “I brought papers,” Rayelle said the moment they were outside. Her tone was all business, and she took an envelope from her purse to hand it to him. “It’s a copy of Brenda’s will and a letter she left for you.”

  Nico figured it was just plain muscle memory that kept him walking and had his hand closing over the envelope.

  “Brenda left you some money,” Rayelle explained, her tone as brisk as the walking pace. “About twenty thousand dollars. She said you probably wouldn’t take it, that you’d donate it to someone who needed it more than you.”

  Nico would indeed donate it. It didn’t seem right taking money from someone who had given him so much. Besides, he had plenty of his own money. Maybe he’d put it in a trust for Piper.

  Rayelle let the silence crack and sizzle between them, and she didn’t say anything else until they were across the street and inside Nico’s office.

  “I’m sure you already know this, but a few months before my sister got sick, Brenda bought a little house just a few miles from your place,” Rayelle continued. She sat down across from his desk—after she brushed off the seat that hadn’t had a speck of dust or anything else on it. “A log cabin, actually. It’s right on the creek.”

  Nico nodded. He knew about it and had been keeping an eye on it for her. Brenda had bought it because she wanted a place to spend summers with Piper. That way, they’d be able to see him more often, and the visits wouldn’t interfere with the girl’s school schedule.

  “Brenda left that cabin to you, too,” Rayelle went on, “but she had, well, plans for it. Plans that include me.” Her mouth seemed to tighten even more with each word, and she dusted off the chair arms.

  Oh. “Brenda didn’t mention that. But feel free to use the cabin anytime you want,” he said, hesitating both before and afterward.

  Her huff confirmed what Nico already knew. Rayelle wasn’t the cabin-using type. She was as city as could be.