Chloe's Secret (11 page)

Chapter 18

This time she really was lying. He didn’t know what that wild story on Mona was about, but as far as he was concerned
she really was scared.
Not that it mattered to him. And it didn’t.

Okay, maybe it did a little. He struggled into his jeans and ran after Tess. He barely noticed the door open on the house. When the woman he hadn’t seen in years, crossed her arms across her chest and gave Tess a look as she passed, he was less than six feet from catching up.

“Mom?” His mouth dropped. He stopped briefly and did a double take. It
was
her. The slam of a car door jerked him out of his surprise, and he rushed across the drive.

Too late.

He turned, barefoot and shirtless, to an aged version of the woman who had walked out on Dad. Walked out on
them.

“Well, I guess the barn is still in prime form. So, Colton. A redhead? And here, of all places? Don’t you have an apartment close by?”

“None of your business, is it?”

“You’re still my son.”

“Well, I can’t really change that, can I? But you lost all rights to make judgments or ask questions when you ditched us.” She lost all rights to judge him way before now and her timing was shit. He’d not listen to anything more.

Colton watched the back of Tess’ car peel away on the pavement, then turned and headed to get his boots and shirt. Once dressed, he mounted the bike and headed to town. He needed to apologize. He shouldn’t have let it go that far, shouldn’t have taken advantage. Wait. She started it, right? He didn’t force the issue. He didn’t exactly stop it either, but that wasn’t the point.

Sadie stared after the son that despised her. He was a constant reminder of her failure as a parent, the spitting image of his mother in every way which probably infuriated him as much as it warmed her. Admittedly, it was unsettling to see her face on a man—but he had enough of his father’s own chiseled nose and cheekbones to balance it out. He was a successful veterinarian and business owner to boot.

And obviously a successful and accomplished skirt chaser.

She watched him peel out after the redhead that had bolted away. Well, that part definitely came from his dad. The persistence, which must have been a male trait in their family. James had doggedly pursued her for a year before she agreed to their first date. She glanced at the sun glinting over the barn and smiled. A lot of memories in that old place-good thing it couldn’t talk.

The crunch of tires spun her around to see the truck and empty horse trailer bumping into the drive. When the door squeaked open, her heart lunged. She swallowed hard and pasted on a smile.

“Hey there, handsome. I thought you’d never get here.”

James Scott’s mouth fell open and he stood with his hand cemented to the truck door. Maybe she should have told him she was coming. She expected him to jump back in and follow his son’s path, but he didn’t. He didn’t smile either.

She waited for him to move. To step forward or say something. The distant whinny from one of the horses broke his trance.

“You look good, Sadie.”

He tapped the truck door, then walked to the back and loaded two bales of hay into the truck bed.
Well, okay then—that was a start.

Halfway to Tess’, Colton changed his mind. She ran, not him. And if she hadn’t, he wasn’t sure whether he’d have rushed out himself or not. It was better this way. He had enough stress in his life without adding a woman. And she obviously had the same thoughts, the same need to keep things sane. Although the insanity of the past couple hours had been incredible.

Until his mom waltzed into the picture.

What kind of ridiculous timing was that? It was like high school all over. She disappeared without a word for all those years then she just shows up? And she gives Tess
that
look, the one probably intended to make her crawl under a rock. He was a grown man and his mom still had the ability to humiliate him. Except he wasn’t going back to let her.

Things got even worse when he stepped into his apartment, dropped his keys and phone on the counter and headed to the shower. His roommate, the wonderful girl that traipsed around in underwear, had a guest. A tall, brunette—who also traipsed around in underwear. Every guy in his
right
mind, would thank the stars for such a gift, but some things were sacred and a man’s home was one of those.
And
as much as he would have given his right arm for girls in underwear when he was younger, he was now pissed. Because she was in his room.

“What the hell are you doing?” he asked.

She hadn’t seen him approach and was peeking in his dresser.

“Looking for a t-shirt.” The woman’s raven eyes met his in a dare. Seriously?

“Those are my clothes. You don’t have your own?”

His roommate, Maggie stood in the doorway behind him. “Hey, Colton, this is Kathy. A friend from school. She’s staying a few days.”

His blood boiled. No way. Not now. The woman traipsed toward him with long spindly legs. “Hi there? Mind if I borrow a shirt?”

“Yes, I mind. And Maggie, your friend is
not
staying. This apartment is too small for three people.”

“You’ll barely notice her.”

“Yeah, right. Just like I barely notice you. Listen, we need to talk. This isn’t working.” He ran a hand through his hair and rested it at the back of his neck.

Maggie had that deer in the headlights look, and he knew he’d have to watch out or he’d cave. Just like he caved every time someone brought in an injured pet and didn’t have money to pay. The only difference being this girl knew exactly what she was doing and had practiced the routine before—if he guessed right. She probably hadn’t actually paid her way in several years. She had perfected the ability to pull empathy out of unsuspecting schmucks. Like him. Today, though, he was officially finished with being a schmuck.

“What’s wrong? I’ve cleaned the bathroom and put all my clothes away.”

“Yeah, well maybe you shouldn’t put
all
of them away. Maybe you should put some of them
on.
”

She pouted, with Kathleen the lanky one watching. “I have clothes on.”

“Barely. Listen, I appreciate your need to be comfortable. Everyone wants that in their home, but the thing is, this is mine. My home that is, and I just don’t like—all that.” He waved a finger at the women’s lack of dress. He really had to be losing his mind to get all moral at the moment. Geez, he’d just made love to a woman in a barn. Who was he to care if two of them walked around unclad in his apartment?

But that was just it; it was
his
apartment. And she’d taken over practically every inch of it, which irritated the hell out of him. Nope, hang tough dude.

“What don’t you like? I can’t fix it if I don’t know what to fix.”

“The only way this is going to be fixed is—you need to leave, Maggie. I don’t want a roommate.”

“I signed a lease.”

“Yeah, and it’s up next month. Find another place and take your girlfriend with you.”

He pushed both of them out of his room and slammed the door. He hadn’t caved.

Then his phone rang. On the counter in the kitchen and Maggie decided to answer it.

“You’re calling for Colton?”

A pause.

“Sure he’s here. He just went into the bedroom. I can get him for you.” Another pause. “His roommate.”

He heard her feet padding toward his room, then a knock. “You have a phone call.”

Only he didn’t really, because Tess had hung up before she handed him the phone.

I wasn’t sure what I expected after everything that had happened, but a roommate hadn’t been on the horizon. Especially not a female roommate who had access to his phone. Wow. I didn’t wait until he answered. That pretty much confirmed the fact that I knew nothing about him. Except what the entire surface of his skin felt like, which I had probably better forget soon.

What a fool.

When my cell rang, I ignored it. There wasn’t much he could say that would make this any less embarrassing. It was time to muster up what was left of my pride and get that precious control back in place. So, I’d let off a little physical steam. Big deal. Other people did it all the time, why should I let it bother me?

Probably because while other people did it, I didn’t. Ever.

I spent the next two days with my mother, brother, and his latest girlfriend, so it was easy to put the entire experience on a shelf for a while. Or so I told myself whenever Colton popped into my thought pattern. Which, thanks to Tanner, was a bit more than I wanted. He asked about him several times. When I refused to satisfy his curiosity, he finally backed off and left me alone.

My boss called me at home the following Saturday and asked if I would finish something for him, if I could manage the time away from family festivities. As if I had a choice when he’d specifically mentioned that I needed to put more effort into my job. I spent the remainder of the weekend in front of my computer.

Three weeks later, I’d finally achieved the perspective I wanted about Colton. He was officially labeled “wild side”, as in trip to. My night out, my
roll in the hay
. That was all. He knew it, and so did I. Or at least that’s what I thought. Why else would he stop calling after three tries?

What kind of guy gives up that easy?

One who had a female roommate who kept him in line. And even though I passed the horse stand daily, I kept my focus on the street or the sidewalk in front—not a single glance that way. I was satisfied that I’d officially put it in the past. Put him in the past. Which would be a lot easier when I had a new job that didn’t require me to go by Mona’s every day.

Without my boss’ knowledge, I had applied for as many openings as I could find through the internet and local job postings. Only three had called for interviews, one of which was way too far away.

“I brought dinner.” Tanner held up a pizza box when I came home one Friday from work. It surprised me because he’d been so involved with his new girlfriend that I’d seen nothing of him. “You hungry?”

“What makes you think I don’t already have plans tonight? I could, you know. You assumed I was going to be home and took it one step farther by assuming I was
staying
home.” I stepped over his legs as I moved to unlock my front door.

“Well?” He raised a brow. So much for my bluff.

I sighed. “Come on in.” After he dropped the box on the counter, we pulled out pizza slices and sat silently eating.

“How’s work?” Tanner asked.

“I’m looking for another job. I had a sit down with my boss a while back and he said they’re doing serious budget cuts.”

“Budget cuts. That usually is a precursor to job cuts.”

“Not yet, but why would he come talk with me about budget cuts if that wasn’t on the agenda? I pretty much gathered that since I was one of the newest employees, my job was most likely to not succeed. So, I polished off the resumé and have been submitting anywhere I can.”

“Any luck?”

“A couple of people called and asked for interviews. I have appointments next week. We’ll see from there. I have to do something. I can’t afford to live here on what I make now, let alone if I lose that. I thought maybe I’d take a part time job at night or on the weekend. Just for a little while.”

Tanner just nodded and chewed. I was glad he’d stopped by, if for no other reason than it was nice to have company. “So, how’s your vet boyfriend?”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“No?” He didn’t sound convinced.

I groaned. There was a lecture on the way. “Don’t start.”

He opened his mouth to speak, thought better of it when I narrowed my eyes, and pressed his lips closed.

“We just hung out for a while, no big deal.”

There were times when my brother had been a real pain in the ass, but on days like this when work had been tough, and I was exhausted, he was nice to have around.

“Yeah, hung out in the sheets.”

Or not. I slugged him in the arm and he rubbed it, growling.

He evaluated me for a second then added, “Nah, if that’d been the case, you wouldn’t be such a grouch.”

“So, what’s with you and the girl you brought home for Thanksgiving, Bitsy or Betsy, what was it?”

“Brianna. And there’s not much to tell. We’ve gone out a few times, she lives across from me.”

“Weren’t you the guy who said not to date within a city block of your house?” I gathered the empty pizza box and stuffed it in the trash, then pulled a couple of beers from the fridge and handed one to him.

“Rules are made to be broken. I could swear this is the same beer I brought over last summer when we grilled hamburgers.”

“It is. I’m a gourmet beer girl, I let it age before drinking it.”

He smirked and popped the tab. “What a wild one.”

If only he knew.
Then I realized my brother was the
last
person I wanted to know about the barn incident, which I now referred to as the BI. I held up my can in a salute. “You have no idea.”

“I can imagine,” he said. I wanted to laugh, but didn’t because then I’d have to explain. After three swallows of beer, Tanner clunked the can down on the counter and rose to leave. “Mom met someone.”

What? There’s a wake-up call. That was the kind of phrase that meant important. People meet all the time, at work, at the store, on the street. The only time it was worth mentioning, was when the
someone
was significant . . . a potential. “Really? Who? How?”

“Call her and find out for yourself.” He strode out the door and left.