“He doesn’t make enough to cover us if we go under. Or if someone tries to get rid of us.” The minute the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back. She’d kept the secret inside for so long that it felt odd to say the words.
Her mom’s eyes widened. “Who is trying to get rid of you?”
The question wasn’t asked with a breathy curiosity, but rather an undercurrent of potential violence. Her mother wasn’t exactly the world’s most docile human being. She fought for the ones she loved. She sheltered them, and she’d taught Lexi to do the same.
The way she was trying to shelter her husbands from the truth.
Lexi shook her head. It would do no good to involve her mother. “It’s nothing. It’s just some stupid shit. You know how the locals can be.”
Her mother was still considered a woman of ill repute in Willow Fork, though everyone was too afraid of Jack to say it to her face. Deer Run was just like Willow Fork.
Would they really go through with it? Would they really take away her husbands’ home because they didn’t approve of her lifestyle? God, she couldn’t be the reason Aidan lost his ranch.
The only thing that would make them safe was money and a whole lot of it. If they had the money to buy off the damn city council, then no one would come after O’Malley Ranch.
She looked back down at her phone. Why didn’t she have any damn bars? She had a book coming out in two weeks and everything depended on it. The city council would take their vote in a month, and she needed time to get her fucking bribes together so Aidan might never know how close they came.
“You need to start talking now, baby girl.” Her mother was a dog with a bone. This was why she’d avoided her, why she’d avoided her dads. Jack and Sam had become her fathers over the years, and she didn’t even try to call them stepdads anymore.
“Mom, it’s nothing. I’m more worried about my cell phone not working. Can I see yours?”
Her mom pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and looked down. “I have three bars.”
“Can I borrow it?”
“No.”
Olivia ran up. She was wearing her version of her Sunday best, a pair of clean jeans and a T-shirt without stains on it. “Hey, Momma. Hey, sis.”
Lexi’s heart swelled. Her baby sister was a ball of chaos, and Lexi loved her so much it hurt. And she hadn’t seen Olivia since she’d started avoiding her mom. God, how much was she going to give up to try to save the ranch? “Hey, Liv. How are you doing?”
“I’m good, but I need to find a dress. I think I should start wearing dresses, and I want to take a bunch more science classes.”
Her mom’s eyes widened. “You hate science.”
Olivia shrugged. “No. It’s kind of fun.”
“Oh, god, who’s the boy?” Lexi asked. No tomboy ever hung up her jeans for anything other than a boy. She really wanted to meet the boy who could handle Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood.
Olivia frowned. “There’s no boy. Ewwww. I was just talking to Will and Bobby.”
The names were said with the casual tone of a girl who didn’t really care. Which meant she cared. A lot.
“Oh. My god, she’s going after the twins.” Lexi couldn’t help it. She’d never had a little sister before and teasing her was totally fun.
It was far better than ignoring her.
Olivia put her foot down, stomping on the ground. “I am not going after anyone. I was just talking to them because they’re real nice.” She stared at Lexi’s phone. “Are you going to make a call? You’re always on the phone.”
It was true and now she felt a little naked without a working phone. “I can’t call anyone. I don’t have a signal.”
Her mom got to one knee. “Livie, baby, can you go and find Aunt Danielle? I need to talk to your sister.”
Olivia got a brilliant smile on her face. “Sure, Momma. Gee, sorry about your phone, Lexi. I guess it just doesn’t work anymore.”
Lexi felt her eyes narrow. Olivia wasn’t just a ball of chaos. The older she got the more sneaky she was. “Did you do something to my phone?”
Olivia just grinned and ran off toward the main house.
How the hell had she managed it? Lexi stared down at her phone. It was seventy-five percent charged. One minute it had been working perfectly and the next the whole thing had shut down. It was as if someone had simply turned it off.
“Momma, I think she somehow got my account canceled. The little shit. Olivia, you come back here!”
Her mother rolled her eyes. “God, I am so glad I had you two twenty years apart. You still fight like siblings. And if Livie managed to get your phone turned off then I’m raising her allowance because she’s the only one who’s had the guts to do it. Now tell me what’s wrong in Deer Run.”
But her mind was flying through the scenarios. “I have to go. I think the closest place I can get a new cell is Alamosa. Damn it. Lucas and Aidan took the car. Maybe Beth will run me into town.”
“Lexi, if you walk away from me now, I’ll explain to Jack that I need him to figure out what’s going on.”
Lexi stopped in her tracks. Damn it. Jack was the one threat she couldn’t counteract. “Please don’t tell Dad.”
Her mom smiled. “You know he melts a little when you call him that, but it won’t make a damn bit of difference. You’re lucky that Lucas has been hiding this from him or he would have already gotten involved.”
She did not want to bring her father into it. She didn’t want Jack to know how stupid she’d been.
“Please don’t tell him.”
Her mother’s foot tapped against the ground, a sure sign of her growing impatience. “Then you should get talking.”
“Promise me you won’t tell him.”
Her mother shook her head shortly. “I can’t, baby girl. You know I can’t make that promise. I promise I’ll try to help you without involving him.”
Lexi took a deep breath and finally confessed to her mother.
Chapter Twelve:
Leo, Shelley, and Wolf
Shelley stepped out on to the porch and looked over the grounds of the Talbot mansion. It was almost dusk. Her shower was just about done. She closed her eyes and tried to memorize the moment. The afternoon had been sweet, filled with friends old and new. She wanted to remember everything.
Except the crap with her mother-in-law.
She enjoyed the silence for a moment and then her eyes got wide as she opened them because a big black truck pulled up, carefully maneuvering its way through the multitude of cars parked on the driveway and lawn. It drove past the circular drive and up to what looked to be the guesthouse.
Jennifer Talbot hurried across the lawn as though she’d been expecting that truck to show up. She stopped when she got to the truck bed, looked down, and then began to unleash holy hell on the men who stepped out of the truck.
The cowboys held up their identical hands as though pointing to each other to take the blame.
Shelley couldn’t hear the argument, but there was no way Jennifer was happy with whatever they had done.
She turned away and wondered if Leo and Wolf were having fun at their party. Shelley loved spending time with all the women from Bliss and her friends from back home, but she was craving a couple of minutes to herself. The wedding had become the whole center of their world, and she couldn’t wait to get back to focusing on her men. She missed their mornings together.
Leo would get up first, putting on the coffee for her while he went on the balcony and practiced some yoga. She would get up and watch him, his lean and limber body moving with such grace.