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“I’m not from the government, though I’m starting to get worried that so many government people want to talk to this guy.” She decided to go for honesty again, even though it hadn’t gotten her far. This guy’s twin had definitely not wanted to talk, but she was going to try again anyway. “A long time ago, my mother had an affair with a guy she worked with. That man’s name was Luthor M. Hughes. His last known address was in Del Norte, Colorado, but it turns out the actual cabin was owned by a woman named Cassidy Meyer. I was told she’s in Dallas and that the neighbors don’t know a man named Luthor Hughes.”
The cowboy snorted. “Luthor?” He turned. “Hey, Rye, did you know Mel’s real first name is Luthor? That’s terrible. I thought Melvin was bad. His momma must have hated him.”
“Max!” The redhead shouted, and the girl stood up taller as though she understood that tone in her momma’s voice.
“Daddy!” The girl’s hands went to her hips, and she looked an awful lot like her mom.
The man named Max frowned back at them. “Well, it doesn’t look like she’s going away, and I think Van here likes her and told her everything. Don’t yell at me. Yell at his di…male private parts that are obviously doing the thinking instead of his brain.”
The twin who’d been called Rye stepped up, making quick work of the snowy distance between them. “You know he doesn’t want us telling her anything. Did he not talk to you before he left?”
She turned to Van, who had gone a nice shade of pink.
“Uhm, he might have said something, but I don’t think she’s government,” Van explained. “She seems nice. I suspect if she was working, she wouldn’t be drinking a boozy hot chocolate. I don’t think feds are supposed to drink on the job. Also, wouldn’t she have a partner? They always have partners on TV.”
She needed to stop this. “I am absolutely not with any government. I’m looking for my biological father, and according to my mother his name is Luthor Hughes. He was in the Army thirty plus years ago and he had an affair with my mom.”
“Yeah, I already heard this rumor,” Rye said and then stopped, his head cocking slowly as he stared at her. “You know you kind of look like him.”
“She does not. She’s gorgeous,” Van said quickly. “He didn’t mean that.”
Max had gone to stand beside his brother, an identical expression on his face. “She has his eyes.”
“And his chin.” The woman had joined them, a baby on her hip and the little girl at her side. “Wow. Actually, she kind of holds herself the way he does.”
Now she was definitely getting somewhere. And she wasn’t falling into the whole she’s gorgeous thing. She wasn’t. The hot bartender who seemed like he might be into her was definitely a background thing that wasn’t going to affect the main mission. Which was finding her father and not her joy. Joy would have to wait because apparently her bio dad knew she was here and had a mistaken impression of her. “I only want to talk to him. Do you know him?”
The redhead nodded. “Yes. We know him quite well. But I’m not sure about the timing. I know he was in the military, but thirty years ago he would have been here. He was very active in my husbands’ childhood.”
So she was definitely married to one of the twins. She couldn’t tell which, but it was good to put the relationships together.
It might be the one named Rye because he took the baby from her, hauling the boy high against his chest. Though the girl had called Max Daddy, so maybe he was a helpful uncle. “Not so fast, Rach. He was definitely in the Army, but even when I was a kid and he was around most of the time, he would go on these long trips.”
Max nodded. “Someone would come and pick him up and he would be gone for weeks at a time. He said he was alien hunting. You know there were rumors when those Texans came through that they knew about Mel’s service and that it was highly classified.”
That was the thread she needed to pull. “My mother worked intelligence. According to her journals, she worked with Hughes on classified projects. He went by an Army rank, but she thought he was actually working with the CIA.”
Rye and his wife laughed but Max stayed serious.
“I can assure you our Mel was not some CIA agent,” Rye said.
“That’s what you said about Henry.” Max turned to his twin. “You know there was a rumor when Jax and his friends first came to town.”
“That was that Taggart fellow messing with us.” But Rye had gone solemn, too, and looked at her again. “She does remind me of him. A little. Do you think it could be true? Could the old man actually have a kid?”
