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Dusty found herself at the kitchen table, with her family. It was late. Meyra had been baking, like she always did when she was freaked. No one really knew how to explain what had happened. Marin was supervising the inn, after what had happened. Dealing with the state cops who had shown up. Including her nemesis Commander Weatherby.
Dusty looked at her uncle, where he sat, nursing a cup of coffee, a fresh cupcake in front of him, his wife hovering next to him, when Marin finally joined them. “Well. Anything from Joel?”
“I called. They are keeping Arthur and Geena for the night. That US marshal insisted it was the safest place for them. The second man who took Devaney escaped. Like he knew the terrain well. Arthur told Joel he believed the man was Morris Preston’s second cousin or something. He used to be one of Morris Preston’s thugs. And lived in Sublette County and south Masterson County years ago.”
“And the man who…died?” Dusty would never forget him.
“Morris Preston’s illegitimate son. Who killed his mother twenty-three years ago by slicing her throat. Before…going after yours. Your mother was injured the night they left; she’d witnessed the whole thing. Jason Smith attacked her, she managed to get away just as your father was pulling in the drive to get her. The US marshal was obtaining permission to get their file. At least…for me. And for Joel.” Her uncle suddenly looked his sixty-five years now.
“I see. So they really did run.”
“Apparently. I’m just glad they decided to leave you girls behind, Destiny Marie.Thiswas where you belonged. I just wish none of it had happened. All eight of you deserved better. Hell, so did yourmother.She’s not the same woman she was twenty-three years ago. She’s so…fragile now. It’s heartbreaking.”
Dusty didn’t know how she felt about her parents now. She just wasn’t ready yet to figure that out. Just not yet. Maybe with time. After theangersettled. Her parents hadn’t just abandoned them for no reason. They’d thought theyhada reason. She just didn’t know what to feel about any of it now.
“We’ll have to get the answers from them,” her grandmother said. “Later. Right now, you four need to decide what you want to do about them. And about your sisters.”
“It won’t be easy. We can’t just build connections out of nowhere,” Daisy said, that anger Dusty understood still in her voice. “The don’t really feel like our sisters. They definitely don’t feel like our parents. How could they?”
“No. They don’t,” Dusty said, thinking of those four women upstairs right now. “But…that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t at least try. Iftheywant to. Our…sisters, I mean.”
“Girls.” Her grandmother poured herself a cup of coffee as Rhea took a seat next to Gerald. “If there is anything in life I have ever learned it is this: every momentmatters.Determines what comes next. I will always hurt for what happened to you girls. And I will always hurt for what wasmissedwith my new, beautiful, infinitely precious granddaughters. And I hurt for what they are going through now, too. Fire…almost always brings pain if you get too close. But out of the ashes…you can make something beautiful. I am not saying you should just ignore everything that happened with your parents. Heavens knows, I am not saying that. They made bad choices—that led to now. We all know that. It's up to you if you forgive them that—and it’s up toeachof you to decide. Not all of you together acting as one group. Life doesn’t always work that way. But each of you needs to build the relationships with each of them that you want to have—individually. It definitely won’t be easy. Am I glad he is back now? Yes, in a big way, a part of meis.It was like he was dead to me for twenty-three years. That was a real hurt only another parent can truly understand. And now…I could have a few more years with one of my children. I can’t ever regret that, even when I also want to tie his tail in a knot right now. These are your sisters. They are as innocent victims of the circumstances as you are. I think you should remember that. Because those are some seriously scared young women upstairs. And while you four had full, active, healthy lives with your family, your community, and your roots around you—that is something I thinktheywere denied. I don’t think they hadanyonebut your parents and each other. They are the ones who don’t knowwhothey even are—or what the world holds for them now. And as isolated as I suspect they’ve been…the world is an incrediblyscaryplace. Probably a lot scarier than it was for them even yesterday.”
Daisy sat down next to Dusty. “They are the ones that were hurt the most, weren’t they?”
“I think they were.” Well, Dusty finally understood that for herself. An odd rush of protectiveness filled her, as she thought of those four younger sisters. She and her sisters with her now—theyhad been the lucky ones. She fully believed that now. They…knewexactly who they were. Her youngest sisters couldn’t say that.
“So…what are we going to do about it?” Dixie asked. “What do we do now? How do we helpthem?”
They talked. All four of them, her aunt and uncle, Meyra and Marin, her grandmother. Until they all knew what everyone was feeling. Until they had some sort of a plan about what to do next. Her uncle told them what he suspected would happen with their parents. It wasn’t super good.
They’d probably face charges for what had happened to Dusty that night they’d taken her. Even if she didn’t press charges, Joel could on her behalf. She didn’t know what she wanted to do in that regard. That was one of the things she was going to have to figure out. Later. For now, she was just focusing on her sisters. Her family.
And Ben. It was time forBennow. Dusty wanted to be with him now more than anything else in the world.
When the discussion ended, it was time. Time forBen.Ben had waited long enough.
As if her older sister knew what she was thinking, Darcey stopped her before she could step out of the family wing and into the hall that led to the front desk. “I grabbed you this already.”
She handed Dusty a keycard. “To where?”
“Room 308. I think what you want more than anything is waiting up there for you now. Go to him. Grandma’s right. Don’t live with regrets.” There were memories in her sister’s eyes. Hurts. Hurts that went back far further than tonight. And probably had to do with her own beautiful Tyler man Darcey had loved once.
Dusty hugged her sister, hard. “It’ll all work out, you know.”
“I’m going to believe that. Go. I think your man is probably waiting.”
78
He’d neededto distract himself. So he didn’t barge into the family wing and justbe therefor his woman when she needed him most. Only that he understood this was for her family to do had kept him in check. Ben had kept himself occupied by fixing that scene with Harry. The kissing scene.
And then finishing the damned book. So he could send it off to his editor and be done with it. He had other things to focus on right now. Like, buying a better cave for his cavewoman and everything.
He could see it right there across the road, from the window of his hotel room—well, he would when the sun was up. That would still be close enough to the inn, to her family, for her to be there when they needed her—but still far enough away they could build the kind of life he hoped she wanted together. Their kids could play on the lawn of the inn, just like Dusty and Nikki had all those years ago.
Yep. White picket fence time.
As soon as he captured his woman.
