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“Ahhh yes, the mysterious crazy chick Mitch has hauled up in the secret cabin,” I point out, giving up on the eggs I’ve made. I’m much more of a baker than a cook.
“How d’ya… you know what, I don’t even want to know.” He shakes his head at me.
“Your wife tells me everything, and I mean everything.” I wink playfully. “You know if you needed help, I could spend a few hours with the girl too.” I guess it would help to pull my weight around here, the Carsons have been good to me.
“No, the girl needs a slow introduction into normality. She has Josie during the day while Mitch works the ranch, then he’s there at night. That’s enough for her to get used to for now.”
“Makes you realize how lucky we are.” I sigh, pushing the eggs around my plate. I can’t remember a time when I’ve ever gone without anything in my life. My parents had house staff, and when I moved out and lived with Maisie, she was so grateful that my parents insisted on paying for everything that she did most of the chores around the house, including keeping us fed. All I was ever good for was making brownies and cookies. I’ve got to get out of that mindset now.
“You're right there,” Garrett agrees with me.
“Garrett, can I get a word?” Teresa walks into the room carrying one of the babies and dumps it onto his lap.
“Yeah, sure.” He kisses his little girl on her head before looking up to hear what that word is about. Teresa’s eyes dart across to me and she makes it very clear that she wants that word to be private.
“I best get goin’, I got something I need to take care of.” I lift my plate up and head back toward the kitchen where Wade has Leia’s ass resting on the table and the pair of them are making out.
I push the fact that I wish me and Cole could be like that to the back of my mind. We have rules, and keeping our interactions secret was one of my own.
“I need a car,” I interrupt them.
“You can take mine. Keys are hung up by the door,” Leia tears herself away to tell me.
“Perfect, I’ll be back soon.” I leave them to it, grabbing the keys to her car on the way out the door.
My feet come to a standstill when I get onto the yard and look across to see Cole inside the Corral. He’s with one of the horses Wade has been working on breaking in. I guess since Wade has upped his tempo in building the cabin for him and Leia to move into, Cole has taken over the job. I watch him for a while, surprised at the patience he shows the stubborn beast.I wonder what he’s saying to it when his lips move and his hand strokes his back steadily but firmly. Then I think about the way he commanded me back at the line camp last night and feel that flutter return to my lower stomach.
I don’t know if Cole senses me watching him or if it’s a coincidence, but he looks over his shoulder at me. My heart pools into my stomach when he raises his lips into a smile and lifts his hat a little off his head. It’s a smile that reminds me that we share a secret, and with the tingle of it making its way straight to my panties, I quickly smile back and get into Leia’s car before I rush over there and give that secret away.
I park a little up the road from the Walker mansion after I drive by and see that Veronica Walker is home, then I wait at least an hour until she pulls out the gates and heads off toward town. I get out of the car and make my way up to the house on foot, then ringing the bell I wait, hoping that Karina’s in. I have to get this dealt with today because not being able to tell Leia doesn’t seem fair.
“Hey.” Karina rubs the sleep out of her eyes as she opens the door to let me inside. I’ve met her a few times and she seems a nice girl. Now, I really hope she’s going to be an honest one.
“I take it you’re here because of what Zayne told Cole?” She sighs as she leaves the door open for me to step through and leads us toward the kitchen. She flicks on the coffee machine and yawns.
“I need to know what happened to that girl.” I take a seat on one of the stools while she reaches up to the cupboard and pulls down two mugs.
“It wasn’t my dad if that's what you think,” she tells me, her voice already trembling. It makes me wonder if she knows a little about the man her father was before he died. I don’t recall Leia telling me she’d spoken to her about what he did.
“I just want to know what happened,” I tell her calmly.
“I met her in the diner earlier that day. She’d come here to take some photographs for a project she was working on and was supposed to be meeting a friend she’d met online. That friend hadn’t shown up and she was upset about it. I told her about a party I was going to and invited her along. She was nice.” Karina’s eyes go a little watery as she places a steaming mug in front of me.
“This friend she was supposed to meet, was it a guy or a girl?”
“A girl, she’d been talking to her for months, they had arranged to do an exchange. She was gonna show her around all the viewpoints here and then go back to Utah with Esme so she could do the same.” Karina shrugs.
“And she never said who this girl was?”
“Yeah, she asked if I knew her, and since the town was so small I figured I would. But I never heard of her. Said her name was Lexi, I think.”
That’s something I can look into, I guess.
“So what happened at the party?” I ask curiously.
“Nothing much, it was over in Billings, we got a ride there together with a guy who was into me, we danced, we drank.”
“Did you do any drugs?” I check.
