Lone Star Blues

The wedding band and engagement ring.

The very ones that Dylan had given her over fourteen years ago.

They weren’t something she usually wore. In fact, she normally opted for no jewelry at all, but when she’d decided to fly from Germany to San Antonio, she’d put them on the gold chain with the intention of somehow getting them back to Dylan. After all, the diamond was huge, probably two carats, and since she had been the one to end things, it’d never seemed right to keep them. Now that she had finally seen him, she would be able to return them to him.

For now though, she shoved the rings back beneath the dress and tiptoed out of the guest room and into the hall. Since everyone was probably still asleep, she kept tiptoeing past Corbin’s room, but when she saw the door was open, she peeked inside.

And her heart went to her toenails.

Because he wasn’t there. Neither was Dylan. The room was empty. So was the adjoining bathroom because Jordan had a quick, frantic search in there before she went running down the stairs. My God. She hoped Dylan hadn’t run off with the boy as a way of avoiding custody showdowns with her and his mother.

Jordan definitely wasn’t tiptoeing now. She was taking the steps two at a time and trying to stave off the thoughts that something bad had happened when she spotted Karlee.

Karlee was wearing pj’s and looked as if she’d just gotten out of bed. She immediately put her index finger to her mouth in a “stay quiet” gesture. Then, she motioned for Jordan to follow her. Since Karlee wasn’t alarmed, Jordan tried to tamp down the panic bubbling up inside her. She didn’t succeed in doing that until they got into the kitchen and she saw Corbin.

And Dylan.

The two were asleep. Dylan’s head was resting on the kitchen table while Corbin was sacked out in the booster seat that one of the housekeepers had located in the attic. His head was on the plastic tray. There were cereal bowls next to each of them, and Booger was napping underneath Corbin’s chair.

“Corbin got up at four,” Karlee whispered. “I heard Dylan bring him down here so I came to check on them and make some coffee.”

Instant guilt. Jordan felt a boatload of it because she hadn’t heard a peep from either of them. Though Karlee obviously had.

“Dylan should have woken me,” Jordan muttered.

Karlee lifted her eyebrow. “You really think it’d be wise for Dylan to come to your bedroom? If I recall our teenage years, you used to sleep practically commando.”

Jordan still did. Usually she just wore panties and maybe a camisole. So, Karlee was right—it probably wouldn’t have been a good idea for Dylan to knock on the guest room door since he would have been looking all sleepy and hot.

As opposed to his usual hot and awake.

“When I came back down a couple of minutes ago,” Karlee went on, still keeping her voice low, “I found them like this.” She quietly went to the coffeepot, poured Jordan a cup, and then topped hers off. “You think I should wake them?”

Jordan shook her head. Though it was tempting. She would have liked to talk with Corbin. Even have cereal with him. But he was sleeping, well, like a baby. So was Dylan, for that matter. And yes, he was in the hot and sleepy mode.

Karlee and she took their coffee into the foyer. That way, Jordan could still be close enough to Corbin if he woke up, but she could also talk to Karlee without the risk of the boy hearing.

“I didn’t think you’d be here,” Jordan said. “I thought Lucian and you were going back to San Antonio.”

“Lucian wisely delayed the trip.” She stared at Jordan from over the top of her coffee cup. “So, just how riled is Dylan about Regina? How pissed off are you?”

It didn’t surprise her that Karlee knew about Regina making her own bid for custody of Corbin. Karlee probably had heard Dylan talking to his mom on the phone. In fact, it was possible that people in Kansas had heard it. Jordan hadn’t yelled, but that’s exactly what she’d felt like doing.

“How pissed off am I?” Jordan repeated. “Remember that time when we were in middle school and Dylan put a frog in my backpack as a joke to scare me?”

Karlee quickly nodded. “And it peed and crapped all over your homework and ruined it. Ruined your backpack, too, and then you got detention for yelling and cursing when you saw what’d happened.”

Yep, that was the incident all right. What Karlee had left out was that the detention had in turn gotten her grounded. “Well, that anger was a drop in the bucket to how I feel about what Regina’s trying to do.”

Karlee fought a smile. “At least Dylan did the frog thing to show how much he liked you.”

Dylan had indeed claimed that several years later after they’d started dating. But Jordan had always suspected it’d been more of a dare or bet.

“I think Regina might have a different motive,” Karlee continued. “She’s up to something.” Jordan made an immediate sound of agreement. “Last year she tried to fix Eve Cooper up with Dylan,” Karlee added.

Jordan nearly choked on her coffee. Eve and Dylan’s brother Lawson had not only been lovers, they’d been in love. Or at least they had before they’d broken up when Eve had moved to Hollywood to be a TV star.

“And now Lawson and Eve are getting married in two weeks,” Karlee went on. “I’m positive Regina tried to throw Dylan at Eve just to make Lawson realize that he couldn’t live without her.” Karlee lifted her eyebrow as some kind of warning.

A warning that Jordan thought she had figured out after a long sip of coffee. “She wants Dylan and me to team up and fight her. That’ll put us on the same side.”

Now it was Karlee who agreed. “Don’t be surprised if Regina doesn’t bring up that Dylan and you should remarry for the sake of the child.”

That wasn’t going to happen. Dylan and she had had their shot—at a time when she didn’t have the baggage she had now. Besides, she didn’t need to be married to be good at raising her cousin.

“Be honest. Does Regina actually stand a shot at getting custody?” Jordan asked.

Karlee lifted her shoulder. “She’s got money to fight this if it comes down to it. Of course, Dylan’s got money, too, but Regina’s probably better connected with the right people if this actually turns into a court battle.”

Well, Jordan didn’t have money or the right connections, but she had something else. Adele. They’d been close, once, and while Jordan definitely didn’t care for Adele sleeping with her ex, she would put that aside. Somehow, Jordan had to convince Adele to give her custody. That would shut down any fight that Regina tried to start.

“I need to go into town,” Jordan said. “I don’t have a lawyer, but I have to find one. Got any recommendations?”

“Anna McCord-Moore,” Karlee quickly provided. “She has a new practice, is new in town, too, but she’s the only one in a hundred-mile radius who doesn’t have ties to the Grangers.”

Then Jordan would definitely be seeing the newcomer. “I also need to check if there’s a room available at the Red Rooster Inn. Best if I don’t stay here—” Jordan stopped when Karlee kept shaking her head.

“Don’t stay at the inn. A group of kids from a rival basketball team released a dozen green garden snakes into the inn as a prank, and they’ve only found eight of them. The snakes, I mean. They rounded up all the pranking kids.”

Jordan shuddered, cringed. She’d been in combat zones and could handle the bloodiest field injuries, but there was no chance she’d walk into the inn knowing there could be snakes.

“You could stay in the guesthouse,” Karlee reminded her. “I set up my office in there, and I sleep there sometimes when Lucian’s in town, but you can just shove my stuff to the side to make room for your things.”

Great. The guesthouse. The very place where Dylan and she had been newlyweds, and it was only a stone’s throw from the main house.

No chance of escaping old memories there.

Still, she’d be close to Corbin so she had to keep it on her list of possibilities. While she was in town, though, she would look for something else, maybe a short-term rental. If she had time, that is. She didn’t want to be away from Corbin for too long, but there were still things she had to do.

“I need to go into San Antonio to drop off some paperwork at the base, and then visit Adele at the jail.” Jordan added.

Karlee sighed, patted her arm. “I can go with you.”

“No. That’s a kind offer, but I’d rather you stay here with Corbin. I feel like you’re the only person on my side.”

Karlee didn’t jump to agree to that.

Oh no. “You’ll take Dylan’s side because of Lucian,” Jordan said.