Lone Star Blues

Misty’s eyes widened, and her face flushed. “Oh,” she repeated. “I’m so sorry.” She repeated that again, too, and with her forehead bunching up with every step, she went to him, the sound of her broken shoe slapping on the marble floor of the foyer. “I didn’t know.”

Welcome to the club.

Misty looked around as if trying to figure this all out. Dylan suspected that he had the same kind of look in his own eyes.

“I had the limo you hired drop me off here last night,” Misty whispered. “It was all because of that bingo card. I got the one that said surprise s-e-x with Dylan Granger. But I fell asleep while I waited for you to come home.”

Dylan really didn’t want to get into this right now, but he had to ask. “How’d you know where my bedroom was?”

“My sister, Melanie, mentioned it in conversation. But don’t worry,” Misty quickly added, “I’ll put a stop to that stupid game. Little pitchers have big ears, and you wouldn’t want your son hearing about it.”

Dylan couldn’t agree more. The game had been an embarrassment right from the start, but nothing he’d said in protest had stopped it. Who knew that instant fatherhood would do the trick?

“You need a ride home?” Dylan asked when Misty started for the door.

Misty shook her head. “I’ll ask one of your hands. You’ve got more important things to do.” She mumbled another apology and headed out, past Lucian and Karlee who were still talking to Susan and the cop.

Yeah, he did have plenty to do, and Dylan started with looking in the bag. There was indeed an inhaler, and just as the social worker had said, the directions were on it. He’d need to make sure Corbin took it in the morning.

“Morning,” Dylan mumbled. It hit him then that for Corbin to be there in the morning, he would also be spending the night.

Thirty of them.

There went Dylan’s heart racing again.

“I gotta pee-pee,” Corbin said.

The kid might as well have announced he needed a rare form of uranium to save the world. Like just about everything else that’d happened this morning, Dylan didn’t know how to handle it. Was Corbin wearing a diaper? If so, Dylan was positive he didn’t know how to deal with that, but maybe Susan or the cop did.

He went to the powder room that was just off the foyer, and Dylan threw open the door. “Wait here,” he told Corbin, and he hurried back to the porch to get help from the social worker. Since she was still in an argument with Lucian, Dylan took hold of Karlee instead.

“Corbin has to go pee-pee,” Dylan said, and he wished he hadn’t repeated the boy’s words.

Apparently, being superefficient didn’t just apply to Karlee’s business skill set because without hesitating, she nodded and went to the powder room as if this, too, was part of her job description. But by the time they got there Corbin already had his elastic-waist jeans down to his knees. His superhero underpants, too, and he was peeing. The stream wasn’t going in the toilet because he wasn’t tall enough, but it was landing in the general vicinity of where it was supposed to go.

“Flush,” Corbin said. Or rather he said an approximation of that as he flushed. “Pull up.” Another approximation that he said, though Dylan did have to help a little when his jeans got caught on his butt cheek. “Osh hands.”

Dylan helped with that, too, by lifting him up to the sink, but Corbin managed the soap and water all on his own. He dried his hands on the sides of his jeans. There was a towel by the sink, but the jeans worked, too.

Dylan glanced out the front door. It was still wide-open, and he could see that the cop and Susan were now gone. Lucian was there, though, pacing and talking to someone on the phone. Their lawyer, probably. Lucian wouldn’t give up on finding a way to undo this.

“Lunch now?” Corbin asked. Or rather, “’unch now.” He tugged at Dylan’s hand.

Dylan’s next moment of panic wasn’t as strong as the pee-pee reaction. Food, he could handle. Or at least semihandle.

“Sure. This way,” Dylan said, and he was about to lead the boy to the kitchen, but Lucian came toward them.

“Have you lost your mind?” Lucian growled. “Why the hell—”

“Uh, I’ll see what Corbin and I can find to eat,” Karlee interrupted. Probably so that the boy wouldn’t have to hear this, she whisked Corbin away with Booger scampering after them.

“Why in the blazing hell did you sign that paper?” Lucian demanded.

“Because it was the right thing to do. Even if he’s not mine, he needs a place to stay until all of this is sorted out. And besides, it’s only for thirty days.”

Lucian gave him a look that could have melted a glacier at the peak of the Ice Age. “The temporary custody arrangement is for thirty days, and then there’ll be a hearing.”

Dylan shrugged. “By then Adele should be out of jail, and we’ll get this all worked out.”

“No.” And because Lucian didn’t immediately add anything to that, Dylan didn’t have a clue which of those two things got the no-vote. “Adele won’t be getting out in thirty days,” Lucian snapped. “With her criminal record combined with the current charges, she’ll be lucky if she gets out in five years.”

Shit on a stick. There came another of those funny feelings. A sick one in the pit of his stomach.

“And as we speak,” Lucian went on, “Adele’s lawyer isn’t working on getting her released from jail. Instead, he’s filing the paperwork to give Corbin to you permanently.”

CHAPTER THREE (#u9260719f-f437-51fa-83ea-2ab748465979)

“DO YOU REMEMBER when you got that tat in Singapore?” Theo asked her.

With a question like that, Jordan knew where this phone conversation was heading. It was going to be a mini life lesson. One that she wouldn’t want to hear but Theo would tell her about anyway.

The tat had indeed been a huge mistake. It’d not only gotten infected and ruined the rest of their vacation, but the inker had also botched it big-time. The Chinese symbol was supposed to be for “military” but instead looked like a stick figure with an enormous engorged penis. Worse, the penis pointed in the direction of her butt, making it look like a sordid sexual invitation to anyone who got a glimpse of it.

“Well, I think this is an even worse mistake than the tat,” Theo concluded. “It’s not a good idea for you to make this trip.”

And therein was the mini life lesson Jordan had been expecting while she drove from the San Antonio Airport to Wrangler’s Creek. Theo was right, though. It wasn’t a good idea. But it wasn’t as if she had options. No. Dylan and Adele had seen to that.

“I can be there in Wrangler’s Ridge in a day or two. I’m sure I can get leave, and I can help you deal with this situation,” Theo added. He’d already made that particular offer twice. It had preceded the tat reminder.

“Wrangler’s Creek,” she automatically corrected. “And really, there’s no reason for you to fly all this way.” Especially since Theo was stationed in Germany. Also, he’d eaten up a lot of his leave to be with her during her so-called recovery.

“Yes, there’s a reason for me to be there. A damn good one. You,” he argued. “You don’t know what you’ll be facing there. Adele can be so...unpredictable.”

Theo knew that firsthand, as well. He’d met Adele a few years back when they’d all ended up in San Antonio while Jordan was on leave. Adele had gotten mixed up with a group protesting a cause that Jordan couldn’t even recall. Things had gotten out of hand, rocks had been thrown, windows of an office building had been damaged. The only reason her cousin hadn’t been arrested then was because Theo had stepped in to talk the cops out of hauling her off to jail.

Theo had this whole rescue/hero thing down pat.

“Do the people there in Wrangler’s Creek even know you’re coming?” Theo asked a moment later.

Once she’d arrived at the San Antonio Airport, Jordan had texted Dylan to inform him that she was on the way, but she hadn’t checked her messages since then. She didn’t want to give him the chance to tell her not to come.

“It’ll all be fine,” Jordan assured her, though at best that was wishful thinking. Or possibly a whopping big lie.

Theo must have picked up on her doubt because he made a sound that he wasn’t quite buying it, either. “I hate that you have to go through this alone.”

Jordan knew Theo had her best interest at heart, but there was nothing that would stop her from making the drive so she could see Adele’s son and confront Dylan. She certainly wasn’t going to wait a day or two, either. She had waited long enough with the layover in Atlanta and the flight itself to San Antonio. And she’d seethed every minute of the delay. First for Adele not telling her that she’d had a child and second for Dylan screwing around with someone in her own family.

The man had no boundaries.