Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Jay woke to sunlight pouring in through open drapes. A quick look at his cell phone showed him it was only 5:00 a.m. At some point after he'd stumbled home, with snow melting in his pants and temper in his head, he must have slept. He peered closer at his Samsung—the screen had a crack in it. Great. That freaking cowboy broke his damn phone kicking it about in the piles of snow. Not exactly a brilliant start to a working relationship.

He showered in his small bathroom and dressed in near-black jeans and a white shirt. He considered a tie, but dismissed it and instead left the top button of his shirt open. In the mirror the glint of his thin gold chain caught his eye, and he fished it out. On it hung his parents' wedding rings, which he held close to his heart. One day they would go to Kirsten and Josh, but today they were still his. He pushed the chain back down under the shirt and slipped on polished black leather shoes.

It was still only six, but he knocked on everyone's door to let them know they were being picked up in an hour. Jay made coffee and sat out on the veranda at the back of the large cabin, appreciating its spectacular view of the mountains.

Josh was the first to appear. In thick PJs and with severe bed hair, Josh curled up in Jay's lap for cuddles. "Will they be nice here?" he asked quietly.

"Of course they will be."

"Do I have to do my hair?"

"Probably. You want to brush your teeth as well."

"I already did that."

"For how long ?"

Josh was quiet for a long time. "I don't know," he said. "I forget a lot."

Jay cuddled him close and laughed. "Go, wet your hair, and brush your teeth. I'll come find you when Gabe gets here."

Josh ran into the house, and Ashley was the next to appear. Her long blonde hair was drawn up in a ponytail and he saw she'd used makeup again to hide the bruise. She had her own mug of coffee and slipped into the chair next to him.

"I don't think I've slept that well in years," she said with a smile. "It's so quiet here."

"That's a good thing, sis," Jay said, returning her smile. "We could all do with more sleep. Did you hear if Kirsten was up yet?"

"I heard noises. You know it takes her half an hour just to get her makeup on." Ashley shook her head wryly.

"Now you know what I have to put up with having you as my sister."

She punched him on the shoulder. "Actually, little brother, you're not looking too bad this morning." Ashley smirked and lifted an eyebrow. "Making an effort for Gabe?"

Jay near choked on his coffee. "No, I'm not. This is work for me. Not all of us are on holiday. Anyway, Gabe wasn't staring at me." He threw a look her way and she glanced away. She was blushing, and it was nice to see, then she grew serious.

"I don't want anyone looking at me, Jay. I don't see this as a holiday either." She curled her legs under her and sipped on her coffee. "I see this as a fresh start for all of us. Lewis knows where we are and could come make trouble for me, but for a while we can build something strong here, so when he does come, I'm ready for him and not so damn needy."

Lewis. Everything always came back to Lewis and the cloud he cast over Ashley's life. He'd lost the right to have access to Josh when he'd been jailed for hurting Ashley and rendering Josh unconscious when he was little more than a baby. Josh remembered nothing of that day, but Jay remembered every single detail of the frantic call from his sister and what he found when he got to her place: Ashley bleeding, Kirsten crying hysterically, and Josh limp in Ashley's arms.

That day Jay could have killed Lewis. He still wanted to; he just kept it hidden.

"Yes, he could follow us after he's off the tight leash the justice system has him on. He's a lawyer and he knows his way around the system. Neither of us is stupid. He'll come and try to contact Josh. He'll try to win you back, but you know what, Ash? We'll be ready for him."

Ashley held out her hand and Jay squeezed it. Linked that way, they both looked up at the mountains, lost in thought.

"He's here," Kirsten said from the back door.

Jay stood and threw the remains of his coffee onto the ground over the side of the porch. Catching sight of his niece's face, he sighed inwardly. She looked like something out of a music video shoot. Thick black lined her eyes, but she'd added a flick to each side which made them look odd. The bold design didn't stop there. Slashing scarlet lipstick covered her mouth and her dark pink hair had new streaks of blue-black in it. She wore black jeans, a black tee, heavy black boots, and had the expression of someone who'd lost a winning lottery ticket. They were due to look at schools in a few days in an effort to get Kirsten back on track, and he hoped to hell, the much smaller than they were used to, local high school was forgiving. Otherwise that would be another reason for the list of things Kirsten hated to grow by one.

"Mornin'," Gabe said as they walked back into the house.

"Morning, Gabe," Jay answered immediately.

Ashley didn't say a word, but she did smile, which was a step in the right direction.

"Hear you went walking," Gabe added. "Met my brother."

Jay groaned. He'd been an idiot wandering about like that in a place he didn't know and had asked for trouble. Still, make no bones about it, tall, dark, and rugged Nate Todd—or Nathaniel, as the job offer was signed off—was a stuck-up, opinionated prick who needed a dose of manners. One that Jay determined to give him today. Last night he'd pushed the late-night meeting to one side and managed to compartmentalize it enough to get at least some sleep, but everything was rushing back as he stood looking at Gabe. Yes, he knew he'd probably gone about things the wrong way, but he was collecting information for himself. Nate didn't have to near kill him with a horse.

He looked at Gabe closely. Was this what Nate looked like? Did he have the same emerald-green eyes? The same wavy hair? Did they look alike? Nate had appeared bigger than Gabe last night, but then, Jay had been lying on the ground, so his perspective had been a little skewed. Except, of course, for the part when he wasn't on the ground but up-close and personal with the man who smelled of the night and horses. Then the height difference and the build of the tall cowboy had been damn obvious.

"Yeah, we met" was how he summarized it. Gabe and he exchanged a quick, easy smile, and the weight of what he imagined Gabe thought of him lifted a little. He was a city slicker, so sue him for not knowing the rules of the range or whatever they had out here.

"It's not far. We can walk." Gabe peered down at Jay's shoes and winced. "You may want to think about getting boots," he said. "Pretty snowy in winter, then dusty in summer around here for leather like that."

"I'll get something," Jay said.

The family shrugged on heavy jackets and made their way out into the snow-covered landscape. The path was cleared, but the banks were maybe four foot deep. The white was stunning.

They made their way across the bridge over the river that Jay had walked over last night. The Blackfoot was wide at this point and shallow enough that Jay could see stones through the clear water. The sound was soothing, the sight spectacular. Jay stopped and framed a virtual photo in his head—from here, the water, the snowy banks, the mountains—a perfect sales shot.

"You coming, Uncle Jay?" Josh shouted from ahead.

Jay blinked. He'd fallen behind and lost himself in collecting images. Jogging, he caught up with the small group, and a few minutes later they were walking past a sign displaying the big word Private. Damn, he'd missed that last night.

"Up here there are three houses. The one at the top is where I live with Nate and my little brother Luke."

"You have a little brother?" Josh interrupted. "Can he play with me?"

Gabe chuckled. "He's seventeen, but I can tell you he plays some mean video games."

Josh frowned at the age, then smiled at "video games." "Does he have a PS3, or what?"

"I have no idea," Gabe said with a shrug. "You can ask him at breakfast. The first house is where we're having it." Gabe pointed at the house settled low on the side of the mountain just where the terrain began to rise away from the river. "Belongs to the Allens. Well, Marcus anyway. He has a housekeeper called Sophia who is like a goddess of cooking. She sure beats anything the three of us can come up with, anyway."

They reached the house and climbed the steps. Gabe knocked, then walked in, and Jay indicated that Ashley and the kids could go in next.

"We're here," Gabe called unnecessarily as an older woman appeared around a corner with a spatula in her hand.

"Come in, come in," she said. She pulled Josh in for a quick hug, then Kirsten. Josh loved it; Kirsten struggled a little and smudged some of her makeup on the woman's skin. "I'm Sophia," she said as she embraced Ashley, then Jay in turn. "I'm so pleased you all made it safely. Come into the kitchen and meet Marcus."

They all followed her into a wide-open space that clearly worked as the very heart of the house—a large range, with appliances and bowls and tins, and Sophia at the center with a grin on her face. A man who could only be Marcus stood, and he and Jay shook hands. He had steel-gray hair and dark eyes, and he was grinning ear to ear.

"So good to finally meet you," he said. His voice was deep and gruff and had less of a drawl than Gabe's did.

"This here is Luke," Gabe said by way of introduction.

A young man stood from the table. He was definitely related to Gabe—he had the same green eyes and the look of his brother. Luke politely shook hands, with Kirsten, who was faced with something new—a boy near her age with manners. All of them took seats at the large table, and Jay wondered where Nate was.

"Nate'll be here in a minute or two," Luke said as if he could read Jay's mind. "He's with Juno, and he's running late."

"Juno?"

"His horse. The one you met last night."

The door opened, and the noise of boots on the wooden floor heralded Nate's arrival. He kissed Sophia on the cheek, then slid into the empty chair between Gabe and Luke. That put all three Todd brothers in a row, and boy, they packed a punch. Getting his first proper look at Nate was a huge shock for Jay. He had this image of a shadowed man, big and hulking and all kinds of intimidating. He wasn't wrong on some of those points. Nate definitely looked like someone you didn't mess with. His features were harder than Gabe's, his worry lines more pronounced, but the grin was the same as his brothers' and his eyes a similar startling green. He was half a head taller than Jay's own five ten—six two, maybe? Height appeared to have skipped Gabe, who maybe had an inch on Jay, but it looked like Luke was going to be tall, the same as his oldest brother.

There was a harnessed energy in Nate, and Jay watched unnoticed. Nate ran big hands through his dark hair that was pressed flat, probably by a hat— a Stetson . His hands were big and the back of one them was scraped raw. Had he done that last night? Was Jay scaring the horse something that caused that scabbing on the man's skin?

As if sensing the scrutiny, Nate looked directly at Jay, his piercing eyes devoid of welcome despite the fact he had been grinning when he sat at the table. Jay could feel the ice from here. Thankfully Nate didn't hold the look; he simply concentrated on coffee and breakfast, which meant Jay got a short time to stare uninterrupted.

The Todd brothers were different. Gabe was pretty—really pretty; there was a softness about him that spoke of romance. Luke was young and relaxed and gave the impression he was easy in his own skin. Nate, on the other hand, was hardness personified: in the way he held himself, the way he sat silent, the fact that his flinty eyes were cold. Shame he had the looks but was icy with it. There was something about him that piqued Jay's interest even though the big man was a client, his employer, and Jay should remember that.

Jay sat eating breakfast, and an uncomfortable conclusion came from thinking about what had happened last night. He hated it, but really he owed the man an apology. He shouldn't have let his creative mind demand that he go and walk to get a better feel for the place. As soon as he'd left the bridge over the river, he'd become lost in the dark. After breakfast, maybe?

Shit, he needed to do it right then.

"About last night," Jay started.

Nate looked right at him again, and this time there was a spark of something in his eyes. Anger? Resentment? Or was he laughing? Fuck if Jay could tell with the accompanying inscrutable expression on the other man's face.

"Yeah, Nate, what exactly happened last night?" Gabe asked. "You came into my room like war had been declared, ranting about—" He stopped with an ooof as Nate elbowed him.

Jay took the interruption as his cue. "I just wanted to say it's my fault. I was walking around, and I met Nate and his horse out on the path up here. My apologies for coming onto private land." He included everyone in that. Manning up and apologizing when all he wanted to do was rail at Nate for scaring the shit out of him was his first step in building friendly relations.

Nate looked directly at him. "I overreacted," he said gruffly, then concentrated on forking eggs into his mouth, and Jay realized Nate was done talking. Well, to him, anyway.

"Sorry," Jay heard Nate say to Gabe between mouthfuls.

They fist-bumped, then dug into eating. What that was about was clearly not going to be explained. Some brother thing, Jay guessed.

"This is lovely food, Sophia," Jay offered.

The rest of his family agreed, and they began talking about schools and settling in.

"Luke is at the local high school," Gabe said when the subject of Kirsten's school came up. "He can tell you what you need for school."

"Happy to," Luke said immediately.

He was smiling at Kirsten, but Jay could see she wasn't in a happy place, and she simply scowled at the boy. Great start.

"Not sure I'm going to school," she announced airily. Everyone fell silent.

"You're going to school, Kirsten," Jay said firmly.

"'S not like they can teach me anything. Stan says it doesn't matter what I do, we've got nothing we need to learn," she said in response.

Again silence.

"What is it you've decided you want to do as a career, Kirsten?" Sophia asked her carefully.

Kirsten shrugged. "Things that don't need school," she said rudely.

"Kirsten, mind your manners," Ashley warned.

Jay groaned inwardly. This was not a good time for Ashley to reprimand Kirsten, though she was right to do so. He could almost script what happened next, and he was right.

Kirsten pushed herself up and out of her seat and made to leave.

"Sit down, Kirsten," Jay ordered.

"Why?" she began belligerently. "I don't want to be here. Why are you making me sit with them?"

"Kirsten—"

"I'm leaving." And she did.

"I apologize," Jay started as soon as she left. Ashley made to get up and go after her, but Jay stopped her with a hand on her arm. "Leave her be." Ashley looked at him, and he could see her eyes were filled with pain. "It will be okay."

An awkward silence fell at the table, and Jay felt the pressure of failure pressing down on him.

"Gabe, do you remember when you ran away 'cause you didn't want to go into eighth grade?" Marcus asked.

Jay's attention moved from Ashley, and he was damn glad of the distraction. Gabe gave Marcus a death glare.

Marcus continued without apparent concern. "I remember. It was because Mary in your science class was bullying you."

Gabe sighed noisily, but there was no anger in his expression. If anything, this was a scene that had played out before at the table—the good old embarrassing-story section that guaranteed family laughs.

"She was bullying me," Gabe protested. "She kept poking me with a pen when we were teamed up on that project about the environment. I was scared. I didn't know it was because she was into me."

"You ran away?" Josh asked, wide-eyed. He sat upright in his chair and was absolutely mesmerized with whatever Gabe said.

Jay wasn't stupid—he could see a serious case of hero worship from Josh toward the laid-back Gabe.

"Got as far as Ember Bluff as I remember," Marcus said thoughtfully.

If anything, Josh's eyes grew wider. "Is that a long way?"

"Fifteen minutes by horse," Marcus said quickly. "Pity you fell off."

"Lightning was spooked," Gabe said with the start of a grin on his face. "She threw me."

"Spooked by what?" Jay didn't like the idea of snakes, but he knew he'd face them out there in the stretches of plain up to the mountains.

Marcus huffed a laugh. "A thunderstorm. Lightning—the irony."

"She's a good horse," Gabe reminisced. "Fifteen hands and solid as a rock."

Jay listened to the byplay between Gabe and Marcus, watched Luke grinning at Gabe, and saw the start of a smile on Nate's face, all at the same time as shoveling in bacon and eggs like he was never going to eat again. The food was damn good, and Jay's body clock was telling him he was a few hours past breakfast.

"Thought we could get started after breakfast," Marcus said. "If that's okay with you, Jay."

"I'll take Ashley and Josh on a tour if you like?" Gabe said quickly.

"Don't forget the cabin," Nate reminded him.

Gabe narrowed his eyes and looked pointedly at Nate. "I have a list," he said simply. "So, Ashley, Josh, you want to get out of here and see what we got?"

"Is that okay?" Ashley asked. Jay waited for someone to answer, then realized she was talking to him. Wait… she was asking his permission? Why?

"Of course it is," he said with a smile. They needed to talk—Ashley didn't answer to him. He looked away and caught Nate looking at him with a distinct scowl on his face.

Now what have I done?