“Thanks,” Lawson said, “but I’m doing this on my own.” He tried to sound as calm as he could manage. Which probably wasn’t very calm. But he didn’t need his cousin for support. “This is between Eve and me.”
Roman stared at him, clearly debating if he was going to let a solo visit happen, but Lawson didn’t give him any more input on that. He was thankful that Roman had moved him from the stunned rage to the stunned anger stage, but Lawson didn’t want Roman there when he confronted Eve.
Lawson got in his truck, and as soon as he got it started, he slammed his foot on the accelerator, leaving Roman scowling at him in his rearview mirror.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
EVE NORMALLY ENJOYED feeding Aiden his bottle, but her son was drinking at a snail’s pace. He was far more interested in playing with his toes and pinching her than he was finishing up so that Eve could make arrangements to go to Austin.
Where she had to confront Tessie.
Eve still wasn’t sure what she was going to say to her daughter about getting drunk, but Tessie clearly needed help. Counseling, for starters. She doubted Tessie would just agree to that, but Eve was going to have to put her foot down. Tessie was still a minor—for a few more weeks, anyway—and if necessary Eve would force her to talk to a therapist about what had made her do such a dangerous, irresponsible thing.
God, it crushed her heart to think of Tessie drunk like that. It crushed her even more to think of what Tessie must have been feeling to try to drown her troubles with booze. Even if Tessie had done this as some kind of thrill or because of peer pressure and not because of all the anger, it still wasn’t acceptable. And Eve had to do something about that.
Sometimes being a parent sucked.
“You want me to finish up feeding Aiden?” Cassidy called down from the top of the stairs. Since Eve was in the family room, she couldn’t actually see her, but she had no trouble hearing her. “That way, you can get ready for Kellan’s visit and the drive to Austin.”
Cassidy knew about both because Eve had blurted out everything to her the moment she’d gotten back from the Granger Ranch. But Eve had no intention of doing anything to get ready for Kellan. In fact, she’d like to avoid him altogether. She hated to put that visit on Cassidy, but she couldn’t sit there any longer while worrying about Tessie.
“Yes, please,” Eve answered. “And when and if Kellan gets here, maybe you can try to find out if he lied about coming to Wrangler’s Creek to check out using the ranch hands as extras.”
There was possibly something fishy about that, but then again, this was Kellan. He came up with a lot of dumb ideas, and he didn’t mind spreading those ideas to others.
Whatever plan it turned out to be, Lawson wouldn’t take the bait, she was certain of that, but Kellan might be able to convince someone else in the area to go along with a scheme that might not be totally aboveboard.
Once, Kellan had invested in a coffee farm in South America that had turned out to be a brothel. Another time he’d talked his friends into putting up funds so a screenwriter-girlfriend could get her play into production. The girlfriend–con artist had left as soon as she had the money.
Cassidy came in the family room, scooping up Aiden and kissing him at the same time. Aiden giggled, pinched and played with his toes some more, which meant Eve had been right to hand him off. The feeding could have gone on way too long, and she wanted to get to Austin so she could catch Tessie as soon as she finished her classes.
“Wish me luck,” Eve said, getting her purse and keys from the foyer table.
“You might need more than luck,” Cassidy grumbled. “Any idea what you’re going to say to Tessie?”
“You mean other than ‘you’re grounded for the rest of your life’?” Eve groaned. “This was so much easier when she was a kid.”
“Yeah. You probably can’t manage this with a gold-sticker chart.”
No. And even though Eve didn’t want to consider it, she might lose Tessie for good. With that dismal fear running like wildfire through her head, she threw open the door and immediately spotted Lawson’s truck barreling up her driveway. He was going way too fast, as was the truck behind him.
Roman’s.
Her first thought was there’d been some kind of emergency. One that might involve Kellan. Maybe Lawson had punched him or something, but that probably wouldn’t have brought Roman here, chasing after him, and that’s clearly what Roman was doing.
Her heart went straight to her throat.
When Lawson stopped and got out of his truck, he was still in the “barreling” mode, but so was Roman. He braked to a noisy stop behind Lawson, and while calling out Lawson’s name, he tried to catch up with him before he made it to the door. Roman didn’t quite succeed at that. He was still a good five yards behind when Lawson stepped onto her porch.
“What happened?” she asked.
Though it was obvious Lawson had been in a hurry to get there, he had some trouble speaking. Probably because his jaw was clamped tight from the equally tight muscles in his face.
“Tessie,” he growled, managing to get the word out.
That didn’t help her heart in her throat, and Eve was about to ask him if something bad had happened to Tessie.
And then she saw it in his eyes.
Lawson knew.
“Don’t do this,” Roman warned him when he bolted up the steps to the porch. He was out of breath and clearly very concerned. “Let’s just sit down and calmly talk this out.”
“Fuck off,” Lawson snarled to him, and Eve suspected this was a continuation of a profanity-riddled conversation that had started at the Granger Ranch.
“Kellan told you?” she asked Lawson.
He didn’t confirm it with words, but she thought maybe his grunt-growl was of agreement. Eve would settle up with Kellan later, but for now, she obviously had a more pressing problem. Lawson looked ready to implode.
Since she didn’t want Aiden to hear any of this, she stepped out onto the porch, shutting the door behind her. She went to the far end of the porch in case this turned to shouting. Judging from Lawson’s expression, she could expect it. That’s why she gathered her breath and just put it all out there.
“Yes, Tessie’s your daughter, and yes, I was wrong to keep her from you. Yes, I have no excuse that’s going to help this situation, so if you want to yell at me, go ahead. I certainly deserve it.” Maybe all those yeses would help soothe that rage in his eyes.
Eve had intended to stop talking, to give Lawson a chance to start the shouting, but the wave of emotion just swept right over her. Not just the secret of keeping his daughter from him but also the rift with Tessie.
“I’ve made such a mess of things,” she went on. The blasted tears came, and even though she tried to blink them back, it didn’t help. “And now I’ve screwed up Tessie. That’s why she was drinking. Because of me. Because I suck at being a good mom and a good person.”