You betcha. Aiden and I are doing just fine. I’m guessing Lawson will be with you?
It was a simple enough question, but Eve wasn’t sure how to answer. If she said yes, Cassidy would assume this was a stayover with a side of sex. Cassidy knew that Eve’s first priority would be finding Tessie, but Lawson had a way of working himself between the lines of priorities.
Maybe, Eve texted back. Then she cursed herself for lying. Yes, he’ll be there, she added. Nothing’s going to happen.
Cassidy texted back several rows of laughing emojis.
Eve texted back some frowny-face emojis.
Cassidy countered with what appeared to be a dancing penis.
“A problem?” Lawson asked her. He glanced at her phone screen, but she quickly turned it off.
“No. Everything’s fine.” She had no intention of admitting that she’d just had a high school encounter with her best friend. “What’s the address of this place so I can let Cassidy know in case of an emergency?”
It was overkill because if there truly was an emergency, Cassidy would just call her, but Eve always liked to provide all information when it came to the baby. As soon as Lawson rattled off the address, she sent the info in what she hoped would be a final text to Cassidy tonight.
Eve also messaged Tessie the address, too, though if she actually read the text, that might prompt Tessie to go anywhere but there. It was pretty clear that her daughter was trying to avoid her.
Lawson had been right about the apartment being only a few blocks away. Not enough time for them to launch into a discussion about just how angry he was at her right now. With her energy level near zero, Eve considered that a good thing, but she knew that eventually they were going to have to talk this out.
Work this out, too.
Considering how much time Lawson was putting into finding Tessie, she seriously doubted that he was just going to disappear from their daughter’s life. However, Tessie might not want him anywhere near her. That also applied to Eve. Still, they were going to have to come up with some solution, one that couldn’t even get started until they found Tessie.
After Lawson had parked his truck in the building’s garage, they made their way to the apartment on the top floor. Eve hadn’t needed any reminders that the Grangers were rich, but she got one anyway. The place was huge, with incredible views of the city. But those views were only a reminder of just how big Austin was and that Tessie was like a needle in this urban haystack.
“Sophie used to live here before Clay and she got married,” Lawson explained. “Garrett once had an apartment in this building, too, but they sold it. Garrett didn’t like spending time here.”
No. Garrett and Lawson were cut from the same cloth. Both cowboys to the core. Sophie had probably only been here so she could better run Granger Western, and now she could do that from Wrangler’s Creek.
He went to the fridge, got a beer and offered her one by lifting a bottle. Eve shook her head. Alcohol, fatigue and Lawson weren’t a good mix.
“I’ll just grab a shower and go to bed. Which way?” she asked.
He motioned to the hall. “The second room on the left. That was Sophie’s room, and there are still some clothes and toiletries in there that you’re welcome to use. I’m also going to have some food delivered. You want anything?”
“No. I’m not hungry.” She thanked him and was about to do the sensible thing and put some distance between them, but Eve found herself staying put and repeating that thank you.
He drank some of his beer and stared at her. “For what—not treating you like shit because I’m pissed at you, or for helping look for Tessie?”
“Both,” she readily admitted. Eve could feel herself opening the can of worms that shouldn’t be opened. Not tonight, anyway, when they were so blasted tired. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but when I kept the pregnancy from you, I thought I was doing the right thing.”
Lawson made a sarcastic-sounding grunt. Throughout the past two days, she’d seen a lot of different emotions on his face, but this one was more intense than the others.
“Let me guess why.” He held up one finger. “It’s because we’d had that nasty breakup.” A second finger went up. “Or because I was still torn up about Brett.” He lifted finger number three. “Or maybe you believed I was too young to be a father. Or,” he quickly added when she was about to interrupt him. Finger number four. “You’d outgrown your small-town roots and the cowboy you used to fuck.”
The fourth one gave Eve her own shot of anger. She went to him, took hold of his hand and pushed down the first three fingers he’d lifted. “Yes, to those. No, to this one.” And she wasn’t especially gentle when she shoved it back down. “Shortly after I found out I was pregnant, I did come back to Wrangler’s Creek to tell you,” she blurted out.
Well, that wasn’t anger on his face now but rather surprise, and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head. “When? And if you came all that way, why didn’t you see me?”
“It was early that May, and I did see you. You just didn’t see me,” she quietly added.
He cursed. “I was with someone else.” And he cursed some more as he came out from behind the white granite island that separated them. “That was the spring and summer of me screwing around.”
Eve knew she was frowning now and feeling something she had no right to feel. Jealousy. But crap on a cracker, that May she’d still been crying buckets over him.
“How much screwing around?” she asked, walking closer to him. Now that they were out in the open and facing each other, it suddenly felt a little like an Old West showdown with each of them about to draw.
“Lots,” he admitted, a frown on his face, too. “Who was I with? Because I’m sure as hell not going to remember who it was.”
She considered letting him squirm awhile, but Eve had been trying to make a point, and she was getting way off track. “You were with Sugar, your favorite horse, and you were in the pasture out by your uncle Z.T.’s old place.”
He opened his mouth. Then huffed. “What were you doing all the way back there? And why didn’t you say anything to me?”
Since this was going to be a longish story, one not especially easy to relive, Eve took a deep breath. “When I was on a short break from the shooting schedule, I flew to San Antonio, and my grandfather picked me up and drove me to the Granger Ranch because he said that’s where you were working. One of the hands told us where you were, so we used the old trail to drive there. Granddad had binoculars in his glove compartment, and I used those to spot you.”
Lawson shook his head. “No ranch hand mentioned anything about you asking for me.”