Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Autumn
A knock at my classroom door jerked me out of my stupor. A common occurrence in the last week. How long had I been staring at the wall of pumpkin cutouts with each kid’s favorite fall memory written inside while I’d been lost in thought about my homelife?
I blinked at the door. School had let out an hour and a half ago, but I’d stayed late to grade since my productivity at home had tanked. Most everyone had left. Except Scarlett.
She wore an amused smile and crossed her arms over her pumpkin cardigan. She wore it every year in the week leading up to Halloween. “I feel like I can tell what you’re thinking about since you returned from Vegas. Or should I say who?”
She would be right. Gideon was on my mind all the time. And when I was home, he was inside me. All. The. Time. It was glorious .
I woke up to his cock. I went to bed with it. And many times, I’d even showered with it. Last night, for dinner, he’d had me first. The meat loaf had gotten overcooked.
I grinned. “Can’t help it.”
She wiggled her finger at me. “Tate would dry heave if he saw you right now.”
My brothers would not like to hear what I’d been getting up to with Gideon. “I might have to gush to him to make sure.”
Tate hadn’t contacted me since the party where Gideon and I had left early. Teller had probably passed on our exchange at the distillery. Other than that, my brothers were steering clear of me. Good.
A little scrape of indignation chafed the inside of my chest. Were they digging in their heels and going through with the sale without even asking my opinion?
Since when had they ever asked for my opinion?
But I was married . To the man they were personally upsetting over the sale. Me. Their sister. Wasn’t I more than business?
“Uh-oh.” She crossed to my desk and pulled up a yellow wobble stool that looked like a giant board game piece with a broad base and wide seat. She sat on it like a pro, without tipping from side to side as she gained her balance, probably because she had some in her classroom. “Now, what thought is going through your head?”
“It’s nothing.” I shuffled the math papers I should’ve been done correcting. “What are you doing here so late?”
“Tate took the kids to your mom’s place, and they won’t get home until later. I thought I could get some lessons outlined so I can relax a little for Friday. ”
Halloween was this Friday. No one was getting anything done. The school had their fall festival and the kids could get dressed up. There was an art fair in the gymnasium and families were invited for the last two hours to tour the projects and have hot chocolate.
“Mama will send you home a plate of food.”
She put her hand on her stomach. “I’m counting on there being dessert too.”
I laughed. “There will be. If Mama doesn’t remember, Tate will.”
She put her elbow on the edge of the desk. The chair was so short her head barely reached her hand when she rested her chin in her palm. “I take it it’s going well?”
“So well.” A heat wave crept up my neck. “I really like him, Scarlett.”
“I hope so. You married him.” There was a slight question in her tone.
“I know you don’t think it’s real.” It felt legitimate. Each day that went by, my dream was becoming more of a reality. I liked going home to him. I loved waking up to him—and that was before he made me orgasm before work. But the calendar continued to tear a page away with each day. Slowly, we were creeping up to the closing date.
I didn’t want to wonder if he was waiting to go back to his plush penthouse and his runway-ready CFO and fuck buddy. That wasn’t part of my fantasy. Neither was him unpacking that suitcase of his and actually hanging something up in a closet. As long as he kept folding his clean laundry right back into his suitcase, I had no delusions.
“I think...” She ran her lower lip between her teeth. “I think your brothers are terrified it’s not real. They see you as the little sister they were supposed to protect. I see you as a smart and savvy woman who might drool at the sight of Gideon but would see through a facade.”
I stiffened. Scarlett was also intelligent and observant. I couldn’t tell her about the deal and ask her not to tell Tate. I wasn’t risking the only chance Gideon had, and I refused to put that kind of strain on my friend. “We must look like an odd couple.”
I was plain; he was a god. I was short; he was tall. I was wealthy in family connections, and he isolated himself. How could we be truly in love when he ran a company that earned over a million a day, and my late nights were filled with paste and construction paper?
Sympathy registered in her eyes. She sat back and wobbled intentionally side to side on her stool. “You two look adorable and I wish you knew it.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. Not even my students did that. “You’re supposed to say that. You’re my friend.”
“Do you think I feel like I belong next to Tate? The CEO turned single dad mountain man?”
“He’s a rancher. And you’re gorgeous.” I knew how she felt. We rocked the same style and it normally didn’t bother us. But we were only human.
“Good thing the cows don’t care he’s grumpy half the time.”
“He’s grumpy because he’s not with you.”
Her expression went dreamy. “Yeah.” She blinked, back to the mild teacher I knew. “He is worried about you, and it’s because he doesn’t trust Gideon, not you. I’m staying out of it, but I’m worried about you too. Why don’t you talk to Tate?”
Why didn’t Tate talk to me? “I don’t think it’d help.” I might as well sidle up to the wall and have a long conversation. If Tate didn’t want to budge on anything, he wouldn’t. And since he was head of Bailey Beef and this deal was going through the ranch, then his mind was made up. He was the oldest. He’d always been in charge. Teller and Tenor would follow his lead.
She put her hands up. “I’m not going to wedge myself in the middle. Just know you can always talk to me. I won’t go to Tate with everything.”
I lifted a brow.
She rolled her eyes. “I do keep some things from him.”
I kept the brow arched.
“Fine. I’m an open book with him, okay? But I’m still here for you.”
“Thank you.” I had been hesitant to be my usual self with Scarlett, unsure of what she’d report to her husband.
“What I really came here for, other than a check-in, is to see if you were going to be home tomorrow night for trick-or-treating.”
“Of course, why wouldn’t I be?”
“Maybe you have a hot date? Or maybe you’ll be in flagrante?”
I laughed. With the way Gideon and I had been all week... “I’m not going to be doing it when kids are ringing my doorbell. I haven’t really talked to him, but I’m sure he’s fine with answering the door a hundred times in two hours.”
Teachers’ houses were popular stops on the Halloween route.
“Only a hundred?” She let out a wistful sigh. “I miss that. No one comes out to the cabin, and I don’t blame them. It’d eat up half their trick-or-treating window. ”
“You’re bringing the kids by?”
“Most definitely. Brinley got a taste of the candy last year, and she’s been talking nonstop about it.”
“I can’t wait.”
She rose. “What are you going to be dressed as this year? Or is your after-school costume a surprise?”
The air in my lungs froze. My costume. I had purchased it months ago, and I’d been preparing for Halloween, but the idea of wearing it around Gideon hadn’t set in. I had a costume I wore at school and then I switched out to surprise the kids when they came by the house. “Uh...”
She tilted her head. “You’re wearing your costume for trick-or-treating, right?”
“Oh, yeah. Of course.”
Her eyes narrowed. “With your makeup?”
“Not at school.” We weren’t allowed to have face paint at school.
“You know what I mean. Around Gideon ?” she taunted, like a kid on the playground. “Or are you scared ?”
“No?” My voice pitched high. “I’m still dressing up.”
“Good,” she said with false innocence. The hint of gotcha was in her voice. “See you then.”
“Bye-ee.” My grin faded as soon as she walked out.
Great. My trick-or-treating costume.
For school, I’d learned to wear something that was comfortable, and I had a rotation of clothing and headbands. Black shirt and slacks and a headband with ears—kitty cat. Brown shirt, brown pants, and a headband with even bigger ears—fox. A dress and leggings with a red cape if it was cold out—Little Red Riding Hood. Tomorrow, a purple dress and a green scarf. With my red hair, I could pull off a decent Daphne from Scooby-Doo .
If only I was wearing that for tomorrow night, but my other costume was too uncomfortable for a full day of teaching. I couldn’t be Daphne at night too. Every kid that came to my house would be expecting something different. Not only would it be embarrassing to have kids repeatedly ask where my second costume was, but then I’d have to explain why if Gideon overheard.
And if any of the trick-or-treaters found out what my trick-or-treat costume was supposed to be and I didn’t wear it? They’d never let me live down the irony of lying.
Gideon
My wife was standing at the threshold of the living room, her cheeks bright red, and it wasn’t just from makeup. She wore red shorts with suspenders, a yellow shirt with an obnoxious white collar, and a blue bow tie. She had her hair bundled under a black bowl-cut wig and a yellow-and-blue beanie plopped on her head. A long nose was strapped around her face.
“Is sexy Pinocchio a thing?” I folded my arms. Through the picture window in the living room, I could see a group of kids rushing down the sidewalk toward the house. They needed to slow down so I could take in the picture in front of me.
She shot me a mock glare, but a smile played along her lips.
Laughter bubbled in my chest, but I held it in. “Remember, I’ll know if you’re not telling the truth.”
Her flush deepened. She looked so damn cute and on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but her gaze was obstinate. “They were out of sexy nurse costumes.”
A chuckle left me, turning into a full belly laugh. The doorbell rang, and she scurried past me.
“Trick or treat, Miss K!”
I turned when I heard Deon’s voice.
“I mean, Mrs. J,” he amended.
“It’s okay.” Autumn dished out candy to the four boys on her stoop. “Everyone’s still trying to get used to it.”
“I like your costume! Pinocchio!” another boy shouted. “Does the nose grow?”
I snickered and she shot me a hard look. “No, but I don’t lie anyway.”
“Hey, Mr. J, why aren’t you dressed up?” Deon called.
Autumn put the orange candy-filled bowl under her arm and waited for my answer. My retribution for laughing at her.
It was disturbing how badly I wanted her to keep those suspenders on in bed. “I don’t dress up.”
“Why not?”
“There’s no trick-or-treating where I live.” Perhaps in some neighborhoods, but not in Silver, I left it at that.
Deon grimaced like he couldn’t imagine living in such a dystopia. “Bye, Js!”
He darted off with the rest of the boys.
I took the bowl from Autumn as she shut the door. “I have no idea what any of them are dressed as.”
“Deon’s a wrestler. I can’t remember the name, but there was just a movie about him. Caleb’s Iron Man, José is Spider-Man, and Lakin looked like some vaguely familiar anime character. I think I heard him say he was going super saiyan.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I’ve been told over the years, but my head spins, and I start getting fandom terms mixed up. I think it’s like superpowerful.”
More kids piled onto the stoop. The sounds of them arguing over who got to ring the doorbell came through the door.
Autumn put her hand on the doorknob but didn’t turn it. “I’d better wait, or I’ll upset the balance.”
The doorbell dinged. Sprinkles was nowhere to be seen. I couldn’t imagine a rescue like her sticking around for the chaos that was doorbells and handing out treats.
Every time Autumn answered the door, cheerful shouts of “Miss K” and “Mrs. J” would ring out. Autumn would chat with each kid and their parents, and even more kids would peek in at me, shamelessly curious. Many of them shouted a greeting.
I couldn’t walk through the hall of Silver and get this many greetings.
While Autumn doled out treats, I marveled over how good those absurd shorts made her ass look.
During a lull, she shoved the bowl into my arms. “I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”
Panic crowded inside my chest. “Wait—what—how many?” My desperation reached new heights when I counted only about ten pieces left. “What if I run out?”
“Two pieces each.” She disappeared down the hallway. “There’s another bag in the cupboard by the fridge,” she called .
The doorbell rang and I froze like a deer in the middle of an interstate.
It rang again and someone shouted, “I already pushed it” on the other side. If they pressed the button again, Autumn would think I couldn’t handle this simple of a job.
I opened the door to find three little wide-eyed girls staring up at me.
“Where’s Miss K?” the tallest one asked.
Another girl elbowed her. “It’s Mrs. J now.”
The third bounced up and down, her fluffy skirts shaking. “Trick or treat!”
I wasn’t about to announce Autumn was in the bathroom. “She’ll be back.”
Three tote bags loaded with candy were thrust toward me. At the end of the driveway, two adults waited. One had a mug.
A faint memory curled through my head. My mom laughing with my dad. “I bet there’s more than hot cocoa in those cups,” she had said about a group of dads going through a neighborhood with their kids on Halloween.
I hadn’t known what she’d meant at the time. We had covered the same part of Bourbon Canyon each year, and always the nursing home where both sets of my grandparents had spent their last days.
The nostalgia was heavier than normal. I gritted my teeth together and diligently counted out two mini chocolate bars for each girl.
“Thank you!” they belted in unison before running toward the sidewalk.
The parents lifted their mug toward me. I dipped my head. I was about to shut the door, but another group was making their way toward me. Two adults and three kids.
Shit. I would have to get another bag. Did I shut the door? Tell them to wait? Ruin Autumn’s reputation by giving them only one piece of chocolate?
The boy who sprinted up the steps seemed vaguely familiar with his height and how he carried himself, but with the white-and-black makeup on his face, I couldn’t place him. A little girl skipped up the steps behind him, and a toddler was rushing to catch up. The parents didn’t hang back either. The stoop wouldn’t be big enough for all of them.
The older boy grinned at me. “Aunt Autumn always has the best candy.”
My stomach knotted. Tate’s family. I glanced over the boy’s head to find steady brown eyes watching me. Tate wasn’t dressed up. He wore a Copper Summit hoodie and a ball cap. He’d look like any other guy if it weren’t for the beard and the way he carried himself. His stance said he was in charge. Always.
“Chance, right?” I caught Tate’s surprise in my periphery. He must not have thought I’d cared enough to remember his kids’ names.
“Yep.” He grinned. “I’m Beetlejuice tonight.”
“I’m a pincess,” Brinley announced.
What was a pincess? How did I make conversation with a kid when I couldn’t interpret their words? Then she dipped into a curtsy.
Oh. “Do you have a castle, princess?”
“Nuh-uh.”
The littlest one, Darin, shoved between them and darted past me. I just watched him run. He yelled some word I couldn’t make out .
“Darin,” Scarlett and Tate called. Scarlett tried to crest the stairs. She was in a yellow dress that I should be able to place, but my knowledge of children’s characters was sorely lacking. The two older kids wouldn’t budge for her.
“No worries.” Autumn appeared. She had Darin on her hip. “Let me grab the second bag of candy. Come on in.”
Tate watched me, evaluating my reaction.
“Autumn’s house is usually our last stop,” Scarlett explained, sounding almost apologetic.
“By all means.” I stepped to the side. Chance and Brinley charged in.
Scarlett scooted past me.
Tate managed not to shoulder me, but he looked like he wanted to. “James.”
“Bailey.”
A trio was coming up the sidewalk, two adults holding a baby in a bumblebee costume. As they got closer, I recognized Myles and Wynter.
Autumn had failed to mention Halloween was a goddamn family reunion.
“There’s Uncle Gideon,” Wynter cooed. “Can you wave to Uncle Gideon?” I was pinned with big blue eyes surrounded by dark lashes. Elsa’s puffy black antennae flopped around when she waved.
Uncle Gideon.
Uncle .
Goddammit, these kids were my nieces and nephews. Four of them. I’d never thought of them like that.
When we got a divorce, I’d go back to being nothing but a stranger. I should feel relief, but it was slow in coming .
Autumn returned with Darin on her hip. He was holding her costume nose. “Hey! Come on in.” She set Darin down, took the nose from him, and grabbed the bowl from me.
I was pressed against the open door while Wynter and her family filed in and went toward the kitchen where the others had gathered. Autumn’s ass was facing me while she helped Darin dump the candy into the bowl.
She handed the empty bag to Darin. “Can you go throw this away for me?”
“Kitty?” Darin asked.
“No, she’s hiding.” She tapped the bag. “Garbage, please.”
He toddled toward the kitchen. Chance was dumping his candy out on the table.
Another group of kids came to the door. I stayed with Autumn as she went through the trick-or-treat routine. Whatever was going on in the kitchen was a ritual I had no history with.
The street was quiet. Shadows of kids flicked door to door down the road, but no one was making their way toward our house.
Autumn didn’t leave the doorway. “It’s tradition for Chance to trade out the candy he doesn’t like.”
“Because you carry the good stuff?”
“It helps I like it too.” She took a piece out of the bowl and opened it. Instead of popping it in her mouth, she fed it to me.
I caught the tips of her fingers and she giggled. Chocolate exploded on my tongue. When was the last time I’d had a candy bar?
She tucked her hand into mine. When we turned, Wynter was watching us. Now that her jacket was off, her Bavarian barmaid outfit was clear. Her pale hair was braided down each side. Myles was dressed like me and Tate.
“Is that how disgusting Myles and I are?” Wynter asked Tate. He just grunted.
“We haven’t done it under Mama’s roof,” Autumn retorted.
“You have no proof,” Wynter said smugly. She bit her lip. “All right, fine. I don’t lie very well. Do you still have adult treats?”
“Of course.” Autumn dragged me into the kitchen. She went to the cupboard she kept her spirits in and took out a bottle of Copper Summit Gold. I took out six glasses to keep myself from having to make small talk with guys who either didn’t like me or didn’t know me.
“None for me,” Tate said. “I’m driving.”
“Same,” Myles added.
“He likes when I’m the one who gets tipsy,” Wynter whispered to Scarlett. Tate winced.
I tried not to laugh. Enjoying this interaction wasn’t part of the plan. I wasn’t kissing Bailey ass to get my land back. But their family chemistry was infectious. It was hard not to get drawn in.
It was also hard not to make comparisons to my own experience and come up so damn short.
“Scarlett, are you Belle with your Beast?” Wynter asked.
Scarlett blushed and the way she looked at Tate was full of adoration. “He’s going to build me a library.”
Tate gave her a heated look in return. Any more of this shit and the room wouldn’t be kid friendly. But then, the kids were probably used to this. Same with the adults. It was me who wasn’t.
Tate leaned against the counter next to me. “Jonah said he helped you tow Hank’s truck last week.”
“Yep.”
He nodded. “You guys have been busy with fence.”
Defensiveness prickled along the back of my neck, but he sounded more like he was attempting conversation than digging for information. “Did Hank show you?”
“He’s been telling everyone who’ll listen that you’ve been out there with him.”
Acid flared up my throat. “He’s exaggerating. It was barely two days.”
“He likes having you around, but you never said if you were moving to town.”
First Teller. Now Tate. I glanced down to the bedroom. Good. The door was shut, but my suitcase was around the corner anyway. “I guess we’ll have to see.” My gaze followed Autumn as she ran to answer a knock on the door. Darin was on her hip again.
Myles lingered by us. He was holding Elsa while Wynter bent over the table with Scarlett, Brinley, and Chance sorting candy.
“Myles works from his home not far from Mama.” Tate said it like a challenge. “Foster House is in Denver.”
Another point made. “The casino isn’t like that.”
“I still fly to Foster House,” Myles said more conversationally, “but soon, my brother Lane will be training on-site. In a couple of years, he might be there permanently.”
Meaning Myles found running a company from another state had its challenges, and he thought it was ideal to have the boss there full-time.
“I hired a manager,” Myles added as if trying to keep from taking sides.
“I am the guy the board hired to run the casino.”
“Autumn’s not going to move,” Tate said only loud enough for me and Myles to hear.
“Then don’t give her a reason to.”
He drew in a steady breath. Myles tipped his head down.
“It’s not up to me, Gideon. If we don’t buy that place, and if your dad doesn’t sell to you, then who’ll buy it? Some Hollywood asshole who doesn’t give a shit about Montana or that land’s history.”
Clearly, having an outsider buy that place was a general concern with everyone. “Its history is my history. My great-grandfather worked his ass off to secure that place after he lost everything else.” My grandfather had told me the story many times.
“Then we can’t have it going to some bastard who’s going to parade their rich friends through—or worse, turn it into a rental and ruin our property value.”
I took a long sip of my drink. The heat of the alcohol burned down my throat, giving a place for my rising anger to latch on to. Awareness crept in. I was getting upset and savoring the flavor of alcohol on my tongue.
No. I put the glass by the edge of the sink. Tate’s words were exactly what Dad had worried I’d do. “I’m not some rich prick.” I kept my voice low.
Tate shrugged. “In the end, it’s your dad’s decision. Don’t take your anger out on my sister.”
“I don’t think that’s what he’s doing with her.” Myles smirked .
Tate shot him a dirty look. “Don’t do that to me.” He held his hands up. “Can we call a truce? At least for tonight? My kids love Halloween, and it’s Friday, so we don’t have to rush them to bed. I’m also not above a steep candy tax, and I need to see what Brinley has to pay with.”
Wynter was digging in another cupboard. She withdrew a bag of freeze-dried yogurt bites. “Aunt Autumn came through again. Lucky Elsa.”
I had wondered who the hell would eat those.
Autumn lifted her head from where she was recording the candy count with Chance. “There’s too much competition for the funnest aunt. I have to stay stockpiled.” She smiled at me, and she looked so damn happy surrounded by kids, my heart twisted like a dishrag.
I worked in a place where people went to escape this. I made it happen for them. But this was the first time I’d wondered why anyone would want a break from this kind of life. And that was terrifying.