20. Colton
Chapter 20
Colton
H as life ever been sweeter?
I woke up early after yet another night spent buried deep inside Molly and left her sleeping peacefully in my bed as I went in search of coffee. By the time I stepped inside the kitchen, the pot was already brewing because Molly wasn’t just smart and beautiful and sexy and adventurous; she was also capable as hell. Every single night, she made the coffee and set the timer so it would start brewing before I finished my morning shower.
She was, in a word, perfect. She anticipated my needs even before I knew what I needed. She was a great listener, wore her heart on her sleeve, and seemed to love it here on the ranch. She was so easy to talk to, and when we were together, the age difference didn’t seem to matter at all, which could be a problem if I was misreading the look in her eyes when they settled on me.
She wanted me; I knew that much. Things between us were absolutely combustible between the sheets, but was that all it was? Did she want more than an erotic education? I didn’t know, and I wasn’t too busy to rock the boat right now to focus on the details. Or you’re being a coward, my conscience mocked. Yeah, okay, maybe there was a little bit of that too. I was with Sara for most of my adult life, and once she was gone, I couldn’t be bothered with things like dating and relationships.
Until Molly.
The curvy spitfire of a nanny who dared to make me want more, and worse, she made me want to reach for more.
With her.
My cell phone buzzed in my pocket, stealing my attention from the never-ending spreadsheet on the screen. I ignored the first three rings, and thankfully the damn thing stopped ringing, only to start ringing again. “Yeah?”
A long silence followed, and then a low, feminine smile exploded from the other side of the call. “Well now, I’ll bet you’re just a handful to deal with.” The voice was familiar, and it took me a moment to place it.“Serenity.
What can I do for you today?” The owner of the nanny agency that sent me Molly deserved more than my gruff demeanor, but she’d caught me off guard, and her call sent a knife of worry straight down my spine. “Sorry. What’s up?”
She laughed again. “No need to apologize; you’re a busy man, and I understand. But this is a business call.”
My brows furrowed, even though she couldn’t see me. I stood and circled the desk to push the office door shut. “Business? What business?” There was just one bit of business we shared. “Molly?”
“Got it in one. Now tomorrow is the sixtieth day of Molly’s probationary period, and I need to know if she’ll be staying there with you and Hunter or if I need to find her another placement.” Her words lingered in the air for a long, pregnant pause. “Mr. McCall?”
Whether or not I wanted Molly to stay wasn’t in question. “She’s done a wonderful job with Hunter, and I have no complaints.” I wanted to keep her at the ranch permanently. “What is the next step?”
“As of tomorrow, the contract will renew for twelve months unless you have another length of time in mind?”
I frowned at the phone. Maybe it was just my imagination, but it felt almost as if Serenity knew something was going on with us. “One year is a good start, I think. She’s done such a great job with my son that I may want to keep her longer.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful! I’m sure Molly will be thrilled to hear that after the past year.”
“What’s been going on?” Other than an over-eager boyfriend, she hadn’t said much about her past.
“Oh, nothing, just a few jealous wives and girlfriends who made it near impossible to find a placement for dear Molly. I am so glad this has worked out.”
“Me too. She’s made my life a lot easier.”
“Excellent!” Serenity Woods was so upbeat I could hear her smile through the call. “I’ll ring Molly with the good news. Good talking with you, Mr. McCall.”
“Call me Colton,” I told her with a laugh as I ended the call. Knowing that Molly would be around a little bit longer was a relief, but that didn’t stop the unease that settled in my gut.
I returned my attention to the spreadsheets because running a ranch included a surprising number of spreadsheets to keep track of everything from the animals to the milk sold, the hay bought, repair materials, and every other detail that went into keeping this place running. I looked at the screen until my eyes began to swim, and it was clear that I needed a break. Wyatt and the other hands were on the far side of the property fixing up fences and letting the bison graze on the fresh grass, which meant I was on my own.
The rumble of an engine sounded sometime after lunch, which was the perfect excuse to take a break from digital paperwork. I stood and stretched stiff muscles with a loud groan before making my way down the narrow staircase and out of the barn. “Buck!” I called out to the local mechanic as he stepped down from his flatbed.
Buck scanned the land with a wide smile that only grew when he spotted me, waving one weather-beaten hand in the air. “Colton McCall, I haven’t seen you in at least a few blue moons. How the hell are you?”
“Can’t complain,” I shouted and made my way across the field. “Heard you’re the proud grandpapa of twins?”
His smile somehow grew even brighter. “Good news travels fast if it already made its way to you. They are as beautiful as this here land of yours.” He looked around again with that settled look that most people got when they were face to face with the vast openness of the land. “Got a special delivery for Molly. She around?”
“Somewhere around here with Hunter. I can take possession of it if you want. They could be anywhere.” I’d gone to the main house for lunch, and food was there, but my nanny and my son were not. “Any messages I need to pass on?”
Buck shrugged. “Now I can’t speak to all of that, but it was definitely a nail that sliced through all four tires. There were two slits in each tire, so it wasn’t a mistake. Had to replace ’em all instead of just patching them up, which is cheaper, you know?”
I nodded, but dread slithered down my chest and settled deep in my belly. Someone had slashed her tires on purpose, not just to scare her but to cost her money. To doubly screw her. “Thanks for that, Buck.”
“That’s not all, Colton.”
Shit. “What else?” Molly had only mentioned the tires, and I hadn’t noticed anything else.
Buck reached inside the car with a grunt, but when he stepped back, he tossed me a small black box, no bigger than an old-school cell phone. “Found that under the back tire. Looks like one of those trackers you can buy at those spy stores.” While I stared at the tracker, he lowered Molly’s car to the ground with ease.
“Shit.”
Buck nodded, a look of regret on his face. “Yeah, I sure am sorry to be the one to deliver the bad news, but I figured she’d rather know than not, you know?”
I shoved my hands deep in my pockets and nodded because I would have to be the one to tell Molly what Buck had found. “Thanks, Buck. What do I owe you?”
“Molly already took care of it. She’s a sweet girl. I’ll see you both around,” he said before ambling back to the truck and jumping behind the steering wheel.
I watched Buck take off, leaving a trail of dust in his wake, my mind unsettled at the possibility that someone was spying on Molly and tracking her every move. The news would not go over well, and I didn’t relish being the one to give it to her.
But it had to be done, and delaying it wouldn’t change the words I had to say. So, after I took one look back at the spreadsheets that haunted my existence, I headed for the main house. “Molly?”
There was no answer. In fact, there was no sound whatsoever. The house was completely silent; even Amelia had left for the day. I grabbed Molly’s keys to put her car away and stopped at the garden on my way back, but there was a distinct lack of conversation and laughter that usually followed Molly and Hunter everywhere.
I started to worry after a quick trip to the stables found Peanut Butter in his stall, alone except for the other horses. “Where are they?”
It wasn’t like Molly to leave without a note, and since her car had just been delivered by Buck, she couldn’t have gone far. I started on the east side of the property where a small pond sat mostly unused. My heart raced with every step I took; worry crept into my throat and my chest, and on the heels of that worry, my own anger took hold.
It grew into something dark the longer I searched without finding them. Worry and fear twined together in my stomach as it filled with acid. What if something happened to them? My footsteps quickened, eager to set eyes on Hunter and Molly, but they weren’t in the field of flowers or the small orchard.
The sun slowly sank behind the horizon, and darkness settled over the land, which only amplified my anxiety. “Molly! Hunter!” My slow walk turned into a jog and then a full-out run as worry gripped my chest. “Molly!” The pond was in view but still a few hundred feet away, and I ran until my lungs burned, stopping abruptly about halfway to the pond.
Molly was stretched out on a blanket in the grass with her eyes closed. One hand rested behind her head, and a small smile curved her lips. Her other hand rested on Hunter’s chest as he slept peacefully with his head cradled on her lap. It was a gorgeous picture, warm and familial.
Perfect.
But my anger only allowed me to appreciate the picture for a minute. “Molly!”
Her eyes shot open, and her hand flew to her chest as she sat up, careful not to wake Hunter. “What? What’s wrong?” She looked around and then down at Hunter before her gaze shot to mine, a frown on her face. “Colton, what’s going on?”
“What’s wrong?” The words bellowed out of me so loudly they shook. “What’s wrong, Molly, is that I’ve been looking all over the property for you, and I couldn’t find you. I couldn’t find Hunter. I wasted more than an hour looking for you.”
“We’re right here, Daddy.” Hunter’s eyes were open, but his hands gripped Molly tight. “What’s wrong?”
“Everything is fine, buddy.” I held out a hand to comfort him, but my gaze remained fixed on Molly. “You didn’t leave a note.”
“I’m sorry, I forgot. I didn’t have my car, so I assumed you knew we were on the property.”
My chest heaved. “Something could have happened to you, to both of you!”
“Nothing happened,” she insisted. “We’re both fine. Perfectly fine.” Her voice was so even and calm, and that only made me angrier.
“How in the hell was I supposed to know that?” I raked both hands through my hair with shaky fingers. “I. Need. To. Know. Everything.”
She gave a short nod. “Noted.” Molly moved slowly, getting to her feet before dusting the dirt and grass from her clothes and then Hunter’s. “I will make sure you know where we are at all times.” She knelt down to face Hunter. “Ready for some grub?”
He glanced up at me with worry in his eyes and then back to Molly with an excited nod. “I’m hungry enough to eat a horse! But not a real horse because Peanut Butter is my friend, not my food.”
She smiled. “That’s right, kiddo. Let’s go.” She brushed past me without a word or a glance in my direction, which was rich considering she was the one who’d left without telling me where she was going.
Horse hooves sounded, and then Billy was there, his trademark smile replaced by a frown. “Been looking all over for you, Boss. What are you doing out here?”
“What’s up?”
“Peanut Butter is missing. I just got back with Wyatt, ready to get the horses settled for the night, but his stall was empty.”
“That can’t be. I was there about ninety minutes ago, and he was fine in his stall.”
“Not anymore. The guys are out looking for him, but I figured you’d want to know.” He glanced over his shoulder where Molly and Hunter walked hand in hand, chatting quietly. “He’s very attached.”
That was an understatement. “I’m right behind you,” I told him. “Get my horse ready.”
Billy nodded and took off, leaving me alone with nothing but anger to fuel my walk back to the stables. I had plenty of time to think about how I’d come after Molly and how she handled it with grace. It wasn’t her fault I was so damn worried; she didn’t even know yet why because I’d gone off half-cocked instead of telling her what I set out to tell her.
“Dammit.”
“Who pissed in your oatmeal?” Wyatt flashed a smile as he settled Peanut Butter in his stall an hour later.
“Me,” I grunted honestly. There was no one to blame for my current turmoil other than myself. And whoever put the tracker on Molly’s car. And slashed her tires. “Dammit.”
“Good luck to ya,” Wyatt called out, laughing as he left me alone in the stables.
I took my time, knowing I had an apology to make but unsure of the reception I would receive. There was only so much time to delay, though, before the night chill settled in, and eventually, I found myself kicking off my boots and stepping inside the kitchen, which was quiet and empty.
The oven warmer was on with a note taped to it. “Dinner is warm. Hunter is waiting for you to tuck him in. Good night. Molly.”
She was mad.
Really mad.