Chapter 17
Cole
“D id you know that someone is flying drones over your property?” Lauren asked as she plopped her gorgeous ass next to me on my living room couch on Saturday afternoon. “I saw them when I was driving in today.”
Not seeing her yesterday morning had been difficult, but she’d taken a day off from working out because we’d been up late the night before.
It had taken me a long time and a whole lot of effort to leave her house after giving her an orgasm for the first time.
It hadn’t exactly happened the way I’d planned but watching her come had been satisfying enough…for the moment.
Lauren had arrived at my ranch a few hours ago.
We’d quickly gone over some things about the project she was now working on for me, and then I’d absolutely refused to discuss business for the rest of the weekend.
I’d fed her lunch and we’d strolled out to the barn because Lauren wanted to know more about the Arabians and my breeding plans.
“I know,” I told her as I snagged her around the waist and pulled her next to me.
I really didn’t want to talk about it, but since she’d asked, I was pretty sure she was going to want an answer.
We’d been about to watch a couple of movies that we both wanted to see and chill out for a while.
Lauren tossed the remote back onto the coffee table. “Who’s flying them?” she asked curiously.
Yep. Apparently she was definitely going to require an answer.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to share things with Lauren, but we’d just straightened everything out between the two of us.
I’d just wanted one damn day to relax with my woman.
“Asher is using a company that utilizes LIDAR,” I explained.
Lauren sent me a curious glance. “Light detection and ranging,” she said in a perplexed tone. “That’s pretty high-tech. What in the world is he looking for?”
“Not what ,” I explained. “We’re looking for someone . We’re trying to find my mother in the one place that we haven’t looked for her yet. Now that I think about it, it was probably always the most obvious place, but Asher and I didn’t want to go there for a long time.”
Lauren’s eyes widened. “You think she’s buried somewhere on the ranch? I thought she left when you and Asher were little.”
“We thought so, too, for a long time,” I told her.
“But we never believed that she took off with another man. Asher thought my father forced her to leave. We started looking for her when we were both adults, but there wasn’t a single trace of her after the day our father swore that she left the ranch.
No paper trails. Nothing digital, either. ”
“That’s not good,” Lauren said solemnly.
“We actually stopped actively looking for a while, but we always came back to check for any new information. There was no activity, not a single reason to believe that she was still alive. A few years ago, Asher and I finally admitted that we both thought that our father killed her. It’s the only thing that makes sense. ”
“I’m so sorry,” Lauren said softly. “Has the search turned anything up?”
“Hey,” I said in a lighter voice. “It happened over thirty years ago, Lauren.”
Her eyes were shimmering with unshed tears, and I hated it.
She shook her head. “That doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hurt. It obviously bothers both of you if you’re still searching.”
“It does,” I admitted. “Probably Asher more than me because he remembers her more than I do. I think he’ll look for her until he runs out of places to search.
It would give him some kind of peace to finally find her.
I think we both want some kind of closure.
We knew our father was an abusive asshole, but I don’t think either of us wanted to believe that he actually murdered our mother. ”
“Have the LIDAR searches turned up anything?” she asked again.
“Plenty of false alarms, but that’s not surprising,” I said. “It’s a lot of acreage, and we’re basically flying blind. There are all kinds of ground disturbances on the property, but none of them turned out to be a body.”
“What happened to her things when she left?”
“That stuff is long gone, angel. If there was anything left, my father got rid of it. The only thing Asher and I have is a few photos.”
She frowned. “There has to be some way to narrow down the search area.”
“If there is, Asher and I haven’t figured it out.”
“Do you mind if I poke around a little?” Lauren asked. “I can talk to Millie and see what she knows.”
“I haven’t gotten around to talking to Millie yet.
I don’t mind if you talk to her. Feel free to tell her what we suspect.
I’d planned on explaining what Asher and I were thinking anyway.
Just don’t get your hopes up, Lauren. Asher and I have been going through this for years.
We’ll never stop looking if we can, but we stopped letting it make us crazy a long time ago.
We know we’re probably going to have to accept the fact that we’ll never know what happened or where she is. ”
“I lost my parents, but at least I know what happened to them,” she said solemnly.
“I’ve always had a place to mourn or to go and talk to them.
I was eight when my parents died. About the same age as Asher when your mother disappeared.
I can’t imagine never knowing what happened to them or where they went.
That must have been horrible for both of you. ”
I swiped a tear from her cheek.
Fuck!
This was exactly the reason why I hadn’t wanted to get into this discussion.
Lauren was way too empathetic, and I hated to see her cry over something that Asher and I hadn’t felt grief about for decades.
“You’re giving me way too much credit for sensitivity, angel,” I insisted. “I barely remember my mother anymore.”
“That’s not the point,” she sniffled. “It hurt when you were little and vulnerable. Not having your mother in your life changed your childhood. I hate that for you and Asher. Somebody should have been there to protect both of you. Your childhood can shape your entire future, Cole.”
I snorted. “And sometimes it’s just something you have to get over once you become an adult.”
She swatted my shoulder. “Stop doing that.”
“What?” I said as I looked at her in surprise.
“Blowing off the fact that it took a lot to overcome all of the things that happened to you. You and Asher were both so brave. You succeeded despite the horrible things you had to deal with in your childhood. It’s a lot, Cole, yet you’re one of the best men I’ve ever met.
I wouldn’t be here right now if I didn’t believe that. ”
Fuck! What in the hell was I supposed to do with a woman like her?
There wasn’t a damn thing that I would change about Lauren, but the way that she seemed to care about everyone and everything had to be emotionally exhausting.
Somebody really needed to protect her tender heart, though, and I was more than willing to step into that job.
“So, Ralph Norton wasn’t at Asher’s place to talk about your father’s murder,” she said in a contemplative tone. “Asher was talking to Ralph about your mother.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “The only reason my brother talked to the chief of police was to find out if he had anything new on my mother’s disappearance.”
“Your unfinished business here wasn’t to solve your father’s murder. It was to look for your mother.”
“Unfortunately, it’s still unfinished business for us,” I answered.
Hell, I really wanted to drop this subject and see my woman smiling again.
“Movie time?” I asked her.
She sent me a suspicious look. “Are you just trying to stop talking about the search for your mother?”
“Yes,” I said without a single ounce of remorse. “I have an amazing new woman in my life, and I’d really prefer to spend our limited free time doing something we both enjoy.”
She nodded and smiled at me. “I think I’d like that, too. We can discuss the other stuff later.”
We wouldn’t.
Not this weekend.
I had plans for every available moment we had together, and none of that included discussing anything depressing.
The beautiful smile she was tossing my way right now was a look I wanted to see as often as possible.
She’d had more than enough sadness and trauma in her life. Losing all of her immediate family by the time she’d turned eighteen had been difficult enough, but it wasn’t like she’d done much except go to college and work her way to success as an adult, either.
That shit needed to change.
I wasn’t exactly an expert on happiness, but it was time for Lauren to prioritize her happiness. She’d succeeded at all of her life goals.
“Science fiction or musical?” Lauren asked.
“You pick,” I insisted.
I didn’t really care which one we watched first.
Luckily, Lauren liked sci-fi, and I didn’t mind watching the second part of Wicked . I’d actually seen the first part and enjoyed it.
“What are we doing after we finish these movies?” she asked.
“We’ll drop your vehicle at your place, and I’ll take you to Billings for dinner,” I told her. “We’ll make it an early night. I was hoping I could convince you to spend a significant amount of time with me tomorrow.”
My baser instincts had been hammering at me to keep Lauren here with me, to spend the night teaching her every carnal way she could find pleasure.
However, I knew she deserved everything a relationship could offer her.
Lauren Collier deserved to feel special in every way possible.
“How much time?” she asked as she beamed up at me.
Fuck!
Those dimples of hers were definitely going to do me in someday.
“What we’re doing is going to require a round-trip flight on my private jet and an overnight trip.
I know you’re busy at work, but I’ll have us back by Monday.
” I hauled her into my lap and wrapped my arms around her waist. “Don’t say no, angel.
I want to do something special on our first real date. ”
Yeah, we were hanging out and having dinner tonight, but that wasn’t really a first date.
Her eyes widened. “You don’t plan on giving me any idea where we’re going?”
“None,” I replied with a grin. “That would spoil the whole element of surprise. Trust me?”
I was making light of that request, but I honestly needed to hear that Lauren trusted me after what had happened yesterday.
I knew that I’d hurt her, and I’d sooner cut off my balls than to do that to her again.
“I trust you,” she said obligingly. “But won’t I need to pack a few things if we’re going overnight?”
The tension in my body relaxed. I still had her trust even though I didn’t deserve it.
“Just pack a change of clothes. Something casual,” I instructed. “I’ve got anything else you’ll need.”
“This is starting to sound very intriguing,” Lauren said in a teasing voice as she wrapped her arms around my neck. “I’ve never flown on a private jet before.”
I tightened my arms around her.
Fuck! Doing nothing more than kissing Lauren was going to kill me, but this first date was more important than getting her into bed right now.
“I think you’re going to like this surprise,” I told her.
Her soft lips teased my mouth with a butterfly kiss before she said, “I think I’m going to like doing anything with you.”
Something in my gut twisted just a little.
I’d probably never get used to Lauren’s openness and the way she had no problem letting me know that she actually liked being with me, simply because she liked my company.
Not because I was a billionaire.
Not because I could give her anything she wanted.
She just wanted to share space with me because it made her happy.
For a guy like me, that was something that was going to take me a while to get used to.
“If you really like doing anything with me, give me a real kiss this time,” I said hoarsely as I slid my hand under her thick hair and cupped the nape of her neck.
She sent me a radiant smile that made my gut twist even harder as she murmured, “That would be one of the most amazing things we could do together.”
She lowered her head and planted her gorgeous lips on mine.
She was right.
Kissing this woman was something that was never going to get old for me.