Chapter Twenty-Two
“Are those bagels I smell?” Blakely stretched her arms and made a show of waking up. Was she being too obvious? She hadn’t intended to eavesdrop on their conversation, but she woke up at “We don’t have a relationship to discuss,” and it had felt like the wrong time to make it known she could hear.
If not for her bladder forcing her to get out of bed, she would have pretended to be asleep for the rest of their conversation. However, she had to go.
Throwing off the covers, she stepped lightly on the tile flooring.
“Yes,” Jules said with a look toward Dalton. “Help yourself.”
“Bathroom first,” Blakely said before disappearing into the adjacent room. She wished she could crawl through a crack in the wall and disappear after hearing Dalton tell his sister about their non-relationship. Clearly, the woman had picked up on a vibe between Blakely and Dalton.
Were they that obvious?
So much for playing it cool around other people. Blakely couldn’t contain her attraction when she was one-on-one with Dalton, but she thought she was doing a decent job of covering in front of others.
Maybe not.
Their chemistry was undeniable. So much for being stealth about their past. Now, there were questions—questions she couldn’t answer. Trying to be with Dalton didn’t work. Trying to stay away from Dalton didn’t work.
Right now, she was a big ball of contradiction. He must be confused as hell.
Blakely made a quick call to check on her sister before freshening up. Then, she joined the siblings in the next room.
“How’d you sleep?” Jules asked, and Blakely was grateful for the general question. She couldn’t answer personal ones right now. Not when she was just as confused as everyone else about the nature of her and Dalton’s relationship.
Blakely was handed a bagel and a cup of coffee almost the second she sat down. “Better than anyone should in a hospital.”
The comment elicited a couple of laughs and a nod from Dalton, who probably didn’t sleep much more than a few minutes here and there.
And then he turned his attention toward his sister.
“Jules, can I ask you a question?” Dalton started before adding, “It’s off topic but important.”
“Go ahead,” she urged. “You know you can ask me anything.”
“Did you know about our mother being in contact with our grandparents all these years?” he asked in a direct question.
Jules sat there for a long moment, quiet. She stared out the window and shifted in her seat.
“I did,” Jules admitted. She shot a look of apology toward Dalton, who looked like he’d just been betrayed by his best friend.
“Am I the only one who didn’t know?” he asked.
“I’ve never discussed it with Camden,” Jules said. “So I can’t speak for him.”
Based on the look on Dalton’s face, the response didn’t exactly offer much in the way of reassurance.
“What about her?” he asked. “Are you in touch with her? Do you guys…what?…talk on a regular basis or something?” The rim of his cup suddenly became real interesting to him.
“Not really,” Jules admitted.
“What does that mean exactly?” Dalton pressed. “You don’t talk at all or don’t talk on a regular basis?”
Beep. Beep. Beep. The heart monitor picked up.
Blakely glanced at the machine and then tried to catch Dalton’s gaze. No use. His was fixated on his sister.
“Just that,” Jules said on a shrug. “I asked our grandparents if they knew anything about our mother for medical history purposes a couple years back.” Jules kept her gaze fixed on the window. “Once I opened the door, Grandma Lacey came to me and asked if I had any questions.”
“You mean Pandora’s box,” he quipped. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Jules shot a warning look.
“I’m guessing you did have questions,” he continued. Beep. Beep. Beep.
“That’s right.” Jules turned her attention to the sliver of bagel in her hand.
She started to take a bite before thinking better of it and setting it down.
“My curiosity started with medical questions, and then things spiraled from there. I wanted to know what she was like and if I got any of my traits from her. I look in the mirror, and I don’t see a resemblance to Dad.
I’m not like you and Cam. I’ve always felt like I looked like the black sheep of the family and—”
“No way,” he countered. “You’re you. You look like you.”
Jules pinned him with her gaze. Blakely wouldn’t want to go up against Dalton’s sister in a bar fight, that was for sure.
“Haven’t you ever looked at me and wondered where I got this hair color from?” Jules asked.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I had no idea you felt that way, or I would have—”
“What? Reassured me?” She blew out a frustrated breath. “And force a discussion about our mother on you and Cam when you both seemed capable of letting a sleeping dog lie?”
“You could have given us the benefit of the doubt that we would have been able to handle talking about her,” he pointed out. Beep. Beep.
“The subject never came up,” Jules admitted. “It’s not exactly something we ever discussed. I mean, you and Camden never mentioned anything about our mother, so I guess I figured that you just didn’t want to know, and I should leave it alone.”
“I’m sorry you didn’t feel like you could come to me to talk about it,” Dalton said. “I guess I haven’t been the easiest person to discuss our parents with.”
“Through no fault of your own,” she said.
“I just figured there would come a day when you would be ready to talk about her or ask questions, and part of me wanted to have the information and be ready should that day ever come. At least, that’s another excuse I told myself before I was able to admit that I was just curious where I came from. ”
“Growing up, you always did put it on yourself to be the one to take care of Cam and I, even though Cam is the oldest,” Dalton said.
“He has the most memories of our parents,” she said. Blakely wondered if their older brother held on to the most pain too.
“Grandma Lacey did a really great job with all of us,” Jules said, twisting her fingers together. This subject obviously made her uncomfortable. “Learning about our mother had nothing to do with the upbringing we had, which was the best.”
“Our grandparents did the best they could with the hand they were dealt,” Dalton said. “Can you even imagine being at that point in your life and taking on six children?”
Jules shook her head. “I guess I’ve been thinking about that a lot more lately now that Toby and I…”
Dalton’s eyes widened to saucers. “What? Are you telling me that you’re—”
“No,” Jules said with an expression that made it look like she’d just bitten into a sour grape.
The look on her face immediately shut down any notion that she might be pregnant.
“We’re engaged, not yet married.” She paused for a few beats.
“I know babies don’t necessarily wait, but I’ve always been on the fence about having children because of our situation. ”
“I’m not on the fence at all,” Dalton stated with finality. “I never intend to have a family.”
What was it about that statement—a statement Blakely would have wholeheartedly agreed with a week ago—that caused her stomach to sink and a sense of hopelessness to settle in her chest?
She didn’t want a family. Did she?
“Have you met her?” Dalton asked his sister.
“Haven’t decided if I want to or can handle it,” Jules admitted.
“Grandpa Lor said there’s a lot we don’t know about our mother’s ‘situation,’ as he called it,” Dalton said. “Do you know what he’s talking about?”
“I haven’t heard anything from her perspective,” Jules said. “But I know she was suffering when she left.”
“What do you think about setting up a meeting with her to ask questions?” he asked.
“It’s crossed my mind,” she said. “If only to hear her side of the story. And, I don’t know, get closure.”
* * *
Dalton noticed Blakely hadn’t said a word in several minutes.
Then again, he and Jules had been discussing family.
He needed to shift gears because he still wasn’t sure what to think about his mother being in contact with his grandparents or any member of his family after the stunt she’d pulled.
Anger. Now, there was a word. Confused. It fit.
Was closure possible or a pipe dream?
Either way, Dalton set his empty coffee cup down and turned his attention toward Blakely. “You probably don’t want to hear all this about our family.”
“I don’t mind,” she said. He realized she’d lost her parents too. “Families are complicated. I get it. Mine is beyond messy right now.”
“Speaking of your family, is there any word on Bethany?”
“My sister lost a lot of blood, so they’re keeping her at the hospital after the surgery to remove a bullet fragment from her neck,” she explained. “If the bullet hit a few centimeters to the left, there would have been no surviving it.”
“It’s strange to think of being lucky when you’re talking about taking a bullet,” Jules conceded. “However, in this case, it sounds like your sister was very lucky.”
“She has a lot of thinking to do about her marriage, so being away from home probably isn’t the worst thing right now,” Blakely continued.
Dalton nodded. “The hospital is secure, and the nurses are watching her room like a hawk.”
“There’s some peace of mind in that knowledge,” Blakely said.
Based on the tension lines scoring her forehead, there wasn’t much.
He understood. If Jules were in a hospital and he couldn’t be near…
Dalton couldn’t even think about it. Everyone in his family had a dangerous job.
Everyone was good at what they did, which didn’t rule out the possibility something catastrophic would happen.
In order to work the job and sleep at night, he couldn’t let himself go there mentally about everything that could go wrong.
“It’s not much,” he conceded. “Which is why we need to figure out who is behind these attacks so we can put an end to this once and for all.”
“As long as Bethany is in the hospital, she’s safe,” Blakely stated. “Which also buys us some time to figure all this out.”
“Speaking of which, I can get a whole lot more done out there than trying to stay in here,” he pointed out.
“Hold on there,” Jules said. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Out of here,” Dalton said firmly.
“What do you think the doctor will say?” Jules asked.
“I think he’ll tell me to stop taking up bed space when I’m fine and don’t need to be here,” Dalton said, a little heated.
“Whoa!” Jules teased. “I’m just trying to be the voice of reason.”
“Didn’t mean to get riled up,” Dalton said.
“Where will we go?” Blakely asked. He liked the fact she wasn’t trying to bolt. He’d promised to protect her, and that was exactly what he intended to do.
“My place should be safe,” he said.
“That means you have to leave the hospital,” Blakely said. He could tell she felt guilty by her expression.
“My grandfather is awake, and we have every reason to believe he’ll stay that way,” Dalton said.
“You could take Blakely back to the ranch,” Jules offered, but both Dalton and Blakely were already shaking their heads before his sister could finish her sentence.
“Too dangerous for everyone else,” Blakely said before he could.
“Toby’s there, recovering,” Jules said. “I’m staying there when I’m not here at the hospital. We’d be ready.”
“Someone could light the barn on fire, damage the property or set a blaze just to flush me out of the house,” Blakely said. “You already experienced a bomb last night.”
“I wasn’t ready for it,” Jules said a little defensively.
Dalton understood how frustrating and embarrassing it was for someone in law enforcement to be tricked.
She had nothing to be embarrassed about, but Jules wouldn’t see it that way and neither would he if the situation was reversed.
Hell, he couldn’t forgive himself for letting Blakely go downstairs or not warning Jules of the possibility in the first place.
“It’s my fault, not yours,” he said to his sister.
“Agree to disagree,” Jules said. “But arguing or assigning blame doesn’t fix anything.”
“Now we agree on something,” he said.
“I really hate getting your family involved in any of this mess,” Blakely stated.
“We don’t,” Dalton and Jules said simultaneously.
Dalton added, “It’s what we’ve chosen to do for a living. You’re not putting us in any danger that we didn’t already sign up for.”
Blakely conceded with a slight nod. “This feels more personal.”
He knew exactly what she was talking about. Their fling. It made this situation more personal for him too.
There wasn’t anything they could do about it now.
“Suffice it to say, I’m not going anywhere until this is resolved,” he said, wishing for more but knowing Blakely couldn’t give it.