Chapter 14
14
Cortney
“Mom, you’re hugging me way too tight.”
Ollie’s complaint only makes me squeeze extra hard for emphasis. My flight arrived late last night, and after the long drive home from the airport, I didn’t get a chance to see him before he left for baseball training this morning. This is my first time getting to see my son in two weeks.
He looks healthy. His dark hair is long around his ears with a natural wave I’m sure the girls love. Even with his face pinched in a frown, he can’t hide the relief in his eyes that I’m home.
“There’s no such thing.”
“Tell that to my ribs,” he wheezes.
“I missed you. Did you stay out of trouble while I was away?”
Ollie rubs his side with a grimace. “Bro, be for real. My uncles didn’t let me do anything fun.”
I swing my arm around his best friend, Lincoln, for a quick hug. “Did you stay out of trouble too?”
“Of course, Ms. Powell,” he says, side-eyeing his big sister, Juniper, and my brother, Lee. “As if I can ever get away with anything.”
Those two take their responsibility to Lincoln more seriously than some parents. Juniper’s been taking care of him since he was around eleven, so it’s only natural for her to keep him in line.
Not that she has to work too hard. We have some good kids around here. These straight-A, varsity baseball players make us more proud than they’ll ever know.
A heavy arm lands on my shoulder. “Glad you’re home,” Lee says, kissing the top of my head.
“You act as if I was on some treacherous quest. I went to the Caribbean, not Mordor.”
Juniper snorts from her position on the couch. “Clearly, you were very missed.”
“I can see that.” I fight the tightness in my throat. As much as they annoy me, the welcome home committee sure fills me with warmth. I never knew belonging until I joined the Powell family, and they embraced me with open arms.
Much like they’re doing right now.
A steaming cup of coffee is thrust into my hand.
I carefully reach around and tightly hug the family matriarch. She curled her white hair this morning and her blue eyes hold a familiar spark. “Hi, Momma.”
“Look at you, my beautiful girl. What a lovely tan!” She holds me at arm’s length. “Two weeks on the beach looks good on you.”
I let the pause linger, waiting for someone to interrogate me on the extended stay, but it doesn’t come.
Huh. Weird.
Apparently, staying on vacation didn’t set off any alarms.
I respond cautiously. “I could have stayed a whole month.”
“I’ll bet!” Mom squeezes my shoulder and starts cutting a pan of brownies on the kitchen counter. “Are you rested and refreshed? What am I saying, of course you are. All that uninterrupted sleep is good for the soul.”
My mind flashes to the consecutive nights of marathon sex until two o’clock and the lazy mornings sleeping in. Hopefully, that tan hides my blush. “It was nice.”
“You look good, honey.” Her smile crinkles the corners of her kind, assessing eyes. Nancy Powell doesn’t miss a thing when it comes to one of her children. By the way her attention doesn’t linger, I assume I’ve passed the test.
“I feel good.” I pop a sliced strawberry in my mouth and join the others in the living room. The brown recliner by the window beckons me.
A quick survey reveals all my siblings and their partners. Even Isla and baby John are here, bouncing quietly in the corner. I offer a brief wave, which she returns with a smile.
“Is it good to be home?” Whitney tosses a small inflatable ball for her son, Bennett, to chase across the room.
“Vacation is great and all, but I miss my bed and my creatures at the clinic,” I reply.
“I talked to Bridget when she dropped off a refill med at the Sanctuary, and she said things were slow,” Juniper says.
“I’m glad to hear that. I shut down all my appointments, and when I extended my vacation, she managed to reschedule the week for me.”
As if they share one brain, Juniper, Whitney, and Frankie lean in closer.
“Are you doing okay?” Frankie asks first.
Knowing what they want, I don’t let their curiosity linger. “I’m fine. Really. I know I left in not the best headspace, but I can say after some distance, I’m completely over Sebastian and what he did.”
“Is that why you stayed?” Whitney asks. “To clear your head?”
“Something like that.”
The real reason for my extended stay remains locked behind sealed lips.
Surveying the room again, both Isla and Bree have joined our circle.
Nosy women. If I didn’t trust them so much, I’d think they’re just here on my brothers’ orders to get all the secret details.
I pick at my cuticle. “That’s all, girls. That’s the scoop.”
“I don’t know. I think there’s something you’re not telling us.” Isla props John up on her shoulder and rubs his back in circles.
“I think we’re due for a girls’ night. Say next Friday?” Juniper adds.
“Is that the day of the Fairview Valley Festival?” Whitney asks.
“Don’t ask me. My timeline is all screwed up after being gone.” I smirk.
“I think it’s the week after. Corjan said something about picking up some dogs from a breeder surrender situation. They have some frightened mommas that need to go into foster care, but the healthy puppies are looking for new homes,” Bree replies.
“It’s the Sunday after,” Juniper confirms.
With the new information dominating the conversation, I neither confirm nor deny if I’m available for a girls’ night. Let’s be real, it doesn’t take much to get me down to The Rocks on a Friday night. Especially now that I’m single, and my only child is seventeen.
But I know these girls, and they’re hoping a little alcohol will loosen me up. What information they’re hoping I’ll divulge, I can’t be sure.
A loud knock on the front door catches everyone’s attention.
“Who could that be?” Mom says, wiping her hands on a white dish towel.
My heart rate spikes as over a dozen eyes turn to the front door.
Oh no.
I haven’t gambled much in my life, but I’m suddenly weighing the odds of Spencer Stone standing behind that door.
An unfamiliar, anxious energy steals over me.
We didn’t talk much for the remainder of the flight last night. What was left to be said? Once we collected our luggage, I mentioned getting home to rest before today’s get-together, and he said he was driving off to North Dakota.
What if he changed his mind?
What the fuck am I going to do if he changed his mind and is standing behind that door?
Jude reaches the door first and swings it open. I brace, waiting for the raised voices sure to come.
“Hey,” Jude greets in that low, unhurried tone of his, swinging the door wide.
Hey?
Two fully uniformed officers step over the threshold, and I deflate like an overinflated balloon.
Sutton and Silas Stone. Spencer’s brothers. The similarities between the three siblings pulses a wave of longing through me.
Sutton and Spencer have the same eyes, whereas all three share the same hair. What Silas holds over the other two in height, Spencer and Sutton carry in bulk. Not that the other two are lacking at six-foot-one.
Silas curiously browses the room. His gaze trips over my face, gliding right over me before skittering back.
“Cortney!” he booms, crossing to me in three long strides. “How the hell are you?”
We embrace in a hug that lingers a touch too long. “I’m good, Silas. How are you?”
Pulling back, he skims me over in that observant way of his. It’s what makes him a good cop, but being blasted with the full weight of his scrutiny is unnerving.
Does he know?
Spencer and I both said we hadn’t told our siblings, but what if that changed over our second week there? What if Spencer slipped up between getting off the plane and now?
I plaster on a tranquil smile. Something ordinary and innocent.
“Good, good. It’s been business as usual here.”
Sutton grunts at Silas’s back. “Easy for you to say. You had desk duty all last week.”
“Why?” I glance between the two brothers, trying to ignore their shared features with Spencer.
“Pulled my shoulder.” Silas shrugs, circling the arm as if testing the joint. “I’m fine now.”
Sutton crosses his arms over his police vest. “Tell them how you pulled your shoulder.”
Silas scowls at his older brother. “Maddie escaped from the assisted living. Apparently, she and Lonnie are a thing now. They went out on a date to the rodeo and had a little too much to drink.”
“And then?” Sutton grins.
Silas cuts his gaze to Mom before glaring at his brother. “If I wasn’t in the presence of such a saintly woman, I’d have a few choice words to give to you right now.”
“Oh, don’t mind me.” Mom waves a hand, amusement coloring her tone.
“Go on,” Sutton says with a gleeful smirk.
“And then, Maddie decided she didn’t want to leave with me, so she tried to get away, and I pulled my shoulder in an attempt to detain her.”
“You had trouble detaining a ninety-pound grandmother?” Jack asks, sipping a beer as he holds his infant son, Soren, tucked close to his chest.
Sutton snorts. “She decided Silas looked like much more fun than those bull riders and tried to take him for a spin.”
“We fell, ” Silas clips, rubbing his temples with his thumb and middle finger. “Rather than crush her, I had to break her fall.”
“The way she straddled you,” Sutton slaps his thigh. “I’ve never seen a woman of her age move so fast.”
Silas looks like he’s going to puke. “I hate you.”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Sutton twists the dial on his chest, lowering the sounds of the radio chatter.
The unexpected tale garners a few laughs. Silas’s pale face pinks up at the attention. “I’m getting a snack,” he mumbles on his way to the kitchen.
“I thought I told you to bring Spencer.” Mom’s voice carries into the room from the kitchen around the corner.
Lee pins me with a sharp stare, his brow furrowing angrily.
“ What? ” I mouth.
He jerks his head subtly toward the kitchen as if to say, Did you hear that?
I shrug and try not to appear like I’m tuning in to the conversation in the other room.
“Sorry, Nancy. He’s disappeared again.”
“I thought you said he was gone last week.”
“He was. And the week before that. I thought he was coming home yesterday, but he said he needed to go back to North Dakota,” Silas answers, his words garbled as he more than likely found one of Mom’s treats to devour.
Sudden dryness seizes my throat. I pray nobody pieces together that Spencer and I left town and returned on the same timeline.
By the way Lee continues to scowl, I’m sure he wouldn’t be thrilled by the news.
“That’s too bad. Is he coming back?” Mom’s question spurs me to listen intently again.
A pause.
“I’m honestly not sure. Mom hopes he just went to get more things, but with Spencer, you can never be sure. I’m afraid he’s a bit too much like our dad.”
“Is that true?” Lee asks Sutton quietly.
Sutton shrugs, slipping his palms into the front of his vest. “That’s what we know.”
“Can’t say it’s unhappy news. I know he’s your brother and all, but he needs to keep his distance.” Lee focuses on me again. “He’s not welcome here.”
“What?” I grumble.
Lee leans forward and puts his elbows to his knees. “You okay with this?”
“Am I okay with an individual living his life on his own terms? Of course. What Spencer does is not my concern.”
My eldest brother shakes his head. “I’m not sure you’d be saying the same thing if you ran into him.”
“I don’t think you have a clue what I think.”
“Maybe we don’t need to discuss ancient matters on a nice Sunday afternoon.” Jack hands off his baby to his wife. Whitney assesses the conversation with a concerned frown.
“Agreed,” Jude grunts.
“If you want to wait until I get a snack, I’m okay if you all resume.” Aiden shrugs from his spot on the floor beside Isla.
She nudges him in the ribs. “Nobody asked you, honey.”
“I take my job as the instigator very seriously. It’s part of the youngest sibling code.” Aiden delivers a swift kiss to her cheek.
“And it’s part of the fiancée code to tell you not to get involved.” Isla glares.
“Yes, ma’am.” Aiden winks at her. Even from across the room, I don’t miss the way she melts.
Another Powell family get-together where I’m painfully alone.