Colton's Christmas Baby (5 page)

His favorite bartender, a tattooed guy named Jack Huffman, who'd moved to Honey Creek from out of town and didn't care about any of the drama concerning Mark Walsh, the man Damien had supposedly murdered, saw him coming and met him at the table with a tall draft beer in a frosted mug.

“Ahhh.” Sliding into the booth across from Wes, Damien took a long pull of the icy beer, reveling in the taste. Of
all the things he'd missed while incarcerated, the taste of a good brew ranked right up there.

Both men ordered cheeseburgers, the Corner Bar's specialty, and another delicacy Damien had missed while locked up.

Would he ever stop thinking of things in that way? How everything related to the wasted years? As he did every day, he vowed to try. More than anything, he wanted to feel like a regular cattle rancher again. Unfortunately, he had begun to realize he'd have to leave Honey Creek to be able to do so.

“I haven't found out anything else about Mark Walsh's death,” Wes said, assuming that's why Damien had asked to meet him. “The investigation is still ongoing. The FBI people have been a lot of help, but we still don't have anything new.”

“I didn't think so.” Absurdly uncomfortable, Damien dragged his hand through his longish brown hair, so different from Wes's closely shaven head, and sighed. Then he straightened his shoulders and transformed himself into the supremely self-confident, don't-mess-with-me Damien he embodied to confront difficult situations. “I need your help in another matter.”

“Shoot. Does this have anything to do with you disappearing a couple of times a month?” Clearly intrigued, Wes leaned forward. “What's up?”

“I disappear every so often because I'm not a monk or a priest. Celibacy just isn't my thing,” Damien drawled. “I went fifteen years without. After being locked up, I thought I was used to it, but I can't do it. So I drive up to Bozeman, sometimes Billings.”

Wes sat back, shaking his head. “You haven't met anyone local yet?”

Trying not to think of Eve, Damien looked his brother
right in the eye. “You know as well as I do that every single woman in Honey Creek runs the other way when she sees me coming.”

“Have you even tried?”

“Tried? Hell, I've spent so many nights sitting around this bar and a couple of others, that I've lost count. I can't even get a woman to dance with me, never mind take me home.” Other than Eve Kelley, he thought silently. This was something he wanted to keep to himself for now.

“I think that might be your own fault.” Now Wes pinned Damien with a stare. “I've heard you drink yourself blind, act surly and mean and scare away anyone—man or woman—from even talking to you.”

Stung, Damien grimaced. “Where'd you hear that from? Your girlfriend?”

“Fiancée. And no, Lily hasn't been spying on you. A couple of my deputies have seen you.”

Frustration nearly made Damien scowl. Instead, he used his poker face, knowing if he wanted Wes's help, he had to play nice. “Bottom line. When I need a woman, I head out of town. It's a long drive to Billings and I'm getting tired of it.”

“Once or twice a month. Man.” Wes whistled. “That's so—”

“I know. Cut the sympathy. You've got a woman.”

Wes spread his hands. “What can I do?”

“Come on, you're in law enforcement. You've seen the seedier side of life. You know how back in high school there were girls who were…”

“Fast?”

“Exactly.” He shifted his weight. “I've been away for fifteen years while you've been here. You know everyone. Surely you can point me in the right direction.”

To Damien's chagrin and frustration, this time Wes laughed out loud.

“What's so funny?”

Wes stopped laughing long enough to answer. “You're really serious.”

“Wouldn't you be, if our positions were reversed?”

“Maybe,” Wes allowed.

“Maybe? Come on, tell the truth.”

“Look.” All trace of amusement vanished from Wes's face. “You just need to make friends with someone here in town. We've got plenty of single women. You could hook up with any one of them, if you'd just make the effort.”

As if it was that simple. What Wes conveniently forgot to mention is that if any single woman in Honey Creek dated him, a Colton, she'd expect a lot more than a simple sexual relationship. Assuming she could look past the been-in-prison thing.

“I told you, I don't want anything complicated. I just want sex.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Then I guess I'll keep driving up to Billings.”

“Or try harder to meet someone here in town. Maybe you should talk to Maisie.”

“Surely you jest.” Damien shot his brother an incredulous look. “I can't ask my sister to help me find a bed partner.”

“True. Though you could ask her to help you get a few dates, you know. It's all in the way you put it. Since we were meeting for lunch today, I invited her to meet us here. She said something about you taking her Christmas shopping.”

Damien groaned. “She's been hounding me about that.”

“Then I guess now would be a good time to get started.”

“What about you?” Damien leaned forward. “Maybe you should take her shopping. How much of your holiday shopping have you gotten done?”

As Wes was about to speak again, his fiancée, Lily Masterson, rushed up and interrupted, leaning in to give him a long, lingering and very public kiss.

Wes shot Damien a look that plainly said,
Speaking of sex…
Damn his hide. He might find this funny, but to Damien, it was no laughing matter. All he could do was clench his teeth and try to appear pleasant. “Hi Lily.”

Her bright smile faltered a notch. “Hey, Damien.”

Moving over so she could sit next to him, Wes draped his arm around Lily's slender shoulders before turning back to Damien. “Sorry. You were saying?”

Damien wanted to roll his eyes. Wes knew good and well he couldn't talk about this in front of Lily. Instead, he flashed her a quick smile. “Are you prepared for Christmas?”

As he'd suspected it would, the question sent her on a roll, listing what she'd bought and what she still needed to find and for whom.

Letting a clearly entranced Wes hang on to her every word, Damien tuned her out and slowly finished his beer. It was plain he wasn't going to get any help from his brother. He'd simply have to continue to find a woman on his own.

Again he thought of Eve Kelley and the kisses they'd shared. Just thinking of her heated his blood.

He wanted her. Though he claimed to be looking for a woman, any woman, right now only Eve Kelley would do.

W
atching through the window of Salon Allegra as the first snow flurries fluttered to the ground, Eve wiped a stray tear from her eye. Four months pregnant and already her hormones made her want to weep at the most inauspicious moments.

The approaching holidays made her feel even worse. She was alone and lonely, and because Honey Creek was such a small town, everyone knew. Most of the other women her age had families, some even had grandchildren. Most of them, especially the ones who hadn't been cheerleaders in high school, were either secretly glad about her situation or openly pitied her. On the edge of forty and still single! The shame!

Oddly enough, Eve herself hadn't really minded until the big four-oh had started to loom closer. She'd still had a sort of misguided faith that eventually the right man would come along. Which might explain why she'd been
so eager to believe Massimo, with his honeyed promises and sensuous embrace.

Her mother, Bonnie Gene, kept bugging her to join the quilting group she'd started, refusing to let the minor fact that Eve had no interest in quilting deter her. Worse, despite her mom's promise, she knew she would continue to constantly network among her friends and in town, trying to set Eve up on one blind date after another.

So far, like the one last night with Gary, the dates had all been embarrassing disasters. Bonnie Gene refused to listen. She wanted grandbabies and would stop at nothing to get them.

If only she knew…

Eve rubbed her sore neck. Soon, she'd have her own little family of two. An unwed mother at thirty-nine. She couldn't help but wonder what her sister Susan would say. Recently engaged to Duke Colton, Susan had asked Eve to be one of her bridesmaids. Eve had agreed, but soon she'd have to ask Susan how she felt about having a pregnant bridesmaid in her wedding.

Despite her family and the fact that she'd grown up in Honey Creek, Eve had never felt so alone.

Turning away from the window, Eve turned up the thermostat and thought longingly of Italy's warm sunshine. She'd gone there alone on an impromptu vacation over the summer, and had met a sensuous Italian named Massimo. A chance encounter had turned into a whirlwind romance. Massimo had loved her for three wonderful, sun-drenched days before vanishing. She supposed she'd always understood a crazy fling like that would never last, that things had been too perfect to be real, but still…his disappearing act had hurt. She'd actually dared to believe that this time she'd found The One.

Instead, her infatuation had been just that. Starved for
attention, deprived of sex, she'd let physical attraction blind her to the fact that Massimo was a player. She'd come back to Honey Creek a little heart-sore, but wiser, completely unaware of the little life growing inside of her.

Now, nearly four months and three missed periods later, she knew she was pregnant with Massimo's child. Cupping her slightly rounded stomach, she paced the confines of her shop, marveling at the twist of fate that had brought her to this. She hadn't yet gotten used to the idea, despite having known for one month.

Part of her was mortified that, at nearly forty years old, she had gotten knocked up. She knew better and had, in fact, insisted on precautions.

Another part of her was secretly thrilled. Her own baby! Though the town—already a soap opera of gossip and intrigue with the whole Mark Walsh mess—would flay her alive with their wagging tongues, she was keeping this baby. She'd realized she might never find a man of her own. Who knew if she'd ever get a chance to have another baby? This son or daughter was hers. She'd be her child's sole parent, since all attempts to reach the man she'd known only by one name—Massimo—had been fruitless.

She wanted to celebrate, to revel in her pregnancy. Still, she kept it secret, not wanting to take away from Susan's wedding plans and the holiday. Plus, she wanted to enjoy the knowledge in private for as long as possible before becoming the object of pointing fingers and censuring eyes.

Her thoughts went to Damien. He'd certainly understand that. Though he'd been sent to prison through no fault of his own, the people of Honey Creek persisted in treating him like a pariah.

As they no doubt would treat her. Her body was chang
ing. For now, she could hide that with loose clothing, but she wouldn't be able to hide it much longer.

She'd reveal her news in her own time. Until then, all of Eve's energy went toward appearing normal, at least until the holidays were over. Eventually, she'd have no choice but to go public, but for now, no one needed to know. Except…she flushed. Damien Colton. Why she'd revealed her secret to the one man who attracted her above all others, she didn't know.

The salon was quiet—too quiet. She'd finished all of her morning appointments and all the afternoon clients had cancelled due to the impending blizzard. Eve knew she should close down the salon and head home, but she couldn't seem to make herself move.

Just as she stirred enough to get up and go around shutting off lights and unplugging hair tools, her cell phone rang. It was her mother, inviting her to lunch at the Corner Bar. Since this would offer a respite from going home to her big, empty house and since the Corner Bar also served a mean burger, Eve agreed to meet Bonnie Gene in fifteen minutes.

Pulling on her down parka, she turned the sign on the door to Closed and went out into the swirling snow flurries. Though the weather wasn't bad now, with the blizzard in the forecast for that evening, everyone who'd remained in town was rushing around buying staples and trying to Christmas shop while they could.

The kind of snowfall being forecast could mean a complete shutdown of Honey Creek for a day or two, sometimes more if they lost power.

Eve wasn't worried. Even if she had forgotten to stock something at home, her pickup had four-wheel drive and she'd been driving in blizzards all her life.

Enjoying the pretty curtain of snow, she walked the
block and a half to the Corner Bar. A popular eating spot during the day and watering hole at night, the place was crowded, even for noon. Her family's barbecue restaurant was equally crowded, but no one in her family liked to go there except on special occasions. And when they did, they tended to close the back room. Otherwise, they were besieged by people wanting the secret recipe for their famous barbecue sauce.

Inside, she walked up to the hostess and requested a booth. Since they were all taken, she settled on a table near the back and out of the main footpath. She'd ordered a Shirley Temple, glad she got to give the order before her mom arrived. Watching the patterns the swirling fury of the snowfall made outside the windows, she fell into a daydream about decorating a nursery.

Fifteen minutes came and went. Her stomach rumbled a hungry protest, reminding her she was eating for two. Checking her watch for the third time, she sighed. Her mother was late again, which was a normal occurrence. Even the waitress had expected it and hadn't bothered her with requests to take her order.

Life in a small town. As she did every day, Eve reflected on how lucky she was to live here. Although she had enjoyed the cosmopolitan, old-world atmosphere in Europe, Montana would always be her home. She'd never been one of those who wanted to move somewhere else.

Twenty minutes crept past. Eve had her Shirley Temple refilled. Still no Bonnie Gene. She took to studying the menu, as though she didn't already have it memorized. Since she'd already decided on a hamburger and fries, she looked at the five different burger variations, trying to decide on which one.

The front door opened, sending a gust of icy air through the bar before it closed. The steady clatter of plates and
glasses and people talking stilled for a second, then resumed again at an even louder roar. Eve glanced up and she felt a jolt go through her like a shockwave. For a second she forgot to breath and her heart skipped a beat.

Him. Looking as tall, dark and dangerous as a demon straight out of hell, Damien Colton strode into the room, drawing everyone's stare. He, of course, looked neither left nor right, pushing through the crowd like a broad-shouldered linebacker. For a moment, she thought she'd forgotten their date, but then realized it was far too early in the day for that.

As she had the night before, she contemplated how he'd changed. Prison had altered him a lot, she supposed. The earlier promise of his sulky beauty had matured, sharpened into a sort of rugged masculinity. He'd beefed up, no doubt from working out while behind bars, and if he'd ever had that prison pallor, the last three months he'd spent working on his family's cattle ranch had darkened his skin to bronze. Even the overcast skies of winter hadn't done much to dim his tan.

He was, she thought, absolutely, breathtakingly beautiful in a far different way than Massimo had been.

Dangerous for a woman like her. If she was smart, she'd stay far, far away from him. She didn't need that kind of trouble. Her hand drifted to her belly. Especially not now.

Still unable to look away, she sucked in her breath as he glanced over his shoulder, his dark gaze locking on hers.

Damn. Hurriedly, she looked down, cheeks flaming. Then, peeping up through her lashes, she watched as Damien took a seat across the room in a booth with his brother Wes. As he sat, the crowd of people obscured him from her view. Grateful he hadn't come over—heaven help
her explain that one to her mother—part of her felt hurt that he'd ignored her.

Still, it took a while for her racing heart to settle back into a steady beat.

“Hey there, girl.” Bonnie Gene breezed up, grabbing Eve in a fierce hug before she'd even had time to register her mother's arrival.

“Have you ordered yet?” Dropping into the seat across from Eve, Bonnie Gene snatched up the menu and flipped it open.

“Not yet.” Eve couldn't keep her gaze from straying over toward the side of the bar where Damien sat.

Naturally, Bonnie Gene noticed. “What are you looking at?” Then, without waiting for an answer, she pushed to her feet to get a better look. “Damien Colton. I'll be.”

Eve felt her face heat. Dang it.

“Hmmm.” Her mother's shrewd blue eyes pinned Eve. “I feel really bad about what happened to that boy. Have you spoken to him yet?”

That boy was now thirty-five, and whether Eve had talked to him was none of her mother's business. Still, she couldn't outright lie. “A little, just in passing.”

“I haven't. But I have talked to his sister. Just yesterday, in fact.”

“You talked to Maisie Colton?” Surprised, Eve stared. Everyone in Honey Creek knew how much Maisie hated the Kelleys. Each and every single one of them. “When? How'd you manage to get her to talk to you? Was she…nice?”

Bonnie Gene signaled the waitress, who hurried over with a steaming cup of coffee, her usual drink, even in a bar. “Yesterday. And yes, she was nice. She's the one who approached me.”

“Why?”

“She wants to join the quilting group.”

Eve's mouth fell open. She couldn't have been more surprised if her mother had suddenly announced she wanted to take up hang-gliding. “Really?”

“Yes, really.” Satisfied with her daughter's stunned reaction, the older woman sat back in her chair, smiled and sipped her coffee. “She's supposed to come visit our meeting next Thursday night. You ought to come, too. It'll be fun.”

For once, Eve actually considered attending. But she knew if she started going now, her mother would expect her to go forever and always. Still, watching the train wreck of Maisie Colton trying to interact with a bunch of fervent quilters made it awfully tempting.

“Does she even know how to quilt?”

“I don't know.” Supremely unconcerned, Bonnie shrugged. “If she doesn't, we'll teach her. It's about time that woman started trying to become a part of her community.”

“Maisie Colton?” Eve couldn't wrap her mind around the image of long-legged, willowy, model-perfect Maisie Colton trying to make a quilt with her own exquisitely manicured fingers. “I hope this doesn't come back to bite you.”

The waitress hurried over to take their orders. Eve ordered the California burger, with avocado and bean sprouts. After a second of consideration, her mother ordered the same.

After the waitress left, Bonnie Gene leaned across the table. “Are you going to go talk to him?”

“What? Who?”

“Damien Colton. You always did have a thing for him.”

“Mother!” Horrified, Eve glanced around to see who might have heard. “I did not.”

“Don't think I didn't know how you mooned over him when you were in high school.”

Eve rolled her eyes. One fact of life—no matter how old she got, her mother could still make her feel like a little kid. “Drop it, Mom. Please.”

Chuckling, Bonnie nodded. “Have it your way.” About to say something else, she broke into a wide smile, jumped to her feet and began waving madly. “Well, look who's here. Maisie Colton. Yoo-hoo, Maisie! Over here!”

Instantly, the Corner Bar went silent. Voices hushed, forks stilled as all heads turned to stare at the door. Tall and statuesque, Maisie glided toward them. Her four-inch heels tap-tapping on the wooden floor was the only sound in the place.

For the second time that day, Eve wanted to let the ground swallow her up. Instead, since she had no choice, she lifted her chin, forced a pleasant smile and watched Maisie approach.

One thing about those Coltons, she thought. They were all lookers. With her exotically tilted aquamarine eyes, and perfect figure, Maisie would draw stares whether in New York, Paris or Bozeman, Montana. The hairdresser in Eve eyed the long, thick, brown hair cascading down Maisie's back, and longed to work with it. Since Maisie traveled to Billings once a month to have her hair done, she knew that would never happen. Eve's Salon Allegra was far too plebian for the likes of Maisie Colton.

“Bonnie Gene!” With a genuine grin on her bright-red lips, Maisie enveloped Bonnie Gene in a hug. “So good to see you.”