The Care and Feeding of an Alpha Male (33 page)

Allan had told her that Colt had known for a while. That Colt had deliberately chased a relationship with her because he’d wanted to prove something. That he’d chased her as a subtle revenge on Allan. He’d implied that the only reason that Colt had wanted her was just to drive Allan insane.

Oh, why the hell did she
ever
listen to Allan?

“Told him two weeks ago, when I was in the hospital,” Pop admitted. “I didn’t want anything to happen to me without him
knowing. He was real devastated, too. I thought he’d never talk to me again. But he turned to me and said I was his only father. The only one that ever mattered. And then he got me this job and cleaned up my land so they wouldn’t throw me in jail.”

Her heart hammered as Pop rambled. Colt hadn’t known until then? He’d only found out days ago? It hadn’t been a factor when they’d started to date? It hadn’t been the reason he’d chased her?

Hope shot through Beth Ann, made her entire body tremble. “But why didn’t he say anything to me?”

“Well,” Pop said slowly. “He knew Allan hurt you real bad. I suspect he didn’t want to hurt you more. He loves you, you know.”

She was beginning to think she did know. Tears pricked her eyes behind the sunglasses. He’d struggled with his family, frustrated by their reputation and their poverty. And yet when he found out he wasn’t a Waggoner at all, it hadn’t mattered to him. He hadn’t abandoned his father. He loved him, even though he could have walked away. He just quietly took care of things to show them that he loved them.

And he loved her.

Judge me by my actions.

He was going to Alaska
because
he loved her, she knew. Because he thought that was the right thing to do to give her space. Because he didn’t want to harass her like Allan did, and he was courteous and thoughtful, and he loved her.

And she realized, suddenly, that there was nothing to forgive.

She didn’t care about being stranded that weekend. He’d lied to her about it, true, but his actions every step of the way
afterward were not those of a man that was just stringing along a woman he didn’t care about. Nor did it matter that he was Allan’s brother. Because Colt was
Colt
, and he wasn’t like Allan in the slightest.

Beth Ann moved to the mower, leaned in and kissed Pop’s cheek. “I’m glad we had this talk. Thank you.”

“You’re a good girl,” he said, patting her hand.

Five days without being able to talk to Colt felt like eternity. She reopened her salon and threw herself back into the Halloween Festival preparations, since they were only days away. Colt was returning from his trip on the thirty-first, the same day as the festival.

Her customers had started to trickle back in now that the coupon extravaganza was over. It’d take a bit for them all to return, and if they didn’t, well, that was okay, too.

Allan had sent her flowers and an apology card. She’d refused them at the door. When he’d come by for a haircut, she’d thrown him out of her salon. She was well and truly done with him. No more being nice. Nice only got her shoes, with Allan. He could go to hell, and take those shoes with him.

And now, Colt was due back tomorrow and she was getting antsy. It was her day off, so she’d driven all the way in to Houston with Miranda, digging through a local costume shop and getting supplies for the festival. Miranda had to buy a jersey for Dane since he hadn’t kept one, and a hockey helmet. For her costume, Miranda had decided to be a fifties librarian, and they’d gotten
her adorable cat’s-eye-shaped glasses, a poodle skirt, and matching sweater, and Beth Ann had practiced old-fashioned hair styles on Miranda’s long hair until they’d found one that looked suitably sexy.

They were in a costume shop even now, flipping through costume books.

“I can’t believe Brenna wants to be Bettie Page,” Miranda was grumbling for the tenth time that hour. “Wasn’t Bettie Page naked in all those photos?”

“We’ll just get her a leopard bikini and she’ll be fine, honey,” Beth Ann soothed. “All the other women in town will hate her for it, though.”

“Maybe we’d better buy her a nice leopard cover up, too,” Miranda added. “What are you going to be?”

Beth Ann flipped through books of costumes, then shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t been able to concentrate on it. I keep thinking about Colt.”

“How about matching costumes?” Miranda said, her eyes gleaming with fun. She knew all about Beth Ann’s waffling about the breakup, and was convinced that if her friend would let Colt grovel correctly, they would be back together and happy again.

Beth Ann was kind of hoping the same.

“Matching costumes?” Beth Ann said dubiously. “I don’t know if he’ll want to dress up. He might be mad at me. He might not want to show up for the festival at all once he knows I’m there.”

“I’ll get Dane or Grant to bully him,” Miranda said stubbornly. “I’m sure he wants to at least talk to you.”

Beth Ann wasn’t so sure. But her hand rested on one particular costume, and she paused. And smiled.

Perhaps she knew the perfect costume after all.

When they returned to the ranch, Beth Ann steeled up her courage and left the box in his cabin, along with a note. What if he didn’t come back in time for the festival? She headed into the main lodge to chat with Brenna.

“He’s leaving tomorrow, actually,” Brenna said with a sad face.

“Leaving? What do you mean he’s leaving?”

“For Alaska,” Brenna said. “Grant’s driving him to get to his flight tomorrow right after he comes back. His tickets are all ready and everything.”

“But he hasn’t even packed,” Beth Ann protested, her heart thudding with panic.

“He doesn’t need much,” Brenna said. “Just a couple changes of clothes and a picture of you to jerk off to. Everything else, nature provides.” She rolled her eyes. “Or so everyone keeps telling me.”

“Can you make him stay?”

She looked thoughtful. “I guess I could misplace his ticket.”

“Please do,” Beth Ann said. She raced back to his cabin and took the note off of the box, and wrote another one.

She’d leave him the message in his cabin, and leave a message on his phone. And if he still left without talking to her, well…

Then she’d have her answer.

The next day

B
eth Ann sprayed pink glitter into a fairy’s hair. The pigtails sparkled bright pink, and the mother seemed almost as excited as her daughter.

“She looks so cute,” the mother squealed. “I love what you did with her curls.”

They’d been carefully stiffened with styling wax and pomaded into bouncy spirals that made others stop, stare, and then pay five dollars to have their child’s hair fixed as well. Next to her, Brenna painted faces on squirming children, her cave-girl costume and Bettie Page hair surprisingly adorable. She’d cut her purple bangs in a thick, straight fringe across her forehead, just like Bettie Page, and the result made her impish face even more charming.

“Do you do birthday parties?” the fairy’s mother asked her. “She has a birthday in two months and I’d love to have a makeover party for the little girls. It’d be so cute.”

“I haven’t in the past, but I can,” Beth Ann said easily, slipping a now-glitter-covered card out of her costume’s bodice and handing it over. “Just give me a call.”

“I will,” the woman said, collecting her daughter with a smile. The little girl waved, her hair full of sparkles and curls and the plastic tiara that Beth Ann had fitted into the curls. She did look cute, Beth Ann thought proudly. The Halloween Festival was full of little girls with sprayed hair from her booth—it had been a bigger success than she’d imagined. That was the fourth birthday party invite that she’d gotten—she’d turned none of them down.

She looked over at Brenna, who was helping a child down from her chair. “I’m going to go check on Miranda and see how she’s doing,” she said, wiping her hands with a towel.

“Got it, boss,” Brenna sang out. “I’ll hold down the fort.”

Beth Ann slipped away, crossing the bustling festival in the town square. The costume contest would be in a few hours, and judging from the people dressed up, it’d be just as much of a success as the fund-raising booths were. The crowd today was massive, easily double the size of normal Bluebonnet shindigs. The Halloween festival was a big deal in the area, though, and she wouldn’t have been surprised to find out that people from nearby small towns had stopped in to join in the fun. People in costumes crowded the town square, both adults and children. She passed by a pumpkin pie booth, smiling at the person seated there, and a booth where they served cider. At the far end of a row, Lucy was
taking tickets for the cake walk, and Beth Ann raised an eyebrow at the sight of Lucy’s helper. It was a tall, skinny man in a fur loincloth and cape. His goatee was so long that it had been rubber-banded. The infamous Lord Colossus? Heavens, what did Lucy see in that man? She made a mental note to drop by and ask Lucy if Colossus had brought a shirt.

On the far end of the square, past a long row of booths, Beth Ann heard a splash. She headed there, pushing past the long line of people with camera phones held up. Over in front of the dunking booth, Miranda held up a beanbag and shook it. “Who’s the next person that wants to give Casanova Croft a dunk?”

“You can’t dunk me,” Dane yelled from inside the booth to the next person that stepped up—a young boy of no more than eight. He wiped water from his eyes, his white hockey helmet streaming water down his face. Clearly he’d been dunked recently. He pointed at the first person in line. “Hey, you. Your aim sucks. Why don’t you try to slap shot—”

The beanbag hit the target. There was a cranking whoosh, and then Dane slid into the water, to the cheers of the crowd. He emerged a moment later, his hockey helmet askew, rivulets of water cascading down his cheeks. He grinned and mock shook a fist at Miranda.

His fiancée laughed and turned back to the line of waiting people, her poodle skirt flaring. “Who’s next?”

As Miranda took money and handed off the next set of beanbags, Beth Ann moved forward to chat with her friend.

“How’s it going, Wonder Woman?” Miranda drawled with a smile at the sight of Beth Ann. “Your ass is doing admirable things to those star-spangled panties.”

“You look pretty cute yourself,” Beth Ann said with a grin, adjusting her costume. She wore a red Wonder Woman bodice and the blue panties that were covered in stars. A bit chilly for October, but the day was warm and sunny, and she didn’t mind it. To complete her costume, she wore a pair of plastic red boots that pinched her feet and a gold headband. She didn’t dye her hair black, however. Instead, she simply curled it until it was big and bounced around her shoulders in a mass like Lynda Carter’s hair from the TV show. Close enough. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Colt today, have you?”

Miranda shook her head, taking money from another person that stepped up, and handing them beanbags to throw. “Not a sign. He might not be back from his campout yet.”

Or he might not be coming at all,
Beth Ann worried, but said nothing. She smiled tightly, trying not to think about it. “Well, just let me know if you see him, honey.”

“Will do,” Miranda said with a salute, and turned back to her line. “Okay, who’s the next person that wants to teach Casanova Croft a lesson? One dollar gets you three beanbags, and all donations go to the Bluebonnet Public Library!”

Colt finished shaking hands with the last member of his class and sent them on their way. Once every picture was taken, paperwork filed, and every car out of the Daughtry Ranch parking lot, he sat down on the lodge couch, rubbing his face. His knee sent up a flare of pain in protest, reminding him that he needed to be more careful with it.

Fuck, it had been a long week. He wanted nothing more than
to crawl into bed, kiss his woman, and sleep for days with her curled against his side.

That familiar ache settled in his chest again. He no longer had Beth Ann. He’d never see that sweet smile curving her mouth as she looked at him. He’d never hold her again. Hear that sexy whimper when he sank deep inside her. He’d lost everything he cared about, all over again. And this time, the scar wasn’t on his knee. It couldn’t be worked out with physical therapy and dedication. It was on his fucking heart, and it wasn’t ever going to mend.

The thought just made him even wearier.

Grant came into the room, set the camera down on his desk, and grinned at Colt. “You about ready to go to the airport, then?”

“Need to say good-bye to my dad,” he said slowly, not wanting to move from the couch. If he got up, he was really going to do it. Leave Bluebonnet behind again.

Leave Beth Ann behind.

Give up on her. On him with her. But wasn’t that what he deserved for being such a dick to her? Strange that he didn’t want to leave Bluebonnet—once, he’d never wanted to come back. But Beth Ann had changed all that. Now he didn’t want to go…but he had to. For her.

“Your dad’s at the Halloween Festival,” Grant said. “Everyone is. I just stuck around to give you a ride out to Houston.”

“Damn it,” Colt said slowly, and rubbed his hand down his face again. “I guess I’ll call the old man when I get to the airport.” Strange how that bothered him. He’d wanted to see his dad again before he left. “Where’d Brenna put my tickets?”

Grant shrugged, heading into the kitchen. Colt hauled himself
off of the couch and moved to Brenna’s desk. He saw an envelope with his name on it and opened it.

Out fluttered an IOU and a note. I LOST YOUR TICKET, Brenna had written in block letters. GUESS YOU CAN’T GO.

Well wasn’t she fucking hilarious. Still, his mouth quirked at her obvious attempt to get him to stay. “She’s a shitty assistant.”

“Yes she is,” Grant called from the kitchen.

Well, he’d just have to buy a ticket at the airport.

Grant appeared in the doorway of the kitchen again, sandwich in hand. “You bout ready to go, then? I want to stop by the Halloween Festival after I drop you off, so we need to go soon.”

He was. “Just about.”

“You need to check your cabin for anything else?”