Page 27

Brett settled back against the counter. “Well, I was born in the late eighties. It was the sunset of the age of hair bands and–”

“Tell me about the woman from last night,” Colt cut in. “Is she okay?”

“She has a concussion and a collapsed lung. They did some stuff for her lung last night that I didn’t understand, but they said she needed to be careful for a while. She also has a sprained ankle, so she might need crutches for a little bit. It seemed pretty bad. I came home to get a shower and pack a bag. Sorry about the commotion at the wedding.”

“Don’t worry about it. Jess said you know her,” Colt said as he poured a cup of coffee.

“You could say that.” Brett frowned. “Shouldn’t you be on your honeymoon?”

“It’s my honeymoon every day. Plus, Remi couldn’t stay away from the kids.”

Brett laughed. “That sounds like her. So, your staycation is pretty much just sending the kids to sleep over at Stella and Vera’s house all week?”

“Right. And that means it’s too easy for Remi to just walk over there and hang out with them.”

“You mean she doesn’t want to hang out with you?” Brett asked, trying and failing to keep the chuckle out of his voice.

“She said she hangs out with me enough. Can you believe that? We’ve been married for twenty-four hours and she’s already tired of me.”

“To be fair, you’ve been legally married for six months.”

“True, and she’s stuck with me for life. Now, back to the woman in the parking lot.”

Mr. Chambers jerked his head toward the back door. “Let’s take this to the porch, fellas.”

Brett followed Mr. Chambers and Colt outside where they each took a seat in the rocking chairs that faced the rolling expanse of Wolf Creek Ranch. Brett had called this place home for years, and he hoped to be an old man sitting on his porch drinking coffee somewhere close to here when he turned eighty.

The ranch would never belong to him in name, but he’d gladly put in a hard day’s work here until the day they kicked him out.

“So, tell us about the mystery woman,” Colt said. “You know her?”

Brett scoffed. “Know her? Yeah. I know her. Her uncle killed my dad five years ago.”

Coffee spewed from Colt’s mouth, but Mr. Chambers didn’t bat an eye. Brett had suspected that the old man might have heard about his family, but they’d never talked about it outright.

Colt brushed his shirt sleeve across his mouth. “Excuse me. Please continue.”

“Then my uncle killed her dad. Oh, and I was also a prime suspect in that murder case, until my uncle was proven guilty.”

“So, your uncle was going to let you take the fall, or at least try to pin it on you, if the judge or jury didn’t find him guilty?”

Brett lifted his cup. “You hit the nail on the head.”

“Whoa. That’s heavy,” Colt whispered.

Brett had known his uncle Mark was capable of anything, he’d just been crazy enough to overlook that danger when he’d followed his uncle that night. He’d hoped to stop Mark before he did something stupid, but Brett had been too late.

“Yeah, he hasn’t been on Santa’s nice list since he was a toddler. Thankfully, the jury found him guilty, and he’s been in prison ever since.”

“Good thing,” Colt said.

“As for Thea? I do a little bit more than know her. We were together when all of that went down.”

“Nooo,” Colt drawled. “No way. Why in the world?”

“Thea is different. She doesn’t have a malicious bone in her body. Our families hated each other, but we were the black sheep of the families.”

“What are they fighting about?” Colt asked.