Page 55 of Boston (Coral Canyon: Cowboys #12)

CHAPTER

THIRTY-SIX

C ora had skipped the coffee cart that morning because it had morphed from a place where she could get a few things signed off on and try to get to know the staff at Silver Sage.

No, the people she ran into at the coffee cart now wanted answers from her. They wanted to know why she hadn’t finished a batch of paperwork yet, or they asked the same questions that they’d put in emails that she just hadn’t gotten to yet.

She didn’t have time to brew coffee in her own cabin, and she hated herself a little bit as she picked up the phone and tapped in the three-digit code for Julie Bryant.

She sat right across from Boston’s desk, and since Cora knew they were great friends, it was almost like she could call and talk to Boston when she dialed Julie.

“Good morning, Miss Silver,” Julie chirped. “What can I do for you?”

“Listen, I know you’re not my secretary,” Cora said, leaning over her phone for some reason. “But I missed getting coffee. Is there a way I can order some?”

“Of course,” Julie said. “I can run out to the beverage bar and get you some, or you can call them, and they’ll deliver it to you.”

Cora tilted her head. “Do they deliver it to all employees?”

“No, ma’am,” Julie said. “But you Silvers are the exception, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Cora murmured. “Thank you, Julie.”

“Do you want me to go get you some?”

Cora debated for a moment because she didn’t want special treatment from the beverage bar, but she also didn’t want to treat Julie like a personal assistant. The woman had a hospitality degree and a master’s in marketing, and she worked with high-end clients on events here at the lodge.

“I’m not sure I have the number to the beverage bar,” Cora said. “Could I maybe just get that from you?”

“Sure thing, Miss Silver. It’s seven-one-nine.”

The fact that she didn’t even have to look it up made Cora’s heart sink a couple of inches in her chest. “Thank you, Julie. I really appreciate your help.”

“Any time,” she said, and the call ended.

Cora dialed the right digits and put in an order for some coffee with vanilla creamer and sugar, and she went back to work.

A few minutes later, someone rapped on her partially open door, and her adrenaline spiked. She could really use a hit of caffeine, but it wasn’t someone from the beverage bar delivering her coffee.

“How’s Kat doing?” Belinda asked, looking sharp in a bright blue blouse, though she leaned into the office doorway a bit strangely.

Cora forced a smile to her face. “She’s doing great,” she said. “The babies haven’t had to go to the ER again, so there’s that.”

Belinda laughed. “My church sewing group put together some blankets for them.” She filled the doorway fully, and Cora realized she’d been leaning against it, hiding the quilts. “Two of them, actually.”

“Wow,” Cora said as she got to her feet. “These are gorgeous.”

Belinda glowed under the praise. “We’ve been working on them for months,” she said. “They would have been done if she hadn’t had the babies seven weeks early.”

Cora ran her hands down one side of the quilt that had been done in squares of blue, from the lightest baby, through sky, to azure, to bright, to navy.

The intricacy came in the quilting, as if the sewing together of hundreds of squares wasn’t impressive enough.

Her hands reached the end corners, and she lifted it while Belinda held the top.

“It says Silver Sage. See?”

“I do see,” Cora said, nodding. “This is incredible.”

“Would you mind taking them to her?” Belinda asked. “They’re the same, except one has the words on the top of the logo and one has them underneath. I don’t want to intrude when she and Jeremy are still getting settled.”

Cora nodded, because what choice did she truly have? Belinda passed her the quilts and, beaming, stepped out of the office. Cora laid down the bottom one and refolded the top blanket before laying them both over the chair in front of her desk.

The babies had turned a month old yesterday, and she wondered when they would stop being newborns. She strongly disliked this resentment that had been building inside her, because she truly loved her sister and, of course, she was happy for her.

But the fact was, Cora’s life had also imploded with the birth of the babies, and no one brought her food or checked on her, asked her how she was doing, or brought thoughtful gifts that had taken months to create.

She sighed as she sank back into her desk chair and ran her hands through her hair and pressed her palms against her temples.

“Miss Silver?” a man said, and she looked up, trying to find the brightest energy she could.

“Yes?” she asked.

“I’ve got your coffee here.”

“Thank you so much,” she said. “Can you just put it right here on my desk?”

He entered with a full-service tray in his hands—a carafe of coffee and a single mug, a smaller pitcher of cream, and a sugar bowl. Cora had nowhere to put that on her desk, and she stood and started unloading the items into smaller spaces.

“I don’t really need the tray,” she said.

“Sorry.”

“It’s all right,” she said.

He wore a name tag that said Dustin, and she reached for a pen and a sticky pad.

“What’s your full name?” she asked. “I’ll make sure you get a nice tip.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that, Miss Silver,” he said.

She looked at him, feeling a hint of ice running through her veins now. He swallowed and said, “Dustin Kent.”

“Thank you, Dustin.” She smiled at him, scrawled his name on a sticky note, and reached to flip over the mug.

He scampered out of the office, and Cora told herself to take her glaring down a little bit.

It wasn’t his fault that Kat had had babies seven weeks early, or that they had overbooked everyone in July, or that she and Boston had broken up.

A week later, Cora climbed the steps at her sister’s cabin the way she had been every night for the past five weeks.

She didn’t need to knock, and she heard the sound of an infant crying before her hand landed on the doorknob.

She’d spent so much time with Roy and Denim that she knew the cry of the younger twin.

She entered the cabin and paused to assess the situation, something Cora usually did in every part of her life. She didn’t see Jeremy or her mother, and Kat already had Roy in her arms.

“Where is everyone?” Cora asked, moving over to the seat where Denim acted like the world was coming to an end.

“He just wants to be held,” Kat said, frowning at her son. “He’s already eaten.”

Cora lifted the screaming baby into her arms and shushed him. She picked up a blanket from the arm of the couch and pressed it against his back, then tucked it around him tightly. Denim always tried to get loose, but he was never happy if he wasn’t bundled.

“Oh, you’re so mad,” Cora said as she bounced him and held him tightly against her heartbeat. “You’re okay. Auntie Cora is here. You’re okay.”

She patted his back and looked around for a pacifier. She found one sitting on the table, and she moved over to it. “Can he have this?”

“I don’t know who had it in their mouth last.” Kat had scraped her hair back into a ponytail, but plenty of tendrils had escaped, as if she’d taken a nap, rolled around in bed, and hadn’t refixed her hair.

“Where’s everyone else?” Cora asked as she settled the pacifier in Denim’s mouth.

“Jeremy had to get Kelsey out of the house,” Kat said. “She’s been having a rough day.”

“Seems like it’s going around,” Cora said. “Where’s Momma?”

“Getting her nails done.”

Cora hadn’t had time to pamper herself since that first massage back in June, and she told herself that life wouldn’t always be this crazy and hectic. She got Denim to quiet finally, and she sank onto the couch opposite Kat.

“He’s eating good,” she said, smiling at Roy.

“Finally.” Kat wore bags under her eyes, and her smile only stayed for a moment. “I seriously don’t know why I thought having another baby would be a good idea. And then we got two.” She looked like she might start crying, and Cora switched her gaze down to the beautiful baby boy in her arms.

Denim had just passed five pounds, and he was really starting to get some chunk in his cheeks.

He still had all of the dark hair he’d been born with, and Cora couldn’t help wondering what a little boy with half of her genes and half of Boston’s would look like.

He was so fair, while she wasn’t. And while Jeremy wasn’t as dark as her and Kat, he had hazel eyes and brown hair, so both babies didn’t have a stitch of blonde in them.

She wondered what Boston was doing that night, and then she remembered that he’d be going up to Ramsfire Ridge tomorrow.

Ernie had said at their last meeting that Boston wanted to finish the plans to make it an overnight trip, and that he wanted to be on their schedule for September or October when they talked about the adventures they offered at the lodge.

Cora had felt his passion for this project, and as she looked at Denim, a smile came to her face that wasn’t entirely happy.

“I haven’t seen Boston around for a while,” Kat said. “What’s going on with you two?”

Cora whipped her head up and looked over to her sister. She blinked, because she was sure she had told Kat that they had broken up.

“I told you this already,” she said. “We broke up weeks ago.”

“Weeks ago?” Kat asked. “That is not true. You never told me that.”

Cora narrowed her eyes at her sister. “I’m sure I did.”

“Was I awake?” Kat asked, her eyes frantically searching Cora’s. “Why did you break up with him? You guys were so cute.”

“What makes you think I broke up with him?”

“Oh, come on, Cora,” Kat said.

Cora’s irritation climbed. “Come on, Cora, what?” she asked. “It’s entirely possible that he broke up with me.”

“Why would he do that?” Kat asked.