Almost a Cowboy (27 page)

We’re brothers. Our father was an asshole, but I want a friendship with you. I want to share a bottle of whiskey and talk history.

Not for the first time, Utah realized he’d hung a lot of hopes on everyone meeting at the ranch for the reading of the will. He thought of them all getting along, embracing fledgling relationships. But things could very well tank into an abyss of angry, competitive siblings.

More than one would be upset because another had more time with their father. And personalities were bound to clash.

That’s if Pa left us all equal parts in the will.

Franklin wrapped up the tour, and people began to disperse, moving around and looking at things again or exiting into the cooler Virginia night. Franklin approached, and Utah faced him fully.

The pleasant expression and tone of the man who’d given their tour vanished. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded. Sparks flew from his eyes, and heat infused his voice. He clenched his hands into fists.

Utah outstretched his hand, palm up. “I think you can guess.”

Franklin jerked, every line of his body tight with fury. His dark brows knotted above his harsh glare. “I don’t appreciate you coming here like this.”

“Then you know about all of us?”

“Us? Who the hell is us?”

Caroline placed a hand on Franklin’s arm. “Look, this is getting off on the wrong foot. Is there someplace quiet we can talk to you?”

Franklin looked down at her hand and softened. After a long minute, he nodded.

Jerkily he pivoted and headed across the space to an open door behind the gift shop’s counter. Utah and Caroline followed. She closed the door behind them.

Franklin placed the old pine desk between them. He dropped both palms to the surface and leaned over. “Say it. You’re Hollis Davies’s son.”

“Can’t deny it.”

“I knew that son of a bitch had other kids. Damn him.” Franklin smacked a palm off the gleaming surface, face twisted in pain.

Utah again recalled his initial shock, horror, and rage at his father. “How did you know?”

“Gut feeling,” Franklin grated out.

“We apologize for coming to you here at work. We waited all day to talk to you.”

“I work long days.” As if all the steam fled from Franklin, he dropped to the leather chair and cradled his head.

Utah sat silent, counting his own heartbeats. Finally, Caroline spoke.

“You had a gut feeling there were more children?”

“Yes,” Franklin croaked. “My dad was never around. When he was, my mother was very upset.”

Utah’s heart lurched. So not all the women in Hollis’s life had been onboard with his sparse visits and lies.

“She fought with him about it more than once, and finally she kicked him out of our lives for good when I was about twelve.”

Utah drew a deep breath, smelling paper and photocopier ink and the faint trace of cigarette smoke. “And you’re now…?”

Franklin peered at him through the dark blue Davies eyes. “Twenty-four.”

Utah gestured to the free chair, and Caroline took it. He half expected her to pull out her notebook, but she just continued to talk to Franklin in a soft, soothing voice.

“This is Utah Davies, and I’m Caroline Wilks. We’re here because Hollis is dead.”

Franklin’s face spasmed, and then he brought it under control again. His lips hardened. “Yeah?”

“Yes, and there’s a will.”

A gleam lit in Franklin’s eyes. “There’s money?”

Utah’s stomach hollowed out. “We don’t know. Caroline and I are gathering all of the brothers and sisters on the ranch to hear the reading.”

Franklin sat back. “How many kids are there?”

“Fifteen,” Caroline said.

Utah expected Franklin to explode out of his seat, but he just shook his head. “Damn that man.”

“Where is Alexandria? Is she your sister?” Caroline asked.

Franklin’s face showed his confusion. “No. Well, yeah, I guess she would be, right? But no, I don’t know an Alexandria.”

Utah and Caroline exchanged a look. His heart gave a hard thud. What if they couldn’t find her? What if the reading was delayed until she was found?

“How did you find me?” Franklin removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

“Our names are all places—counties, cities, states. And we found you on the museum website,” Utah said.

Franklin rocketed to his feet and lunged. Paperclips and pens scattered as he slid across the desk and barreled right into Utah. He caught him around the waist, driving them both backward.

Utah’s spine struck the floor, and Caroline screamed. He barely got his bearings when a big fist soared into his vision.

Panting with the adrenaline rush, Utah jerked his head to the side and narrowly avoided a broken nose. Over him, Franklin’s face was fierce.

“You son of a bitch. Why now? Why not when I needed help a year ago, when Mom…” Franklin brought his knee up and rammed Utah in the gut.

He croaked an unintelligible response, mind spinning. Of all his brothers, he hadn’t expected this scholarly one to use his fists.

“I had no control over when Hollis died. I woulda helped the man along faster if I’d known this was gonna happen.” Utah’s words came in spurts as he avoided his little brother’s attempts to beat the hell out of him.

If he wanted, he could throw him off, but he held his temper.

Franklin sank back and glared down at Utah. Their gazes locked, and Utah read so much pain there, his breath hitched.

This man had something in his past that haunted him.

Caroline made a noise in her throat that sounded like a sob. Franklin’s spell was broken, and he slowly rose. Utah jumped up and reached for Caroline. She held herself stiffly, but when he buried his face in her hair and said, “I’m okay. It’s okay,” she relaxed in his hold.

Franklin stumbled back behind the desk and leaned against it, gasping for breath as if he’d outrun the Yanks at Fleetwood Hill.

Utah shot him a look.

“I’m sorry,” he rasped, dropping to his chair and positioning his glasses on his face, once again the quiet man.

Caroline gave an all-over tremor. That she disliked the punch-now-think-later attribute of the Davies men was apparent.
There has to be more going on in her mind.

“I’ve never…attacked anyone, and I do apologize,” Franklin drawled.

Utah flexed his ab muscles where his brother had punched him. “Maybe someday you’ll tell me what that was all about.”

Franklin’s gaze was direct. “Maybe.”

“We need you to come to the ranch. If you have a paper and pen, I’ll write the address.”

Caroline pulled free and flipped open her notebook again. She scribbled for a moment and then tore the sheet out and handed it to Franklin. Her hand wavered ever so slightly.

“We’ll see you there.” Utah gave him a nod.

“Where will you go now?” Franklin’s voice had a forlorn undertone that made Utah look at him harder. Was he, like Hays, all alone in the world?

Not anymore. Not unless it’s his choice.

“We have to find Alexandria,” Caroline answered and then turned to the door, apparently finished with this Davies man.

“If she’s nearby, Dad must have spent more time there. I hope to God for her sake he did.” Bitterness oozed from Franklin.

Utah hooked his brother’s gaze. “You may be right, and I’m sorry for it.”

Franklin’s lip twisted. “You look just like him. I hope you don’t act like him.”

•●•

Caroline needed to be alone. To gain some distance between herself and the man she couldn’t—shouldn’t—love.

“Drop me at that coffee shop. I’ll use the Wi-Fi to find Alexandria.”

“I’ll come with you—”

“Alone,” Caroline interrupted, staring at her hands.

Utah pressed his lips into a hard line and stared out the windshield. She hated the despondent way he gripped the wheel and the slump of his shoulders. But more than ever, she realized she couldn’t give him what he needed.

She needed to go on with the life she’d built post-Jeremy. Utah would always be a warm spot in her heart, but he couldn’t be more. In the past two weeks, she’d lost herself again. The reporter who’d rebuilt her name and personality had once again become “Utah’s girl.”

In the past two weeks, they’d been inseparable. She felt as if she’d lived a lifetime in this truck, on the road with him. But no more. Ten years ago she’d failed him. She hadn’t listened to her instincts and given him her hand. Now she just
couldn’t
.

He deserved better now.

Without a word, Utah slid alongside the curb in front of the coffee shop. “I’ll pick you up in two hours?”

She hated that she’d put that question in his voice, but it was necessary. “Yes.” She got out and went inside, feeling his hot gaze on her back.

Each step she took felt burdened. Inside, she ordered black coffee and snagged a window seat. Only then did she see the truck pull into traffic. She watched Utah travel down the street and turn.

For a long minute, she sat cradling her mug. In the end, she was better off alone. She’d known that forever. Jeremy had crushed things inside her—like her ability to commit, for one.

And I can’t always look at men without thinking of him.

That was the biggest problem. Utah was an exact opposite of her ex, but the times when she’d seen him sprawled on the floor grappling with a brother in a physical fight, he turned into Jeremy.

His strength could turn on her.

No, not Utah. Never him.

But she couldn’t take chances.

Can I afford not to take chances?

She’d spent a good number of years hating herself for not eloping with Utah. Was she willing to kick herself harder at this stage in her life?

Sighing, she pushed aside her thoughts and opened her laptop. The best thing was to find Alexandria. Then they’d only have four more siblings, hopefully in Maryland, and be on their way home. She could return to her life.

But two hours later, she was no closer to locating a female named Alexandria Davies. And the number of women named Alexandria in the state was too great to begin searching.

Utah waited on the street for her. She came outside, and he took her hand. She allowed him, her inner war raging once again.

I love him. I shouldn’t.

I need to.

I can’t. He deserves the Caroline he believes me to be. I’m not that woman.

No, but he doesn’t seem to mind when I show my true self.

He tucked her into the truck and drove. It was five minutes before he spoke.

“You didn’t find her.”

“No.”

“I got in touch with Gunn. He’s on his way here.”

Shock ripped through her. “What?”

Utah’s face was craggy and tired. He scrubbed a hand over it, making a rasping noise on his stubble that heated her. She pressed her thighs together against the instant throb in her pussy.

“He says he texted you, and you told him we were headed here.”

“Yeah, yesterday. I forgot to tell you.” She ached to draw him back to her. “Why is he coming?”

Utah lifted his shoulders and let them drop. “I guess he wants information. Or to beat me up again? Hell, I dunno.”

Caroline pushed out a long breath.

“It’s because of what Franklin said, isn’t it?” His gaze was piercing.

She shook her head, not following his bull-ride of thought. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“I’m like my father. You think I’m like him, so you’re pulling away.”

“No.”

“Then what?”

“You know this isn’t going to work.”

He slammed a fist off the steering wheel, and she shrank against the door. “No, I do not know that. Caroline, you’re everything to me. Always have been, forever will be. Don’t pull away.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Take me to the courthouse.”

He tore his gaze from her. “Fine. But I’m not goin’ in with you. I have to meet Gunn at the airport. He was laid over in St. Louis when I called him.”

“I’ll walk to a hotel.”

“You gonna tell me which one? Or am I continuing this mission solo?”

God, has it gone so far?
He couldn’t give up on her so easily, could he? After a little cold shoulder and time apart, he was ready to give her up?