Chapter 19
WEST
The sound of laughing kids greeted me as I stepped out of my truck. The parking lot was packed. It had been a while since I’d seen so many vehicles outside the lodge.
Indya’s doing, no doubt. The vacancies we’d had this season were gone. She’d booked us to capacity in only a month.
Most of the cars had Montana plates, numbers from Bozeman, Missoula, and Billings. We’d never targeted in-state residents before— our market had always been wealthy out-of-state travelers. But she’d gone after locals. She’d filled the empty rooms with people looking for a
quick getaway.
It was brilliant.
I wished I had thought of it myself. But I’d never taken the time to think of how we could do things differently. Dad liked the tradition of how things had always been done, and a part of me had too. It was easier than taking a chance. Than failing.
Besides, these past few years we’d been operating with a skeleton crew. It was better for everyone if the guest count was low, even if that meant we sacrificed cash flow.
We weren’t short staffed any longer. Indya had doubled the employee count. In just one month, so much had changed it was hard to
believe.
It was hard to resent too.
On my way to the lodge, I’d stopped by a cabin to say hi to Mike.
He’d been wrapping up for the day, cleaning the last of the construction mess inside the first cabin. His crew had already moved on to the next.
The work he’d accomplished in such a short time was amazing. The cabin had been transformed. It was clean. Bright. Airy.
The floors matched the herringbone white oak I’d put in Beartooth.
The same flooring I’d padded across barefoot at midnight when I’d sneaked out of Indya’s bed like a damn coward.
She terrified me.
Indya Keller absolutely fucking terrified me.
Part of me wanted to hide out in my house and avoid her for a good long while. But she’d had the lucky cards last night, and I’d promised her an explanation.
Besides, I’d tried avoiding her. It wasn’t working. It just made me . . . miss her.
It felt like I’d been missing Indya my whole life.
Following the sound of laughter, I made my way to the lodge just as a couple of kids came racing out from the backyard, kicking a soccer ball on the lawn. I grinned, about to head inside, when a wild mess of blonde curls came next.
The smile on Indya’s face flatlined my heart.
She chased the ball, stealing it from one of the kids and passing it to the other. Then that kid kicked it past what must have been their invisible goalpost, because Indya’s arms shot in the air as she cheered.
She looked . . . happy.
She looked like the woman I’d known years and years ago. Her smile was one I hadn’t seen enough in the past month.
My doing, at least in part.
I changed paths, walking across the grass toward the group.
Indya had the ball, dribbling it as she moved, but when she spotted me, she passed it to a kid and left them to play their game.
The light in her eyes dimmed.
My doing. Not in part.
“How can a woman who trips over everything in sight kick a ball like that and keep her feet?”
She laughed. “One of life’s greatest mysteries.”
I hadn’t heard that laugh enough this past month either. “Got a minute?”
“Sure.” Indya tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.
“How about a walk?”
“All right.” She nodded and fell in step at my side.
We walked away from the lodge and past the barn, far from any guests who might overhear. Then I led her through the gate that opened into the pasture where we normally turned out the horses.
It was the same pasture that I’d walked her through years ago when she’d ridden my horse and I’d led it by the reins.
“Feels like a lifetime ago that we were out here together,” I said.
“It was a different life.”
“I guess so.” Gone were the teenagers desperate for a moment
alone.
“Nice night,” she said.
“Yeah.” The days had been hot lately, summer coming on strong in early July. But it cooled in the evenings, and out here in the meadow, it smelled like home. Grass and dirt and rose perfume.
Indya was in a simple black tank and a pair of fitted jeans. She had on a pair of Air Jordan high-tops. It should have been ridiculous, a woman who owned a ranch wearing expensive Nike shoes. But not a
damn thing about Indya was ridiculous.
She looked beautiful. Sexy.
“Thank you,” I said.
“For?”
I glanced back to the lodge. “We needed you.”
“Oh.” She ducked her chin, but not before I caught the slight smile
on her pink lips.
“You won the poker hand last night.”
“I did.”
“Then I owe you answers.” I took a few more steps, mentally tracing back and back, to the beginning. “Do you remember when we were kids and you caught my parents arguing in the lodge?”
“I remember.”
“Mom left Dad after that. She moved to town. They got divorced.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was the right decision. They were miserable. He cheated on her.
Did I ever tell you that?”
“No.” Her mouth parted. “I had no idea.”
“It was just once. He went to the National Finals Rodeo in Vegas with some friends. Got hammered one night and had sex with a woman
he met at a bar.”
Indya’s face soured. “Oh.”
“Yeah. He fucked up. When he came home, he owned it. He confessed it all to Mom and begged for a second chance. She loves him, so she stuck around. Tried to move past it. And I think maybe they would have made it, but a year later, the woman from Vegas showed up at the ranch. With Jax.”
I’d never forget that day. When the bus had dropped me off at the stop, it wasn’t Mom waiting to get me like usual. It was Grandma. She had driven me home, and when I’d walked through the door, I had been greeted with a baby’s cry.
Dad had been walking Jax around the living room.
Mom had locked herself in their bedroom, but I’d heard her crying too.
“Jax’s mother left him here. As far as I know, she’s never been back or tried to contact Dad again.”
“Oh my God.” Indya’s eyes widened. “I had no idea. So Jax is your —”
“Brother. There’s no half about it. But we have different mothers.”
Jax didn’t resemble a Haven. He had blue eyes instead of hazel.
Blond hair in place of brown. I’d never met the woman, but I could only guess that Jax looked like his mother. The woman who’d destroyed my
family.
And crushed Mom’s heart.
“Do me a favor? Keep that between us.”
“Of course,” Indya said.
There were people who had no idea Mom wasn’t Jax’s mother. I preferred it that way. I never wanted Jax to be treated differently just because he wasn’t Lily Haven’s flesh and blood. And it was one of those sordid stories that we kept fairly quiet. As quiet as possible in our small town.
The gossip was inevitable. It was something Mom had dealt with mostly. But living on the ranch had helped. She’d been able to stay secluded, especially in the beginning, when the rumor mill would have been churning full speed.
“Mom stepped up,” I told Indya. “She didn’t leave Dad. She took care of Jax. Fed him. Changed diapers. Rocked him in the middle of the
night. Taught him to tie his shoes. She acted like his mother. The only thing she never let him do was call her Mom.”
“Why?”
“No idea. Anytime I’d ask, she’d change the subject. All I know is that she taught him early on that her name was Lily. If he called her Mommy, she’d correct him.”
Indya stayed quiet, probably because there wasn’t much to say. It had been strange for me as a kid. To hear her correct Jax. To reserve Mom for me and me alone.
But that choice of hers had been a crack that had kept widening and breaking my parents apart.
“Mom and Dad started fighting all the time. I’d wake up in the middle of the night to hear them arguing. She just couldn’t get over the fact that he’d cheated. She’d wanted more kids, but there’d been some complications when I was born. Dad having a baby with another woman broke something inside her. It got worse and worse until one day, Mom
called it quits.”
“The day I overheard them.”
“Yeah.” The day I’d overheard them too. “The divorce was fast. But it cost Dad. Mom had spent decades working on this ranch, but she didn’t want to stay. This was her home, and it wasn’t like they could sell the house and split the money. Dad owed her for what she’d done here, so he paid through their settlement. She bought a place in town and
started working as a nurse.”
“And you stayed on the ranch?”
“I was back and forth. During football season, I stayed in town with her so I didn’t have to drive. In the summers, I lived with Dad because I was working out here. They never forced me into a custody situation;
they let me choose.”
“And Jax?”
“He stayed with Dad. Mom would come out and visit him, especially during those early years. But over time, they saw each other less and less. Before Jax left for college, they had a big fight.”
“Over?”
“Him having to call her Lily.”
“Ah.” Indya nodded.
I loved my mother. But by making that choice so long ago, when her feelings had been raw and ruined, she’d hurt Jax too.
“It’s a mess.” I sighed. “Has been for decades. The divorce was expensive for Dad. Add to that, he had to hire managers for the resort.
Before then, Mom was running the show. No one ever worked as hard as she did. No one ever cared the way she did. It was hers. Until she left, and then it was just someone else’s job. Dad had to get more and more involved to compensate.”
Looking back, I saw the slow deterioration. I saw the decisions Dad had made that I would have made different. But for the majority of those years after Mom had left, I’d been a kid. I hadn’t realized the financial balance between the resort and ranch.
And even when I’d finished college, when I’d come back to work, I’d taken Dad’s advice. I’d followed his orders.
He was my father. He’d been running this place for years.
Why wouldn’t he know what he was doing?
Anytime I challenged him, he challenged back. He made sure I knew my place. If it had been any other person, any other employer, I would have quit. But he was my father. I’d given him the benefit of the doubt, for far too long.
“Mom was owed every dime. I’ll never be bitter about that. She poured her blood, sweat, and tears into this place. But that was the first chink in the armor. Another crack that grew over time.”
Indya hummed. “Then the land purchase.”
“That fucking land,” I grumbled.
“Melvin. That was the neighbor, right?”
“Right.” Not a surprise that Indya had done her research and knew the previous owner’s name. “They’d lived out here for nearly as long as my grandparents. I went to school with Sunny Melvin.”
“Did something happen to them? Is that why they sold it?”
“Sunny’s parents were divorced, like mine. It was his mom’s family’s ranch. She didn’t want to live out here, deal with brutal winters, so she moved away after he graduated. To Florida, I think. And handed
everything over to Sunny.”
That arrogant shit.
“We didn’t have much to do with him. Every now and then his cattle or ours would get out and cross a fence. But otherwise, Sunny and
I were never friends. He wasn’t the kind of man we’d invite to poker
club or out for drinks.”
“Why not?”
“He’s a liar and a cheat.” He had been that way in high school and had never grown out of it. “But Sunny wasn’t really the problem. It was Courtney.”
Indya’s shoulders stiffened as we walked. She knew the name.
“Courtney was working here as the manager. She took over all the tasks that Mom used to tackle. She loved the resort. She loved guests.
And the longer she was here, the more we just let her run the show.”
I’d stopped asking questions. I’d stopped engaging in resort business. I’d let Dad and Courtney have their morning meetings over coffee. And while the two of them were talking about whatever it was they’d talk about, I’d be outside working.
“She pitched the land purchase to Dad. Said she’d heard it in town that Sunny was considering selling. Dad always wanted the Melvin land.
He always talked about how it would complement the Haven ranch so well. How we could use it for more guest cabins. How they had better hay ground and a center pivot, so we could get more than one cutting a year.”
“Did Courtney know he wanted that land?”
“Absolutely.”
“So she dangled the bait.”
“And he took it. Without hesitation. Never told me he was going to buy the land until he’d already gone to the bank and taken out the loan.”
“Curtis.” Indya cringed.
“Courtney never mentioned it either. They both knew I would ask questions, so they kept me in the dark.”
Indya’s jaw dropped. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.” The sting from Courtney’s betrayal had faded in time.
But damn if my pride wasn’t still tender even years later. “She was sleeping with Sunny. After the purchase cleared, they left Montana together.”
“What?” Indya’s jaw dropped. “That’s why she wanted it to sell. So
they’d have money.”
“Yep.”
She cringed again. “I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. “It’s done.”
Except Courtney was back. Without Sunny. Why?
I hadn’t cared enough to ask around since Zak had told me she’d come back. With any luck, she’d disappear before summer turned to fall.
“That land purchase stretched us,” I said. “You know that already.
Dad didn’t negotiate on price because he was afraid he’d miss out. We’re in a dip in the cattle-market cycle. When Courtney left, Dad took it hard.
He was angry and refused to hire another manager. Things were fine for a while, until they weren’t. Until the resort kept bleeding money. Until the ranch couldn’t cover the losses. Until it snowballed. Until . . .”
“Until,” she whispered.
Until we went broke.
Until Indya.
“Thank you for telling me,” she said.
“Welcome.”
“I’m sorry, West. For everything.”
“No more apologies.” I let my hand brush hers. “You’re not to
blame.”
That was on Dad.
And it was on me.
I could have pushed. I should have fought harder.
We walked in silence for a few more minutes until we moved in tandem, turning back for the lodge.
“It bothers me that I didn’t know you wear nightgowns. It bothers me that I don’t know if you like red wine or white. Waffles or pancakes.
Summer or winter.”
If tonight was the night for confessions, I might as well lay it all out there.
I knew her heart. I knew her laugh. I knew her shrugs and the way she looked every time she was fighting tears. But that wasn’t enough.
Not anymore.
“It bothers me that I know you, Indy. And I don’t.”
She stopped walking, waiting until I faced her. The unguarded look in those caramel eyes, the vulnerability, nearly sent me to my knees.
“Red wine. Pancakes. Winter. Normally I wear an oversized T-shirt to bed. My mom got me that nightgown for my birthday, and I was trying it
out. I don’t like how the straps move when I sleep, so I haven’t worn it
again.”
The air rushed from my lungs.
Indy reached for my hand, then slipped her fingers into mine. “It bothers me too.”
Fuck, this woman. She had no idea what she did to me, did she?
“Then we’ll fix it.”
“All right.” A smile ghosted her lips. “We’ll fix it.”
I kept her hand in mine as we continued walking. By the time we reached the lodge, day was giving way to night. The sky was tinged in pink tones, casting the world a rose-colored tint.
We stayed in lockstep to the Beartooth, and before I could let go of her hand, she clamped her own around my wrist, tugging me forward.
Up the steps. Through the door. Into her room.
And this time, instead of sneaking out, I stayed naked in Indya’s bed until dawn.
Asking her questions, giving her answers, all through the night.
