Читать книгу New Year, New Man - Natalie Anderson - Страница 17

Chapter Ten

Josh rubbed his hand over his face and gave a weary look around yet another store filled with racks of women’s clothes. How many different shops had he been into today? More than in the past ten years if he had to guess. After eating, Claire had led them from one end of the ritzy neighborhood to the other.

She’d promised this would be the last one, and Josh couldn’t be finished soon enough. His knee ached, his head pounded and all he wanted was to get out of the city and up into the mountains again. Sara had gamely kept up with Claire’s boundless energy, but even she’d begun to wilt a little as she’d followed his daughter back to the fitting rooms.

He’d also noticed that in the whole day, Sara hadn’t purchased one thing for herself. All of her attention remained focused on Claire’s needs. He knew Claire had never had that with her own mother, and it made his heart open to Sara all the more.

“I’m not sure that’s your size,” a voice said next to him.

Sara stood just to the side of a rack of dresses, eyeing him with a smile.

He looked down at the soft fabric he clutched to his chest, then held up the dress. “It would look good on you,” he said softly.

Her eyes sparked, whether with humor or temper he couldn’t tell. “Today isn’t about me.”

“You haven’t seen anything you want?”

“Doesn’t matter.” She sighed. “I don’t have the money for new clothes.”

He ignored the way his gut tightened at her comment. “I thought maybe Colorado wasn’t trendy enough for you.”

“What do you know about trendy?”

“More than I ever wanted to after today.” He held the dress out. “Try it on,” he coaxed, suddenly wanting to see her in something other than her chosen uniform of jeans and shapeless T-shirts.

“No point,” she answered, but he thought he saw a sliver of longing in her gaze. Josh knew all about longing these days. Although he found it hard to believe, Sara had almost as many walls built up as he did. Right now, he wanted to crash through each and every one of them.

“You’re right, though,” he told her. “It doesn’t matter what you wear. The bottom line is you’re beautiful.”

She took a step toward him and reached for the dress. “I’m not sure—”

“What do you think?”

He and Sara turned as Claire came from the back of the store. Josh felt his eyes widen. “I think you have thirty seconds to take that off and put on a decent outfit.”

Sara’s mouth dropped open as her gaze traveled up and down Claire. The saleswoman who’d followed Claire from the dressing room quickly backed away as Sara shot her a glare.

His daughter wore a skintight, black lace concoction that revealed more skin than it covered. Suddenly, he saw her not as his little girl but as a woman, one who was quickly going to rival her supermodel mother in the looks department. He had a visceral need to polish a shotgun or move to Tibet. Anything to avoid what the next few years held for him as a father.

“That’s not the dress we’d picked,” Sara said carefully.

Claire did a quick twirl, and he realized the dress was practically backless. He growled low under his breath. “No. Way.”

“Dad,” Claire whined, her bright smile turning to a pout. “Don’t be a stick-in-the-mud. I saw Mom wearing something like this in a magazine last month. I want to have something she’ll like when I go to visit her before school starts.”

“You don’t have a trip planned to see your mother,” Josh argued. “And you’re not going anywhere in that dress.”

Claire’s tiny hands came to rest on her hips. “I want to see her. I texted this morning and asked when she’d be back in New York. I could fly out next month if it works for her.”

“What did she answer?”

Claire’s mouth thinned, and she didn’t meet his gaze. “She hasn’t responded yet. But she will. You know how Mom does things last minute. I want to be ready.”

“You aren’t going to ‘fly out’ to be with her. We’re spending the summer in Colorado.”

Claire shook her head. “You can’t stop me.”

“The hell I can’t,” he shot back.

“You’re not the boss of me.”

“I’m your father and you’ll do as I say.”

“She’s my mom. You can’t keep me from her.”

He couldn’t think straight with Claire in that dress, looking so grown-up and out of his control. He had to keep her safe. He’d do anything, say anything to make sure she stayed with him. “I’m not keeping you from her,” he yelled. “She doesn’t want—”

He broke off, knowing the words were a mistake as soon as he said them.

“Me,” Claire finished on a sob. “You think she doesn’t want me.”

He watched his daughter’s eyes fill with tears and cursed himself for being the biggest idiot on the planet. “Claire, I didn’t mean—”

She shook her head. “You’re wrong,” she said quietly, the pain in her gaze cutting a deep hole in his heart. “I hate you. Mom is going to take me back. I know she will.” She turned and ran for the fitting room, silence filling the small store.

He took a step forward, but Sara put a hand on his arm. “She needs some time.”

“I can’t let her be with Jennifer. Too many bad things could happen.”

Sara shook her head. “Then don’t push her away.”

She was right, but that only fueled his frustration more. “What do you know about protecting the people you love? From what you’ve told me, April is the only friend you have and you lost her entire life savings. If you and your mother hadn’t put thoughts of another world in Claire’s head, we wouldn’t be here today. She’d be on the ranch. She’d be safe.” His hands balled into hard fists. “Only I can keep her safe.”

Sara sucked in a breath as if he’d slapped her. He waited for her to argue, to fight back. His words were untrue, but he’d baited her on purpose. He needed a good fight right now, a way to get rid of the fear crawling through every pore, making him feel weak and defenseless.

Instead, she looked away. “I’m going to get Claire. Pull the truck out front. I think this day is done.”

“Sara,” he called out as she walked away. She shook her head and kept moving, leaving Josh alone. His gaze dropped to the dress he held, a wrinkled, balled-up mess in his hands.

A lot like his life right now.

* * *

Sara followed Claire into the kitchen at the ranch three hours later. Three of the longest hours of her recent life. She was on edge down to her teeth after the tense ride back from Denver.

Claire had spent the entire time with her earbuds shoved in her ears, heaving dramatic sighs from the backseat as she furiously texted on her phone. Josh had turned the music loud, not the lulling country tunes from the morning but a pounding heavy-metal station that had only served to intensify Sara’s headache.

She’d leaned her head against the cool window glass and tried to tune out everything around her. It was a trick she’d learned as a girl on set, the ability to ignore the world and crawl into her own internal life.

But with Josh’s hulking presence next to her, it felt like all her other senses became more attuned to him when she closed her eyes. His clean, male scent. The hot tension curling from him. She could even sense the pattern of his breathing and wasn’t surprised when she opened her eyes to see that his chest rose and fell at the same rate hers did.

Although the words he’d spoken were the truth, he’d hurt her feelings. Still, she wanted to reach out and comfort him. He was a bumbling bull in a china shop when it came to Claire, but at least he cared. That was more than Sara had ever gotten from either of her parents, and she knew how much it mattered.

She also knew, because April continually reminded her, that she was a sucker for lost causes. Maybe it was because her secret dream had always been that someone would care enough to rescue her. She gave the best parts of herself to people who couldn’t return the emotion. Part of her fresh start, her second chance, had been the opportunity to finally take care of herself. To make herself whole and right so she could move forward with her dreams. If she let herself get too involved with Josh and Claire, all her careful plans could slip through her fingers.

She might, once again, be left with nothing.

Regardless, she couldn’t stand to see either of them in this kind of pain.

“He didn’t mean to hurt you,” she said to Claire’s back as the girl grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

April walked in from the family room. “How was the shopping trip? Do I get a fashion show tonight?”

Claire slammed shut the fridge door and whirled. “I’d like to burn every single piece of clothing my jerk of a dad bought today.” She swiped at her cheeks, her desperate gaze swinging between Sara and April. “He’s wrong, you know. My mom loves me. She’s busy, but she loves me.”

“I know, honey,” Sara answered. “He knows it, too. You scared him in that dress.”

“I looked scary?” Claire’s voice rose to a squeak.

Sara pressed her palm to the girl’s face, smoothing away a tear. “You looked gorgeous and grown-up. That’s the scariest thing a father can face. It makes them a little crazy.”

“A crazy jerk,” Claire mumbled.

A door slammed at the front of the house. Claire looked around wildly. “I don’t want to see his friends tonight. I don’t want to see anyone.”

Sara glanced at April. “Are you making dinner?”

“Everyone is going into town. Ryan made reservations.”

“Ryan is entertaining a group of cowboys?”

April nodded. “He stopped by earlier, looking for you. He’s adamant that you be there, too. For moral support.”

“I’m staying here if Claire wants company.”

April stepped forward. “I’ll keep Claire company.” She smiled. “I made chicken soup and an apple crisp earlier. I happen to know there’s a Jane Austen marathon tonight. Emma and Sense and Sensibility, two of my favorites. Does that sound okay, Claire?”

The girl nodded then gave a tiny hiccup. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be down when everyone else is gone.”

She gave Sara a quick hug. “I had a good time with you. Sorry Dad ruined it for both of us.”

“I enjoyed the day, no matter what.”

“I’ll get fresh towels for you,” April said, and took Claire’s hand, leading her up the back stairs.

Sara braced her hands on the counter and leaned forward, dropping her head to stretch out some of the tension in her neck.

“Now I ruined the whole day?”

She looked up as Josh filled the doorway leading to the front hall. His broad shoulders looked as tense as hers felt.

“You need to apologize,” she answered.

“To Claire or to you?” He crossed his arms over his chest, his dark eyes unreadable in the shadows of the soft evening light.

“I’m not important here.” She straightened, wiping an imaginary crumb from the counter. “Your daughter is.”

“You’re important to me,” he said quietly.

“Don’t do that, Josh.”

“Do what?”

“Care.”

He took a step forward at the same moment the back door of the house burst open.

“Come on, you two,” Ryan said. “I’ve got the masses corralled into the Suburban. We need to make it to town before the poor vehicle implodes from the force of all that testosterone.”

Sara saw his eyebrows raise as he studied both Josh and her. “Whatever’s going on here can only be helped by a drink and some food. Let’s go.”

Before she could argue, Ryan took her hand and pulled her out into the night.

* * *

Josh emptied his second beer and set it on the table. He looked down to where Sara sat, Manny and Noah on either side of her. He made eye contact with the waitress and lifted his finger to order another round.

“Rough day with the girls?” Dave asked from his seat next to him.

“I’d rather spend an hour in the ring with the orneriest bull you can find than another minute shopping.”

“Amen to that,” his friend agreed. “But I sure do like the results.”

Josh followed Dave’s gaze to where Brandy did a quick two-step with young Bryson on the dance floor. She wore a short skirt and a colorful blouse that flowed as she spun to the music. “How do you two make it look so easy?” he grumbled.

“I’m smarter than you,” his friend told him sagely. “I keep my mouth shut unless I’m giving her a compliment.”

Josh’s laugh turned into a coughing fit as Noah leaned in close to whisper in Sara’s ear.

He started to stand but Dave cuffed him on the shoulder. “He’s doing it to get a rise out of you.”

“Looks more like he’s trying to get a rise out of himself.”

“It’s freaking him out being in town again, but we wanted to make sure you were doing okay. Neither of us planned on ever coming back to Crimson until we heard you’d settled here.”

“Wasn’t my plan either, but I’m going to make it work.”

“Have you seen Logan and Jake recently?”

Josh took a breath at the mention of his two brothers. “Jake was here for Mom’s funeral a couple of years ago. We both stayed less than twenty-four hours. Long enough to hire someone to clear out the old house and get it on the market. He flew off to whatever country needed doctors again after that. Logan...well, he couldn’t exactly get away at the time.”

“I’m sorry, man. About a lot of things.”

Josh did stand now. He wasn’t ready for this conversation. “I’m going to stretch my legs while doing my best to ignore your brother.”

He got his beer at the bar and tried not to watch his two so-called friends flirting with Sara. It wasn’t any business of his what she did with her time, but it still grated on his nerves.

His eyes strayed to the woman next to him, or at least to her hands, which were busily building some sort of structure out of a pile of matchbooks. “That’s quite a building you’ve got there,” he said, focusing all his wayward attention on the intricate display.

The woman jumped three feet in the air at his words, the house of matchbooks crumbling onto the bar.

“Sorry,” he said with a wince. “Looks like that took some time.”

He saw color rise to her pale cheeks. She turned and gave him an embarrassed smile. “It’s a silly pastime.” Her light brown hair was pulled back into a tight bun at the back of her head. She began stacking the little cardboard boxes into neat rows. “You’re Josh Travers, right?”

He nodded. “Have we met?”

She shook her head. “No, but my husband grew up here, so he’s mentioned you.” She glanced over her shoulder. “He told me Serena Wellens is staying with you for the summer.”

“Her name is Sara Wells now,” Josh said, his protective instinct kicking in. “Who is your husband?”

The woman closed her eyes for a moment as if she’d said too much. Just then a firm hand clasped Josh on the shoulder. “Travers, it’s been a while. How’s it hangin’?”

Josh turned to see Craig Wilder, one of his least favorite people in all of Crimson, Colorado. Craig had been an insufferable prig as a kid. His family was the wealthiest in town, and they’d made sure everyone else knew it. Craig had had no time for any of the Travers kids, who were way below him on the social totem pole. Since Josh had come back, not much had changed. He knew Craig had become mayor last year, and he’d heard rumors that he’d bought the election. But Josh hadn’t had a conversation with him for years, and he didn’t want to start now.

One more reason he kept to himself out on the ranch.

“It’s hanging fine,” he said through clenched teeth.

“I see you met my wife, Olivia.” Craig glanced at the woman. “Seriously, you aren’t making those stupid houses again, are you, Liv?”

“No,” she mumbled, and gave Josh an apologetic smile.

“I’m going to head back to the table,” Josh said quickly. “Dave and Noah are at the ranch this week.”

Craig stepped in front of him. “I hear Serena Wellens is there, too.”

“She prefers Sara Wells,” Olivia interjected.

Craig shot his wife a silencing glare. “You may have heard that in addition to my duties as mayor, I bought the old community-center building in town. I feel as though it’s my civic duty to bring some culture back to Crimson. There are plenty of people who’d drive over from Aspen with the right incentive.”

Josh took a slow pull on his beer. “You think Sara is the right incentive?”

“A D-list celebrity,” Craig said with a chuckle, “is better than no celebrity at all.”

Without thinking, Josh reached out and grabbed the other man by his shirtfront, pulling him close enough to see the whites of his eyes. “You’re not using Sara for anything, Wilder. Don’t talk to her. Don’t even look at her. You were a slimeball when we were young, and I don’t see that much has changed.”

Craig fidgeted. then narrowed his eyes. “You’re going to need the support of this town and the visitors’ center to draw people to your ranch. Don’t forget that.”

Olivia stood and smiled at Josh. “I volunteer at the visitors’ center. I’ll make sure you get whatever publicity you need, Mr. Travers.”

“Shut it, Liv,” Craig said on a hiss of breath.

“I’ll wait for you in the car,” she answered, and turned away.

Josh released Craig and stared as he stomped off after his wife. He couldn’t imagine all the things wrong in that marriage, but he’d meant what he said. He wouldn’t let anyone use Sara for her fame. She deserved much more than that.

His eyes tracked to where she sat at the table. A man he didn’t recognize sat next to her now, with Ryan standing between them, his face alight with excitement. The other man was clearly another Hollywood type. A shaggy beard covered his jaw, but his button-down shirt looked like some sort of expensive fabric. and a heavy gold Rolex flashed on his wrist.

Crimson had seen its share of wealth and fame. The town’s close proximity to Aspen drew enough moneyed tourists to keep the town thriving. He’d been able to ignore them growing up and hoped that wouldn’t change. The who’s who wasn’t the crowd he hoped to attract to the ranch—his ideal guests were people who’d appreciate the beauty and majesty of the mountains as much as he did. People who wanted a true Colorado vacation experience. But money was money, and he’d take what he could get if it meant having enough savings to buy the ranch at the end of the summer.

Watching Sara smile at Ryan and the other man made him wonder what she truly wanted. He was only guessing at the things that made her happy.

He had trouble believing all she cared about was selling her grandmother’s house. Already she was an important part of his daughter’s life and had captured a big part of his heart, even if he didn’t want to admit it. But he couldn’t blame her for wanting to reclaim her life on her own terms. He only hoped he could convince her there was room enough in it for him.