Page 33 of The Cowboy's Redemption
Word was out about Otto’s passing and he’d already called her so she wouldn’t have to hear about it in church first. There were a few more details about his current living conditions that he should probably fill her in on before someone else did, but he didn’t know how to explain a situation he wasn’t sure of himself.
He took a seat at the table. His mom poured him a cup of coffee and loaded it down with cream the way she knew he liked it. She sliced a large hunk of gingerbread and passed him a plate and a fork.
They chatted about his work at the Endeavour for a while before she raised the area of genetic research that interested her most.
“It’s a shame you had to rush off the other day,” she said. “Shauna is such a nice girl.”
He’d known this discussion was coming and was careful to stick to the facts so as not to sway the conclusions. “Seems to be.”
“Pretty, smart, and she’s got a good job, too. What’s wrong with her, then?”
“Nothing.” The timing, perhaps.
“Then why aren’t you interested? She seemed to like you well enough.”
“I liked her, too. But twenty minutes talking to each other while my mother and sister listen in on the conversation isn’t a great way to judge how compatible we’d be.” He tossed around for something his mom would view as a dealbreaker as far as potential daughters-in-law were concerned. “What if she decides Montana isn’t for her and she heads back to New York? What if I felt obliged to go with her?”
“That’s a good point.” His mom threw him a side-eye that said she wasn’t fooled for a minute. “I’m so glad you take my feelings into consideration when you ask a girl out.”
“I’m a good son,” he said, nodding, which earned him a laugh.
They sipped their coffee in silence after that, but only for a very short while, because this was his mom, and pumping her children for information was what she did best.
“Is it true Otto had a woman living with him?”
Levi choked on the mouthful of coffee he’d taken. He grabbed a paper napkin from the stack on the table and wiped at his shirt. Where had she heard that? Likely Dan McKillop, he decided. Ryan and Ford weren’t talkers. Although he supposed it might have come from the supermarket, or one of the ranch hands, or even George’s receptionist, for that matter. There was no such thing as a secret in Grand.
“So, it is true,” she said.
“Jesus, Mom. No.”
“Don’t swear.” The correction came automatically and without any real hope of effect. She had four sons, a husband, and she taught in public school. She’d heard a lot worse, but liked to remind them they had wider vocabularies. “Then who’s the woman staying at his place? I know you’ve met her, because Sue Anne Nyland said you’ve been staying at Otto’s place too.”
Sweat slickened his spine. Sue Anne was the elementary school’s secretary and chief gossip monger. If she didn’t know something, then it wasn’t worth knowing. She’d given Wren Harrington information about her own son that she hadn’t already known, and she wasn’t about to let him forget it.
She sipped at her coffee before going in for the kill. “Whoever she is, she was seen coming out of Meredith Quinn’s store.”
Levi had never been insideMayhem’s Private Momentshimself, but he’d heard good things about it. One of the guys in his bunkhouse had a girlfriend who shopped there. So that was where Dana’s fancy panties came from.
The smile on his face at the thought of her buying those panties for him must have tipped his mom off that there was more to the story.
“Oh myGod, Levi. I hoped you used protection.”
The turn this conversation had now taken was one of the hazards of having a mother who taught teenagers in the public school system. She’d never believe him if he tried to deny it, so he opted to go with the truth, make a slight attempt at diversion by not directly answering her question, and let her draw her own conclusions.
“It’s Dana Barrett, Mom.”
She looked blank, then confused. “How did Tanner’s girlfriend end up living with Otto Hart?”
Tanner’s girlfriend.He could see why Dana found that annoying. He rubbed his eyebrow, trying to erase the headache suddenly brewing behind it.
“They weren’t living together.” He explained the situation as best he could, leaving out the part where her concern about the use of protection became valid. “She’s going to stay on for the funeral, and it isn’t safe to leave a woman out there all alone. Besides, someone needs to take care of Otto’s horses until the new owners get settled in, so I offered.”
Clouds blocked the light flowing into the kitchen through the window over the sink. The frown puckering his mother’s brow highlighted her suspicion that there was more to his story than what he would have her believe.
She circled back to what she saw as the problem. “It’s got to be closing in on three years since the accident… I suppose she isn’t Tanner’s girlfriend anymore, is she?”
“No.” No, she was not.
