Page 36 of Colton in the Wild
Hetty laughed at that. She held her own as the middle child of seven and the only girl, but rule? She didn’t think so. “They might dispute that.”
“Troy wouldn’t. He was really worried about you, too. I’ve never heard him so upset about being stuck out on the rig.”
“Well, he should be more upset about leaving you alone for months at a time,” Hetty said firmly.
Lakin might be reluctant to criticize him, but Troy was Hetty’s little brother—well, the first of the three younger ones anyway, which balanced out the three older ones—and she had the right and felt no hesitation. She knew Lakin loved Troy, and thought that he really did love her back, but if he didn’t start getting his head in the game and paying more attention to her rather than assuming she would always be there waiting, he was going to blow it.
Funny how easy it was to fix her brother’s situation, but how long it had taken to address hers with Spence. Assuming, of course, that they had. He’d been reluctant to talk about it while she was in here, and she understood because there was always somebody around, hovering, and she didn’t like the idea of strangers listening in on that particular discussion, either. Or family, for that matter. At least not until they’d worked it all out between themselves.
Although she had to admit she was starting to wonder if maybe she’d jumped the gun a little. Maybe that night had been a moment of weakness Spence regretted now. Maybe he wanted to go back to their old, sparring ways, keeping some distance between them at all times.
Lakin looked a little embarrassed at her words and Hetty wondered if it was because she’d had a similar thought. “I don’t want you two breaking up,” she said firmly. “I’ve got my heart set on having you as a sister, Lakin Colton.”
“I’d like that,” Lakin said almost shyly. “I love my family, but I love yours, too. And I’d like to see us all…connected, you know?”
“Now that,” Hetty said, thinking of the seven Amos siblings related to the four Coltons, “would be an amazing family.”
After Lakin left a little while later, Hetty thought she would love to see this woman who was a dear friend have that kind of combined family behind her. She was aware of the fact that Lakin, abandoned by her biological parents, had been left at a local grocery store.
She’d been given to a foster family, but when Sasha Colton, Will’s wife, had encountered her, she had instantly fallen for the bright-eyed, intelligent child. They’d taken her in, and all three of the Colton boys had promptly followed suit, doting on the endearing, smart newcomer who’d quickly returned the favor by adoring her new big brothers. Hetty suspected that Lakin barely even remembered she wasn’t a Colton by birth, and that the rest of the Coltons rarely thought of it, either.
The rest of us just got born. You got chosen.
Hetty remembered Lakin telling her about those words, spoken to her at a young age by her ten-years-older brother Eli. Words that had made her feel so special that she had let down the last of her barriers and fully become a Colton.
Become a Colton.
Sometimes Hetty felt like one simply because she was an integral part of RTA, but also because the entire Colton family, from Will and Sasha and Ryan and Abby to all the cousins, had made her feel that way. They were a tightly knit bunch, in some ways tighter than her own spread-out clan.
And now I know why.
The story Spence had told her of the slaughter of his aunt and grandparents had chilled her beyond even the worst Alaskan weather. She couldn’t imagine having to deal with something like that. Even though Spence hadn’t yet been born, it had to have affected him indirectly given the devastation it had wrought on his family.
And that story had made her appreciate the senior Coltons even more than she already had, simply because of the courage it had taken to relocate and build the entirely new and different and rock-solid life they had. Which included her, since she had the life she had—the life doing what she loved most—because of them, because they’d been willing to take a chance on a young inexperienced pilot.
She had, in part, Lakin to thank for that, for she knew her friend had pushed Will to take that chance. Which had made her, in turn, utterly determined to make sure they didn’t regret it.
You could have really crashed.
With Hetty flying? Not a chance.
She doubted Spence and his dad realized she’d heard them. But she had, and it had done more to ease her nerves than anything short of knowing rescue had arrived.
And that Spence had said it was the most soothing balm of all.
* * *
There weren’t many men who could make Spence feel undersized, but his cousin Eli was one of them. He didn’t know if it was that the guy was a couple of inches taller than his own six feet, that he was so strong and broad-shouldered, or simply that air of authority he carried around. With good reason, given his position in the Alaska Bureau of Investigation’s Major Crimes Unit.
“Landed the case, huh?” he asked when he first saw Eli in the hospital hallway.
“Never mind that yet,” Eli said, his eyes warm with obvious genuine concern. “How’s Hetty?”
Points for that, cuz.Eli wasn’t part of RTA, and although they’d never discussed it, Spence suspected the fact that he’d been with his father when they’d found the body of Caroline Colton and her killer had shaped his future. But that didn’t mean his cousin didn’t care about the family business, and he knew Hetty.
“She’s going to be okay,” he said firmly, as if the more confidently he said it would make it true. Although now, three days after those doors had swung shut on him and they’d taken her away, he really did believe it. She’d stabilized, they told him, and would be moving out of the ICU this afternoon. “They’re going to move her into a regular room later today.”
Eli let out a long breath then nodded. “Good.” Then, visibly, he settled into business. “Thanks for thinking to take those pictures. And even though our lab guys are finicky and don’t like anybody touching their evidence, I think you made the right call on the ring. I’ve been up there now, and the scene has already changed a little, likely from those animals you recognized were around.”
