Front Range Cowboys (5 Book Box Set) Read online

  “I’m thinking that you like Ms. Brown,” Bella sang out in a voice muffled by her face bouncing against his back. She was giggling hard enough that you’d have thought he was tickling her. “I like Ms. Brown too! Maybe you can marry her! Then I’ll come live with you!”

  Whoa. That was a little bit more than Darren had expected. He flipped the little girl over his shoulder sack-of-potatoes style and set her on the ground. He had to fumble a bit to get the front door open. By the time he looked back down, he made sure to have his serious face on. “Bella, why would you ever want to live with anyone but your dad? He loves you, and you practically live like a princess in a palace. Look at this place!” Darren pushed Laredo’s front door open and stepped into the palatial Denver mansion.

  Bella blew out a long gust of air that sounded a bit like a horse sneezing. “Daddy is too busy for me. He doesn’t listen when I tell him I hate dance class and gymnastics. He doesn’t listen when I tell him I want to ride horses. He doesn’t listen! You and Ms. Brown listen to me.”

  Darren could not vouch for that with himself, actually. He was listening to her right now, but there wasn’t a damn thing he could actually do about Laredo’s fatherhood issues. The guy sounded worse than Joe Hernandez when it came to parenting skills. But Avery had mothered the Hernandez clan to death, so things had balanced out. Poor Bella didn’t have a mom to do that for her. Her mother had left her high and dry.

  Darren heaved a big sigh. This was so not his thing. Darren Hernandez was not sensitive. He wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of kid-friendly man. He was a sports-playing womanizer who had fatherhood problems all his own. No. He wasn’t going to think about that right now. Carly had been texting and calling his phone nonstop since he’d set foot in town. It was far better to focus on this thing with Bella and Laredo and Ms. Brown and the school bully boys. That was much less uncomfortable to deal with.

  Bella pranced through the foyer and headed straight for the kitchen. “I want a snack.”

  “Fine. But chocolate bars are not a snack.” Darren had been nine once upon a time. He knew how their brains worked. “I’m sure your dad will be home to cook—er—give you something for dinner soon enough.”

  “Whatever.” Bella sounded grouchy. She pulled open the pantry door and pulled a box of graham crackers off the shelf. Then she sat at the table and proceeded to stuff her cute little face.

  “You want some milk with those?” Darren asked, not even bothering to hide his sarcasm.

  “Sure.” She sprayed graham cracker crumbs all over the table. “Thank you!”

  Darren grumbled as he poured a glass of milk after managing to find the glasses in the cavernous kitchen. The place was huge. He could not for the life of him imagine why Laredo thought he needed such a huge place for a family of two.

  After setting the milk down in front of Bella and ignoring the fact that she immediately dipped a cracker in the stuff and slung it all across the table, Darren texted Laredo. He carefully left out the part about them skipping dance class. There would be time enough to deal with that later on. Instead, he focused on having had a conference with the guidance counselor, who had asked him to substitute teach the gym classes. Darren reworded his text about five times before sending it. He wanted to make sure that his brother didn’t think that Darren was asking permission, but he also tried to make it sound like he was doing Bella, Bella’s school, and Laredo a favor.

  Darren’s text got almost an immediate response. Fine. Whatever. That was all Laredo had to say on the topic. Nice. Darren wandered around the first floor of Laredo’s house and wondered when brother dearest was going to get home.

  Suddenly, another text appeared on the screen of Darren’s phone. Darren read it out loud, feeling irritated as hell. “Won’t be home until late. You need to feed Bella.”

  Great. Now he had to feed this kid. He didn’t know what she ate. He didn’t know what there was around Laredo’s expensive neighborhood. He just didn’t know. Ugh. What an ass.

  “Bella!” Darren called out.

  The kid popped out from behind a wall with cracker crumbs all over her face as though she had been secretly following him. “Yeah?”

  “Your dad is working late.”

  “Cool. You can take me to Maxine’s.”

  Darren raised his eyebrows. “Is there some secret about this place or something? Why did you pick it so fast?”

  “It’s my favorite, but Daddy hates it. He only does fancy restaurants. He says Maxine’s is a burger joint.”

  “Ah.” Darren sighed. “I see. Well, get your shoes back on and let’s go. Unless you filled up on crackers and now I don’t have to feed you at all.”

  “No way!”

  Bella scampered off to find her shoes just as Darren’s phone rang. He picked up without thinking, assuming it was Laredo. “Hey. She picked a restaurant. Some burger joint. It’ll be fine.”

  “You fucking asshole!” a woman’s voice hissed on the other end of the line. “Who is she? Who are you talking about? I can’t believe you’ve been in town for days on end and you’ve never come to pick up your son!”

  The venom in Carly’s tone of voice was excessive, but Darren couldn’t really fault her for her anger. He hadn’t been a great dad. He hadn’t even been a good dad. With a huge sigh, Darren dug in his brain for something that he could say that wouldn’t just make Carly angrier. There really wasn’t anything. Ever since the two of them had split up—before Jaeger was born—Carly could not stand to be in the same room as Darren, much less to have a civil conversation.

  “Carly,” Darren began slowly. “I apologize for not getting back to you. I’ve been trying to get my job situation figured out.”

  “Ha!” Carly actually snorted into the phone. “Job? Like you’ll ever get a job. You’d just better not stop sending those child support payments or I’ll haul your ass to court so fast your head will spin.”

  “I’ve never missed a payment,” Darren reminded her for what felt like the millionth time. “Jaeger is five. How is he? Can I see him?”

  “You don’t get visitation!” Carly crowed. “I just don’t want your ass hanging around Denver thinking that’s going to change!”

  Darren sighed. “So, you’ve been calling me to make sure that the child support payments, which have never been altered or affected in any way, continue exactly the way they have been?”

  “Hell yeah.” Carly seemed to run out of steam. At least a little bit. She stopped screeching. It did not make her any better to talk to however. “And you need to meet me so we can talk about where we’re sending Jaeger to school. It’s expensive and you’re going to pay for it.”

  Darren resisted the urge to react. He knew from experience that it wouldn’t do any good. “Then, we can meet to talk. But I’m already paying you more money per month than I can afford, and you’ve managed to get me all but squeezed out of my son’s life. At this point, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a judge that would make me pay for his school as well.”

  “Bullshit.” Carly was laughing now. The sound was cruel. “I’ll find one. You never live in one place long enough to have custody or visitation. That’s your fault.”

  “Well, maybe things have changed.” What was he saying? Was he just reacting to Carly’s hard-nosed way of poking at his buttons? He should have known by now that making her angry would never do him any good! “I’m here in Denver for good. I’m trying to get a steady job, and I’m moving into my own place.” That was a mild sort of white lie, but he was considering moving into one of those apartments Laredo had told him about. “So, maybe when we meet in court, it won’t end the way you think it will. Maybe it’s time for a change. You’ve been making me pay for fatherhood. Maybe it’s time that I actually get to be a father.”

  “Don’t you dare!” Carly shouted. There was another voice behind hers on the line. He heard a squishing noise as she covered the phone briefly to talk to the other person. Finally, she came back on the line. Of course, she was no cal
mer. “I’m telling you, Hernandez. You will never see your son! Do you understand me? You will pay and you will pay lots, but you will never see Jaeger. He’s my son!”

  “Then maybe you’d better get a job so you can help support him,” Darren suggested coldly. “Otherwise I’m saying it’s time for a change.”

  Carly shouted something else, but the words were lost in the clicking sound of her hanging up on him. The woman was volatile. In a very detached and almost dead fashion, Darren often wondered how much Jaeger had absorbed of his mother’s volatile moods. Was his son entitled and completely useless? Was he being raised to be a materialistic little shit who didn’t care about his things because he broke them as fast as he got them?

  “I hope not,” Darren whispered.

  “Uncle Darren?” Bella hung her head around the corner of the hallway. “Can we go now? I’m hungry.”

  “Sure, Poodle. I just have to figure out where this place is.” Darren winked at Bella and then pulled up a search box on his phone. “But let’s go get in the car, hmm? That way we’re all ready to go as soon as I know where we’re going.”

  Chapter Seven

  “All right, Bella,” Darren said in what he hoped was a reasonable tone of voice. “We’re going to go in and we’re going to stay together. Got it?”

  “Sure.” Bella was already dashing from the car to the front doors of the restaurant.

  Darren was pretty sure he already knew why Laredo hated this place. It actually looked like a lot of fun, which, of course, was against Laredo’s personal code. Big brother did not like fun. Beyond that, there was a huge arcade that took up probably more than half of the restaurant itself. There were kids and adults alike packed into the place like sardines. No doubt they were going to have to wait a long time for a table to begin with. Darren was steeling himself for a big fight to keep track of Bella when he spotted a rather familiar face just inside the restaurant.

  “Hey, Bella!” Darren called out to his niece.

  She was busy biting her lip and sticking out her tongue with the effort of pulling open the front doors. Darren finally caught up to her and grabbed hold of the doors. He held them shut until she gave him her attention.

  “Isn’t that Ms. Brown inside?” Darren wanted to know.

  Bella immediately let go of the doors and pressed her nose to one of the two crescent-shaped sidelights flanking the doorway. “Yeah. I think so. How cool is that? You get to see her twice in one day!”

  “Pretty cool,” Darren told Bella with mock seriousness. “Guess we better go try and get a table.” Of course, Darren wasn’t really in a hurry anymore. Not since he now knew what was waiting for him right inside while he was—er, well, while he was waiting. How lame.

  Darren sighed and let Bella into the restaurant. Bella pranced right up to the podium—there was a lot of prancing lately, and Darren was beginning to think it had something to do with the horse obsession.

  “Two for dinner,” Bella said, nearly standing on tiptoe and hanging off the edge of the podium in order to speak.

  “Can I get a name?” The hostess leaned far over in order to see Bella.

  Bella actually glanced over toward where Ms. Brown appeared to be sitting alone at the end of a bench in the waiting area. “Darren Hernandez,” Bella said loudly, so loudly in fact that pretty much the whole restaurant heard her.

  Darren snorted. He now felt officially ridiculous, but Ms. Brown turned immediately and spotted them. She actually gave a little wave, and Darren decided Bella’s attention mongering was absolutely worthwhile. He took his niece’s hand. “Let’s have a seat, kiddo.”

  “Darren!” Ms. Brown was waving at them. “Come wait down here with me! There’s plenty of room.”

  Darren thought he could heard the other guests waiting on that bench groan as they heard Maggie Brown make her offer. With that in mind, he returned her wave and then went to stand by Maggie’s end of the bench. Bella had no such inhibitions, of course. She plopped down onto the bench and made several other people slide down to accommodate her.

  “We saw you right away when we came in,” Bella informed Ms. Brown. “That’s why I yelled Uncle Darren’s name.”

  Darren rolled his eyes and put a hand to his forehead. From the corner of his eye, he could see several other people waiting for tables decide that this bit of drama made their wait far more interesting. There was a lot of poking and whispering going on. Of course, they all probably thought that Bella was his daughter. The girl was a Hernandez. That meant she looked just like Darren and every single one of her uncles.

  Maggie Brown tossed a smile in Darren’s direction. Somehow, it made her face even more beautiful. “Well, I’m very glad that you decided to come over and socialize, then.”

  “Do you eat here very often?” Darren managed to keep a straight face. Then he gestured to Bella. “She tells me it’s a very happening place.”

  “It’s one of my favorites,” Maggie told them. She had pulled her long strawberry-blond hair up into a ponytail, and Darren could not help but admire the way it curled around her shoulder before trailing down toward her breast.

  No. He could not think about her breasts. He needed to keep things platonic with Maggie. He needed to be thinking about something other than the fantastic way she made him feel. It really had nothing to do with the physical. It was more of a strong—no—an overpowering desire to spend more time with her just to see what she would say. She was smart. She was fun. And she had let slip that she played sports growing up. Darren could not help but think that the two of them would have a lot in common.

  “Where’s your dad, sweetheart?” Maggie suddenly asked Bella.

  Bella’s face went from sunshine to gray in one second flat. “He’s working late.”

  There were a myriad of emotions on Maggie’s face. Darren could read the sympathy and compassion plain as day, but there was also anger. And then she looked up at Darren, and he saw a distinct admiration on her face for him.

  Admiration? How odd. That usually didn’t last long when people looked at him. Darren didn’t do well with stuff like that in general. People usually admired him when they first met him. It always had something to do with looks or athletic ability. After that, they always grew disappointed with his inability to follow through and actually finish things for people. He had left a trail of broken relationships and unfinished projects and tasks from coast to coast. This would be no different.

  Then Maggie put her hand on Bella’s thin shoulder and gave her a smile so warm and so accepting that Darren actually felt the glow reflecting off his niece and hitting him square in the chest. “Then, let me tell you, kiddo, you are a very lucky girl to have an uncle who will take such good care of you and bring you to Maxine’s for dinner.”

  “He is pretty special,” Bella agreed. She shot Darren a mischievous look over her shoulder. “Do you think he’s handsome? People always tell me that they think he’s handsome.”

  Maggie’s pale complexion did not hide embarrassment very well. Red bloomed along her cheekbones, but it was very becoming. Then she looked down at her hands for a moment before lifting that green gaze to look back up at Darren. “He is pretty handsome, Bella. You’re a very lucky girl.”

  “He’s my uncle!” Bella burst out. Then Bella stared from Darren to Maggie and back again. “You should have dinner with us,” Bella told Maggie. “It’s really crowded. I bet if I tell the lady we have three instead of two tables for two, we’ll get our food faster.”

  “You should go ahead and do that,” Maggie agreed almost instantly. “It will help some of these other people get in faster too.”

  Bella disappeared up to the podium to chat with the hostess. Darren figured she would be asking the hostess to bring a minister so her uncle Darren could get married during dinner. It was obvious the little girl was doing some matchmaking.

  “She’s very precocious for nine, you know?” Maggie spoke to Darren, but her gaze was focused on Bella. “I’ve never known a nine-
year-old to be so comfortable marching up to a counter or dealing with restaurant staff like that.”

  “I imagine her father has had something to do with that,” Darren mused. He thought about Laredo. “I swear my brother was telling businesses what they were doing wrong and how their business plans could be improved before he was ten years old.”

  “I almost believe that.” Maggie started to laugh. “Mr. Hernandez is very intense.”

  “He expects a lot out of Bella.” Darren felt the smile slip off his face. “Sometimes I think it’s too much. It reminds me a little bit of my parents and our adopted sister. She was only eleven when she came to live with us, but my mother was over the moon about having a daughter. They pushed poor Jesse to do all kinds of girlish type activities when Jesse is more of a tomboy than anything else.” Darren recalled those days with a strange sort of clarity. “She tried, I think, but the cheerleading and the dancing weren’t her thing. She’d been raised on a ranch for too long, and she was used to running wild all over the front range. That was where she was happiest.”

  “Sounds like you had a lot of compassion for her,” Maggie murmured. She reached out and touched his hand.

  The contact was searing. His physical response was almost instant. His heart started pounding, and he felt the blood begin to rush through his body. He felt more alive in that moment than he had in the last dozen or more football games that he’d played. It was electric and he wanted more. He wanted to be around her. He wanted to learn everything there was to know about her. And he didn’t care that it was probably not a good idea. Sometimes it was impossible to ignore animal instinct.

  “Our table is ready.” Bella suddenly appeared beside them bouncing on her toes as though she were going to launch herself into the air with excitement. “When I finish my burger, will you give me quarters so I can play on the machines, Uncle Darren?”

  Darren was still trying to find his center of gravity. All he could manage was a nod. Forcing his feet to move, he followed the little hostess as she led them to a table in the back corner of the restaurant. It was almost quiet back here compared to the hubbub of the front of the house.