Bounty (Colorado Mountain 7)

“Okay,” she returned, giving him a light squeeze of her arms. “But if it was you. Your dad. Your brother. Your money. Do you think it’s right?”

“Yes, Justice, I think it’s right.”

He saw the flash of white of her smile in the dark.

“I knew it. Totally. I sat out there with him, listening to him, getting the gist that he was realizing his mom was playing him, maybe not all these years, but definitely with this latest fiasco. And I got a definite hint that he knew after those three attorneys advised against it that shit was not going to go right, but she kept pushing it and it was just habit for him to let her. Now he’s lost so much, not just the money, but being with people who loved Dad while we were all grieving so that could help him, he could help them, that ‘them’ being me, he’s beginning to see. And it’s cutting deep. But I knew I couldn’t give in. I shouldn’t prop him up. I had to guide his way. And I knew this because the whole time we talked, I thought, if my man was in this situation, what would Deke do?”

Deke let out a low bark of laughter and pulled her deeper in his arms, twisting her hair in his fist.

“You’re so full of it,” he muttered.

“No. Totally. I’m getting a bracelet with W.W.D.D. embroidered on it,” she stated, a smile in her voice. “I’m gonna look at it every time I’m in a situation, which seems to happen a lot in my life, even though I try to keep my head low.”

“Shut it.” He was still muttering, but doing it grinning.

“I am. I’m special ordering it tomorrow.”

He smiled down at her even as he used his fist at the back of her head to gently shove her face again in his throat, repeating, “Shut it, gypsy.”

He felt her kiss the bristles of his beard there.

They had a quiet moment before, her voice sounding drowsy, she said, “Downer end to a good party.”

“We’ll have another one.”

She snuggled closer. “Yeah. We will.”

He bent his neck and said into the top of her hair, “Go to sleep, baby.”

“I will if you will,” she replied.

“I will,” he promised.

“Okay, Deke. Love you, honey.”

“Love you too, gypsy.”

She kissed his throat again and settled in.

Not long later, he felt her body relax into sleep.

And once he felt that, Deke followed her there.

* * * * *

“Stings a little,” Joss stated late the next afternoon, and Deke tore his eyes from Rembrandt and Jussy across the drive, their backs to Joss and Deke.

Rod had Jussy in an affectionate neck hold and they had their heads bent together.

Deke looked to Joss to see her looking at the house.

That was when Deke turned his attention to the house and he could see Maverick through the window, sitting at the couch in the corner, the TV on and slanted his way.

He’d given his somewhat stilted and totally awkward good-byes at the door. But he wasn’t an asshole. Didn’t wake up as one. Was quiet, watchful, but cool all day. There was definite affection between him and Justice that he was out of practice giving to his sister, but since she never was out of practice with that, he warmed up quickly.

With Joss and Rod, he was wary, but that started to go too as the day progressed because Joss and Rod guided it there. What was done was done, they were moving forward, and they communicated that to him.

Deke saw the routine playing out and he suspected that routine was not lost on Jussy, Rod or Joss. The kid emerging out from under the bullshit his mother piled on him, seeing the people around him for what they were. And it said a lot about Rod and Joss (Deke knew Jussy would give that to her brother) that they didn’t give up, thinking it wasn’t worth the effort since he’d go back to the woman who’d twisted his head and fucked up the entirety of his life, and he’d allow himself to get piled in it again.

Now it was up to him to go back and not allow himself to get piled in it again.

“Joss?” he called when she said her words and didn’t continue.

She started and looked up at him like she forgot he was there. Then she gave an apologetic smile.

“Sorry. Just that,” she tipped her head to the house, “he looks so like Johnny did at that age.”

Yeah, that kid looking like the man she loved deeply, gave him a beautiful baby girl, then lost him for decades. That would fucking sting.

She shot a sidelong glance at Rod and Jussy, who were still in their huddle, before she turned her back on them, got closer to Deke and dropped her voice.

“That kid, maybe he’s got good in him,” she began. “He’s got Johnny in him somewhere so that could be. But, Deke, get me, he plays this game a lot. Always has. I wanna hope for Jussy, and also for him, that this latest bullshit is gonna get his head out of his ass. But history has proved that could very well be an impossible task. Jussy’s gonna give it her all. You gotta—”

“Joss,” Deke interrupted, also saying her name low, but he didn’t go on.

She stared in his eyes before hers started shining.

“Right, you got this,” she murmured.

“Yeah,” he stated. “I got this.”

Her lips curled up in a smile that was natural, but it was uncomfortably too sexy considering the woman was his woman’s mother. But Deke figured it was the only way she could do it.

She lifted a hand to his shoulder, moved into him and slid her hand across, getting up on her toes.

She gave him a hug.

He gave her one back.

They separated but stayed close.