Too Hot to Handle (Jackson Hole 2)

“Dad left years before that.”

“I know! But what if he’d just been wandering? What if—?”

“Mom!” he snapped. “Dad left and he didn’t want to be found, end of story. I’m not having this conversation with you anymore.”

“But, honey, he would never have done that. Never. Not to you boys and not to me.”

Shane ground his teeth together because he didn’t want to say the cruel things that were piling up in his throat. Dad was having an affair. He had a girlfriend. He bought a trailer and hooked it to his truck and he left with her. He didn’t love you or give a shit about any of us. He wanted a place where we didn’t exist.

But he choked it down and swallowed hard. “No one ever found his truck or the trailer. If he’d been hurt or suffering from amnesia—of all the ridiculous things I’ve ever heard—someone would’ve reported an abandoned truck to the police.”

“Or they might have seen a free truck sitting next to the road and stolen it!”

Shane couldn’t count the number of times they’d had this exact conversation. “It would’ve turned up at some point, Mom.” He sighed. “Someone somewhere would’ve run the VIN at some point, and we would’ve heard. He ran off, he disappeared, he made a new life. And at some point he died, or he’s dead enough according to the state of Wyoming.” He’d been declared dead ten years ago and good riddance to all the ridiculous problems the man had caused with paperwork and taxes and every other damn thing he’d walked away from.

“But, Shane, just listen to the rest of the—”

“I’ve got to get up early. Take care.” He hung up, not feeling even a twinge of guilt. He’d done it too many times to feel that anymore.

When he’d been a kid, his mom’s wild imaginings and excuses and explanations had kept him hoping. He’d believed her and she’d strung him along for years. At the drop of a hat, she’d pull him and his brother out of school and pack them into the car to drive hundreds of miles because of some rumor.

Alex had been pissed off from the start, raging that he never wanted to see their dad again even if they did find him. But Shane… He’d held on to his love for too many years and had only opened his eyes on the day Alex himself had skipped town, leaving nothing but a terse note. Alex had been right the whole time. Dad wasn’t coming back. The man had walked away a

nd ruined his family without even a second thought.

At nineteen, Shane had legally changed his name to his mother’s maiden name. He’d cut off his dad’s family entirely, which hadn’t exactly been difficult. The only one left was his grandfather and stepgrandmother, neither of whom had ever been warm or supportive. Hell, the old man had even screwed Shane over in the end.

Shit.

Shane hadn’t planned the lawsuit. Hadn’t even wanted it at first. But the provisions for the creation of the Providence Historical Trust had been a last minute addition before Gideon Bishop’s death, and Shane’s lawyer had said he’d be a fool not to demand the money that should’ve gone with the land. He knew Gideon Bishop had created the trust out of spite. The man had told Shane as much when he’d refused to change his name back to Bishop. But when Shane had realized that the trust involved creating a tourist trap on his land, and what a fucking waste that would be, Shane had gone all in. Screw it. Everything had been meant to go to his father, the last living descendant of that generation. And from there to Shane and Alex.

He was fighting his grandfather’s will. He was getting what was rightfully his. And he couldn’t let it matter to him whether he liked Merry or not.

CHAPTER SIX

“NO,” MERRY BREATHED, eyes wide and heart pounding. She stared at a spider poised on the ceiling of the small room, but the horror of the spider didn’t come close to the words her mother had just spoken. In fact, Merry didn’t even run from the room. The spider crawled toward a fly caught in its web, and Merry just stood there and listened to her mother chatter in her ear.

“Mom. Wait. Please tell me you didn’t say what you just said.”

“What do you mean, sweetheart?”

“Crystal,” she whispered, hoping her mom would laugh and ask where in the world she’d gotten that. But that’s not what happened.

“She’ll be there tonight! Not to stay with you, of course.”

Of course. Crystal didn’t stay with relatives when she traveled. She stayed in avant-garde hotels with espresso machines in the rooms and turndown service.

“She doesn’t want to see me, does she?” Merry asked past clenched teeth.

“Of course she does! Honey, it’ll be fine.”

Merry took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Maybe it would be fine. As far as Crystal was concerned, Merry had a good job and she was living in a beautiful place. She didn’t know that it was all a lie. “She’s not so bad,” her mom said in a familiar, admonishing tone. “And we don’t have enough family that you can pick and choose.”

God, Merry had been hearing that since she was a kid. But her mom was right. Crystal wasn’t so bad. Her perfect glow just put all of Merry’s shortcomings in a spotlight…that she went to the trouble of aiming into Merry’s eyes whenever she got the chance.

“How’s it going there, sweetie?”

“Great!” she said too brightly. She opened her eyes to find she’d lost track of the spider and now she couldn’t see it. Merry backed slowly out onto the porch. “It’s great, Mom. Really busy but fun.”