“Tony called this morning and said that Colt was teaching you a lot about how to run the ranch. Last night, he said the two of you were working real hard and closely examining the back wall of the barn,” Bethel said with innocent eyes.
Brielle sat there mortified for a moment before speaking. “Yes. Colt has been very helpful,” she said quietly.
“Yes, and it seems that Peggy really enjoyed it when the two of you went shopping in her store. Of course, he was up close and personal with helping you select the right items…in the changing room,” Eileen added, making Brielle’s already colorful cheeks heat to the brightest scarlet.
“I didn’t know what to buy,” Brielle explained, hoping her father bought it.
Were these women trying to mortify her for the rest of her life, or did they really just get off on vicarious pleasure? She didn’t know, but she did know for sure that she lost her appetite and wanted nothing more than to leave the diner as quickly as possible.
“Sounds like Colt is quite…useful,” her father said.
She looked over at him, but couldn’t tell what he was thinking. There was no way the dressing-room comment could have gone over his head, but maybe, just maybe, he hadn’t put two and two together.
That’s what she would choose to believe, if only for the sake of her own sanity. But from there, the conversation only got worse. How could the three women have found out about those things? It was as if they were spies or something. Maybe they had cameras set up on her property.
By the time she and her father left the diner, she was ready to find a sinkhole and throw herself in. When they climbed back in the truck, Richard didn’t say anything until about halfway home.
“I want to meet this…Colt.” That was all he said, but the tone of his voice filled her with dread. Ready or not, relationship or not, Colt was about to get the talk…
Chapter Twenty-Two
Her father’s cell phone was ringing, but the man was nowhere to be found. She would almost bet he was down in the horse arena exchanging wild tales with Tony again. Her dad had been there an entire week!
Yes, it had been good for her and her dad, and she believed they had a better understanding of each other, but it had been an entire week that she’d been all alone in her bed, the sheets unusually cold, her pillow too hard, and sleep elusive.
She’d slept alone her entire life, but after a couple of weeks with Colt next to her, she was now finding it impossible to have a decent night’s rest without him. This was absurd. She didn’t need Colt. It was just sex, she told herself. And now she knew how amazing sex could be, she missed the hell out of it.
To top it all off, her father had kept her so busy most of the time by asking questions and having her show him all the plans she’d made for the ranch, on and on, that she hadn’t managed to sneak off and find Colt anywhere. She knew her favorite ranch hand was a busy man, but she was just so used to seeing him every day, and every night.
The visit had been good, but she was ready for her father to leave. It didn’t help that he seemed to be bonding with her foreman. If her dad got too attached to the old fellow and decided never to leave, that would end her sex life forever.
No. She was a grown woman. If her father didn’t go away soon, she was going to say to hell with it, march Colt right into the house and lead him into her bedroom, slamming the door behind them both. Yeah, somehow she knew she wasn’t brave enough for that. It was so bad, though, that she’d even searched the Internet, trying to find out whether sexual frustration could cause permanent damage.
Nope. So far, she hadn’t found a valid medical reason why she had to have sex. She did learn, however, that making love burned a lot of calories. If she suddenly became fat, she could so blame her father for preventing her from getting enough exercise.
When her father’s cell phone rang for the third time, she couldn’t stand it any longer. She picked it up, hit the button, and answered.
“Is Richard Storm available?”
“He’s out of the house right now. Can I take a message?” Brielle looked around for pen and paper as she used her shoulder to hold the phone to her ear.
“Are you one of his emergency contacts?”
The woman sounded so efficient, Brielle was wondering whether she should salute. “Um…I don’t know. I’m his daughter, Brielle Storm.” What could this be about?
“One moment, please.” The woman placed her on hold, and Brielle seriously considered hanging up. She wasn’t her father’s secretary.
When the woman came back on the line a few moments later, Brielle wouldn’t know for quite some time whether she was happier she’d waited or if she wished she had just hung up.
“Yes, Ms. Storm, I do have you listed as a contact. Your father’s newest test results have come in, and there’s some conflicting information in them. Dr. Sorenson would like to have him come back in right away for a few more tests. Would this coming Friday work?”
“Wait. What test results?”
“For the prostate cancer.”
The woman spoke as if Brielle knew all about it. Cancer? This had to be a mistake. Her father hadn’t said anything about cancer. She wanted to shout into the phone, demand answers. But right then her father walked through the doorway, a smile on his face.
Brielle looked at him, really looked at him for the first time since she didn’t know when. Yes, he seemed to have lost weight, but that was a good thing, right? There didn’t seem to be any other signs of cancer. No hair loss, no… Wait. She knew nothing of cancer, didn’t know what the signs were.
The smile fell from Richard’s eyes when he noticed that Brielle was holding his phone. Her eyes must have looked wild.
“Who is it, Peaches?”
Brielle couldn’t speak, so she just handed her father his phone, barely managed to move over to the kitchen table, and dropped down into a chair.
She heard her father speaking into the phone, but it sounded more as if his voice were coming through a tunnel. Prostate cancer. That was bad, right? Didn’t that take a lot of lives? Of course, all cancer was bad — it killed people every single day. But why hadn’t he told them that he had cancer? Then the past year and several months slammed into her with the force of a sledgehammer.
He’d been so sad that day in his house when he said he needed them to make a difference in their lives. He’d spoken of changing before it was too late. When Brielle looked up, with tears filling her eyes, she found her father sitting next to her, his phone put away and a resigned look on his face.