Easton's Claim (Colebrook Siblings Trilogy Book 3) (2 page)

“Got some venison sausage in here. Want that with some eggs?” his dad called out, his head and shoulders hidden by the fridge door.

“Sounds good, but I’ll do it.”

“I can still cook,” his dad said, pulling out of the fridge to aim a scowl at him. He hated it when anyone tried to coddle him. “How do you think I feed myself every day?”

Ignoring his father’s grumbling protests, Easton made him sit down at the table, then took over in the kitchen. While he had the sausage cut up and frying in a pan, he beat the eggs in a bowl. “So,” he asked, trying to sound casual. “You seen Piper lately?”

“Yeah, she was over last week. She likes to bring me a treat every now and then,” he said with a smile, patting his belly.

The woman could bake like nobody’s business. “And? She’s doing well?”

“Well enough, I guess, all things considered. She’s got her house up for sale.”

“Oh.” That surprised him, because she hadn’t told him she was planning to sell. “Does she want to move closer to town or something?”

“No, back to Minnesota.”

Easton whipped around to face his father as shock blasted through him. “
What
? When?”

His dad’s graying eyebrows knitted together. “Whenever her place sells, I’d imagine.”

Jesus Christ. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. His pulse accelerated, his stomach knotting. “Why would she go back there?”

“Not sure, but she said something about a job offer, and I’m guessing to be with her father’s people. Now that she’s divorced and all alone, seems logical that she’d want family around her.”

“
We’re
her family.” They had been from the time she’d moved here.

“Not the same as blood, I guess.”

Bullshit. Her blood relatives could go fuck themselves for all the help they’d given her since her father died. Not one of them had reached out to her or come to visit since the day of the funeral five years ago. Not one of them cared enough about her to maintain contact. To Easton, his siblings and his father, she was family in every way that mattered.

Anxiety twisted inside him. They’d gotten closer through the e-mails and calls over the past four months, but they were still clearly in the friend zone. He hadn’t wanted to tell her his true feelings any other way but face-to-face. Had he waited too long? Had he missed his shot with her?

He dumped the beaten eggs into the hot pan and quickly scrambled them, his mind spinning. God, what was he going to do? She couldn’t move away, it would crush him. The instant the eggs were done he shut off both burners, scooped them and some sausage onto a plate and shoved it at his dad. “Here. I gotta go.”

“Go where?” he asked, forehead puckered in confusion.

“To see Piper.” And convince her not to leave. He couldn’t let her go now, not when she was single and he finally had a chance to make her his.

Easton’s heart raced as he headed for the front door. This couldn’t wait until morning and he wasn’t going to bother trying to talk to her about this over the phone. He jumped in his truck and tore down the driveway, headed for her house.

Piper tried and failed to ignore the way her traitorous heart skipped a beat when she pulled open the door and found Easton standing on her welcome mat. “Wow, hi! This is a pleasant surprise.” The last e-mail from him four days ago had said he was still overseas and wasn’t sure when he’d be back stateside.

He looked tired but good, his chocolate-brown hair cut short and a trimmed beard giving him a rugged, masculine appeal she’d have to be dead not to appreciate, even if she considered him to be like a little brother.

Or at least she had, until that day four months ago.

Ignoring that disturbing thought, she stepped back and let him into her entryway, foregoing the hug she normally would have offered because the idea of touching him that intimately made her jittery. “You just get into town?” Since joining the DEA’s FAST squad a couple years ago, he only came home to Sugar Hollow a few times a year so she didn’t get to see him much.

“About an hour ago.” He didn’t try to hug her either, which wasn’t like him, just took off his boots and followed her into the kitchen. “Smells good in here. Whatcha making?”

“A batch of toffee chocolate chip cookies for the office. But I’ll let you steal a few.” She shot him a teasing grin and stopped on the other side of the swirled-marble island, where some cookies were cooling on a rack. “So, how are you?”

Damn, she was nervous. The kitchen felt three times as small as it had a minute ago.

Easton was the sort of man who walked into a room and took up all the space. He was just so…male, and sexy as all get out with that tall, sculpted body and those intense brown eyes. It was hell trying to pretend she didn’t notice, but fighting it didn’t work. Ever since the last time she’d seen him this past May, her brain refused to let her perceive him the way she used to.

“Good.” He leaned a hip against the center island and set a roped, tatted forearm on top of it, his expression turning serious. “My dad says you’re planning to leave town once your house sells.”

Piper turned her back to him to hide her reaction. She’d never been good at masking her emotions and Easton knew her better than most people, so with him it was even harder. He could read her too easily and she didn’t want to broadcast her mixed emotions. “Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

The bewilderment and hurt in his tone surprised her. Steeling herself, she turned back around to face him, squelched the jolt of yearning and attraction she didn’t want to feel. “I wasn’t sure until last week, and it wasn’t something I wanted to tell you over the phone or in an e-mail.” They’d been in contact more over the past four months than during the previous six years combined. She’d eagerly anticipated each call and e-mail. Too much so.

“So you were just gonna sell your house, make arrangements to leave town, and call to tell me afterward?”

The frustration behind the words took her off guard. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think you’d be so upset.”

“You didn’t think I’d be upset,” he repeated, voice flat, eyes bleak when a moment ago they’d held such warmth.

She fidgeted with the kitchen towel in her hands, unsure what to say. “I didn’t mean it like that.” She knew he cared about her and would miss her when she left. Same as she would miss him.

“Then how did you mean it?”

“Well, I thought you’d be a little sad to see me go, but…” She trailed off, not knowing what else to say. She hadn’t expected him to be this upset.

“And why go back to Minnesota?”

“They offered me my dream job, teaching humanities at a prestigious private school in a suburb of St. Paul, near where my uncles live.” Where she’d been born and raised by her father after her mother divorced him and left for Mexico to be with her lover, leaving them both behind.

“Your uncles?”

“Yeah, I applied for the position months ago, and I wasn’t sure I’d be qualified but they liked my credentials and charitable work. I flew out there for an interview a few weeks back, and just found out I got the job. I accepted, of course.” She smiled, unable to hide her excitement. Teaching humanities had been a passion of hers for so long, and she’d given it up for Greg and his family. She’d been waiting for this chance, to reclaim her life and start over, and couldn’t wait to be back in the classroom again. “Isn’t that great?”

Easton shook his head, his mouth a flat line in the midst of his beard, a reminder that he’d just returned from another stint in Afghanistan. And that he’d be going back there again soon enough. She hated that his job was so dangerous. “You can’t go.”

They might be good friends, but that note of command in his voice made her spine go rigid. It was her life, and she’d fought damn hard to salvage it. No one was going to tell her what she could and couldn’t do, not anymore. Not even him. “Well, I am. I thought you’d be happy for me.” She’d be sad to leave Sugar Hollow and the Colebrook family behind, but she couldn’t stay here anymore. It wasn’t healthy.

“Why? We talked at least once a week while I was gone this last time, and you never once hinted you were thinking of moving away. So
why
?” He sounded so frustrated, she relented with a sigh.

“Because I need a fresh start.” When he kept staring at her, she continued. “You’ve been gone for most of the last few years, but I’m sure even you heard people around town talking about Greg and me when you were here visiting.”

He shrugged. “People always talk about shit that doesn’t concern them. So I didn’t pay attention to any of it.”

Lucky you.
“Well, I’m done with being at the center of gossip around here.”

“Has it really been that bad?” he asked with a concerned frown.

Uh,
yeah
, but it was good to know her damage control efforts had mostly worked, if his cluelessness was any indication. Maybe not everyone in town thought she was a basket case.

She blew out a breath. It was embarrassing to have this conversation with him. He was a Colebrook, and as far as the people of Sugar Hollow were concerned, they were local heroes. At least Easton would never judge her. He’d known her for a damn long time, and no matter what, she knew he respected her.

“Greg pretty much ruined my reputation.”
And my life.

Looking back, she didn’t know how she’d missed all the warning signs early on. The marriage hadn’t been perfect, but in the beginning it had been pretty good. Greg had always liked to drink and have a good time. No one loved parties and attention as much as he did.

Then, to deal with the stress of his job as sheriff and what she suspected were issues he’d brought home with him from his deployments to Afghanistan years earlier, he’d started drinking more and more soon after their wedding. Not long after that, he’d begun abusing prescription meds and, eventually, harder drugs.

That’s when his life had fallen apart completely, and whether he’d meant to or not, he’d dragged her down into the muck with him. He’d lied, manipulated her and other people, racked up massive amounts of debt she’d been clueless about at first. A few months after he’d become sheriff she’d heard whispers, rumors around town, and noticed people giving her pitying looks.

God, she’d hated that. The shame was still with her, like a permanent stain on her skin. It was partly her fault, for not seeing it soon enough. And for hanging on to the hope that Greg would pull himself out of the downward spiral and once again become the man she’d fallen in love with.

It hadn’t happened. “Because we were married, as far as everyone around here was concerned, I was guilty by association. Even after we split, people were still judging me right and left. You know what this town’s like. Gossip’s a hot commodity, and I’m done with being the juicy topic around here.”

Things had gotten so bad she’d become a damn recluse for the first six months after she left Greg, too ashamed to show her face in town. While she loved the Colebrooks and hated to leave them behind, she was desperate to leave this place and have a fresh, clean slate for the next part of her life.

Easton straightened and folded his arms across his chest, dragging her attention to the muscular breadth of it.

For the millionth time, she mentally berated herself.
Stop perving. It’s gross.

“And moving away’s the solution?”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Yes.”

“What about standing your ground and saying to hell with what anyone else thinks of you?”

She fought the urge to roll her eyes. “It’s gone so far past that, I can’t even tell you. I’m sick and tired of people whispering about me behind my back, and fed up with being associated with Greg and his shitty decisions.”

“What did he do? Other than take it out on you,” he added, his jaw tightening.

Easton had seen firsthand how erratic Greg’s behavior had become when he was here last. He had stepped between her and Greg to end an argument when Greg had shown up on her front porch one night, accusing her of leaving him for Wyatt, of all people. It defied explanation.

“I’m sure you heard plenty from everyone else.”

“I want to hear it from you.”

Fine. “A lot of different things. Like being drunk or high on the job. Borrowing money from people and not paying them back. Not showing up for work at all because he was passed out somewhere. A few times his own deputies had to go out and hunt for him when he disappeared for days at a time on a bender.” When they found him they’d carried him through the front door of their home while she died a little more from mortification. “I want to be known and respected for who
I
am, and be judged for my own self-worth, not constantly having to prove myself to everyone just because of what my ex did.”

“So you’re going to run away.”

She hated that tone, the disappointed one that said she was a coward.

You are a coward.

With effort she tamped down her irritation, sought a calm tone. “Look. I need to start over, and I can’t do that here, or even within a hundred miles of here. Can’t you understand that?”

“No. You’re stronger than that.”

Not anymore.
Not after the humiliation Greg had put her through.

She turned away again, busied herself with cleaning up the mixing bowl and baking equipment she’d used to make the cookies. A taut silence built between them and she was acutely aware of him standing behind her, his stare making her skin heat up. “Maybe we should change the subject.”

There was one more big reason for leaving she had no intention of mentioning, of course. Her growing and unsettling attraction toward the man standing across the island from her. A guilty secret she would take with her to Minnesota and hopefully bury there.

“This is your home,” Easton said finally.

She didn’t look back at him. “No, it’s
your
home, and your family’s been here for generations. I’m just a transplant.”

He let out an impatient sigh. “Look at me.”

Steeling herself, she did, and her heart squeezed at the sight of him. Such a brave, loyal and good man. The sort of man Greg had fooled her and everyone else into believing he was.