Lily's Secrets [Elk Creek 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (23 page)

Except their son isn’t dead or gone
.

“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.”

Dakota turned to his left and was confronted by a tall, broad-shouldered man. He was not fooled by the congenial smile on his face or the tone of his voice. Standing just behind the man was one of Wyatt’s friends that Dakota had met earlier, Brand, who bore a striking resemblance to the brawny older man now proffering his hand to Dakota.

Dakota accepted the offered hand, and his was instantly engulfed in an unyielding, bearlike grip. He gritted his teeth, but did not grimace as he returned the tight hold with equal measure. “I am Dakota Cooper.”

“Avery Westyn.”

I know exactly who you are.
“It is nice to make your acquaintance.”

“My son tells me you’re staying over at the Baldwins’ place, that they’ve been taking good care of you after an injury.”

He did not for a minute believe that his son’s word was Avery’s only source of information. The elder Westyn was the sort of influential, power-hungry man who made it his business to know about the actions of others who might affect him and the events of their lives. “Yes, they have.”

“He also said you were thinking of leaving.”

Dakota stared into Avery’s dark-brown eyes, trying to gauge the man’s intent. He had dealt with his kind before, so had his mother and father, and he could understand how a person could be intimidated or even overwhelmed by his physical presence. Not to mention the man’s status preceded him. “I was considering finding a place in town, yes.”

“Here in Elk Creek.”

“That is correct.”

Avery rubbed his chin as if trying to find a solution for Dakota’s situation. “I don’t need to tell you that might be a problem, considering.”

Dakota felt the man’s sharp gaze on him and suddenly felt like he needed a bath. “Lily was certain that I would be welcomed at Sabrina Walker’s boarding house.”

“Hmph, well now, I guess she would welcome you there. That little spitfire is known for taking in most any stray.”

Dakota was well aware of Sabrina’s reputation and fisted his hands at his sides listening to Avery’s insinuation. From everything Dakota had heard and seen, Lily liked and respected Sabrina, but then Lily had a certain amount of affection for him, too, despite his certainty that most of the town found him about as disreputable as the painted ladies and saloon girls that were all suspiciously absent for these festivities.

Just when Dakota thought he had reached the end of the rope on his self-control, Avery chuckled. The sound was so cheerful and robust it took him completely off guard, even more when Avery pounded him on the back as if Dakota shared in his joke.

“Sabrina’s a good ol’ gal and she’s taken in more than a few of the cowboys around here a time or two. Can’t say nothin’ bad about her.”

“That was my impression,” Dakota said, his tone noncommittal. He would not let Avery or anyone else at this party bait him into a discussion about the morals of the townspeople. He knew everyone at the party was already looking at him, Lily, and Wyatt as if under a magnifying glass. He did not want to cause them to look bad in front of their friends or give the people of Elk Creek any more ammunition to use against the couple he loved.

Yes, he did love them both, not just Lily, he realized. Over the last couple of weeks he had come to love Wyatt, too—as a friend, as a brother, as someone he would trust with his life.

Now more than ever he knew he must leave them. He did not want to hurt either of them, and staying at their place any longer would leave them vulnerable to abuse and attack even if they might deny it to themselves. Once he moved into Sabrina’s boarding house, he would figure out how to tell Lily and Wyatt about their son and let them decide if they still wished to keep Dakota in their lives—to have, to hold, to love as he loved them both and their little boy. Once their eyes were completely open, he would see if they considered him vital enough for them to want to face down the naysayers of Elk Creek.

Dakota looked out at the dance floor where he had left Wyatt and Lily and watched as Rusty approached them. He thought it was to cut in and dance with her as Wyatt had done earlier, but then he saw Rusty lean close to the husband and wife and saw their opposing reactions to whatever it was he had said. Wyatt looked happy, smiling down at Lily and steering her toward the makeshift stage in the far corner of the room where the band played. Lily looked dismayed, eyes widening as she shook her head and resisted the gentle push.

The spectacle went on like this for several seconds before Lily finally relented and allowed Rusty to drag her over to the stage.

Rusty leaped the three steps in a single bound, cupping his hands in front of his mouth the way Brand had earlier before raising his voice to address the partygoers. “Ladies and gentlemen, the lovely Lily Baldwin has agreed to grace us with her beautiful voice this evening.” Rusty hopped down from the stage and turned it over to Lily and the band, leading the applause that rose up throughout the confines of the town’s crowded and brightly decorated church.

Beside Dakota, Brand and Avery enthusiastically clapped, Brand even putting his fingers in his mouth to produce an earsplitting whistle.

“That’s our Lilybelle!”

Not
your
Lilybelle. She belongs to Wyatt…and me.

Dakota had never felt as possessive as he felt right then. The primitive urge to run up to the stage, grab Lily, and take her home to her and Wyatt’s homestead surprised him with its suddenness and intensity. No woman had ever made him feel that way. Granted, there had not been many since the females in his tribe shunned him for the most part, and he had been on the road so much since leaving his people he had not had the time or opportunity to nurture anything beyond a physical relationship with any woman. Not to mention his “mission” to make sure that Lily was safe and her home environment stable.

He watched Lily now as color flooded her cheeks, and he was not sure if it was embarrassment or excitement that caused her blush. He knew that despite the lack of paint on her face that some of the other women at the party sported, or the relative simplicity of her red-and-purple, lace-trimmed dress, she was still the most beautiful, radiant woman at the party to him.

He would like to think that he and Wyatt were more than a little responsible for her glow.

Lily cleared her throat and Dakota felt his heart stutter in his chest, anticipating the familiar sound of her pure musical tone raised in song. He remained ever honored to be among the many who would hear it again.

Dakota closed his eyes when Lily’s voice drifted out over the crowd. Memories of happier times growing up with his mother and father engulfed him as the band’s piano player joined Lily’s rendition of a familiar, popular ballad about love lost and love found.

Before Lily and Wyatt took him in Dakota had not known how much he missed his parents and grandfather or even the company of their people. He had been out on the road on his own for so long now—working in various capacities for the US Marshal, the cavalry, and ranchers throughout the territory—he had forgotten what it felt like to settle down among kindred for any length of time. He had forgotten what it was like to have a family.

Lily and Wyatt had given that feeling of family back to him. He dreaded the idea of forfeiting it, but knew he had to, that it was the only way to test the bonds of their relationship and prove that they could survive, that they all wanted to survive, as a family.

“She’s something else, ain’t she?”

Dakota opened his eyes and turned to see Sabrina standing beside him now. He glanced back at Lily and then the dance floor to see it filled with couples swaying back and forth to the gentle rhythm of the ballad she sang. “Yes she is.”

Sabrina hooked her arm through his. “Care to grace me with some of that fancy footwork I saw you treat Lily to earlier?”

“I…”

“Oh, c’mon now. I done plumb tuckered out Luke and Joshua, and believe it or not, there’s no one else here I want to dance with.”

Dakota did not know the two men of which she spoke. If he had to guess, however, he noticed two cowboys at the punch bowl—one blond, the other brunet—who had not taken their gazes off of Sabrina since she had started talking to him.

“Don’t worry none about their flinty-eyed looks. They reckon because they stay at my place they’re responsible for looking out for me all the time, but I’ve been looking out for myself long before they came along and I will when they’re gone.”

From the looks of them, Dakota did not think this Luke or Joshua would be going far from Sabrina anytime soon. He did not tell her this, however, unwilling to intrude in her business any more than he had to. If she agreed to Lily’s request, after all, Dakota would be living under the same roof with her and her current boarders. The last thing he wanted to do was cause strife before he even arrived.

“Well?” Sabrina arched a brow at him, gesturing toward the dance floor, her smile so open and welcoming Dakota did not want to disappoint her.

He spared a glance at the critical expressions of Avery and Brand before he followed Sabrina out on the dance floor, and their stares were not the only ones to track him.

As when he had danced with Lily, Dakota felt most of the partygoers’ gazes following him and Sabrina out onto the floor. With Lily he had been able to block out the townspeople’s silent contempt and displeasure, but with Sabrina he was not as successful at managing this.

“Don’t pay no never mind to these snooty folk. I been living in this town for a good piece of years now and they still haven’t fully accepted me. Some of them probably never will, but I ain’t going to worry about them because it’s their problem, not mine.”

Dakota glanced down at Sabrina and smiled. She was petite, several inches shorter than Lily, and he could see why most men like the aforementioned Luke and Joshua would be protective of her. He felt protective of her himself, her poise and strength notwithstanding. She reminded him of Lily in many ways, despite Lily’s having lost her way after returning home. Both women were survivors, passionate and strong like his mother and many of the Kiowa women with whom Dakota had had the privilege of growing. Though he had not always agreed with the way things were done in his tribe and he knew the Kiowas could be just as judgmental as the people of Elk Creek when it came to him, he respected his people’s courage and determination.

“So how are things going for you out at Lily and Wyatt’s?” Sabrina asked.

“As well as could be expected,” Dakota said, quoting one of Wyatt’s famous phrases. He realized that the more he stayed around Lily and Wyatt, the more both of them made an indelible impression on him. He only hoped he made the same impact on them.

“I was just wondering since someone put a little bug in my ear that you’re looking for a place to stay.”

“Lily spoke to you already?” When had she found the time?

“She mentioned it in passing.” Sabrina smiled as if she had a secret and Dakota felt himself fidgeting beneath her gaze. “And Maia might have said a thing or two about it.”

What else about him had Lily and Maia mentioned?

In the aftermath of his mother’s and father’s deaths when he had come to live with his grandfather, it was not in Dakota’s nature to be overly trusting. Yet, he had never been as suspicious of a kind word and face before.

“If you’re still interested, I’ve got a room free and with your name on it.”

“You do not even know me,” Dakota rasped.

“I know Lily and Wyatt and that’s good enough for me.”

Dakota swallowed over the lump in his throat. At least everyone in Elk Creek was not hostile to Lily and Wyatt.

“You’re a lucky man to have those two vouch for you. Not to mention Maia and her two men seem to like and vouch for you, too.”

Dakota silently nodded, too overwhelmed to speak without choking up.

Sabrina wasn’t one to settle for his quiet and asked, “What’s the matter, Dakota? Cat got your tongue?”

“I am just grateful,” he said. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

“Oh, I’m hospitable all right, just don’t go getting no ideas that this is a free ride. I expect you to pull your weight.”

Dakota chuckled. He had also heard about the tight ship Sabrina ran. She could be kind to a fault, but she expected rent to be paid on time and if one could not pay in cash, then manual labor worked just as well. Dakota had never had a problem with doing his share and more.

Though Sabrina had recently hired a couple of hands to tend to the building and the land around it, he knew from Maia, Thayne, and Cade that Sabrina still did a lot of the work around the boarding house, like the cooking and cleaning, herself and despite the success she now experienced with her and Maia’s shop in town.

Sabrina likes the hands-on approach. Not quite sure why.

Dakota remembered Cade’s words that morning he and Thayne and Maia had come out to return Wyatt’s horse. He wondered how much more upset Lily would have been at the news of his desire to leave the farm had she known he had already raised the subject with the town’s doctor and his brother several days ago. How much more betrayed?

Lily hit a long high note, the band’s piano player joining her in a soul-moving crescendo. Several moments after the last tone faded, the crowd erupted into deafening applause, Lily the center of the attention and approval she deserved.

As much as he detested sharing them, Dakota did not look forward to being alone with Lily and Wyatt at the farm later, for it would only bring him closer to saying good-bye to them.

He vowed to the Great Spirit that he would make their last moments together memorable.

“What is it you need to say to us, Dakota?”

Lily’s heart stuttered in her chest at Wyatt’s question.

Getting Dakota to agree to tell her later what he needed to about her and Wyatt’s son had been relatively easy. She hadn’t factored in Wyatt’s curiosity forcing Dakota’s hand despite Dakota’s ready agreement to speak to her alone.