Unbroken (14 page)

Everyone would know that his dad, a man so many people had admired—himself included, until he'd had the blinders ripped away—was just a gigantic asshole who'd cheated on his wife and left a lover in the lurch with a child.

Left his kids with gambling debts and enough emotional baggage to fill the cargo hold of the
Titanic
.

But there was no avoiding it. Because whether or not he was ready, Nicole was here. She was being accepted by his siblings and she was, apparently, chatting up the townspeople.

“She's my half sister,” he said, the words scraping his throat raw.

John's eyebrows shot up, and he paused his work at the computer. “Your what?”

“My half sister. Doesn't every self-respecting family have secret siblings lying around?”

John shrugged. “Wouldn't know. Though, all things considered, I imagine I do.” The man's father had run off when he was only a kid, so Cade was sure he probably did. “But I've gotta say, I didn't expect those kinds of skeletons in your closet.”

“My dad's closet,” Cade said, “not mine.”

Though the sinking feeling in his stomach reminded him that his closet wasn't exactly clean at the moment. And more than that, that he feared he was more like the old man than he wanted to admit.

“Fair enough. I was just curious.”

“Why?” Cade asked.

“Curious is all.”

“Right.” Cade examined the other man, unable to stop the growing suspicion inside of him. John had a reputation. The guy was a first-class dog when it came to women. Almost as bad as Cade had been back in his glory days, if you could call them glorious. At this point, it was hard for him to remember.

But either way, when it came to John and women, Cade expected the worst.

“Curious for a very specific reason,” Cade said.

“And you care?”

“Hell yeah, I care.”

“Why?”

“Did you or did you not hear the word ‘sister' in there?” Cade growled.

“Oh, Cade, put your hackles down,” Amber muttered. “Just order your fencing.”

“I'll take the fencing without the questioning about a close family member, thanks,” Cade growled.

“Fine,” John said. “I don't need to talk to you about her. I can talk to her.”

“Like hell you will,” Cade said.

“Cade,” Amber snapped.

“Amber,” he said, “don't help me.”

“Use your energy on your own piece of paradise, Mitchell,” John said. “Looks to me like you need it. Your fencing is ordered. It'll be in next week. I'll give you a call.”

“Fine,” Cade said, stalking out of the shop.

Amber was following him, her toes on his heels. When the door shut behind them she let out a feral growl. “What the eff was all that?”

“Which part?” he asked, gripping the bridge of his nose. “I mean, there is a list of WTF to choose from.”

“Uh, all of it,” she said. “All of it. Engaged? And you were growling at John like he was an intruder and you were a . . . guard dog. I don't even know. And why did you let Delia think we were engaged?”

He dragged his hands over his face. “Why not? I mean, really, why not? We're doing this thing. We're living together and trying to keep Davis away, so why not? I'm on the ranch, we're working on a business thing and you know that people are going to assume . . . isn't it better to have them assume in a way that will get back to Davis in a way that might benefit us if he's asking around?”

She crossed her arms under her breasts, and he was powerless against the need to watch the motion it created in her body. Because hot damn. And that just made him even angrier. Because he should be over it. He should be able to stop ogling her like an asshole.

But he couldn't. So there that was just another little pile of awful to add to the day.

He was still obsessing about Amber's breasts.

For some reason, a completely insane memory hit him, from somewhere in the ether of his screwed-up brain. A conversation he'd had with Cole.

Women are just people, Cade. People who are worth getting to know.

People with breasts. Which means it's rare to make friends with one just to be friends with one.

And Amber?

I knew her before she had breasts, so she doesn't count.

I'm sure she'd love to hear that.

She won't.

Oh yes, such big denials he'd made about caring about her breasts.

Ha. Ha.

“And why did you lose your crap with John?”

“That was not me losing my crap,” he said, thankful for the distraction from her body and from his wayward thoughts. “I think you recall me losing my crap just a couple of weeks ago in the bar. I recall punching someone out.”

“Yes, I do recall that. But you know what I mean.”

“Fine. Because Nicole is my sister and he just wants to nail her.”

“I didn't think you were ready to deal with the Nicole-as-sister thing,” she said.

“I'm not,” he growled, opening the door to the truck. “I am not at all. But people are going to know now. She's here and people will know, so I have to claim her, right? The whole town is going to know about my dad. And John wants to nail her before I've even figured out where she fits into my life.”

“I don't really see what the nailing has to do with you.”

“You wouldn't,” he said, climbing into the truck cab, not at all sure what he meant by that last jab.

“What is that supposed to mean?” she asked, getting in after him.

“I don't know,” he said.

“If that was a subtle dig at past promiscuity . . .”

“You know me better than that.”

“Do I?” she asked.

“Yes. You damn well better. I have never tried to make you feel ashamed for anything you've done. Just like you've never shamed me for anything I've done. That's not how we are. We're a no-judgment zone, unless the other person needs an intervention. That's how we work.”

“Maybe I'm not sure how we work anymore,” she muttered.

“We're going to Elk Haven,” he said. “I need to talk to everyone about the fact that John knows now, which means everyone will know. And I need to warn Nicole about him.”

“I'm pretty sure she can take care of herself.”

“Let me do what I can do, Amber. Please.”

“Fine, Cade,” she said. “Whatever you need to do.”

*   *   *

Amber felt more than a little nervous walking over the
Mitchell threshold, all things considered. Considering Cade was, at this moment, the very definition of going off half-cocked. Considering the town assumed they were engaged.

Considering they'd just done . . . things, and their relationship had changed. And considering she was feeling very vulnerable because of her grandpa, and because of the things.

Even so, she was here with Cade because . . . when wasn't she with Cade?

“Hey, is anyone around?” Cade shouted when they walked in, then made his way over to the coffee bar. He grabbed a hot chocolate packet, and she had to smirk a little bit.

He was just cute sometimes. And he would hate that she thought so, but he was.

Kelsey came out of the kitchen with Maddy on her hip. “Hey,” she said. “I just got a call about you.”

“Interesting,” Cade said, putting his hands on his lean hips and looking around. “Where's Cole? More importantly . . . where's Nicole?”

“If you're here to be a jerk, Cade, I'm not going to tell her to come in,” Kelsey said, her stance defiant. “I've long been an advocate of yours, and an excuser of your occasional surliness. I love you to pieces, and you're definitely the brother I never had. But I will knock you flat if you hurt this girl, so help me.”

“I'm not here to hurt anyone. I'm trying to prevent hurt, in fact,” he bit out.

“First, I want to know what the heee”—she trailed off and looked down at her daughter—“eck is going on with the two of you.”

Amber stared at Cade. It was his lie at this point. And it was his job to impart their engagement news.

“We're getting married,” he snarled. “I need a beer.” He abandoned his hot chocolate packet.

“Congratulations?” Kelsey framed it as a question as Cade stormed past her and into the kitchen.

Kelsey looked at Amber. Amber shrugged.

“Oh, don't give me that,” Kelsey said, frowning.

“What?”

“You're worse than he is! I need details. I need one of you to look . . . happy.”

“I feel more like I've been run over by a truck,” she said.

Kelsey snorted. “Yeah, you're engaged to a Mitchell man, all right.”

“Lucky me,” Amber said, heading toward the kitchen.

Kelsey followed, and they both froze when they saw Cade standing there, looking at Nicole, who was sitting at the little breakfast table in the corner with her fingers curled around a mug.

“Hi, Nicole,” Amber said, heading to the fridge and taking out two beers, forcing one into Cade's hand before moving nearer to where Nicole was seated.

“Hi,” she said, pushing a lock of board-straight, dark hair behind her ear.

“Where is Cole?” Cade asked.

“I'm right here.” Cole walked into the kitchen, taking his cowboy hat off of his head and holding it down at his thigh. “What's up, Cade?”

“I just wanted to make sure you all knew that I told John at the mercantile that Nicole is our half sister. Don't know if I should have or not, but I did. So I felt like everyone here should know that the rumor mill is going to start churning around town.”

Kelsey cleared her throat loudly and made wide meaningful eyes at him.

“Oh, yeah,” Cade growled, “and we're engaged.”

“Wait . . . what?” Cole asked.

Amber felt guilty. She didn't really see the point of lying to Cade's family, but Cade was leading the charge, and she had a feeling that—somehow—this was all linked to male pride and his masculinity and things that she had no business undermining.

“We're getting married,” Cade said, twisting off the top of his beer and grimacing, probably around the time he realized it was not a twist-off cap.

“You seem thrilled,” Cole said.

“That's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to talk about Nicole, and the fact that this means everyone in town is going to know our sordid family secrets.”

Nicole's cheeks were pink, and Amber felt increasingly sorry for her. “It's not your fault, Nicole,” she said, her voice soft. Because she knew what it was like to be the interloper. The unwanted one. The one who was just crashing the party.

A guest in her own house.

“I know it's not,” Nicole said, meeting Cade's eyes.

“I know it's not too,” Cade said. “But that doesn't change the fact that this is a . . . thing for us. Because the Mitchell name means something here, and if you're going to be here, we're not hiding the fact that you're our . . . you know.”

“You can't even say it, but you don't want to hide it?” Nicole asked. “That doesn't make sense.”

“Sorry, I missed this part in the
When Life Gives You Lemons
handbook,” he said.

“Happy to be a lemon in your life, Cade.”

“It's not you, specifically,” he said. “It's what this means for . . . hell, Nicole, do you know I knew about you . . . I was sixteen when I found out my dad was cheating on my mom and I had to keep it a secret. I've been keeping it a secret for so long that having the evidence of it all out in the open isn't something that I'm really ready to deal with.”

“I get that,” she said. “I get that this has a bigger reach than I initially appreciated.”

“And I wanted everyone here to realize exactly where it's reaching at the moment,” he said.

She narrowed her eyes. “Why did you tell John?”

“You know John?” Kelsey asked.

“Yes,” Nicole said. “I've been in his store a couple of times. We talked.”

“That's the other thing,” Cade said. “He's a man-whore, and I want you to stay away from him.”

“Excuse me?” she asked.

“He's asking after you. I don't like it. That's why I told him you were my half sister. And I told him to back off.”

She stood up. “I'm sorry, where the—” She cast a sideways look at Maddy. The little girl was holding on to her dad's knee now. “Where the heck do you get off telling a guy he has to back off of me? Maybe I don't want him to back off. You can't act brotherly only when it suits you. That's stupid.”

“You don't know him.”

“You don't know me!” She flung her hands wide, then slapped them down on her thighs. “Sorry, but you don't. You don't know what I like, what I might want . . . anything. And you have no right trying to make decisions of any kind for me.”

“I'm keeping you informed,” Cade said. “I'm not deciding anything for you.”

“Yeah, I'm sure.”

“Okay,” Cole said. “Everyone calm down.”

“Who isn't calm?” Cade asked.

“No one is calm,” Kelsey said.

“And you're way out of line,” Cole said to Cade.

“I'm out of line? What the hell, Cole? I am not a child in this family. I don't play second fiddle to you just because I was born two years later.”

“If you don't want to be treated like a kid, don't act like one, Cade. I don't know how many times I have to tell you.”

Kelsey moved across the kitchen and swept Maddy up. “I have a feeling the language is about to get adult in here,” she said, walking out of the kitchen holding her daughter.

Amber wished she had an excuse to leave too.

She didn't especially want to witness Cole and Cade's inevitable explosions at each other. And that was the thing—it was inevitable. Cade had been shoved down and pushed into second-fiddle position, something Amber didn't think Cole had done on purpose. But it had happened. And for a while, Cade had allowed it to happen. Because he'd been in a fog, or something, since his accident.