Jennifer Morey - Colton's Fugitive Family

“Yes, but he had some good points. He had his own business breeding dogs for the K-9 Unit and was so good with the mamas and pups. I can see how the two of you were so close before he lost his way.”

A slight upward curve of his mouth told her he appreciated the comment.

“He could be charming. The only problem was, he was charming to other women.”

“Yeah, and he got mixed up with the Larson twins.”

Noel and milder-mannered Evan had caused Red Ridge a lot of trouble, but the criminal twins were behind bars now. Bo could be a real rat, but he hadn’t deserved to be murdered.

“What happened between you and Bo?” Lucas asked.

Unable to resist, Demi reached for Wolf. Lucas gave him up and she held him, seeing him stir a little before falling into sleep again.

“We started fighting a lot. He would lie about stupid things, things he didn’t need to lie about. He had a temper, too.”

“He wasn’t like that when we were younger.”

“He wasn’t like that until we got engaged. He asked me to marry him, I said yes, and then I found out about the harassment. It changed the way I felt about him. After one fight, he left and spent his evening at The Pour House and came home drunk.” She eased Wolf down into his crib and covered him. “The next morning I told him he had to change his ways or it was over.”

“You broke up with him?”

“In essence. I gave him a chance to redeem himself. I guess I still hung onto the man I dated, the man I’d fallen in love with.”

“You did love him?”

She wasn’t sure why Lucas needed to know all of this. Maybe talking about his older brother helped him deal with the loss. “I loved a version of Bo.”

“Did he try to change?”

“Oh, no. He was furious with me. He packed, took back the ring and left. Not long after that, I found out he was seeing Hayley Patton.”

Lucas studied her, or maybe he wasn’t really seeing her, he was so deep in thought over how his brother had ended up so unreasonably callous.

“Did you know you were pregnant when you split up?”

She shook her head. “And I didn’t see a point in telling him. To be honest, I don’t think he would have cared.”

“The previous version of Bo would have.”

She supposed he was right, although at the time of the split she’d believed that when they first started dating, Bo had put on a front to win her over.

After a lengthy stare that began to heat up, Lucas scratched his head as though feeling awkward. “I’m going to be up for a while.”

“Me, too. Should we make some coffee?”

“Sure.” He led her out of the baby’s room.

In the kitchen she went about preparing a pot of coffee, not hearing the snow blowing the way it had earlier. She kept thinking about how loving Lucas had been with Wolf. He seemed a natural with children. Before having Wolf, Demi would not have pictured herself as a maternal person. Now she knew that if she ever married, it would have to be to a man who would be a father to Wolf.

“Do you want kids?” she asked before she could stop herself. She didn’t need to know that about him—Lucas—her rival and a Gage.

“No.”

He answered so quickly that she stopped in the process of pouring water into the coffee maker to look at him.

“I haven’t seen the family thing work out so well. It might be for some people, but not for me.”

“So, not just kids, you’re tossing the whole marriage thing into the trash along with that?”

“I wouldn’t say trash. I chose not to.”

That sounded rather harsh. Cut-and-dried. He’d live alone his entire life? What would make anyone come to such a drastic decision?

“Having a long-term girlfriend is the same as being married.” She said that to test him more than anything.

“I don’t think so.”

He seemed so adamant. Demi couldn’t help the disappointment that gripped her. She’d always been secretly attracted to him, but their volatile relationship had not left any room for soft sentiments.

She had to ask. “Why? I mean, why not get married?”

“My mother died when I was young. It tore my father’s heart out and changed everything in our family.”

She had known he’d lost his mother just as she had. “Your dad remarried but she died last year, too” she said.

He nodded grimly. “He still grieves for her and my mother, but I’ve seen him improve over the last few weeks. He told me he does much better on his own.”

Alone. That sounded more like avoidance. “Better in the sense he doesn’t have to worry about losing anyone?” Everyone was happier when they weren’t alone. Humans weren’t meant to live alone.

“I think that’s why my brother turned into such a reprobate. He kept losing mothers. He may have felt abandoned, left to his own devices, especially after our mother died. My dad was no good for us during his mourning. He worked constantly and wasn’t really there for any of us. It ripped our family apart.”

Mourning that never stopped. His father must have drowned his sorrow in work and had been so consumed with it that he never had time with his kids. Maybe spending time with them had grown too painful. He’d had a family with two women he loved and both of them had been cruelly taken from him. His kids had been left to raise themselves.

Demi saw the coffee had finished brewing and poured two cups. “Sugar or cream?”

“Black.”

She poured cream into her coffee along with a sugar substitute, her one nonnegotiable indulgence. Taking the cups, she went to the kitchen island and handed him his black coffee.

“What about your stepmother?” She took a careful sip of the steaming brew.

“By the time she came along, we were accustomed to taking care of ourselves. She was nice and everything, but she wasn’t our mother and she never really tried to form any kind of bond with us. In all fairness, I don’t think she could have, even if she tried. We all felt the loss of our mother. It wasn’t just Dad who suffered.”

Demi leaned her hip against the countertop. “After my mother died, I started thinking about having a family. Being alone didn’t appeal to me. After I had Wolf, I realized I will never be alone. I will always have him. I can see why you wouldn’t want to get married. My father didn’t mourn the loss of any of his wives, but he wasn’t part of my life. He didn’t care about us. I would hate it if I ended up marrying a man like that. Even if he wasn’t exactly like my dad, even if he had redeeming qualities, if he doesn’t care about his kids, to me that is worse than if he died.”

“Then we agree.” He half grinned. “That sounds dangerous.” He sipped some coffee and put his cup down behind him and to his side on the counter.

Dangerous because they had that in common—something important? She wasn’t completely convinced. “In a way. I think there is too much importance placed on marriage, that too many people get married because that’s what everybody else does. That leads to bad decisions. That said, you can’t go through life expecting to lose the person you love if you marry them.”

“Why not? Everybody dies. There is no free ticket out of that one.”

“Well, no, obviously not,” she said, “but look at how many people live their entire lives with the one they married. Just because your dad lost both wives doesn’t mean you will.” It seemed a weak reason to avoid marriage. Then again, she’d avoid it, too, if she wasn’t sure the man would care deeply about his family.

“It’s more than marriage. It’s the whole idea of love.”

So, he refused to love out of fear he’d lose it the way his father had? “You’ll really go through your entire life never falling in love?” She felt another one of their notorious arguments coming on.