“Just give her a minute,” Seth ordered. “Just calm down, okay? Everyone needs to calm down.”
“I am not letting this go!” Court repeated. Then louder. “I am not letting this go, Rowan! You hear me? I am not letting this go!”
Seth glanced over his shoulder to see Rowan passing the little girl to her sister. They all disappeared inside the house, and Court growled his disapproval. He finally wrenched himself out of Seth’s grip and stormed past.
“Now, God damn it, Court, she’s—”
Just then the front door banged open again. This time Rowan came out armed with a shotgun. The sight of her caused Court to break his angry stride. Several feet away, the dogs were going nuts now in the paddock, having decided that Court and Seth were a danger. They snarled viciously and threw their bodies against the steel gate. Seth hoped it wouldn’t give way as he pulled Court back again.
Rowan stomped across the yard, raising the gun and aiming it straight at them, not that it mattered. Even if she was a terrible shot, the spread would get both of them. And for some reason Seth suspected that Rowan Archer was a very good shot.
“You stay away from my family!” she cried, stopping just a few feet away from them now. Her boots were caked with mud, and she was wearing only jeans and a sweater. She must have been cold, but she didn’t look it.
“Your family?!” Court snapped from behind Seth. “Oh, your family? Guess you’re all just cuddled up nice and cozy in there. And no one thought to tell me about this family I have.”
Rowan’s eyes widened, and Seth saw her finger dance on the shotgun’s trigger. “You don’t have a family, Court. Not this one. She may be your daughter, but she’s not yours!”
Seth saw the danger, immediately, how incensed Rowan was, while Court, as usual, was blind to almost everything around him. If his little brother shot off his mouth again, Rowan was going to, well…return the favor.
He stepped out in front of Court, positioning himself between the two exes. He was glad to see Rowan’s hold on the gun waver just a bit, she was more in control than Court, it seemed.
“Rowan,” Seth said softly. “You’re going to have to put it down. And hear the man out, at least. No one’s deciding anything today. No one’s doing anything today, especially not things we can’t ever take back.”
She finally tore her eyes away from Court and looked up at him. “You said you’d keep him away,” she accused.
Seth gave her a wan smile and took a single, very slow, step toward her. “Well, now, you didn’t exactly give me the whole story, did you?” he replied gently. “Now, you can either shoot through me…or you can give me the gun.”
Seth stood in the twilight, with the sun setting just over the horizon. The brilliant-blue sky was aflame with soft hues of pink, orange, and gold. It was a sight he tried never to take for granted. As he gazed at it now, he hoped it wouldn’t be the last one he’d ever see as he held out his hand to her.
Chapter Ten
‡
Rowan blinked up at Seth through the tears welling in her eyes. He’d been so kind to her the other night, rescuing her from Court, lending her his jacket, listening to her cry about Dad. As angry as she was with Court, Seth didn’t belong in the middle of their problems. She took a deep breath and handed him the Remington. He gave her a relieved smile as she did.
Rowan didn’t know any of the other Barlows very well other than Court, but she was struck by how radically different these two brothers were. Despite Seth’s failure to keep his earlier promise (which as he’d pointed out was more her fault than his), she was grateful he was here now.
Court’s nostrils flared. He looked positively livid and on the verge of losing control. “She’s not giving anyone the whole story,” he snapped. “Least of all me, the only person who actually deserves it!”
Rowan couldn’t believe what she was hearing, couldn’t believe he had the nerve. Fire rose up inside her again, and she charged forward, or tried to, but Seth caught her around the waist. He pulled her back against his torso, still gripping the Remington in one hand. She glared at the man who’d come to destroy everything, to ruin all their lives. “I didn’t tell you? Really? Really, Court?! That’s the story you’re going with? Is that what you’re going to say to people? That I didn’t tell you?”
Court gaped at her. “Well, I sure as shit didn’t know there was a kid!”
“Because you didn’t want to know! Don’t you stand here and put this on me. Don’t you dare! You tell the truth, Court!” she shouted. “You tell the truth. If you’d picked up the phone any one of the dozens—hundreds—of times I tried to call you, what would you have said?”
Court just seethed at her, like it was her fault, like she was the bad guy in all this.
“You tell me,” she insisted, voice breaking, tears streaming down her face. “Did you get that last message? The one where I had to say, in a voicemail, that I was pregnant, and scared, and didn’t know what to do?”
Court’s face twisted, and it looked exactly like Rowan’s gut felt. Or maybe it was just Seth’s arm tightening around her. In her ear, she heard the elder Barlow’s voice. “Jesus Christ, Court,” Seth said quietly. “You knew?”
Court was silent a moment. Nothing but the wind howled between them. “I deleted it,” he finally said. “I was drunk.”
Rowan broke down, sobbing. She sagged against Seth, who held her in his strong grip, and God damn if it didn’t feel good to be propped up by someone else for a change.
Court’s voice was strained but still belligerent. “And you never called again, never said anything. A year or so later, I heard you met someone. A doctor, got pregnant. I thought it was his. Didn’t think it was mine. I thought…I thought you took care of it.”
“It?!” Rowan shouted. “It is your daughter, Court, and she has a name—Willow! She has your eyes, and a favorite bedtime story, and she does not need some asshole coming around whenever he feels like it! She doesn’t need someone in her life who’s going to abandon her when he gets bored!”
“I’m different now!” Court insisted. “I’ve changed!”
Rowan scoffed. “Really? Because I’ve got to be honest, I don’t see it, Court. I really don’t. You charged in here, throwing your weight around. I don’t see anything that I didn’t five years ago. I’m surprised you haven’t thrown a rope around her, or me, and wrestled us to the ground. Suppose you did, though, what then, Court? What happens next? What do you want?”
Court didn’t seem to have an answer. He just stood in front of her, seething.
“Maybe you should stop and think before you barge into our lives,” Rowan told him. “Then again, thinking wasn’t exactly your strong suit. And I can see that hasn’t changed.”
Court’s jaw clenched. “You don’t know me anymore, Rowan! I told you, I’m different. I’m not that way now.” He ran a hand over his face, breathing out hard. “We should talk,” he added suddenly.
Rowan stared at him.
“That’s what I wanted the other night, anyway. To talk! Maybe…maybe we could work it out. I’m here now,” he told her. “I’m not on the road and—”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was surreal and nightmarish. Was he really suggesting they get back together? Just pick up where they left off? Did she have to remind him where they left off? Or rather that she’d left him in a travel trailer with two naked women and twice that in bottles of booze?
“Have you lost your mind?!” she hissed. “Court Barlow, I will never, never subject myself to that again! Or our daughter. I didn’t deserve it then, and I sure as hell don’t deserve it now, whatever mistakes I’ve made along the way. And I am not going to spend the next few years crying myself to sleep because you’re out sticking your dick in some bimbo!”
“I said I’ve changed!” Court shouted. “And I can see you have too. You’re a bitch, Rowan, holding on to shit that’s lifetimes ago.”
Rowan fought against Seth’s hold, ready to pounce and claw Court’s eyes out.
“All right, enough!” Seth bellowed loudly. The rumble of his chest vibrated against her back. “Court, get in the truck.”
Court looked like he was about to argue, maybe take on Rowan and Seth at this point.
“You don’t know what the hell you’re doing here; you don’t know what the hell you want. You’ve said your piece. You’re pissed. She gets it. Go get in the truck.”
When Court still didn’t move, Seth’s tone turned positively venomous. “Get. In. The truck.”
Incredibly, Rowan watched Court consider it only for a moment, shoot her a withering look, and then turn to walk toward Seth’s Ford. When he slammed the door on them, all the tension she didn’t realize she’d been holding onto seemed to evaporate from her body at once.
Her knees nearly buckled, but it didn’t seem to bother Seth. He held her easily, clutching her tight. In spite of the sharp March air, the warmth of his body seemed to melt her very bones.