Circle on Home (Lost in a Boom Town Book 5) (35 page)

She might be there a while, based on the number of boxes Selena was merrily loading into the horse trailer he was using instead of renting a moving van.

Following Miranda's lead, Noah had ordered new beds online, which would be delivered to the new house this afternoon. They'd have to find a table and couch, but he hadn't settled on just what he wanted yet. Maybe Miranda would go with him into San Marcos or someplace and help him pick. She would be spending a lot of time at his house, he hoped, and she should have some say-so.

Rey stood on the porch as Noah loaded the last of Selena's boxes into the trailer.
 

"You sure this is the best thing for her?" Rey asked as his daughter climbed into the cab, bouncing with anticipation.

"I think it is. She's going to need more independence than she can have out here. She'll be able to walk to work, walk to most places she needs to go. It's good. And it's a fresh start for me."

"Will Miranda come live with you, too?"

"I don't know. Not yet. I think it's best she waits, anyway. She has enough on her plate right now, getting her practice off the ground."

She'd actually started keeping office hours this week.

"She's good for you, I think."

Noah didn't need his father's blessing on his relationship, but it was possibly the nicest thing his dad had said to him since he'd come home. He nodded. "She is." He backed toward the door of the truck."We'll be seeing you."

"If she gets homesick, she's welcome back, any time. As are you."

Noah wouldn't resent the old man making him welcome in the house he'd kept for the past fourteen years. He nodded again, and got into the truck.

As the ranch disappeared in the rearview mirror, his vision blurred, just for a minute.

*****

"Mom invited the two of you to dinner tomorrow," Miranda announced, sitting on the floor of the kitchen unwrapping plates from newspaper.
 

She had brought those from her mother's, plates her mother no longer needed. Noah wondered how Miranda had talked her out of them, and if Cindy knew where the plates were going. Maybe Miranda told her she wanted them to replace the dishes lost in the fire.

"Us? Selena and me?"

"It's a good thing. She wants to get to know you better. That's something she never would have done fourteen years ago."
 

She lowered the plate to her lap and looked up at him as he hung the picture from his mother's kitchen in his own.

His own. His own house, his own yard, his own place to make memories. No one in his family had been in this place before. It was a fresh start, and once again he felt his vision blur with emotion.

"She's had fourteen years to make up for that," he pointed out.

"But no particular reason to."

"I suppose. Is that straight?"

“Tilt it a bit to the right. There. So will you come? You and Selena?"

He gave her a sideways look. "Why am I getting the feeling I'm walking into an ambush?"

"I would never let her ambush you."

"Because you have as much control over your mother as I have over my father?" He reached a hand down to her. She took it and he pulled her up, into his arms. "I'll go. Because I want you in my life, and making her happy will make you happy. But I'm not going to let my guard down."

"I would never ask you to."

"Come on. I want to show you my new bed."

She blushed and looked past him. "Selena?"

"Is in her room doing whatever she wants and is as happy as I've ever seen her." But he was worried what would happen when night came and Selena realized she wasn't returning to the only home she'd ever known. Maybe he should back out of the dinner at Miranda's until things were more settled.

But there would always be an excuse not to go to dinner, and if her mother was extending an invitation, maybe she really did want peace between them. God knew he did.

But right now, he didn’t want to think about his mother or his sister. The woman he loved was in his arms, and he had a brand new bed, just begging to be broken in.

*****

Noah adjusted the tie that threatened to strangle him as he stood on the front step of Miranda's house. He hadn't been inside since he was a kid, picking Miranda up for a date, and he felt the same terror now as he had then. Beside him, Selena, bless her, was as happy as a clam, excited about being invited out to dinner. Damn, another way he had failed her. He hoped the dinner and the unfamiliar company didn't overwhelm her. She'd weathered the first night in their new home better than he'd hoped, but here was another new experience on top of that one.
 

He knocked and Miranda opened almost instantly.

"I thought you'd stand there forever," she teased, stretching up to kiss him before turning to hug Selena.

He saw, she, too, had dressed for the occasion, in a dress that hugged her curves before flaring out at the knees. He hadn't seen her in something so–feminine, he guessed, since she'd been back.

"Pretty dress," he said as he followed her into the house.

"Still in my closet from high school," she said over her shoulder.
 

Oh yeah. He remembered it now. She'd worn it to one of the school dances. It looked better on her now than it had then, and made him want to take her into his arms and never let her go.

Her mother and Allison were sitting in the living room, which took Noah off-guard. He'd kind of expected his mother to be in the kitchen, putting last minute preparations on the dinner.

Which smelled amazing. Clearly Miranda had missed the cooking gene. To his left, the dining room table was set with bright dishes, a large vase of flowers in the middle of the table, waiting.

"Mom, Allison, you know Noah. Have you met his sister Selena?"

His mother smiled warmly at his sister, which melted some of the tension he was carrying in his shoulders, to be honest.
 

"I have met Selena, sometimes in the Coyote and sometimes in the bakery."

"I want to work at the bakery," Selena blurted. "I want to make cookies."

Her confession surprised Noah. How long had she had that wish, and why hadn't she ever told him?

"Have you talked to Riley?" Miranda asked, sitting on the love seat and motioning for their guests to sit and help themselves to the fresh vegetables on the tray on the coffee table.

"No, I don't want to leave the Coyote because my friends are there. But I want to make cookies."

"Maybe you could work both jobs," Miranda said. "Some days at the Coyote and some days at the bakery."

Selena's face glowed. "Do you think I could?"

"I think it wouldn't hurt to ask," Miranda's mother said. "We should all do what it is we want to do, shouldn't we?"

She directed that last question to Noah, but he didn't know why. "Yes, ma'am."

"How do you like the house?" Allison asked, leaning forward to spoon some more ranch dressing on her plate to accompany her carrots.

"The first twenty-four hours have gone without a hitch," he replied with a smile.

"I was surprised when Allison said you were looking for a place in town," Cindy said. "I thought the ranch would be a perfect place for a vet."

"It was. Too many things changed the past couple of months, though." He really didn't want to discuss his father tonight, though he was pretty sure they wouldn't be able to avoid it.

"I suppose it was hard to live with your father after all of those years," Mrs. Bonner said.

Noah tensed. Here came the ambush.
 

"How is the vet business?” And there it went.

"Busy. We could use another one, especially this time of year. Thinking about getting a vet student from A&M to come help out, get some hands-on training."

Miranda smiled. "I didn't know you were thinking about that. I think you'd be a great teacher, a great example for a student."

Wow, they'd talked a lot about the future in just a few minutes. He wished he was better at conversation so he could steer it, but all the subjects he could think of had potential pitfalls.

"I imagine you're gearing up for the Bluebonnet Festival,” he said at last. That should be safe, right?

Mrs. Bonner beamed. "We are. You know, we should have a bumper crop this year after all the rain we've been having. But yes, there's lots to do."

"Seems to me the bulk of the work always falls on you and Allison."

Miranda stuck her tongue at him, but turned her head so her mother wouldn't see.

"Yes, well, it keeps us busy, and we enjoy it. We have the contacts to make it run smoothly."

"And they're not great at delegating," Miranda added.

"I am," Allison said. "But every time I try, you say no."

"Because I don't have time right now as I try to build my business."

"You have a lot of clients keeping you busy?" Allison asked, her tone snide.

"Not yet. But I want to be available if I'm needed."

"Speaking of clients, have you heard anything from the sheriff about the fire? I mean, of course we heard about Rey, but Miranda assures us they had the wrong man, that they have other suspects. Have you heard anything about them?"

"They can't find Pat Sheridan," Miranda said. "And Devin Connelly's only alibi is his wife, and she's sticking by him."

Mrs. Bonner shook her head. "It must be terrible knowing that someone was so mad at you they wanted you dead."

"It isn’t pleasant," Noah said.
 

"And if Noah hadn't been there, maybe this wouldn't have happened," Mrs. Bonner went on.

Ah. There it was.
 

"If Noah hadn't been there, we'd all be dead," Miranda reminded her. "He was the one who smelled the smoke and got us all out of the house, even Skipper."

"You got Skipper," he said. "I forgot about her." He really didn’t like talking about spending the night with Miranda with her mother and in front of his sister. They were adults, sure, but their lovemaking was something personal, between the two of them.
 

"So if they haven’t found Sheridan, are they looking for him?" Allison asked.

"Yes, but they don't have a lot to go on. From what I heard, he did have a junker car, like the neighbors saw. It's frustrating, but the sheriff's department is working on it.” Noah turned to Miranda, trying to steer the conversation again. ”Have you gotten any other clients?" Noah asked, trying to steer the conversation again.
 

She leaned forward and snatched up a celery stick. “I have a couple of people who have made appointments to make their wills." She suppressed a sigh.

"A long way from corporate law in New York," Mrs. Bonner said.

"You sound like you want me to go back."

"I want you to be here for the right reasons," her mother replied. "And you were living your dream."

"I was working seventy-hour weeks, exhausted, living with–and having sex with, by the way, since you seem to be concerned with that–a man who tried to mold me into someone I was not. Someone maybe I thought I wanted to be, but when I became her, I didn't like her. It's hard not to like yourself," she said, turning to Noah and waving the half-bitten stick at him. "You have trouble getting up in the morning and sometimes you hear the words coming out of your mouth and wonder, 'When did I become such a bitch?' And you try not to do too much introspection when you're working for people who you don't like, who are just out to make money, screw humanity." She cast a look at Selena. "I'm sorry, honey."

Selena looked up from petting Skipper and smiled.

"And then I came home and I saw Noah, and I remembered that hell, I was selfish then, too, walking away to save myself and I knew I needed a change. I thought about going someplace else, not home. Seattle, maybe, or San Francisco or someplace where the pace could be slower and the opportunities to be a better human were available. And I thought about you." She put her hand on his on his thigh. "I thought about what might have been between us if I hadn’t bolted, what kind of life we might have had, and that took a hold of me, and so I came home." She looked at her mother. "So maybe Noah is a lot of the reason I came home. But he is the right reason.”