For a guy like me, that was something that was going to take me a while to get used to.
“If you really like doing anything with me, give me a real kiss this time,” I said hoarsely as I slid my hand under her thick hair and cupped the nape of her neck.
She sent me a radiant smile that made my gut twist even harder as she murmured, “That would be one of the most amazing things we could do together.”
She lowered her head and planted her gorgeous lips on mine.
She was right.
Kissing this woman was something that wasnevergoing to get old for me.
Lauren
“Cole and Asher think that their father murdered their mother?” Millie asked in an astonished voice as we chatted on the phone very early the next morning.
I was packing a small overnight bag for my date with Cole while I explained the situation at Cole’s ranch and the drone searches.
I’d known that Millie would be awake. She was up at the crack of dawn. She always laughed and said getting up early had always been her habit since she’d married a rancher who had been up before sunrise.
“It’s the only explanation that makes sense, Millie,” I said as I added a pair of jeans and a sweater to the small suitcase on my bed. “There was never any activity from their mother after the day their father said she left. It’s like she just vanished that day. There are zero records of her doing anything after that. No bank accounts. No jobs. No public records on her of any kind. I know you probably didn’t know her well, but I was hoping youmight have some kind of insight. I think Cole and Asher really need some closure. Cole gave me permission to talk to you about his mom.”
Millie released a long sigh. “Nobody except my husband knew that Lorraine and I communicated. We both grew up here in Crystal Fork. We were friends even before we were married. We didn’t get to see each other a lot after she married my husband’s brother, but she knew my door was always open. She snuck over here to visit with me when her husband was gone. I think she married him hoping that he would change. That he’d stop drinking and embrace his life with a wife and his two boys. Lorraine was an optimist. Unfortunately, that never happened. The last time we spoke was the morning of the day that she supposedly disappeared. That was the first and the last time she ever hinted to me that she wanted to leave her husband. I tried to give her some money to help her get out, but she wouldn’t take it. I’m not sure what happened before she came to my place, but she seemed upset that morning. She told me she wasn’t quite ready to talk about everything. She adored Asher and Cole. I never thought that she’d just disappear without her boys. I always expected her to come back for Cole and Asher once she was settled somewhere else, but she never did.”
“You never heard from Lorraine again?” I asked.
“Never,” Millie confirmed. “That never seemed quite right to me. I guess I finally rationalized it and convinced myself that she didn’t want to be found.”
“Do you think her husband was abusing her?” I questioned.
“She denied it,” Millie replied. “She always made excuses for his bad behavior until that last day. I guess we realize now that denial is pretty common behavior in an abused woman. I’ve learned so much more about the cycle of abuse than I knew back then. I was naïve, Lauren. I believed her when she gave meexcuses about how she got some of the bruises on her face. I wish I would have had more knowledge about abuse. I lived in a bubble. My own father had never even said a harsh word to my mother.”
“Don’t blame yourself for that,” I insisted. “You had no way of knowing. No one is responsible for that kind of abuse except for the abuser.”
“All of this makes me wonder if those boys were abused, too, even though they always told my husband that they weren’t,” Millie said in a distressed voice. “I think I’ve suspected that they were physically abused for a long time now.”
I stayed silent. My body tensed up, and I stopped packing, taking a seat on my bed.
I couldn’t tell Millie that her suspicions were correct.
Cole had shared the fact that he’d been abused in confidence.
Maybe he wasn’t ready to tell Millie the truth.
Maybe he’d never be ready to share something like that.
“The fact that you’re not saying anything is telling me everything I need to know,” Millie said in a sad tone.
“That’s something you’ll need to ask Cole about,” I answered softly.
“Someday, I will. Deep down, I think I always knew the truth, but if Cole and Asher wouldn’t tell their uncle the truth, there was just nothing we could do. My husband sent the child welfare people over to the ranch not long after Lorraine disappeared because he was worried about the boys, but nothing ever came of it. There was apparently no obvious evidence that there was abuse happening at the ranch.”
I frowned. Most likely their father had already threatened Cole and Asher to keep their mouth shut.
There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that Cole’s mother had been abused as well.
I suspected that she’d probably tried to stand up to her husband to help her boys, but that those actions had backfired.
“You and your husband did everything you possibly could,” I told my elderly friend in a soothing voice. “It happened a long time ago, Millie. Don’t let any of this get you upset. My goal in talking to you about this was to try to get Cole and Asher some closure. They really want to find their mom, but their search of the ranch hasn’t brought them any clues. It would mean a lot to them if they could put this to rest. They were extremely young, but they never believed she fled with some other guy.”
