Read Online Outlaw Cowboy by Nicole Helm - Free Book Online

to it, met Dad’s gaze as best he could without demanding to know what the hell he’d been laughing at.
    It was a painful exercise of futility on a normal day, sitting through any attempts at reaching Dad. Today, Caleb knew he had been reached, and the perpetrator was hiding upstairs doing who knew what in his room. It was like filling his insides with sandpaper and flame, and he didn’t know how to fix it.
    He wanted to yell. He wanted to pound something to dust. He wanted to drink. Instead, he sat clutching his knee and trying to find some way to breathe, until finally, finally Mel and Dan got up to leave.
    Caleb would have preferred to have left it at that, but it had become habit to walk them out.
    They all—barring Dad of course—went to the mudroom and began to pull on their boots.
    â€œWhy don’t you go start the truck?” Mel said way too brightly to her husband as he pulled on his jacket.
    â€œWhy don’t you come up with a better excuse, honey?” Dan muttered before dropping a kiss on Mel’s temple and then exiting the house.
    Mel turned to Caleb, any false brightness completely gone. She reached out and touched his arm, worry all over her face. He’d been on the end of that look so many times, and it never got any easier.
    He’d never found a way to make it go away completely. Never found a way to be the kind of man who wouldn’t cause trouble and worry and pain everywhere he went.
    â€œIs everything all right?”
    â€œYeah. Why wouldn’t it be?” Because he sure as hell had learned how to pretend, if nothing else.
    â€œYou both seemed tense.” She squeezed his forearm. “You’d tell me if something was going on? That was the deal, right? We tell each other what’s going on, when we need help? You prom—”
    â€œIt’s nothing. I swear.” Her face fell, so he clutched her arm the same way she was clutching him. “Mel, I swear to you. There is nothing wrong.” Nothing that pertained to Mel or Shaw, exactly. So, it wasn’t a lie. “I was giving Dad a hard time about Summer. Maybe he’s feeling some guilt. I don’t know. But it isn’t anything you can swoop in and fix.”
    Mel blew out a breath, ruffling her hair. She was always so quick to take on the responsibilities of this family. Was it because she knew he couldn’t handle it? Or just innate Mel-ness?
    He wanted to believe it was the latter, but somehow he always wound up thinking it was the first.
    â€œMaybe we should try for a dinner again. With Dad and Summer and—”
    â€œI’ll run it by Summer. Now, don’t you have llamas to herd or whatever?”
    Her smile—so much easier these days—lit up her whole face. “I can’t wait for the day some woman with bizarre animals changes your whole life.”
    â€œHa! Pretty sure I’m allergic to llamas.”
    â€œSquirrels then. Maybe a raccoon?”
    â€œA wolf would be more my style.”
    She rolled her eyes. “You wish. Call if you need anything. If anything changes. Got it?”
    â€œYes, ma’am,” he drawled, the teasing managing to relax the iron tenseness inside of him the minutest degree.
    If Mel could find love and comfort…well, there was something the world could do right. In spite of him, in spite of Dad. In spite of evil and ghosts and women with fuck-you smiles and revenge on the brain.
    Then Mel left and Caleb sighed. It was time to face some rather unpleasant music. Not the least of which was Delia in his room, unsupervised.
    After making Dad laugh.
    The anger was back. Maybe it was never really gone. Maybe it was in his blood constantly moving, every once in a while getting lodged behind a good moment, but always breaking free.
    â€œI didn’t teach you to treat a woman that way.”
    Caleb tensed at his father’s voice, but he took a page out of Delia’s book and didn’t turn.