Branded as Trouble by Delores Fossen

Author:Delores Fossen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HQN Books
Published: 2017-07-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

MILA WAS TOO stunned to speak. Considering what she’d just been babbling on about, that wasn’t a bad thing. God, had she really just spilled the beans about her father?

Apparently so.

And she’d done it on the very day she should be talking about nothing but Sophie and the birth of her precious babies.

“Told you,” Belle mumbled to her.

It didn’t take long for Mila to make the connection between Valerie and the wrong woman prediction from Vita. A connection Mila dismissed as she did most of what Vita said. Normally, Belle and others dismissed it, too, so Mila wasn’t sure why Roman’s mother had latched on to this particular prediction as if it were a nugget of gold.

No reason except that it had seemingly come true.

“My mom came,” Tate said, smiling. No, not just smiling. Beaming. “She came.”

Mila wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him this happy, but he was the only one in the waiting room who apparently felt that way. One by one, they each stood and pinned their attention to her cousin.

It’d been years since Mila had seen Valerie, and yet the woman hadn’t aged a day. In fact, she looked younger. Her hair was blond now with copper and purple highlights, and she had it gathered in a bohemian-supermodel kind of ponytail. Even her tie-dyed shirt and jeans managed to look catwalk-ready.

“Of course I came,” Valerie said as if there’d never been any doubt she would. There had been plenty. “I wouldn’t miss seeing my boy, but when I got to the ranch, one of the hands told me you were here, that Sophie was having her baby. So, do you have a boy cousin or a girl cousin?”

“Both,” Tate proudly announced. He continued to keep his arms around Valerie as she came closer to them.

“Belle,” Valerie greeted her. She said her name as if she were the mother-in-law Valerie was so glad she didn’t have. She didn’t mention a word about Belle wearing a ball gown. “Billy Lee. Mila.” She barely spared her a glance and practically ran her name together with Billy Lee’s. “Garrett. And this must be your fiancée, Nicky. The ranch hand mentioned her, too. Congrats on your engagement.”

Garrett and Nicky were still mumbling a thanks when Valerie shifted her attention to Roman. “Still good-looking as ever. Did you know your daddy swept me off my feet when I wasn’t much older than you?” she asked Tate.

Tate shook his head. Probably because he knew very little about his mother. That’s because there was little that Roman and Mila could have told him about her that wasn’t bad.

Mila hoped her cousin had changed for the better. And if she hadn’t changed, maybe Valerie wouldn’t do any harm while she was here. Which brought Mila to her next question.

Just how long would Valerie be staying?

Considering the way Tate had latched on to her, he didn’t ever want her to leave, but Valerie might have a different notion about that.

Or not.

That was a hungry smile she aimed at Roman.

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