Page 90 of Porter's Angel

Chapter Twenty-Nine

After leaving Cadence that afternoon, Porter was filled with the same unease that he felt when he knew that Nash was up to something.

Cadence was letting Lacy spook her. She promised that she wouldn’t do anything that she didn’t want to do. Well, she’d better not! He’d kissed her within an inch of her life to make sure that she didn’t forget that he was all in.

“I’ll find a way out of this.”He’d whispered the promises against her forehead, her cheeks, her lips.

The first thing that he did when he got home was to search out his father to confront him. The old rancher wasn’t picking up his phone. When Porter stormed through the front door, his momma looked up at him. She’d set up camp at the kitchen island where she made agonizingly slow progress cutting up carrots into small bits. It took her a little longer to prepare dinner nowadays, but she insisted. Her brows went up with that same look of exasperation that she’d fixed on him through all the years it took for him to grow up.

“Where have you been?” She waved her knife at him. “Your father has been looking all over for you.”

“Cadence… Angel…” He was too flustered for this conversation. “I was withher.”

His mother’s lips twisted in disapproval. “Which one were you with?”

Porter decided not to complicate the matter. “Angel,” he said finally.

“Oh!” His momma bit thoughtfully into her carrot. “She’s such a sweet girl, but… all night? What were you doing?”

Remembering the “Aunt’s” nasty accusations that they’d cast against Nash, he hurried to clear that suspicious glint in her eye. “Nothing you’d disapprove of. We had a good… talk and it just uh… lasted a long time.”

“Talk, huh?”

Was he actually flushing in front of his mother? Sometimes it was hard to remember that he was a grown man around her. He cleared his throat. “Everything was absolutely PG.” The thing was, he was going to marry Cadence if she’d have him, and the sooner, the better. He had no idea how quickly things could change from one week to another, but he was finding that he could barely stand the thought of being without her.

His mother gave a decisive nod. “Good. I want my sons to treat women with the respect that they deserve.”

Porter hoped that he did. The fact that Cadence was pregnant with another man’s child wasn’t a deal breaker for him, especially when he saw how she’d protected that child; it just complicated things. She’d gone up against him, even. He’d been blown away. It was like Nina going up against that bear to save her calf. Cadence had courage and loyalty in spades. That’s what he wanted in a woman. Her wings might’ve been tattered and broken by uncaring hands, but she was still the angel that he knew that she was.

His mother finished off the carrot more or less and slid the chunks that she’d diced into a salad bowl. “West is flying in tomorrow night,” she said offhandedly.

Porter’s chin shot up at the news. Worry gripped him, but now for different reasons. “How are you feeling?”

“It’s Charlie’s birthday party on Tuesday.” His momma kept her tone light. She did that when she was trying to make everyone around her happy. “Eight years old. He’s getting to be such a big boy.”

He’d forgotten about that. Porter had a lot on his mind lately, but now he braced for a confrontation with West, too. He’d always been the one to try to bring him back into the fold, but after what he’d done to Nash? Porter’s anger burned through his chest. Now that Porter knew how closely West worked with Lacy in these sleazy business deals, he wouldn’t be surprised if West had been the one to interest WhiteBoulder into buying up Harvest Ranch in the first place.

West’s interference was about to turn on them in a big way!

“You think you can get the patio in the rose garden done in time for the party on Tuesday?” Momma asked Porter. “Charlie loves my rose garden. I want to leave good memories for him while we can.”

While they could?

Porter’s heart twisted like pretzel dough, and now for different reasons. His father’s warnings from earlier in the week hadn’t left him. Was his momma’s health failing or did she know that they might lose their land? He couldn’t grill her for an answer. His old man had begged him not to put more stress on her than she could handle.

He nodded, but the simple request felt like a knife attacking his insides. It was all too much. The stress from the past few weeks gripped him in a stranglehold. He’d fight for everything that they had, but Cadence was right about their mounting debt. If they didn’t sell now, the Slades would just lose their property to the bank, then anyone could sweep it up for a song.

He’d rather die than let Lacy win, and that was nothing to what Cadence was going through. Her eyes had turned bleak when she’d handed him her phone.

That text message from Lacy had dripped with malice, and they’d kept coming until he’d blocked the number himself. The jerk was only trying to control her, like he’d done everything else. Porter had asked Cadence if she was okay.

She’d shaken her head, unable to speak.

For someone who could coax a smile out of anyone, her depressed mood crushed him. She cared about his mother so much. Cadence had better not try to play the martyr and give up everything because of it. West had already turned against them. Nash was balancing on the brink of disaster. Everyone was making bad decisions that affected his life and Porter had no control over any of it.

His frustration whipped him to action.

“Where’s Dad?” he asked his mother.