by Eve Gaddy
Jed shook his head. “Not until last night. When Will came to tell me the charges had been dropped.”
“And you, Will. How long have you known?”
“Not much longer than Jed. Let me tell you the whole story.” So Will told her, glossing over some of the worst parts in the hope she’d never have to know the full extent of her father’s perfidy. Absorbing it fact by fact, she didn’t talk much, only asking a question now and then. Riley sat with his arm around her, also interjecting a sharp question or two. When Will finished, a prolonged silence fell.
“I can’t believe this,” Emmy finally said. “I wanted to know who I came from, but I never expected . . . this. My father is Ray Jennings. And he killed Mom Fran.” She choked. Tears welled in her eyes, then trickled down her cheeks. Turning into Riley’s shoulder, she threw her arms around his neck and sobbed.
Will and Jed exchanged helpless glances and listened to her cry. Finally Emmy sat up, wiping her eyes. Jed handed her a handkerchief and she gave him a wan smile.
“It’s not all bad,” he said gently. “You know who your mother was now, too. And you know she loved you and wanted you.”
“And this time, Joleen is going to give us some answers,” Riley said grimly. “It’s the least she can do after all her lies.”
“I think Joleen will be happy to share what she knows about your mother now, Emmy. She really regrets keeping it from you.” Will ached for her, but he didn’t know what to say to comfort her.
Emmy gave a hollow laugh. “I guess I should be grateful my mother didn’t hate me. Unlike my father.” She was silent a moment, then burst out, “He hated me. I bet he wanted her to have an abortion. Didn’t he? Didn’t he, Will?”
Damn it, why was he always the one who had to hurt people? Why did he have to tell Emmy something that would only cause her pain?
“Tell her the truth,” Riley said. “She deserves to know the whole truth.”
“Don’t make me spend my life wondering,” Emmy said. “Just tell me.”
His job, his responsibility, Will thought. He told her the truth, as gently as he could. “Ray thought your mother had had an abortion. That’s why Frannie’s finding out and confronting him about you was such a shock. Remember, he said he was trying to reason with her and things got out of hand. He says Frannie died accidentally, that he never intended to kill her.”
“What do you think?” Emmy asked.
“It’s possible. But I think that’s for the jury to decide. Even if it’s true, and it was an accident, that doesn’t make up for his hiding her and letting Jed take the blame for her death. Or anything else he’s done.” Such as denying his daughter’s existence.
“And that’s who I came from. A murderer.”
“You also came from your mother, who loved you,” Will said. “Don’t forget that.”
“Oh, how can you understa—” She broke off, her gaze locking with his. “You do understand, don’t you? You and Jed both.”
Will nodded. “I’ll never know who my father was. And my mother, well, she was a pretty sorry excuse for a mother. Nobody would want to claim her. But it doesn’t have to rule your life, Emmy. Only if you let it.”
Jed squatted in front of her, taking her hands between his. “My father was no prize, either. But he didn’t do anything more for me than contribute some genes. He didn’t make me who I am. And neither did your father make you who you are.”
“I don’t know what to think. What to say. I’m stunned. I never expected this.”
Jed released her hands and rose. “We’re all here for you, Emmy. Gwyn and I, and Will, too. Whenever you want to talk, whatever we can do, just say the word.”
“Emmy,” Riley said, “you’re still the same person you were before you knew. Don’t forget that.”
She smiled at her husband ruefully. “So it makes no difference to you? To know your wife has a murderer’s blood running through her veins?”
“Not one bit of difference.” He smiled back lovingly. “I love you, Emmy. I always will.” She went into his arms and he held her tightly.
Swept by conflicting emotions, Will looked away. Emmy would be all right, he thought, especially with Riley beside her. But seeing that unconditional love made him think about losing Tessa. And wonder if there was any way they could be together. To have a chance at what Emmy and Riley, and Jed and Gwyn had.
There had to be a way he and Tessa could be together. Some way, somehow. He just had to find it.
IN THE END it was simple, Will thought. He could spend his life wishing he hadn’t let Tessa go, or he could find a compromise they could both live with. So what if he didn’t know anything about compromising? He could learn.
Of course, first he had to find her. She wasn’t at the college or the Caddo burial site. Her friend Ellen hadn’t seen her, and neither had anyone at Bubba’s or the Caddo Kitchen. Finally he went to her house and waited there. Though he had a key, he didn’t use it, waiting instead on the porch. And since Goofy was barking nonstop, he let the dog out of the backyard and brought him around front.
He sat on the swing, Goofy lying in blissful abandon at his feet. The dog would never be a beauty, but something about those adoring brown eyes really got to him. He still couldn’t see Tessa leaving him behind, but he knew he’d offer to take him—and the damn cat, too. Pepe, he had a feeling, wouldn’t make life easy for him.
He heard the car a half mile away. Choking and sputtering, the ancient Subaru wagon pulled into her driveway. Tessa got out and started toward him, but he couldn’t read her expression. She wore one of those sleeveless summer dresses she liked so much. This one was white, which gave her fair skin a luminous glow, and made her red hair that much brighter. She looked beautiful, he thought, and wondered how long it had been since he looked at Tessa and merely thought her pretty.
Goofy ran to meet her, but to Will’s surprise, the dog didn’t jump on her. She must have been training him.
She stopped a couple of feet in front of him. “I’ve been looking for you. I came back here to call you.”
“Yeah, I’ve been looking for you, too. We have to talk,” he said. He wanted to kiss her, and knew he shouldn’t. He didn’t know how she’d react. Instead, he waved a hand at the porch swing, and she sat beside him, smoothing her dress down.
“I know,” she said. “I have some things I need to tell you.”
Focused on what he wanted to say to her, he didn’t really hear her. Now that the moment had arrived, he felt a flash of insecurity. What if she didn’t really want him with her? What if the job was just an excuse, and she didn’t love him as much as he’d thought? Well, he’d know soon enough.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she said. “I’ve missed you.”
Will plunged right in. “I hate being without you. I thought I’d get used to it, thought I could deal with it, but I realized I don’t want to. It doesn’t matter what I have to do, it will be worth it if we can be together.”
“Will, that’s what I wanted—”
“No, let me finish. I have some things I need to get off my chest.” She seemed about to speak, but then she nodded. Will propped his forearms on his knees. “I told Emmy this morning. About her father.”
“How did she take it?”
“About like you’d expect. It was rough. She’s going to have a hard time, but she’ll be all right. She’s got a lot of support from her family. Riley and Alanna. Jed and Gwyn.”
“And you.”
“Yeah. And me. Emmy and Jed want me to . . . They say we’re family.”
She laid a hand over his and squeezed. “I’m so glad for you, Will. I hoped the three of you would work things out. You deserve it.”
“I don’t know about that, but I do know I’m happy to have them back in my life.” He turned his hand over to hold hers. “But se
eing them together, Emmy and Riley and Jed and Gwyn, seeing how they’ve handled all the crap that’s been happening, has made me realize a few things.” He looked at her then, gazing into those beautiful blue eyes. “I want to be with you, Tessa, and I don’t care what I have to do. You were right. You have just as much right to ask me to give up my career as I do to ask you to give up yours.”
Her mouth fell open. She closed it and asked, “What are you saying?”
“I’ll go with you. To China. Or wherever you think you need to go.”
“What? Will, are you crazy? You can’t give up your work.”
“Why not?” he asked quietly. “I asked you to do it. Why shouldn’t you ask me the same thing?”
“But—but what would you do? In China?”
“Security or something.” He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, I’d find something. I could be a hell of a security consultant for some of those big digs.”
“I can’t believe you’d give up your job for me. Your career.” She pulled her hands loose and parked them on her hips, glaring at him. “Have you lost your mind? You love your career. It’s everything to you.”
“No, not anymore. You’re everything to me.”
Her gaze softened. “What about being so sure I was making a mistake? You’re willing to give up your career so I can make a mistake?”
“Who am I to say it’s a mistake? I kept saying you were letting your mother make your decisions, and that you were making a mistake to let her run your life. And here I was trying to do the same thing.”
“No, you weren’t. You were just trying to get me to see things clearly.”
“Yeah, but I wanted you to see things the way I saw them. And it isn’t my decision, or my career. It has to be yours. As for it being a mistake—” He paused, trying to think how to present his thoughts. “I wasn’t thinking of joining you right away. I thought—if you stay in China for several months, you’ll know whether it’s a mistake, won’t you?” She didn’t answer and he rushed on. “If you decide that’s what you want, then obviously, I was wrong. I’ll quit the Rangers then, and come over there to be with you.”
She grasped his hand and squeezed. “I can’t have you giving up a career you love for me. You’d resent me after two weeks. If not before. And I wouldn’t blame you.”
He stared at her for a long time before he released her hand and stood. “You’re trying to let me down easy. You don’t want me with you, do you? Just tell me the truth, Tessa, and I’ll leave you alone. Don’t drag it out.”
She jumped up and threw her arms around his neck. “I don’t want you with me in China. Oh, Will, I can’t believe you’d do something so crazy for me.”
“It’s not crazy. If you want to be with me. But since you don’t . . .”
She drew back and smiled, a dazzling smile of happiness. “Who said I didn’t want you? I want you right here in Uncertain.”
Cheeks flushed, eyes bright, she looked like a kid on Christmas morning. “What the hell does that mean?”
“It’s what I was coming to tell you. I accepted the job here.”
“You—you did what?” His hold on her loosened, but she only held on tighter.
“I took the job here. The professorship at CLC. Today.”
“Because of me.” He frowned. “That’s not what I wanted, either. Then you’ll resent me, and I won’t do that to you.”
“No, I took the job because of me. I asked myself what I would do if I could do anything I wanted. If I could have any career I wanted. And in my heart, I knew I wanted to teach.”
He couldn’t quite buy it, much as he wanted to. “What about China?”
“I finally admitted that China is the last place I want to go. Or anywhere else. I’m tired of traveling. I’ve been doing it since I was twelve, and haven’t ever enjoyed it. The thought of living in China for two or three years makes me shudder. But the thought of staying here, researching the Caddo Indians as much as I want, teaching, being with you . . . Oh, all those things make me want to sing. What’s the point of doing something you hate the rest of your life?” She laughed. “Someone very wise asked me that today. I had to admit he was right.”
“You’re serious. You’ve thought this through.”
“Not only thought it through, but acted on it. I told you, I accepted the teaching position. I also told my mother to forget China. I told her I was staying here.”
“Bet she was happy about that.” Oh, man, she’d probably take after him with a machete.
“She took it better than I’d expected. But that’s not important. What’s important is what you and I want. And I want you, Will. So much.”
He still couldn’t believe she’d changed her mind. Couldn’t believe he wasn’t dreaming. “You’re sure?”
She pulled his head down and kissed him. A kiss brimming with love and happiness. “Positive,” she murmured against his lips.
Will gathered her to him and took the kiss deeper. Long moments later he came up for air, aware that her front porch wasn’t the most private of places. “I want to make love to you. Right now.”
She smiled, taking his hand to draw him inside. Goofy rushed past them, and Tessa shut the door, backing Will up against it.
He raised an eyebrow. “You look like a woman with a purpose in mind.”
“Oh, I am. I’m in charge this time. And I’m seducing you.”
“Yeah?” Smiling, he reached for her. “Is that a threat or a promise?”
“A promise,” she said.
The look that accompanied her words raised his blood pressure skyhigh. “I can live with that.”
“Good, because you’re going to have to.” She kissed him, plunging her tongue into his mouth.
He returned the kiss, sliding his hands beneath her dress, pulling it up, and finding nothing underneath but the incredibly soft, bare skin of her bottom. He couldn’t help a heartfelt groan as his body instantly hardened. “You don’t believe in wasting time, do you?”
“Don’t you think we’ve wasted enough time?”
“Yeah. Way too much.”
Her smile was wide and sweet. “I love you, Will. I guess I should have said that first thing.”
“As long as you say it, and keep saying it for the rest of our lives. I love you, Tessa.” He kissed her, long and deeply.
And Tessa made good on her promise.
Epilogue
One week later
WILL HADN’T BEEN SURE what to expect from Frannie’s memorial service, but he was glad they had it. It had given him a sense of closure, and he expected it had done the same for Jed and Emmy.
From the French doors of Jed’s morning room, he watched Alanna wielding a croquet mallet on the lawn. June’s husband, Josiah, was out there with her, looking a little dazed by her energy. The little girl was a female version of Riley.
They had all returned to Beaumarais after the memorial service, and people had been dropping by all afternoon to pay their respects. Jed was just now taking leave of one of the last, lingering guests, while Will and Tessa talked with Gwyn.
“I hadn’t realized how many people knew Frannie,” Will said. “I think all of Uncertain showed up at the graveside service.”
“A lot of them came for Jed and Emmy and you,” Gwyn said.
Emmy came over to them just then. “Have you seen Alanna?”
“She’s out on the lawn, and I can’t swear to it, but it looks like she’s hitting a croquet ball,” Tessa said, looking out the French doors. “In fact, I think she’s hitting it this way.”
“Last I saw, she was swinging the mallet like a baseball bat,” Will added.
Emmy paled. “Wooden balls? With all this glass? Oh, no, I’d better go out there and—” Her words were interrupted by the sound of glass shattering. “Stop her
,” Emmy finished with an exasperated sigh.
Riley came up behind her. “No, you stay here. I’ll handle it. I told Gwyn it probably wasn’t a good idea, but it was too late. Once Alanna heard about croquet—” He shrugged. “She wasn’t supposed to face the house, but . . .”
“. . . she didn’t mean to,” he and Emmy both finished and laughed. “I hope Jed will forgive us.”
“Forgive you what?” Jed asked, returning to the morning room just then.
“I’m afraid Alanna had a little accident,” Emmy said guiltily, motioning out the window. “Croquet balls and my daughter don’t mix with all this glass,” she murmured.
Jed smiled. “Glass can be replaced. Don’t worry about it.” He peered outside, as well. “Looks like she got the greenhouse, anyway. June and Josiah are dealing with it. They’ve got four kids of their own, so don’t worry about leaving Alanna with them, either. Don’t go, Riley. Gwyn and I have something we’d like to share with all of you.”
Will looked at him curiously, waiting for him to go on.
“This seemed like an appropriate time, after Frannie’s memorial,” Jed said, putting his arm around Gwyn. “Because it’s something I want to share with the family I wouldn’t have if not for Frannie.”
“Don’t keep us in suspense, Jed,” Emmy said. “What is it?”
“I’m getting to it, Emmy.” He turned to his wife and smiled before speaking to the rest of them. “I don’t think this is out of place, because this is news Frannie would have rejoiced in, too. Gwyn and I are having a baby.”
“How wonderful!” Emmy said, and promptly threw her arms around both of them.
Will shook hands with Jed and kissed Gwyn on the cheek. “That’s great news. Jed will be a terrific father, you know.”
“I know,” she said, smiling mistily.
“I have a feeling you’ll be a terrific mother, too.”
“Thanks, Will.” She smiled and accepted a hug from Tessa. Tessa approached Jed much more gingerly, but Will was glad to see him accept her congratulations with no strain. Tessa had told him she was still afraid Jed didn’t like her, but Will thought he’d forgiven her for taking him to court long ago.