"You look very handsome," she told him. "Like a successful young businessman."
Reece knelt beside Elizabeth, resting his big body on his haunches. "I owe you my life and my freedom, Lizzie. How does a guy repay someone for giving him so much?"
"You'll repay me by making your life count for something, by living well and being happy."
Reece gripped the metal armrest on her chair. He wanted to touch her, but couldn't bring himself to reach out and take her hand. He wasn't sure how she would accept the news that he planned to stay in Newell and claim his inheritance.
"Sam told me he's going to follow you back to Sequana Falls today." If only he could ask her to stay here in Newell with him. If only he could tell her what she wanted to hear. If only he could repay her for everything she'd done for him.
"My life is in Sequana Falls. Aunt Margaret. MacDatho. My business." She couldn't read his mind, but she knew that despite all he'd gone through and all he'd learned, Reece wasn't prepared to give up his lifelong dreams and start a new life with her.
"I don't suppose you'd consider staying on in Newell." He could offer her the world now, the whole world on a silver platter. Wealth, power, social position-all the things he'd been denied because of his illegitimate birth, all the things he'd dreamed of having for as long as he could remember.
Elizabeth willed herself not to cry; she had done too much crying lately. She laid her hand atop his on the armrest. "I wouldn't be happy in Newell. I don't think you will be, either, but you'll have to find that out for yourself."
"Ah, Lizzie, you mean so much to me." Taking her by the hands, he helped her to her feet, then pulled her into his arms. "I've never cared about anyone the way I care about you. You don't know how grateful I am that you came into my life when you did."
She laid her head on his chest. "I don't want your gratitude, Reece. I want your love."
He tensed, every muscle in his body going rigid. "I... uh... I'm not sure I know how to love anybody, especially someone as special as you."
Wrapping her arms around his waist, she hugged him. "There's an old saying, one I've heard Aunt Margaret quote. Something about all the love we come to know in life comes from the love we knew as children."
Reece kissed the top of her head, breathing in that sweet rose scent that would forever remind him of Elizabeth. "Well, that puts it in a nutshell, doesn't it? I don't know how to love because no one ever loved me."
"That's not true." Tilting her face, she gazed up into his amber eyes, those lone-wolf eyes that still proclaimed him an untamed animal. "Despite what you think, your mother loved you. You know she did."
"Yeah, well, maybe she did. In her own way."
"And now you have my love." She ran her fingertips across his jaw. "I love you."
Reece closed his eyes, shutting out Elizabeth's face, protecting himself from the glow of love that surrounded her. Damn, why couldn't he just tell her that he loved her? What made it so impossible?
He couldn't change his past. Not the circumstances of his birth, not B. K. Stanton's denial and rejection, not the years he and his mother had suffered at the hands of his sadistic stepfather. And no matter how much he wanted to be free from all the pain and auger and hatred inside him, he wasn't ready to forgive and forget. He had an inheritance to claim, a company to run, a sister he wanted in his life and a brother with whom he'd have to deal.
If Elizabeth would settle for the man he was, scarred and bitter and hungry for retribution, then he could offer her anything money could buy. He'd give her an engagement ring the size of a dime. He'd build her a mansion as big as the one Alice Stanton lived in.
"Thank you," Elizabeth said.
"For what?"
"For letting down your shield." The tears she had tried to control gathered in the corners of her eyes. "Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me."
He hadn't realized that he had opened himself up to her, allowing her to read his mind. "Stay here with me, Lizzie. Marry me. Teach me how to love."
"You're right, you know, Reece. You can't change the past. But you can let it go. You'll never be happy until you can do that."
Reece clasped her shoulders. "How do I do that? How do I let go of the past when the past has made me who I am? If I let go of the past, I won't have an identity."
"You'll always be Blanche and B.K.'s illegitimate son. You'll always be an outcast in the Stanton family, even if you own controlling interest in Stanton Industries. The only way you can ever let go of the past is to make peace with it, starting with the Stanton family."
"How the hell do you suggest I do that?" Reece ran his hands slowly up and down her arms. "Alice Stanton has every right to despise me. And Kenny hates my guts."
"They don't have to love you or even like you. They'll have to make their own peace with their lives."
"So what should I do, Lizzie?" He held her from him, his big hands shackling her wrists. "Should I walk away and let them have it all? Do you have any idea how much I wanted B.K. to acknowledge me as his son? Do you know how badly I wanted everything that belonged to Kenny?"
"I know, Reece. But are you sure, really sure, that what you once wanted so desperately is what will make you happy now?"
Reece dropped his hands, releasing Elizabeth. "I don't know. I don't know anything anymore. Give me some advice, Lizzie. Look into my future and tell me what you see. Are our futures still entwined?"
Yes, Reece, our futures are still entwined. I'm going to have your child. You'll always be a part of me. "Your future will be what you make it. You should stay here in Newell. Claim your inheritance. Make peace with the Stantons. And if you discover that you don't really want to take over Stanton Industries, then give that job to your sister and come live with me in Sequana Falls."
"Come live with-"
"I love you, Reece. I'll love you as long as I live. I've done all I can to help you, to save you from yourself. The rest is up to you. You have to stay here in Newell and come to terms with your past. When you've done that, and if you decide that you can love me, then come to me. I'll be waiting."
"Elizabeth?"
"You're free, Reece. Free from the past, if only you'll allow yourself to be. You're a man, not a child. You have choices to make. No one else can make those choices for you. You decide what you want from this life, and how much you're willing to give in order to get it."
Several loud, hard knocks sounded at the door, then Sam Dundee walked in, glancing back and forth from Elizabeth to Reece to Elizabeth.
"If we're going to get home in time for supper, we'd better be leaving." Sam picked up Elizabeth's bag. "O'Grady's taking Aunt Margaret and MacDatho up to the cabin, so they'll all be there to meet us."
Elizabeth leaned into Reece, circling his forearm with her hand. She kissed him on the cheek. "You take all the time you need to decide. We... I'll be in Sequana Falls."
Chapter 14
"You can't be serious," Kenny Stanton said. "Daddy would be appalled at the very idea of a woman running Stanton Industries."
"Well, Daddy isn't making the decisions." Rearing back in the tufted-leather chair behind B.K.'s desk, Reece placed his hands on his hips and glanced around his father's former office. "Chris and I own two-thirds of the stock in this little family company, and we agree that she's the most qualified person to sit behind the old man's desk and make the decisions that will keep bringing in profits for all of us."
Standing, Reece smiled at his sister, then motioned for her to sit in the chair he had just vacated. Chris, neatly attired in a dark green business suit, took the seat. Grasping the cushioned armrests, she gulped a deep breath of air, then glanced from Kenny's frowning face into Reece’s twinkling topaz eyes. Pressing her toe to the floor, she boosted the swivel chair into action, whirling it around and around as she laughed.
"Are you happy, Landry?" Kenny asked, his hound-dog cheeks flushed pink. "You send my mother to a rest home, you persuade my wife to divorce me and now you hand over my company to
my sister. You've taken your revenge on me, haven't you? Everything I've had, you've taken away from me."
"I haven't taken a damn thing away from you, big brother." Reece took a good look at Bradley Kenneth Stanton, Jr., and was amazed that he actually pitied the man whom he'd envied all his life. "Your mother had a nervous breakdown after Willard Moran confessed to killing B.K. I wasn't responsible for Alice's illness. If you're going to blame anyone, blame the man who loved her enough to kill for her."
Kenny glared at Reece. "Well, I can certainly blame you for taking Tracy away from me. You just couldn't leave her alone, could you? What did you do to persuade her to divorce me? Did you promise to marry her?"
"I didn't promise Tracy anything," Reece said. "She knows I'm not interested in her. All I did was drive her to the airport to catch a flight to Reno."
"Humph!" Kenny picked up his briefcase from the edge of B.K.'s desk. "I suppose if I had befriended you the way Chris did, you'd have handed the company over to me, but because I refused to accept you as my brother, you're willing to ruin the company our father spent his life building into a small empire."
Reece chuckled. God, why had he ever thought he wanted to be like Kenny? Why had he ever envied the man his life? Reece realized that he'd been blinded by the glitter of a world forbidden to him. Now that that world lay at his feet, he discovered he didn't want it as much as he'd thought he did.
"If you and I were like this-" Reece wrapped his index and middle fingers together "-I would still want Chris in charge of Stanton Industries. I didn't vote in her favor as an act of revenge against you. I did it because she's the best person for the job."
"I suppose you two think I'll just tuck my tail between my legs and crawl out of here," Kenny said.
"No one would ever think that." Chris whirled around one last time in her chair, then stuck out her foot under the desk to stop her spin. "There's a place at Stanton Industries for you, but it isn't in administration. It's in sales. You're the best salesman I know, Kenny. You inherited that from Mother. My goodness, we both know how persuasive she always was collecting thousands of dollars for her charities. You have that same special way with people."
"What position are you offering me?" Standing in front of his sister's desk, Kenny laid down his briefcase.
"You two work out an agreement suitable to both of you," Reece said. "If you need me for anything, you know where I'll be, Chris. And if you don't need me, then I'll see y'all at the next board meeting."
When he walked out the door, he heard Kenny ask Christina where Reece was going.
"He's going to find happiness," Chris said.
Elizabeth delved her glove-covered hands into the warm clumps of earth, crushing the small clods and sprinkling the soft dirt back to the ground. April showers were long overdue, forecast for tomorrow. She wanted to get the new plants set out so that they could soak up the rainwater that would nourish them.
Margaret McPhearson stood at the edge of the porch, shaking her head as she watched her niece. "Just look at you, Elizabeth Sequana. You're getting dirty, and after I persuaded you to fancy up a bit."
Elizabeth packed the earth around the last plant, then got up and removed her gloves, tossing them onto the steps. "I didn't get dirty. See." She held up her hands, then glanced down at the denim skirt and red silk blouse she wore. "But I can't just sit still waiting for Reece to arrive."
"I don't see why you can't sit down and take it easy. Just because you've been blessed with a total lack of morning sickness doesn't mean you shouldn't take good care of yourself." Margaret walked down the steps and out into the front yard.
"I almost wish you hadn't told me that Reece is coming here today. I've been waiting nearly six weeks. I'd begun to doubt he'd ever-"
"Nonsense. You knew, deep down here-" Margaret thumped her fist over her heart "-that he'd find his way back to you."
"I have to admit that I did try to contact him mentally a couple of times, to let him know that I loved him and I was waiting."
"Maybe you should have used the telephone instead of trying to break through that shield he keeps in place in his mind." Margaret put her arm around Elizabeth's shoulders. "It wasn't easy for me to break through, not at first, but in the last week or so.. .well, I'd say that, in time, you'll be able to read Reece Landry like a book."
"I wish I had the courage to let you tell me what sort of future you see for Reece and me." Elizabeth turned into her aunt's arms, hugging her.
Margaret patted her niece on the back, then stepped away from her, looking her squarely in the eye. "I wouldn't tell you, even if you asked. You've got the power. If you want to know, look for yourself."
When the front door of the cabin opened, MacDatho bounded outside, O'Grady following at a slower pace. "You 'bout ready to head for home, Margaret?" O'Grady asked.
"Not yet. I want to stay and meet this Landry fellow."
"Are you sure he's coming today?" O'Grady sat down in one of the large wooden rockers that Elizabeth had stationed across her front and back porches. "Seems he'd have called and let Elizabeth know he was coming."
"I'd say he assumes she already knows, which she does because I told her so." Holding on to the side railing, Margaret walked up the steps and sat in a rocker beside O'Grady. "She could've picked up on it herself if she wasn't so all-fired afraid that if she reads his mind, she'll discover he doesn't love her."
"Why don't you two go on home to Dover's Mill?" Elizabeth gazed up at them, the overhead noonday sun almost blinding her. "It may be April and a fairly warm day today, but that wind's chilly and I wouldn't want either of you catching cold."
"We're both healthy as horses," Margaret said. "Besides, we're not going anywhere till we meet your young man."
Elizabeth groaned, knowing when to admit defeat. She wasn't sure she would have gotten through the past six weeks without Aunt Margaret. Leaving Reece had been the most difficult thing she'd ever done, but it had been the right thing to do. If she had made things too easy for Reece, he might never have realized what was important in this life. He might have gone on wrapped up in the past and unable to give or accept love.
"He's coming up the road." Margaret stood, motioning for O'Grady to do the same. "You introduce us, Elizabeth, and then we'll be on our way. Now, you remember what I told you. You take him down to Mama's honeymoon cottage. I've got a surprise waiting there for y'all."
"All right," Elizabeth said. "If he stays, I'll take him to the cottage."
Elizabeth heard the approaching car, then turned to see a new, sleek, dark green Jeep Cherokee pull up and stop in front of the cabin. Reece Landry emerged, big and tall and incredibly handsome in his navy blue cotton slacks and his cream-colored pullover sweater.
"Lizzie." Reece stood at the side of the Jeep, taking in every inch of the woman who'd never been far from his mind these past six weeks. Everything he'd done to put his life together had been for her. And now, free at last from the emotions that had bound him to his past, he had come to her, hat in hand, so to speak, hoping she wouldn't send him away.
"Reece." Elizabeth had to restrain herself from running to him, but she would wait for him to come to her. Only a few feet separated them, but they were his distance to cross, not hers.
"So this is the infamous Reece Landry." Margaret McPhearson, her dimpled chin held high, the sun gleaming through the strands of her white hair, took hold of the railing and began walking down the steps.
"You must be Aunt Margaret." Reece looked at the old woman making her way slowly down the steps. An elderly man followed closely behind her.
MacDatho raced around the corner of the house, pouncing on Reece. Reece scratched his ears. "Hey, Mac, how are you, boy? Have you decided to be friends?"
Elizabeth didn't take her eyes off Reece. She felt her aunt's presence when Margaret walked over and stood beside her, O'Grady taking his place on her other side. "Aunt Margaret, O'Grady, this is Reece Landry."
"We already know that." Margaret waved
her hand in dismissal. "What I want to know is why it took you six weeks to get here?"
"I had a lot to settle back in Newell," Reece said.
"Have you got it all settled now?" Margaret asked.
"Yes, ma'am, I do."
"Thought so, but I wanted to make sure." Margaret held out her hand in front of Elizabeth, motioning for O'Grady. The old man stepped forward, took Margaret's hand and led her to the delivery van.
Elizabeth waved goodbye to her aunt and O'Grady as they drove off down the road, then she turned back to Reece. They stood staring at each other, neither moving an inch.
"I've missed you, Lizzie."
"I've missed you, too."
MacDatho sat down beside Elizabeth, always her faithful companion. Why doesn't Reece say something else? she wondered when the silence between them dragged on for endless moments.
"It's a bit chilly out here. Would you like to come in?" She wanted to scream at him, to demand that he tell her why he'd come. Was he here to stay or just for a visit? Had he come to her or had he come for her? Or was he here to say goodbye?
"Elizabeth?" Reece took a tentative step in her direction.
"Yes?"
"Am I too late?"
"Are you... What are you saying, Reece?"
"I'm saying that I know what I want. I know what will make me happy, and it isn't running Stanton Industries or living in Newell in a mansion or lording it over Kenny that our father left me an equal share of everything he owned."
"What will make you happy?" Elizabeth's heartbeat roared in her ears. This was the moment she'd been waiting for, the moment Reece would come to her, his past behind him.
"Spending the rest of my life with you, Lizzie, that's what would make me happy." He took several giant steps, lifted her off her feet and whirled her around in the air.
She squealed with delight, drowning in the joy of being in Reece's arms. He slid her down his body, depositing her feet on the ground. She lifted her arms around his neck, gazing up at him with all the love in her heart glowing in her blue eyes.
Lowering his head, Reece took her lips in a kiss that took her breath away. She clung to him, responding with equal fervor as he deepened the kiss. He ran his hands over her back, her arms, her waist, her hips. She grasped his shoulder with one hand while she threaded her fingers through his hair at his neckline.
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