But finally, the waiters stepped in to help cut and set out the cake. While the bride and groom circulated through the guests, Gina handed out slice after slice, thanking person after person for coming to the wedding. The cake lineup finally ended with a good portion of the huge cake remaining.
After it was wheeled back to the kitchen, the MC announced the wedding couple was taking their leave from the main gangway. Everyone was invited to gather there and bid them farewell.
Gina hugged her mother and her new stepfather goodbye. The crowd cheered and waved them across the gangplank and into a waiting limousine that drove them off on their honeymoon. Many of the guests chose the moment to leave the party as well, crossing the gangplank in couples and groups, heading into their cars in the sprawling parking lot.
Gina moved to one side to keep herself out of the way, finding Ross and Charlotte with their son, Ben, balanced on her hip standing along the rail. “Have you seen Rafe?” she asked them.
“No,” Ross answered. “Why?”
She didn’t want to talk about the bridal bouquet debacle, or her fear that Rafe left the wedding reception hurt and angry. She settled on something straightforward. “He was my escort.”
“I can get you whatever you need,” Ross said.
“No, it’s not that—”
A figure suddenly loomed up in front of them, and Gina was stunned to recognize Billy Holmes. He was dressed like a guest in an impeccable suit, and she wondered just when he’d infiltrated the crowd. His black hair was unruly. His lips were drawn in a thin line. And there was an unmistakable glitter of hatred in his pale green eyes.
“Well, well, well,” he drawled. “My beloved sister and brother.”
Ross quickly urged Charlotte and Ben to leave and go back inside. But when he tried to do the same with Gina, Billy stopped him.
“Not so fast,” he said, menace in his tone.
Gina stilled, afraid of what Billy might do, wondering if he had become desperate. People were still streaming off the main gangplank. The party was breaking up, and Billy had obviously timed his appearance.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Ross growled in an undertone, shifting closer to Gina.
“Would I miss the big day?” Billy taunted, sounding chipper but brittle. “The big family day.”
Asher materialized on Gina’s other side. “This isn’t your family, Billy.”
Gina could sense the coiled tension in each of her two brothers. She knew they were sizing the other man up, deciding what they could do to subdue him.
“You sure got that right,” Billy barked back. “It should have been my family. By blood this is my family.” He raised his voice to the crowd. “Wedding’s over! Everyone off the ship. Only Edmonds allowed now. This—” he stared pointedly at Ross and then Gina, then Asher “—is a family matter.”
The guests looked over, some confused, some concerned. Mostly, they hurried more quickly over the gangplank.
As the crowd thinned to nothing, Ross and Asher shared a look. Their expressions said they were going to make a move against Billy.
“Uh-uh,” Billy chided, taking a step back. He patted the breast pocket of his jacket meaningfully. “You don’t want to see what I’m carrying under here. I came prepared.”
Gina’s blood turned to ice at the thought that Billy might be armed and mean them harm. She was grateful Charlotte and Ben were safely inside; presumably, so was Lani. She hoped they stayed far away from this confrontation.
“What do you want?” Ross asked Billy.
Gina was wondering the same thing. It was a risk for him to show his face. One or more of the guests might have recognized him and called the police. His picture had been plastered all over the Texas news for months now. She desperately hoped someone would think to alert the authorities.
Another person crossed the gangplank, boarding the yacht. With the glare of the parking lot lights in her eyes, it took Gina a moment to recognize Rusty.
“Dad?” she asked in astonishment. He should have been back in Royal.
“The gang’s all here,” Billy said with satisfaction as Rusty halted, taking them in.
“I came,” he said shortly to Billy. “Time for you to live up to your end.”
“What’s the hurry?” Billy asked, his voice laced with faux charm. “The party’s just getting started.”
“Where’s the money?” Rusty asked.
“You know your big mistake?” Billy bit out. “Thinking this was about the money. It was never about the money.”
“Then why’d you steal it?” Ross demanded.
“To hit you where it hurts!”
“In our bank account,” Asher said.
It didn’t make a whole lot of sense, since the Edmonds had plenty of money left.
“No,” Billy barked, taking a couple of quick paces to the side and then pacing back again.
Gina glanced around the deck and saw nobody else was left.
“You Edmonds,” Billy continued. “Always bigger than life, swaggering around town, looking down on the peasants.”
“Peasants?” Gina asked, baffled by the description.
“Give back the money,” Rusty said. “Like you promised. Return it all, and we can talk. We can approach the DA, work out a deal, make things right.”
“Simple as that?” Billy asked sarcastically.
“It can be. No guarantees.”
“You wouldn’t press charges?”
“No,” Rusty said.
“Why, pray tell, not?” Billy looked even angrier with Rusty now, and Gina couldn’t stop thinking about the gun he claimed to have in his pocket.
“You know why not,” her dad said quietly.
“Because I’m your son.” There was a sharp challenge in Billy’s voice.
“That’s right,” Rusty said.
Everyone, including Billy, looked shocked by the admission.
“It’s all there,” Rusty continued, sizing Billy up. “In your eyes, your voice, your determination and drive. You’re more like me than any of the rest.”
Gina, Ross and Asher all stared at their father in open astonishment.
“Dad?” Ross asked.
“Don’t you dare interrupt!” Billy’s anger swung to Ross. “He’s talking to me now, me, not you. You had everything. Russell Jr., the namesake, the eldest, the golden child. The heir apparent who got everything while I got nothing.” Billy glared at Asher. “Not even the family name. You got the family name, Asher. You just showed up with your mother, and Rusty took you right under his wing. You got the family name, the company, the money, the prestige and power. What did I get?” Billy’s anger seemed to increase by the minute.
“You’re not returning the money, are you?” Rusty took Billy’s attention back on himself.
“To save your hide?” he sneered. “To save the lot of you the pain and humiliation of being the town pariahs?”
“To save yourself a long jail sentence,” Ross said.
“It didn’t have to be like this.” Billy squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, sounding more and more unhinged. “I thought you’d take me in, give me my fair turn, treat me the way you treated your precious Ross, that upstart Asher, and your flawless princess Gina all those years while I was scrambling for pennies.”
Ross jumped in. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t I?” Billy challenged.
“He disowned me,” Ross pointed out.
Billy leaned toward Ross. “Welcome to the club.”
“He didn’t even know about you.”
Billy didn’t seem to hear Ross’s response. Instead, he gave a cold chuckle. “Taste of your own medicine, huh? You should know that was me.” He mimicked the sound of an explosion, dramatically spreading his fingers and pulling his hands apart. “Charlotte was like
a grenade with the pin pulled. That was a masterstroke, that was.”
“You sent Charlotte back to hurt Ross?” Gina’s fear was being replaced by anger now. “What is wrong with you?”
“But it was Dad who tried to drive us apart,” Ross said.
“I thought I’d have to work a lot harder,” Billy admitted, still sporting a chilling smile. “But you Edmonds were a domino line of dysfunction just waiting to fall.”
“I went to jail over this,” Asher said, his voice laced with anger.
“All part of the plot,” Billy stated with satisfaction. “Frame the interloper. Alienate the golden child.”
“I underestimated you,” Rusty told him.
“Damn straight you underestimated me.”
Rusty spoke again. “I was wrong, and I’m sorry.”
Gina had never in her life heard her father utter those words. It was beyond jarring that he’d used them with Billy of all people.
“You’re my son, Billy, my flesh and blood. You’re smart, driven, tenacious.” Rusty looked oddly proud of him. “I should have acknowledged you, welcomed you into the heart of our family.”
“The heart?” Gina asked with incredulity. If they were coming clean here, then she was coming clean, too.
The tone of her voice got everyone’s attention.
“There was no heart!” she cried out. “Like Billy just said, we’re a row of dysfunctional dominoes waiting to fall.” She pointed to her chest. “I’m a grown woman, an educated, intelligent woman. But I’m treated like a decoration, pampered with possessions but discounted, ignored, never given a chance to do anything or to be anyone. My world revolves around the male Edmond whims, smiling at business functions, chatting up company associates. Nobody ever asked me what I could contribute.”
Rusty’s jaw dropped slightly.
“I was bullied and undermined at every turn,” Ross said to Rusty. “You belittled me. You hurt the woman I loved. Then you threw me away when I didn’t fit your mold.”
Rusty jerked back, staring at them as if he’d been hit.
“You sat back and let them frame me,” Asher told him. “You had so little faith in me that you assumed I was a criminal on circumstantial evidence. You think Billy’s like you? Yeah, Billy’s like you. The rest of us are not.”
Rusty stared straight ahead for a moment, a haunted expression in his eyes. “I deserved that.”
“You’re a conniving man,” Ross said, clearly not finished yet. “In big ways and small, you schemed to make us what you wanted no matter what it did to our own lives.”
There was a long silence after that.
“I’m sorry to you all,” Rusty finally murmured, his voice so low and husky that Gina thought she’d misheard.
“I’m sorry,” he said more firmly. “You’re my children. You’re all I have, and I’m going to do better. And Billy—”
Rusty turned, and Gina looked to where Billy had been standing just moments ago.
The deck was empty, and they all stared in stupefied silence until an engine revved loudly in the parking lot below. A pair of tires screeched and a black sports car zigzagged toward the exit. It was obvious Billy was making a run for it.
“I don’t get it,” Gina said as the car sped away. “What did he want?”
“Acknowledgment?” Ross speculated. “Maybe he thinks he got it?”
“More like he knew he’d go to jail if he stayed,” Asher noted.
“He’s family,” Rusty said.
“You’re saying you’d help him get out of this?” Ross asked incredulously.
“I’d at least get him a good lawyer.”
“I don’t think he’s returning the money,” Gina observed, looking at the now-empty road.
“I hope it’s brought him some peace,” Rusty said sadly.
“He stole millions of dollars,” Asher reminded him.
“He wanted to be part of the family.”
“He went about it in the worst way possible.” Gina looked at her brothers and her father then, wondering what happened next.
Was Rusty’s apology to them a first step? Could they pull it together and salvage their family?
“We will,” Rusty seemed to understand her unspoken question. “This is my doing. It’s mine to fix, and I’m going to fix it.”
Gina immediately thought of Rafe. The rift with Rafe was hers to fix, and she was determined to make amends. He might not love her, but she was head over heels for him. She was going to make that clear as soon as she got back to Royal.
She was laying her cards on the table. The two of them didn’t have a business relationship. This wasn’t a fling or friends with benefits or any temporary euphemism someone wanted to give it.
Gina wanted a real relationship. She wanted to be Rafe’s significant other, the woman he spent his downtime with, plus family dinners, barbecues, everything other couples did together and more...
“I’m exhausted,” she said to her father and brothers, feeling impatient to get going. “I’m getting my things and heading home.”
* * *
Gina made her way toward the stern of the yacht where a little staircase would take her back to the captain’s cabin for her purse.
“Gina?” Rafe’s voice startled her as he stepped from the shadows.
She couldn’t believe it was him silhouetted against the deck lights. “Rafe?” But he was here, and her heart sang with joy.
“Hi,” he said, a hesitant expression on his face.
She took a step closer. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not.”
He canted his head back along the deck. “I overheard just now.”
“Billy?” she asked in surprise.
“I stuck close in case he tried something stupid.”
She shuddered. “I thought he had a gun.”
“He might have had a gun. He’s pretty desperate.”
“I know.” Her knees suddenly felt weak in reaction.
Rafe seemed to sense it and stepped forward, reaching out to her.
She gripped his forearms for support.
“I knew you struggled with your father,” he said, searching her expression. “But I had no idea of all that you’d been through.”
“It’s not going to continue,” she told him.
“It seemed like you cleared the air.”
“I have ideas, and I’m pushing them forward.”
“Good for you.” His smile seemed sad, and she remembered how they’d left things after the bouquet toss.
Her shoulders drooped. “Back there. Inside, I mean. I...I didn’t mean for you to think...”
Rafe shifted closer. “Think what?”
“That you were nobody to me. That you were a business associate or a friend or something run-of-the-mill like that.”
“Ross and Asher think I’m after your money.”
The statement shocked her to silence.
“You know I’m not after your money, right?” Rafe asked, an earnest expression in his eyes.
She was baffled by the question. “I keep trying to give you my money, and you keep turning it down.”
He chuckled in what seemed like relief.
“And the chamber fund,” she continued. “That was a lot of money you turned down.”
“I don’t want your money.”
“I know.”
“I won’t take it.”
“Okay.” She didn’t know why he was pressing the point.
“You should write up an iron-clad prenup so you and your brothers, your father, and anyone else who cares will know that I am definitely not after a single penny of Edmond money.”
Gina’s mind stuck on the word prenup. She swallowed. “A what?”
He eased her closer and s
moothed her hair. “When I walked away from you, I was hurt and angry. But then I got lonely, and then I got scared. Scared that I’d never see you again, never hold you again, never make love with you again. After that, I got determined.”
Was he working his way up to the part about a prenup?
She couldn’t tell. “Rafe, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I’m determined to stay with you forever. I love you, Gina. And I hope you love me back, because I don’t ever want to feel that kind of loneliness again.”
Joy rushed through her, making her sway with relief. “I love you,” she whispered through her clogged throat.
Rafe instantly wrapped his arms around her, holding her flush against his strength.
“There’s not a lot open on the boardwalk this time of night,” he whispered in her ear. “But I did manage to find this.”
He reached into his pocket and produced a little box.
Gina drew back to look, her heart skipping a beat as he opened the box to reveal a stylized platinum band inset with a small sapphire, an emerald and a diamond.
“We can get something nicer,” he said. “Design whatever we want. But I was in a hurry to seal the deal.”
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered. She absolutely loved it.
“Will you marry me, Gina?”
“Yes.” She nodded, her eyes going misty. “Yes! I love you, Rafe. I love you so much.”
Epilogue
Gina’s wedding was a far cry from her mother’s yacht-board gala and completely different from the frothy extravaganzas she’d imagined as a little girl.
Her decoration was the fall foliage, bright on the trees at the Cortez-Williams Ranch. The air was comfortably cool midafternoon. The guests seated on folding chairs in the backyard were family and close friends, many long-standing members of the TCC.
She waited with her father on the back porch of the ranch house while bridesmaids Valencia and Anastasia walked over the cobblestoned pool deck toward the makeshift aisle. Rusty was all smiles dressed in his finest tux. His shave was close, his hair neatly trimmed as music from Diego’s scaled-down acoustic band wafted on the breeze.
Rusty looked more at peace than Gina had ever seen him.
Bidding on a Texan Page 17