“What will are we talking about?”
“My father’s, of course.” She shifted in her chair. “Oh, don’t pretend that you don’t
understand, Kyle. You were the executor, you certainly know what’s in the will. If you aren’t able to produce Robbie in court next year, you have to turn over Daddy’s estate to charity, because the ten years is up. Remember?”
He was suddenly very still. “I’d forgotten.”
“Please, Kyle, I’m not dumb. Nobody forgets things like that. I know you married me so you could have Daddy’s business. And I know if I’d stayed till Robbie was born you’d have kept him and kicked me out then. It’s no different now — just nine years later, that’s all.”
He wheeled the chair around again and pulled open the bottom drawer of an oak filing
cabinet.
“If you’re looking for the will, you used to keep a copy in the third drawer down, left side of your desk,” Layne offered helpfully.
He ignored her, but a moment later he tossed a thick document across the desk into her lap.
“I think you’d better read that. It was filed with the courts not long after you left.”
Layne glanced at the cover page, picking up words here and there. Robert Baxter Estate...
Kyle Emerson, Executor... Petition of Bankruptcy...
She looked up at him, horrified. “Bankruptcy?” she breathed.
“When Lucky died, Layne, he didn’t have a nickel that wasn’t borrowed from someone.
The only thing he accomplished with that elaborate — stupid — will was to make me morally responsible for his debts. They were paid, by the way. Every last penny of them.”
She was stunned. “I... I never suspected...”
“No one did. He had been sailing in dangerous water for a long time, and he’d always
pulled himself through. That time, his luck ran out.” There was a long silence. “So you read the will, and thought — what did you think?”
She covered her face with her hands.
His voice was relentless. “If you wanted to know about the will—” he mimicked her earlier question, “why didn’t you ask me?”
She remained silent.
“I loved you, Layne,” he said finally. “I knew I was taking a chance when I married you.
You were a child; there was no guarantee what you thought was love wasn’t just an infatuation.
But I was certain I could make you love me. I had a pretty high opinion of myself, didn’t I?”
“If I’d stayed...” she breathed. She heard him walk across the room, but she couldn’t raise her head to look at him.
He turned at the door. “But you left, Layne.” His voice was heavy with exhaustion. “Take the car; it’s yours. If you want to check into a hotel, charge it to me. Let me know where to send your clothes.”
“You said I was just a child.” Her voice was taut with strain. “Am I to be punished forever for a mistake I made when I was seventeen years old?”
There was a long pause, then the door clicked shut. Layne started to cry, the frightened wails of a child who has just seen her world ending. She had played her last card, pleaded her last plea, and he had walked out.
Then his voice cut through her sobs. “Why do you want to stay here at Wheatlands?”
She held her breath, unsure for a moment that she had really heard him. She turned slowly, afraid that if she moved too suddenly he would disappear, like the illusion she was almost afraid he was.
“Because of Robbie?” His voice was harsh. His back was against the door, his arms folded across his chest. He looked forbidding, but there was something in his expression that compelled her to tell the truth.
“Because of you.” Her voice was little more than a whisper. “If I have the choice, I won’t leave again, because I still love you, Kyle.”
He didn’t move. Finally he said, “You cried last night when I made love to you.”
“Was that why you were so cold this morning?” she asked carefully. It was hard to breathe.
“It does wonders for a man’s ego when the woman in his bed bursts into tears.” His words were heavy with sarcasm.
“Perhaps if it upsets him he should ask her why she cried,” Layne said gently. “Sometimes I cry when I’m happy, when things are back as they should be.”
She didn’t get a chance to say more. He pulled her out of her chair and into his arms, and for a few minutes Layne wasn’t able to think, much less to talk.
“Do you mean it, Layne?” he asked finally.
“That I love you? That I have always loved you? I don’t know how to prove it to you.”
“I always wondered, you know, if you cared about me or if you just liked the idea of being in love. You were so young, and you hadn’t known many men to choose from. I didn’t let you have a choice.”
Layne smiled. “That’s a mild way to put it.”
“I wanted you so badly, and I was afraid to wait for you to grow up. Someone else might have come along.” He was tracing her features with his fingertips, his touch feather-light against her skin.
“There is no one else.”
“I thought you left me because you needed to grow up and get that experience. And all
those years, I hoped that the next time I came home, you’d be here.”
“I did need that time, Kyle. Those years on my own were good for me.” Layne pushed a
lock of hair back from his temple. The silver threads hadn’t been there all those years ago. The years had taken their toll.
“I had stopped hoping. Then Robbie called me that day at the office.” He held her a little way from him, his hands tight on her shoulders. “God, I was angry, Layne. You had no right to keep my son away from me, no matter whether you wanted to live with me or not.”
“You’re right,” Layne murmured.
“So I decided to punish you, and I insisted that you come back to Wheatlands with him.”
He studied her for a moment and said thoughtfully, “The little girl I married would have been jelly in thirty seconds. But you had changed, Layne. Nothing upset you.”
She felt tears pooling in her eyes, and put her head down on his shoulder.
“You didn’t even react to Jessica when I kept throwing her in front of you. I finally had to admit that I didn’t matter a damn to you anymore, that the only thing that did matter was Robbie.
No matter what I did, you just smiled and went serenely on, waiting for Labor Day so you could escape.”
“I wasn’t very serene inside, Kyle.”
His arms tightened around her till she could hardly breathe. Layne would have protested, except that it felt so good to be in his arms. “When I came home from Minneapolis that day, and you were waiting at the airport, I finally realized how much I wanted you to be waiting for me every time. I might have set out to punish you, but I had fallen in love all over again — with the woman you had become.”
Layne remembered that passionate lover’s kiss at the airport, and smiled. “I couldn’t
understand why you’d changed so suddenly. I thought it was just a new way to get even with me.”
“Then when you continued to reject me, I knew I couldn’t stand to have you here. Those years without you were hell, Layne, but it was worse to watch you every day and know that you preferred that awful couch to sharing my bed — that if it hadn’t been for Robbie, you would never willingly have seen me again. And that so-called man you were dating...” He shook his head. “It really hurt to find that you preferred him to me.”
“I wouldn’t have married him. That was a habit, and as soon as I saw you again I knew I couldn’t ever be happy with Gary.”
He let her go and cupped her face in his hands, tipping it up so he could look into her eyes.
“Can you be happy with me? Layne, are you doing this for Robbie?”
“Yes, I can be happy. And no, it’s not because of Robbie.” The words were simple and
plain and
direct, filled with every ounce of honesty she could summon. Whatever he saw in the depths of her eyes convinced him, and with a groan he pulled her back into his arms.
It was several minutes later before Layne regained the presence of mind to ask, “How did Jessica know everything that was in that will, Kyle? Did you tell her?”
“So it was Jessica.”
“Of course it was.” She let her fingers creep through his hair, delighting in the freedom to touch him again. “She still wants you for herself, you know.”
“I never talked to Jessica about your father’s business. But I did ask her husband’s advice about bankruptcy. He was an excellent attorney, even if he didn’t show very good judgment when he married Jessica.”
“Oh.” Layne relaxed. “She told me...”
“I can imagine what she turned it into. And I don’t care. The next time I see Jessica I will tell her not to come to Wheatlands again unless she has an engraved invitation.”
“That’s not nice, Kyle. You did encourage her, you know.”
“A lot of good it did me. You didn’t care, and all I got out of it was several boring evenings with Jessica.”
“You deserved every minute of it.” Layne rubbed her cheek gently against his shoulder.
“Robbie will be very happy. He wants us to stay together.”
“Robbie can go to the devil. We’re staying together because we want to, not because of that young imp. Right?”
Layne nodded. “No more lies... or playing games...”
“None. So where do we go from here?” He was fighting a yawn as he spoke.
“Up to bed.”
“Marvelous idea.”
“So you can get some sleep. And tomorrow we’ll decide what to do next.”
“Three years on a desert island sounds good. Do you think my father will babysit?”
“I think he’d be delighted.”
They walked together up the big stairway, arms around each other. Neither of them saw the little boy and the big dog, hidden in the shadow of the alcove at the top of the stairs. But the boy and the dog saw them.
“Looks like we finally got the job done,” Robbie said. He put an arm around the dog’s
neck.
Beast just grinned and washed his master’s face.
Thank you for purchasing this book!
Leigh Michaels is the author of more than 90 books, including contemporary romance novels, historical romance novels, and non-fiction books including On Writing Romance. Six of her books have been finalists in the Romance Writers of America RITA contest for best
traditional romance of the year, and she has won two Reviewers’ Choice awards from Romantic Times magazine. More than 35 million copies of her books have been published in 25 languages and 120 countries around the world.
Her website is http://www.leighmichaels.com
Find her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/leighmichaels
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
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