The Blackstone Promise

by Rochelle Alers

  “Oh, really? Let me tell you what it’s like. I’m not going out with you again.”

  Sheldon gave Renee a long, penetrating stare. She did not understand, couldn’t understand her impact on those who’d met her. The men were awed by her lush beauty, the women envious because she claimed what most of them hadn’t had in a long time—natural beauty. He would not refute her accusations. Not now. Not when she was so visibly upset. He shifted into gear, then rejoined the flow of traffic.

  He didn’t know whether Renee had lied to him about her ex, but he was certain of one thing: he hadn’t been entirely forthcoming when he admitted adoring her. The truth was that he had fallen in love with her. It was only the second time in his life that he’d found himself in love with a woman.

  Renee sat at the workstation, staring out the window instead of printing an inventory schedule. She hadn’t been able to concentrate for days. Her confrontation with Sheldon had caused a shift in her emotional equilibrium.

  They’d returned home Saturday night, climbed the staircase and gone to bed—alone. She hadn’t seen or heard from him in days, and it was over breakfast she overheard Ryan tell Jeremy that they would have to wait for Sheldon to return from his mountain retreat.

  He had gone without her, and his promise to teach her to fish had been an empty one.

  She felt a familiar flutter, closed her eyes and smiled. Her expanding waistline, viewing sonogram pictures and listening to the rapidly beating heartbeat with Doppler had all become insignificant since the first time she felt her baby move.

  “Renee.”

  She swiveled on her chair. Jeremy stood in the doorway. He had come for his report. “Please come in. I just have to print out the schedule for you.”

  Jeremy sat in a chair near a desk, draping one leg over the opposite knee and studied Renee from under lowered lids. She’d changed since coming to the farm, and it wasn’t only the changes in her body. She had become less reclusive, more open with the other farm residents.

  He’d told himself to mind his own business; what went on between Sheldon and Renee was no concern of his. The responsibility of running the horse farm, being a husband and impending fatherhood left little time for him to indulge in gossip.

  Leaning forward, Jeremy studied the printed list Renee had tacked to a corkboard. It was a schedule of tasks and projected dates for completion. So far, it appeared as if she was ahead of schedule.

  While Renee waited for the printer to complete printing more than thirty sheets, her cell phone rang. The sound startled her. It wasn’t often her phone rang, and if it did it was usually her mother, brother or sister- in-law.

  Reaching for the tiny instrument, she pushed the talk button. “Hello.”

  “Hey, Rennie.”

  She smiled. It was her brother. “Hey, yourself. What’s up, Teddy?”

  There was a pause before Edward Wilson’s voice came through the earpiece. “This is not a social call, Rennie.”

  Knees shaking, she sank down to her chair and closed her eyes. “Is it Mama?” She had just spoken to her mother the week before.

  “No,” came his quick reply. “It’s about Donald.”

  Renee sat up straighter, opened her eyes. “What about him?”

  “He called here looking for you. He said he just got a divorce and he wants to marry you.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I told him that I didn’t know where you were.”

  “Thanks, Teddy.”

  “Don’t thank me yet, Rennie. He says he knows you always spend Thanksgiving with us, so he plans to stop by to see if he can run into you.”

  “I can’t come, Teddy. If he sees me then he’ll know that I’m carrying his baby.” Her voice had lowered when a pair of smoky gray eyes studied her.

  “Then, don’t come. Let me handle Mr. Rush. If he decides to get funky with me, then I’ll just have to lock him up. I’ll come up with a charge after I cuff the lying bastard.”

  Renee smiled. Her brother, a Kentucky state trooper, flew into a rage after she’d told him of Donald’s duplicity.

  “I’m going to miss you guys.”

  “We’ll miss you, too. Let’s plan to get together for Christmas. I have a lot of time coming to me, so we’ll come to Virginia. The kids have been bugging me about visiting Williamsburg.”

  “I would like to see it, too.”

  “Then that does it. We’ll come by and pick you up Friday afternoon, and bring you back Monday night.”

  “Okay, Teddy.”

  “I’ll call and let you know if the clown shows up here.”

  Renee pulled her lower lip between her teeth. “Please be careful. I’ve seen Donald lose his temper a few times and he was unbelievably rude.”

  “Don’t worry about me. You just stay put.”

  “Okay. Love you, Teddy.”

  “Love you back, Rennie.”

  Renee ended the call, gathering the pages from the printer. She stapled and handed them to Jeremy, mindful her hands were shaking.

  Jeremy took the papers without dropping his gaze. “Do you want to get together when you’re feeling better?”

  “I’m all right,” she said a little too quickly.

  “You’re shaking.”

  “I’ll be okay in a few minutes.” She made her way over to her chair and sat down. Meeting her boss’s questioning gaze, Renee drew in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “The first page is an analysis covering the past three years.”

  Jeremy half listened to what Renee was saying, his mind recalling her telephone conversation. He knew Teddy was her brother, because when he’d called the Louisville area code and exchange, Teddy Wilson had answered the call, telling him he would give his sister the message.

  He hadn’t intended to eavesdrop on her conversation, but once she said, “If he sees me then he’ll know that I’m carrying his baby,” all of his senses were on full alert. It was obvious Renee did not want the father of her baby to know her whereabouts.

  There came a light knock against the door frame. “I’m sorry for interrupting.” Jeremy and Renee turned to find Sheldon’s broad shoulders filling out the doorway. He nodded to her. “Good afternoon.”

  Renee hadn’t realized how much she’d missed Sheldon until now. She missed his drawling voice, deep sensual laugh and most of all the warmth of his embrace. She had come to depend on him more than she’d wanted to.

  Tilting her chin, she smiled up at him. “Good afternoon, Sheldon.”

  Jeremy studied the myriad of emotions crossing Sheldon’s face. His mother had died the year he turned ten; however, he’d been old enough to recognize the surreptitious glances between his parents. Unspoken glances that precipitated retiring to bed before their sons. And the look his father and Renee shared was one usually reserved for lovers.

  Sheldon reluctantly pulled his gaze away from Renee and nodded at his son. “Jeremy.”

  “Hey, Pop. I’m glad you’re back because I need to talk to you.”

  “I’ll be in the den when you’re finished here.”

  Jeremy turned to Renee. “Can we finish this another time?”

  She blinked as if coming out of a trance. “Of course.”

  Jeremy stood up and followed Sheldon, the remnants of Renee’s conversation with her brother lingering in his head.

  Sheldon entered the den and sat in his favorite chair, while Jeremy took a facing love seat. “What’s up?”

  Jeremy studied his father, seeing what he would look like in another twenty years, while hoping he would age as elegantly.

  “Ryan and Kevin want to race Jahan at Santa Anita and Kentucky Oaks.”

  Leaning forward and clasping his hands between his knees, Sheldon caught and hel
d Jeremy’s gaze. “You don’t trust their decision?”

  “It’s not that I don’t trust them, Pop. It’s just that I—”

  “You don’t trust them, Jeremy,” Sheldon repeated emphatically, interrupting his younger son. “If you did then we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Once I retired and turned complete control of running the farm to you, I’d hoped you wouldn’t second-guess Ryan or Kevin’s decision whether a horse is ready for a race.

  “When you and Ryan decided to race Jahan for the International Gold Cup, I conceded because you, Kevin and Ryan overruled me by three-to-one. You’ve been overruled, Jeremy, so leave it at that.”

  For a long moment, Jeremy stared back at Sheldon. “Okay, Pop. I won’t oppose them. But, there is something else I should tell you.”

  He repeated what he’d heard of Renee’s conversation with her brother, watching Sheldon change before his eyes like a snake shedding its skin. An expression of hardness had transformed his father into someone he did not know—a stranger.

  It was Jeremy’s turn to lean forward. “Talk to me, Pop.”

  Sheldon’s voice was low, quiet as he told his son what Renee had disclosed about her relationship with Donald Rush. “Are you familiar with the slug?” he asked.

  “I know he is a pioneer in the computer game industry.”

  “Like those games Sean plays with?”

  Jeremy nodded. “Yes. She doesn’t want him to find her, Pop.”

  “And he won’t. At least not here. If he steps one foot on Blackstone property he’ll be shot on sight.”

  “What are you going to do? Hold her hostage?”

  Sheldon shook his head. “No. I’ll protect her. I want you to increase security around the property.”

  “Can you actually protect Renee from a man who might sue for joint custody of a child he can prove is his?”

  “No,” Sheldon admitted.

  “I know another way you can protect Renee without becoming her bodyguard or shooting her ex-boyfriend.”

  “How?”

  Jeremy watched his father with hooded eyes that resembled a hawk. “Marry her.” The instant the two words were uttered, he girded himself for a violent outburst, but when Sheldon sat staring at him with eyes filled with raw, unspoken pain he regretted the suggestion.

  Lowering his head, Sheldon stared at the toes of his boots. “I can’t do that.”

  “Why not, Pop?”

  His head came up. “Why not?” he repeated. “Because I wouldn’t be a good husband for her.”

  “Is it because she’s carrying another man’s baby?”

  “No. I wouldn’t have a problem raising her child as my own.”

  “Then, what is it?”

  A melancholy frown flitted across Sheldon’s taut features. “I wasn’t there for Julia when she needed me. Your mother found a lump in her breast, and had a biopsy without my knowledge; when she discovered it was malignant she swore her doctor to secrecy.”

  Jeremy’s eyes widened. “Why wouldn’t she tell you?”

  “Because she knew I never would’ve completed the circuit for Boo-yaw’s Derby eligibility. She knew how much I wanted a Derby win.”

  “But, Pop. You can’t blame yourself for something you couldn’t control.”

  Sheldon buried his face in his hands. “The signs were there, son, but I was too caught up in my own world to notice them.”

  Moving to the opposite end of the love seat, Jeremy rested a hand on his father’s shoulder. “What happened with my mother is over, and can’t be undone. But now you have a second chance to make things right.”

  Sheldon’s head jerked up. “What are you talking about?”

  Rising to his feet, Jeremy turned to walk out of the room. He hesitated, but didn’t turn around. “Look at what you have, and what you could hope to have.”

  Sheldon repeated Jeremy’s cryptic statement to himself, refusing to accept the obvious. The minutes ticked off, the afternoon shadows lengthened, the sun dipped lower on the horizon. Dusk had fallen when he finally left the den.

  Chapter Nine

  Renee did not see the shadowy figure sitting on the top stair until she was practically on top of him. If she hadn’t been daydreaming then she would have detected the familiar fragrance of sandalwood aftershave.

  The telephone call from her brother had continued to haunt her although she’d told herself over and over that Donald wouldn’t come after her. After all, she was just one in a string of many women he had dated or lived with—one of a lot of foolish women who thought they could hope to become Mrs. Donald Rush.

  The only difference between her and Donald’s other women was that it had taken him more than a year to get her to agree to go out with him. And once she did, it was another six months before she agreed to sleep with him. She thought he would give up his pursuit, but he kept coming back. After eighteen months Renee believed he was truly serious about wanting a future together. She hadn’t known that during a wild, uninhibited week in Vegas he’d married a long-legged dancer.

  “What are you doing here?” Her query came out in a breathless whisper.

  “I live here.”

  Renee felt heat sweep over her face and neck. “I know you live here, Sheldon, but I didn’t expect you to be sitting on the steps.” Light from hallway sconces did not permit her to see his expression.

  “I was waiting to talk to you.” He patted his knees. “Please sit down.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t. I need to change for dinner.” His right hand snaked out, caught her wrist and pulled her down onto his lap. Renee squirmed, but she couldn’t free herself. “Please let me go.”

  He buried his hair in her hair. “Indulge me, Renee. Just for a few minutes.”

  Relaxing in his embrace, Renee luxuriated in the muscled thighs under her hips and the unyielding strength in the arms holding her in a protective embrace. Oh, she’d missed those arms around her; she’d missed Sheldon.

  “What do you want to talk about?”

  “About what happened two weeks ago.”

  She stiffened before relaxing again. “What about it?”

  Sheldon pressed a kiss to her fragrant hair. “I want to apologize if you feel I was not supportive of you.”

  “All I asked of you was to be a friend, to support me during the good and bad times, but I got a lover instead.”

  “I am your friend, darling—friend, lover and protector. I wanted to tell you to forget about Susanna and Valerie, but you were too upset for me to reason with you. They said what they said because they’re jealous.”

  “They can’t be jealous of me, Sheldon.”

  He pressed a kiss along the column of her neck. “They are, sweetheart. We have no control over what another person says or thinks, but if any of what they said about you in that bathroom gets back to me, then there’s going to be hell to pay.”

  Covering the hands cradling her belly, Renee shook her head. “I didn’t tell you so that you could fight with someone. I just wanted to let you know why I don’t want to attend any more soirees with you.”

  “You don’t have…” Whatever he intended to say died on Sheldon’s lips when he felt movement under his hand. His expression changed, features softening. “When did she start kicking you?”

  Renee smiled at Sheldon over her shoulder. “Last week. At first they were flutters, but they’re much stronger now.”

  “She’s a frisky little thing,” he said with a broad smile.

  “She sleeps all day, then wakes up and performs somersaults half the night.”

  “Does she keep you up?”

  “Sometimes.” Renee eased Sheldon’s hands away from her belly. “I have to go get ready for dinner.” She moved off his l
ap; he also rose to his feet.

  “I’ll wait downstairs for you.”

  “I’m not eating at the dining hall.”

  “You’re going out?”

  “Yes.”

  “Off the farm?”

  “Why?”

  Sheldon crossed his arms over his chest, deciding on honesty. “Jeremy told me about your telephone call.”

  “He had no right to tell you about a personal conversation.”

  “If it was so personal, then you could’ve either called your party back or asked Jeremy to leave the room.”

  Renee rolled her eyes at Sheldon. “One does not ask one’s boss to leave the room to indulge in a personal telephone conversation during work hours. Besides, he shouldn’t have told you my business.”

  “Jeremy told me because as long as you live and work here you are his business. You, thirty-five others, thirty-six including the child you’re carrying, and half a billion dollars in horseflesh. Don’t ever forget that, Renee.

  “If you leave the farm, then you will be accompanied either by me or an armed escort. Security has already been tightened around the property. Now, I’m going to ask you again, Renee. Are you leaving the farm tonight?” He had enunciated each word.

  There was a long, brittle silence as Renee struggled to keep her raw emotions in check. After ending the call with her brother she’d forced herself not to think about Donald. If he had divorced his wife in order to propose marriage, did he actually believe she would marry him now?

  No. She could not and would not even if she were carrying quintuplets. Not when she had fallen in love with another man, a man who had become her friend, lover and protector.

  “No, Sheldon. I’m not leaving the farm tonight.”

  Moving closer, he cradled her face and brushed a kiss at the corners of her mouth. “Shall I wait up for you?”

  Renee wanted to tell Sheldon he was being controlling, but offered him a saucy smile instead. There was no doubt he wanted to make certain she was safe.

  “Only if you wish. Perhaps when I return we can have a sleepover.”

  Throwing back his head, Sheldon laughed, the sound rich and full-throated. “I’m looking forward to it, princess.”