Angel Mine

by Sherryl Woods

  “I wish…” His voice trailed off.

  “Wish what?”

  He met her gaze, then looked away. “That we could go back.”

  “We can.”

  He touched her cheek, the caress a wistful reminder of all he wanted to do and couldn’t because a little girl’s safety depended on stopping this here and now. Since nothing else had worked, since Heather was still very much in his life, he knew that drastic measures were called for and he intended to take them. If he couldn’t persuade her that they had no future, if he couldn’t talk her into going back to New York, then there were other ways he could make going back home seem irresistible to her. He’d already put his plan into motion. Just that morning he had made a call that he was pretty sure would change everything. He just prayed she wouldn’t hate him when she found out.

  “No,” he said firmly for now. “We can’t.”

  He was about to walk away, when she asked point-blank, “Todd, do you love me?”

  It was the question he’d been dreading. He could have lied and made it easier for both of them, but he couldn’t seem to make himself do it. He wasn’t a good-enough actor to carry off that particular line convincingly.

  “Yes,” he admitted quietly, then regarded her with genuine regret. She would never know what it cost him to add, “But it doesn’t matter.”

  “It does!” she corrected him with evident frustration. “Don’t you see? It’s all that matters.”

  “If only that were true, darlin’. If only it were true.”

  Heather couldn’t shake the image of the despondent expression on Todd’s face when he’d finally said he loved her. It kept her awake all night, then nagged at her all day. The contradiction made no sense, not to her, anyway. Apparently, it made all too much sense to Todd. She spent a lot of time that day cursing him and his stubborn refusal to listen to his heart.

  That meant she arrived at the barn on opening night exhausted and stressed out. She managed to communicate her own nervousness and anxiety to the entire cast, until Todd stepped in and soothed everyone by reminding them that they were doing this play for fun.

  “It’s not like we’re facing a bunch of vicious critics from New York,” he told them. “We’re doing this for friends and family. If we flub a line or two or miss a note, the world is not going to come crashing down around us. We’ll all go back to our day jobs in the morning.”

  The cast regarded him with grateful smiles and went off to get into their costumes with a lighter step.

  “Thank you,” Heather said.

  “No problem. What’s with the sudden attack of nerves? You’re usually the coolest person backstage on opening night.”

  “This is different for some reason,” she said. Maybe because the burden for pulling the production together rested on her shoulders. Maybe because she wanted this play to succeed for everyone who’d helped.

  “You’ve done your part. Now it’s up to them to do theirs,” Todd reminded her. “Surely you know that, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but—”

  He regarded her knowingly. “This isn’t opening-night jitters, is it? It’s the conversation we had last night.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she retorted. She certainly wasn’t about to admit she’d had a sleepless night. He would guess it had been because of him and not about the play at all. He’d left her, clearly satisfied that things between them were settled when the truth had been just the opposite. Since there was no time to get into all that before the curtain went up, she had to postpone that particular discussion for another time.

  In the meantime, she would simply cling to his reluctant admission that he loved her. Whatever reason made him think that wasn’t enough could be dealt with later.

  When she finally made her first entrance, the familiar rush of adrenaline pumped through her and she forgot everything except the play. Her scenes with Todd were some of the best she’d ever performed because every line came straight from her heart, because the simmering passion between them was real.

  When the final curtain came down, the audience erupted with applause and cheers. Heather glanced first at Todd, caught his wink, then looked at Sissy, whose face was alight with excitement.

  “Did you see?” she asked breathlessly. “They were giving us a standing ovation. They loved it. They really loved it.”

  Heather gave her a hug. “You were wonderful, honey. Was it as much fun as you thought it would be?”

  Sissy gazed at her with stars in her eyes. “It was better. I never believed I could stand up in front of a crowd of people and act, but I did it. It was totally awesome.” She spun around, searching the people who were coming backstage. “I have to find Henrietta and Will. Have you seen them?”

  “No, but I’m sure they’ll be here,” Heather said. “They’ll find you. And they’ll be at the party in the lobby later.”

  Sissy threw her arms around Heather. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “This is the very best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

  Even if she hadn’t known the whole story of Sissy’s sad life, Heather would have been touched by the comment. As it was, she felt incredibly moved, and her own eyes filled with tears. “You deserve to have good things happen for you, Sissy. Remember that.”

  Before the girl could respond, they heard Henrietta calling out to her. The older woman’s gaze filled with pride when she finally spotted Sissy and rushed toward her to gather her into an embrace. The judge came along more slowly, but he looked no less proud as he tucked a finger under Sissy’s chin and said, “You were magnificent, gal. I intend to be right there when you pick up your first Tony Award in New York.”

  “You were awesome!” Will declared. “I couldn’t believe you were my sister.”

  “Does that mean you’ll stop making fun of me for singing in the shower?” Sissy asked.

  “Nah,” Will said. “Somebody’s gotta keep your head from getting too big.”

  As the four of them moved off together, Heather sighed.

  “You did a nice thing for that girl,” Todd said quietly. “You gave her back her self-esteem.”

  “She didn’t need me to do that. She’s a strong girl and she has Henrietta. She would have been okay, no matter what.”

  “Maybe, but I still think a lot of the credit goes to you. And in case no one has thought to mention it—” he smiled “—you were pretty terrific out there tonight yourself.”

  “For the first time, being on stage was actually fun,” she admitted. “The real challenge was the directing.”

  “Speaking of that,” he said quietly, “there’s someone here I’d like you to meet. Come with me.”

  She followed along beside him, an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. When she saw the unfamiliar, well-dressed man he was taking her to see, her uneasiness increased. This was a well-heeled businessman from back East, not some local rancher. She recognized the type.

  She hung back a second. “Todd, what’s this all about?”

  “You’ll see in a minute.” He grinned at the man. “Peter, this is Heather Reed, who not only starred in tonight’s show, but directed it. Heather, this is Peter O’Brien.”

  The name rang some distant bell, but she couldn’t pin it down. “Mr. O’Brien,” she said, shaking his hand and accepting his congratulations on the play’s opening-night success.

  “I gather you pulled this theater together from scratch,” he said. “Quite an accomplishment in just a few weeks. I’m impressed.”

  “I had a lot of help.”

  “Maybe so, but Todd says you were the guiding force.”

  Why, she wondered, had Todd been so busy selling her talents to this man? She glanced at Todd, but his expression was blank. He kept his gaze carefully averted.

  “Think you’d like to do it again?” O’Brien asked.

  She stared at him and her nagging unease turned into full-scale panic. “I don’t understand.”

  “I love theater, Ms. Re
ed. Unfortunately I have absolutely no talent either for acting or for any of the behind-the-scenes skills necessary to mount a play.”

  “He’s extremely successful, however, at making money,” Todd said.

  Suddenly Heather knew why she had recognized the name. Peter O’Brien was a venture capitalist. Among other things, he backed theatrical productions, usually smaller off-Broadway shows, but he had been involved in at least one or two major musical revivals.

  “I was very impressed with what I saw here tonight,” O’Brien told her.

  “But how did you even know about it?” she asked, her gaze on Todd, though the question was directed at O’Brien. “I assume Todd had something to do with that.”

  “Absolutely,” the man said without hesitation. “We’re both in his debt. One of my companies is a primary sponsor for both Megan’s television show and for the new cooking show Todd is producing. We have quite a lot of discussions. He knows I’m always looking for new opportunities.”

  Heather frowned at Todd. “Is that so?”

  Peter O’Brien didn’t seem aware of the undercurrent of tension in the air. He went right on singing Todd’s praises. “He invited me to come tonight and take a look at one of the most exciting young directing talents to come along. Frankly, I thought he might be exaggerating, but I can see now that he wasn’t. If anything, he understated your abilities. If you can stage a production like this in a few weeks with amateurs in Whispering Wind, Wyoming, there’s no telling what you could do in New York, given enough time and backing.”

  Heather knew she ought to be gratified by the praise, knew her pulse should be pounding at the opportunity he was hinting at offering her. Instead, she felt dead inside. Todd had obviously taken extreme measures to see to it that she left Whispering Wind and returned to New York. It was clearly a last-ditch attempt to get her out of his life, despite the love he claimed to feel for her.

  “I don’t know what to say,” she said, barely managing to get the words out without a display of angry tears.

  “Say you’ll consider it,” O’Brien said. “I know you have celebrating to do tonight, but I’ll stick around town. We can talk again tomorrow, hammer out the details. I don’t have to tell you, Ms. Reed, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

  “No, you’re right,” she said. “You don’t have to tell me that.” She backed away, desperate to escape before she embarrassed herself. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll speak to you both later. Please, Mr. O’Brien, join us for the party, won’t you?”

  “I’d love to. Thank you.”

  Heather slipped away without another word, losing herself in the crowd backstage before finally making her way to the tiny, makeshift dressing room, where she locked the door, then leaned against it and let the tears come.

  As much as she’d wanted to remain hidden in that dressing room all night, Heather knew she couldn’t let the other members of the cast down like that. This was their night and she owed them this celebration. She figured that it would require her greatest skill as an actress to get through tonight’s party without betraying her inner turmoil. That meant steering clear of Todd for the next couple of hours. She wasn’t sure what to say to him, and anything she said right now was likely to be said in anger.

  Fortunately it seemed the whole audience had stuck around for the party, so it was easy enough to lose herself in the throng, to slip away whenever Todd neared. It was only when the crowd was thinning out that he finally caught sight of her. He managed to trap her near the refreshment table that had been set up in the “lobby” they had created at the front of the barn.

  “You must be walking on air,” he said. “It’s an incredible coup to have a man like Peter O’Brien make you an offer like that.”

  “Yes, it is,” she said without enthusiasm.

  He gave her a thoughtful look. “Then why don’t you seem happier about it?”

  The anger she’d kept at bay for the past couple of hours roared back to life. Words failed her.

  “Heather?”

  “How could you?” she finally asked in a tense undertone, trying not to shout the way she wanted to. “How could you invite him here without telling me, without even asking me if it was what I wanted? Do you want me gone that badly?”

  “It wasn’t about—” he began, then cut himself off before he could complete the obvious lie. “Okay, yes, I thought it would be for the best. And I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to get your hopes up. I didn’t know if Peter would be as excited about this as I thought he’d be.”

  “Hogwash! You didn’t tell me because you were afraid I’d tell you not to invite him.” She gave him a pitying look. “I don’t understand you, Todd. I really don’t. You love me, but you can’t wait to get rid of me.”

  He raked his hand through his hair in a gesture of pure frustration. In the old days, when he kept his hair preppy-short, the gesture wouldn’t have mussed it as it did now, causing a stray lock to fall into his eyes. She wanted to reach out and smooth it back but didn’t dare.

  “It’s not that,” he said.

  “Don’t you dare tell me it’s for the best,” she said, barely keeping a tight rein on her temper. “That’s a lie and we both know it.”

  “Dammit, it is for the best. You just don’t understand.”

  “Then explain it to me,” she pleaded. “Make me understand why two people who love each other the way we do, the way we always have, can’t be together, especially when we have a wonderful little daughter to be considered.”

  Before he could respond, the last stragglers wandered over to say good-night. Flo gathered Heather in a hug. “Congratulations, sweetie. It was a blast. I can’t wait till we do it again.”

  Heather mustered a halfhearted smile. Would she even be here a week from now? Not if Todd had anything to say about it, that was for sure.

  “You knocked ’em dead,” Joe told Heather.

  She squeezed his hand. “Thanks for all your help. The theater would never have been ready without it.”

  “My pleasure.” His gaze shifted back to Flo. “You ready, darlin’?”

  “You bet, cowboy.” She gave Heather a wink as she added under her breath, “You will never know how ready.”

  Joe obviously heard the remark. He rolled his eyes. “I keep telling her she is just going to have to wait till she puts a ring on my finger, but the woman is relentless.”

  “Hopeful,” Flo corrected him, linking her arm through his. “Hopeful.”

  As they wandered off, lost in each other, Heather sighed. “That’s the way we should be,” she murmured wistfully. Even though she knew what the answer was likely to be, she swallowed her pride and faced Todd. “Let’s put an end to all these games.”

  “I’m not playing games with you, Heather. I wouldn’t.”

  “Okay, call it whatever you want to, but let’s just end it here and now.”

  “You’ll go back to New York, then?”

  Even though he’d seized on the possibility, it didn’t seem to make him happy. Quite the opposite, in fact. She took heart in that.

  “No,” she said emphatically. “I have an entirely different ending in mind.”

  He regarded her warily. “Meaning?”

  “Marry me,” she said bluntly. “Just do it, Todd. Take the plunge. Go with your heart, dammit, instead of trying to rationalize every little thing.”

  He looked as if part of the set had fallen and landed on his head. It wasn’t a particularly flattering reaction.

  “It’s not going to happen,” he said quietly but emphatically.

  She might have taken that as his final word, if she hadn’t seen the regret in his eyes. There was something going on here she didn’t understand, something tearing him apart inside. Their future depended on her figuring out what it was.

  21

  Todd knew that he’d handled things badly. He probably should have warned Heather about his invitation to Peter O’Brien, but just as she’d guessed, he had been a
fraid she’d tell him not to bring the man to Whispering Wind.

  Still, he couldn’t help thinking that she wouldn’t be foolish enough to blow off Peter’s offer just because she was angry with him for setting it up. He just had to make her see that she would be making a terrible sacrifice for all the wrong reasons. He didn’t miss the irony of their roles being suddenly reversed. The difference was that his decision to work for Megan had been made logically and for all the right reasons. Hers to stay in Whispering Wind was nothing more than a pipe dream of a future that couldn’t happen.

  Unfortunately she seemed determined to give both him and Peter the cold shoulder. She managed to avoid a meeting with Peter on Saturday and steered clear of Todd except on stage during that night’s performance.

  Peter seemed surprisingly unfazed by her rebuff, but Todd was seething. The woman was throwing away the chance of a lifetime and he didn’t intend to let her do it.

  He walked into the diner on Sunday morning armed with a whole list of solid reasons why Heather shouldn’t walk away from Peter’s proposal. Unfortunately she was nowhere to be found, but Angel came toddling straight to him, her face alight with pleasure.

  “Hiya,” she said, holding out her arms.

  Todd obligingly picked her up. “Where’s your mom?” he asked.

  “Cooking,” she said matter-of-factly.

  Todd stared at her in surprise. “Excuse me? Your mother’s actually cooking?” He gestured toward the kitchen. “In there?”

  “Uh-huh,” Angel said. “Mack’s sick.”

  Oh, brother, Todd thought. The whole town was likely to be just as sick if it were up to Heather to step in as his replacement. Her skills in the kitchen had improved since the old days, but she wasn’t up to restaurant caliber.

  “Where’s Henrietta?”

  “’Retta’s cooking, too.”

  “Thank God,” Todd murmured, heading for the kitchen.

  Sure enough, the two women were standing over the grill, concentrating on rows of eggs in various styles and stages of readiness.