“I want to open a missing-persons division of Vaughn Associates. And I want to do pro bono work, as well as work for hire. As head of the division, I would decide which cases we would take on and which we wouldn’t. If you don’t want to consider that type of work for this company, then I’ll open my own firm to specialize in finding missing persons.”
Shock appeared to be the main sentiment on his father’s face. “Why would you ever want to do that?”
Concisely Brad explained about Tess Littlehawk and her daughter. Then he added, “I’m flying to California this afternoon to follow up on a lead.”
A very long silence echoed in the elegant office. After a long, thoughtful look at Brad, Phillip must have seen his determination and exactly what he’d lose if he dismissed the idea—a connection to his son.
He asked, “Will you put some facts and figures together and write up a proposal? If you do that, I’ll consider it.”
A few minutes later, Brad left his father’s office and headed toward his own. Maybe he could borrow Emily from Jack just for a day or two. She was so good at collating information.
No, that wouldn’t be fair. She was no longer his secretary, and he just had to deal with that. Whenever he thought of Emily, he felt as if he had a hole in his heart. He was trying to fill it by taking his life in a new direction, yet he knew he might have to stop into Jack’s office to see her. He might have to tell her his good news.
One of his contacts in California had turned up a shelter log with Annie Littlehawk’s name in it. The man had a couple of leads, and Brad wanted to help him chase them down. Soon he’d have to leave for the airport.
When Brad rounded the corner to his office suite, he saw Emily’s empty desk. The sight of it made him frown. He didn’t even want to think about interviewing for a new personal secretary, but he knew he had to do it.
The white legal-size envelope lying in the middle of his desk caught his eye as soon as he entered his own office. When he picked it up, he saw his name written on the outside. It was Emily’s handwriting.
His heart pounding faster, he took out the typed letter, read it and swore. It was impersonal, one paragraph, a letter of resignation and thanks for all he’d done for her.
There was no explanation for why she’d written it, and he suddenly knew exactly why. She wanted to put him and Thunder Canyon out of her life.
Brad thought about going after her, but what would he say? I can’t stand the thought of coming to work and you not being here? I hate the idea of you working somewhere else?
With a blinding flash of insight, he realized his feelings had nothing to do with Emily quitting her job. Rather, they had to do with him not seeing her again and not seeing her every day.
What had he thought they were going to do? Have coffee together in the mornings before she went off to work for Jack and he opened his own division?
As Brad packed his bag that afternoon for his trip, he thought about Emily. As he boarded the plane, he thought about Emily. As he slept alone in his hotel room that night, he thought about Emily.
Brad’s contact in California had done good groundwork in San Jose. After two days of following leads, Brad found Annie Littlehawk in a bookstore shelving books. When he introduced himself and insisted that her mother missed her terribly, she began crying.
“I can’t go home,” she told him as she ordered a soda at a nearby restaurant. She was a beautiful young woman, with long black hair and sparkling brown eyes.
“Tell me why not.”
After a few moments of hesitation, she murmured, “It’s not just that I ran away. I know that hurt my mother. But I did things I’m not proud of after I ran.”
“Your mother needs to know you’re well and safe. All these years she didn’t know if you were alive or dead. That’s heartbreaking for a parent.”
“I can’t believe she hired you to look for me. How could she afford that?”
“Let’s just say fate put us together at the right place at the right time. You have to let her know you’re okay.”
Annie fingered the straw of her soda. “I didn’t think she’d ever want to hear from me again. I caused her so much trouble. We fought all the time. I said things I never should have said.”
“You think your mother hasn’t made mistakes in her life?”
When Annie looked up at him with wide, miserable eyes, she frowned. “She’s a good person. She’d never intentionally hurt someone.”
“Did you want to hurt her?”
“Yes! Because she wouldn’t let me do what I wanted to do. She laid down all these rules and I didn’t understand why.”
“And now you do?”
Annie nodded.
“Then call her.” He slid his business card across the table with Tess’s information written on the back. “That’s where she’s living and working now.”
As Annie looked torn, he advised her, “Don’t decide right now whether you’re going to come home or not. I can tell her I found you, but I’m sure she’d much rather hear from you. If you decide you want to fly back to Thunder Canyon, let me know and I’ll make the arrangements.”
“Why do you care if I go home?” she asked, looking perplexed.
“Because I’m learning how important family is, how important bonds are. You don’t break them if you can help it. And if you do and you have a chance to fix them, it’s important that you try.”
Three hours later, taking the red-eye back to Chicago, Brad thought about his words to Annie. He thought about them as he let himself into his penthouse and felt the emptiness there. Making strong coffee, he didn’t even try to get any sleep. There was something he had to do…something he should have done years before.
It was nine-thirty in the morning when he greeted the doorman at his mother’s apartment building. After he took the elevator up to her apartment, he rang the bell.
Connie Vaughn was an attractive woman in her early sixties. Her gray hair was silvery and she wore it in a pageboy, as she’d done for years. Today she was dressed in a taupe sweater and slacks and looked more than a little surprised to see him.
“Did I forget a breakfast date?” she asked.
They were long past due for dinner or breakfast or…something. That was his fault. “No, you didn’t forget. I need to talk to you. Do you have time?”
Her eyes became worried now. “I always have time for you.”
Looking back, he knew that was true.
Going into the elegantly furnished living room, he took a seat on the sofa.
She sat across from him in an upholstered chair and asked, “New look?”
He’d showered and changed but hadn’t bothered to shave. “No. I just didn’t take the time for the whole works.”
“What was so urgent?”
Now that he was here, he didn’t quite know how to put it into words. “I’ve met someone.”
His mother smiled. “Is that good or bad?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out. She’s different.”
“Different in a general sense or different from the women you usually date?”
Connie Vaughn had hit the bull’s-eye. “Different from women I usually date. She was my secretary.”
He didn’t see the disapproval he thought he might as his mother asked, “Was?”
“It’s a complicated story. We were in Montana together the last few weeks on a case. She resigned when we came back.”
“If she was your secretary, then she doesn’t have money.”
“No, she doesn’t. Money’s not important to Emily.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I’m positive. She’s put her own life on hold so she could help her sisters through school.”
“It sounds as if she needs money.”
“No. I mean, I offered to pay for Emily’s own college courses and she wouldn’t accept it. She has a lot of pride and self-respect and insists on making her own way. She never coats the truth in pretty words, and I can usually
tell what she’s feeling,” he went on, remembering every detail of their time together.
“Usually?”
“Right now—” Frustrated, he raked his hand through his hair. “I cut things off between us because I didn’t think I wanted a wife and a family. Or maybe I just never thought I’d be successful at it and I don’t attempt anything I can’t succeed at. Now I need some answers. I realize that what happened between you and Dad colored my view of women and marriage and whether or not two people can share a life.”
“What answers do you need?” his mother inquired softly.
“Why did you have an affair?”
When Connie stood, she went to the window to look down over the city. “I wish I could give you a simple answer, but there isn’t one. There is an easy answer, though. Your father didn’t give me what I needed.”
Now she turned to face Brad. “I know that must sound ridiculous when we had everything money could buy. But I needed the intangible things that maybe women need more than men.”
“Such as?”
“Time…attention…affection.”
“But you were married!”
She laughed. “Oh, yes. My family had a hand in that. I’d just graduated from college when Phillip’s family invited me to come stay with them for a weekend. My father and his father had been old college buddies.”
“The marriage was arranged?”
“No, not in any old-world sense. Let’s just say we both came highly recommended. At first I was fascinated by your father. He was so intelligent, so sophisticated, five years older than me and worldly. He intrigued me, and I mistook his ambition and drive to succeed for passion.”
Not knowing if he wanted to set foot in that arena, Brad decided he needed to have answers. “I don’t understand.”
“I thought the intensity in Phillip’s nature meant he could love deeply, that when he turned his energy on a relationship, it would be everything we both could want.”
“But he didn’t do that?”
His mother slipped her hands into her slacks pockets. “Your father could build an empire if he wanted to, but he couldn’t talk to me. I fell in love with him. I thought if we got married and had a family we’d find what we needed together. That didn’t happen. The more he worked, the more distant he became. That distance turned to coldness. He didn’t know how to show affection and didn’t want to learn. He wouldn’t even consider counseling. So our marriage limped along until one day I met someone who looked into my eyes when he talked to me. He put his hand on my shoulder when I needed one there. He listened in a way I’d never been listened to before. I had been drowning emotionally and he saved me. So we had an affair.”
“And Dad found out?”
“Yes. One afternoon we weren’t careful and had lunch in a popular restaurant. One of your father’s associates saw us. I don’t know. Maybe I wanted him to find out. Maybe I wanted to push myself into making some kind of decision, and that’s what happened.”
As Brad honestly thought about his dad, he knew his father could be cold and distant. He’d just never pictured how that would play out in a marriage. He’d blamed his mother all these years for her lack of morals, for her infidelity to her vows. Yet hadn’t his father broken their vows before she had by his attitude, by his neglect of her?
“Men-and-women relationships are complicated, Brad. They’re never exactly what they seem on the outside,” she counseled him.
“After you and Dad divorced, did you see the man you had the affair with?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Now she sat on the sofa again and folded her hands in her lap. “Because of you. I knew what you thought of me. I knew you believed I’d destroyed our family. At first you were resentful and defiant and sullen. I couldn’t get a smile out of you for months. Do you honestly think I would have taken a chance on losing you altogether by dating and maybe marrying this man?”
Never before had Brad realized what his mother had sacrificed for him. He thought about Emily and what she’d sacrificed for her sisters. Was that kind of selflessness in women’s natures?
Not all women. Just the special ones.
“What about now? Why haven’t you ever gotten married?”
“Cowardice, I guess. And I’ve become set in my ways.” She studied him for a few moments. “But I know you have more courage than I do. I also know you’ve dated a lot of wrong women, and maybe that’s why you’ve never asked me these questions before.”
“Emily makes me think and question. She makes me laugh. She frustrates me, yet she leads me to see life in a different way. And…I love her. I do love her.” He could admit that now.
“Did you say she resigned?”
“Yes, and she’s hurt because I cut her out of my life. She has no reason to ever want to speak to me again.”
“But you’re going to find a reason.”
Ever since he’d read Emily’s resignation letter, he’d felt as if he had a lead weight in his chest. Now he felt lighter.
“Yes. I’m going to find that reason.”
On Sunday afternoon, Emily was looking at the pictures she’d shot in Montana and the want ads lying beside her on the sofa. She had three interviews set up for Friday. She had intended to look through the paper, circling more possibilities. But she’d picked up her developed pictures yesterday and she couldn’t seem to put them away. The breathtaking Montana scenery tugged at a deep place in her soul. However, the pictures of Brad brought tears to her eyes. Her heart hurt and she didn’t know if she’d ever get over him.
Reluctantly plopping the pictures on the coffee table, she picked up the newspaper, intent on finding a new job, when her phone rang.
“Hello? This is Emily Stanton.”
“Emily? It’s Brad.”
Her heart pounded so fast, she couldn’t catch her breath. Was he calling so she’d reconsider her resignation?
“Emily?”
“I’m here,” she managed to say.
“I want you to fly to Thunder Canyon with me tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To finish what we started. A couple of things have happened. I found Tess’s daughter. Annie’s going to fly in and she and Tess are going to be reunited. I want to keep that meeting private. But then there’s going to be a press conference, and the mayor would like both of us there.”
“Why a press conference?”
“The deed was authenticated. Lisa Martin is the true owner of the Queen of Hearts mine. Apparently this story has piqued the nation’s interest, and the press conference will be broadcast on CNN. The other networks might be there, too. Brookhurst says he’ll tell us what he has planned when we get there, but he’s adamant about you coming along. You’re the one who found the deed.”
“It was a fluke.”
“A fluke you investigated. The mayor wants us both there,” he repeated firmly.
When Brad used that tone, she knew he wouldn’t change his mind. “And you want to leave tomorrow?”
“Yes. We’ll have a meeting with the mayor after we arrive. The press conference will be held the following morning. Will you come along and finish this with me?”
She knew she shouldn’t. She knew her heart was already broken and being with Brad would keep it that way. Yet she also couldn’t resist the idea of seeing him again, being with him again. Besides, she did want to see Tess and her daughter reunited. That was the most important aspect of all this.
“All right. I’ll come along.”
There was a pause. Then he said, “Great. I have meetings tomorrow morning before our flight so I’ll send a car for you.”
“I can take a taxi.”
“I’ll send a car for you. He’ll pick you up around nine-thirty. Our flight leaves at noon.”
Before she had a chance to change her mind, he hung up.
Gazing at the pictures she’d taken of Brad, she knew this could be the biggest
mistake of her life. Nevertheless, she had nothing to lose this time because she’d already lost her heart.
On this trip when Emily and Brad arrived in Bozeman, he rented a car. The awkwardness between them had hit an all-time high. Brad seemed to be mulling something over, and she’d left him to his thoughts most of the trip.
Now, as they drove into Thunder Canyon for their meeting with the mayor, she asked, “Are we going to check in at the motel first?”
“We’re not staying at the motel.”
“We certainly won’t be welcome at the Lazy D.”
“Actually, we’re staying at the cabin tonight.”
Her gaze jerked toward his. “Why?”
“The same reason as last time, actually. Everything’s booked up. This press conference has brought people in from all over the country, including reporters, news teams and curious busybodies.”
“And Caleb’s letting us use the cabin?”
“I made a deal with him.”
That surprised Emily. Last week she might have asked Brad what the deal was. But today she really had no right to know.
The meeting with the mayor was methodical as he went over the schedule for the press conference.
Then Brad said, “I’m picking up someone at the airport tomorrow morning. Is there a place we could use to have a private meeting before the press conference starts?”
The mayor thought about it. “You can use Conference Room A on the second floor. Would that be suitable?”
“That will be just fine.”
Emily couldn’t help but see that Brad looked worried. Maybe he was afraid Tess and her daughter’s reunion wouldn’t go well.
As they drove to the cabin, Emily asked, “I guess the creek water’s gone down?”
“Yep. I had someone check it for us. Unless we get tons of rain overnight, we’ll be able to get out in the morning.” His gaze met hers. “Don’t you want to get stranded again?”
She wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that one. “I have job interviews on Friday. I can’t miss those.”
When Brad looked back at the road, his jaw was set, his mouth a tight line. Something was going on with him, but she had no idea what it was.
After they arrived at the cabin, she saw it was stocked both with groceries and with firewood. Apparently Brad wasn’t taking any chances this time.
Cabin Fever Page 18