One Night, Two Heirs

by Maureen Child

  Well, there was a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this—which he could prove to her if she’d open the damned door and hear him out.

  Rick walked down the four steps to the lawn, looked up at the house and glared at the room he knew was hers. “Sadie, come on!”

  His shout went unanswered too.

  Gritting his teeth in frustration, he raced back up the steps and slammed his knuckles against the heavy wood door. He’d been doing that off and on now for fifteen minutes with no results. So this time, he pounded on the damn thing in a staccato beat that continued until the door was finally jerked open.

  Sadie’s brother blocked the doorway. His features were tight and hard and he looked about as welcoming as a rattler eyeing its dinner. “Stop beating the door down.”

  “Where’s Sadie?”

  “Why should I tell you?”

  “You don’t want to get in my way on this,” Rick warned.

  “Funny,” Brad mused. “Seems like a good idea to me.”

  Fury fisted in his guts. Rick pushed his way past Sadie’s brother and stormed into the Price mansion. His boot heels clacked on the flooring as he walked to the bottom of the staircase and shouted, “Sadie!”

  “She’s not here.”

  Rick spun around to face his woman’s father. The older man looked cold and dispassionate. Just what he would have expected from a man who would have his only daughter sacrifice her own happiness for the family coffers.

  For a long, tension-filled minute, the two men stared at each other. Brad was still standing to Rick’s left and the animosity coming off him was thick enough to slice. But Rick’s focus was on the older man. “Tell me where she is, Mr. Price.”

  Even relaxing at home, Robert Price wore an elegantly tailored, three-piece suit. He was an imposing man, but Rick wouldn’t have cared if the old boy had been holding a loaded shotgun on him. Nothing was going to stop him from finding and talking to Sadie.

  The older man turned his back and walked into the formal living room and Rick was just a step or two behind him. Sunlight washed the room in a bright, golden light. But all Rick noticed was the missing baby monitor that Sadie had kept on a side table by her favorite reading chair.

  Ice skimmed over his heart.

  “My daughter left here not an hour ago,” Robert said, settling into a wing-backed chair that, with the old man sitting in it, resembled a throne. “She specifically said that she didn’t want to see you.”

  Rick pulled in a deep breath and fought to keep from raging at the man. “She’s going to anyway.”

  “Why’re you here?” Brad interrupted from behind him and Rick threw him an angry glare.

  “That’s between me and Sadie,” he ground out.

  “Not anymore,” Brad told him flatly. “The whole town’s talking about you and your new girlfriend.”

  “Ah, God…” Misery pumped through him at a staggering pace.

  “That’s right,” Brad told him. Shaking his head he got closer, his gaze sweeping over Rick dismissively. “Did you really think nobody would know? Hell, you grew up here. You know as well as anyone what the gossips in Royal are like.”

  “Gossip doesn’t mean truth,” Rick muttered, his gaze locked now with Brad’s. Sadie’s brother looked as furious as Rick was. The temperature in this brightly sunny room was close to freezing with the two Price men glowering at him.

  And damned if Rick could blame either one of them.

  “Close enough,” Brad maintained. “Plus, Sadie went to see you, to have you explain, and she got an eyeful of you hugging the other woman.”

  He knew she’d seen that. Which was why he was here. To explain. To make her see that what she was thinking was all wrong.

  “She didn’t see what she thought she did,” he muttered.

  “Right!” Brad laughed and looked past Rick to his father. “Hear that, Dad? Sadie’s blind now.”

  “I heard,” Robert said softly.

  Rick didn’t even glance at the older man. Brad was the one he’d deal with. Rubbing one hand across the back of his neck, he said tightly, “Just tell me where she is, and I can take care of this mess. Five minutes with her, that’s all I ask.”

  “Ask all you want. She doesn’t owe you anything anymore.” Brad dug one hand into his pocket, pulled something free, then flipped it to Rick.

  It hit his palm and the instant his fingers closed over it, something in Rick snapped.

  Sadie’s engagement ring.

  Breath straining in his lungs, heartbeat pounding erratically in his chest, he spoke through tightly gritted teeth. “Tell me where she is, Brad.”

  “You think I’m gonna stand by and watch while my sister’s heart gets kicked around the county again? I don’t think so. She’s lived through the pity of this town once. Why should I help you put her through that again?”

  “I love her,” Rick managed to say.

  “Bull.” Brad reared back and threw a punch to Rick’s jaw that sent him sprawling onto the floor.

  Ears ringing, jaw throbbing, Rick scrambled back up, and threw a punch of his own to Brad’s gut. Brad staggered and bent over, wheezing for air.

  “I figure as her brother, you were owed one shot at me. But you take another one and I’ll put you down. Understand?”

  “Try it,” Brad said, bracing for a fight.

  “That’s enough.” Robert Price stood up and walked to stand in between the two men. He gave his son a quelling look, then turned his gaze on Rick. “Is it true? Do you love my daughter?”

  Rick flashed a furious look at Brad before shifting his gaze to meet the older man’s. Rubbing one hand over his sore jaw, he muttered, “Yes. I love her. But it’s not easy. The Price family’s a hardheaded bunch.”

  Brad snorted. “It’s not this family. It’s the women in this town.”

  Robert, though, simply took a minute or two to study Rick in silence. With their eyes locked, it was as if the older man was trying to see into Rick’s heart. And at last, he was satisfied.

  “I’ll tell you where she went—”

  “Dad!”

  “But if I’m wrong about you,” Robert said tellingly, “I’ll turn my son loose on you again.”

  “You’re not wrong,” Rick said plainly. “I love her. I love my girls. I’ll explain everything to you later, but I owe that explanation to Sadie first.”

  “Agreed,” Robert said. “She and the girls are at the Hilton Plaza in Midland.”

  Rick started for the door instantly. But at the threshold, he turned back. “Just because your boy got one lucky punch in doesn’t mean he could take me.”

  Robert laughed while Brad fumed.

  Rick was already gone.

  The girls had cried themselves to sleep.

  Sadie’s soul ached.

  And the hotel was out of chocolate ice cream.

  “How does that happen in a civilized world?” Sadie asked, making do with room service vanilla topped with chocolate syrup.

  Should have gone back to Houston, she thought sadly. As she had the last time she’d run from her troubles. But Houston was so much farther away from Royal and home than Midland was. At least here, she could fool herself into believing that she was still close to…everybody.

  Frowning to herself, she had another bite of ice cream and let the bland vanilla slide down her throat. Sadie didn’t really like admitting that she had run away. Again. But how could she have stayed in town while Rick was romancing a pretty brunette?

  “I bet she has chocolate ice cream,” Sadie muttered bitterly.

  Just as she apparently had Rick. But even as she thought that, she wondered about it. Would a man who talked about honor and duty the same way another man talked about his car or job—just another part of his life—cheat?

  Had Rick really been lying to her all along? Or had she allowed her own pain and shock to color what she saw?

  “Hard to misinterpret a hug like that one,” she muttered, remembering how Rick and the brunet
te had looked, as melded together as…the chocolate syrup on her boring vanilla ice cream.

  Sighing, she took a bite, licked the spoon, then lifted one hand to wipe away a stray tear. She hadn’t cried until she got to the hotel. But once there, she’d really made up for lost time.

  It wasn’t easy, hiding her tears from her daughters. But thankfully, the girls were asleep. Which had given Sadie plenty of time to cry herself silly while waiting for ice cream that really wasn’t cutting it as far as self-pity-party food.

  Now, not only was she unsatisfied in the chocolate department…her chest hurt, her eyes ached and her nose was stuffy. One look in the mirror had told her she was not one of those women who could cry pretty. No, when she cried, her entire body was involved in the process and made her look as though she’d been dragged upside down through hell, feet first.

  She used the edge of her spoon to scrape the chocolate syrup off the ice cream. Once it was gone, she sighed unhappily and wondered just how long it would take room service to bring the chocolate cake she had ordered.

  The Governor’s suite in the Midland Plaza was comfortable, but too darn big for one lonely woman and her twin baby girls. Outside the window, a storm was rolling in, black clouds gathering on the horizon, wind whipping the trees that lined the small lake in front of the hotel. Lightning shimmered in the darkness and the first splats of rain hit the window just as the doorbell of the suite rang.

  She hoped the waiter had brought both pieces of chocolate cake, Sadie thought. She was going to need them.

  Sniffling, she walked to the door, looked through the peephole and gasped when she saw Rick, staring right back at her from the hall. She moved back from the door, shaking her head. She didn’t want to see him. Not now. Maybe not ever.

  Oh, God. She looked hideous.

  “Open the door, Sadie.”

  “No.”

  “If you don’t, I’ll make such a big scene out here, people will be talking about it for years.”

  “That threat would have worked on me once,” she said through the door and realized she meant it. She didn’t care what anyone thought anymore. She hadn’t run away this time because she didn’t want to hear gossip.

  She’d taken off because she had been too hurt to face Rick.

  Okay, yes, she didn’t like the pity-filled glances from the gossips in Royal. But the only thing that could really hurt her was Rick’s betrayal.

  “Do you really think I care what anyone in this hotel thinks of me? Or you?” she countered, peering at him through that peephole again. “I don’t. And trust me when I say I’ve seen enough of you today.”

  She actually heard him sigh. A second later, she was looking through the peephole again, staring into his brown eyes.

  “Sadie, what you saw at the ranch—”

  Pain slapped at her and her tears dried up. She really wanted that chocolate cake. “I already know what I saw. I don’t want a recap.”

  “It wasn’t what you think.”

  “Oh,” she said, still watching him, “so she was a stranger and she tripped and you had to catch her in a full-body hug? That must have been terrible for you. Poor man.”

  His jaw worked as if he were biting back a torrent of words. Finally he blew out a frustrated breath, looked directly into the security hole and said, “Fine. You want me to do this in the hallway, I’ll do it here.”

  “I don’t want anything from you,” she countered hotly. “Except for you to go away.”

  “Not happening. Not until you hear me out.”

  “Fine, talk.”

  He started to, then closed his mouth in irritation before snapping it shut.

  “Are you really too big a coward to face me without a door in between us?”

  “I’m not a coward. I just don’t want you near me.”

  “So not a coward, just a liar.”

  Okay, she was lying. She did want him. But she wasn’t going to share him with a host of women. So she’d just have to learn to do without what she wanted. “Do I have to call security?”

  “Sadie,” he said on a long sigh, “the woman you saw me with was Lisa.”

  She laughed harshly, then lowered her voice as she heard the girls start to stir in the adjoining bedroom. “You think I care what her name is?”

  “She’s the widow of my friend, Jeff. The man who saved my life.”

  Rick waited for what felt like an eternity. But it was only moments before he heard the security chain slide free, the locks turn. Then the door was open and Sadie was standing there, looking at him.

  Her blue eyes were rimmed in red and glassy with the sheen of tears. She had a blot of chocolate syrup at one corner of her mouth and her blond hair was pulled into a crooked ponytail.

  She looked unbelievably young and vulnerable and his heart melted in his chest. He loved her more with every breath and if he lived to be a hundred, he still would go to his death complaining that he hadn’t had enough time with her.

  “My God, you’re beautiful,” he said softly.

  She flushed. “Yes, because splotchy girls are all the rage this season,” she sputtered.

  “Splotchy girls are my weakness.”

  She hitched an unsteady breath, backed up so he could enter the suite. “Come in.”

  He took a quick look around as he walked into the room. It was big, with cream-colored walls, stone-gray carpet and a view of the city. There was a blue velvet couch, a couple of tapestry easy chairs and an open door led to what was probably the girls’ bedroom.

  He heard her close the door quietly before he turned to look at her. Tossing his hat onto the nearby couch, Rick just looked his fill of her. He’d been so worried that he’d lost her. So shaken, thinking about living a life without her, that he hardly knew what to do now that she was standing in front of him again.

  “Jeff’s widow?” she asked, and her voice was so soft, he almost didn’t catch the words.

  “Yeah.” He didn’t go to her. Not yet. He wanted the air clear between them first. They’d been through so much in the last few weeks. Coming together, finding their way and now, he had to make her see that what they had found was real. That she could trust it. And him.

  “Lisa and Jeff actually lived in Houston.” He laughed a little. “Funny, two Texas boys meeting in the middle of a war zone on the other side of the planet, but—” he broke off. “That doesn’t matter now. The point is, I’ve met with her a couple of times since I’ve been back.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I should have,” he admitted. But Jeff was still an open wound in Rick’s heart and soul. Talking about him, even with Sadie, wasn’t easy. “It’s…hard for me to talk about it.”

  She scrubbed her hands up and down her arms as if she were cold to the bone. “Okay, I can understand that. But tell me. Why was she at the ranch today?”

  “Actually, she drove down to Royal to read me the riot act,” he admitted and gave her a rueful smile. “In that, the two of you would probably get along great.”

  Sadie gave him a sad smile in return, but she didn’t say anything. She was still waiting for that explanation.

  “Lisa was studying medicine,” he said on a long, expelled breath. “But she dropped out of school when she and Jeff got married. They couldn’t afford it. She came to the ranch today to yell at me because she just found out that I arranged for her to go back to school. I had my lawyers set up a fund for her books and tuition and anything else she needs.”

  She took a quick breath, then bit down on her bottom lip as fresh tears pooled in her eyes. Immediately, Rick started talking again.

  “It’s not because I’m having an affair with her or anything,” he insisted. “I’m not in love with her, Sadie. I love you and I would never cheat on you with anybody. And, damn it, you should know that about me already.”

  “Rick…”

  Her tone gave away none of what she was feeling, so Rick spoke fast, hoping to make her understand.

  “I’m s
ending her to school because it’s what Jeff would have done if he’d come home. He used to talk to me about it. How important it was for him that she find her dreams.” He ran one hand over his face and shook his head. “Jeff was so damn proud of her, he wanted to make sure she became a great doctor. Well, he didn’t come home. Because of me.”

  “Rick, no,” she said. “It was Jeff’s choice to sacrifice himself. You shouldn’t second-guess him.”

  “Can’t help it,” he admitted. “I’ll have that guilt riding me for the rest of my life, Sadie. I’ll always know that whatever life I have, whatever love I have, Jeff bought it for me. He lost everything so I could come home. I owed it to him to make sure Jeff’s dreams for Lisa came true.”

  “Rick, that is the—”

  “I wouldn’t cheat on you, Sadie,” he told her again quickly, interrupting her because he suddenly needed to say everything he was feeling. “I love you. I think I’ve loved you from the time we were kids. Maybe from that day the waitress spilled a soda in your lap.”

  Tears were streaking her already puffy face in a steady stream now. But she was smiling and that gave Rick the encouragement he needed. He was in front of her in three long strides.

  Pulling her up close to him, he wrapped his arms around her, tucked her head beneath his chin. “I’ve loved you all my life, Sadie Price. And I will go on loving you until we’re old and crabby with great-grandbabies crawling all over us.”

  She laughed and cried a little harder. But her arms snaked around his waist and held him tightly.

  “You should have told me, Rick.” Tipping her head back, she stared up at him, heart in her eyes. “Why didn’t you?”

  He shrugged a little uneasily. “Embarrassed, I guess. Or maybe, I don’t know. Maybe I thought you wouldn’t understand how much I needed to do this.”

  “How could I not understand? I say a prayer for Jeff every night, thanking him for bringing you home to me.”

  “Sadie…”

  She reached up, cupping his face between her palms. “Why would you be embarrassed to do the right thing for your friend and his wife?”

  Rick smirked a little. “Should have told you. With your help it might not have taken so long to convince Lisa to take the damn money.”