Unexpected Love (White Oak-Mafia #2)

by Liza O'Connor

“I’ll talk to Tom about getting you reimbursed for removing this menace from the park.”

  She waved him off. “When a fifty-cent bullet would’ve solved your problem? Don’t you dare. I’m the one who should indulge my sweet Tess, not the state of Iowa.”

  He smiled. “Well, thank you.” He then told her of the discoveries they’d made that day, making sure to credit Tess whenever possible.

  Once they were talked out, they watched the lights of the Mississippi appear as night fell.

  “You have a perfect life, here,” Steel said as they sat in growing darkness and enjoyed the view.

  Tess rested her head upon his shoulder. “We do. But having you here makes it better.”

  Her words and actions touched him. They had been through a harrowing event today and had come out the stronger for it. That had not always been the case. But this time fate had favored him. Tess was exactly what he needed.

  Helen spoke from her chair. “I talked to Tom today. For some reason he thought you’d be done with your tour by noon.”

  “That’s how long his tour took,” Tess said.

  “Well, I assured him I would be most disappointed if that were the case. Still, when it neared dusk, I got worried.”

  “Normally, I hate to worry people, but in this case, I’m glad you did.” Steel looked down at Tess to get her opinion. She was sound asleep. “I should call Tom and let him know I’d love to have this job.”

  “I already did,” Helen replied.

  Her admission shocked him.

  “You belong here, Steel. I can see it clear as day. You’ll have your archeology to focus on and Tess, as your assistant, can manage the forests.”

  He nodded in agreement and stared at Tess, pressed to his side. He did belong here, not only professionally, but emotionally.

  “She’s let you in. Never done that with a man before,” Helen admitted.

  “I think the credit goes to Grumpy.”

  Helen grunted. “Glad I didn’t shoot the menace then.”

  “Me, too.”

  The stars were now shining in the sky. Helen sighed heavily. “When I’m gone, she’ll need you.”

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “Hard to say.” She stared out at the stars. “Where do you think heaven resides?”

  His body tensed at her words. “Helen, do you think someone intends you harm?”

  She shrugged. “If they do, they haven’t much time to act. But for Tess’s sake, I hope they don’t. When your own father and brothers are the worst people you know, it makes it hard to trust anyone.” Her eyes grew watery. “But she trusts you, and so do I. You’re a good man, untainted by evil. Make sure you stay that way.”

  He nodded, but could find no words to form in response.

  “There’s a lot of space down here. It would make a nice lodge for you and your park rangers.”

  “And where will you be?” he asked, finding her tone worrisome in its peaceful finality.

  “I’ve left clear instructions on that. I’d hoped Jonas would see to them, but I fear the old man beat me to the punch. Probably just as well. He let me down so many times in my life. I thought we’d gotten past all that, but I was wrong. When it came between family and love, he always chose family.” Her eyes met Steel’s. “I’m trusting you’ll side with love.”

  Given how little he cared for his family, he nodded in agreement.

  “I need to talk to Tess now. So you go on to your room, but stay awake. My little angel will need you before long.”

  “Is there something I should know?” he asked.

  “I’m sure she’ll tell you soon enough. Now go on.”

  The minute he shifted his weight and tried to ease away from Tess, she woke and straightened up. “Sorry, did I fall asleep on you?”

  “Not complaining. I just need to call Tom and tell him I really want this job.”

  Her smile radiated with joy. “Thank you.”

  He stroked her face, feeling more at peace than he could ever recall.

  ***

  Once inside his room, he called Tom.

  “Well, is this not the perfect job for you?” his old friend asked.

  “More than you know.” He then told him about the village and mounds he’d found.

  “Thank God I didn’t find them,” Tom said. “That would have put me in a bad situation, but fortunately, all that is behind us. This is great news! Can’t wait to see them.”

  “We need to proceed cautiously. These mounds are distinctly different than Effigy’s. We might be looking at something that was built in the eighteen hundreds.”

  “I doubt it. People who settled here back then had no time to build useless mounds. They struggled to survive. And the only reason they would have gone into these woods was to hunt deer.”

  Which meant it had to be later. “When do you think they might have been built?”

  “Are you asking if I think Helen or Tess built them? Hell no.”

  “What about their family?”

  “Now, I would have believed that very possible, but had they done so, they would have used the mounds’ existence to have the prior governor claim Helen’s land. Since they didn’t make such a claim, they certainly didn’t build them. You have to be looking at something the Indians did because that’s all that makes sense.”

  “And that will be your official stand?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Good. Then I’ll focus on dating the site first thing. Until we do, we need to keep quiet about these sites, or I’ll have other archeologists claiming they are a fraud before I can gather the data to prove they aren’t.”

  “My lips are sealed. Think you can have me a project plan within a month?”

  Steel grimaced. He hated government project planning. “I suppose. Tess and I’ll both need laptops with the various software required to present whatever you’re looking for.”

  Tom chuckled. “I’ll have my assistant handle that. I just see the output at my level. I wouldn’t have a clue how to create them. However, if you need to be trained on the software, let me know and I’ll make it happen.”

  Chapter 7

  Once Steel had left the room, Grams rose from her chair and joined Tess on the couch. “We need to talk.”

  “I don’t know why Grumpy wouldn’t back down when I sprayed him with pepper spray. A full can should have stopped him.” She gripped Grams’ hand. “Do you think someone could have messed with my spray cans?”

  “Possibly, but it no longer matters. Tomorrow, Grumpy will have a new home.”

  Tess opened her mouth to object. If someone had switched out her pepper spray, she needed to put a new lock on the outdoor shed. Before she had a chance to object, Helen gripped her hand.

  “Tess, I have liver cancer, and before it destroys my body, I plan to end my life on my own terms.”

  Tess opened her mouth to give voice to her anguish and distress, but nothing came out. All she could do was shake her head. This couldn’t be true. It couldn’t! God wouldn’t do this to her again.

  “Now listen to me,” Grams ordered as she placed her old but strong hands on each side of Tess’s face. “I know you’re going to compare this to losing your mother, but it’s not the same. While my years with Eddie were pure hell, I’ve had a good sixty years of bliss living in these woods. So overall, I’ve had a better life than most can claim. And I want the ending to be a good one. Which means I don’t want to die in a hospital where all the family will come and smirk at my pain. I want to leave this life in my woods where I have always been happy.”

  Tess buried her face into her Grams’ bosom.

  “If it were possible to beat this, I would try for you. But there is no chance of recovering from this blow. My only choice is how I die.”

  Tess stared up at her, breathing hard as if she’d run from Grumpy for a million years. “I don’t want you to suffer, but I don’t…” She fought for air and then continued. “I don’t know how I’ll survive this.”


  Grams petted her the same way she had when Tess’s mother had allegedly killed herself. At that time, Grams had promised she would always be there for Tess, and she had…

  Until now.

  “Tess, this will be nothing like your mother’s death. I’m not escaping life…just a bad death. Since God has decided I’ll die, I’m deciding how I’ll go out. I want to die in my woods. No one else will understand, but you…I need to know you support my decision.”

  Tess wanted to shake her head no, to stop her Grams from dying, but if that wasn’t an option, then she deserved a good death. Seeing the desperation in her sweet Grams’ eyes, she nodded. “I do. I don’t want you to suffer.”

  Grams breathed out in relief and pulled Tess tight against her. Her grip was so strong. How could she be dying?

  “Wait!” She pushed back. “Are you positive that Father hasn’t paid your doctor to lie to you?”

  Grams nodded. “I suspected the same thing, so while you were in school, I went to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and got a second and third opinion.”

  “That’s when you started searching for someone to buy your woods.”

  “Yes.”

  Tess smiled through her tears. “At least that worked out.”

  “Better than I’d ever hoped for, but had I known the danger I put Meg in, I wouldn’t have done it.”

  Now it was Tess’s turn to plant her hands upon her grandmother’s cheeks and lock into her eyes. “You did what you thought was best, and it worked out beautifully. So don’t you dare regret anything.”

  She turned and kissed Tess’s palm. “I should probably regret a thousand things I did or didn’t do, but I can’t. If I had aborted my sons before they were born, I could have ended the Campinelli line once and for all. Only that means you would have never existed. And you have been a precious angel from the day you were born. You’ve given me such joy. And finally I can leave, knowing both my woods and my beautiful granddaughter are in good hands.”

  Her words confused Tess. She agreed the woods were safe, but didn’t Grams realize she was her rock and foundation? The only person in the world Tess loved and trusted?

  “When I die” —Grams lifted Tess’s chin so their eyes met— “do not push away from Steel. He’s a good man and will be your new rock if you’ll let him.”

  Tess shook her hand. “No. I screwed everything up today. He was going to refuse the job until Grumpy treed him.”

  “Well, damn it, now I’ve got to be grateful to that four-legged menace.”

  When Tess laughed, Grams joined her.

  “Thank you, for understanding,” Grams said and closed her eyes.

  “Are you in pain?”

  “A bit.”

  “Did the doctors give you painkillers?”

  “They did, but I’m saving them for my gentle departure.”

  Her words struck Tess hard. A part of her wanted to find the pills and hide them, but the rational part knew that would only deny Grams her choice of how she’d leave this world.

  Grams gripped her hand. “Let’s get back to your misconception that Steel doesn’t have feelings for you.”

  “He doesn’t. He might have been leaning in that direction, but I ruined it.” She then told Grams about her horrible betrayal and what happened afterward.

  Grams sighed. “Well, I have to admit, most men would have run to the hills, but he’s a cut above most men. I could tell it right off. Nor do I think he and Grumpy had some man-to-bear talk about forgiveness. Your actions spoke louder than your words.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You risked your life to save him…not once, but every time you left a tree and got that bear to come after you.”

  “I would have done the same for anyone.”

  “Would not.”

  “I would have done it for you.”

  She patted Tess’s head. “That’s true enough. But you had to trust him to do exactly as you said. And he had to trust you to know when to yell ‘tree’. Had you been off by five seconds, Steel would be dead now.”

  “And I had to trust him to keep doing that dangerous run over and over.” She leaned her head on her Gram’s lap. “You really think he loves me?”

  “No other reason he’s still here…and then there was the way he stared at you when you fell asleep against him.”

  “How’d he stare at me?” Tess asked.

  “With pure adoration and love.”

  Tess relaxed a bit at her words. “Maybe we should keep Grumpy. He can help me fix matters when I screw stuff up.”

  “Hell no. But I will try to stay around as long as I can to keep you on the right track.”

  Tess smiled. “It could take years for me to truly trust Steel.”

  Grams smacked her on her head. “It had better not. I don’t have more than a month left, so you need to push yourself and see beyond your fears. Quite frankly, even if I were around for a year, he’d give up and leave long before that.”

  “Then he never really loved me.”

  “Tess, sit up and look at me!”

  Tess knew that voice all too well. She was about to be chided. But if Grams was right and they only had a month left, she didn’t want to remember one word of it being spoken in a scold.

  She faced her grams. “Please don’t lecture me.”

  Her Grams’ stern face faded. “I won’t if you promise not to be so judgmental. If Steel didn’t have some attraction to you, he wouldn’t have threatened to leave today. It’s very hard to enter a relationship of unrequited love, especially for a man who has probably been adored by every woman he’s met.”

  “So you think he’s a runabout?”

  “No, and don’t jump to the worst conclusion possible. That is your way of making sure you never trust anyone, but it is also a trait of your father…always expecting the worst out of people.”

  Had her grams slapped her, it couldn’t have hurt more. “You think I’m like my father?” she asked softly.

  “Good God, no. Not in your heart. You are an angel, and he is Satan. But until now, the only person you’ve trusted enough to share your angelic love with is me.”

  She nodded in agreement.

  “Tess, while you might not be ready to share yourself with the whole world, you have to open up to Steel, and once you escape the family for good, then open your heart to others. You were meant to love and be loved. That’s what angels do.”

  “Maybe I’m not an angel then,” she muttered.

  “You’re just scared. So start with Steel. I have a very good feeling about him.”

  “Like you did with Meg?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay.”

  “And Tess. You don’t need to worry about the cost of college anymore or getting your father to co-sign your loans. When I die, you will have more money than you’ll ever need. I trust you to spend it wisely.”

  “I promise,” she whispered and hugged Grams. “I would rather have you than the money.”

  Grams patted her back. “I know. But I can’t change my death. I can only secure your future. Now, go on to bed.”

  “Aren’t you going to bed, too?”

  “No, I think I’ll sleep in my chair for now on. It hurts less if I’m sitting. And this way, I can wake to the sunrise.”

  Tess helped her to her chair, then pulled the blanket from the couch and tucked her Grams in. “I love you so much.” Her voice quivered as she spoke.

  “Stop crying. I want to enjoy my last month with you. No more tears, no more discussion of this matter. Let’s just enjoy life.”

  “Okay,” Tess muttered and hurried from the room before she burst into tears again. She paused at Steel’s room. She needed to cry and to be held. She had no right to ask that of him, but she needed someone to hold her.

  Chapter 8

  Tess knocked on Steel’s door, then lost her nerve and ran to her room. Once inside, she leaned against the door. Her heart pounded as if Grumpy had been on her heels again, th
en it turned wooden and hollow. It took her a moment to realize why. Someone was knocking on her door. She opened it, expecting Grams had thought of more advice to share.

  Instead, Steel stood there, his eyes full of worry. Before she could say a word, he’d pulled her into his arms. “Talk to me.”

  Grams was right. He did have feelings for her.

  Her knees buckled as heartbreak overwhelmed her. He led her to the bed and sat beside her, holding her tight to his chest as she burst into tears.

  When she finally found voice to her pain, he listened. Sorrow, yet strength, shown in his eyes.

  When she calmed, he suggested she change out of her hiking clothes and dress in her pajamas. Once she came out of the bathroom in her PJs, he tucked her in bed.

  When he rose to leave, she spoke. “Stay with me.” She almost told him he was all she would soon have, but feared that would scare him off. And Grams was right. She needed Steel’s strength.

  He sat in her rocking chair and closed his eyes.

  “You won’t get any sleep there.”

  A faint smile touched his lips. “I’ll survive.”

  “I’ll share my bed with you.”

  His eyes popped opened. “What?”

  He wasn’t going to make this easy. But after the way she’d been treating him, she couldn’t blame him.

  “I want you to sleep beside me.”

  He leaned forward. “Tess, are you sure? I don’t want you to wake in the morning and feel I’ve taken advantage of you.”

  “I won’t.”

  He covered his face with his hands and rubbed.

  “I don’t blame you for not trusting me, but I promise, if you’ll come to bed, I won’t regress in the morning. I’ll be the nice Tess that you like.”

  He sighed and leaned forward, staring at his hiking boots. “Perhaps I should return to my room and change first.”

  She met his eyes. “Do you promise to return?”

  “I do.”

  “Okay, little promises build up trust, so don’t fail me.”

  “Little trusts do matter,” he said and studied her. “I’ll be back.”

  He didn’t say “just don’t backtrack in the morning” but she knew he was thinking it.