“None at all.” Fingering the envelope on the table, she wondered if it held any clues. More than likely not. “He did leave a telephone number where he can be reached, though. Would you like me to give it to you?”
“Yes, please.”
Kari repeated it from memory so he could write it down.
“Do you think you might be up to coming into San Antonio on Monday?” Kevin continued. “We’d like to go over Selby’s records with you and see if we can nail the owners who paid him off for destroying their horses.”
“Sure. What time would you like me to be there?”
“How about ten-thirty?”
She agreed to meet him at his office then, politely refused his offer to provide transportation, told him to take care and said goodbye.
She told Estella she was expecting a delivery later in the day, then added that she would be going to San Antonio on Monday, probably just for a day, maybe two. After that, she wasn’t sure what she’d do. But she knew she had to start thinking about it. She felt odd staying in Alex’s house without him. Yet she wasn’t all that eager to leave, either.
Suddenly feeling as if she couldn’t breathe, she tucked his letter into the back pocket of her jeans, excused herself and went out to the deck. The sky was clear, the sun hot, the air still. Pulling one of the chairs into a patch of shade, she sat down and eyed the big old barn standing empty on the far side of the lawn.
A long time later, a van arrived and two men unloaded half a dozen cardboard boxes under Estella’s strict supervision. A short while after that, the housekeeper advised her there was a casserole warming in the oven. Then she showed her how to operate the security system and, promising to return the next morning, left for the day.
Alone on the deck, Kari watched the evening shadows creep across the lawn, no more sure where she was going to go or what she was going to do than when she’d first come out there. With a sigh of resignation, she dug Alex’s letter from her pocket. Knowing she had put it off long enough, she lifted the flap, pulled out the single sheet of paper, unfolded it and began to read:
Dear Kari,
First let me say that more than anything, I wish I could be there with you now. But that wouldn’t be fair to you. For the past two weeks we’ve been more or less forced into each other’s company, and I realize that hasn’t made it easy for you to think straight. Maybe our spending some time apart will give you a chance to sort out how you really feel about everything that’s happened.
I’ll be traveling around until the end of month. Then I thought I would take Laura up on her offer and visit our godson for a few days. The invitation was for both of us. I hope you’ll be there, too. But if not, I’ll understand.
Alex
Clutching the letter to her chest, Kari blinked back the hot tears stinging her eyes. Damn him and his chivalrous soul for tying her up in knots. Of course, he had probably assumed she would read his letter as soon as Estella gave it to her. But still—
He hadn’t left her. Not for good. Just for the time he thought she needed to change her mind about loving him. Well, he was in for a big surprise two weeks from now, because she wasn’t about to change her mind. Not now. Not ever.
She was going to be waiting for him in Virginia. And she was going to tell him—once and for all and in no uncertain terms—exactly how she felt about him. How she would feel about him as long as she had breath in her body.
And if he still didn’t believe her, she would tell him again and again until he finally did.
For several minutes after the taxi pulled away from the curb, Alex stood on the sidewalk in front of Devlin’s house, backpack over his shoulder, hands tucked in the pockets of his jeans. Around him, the sounds of a midmorning Saturday in suburbia drifted on the summer breeze. Lawn mowers roared, dogs barked, kids on bicycles called out to one another and birds chirped high up in the trees.
He had spent most of the past two weeks on a quiet beach in the Florida Keys, walking in the sand and watching the waves roll in, missing Kari more with each day that passed. The temptation to go back to her and do whatever was necessary to bind her to him permanently had been all but overwhelming. Yet he had stayed away, knowing that he owed her the time he had promised her.
A couple of days ago, he had finally left the little house hidden in the dunes. He had intended to go straight to Devlin’s, but at the Miami airport, he had booked a flight to Philadelphia, instead.
He hadn’t been back there in twenty-five years, hadn’t wanted to go back. But suddenly he had seemed to be drawn there. Not so much to the city as to the elegant old house in the posh neighborhood where he had lived in fear and self-loathing so very long ago.
He hadn’t been able to go inside, of course. Wasn’t sure he would have if, by some fluke, the opportunity had presented itself. But standing at the edge of the manicured lawn, gazing at the place that still sometimes haunted his dreams, he finally felt a kind of letting go deep inside himself.
He couldn’t change what had been done to him there, but he did have the power to determine how he behaved now as well as in the future. Yes, he had been subjected to unspeakable horrors once. But he had not only survived, he had gone on to make something worthwhile, something decent and honorable, of himself. And having done that, he no longer had any reason to allow his past either to rule his life or ruin it.
When he had finally turned back to the taxi waiting for him on the street, he had done so with a sense of autonomy he’d never experienced before. And then, his heart filled with hope, he had headed for the airport and a flight to Virginia.
Now he was there, trying to build up the courage to approach the front door, ring the bell and find out if Kari was waiting for him. Leaving the way he had, he’d given her every reason to be furious with him. But he vowed that if she had found it in her heart to give him another chance, he would spend the rest of his life making it up to her.
So, just do it, he ordered himself, putting one foot in front of the other. He had told her he would understand if she wasn’t there, and he would. But actually facing the possibility of having to go on without her was more than he could contemplate.
Both Laura and Devlin answered the door. Standing side by side, they eyed him critically for several seconds. Then Laura smiled and stepped forward, hugging him with warmth and affection.
“Finally,” she murmured. “We were beginning to wonder if you’d gotten lost.”
As she moved back, Devlin offered his hand in greeting.
“Good to see you again, buddy.”
“Good to see you, too,” Alex replied. Then, unable to help himself, he glanced past them, seeking but not finding the woman he loved.
Her smile widening, Laura took him by the arm and drew him into the house.
“Kari is out in the yard with the boys,” she said as if reading his mind.
With an overwhelming sense of relief, Alex dropped his backpack on the floor and started toward the hallway. Then, realizing he had completely forgotten his manners, he paused and turned back to his friends.
“I just thought I would go out and...say hello.”
Slipping her arm around her husband’s waist, Laura gazed at Alex reproachfully. “Actually, we were hoping you would do more than that. A lot more,” she added meaningfully.
“Well, then, I guess I had better not disappoint you.”
He made his way to the kitchen and out the back door, halting on the patio as he caught sight of Kari over by Devlin’s rose garden. She stood with her back to him, holding Andrew up against her shoulder, listening carefully as Timmy pointed to one blossom, then another, naming them for her.
For the space of several heartbeats he stayed where he was, drinking in the sight of her as if she were water and he a man lost much too long in the desert. Then Timmy spotted him and tugged at the hem of her shorts excitedly.
“Aunt Kari, Aunt Kari,” he cried. “Uncle Alex is here. Finally!”
The boy took off running toward him. Alex
met him halfway, catching him in his arms and giving him a fierce hug. Kari followed more slowly, her eyes holding his as she rubbed her hand gently over the baby’s back.
One day, he thought, one day—God willing—she would hold his child that way.
“I’m glad you came,” he said as she halted a few paces from him.
“I’m glad I did, too.” She smiled slightly. “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” Suddenly ill at ease, he shoved his hands in his pockets.
“All right, boys, time to go inside,” Laura said, walking past him to take Andrew from Kari, then resting a motherly hand on Timmy’s shoulder and herding him toward the house.
“But, Mom—” he protested.
“No buts, young man,” she interrupted. Then she glanced up at Alex and, as if reading his mind, added more softly, “Just say what’s in your heart.”
As the back door closed, leaving them alone, Kari took another step toward him, then another, slowly closing the distance between them as her eyes searched his.
Just say what’s in your heart.
“I love you,” he murmured. “Have for as long as I can remember and will until the day I die.”
“And I love you, Alex. With all my heart for always,” she replied as he put his arms around her and held her close, so very close, at last.
Epilogue
Hanging up the telephone, Alex crossed the kitchen and headed out the back door of the house. Waylaid on the deck by Maxie, their exuberant Australian shepherd, he paused to scratch the dog’s floppy ears, his gaze roving over what was now known as Gray-Payton Farms.
Half a dozen horses grazed in the far pasture, while in the arena he had built almost three years ago as a wedding gift for his wife, four young riders practiced taking their horses over low jumps under the direction of Kari’s recently hired assistant, Jennifer Hayden.
Kari herself, holding their two-year-old son, Seth, by the hand, stood near the barn, supervising the unloading of a mare sent to them for training. Having recently found out she was pregnant again, she had been taking it a little easier lately. But she still insisted on putting in full days working hard to make their stable even more well-known than it had already become.
Alex had had no second thoughts at all about giving up the work he had done for Uncle Sam. He’d resigned the Monday after he’d returned to Virginia, and a week later, he and Kari were married at her brother’s house. They bad come back to Texas immediately and had opened Gray-Payton Farms for business one month later. He had loved every minute of it just as he had loved her, and then their son, and now their new baby-to-be.
Remembering the call he had just taken, he continued on his way to the barn, the dog racing along ahead of him.
Kari and Seth greeted him with identical smiles, warming his heart as they always did. Swinging his son onto his shoulders, Alex bent and kissed his wife.
“Kevin called to say he’s running late,” he said.
“But he’s still coming?”
“Yes, he’s still coming.”
“And Jennifer has agreed to stay for dinner.”
“Are you sure it’s wise to push them together?” Alex asked, putting an arm around her waist and drawing her close to his side.
“I can’t think of anyone else who might be able to help her,” Kari replied, her concern for her new friend evident. Then, on a lighter note, she added, “And we’ll be following an old family tradition started by Laura and Devlin. So, what could it hurt?”
“What old family tradition is that?”
“Making sure two people who ought to be together have a chance to actually be together,” she advised with a mischievous smile.
“You know, I like that tradition, love. I like it a lot.”
“So do I,” Kari agreed, resting her head on his shoulder. “So do I.”
ISBN : 978-1-4592-7952-0
THE LADY AND ALEX PAYTON
Copyright © 1996 by Barbara Vosbein
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerogaphy, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Silhouette Books, 300 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 U.S.A.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangements with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
“Why do you think Brandon asked you to marry him?” Alex asked.
Letter to Reader
Books by Nikki Benjamin
About the Author
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
Copyright
The Lady And Alex Payton Page 22