Bound to You

by Vanessa Holland

  He could still smell the scents of one of her big breakfasts in the air and his stomach growled. All he’d had so far was the other half of Ethan’s banana. “I could eat.”

  Marna hopped to work, obviously glad for the chance to stay and gather some gossip.

  His mother motioned him to follow her. He gave Marna a pat on the back and left the kitchen.

  “Where is everybody?” Sam asked as they stepped down into the greenhouse attached to the side of the house. His mother loved puttering with her flowers when she wasn’t puttering with the horses. “Daddy and the men are out working with the horses. Everybody else is where they should be, I guess.”

  Sam sat at the square table in the center of the big room. It was supposed to be a place where his mother could entertain and let people enjoy her flowers, but it was always covered in potting soil instead and she was the only one who used this room.

  “I thought you were heading back to Texas,” she said.

  He could tell she’d already talked herself into being angry about that by the stiff way she carried herself. “I changed my mind,” he said. “I’m coping.”

  “I’d hoped maybe you’d grown up in the past three years, working on the ranch,” she said, taking her clippers to a pink flower plant that matched her shirt.

  Sam had hoped the same thing. “I’m still here. I just panicked for a minute. I’m over it. I’m staying.”

  “You know,” she said, “I knew her mother, way back when. Sort of.”

  He pushed dirt around on the table into a pile. “Jenna’s mom?”

  She nodded. “I’d see her at school functions, when you were little. I remember we were all shocked when she died all of a sudden. She was so young.”

  For the first time Sam realized he must have gone to the same elementary school as Jenna. They might have passed each other in the halls or sat in the same lunchroom. Their paths must have crossed hundreds of times over the years and he’d never known it. Not until they were in high school and she’d been this cute kid staring at him, too young for him to take seriously.

  “I hate to speak ill of the dead,” his mother continued, “but I can’t say I ever really liked her.”

  That caught his attention. “How come?”

  “Oh, she had this way about her. She and her group. I don’t want to say she was a snob, but, well, she was. I remember once I tried to talk to her and she just walked away, as if I didn’t deserve a moment of her time. I hope this girl of hers isn’t the same way. Is that why she won’t let you bring her son out here?”

  “No,” Sam said. Though, he wasn’t so sure. His dad had grown up poor and wild, spending much of his youth up in the mountains of east Tennessee before his family had settled in Middle Tennessee. Some on the Stricklands still had a reputation for being uncivilized troublemakers. Jenna had never seemed stuck-up to him, but now that he thought about it, he realized he didn’t know her all that well. “I don’t have a car seat for him. That’s why I couldn’t bring him out today.”

  “Well, we can fix that,” Sunny said. “Then we’ll see what she has to say.”

  His mother had a temper when pushed and he could see that building in her. She’d turned rough with the flower plant. Boone and Mike were that way, quick to flare. Sam and Jack were more like their father, so easygoing the other three got mad at them about it sometimes. Frankie fell somewhere in the middle, not really taking after either of their parents. She took after their Granny Mae, he’d always heard. Sensible. Tough when she needed to be, soft when she needed to be.

  “Don’t get all riled,” he told her, holding back a chuckle. “You haven’t even met her yet.”

  Sunny lifted the flowerpot and slammed it down on the table. But when she turned around, he saw she was close to tears. “Well, I’m sorry,” she said, “but I’m furious. My grandson is how old? Two years old? And this is the first we’re hearing about it? I don’t even know what he looks like.”

  “I’ll get pictures,” he promised. He couldn’t think what else to say.

  “I don’t want pictures. I want to see my grandson.” She turned her back to him. “I always thought her father was a shifty one, with that fake smile of his. It made my skin crawl seeing his pictures all over town when he was running for mayor. I tell you what, I never did vote for him, that’s for sure. I always wanted to walk up to that woman and tell her I could buy and sell her ten times over. But I didn’t because I was raised better than that. But if this girl is gonna take on the same attitude, well, I just don’t know what. We’re gonna have problems, I can tell you that. She doesn’t wanna get on my bad side.”

  His heartbeat racing, Sam went to her and hugged her from behind. “You’re getting mad about made up stuff again. Do I need to go out and buy you a punching bag?”

  “Yeah,” she said, chuckling crossly. “And I’ll put her picture on it. Pictures…. I have every right to see my grandson in the flesh.”

  He rocked her back and forth hoping to calm her down. “You will,” he assured her, a little worried what she might do. He could imagine her showing up on Jenna’s doorstep slinging accusations and threatening to bring in the lawyers. The Strickland side of the family fought with their fists, but his mother’s side, the Mundays, fought with money and lawyers. And they were a force to be reckoned with. With one phone call, his mother could completely ruin Jenna.

  His mother shook him off and raised both hands. “I’m reserving judgment,” she said. “Until I meet her. But I intend to tell her I really don’t appreciate the way she’s treated us.”

  Sam glanced at the doorway, wondering if he needed to go get his dad. Or, if he needed to go back to Jenna’s and see if Brianna would bring Ethan out. He couldn’t risk getting Jenna anywhere near his mother until she’d calmed down.

  “Come and sit down,” he told her, taking her arm. “Don’t do anything reckless. You’re really mad at Jenna’s mom for blowing you off.”

  Sunny came over to the table and sat down, slowly and carefully. She looked old suddenly, all her years catching up to her at once. “I’m really not,” she said, glaring at him. “I’m mad that this girl hid my grandson from me.”

  Sam sat down, spread the potting soil out into a long line, and wrote be happy in it upside down for her to see. An old game they used to play when he was little. He’d learned the alphabet writing in potting soil.

  “You’re just like your dad,” she said as if that were a fault. “Always happy, always trying to make everybody else happy.” She erased the words and wrote Ethan. “What kind of silly name is that, anyway?”

  He raised an eyebrow at her and wrote Samson. “Really, Mom?”

  That finally did the trick and she smiled. “Your dad wanted to name you Luster Pride, after his dad. And if you were a girl, Fancy Dove, after his grandmother. He wanted to call you Dovey.”

  They both had a laugh at that. “I guess I was lucky, then.”

  “You better believe it, buster.”

  “Promise you won’t sue anybody,” he said, having to get serious again. “I’m trying to work things out with her.”

  She waved a hand. “Oh, I’m not gonna do anything. I’ll be nice. I suppose you’re right. I’m still mad at her mother. But she still should have told us.”

  “Well, unless you’ve got a time machine hidden in a closet somewhere, there’s nothing we can do about that.”

  She crossed her arms and looked off, taking on that superior attitude she got sometimes. Probably the same attitude she accused Jenna’s mother of having. “So, what’s she like? This girl of yours?”

  “Jenna? You can say her name. Your tongue won’t burst into flames. She’s… I don’t know, beautiful, smart, sensible. She’s a lot like Frankie, I guess.” He couldn’t help but chuckle. “She thinks I’m funny, even when I’m not trying to be. We used to have the best times.” Again, he thought of the Jenna he’d once known, the one glowing with life and smiles, and all the amazing times they’d had together. Before everything
fell apart.

  “Oh, good lord,” his mother said, bringing him back to the present. She was frowning at him. “I don’t believe it.”

  “What?”

  “You’re in love with her,” she said. “I never thought I’d see that. I thought you’d be a bachelor forever, just like Jack. Dadburnit.”

  “What?” he asked again.

  “Well,” she said, frowning more wildly, “if you love her, then I’ll have to love her, too.”

  He didn’t actually want to talk about his love life with his mother, but at the same time, he did want to linger on the subject. He dug in his pocket and took out the engagement and wedding rings he’d bought for Jenna, by way of explaining his plans.

  But instead of being glad he was trying to make an honest woman of Jenna and get his family together, his mother made a face at the ring set, which fitted together like a puzzle to become one ring, and took it from him to examine it.

  “What?” he asked. “It’s no good?”

  “Oh, honey,” she said, handing back the rings as if she felt dirty touching them.

  “Frankie was tired and Becky and Crystal were busy,” he explained. “I had to do it all by myself.”

  He’d just gone to the mall and bought the ring the saleslady had chosen. He’d been in a hurry and hadn’t given a thought to Jenna’s style or personality, or whether the ring was what a woman would consider pretty. It was big and had a lot of diamonds in it. It was packed with diamonds of all sizes. It had cost a near fortune.

  Sunny stood and waved for him to follow. “Return that gaudy thing,” she said and led him upstairs. “I have something much better. I’ll have to take it to my jeweler and have it reset. It’s a necklace now but it’ll make such a nice engagement ring. It belonged to my mother.”

  Sam sat on the bed and waited while she took her jewelry boxes out of the wall safe in her bedroom. Mirabelle, Marna’s daughter, who helped out around the house part-time, left the room to give them some privacy, pulling a vacuum cleaner behind her.

  Sam looked around at the Southwestern décor in the large room – possibly his mother’s tribute to her roots. Or a cure for homesickness. He’d never asked. A huge Star of Texas hung over the fireplace and there was a tall cactus by the door you had to watch out for. And there was the print on the wall that had always bothered him, of a starving cow surrounded by wolves in a desolate winter scene. He’d always wanted to burn that horrible print. Since he’d been a kid, he’d only wanted everyone and everything to be safe and happy. He’d never understood how his parents could stand to look at that print every day.

  Sunny brought the boxes over to the bed. “And I have the earrings and bracelet to match. You’ll give her those on your wedding day.”

  “Okay.”

  If there was a wedding day.

  The nerves had returned, but not because he wasn’t sure he wanted to marry Jenna. He’d known for the past three years she was the one. Only one pestering memory had clouded his judgment about that. But the pestering memory didn’t seem threatening anymore, now that he could trace it to its origin. He’d loved Jenna Morgan from the first moment their eyes met and he loved her still.

  The threat now came from Jenna herself. He wasn’t sure she’d want to marry him. He could never quite get a read on her feelings for him.

  She wasn’t one to be rushed back into a relationship. That much he knew. He’d learned that lesson at the pond.

  He wasn’t even sure she really wanted him around their son.

  “Crystal told me she’s having serious financial problems,” his mother said. “Boone thinks that’s why she telling you that boy is your son.”

  “No,” Sam answered. “He’s mine. I’ll do a DNA test if it’ll shut Boone up.”

  What really worried him were the money problems he kept hearing about. And that was something he could help Jenna with.

  But he didn’t like the idea of her marrying him for his money. To escape her financial problems. He wanted her to marry him because she couldn’t live without him any more than he could live without her.

  Sunny found the jewelry set that made him see what she’d meant about the flashy ring he’d bought. She held the necklace setting over her finger. A square blue stone with a diamond on either side. It was dainty and pretty and the light blue stone was the color of Jenna’s eyes.

  “See?” she said, smiling. “This is the right one. This is the one for her.”

  He did see. It was exactly right.

  And Jenna was exactly right.

  If only he could find out if she felt the same way about him.

  “Food’s on the table!” Marna called through the intercom.

  Sam was about to stand when his mother caught his arm and stopped him. “You need to be here with your new family now,” she said, making sure to make eye contact. “Now that your granddaddy’s gone, there’s really no reason for you to go and live out there on the ranch on your own. Bucky has everything well in hand. Come and be back with your family for a while. We all miss you.”

  He went ahead and stood. He’d imagined Jenna and Ethan living with him in Texas. He’d promised his dying grandfather he’d stay and take care of the ranch. “I’ll think about it.”

  In the kitchen, Marna had set out quite a spread for him. Ham and eggs, biscuits with sausage gravy, fried potatoes, toast with homemade strawberry jam, orange juice and coffee. He left his mom to take advantage. He’d missed Marna’s cooking. She’d been with the family as long as he could remember and credited herself with all the Strickland boys growing up tall and strong.

  His dad, Knox, came in the back door and yelled, “There’s my boy! Saw his truck. Why didn’t anybody call me?”

  Before Sam made it to the table, his dad grabbed him around the middle from behind. Once, he’d have lifted Sam off the floor, but he couldn’t anymore.

  “Big as an ox,” Knox said, laughing as he gave up. He went after his wife instead, grabbed her in a hug and lifted her feet off the floor. She squealed to be put down, swatting him away when he did. But she was laughing.

  Marna was laughing, too, nodding as she pointed insistently to the food at the table.

  And suddenly everything seemed like it always had. Like it should have been.

  Becky was right. Once the decision was made, truly made, the fear vanished.

  And Sam knew exactly what he had to do.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “What’s with you?” Brianna asked as she drove Jenna home. “You’re acting weird.”

  Jenna looked back at Ethan who was singing softly to one of his stuffed animals.

  “Am I?”

  Bri gave her arm a slap. “You look happy.”

  Jenna smiled. She felt happy. “I got a promotion today. And a raise. A big raise.”

  Bri gasped, swerving on the road. Jenna pointed for Bri to pay attention. “Don’t get too excited. It won’t solve all our problems but at least now I’ll earn enough for Ethan and me to live on after we move and I can help you with college.”

  Bri sighed. “But not Vanderbilt?”

  “Not yet. It’s not like they made me a partner.”

  But thanks to her college degree, and the experience she’d gained at the firm, she would soon be a paralegal. Maybe one day she’d go back and finish her law degree.

  And she’d won a slight victory over Brandon Stewart, and all the Stewarts, today. After Mr. O’Hara had explained all about Kenneth Stewart’s demands, and threats, Jenna had tried to talk her way out of the firing, to use some of the verbal skills her father had taught her. But Mr. O’Hara had held up a sharp hand and stopped her. He’d declared he didn’t like demands and wasn’t going to be threatened. By anyone. His grandfather had started the firm eighty years ago and they hadn’t survived this long by cowering to threats.

  Besides, he’d said, it’s an idle threat. Winston Stewart needs to get his boys in line and I plan to tell him so myself at the club this evening.

  “And get this,”
she told Brianna. “Brandon’s grandfather isn’t sick at all. Mr. O’Hara said he’s healthy as a horse. I think Brandon made all that up, about the will and having to get married. I knew it sounded fishy.”

  “He’s crazy,” Bri said, seeming genuinely worried. “Why would he say all that? What does he want?”

  “I really don’t know,” Jenna answered. She’d been wondering the same thing herself.

  “Don’t ever talk to him again,” Bri ordered.

  “Don’t worry.”

  But as Brianna pulled up the drive, Jenna saw the silver Porsche parked in the front of the house, in place of Sam’s truck.

  Bri hit the brakes hard, sending them all leaning forward. She was about to put the car in reverse but Jenna stopped her. “Just park in the garage and take the baby inside. I’ll deal with this.”

  “What if he does something bad?”

  “He won’t. He wouldn’t dare. Other people know he’s out to hassle me now.” Whether Brandon was crazy or not, she couldn’t say, but she knew how much he valued his reputation. “I need to put an end to this.”

  Brianna pulled up to the house and let Jenna out then did as she was told. Brandon sat slouched down in his car with the top down, just sitting there as superior as ever, with his arm resting on the door and his shades pushed up on his head.

  “You need to leave me alone,” she told him as she approached.

  “Have a good day at work?” he asked, smirking.

  She stopped within speaking distance, but put herself between him and the porch steps. “Actually, I did. I had a great day. I got a promotion.”

  Brandon’s eyes widened instantly and he jerked to an upright position, causing his shades to fall at a crooked angle. He grabbed them and threw them to the seat beside him. Apparently, he hadn’t heard the news yet.

  “Liar,” he said, his face reddening.

  “Ask your father. Or, better yet, ask your grandfather.” She checked her wristwatch. “You’ll probably want to catch him before he leaves for the club.”

  Eyes still wide, face still red, Brandon started his car and put it in gear. “We’re not done,” he said and sped off.