His wife cleared her throat and spoke. “He threatened to leave us forever otherwise and there were other threats as well, childish outbursts that only intensified as he grew older. We couldn’t bear the thought of losing him, so we gave him what he wanted. We never saw him again. After all the promises to keep in touch with us, he never did.”
“I’m sorry, truly I am. I knew he was troubled but I didn’t know why.” Gina broke a cookie in half and gave it to Fisher. “I was very lonely when I met him and I think we were good for each other, at least at first anyway.”
“I found it very hard to believe he would turn to drugs and we have to apologize for what was said between the lawyers. I suppose any parent wouldn’t want to be the cause of their child’s problems, and to blame someone else is much easier on the ego.”
“Look, I can understand that, and even though I hated what you thought, I don’t hold it against you. After seeing my father hit rock bottom due to drugs, it’s the last thing I’d do.” She leaned into Rory for comfort and he slid his arm around her waist. She was being very brave about this meeting with Aden’s parents. As he’d held her last night she hadn’t slept worrying about what could happen today, how they would react to her or how upsetting it could get for them all. He had almost canceled the meeting because she was so nervous.
“Anyway, the reason we’re here is to get to know Fisher and you also, Gina, if you’ll agree to it. We have lost time to make up for and we’re not going to miss out on our only grandchild’s milestones in life.” She glanced at her husband again. “I hope you don’t hold grudges because we’re so excited and want to spend a fair bit of time coming to visit if that’s alright with you both. That’s if we can come to an agreement, that is.” Mrs. Bellingham smiled encouragingly and Rory felt sorry for her.
“Um, sure. I don’t see any reason why not. I don’t have any other family apart from Rory’s brothers and father, so it would be nice to see you. That’s okay, isn’t it, honey?” Gina looked at him, uncertainty in her eyes.
“Whatever makes you happy. It’ll be nice for Fisher to have plenty of family. And please call me Rory. ‘Deputy Sheriff’ is a bit of a mouthful all the time.”
Their visitors seemed to relax at this statement and the tension left the room.
“I’m so glad you both feel that way. We’ve been on tender hooks, haven’t we, Richard? I mean, after trying to take your son from you, we didn’t think you’d be open to us visiting. Our lawyers wanted us to go in prepared to fight to the death for Fisher when we found out about Aden but we decided after hearing the report that it would be wrong of us to do that to you. We put you through a terrible time.”
“Yes you did but we understand. You’ve been through a horrible time, too.”
“Yes we have. Especially my dear wife here. She was terrified thinking it wouldn’t possibly all come together. It’s been hard since Aden disappeared and to find out he had died was devastating but the fact he’d left a child behind was the best news we’ve had all year.”
*
“How did you find out he was gone?” Gina held her breath and hoped she wasn’t bringing up something that should stay in the past.
“When we couldn’t find him and he never returned home after the agreed time off, we hired a private investigator. Nothing turned up until we remembered he liked to call himself by my mother’s maiden name when he didn’t want anyone to know who he was. He hadn’t done it for years and we’d almost forgotten about it. Anyway, the police let us know what happened and that in turn pointed us in your direction, Gina. Your old boarding house friend told us you’d packed the car and driven to Montana to start a new life.”
“I see.” She cleared her throat. “How is she? Do you know?”
“We eased her burden financially when we found out she was involved in helping with Fisher when he was born so you could work. Poor thing was beside herself and tried to refuse but if not for her, we may never have found either of you. She did ask if we caught up if we would pass on a message from her.” Mrs. Bellingham opened her purse and took out a crushed envelope, rising to pass it over.
Gina took it and put it on the chair beside her for later.
“There is something else we brought for you too. I hope you don’t mind, we wanted to try to make up for what you’ve been through.” He held up his hand when Gina tried to stop him. “Please let me speak. If we’d known about you and Fisher to start with, you would have been well looked after, instead you brought him into the world in poverty and we can’t forget that and what you’ve gone through. At the end of the day, we feel responsible. This in no way buys anything from you nor is to make you feel like you owe us something, you don’t. It isn’t a bribe to let us see Fisher either, I just wanted to make that very clear.” He cleared his throat and his wife reached for his hand. “It is merely Aden’s life insurance, which we feel is rightfully yours anyway. If we’d known about you, it would have been yours earlier considering you were together and had a child.” He stood up and took a small black folder from his jacket pocket, and handed it over.
Gina looked at Rory before taking it. He nodded his head and she looked at the bank book. When she opened it to the first page, her eyes went wide and she shook her head. “I can’t take this.”
“Gina, please be sensible, my dear.” Richard leaned forward. “If you had been brought into the family when you had Fisher and Aden hadn’t died, you would be incredibly rich by now. It’s a fact of our life which we need you to understand. We’re wealthy and some of that must go to you and our grandson. There is no one else for us to leave it to. When we pass on, Fisher is going to be a very wealthy boy.”
“I don’t want your money. That’s not why I said you could come here today.” She glanced at Rory, panic starting to set in.
“We know that, my dear. If we thought otherwise we wouldn’t be here. You’ll have to get used to it, I’m afraid. There are opportunities for Fisher that you couldn’t possibly imagine.”
“I don’t want you to take over my son. What if he wants to be a cowboy like his uncle or a sheriff like his father?” She licked her lips and glanced at her baby boy. “What if he doesn’t want your money?”
“Then that is his decision to make when he’s of age, my dear. I will make sure that a management committee is in place to guide him or take over if he decides corporate life is not for him.” Richard looked between Gina and Rory. “The main thing is this, I want you both to be taken care of and have everything you need.”
“I can support my family, thanks anyway.” Rory’s shoulder stiffened and it didn’t go unnoticed by the Bellinghams.
“We know that, Rory, and we aren’t trying to take over or stand on your toes. I want to make sure that if, for any reason, Gina or Fisher need anything at all, they can have it. Put the money away and don’t touch it if you want, Gina. Just know that it’s there as a safety net.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it.” Gina took the soggy cookie from Fisher and wiped his fingers. When he wriggled to get down, Rory let him go. The little boy looked at his mother before holding his hand out to his grandparents.
“It’s okay, baby. You can go and say hello.”
Arabella and Richard sat with their gazes locked onto Fisher as he tottered over toward them, gurgling and spitting out unintelligible words as he went. He reached them and pointed his pudgy little fingers at his grandmother’s gold bracelet. She held it up let him fiddle with the charms. After a couple of minutes his interest changed to the beads around her neck. Fisher held his arms out. “Up up.”
Arabella looked at Gina, tears in her eyes waiting for permission to lift up her grandson. Gina smiled at her and wiped away a tear of her own before sliding down into Rory’s lap to watch her son get to know his grandparents.
Epilogue
“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Rory stared at Gina over their morning cup of coffee. “We can get married tomorrow, you know. I have the license and you have the dress, and shoes
, and sexy underwear.”
She smiled at him, a serene smile that wasn’t possible for her before. Now with her future firmly planned out with no hiccups or court cases coming her way, Gina was a relaxed woman and Rory liked it that way.
“Well, we could go ahead and get married now but there’d be something missing and I don’t think that’s fair. I want all of your brothers to be here for you. I think it’s important.”
“Are you sure?” He reached for her hand. “I mean, Chance managed to get a half a conversation in a few days ago with Evan, but he got called to an emergency. He might not call back for days or weeks.”
“I’m sure. We’re together anyway so it doesn’t matter. And now Fisher’s Nana and Pop don’t want to drag us through court, we can take our time.”
“Did I hear Arabella say she wanted to come to the wedding?”
Gina smiled. “Yes, you did. I hope you don’t mind. They’re so very easy to get on with, I seriously don’t know what Aden’s problem was with them. Their personal life should be just that, personal. They’re the sweetest things and they’re going to be a big part of our life so I’m more than happy to have them there on the day.”
“You didn’t have to live with them, he did. If you’re sure it’s what you want to do, I’m fine with it. Don’t think you’re putting this off for very long. I want a ring on your finger, my darling girl. The sooner the better.”
“As soon as you nail down all of your brothers to be here at the same time, we’ll do it; and if you don’t mind, I’d really like to get married in that little church in town. It’s so very pretty, Rory.”
“For you my love, anything. You rescued me from a life of loneliness and I’ll be forever grateful. If all it takes is a date at St James church, you have it.”
The End
If you enjoyed The Sheriff’s Mail-Order Bride, you’ll love the next book in the….
Watson Brother series
Book 1: Chance for Love
Buy Now!
Book 2: The Sheriff’s Mail-Order Bride
View the series here
Book 3: The Doctor’s Husband
Coming soon
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About the Author
After moving to the lush green wine region of Australia’s Hunter Valley, Ann has the perfect surrounding to let her imagination to run wild. She alternates her time between writing western romances, women’s fiction romantic and playing in her garden.
Two kinds of hero make Ann to a mass of nerves. The hot cowboy with a slow sexy drawl (she used to live out in the desert and enjoyed every minute) and a man in a kilt. (Imagine Jamie Fraser) She can’t wait to visit Scotland where she can get her fill of the tartan clad hotties for, um research purposes, of course.
In the meantime, her dear husband puts up with her talking to her characters and getting lost in worlds only she can imagine as she battles to bring stories to the page for everyone to enjoy.
Visit her website at AnnBHarrisonRomance.com
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The Sheriff's Mail-Order Bride (The Watson Brothers #2) Page 17