The MacKenzies: Happily Ever After (The MacKenzie Family)

by Liliana Hart

  But fate had a way of lending a hand when it was least expected, and despite the precautions, they’d managed to make another child. She wasn’t afraid to admit she was scared. She remembered what it was like to go through the last pregnancy—alone and unsure of how to even be a mother.

  And then she’d held that sweet baby in her arms for the first time, and there was nothing in her life that was more important. She’d had so much anger at Dane, though he hadn’t known about the baby at the time, but she vowed she’d be the best mother she could be. And her pride kept her for asking for help or calling on the MacKenzies to track down Dane when things got difficult. And boy, did things get difficult.

  Charlotte didn’t know how or why she and Dane had managed to reconnect—the love between them was as strong as ever—but she was grateful. She was also older and wiser than she’d been when he’d left, and she knew if he’d stayed things would have fallen apart between them. They hadn’t been ready. And she didn’t regret her choice to raise Jayden on her own. She’d made a life for the both of them. A good life. Getting the chance to love Dane again was just an added bonus.

  Now she and Jayden had an instant family, and it was a little overwhelming. It had been just the two of them for so long, and they weren’t used to families like this one. Hell, she wasn’t sure if there even was another family like this one. But one look at the way Jayden seemed to blossom around his uncles told her it was the right decision. He needed that male influence, and as much as she hated to admit it, that was a bond she couldn’t give him.

  “Hey, do you know anything about cooking hams?” Darcy asked.

  Dane’s cousin was a freshman in college, and she’d learned to hold her own in a family of all males. She, her brother Cade, and Cooper all looked so much alike with their black hair and blue eyes that it always seemed to her like Cooper had been sent home with the wrong side of the family.

  “I know you’re supposed to take that plastic thing out of the middle before you stick it in the oven,” Charlotte said, grinning.

  Darcy was brilliant. Just not in the kitchen. The burnt cookies in the little red tin she’d brought over were testament to that.

  “Cade told me I was supposed to leave the plastic thing in so the ham didn’t collapse.”

  Charlotte bit the inside of her lip to keep from laughing out loud and she caught Cade’s eye in time to see him grin and head back out of the kitchen to avoid Darcy’s wrath. She showed Darcy how to fix the ham, and they’d just put it in the oven when there was a big crash in the family room.

  She slammed the oven door shut and went running along with everyone else. Riley was sprawled on the floor with a cut on his temple and a heavy book in his lap. A large pedestal sat in two pieces next to him and a Nerf football lay beside it, obviously the culprit. By the guilty looks on Jayden and Riley’s face, they were both to blame for the accident.

  “Were you playing football in the house?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Jayden answered. “But we weren’t running.” His look was hopeful, as if that particular rule they didn’t break made it any better.

  “It’s my fault,” Riley said, touching the gash at his temple. “It was my idea to play.”

  “That doesn’t mean Jayden doesn’t need to be responsible for his own actions when he makes bad choices.”

  Jayden hung his head, and Charlotte immediately wanted to back down, especially when everyone was staring at them. She hated being the bad guy, and even more so when there were witnesses to judge her parenting skills.

  “Your mom’s right,” Dane said, taking a step forward. “I’m not saying MacKenzies don’t make their fair share of mistakes. But we always own up to them and apologize. Then hopefully the next time you’re faced with the same choice you make the right decision.”

  Dane patted Jayden on the shoulder, and Charlotte winced as he moved out of Dane’s reach. It was time she had a talk with him about cutting Dane a break. Dane was doing the best he could, and she wasn’t going to be able to hide the baby she was carrying for too much longer. She was amazed Dane hadn’t figured it out already. Her breasts were larger and much more sensitive than they’d been before. If they’d been living together, the morning sickness definitely would have given her away.

  Thomas found bandages and disinfectant and came back into the room. He probably kept them close by if this kind of thing was a standard occurrence. She’d been around the MacKenzies enough in the past few months to know they got into their fair share of accidents that involved bloodshed.

  “I’m sorry I broke your stand thing for your book,” Jayden mumbled.

  “You and I can do penance in the kitchen by doing the dishes,” Riley said. “It’ll be a workout getting all the burnt stuff off the pans.”

  “Hey, I take offense to that,” Darcy said.

  Jayden snickered appreciatively, and Riley winced as Thomas doctored the cut on his head. Dane walked over to get the book that had toppled off the stand and into Riley’s hands. It looked old and the pages were edged with gold. It was hardbound in scarred brown leather and it had a wide leather strap with a bronze buckle that kept it closed.

  “No damage done here at least,” Dane said, “So we can all live another day.”

  “What is it?” Jayden couldn’t help but ask, his curiosity getting the better of him.

  “It’s the MacKenzie Family Bible. It belonged to my great-great grandfather. He was a US Marshal. That’s his badge and rifle in the case over there, along with his picture.”

  “Did he shoot a lot of people?” Jayden asked excitedly.

  Dane looked up at Charlotte with raised brows and she shrugged. He’d started the story and he’d have to be the one to finish it.

  “Not a lot of people. But he did shoot his own brother.”

  Everyone got really quiet, and Charlotte had to admit, even her curiosity was piqued after that bombshell was dropped.

  “His own brother? I thought you said MacKenzies watched out for each other.”

  “Come here and I’ll tell you about it,” Dane said, heading over to the coffee table and kneeling down. He unlatched the buckle of the Bible and everyone waited until Jayden took his spot next to Dane. And then they moved in to surround them. Charlotte was swept right along with them and found a spot in front of the fireplace to listen.

  The pages were paper thin and yellowed with age, and Dane handled them delicately as he flipped to the section he was looking for. A folded square of brown parchment stuck up from the pages and Dane smiled as he held it up.

  “You guys remember this?” he said to his brothers.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen that,” Cooper said. “Mom must have put it back in. I don’t think we’ve opened that Bible since she died.”

  “What is it?” Jayden asked.

  “It’s a treasure map,” Dane said, enjoying the excited gasp that escaped his son’s lips. He’d felt the same way when he’d been a boy, and the map had provided hours and hours of entertainment for him and his brothers. “But I should probably start at the beginning. You see, Cole MacKenzie settled the land where this house is and the five hundred acres around us back in the 1800s.

  “Cole was a lawman, like I told you, and he’s the one who started this ranch, running cattle all the way down to Texas and back and raising horses. He built a little log cabin a few miles from here, on the west side of the lake back in the trees. The original MacKenzie homestead.

  “Cole was a good man. But his brother was something else entirely. Riley was an outlaw.”

  “Whoa!” Jayden said and then he turned to his uncle. “You were named after an outlaw?”

  “So it would appear,” Riley said.

  “Cool. What happened?”

  Dane wiped his hand over his mouth to hide his grin. He hadn’t seen the kid this excited since he’d been back home, and he’d do almost anything to keep that look on his face.

  “No one really knows what happened
between Riley and Cole. We only have the stories that have been passed down through the generations, and who knows what might have been lost along the way. What we do know is that Riley supposedly robbed a convoy of gold headed to one of the local banks. Riley was the leader of the Silver Creek Bandits. They robbed banks all over the country for almost ten years and no one ever caught them.”

  “Except for Cole, right?”

  Dane nodded. “That’s one of the reasons he was appointed as US Marshal. They figured if anyone knew how to catch Riley MacKenzie, it would be his own brother.”

  “Did Cole really hunt down his own brother? That just doesn’t seem right.”

  “I’m not sure we’ll ever know the real story behind it.”

  “You should do research. You’re a journalist, right? Mom says you traveled all over the place and wrote stories about different things that happened. This would be just like that, only about your own family.”

  Dane looked at him in surprise and wondered why he’d never thought of it before. He was in the perfect position to do exactly that. “Good idea. Maybe I’ll draft you as research assistant.”

  He caught Charlotte’s quick smile and lost his train of thought before he remembered what he was going to say. “The only information we have at the moment is what my Grandpa MacKenzie told us. He said that Riley turned on the Silver Creek Bandits and killed them all so the gold would be his and he wouldn’t have to share.

  “And despite the fact that Cole was the US Marshal, it wasn’t him who hunted Riley down. It was the other way around. Riley showed up on Cole’s doorstep one afternoon out of the blue, but Cole was out with the horses and his wife was at home alone.

  “She was pregnant with their first child and he didn’t like to leave her alone for long periods of time, so Cole came home and found his brother there, and his first thought was for his wife and unborn child. He’d already been through hell and back to keep her safe, and his love for her was greater than the love he had for his brother. So Cole gunned Riley down, right there on the porch.”

  “Geez. That’s harsh. What happened to the gold?”

  “Well, that’s the part that gets a little hazy. As Riley lay there dying, he told Cole where he hid the gold. And before he drew his last breath, he apologized for all the sins he’d committed and asked for forgiveness. Grandpa MacKenzie remembered hearing Cole tell him the story when he was just a little boy. Cole was Grandpa MacKenzie’s grandfather,” Dane said by way of explanation when Jayden looked confused.

  “And Grandpa MacKenzie said Cole always got misty-eyed whenever he told that last part of the story. He regretted having to pull the trigger until his dying day. But he said he would have done it again in a heartbeat, because his wife was the love of his life and he wouldn’t have been whole without her. MacKenzies only love once, you know.”

  Dane looked at Charlotte and watched her cheeks flush with color. She still wasn’t comfortable with displays of affection, no matter how small, in front of Jayden.

  “That’s gross stuff,” Jayden said, scrunching his nose. “I don’t want to hear about love and crap. I want to hear about the gold. Did Cole find it?”

  Dane unfolded the square of brown parchment that had been stuck between the pages. The paper was worn along the creases, but the paper was thick and oiled, unlike paper used in modern times. The ink was faded black, but it was still legible enough to read.

  “Cole made a map of where Riley told him the gold was hidden. He told Grandpa MacKenzie he wrote it down just as Riley told him, but he said he never found it. He thought Riley might have been delirious from his wounds and unable to give all the directions to where he’d hidden it. That didn’t stop my grandpa from looking for it himself though, just as his father had when he was a boy.”

  “We used to camp out in the area when we were kids and search for it,” Cooper said. “The original MacKenzie house burned to the ground a long time ago, but the rubble is still there, and all of the landmarks on the map are easy to find. We thought for sure we’d be the ones to find it. But we never did.”

  “Maybe I’ll be the one to find it,” Jayden said. “Maybe you just need fresh eyes.”

  Dane laughed and wanted to ruffle his son’s hair, but was afraid he’d pull away from him again. Jayden had been sitting close to him for the past hour and that was a first for both of them.

  “Maybe so. I can take you out one day and show you the area. There are a couple of creeks and a waterfall you need to be careful of though, so you’ll want to go with one of us until you know the area. And there’s always the chance you could run into a bear den, but I can show you the signs to look for so you can steer clear.”

  “Can we go tomorrow?”

  “How about we get through Christmas first and talk it over with your mom?” Dane would have promised the moon to keep the disappointed look off of Jayden’s face, but he noticed Charlotte’s apprehension at the first mention of the word danger.

  Dane turned a couple of the pages of the Bible carefully until he came to the family tree that had been documented for generations, written by different hands at the births and deaths of every MacKenzie for more than a hundred and fifty years.

  “Look here,” Dane said, hoping to distract him from disappointment. “Here’s Cole and his wife, Elizabeth, at the top. They had a son and four daughters, but the Bible was passed down to the one who carried the MacKenzie name.”

  The tree snaked down through each generation of MacKenzie until it got to Thomas and Anne MacKenzie, Dane’s grandparents.

  “Grandpa only had two sons, but between them they had nine children, so he started two more pages so each of his sons could record their own families into the bible. It belongs to all of us now. “

  Dane ran his finger down the page until he reached his own name. His brothers’ names were all recorded next to his, and he recognized his mother’s handwriting.

  “I guess we need to add another name,” he said to Jayden. “Yours should go right here.”

  Jayden got still and stared at the place where Dane said his name was supposed to go, and then he got to his feet and backed away.

  “It’s getting pretty late,” he said. “And the sooner I go to sleep the sooner Santa will get here. So good night.”

  Jayden ran down the hall to the room that had been given to him for the night, and Charlotte stood to go after him and realized a room full of MacKenzies were staring at her with different expressions on their faces. She couldn’t deal with that now. Her only concern was Jayden.

  “I’ll just go tuck him in,” she said, and fled after her son.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Dane lay in bed wide awake for what seemed like hours. He was at a loss for what to do, and he’d never felt so unsure about himself or the future.

  Everyone had dispersed to their own rooms shortly after Jayden had left, and he’d shrugged off an invitation to have a beer and play cards with his brothers, so they’d left him alone.

  He’d waited for Charlotte to come back into the living room and talk to him but she hadn’t returned, so he’d finally given up waiting and gone to bed. Not that he was getting any sleep. He needed to talk to her and he wouldn’t rest easy until he did.

  He was just about to throw back the covers and head to her room when the door creaked open and then shut softly. Footsteps padded on the carpet, and his body tightened with arousal as he recognized Charlotte’s scent in the dark. He leaned up on one arm and waited for his eyes to adjust. She was bundled in her bathrobe and her dark hair fell in loose waves over her shoulders.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey yourself.” He sat up and leaned against the headboard. “Is he okay?”

  “He’s fine. He didn’t want to talk about it.” She shrugged and he could see the hurt on her face.

  “Come here,” he said, scooting over and holding his arm out so she could snuggle up beside him.

  “It’s fine. I’m okay.” She ignored his outstretched hand and paced
back and forth across the floor. “I figure he’s getting to that age where he doesn’t want to tell me everything anymore.”

  He figured she wouldn’t wind down until she’d said everything she wanted to say, so he settled back and got ready to listen.

  “You saw him tonight. He’s getting used to having a big family. Of having the two of us there to love him. But I think he’s afraid that could stop at any moment. Afraid that if he starts to love everyone back that it’ll all go away.”

  “We’ll just have to show him otherwise, because none of us are going anywhere. We’re his family. He’s stuck with us.” Dane watched her for a few seconds and realized what was worrying him. “What about you? Do you think I’m going to go away too? Is that why you keep putting the wedding off?”

  “No! Of course not.” But the way she said it made him think she wasn’t being completely honest.

  “The best way for Jayden to know that this is permanent is for us to make it permanent. We’re so careful not to show too much affection and love around him because of what he’ll think, but he needs to see that we love each other. I need it too. I want the world to know that you’re it for me. MacKenzies only love once, you know.”

  “So I’ve heard.” She smiled and finally came to join him on the bed, crawling up to him and straddling his hips. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him softly. But she didn’t respond to his plea to change things, and that worried him more than anything.

  “Char—“

  She cut him off with another kiss, and he felt his blood begin to heat and pool in his lap. As a distraction, it was a hell of a plan. Her laugh was like a siren’s song as she felt him harden beneath her, and her fingers fumbled with the ties on her robe.

  “I came in to wish you Merry Christmas. It’s after midnight.” Her robe gaped open and he saw she was naked beneath it. “Aren’t you going to unwrap me?”