by Mary Leo
Now, as Avery, Chuck and Avery’s dad, Daniel, took their seats in the living room once again, Avery had only one thing on her mind. “Now, are you going to tell me why you’re here, Dad?”
“I couldn’t very well miss my baby’s thirtieth birthday, now could I?”
“It’s your birthday?” Chuck asked. “I knew it was coming up, but I’d lost track of when it was exactly. Why didn’t you tell me? Now we really need to celebrate!”
“It’s not for a couple more days. And I don’t intend to make a big deal about it,” she lied. She intended to make a very big deal about it. She intended to begin to learn everything there was to know about her mom’s disappearance.
“You’re turning thirty. That’s a big deal in itself,” her dad said.
Chuck poured scotch into a fancy glass and handed it to her dad. Then he poured two brandies, handed one to Avery without asking . . . which she gladly accepted . . . sat down in his favorite club chair and swirled his brandy in its snifter, allowing the aroma to permeate his senses.
Avery was well aware of the fact that this birthday had a deep meaning. She didn’t quite know what to expect, but she knew her life would change because of that zero attached to that three. It seemed inevitable, and at this point in her life, she welcomed the alteration.
“Maybe so, but I still don’t want to make a big deal out of it.” She sipped her brandy. The smooth liquid warmed her as it went down, almost calming her.
Or was she feeling more relaxed because she knew what she had to ask, what she had to know. She felt her body ease into the chair.
“Tell you what,” she said. “We can celebrate my thirtieth tomorrow with an early morning ride. Mom would have liked that.”
That was the first time she’d brought up her mom to her dad in years, and Avery felt good to reference her, almost emboldened by it.
Daniel threw back his scotch, then carefully placed the glass down on the coaster on the side table next to him. “Now that you’ve brought up your mom . . .”
Avery immediately went on defense, cutting him off. “This thing you have about not talking about Mom has to end, right here and right now. I don’t know why you tried to expunge her from my life, but it didn’t work and now, more than ever, I want to know about this picture and the date stamped on the edge.” She pulled the photo from her pocket and tossed it on the coffee table in front of both men. “Tell me now, or I swear I’ll start my own investigation, and believe me, you don’t want that to happen.”
Avery’s insides shook from the power of her statement, from finally standing up to her dad and from demanding he break his silence. She stared right at him, refusing to turn away.
“That’s why I’m here. Chuck called and told me that Kaya gave you the box of pictures of your mom, but I didn’t know that picture was part of it.”
“It wasn’t. I found this on Chuck’s floor in his office.” She turned to Chuck. “Maybe you want to start this thing off. What the hell is this picture all about? That date stamp is two years after you both said my mom had died. Obviously she hadn’t. And don’t even try to tell me that date stamp is wrong because I can easily authenticate it.”
Chuck didn’t respond. Instead he looked to her dad for an answer. Her dad ignored Chuck and eyed his own now empty glass as if he expected it to refill itself. When it didn’t, he looked crestfallen as he met Avery’s gaze.
“There’s a simple explanation,” her dad said, then glanced over at Chuck as if he needed his approval on what he was about to say. Chuck gave him a slight nod, and Avery knew her dad was hiding something . . . something he was having a hard time revealing. “And I’ll get to that in a moment. But first, I’ve had all the legal documents drawn up that concern your mother’s estate. After all this time, I’m sure you’ll agree that what I’m proposing is for the best for everyone involved. All you have to do is sign the paperwork and nothing will change, except that now your mom will be well taken care of for the rest of her life, thanks to Chuck’s generosity.”
Avery felt certain she hadn’t heard him correctly. That perhaps he’d garbled his words . . . your mom will be well taken care of? “Could you please repeat that? I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
The back of Avery’s neck felt as if it was in a vise. She tried to soothe it with her hands, but it felt like tense ropes rather than soft flesh and muscles.
“I know this is tough for you to understand, but I had my reasons, and now, under the circumstances, I have no choice but to tell you the truth before you hear it from someone else.” His face took on the graveness of his words, almost as if he was about to tell her something dreadful. Something that might hurt her so deeply that she might not recover.
“So I did hear you accurately? My mom will be well taken care of? But that would mean . . . Oh, my God!”
Avery sucked in a breath, and clasped her hand to her mouth. Her entire body seemed to want to close down. Her head swirled, as tears fogged her vision. She could no more fathom what she knew now to be true, than she could fathom the moon losing its glow.
Avery rose to her feet and began pacing the living room, not quite sure what to think or how to think . . . stunned, came to mind, along with complete contempt for her father and for Chuck who had conspired to keep this information from her. How could they have done this? Why would they have done this?
“It’s not what you think. Let me explain,” her dad said while Avery circled the room, trying to accept the concept that her mother was still alive. That she lived somewhere and hadn’t even bothered to try to contact her in all this time. The concept didn’t seem real. It couldn’t be real. Avery knew her mother had loved her. Why would she have abandoned her? How could she have abandoned her? It didn’t make sense. Her dad must have done something horrible or, worse, maybe Avery had done something to send her away. Was that possible?
“Avery, please take a seat and let your dad explain,” Chuck insisted, but Avery couldn’t stop the emotion that gripped her . . . the sobs that ripped at her heart.
It couldn’t be possible. None of it was possible. Her mother was dead. Her dad had told her this time and time again. She’s up in heaven with the angels, he’d told her when she’d wake up screaming for her mom in the middle of the night. She’s always with you, he’d told her on countless occasions when Avery would want to know why she couldn’t see her. It was just her time, he’d said when Avery would ask him why did she die, a hundred times in a row.
Avery continued to pace the room, trying to recall that last summer with her mom once again. She’d gone over and over it in her mind for most of her life. There wasn’t any indication that her mom wanted to leave. On the contrary, her mom had wanted nothing more than to stay right there in Wild Cross, on Chuck’s ranch, with Avery.
This was all coming at her too quickly. The disturbing picture she’d found in Chuck’s office of her mom, the box of pictures left outside her bedroom door, Kaya’s mysterious response to questions about her mom. All of it. And now her dad admitting that her mom had been alive for the last twenty years, it was just too much.
A myriad of emotions overtook her. She took some calming breaths and tried her best to regain some composure while her body tried its best to explode into a million tiny pieces. “So, all this time . . . she’s been alive? My mother didn’t die? You lied to me? You both lied to me and let me believe that some terrible accident took her away from me?” She was trembling now, ravaged by the pain of their senseless deceit. “I was just a little girl, a little girl who needed her mother. How could you keep this information from me when you knew how much I missed her? How much I wanted to see her? Tell me you’re both not that cold-hearted.”
“I was trying to protect you.” Her dad said the words, but they didn’t ring true. She could see that now. Could hear his lies in his voice . . . see it on his face. She forced herself to stop crying. To pull her thoughts together. To stand up to her dad, to Chuck, to their horrible, unforgivable behavior.
> “Protect me from what? From crying myself to sleep each night? From wishing I could be with her? From praying for her to come home every night for almost five years? From feeling incredibly lonely? Just what were you protecting me from, because learning that my mom was actually alive during all of that sure doesn’t seem like a lot of protection. It seems more like purposeful torture. Where is she? I want to see her.”
“That’s the problem, Avery. That’s why I tried to protect you.”
“There isn’t anything that she could have done, short of murder, that I wouldn’t have forgiven her for. Just tell me where she is so I can go to her. Now. Tonight.”
“It’s not like that.”
“What? Did she run away with the circus? Is she running a call-girl service? Is she in prison? Is she a man now, because I really don’t care about any of that shit. She’s my mother.”
“Just tell her, Dan,” Chuck said, his voice cold and calculating.
“Yeah, just tell me, Dan. I can take it. You’ve toughened me up to withstand almost anything. I’m stronger than you think. I won’t break. You’ve seen to that.”
Her dad took a deep breath, looked down at his empty glass again, but this time, Chuck responded by getting up and pouring him a generous shot. She waited while her dad drank most of it, then he said, “Your mom won’t know who you are, Avery. She doesn’t have the mental capacity. She has always been right here in Wild Cross. She’s a resident of Bell House.”
FIFTEEN
The e-vite for Avery’s birthday party had arrived in Reese’s inbox bright and early the next morning. Everyone in his family had been invited, including his mom. He’d picked up the phone to call Avery, but then answered the e-vite instead. Yes, he would be attending, but he couldn’t answer for the rest of his family.
By the time Sunday afternoon rolled around, Reese and his siblings still hadn’t made amends, and if it wasn’t for the fact that the livestock had to be attended to, Reese would probably have saddled up his horse and rode out alone for a couple of days to get away from the tension.
He’d had no idea Avery’s birthday was coming up so it caught him by surprise. He thought they were getting closer, but apparently not close enough for her to tell him about her thirtieth birthday.
It was the little things that drove him crazy. What else hadn’t she bothered to tell him?
He couldn’t really pinpoint why not knowing about her birthday had been such a big deal to him, other than he was sick of secrets, that even something simple stuck in his craw.
Part of him wondered if the last time they had been together it had been almost too raw, so deep with emotion that it may have scared her away. After all, they came from two different worlds. How would they ever resolve that and make this a lasting love affair? He didn’t have the answer to that, nor did he have the answer to a lot of things.
He knew his agreement with Chuck Starr was the only way to save the ranch, yet his siblings hated him for it. He simply didn’t have any other option and if any of his siblings had any ideas about how to save the Cooper Ranch, they weren’t offering them up. Instead, all they offered was hostility and defiance, two traits his dad had wallowed in for most of his life.
Well, Reese refused to let bitterness take control. Avery had taught him that much, and he was grateful for the lesson. Which was why he’d just pulled his truck up and parked it on the gravel with all the other cars and trucks on the Circle Starr property. Hell, he’d even brought Avery a present . . . earrings that matched the necklace he’d bought her at the kite festival in Flagstaff. His sister had made them especially for Avery soon after the festival, but he’d forgotten all about them until that morning when he was getting ready for the party.
Shiloh told him she’d be attending the party, but she didn’t know about the others.
Hunter had apparently decided to go and drove their mom over earlier. She’d baked a couple pies for the occasion and wanted to offer her help to Kaya. Mom loved parties, especially birthday parties. When they were kids, theirs were the best parties around, complete with old-time cowboys who would come in with their kids and grandkids just for the event. They’d tell stories of the Old West, recite funny poems, and tell scary stories around a roaring fire at night. Reese never really thought about it until that moment, but his birthday, and that of his siblings, all took place in late summer. He wondered if his parents had planned for that, or was it simply a happy coincidence?
He didn’t really want to know.
As he walked up the path to the house, he could hear voices booming through the air, and he could smell roasting meat. The scent made his mouth water, but the sound of strangers made him want to turn around and go back home. He wasn’t sure he was in the mood for socializing with Chuck’s friends on this fine Sunday afternoon, but he couldn’t very well turn his back on Avery.
He had a feeling Draven and Chase wouldn’t be showing up, and part of him couldn’t blame them. Attending a party at the Circle Starr, even if it was for Avery, was something their dad would have fought against. Like father, like sons.
Looking positively heavenly, Avery had already spotted him as she stood on the sprawling front lawn, drenched in sunshine, reminding him of the other day in the meadow. He wanted to rush right up to her, kiss her, and whisk her right back to that meadow, that blanket, and that tantalizing moment. His body reacted to his thoughts until he told himself to calm the hell down. This was not the time.
But seeing her walking toward him, her soft cotton dress caressing the curves of her delicious body, her lovely crimson hair gently swaying around her face, he had no idea why he’d stayed away from her for the past few days. If he’d ever needed her before, he needed her even more now, when everyone in his family, except his mom, seemed to be hellbent on making him out as the villain in all of this.
“You came,” she said as she approached and smiled, her lips a shimmering pink.
The many guests, a good twenty feet away, milled around the side porch and under the white canopy that had been set up off to one side of the house. Reese couldn’t see where the food was being cooked, but from the white smoke that curled up and around the canopy, he figured the barbecues must have been set up somewhere close by.
“Was there a reason why I shouldn’t?” he said, knowing that nothing could have kept him away from her.
Her face darkened. “I’m sorry I haven’t contacted you. Been out of it for the last few days. Trying to cope with some news that hasn’t been easy to digest.”
Now that he saw her up close, she looked pale and worried, as if she was deeply troubled by something. He hated seeing her this way. It was the same way she’d looked that night in the rain after she’d gone through the box of her mom’s photos.
He stood right next to her now, reveling in her scent of lilacs and honey. “You know you can come to me with anything.”
She leaned into him, arms held tight against her chest, elbows at her waist, fists under her chin, as if she wanted him to hold her, but couldn’t quite give in to his touch. He encircled her with his arms, with his body, trying to shelter her from whatever sadness that had obviously consumed her. “What’s happened? What’s wrong?” He ran a hand over her head, brushing some of her hair off of her face, gazing into those smoky blue eyes of hers, seeing a deep sadness as emotion began to overtake her. He wanted to whisk her away from this place, get her alone and try to find out what was tormenting her. He felt like an ass for having stayed away from her. He’d allowed his own family drama to overtake his thoughts when he knew she’d been going through some rough times. “Let’s get out of here,” he told her.
She nodded and just as they were about to leave, Chuck appeared, his voice thundering around them. “There you are. I thought I saw you pull up.”
“Later,” Avery whispered as she quickly dried her eyes and moved away from Reese’s embrace.
Chuck strode up to them, his hand out to greet Reese, looking trim and healthy in his jeans and white shirt.
Today he wore a brown Western hat with a turquoise and silver band, his mustache and eyebrows looking recently trimmed, and his white hair poking out around his ears. He looked like the rich rancher he was, put together for effect more than comfort.
Reese took his outstretched hand without hesitation, as if he’d been shaking Chuck’s hand for his entire life. Ironic how a change of perspective had transformed years of animosity into acceptance and tolerance.
“There’s a few people I’d like you to meet, Reese. I think you might know some of them or at least know of them. Now that you’re part of the Starr family, it’s important that you can put a face and a handshake to a name.”
“Chuck, does he have to do this now?” Avery asked, sounding as if she was almost pleading. “I’d like to keep him to myself for a while. Besides, I thought we could go into your office and look over the new agreement before the party really gets started.”
At this point Reese felt he might do anything to get her alone. She looked as if she was about to collapse.
“If the paperwork is ready, I’m ready to sign. Let’s do that first and get it out of the way.” Not that he was all that eager to sign on the dotted line, but he thought that would at least get him out of having to meet anyone. His lawyer still needed to look over the agreement before he signed anything so, in reality, it was merely a stall tactic.
“That’s fantastic, Reese, but this is important. We’ll have plenty of time for that after dinner. Right now, it’s essential we use this party to meet everyone. No better time to cozy up to your contemporaries than at a party with a drink in your hand.” Chuck gave Reese a quick once over, then patted him on the shoulder. “We need to get you a beer, Reese. What kind is your poison? Got most of them on ice on the back porch near the pool. Just follow me.”
Chuck tried to guide him, but Reese pulled back. He didn’t like to be bossed around by anyone, much less Chuck Starr. “My future can wait a little longer, Chuck. Right now, I’d like to honor Avery’s birthday and spend some time with her . . . alone, if you don’t mind.”