Luke read the message out loud.
Hope this finds you well.
I’d like to come out to Silver Stone sometime next week to discuss an important issue.
Sincerely,
Timothy Carlyn
20
Luke was pretty sure that someone along the line had made a mistake. Hell was not burning hot, desperate and needy, because that sounded an awful lot like what happened when he and Kelli hit the sheets.
Hell was waiting.
Day by day passed, and there was nothing Luke could do to hurry them up and rush forward. There were chores to do, animals to care for. Bills to pay and long conversations filled with concern and worry.
And hope—because that was the one thing noticeable as he crossed off days on the calendar until Timothy Carlyn’s visit to Silver Stone arrived.
The man had finally arrived in their yard, ten-gallon hat and all, every inch the southern gentleman. Walker stood beside Luke, shaking Carlyn’s hand and accepting words of praise for his bull-riding achievements.
Timothy turned to Luke, smile widening. They shook hands heartily but even as he did, the man was looking past him, as if disappointed. “Where’s your lovely fiancée?”
Walker stiffened noticeably, and Luke hurried to answer before something dangerous got said. “She’s out in the fields checking relocation sites for stock if that storm hits that’s expected.”
Timothy wilted then frowned. “I told you I have no problem talking business with her around.”
“I remember that,” Luke assured him, “but I’m not in charge of her schedule. I’m not about to second-guess our foreman when he assigns the best person to the job.”
Luke wasn’t sure if this had been some sort of test, and if Silver Stone had failed without even knowing they were being judged.
But Carlyn nodded firmly. He glanced between Luke and Walker. “This isn’t the easiest of conversations to have, but it’s an important one. I trust what I tell you will stay in confidence. The parts of it that need to remain private.”
It all seemed a lot more cloak and dagger than simply wanting to purchase some of Silver Stone’s stock.
“You can speak freely,” Luke assured him.
Walker was giving Luke meaningful glances. He had totally caught that fiancée thing and was going to rake Luke over the coals first chance he got.
Then Luke wasn’t worried about Walker because Timothy Carlyn had pulled out a photo and was presenting it to them.
“Look familiar?”
“That’s Kelli, from the night of the gala,” Luke began before his words faded off.
It wasn’t, because the woman wasn’t wearing what Kelli had worn that night. Kelli’s dress had thin straps and clean lines, and this was narrow strips and frilly edges, with a corsage on her chest where one strap met her dress.
Carlyn’s face had gone rigid. “You see it too.”
Walker glanced between the two of them. “That’s not Kelli?”
“It’s not.” Carlyn pulled out a second picture and held the two images side by side. Nearly identical, but now clearly two different women. Their hair was slightly different, and the spark in Kelli’s eyes made her look much happier than the other woman.
“I don’t understand,” Luke said honestly.
“I got the one of Kelli from the official photographer for the event.” Carlyn lifted the older picture in the air. “This? This is my daughter on her graduation night.”
“Shit.” Walker took a step closer to Luke and laid a hand on his shoulder.
It was impossible. Luke looked into Carlyn’s eyes and saw the question there. He remembered back to when the man had been fishing for information about Kelli’s family. “You think Kelli is related to you?”
“I think there’s more than a good possibility,” the man admitted. “In fact, I’m pretty sure Kelli is my granddaughter, and I’m ready to do whatever is necessary to get her back into my life. It was bad enough to lose her mother, but if this is real—if what I suspect is true—she’s the only family I’ve got left.”
Walker squeezed Luke’s shoulder in soundless support.
“I’m not trying to mess anything up for you,” Carlyn said. “I just need to know.”
“We understand,” Walker assured him.
Carlyn spoke briefly, sharing information regarding his daughter, and all of it made sense. Yet as Luke listened, dumbfounded, he was thankful he didn’t need to speak as there was no way he could form words.
His head was spinning, and there didn’t seem to be any one direction he could aim himself at…
But that kind of confusion wasn’t acceptable. It wasn’t what Kelli would need from him, so he shook himself alert.
“Call Kelli in,” he ordered Walker.
His brother nodded hard. He pulled out his phone and turned his back to make contact with the team in the fields.
Luke faced down Carlyn, not an inch of give in his voice. “I’m going to talk to her first. This is going to be a huge shock, and I need to find out what she wants.”
For a brief moment Carlyn looked ready to complain before he folded with a sigh. “You’re protecting her, and I won’t take exception to that. It’s what I’d want for any woman, not only someone related to me.”
“You’re staying in town?”
Carlyn nodded. “Give me a call when you’re ready. I can come back, or you can come out. Whichever you prefer.”
“Thank you.” Luke accepted the two pictures, slipping them into his breast pocket and accepting a final handshake before Carlyn turned on his heel and headed back to the parking area.
Luke stood staring after the man, brain fumbling.
“I have so many questions, I don’t even know where to begin.” Walker stepped in front of him, concern written on every inch of his body. “But, first, bro, what the hell? Fiancée?”
Guilt rushed in. “I made a mistake, okay? Kelli already called me on it, and while we didn’t end up in a perfect situation, in a way, nothing could have been better than me being an idiot in the first place.”
“He thinks you’re her goddamn fiancé,” Walker snarled. “And while I think it’s great that the two of you have decided to stop dancing around your attraction, zero to marriage is a little over the top, even for you.”
Luke shook his head, glancing at his watch. “There was no dancing around involved. I was totally oblivious to the fact she’s been under my nose forever.”
“Maybe you want to tell yourself that, but it was pretty clear to me some part of you already cared last summer when you lost your shit over her being banged up.” Walker sighed heavily, but his body language finally relaxed. “We’ll deal with the rest of that later. You’ve got enough on your plate.”
“Is she coming in?” Luke asked.
Walker nodded. “Ashton is sending her back on a quad. If you want to meet her, you can probably waylay her by Heart Falls.”
It was a warm enough day they wouldn’t freeze their butts off. “Great idea.”
Walker laid a hand on his shoulder. “Be gentle,” he warned. “I don’t think this was on her radar.”
“I know that. I’m not going to do anything that hurts her.” Luke swore. “Look, our relationship might have started because I acted without thinking, but being with her is the rightest thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Which made the sensation so much worse as it arrived with a thumping jolt. It seemed everything he had begun to hope for was once again slipping out of reach.
* * *
Kelli found one of the ranch ATVs parked across the trail, blocking her route.
She pulled to a stop and turned off her own engine, following a set of footprints through the snow to the rocks at the base of the pool of Heart Falls.
Her involuntary annoyance faded when she spotted Luke’s tall figure staring over the frozen water.
His arms were folded over his chest, his gaze fixed across the icy surface to the small patch of open wat
er. The trickle from the falls that remained flowing all winter was enough to keep the entire surface too thin to skate on.
It was beautiful and mesmerizing at the same time. The cascading water on the far left had frozen into a curtain made of deep blue to shimmering white.
She waited until she was close enough to speak without shouting. “I was worried there was an emergency when Ashton told me to go home, but I don’t think you’d be out here relaxing if something was wrong with the family.”
He turned and offered a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Everyone is fine,” he assured her. “But we need to talk.”
A million different worrisome troubles raced through her brain. “I’m not going to give myself an ulcer trying to guess, so spit it out.”
Luke caught her by the hand and pulled her with him toward the game trail. “You know how you told me you ran away from your mom? That she’d been keeping bad company, and making bad decisions, and you didn’t want to be part of it?”
Anything she’d been worried about faded into nothing as he brought up the one thing she had never dreamed possible. “Oh my God. Did my mom show up?”
He squeezed her fingers tightly. “No. And if she did, I’d have been tempted to send her packing without ever letting you know. But something—”
He stopped, settling on top of a fallen log and drawing her between his knees so they were face to face.
Such concern and worry was written there. “You’re scaring me and stirring up maternal instincts I didn’t know I had. I want to do whatever I can to get you to stop being so sad.”
“Seems we’re doing the same thing, because I’m trying to protect you,” Luke admitted. “I found out some information today that I don’t know how you’re going to take.”
“Does it involve you kicking me out of Silver Stone?”
With how serious he looked, it was surprising to hear a soft chuckle escape. “Since you’ve already informed me I can’t kick you out, that’s obviously not the issue.” He slipped his hand around the back of her, holding her close. “One of the pictures we took at the gala turned out amazing. You look beautiful. You also look nearly identical to another woman someone knows, and he was wondering if it’s possible the two of you are related.”
She tried to untangle that. “Someone says they know a woman who looks like me? I don’t have any sisters, Luke. I’m an only child.”
“I said it wrong. You look identical to how someone looked twenty years ago. It’s possible they’re thinking of your mom. You told me part of her story, but not enough for me to be sure if I should tell this person to leave or not. You said your mom left home and never went back—she complained about strict parents. But did she also have a good reason to leave?”
Oh. Now his worries made sense. “You’re trying to figure out if she was getting out of a bad situation, like me?” Kelli thought back to her early days and what she had overheard. She shook her head gently. “She liked to complain that she was hard done by, but even to me as a teenager, it sounded like an excuse. As if she’d hoped life would be easier if she got to be in charge, but instead it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. She was probably too proud to admit she’d made a mistake and go home. But honestly, Luke, while I have a few good memories from growing up, I’m very aware of how not good a mother she was, and that was her choice. One hundred percent. I want nothing to do with her.”
Luke nodded slowly. “Let me ask you this. If it was possible to meet your grandfather, is that something you’d liked to do?”
She leaned into him, fighting to make her tongue work. Wow. Talk about unexpected. “I don’t know how to answer that. It’s not anything I’ve ever thought of before.”
She found herself wrapped up in two strong arms as Luke pulled her against his body. Using his hand to tug her head against him, he squeezed her tight and held her. Their breathing slowed even as her mind raced.
There was someone out there who might be her family? It was shocking, and yet…
And yet it wasn’t as life altering as maybe it should feel. Like she and Tansy had talked about, Kelli already had a family—people she cared about and who obviously cared about her.
She twisted until she could look up at Luke. “What do you think?”
“Uh-uh. I’m not going to make this decision for you.” He looked far too serious, considering this should be a happy moment.
Shouldn’t it?
He tucked his fingers under her chin and tipped her head back. Then his lips were on hers in a tender kiss filled with concern and something else that tasted very sweet.
He pulled back, smiling at her. “Want to see the pictures?”
Kelli nodded.
He handed her the first one and her heart skipped a beat before she looked down and saw herself. “I didn’t look ridiculous,” she admitted. “And, damn, my rack looks great.”
A huge laugh escaped him, bursting free at a level more in line with what she expected from him. “Your rack always looks great,” he assured her. “Here’s the other picture.”
It was easy to see why they’d concluded she and this mysterious woman were related. It was like looking into a slightly off-kilter mirror. Just enough changes Kelli could tell it wasn’t her face, but that of a doppelgänger.
Then her eyes fell on the locket hanging around the other woman’s neck, and everything inside her went still. “Holy moly. It is my mom.”
“Seriously?” Luke straightened, twisting the picture toward himself as if trying to see what it made her so certain.
She pointed to the necklace. “Mom wore that all the time. She never took it off until—” A memory crashed in. “It got broken one day when a boyfriend got rough. I remember picking it up off the floor and hiding it until I could give it back.”
He stiffened, body tightening in anger at her words.
“That was one of the only times I actually saw her cry. She told me it had been a Christmas gift when she was thirteen.”
Luke met her gaze as both sadness and wonder tangled inside her. “So he probably is your grandpa, the man who says he knows this woman.”
Kelli nodded.
“Do you want to meet him?”
No. Yes.
“Maybe? I haven’t been desperately trying to find the past all these years. I’ve been trying to have a good life here and now.”
He held her close again, his strong arms centering her. “It’s up to you. It really is.”
Something was still wrong. She pushed against his chest until she could peer at his face. “What’s going on? You tend to be more opinionated,” she informed him.
Luke stiffened. “It’s your life, it’s your decision.”
“I get that, and it is. But that’s never stopped you before from telling me what you think I should do. Why are you stopping now?”
He made a face. “I’m in a tough spot to give you advice, because there’s no way this is going to come out without me looking as if I wasn’t being mercenary.”
Just when she thought she had figured it all out, he lost her again. “Mercenary? Are you planning to auction me back to this long-lost relative?”
The look of horror on his face was mixed with too much worry.
“Oh my God, just tell me who it is,” she demanded.
“Timothy Carlyn.”
21
Kelli waited outside the motel room door, glancing at the rough condition of the place as she compared it with the over-the-top hotel where they’d first met the man. The motel was most often occupied by road crews looking for a place to lay their heads and not people used to luxury or even comfort.
Mr. Carlyn was obviously serious to be willing to put up with these conditions.
She held a little tighter to Luke’s fingers. “You should’ve told him to meet us at your house.”
Luke didn’t answer, because the door swung open in front of them, and the somewhat familiar features of the older gentleman she’d met in Kananaskis Country came into view.
<
br /> Timothy Carlyn stared at her with something in his eyes that looked suspiciously like tears. “Kelli. Thank you for agreeing to meet.”
He stepped back and gestured them in.
The room they entered held a small kitchen and living space with a worn couch, an older TV, and a kitchen table with four chairs.
Another man rose to his feet from where he’d been sitting at the table, stepping forward to extend a hand. “Dean McCoy.”
Kelli introduced herself, and Luke did the same before Timothy gestured them to the seats.
Luke pulled out a chair, waiting until she settled before adjusting his chair to rest beside hers. Kelli grabbed his fingers like a lifeline.
Mr. Carlyn was still staring, but he shook himself and gestured to Dean. “At Silver Stone you have your…Ashton, I believe? This is my man who helps with all things as necessary. In the field and out of it.”
Kelli eyed the newcomer. The second man was giving her the heebie-jeebies, his judgmental assessment a half a notch away from sniffing as if he smelt shit on their shoes. In spite of her nervousness, his attitude got her back up. “I doubt you do much mucking-out of stalls in that suit,” she said plainly.
Luke covered up a snort of laughter with a cough.
Dean somehow managed to look even more disapproving, but he answered. “Seems we have different areas of expertise, Ms. James.”
The hell?
“That’s enough, Dean. I didn’t want you here in the first place, but you insisted. Make one more smart comment or rude snipe at either of our guests, and I’ll find myself someone new to work with.”
Well, then.
Kelli ignored Dean and focused instead on the man who might be her grandfather. The word alone was enough to make an impossible mess in her brain.
“Luke showed me the pictures, and I’m almost certain the second photo is my mom.”
“Easy to say without proof—” Dean interrupted himself, coughing sternly before starting again. “Excuse me. It would be important if you have any proof that you share it with us.”
A Rancher’s Bride: The Stones of Heart Falls: Book 3 Page 22