A Family for Christmas (18 page)

The town of
Standing
,
Texas
had been named after its founder and Alec’s great-grandfather Redmond Standing. It was a small town built around the wealth of its more illustrious oil booming days. In later years, it was considered close enough to
Austin
,
Texas
to become something of a retreat for the rich city dwellers who wanted to play weekend ranchers and had the money to make that little fairy tale happen.

Alec stopped the truck in front of the hotel and waited. His patience was quickly deserting him. He needed to get rid of her before he said or worse yet,
did
something he’d regret for the rest of his life.

“This is it. This is where you get out. End of the road, honey.”

“I don’t understand? You’re just leaving me here? When will I see Drake?”

She turned away, but not before Alec saw fear in her and he closed his eyes, counting to ten. He wasn’t going to feel sorry for her—no way. She’d brought this all on herself. What type of woman travels thousands of miles to be with a man she barely knows anyway? And what exactly was she hoping to happen between herself and Drake?

“Don’t know… he didn’t say,” he added when the first part came out angry.

She shook her head. “It’s just that I don’t know anyone here and I thought Drake would be here to meet me and—”

Alec blew out a breath. “Look, I’m sure he’ll give you a call sometime later, once things have settled down. He just couldn’t get away to meet you now, so relax. Go inside, get checked in, and enjoy the extravagance that I’m sure won’t be wasted on you.” Alec didn’t quite keep the sarcasm from his voice as his gaze swept over her somewhat shabby appearance. He was more frustrated with his reaction to her than her obvious infatuation with Drake.

Alec kept his focus straight ahead. It was better this way, he kept telling himself.

“I promise I’ll tell him to give you a call as soon as possible so that you don’t feel so alone, okay? Now if you don’t mind I have places to be.”

She reached for her bag and didn’t look at him as she got out of the truck. But Alec couldn’t stop watching her as she walked with head held high inside the hotel.

She’s beautiful.
Oh, not in the same way the women he normally dated were, drop-dead, sophisticated beautiful. But there was something about her. Maybe it was all that innocence she exuded that he didn’t trust for a second. She looked sweet and untouched. Something he never found himself attacked to before.
Gullible was more like it.
She’d fall in with Drake’s plans for her future without a second thought.

That thought didn’t sit so well.

He waited because he found he couldn’t just drive away. He watched her check in and then walk to the elevators. She certainly didn’t move like a child. She had a gracefulness about her that didn’t really fit his image of her. She was all woman in spite of her innocence. Something about her left him unsettled, uncertain for the first time of what he should do. She didn’t have a clue what she was up against and Drake would eat her alive.

Still it wasn’t his problem.
She
wasn’t his concern and from his reaction to her now, he’d best keep it that way. The less he had to do with Grace Richmond the better.

A car horn blared behind him and he put the truck into gear and left the hotel in his rearview mirror.

He was halfway back to the interstate when Drake finally answered his phone. “Okay, you mind telling me just what kind of game you think you’re playing here?”

His question met with silence. Alec could almost picture his cousin trying to figure out what he was referring to so that he could come up with the most politically correct answer.

“Did you get her to the hotel okay?”

“Cut the crap, Drake.”

“’Cuse me? I’m not sure I’m hearing you correctly, Alec. Your cell phone’s cutting out. What are you talking about?”

“You know what I’m talking about. Why didn’t you tell me you and this girl actually knew each other? Why’d you lead me to believe you had never met her before? She was a little disappointed that you weren’t there to meet her personally. What exactly did you promise her? Did you know she’s got it bad for you?”

More silence followed, which only confirmed that Drake knew about Grace’s misplaced feelings for him and was counting on them to make his little plan work.

“So you
did
know? Don’t you think that’s a little underhanded, cuz? I mean she has a crush on you as big as Texas and you’re going to exploit that for your own gain. You don’t care at all that she’s going to get hurt when you tell her you were just using her name to get yourself elected.”

“Alec, you know I always value your thoughts,” Drake said in his best gubernatorial tone. “And your concern for Grace is touching, but let me handle this, will you? Yes, I did know Grace before, but only slightly. We’ve met maybe a half dozen times at best, so I doubt that she’s seriously infatuated. Grace has always had a bit of a crush on me. But honestly, do you really think I would stoop to use her feelings against her?”

Alec didn’t hesitate. “Yes. If it gets you into the office, I’ve no doubt you’d use them.” He stopped the truck in the parking lot next to the local shopping center, debating the wisdom of going back to the hotel and putting Grace Richmond on the next plane out of Austin.

“You don’t understand what’s at stake here, Alec. How much having the Richmond name in my corner will help my campaign, so stay out of it.”

“The
Richmond
name
? Did you ever stop and consider for a moment that there’s a person with very strong feelings for you, however misguided they might be, attached to that name? What price is she going to have to pay to get you elected to governor? You think she’ll consider it worth it in the end? Will Jackie?”

Alec heard the dreaded silence again and knew that once again his cousin was trying to come up with just the right answer to pacify him. Alec couldn’t help but wonder when the man who’d been so caring as a child, so concerned for others, had become this stone-cold unemotional politician. Drake had been everything that Alec wasn’t, growing up and as a young adult. Since being bitten by the political bug, he’d changed so dramatically that he was hardly recognizable.

“What do you want me to say?” Drake said at last. “This isn’t a fair fight by any means, but I do have some good intentions in spite of what you think. I’ve no plans of leading Grace on, but I
do
need her to help me win this race so that I can do something good for
Texas
. Something that will make a difference in this state’s future. I just need you to trust me on this.”

“That’s the one thing I won’t do. You need to straighten this out and make sure Grace is clear on what it is you want from her right now, or I’ll do it for you. Beyond that, you can leave me out of the politics from now on.”

Alec flipped the phone shut and sat with his hands on the wheel, still torn. He hated to admit feeling anything for Grace Richmond, but he did. It was just that she looked as if she were all alone in the world. She didn’t stand a chance against Drake and all of his goons. They’d have her agreeing to things she had no idea about. Not an inkling of what it would cost her, or what she was letting herself into simply because she had some childish infatuation with his cousin.

He crushed his mind’s picture of just how sweet and innocent she’d looked to him before those thoughts had a chance to form into other things. This was none of his business. She’d gotten herself into this mess without his help. She could just get herself out the same way.

Standing On The Edge Of Goodbye – Book One of Treasures Of The Rockies Series

Chapter One

Kate brought the beat-up Jeep to a halt in front of the last known address of Rachel Bowers. A weather-beaten cabin her grandmother rented outside of
Silver Mountain
,
Colorado
. Kate had spent the last twelve hundred miles fighting morning sickness almost every waking moment, and the throbbing pain left over from the accident had been her constant traveling companion.

The cabin was dark even though it was barely mid-afternoon. There wasn’t any sign of the woman who’d filled Kate’s life with light for so many years.

Something about the deserted appearance of the place brought all the uneasiness back that Kate had struggled with the beginning of this trip. Had he found out about her grandmother’s existence? Had he beat Kate here and…dear God, no.

She’d almost given up hope on every single one of those miles. The promise of seeing her grandmother again was the only thing that kept her.

She got out of the Jeep and walked the half dozen steps up to the cabin’s door. Not a single sign of life inside and no evidence that anyone had been for quite some time. She knocked several times but there was no answer.

"Where are you, Grandma? I need you so much."

Rachel had told her once that the owner of the cabin, a man by the name of Matt Stevens, lived just a few miles up the mountainside. Grandma Rachel talked about Matt as if he were a friend. If she drove up the mountain and asked the property owner where Rachel had gone what would he know?

Suddenly, she was afraid of what might be. Not that she had any real choice in the matter. She had to find her grandmother. Because finding Rachel Bowers was the only thing that mattered anymore.

****

This was Rachel Bowers’ granddaughter?

Matt found it hard to believe the woman sitting before him now was in any way related to the woman he’d grown to love. Or that she had no idea her grandmother had passed away weeks earlier. How could he be the one responsible for telling her about Rachel's passing?

Unexpectedly, his heart went out to her.

Rachel was a rare breed of human. The type of woman who truly cared about those closest to her. And he'd grown close to Rachel. Even though his only connection to her was the tiny cabin sitting at the edge of his property she’d rented a few years earlier.

“Miss Alexander—Kate, when was the last time you spoke to your grandmother?”

She grew cautious. She knew. He could see it. See the tears gathering even as she struggled to hold them back.

Kate clutched the arms of the chair, bracing for the worst. “Please, just tell me.”

Please don’t let her cry.
Matt steeled himself to say the words. “Kate, I’m sorry, there’s no easy way of telling you this, but your grandmother passed away three weeks ago.” He paused for a moment, needing to collect himself. Every time he thought about the woman who'd been like his own grandmother, it hurt to think he'd never seeing her again.

“She’d been ill for a while. Her heart had gotten weak. Then she developed pneumonia and…” Matt swallowed the lump in his throat. He’d begged, pleaded with Rachel to let him take her to the hospital, at least contact Kate. Rachel had refused them both.

Kate clasped her hand over her mouth. A muffled sob escaped. She appeared stunned, heartbroken. Devastated by the news. She hadn’t known how ill her grandmother was and now it was too late.

Matt watched her struggle to keep from falling apart. He understood what she was going through. He remembered too well the gut wrenching pain he’d experienced at losing the woman who’d become his rock.

He tried to recall what Rachel had told him about Kate. She certainly talked about her granddaughter enough.

Kate would be at least twenty-four by now, yet the combination of her short blond curls and no makeup made her appear much younger. Maybe it was the freckles or those clear green eyes that held innocence in them that Matt had long ago stopped associating with women.

She was dressed in faded jeans and a white short-sleeved T-shirt that was out of place in this cold gray
Colorado
afternoon.

“You’re shivering. Come sit by the fire. The weather here takes some getting used to. Do you have a jacket?”

Kate followed behind him like a robot while he stoked the dying fire back to life.

“Thank you.” She cleared her throat, her voice stumbled over the words. “I had no idea she was so ill. I hadn’t spoken to her in a while. I tried…” She stopped, glanced at him as if trying to gauge his reaction to this obvious slip. “There were reasons. My grandmother understood why I couldn’t keep in touch.”

Matt realized Kate was hiding something dark, yet he didn’t dare open that door. Couldn't go down that road again for anyone. Not even Rachel's granddaughter.

“My grandmother spoke very highly of you, though. She considered you a friend,” she added. He wasn't really surprised by her revelation. Rachel considered everyone a friend.

"Did she…suffer?”

He shook his head. “No, she didn’t suffer. She simply drifted off to sleep one day. And, yes, she
was
…my friend. She came to visit, forced me to visit her as well,” he added lost in his memories. “Rachel used to bring over cookies and flowers and just talk about how she loved this mountain and her little cabin. How she missed you, wanted you to be happy.” Matt didn't tell her that because of his chats with Rachel he felt as if he knew Kate as well. Yet the reality before him now was nothing like the vibrant picture Rachel had painted.