An Accidental Mom (15 page)

Then he had an idea.

He backtracked a few yards, until he found an available agent at a ticket counter. “Miss,” he said, “I need to have a passenger paged. It’s an emergency.”

Seconds later, the woman’s voice echoed throughout the terminal: “Will a Miss Lily London please pick up the nearest airport telephone. Miss Lily London…”

Max waited, pacing back and forth near the security area. There was no other exit from the airport; she’d have to come this way.

The plane was scheduled for takeoff within minutes. Surely she’d already boarded. And, in that case, no way would she have heard the message.

In the unlikely event that she’d arrived moments ago, Lily would be passing through the final leg of security right about now. If she figured out who’d inspired the announcement, would she pick up the phone?

Max rubbed his eyes. No, she wouldn’t. And he could hardly blame her.

He walked to the wide wall of windows in time to see an east-west jet taxiing toward the runway. Somehow, Max knew Lily was on that plane.

The best he could hope for now was to redouble his efforts, get the real estate papers signed and get the partnership documents filed. Making a profit was the last thing on his mind.

He took his time heading for the parking lot. No need to hurry now. Just as he stepped into the biting night air, a jetliner screamed overhead, its nose pointed toward the sky. A departing flight, Max thought. Lily’s?

“Keep her safe,” he whispered sadly into the blackness, “always.”

L
ily felt like a silly schoolgirl, avoiding Max’s calls this way. Better that, she thought, than to answer the phone and let him hear her bawling on the other end like a starving calf. He’d been tying up loose ends in Chicago for the past few days now. Would he ever tire of leaving messages that never got returned?

She’d learned from Georgia that Max had sold his house in Chicago, that he’d let the partners buy him out of the accounting firm. Which meant that this time, he was coming home for good. According to Georgia he was flying in to Amarillo today.

Lily had to get a handle on her emotions before she talked to him again, because now that he was a full-time Amarillo resident, she’d likely run into him often. When that happened, she wanted to conduct herself with an air of dignity and pride…instead of running off to blubber over unrequited love.

It was as she’d spooned the last of a can of dog food into the one-eyed owl’s bowl that the phone rang.

“Lily, Cammi’s asking for you. Can you come to the hospital, quick?”

Hospital? Why was Reid at the hospital?

“She lost the baby, kiddo, and she needs you.”

Oh, Lord,
Lily prayed,
please let it be a mistake!

“I’m on my way,” she told Reid, banging down the phone. “Missy,” she told the dog, “you stay here and guard the rest of the guys, okay? I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

The golden retriever smiled and wagged her tail as if in agreement.

Lily began backing out of the driveway when the biggest pickup truck she’d ever seen pulled in behind her, blocking her in. A tall, lean man got out of the driver’s side, strolled up to her car. “You Lily London?”

“Yes,” she said tentatively.

“Rangers at Lake Meredith told me you’re the gal who’s got my dog.”

Her heart felt as though it had dropped into her stomach.
No,
she thought,
it can’t be. Not after all these months.

“Come to fetch her,” he said, when Lily didn’t respond.

She turned off the car, stepped onto the blacktop. “I posted signs, placed ads, even advertised on the radio. But that was months ago.”

The man shrugged one bony shoulder. “Been busy.”

Lily looked at the truck. A woman sat in the pas
senger seat, looking every bit as grim-faced and stubborn as the man.

Missy came bounding toward them, stopping several yards away when she spotted the visitor. She wasn’t “smiling” now, Lily noticed.

“She never did cotton to me,” he said, rolling a toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other. With his thumb, he gestured toward the truck. “Belongs to my wife.”

“I’ve grown very fond of Missy….”

At the sound of her name, the retriever’s ears perked. Still, she remained a safe distance from the man.

“Missy? Her name ain’t Missy. It’s Yella Gold— Goldie for short.” He inspected grimy fingernails. “Tell you what,” he said, chomping on the toothpick, “since you’re so smitten with the mutt, I’ll sell her to you.”

Lily had her checkbook, right there on the front seat of her car. She reached over the console to grab it. “Name your price,” she said, opening it up and clicking the ballpoint she kept inside its case.

“Ten thousand dollars.”

Her mouth dropped open. “Ten thousand…” She looked at Missy and knew that if she had that kind of money, she’d gladly pay it. But Lily poured every penny of what she earned managing River Valley Ranch into the care and feeding of her animals. “I…I don’t have that much.” She glanced at the register, saw the dismal total on the bottom line.

She narrowed her eyes, suddenly suspicious. “How do I know she’s your dog?”

He smirked, pulled a sheet of folded paper from his shirt pocket. “Kinda thought you might ask that,” he said, handing it to her. “That’s her pedigree you’re holdin’.”

She glanced at it, tried to hand it back. “This is still no proof that you’re her owner.”

He wouldn’t accept the paper. “So, it’s proof you want, is it?” The man faced Missy and snapped his fingers. Her fur bristled as she bared her teeth. A low, ferocious growl echoed from deep in her chest as she lowered her head. “Goldie,” he ordered, “come!”

Missy’s snarling intensified. She hadn’t shown any signs of being vicious, not once in the months since Lily had pulled her out of Lake Meredith. “Where’d you lose her?” she demanded.

“Me an’ the missus was fishin’ on Lake Meredith. She fell in the water.” He shrugged again. “We thought she drowned. Then I found this.”

The paper he handed her this time was one of the Lost Dog posters she’d hung on every telephone pole in Amarillo. “I still haven’t seen any proof that you’re her owners.”

“Kinda thought you’d say that, too,” he said, “bein’ that you’re Lamont London’s baby girl and all. Here’s the check I wrote to the kennel, and the one I wrote to the American Kennel Club. See? The numbers jibe. She’s my dog.”

Now Lily understood. They’d heard that her father was one of the wealthiest men in the Texas Panhandle; they’d put two and two together, and come up with ten thousand.

Well, she couldn’t ask her dad for the money. La
mont had always been generous to a fault. But he’d been born and raised a rancher, with a practical, down-to-earth mind-set about money. To him, animals were a family’s bread and butter. No dog, not even his beloved Obnoxious, would be worth ten thousand dollars.

“I can give you five hundred now, five hundred more if—”

“Nope. Ten grand. Take it or leave it.”

It made sense, suddenly, that they’d named her Goldie. Who knows how many times they’d pulled this scam?

Maybe if she could buy some time… “Could you give me a few days?”

He glanced at his wife, who gave one slow nod.

“You have a week.” He checked his watch, then climbed into the driver’s seat of his truck. “Ten grand,” he repeated, “or the mutt goes home with us.”

With that, he backed down the drive and headed north.

Trembling, heart hammering, Lily hugged Missy. “Those terrible people!” she said, kissing the dog’s head. “What have they done to you?” Ruffling the retriever’s long, shiny ears, she added, “Don’t you worry, girl. I’ll find a way to keep you.” She kissed her again, this time on her snout.

Lily got back into the car and headed south, toward the hospital. “When it rains, it pours,” she muttered. With Cammi in the hospital and Missy’s future in jeopardy, she’d have plenty to worry about….

Her father’s wolf story came to mind.

Which wolf are you going to feed?
she asked herself.

Cammi had always been Lily’s rock. Since they lost their mother when Lily was four and Cammi twelve, her sister had been more like a mom. Now it was Lily’s turn to be the supportive, nurturing one.

Cammi would need her to be strong. So would Reid, for that matter. Could she do it?

She could…if she fed the right wolf.

Home. Max had thought about it as he signed the real estate papers, as he scribbled the bottom line on the documents that would free him from the partnership, as he read the in-flight magazine during the trip home.

It sure would be good to unpack in Amarillo, never to live anywhere else again.

But there were more important things to consider than his suitcase. He had to straighten things out with Lily—the sooner, the better.

He must have called her fifty times since she left Chicago the other night, must have left half that many messages. But she hadn’t answered one. Maybe he’d been wrong on Thanksgiving when he’d speculated which of Lamont’s daughters had inherited his fiery temper. Maybe it
was
Lily, not Violet, after all. Because if she wasn’t mad at him, what kept her from answering the phone!

Hurt feelings, that’s what. In her shoes, he’d have been humiliated, witnessing what looked like a passionate love scene. But unlike Lily, Max would have confronted things, head-on.

Wouldn’t he?

He’d driven straight from the airport to River Valley Ranch, fully expecting to find Lily in the barn, mothering her animals.

He’d been wrong.

Missy had been there and, strange as it seemed, hadn’t acted like her usual happy self. “What’s wrong, girl?” he asked, ruffling her soft fur. “You missin’ your mama?”

The dog whined, broke free of his hug and began pacing. Something had agitated her, and Max couldn’t help but wonder what. Missy was the most laid-back dog he’d ever met.

He knocked on the back door of Lamont’s ranch house.

No answer.

He tried the front door.

Same result.

That was almost as weird as Missy’s behavior, because not once in all the years he’d come here as a boy had the place been deserted.

It was like a ghost town. No Lamont. No Lily. Not even a ranch hand he could quiz.

Puzzled and worried, Max left.

“I don’t get it,” Max said, a short while later in Georgia’s diner. “What do you mean, someone wants ten grand for Missy?”

Georgia shrugged. “I’m only repeating what I heard in town. Strangers showed up, put papers under Lily’s nose to prove they’re the dog’s rightful owners. She has a week to come up with the money or Missy
goes with them next time they leave.” She pointed to the bulletin board near the phone. “That’s their number.”

“How’d
you
get it?”

“They came here first, looking for her, while she was out visiting you in Chicago. Told me if I heard from her, I should have her call them.” She paused. “How’d things go out there, anyway?”

“Don’t ask.”

“Max Sheridan, you can’t say a thing like that to a woman and get away with it!”

He knew it was true. Particularly with
this
woman. Max told her all about it—about how surprised he’d been when she called to say she’d taken him up on his invitation, about the dinner party…about Susan.

“Good grief, Max. What were you thinking!”

“That’s just the trouble. I wasn’t.”

“Well, what’re you going to do?”

He shrugged. “Mom, I honestly don’t know.”

“You love her, don’t you?”

“Big time,” he said without hesitation.

“Then, you have to set her straight, as soon as possible.”

“She’ll probably never speak to me again.”

“’Course she will. She loves you, too.”

“Wish I could be sure of that.”

“Trust me. I’ve been people-watching my whole adult life. This place gives me plenty of opportunity to hone up on it. I know the difference between infatuation and ’til-death-do-you-part love. That girl’s got a bad case of the ‘I Love Max’ blues.”

He met her eyes. “Y’think?” he asked hopefully.

“I
know.
” She took a sip of coffee. “Trouble is, she’s as stubborn as that bear of a father of hers. If she’s got it in her head to stay away from you, that’s exactly what she’ll do.”

He frowned. “Man. I hope not.”

“I remember years back, when you were off at college, she was working for me part time. One of the young truckers who came in a couple of times a week did something to rile her. She’d walk
way
around his table here in the diner.” Using her chin as a pointer, she indicated the street. “Out there, she’d go clean across the street to avoid him.”

“Whew. What did he do to get her that mad?”

“Never did find out. But I can promise you this—if that fella walked in here right now, and Lily saw him, she’d head straight out the door.”

Talk like this wasn’t helping build his confidence any. Max said, “So, is she going to give the money to Missy’s owners?”

“Don’t see how she can. She puts every dime she gets her hands on into those animals of hers.”

“What about Lamont? Surely he’d help her.”

She gave him a hard stare. “You’re joking, right?”

Max sighed. “I guess that is pretty ridiculous.” He’d lived in cattle country most of his life. Dogs were for protection, for herding cows. Sure, folks got attached to them, but not ten thousand dollars’ worth of attachment. It just wasn’t practical. “She must be brokenhearted,” he said. “She loves that dog almost as much as I love Nate.”

“Shame it had to happen right now, too. She’s al
ready got enough on her shoulders, considering what’s going on with Cammi and Reid.”

“What’s going on?”

Georgia sighed. “That poor girl…she came back to town a year or so ago. Did you hear she’d gone to Hollywood, tried to become an actress?”

“Doesn’t surprise me. Cammi always did love the stage. And she’s the spitting image of her mom.”

“Rose could have been a big star if she hadn’t married Lamont. She’d gotten top billing in a dozen or so movies before they met.”

“Think she regretted giving it up?”

“Not a chance. She was born to be by his side.”

Max understood that only too well. He’d loved Lily for just about as long as he could remember.

“Cammi got married out there, some stuntman.”

“I hadn’t heard that.”

“It’s true. The young fool took risks all day long on the movie sets, and would you believe he died when he crashed his car into a tree?”

Max shook his head as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

“Poor kid tried her best out there, but she couldn’t make ends meet. Told me that on the very afternoon she buried her husband, the doctor called to tell her she was gonna have a baby.”

“But…”

“She lost that one, too.”

“What do you mean, ‘too’?”

“What do you think it means?”

Max winced. “Man. That’s rough.”

Nodding, Georgia sighed again. “The whole family
is at the hospital, lending moral support. I imagine it’s hardest for Lily, because she and Cammi have always been closer than sisters.”

He should go over there, lend moral support to
her.
But what if his presence only upset her more?

“If you had the sense God gave a goose, you’d go over there, hold her hand.”

“She’d probably slug me.”

“So, let her. You’ve got it coming.”

“Hey. Whose side are you on?”

“I’ll tell you whose. If this cane reached farther, I’d smack you upside your head. What were you thinking, letting that hussy—”

“I already told you. I wasn’t thinking.”