Christmas Star (Contemporary, Romance) (24 page)

SeLi slid into the nook. “What’s wrong, Mom? Is Moe’s dad okay?”

Starr looked up from an article that was vague at best. It was apparent, however, that someone had leaked news about the sheep. Who? Had he been sacrificed for Calexco? The oil company wasn’t mentioned. Neither was Clay. Only Vanessa in one brief line saying she supported her husband fully.

“Mom?” SeLi shook her arm. “Mr. McLeod ain’t dead, is he?”

Politically he was. But how to tell a child? “It has to do with his job, honey. Why don’t you have microwave waffles today? I want to go see what they say about this on TV.”

“Okay.” SeLi didn’t act too happy, but she agreed.

Starr hurried into her bedroom and snapped on the set. She caught the last of a news broadcast. Apparently the senator was slated to meet with the House Environmental Committee at ten, eastern time. Starr glanced at her watch and realized that was five minutes away. The last film clip showed a group—presumably environmentalists—waving placards that demanded Harrison’s head on a pike.

Starr snatched the phone and dialed a friend in the Sierra Club. He asked pointedly whose side she was on.

“The side of the sheep, Mark. Need you ask? What about Calexco? They’re as much or more to blame.”

Mark refused to comment, and Starr had just hung up the phone when her doorbell rang.
Darn.
She couldn’t talk to anyone until she found out what precisely had happened.

But SeLi ran to answer the door.

“Don’t open it!” Starr yelled. “See who it is first.” Unsettled, Starr envisioned a mob of angry reporters. But no, she thought, trying to slow her breathing. Blevins wouldn’t have let strangers in. Oh, Lord! Maybe it was Wanda Manning.

Or Clay? In spite of everything that had gone on between them, Starr’s heart began to gallop. She was never more aware than now of how badly she wanted to see Clay—how much she missed him.

In any case, she was too late to stop SeLi, who sounded as if she wanted to keep the visitor out. Starr’s stomach lurched. That meant it wasn’t Clay; SeLi would be dragging him in. It was a man, though, judging by the sleeve of a sports coat she could see.

“Stanley.” His name rolled off Starr’s tongue as he swept SeLi aside and marched in.

“Well,” he huffed. “I’m certainly glad to find you at home and not aligned with those sheep-murdering McLeods. So far, they only have the goods on the senator, but I’ll bet that brother of his isn’t altogether innocent. Maybe next time you’ll listen to ol’ Stanley, eh?”

Starr bristled. “Barclay McLeod wasn’t involved,” she said in his defense. “Be careful whom you accuse of what, Stanley. I wouldn’t be alive today if it hadn’t been for him.”

SeLi ran up and pummeled Stanley’s coat. “Don’t you say bad things about Moe’s dad or his uncle Clay. Moe and me wished on the Christmas star. His mom and dad made up, just like we wished. His uncle Clay is gonna marry my mom. We wished that, too. We’re all gonna be family, and families stick together. Why don’t you just go ‘way? Mom and me don’t want you here.” The little girl tried pulling Stanley toward the door.

“Starr?” Stanley sounded shocked. “How can you marry that ruffian?”

SeLi’s words echoed in Starr’s head. They pulsed outward, wrapping around her heart, crystallizing her feelings for Clay.

She loved him. When you loved someone you were in their corner through good times and bad. Like she’d back SeLi against all who’d brand her a thief and a pickpocket.

Hadn’t the senator once described Clay as a sensitive man, one who listened to Vanessa’s problems? A man soft on animals and children and family? She’d seen that for herself. What kind of man would he be if he
didn’t
stick by his brother?

And the answer came as a shock.
Not the kind of man with whom I’d want to make babies and share my life.
“SeLi,” Starr said earnestly, ignoring Stanley’s presence, “it was a mistake for us to leave the ranch. Run get your jacket. We’re going back. If it isn’t too late, if Clay will let us help him...”

“Yippee!” SeLi shouted. She smirked at Stanley as she skidded past him and ran down the hall.

“Don’t do this,” Stanley warned. “You’ll lose your job. Guilt by association. You’ll be fired.”

Starr backed Stanley steadily out the door. Just before she closed it behind him, she said, “Calexco is the guilty one. Fish and Game, among others, has let them get away with murder for years. Get used to the idea of filing your own lab slips, Stanley. I’m about to shake things up.”

She hurried down the hall after SeLi, pausing to look for her car keys. She was frantically turning out her pockets when the doorbell pealed again.

“Don’t answer it!” Starr shouted as SeLi scampered past. Once again her warning came too late. This time, however, when she reached SeLi’s side, it wasn’t Stanley who barged in. It was the man responsible for her mad scramble—Barclay McLeod. His hat was in his hand, and his nephew, Morgan, stood at his side.

“Before you toss me out,” Clay said, holding up a palm, “hear me out, okay?”

Starr threw herself into Clay’s arms. She clung to his neck and kissed him full on the mouth.

Shocked, he flailed wildly for a moment. Then he took control of the situation, slid his arms around her waist and pushed her gently against the wall.

Clay was breathing hard and little more than a step away from seeking a more comfortable place to continue this lovely interlude when the sound of childish giggles intruded.

He loosened his hold on Starr and gazed tenderly down at her. “I came to plead my case,” he said, placing a finger under her chin, forcing her to look up. “Does this effusive greeting mean you no longer believe I condone what Harrison did?”

She was distressed. “I realized you love him and that you’re concerned about his family. About
your
family.”

“The love goes without saying,” he said, rubbing his thumb softly over her cheek. “Love is unconditional, but loyalty has to be earned. If you hadn’t left in such a rush, you’d have heard me ask Harris if avarice and greed is the example he wants to set for his son. Fortunately, after he calmed down and really thought about it, he admitted it’s not. That’s why he agreed to turn himself in.”

Starr feared she’d made a fool of herself again in kissing Clay. He hadn’t mentioned her anywhere in that speech. So why had he come all this way? Suddenly she realized they probably wanted her to testify against Calexco. That must be what he meant by saying he’d come to “plead his case.”

“I guess you two are hoping I’ll make a strong statement against Calexco. I will, but I’ll also have to tell what part the senator played. That’s assuming the canister I dropped off last night contains Drixathyon, and I’m sure it does.”

Clay frowned. “I didn’t fly up here on no sleep to talk about any of this.”

“Oh? Wanda Manning, then?” Starr glanced to see that SeLi was with Morgan a safe distance away.

Clay shook his head. “You won’t believe this,” he murmured. “The name on that birth certificate wasn’t Harrison’s. It was Joel Forbes.”

“Joel Forbes?” Starr blinked. “Any relation to Judge Forbes?”

“His son. He died in a shipboard accident less than a year after he came back from Thailand. The judge didn’t know he had a grandchild until the paperwork showed up on his desk. Apparently the birth certificate was in among SeLi’s mother’s things. At his age, and a widower, the judge felt the wisest thing would be to ensure a good adoption. With both parents dead, he didn’t see a need for anyone to know the truth.”

“How sad. I mean it’s his flesh-and-blood granddaughter. I’ll bet he’s mad at Mrs. Manning.”

“I think it’s fair to say your case will be reassigned.”

Starr frowned again. “Then I don’t understand. Why are you here?”

“Didja come to ask my mom to marry you?” SeLi said. She seemed to pop up from nowhere.

“Well, I...” Clay fiddled with the hat he still held and shifted from one foot to the other.

“SeLi!” Starr’s gasp echoed down the hall.

“That’s what Morgan said. Moe, didn’t you say that a minute ago?” SeLi demanded of the silent little boy.

Blue eyes wide, the boy slanted his uncle a helpless appeal. “Isn’t that what you told Grandma McLeod?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Then just ask,” SeLi prompted. “How hard can it be to say, ‘Will you marry me?’”

Clay rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. Then he threw back his head and laughed. “Listen, munchkin, proposing to a lady is hard enough without an audience. I know you want to help, but there are some things a man’s just gotta do for himself.”

SeLi squinted up at him.

Morgan tugged on her sleeve. “C’mon. I think he wants us to get lost.”

“Well, gol-ly!” SeLi exclaimed. “Why didn’t you just say so? My mom decorated our tree last night, Morgan. Wanna see?”

As the two clattered down the short hallway, Clay took a small, worn velvet box out of his pocket. “The element of surprise is gone, but since you didn’t take off or call the police, maybe that means you’ll accept this ring. It was my grandmother’s engagement ring. She wore it for fifty years.” He snapped the box open, and the light caught the blue stone nestled inside. “I was going to buy you one when I picked my folks up in L.A., but my mother suggested using this one. Do you mind?”

Starr touched the white star that radiated from the stone’s center. “The Christmas star,” she whispered. “Clay, it’s beautiful. It’s perfect. I love your mother. I love you.”

He smiled. “You’re beautiful. You’re perfect. I love you, too. Does all that mean yes? Will you marry me, Starr?”

“She will!” two hushed voices proclaimed in unison.

Clay and Starr looked up as the children ducked back into the living room.

Laughing, Clay caught Starr close for another long kiss.

“I second that,” she murmured the moment she was able. And she’d never meant anything more. For the first time in several days, she believed it was going to be a beautiful Christmas.

Was she crazy, or did the star sapphire Clay placed on her finger suddenly glow brightly?

It was magic. The magic of the Christmas star.

C
LAY HEARD
the commotion out in the hall and asked the caller on the telephone to hold. It was past suppertime, and the ranch house seemed strangely devoid of cooking odors. The last he’d seen Starr, she was busy helping SeLi make Christmas decorations for some event at school.

The phone call from his brother was a surprise. Harrison was due home next week, and according to the plan, he was supposed to begin picking up the pieces of his life. But he was calling to say that he’d decided to stay on in New Mexico even after finishing his five-year community-service sentence. He’d asked Vanessa to join him and she’d said yes.

Clay knew from the occasional phone call that Harrison had come to love the legal work he did in the remote Native American village, as well as the quiet, less hectic pace there.

Funny how things worked out, Clay thought. Perhaps it was fitting that Harrison end his sentence negotiating tribal water rights. Apparently the tribal council had invited him to stay. A few years ago, when Harrison’s concern for the state’s economy had overshadowed his good sense, Clay had doubted that his brother would ever see this particular sentence through, let alone change his ways. Especially after Calexco’s fine had helped bail out the state and nothing much had happened to the men who’d been Harrison’s so-called friends. He’d expected Harrison to appeal.

Wait until Starr heard the news. Clay needed to find her, anyway, because Harrison had asked if the whole family could come to Taos for a real old-fashioned Christmas this year.

As he stepped into the hall, he was hit in the knees by his red-haired, blue-eyed, three-year-old daughter, Joy.

“Whoa! Where’s the fire?” Clay reached down, hoisted her aloft and kissed her soundly on her button nose. She was such a bundle of energy, and such a combination of himself and Starr, that it always made him smile.

“SeLi won’t play with me,” she pouted prettily. “So I tooked her ol’ comb.”

Clay saw that indeed she held an elaborate, jeweled comb in her chubby hand. “No way. Time you learned you can’t just take things that don’t belong to you. Is your sister in her room?”

Joy nodded. “And Mama.”

Clay grinned. What had SeLi done now? On the way to the girl’s room, he snatched up a piece of mistletoe someone had thoughtfully left on the hall table. It never hurt to be prepared. Not that Starr could be bribed. But Clay always enjoyed trying.

“Okay, princess, let’s go see what’s up with those two.”

As he stepped silently through SeLi’s open door, his heart leapt. His wife, beautiful even in her state of dishabille, was on her knees adjusting the wide, velvet skirt on a dress that made their adopted daughter look grown-up beyond her fourteen years.

His shock was audible, the message from Harris forgotten.

Starr glanced up and smiled. “You like it?”
Say yes,
she mouthed.

Clay needed no prompting. “It’s gorgeous, SeLi. You look wonderfully grown-up. Twenty, at least.”

SeLi floated across the room, went up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Brian Flaherty invited me to the Christmas dance. Will he like this dress, do you think?” She did a little pirouette.

“A dance?” Clay’s brow furrowed and he set his youngest down on the pink-checked bedspread. “Starr—a dance?” he whispered.

SeLi overheard. She rolled her eyes and plucked the comb from her little sister’s busy fingers. “You didn’t say anything last week when Moe asked you to help him choose a Christmas gift for Whitney Desmond.”

“Yeah,” Starr said, getting to her feet to unzip SeLi’s dress. “You wouldn’t be a teensy bit chauvinistic, would you?”

Clay held up his hands. “If that’s the difference between being an uncle and a father, then I’m guilty. But hey, I know when I’m outnumbered. Speaking of Moe and Christmas, I’ve got to call Harrison back. He plans to continue helping the tribe file injunctions until they win. You guys want to go to New Mexico for the holidays?”

Starr laughed. “Your folks are dangling an East Coast amusement park to tempt us into going to Florida this year. My folks are doing the same with one on the West Coast—they’re big on family now that they’ve remarried and Dad’s retired. Plus, they’ve thrown in a studio tour for good measure.” She shook her head. “After finally finishing my doctoral dissertation and everything we’ve been doing to bring Calexco to its knees, I just want some time alone with my husband and children. Is that selfish of me?”

“Time alone?” Clay’s eyes gleamed. He waggled his eyebrows and chased after her, mistletoe held aloft.

SeLi returned from hanging her dress in the closet, tied her robe and scooped her little sister from the bed. “You guys haven’t had much time alone with Mom always running back and forth between San Francisco, college and the ranch.”

“I explained all that, SeLi. I was determined to get Drixathyon off the market. I thought we were all in agreement.”

“We were. And we’re proud of you, Mom. Wouldn’t it be cool if the
whole
family did get together for Christmas this year? Including Woody, Trader John and my real grandpa Forbes? If you guys wanna talk about it privately, I’ll take Joy into the den and read her one of the Christmas stories Nana Patrice sent.”

Starr started to protest, but Clay picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. “It’s a good idea, and a private discussion is exactly what we need.” He winked at SeLi and jogged toward the master bedroom. “When you get to the den, SeLi, tell your uncle Harrison I’ll get back to him later.”

“Much later,” Starr said, laughing.

“Whatcha gonna do, Daddy?” called Joy.

Hearing the click of the lock on her parents’ bedroom door, SeLi grinned at her sister. “C’mon, squirt. Let’s go see if the Christmas star is out tonight.”

SeLi put her down and the two raced into the den. After SeLi had stopped to pass on her dad’s message, she joined Joy at the bay window.

“Tell me again,” the little girl begged, “how Nana Patrice wanted a baby and she wished on the Christmas star. Are you pos’tive my mama was borned before the next Christmas?”

“Born,” SeLi corrected primly. “Don’t you remember how I said I wanted a dad and I wished on the Christmas star? Starr and Clay got married, didn’t they?”

“And me.” The impudent child clapped her hands. “You said you wished for me.”

SeLi wrinkled her nose. “I didn’t know little sisters were such pests.”

Joy’s pretty blue eyes clouded. Her lips trembled.

“Hey, I was kidding. I only meant the Christmas star is powerful. You gotta be careful what you ask for, okay?”

“Can I ask for a brother?” Joy asked, scrubbing the faint tears from her eyes. “Then when Morgan visits and you guys play ‘Nopoly, I won’t hafta be alone.”

“Monopoly,” SeLi said absently, listening to Starr’s shrieks of laughter in the other room. Then there was a soft bump as the headboard of the bed hit the wall, and all was silent in her parent’s bedroom.

“A brother might be the ticket at that,” SeLi said, her face thoughtful. “It won’t be all that long until I go off to college. Nobody should have to be alone, Joy. Nobody.”

SeLi helped her little sister kneel on the window-seat cushion. Together they searched for and found the brightest star in the sky.

“Be careful now and get this right,” SeLi warned. “Repeat after me—Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight...”