Eternal Vows (Hideaway (Kimani)) (17 page)

It had taken all of her resolve to sidestep the Tuskegee psychology professor who’d obtained her teaching schedule and would park outside her apartment to wait for her. Peyton finally had to tell him she was involved with a man in Virginia. Thankfully he believed the half-truth and retreated respectfully. She wished it had been the same with Reginald.

“Where, Nicholas?”

“There’s a little honky-tonk-type restaurant only a few miles from the West Virginia state line. The food is good, the patrons are friendly and the DJ plays everything from country to club tunes. It’s going to take at least an hour to get there, so we’ll have to leave around six. Depending on the night the place fills up quickly and once you get a table it’s yours for the night.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“So, it’s the honky-tonk?”

“Yes.”

Peyton checked her watch. It was close to one. “Can I see the puppy? I need to know what size crate I need to buy when I go shopping.”

Nicholas stood up, then extended his hand to pull Peyton to her feet. “They are probably near the stables.”

“This time we’re taking my truck,” she said, winking at him.

* * *

Peyton found Ginger and her puppies sleeping under a tree near the barn. She went to her knees and touched the head of one of the puppies when he looked at her. The cast on the bitch’s leg was dirty and tattered. “How long has she had the cast?” she asked Nicholas.

“About a couple of weeks before she gave birth.”

“How old are the pups?”

“Six weeks.”

“Did Dr. Richardson x-ray her since he put on the cast?”

Nicholas hunkered down beside Peyton. “No. He said he’ll be back next week to check on her.”

Now she knew why Nicholas wanted a new vet. It was apparent Dr. Richardson wasn’t as available as requested. “The cast needs to come off and the leg x-rayed. Please pick her up, Nicholas.” She estimated the golden retriever/collie mix weighed about forty pounds. He lifted the dog effortlessly while the puppies tumbled over his feet.

“Where are you taking her?”

“Back to the farm,” Peyton said, picking up the squirming pups and cradling them to her chest. “I’ll remove the cast and x-ray her leg. If we leave her babies it will probably stress her out and then I’ll have to sedate her. Do you have a crate large enough to hold her?”

“Yes.”

* * *

Nicholas got to see firsthand Peyton’s skill when he stood off to the side in one of the state-of-the art examining rooms in the newly constructed Blackstone Farms Equine Center. The puppies were placed in a cage with paper shavings and a bottle of water attached to the door. The frisky puppies were scrambling over one another to investigate the bottle before they realized they could get water from the nozzle. Ryan assisted her when, using a handheld drill, they removed the plaster cast from
Ginger’s leg. Her glove-covered fingers gently kneaded the limb.

She shared a look with Ryan. “I don’t think I need to x-ray her. What do you think, Ryan?”

He repeated her manipulations, nodding. “I think you’re right. Let’s stand her up and see if she can support her weight.” Together they got Ginger to stand up on her own before setting her down on the floor. The canine took one step, then another. She loped over to the cage where her puppies yelped excitedly.

Peyton stripped off her gown and gloves, leaving them in labeled bins. She smiled at Nicholas. “As you can see she’s none the worse for wear. It may take a while before the muscles in that leg are as strong as the other three, but the more she moves around the better it will be for her. I’m going to take her for a walk.”

Nicholas nodded, smiling. “How much do I owe you?”

Ryan exchanged a look with Peyton. “Give me one of the pups once they’re weaned and we’ll call it even. My boys have been nagging me for a dog because Vivienne has claimed Peyton’s cat as her own. I don’t know what’s going to happen when she has to give it up.”

Peyton walked over to a stainless-steel sink to wash her hands. “She can have Oreo. Nicholas has offered to give me one of Ginger’s pups.”

“And you can have one for your boys,” Nicholas told Ryan.

Ryan blew out his breath. “Thanks, Nick. My sons believe Vivienne gets whatever she wants because she’s a girl, so hopefully the dog will ease some of the sibling rivalry.”

Nicholas shook his head. “I didn’t realize it was like that.”

Ryan removed his gloves. “Wait until you’re married with a couple of kids. They manage to disagree over the most asinine things.”

Nicholas rubbed the back of his neck. “It’ll probably be a while before I take that step.”

“Don’t wait too long, man. Before you know it you’ll be forty and when your kids call you dad their friends will ask don’t you mean granddad.”

“Come on, Ryan, forty isn’t ancient.”

“No it isn’t, but I’m willing to bet your father had all of his kids before he turned forty.”

“It was different with them because my mother and father were college sweethearts and were committed to a future together.”

* * *

Peyton deliberately blocked out the conversation between her cousin and Nicholas as she fastened a harness around Ginger’s body, and then attached a leash. Walking the dog was the perfect excuse for not getting into the debate whether Nicholas should marry and father children before turning forty.

Her mother was twenty when she married her twenty-two-year-old husband, an age Peyton felt was much too young. She was twenty-three when she married Reginald and by the time she celebrated her twenty-sixth birthday she was a divorcée. Thankfully they hadn’t had any children. Reginald wanted a child, but for Peyton that hadn’t been an option at that time in her life. The few times they’d argued it was always about her becoming pregnant. The more pressure he put on her the more she balked.

Opening a door, she had to pull to get Ginger to follow her, and she suspected the dog had never been on a leash. “Come on, baby. Let’s go for a walk.”

Once Ginger became accustomed to being pulled along, she settled into a slow, measured gait. Peyton took the time to retrieve the voice-mail message from her cell phone. She activated the feature, then the blood seemingly congealed in her veins when she recognized a former high school friend’s strident tone: “Peyton, please call me as soon as you get this message. I think I messed up when I ran into your ex a couple of days ago. We chatted for a bit, then when he asked where he could get in touch with you because his mother is terminally ill and she wanted to talk to you, I gave him your number and address.”

“He knows my cell phone,” she whispered. Reginald knew her cell-phone number and so did many others in her phone’s contacts. She tapped the button for the most recent number. A man answered the call instead of Jaime. Peyton hesitated before finding her voice. “May I please speak to Jaime Rosen.”

“I’m sorry, but this isn’t Jaime’s number. I’m one of her co-workers. She used my phone because she’d left hers home. If you want I can give her a message.”

Peyton shook her head even though the man couldn’t see her. “That’s all right. I’ll call her back later on tonight. I’m sorry I bothered you.”

“No problem.”

She hung up, the two words assaulting her like missiles. Her friend, in a moment of compassion, had revealed to Reginald what he needed to find her. Ginger pulling on the leash shattered the cocoon of dread that had enveloped her. Peyton realized Jaime’s faux pas wasn’t as grim as she originally thought. None of her friends, not even her parents, knew her address would change from Blackstone Farms to Cole-Thom Farms in less than a week.

Ginger quickened her pace to a trot, Peyton half jogging to keep up with the canine. Living on a horse farm definitely had its advantages. No one could enter or leave without being monitored. It was only when she left the property that she’d become vulnerable.

Peyton didn’t want to believe her former mother-in-law was terminally ill. If that were true, then why hadn’t Sylvia or even her husband called her? If not her, then her parents. Alphonso and Lena had gotten along well with Sylvia and Philip Matthews.

At that moment Peyton decided to rearrange her lifestyle one final time, because she refused to continue to be victimized by her ex-husband; she’d tired of his harassment, tired of him dictating how she should live her life every time her phone rang. Nicholas had mentioned she was about to embark on a new beginning and for her that meant getting rid of everything negative that had impacted her past.

Her plan to go shopping would be replaced with online shopping, and if Reginald was so inclined to come to Virginia to seek her out, then she would be more than ready for him.

Chapter 14

I
t was their last night together and old habits were slow to fade as Caroline sat at the foot of Peyton’s bed, her shoulders supported by a stack of pillows. When in college whenever they needed to talk either Peyton or Caroline would climb into the other’s bed as if the physical contact made it easier to confide in each other.

Stretching her bare arms above her head, Caroline stared up at the diaphanous fabric draping the tester. “I know you’ve been waiting for me to tell you why I can’t have children.”

Peyton closed her eyes as she reclined on several pillows. “I figured you’d tell me when you were ready. If not, then it’s no big deal.”

“But it is a big deal—for me that is.”

Peyton listened, without interrupting when her best friend revealed that she’d started babysitting twin boys of a widowed dentist the year she turned fifteen. What had begun with flirting and an occasional caress quickly became a full-blown affair where he took her virginity. Unfortunately Caroline found herself pregnant despite her lover using protection.

He’d convinced her to have an abortion to avoid his being charged with statutory rape. Then, he did the unspeakable. He wasn’t licensed as an ob-gyn, yet he’d performed the procedure in his dental office.

“He put me under,” Caroline whispered even though she and Peyton were the only two in the room. “But when I woke up I knew there would be some pain, but not the pain that made me feel as if someone was stabbing me.”

“What happened, Caro?” Peyton asked in a quiet tone when her friend closed her eyes.

“The bleeding wouldn’t stop and neither did the pain. I hemorrhaged and wound up in the E.R. and eventually surgery where I underwent a total hysterectomy. The attending doctor told my parents I’d contracted an infection from a botched abortion. By the time everything came out my lover had closed down his practice and fled the country to avoid prosecution and the loss of his license.

“When I met Eric I told him I couldn’t have children, but he said he still wanted to marry me. It may have been okay with him but not his parents. They nagged and nagged him until he finally had to give in and end our marriage.”

“Do you still love him?”

A sad smile flitted across Caroline’s face. “A part of me will always love Eric because he was willing to accept me as I am. I just hope he’s happy.”

“Are you open to meeting someone new?” Peyton asked.

“Not really. I’m looking forward to moving into my condo, and then finding a permanent position with a magazine or paper. I have too much experience to scrounge around looking for something newsworthy to write about. I do thank you for giving me the information I need on doping and horse racing. Now, what’s up with you and Nicholas?” Carolyn asked without taking a breath.

“Not much.”

“How much is not much?” Caroline asked.

“I won’t see him again until Sunday. And I’ll begin working Monday morning.”

Peyton had ordered bedding, dishes, flatware and glasses, throw pillows, lamps, kitchen gadgets and bathroom accessories online, opting for two-day express shipping. She’d had everything delivered to Cole-Thom Farms where Nicholas had arranged for the boxes to be stored at her cottage. Caroline helped her unpack, put up several loads of laundry and run the dishes, flatware and glasses through the dishwasher.

Caroline sat up, light brown eyes sparkling like copper pennies. “You know he has the hots for you.”

Peyton cast her eyes downward, staring at her hands. “I wouldn’t say that. He’s admitted to liking me, but that’s it.”

Caroline scooted up to the head of the bed. “You didn’t see the way he was looking at you, Peyton. A few times when he’d picked up a forkful of food I thought he was going to miss his mouth because he was staring so hard.”

“Stop it!” There was a hint of laughter in the command.

“No, you stop it,” Caroline countered angrily. “You meet a man who appears to have it all and you’re acting like a junior high school girl with a crush on the cutest boy in the school.”

Peyton frowned. “Why does it have to be junior high? Why not high school?”

“Because you probably were more mature in high school than you are now.”

Her frown deepened. “Don’t forget you said the same thing when I met Reginald. That he was the total package.”

Caroline made a sucking sound with her tongue. “Well, I was wrong because I was blinded by his syrupy smile and gift for gab. Don’t forget he had a lot of women falling for his line of bull.”

“But I fell harder than the others because I married that jackass.”

There came a beat. “Does he still call you?”

A pregnant silence ensued, and then Peyton revealed everything that had happened since she last mentioned Reginald to her friend, including the conversation she’d had with Jaime about letting it slip as to where she now lived.

Caroline’s eyes were as large as silver dollars. “What’s his obsession with you, Peyton? You’d think he would’ve moved on by now.”

Peyton exhaled an audible sigh. “It wasn’t until I’d left him that I remembered him telling me that he would never let me go.”

“The warning bells didn’t go off when he said it?”

She shook her head. “Not at the time. I was in love. Or I’d believed I was in love.”

“Remember the night we sat up watching
Sleeping With the Enemy
and you said you didn’t want anyone to love you that much?”

Peyton nodded. “Reginald’s obsession with me didn’t begin to manifest until after I left him.”

“And now he’s looking up your high-school friends to try and find you.”

“He can look all he wants because I’m not going to be here after tomorrow. And if he’s ballsy enough to trespass then he’ll be shot. The same goes for Nicholas’s farm. You saw the posted sign about trespassers being shot on sight.”

“I couldn’t believe it when I read that.”

“When you invest millions of dollars to set up a breeding and training horse farm you use every means necessary to protect your private property. You’ll find more armed men at Cole-Thom than you will here because it’s a stud farm. A horse put out to stud can earn fees that far exceed what it’ll earn in racing purses.”

Caroline shifted, facing Peyton. “You’re safe as long as you’re behind gates with armed security. What’s going to happen when you have to leave the farm?”

Moving off the bed, Peyton walked to a chest of drawers, opening one. Returning, she placed a small-caliber silver automatic on the bed. “I’ll carry this with me.”

Caroline moved back as if it were a viper. “Oh, hell. What are you doing with a gun?”

“Don’t worry, Caro. I have a license.”

“When did you get it?”

“I got my license when I was a college freshman. I bought the gun a couple of years ago and Jeremy taught me how to shoot. I practiced over and over until I could hit a can dead center. I would never use it unless I found myself in imminent danger.”

“And you would shoot your ex-husband?”

“If I had to shoot him, then I would aim for his knees, then run like hell.”

Rising slightly, Caroline hugged Peyton. “Let’s hope it won’t come to that. But you have to tell someone that your ex has been harassing you.”

“I don’t want to involve anyone in this.”

“Yeah, right. I’m willing to bet if you told Jeremy he would go hunting for Mr. Crazy and make him rue the day he ever said hello to you.”

Peyton slipped off the bed and replaced the gun under a stack of T-shirts. “That’s why I won’t say anything. And if Daddy found out about his calls I know he would break Reginald in two. He never liked Reginald and the feeling was mutual. It was obvious he saw something in his son-in-law I didn’t get to see until it was too late.”

“Speaking of late, Peyton. It’s after two and I’d better go to bed. I don’t want to fall asleep behind the wheel during my drive back. And now that we both live in Virginia there’s no reason why we can’t get together every other month.”

“I’d love to visit D.C.”

“All you have to do is call me and come,” Caroline said. “I have a wonderful two-bedroom condo with incredible views of Rock Creek Park.”

Peyton smiled. “I’m sold.”

She hugged Caroline again, then watched as she walked out of her suite and into the one across the hall. Adjusting the pillows under her shoulders, she reached over and turned off the lamp on the bedside table. Peyton was still reeling from the revelation a man had seduced an innocent teenage girl and then fled the country after he’d rendered her sterile.

Her dilemma with Reginald paled in comparison to Caroline’s inability to bear a child. Peyton could not understand how Eric could have agreed to marry her knowing the truth, then do a complete reversal when he said he wanted his own biological child. Deceit yet again had reared its evil head.

Turning over on her belly, she gripped the pillow. This would be the last night she would sleep under the roof of Sheldon’s house. After breakfast and church services, she would leave for Cole-Thom Farms. It was a four-minute drive between the two farms but for Peyton it could be four hours. She would miss her young cousins most of all. They knew she was going away yet couldn’t grasp the concept that she lived close enough to see them every day.

* * *

Peyton sat, reading from a prayer book while waiting for Reverend Merrill to begin the service. Her head popped up when the scent of a familiar masculine cologne wafted to her nostrils. Smiling, she watched as Nicholas slid closer to her. He smelled as good as he looked in a white linen shirt and black slacks in the same fabric.

“Good morning,” she whispered.

Nicholas placed his hand over Peyton’s. “Good morning. You look lovely this morning.” He’d been truthful. She wore a deep rose-pink sundress with a scooped neckline. His dark gaze moved slowly over her face. Peyton’s sun-bleached ash-blond hair was a shocking contrast to her deeply tanned face.

For a long moment she met his eyes. “Thank you. I didn’t expect to see you here this morning.”

“I only come here when I get up too late to attend mass at my regular parish.”

“Late night?”

“The poker game ran later than usual,” Nicholas whispered in her ear.

“Where was the game?”

“It was at the farm.”

“How much did you lose?” Peyton asked.

Nicholas leaned against her shoulder. “What makes you think I lost?”

“You don’t have the face for a good poker player.”

“And you do, sweetheart?”

There. He’d called her sweetheart again. Peyton knew it was no longer a slip of the tongue. “Yes, I do.”

“We’ll have to see about that.”

“Put up or shut up, Nicholas.”

“Oh, it’s on now, beautiful. We’ll play tonight and I don’t accept credit.”

Peyton wasn’t given an opportunity to reply when the pianist sat at the piano at the same time the guitarist and drummer took their places. The soloist stepped onto the stage waiting for the introduction to the opening hymn. The acoustic piano blended melodiously with the other instruments. The words to the song were projected on overhead screens that could be viewed from any angle in the modern minimalist church building as the sweet sound of voices swelled.

Jimmy Merrill’s sermon was based on the human family: wives and husbands, children and parents. There were audible murmurs and groans from women when the minister read the verse about wives being subordinate to their husbands. Peyton refused to acknowledge Nicholas when he mumbled in agreement. The lingering feeling of fellowship continued after the service ended and everyone stood in the parking area hugging, kissing and greeting one another as if they’d been separated by weeks instead of hours.

Nicholas curved an arm around Peyton’s waist. “What are you going to do now?”

She slipped on a pair of oversized sunglasses. “I still have a few things left to pack before I come over.”

“Are you staying the night?”

“If you’re asking if I’m going to sleep in my own bed at the cottage, then the answer is yes. After all, I don’t want to be late for my first day of work.”

Nicholas laughed, the sound coming from deep within his chest. “Don’t worry, I won’t fire you if you’re late.”

Rising on tiptoe, she kissed his clean-shaven cheek. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

He wanted to tell Peyton that he’d tried to stay away from her and had been successful until this morning. Even though he knew he would see her later it still wasn’t enough. She’d accused him of not knowing her and Nicholas had to admit to himself she was telling the truth. He recognized her face, was familiar with the sound of her voice, but was clueless when it came to what she liked and more importantly what she needed.

“Do you want me to send someone to drive you over?”

“No, thank you. I’ll catch a ride with Sheldon.”

Nicholas walked to where he’d parked his car. It was as if he’d come full circle. Last year he hadn’t been ready for a relationship. This year he looked forward to having one—with Peyton Blackstone.

* * *

“Auntie, pick me up.”

Tugging on one of Lynette’s braids, Peyton hunkered down to the child’s height. “I can’t, baby girl, because I’m holding your brother.” Carter was fast asleep in the snuggly slung over her chest.

“Put him down, Auntie!” Lynette screamed, stomping her little foot.

Peyton was torn by mixed emotions she was totally unprepared to deal with. She’d told Tricia and Jeremy’s daughters she was moving and they hadn’t taken the news well. Elena and Lynette had begun acting out, while Michaela refused to talk to her, although she’d reassured the triplets they would still have their playdate and campouts.

Why now?
she mused. They were in the dining hall at Cole-Thom Farms and from the looks directed at Peyton from her new farm family, Lynette’s outburst had garnered everyone’s attention.

Rising, she reached for Lynette’s hand, and then she pointed to the small round table with a half-dozen chairs. “I’m going to give your brother back to your mother, then we’re going to have a very special tea party. Okay, Lynn?” Lynette had insisted she wanted everyone to call her Lynn. Of the three sisters, Lynette was the most vocal and forceful in her demands.