Forces of Nature (15 page)

She leaned her head against Douglas's arm and squeezed his hand. “Come on, we have cake to finish and I have an ego to stroke.”

“And you know I have a big ego,” he quipped as they climbed into his truck.

By the time Douglas and Crystal arrived at the farm, they could barely contain their excitement to be together. But when Crystal spotted a car parked in the driveway with Florida license plates, she could only groan. “My parents are here,” she said as he brought the truck to a complete stop.

“What?” he asked.

“This isn't going to be good,” she groaned. “Maybe you should . . .”

“I hope you don't plan on telling me to go away or head home. I'd really like to meet your parents—if for no other reason than to apologize.”

Recalling the conversation she and her father had earlier, she wasn't sure that was a good idea. “Douglas,” she began.

He brought his finger to her lips and shook his head. “I'm not running away from your parents. After all, at some point they're going to find out that I'm crazy about their daughter.”

Douglas opened the door and then crossed over to the passenger side to assist Crystal down. She took his hand and smiled as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “It's going to be fine,” he said, and leaned in to kiss her.

“What in the hell is going on out here?” a voice boomed from the porch. Crystal shuddered and forced a smile on her lips as she turned around and faced her father. Joel Hughes was an impressive man, even at his age. Years of farm work left him in great shape. Crystal was certain that his huge forearms, his booming voice, and no-nonsense attitude kept many suitors away when she was a teenager.

“Hi, Daddy,” she said, turning around to face him.

Joel bounded down the steps and stood in front of her and Douglas. “Is this who I think it is?” he asked without saying hello.

“Daddy,” she said quietly, “this is Douglas Wellington the third. He's—”

“Out to take our land and you're just hanging all over him as if nothing is going on?” Joel folded his massive arms and glared at Douglas. “I don't trust him and I see that your mother and I made the right decision returning to fight Welco. Looks like the son learned a lot from his father.”

“Mr. Hughes, I'm nothing like my father,” Douglas said.

“I don't think I was talking to you,” Joel snapped. “Crystal, we need to talk. In private.”

“Wait, Daddy,” she said. “Douglas has some information that may change your mind.”

Joel shook his head. “Can you just hear him out, please?” Crystal asked.

Joel looked from his daughter to Douglas. “Let's go inside,” he said, then started for the front door with Crystal and Douglas on his heels.

“He's tough,” Douglas whispered.

Crystal nodded and kept silent as she and Douglas entered the living room.

“Crystal,” Erin said as she rose from the sofa and crossed over to her daughter. The two women hugged tightly.

“Mama, I can't believe you guys are here,” she said. “So early.”

Erin glanced over Crystal's shoulder at Douglas. She stepped back from her daughter and blinked as if she'd seen a ghost. “You look so much like your father,” she said to Douglas. “I'm surprised Joel even spoke to you.”

Joel snorted and pointed toward the sofa. “Where's the information?”

Douglas placed the folder he and Crystal found on the coffee table. “I think I can stop Welco's plan to purchase this land.”

“Being that you're CEO, you shouldn't have a problem doing that,” Joel said. “I'm not as naive as my daughter. I know you could've done the right thing a long time ago.” Erin squeezed her husband's arm, as if she was telling him to calm down.

Douglas flipped through the file. “Mr. Hughes,” he said, “I understand that you and my father had issues. . . .”

“Issues?” Joel bellowed. “Issues? Your father was a cowardly bastard who tried to take my family's land because he couldn't have my wife. He played games with people I cared about and all of this because he had a broken heart. Boo-freaking-hoo.”

“And I understand that, now,” Douglas said, choosing his words carefully. “But honestly, that has nothing to do with me.”

In a motion that was so quick, it caught everyone in the room off guard, Joel jacked Douglas up from the sofa, lifting him as if he were a rag doll.

“Daddy! Stop!” Crystal yelled.

“This has everything to do with you because if you're using my daughter the way Waylon Terrell used Dena, then I will snap you into two pieces.”

Erin crossed over to her husband and grabbed his arm. “Joel! This isn't thirty years ago. Let him go.”

Joel dropped Douglas to the floor and glared at him. Crystal rushed to his side, whispering, “Are you all right?”

“Yeah, your dad's a strong man,” he said, coughing slightly. Crystal looked up at her father and shook her head. Though she couldn't judge him too harshly because she'd wanted to do something similar when she'd first met Douglas, her father had to realize that Douglas wasn't his father and he was trying to help.

Joel dropped his head and extended his hand to Douglas. “Listen,” he said, “I'm sorry about that. Obviously, I have some unresolved issues about what happened and I'm wrong for taking it out on you.”

Douglas rested his back against the sofa and rubbed his throat. “I can understand where you're coming from in a way,” he replied. “What my father tried to do to your family and this land was unforgivable. Welco is a publicly held company and I have a board to answer to. However, with this manifesto my father wrote, the board should see the error of our ways and fall back from trying to buy the land.”

Joel folded his arms. “So, what happens with the court case on Monday?”

“Yes,” Erin asked. “I want this to be over.”

Douglas nodded as he rose to his feet. “So do I,” he said. “I'd better go.”

“I'll walk you out,” Crystal said as she followed Douglas to the door. Once they were outside, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. “I'm so sorry about that.”

“Well, I can't blame your dad. My father wanted to destroy your father's family legacy. He wanted to take this farm and level it because your mother had the audacity to fall in love with someone else. Then he wanted to ruin Dena's life as well, since she introduced your mother and father.”

Crystal shook her head. “What was it like growing up with him?”

“You can understand why it took a lot of convincing to get me back here. I can't believe I felt guilty about not being here and was about to . . . I will say this, I'm glad your mother and father fell in love. Otherwise, you wouldn't be here.” Douglas lifted her chin and kissed Crystal with a slow, burning passion that made her light up like a candle.

Placing her hand against the flat of his chest, she pulled back from him and smiled. “That's pretty bold of you, kissing me like that, knowing that my dad could walk down those steps at any time.”

“I'm not scared of your father,” he said. “Just don't tell him that.”

Crystal laughed and kissed him again. “We'll keep that between us,” she said.

“So, do you think we should try to meet later? Maybe you can climb out of your window and meet me in the rose garden and we can just talk.”

“Just talk?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “I'm not going to fall for that one. And I'm sure when I get back inside I'm going to get an earful about being with you.”

“So, your dad will be waiting by the door with a shotgun, huh?”

Crystal nodded and laughed. “I wouldn't put it past him. Tomorrow, we'll sneak away and finish what we started earlier.”

Crystal watched him as he drove away, then sighed and returned to the living room where her parents were waiting.

“Daddy,” she said as she crossed over to her father.

Joel shook his head and drew his daughter into his arms. “I'm sorry about how I acted, but you have to understand, there's a lot of history with Welco and our family.”

“That still doesn't give you the right to act like a madman. Sorry if I sound disrespectful. Daddy, what was that really all about?”

Erin and Joel exchanged knowing looks. “That's one of the reasons why we rushed here tonight,” Erin said. “Though neither of us had any idea that Douglas the third was nothing like his father. Dena didn't paint him too kindly.”

Crystal nodded. “We thought we were going to be in for a big fight.”

“Thought? I hope you aren't falling for his promises and lies,” Joel said, showing that he wasn't convinced by Douglas's assertion that he'd back off the farm.

Erin placed her hand on her husband's shoulder. “Joel, we're not dealing with his father. You have to give him a chance.”

He grumbled about Douglas Jr.'s evil soul, then nodded.

“Daddy,” Crystal said, “Douglas wants to make things right. He isn't trying to pull one over on us. He's embarrassed and hurt about what his father was trying to do—not just to us, but to everyone listed in that file.”

Erin beckoned for Crystal to sit down. “Joel,” she said, “It's time to tell her everything.”

Joel sighed and sat down beside Crystal. “It started when we were in high school,” he said. “Your mother and Douglas, or Junior, as he was known back then, were dating.”

“Wow,” Crystal said, since she could never imagine her mother with anyone other than her father.

“Joel and I became lab partners in chemistry and he was so sweet that our relationship grew from a flirty friendship to a lifetime love. I never meant to hurt Douglas,” Erin said. “I told him that I was sorry, and he said I'd be sorry when he got through with Joel.”

“First he tried to fight me,” Joel said. “And he ended up getting embarrassed in front of the whole school. He thought I looked down on him because he was from Waverly, but I didn't have a problem with where he was from. I simply wanted his girlfriend.”

“And,” Erin interjected, “we were young. I had no idea that Douglas was so serious about me or that Joel and I would fall so deeply in love.”

“And we didn't know that Douglas was so damned resentful and a vindictive son of a—”

“Joel, the man is dead,” Erin said quietly. “He could've done a lot more for the community if he hadn't been so bent on revenge. When Joel and I took over the farm from your grandfather and Nana, things in Duval County were getting bad and we wanted to expand the outreach of the farm and help the poor and the growing homeless population. At the same time, Junior was establishing Welco, buying a lot of property, turning Reeseville into his headquarters. Without your father's knowledge . . .”

Joel grunted and folded his arms across his chest. “And that's what started this whole mess,” he said.

“What happened?” Crystal asked.

Erin sighed, rose to her feet and started pacing back and forth. “I approached him and asked for help,” she said. “When I was in his office, he tried to kiss me and he told me that no one, not even his wife, had his heart the way I did. He even told me that he'd leave his wife if I would give him a chance to love me the way he'd always dreamed of doing. His wife was pregnant at the time and I thought he was so cruel to even suggest that. It was as if he'd just come back to town for me—despite the fact that he left town to start a family and I was dedicated to my husband.”

Erin stopped talking and glanced at Joel, who had a far-off look in his eyes, as if he'd returned to the moment she'd been describing. “Right then and there I should've taken him out,” Joel mumbled. Erin stopped in front of her husband and stroked his forearms gently. Her touch seemed to calm the storm of the past and he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him.

Crystal had always admired the love her parents shared; simple touches and a smile said so much between them. She just had no idea that their love had been tested so seriously. Now, the closeness and the tenderness between them made so much more sense. You had to go through hell to have that kind of connection.

“Junior tried to pretend that he was better than everybody else,” Erin said. “But he was still a scared boy from Waverly, no matter how many suits he put on or how much money he made. He always thought that I chose Joel over him because of this farm.”

“And,” Joel said with a little laugh, “your mother has always hated this farm.”

Erin playfully smacked her husband's shoulder. “I did not hate this farm. I just didn't know, until we got married and started living here, the sheer amount of work that went into it.”

Joel pushed a stray lock of Erin's salt and pepper hair behind her ear, then kissed her forehead. “Thanks to you, we made this farm mean something to the community and not just the Hughes family.”

“I thought Junior would've bought into what we were doing here,” Erin said. “That's why I was so taken aback when he came at me about our long-dead relationship. I turned him down and he said he'd make me and my whole family pay.”

“Is that how Dena got involved?” Crystal asked.

Erin nodded. “Dena and I have always been close and when she started dating Waylon, I thought they were going to make it. It really seemed as if he loved her.”

“I think he still does,” Crystal said. “He was here earlier as well.”

“What?” Joel exclaimed. “He certainly has a nerve. I wonder if he has a backbone now?”

“Joel, you need to let your anger go, too,” Erin said. “You and Waylon were friends once. He even worked on the farm with you. Hasn't enough time and bitterness passed?”

He sighed. “We need to find Dena and see what her plan is for court tomorrow. And, Crystal, you need to stay away from that Wellington boy.”