TIS THE SEASON...FOR ROMANCE (WESTMORELAND/MASTERS/JEFFERIES) (30 page)

The young woman, who was crouched down petting the animal that was locked in a cage, turned toward Corey Westmoreland and gave him an apologetic smile. He felt a knot in the middle of his stomach when she turned those beautiful chocolate eyes on him, and he was immediately smitten.

He had first seen her a few days ago but this was the closest he’d been to her. All the other park rangers had been talking about the beautiful, proper-talking girl from Boston who had come to spend two weeks vacationing at Yellowstone National Park with her parents. When he’d seen her he’d known the guys had been right. She was definitely a beauty. He had wanted to get close but her parent’s presence had all but made it impossible. They were definitely an overprotective pair.

“Sorry,” she said standing. “I truly am, but the cub looked so lonely and scared. What will be done to him?”

“We’re going to try and find his parents. Somehow they got separated and I’m sure his mother is pretty frantic by now.”

She smiled at hearing that. It was as if knowing the cub would be returned to its mother had taken a load off her mind. “How long have you been a park ranger?” she asked him.

He glanced at his watch and then back at her. Luckily he had time to spare since it was the beginning of his lunch hour. “This is my first year. I’m a senior at Montana State University and I work here part-time as part of my internship. I’m set to graduate in December.”

She made a face that he thought was beautiful, and then she said. “I wish that was me finishing college. I’m just heading off there in September. This trip was a graduation gift before starting college in the fall.”

“Where will you be going?”

“Harvard.”

He wasn’t surprised since she looked as smart as she was beautiful. And she also looked young, probably only seventeen or eighteen. He wondered if she’d ever dated a guy his age of twenty-two. “Nice school,” he heard himself say.

There was an innocence about her as well as a refinement he found breathtaking. And according to some of the other rangers, her parents had money. Her father had written a check of quite a large sum to the Wildlife Preservation Society on yesterday.

“Yes, I guess it’s nice. That’s where my parents want me to go. They went there, too.”

She didn’t sound too happy about going. “You wanted to go someplace else?”

Her face brightened. “Yes, I wanted to go to Spellman in Atlanta, but they were concerned with its close proximity to Morehouse.”

He could believe that since it was obvious her parents kept a close eye on her. And speaking of her parents he was surprised she was out of their sight now.“You’re alone without your parents.”

She chuckled. “My parents didn’t have me until they were in their late forties, so they’re much older than most parents with someone my age. I figured they would get worn out trying to keep up with me sooner or later. They’re taking a nap.” She paused and then said, “I saw you the second day I was here. You kept staring at me.”

He remembered. He had been standing at the tourist station giving someone directions when their gazes had connected and held for a while. If truth be told, he’d immediately been smitten that day. He had felt something, a pull and it was the same pull he was feeling now. For some reason he’d believed she’d felt it too. And he believed she was feeling it again now.

“Yes,” he said smiling. “I kept staring at you and you stared back.”

She laughed softly. “Yes, I thought you were beautiful.”

He chuckled at that.“Men aren’t beautiful. You’re the one who is beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

Corey checked his watch again and then asked. “Would you like to go for a walk?”

“A walk to where?”

He could appreciate her cautiousness. “Just around here. I can show you places you usually would have to sign up with a tour guide to see.”

Her face lit into a bright smile. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

She glanced over her shoulders as if she was afraid her parents would materialize any moment, and then she said, “Yes, I’d love to take a walk, but I don’t even know your name.”

He smiled thinking he needed to make sure she knew his name since he intended to marry her one day. He was certain of that. It was a known fact that a Westmoreland knew his soul mate when he saw her and he knew this young woman was his. “I’m Corey Westmoreland,” he said, offering her his hand.

“And I’m Abby Madison.”

The moment their hands touched he felt it and knew she did, too; although he believed she hadn’t a clue what was going on between them and why. That day they walked around and she told him all about herself and he shared information about himself as well. The more he talked to her, the more he was certain that he’d fallen in love with her.

The next day they again met and walked around parts of the park while her parents napped. While they walked she glanced over at him and said. “That day when I saw you for the first time, I felt a funny feeling in my stomach when you looked at me, Corey.”

Her honesty and innocent candidness touched him. “I felt that same funny feeling. It was a pull so strong I could have crossed the distance and kissed you right then.”

She looked scandalized in a cute sort of way. “My parents would not have allowed it. They are very strict. But I’ve never felt those feelings before when boys looked at me. I figured it was because you were older and nice looking.”

They stopped walking and he said. “I think it’s a lot more than that, Abby.” He paused wondering how he could break it down to her when it was obvious she was quite clueless.

“When two people are attracted to each other, it’s only natural that chemistry flow between them. It’s that way with all animals when they’ve found their mate,” he said.

She nodded and they began walking again, and then she asked, “So are you my mate and am I yours?”

Her innocent question touched him. “Yes. I know it sounds crazy, but no matter where you go or what you do, or how old we get, we will always be mates. And one day, we will get married after we get to know each other better.”

She shook her head. He figured she was not agreeing because already she saw a problem with her living on the east coast and him on the west. But he would not let anything keep them apart, even if it meant he would have to seek employment after college near Boston.

“We will make it work, Abby. Like I said, you are my mate. My soul mate and it was meant for us to be together one day.”

She stopped walking. “My parents won’t allow it, Corey, and I can’t defy them. They selected Larry for me to marry from the time we were children.”

He felt a tightness in his stomach. “Larry?”

“Yes, Larry Winters. He’ll be attending Harvard in the fall as well, and when we graduate we are to marry. It is understood that it’s the way things will be. Larry’s and my parents told us this many years ago.”

Corey stared at her after hearing something so ridiculous. He could tell from the regret in her eyes that she didn’t want to be shackled with this guy her parents had picked out for her, but neither was she strong enough to defy them. His heart quivered inside at the thought of her spending her life with anyone other than him.

He refused to think about it now, but was determined to think of a way for them to be together forever.

Corey breathed in deeply as he came back to the present while staring at several photos he and Abby had taken together without her parents knowing about it. Each day while her parents took their nap, he and Abby would sneak off for their walks and talks.

He had thought of several options for them to be together after her vacation was over, but Abby loved her parents and were fearful of letting them down by not fulfilling what she saw as their dream future for her.

Those two weeks he and Abby spent together had been the happiest of his life. They were in love and with him Abby had experienced her first kiss and she’d given him her virginity in a night he would remember for the rest of his life. During their last night together, he had held her in his arms after they’d made love while she cried. They’d known as beautiful as things had been between them, that they had taken part in forbidden love.

Her parents had her future all mapped out and she would not defy them, not even for love. And he’d known he would have to let her go because he had nothing to offer her.

The last day they’d spent together had been the hardest because he’d known chances were he would never see her again and she was taking not just a part of his heart with her, but all of his heart. He’d also known on that day that he would never marry because the only woman he loved was lost to him forever.

He never saw her again after that, but there wasn’t a day that went by that he hadn’t thought about her, and on occasions like tonight he could still feel the love.

After looking through the photos several more times he finally got up to place them back in the box under his bed.

Loneliness was something he could tolerate, but being lonely and without the woman you loved was the worst heartbreak, misery, and pain that a man could ever endure.

Six months later

Abby Winters stood on the terrace of the huge two-story vacation cabin while sipping a cup of coffee. It had been thirty-two years since she had been at Yellowstone National Park, and even now the pain of leaving behind the one and only man she’d ever truly loved tore at her heart. It was here at the age of eighteen one summer in June that she had found love and lost it two weeks later. His name was Corey Westmoreland and he had effectively carved a permanent place in her heart.

At twenty-two he had been, tall, dark and handsome and she knew she’d fallen in love with him the moment their gazes had met, before they’d even spoken a single word. And he had loved her back, she was sure of it. During those two weeks he had taught her a lot and shared a lot. Their stolen moments had been precious, memorable and they had kept her sane during her years of marriage to a man she had not loved.

Larry had been a victim of his parents’ manipulations as much as she had hers, and they’d tried to make the best of their marriage, eventually becoming friends. The only good thing that had come from their union had been Madison.

Madison.

She couldn’t help but smile when she thought of her twenty-five year old daughter. She had been close to her father, adored him immensely and had taken his death ten years ago rather hard. Larry’s unexpected death of a heart-attack had been a shock, and it had taken Madison a full year of grief counseling to get through it. She had finished high school, left for college and was now teaching music at the acclaimed Hoffman Music Institute in Boston.

Madison had been engaged to get married two years ago and had called it off after finding out her fiancé had been unfaithful. She had gotten over that rather quickly and moved on; at least Abby assumed she’d gotten over it. Madison rarely dated these days so she couldn’t be certain.

“Isn’t it a beautiful morning?”

Abby turned at the sound of her friend Jackie’s voice. She, Jackie and Sheila, friends who’d met over the years, had all turned fifty earlier in the year. It had been Sheila’s idea for the three of them to take a trip together to celebrate their birthdays. Abby had suggested a twelve-day cruise to the Mediterranean, but Sheila and Jackie, Bostonians like her, had never been to Montana and wanted to tour Yellowstone National Park. So here they were with two weeks on their hands to enjoy nature’s beauty at its finest.

Abby smiled upon seeing the excitement in her friend’s voice. “Yes, it is. You slept well?”

“Like a baby. I love everything about this place. I can’t believe you came here that one time and never came back.”

As close as she, Sheila and Jackie were, she’d never shared with her friends her secret about the last time she’d been to the park when she was eighteen. No one knew the details of those two weeks but her and Corey. And a part of her couldn’t believe she never came back either. She’d reminisce about Corey over the years, and after Larry died for a fleeting moment had thought of looking him up. But she’d figured chances were he was no longer in the area and with his good looks some woman had snatched him up and he was probably happily married somewhere with a bunch of kids and grandkids.