“But what about Erma and Burt? They’re family. What about them if you sell the ranch?”
“I would create jobs for them, ask them to come along, work with me, whatever I ended up deciding to do. If I sold Wild River, there would be plenty of money for me to find something else. My degree’s in veterinary medicine. I could do something with that. Anything’s possible. Whatever you need to move forward, you’re on. You just say the word.”
Tears flooded her eyes that he would offer such a thing, that he would sell his home for her sake. She sniffed and swiped the tears away. “Don’t be crazy. You love Wild River. And so do I.”
“You sure?”
“About Wild River being home? Beyond a doubt.”
“Then what are we doing spending our nights here?”
“I just...” She scrunched her eyes shut, willed the answer to come. But there was nothing. “I just don’t know.”
“It’s been two weeks. When will you know? Can you give me a hint? Can you say, ‘New Year’s Day’ or ‘Two and a half more weeks’?”
When she still had no reply for him, he threw back the covers and reached for his clothes.
“Jax. Come on. It’s almost midnight. Where are you going?”
“Home.” He yanked up his boxer briefs, grabbed his jeans and shoved his feet in them. “I’m going home and I’m going to try my damnedest to stay there. I want to be a good husband, a man who supports his wife. I want to be with you, no matter how hard you make that. But I’m starting to feel like one those enablers, like I’m just making it easy for you to mess up the good thing we have together. Because, Aislinn, we are married. We can’t go back and pretend to start over. We are where we are and I like what we made, together, out of what Martin dumped on us. I’m not ashamed of it. I’m not resentful of it. What we are together makes me proud. I love what we have and I love you.” He pulled on his second boot, grabbed his jacket off the bedside chair and started for the door.
“Jax, wait...”
He stopped and turned. “I’m listening.”
“I love you, too,” she cried. “I love you so much.”
“Then work it out. And when you do, please come home to me.”
* * *
Jax didn’t come back. Or call. Or text.
Not later that night, not on Wednesday or Thursday.
She moved through those days in a weird gray haze. Thinking of the things he had said before he left, seeing the truth in them, loving him with her whole heart. And doing nothing to fix what she’d broken.
By late Thursday afternoon, she knew she had to do something—call a friend. Get a therapist. It did warm her heart a little to think of how many people she could reach out to who would be at her side in an instant. Harper and Hailey were right there if she needed them. She could call Keely or Daniel. Or Matt, Connor, Liam or Grace.
Instead, at six that evening, she went to Valentine House carrying a large supreme pizza, anchovies on the side, in her hands.
Daffy answered the door. “Aislinn!” she exclaimed with real delight. “And with pizza, too.”
“Come in, come in!” said Percy, right behind her.
Daffy kissed her cheek and took the pizza. Percy enfolded her in a hug.
They ate the pizza in the living room the way they always did. She felt nervous to say what she came to say and resorted to counting the lilies in the carpet.
But then Percy said, “Come now. Whatever it is, it can’t be that bad.”
And just like that the floodgates opened. She started talking and didn’t stop until she’d told them how she loved her husband but couldn’t seem to go home to him, how she was stuck in the beach cottage, longing for the life that could be hers with Jax at Wild River, the life she somehow kept throwing away.
When she was finished, she cried on Daffy’s shoulder. They sat together, she and Daffy, on the ancient green velvet circular settee.
Percy paced the lily-strewn carpet, his hands clasped behind his back. “So then,” he said in his most thoughtful analytic style. “You are finding yourself unable to accept the life you’ve come to love. Why? we must ask ourselves. What stands in your way?”
“It’s Martin,” she sniffled.
“Ah, yes. Martin.”
“He messed with my life. He claims to be my father and yet he denied me. Well, okay. I didn’t need a dad like him, anyway. But he couldn’t just leave it at that. He had to switch me at birth with another innocent child. And then he had to come after me from the grave, too.”
Percy stopped, turned and raised an eyebrow at her. “You consider him an evil man.”
“Yes!” she replied with enthusiasm.
“And yet, as it turned out, at least some of his manipulations have worked quite well for you.”
She remembered what Hailey had said the morning after she returned to the cottage. “That was God or fate helping things along, that’s all.”
“Yes, well. Who can say what higher power had a hand in all that’s happened? Is it fair, though, to say that Martin Durand, your biological father, chose to take a series of actions that have had a powerful and continuing effect on your life?”
“Yes. And I hate him for it.”
“Because your life is a disaster.”
“Wait.” Aislinn lifted her head from Daffy’s shoulder and glared at her great-uncle. “No. I didn’t say that.”
“Of course you didn’t. How could you? You’ve taken what Durand perpetrated upon you and made it work in some rather excellent ways, haven’t you? That is, until this little downward spiral you’ve been indulging in recently.”
“Indulging? Uncle Percy, that’s not fair.”
“Sweetheart,” said Aunt Daffy. “We love you very much, which is why, when you come to us, we do our level best to give you what you’re looking for.”
“And this evening,” said Percy, “you came to us so that we could tell you the simple truth. And the truth is, your husband has it right. I hate to sound like a Disney song. But you need to let all that go. That’s the job of the living, to let the dead go. We have to learn to be grateful for what we’ve been given and forgive the wrongs that can never really be made right.”
“Forgive,” she whispered. Daffy handed her a tissue and she blew her nose. “I have to forgive Martin?”
“Are you ever going to have a chance to confront him?”
“Not in this life.”
“Exactly. Leave him to heaven, Aislinn. Let the dead go and live your life. Let yourself be happy with the man that you love.”
* * *
When Aislinn left Valentine House, she almost took the turnoff to Wild River. She could send Harper and Hailey a text so they wouldn’t worry.
But she had Bunbun and Luna to consider. She needed to give them fresh food and water to last them till tomorrow and maybe grab a toothbrush and a change of clothes.
When she reached the cottage, neither of her sisters’ cars were there. But a heart-stoppingly familiar Silverado crew cab was parked near the front steps.
It was dark by then, but the porch light and the light in the rabbit’s enclosure were both on. She could see Jax through the storm windows, sitting there with Luna in his lap.
Aislinn looked at her hands clutching the wheel. Her knuckles were white.
What if he was fed up with her? What if he’d come to tell her he’d had enough and he was filing for divorce?
“Breathe, damn it,” she muttered to herself.
She took a couple of slow, deep breaths and made herself let go of the steering wheel. Jax loved her. He really did. A man who didn’t love her would never have put up with her crap the past few weeks. He might be totally put out with her, but the love was still there.
It had to be.
Up on the porch, Jax lowered Luna to the floor, brushed off his jeans and stood.
He was looking right at her, though he couldn’t see her, out here in the dark. But he would have heard her drive up, would have seen her headlights. He knew someone was there.
She got out of the car. One foot in front of the other, she marched up the steps and opened the door to the rabbits’ enclosure.
“Aislinn,” he said. “Here you are.” For an endless moment, they just stared at each other. His eyebrows drew together and he asked so tenderly, “Have you been crying?”
“A little. Oh, Jax.” Arms outstretched, she threw herself at him.
He caught her, grabbed her close and buried his face against her neck. “What’s made you cry?” He lifted his head so he could look in her eyes.
“I’m just so glad you’re here.”
“Aislinn.” He said her name with yearning. With hope and with tenderness. And then he was kissing her and she was kissing him back.
They needed those kisses. So many kisses, all the kisses they hadn’t shared since he’d left her two endless nights before.
When the storm of kissing finally passed, he said, “I couldn’t stay away. However long this takes, I still need to see you, to hold you, to be with you.”
“You’re a brave man, Jaxon Winter—and I was just going to feed the rabbits, grab my toothbrush and come home.”
He went still. His eyes shone down at her. “Home? You’re coming home to Wild River?”
“Yes. Tonight. To you.”
“What happened? What changed?”
“Everything. Nothing.”
He gave her a crooked smile. “Well, that about covers it.”
She laughed. “I went to talk to Uncle Percy and Aunt Daffy. They set me straight. I’ve been spinning in circles, so angry at Martin. They told me what you told me. That I need to move on. I guess I’ve finally heard it enough that it actually got through to me—plus, I do love you. And I want everything for you. I haven’t been a good wife to you the last few weeks. I’ve been making both of us suffer for a dead man’s sins.”
“I was too hard on you.”
“No. You were amazing. When you put up with me. And when you drew the line.”
He touched the side of her face. “I have something for you.” He took an envelope from his back pocket and handed it to her. “I finally checked Martin’s safe-deposit box.”
She stared down at the envelope. Aislinn, it said in a bold, back-slanted scrawl. Her hands were shaking all of a sudden, but somehow she managed to peel open the flap. Inside was one sheet of paper, a small silk jewelry pouch—and a cashier’s check made out to Aislinn Bravo. She looked up at Jax in disbelief. “A hundred thousand dollars?”
Jax shrugged. “Martin had a lot of investments. He was good with money.” And then he grinned. “You look so shocked.”
“Well, duh.” She stuck the envelope and the check in the front pocket of her jeans. “You’re not?”
“Not in the least. Martin would have wanted you to have something no matter what, but he wouldn’t have wasted the leverage of making you believe you had to marry me or get nothing. He was ruthless. And he was wrong in so many ways, but he wasn’t heartless, Aislinn. I think he really believed that you and I should be together. I think making that happen was his idea of making things right.”
She opened the folded sheet of paper.
Aislinn,
I have not in any way been the father I should have been to you. I have failed you and I have cheated you of your rightful place in the world, of your very identity. But in the past few years, since an accident of fate brought you again to Wild River, I have made it my business to learn all I can of you.
What I discovered is that providence has treated you much better than I did. You love the family you found and they love you, unconditionally. You are kind to others and generous in spirit. I also believe that you still long for a chance with my adopted son, Jaxon.
So yes. I have given you that chance. And whatever has happened as a result, I wish you love and happiness, always.
And I do realize that you will want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt what I have known since I first set eyes on you. So I have had my DNA collected and profiled at a reputable lab for comparison with yours. Contact the lab with the information below. They will arrange to collect a sample from you and get back to you with results within a week.
The locket was my mother’s. When she died, she instructed me to give it to her first granddaughter.
Live well, Aislinn. Make better choices than I did.
With all the love I never gave you,
Martin Durand
Below his signature were instructions for contacting a lab in Portland.
And she was still shaking. The paper crackled in her hands. She passed it to Jax.
He scanned the lines. “Martin,” he said ruefully when he glanced up at her again. “Just when you want to punch him in the face, he does something right.”
She opened the pouch and turned it over. The heart-shaped silver filigree locket on a delicate silver chain dropped into her palm. Inside were two pictures—of a young Colette Durand with her hair pinned up and a sexy smirk on her full lips. And of Martin in his wannabe-Mafia-man phase, glaring at the camera with a scowl on his face.
Patterns of the Heart...
“Oh, Martin...” She blinked the tears away, closed the locket and handed it to Jax. “Put it on for me?” She turned and lifted her hair out of the way.
He hooked the clasp for her and then guided her back around to face him. “It looks beautiful.”
She pressed her hand over it. “It feels right.”
He kissed her, quick and sweet. “I love you, Aislinn Winter.”
She beamed up at him. “I love you, Jaxon Winter. Forever and always—now, just let me freshen the rabbits’ feed and water. Then I’ll grab a few things and we can go to Wild River.”
“We’ll go in the morning,” he said.
“You sure you don’t want to go home?”
“Home is where you are,” he whispered and lowered his beautiful mouth to hers once again.
* * *
First thing the next morning, Aislinn contacted the Portland lab. Jax drove her down there that day so they could swab her cheek. They warned her that she might not have her results until the Monday after Thanksgiving.
But she got lucky. The following Wednesday morning, her results were posted at a secure online location. They proved what she’d already come to believe: that Martin Durand was her biological father.
When Jax came in from the stables for lunch, she shared the news.
He pulled her close. “You’re okay with this, then?”
She beamed up at him. “I feel good. Peaceful. I mean, I already knew in my heart, I really did. But it’s nice to have proof.”
He kissed her then, slow and sweet and deep.
She whispered, “I love you.”
He replied, “And I love you. So much. More than I know how to say...”
* * *
The next day, Jax went with her for Thanksgiving at Daniel and Keely’s house.
Burt came, too. As it turned out, the crabby horse trainer had a soft spot for kids. He got down on the kitchen floor with the two-year-old twins, Frannie and Jake. Jake offered his ratty stuffed rabbit to kiss. Burt didn’t hesitate. He laid a big smacker on the stuffed toy. Frannie handed him her giant toy cell phone and he pretended to make a call.
All the Bravos were there, and Uncle Percy and Aunt Daffy, too. So was Gretchen Snow, Keely’s aunt and the mother of Daniel’s deceased first wife, Lillie. And Keely’s mom, Ingrid, who had changed her hair to a blue-green so vivid it almost looked radioactive.
There was barely room for everyone at the table.
But they all fit, somehow.
Gretchen said grace, after which Ingrid raised a toast to life, love, happiness
and rock and roll. “And babies,” she added, grinning at Keely, who was in her third trimester.
Keely patted the big mound of her stomach and smiled down the table at Daniel, who had never looked happier.
Jax took Aislinn’s hand. She leaned in close to him and they shared a quick kiss. Thankfulness filled her.
Life had thrown her a curve or two. But she’d worked her way through all the confusion and doubt to find what mattered most. She wore her grandmother’s locket, she had her family around her and the man she loved sat close at her side.
* * * * *
Watch for Matt Bravo’s story,
Same Time, Next Christmas,
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only from Harlequin Special Edition.
Madison Delaney’s story
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The Good Girl’s Second Chance
Carter Bravo’s Christmas Bride
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Almost a Bravo Page 18
