by Unknown
Chandler regarded him solemnly. “You must really be old.”
The adults chuckled.
“Sorry, Trent,” Victoria said, smiling, shaking her head at her son and daughter. “They’re as outspoken as their father. We usually just have the numeric candles.”
“That’s all right.” Standing, Trent reached for their hands. “Let’s go blow out those candles.”
“Don’t you dare until I get back with my camera,” Dominique admonished and dashed out the door. By the time she returned, Trent, Kane Jr., and Chandler had practiced for their big moment. The twins would take the bottom layer; Trent the top.
They did it. No one seemed bothered that they ate the cake before the dinner. The Taggart twins let Trent know that they were great at opening presents also. He enlisted their aid. The gifts ranged from poignant, a photo album of Wade from infancy to adulthood, to practical, or so Cleve had thought when he’d hand-braided Trent one of his prized ropes. Amid the laughter of Trent trying to rope a chair, Bill drew Joann to one side.
“I hope he won’t be harsh with her,” Catherine said, slipping her hand free.
“He won’t,” Luke answered. “Wade never married. From what Bill told me, Wade talked about a woman he had met in Atlanta, but said it hadn’t worked out. That information helped narrow the search. Wade came to Atlanta to settle his great aunt’s estate. The woman he met must have been Joann.”
“He loved her all those years,” Catherine said sadly.
“He died not knowing if she loved him back, but he never passed up an opportunity to help a woman through hard times, never became involved with anyone else. Never became bitter. Kane, Matt, and Madelyn became his children.”
Catherine’s chest felt tight. They were speaking about Wade, but it could just as well have been Luke they were discussing. “She did what she felt was best for him.”
“And condemned him to a life without her.” Luke stared at Catherine. “Which one do you think he would have wanted?”
“She wanted him to marry,” Catherine cried, talking about her own wish for Luke. “She wanted him to be happy.”
“How could he be without her? For some men there is only one woman,” Luke said, his love unhidden in his face. “Joann learned too late. I pray you don’t.” He strode away.
Catherine was left alone to watch the close-knit family and special friends celebrate finding Trent. She felt like an outsider and realized she was. Each adult person there had someone they were committed to. Except herself and Joann. Catherine gazed at the other woman, who stood, as Catherine did, apart from the gathering. Her eyes were sad and filled with regret. When she left, she’d go home to a man who had abused her.
What will you go home to, Catherine?
The answer came quickly. Nothing and no one.
WITH EVERYONE HELPING, THEY MANAGED TO TAKE ALL of Trent’s gifts to his suite in one trip. Plans were made to meet for breakfast. The women left to put the children to bed. The men decided they weren’t finished talking and went downstairs to the bar. They’d see Joann to her car. She was going to spend the night with her daughter. Trent had convinced her to wait until morning to return home. Luke handed Catherine the key to her suite and went with them. He was next door in number 728.
Saying good night to Dominique, Catherine went to her room and crawled into the king-size bed. Rolling over on her back she stared up at the ceiling. Was it a lack of trust that kept her from committing to Luke or lack of love? Or both? Selfishness? Whatever, the end results were the same, lonely years ahead of her with nothing and no one because Luke was the only man she’d ever love.
Her eyes shut tightly as she tried to figure out the right thing to do. What would be best for Luke? He’d never get razzed about inappropriate behavior in the delivery room with her. With her, he’d never hold a cherubic child of his own like Daniel Jr., or bathe his own little angel like Tempest, or get help to blow out his birthday candles from his outspoken children like K.J. or Chandler. With her, he’d never have any of that. All he’d ever have was her and her love.
The last thought replayed over and over in Catherine’s mind, and with it came a calming certainty of what she had to do. Opening her eyes, she sat up on the side of the bed and picked up the phone for the first of two calls she needed to make. “This is Dr. Stewart. I’m checking out.”
MARSHALL ALBRIGHT AND HIS MISTRESS WERE SO involved neither heard the four men enter the bedroom of the high-rise apartment Marshall listed as a business expenditure. The light clicked on. A camera flashed.
Cursing, Marshall tried to get out of bed, cover himself, and hide his face from the flashing camera at the same time. He managed to get out of bed, but the sheet he grabbed happened to be the same one his twenty-two-year-old mistress/receptionist clutched, leaving Marshall to have a full frontal picture taken.
“You bastards,” he shouted, diving for the sheet and getting back under the covers. “I’ll ruin you. I’ll make you wish you were really left in that lake. I’ll make all of you wish that.” None of the four men seemed bothered by the threat.
Luke lowered the camera. “Get dressed, Miss Hopkins, and go home.”
She didn’t waste time or bother with modesty. She jumped out of bed and grabbed her clothes.
“Come back here,” Marshall shouted. When she kept going, he snarled, “You’re fired.”
Kane closed the bedroom door. Matt stood easily by his side, their eyes as hard as ice.
“I don’t think you have the authority to do that,” Trent said with disgust.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Marshall asked.
“As of five this afternoon, I own sixty-nine percent of your business assets, and by five o’clock tomorrow, I would have called a special board meeting and ousted you as president.”
Outrage reddened Albright’s face as he stared up at the broad-shouldered man with long salt-and-pepper hair tied at the base of his neck. “Who the hell are you?”
“Trent’s brother-in-law. Daniel Falcon.”
Marshall gasped and shrank against the headboard.
“I told you,” Luke said. “You messed with the wrong family.”
“But . . . but surely you’re a sophisticated man of the world, and understand this,” Marshall said, licking his lips nervously. “You probably have someone on the side, too.”
“You’re a fool, Albright. Every time you open your mouth you just confirm it more and more,” Daniel said with distaste. “What you see as sophistication, I see as deceit. Now you’re going to listen to me and do as I say or you’ll end up someplace selling pencils on a street corner.”
“You can’t—”
“Yes, I can,” Daniel interrupted, his voice cloaked in steel. “If not for your family, I wouldn’t care what happened to you. Now shut up and listen.”
Marshall Albright shut up and listened.
LUKE WAS KNOWN AS A LONER, ENJOYED HIS solitude, but when he stepped onto the hotel elevator with Daniel, Kane, Matt, Trent, Bill, and Cleve, he never felt his loneliness more keenly. The elderly Bill and Cleve were once again regaling Trent about old times with Wade. Both had their hands on Trent’s shoulders. He was a part of them now.
Earlier it had taken considerable persuasion on Kane’s part to make the two remain at the hotel. They all knew what might be waiting for them at Albright’s apartment, what Daniel planned, and none of them wanted the two involved. The elderly twosome had only relented after Kane expressed his concern that if they all left and the women or children needed them, none of them would be there. Bill and Cleve hadn’t augured further. Family was all to the Taggarts (which included Cleve and Octavia), just as it was to the Graysons and Falcons, and now that included the Masterses.
Luke glanced at Trent, grinning and nodding his head over a story of cocky Wade trying to ride his first wild bronc. Happiness looked good on him. All the problems with his mother weren’t worked out, but at least he now had a chance to develop a relationship with her. Perhaps i
n the future, he’d be able to meet his half-brother and half-sister. Especially since Mrs. Albright was going to be a safe, free, and wealthy woman. Daniel and Trent had made sure of that.
The elevator door slid open and Luke stepped off. He had his own reason to be happy. Catherine was in for a surprise when she boarded the jet tomorrow. Instead of going to Los Angeles, they were going to a private isla—
His thoughts reeled to a halt. For a long time he could do nothing but stare, then he was running. Pushing the cleaning cart to one side, he rushed into Catherine’s suite. “Catherine. Catherine.”
An elderly woman slowly emerged from the bathroom. Her gloved hands were clamped around a sponge.
“Where’s the woman who was in this room?”
“Come on, Luke.” Concerned, Daniel laid his hand on Luke’s tense shoulder.
“Where is she?” he repeated, his voice sharp and demanding.
“She checked out.”
Luke swung around to see Dominique standing in the connecting doorway. He rushed to her. “You let her go? You didn’t try to stop her?”
“I agreed with her decision.”
Anger swept across Luke’s face.
Trent started toward them. Daniel stopped him with a shake of his hand.
Instead of retreating, Dominique moved closer. “If I didn’t love you so much and you hadn’t helped Trent, I might consider not telling you.”
“You know where she is?” he asked, hope and desperation mixed in his voice.
Amusement danced in Dominique’s black eyes. “She said to tell you twenty-eight is your lucky number.”
He left running. It took two tries to insert the plastic key correctly. His heart pounding, he pushed open the door to his room, number 728.
Catherine in the blouse and slacks she had been wearing earlier, stood in the middle of the room, her hand clamped around a rolled sheet of paper.
Hope and love swept through him. Luke started toward Catherine, then stopped. The need to hold her almost overwhelmed him, but they had an important issue to discuss.
The hesitant smile faded from her face. More than his next breath he wanted to see her smile, wanted to hold her in his arms, but first she needed to know he had changed his mind about an important aspect of their relationship. However, there was one certainty that would never change.
“You know I love you.”
“I do.”
At the slow blossoming of her smile, some of his uneasiness faded. “And you know I’d never do anything to hurt you.”
“I do.”
The love and trust in her big brown eyes made his chest tight. But if she couldn’t accept his decision . . .
“It’s because of how much I love you that I have to go back on my word.” He jammed his hand into his pocket. He was a coward to drag this out, but he had faced the pain of losing her once, he wasn’t sure he could do it a second time. “I want us to belong to each other, totally, irrevocably committed to each other.”
Her head lowered.
Fear coursed through him and took him closer. “You understand, don’t you?”
“I do.”
No longer able to keep from touching her, his fingers gently circled her forearm. “Cath, I don’t want an affair. Trust me and my love enough to marry me.”
Her head lifted. Love shimmered in her eyes and glowed in her face. “I do.”
It hit him all at once what she had been repeating. He swallowed and tried to calm his racing heart. “You mean the ‘I do’ as in, you’ll take me for your lawfully wedded husband?”
“I do.” On tip toes, she brushed her lips across his again and again. “Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes.”
His mouth came down on hers. The kiss was one of passion and tender restraint and love. “I’ll always be there for you.”
Her free hand palmed his face. “I finally got past my own fears to realize that. I saw the regret in Joann’s face and saw myself in the years to come.”
He kissed her palm. “I love you.”
“I love you.” Her face saddened for a moment. “I regret not being able to have children, but I’d regret not loving you more. If I’m enough for you, I have to have faith that I’m going to go on being enough for you. Until there was you, I didn’t think that was possible. In your arms, nothing is impossible.”
He kissed her again. Lifting his head he picked her up. “How long do you think it will take to plan a wedding?”
“Give me three months,” she told him as he placed her on the bed. “Mother will scream it’s not nearly enough time to plan a formal wedding though.”
“Three months is about my limit.” Impatient fingers began unbuttoning her blouse. “I’ll rack up a lot of miles between Santa Fe and L.A.”
“Not for long.”
He stopped and stared down at her. She lifted the paper in her hand. “My resignation.”
He was stunned. “But you love teaching. You were up for the head of a department.”
“Nothing can compare to being in your arms, loving you.” Tossing the paper aside, she went to work on unfastening his pants. “I always figured number twenty-eight was going to be your lucky number.”
“Mama will be on cloud nine.”
Catherine’s hand never paused. “She sure sounded happy when I called her tonight.”
“You called Mama?”
“I wanted her to know that I could do something no other woman could do.”
Luke’s breath quickened as her hand closed around the hard, heavy length of him. “You certainly can.”
Catherine chuckled, then sobered. “No other woman can love you the way I can.”
“About time you realized that.” Off came her slacks.
“I’m slow, but not stupid.” His shirt followed.
“I’ll love you forever,” Luke pledged.
“And I’m going to love you right back. Starting now.”
EPILOGUE
SUNLIGHT STREAMED THROUGH THE BEAUTIFUL stained glass windows of the packed church. The myriad of hues turned the yellow and white flowers decorating the sanctuary and altar into a wash of colors, giving the feel and impression that those gathered were sitting in a field of wild flowers.
Ruth Grayson sniffed quietly as she sat in the front pew and listened to Luke’s sure, strong voice repeat his marriage vows. Catherine’s rang just as clear and true. They were so much in love. Ruth didn’t doubt for a second that their marriage would endure a lifetime. If a higher power had decided there were to be no children, they would all have to accept it and move on.
With the linen handkerchief Felicia had given her, Ruth dabbed her eyes. During the exchange of rings she wondered if there would ever be a time to tell them that Catherine had been her choice from the first. The other women had been given a fair chance, but Ruth had known Catherine was the only woman to make her eldest happy. Oh, well, perhaps not. It wasn’t important now.
Her gaze went to Morgan standing proudly by his brother’s side as his best man. He didn’t know it, but he had already met his future wife.
A mother’s work was never done.
Morgan would be next.
Dear Readers,
I’m delighted that St. Martin’s Press reissued Until There Was You, the first book in the Graysons of New Mexico series. As a gift to my supportive readers, I’ve included a story of Luke and Catherine’s first Christmas, called “Christmas and You.”
Enjoy.
Happy Holidays,
Francis
CHAPTER ONE
ON THIS FIRST DAY OF DECEMBER, CATHERINE GRAYSON couldn’t imagine a more incredible time to be in love than the Christmas season. Valentine’s Day was all right, but this morning she sensed something magical in the air. Or perhaps she was thinking that way because of the gorgeous man in bed with her.
Lying next to the sexy, muscular body of her husband, Luke, Catherine felt safe and cherished. Luke was honest, intelligent, dependable, compassionate—and all hers.
Her
protector.
Studying the impossibly long black lashes, the high cheekbones, the proud nose, the sensual curve of his lower lip, framed by lustrous straight black hair that fell to below his broad shoulders when standing, she resisted the tempting urge to kiss him awake as he’d done to her countless times. This moment was too precious.
It wasn’t often that anyone caught Luke Grayson unaware. She could hardly believe she’d awakened first.
She grinned impishly; perhaps she had worn him out last night. She pressed her fingertips to her lips to stifle the laughter threatening to bubble forth. No one at the faculty of UCLA or here at St. John’s University, where she was a visiting professor, or anyone at her publishing house would ever think that cool child psychologist and children’s author, Dr. Catherine Stewart Grayson, was a little—all right, a lot—wicked when it came to loving her husband.
There was good reason. Not a day went by that Luke didn’t show her that he loved her and only her. Accepting the invitation the past summer to speak in Santa Fe was the best decision she’d ever made—even if a deranged parent had tried to discredit her. Luke had uncovered the plot and saved her sanity and her career. And even knowing his mother had set them up, they’d fallen in love.
Ruth Grayson was a remarkable woman and a determined match-maker. So far she’d proven she knew how to pick ’em. Luke’s brother, Morgan, had fallen in love with a wonderful, talented sculptress, Phoenix Bannister, and married shortly after Luke and Catherine were wed.
Brandon, Pierce, and Sierra had better look out, Catherine thought. But she didn’t have a doubt that Ruth would find the perfect soul mate for them—just as she had done for them. Each day Catherine counted her blessings in being married to such an incredible, protective man.
Luke considered her feelings in all things. Their first Thanksgiving together had been her first away from her parents. She’d tried not to show how much she missed them and her older brother, Alex, but you can’t hide much from an ex–FBI agent. She should have remembered the lesson she’d learned that first night they’d met. But she hadn’t wanted to dampen his enjoyment of Thanksgiving with his family, so she’d tried not to think about her parents and brother.
