She gasped. “But other than that, you’re okay, aren’t you? You can walk. I know you can. I saw you walking at the concert. Can you still ride your horses? Do your feel okay? Is your health good now?”
He couldn’t help smiling. Asking one question after another without waiting for an answer was so like the Julia he knew and loved. “Julia, I’m fine. I have the limp and some scars. That’s it. Though I’m an old man, everything else is in good working order.”
“Oh, good. I thought you were going to tell me something bad.”
“That’s not bad?”
“Maybe getting shot was, but I was afraid you were going to say you didn’t…well, never mind. I’ll see you at four on the porch of the great hall. Is that okay? Do you want me to tell you what I’ll be wearing so you’ll recognize me?”
“We’ll recognize each other. We did at the concert, remember?”
“I knew you, but I didn’t know you knew who I was.”
“Of course I knew. I’d never mix your face up with any other face on this planet.” He almost whispered when he added, “I’ll see you at four o’clock.” He wanted to say, my love, but he didn’t dare.
•♥ •
Julia hung up the phone and stared at it for several minutes, wishing his voice back on the line. She glanced at her watch. It was almost twelve. She’d have lunch with Andrew, explain everything about his father to him then get ready to meet with Seth. She hoped in between she’d have time for a bubble bath.
•♥ •
Seth took a hot shower, shaved and trimmed his mustache. He laughed when he remembered a few years ago when all the Redwood Boys decided to grow a mustache. Of course, Jude and Alex already had one, but the others didn’t. He also remembered how much Eve had despised it. He wondered what Julia would think. Did it matter what she thought? She was meeting him to discuss their son. He was sure nothing else mattered to her. Still, she’d seemed excited to talk to him and she reacted to his news about his limp just the way she would have years ago. He finally admitted to himself, it mattered a great deal to him what she thought about his mustache.
He dressed in slacks and an oxford shirt. He thought about putting on a suit, but decided he was going to be himself. He was compromising enough wearing the slacks and oxford shirt instead of jeans and a western shirt, his usual garb. He did intend to wear his boots and his Stetson. He might as well let her see him as he really was. He couldn’t be anyone except himself, even for Julia. Since he’d learned her circumstances, he knew there was no way he could fit in her world now. She was a powerful business woman and she probably liked the country club dances and the symphony and plays. The things he’d learned to hate because of Eve.
Yet his friends, Alex and Jude, were occasionally doing these things with their wives, and it seemed to be working fine. Neil and Mavis were even going along sometimes. Maybe those things aren’t as bad as he thought. Maybe you just had to have the right woman with you to enjoy them. But the right woman has to have the right man. None of them, including Julia, would want to drag a cripple along.
He came into the den. Jessica was sitting at the coffee table with a stack of papers before her. “You’re home a bit early, aren’t you?”
“Hi, Daddy. Got out a little early today. End of quarter testing.” She looked at him. “Wow, you look spiffy. Ashley said you were going to meet your lady love.”
“Honey, I’m only going to talk with Julia. She wants to discuss Andrew. Maybe she plans to introduce him to me. I don’t know for sure.”
“Well, she might plan that, but when she gets a good look of my handsome father it wouldn’t surprise me if she assaulted him right there on the spot.”
“Jessica, I can’t believe you said that.”
“I mean...”
There was a loud booming noise, alarms went off and Seth would almost swear there was the loud cackle of a female voice.
He headed for the door, Jessica on his heels. “What’s going on?” Ashley came down the stairs on the run.
“I don’t know, honey.”
She grabbed one of Seth’s coats off the rack in the breezeway. “Watch the kids, Norma. I’m going with Daddy.”
“So am I,” Jessica picked up the coat she’d worn to school.
C HAPTER 21
Four o’clock came and Julia was watching the door for Seth to arrive. There was no sign of him. Probably held up in traffic, she thought. It can get bad this time of day.
Four-thirty, still no Seth. This is not like the man I know. He’d call if he was going to be delayed. Her next thought was, But you don’t know him anymore. Maybe he was trying to tell you he isn’t going to act as you think he should. Maybe he had a wreck on the way. Oh, Lord, no. Not that. Let him be all right.
At six o’clock she went to the desk to ask if there were any messages for her. There weren’t.
At seven, she thought of calling Andrew to ask if he’d like to join her for a bite to eat. No. She wasn’t going to do that. She might end up telling him that his father had stood her up. She then remembered Andrew wasn’t at the hotel, anyway. He told her at lunch he had plans for the night. He was going to dinner with Sabrina Callahan, the girl he’d honored at the concert for selling her ticket for his first concert here to buy medicine for her mother. She hoped they had a nice time.
At eight, she got a pack of crackers from the snack machine and went to her room. She had sodas in the small refrigerator and she figured for the mood she was in now, this would suffice for dinner.
By nine, she finished going over the files of the new hires making notes here and there on them. When she put her pen down she didn’t want to do anything else. It was now ten. She took off her clothes, laughing at herself because she’d been so careful to choose an outfit she thought Seth would like. Tossing it on the shower rod, she put on a pink lace night gown and climbed into bed. She wasn’t sleepy, but thought watching TV might make her drowsy. She snapped it on. All the time she refused to think about Seth or why he’d stood her up. It hurt and she refused to call and ask why, but she knew she’d have to call him tomorrow. No matter how he treated her, she had to warn him about Dorie. Even if her sister-in-law had only been saying these things to upset her, she knew she couldn’t live with herself if something happened to Seth or one of his children.
At ten minutes after ten there was a tap on her door. Must be Andrew, she thought. He promised to come by and tell me how his outing with the Callahan girl went. She swung her legs off the bed and grabbed her robe, slipped it on and padded to the door barefoot. Without looking out, she pulled it open and gasped. “What are you doing here?”
•♥ •
“What do you mean by that? I’m only six hours late.” His blue-gray eyes twinkled as he leaned on his cane and held a long-steamed red rose toward her with the other. He liked what he saw and knew he’d have to keep tight control on his desire, because no matter how many years has passed, at this moment all he wanted was to grab her, kiss every inch of her body and then make love to her all night.
For a minute, she only stared at him. She looked like she wanted to hit him or slam the door in his face. She did neither. Finally, she nodded toward the rose without taking it and said, “You remembered.”
“Of course. I never visited you without bringing you a rose.”
Still not taking the rose, she gave him a slight smile. “Well, I guess you might as well come in. I’m not dressed to go out.”
“I can see that.” He came into the room and she closed the door. He noticed the turned back bed. “Were you asleep?”
“No. I was watching television.” She picked up the remote and snapped it off.
“May I sit over there?” He indicated the chairs beside the balcony window. He had to sit down, but it wasn’t his hip demanding a seat. It was the weakness in his knees from being so close to Julia.
“Please, make yourself at home.”
Oh, no, Julia, he thought. You don’t want me to do that. If I made myself at
home, I’d rip that fancy nightgown off you, throw you on that bed and make love to you until we were both exhausted. Aloud, he said, “Thank you. I’m so sorry about showing up at this time of night, Julia, but I want to explain what happened in person. We’ve been through hell at the farm this evening.”
In that instant, all the anger and most of the hurt and disappointment drained out of her eyes and it was replaced by concern. She took the chair opposite him and reached for the rose.
He handed it to her with a smile, but neither of them mentioned it.
Finally, she asked, “What happened, Seth?”
“I’m still not sure. There were several explosions about the perimeter of the farm which went off simultaneously. A timed one was in the main barn set to go off about five this afternoon, but it exploded early. Thank God, the horses were still in the pasture and none of them were hurt.”
“Oh, Seth.” She reached over and took his hand. “I’m so sorry.”
He squeezed her hand and felt every muscle in his body tense with pleasure at her touch. “It’ll be okay. The police are all over the place. I probably should’ve stayed home, but I called Hunter to come stay with the girls. I had to see you.” How could he be having these sexual feelings when his family might be in danger?
“Wasn’t their mother there?”
“Eve is dead, Julia.” He saw the surprise in her eyes and added, “I’ll tell you all about it later. It’s not a pretty story.”
Before she could say anything, there was another tap on the door.
“That’ll be Andrew.” She got up and this time she did look outside then opened the door. “Come in, son. Seth’s here, and I was about to tell him something.”
“What are you talking about, Mom?” He looked at her. “And why aren’t you dressed?”
“I was in bed.”
He glanced at the fully dressed Seth, but didn’t say anything.
Seth stood. “She’s telling the truth, Andrew. I only got here a few minutes ago. I had trouble at the farm and couldn’t get away to make our date this afternoon. I decided instead of calling, I’d come to explain.”
Andrew glanced at his mother for confirmation of this. She nodded at him and he then walked across the room and held his hand out to Seth. “Hello, sir. I’m glad I finally get to meet you.”
Seth took the outstretched hand and his heart quickened as he looked at his son. “I’m glad to meet you, too, Andrew. If I’d known about you, we would’ve met a long time ago.”
“That’s what Mom said you’d want to do. I guess that’s why she kept me a secret from you all these years.”
“Seth, would you like some coffee? There’s a little pot in here and if I remember right, you always wanted a cup at night.”
“That’d be wonderful, Julia. Thank you.”
“While I make it, please tell Andrew what’s going on at your place. Then I have something to tell you both.” The two men sat down as she turned to the shelf where the pot sat. She placed her rose in one of the plastic cups and filled it and the pot from the bathroom sink. By the time it perked, Seth finished telling Andrew the story he told her. She filled a cup for him and brought it to the table. “Do you still take it black?”
He smiled at her. “I do.”
She handed him the cup and looked at Andrew. “There are some sodas in the refrigerator, son. Do you want one?”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
She sat on the side of the bed. “Seth, I think I might be able to give you a clue as to who is doing this to you.”
“How in the world could you do that, Julia?” He stared at her.
“Yeah, Mom. How could you know anything about this?”
“I’m not sure I do, but I might. After I made a call to Ashley Bradshaw to be positive I had decided on the right person for the assistant manager position, I sat back and relaxed for a few minutes.”
“Is she the person you told me you wanted to hire as your assistant manager, Mom?”
“Yes, Andrew. I’d made up my mind I wanted her to work with me after our first interview. She’s a lovely young woman. Bright and eager. I’m sure she’ll be good at the job and I hope she’ll accept it.”
“I’m sure she will, and I know she’ll do you a good job.” Seth smiled.
“Do you know her, Seth?”
“As well as a man can know his kid. Ashley’s my oldest daughter.”
“You’re kidding.” Julia cocked her head at him.
“No, I’m not kidding.” He looked over the cup and let his eyes drink in Julia’s beauty, which to him had only improved with age. “I’m glad you like her, but please don’t tell her I told you who she is until after you offer her the job. Though she knows you’re my Julia, she doesn’t realize you have any idea who she is. I don’t want her to think she got the job because you feel somehow obligated to hire my daughter. She’s determined to do this on her own.”
“I won’t tell her, Seth,” she mumbled. “I know about kids determined to make it on their own.”
“You can trust Mom. She wouldn’t hire your daughter for any reason except because she thinks she’ll be good at the job. I know because she never let me be a manager when I worked at the store. Not even in one of the departments. She said I didn’t have the talent for it and if I wanted enough money to cut the CD I wanted to make at the time, I had to sell enough shoes to pay for it myself. You’d never believe how many people have stinky feet.”
Seth chuckled. “Good for your mom. Though she could have, I’m pleased she didn’t hand you everything. Now you’ll appreciate it when the money rolls in, and form what I heard at your concert the other night, it’ll roll in soon.”
“You were there?” Andrew looked amazed, but pleased.
“I sure was. It didn’t take me long to realize you had to be my son. Even though we hadn’t met, I was proud of you. You have a great voice and as I said, you’re on your way to the top in your profession.”
“Thank you, Mister…uh…sir. What should I call you?”
“Whatever makes you comfortable. Until we get to know each other better, why don’t you can call me Seth? I only prefer you not call me Mr. Armstrong. I think that’s a little formal, don’t you?”
“I think it’s formal, too. Seth, it’ll be.” Andrew grinned.
•♥ •
Julia felt as if her heart would burst. Things were going better than she ever dreamed they would between the two most important men in her life. In fact, they were going so well she almost forgot the reason she’d ask Seth to come see her. When she realized this, she said, “Now, let me explain why I think I might be able to help you with your problem, Seth. As I said, after I talked with Ashley and was relaxing I got another call. It was Dorie.”
“The Aunt Dorie I’ve never met? The one who hates our guts and calls you the slut or the whore and calls me the bastard?”
“That’s the one.”
Seth frowned. “I can’t imagine anyone hating you two enough to be that vicious.”
“Oh, she hates us that much all right. I tried to keep her venom from Andrew, but he was home one day when she called. She didn’t mind giving him an earful of what she always said to me.”
“It was right after Dad died and it upset me so much, Mom told me the whole story.”
“It’s not a pretty story. Dorie is Woodrow’s sister and she never wanted him to marry anyone. She had all the women he dated before me so intimidated that he was still a bachelor at forty-four, when all his life the things he wanted most in the world were a wife and children. After we dated a few times, he fell so in love with Andrew that he decided to marry me in spite of what Dorie said. She tried everything she could think up to keep him from marrying, but he insisted we become a family. I was intimidated by Dorie, but finally accepted his proposal. Woodrow couldn’t take her hate any longer and severed all ties with her and the three of us turned into a nice family, didn’t we Andrew?”
“We did.” He looked at Seth. “I asked Dad one
time why I was adopted, and he told me that he knew about you, Seth. He said he knew Mom loved you very much and wanted nothing more than to marry you, but for some reason, that couldn’t be. He claimed it was his good fortune, because he now had a wife and a son. I’ve told Mom about the time I asked him about you he ended our discussion with these words: ‘I didn’t have to be there at the moment of conception to be your father, Andrew. Don’t you ever forget that.’ And I’ve never forgotten.”
“It sounds as if he was a good man. Since I couldn’t be there, I’m glad you both had him in your life.” Seth’s eyes were misty, and he looked away.
Julia noticed and changed the subject. “Ever since Woodrow’s funeral, Dorie has been calling me every few months to rant and rave mostly about how I ruined her brother’s life and how adoption papers didn’t make Andrew his son. That was about all she said until this year. Things began to escalate, and I wondered if Dorie was losing it.”
“She’s always been nuts, Mom.”
“Yes, but now I think she’s really sick. In the call this morning she began saying some awfully crazy things. She said she’d talked to Woodrow, and he told her not to hurt Andrew or me physically, but she said he told her to kill you and terrorize your family, Seth.”
“You’re kidding.” Andrew mumbled. “There’s no way she could talk to Dad. He’s been dead six years.”
“I know. She even said something about Eve was helping her. Something about her missing when she tried to kill Hunter, but she’d get you yet. Do you know what that means?”
Seth looked worried. “Julia, as I said, Eve is dead. She’s the one who shot me and tore my hip up like this. She was gunning for Hunter, but I got in front of him and the bullets hit me. I was in a coma for a while, but when I came to, I found out she’d later run off and killed herself. Hunter was only grazed in the shoulder, so I try to be thankful for this limp since it saved his life.”
Her Forever Dreams (A Coverton Mills Romance Book 3) Page 14
