by June Faver
Leah looked delighted. “Why, that’s lovely. It sounds magical.” She sat down beside this Angelique person and continued to chat.
Tyler turned to his father. Big Jim appeared to be in a state of shock. Tyler couldn’t recall a time when his dad was at a loss for words, but he sat staring at Angelique with his mouth slightly agape.
Tyler caught Big Jim’s eye and cocked his head toward the door. “We’re going to get you ladies something to drink. Coffee?”
Leah looked up at him, her lovely face smiling. “Thanks, sweetheart. I made a pot of hot cocoa. Could you please bring me a cup of that…with a couple of marshmallows?”
Angelique perked up. “Homemade cocoa? Oh, that sounds great.”
“Sure thing,” Tyler said and motioned to Big Jim. “C’mon, Dad. Let’s get some cocoa to warm up the ladies.”
Wordlessly, Big Jim got to his feet and followed Tyler to the kitchen.
Once in the kitchen at the back of the house, Tyler turned, grasping his father by the shoulders. “What the hell, Dad? Who is this woman? Can there be any truth to what she’s claiming?”
Big Jim raked his fingers through his thick head of silver hair. Heaving a huge sigh, he leaned against the counter with both hands, staring off into space. “I-I knew Sofie Guillory when I was in college. We…” He swallowed hard. “She was a pretty girl from New Orleans…really pretty and sweet. We…uh…”
“Okay, I get the picture, Dad.” Tyler felt as though he’d been sucker punched. He couldn’t believe his father would turn his back on any responsibility, let alone something as important as a pregnant girlfriend.
“Sofie went home for the summer after freshman year and didn’t come back the next school year.” Big Jim looked as though he was in a daze. “She’d said that her parents wanted her to go to LSU, so I figured she had transferred.” He shook his head.
Tyler put his hand on Big Jim’s shoulder. He couldn’t count the times his father had comforted him, but this was the first time in their relationship that he was called upon to return the favor. “This—this Sofie… She didn’t get in touch with you after…after…?”
“Not a word. I stayed in college and got engaged to your mama the summer between my junior and senior years.” He kept shaking his head. “To tell you the truth, I never once thought about Sofie until today. We were just two young people screwing around.”
Tyler let out a badly timed snort. “Yeah.”
Big Jim jerked his head up, his Garrett blue eyes lasering their way into Tyler’s soul.
“I-I mean…”
“I heard ya.” Big Jim huffed out a sigh. “And it’s the goldarned truth. All them young hormones getting together. It was just…”
Tyler tried to imagine his father as a young stud… Couldn’t. “Didn’t you use any protection?”
“Sofie was on the pill, or so she told me.” Big Jim shrugged. “I don’t know why she didn’t get in touch with me. I would have done the right thing.”
Tyler leaned back against the large double-door refrigerator. “And then what? You wouldn’t have married Mom, and you wouldn’t have Colt, Beau, and me.”
Big Jim cringed. “I know. But I wouldn’t have known anything else. I’m just hornswoggled.”
“Sorry, Dad. It’s hitting me pretty hard too.”
Leah came into the kitchen. “What’s going on, guys? Need some help?” She stopped short when she caught sight of Big Jim’s face.
“We’ll take care of it,” Tyler said. “Just go back and entertain our…guest.”
Leah shot him an uncertain look before she returned to the parlor.
Tyler clapped his dad on the shoulders. “Okay, we need to get some cups.”
Chapter 2
Angelique Guillory sat holding Gabrielle and trying to appear calm. In truth, she was shaken to the core. To come face-to-face with the man who had impregnated her mother so many years ago left her quaking inside.
She gnawed her lower lip. It hadn’t happened the way she had rehearsed in her head. No… She hadn’t expected to stand on that porch and have a man throw open the door and gaze at her with the same eyes that she had grown up wondering about. With all the dark-eyed people in her family, she was the one who stood out. That the trait had been passed on to her daughter was remarkable.
Now she had found a man and his son with those same eyes. My brother.
Angelique shook herself out of her reverie just as Leah entered the room.
Gabrielle was still sleepy, opening her mouth wide to deliver a huge yawn. She leaned her head back against Angelique’s breast. Maybe it was good that she was worn out from the trip. Otherwise, she would have been all over the place.
Leah glanced back over her shoulder and then fixed a determined smile on her face as she returned to take a seat beside Angelique. “Those silly men don’t know how to make hot cocoa properly. Hope we can stand to drink it.”
“Oh, I’m sure it will be okay.” Angelique flashed a nervous smile. “I’m not particular.”
Leah gave a reassuring nod. “So, I heard you’re from New Orleans. That was a long trip to take with your little one. I don’t think I could have done that by myself.”
Angelique felt a tightness in her chest. Well, you didn’t have the hounds of hell on your heels. She swallowed. “It was a long drive, but I-I only wanted to find my father.”
“I can understand that, but we’re a family, and if you’re a Garrett, you’re part of the family.”
To her embarrassment, Angelique was unable to keep it together. As silent tears welled up in her eyes and rolled down her cheeks, she kept her gaze fastened on her daughter, so innocent and so worth whatever trials Angelique had to go through to keep her safe.
Leah moved closer and slipped an arm around Angelique’s shoulder. “Oh, it’s okay to feel your feelings. Don’t worry. You can express yourself.”
Angelique held her breath, trying not to start weeping openly. She nodded furiously, and Leah responded by vigorously patting her shoulder.
“Let me bring some tissues.” Leah jumped up and left the room abruptly, giving Angelique a chance to sniffle in private.
That was when the two men, her father and her half brother, came back into the room.
Angelique kept her gaze down, fussing with Gabrielle’s soft and curly dark hair.
“Here you go, young lady,” Big Jim said. “This should warm you right up.” He set the tray on the coffee table and picked up one of the cups to hand to her.
Angelique heaved a sigh and accepted the mug, locking eyes with Big Jim. She saw the concern on his face when he realized she had been crying. She sniffled and blinked, but Leah returned, offering a handful of tissues. “Thanks,” she whispered.
Big Jim’s brows drew together in a frown. “Now, looky here, young lady. You got no reason to cry. I’m glad you got yourself and your little girl up here to the ranch. I’m not denying that I’m your father…an’ I’ll do whatever I can to help you out.”
This statement was the final straw. Angelique’s shoulders began to shake as she dissolved into tears. Big Jim crouched down beside her, embracing her and giving her clumsy pats on the back. Gabrielle chose that moment to add to the din, so both mother and daughter were wailing. There were not enough tissues in the world to stanch their tears.
Big Jim’s eyes were wet, but he blinked the tears away while trying to comfort Angelique and Gabrielle. “There, there,” he said.
Now Leah was weeping and Tyler held her, patting her back. “It’s okay, honey. Everything is okay.”
Angelique looked around at the tearful Garretts, and suddenly it all seemed funny. She started laughing, with tears streaming down her cheeks. Gabrielle was squirming to get down, but there were so many fragile keepsakes on the little tables that Angelique was afraid to let her daughter go. Gabrielle’s fussing continued, but she stopped trying to
get down.
Big Jim broke into a relieved smile, and Leah blotted her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Angelique said. “It’s been an emotional day for me. I’m so glad to have found you.”
Big Jim shook his head. “I’m sorry you waited so long.”
“I just found out your name,” Angelique said. “My mom finally told me on her deathbed.”
* * *
Beau Garrett stared at his wife in disbelief. He stood with his boots planted in a wide stance, his hands fisted at his waist, and his gut in a twist. “Say that again.”
Dixie, his redheaded wife, spread her hands, strewing tinsel at her feet. “I know. It’s hard to believe, but Leah called to tell me, and you know she would never embellish the truth.”
Beau continued to frown at her. “Seriously, Dixie…”
Dixie arranged a few strands of tinsel on the tree. “Leah told me this woman showed up at Big Jim’s doorstep and claimed to be his daughter… His love child.”
Beau sucked in a deep breath, trying to control his emotions. “I don’t believe it for one minute. My dad would not get some woman pregnant and then walk away. He would do the right thing.”
Dixie turned around. “Look, lover… I didn’t make this up. I’m just passing it on.” She put the rest of the tinsel in a ziplock bag. “It’s probably a scam. Don’t a lot of scams take place around the holidays? You know, when people might be more emotionally vulnerable?”
“Maybe.” He tried to wrap his head around the news Dixie had just shared. She was right. It had to be some kind of scam. He threw himself down on the sofa and patted the space beside him.
Dixie flipped on the Christmas tree lights and crossed the room to sink down next to Beau.
He circled her with his arm and stared at the tree. He tried to give all his attention to his wife’s handiwork. “Looks great, baby. You got it done all by yourself.”
“I need to balance it a little. There are some bare spots.”
This was a special time they shared. When Beau and Dixie had tucked their daughter, Ava, into bed, they spent some time together, catching up and sharing the events of the day. Dixie was running the feed store her father left her, while Beau was running their ranch. The land had been part of Dixie’s inheritance, as well as the ranch house she had grown up in. Added to that was the significant amount of prime pastureland that had been Big Jim’s wedding present. Each of them had plenty of responsibilities, but the most important was the redheaded little girl asleep in her room.
Beau, the youngest of Big Jim’s sons, was nonetheless a responsible husband and father. He couldn’t imagine any reason his own father would shirk his responsibility. No, this woman, whoever she was, must be mistaken or, as Dixie suggested, running some kind of scam.
Dixie climbed out of his embrace, intent on decorating the perfect tree. The day the shipment of Christmas trees had arrived at the feed store, she had gone through the stock as it was being arranged and made sure the very best tree had been tied to the roof of her SUV. Now, that perfect tree would be perfectly decorated.
Beau had given up on telling her how good it looked at various stages of its adornment. Dixie was a perfectionist, as proven by the way she dressed Ava and the care she was taking with the slow but sure remodeling projects she was working on around the house. Of course, her grand plans always included her husband’s considerable muscle and talent.
“You know,” she said, “your dad is worth a ton of money, so it’s reasonable that some con artist would try to take advantage of him.”
Beau swallowed hard. He would get with his older brothers and together they would get to the bottom of this farce. “Not if I can help it.”
* * *
Big Jim lay awake, staring up into the darkness. He somehow felt as though he were being unfaithful to Elizabeth because he had been thinking about the beautiful Sofie Guillory.
He and Sofie had said the words I love you a thousand times. But had it been love or a side effect of their frequent coupling? It seemed there had been a lot of love going on back then. All his fellow Agriculture students had girlfriends. On weekends, when he and Sofie showed up at one of the country-western dance halls, they would meet up with their friends, have a beer or two, and dance.
Perhaps it was the dancing—hot-and-heavy body contact—that had resulted in them stripping down and making more hot-and-heavy body contact in his truck.
Sofie Guillory, the beautiful girl with dark, almost black, wavy hair and huge dark eyes, a contrast to her milky-white skin. She had caught young James Garrett’s eye the first day in freshman English class.
He fell asleep dreaming of the beautiful dark-eyed girl who had stolen his heart as a young man. Now their daughter and granddaughter had appeared to steal his heart again.
* * *
Colton Garrett was furious. He was the oldest of Big Jim Garrett’s sons, and he was determined not to allow his father to be taken advantage of. He had called his brothers to meet him in his barn, a male domain where he had filled a cooler with longnecks despite the cold weather. He had arranged three wooden chairs in a circle close to an electric heater. The Adirondack chairs had been stored in the barn for the winter, so Colt had dragged them out to the center near an electric outlet where the heater was plugged in. He was ready for Tyler and Beau to make their appearance.
Colt leaned against the open doorway and gazed out at the beautiful countryside. He loved to awaken to new-fallen snow, but this morning his focus was not on the scenery.
Misty, his wife, was at work. They had breakfasted together, and then she drove off to her job in the town of Langston. She was the office manager for Breckenridge T. Ryan, the only lawyer in the area. Breck handled everything from wills to bail hearings, but he relied on Misty Garrett to keep him organized.
Colt figured that Beau would not have any trouble meeting with his brothers because Dixie would also be in Langston, managing the feed store she owned.
It was Tyler, his middle brother, who might have trouble getting away. Leah was a stay-at-home mom. Their nine-year-old daughter, Gracie, was home from school for the Christmas break, and they had a one-year-old baby who took up a lot of his mother’s time and attention. Tyler was staying close to home so he could load up on family time…time he missed when he was touring as a country-western singer with his band.
Leah was the ultimate super wife and mom. And she was the one who had actually met and interacted with Big Jim’s supposed love child the most.
But Colt was surprised when he saw Tyler’s truck heading up to the barn. He was apparently the first to arrive. He parked and swung out of the truck, tromping through the snow to the barn. “Hey, Big Bro. Here I am. What did you want to talk about?”
Colt snorted indelicately. “As if you didn’t know.”
“Well, I thought I would do you the honor of laying it all out for me.”
“Come on over to the heater. Take a load off.” Colt indicated the chairs.
“Hah! Just what I need. Splinters in my butt.” But Tyler ambled over to the cooler and removed a longneck before placing said butt in one of the wooden chairs. “Is Beau on his way?” He flipped off the bottle cap and took a sip.
“I hope to hell he gets here pretty quick.” Colt went back to peer out the barn door. “He’s driving up now…but he’s got Ava with him.” He turned to Tyler. “Be careful what you say in front of her. Little pitchers have big ears.”
Tyler shook his head and took another sip of beer. “Where do you get these things? You sound like Mom when we were little. She had a thousand of those old sayings.”
Colt flapped a hand at him. “Be cool, man.”
Tyler laughed. “I’m always cool, Big Bro.”
Beau got out of his truck and lifted Ava from her car safety seat. He carried her into the barn. “Here’s Ava. She came to see her favorite uncles.”
Colt shot him a dark glance, not believing that his youngest brother would bring his preschool daughter to a serious discussion involving their father.
“Don’t worry,” Beau said. “We got this.” He seated himself in one of the Adirondack chairs and settled Ava in his lap.
Colt noticed the little girl wore a bright-pink set of headphones, almost invisible against her bright-red curls.
Beau produced his cell phone and plugged her headphones in. “Now, what did you want to talk about?”
Colt had to laugh at that. “Pretty slick, Bro.”
Tyler tipped his longneck back and drained the bottle. “Colt wants us to get rid of this new sister of ours. Maybe tar and feather her…and her beautiful little girl too.”
Beau raised his brows, looking at Colt questioningly.
Colt scowled back. “No, I’m concerned—and rightly so—that some woman shows up and claims to be Dad’s long-lost illegitimate daughter. Aren’t you fellows the least bit suspicious about that?”
Tyler sat up, glaring at Colt. “You should wait and meet the woman. One look and you can see the old man staring right back at you.”
Colt felt the muscles in his shoulders tighten up. He took a moment to try to relax, starting with uncurling his fingers from his tight fists. “Now, look here, Little Brother, lots of people look like Dad…like us. Dark hair can come in a bottle, and blue eyes may be contacts. Looks don’t mean a thing.”
“You think a woman would poke contacts in her little girl’s eyes?” Tyler shook his head. “Reserve your judgment until you meet her.”
Beau tilted his head to one side. He barely missed getting clocked by his daughter’s headphones as she suddenly threw herself back against his chest, singing a little song, her gaze fastened on the cell phone. “I haven’t met this person, but I can’t understand why she would wait so long to get in touch.” He shrugged as best he could. “I mean, Dad’s been here all his life. She could have shown up at any time. Why now?”
Colt’s eyes narrowed to slits. He hit his fist against the palm of his other hand. “Exactly! I wonder what caused this mystery daughter to crawl out of the woodwork now?”
