The Inheritance

by Marie Ferrarella

  “Right again.” He saw a street he’d noted for himself and felt more at ease. They were almost there. “You know where you stand with horses. They respect a firm, kind hand and will go through fire for the right master.”

  “So will people,” she pointed out. “The key in both cases is the way you treat them.”

  The light was yellow. This time, instead of racing through it, he came to a stop and looked at her instead. He’d heard something in her voice that caught his attention. “What was it like?”

  The question came out of nowhere and she wasn’t sure where it was going, either. “What was what like?”

  “Being an orphan.”

  She could feel herself stiffening inwardly, the way she always did when she was aware of the difference between herself and most of the people around her. The ones who’d had parents who’d cared, parents who had been there through good times and bad.

  “I wasn’t one, technically. I was just abandoned, that’s all.” Her face forward, she recited the words that defined her childhood. “By one parent before I was born and by the other several years after I came into the world. The loneliness is the same, but the definition is different.”

  She wasn’t answering the question he’d asked her. “What was it like for you?” he pressed.

  She looked at him then, puzzled. “Why do you want to know?”

  “Because the judge might ask some probing questions and I don’t want to be embarrassed. I need to know how you feel about things.”

  It was the first response that occurred to him and he knew it was acceptable, even though it wasn’t the entire reason behind his question. He wanted an answer because he was curious. Because he found himself wondering about her, about what made her tick. There was a lot more to her than first impressions would have led him to believe.

  Since he’d asked, she allowed herself to remember, though for most of her adult years, she’d made an effort to forget. To blot things out because it served no purpose to remember. And because it hurt too much.

  “It was like being asleep and waiting for the nightmare to end and the dream to begin.” She didn’t realize she sighed wistfully, but Rafe noticed. “With every new family that came into my life, I hoped that this was it, that they’d like me enough to keep me. But for one reason or another, I never ‘got kept,’” she said cryptically, shrugging. “At eighteen, I was freed from the system and was on my own.”

  It had been one of the most frightening years of her life, but wonderfully liberating at the same time. For the very first time, she had complete control over her own welfare.

  “I put myself through school and promised myself I would never have to wear anyone’s old clothes again.”

  He had no idea why the comment suddenly had him envisioning her standing wearing nothing but his old work shirt, the sleeves coming down over her delicate hands, the shirttails draped over her thighs. One look at her and the word sex was not the first one to come to mind. Or the second, either. That impression came later. Just when, he wasn’t certain, but he knew that the kiss he’d shared with her had made him definitely aware of it.

  “How about you?”

  She’d turned the tables on him. He watched the road, looking at the numbers on the buildings as he passed them. They had to be near the restaurant, the one Megan had recommended to him earlier today. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you’ve prodded and probed me. But it’s going to be a two-way street. The judge might ask me something personal about you and I don’t really know all that much about you.”

  He laughed shortly as he slowed for another light. “I’m surprised. I thought you had my bio down pat before you hunted me down.”

  She wasn’t altogether sure that she liked the way he phrased that. “I didn’t ‘hunt you down.’ It was my job to find you.”

  “And you do your job well.”

  She knew what he was up to. “You’re evading the question.”

  Glancing at her, Rafe raised his brow in innocence. “Which is?”

  If he thought she’d give up, then he was in for a surprise. She wasn’t kidding about not being a pushover. If anything, she was the exact opposite when it came to attaining a goal. And this time, the goal was information about him.

  “If we were in front of the judge right now, what is there about you that I should know?”

  “That I like my coffee black. That I don’t like to be beholden to any man. Or woman.” Which directly contradicted his situation, he thought, seeing as how he’d already talked to Megan about the hearing and she’d told him she was willing to do what she could. But then, this was for Bethany’s sake, not his own, and sometimes a man had to be man enough to know he needed help. “That I’m fair. A day’s work for a day’s wage, nothing less. Maybe more,” he added, because he’d been known to pitch in when the going got rough. “And that I’m a hell of a lot older than my birth certificate says.”

  He was being enigmatic again. For a cowboy, Rafe had a tendency toward the mysterious, she thought. “What does that mean?”

  “That means when your father likes to tomcat around and your mother’s a former Vegas showgirl with tenth-grade schooling and a fondness for sloe gin fizzes, you grow up really fast, even for Vegas.” He thought of what Greer had just said about putting herself through college. His formal education hadn’t gone that high. “The school I put myself through was the school of hard knocks.”

  She looked at him, sympathy mixed with empathy stirring within her. “Sounds like neither one of us had it easy. You had parents—”

  “—I had two people who came in and out of my life,” he corrected her. That wasn’t the definition of parents by a long shot as far as he was concerned. That wasn’t the kind of parent he intended to be to Bethany.

  “—but you might as well not have,” she concluded, as if he hadn’t said anything. Her smile was kind and unselfconscious. “All in all, I’d say you turned out pretty well.”

  When she smiled like that, she wasn’t half bad, he thought. Maybe even rather pretty. “So did you.”

  The compliment made her feel restless. Greer looked down at her hands.

  “You know, maybe the judge’ll buy into this at that.” A thought occurred to her. “Have you thought of asking Mrs. Maitland to support you in this? She is your aunt and she does have a great deal of influence. This kind of thing is right up her alley.”

  “The thought’s occurred to me,” Rafe allowed evasively.

  The moment he said it, she realized that he’d probably already spoken to his aunt about it. Not by his tone, but by the look in his eyes.

  “Sorry.”

  He didn’t understand. “For what?”

  “For insulting you.”

  He thought over the last few sentences. Had to be some subtle woman thing, he decided. “Did you?”

  She felt her tongue growing thicker as she tried to explain. “I mean, telling you what to do when you’ve obviously already done it.”

  She was sharp, all right. He liked that in a woman. “You were being helpful. Why is that insulting?”

  Greer looked out the window. “Some people don’t like to be told what to do, or thought to be unable to act on their own without prompting.”

  “I’m touchy,” he said, referring to what she’d said earlier. “But I’m not thin-skinned.” He pulled into the next lot. There was a quaint Swiss-style chalet at the far end. “We’re here.” She glanced at her watch the way she had already done several times on the way over. “Can I have your watch?”

  Greer looked up. “What?”

  “Your watch.” Rafe put his hand out. “Can I have it?”

  Thinking the request unusual, she took off her wristwatch and handed it to him, then watched Rafe pocket it.

  “Okay, let’s go.” He saw the question in her eyes. “This way, you won’t keep looking at it. You’ll get it back after lunch,” he told her. “If you don’t ask me what time it is until we’re ready to go.”

 
; She opened her mouth to protest, then shut it again, knowing it was useless to say anything. In a way she rather liked the way he took charge.

  Rounding the hood of the car, Rafe was about to lead the way to the restaurant, but he stopped and opened her door first.

  The smile that curved her mouth came from deep within as she got out and took the arm he offered.

  Chapter 9

  Rafe closed his hand over the envelope he was holding, crumpling it as he shut the door firmly behind the nondescript little man who had just delivered it. It was a summons to appear in family court back in Nevada at the end of the month.

  Damn it, part of him had begun to hope that since he hadn’t heard from Lil’s uncle and aunt for several weeks, they had changed their minds about wanting to take custody of the baby and this was all going to go away.

  But it wasn’t. The court had followed up. He’d left word where he was going, so he supposed he shouldn’t have been surprised that the process server had found him. But he’d hoped…

  That was the dreamer in him, Rafe thought in disgust, tossing the envelope with its letter onto the desk. A tendency to dream was the only real legacy he had from his father.

  Except his father’s dreams had all involved winning big in some casino in Vegas. All he wanted was to gain custody of the child who had gained custody of his heart.

  The gurgle of delight at the far end of the room caught his attention. Rafe crossed to the playpen, where Bethany, sitting on her well-padded bottom, was busy entertaining herself with a myriad of colorful plastic blocks. Currently, she was attempting to see if they were edible, or at least collapsible enough so that they could be stuffed into her small mouth. She was doing her best to make it happen.

  Rafe crouched down, looking at her through the white netting. It amazed him how someone so tiny could come to mean so much to him so quickly.

  Oddly enough, in a way the same thing was beginning to be true of Greer.

  Not that he cared deeply about her, of course, he thought, but he was beginning to look forward to seeing her each day. They’d begun to take their meals together, at first out of necessity to perpetrate the charade and now because he liked the idea of seeing her and talking to her. Unlike the other women he’d known, she was devoid of coyness, of artifice. What he saw was what he got, and he was beginning to think that what he got was far more than he’d initially believed it to be.

  Reaching over the top of the playpen, he stroked Bethany’s small head. Her soft, downy hair tickled the palm of his hand.

  “Don’t you give this a second’s worry, Beth,” he told her. Bethany stopped trying to consume the pink block in her chubby hands and stared at him with huge blue eyes, looking as if she understood every word he was saying to her. “Nobody’s taking you away from me. You’re not going to have to live with those people, I promise. They wouldn’t be nearly good enough to you.”

  Bethany began to jabber at him in response. He put his own interpretation on her reply. She was placing her faith in him, just as her mother had before her. He wasn’t about to let either of them down.

  As he watched Bethany go back to her blocks, Rafe tried to understand why two people who obviously had little love in their hearts and who had raised Lil so that she was literally starved for affection when she met Rory, would want to take on the responsibility of raising a baby. Lil had once told him that her aunt and uncle had called her a burden so often while she was growing up, she’d thought that was her middle name.

  Why were they contesting custody? It didn’t make any sense. But sense or not, he was determined that they weren’t going to take Bethany from him and turn her into an unhappy little girl. Not while there was breath left within him. If he had to, he’d marry Greer before that happened. He’d do whatever it took to keep his word. And to keep Bethany.

  Standing up, he reached into the playpen and scooped Bethany up into his arms. “C’mon, Beth, you and I are going out.”

  Bethany squealed her approval.

  Lost in thought, Greer ran her fingertips absently along the band of her wristwatch. Becoming aware of what she was doing, she smiled. She was reliving Rafe’s confiscating the watch from her and then returning it after a long, leisurely lunch.

  She sighed. It wasn’t often that she took that much time away from her work. Now that she thought of it, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken more than a few minutes off to buy a salad or sandwich to go. Meals were something to be worked into her schedule, nothing more.

  This time, it had been more.

  Her smile widened. When Rafe had returned the watch to her, she’d had trouble closing the clasp. After watching her make two attempts, he’d taken over. She could still feel his long, strong fingers brushing against her wrist as he placed the watch on it and then closed the clasp.

  She’d had no idea that the inside of a woman’s wrist could be so erotic.

  She shook her head. Silly for a grown woman to get carried away with something so ordinary, so trivial. But there had been something in his eyes as he’d looked at her, just for an instant…

  No, there wasn’t, she insisted sternly. What was wrong with her? What was she doing, having fantasies about a man who could be her younger brother, for heaven’s sake…if she’d had a younger brother.

  Still…he had taken to coming by and inviting her out to lunch. Or just dropping by to say hello. She knew this was all happening to keep up the illusion that they were engaged, and yet…

  And yet, she sighed, leaning her cheek against her hand and feeling giddy. If this was being foolish, so be it. She’d enjoy it as long as it lasted.

  “My, you look as if you’re a million miles away.”

  Greer jumped, nearly overturning her by now cold cup of coffee. Catching it just in time, she looked up to see Megan in her doorway.

  She was embarrassed at being caught daydreaming like this. “Oh, Mrs. Maitland, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you standing there…”

  Megan crossed to her desk, an understanding smile on her lips. It wasn’t all that long ago that she had been this young. And this much in love. The signs were hard to miss.

  “I doubt if you would have seen the entire Mormon Tabernacle Choir standing there. Judging by the expression on your face, you were in a place far more exciting than this.” Standing beside Greer, Megan looked at the younger woman. “Was it nice there?”

  Because Greer knew a positive answer would add credence to the charade, she didn’t attempt to make any denials. “Very nice.”

  In the face of Greer’s happiness, Megan toyed with the idea of retreating, then decided against it. This had to be said just once, then put aside.

  “From what I’ve seen in the last week or so, Rafe seems to be a very nice young man. I especially like that he is so devoted to that little girl of his…”

  Greer began to point out the error of Megan’s statement, then hesitated. “Well, technically—”

  Megan was ahead of her. “Yes, I know, Bethany isn’t really his.” She slipped a comfortable arm around Greer’s shoulders. “Not by birth, but there is a definite bond between them. Blood isn’t everything, my dear. It’s the heart that counts, not what scientists can detect in a laboratory.” She knew that to be true firsthand. “You learn that after a while.” She looked into Greer’s eyes, knowing a little of what the other woman had endured. “I love R.J. and Anna just as much as I do Abby, Jake and the others.”

  “And Connor?” Greer heard herself asking. Curiosity had gotten the better of her. She flushed. She wasn’t usually so intrusive. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Maitland. I shouldn’t have—”

  But Megan was quick to wave away the apology and concern.

  “No, that’s all right, I don’t mind talking about that.” Taking a seat next to the desk, Megan continued, controlled passion in her voice. “Connor is my firstborn and there is normally a special place in a mother’s heart for her firstborn.” Her smile was sad as she thought of what had been lost and would never be reg
ained.

  “He’s supposed to be the one you cut your teeth on, the one you practice on.” The sigh that escaped was small, resigned. Megan always believed in making the best of everything. “Because of circumstances, both Connor and I were denied that kind of bonding. He was a stranger to me when he came into my life, so we went through another sort of bonding period before I discovered the truth.” There had been something about the young man, even then, that had made her receptive toward him even though he had been reserved. “Again, the heart was the main instrument involved. In a way, that’s why I’m here.”

  Greer did a quick mental review and came up empty. “I don’t understand.”

  “That’s because I’m being obscure.” Megan placed her hand over Greer’s. “I don’t ordinarily meddle, Greer, but I am very fond of you.”

  Greer smiled. If the other woman only knew how much that meant to her. “Please, meddle. I’ve never had anyone care enough to meddle before.”

  Megan laughed. “Then prepare to be meddled with. But remember, you asked for this.” And then Megan sobered just a little. This concern had been very much on her mind since Greer had told her about the engagement. “Greer, you don’t think that perhaps you’re going just a little too fast?”

  Uneasy, Greer looked down at her hands, wondering if Mrs. Maitland was going to say something to the effect that she’d had a change of heart. That she had decided that Greer wasn’t good enough to be part of the family.

  Mrs. Maitland wasn’t the type, Greer silently argued. She wasn’t like that.

  “No,” Greer replied slowly. “When you’ve been stuck on ‘hold’ all of your life, you welcome something happening quickly for once.”

  To her relief, Megan smiled again and patted her hand. “All right, then. I just want to make sure you’re sure before you take that large step.”

  Greer’s mind had gone completely blank. “Large step?”

  “Marriage.”

  Of course. The woman probably thought she was being an idiot. She let go of the breath she was holding, framing her reply carefully.