The Truth (25 page)

Lydia uncrossed her legs and straightened her back. “Why would Darla Mae do that?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“This is where it gets a little foggy,” Lexie replied. “It seems Darla Mae and her half-brother concocted this scheme — ”

“Wait a minute,” William interrupted. “Darla Mae doesn’t have a brother.”

Lexie’s voice softened when she saw the pain in his eyes. “Actually, she does, from her father’s first marriage.” When nobody replied, she continued. “They believe that you owe them financially. She admitted as much.”

“We took her into our home, into our family.” Lydia choked. “How could she think we owed her … ?”

“Her father gambled their fortune away. Why would she think we were in any way responsible?” William asked.

“I think I know,” Grayson said. He ran his hands over his face and took a deep breath. “Do you remember the last big derby the Pruitt’s entered? It was the race they were disqualified for using enhancement drugs on their horse.”

“Of course I remember,” William replied.

“That was the year Old Blue Bell took the title,” Lydia added.

Grayson nodded his head. “Exactly, but did you know that it was me and Billy that turned the Pruitt’s in?”

William and Lydia gasped. Lexie continued to put the pieces together as he spoke.

“Billy had heard they were drugging their horses, and that they had caused one’s death. Billy doesn’t deal well with abuse of any kind to the horses, you know that.” Grayson said to his parents. “When he was preparing Old Blue Bell before the race, he saw Pruitt’s trainer injecting their horse and sent me to get the authorities.”

“I still don’t understand how any of this comes back to our owing anything to Darla Mae,” Lydia interjected.

“That was the race that Mr. Pruitt bet every penny they had and lost it all. It was only a few weeks later when they were killed in that accident. There was nothing left for Darla Mae or this mysterious brother to inherit,” Grayson told them.

Lydia and William both looked up at each other obvious both of them had just thought of something. “There were a lot of questions regarding their accident,” William said aloud.

Grayson appeared lost. “What questions?”

“Whether it was suicide or an accident,” Lexie answered.

Lydia looked at her with awe. “You have been busy,” she told her. “They were already selling the ranch and the animals to pay off the creditors and the bookies; we didn’t want to see Darla Mae lose the life insurance as well. She wouldn’t receive a dime if it was deemed suicide.”

“So you made sure it stayed filed as an accident,” Lexie filled in.

Grayson looked surprised by the information. “Okay, so you saved her the life insurance money, took her into our home, and raised her. Where in all of this does she come to the conclusion we owe her a damn thing?” he asked with frustration.

“It doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it seemed to me that she blamed you for the loss of the ranch,” Lexie told him. “She kept saying ‘they took everything from me.’”

Grayson raised his voice. “Okay, so the bitch was crazy and thought she was somehow entitled to a large sum of money from us. What does that have to do with her telling Maggie I’d died? What reward was there in that?”

“Darla Mae’s plan involved being with you, Grayson. She saw Maggie as a threat to that plan.” Lexie noticed the disgusted look on Grayson’s face. “She thought she was home free when Maggie broke things off before you deployed.”

“But then she came back and tried to find me,” Grayson said aloud, the pieces slowly sliding into place. “I understand that Maggie believed I was dead,” Grayson added. “But why didn’t she reach out to my parents when she realized she was pregnant?”

Lexie looked at him sympathetically. “She did.”

Both William and Lydia looked panicked, shaking their heads wildly. “No, she didn’t,” they both said at once.

“I swear to you, son, we had no idea.” Lydia yelped frantically.

“You didn’t know,” Lexie clarified, “but she did reach out to you.”

“How do you know all of this?” William asked.

Lexie sat the metal case onto the table and opened the lid. “Darla Mae had this hidden in a tree on the back of the property. I followed her, that’s how I found it.”

Grayson looked inside the open box and pulled out the newborn picture of Ryan. Her heart broke for him as he pulled out the letter addressed to him from Maggie.

Lydia and William reached out and clasped each other’s hands, both carefully watching their son as he sat silently reading with tears streaming down his cheeks.

Lexie watched them pull out one of the letters addressed to them and lean in to read it together. She turned and left the room quietly. She needed to find her son and get their bags packed. It was time to go home. The Hunters needed time together to mourn and heal.

After watching Grayson’s face as he read Maggie’s declaration of love, she knew she would need time to mourn as well. It was at that moment she realized she’d lost him for good.

Lexie wiped down the counter, pulled out the inventory sheet she’d been working on, and wrote down the syrups she needed. She was trying desperately to keep herself busy.

In the two weeks since she’d been home, she jumped every time the phone rang, and worse, every time the bell over the door tinkled in her shop. There had been no word from Grayson. She hadn’t expected to hear from him but a part of her had hoped she would.

She was growing tired of her own company. She was depressing, if she were to be honest. But everyone in her life was busy with other things. Ryan was still mad at her for making him leave the ranch early and taking him away from his “cowboy job.” Marissa was working double shifts, filling in for a co-worker on maternity leave, and Jordan was working long hours due to Grayson’s absence. She could have spent time with her mom, but the thought of her
tsk
-ing, and “how could you let him get away” speech was more than she was ready to handle.

The shop was closed, and she still had an hour to kill before her mother brought Ryan back from the newest Disney movie at the theater. She cranked up the stereo to drown out her own thoughts and danced around behind the counter, counting supplies to the rhythm of the music. “I’ll be okay,” she blared out with the song. And she would, damn it, she thought to herself. She’d been alone for a long time before Grayson Hunter came along. It would be easy to get back into her old routine.

She’d almost had herself convinced when she heard the tinkle of the bell and felt her heart drop. Okay, so it would take a bit of time. She could do it. She took a deep breath to calm herself and pasted a smile on her face for her son’s benefit before turning around.

Her smile vanished, and she gasped in surprise when Ryan walked through the door with Grayson by his side.

“Hi Mom,” Ryan sang, his happiness at seeing Grayson radiating from him. “Grayson’s back! He missed us.” He skipped around the shop, and made his way into Lexie’s office.

“So I see,” she managed. Slowly raising her eyes to Grayson’s, she managed only, “Hi.”

He didn’t smile; he simply watched her, saying nothing for a time. She felt uncomfortable beneath his steely gaze.

Damn him, she thought. It was just like him to show up when he was heavy on her mind, and worse, when she wasn’t expecting him and looked like she’d been run over by a milk truck. Damn him again, for always looking so damn sexy. She knew she was in trouble when her inner go-to word was damn.

“Darla Mae left,” he said.

Her head jerked up. “That’s good,” she said, surprised that after two weeks, this was the first thing he felt he needed to tell her. “I think, isn’t it?”

“It is good,” he smiled at her. “My parents are renewing their vows on New Year’s Eve. I’ve never seen them happier.”

She nodded her head. “I’m glad,” she said quietly.

“It’s because of you, you know that?” he told her.

“Because of me?” she asked, confused.

He chuckled. “I have no idea exactly what you said to my mother, but it’s like an exorcism had been performed. She’s a completely different person.”

She smiled slyly. “You don’t want me to repeat the things I said to your mother. It wasn’t pretty.”

“That much I do know,” he laughed. “Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

“It’s best to avoid that side.”

“I’ve missed you,” he said watching her face intently.

Her smile faded, and her heart raced. She didn’t know what to say, or what he was saying.

“I’ve said my final goodbyes to Maggie,” he said, his eyes locked with hers. “Thank you for giving her back to me.”

Lexie was sure she felt a small crack running through her heart. She fought back the tears and managed to nod her head.

“Will you excuse me for a minute,” he asked her before walking into her office.

Only a second later, he came back out with Ryan. Her son had a huge grin on his face, and to her surprise, it matched Grayson’s. Before she could ask why, both of them dropped to one knee on the floor in front of her. Grayson flipped open a small velvet box with a very large square solitaire diamond inside. Her eyes grew wide, and her hands flew to her chest.

“Will you marry us?” they said in unison.

Tears rolled down her cheeks and she looked at her two favorite men kneeling before her. “Are you sure?” she asked Grayson, still unsure if she was dreaming.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” he told her, getting to his feet. He pulled the ring from the box and slipped it onto her finger. It all but blinded her when she flashed it into the light. “I know it’s rather large, but it was my mother’s and she insisted that she wanted you to have it.”

Lexie’s head shot up. “Your mother insisted?”

Grayson laughed at her shocked expression. “Yes, she did. She’s crazy about you. I swear I’ll never understand women.”

She laughed too. “You don’t want to, we’d be far less interesting and you’d be bored with us.”

His eyes grew serious. “You still haven’t answered me, Lexie.” He took her hand in his. “Will you marry me?”

“Grayson, I want to scream yes from the rooftops, but … ”

“But what, Lexie?” Grayson stepped back, putting some space between them.

“You’ve just said your goodbyes to Maggie. I don’t want to be the rebound girl, or second choice girl, or whatever. And I don’t want you to feel you’ll miss out on anything with Ryan if were not married,” she said breathlessly.

Grayson shook his head and stepped closer to her again. “Lexie, I will always love Maggie. She was my first love and she gave me my son. But she also gave me you. She is my past, and you are my forever. You’re not second choice, your my first and only choice.” He lifted her chin, forcing her to look him in the eye. “When I thanked you for giving her back to me, it was because by showing me the truth, you gave me a part of myself back that I didn’t know I’d been missing.” Stepping away, he ran his hand through his hair and paced in front of her. He stopped and looked at her, his eyes searching hers. “I didn’t think I was good enough for you. I’d given my all to someone who I believed had thrown it back in my face. So how could my best be enough? You deserve the best, Lexie, and I want to be that man for you.”

Lexie threw herself into his arms, tears of joy streaming down her face. “Yes, yes, yes,” she said, kissing him soundly on the mouth.

“Now?” Ryan asked, tugging on Grayson’s pant leg.

Grayson looked down, smiled and nodded his head before turning to look at Lexie. “Don’t be mad,” he told her.

Before Lexie could ask him what about, a large golden puppy with feet the size of grapefruits bolted through the door heading straight for them, dragging Ryan behind him by a leash.

Grayson tried to reach for the puppy, causing him to switch paths. His leash, still connected to Ryan, wrapped around Lexie’s legs, pulling them out from under her. Grayson raced to catch her, tripping over the leash, and pulling them both down in a heap on the floor.

The large puppy finally stopped his race, lay down with a plop beside them, and began to lick their faces.

“We really need to work on your coordination,” he told her.

She slapped him playfully on the shoulder. She looked over at the puppy, now happily chewing his way through his leash. “Grayson, a dog, really?”

“It was that or a horse. I kind of thought you’d be less mad about a dog,” he told her, his face a portrait of innocence.

“But Dad says he’ll work on you to get me a horse by next spring,” Ryan volunteered as he sat grinning at his new puppy.

“Oh, did he now?” Lexie looked at him with a wicked glint in her eye before laying her head onto the floor and pulling him down for a kiss.

“We really have to stop meeting like this,” he said smiling deviously before losing himself in her kiss.

Erin McCauley currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her three children, and her dedicated writing partner, Maxx, her three-pound Yorkie. She enjoys writing about the bonds of family and the true strength of friendship, and the importance of both during our journeys to find love. She is currently working on Marissa and Jordan’s journey,
The Betrayal
, coming May 2013.

Visit her at
www.erinmccauley.com
.

Aimee gripped the steering wheel, her stomach churning as she stared at the mansion in front of her and the reality of where she was sank in. She still couldn’t believe she’d come all the way to California, and she didn’t have any idea what to do now.

The towering front door opened, and a tall man in a T-shirt and tattered blue jeans emerged. His dark hair caught the light from the sun as he stepped off the porch, giving the impression of a glowing halo. She gasped when he smiled and waved at her. His strides were long as he crossed the walkway. It was then she realized he hadn’t been waving at her but at an older man pushing a wheelbarrow across the yard. She continued to stare, mesmerized by the flexing of his tanned biceps when he pointed. He laughed at something the other man said and reached up to clasp him on the shoulder before turning back.