Laurie Paige - The Baby Pursuit

“Is Maria living with you?” Vanessa asked. “I meant to ask her out to visit, but with the investigation…” She gestured vaguely to indicate a lack of time. Or interest, she admitted. She had no time for idle social visits. Or Lily’s daughter. She had never been close to Maria.

Lily looked troubled. “No, she’s rented a trailer and is looking for a job, she says. I really haven’t seen much of her since her return. She doesn’t seem to want company.”

“We can’t control our children’s lives,” Ryan murmured reassuringly to his fiancée.

She sighed and patted his hand that rested on her shoulder. “I know, but parents always worry, don’t they?”

“Yes.”

Vanessa saw her father’s concern reflected in his eyes. She wondered if he was thinking of Matthew and Claudia. The tension between them was thicker than cream. She would have thought the tragedy would draw them closer, but she knew that most parents who lost a child ended up separated if not divorced.

Her thoughts drifting, she gazed at the sunset sky above the hacienda roof. She wanted several children. At least four.

At that moment Dev appeared at the great room door with Rosita, who indicated the family gathering under the vine-covered trellis. Her father stood.

“Come join us,” he called. “What can I get you?”

“Iced tea would be fine.” Dev crossed the flagstones and greeted Lily, then Vanessa, in his courteous manner.

He was dressed in the FBI uniform of dark suit, white shirt and conservative tie. She hadn’t seen him in hours, not since their excursion by horseback at midday.

Her father handed him the glass of tea.

“Thank you, sir.” He stood until the older man was seated, then took a chair to her left, a careful distance between them. He was so damn polite she wanted to scream.

“You have news to report?” her father asked.

“Not anything significant. The cowboy who was here but left the day of the kidnapping hasn’t been found. No trace of him on the rodeo circuit, which he said he was going to follow, has shown up, not under the name he used here, at any rate. Mr. Perez said the man hasn’t done seasonal work here before. He didn’t know who had recommended the cowboy. I wondered if you knew.”

She watched Dev as her father explained that the new guy had been sent by another hand who usually worked for them during spring count and the fall selloff, but who couldn’t make it that year. As usual, Dev’s face was impassive while her father recounted the facts.

Finished, her father settled back in the swing and dropped his arm around Lily’s shoulders again. The two were always close, she noted, touching each other, looking to each other for agreement when a decision had to be made. It was very endearing. She found she was jealous.

She wanted Dev to acknowledge their attraction. More than that, she wanted him to accept it and to be glad. She wanted the excitement of kisses and intimate glances and sweet caresses. She gazed moodily at Dev. Her dark knight.

He looked at her, making her realize she was staring. She quickly took a sip of her drink and pretended she hadn’t seen his quelling glance or detected his obvious disapproval of her.

“So what happens now?” her father asked.

“I wondered if you would be willing to hire someone recommended by Waterman, a security expert named Quinn McCoy, to follow the leads on this cowboy? I’d like to find him,” Dev said.

“You think he had something to do with the kidnapping?”

“I don’t know. I could follow up on it myself, but I’d rather stay close. In case we get another call or letter.”

Vanessa listened as her father agreed to hire an investigator to pursue the missing cowboy. When Matthew and Claudia arrived, both looking tired, discouraged, and hardly speaking, she felt her spirits dip lower.

“I thought I would take up the offer of a room out here. I would like to be closer to the ranch for a while,” Dev continued after greetings had been exchanged with the couple and they were seated. “I, uh, could stay in the bunkhouse.”

“Isn’t your room satisfactory?” Mr. Fortune asked.

“Well, yes, but—”

“Then it’s settled. You’ll stay here. Are you available to have dinner with us tonight? It’s only the family.”

Vanessa was surprised when Devin agreed. She wondered why he felt the need to stay on the ranch. The answer came to her after she went to her room later that night.

To keep a closer eye on the family.

She watched from her bedroom while he walked around the inner courtyard before driving off toward town to get his clothing. Her heart beat hard at the thought of his sleeping in the room next to hers.

“Don’t, ” she said softly to the errant organ. Getting ready for bed, she recalled an old song, something about knowing a heartache when she saw one.

“I believe Vanessa and the FBI agent are interested in each other,” Lily said when she and Ryan were alone in the swing under the trellis with the sweet-smelling vine growing over it.

“Are you serious?”

“Very, darling.” She touched his cheek. “A woman in love is attuned to these things.”

He caught her hand and planted a kiss in the palm. “I’m oblivious to everything but you. I’ve missed you this week.”

“I had things to do. I was worried about Maria. I still am, but she doesn’t want to talk about her future, at least not to me.”

“Kids. They’ll drive you crazy if you let them. Did you feel the tension between Matthew and Claudia?”

“This is so hard on them. They need each other more than ever, but there are problems between them that aren’t resolved.” She hesitated. “There are so many things that can tear people apart… Maria thinks you’re stringing me along. That we won’t marry.”

“Then she’s dead wrong. I promise you this—we’ll marry as soon as I’m free to do so.”

She sighed and laid her head on his shoulder, believing him implicitly. “I do love you.”

“And I you. I’ll never let you go again, so make up your mind to spend the rest of your life with me.” He turned her face to his and gave her a hard kiss of assurance.

She closed her eyes and tried to think only of the moment. But reality always intruded. “Sometimes I’m afraid—”

“Don’t,” he ordered gently, fiercely. “I’ll be free to marry you soon if I have to strangle Sophia myself.”

She shuddered and shook her head. “Be careful of what you say. Words can come back to haunt a person.” From the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a movement. “Who is it?” she asked.

No one answered.

“What is it, love?”

“I thought I saw someone, but I guess it was only shadows. The wind has come up and the tree branches are moving around.”

“It’s time to go in.” He pulled her to her feet. “I need you in my arms tonight. I’m beginning to get discouraged about my grandson. I thought we would have him back by now. Rosita tells me there are strange things afoot, but she doesn’t know who is involved.”

“I didn’t realize you were a superstitious person,” she teased, bringing them back to a lighter note.

“I’ve known Rosita too long to discount any premonitions she might have. She’s been right in the past.”

“I know. She once told me a snake has a forked tongue so it could tell two different tales at the same time. I should have listened to her. I let…others drive us apart.”

He led her into the house and to his suite. “It doesn’t matter now that we’ve found each other again. We have the future. Forget the past.”

The sadness of past mistakes rose in her, of loving this man and leaving him because of her own stupidity, of listening to the lies of his brother, Cameron, instead of her own heart. She sighed deeply, recalling the pain of being young and in love and terribly unsure of that love. “If only we could.”