Marta Perry - Her Surprise Sister

“Not exactly,” she said, echoing his words. “The family owns it. I run it.”

“You?” His surprise wasn’t very flattering.

She tilted her head back to look up at him. “You know, Landon, I’m beginning to understand why Maddie broke up with you. If you’re hoping to win her back, you might want to try being a little less condescending.”

She had the pleasure of seeing Landon speechless for a moment. Then he grinned appreciatively.

“Score one for you. I apologize, Ms. Colby. I didn’t mean to imply anything about your capabilities by my remark. Will you forgive me?”

She felt herself weakening. He certainly got a lot of mileage out of that smile, and he probably knew it. “You’re forgiven. Just don’t make the same mistake with Maddie.”

“I’ll try not to.” He studied the sign over the door. “I don’t think you actually mentioned the Colby Ranch yesterday. Is it a truck farming operation?”

“Don’t let my brother hear you say that. As far as he’s concerned, it’s a cattle ranch, and the truck farming is just a sideline.”

“It must be quite a sideline to warrant a store that size.” Landon nodded to the building, coming a step closer to her in the process.

“We do all right.” She shouldn’t let herself be pleased that he sounded impressed.

She was beginning to feel a bit confused. Landon surely was here to see Maddie, wasn’t he? So why was he spending all this time chatting with her? He was leaning against the building as if he had all the time in the world.

“Something wrong?” he asked, apparently a little uncomfortable at her scrutiny.

“Not wrong, exactly. Just wondering why you’re here. What do you want in Grasslands?”

“Did you expect me to let Maddie just wander off with her newly discovered twin and do nothing about it?”

Those green eyes of his could have a dangerous glint in them, she discovered.

“According to Maddie, you two are not engaged any longer. I’m not sure that her actions are any of your concern.”

If he’d seemed relaxed a moment ago, all that was gone now. He frowned at her, and tension seemed to vibrate in the air between them.

“I’ve known Maddie since she was still a kid,” he said. “Even if we aren’t engaged any longer, that doesn’t mean I can turn off caring what happens to her.”

He sounded honest enough, and Violet found herself warming to him. Still, she owed him honesty in return, and she didn’t think he’d want to hear it.

“If you really care about Maddie, I admire that,” she said. “But I’m not going to do anything to upset her, either. She’s had a hard enough day, seeing her mother for the first time in a hospital bed. I won’t do anything to hurt her, like showing up with you in tow if she doesn’t want to see you.”

“You’re feeling a bond already, aren’t you? That twin thing people talk about.”

She couldn’t tell if he approved or disapproved. “We’re still just getting used to the idea,” she said shortly. “The point is that unless there’s some good reason for your being here, I don’t think you should pursue Maddie if she doesn’t want to see you.”

His eyebrows had lifted a bit at her tone. Maybe he was surprised at her quick partisanship, but Maddie was her sister, after all.

“What about if I have results from the hospitals in Fort Worth? Don’t you think she’d want to hear about that?”

“You’ve found something out already?” She could feel the energy bubbling in her, ready to burst out. “How did you do that? I thought those records would be sealed. I wasn’t sure the hospital records office would even let me look.”

“It helps to have a good private investigator on the payroll,” Landon said. “I put him on the job right after we spoke yesterday.”

“Did he…is there…?” She was almost afraid to ask, for fear of being disappointed. She shook her head. “I shouldn’t ask. You want to tell Maddie first, of course.”

Landon must have been able to read her emotions pretty easily. His face gentled with sympathy, and he reached out to touch her hand. “I wouldn’t tease you with information like that, Violet. I don’t play games.”

Her skin seemed to be warming where he touched, and she found it disconcerting. She moved back slightly, putting a bit more space between them. “What did you learn, then?”

“The investigator found out that no identical twin girls were born at any hospital in Fort Worth on your birthday.”

“Oh.” She felt herself sag with the disappointment of it. “I guess there aren’t going to be any easy answers, then.”

“I’m not giving up that quickly.” Determination filled Landon’s voice. “I’ve told him to check Dallas hospitals, too, and extend the search to surrounding communities. It’s possible that your mother mentioned Fort Worth but it’s actually one of the outlying areas. And Maddie—” He stopped as an idea seemed to hit him. “That was dumb. I never thought to ask Maddie if she knows what hospital she was born in. How stupid could I be? I guess I was so bowled over by seeing you that my brain stopped working.”

“I hadn’t thought of that, either.” She rubbed the nape of her neck, trying to ease the tension. “Honestly, if we’re going to figure this out, we’re going to have to think it through. So far I’ve just been reacting.”

“There’s a lot more emotion involved for you than there is for me,” he said. “But you’re right. We ought to talk it over and work out the options to investigate.”

She drew back a little more. “I wasn’t actually including you in that we, Landon.”

“Right.” He sounded rueful. “You were talking about yourself and Maddie. But I’m not going to stop trying to help, so doesn’t it make sense to pool our resources and work together?”

“It makes sense when you put it that way, but I’m not sure Maddie will agree.”

“Well, suppose you take me to her, and we’ll ask her?” There was that smile again. It almost broke through her common sense. Almost, but not quite.

“I’ll take you out to the ranch,” she said slowly. “But only if I have your word that you’ll leave without argument if Maddie says so.”

“Agreed,” he said promptly. “My car is right across the street. I’ll follow you.”

Violet nodded, taking out her car keys. It made sense. She just hoped she was doing the right thing.

* * *

Landon hopped into his car and pulled onto the road behind Violet, not wanting to give her time to change her mind. But she didn’t seem to be having second thoughts, and soon they were out of Grasslands and on their way to the ranch.

Not that it took very long to get through Grasslands. The town was about what he had expected: a small community with shops and businesses catering to the residents of the surrounding farms and ranches.

Acres of grassland stretched out on either side of the two-lane blacktop road, with low hills in the distance under the huge blue bowl of the sky. The few houses were built well back from the road. Pretty country, the sort of place he’d think would bore Maddie stiff in a day or two at most, if not for the novelty of having discovered her twin.

Thanks to him. What would have happened if he hadn’t walked into the coffee shop at just that time? Or if, having seen Violet, he’d gone quietly on his way and never mentioned it to Maddie?

He couldn’t have, naturally. But the results were, in a sense, his responsibility, so he couldn’t just walk away from the situation.

Each minute he spent with Violet went a long way toward dispelling whatever suspicion he’d entertained as to her motives. Too bad it also had such an unsettling effect on her emotions. Still, even if she were being completely honest, somebody hadn’t been. Somebody had split up those children, and finding out who and why might lead to heartache.