What if something was terribly wrong with Grams? The thought was so disturbing that she stopped listening to the conversation. It was only when Eleanor asked whether Tyler liked children that her head shot up.
“Grams,” she said, a faint scolding note in her voice.
“Hush, dear. I was asking Tyler a question.”
“Please don’t get any ideas.”
“Now, now.” Eleanor gave her a benevolent smile. “Tyler and I are just catching up. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He sounded amused, but there was a wary glint in his eyes.
“None of that ‘ma’am’ nonsense. You call me Grams, just like Megan.”
“Grams,” Megan repeated firmly. She didn’t want to spend the family reunion fending off Eleanor’s matchmaking efforts, much less have Tyler think she was trying to land herself a husband. A rich husband, no less.
“Yes, dear?” Eleanor had a look of guileless innocence on her face.
“You…we have to talk,” Megan said to Tyler. She jumped up, grabbed his hand and dragged him away.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
Megan stormed into the living room and tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Of course there’s something wrong, or do you enjoy being grilled on your interest in fatherhood?”
“Oh, that.”
“What do you mean, oh that?” she demanded.
“Every Christmas Eleanor asks if I’ve met a nice girl yet. And then she says how nice it would be if I started a family. She’s just being polite.”
“No,” Megan said with a distinct lack of patience. “Grams thinks I should get married again, and since she’s so fond of you, she’s decided we’d be an ideal couple. And I’m not interested in getting married again,” she added hastily.
“Tell her.”
“It’s…complicated. I don’t want to upset her, not with her health so questionable.”
“Oh, yes.” Tyler rocked forward, his attention focused on Megan. She was really worried. “What exactly is wrong with Eleanor? You heard her brush me off when I asked, but I know something is going on.”
Megan sighed. “I don’t know. She claims she’s fine, but her color is bad and she’s losing weight. She hardly eats anything, even when I bring her favorite dishes over to the house. Heck, her mother-in-law is doing better than she is.”
“Yes…Grandmother Rose,” Tyler said slowly. “She turned a hundred last year.”
“That’s right. We had a big party for her. Invitations went out to everyone.”
He sighed. “I know. I sent a gift.”
“She would rather have seen you.”
Tyler wanted to believe it was true, that his presence would have been more pleasing than the flowers and fine jewelry he’d sent. But he didn’t belong with the family. Grandmother Rose wasn’t really his great-grandmother, she was a distant relation to him, like the rest of the O’Bannons.
He didn’t know what to say to them, and he usually ended up feeling like a buffalo stomping around in a field of clover. Now, after years of perspective and finding success in his life, he was perfectly willing to admit it was his own fault.
“Why didn’t you come, Tyler?” Megan asked. “Grams was so sure you’d come for Rose’s party.”
He couldn’t answer, couldn’t explain that he hadn’t wanted to see her so soon after Brad’s death. How could he reveal that the reason that had kept him away was the very same reason he’d come to the reunion?
And the reason was Megan.
Chapter Two
Warning tension crept though Tyler and he shook his head. It was wiser, not to mention safer, to concentrate on something else.
Anything else.
Megan might be a widow now, but she was his cousin’s widow, however distant that relationship might have been. Tyler cleared his throat, looking for something to change the subject. He finally decided it was the direction of his thoughts that needed changing.
“Look, why are you so bothered by Eleanor’s matchmaking?” he asked.
Megan blew a strand of hair from her forehead. “I just don’t want Grams getting her hopes up. About either of us.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll only be here for a few days, then things can go right back to the way they were.”
“You don’t know anything about the way things were,” Megan countered. “I mean…not that you should know, and I’m not criticizing or anything, but you’ve been gone and I’ve been here and…and…,” she stuttered to silence.
Interesting.
She looked flustered and tongue-tied, a condition that made Tyler want to smile. “Yes?” he prompted, enjoying this previously unseen side of Megan.
“Uh…that is, I know I’m not blood family, but…” She stopped again and lifted her shoulders in a helpless shrug.
“The O’Bannons don’t care about blood ties.”
“Then why did…you…uhm…” Megan stuttered into silence a third time and Tyler couldn’t control his grin.
“Why what?”
She ran her palms over her thighs in a nervous gesture. “Eleanor mentioned it was a little tense when you lived with them—that you kept saying you weren’t really family, and why should they bother? And…well, you did stay away for a long time.”
Tyler’s grin faded. The issue of his childhood was a sore subject, though not because of the O’Bannons. He’d been raised in a boys’ group home, made to feel like a charity case because he didn’t have any “family.” By the time Grady and Eleanor arrived on the scene his pride had grown to such immense, angry proportions that even an army tank couldn’t have put a dent in it.
And what could they have said, anyway? They’d taken him out of duty, not love. He might respect that choice now, but it didn’t make any difference.
“Staying away is my concern,” he replied stiffly, then kicked himself. The charming, flustered expression on Megan’s face vanished and she bit her lip.
“Sorry. But you did ask.”
“Yeah.” Tyler ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. Some things never seemed to change. His pride continued getting in the way, especially in relation to Megan. He couldn’t have pursued her nine years ago because of his cousin, but it still rankled to think he wouldn’t have had a chance. There was so much that had never been said between
