two days later. It was a warm Saturday morning and Brandon was at soccer practice for the next couple of hours. And she was on a mission. Once she got something in her head, she plowed forward. Like moving to Nashville to become a country singing star. Or marrying the wrong man for all the wrong reasons.
But this was different. This was for Brandon. And Kate would do anything for her son.
Even if it meant breaking and entering, sort of.
“Got to move that mountain,” she said, thinking of another one of her mother’s favorite sayings.
She didn’t know what had possessed her to wake up this morning with criminal intent in her mind, but something had urged her to go to extreme measures regarding Parker Buchanan. Okay, maybe it was because her son looked so dejected each time she mentioned his birthday. Since nothing she offered seemed to change Brandon’s sad expression, she’d finally done a very foolish thing. She’d promised her son she’d talk to Parker Buchanan about at least coming to his birthday party.
“But that’s all I promised,” she told herself as she scoped the territory surrounding Brandon’s gated estate.
“I did not tell my son I was actually going to come here and confront the man himself.”
She eyed the electronic gate and the six-foot wrought-iron fence. Well, she had tried reaching Parker the conventional way, but the man wouldn’t return her messages. And he wouldn’t answer the buzzer on the gate, either, even after she’d hit it for the third time just to be sure. Maybe he wasn’t even in that big white house up on the hill. There was only one way to find out.
She was going in there.
Okay, so how exactly was she going to get inside this compound?
She looked around, thinking maybe if she found a tree near the fence, she could climb up and jump over. She saw an old oak, then tried to shimmy her way up the slanted trunk to the one low branch that could propel her over the high fence. Pushing through new spring brambles and old dead weeds, she managed to secure one tennis shoe to the tree, then lift herself up the ancient trunk. She climbed toward the protruding limb, then reached a hand out to grasp it. But the branch was limp and not as secure as it had looked from the ground, so her hand slipped, causing her to wobble backwards through the air. That only brought her tumbling back down onto her bottom, her hands rough and red from holding on to loose bark. Rubbing her raw palms against her now-soiled jeans, Kate stood back to stare at the graceful mansion sitting back away from the road. Maybe if she walked the perimeter of the property, she could find a way inside.
But after marching a few yards toward the woods, she realized the weeds and shrubs were too overgrown for her to be able to even find a hole in the fence. She had the thorns and beggar ticks on her jeans to prove it. And since the weather was warming up, there was a possibility that she’d encounter a rattlesnake or copperhead coming out of hibernation.
Frustrated, sweating and puffing, with her hair falling out of the haphazard coil she’d pulled together this morning, she came back to the fence.
“Maybe I can squeeze through those iron bars,” she reasoned. Something told Kate she’d just have to force the issue with Parker, to get his attention at least. If she remembered nothing else about the man, she knew he was stubborn and full of pride.
Kate intended to break through all that, for her son’s sake.
“Sure, like that’s gonna happen.”
Then an amazing thing did happen. The gate started to swing open. Glancing around, Kate wondered if there was a camera on her. But a delivery truck coming down the long drive from the house confirmed she was safe. Obviously, even a recluse like Parker Buchanan had to order supplies now and then.
So, taking the only chance she might have, she slipped through the open gate, in too much of a hurry to get in her car and drive through the normal way. She scooted around the partially open gate before the truck rounded the curve to the street, then hid behind a tall camellia bush until the truck was gone and the gate had shut.
She was inside Parker’s beautiful estate. Looking around, she could see that the lawns and gardens were well-maintained and lush. A new springtime bloom covered everything from the great moss-draped oaks lining the drive to the shiny green magnolia trees waiting to blossom in a month or so. Soon the many azaleas covering the grounds would burst out in brilliant color. Kate could only imagine how beautiful this place would be during the spring and summer.
But she wasn’t here to admire the scenery, she reminded herself.
“Now what?” she asked as she took a deep, calming breath.
Then she heard the dogs barking.
THREE
Parker glanced up from reading over some pamphlets and brochures the deliveryman had left. Patch and Daisy were going crazy out there about something. He’d let them stay out back after he’d shown the deliveryman the storage shed near the pool house. Watching them out the open French doors, he saw the dogs heading around the house toward the front.
Couldn’t be the delivery truck. Parker had seen it leaving. Maybe someone else was at the gate, but he wasn’t expecting anyone. Hurrying to check the security camera located above his desk, he rewound the tape.
Someone had definitely been at the gate, but he hadn’t heard the buzzer since he’d been in the storage house.
Parker blinked. He couldn’t be sure, but it looked like Kate. What was she doing out there on foot?
Wondering what was going on, he grabbed a cane and headed up the central hallway toward the big front door. Maybe Kate’s car had broken down out on the road.
Hurrying toward the tall ceiling-to-floor windows, Parker checked the driveway but didn’t see any vehicles. And Kate was nowhere to be found now, either. But he could sure still hear the dogs barking.
He went to the other window, then stopped, his hand on a sheer white curtain as he watched a woman sprinting across his yard with Patch and Daisy hot on her trail.
Parker shook his head. “Okay, there’s a woman running across my property, with my dogs chasing her. Not good. Not good at all.”
His heart slammed against his ribs as he headed to the front door, planning to call off his dogs before they caught up to her. Just as he opened the door, however, she came bounding up the low stone steps to the wide front porch. And because she was looking back at the dogs, she didn’t see Parker standing there with the door open.
Kate Brooks ran right into Parker’s waiting arms, causing him to lose his balance. Parker was propelled back to the floor with a skid and a thud, his cane going in one direction as his body slammed down with a jarring hit. The dogs caught up, still growling and panting as their paws hit wood and scratched hard after Parker shouted a command for them to halt.
“Ouch,” Parker said once he was sure the dogs were secure. He steadied himself, then looked up, taking in Kate’s falling hair and wide, frightened eyes. “It is you.”
She stared down at him, her face red from running, her hands unsteady as she held them on his shoulders. “Uh, hi, Parker. Did you get any of my messages? Didn’t you hear me buzzing the intercom by the gate?”
Before he could answer, Patch and Daisy inched closer, Patch
