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.”
“We can. We will. I lost you once. I won’t let it happen again. I mean that, darling.”
She looked away, unable to face the confidence in his eyes, the love reflected there. So much had happened during the years they were apart, things she would have to tell him about…someday. But not tonight. Tonight was for them. Sometimes she felt she had only the moment, that the next one would be snatched from her.
Perhaps she should ask Rosita what she could see in her future.
Four
Vanessa heard the outer door close. She opened the one between her room and Dev’s. “About time.”
He gave her a severe frown. “Does that door lock?”
“There’s a sliding bolt on your side.”
“Good.”
Her confidence that together they would solve the case, that they would grow closer, dimmed and flickered dangerously close to blinking out. His adamant refusal to let down the barriers, coupled with her continued worry over Baby Bryan, gathered into a hard ball of pain inside her.
Stepping back, she closed the door and pushed in the button to lock it on her side. She took a deep breath, then another. For a moment doubts assailed her. Being one of the Fortunes of Texas didn’t guarantee life would be roses and sweet wine. Once she had thought her father commanded the world, then her mother had died. She had learned even the Fortunes couldn’t control fate.
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