Heartache Falls (33 page)

“The boy is right,” her father added. “Besides, my mouth has watered so much since I walked through the front door that I am about to expire from dehydration.”

Ali frowned at her son and her father. “It would be rude to start without them.”

“I’m sure Sally will understand. She’s a lovely woman.”

Ali eyed her father sharply. “Chase isn’t so sure of that.”

Chase swiped a black olive out of the salad bowl and earned a hand slap from his mother for the effort. “Mom’s right. That lady was eyeing you like steak on the grill, Granddad.”

Charles look surprised, then he preened a bit. “You think I’m too old for a woman to find me interesting, young man?”

Chase flashed his father’s grin. “Not at all. You are a silver fox. It’s just that she strikes me as a wolf and you know what wolves can do to foxes.”

“Ah, but foxes are sly, are they not?”

“You don’t have to worry about Granddad,” Ali said. “I’ve watched him avoid wolves pretty much all my life.”

Charles smiled and said gently, “Come away from the window, Ali. Let’s sit down to eat.”

Ali knew she wouldn’t be able to eat a thing, but the process of serving the meal did provide a welcome distraction. Nevertheless, she was unable to stop herself from reliving the moment she told Mac that his aunt had come to visit. He’d gone hard and cold as the granite cliffs on the north side of Murphy Mountain in February.

I really screwed this one up
.

Ali joined her father and son at the table without filling a plate for herself. She did, however, pour a glass of wine before second-guessing herself. She should have gone straight for the vodka.

Her father sang her culinary praises and asked for a second helping of pasta. Chase plowed through three servings and half a dozen breadsticks. Watching his grandson, Charles shook his head. “Don’t they feed you up in Boulder?”

“Not like this.”

Ali sipped the spicy Chianti and waited, thoughts whirling through her mind as time crawled by. Finally the front door opened and Mac and his aunt stepped inside.

EIGHTEEN

Ali lowered her wineglass to the table and studied her husband. He didn’t look like he wanted to murder her for springing this surprise. When he met her gaze and gave her an uncertain little smile, some of her inner tension dissipated. Most of it remained, however, due to the lines of tension bracketing his mouth. He wasn’t furious, but he certainly wasn’t happy, either. Aunt Sally, on the other hand, appeared downright smug.

Ali didn’t like it. Or her, she decided.

Once the door closed behind Mac and his aunt, he looked at Sally, then at Chase, Charles, and finally Ali. “I want you all to know that this woman is not my aunt. Her name is Brenda Timberlake. She is my mother.”

In the echo of that bombshell, Ali absorbed a variety of reactions. Her son’s mouth gaped open. Her father’s eyes narrowed. Mac stood straight as an aspen. Brenda Timberlake—his mother!—jerked her head around to look at Mac, fury filling her face.

Ali’s own reaction was a combination of shock and anticipation. Mac had told her his mother was dead! Why had he lied? And kept lying? What was the big
secret? She knew her husband well enough to realize that this story was just beginning.

“Um, Mackenzie?” Brenda asked. “What are you doing?”

“I’m telling my family the truth. Finally. It’s long overdue.” He stared straight at Ali, holding her gaze like a man facing a firing squad. “I was always too ashamed to tell you. I grew up panhandling. Picking pockets. And, to my dying shame, stealing from the elderly.”

Ali’s chin dropped. Mac? Her Mac? A thief? He had stolen from old people?

Even as Ali processed his words, Brenda warned, “You better stop right there, boyo.”

He totally ignored her. “She came to Eternity Springs to extort money from me. If I didn’t give her what she wanted, she threatened to sell her story to the tabloids and create a nifty little scandal that would hurt my family and my career. I refuse to bend to the threat of blackmail, so here we are. Now you know that my mother was … still is … a grifter.”

Now he broke eye contact with Ali and glanced at his father-in-law and son. “Do you all have any questions? I’m prepared to answer them thoroughly and completely.”

Ali watched her mother-in-law. Brenda looked furious and a little bit afraid and definitely shocked. Obviously she hadn’t anticipated this sort of reaction from her son.

Seated at the table, Chase looked confused as he set down his fork. “You always told me that your parents were dead, Dad.”

“I lied, son. I’m sorry. It was wrong of me, and I apologize to you, to all of you, for it.”

“He always was a liar,” Brenda snapped.

Ali’s father took another bite of lasagna, chewed thoughtfully, then said to Mac, “Pickpocket and thief, hmm? You don’t have a record, so I assume you were never caught?”

“No.”

“I protected him,” Brenda declared.

At that, Ali’s maternal instincts rebelled, and she rose to her feet. “Oh, really? And exactly how did you manage that? Weren’t you the one forcing him to pick pockets and steal?”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know Mac.” Ali’s gaze flicked toward her husband. “You told me you went into foster care when you were nine. Was that the truth?”

“Yes. That was the first time—an eighteen-month stint while she was in jail. The second time, let’s see, she was picked up for nicking a checkbook when she was on parole. Or was that your third stint in the slammer?”

Brenda audibly sucked in a breath. “Do you know what you are doing? I wasn’t kidding, Mackenzie. That baseball trial might be over, but your fifteen minutes aren’t done yet. I’ll ruin you professionally.”

Ali literally hissed, and she thought fleetingly that if she looked down at her hands, she might see claws instead of fingernails.

Mac reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. He tossed it to Brenda, saying, “Call them. I don’t care.”

“Mac!” Ali stepped toward him. It was one thing
to come clean with the family, but something else entirely to do it in the press. “She’s right. You can’t let the papers get hold of this. You’re a federal judge!”

He took Ali’s hand, brought it up to his lips for a kiss, then said, “She can’t hurt me, Ali-cat. She doesn’t have that power. You, on the other hand, could destroy me.”

“I won’t.”

“I hope not, but I haven’t told you everything yet. It’s time I come clean with everything. You and I are starting a new life together. I refuse to repeat the mistakes of the old, and I refuse to bring old rotten baggage along with me. Can I tell you the rest of it? Would you listen to me?”

“Hey! You can’t just ignore me. I’m your mother!”

“Unfortunately, that’s true. I’d like nothing more than to tell you to take a hike. However, because you are, in fact, my mother, here is what I am prepared to do.” He raked Brenda Timberlake with a cold, unfeeling gaze. “I will provide—and pay for—legal representation for you. Once your future is known, I will buy a house for you to live in. I’m thinking Florida would be a good spot. I will hold the deed, however. In addition, I will provide a monthly living allowance for one year, which should give you enough time to reestablish yourself.”

“How much allowance?”

Mac considered the question, then looked at Ali. “How much do we give Caitlin?” She told him, and he nodded. “That sounds fair.”

Brenda sputtered. “But … but …”

“I’d take it, Grandmaw,” Chase drawled. “That’s the best you’re gonna do. Believe me. I know him.”

She drew herself up, lifted her chin, and declared, “If you think you can buy my silence with that …”

“You misunderstand. I’m not buying your silence. You’re free to sell whatever story you want wherever you want to sell it. That offer is what my conscience compels me to settle on you because, like it or not, you are my mother.”

That shocked her into silence. Ali’s dad took the opportunity to toss her the keys to her car, saying, “I think you should be going. You’ll want to make it at least to Gunnison before it gets dark. I’ll be riding back with Chase.”

She caught the keys, stared at them with confusion, then lifted her gaze to Mac. “What is
wrong
with you?”

Mac went still for a long moment before he slowly shook his head. “Wow. Do you know what? I asked that exact question, in a similar tone, of my wife last spring.” He stared down at Ali, his eyes warm and soft with love. “I didn’t know it at the time, but it was the start of something new and wonderful for me.”

Ali blinked, tears stinging her eyes.
Oh, Mac
.

He brought her hand back to his mouth for another kiss. “Maybe you’ll be lucky and the same thing will happen for you. Good-bye, Mom. Leave a number where you can be reached, and I’ll arrange for an attorney to call you on Monday.”

She sputtered another moment until Ali’s dad stepped forward. “I’ll walk you out.”

Brenda Timberlake snatched up her handbag, lifted her nose in the air, and sniffed loudly with disdain. “Fine. We’ll talk next week.”

When the door finally shut behind her, Chase observed, “I didn’t think she’d ever leave.”

Mac continued to hold Ali’s gaze. “Chase, do me a favor. Get lost.”

“Dad, I haven’t had dessert yet.”

“Your grandfather always likes to walk off his meal before he has his dessert. Go walk with him.”

“Oh, all right.”

When they were alone, Mac dropped her hand and stepped away from Ali. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m just about cured of surprises forever.”

Regret welled up inside of Ali. “I’m so sorry, Mac.”

He shook his head. “No, don’t be. This was actually a good thing.” He explained how his mother had contacted him through his office during the summer, then added, “I knew she wouldn’t disappear now that she’d found me. This confrontation was going to happen sometime, and honestly, I’m glad to get it behind me.”

“Why did you never tell me about her, Mac?”

He shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans and began to pace. “I didn’t want you to know who I was. Ali, I did some awful things as a kid. Her favorite con was to hire out as a companion for elderly widows. We’d move in, and she’d turn on the charm and take fabulous care of them for a bit. My job was to look and act innocent whenever family members checked up on us, and win everyone’s heart. After all, who would suspect that a young widow with a well-behaved young child would steal from an elderly woman? Then, once she won everyone’s trust, she started her tricks. Most of the time she talked her marks into giving her money straight out. Other
times, well, we’d take it. Once she stole an eighty-six-year-old woman’s leather coat.”

“That’s horrible!”

His mouth twisted, and he shrugged. “That wasn’t the worst thing she did, however. The lowest thing she did was to steal medicine. Pain meds.”

Scandalized, Ali gasped. “You’re kidding!”

“Nope. She had a nice little resale business going on.”

“Oh, Mac, that’s just horrible.”

“Yep. That’s who I was when we met, Ali. I was Brenda’s son and I was dirty and ashamed. I couldn’t let you see that. You were clean. Clean and bright and wonderful. I’d rather have died than let you know that I was nothing more than trash.”

“Don’t say that, Mac. It’s not true. You were a child. It’s your mother who was trash.” She wrinkled her nose and added, “Is trash. But what if she talks to the tabloids?”

“It doesn’t matter. Really.” He met her gaze. “I don’t want to return to the bench anyway. I don’t think our friends and neighbors here will care that I was a childhood criminal, do you?”

Ali studied him. Really studied him. “You mean it, don’t you? You truly mean it.”

“I’ve been saying it for weeks now. You just haven’t heard.”

Slowly happiness bloomed inside Ali. He meant it. This wasn’t just a hormone blast. He honestly wanted to walk away from his job.

So what did it mean? “We’ll stay in Eternity Springs, then?”

“I’d like that, yes, but other options are certainly
open to discussion. I’ve learned my lesson, Alison. Your wishes and desires are just as important as mine.”

Wow. Just wow
. “We can build a house at Heartache Falls.”

“I’d like Gabe Callahan to design the landscape. Have you seen the pool he did at Eagle’s Way? It’s fabulous.”

Excitement sparked and began to burn. Ali gazed around the New Place and thought that the dream had never completely died, after all. Ali turned to hug her husband, but the expression on his face stopped her cold. His chin was set. His eyes were hard. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not done. I need to tell you something else.” He sighed like a condemned prisoner, then added, “Something else to confess.”

No. Oh, no. Not now. Not when true, happily-ever-after, life-can’t-get-any-better-than-this joy is right within my grasp
. “No, Mac. That’s okay. Whatever it is, I don’t want to know.”

“I need to tell you.”

She held up her hand, palm out. “I don’t need to hear it! I don’t care, Mac. I don’t care if you have a gambling habit or a sister who’s a porn star or a newly discovered predilection for cross-dressing, I don’t need to know about it.”