MONTANA SKY 07.5: Angel In Paradise (6 page)
Read MONTANA SKY 07.5: Angel In Paradise Online
Authors: Debra Holland
Angelina lifted her chin. “I agree.” She brushed her fingers across her lips. They still tingled from Rafe’s kiss, sensitive and swollen under the pads of her fingertips. She thought they might tingle for hours—no days from that kiss. Maybe they’d never recover. Maybe
she’d
never recover.
“Who’s going first?” Without waiting for a response, Rafe cocked an eyebrow. “I brought up the topic of
talking,
an unmanly thing to do. Therefore I get huge points, and you should be so impressed you’ll spare me further masculine humiliation by plunging right into the conversation.”
Angel gave him a half smile, withdrawing even though she didn’t move. “I waited for you, Rafe. Waited for the phone to ring. Ran to the mailbox for months, hoping for a letter. I couldn’t believe you’d left without saying good-bye. Then the rumors started circulating….” Her voice broke.
“What rumors?” But Rafe knew.
Horse thief.
He closed his eyes, as if he could turn off the sound of the slur by shutting out his vision.
The McCurdys hadn’t kept that bit of slander to themselves.
“Mongrel.” Angel spoke the ugly word in an even tone.
Rafe could see the shadow of pain in her eyes. “
What?
” Her response was so unexpected that it threw him. “How did you know Granddad called you that?”
She made a rueful turn of her lips. “Gabe told one of his friends what your grandfather said. Then he told one of his—”
“Gabe talked?” Rafe couldn’t believe it. He and his brother had always abhorred tattling and gossip. They had a pact to never betray each other to their grandfather, no matter what punishment they suffered. After many years had passed, Rafe had figured out that Gabe had only gone to their grandfather that night because he’d believed the old man would take care of the situation with Dustin McCurdy. And he did. But not in the way his brother expected.
“Gabe confided in Ben Grayson. Remember how they became buddies because of football?”
He grimaced. “Benjamin Grayson, the…whatever number was tacked on the end of his name. What did we call him? Five and a half?”
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes.
“Never liked the guy.”
“Gabe beat up Ben for talking, and that was the end of their friendship.”
Good for Gabe.
Rafe had a surge of missing his brother. He cupped Angel’s neck. “I’m sorry. My grandfather was wrong to judge your family’s heritage, to
say
such an ugly thing about you, and I told him so. It was one of the things we fought over.”
She looked down. “I thought you must have believed him. Why else would you have left me?”
Rafe gave her a little shake. “Because I was young and stubborn and stupid. Because I’d vowed never to return to Sweetwater Springs, and I knew you dreamed of practicing law with your dad. Because if I allowed myself to miss you, then I’d miss my friends, my family, the ranch, and I couldn’t…
wouldn’t
go crawling back. Came here, put my mind and my back into creating a new life. When I wasn’t working, I stayed drunk and numb for a long time. But by God, Angel,” his chin rose “I was no horse thief.”
“I know,” she whispered, cupping the side of his face with one hand. Her eyes filled. A tear spilled over, sliding down her cheek.
Rafe couldn’t bear to see her cry. Remorse welled up, clogged his throat like someone had shoved a fistful of sand into his mouth. He took a minute to fight for control, to find the words. “I’m so very sorry, Angel,” he said, his voice thick. “I shouldn’t have been so damn stubborn. When you didn’t answer my note, I should have written a letter, written a hundred letters.”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “What note?”
He leaned forward and kissed the teardrop before it could fall, tasting the salty trail. “The one I left in the oak.”
She stared wide-eyed and slack-jawed. “There wasn’t a letter, Rafe. I went there the next day. Made sure I felt every inch of that hole in the trunk. Went back every day for months, just in case you returned or were around, but in hiding.”
“I did leave you a message, Angel. I swear. Told you I was coming here. Told you to write me care of Seeker’s Island Hotel.” Then he remembered Lucinda McCurdy driving by. “Lucinda must have taken it. I was pulling out when she passed me. She must have wondered why I’d stopped there at night, and being a McCurdy had to investigate and make trouble.”
She pressed a hand to her heart. “I can’t believe this, Rafe. All those years of pain.”
“It’s the truth.”
“No, no. I believe you. I mean that I can’t believe we’ve wasted so many years.”
Time for my confession
. “I thought you believed McCurdy’s lies about me stealing his stud.”
She made a raspberry sound. “Never in a million years would I believe one of Dustin McCurdy’s lies. Besides, I heard almost a day-by-day recounting of you saving the money, paying Dustin, bringing your mares there…. And so I told everyone. Some people might have believed the McCurdys, but most didn’t.”
“Why didn’t my family get in touch with me?”
“I’ll bet your grandfather was too damn stubborn to admit he was wrong. As for your mom, she was so downtrodden by that old man. She and your brother, they’re too much alike—both gentle souls, even if Gabe has a hunky cowboy body.”
“What!”
“Just saying.” She grinned and kissed his chin. “Not as hunky as you, though.”
“So, they knuckled under. But what about after he died?”
“They knew you weren’t responding to Dad’s letters. Probably figured you didn’t want to talk to them.”
He kissed her nose. “They figured right.”
Her expression turned serious. “Rafe, your grandfather died a year ago.”
“I assumed something like that.” Maybe in the future when he’d worked through things, he’d be able to mourn the loss of the old man. Right now, he didn’t feel anything.
“His will stipulates that if you didn’t return to Sweetwater Springs, the ranch is to be sold to the McCurdys. I have no doubt, they’ll break the land up into parcels for developing.”
Rafe swore. He sat a few minutes, watching the breeze dry Angel’s hair, seeing the curls spring back around her face, thinking through the implications of her revelations. “Did he expect me to live there? Run the ranch with Gabe?”
“No. Just visit for one month a year. Your stay doesn’t even have to be continuous.”
“That’s it? He went to all that trouble for that little bit? I’d have thought he’d not only want me hog-tied, but also my progeny for ten generations.”
“Deep down, your grandfather must have known he was in the wrong. He wanted to force your hand to make you come home, make peace with your family.”
“Good.” He pulled her into his arms. “Because I’m staying here on Seeker’s Island.” He dropped a kiss on her lips. “Unless you’ll make me move to the big city.”
“You’d do that for me? Relocate to New York?”
“We’d have to raise the Paints in your apartment,” he teased. “Is it big enough?”
“Oh, Rafe,” she breathed, her eyes starry.
He touched his lips to hers, longer this time, putting all his love for her into the kiss before coming up for air. “I should never have left you, Angel. In so doing, I broke my heart in two and left half with you.” He took her hand and pressed her palm to his chest. “It’s never been the same since.
I’ve
never been the same.” Rafe tried to grin. “Did I tell you I’m stubborn and stupid? Only now do I see what I’ve done to myself.” He brushed a tendril of hair out of her face. “To you.”
“I guess you’re not the only one. I should have believed in you. Trusted in our love. Tracked you down.” She felt the beat of his heart under her palm. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve realized I’m not happy in New York. I thought that career was what I wanted. I sacrificed everything to make partner in my law firm. Then they chose someone else anyway.”
Rafe took her hand from his heart and kissed the top. “You could open a practice here. We don’t have a lawyer on the island. Course, you wouldn’t have a lot of work, which is just the way we like it.”
“I could handle that. Plus, I want to help my father. Lighten his caseload. Nowadays, much of the work doesn’t have to be done in the office anyway.” She let out a happy sigh. “I didn’t know when I came here that I’d find what I was seeking. I didn’t even realize I was looking.”
He tapped her nose with his finger. “Your heart’s desire.”
She captured his finger. “And yours.”
Rafe made a little splashing sound. “Took the magic long enough. I’ve been swimming here for years.”
“We had to be ready, Rafe. I don’t know that I was before.” She looked at him with love. “But I am now.”
“That’s settled then. We’ll fly home to Sweetwater Springs. I’ll patch things up with my family. But we’re
not
leaving until tomorrow. We’ll be a bit busy today.”
Angel leaned forward until their lips almost touched. “We will?” she murmured.
“Definitely.” Rafe drew her toward him for a kiss.
THE END
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http://drdebraholland.com
Angel in Paradise was my first contemporary Montana Sky story and it came about because my friends and colleagues in The Indie Voice wanted to do an anthology. So we put together
Summer on Seeker’s Island
. I had to stretch to create a Montana Sky story that would fit into an anthology set on a magical, modern, tropical island. I love the result!
I’m so very grateful for my dear friends:
Jana DeLeon
Tina Folsom
Denise Grover Swank
Colleen Gleason
Jane Graves
Liliana Hart
Dorien Kelly
Theresa Ragan
Jasinda Wilder
In gratitude to:
My editors:
Louella Nelson
Linda Carroll-Bradd,
Adeli Britto
who always make my stories better.
To Delle Jacobs, friend and talented cover artist.
To my formatter:
Author E.M.S.,
whom I always trust to do a great job.
To my beta readers:
My mother, Honey Holland
My aunt, Hedy Codner
And most of all to my dear readers:
With many thanks for loving the Montana Sky Series
1880s
Mail-Order Brides of the West: Trudy
Mail-Order Brides of the West: Lina
Mail-Order Brides of the West: Darcy
Mail-Order Brides of the West: Prudence
(Summer 2015)
1890s
Look for future Montana Sky books, novellas, and short stories
New York Times
and
USA Today
Bestselling author Debra Holland is a three-time Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist and one time winner. She is the author of the
Montana Sky Series
, sweet, historical Western romances and
The Gods’ Dream Trilogy,
fantasy romance
.
In February, 2013, Amazon selected her book
Starry Montana Sky
as one of the top 50 Greatest Love Stories.
Debra has written a nonfiction book,
The Essential Guide to Grief and Grieving
from Alpha Books (a subsidiary of Penguin). Sign up for her newsletter and receive a free download of
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