“No! Where’s Matthew?”
The woman actually began calling Matty’s name as if she expected him to come running to her. “You really want to do this here, Mel?” I asked when she finished her pathetic wailing. By now, we had everyone’s undivided attention and I knew the events of today would be all over town before the sun set.
“My daughter is dead because of you. I won’t let you take my grandson from me too.”
Fury rolled through me, but I managed to not reach for her like I wanted. “When’s his birthday, Mel?”
“Wh…What?” Mel stammered.
“When is your precious grandson’s birthday?” I repeated.
“I…it’s…” Mel glanced around the room as if expecting someone to help her answer the question.
“What’s Matthew’s middle name?”
More silence. “I’ll give you a hint. It was my grandfather’s name.” When Mel didn’t respond, I said, “Come on Mel, we were married for seven years. Surely you know my grandfather’s name?”
“I…I can’t think right now…my child is gone-”
“The child you walked out on when she was eight years old? The child you called a slut when you found out she was pregnant?”
I heard someone gasp, but ignored it. “How many times did you take her to rehab, Mel? How many times did you babysit our grandson while Jenna was trying to get her life together? How manytimes did you show up after she’d call you begging you to come see her? How many nights did you spend searching for our child and our grandson when they went missing? Because I was out there” – I pointed towards the front door - “Every fucking night for a year after they disappeared!”
I felt Dante’s fingers close around my wrist and I looked down to see I’d fisted my hand at some point. I knew he was worried I would physically go after Mel, a sure sign that I was quickly losing control of the situation. I took several deep breaths and focused on the warmth of his touch in the hopes it would calm me. He released my wrist and trailed his fingers down over my closed hand. I wanted more of the contact so I opened my hand and the second his palm touched mine, I linked our fingers together for the briefest of moments before releasing him all together. The whole thing had lasted mere seconds and I doubted anyone had even noticed, but I managed to relax enough to say, “Get out, Mel. You don’t get to come into my house and mourn a child you abandoned when she needed you most and you sure as hell aren’t getting anywhere nearmygrandson who you met once for five minutes when he was three days old.”
Mel began crying in earnest, tears streaking down her perfectly made up face. At forty, she was still one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen, but I knew her looks were all she had left. But as long as there were men out there who were as blind to her ugliness as I’d once been, she’d be fine. Someone handed Mel a tissue and she serenely dabbed at her face. I didn’t bother to stick around to make sure she left. But just as I pushed past her, I saw her turn her face against Dante’s chest. Bile rose in my throat at the sight and I didn’t wait to see if he offered her the comfort she was seeking or not. I ignored the few people I had to get past to go back to my room.
I ripped off my tie and suit jacket and had just managed to loosen a few buttons on my shirt when there was a knock on my door. I instinctively knew who it was, but I just couldn’t deal with anyone right now so I said, “I’m okay. I just need a few minutes.”
Dante didn’t respond, but I did hear footsteps going down thestairs. I stripped off the rest of my clothes and yanked on a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt. My boots were next and then I was checking the door to make sure no one was lingering outside of it. I listened at the top of the landing and heard Rachel say, “Um, why don’t we sit down and go around the room and say what Jenna meant to us.”
I appreciated the young woman’s effort to steer the attention back to my daughter where it should have been all along, but I had no interest in participating. I’d come back to Texas to say goodbye to my child in my own way and that was what I was going to do. But Rachel had managed to give me something I desperately needed – the ability to escape the house unnoticed. As soon as everyone was focused on the first person to speak about Jenna, I crept down the stairs and went into the kitchen. Dishes full of food were all over the place, but I ignored them and grabbed a bottle of scotch from one of the cabinets and then went out the mudroom door and headed towards the barn.
It was time to say goodbye to my little girl.
Chapter 11
Dante
It washard to be pissed at the man considering the condition he was in. He wasn’t falling down drunk, but he was definitely feeling the half bottle of scotch he’d presumably consumed sometime in the few hours he’d been gone. I’d seen the bottle myself when I’d been cleaning the kitchen the night before and knew it had been full at that time.
I couldn’t really blame him for his need to escape after the ugly scene during his daughter’s wake. His ex was a complete and utter bitch and I’d desperately wanted to clock her myself after I’d escorted her off the property. She’d continued her mournful act the whole time, clinging to me like I was her goddamn savior and ranting on and on about what a terrible husband Magnus had been and how he was keeping her from the only link to her daughter she had left.
I hadn’t bought any of it. I’d known something was off about her from the moment she’d walked into the house and introduced herself. I’d been talking to Rachel near the hallway that led to my room when Mel had approached us. Rachel had clearly been surprised to see Magnus’s ex, but she’d been polite enough to extend her condolences to Mel. In turn, Mel had dismissed the youngwoman with nothing but a slight nod before she’d pushed her way between us. The fact that she’d been flirting with me at the same time that she’d been asking me how I had known Jenna hadn’t been lost on me. She was a stunning woman, but nothing about her had stirred my interest. I’d been in the process of telling her I needed to go check on Magnus when she’d spied something over my shoulder. She’d been on Magnus so quick that I hadn’t been able to react fast enough to stop her from physically lashing out at him.
Part of me hadn’t wanted to stop Magnus from going after her after she’d accused him of being the reason their daughter was dead. Hell, I’d wanted to deck her myself. But I’d been more worried about Magnus’s reputation and that had made it easier to intervene. I’d grabbed him by the wrist in the hopes of discreetly getting his attention when his rage had started to spiral out of control. It had worked, but I’d been caught off guard when he’d linked his fingers with mine and held my hand for the briefest of moments. It had felt so good that it had taken a considerable amount of effort not to reach for him again after that.
After getting rid of Mel, I’d waited for Magnus to come back downstairs. Almost half an hour had passed before I’d gone to check on him and I’d been frantic when I’d discovered him missing. At first, I thought he’d taken the car and just driven off, but his SUV had been parked in the same spot and the rental car had been picked up a few days earlier by the rental agency. That had led me to check the barn only to find that both horses were missing. I’d ignored the fact that the service was still going on and grabbed the keys to the SUV. I’d spent the first hour searching all the roads that surrounded the property in case I could see Magnus riding in one of the fields. I’d stopped by Colton’s ranch even though the man had been one of the guests at the wake. He’d ended up leaving early due to an emergency with one of his cows, so he’d missed the altercation with Mel. I’d found him in the barn dealing with a very pregnant cow. He hadn’t seen Magnus, but had promised to call me if he heard from him and as soon as the vet arrived, he’d planned on helping me search for him.
I’d driven through the small town of Blakely, but hadn’t seen anysign of him there either. When I’d finally realized his likely destination, I’d wanted to kick myself. And sure enough, as I’d driven past the gates of the cemetery a few miles outside town, I’d seen both of Magnus’s horses standing near the site Magnus had picked for his daughter’s grave. And sitting right in front of the headstone, bottle of scotch in hand, had been my quarry. The relief I’d felt had been so overwhelming that I’d had to sit in the car for a couple of minutes to let the adrenaline rush wear off. My first instinct had been to yell at the man for being such a fucking asshole and scaring the ever-loving shit out of me. My second instinct had been to kiss him until all the ugliness of the day was left far behind us and the only thing he saw was me.
I settled for instinct number three which was somewhere in between. I crouched down so I was at Magnus’s level and took the bottle from him. His bleary eyes tracked the bottle until his gaze fell on my face. A small smile spread across his mouth. “Dante,” he murmured. “Knew you’d come.” His words weren’t exactly slurred, but it seemed to take him a while to get them out.
“Always,” I automatically responded. “What are you doing here, Magnus?”
Magnus looked around him and then reached out to stroke his fingers over Jenna’s name on the headstone. “Had to say goodbye to my girl.”
“I could have taken you,” I said quietly, resisting the urge to reach out and touch his face.
