Elaina came bustling in at the roaring of her husband. Her hands moving over her protruding pregnant belly. “What on earth—Colt you could raise the dead—“
He nodded toward a ghost white Tammy who was still turning and envelope over in her hand. “Maybe you can make sense of this.”
She instantly rushed over and sat beside her. “Tammy, what’swrong? You look awful.”
She showed her the envelope. “I haven’t heard from my father in five years. I mean I call every six months, but he’s never home and—” She swallowed hard cutting off her own words. It wasn’t easy to explain things from her personal life.
“Oh dear. Is everything okay?” Elaina squeezed her hand.
She looked around the room and realized that everyone in the house had flooded into the room and was staring at her. They were so quiet, she didn’t hear. Even Lance was standing there, right behind Colt, who currently had his hands on his hips showing his frustration. He, like the rest of them, were worried. “I’m sorry everyone.” She took a deep breath. She was a pro at masking her emotions, but it escaped her this time.
“Why are you apologizing Tammy?” Colt said his irritation evident even though it was out of concern. “What is wrong with hearing from your father?”
“It’s not my father, really. He usually kept out of everything.” She bent her head and rubbed her forehead. She really didn’t want to talk about this, but now she had everyone worried about her. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to get things out in the open. “I’m just embarrassed.” She knew she was still making no sense.
“I’m pretty sure I’ve topped just about everything in that area,” Colt piped up again.
She gave a weak smile appreciating his attempt at humor. She remembered the stories when he was chasing Elaina. She nodded. “Thanks Colt, I appreciate your concern. It’s just that he wouldn’t write me unless it was really serious—like a death in the family.”
“Is there something we can do?” he asked.
Tammy never thought she could appreciate this family more than she did at that moment. No one even asked her why she was estranged from her own because they didn’t want to pry. They only wanted to make sure she was okay.
Debbie put a hand on her shoulder. “Open the letter dear.” Her voice was calm and encouraging.
She nodded and apprehensively tore it open. It was an invitation.
“Well?” Colt said impatiently getting a warning look from his wife. He raised his brows as if he didn’t do anything wrong.
Tammy’s eyes scanned the familiar hand writing after the elegant script. A look of relief came over her features. “My brother is getting married. My father and my brother would like me to be there.” At least it wasn’t bad news, but still her expression hadn’t changed and the others noticed.
“Isn’t that good?” Elaina asked hesitantly.
Tammy nodded and met her friend’s concerned gaze. “I love them both very much.”
“Then, what has you so scared?”
She took a deep breath and scanned the concerned expressions around her. Lance looked completely composed though, but she did know he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t care. Her heart warmed, and with that she was able to open up a little more. “I was engaged to a man when I was eighteen. Well, it was sort of arranged to happen before that.”
“Arranged marriage?” Elaina clarified in surprise.
“Not really and yes. My mother had an agreement with a family who was rather wealthy. It’s not unusual in our circles. We were paired at an early age. They expected us to marry. When I turned eighteen, I took off.” She left a lot of details out, but that was something she really didn’t want anyone to know about.
“Couldn’t you talk your parents out of this?” Elaina asked.
“My father, yes. My mother, not on your life.” She took another deep breath not liking the memories of the horrible arguments. The repercussions of disagreeing with her ways will haunt her forever.Ungrateful, horrible spoiled child, you are no relation to me!
Elaina felt a slight tremble under her hand and when she met her mother’s eyes she saw that she felt it too. “What can we do?”
She forced a smile. “I need to go. I have to be there for Royce. He’s my brother and regardless of my actions, I want to be there for him.”
“Do you mind?” Elaina indicated to the invitation and Tammy handed it to her. Her eyes scanned the words. “New York?”
“My family is prominent there. I know you all don’t know much about me, but my background—” She was hesitant in continuing because she wasn’t ready to tell anyone about that side of herself. Thankfully someone noticed.
“It doesn’t matter Tam,” Lance finally spoke up. “No one’s judging you here. We all know who you are, here, now.”
If she wasn’t so upset she might have fell off the sofa at the compliment. It wouldn’t seem like much to an outsider, but it definitely was a compliment from Lance Hartley.
