A Southern Reunion

He walked out onto the back porch, the crisp gloaming hitting him with a refreshing burst. He wasn’t sure he could do this. How was he supposed to stay here and run this place knowing Cassie was around day in and day out?

I’ve made a deal with the devil, he thought. Marcus Brennan always had some sort of deal up his sleeve. And this one was a real kicker.

But he’d made the deal, taking a big risk, so he could see her again and hopefully make up for the past. Well, that day had come and now he wished he’d just stayed up the road on his own place. He’d been content there, happy to work his land in solitude. He could leave now and go back to that solitude.

But then, he’d be leaving Cassie with a mess on her hands and a dying father on her conscience. He couldn’t do that even if she did think the worst of him.

So he stood and watched the sunset settling over the pines and pastures, his memories as golden and glistening as the rays falling across the distant corn fields. He remembered the first time he’d seen Cassie standing up on the second-floor porch, her long blond hair tumbling around her face, her expression haughty and full of dare. He’d pegged her for the spoiled princess, a rich girl who had a powerful father.

Forbidden and out of his reach.

He’d fallen for her right then and there.

Then he remembered finding her later in the stables, tears running down her face, her vulnerable angst over hearing her parents fight making her even more desirable because she needed him.

Their first kiss out underneath that old oak tree had been magical, like a soothing balm. It had brought him home to a place he’d been searching for all of his life.

He wanted to be back at that place. But he didn’t know how to find it again. Cassie had grown up in the years she’d been away. It was obvious she was a sophisticated woman who’d done things her own way. Maybe she’d outgrown those intense feelings they’d shared back then.

While he’d been standing in the same spot, waiting to rekindle something that could never be.

The back door banged open. “Cal, we need to talk.”

He turned to find her standing there, her eyes dark with a boiling rage. “What is it this time?”

“My father told me that I need to talk to you about the future of this plantation. What did he mean by that?”

Cal let out a long sigh. “What else did he tell you?”

She stalked to the porch railing. “Not much. I tried to get him to eat but he kept pushing me away.” Her shoulders slumped. “He seemed desperate to explain things, but maybe not sure what to do or say. He got upset and told me to leave. He told me to find you and come back in there.”

Cal rubbed a hand down one of the massive columns supporting the house. “Welcome to my world, darlin’. Some days he makes perfect sense. Other times he rambles and gets so agitated, we have to give him a pill to settle him down. It took me months to figure out the records and books.”

Cassie placed her arms across her chest. “Is that what he’s talking about?”

“Part of it.” He glanced back inside. “If you’ll come to the cottage with me, I can show you everything. All the files are in my office and on my laptop.”

She shook her head. “I have to wait for the night nurse. Let me go back in with him for a few minutes, okay? Maybe he’ll forget that he wanted to see both of us.”

“Okay. I’ll wait in the kitchen. Teresa has dinner ready. Did you eat?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Cassie, you have to eat.”

“I’ll grab something later.”

She opened the door, waiting for him. “Are you coming?”

He followed her. “It’s not like he and I haven’t gone over and over this. Sometimes, he comprehends things and sometimes he’s just not listening.”

“I noticed that,” she said, her head down, her expression grim. “He thought I was my mother when I first went in. Go ahead and eat and then come in. Maybe he’ll talk with both of us there and tell us what’s bothering him.”

He took her by the arm. “I have a better idea. Let Teresa sit with him a few minutes and you try to eat something, too.”

Teresa came out of the kitchen. “It’s on the stove and still warm. The sooner y’all eat, the sooner I can go to my room and rest.”

Cassie was too polite to make Teresa wait around to clean the kitchen. “Go ahead now. I’ll clean up.”

Teresa glanced toward the study door. “I’ll sit with him until the night nurse shows up. You need to eat your dinner.”

Cal watched Cassie’s face. She wanted answers right now. How could he explain all the workings of this place and make her see he was busting his tail to save it? Maybe it was time to just lay all the cards on the table and be honest. About the plantation, at least. But not about Marcus Brennan’s other ridiculous death-bed wish.

The exhaustion etching her face stopped him.

“Listen, you’re tired and it’s been a long day. Try to eat then we’ll go in and see him. After that you need to go upstairs and rest. We’ll start over fresh tomorrow. And I’ll be as honest as I can, about everything.”

He wouldn’t tell her about his own part in this, about all the things she didn’t know about her parents and what had happened on that fateful day so long ago.

What else could he do? He’d made the decision to go along with Marcus Brennan last desperate attempt to get his daughter back. Cal couldn’t stop it now. But he could tell her the truth regarding her heritage.

She would hate him even more, but he had to take that chance.

“Cassie, will you eat and then rest?”

She finally nodded. “I’ll rest after we visit him again, just to make sure he’s okay.”

“We’ll do that,” Cal replied, hating the defeat in her voice.

A few minutes later, they both sat staring at their half-eaten meals. Cal had talked to her about mundane things—the crops, the weather, a new foal that had just been delivered two days ago. She asked him about his mother—a subject he didn’t like to talk about.

Teresa came out of Marcus’s room. “I can’t get him to eat.”

“I’ll try,” Cal said, getting up.

“No.” Cassie pushed ahead of him. “Let me.”

Cal followed her into the room. “How ’bout we work together on it?”

She shrugged. “We can try.” Then she moved ahead of him into the room. “But the only way we can work together is to be honest with each other.”

Did she see it in his eyes? That he was holding back?

Of course she did. But Cal wasn’t ready to give up all the secrets buried on this old plantation.

CHAPTER FIVE

CASSIE TRIED TO COAX her father to take another bite of the beef stew. Marcus glanced at the spoon then back up at her. “I’m finished. Didn’t you hear me?”