Her Surprise Sister

“It helps to have a good private investigator on the payroll,” Landon said. “I put him on the job right after we spoke yesterday.”

“Did he…is there…?” She was almost afraid to ask, for fear of being disappointed. She shook her head. “I shouldn’t ask. You want to tell Maddie first, of course.”

Landon must have been able to read her emotions pretty easily. His face gentled with sympathy, and he reached out to touch her hand. “I wouldn’t tease you with information like that, Violet. I don’t play games.”

Her skin seemed to be warming where he touched, and she found it disconcerting. She moved back slightly, putting a bit more space between them. “What did you learn, then?”

“The investigator found out that no identical twin girls were born at any hospital in Fort Worth on your birthday.”

“Oh.” She felt herself sag with the disappointment of it. “I guess there aren’t going to be any easy answers, then.”

“I’m not giving up that quickly.” Determination filled Landon’s voice. “I’ve told him to check Dallas hospitals, too, and extend the search to surrounding communities. It’s possible that your mother mentioned Fort Worth but it’s actually one of the outlying areas. And Maddie—” He stopped as an idea seemed to hit him. “That was dumb. I never thought to ask Maddie if she knows what hospital she was born in. How stupid could I be? I guess I was so bowled over by seeing you that my brain stopped working.”

“I hadn’t thought of that, either.” She rubbed the nape of her neck, trying to ease the tension. “Honestly, if we’re going to figure this out, we’re going to have to think it through. So far I’ve just been reacting.”

“There’s a lot more emotion involved for you than there is for me,” he said. “But you’re right. We ought to talk it over and work out the options to investigate.”

She drew back a little more. “I wasn’t actually including you in that we, Landon.”

“Right.” He sounded rueful. “You were talking about yourself and Maddie. But I’m not going to stop trying to help, so doesn’t it make sense to pool our resources and work together?”

“It makes sense when you put it that way, but I’m not sure Maddie will agree.”

“Well, suppose you take me to her, and we’ll ask her?” There was that smile again. It almost broke through her common sense. Almost, but not quite.

“I’ll take you out to the ranch,” she said slowly. “But only if I have your word that you’ll leave without argument if Maddie says so.”

“Agreed,” he said promptly. “My car is right across the street. I’ll follow you.”

Violet nodded, taking out her car keys. It made sense. She just hoped she was doing the right thing.

* * *

Landon hopped into his car and pulled onto the road behind Violet, not wanting to give her time to change her mind. But she didn’t seem to be having second thoughts, and soon they were out of Grasslands and on their way to the ranch.

Not that it took very long to get through Grasslands. The town was about what he had expected: a small community with shops and businesses catering to the residents of the surrounding farms and ranches.

Acres of grassland stretched out on either side of the two-lane blacktop road, with low hills in the distance under the huge blue bowl of the sky. The few houses were built well back from the road. Pretty country, the sort of place he’d think would bore Maddie stiff in a day or two at most, if not for the novelty of having discovered her twin.

Thanks to him. What would have happened if he hadn’t walked into the coffee shop at just that time? Or if, having seen Violet, he’d gone quietly on his way and never mentioned it to Maddie?

He couldn’t have, naturally. But the results were, in a sense, his responsibility, so he couldn’t just walk away from the situation.

Each minute he spent with Violet went a long way toward dispelling whatever suspicion he’d entertained as to her motives. Too bad it also had such an unsettling effect on her emotions. Still, even if she were being completely honest, somebody hadn’t been. Somebody had split up those children, and finding out who and why might lead to heartache.

What if Maddie ended up devastated by what she learned? It would be his fault for bringing Maddie and Violet together in the first place.

Ahead of him, Violet’s right-turn signal blinked. She slowed down and turned on a gravel road that led through impressive stone gates and under an arched sign with three intertwined Cs. This, obviously, was the Colby place.

The gravel road stretched, straight as a ruler, between barbed-wire fences along pastureland on either side. It ran about half a mile, he’d guess, before ending at a two-story brick house. Good-sized, the house had a porch across the front and what seemed to be wings going back on two sides. Outbuildings scattered behind it like so many Monopoly houses dropped on the land.

Violet pulled up on the gravel sweep in front of the house, and he drew his car in behind her. A fine layer of dust from the lane settled immediately on his hood.

He got out, wondering if Violet had taken the lane at that pace deliberately to mar the glossy finish of his car. But she was waiting for him, and she didn’t seem antagonistic. In fact, she looked at him with a question in her eyes.

“I was wondering—I assume you know Maddie’s father and her brothers?”

He nodded, jingling his keys in his hand for a moment before slipping them into his pocket. “I can’t say I know her father very well, but I do know him. A doctor, busy as most doctors are, I guess. Grayson and I are the same age, and we’ve always been good friends. Carter was just a kid then, tagging along, but he’s grown into quite a guy.”

A question in those chocolate-colored eyes deepened. “Have you talked to either Grayson or Carter about all this?”

He shook his head. “Grayson’s a cop, and he’s on an undercover operation right now, which makes it virtually impossible to contact him. And Carter’s in the military overseas. Hasn’t Maddie talked about them?”

“Not much.” She went through a wrought-iron gate, started toward the porch and he fell into step with her. “I’m not just being curious. Maddie sent an email to her dad, but he hasn’t answered. She doesn’t seem interested in contacting her brothers, but I thought maybe they should know about all this.”

He frowned, thinking about it. “Maybe she feels she should tell her father first. And since neither Grayson nor Carter can do anything about it right now, maybe she’s right about that.”

“She really is alone, then,” Violet said softly, her eyes shadowed.

“Are you worried about Maddie?” he asked, trying to get a sense of what was behind the comment.

“I can’t help but feel responsible.” She paused, her hand on the handle of the heavy-looking front door. “If I hadn’t started off half-cocked looking for my father, I wouldn’t have found Maddie. So if we end up getting hurt by what we find, I’m responsible.”

He couldn’t quite suppress a smile. “Oddly enough, I was just saying that very thing to myself—that I brought you two together, so if it goes badly, it’s my fault.”

She smiled back, somewhat ruefully. “Guilt trips. Maybe we should stop overanalyzing things. My mother always says if God puts you in a situation, it’s for a reason.”