Eternal Vows

David, his brothers Martin and Joshua and his nephew Timothy had each wagered a million dollars to establish an endowment in the name of their alma mater as to whose unmarried thirty-something children would marry before the end of the year. David had had to put up two million because he had an unmarried son and daughter.

Martin sucked in a mouthful of tobacco. “You’re not going to count Ana’s wedding in the wager?” he asked, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

David shook his head. “Come on, Martin. Man up and admit I’m right.”

Martin squinted at his youngest brother. “You’re not right, David. Ana and Jacob’s marriage was a setup.”

Holding his cigar between his thumb and forefinger, David blew out a series of smoke rings. “Tell him, Timothy.”

A shaft of light from a floor lamp filtered over Timothy’s lean dark brown face when he shifted on his chair to stare at his uncles. “Diego told me Jacob asked him to stand in as best man when he and Ana plan to renew their vows this coming New Year’s Eve.”

“I told you, big brother,” David drawled smugly.

Martin shook his head in disbelief. “Diego sets up a bogus marriage—”

“It’s not bogus, Martin,” Joshua Kirkland interrupted. “Their marriage license is as legal and binding as any of our marriages. And it’s not the first time a Cole woman has married her protector.”

Timothy nodded. “My Celia married Gavin Faulkner and made me a grandpa for the second time.”

Martin’s expressive eyebrows lifted. “Bragging, nephew?”

“Hell, yeah, Tío Martín.”

“Wait until you have as many grandchildren as Joshua and David before you starting boasting, sobrino,” Martin countered.

Joshua’s straight white teeth shimmered in his sun-browned face when he flashed a wide grin. “I’m about to pull ahead of David. Jolene is pregnant.”

“Again?” the three chorused.

“Michael and Jolene always said they wanted six children,” Joshua explained in defense of his son and daughter-in-law. “They’re now planning to close on an eight-bedroom, ten-bath farmhouse set on six acres in McLean, Virginia. Michael told me he’s keeping the former owners’ flock of sheep and half a dozen horses.”

Bracing both feet on the terra-cotta floor, Martin rested his elbows on his knees. “Speaking of horses. There’s still the question of whether Nicholas will be bitten by the love bug before the end of the year.” Nicholas’s obsession with horses had begun at a very early age. The first time he sat atop a pony during a friend’s birthday party, he felt as if he was born to ride. Nicholas would never become a jockey because of his height and weight, but that hadn’t diminished his dream to ride and breed champion horses.

“Only time will tell,” Timothy said. “If he is and does marry, then I’m out of any future wedding wagers.”

“Has Jason decided where he’s going to set up Serenity?” Joshua asked, segueing to a topic they’d avoided discussing in the presence of their wives.

There came an uncomfortable silence before David spoke again. “He told me a real-estate agent showed him a house in Coral Gables. He also said he’ll probably buy Ana’s condo once she and Jacob start a family.”

Joshua stubbed out his cigar in a large ceramic dish and then stood up. “I’d like to stay, but it’s time I head out now. I’m planning to fly back to Santa Fe tomorrow morning.”

Timothy stretched out his legs. “How are you flying back, Josh?”

“I’m going first class.”

The recently retired CEO of ColeDiz International, Ltd. shook his head. “Forget the commercial carrier. I’ll call Diego and arrange for you to go back on the company jet.”

Joshua sat down. “Thanks. I’m getting too old to hang around airports with the huddled masses.”

Timothy frowned at his uncle. “Even though your last name is Kirkland you’re still exempt from taking commercial flights.” Martin had decided more than forty years before that anyone with Cole blood was forbidden to take commercial carriers following the kidnapping of his daughter. Only Judge Christopher Delgado, a federal judge who’d married Joshua’s daughter, was exempt from the family edict.

“I doubt if anyone would ever link me to the rest of you guys.”

“Even with the blond hair and green eyes, you’re still a Cole, Josh,” Martin insisted.

Joshua smiled. “I don’t think you guys will ever let me forget—”

A knock on the door stopped what he’d planned to say and all conversation ended and everyone stared at the door. There was only the sound of measured breathing as David got up, unlocked and opened the door. “Where have you been?” he asked his grandnephew.

Diego Cole-Thomas hugged David, then each of the men when they rose to greet him. His deep-set dark eyes swept around the room. “I just got back from the Keys. What are you guys celebrating?”

Timothy smiled at his son. “David’s crowing because he managed to get another one of his kids married—with your help of course.”

Sitting on a leather club chair, Diego crossed one leg over the over. “I may have set up Ana and Jake’s marriage, but remember I offered them an out. But, after seeing them together less than an hour ago I can say they’ll spend the next forty or fifty years together.”

Martin snorted. “Why is it that all of David’s kids marry law enforcement? Gabriel married an ex-undercover DEA agent, Alexandra hooks up with someone from the CIA, and now it’s Ana with a U.S. Marshal.”

David, filling a snifter with brandy, handed it to Diego. “Maybe they’re turned on by guns and badges.”

“Or they have a need to feel protected,” Joshua added.

“Don’t even go there, Josh,” David retorted. “You will not attempt to psychoanalyze my kids and say I didn’t protect them when they were growing up.”

“I don’t think that’s what he meant,” Martin interjected quickly. “You and Serena raised your children as if they were ’70s flower children, and now that they’re out in the big bad world they look for someone whose life is or was governed by a set of laws and regulations.”

David relit his cigar. He pushed out his lips. “That sounds plausible.”

Joshua gave him a smug grin. “Don’t get me wrong, brother. I envy your kids because they live by their own set of rules. Now, we’ll have to wait and see who Jason hooks up with.”

Timothy gave his uncles an imperceptible nod as he raised his glass. “Here’s to Jason marrying a schoolteacher.”

David lifted his snifter, smiling, and the four others touched glasses, intoning, “To Jason.” What he didn’t say was that he doubted whether Jason would marry before Nicholas. His youngest son was still too transient and free-spirited to settle down with a woman and start a family. Jason told him as soon as the relocation for Serenity was finalized he planned to spend at least three months in Oregon where he’d set up a studio in the sprawling house he dubbed Serenity West. It was there where he wrote and edited music for the label’s newly signed and veteran performers.

His brothers and nephew teased him about his children, but no one knew his sons and daughters better than he did. And, that alone would make him the final winner in the wedding wager.

Part One

LOVE LOST

Chapter 1

Peyton Blackstone lay on her back, staring up at the gossamer fabric draping the four-poster bed. She’d turned off the air-conditioning the night before, leaving the windows open overnight to take advantage of the cooling temperatures.

Pinpoints of light painted the dawning sky with streaks of pink and lavender and the woodpecker living in the tree outside her bedroom window had begun tapping his beak against the bark in a rhythmic cadence that set her teeth on edge. She didn’t need an alarm clock to wake her, not as long as she had her feathery neighbor.

Peyton knew she had to get up and check on a mare recovering from a localized infection of the skin before driving over to a neighboring horse farm to pick up Celia Cole-Thomas. She and Celia had an eleven o’clock appointment at a Staunton salon for a beauty makeover. Later that afternoon Celia was scheduled to exchange vows with her fiancé. The ceremony would take place in the garden at Celia’s brother’s horse farm. The resident minister at Blackstone Farms would officiate, while Nicholas Cole-Thomas had invited everyone living on farms within a twenty-mile radius to attend the reception.

Celia and her fiancé, Gavin Faulkner, had come to Virginia to marry and at the last possible moment decided to hold the ceremony at Cole-Thom Farms rather than at the local courthouse. Peyton, after embarrassingly revealing she liked Celia’s brother, had been recruited by Celia to stand in as her maid of honor, while Gavin had asked Nicholas to be his best man. However, she knew Celia’s attempt to play matchmaker was destined for failure. Whenever Nicholas visited Blackstone Farms to meet with his mentor, he would give her a barely perceptible nod, looking through her as if she didn’t exist.