Suddenly, Annie's Father

Annie’s excited expression faded. “Oh, he won’t care. He doesn’t want me here, anyway.”

Even though she’d suspected as much, Val was still shocked by the words, angered by the fact that Slade had let his feelings show so plainly. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Yes, it is. He hates me.”

“Why on earth would he hate you? You’re his daughter,” Val protested, unwilling to believe there could be any truth to the accusation.

“It’s because of my mom. She almost got him killed when she drove his car into a ditch, and then she left us,” she said matter-of-factly. “I guess I don’t blame him for hating me. Everybody says I look just like her. I heard Grandma tell one of her friends that if I’m not careful I’ll turn out just like her, too. Nothing but trouble, that’s what she said.”

Val was stunned. This was more than she’d ever learned from Slade, and it went a long way toward explaining his attitude toward women. Still, his problems with his ex-wife were no excuse for treating his daughter the way he’d been doing. And her grandmother should have watched her tongue. Val couldn’t see that it served any useful purpose to go knocking her former daughter-in-law where Annie could overhear her.

“Your mom’s leaving must have hurt you both very much,” Val said, treading carefully. “Sometimes grown-ups don’t get over something like that very easily.”

“Like kids do?” Annie retorted. She sighed heavily, as if resigned to the fact that no adult could ever understand what she was going through.

“Of course not,” Val agreed, “but—”

Annie faced her squarely. “Look, you don’t have to be nice to me. I’m just a kid and I’m used to being on my own. My grandma and grandpa pretty much left me alone, except when I did something wrong.”

“I’ll bet you got into trouble a lot then, didn’t you?” Val guessed.

Annie stared at her with obvious surprise. “How’d you know that?” She sighed once again. “Never mind. I suppose he told you. He probably warned you about me.”

Val decided not to tell her it was predictable. Annie probably thought she was the only kid who’d ever used that technique to get the attention of the adults around her. “Nope. Lucky guess,” she said instead. She glanced toward the horses. “Do you like horses as much as your dad does?”

Annie shrugged. “I suppose. My grandma and grandpa lived in town, so we didn’t have horses.”

“But you must have been around them when your dad was on the rodeo circuit.”

“Me and my mom didn’t go with him all that much after I started school. I guess we did when I was real little, but I don’t remember that. My mom said it was my fault he left us behind all the time.”

Val hid her dismay. What kind of mother openly blamed her child for the problems that were clearly between her and her husband? And what kind of father allowed it to happen? She wanted to reach out and hug this sad, neglected child, but Annie’s defensive posture told her she wouldn’t welcome the gesture, much less trust that it was genuine.

“You’re going to really love living here,” Val told her instead. “There are lots of kids around. The Adamses are wonderful people. They’ll throw a party at the drop of a hat. You’ll fit in in no time.”

Annie looked skeptical. “They probably won’t invite my dad and me. He just works here.”

“I work here, too, but they always include me.”

“You’re a grown-up,” Annie said, but she couldn’t hide the wistful look that crossed her face.

“Maybe so, but I was hoping maybe we could be friends. I haven’t been here all that long myself. Maybe we could go into town one day. I could show you around while your dad’s working.”

Annie regarded her skeptically. “Yeah, well, if you’re doing it so my dad’ll notice you, you’re wasting your time. He hates girls, because of my mom. My grandma says he’d be a recluse if he could.”

Apparently Grandma had one very loose tongue. “Well, you’re here now, so being a recluse is not an option,” Val said briskly, giving Annie’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “He may not know it yet, but having you here is going to be very good for him. I can tell that already.”

Despite Annie’s conviction about how little her father thought of her, she gave Val a hopeful look that almost broke her heart.

“Do you think so?” she asked.

“I know so,” Val assured her. If she had to knock Slade Sutton upside the head herself, she was going to see to it.

Chapter Three (#u4b441edf-c270-5aa5-a5c5-96d54d54a7b6)

Val had a giant-size calendar spread out on the floor in Laurie’s music room, while her boss sprawled on the sofa, idly picking out a tune on her guitar.

“This song is terrible,” Laurie concluded, eyeing the instrument as if it were at fault. “I haven’t been able to write worth a lick since Harlan Patrick and I got married.”

“Stop putting so much pressure on yourself,” Val advised. She’d been listening to the same complaint for weeks now. If Laurie wasn’t careful, she was going to talk herself straight into a writer’s block, even though on her worst days she was better than half the songwriters out there. “Take time out to count your blessings. You have a handsome, sexy husband who adores you. You have a gorgeous daughter who is absolutely brilliant for someone barely a year old.”

Laurie managed a ghost of a smile at the reminders. “Okay, yes, I am very lucky.”

“Concentrate on that for a few days. After all, you only need two more songs for the new album,” she reminded her boss. “The studio time’s not booked for two more months.”

The faint smile faded at once. “Why two months?” Laurie grumbled, picking out the notes of her last hit on the guitar. “I should be in Nashville now. If I don’t get back to work soon, my fans will forget all about me.”

Val rolled her eyes heavenward. Laurie had been a wreck ever since she had agreed to take a break from her usual hectic recording and concert pace. She blamed her agent, Val and Harlan Patrick for talking her into it. Most of all, she blamed herself for caving in. The forced idleness was making her crazy, especially since her husband was as busy as ever running the ranch and couldn’t devote himself full-time to keeping her occupied.

“No one is going to forget about you,” Val soothed. “Nick and I have that covered. There will be plenty of items in the media. I’ve booked you on at least one of the entertainment shows every single month until the album’s due to be released. There are fresh angles for every story. Besides, I thought you had enough media coverage to last a lifetime when they were chasing after the story of your secret baby.”

Laurie didn’t look pacified. “What if Harlan Patrick was right?”

“About what?”

“What if I refused to marry him for so long because I knew once I was completely happy I wouldn’t be able to write another song?”

“Oh, for heaven’s sakes, that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You don’t have to be wallowing in heartbreak to know what it’s like. Draw on old memories. For that matter, write something upbeat for a change.” She gave Laurie a wicked smile. “Write about having babies.”

Laurie’s scowl deepened. “Now you sound exactly like Harlan Patrick. He wants me barefoot and pregnant.”

“Maybe that’s because he missed seeing you pregnant with Amy Lynn. Maybe he just wants to be in on the next pregnancy from start to finish. Maybe it’s not some evil scheme to see you trapped down here on the ranch.”

Laurie sighed. “I suppose.”

“You know what I think?”

“What?”

“I think you’re already pregnant.”

Laurie’s idle strumming screeched into something wildly discordant. “Oh, God. Bite your tongue.”

“Stop it,” Val chided. “This is exactly the mood you were in when you were carrying Amy Lynn. To be honest, you were unbearable. Of course, then it was understandable. You had to hide out so Harlan Patrick wouldn’t find out about the baby. There’s no need to hide out now. You can go on the road. You can do anything you’d do if you weren’t pregnant. It wouldn’t be a calamity, Laurie. And Harlan Patrick and the rest of the family would be over the moon at the news.”

“I suppose,” Laurie conceded, clearly unconvinced. She glanced down at the calendar Val had been working on. “What are you doing?”

“Trying to finalize next spring’s concert tour.”