A Family, At Last

“I’ve got a sinus infection, Mom. The doctor says I can’t fly. Maybe I can reschedule in a couple of weeks.”

“You do sound stuffy.”

Because she’d spent an hour straight crying.

“Karyn,” her mother said then stopped.

“What, Mom?”

There was a long pause, then she said softly, almost apologetically, “We have a tree this year.”

Shock slammed into Karyn. What did that mean? Should she see if she could get her seat back on the plane?

No. She wouldn’t be able to keep the news about Cassidy to herself. She couldn’t give her parents that kind of hope, especially if they were finally coming out of their grief.

For the first time in years they wished each other a Merry Christmas.

Feeling hollow, she pressed Vaughn Ryder’s number on her cell phone. After five rings she was about to hang up when she heard him say hello.

“It’s Karyn Lambert,” she said, trying to shake off her tenuous emotions.

“Karyn.”

Not a good start, she thought. He was all cool and businesslike. “I was wondering about the test results.”

She didn’t hear him sigh, but she was sure he had. “As I told you in an email yesterday, I saw you on Thursday. On Friday I shipped the sample. The lab was closed Saturday and Sunday, so they didn’t receive it until today. And, yes, they did receive it. I checked. It takes seven to ten days for results.”

“Oh.”

“I understand that you’re anxious, but we can’t hurry the process.”

“I just feel so far away.”

“I would agree that 550 miles is a long way. It’s almost to Oregon.” After a brief pause, he said, “The Huntsman’s Lodge is near our ranch. If you’d like to come up at some point and be nearby when the results are in, you’re welcome to. But if your brother isn’t the father, it’d be a useless trip.”

“I’ll think about it. Thanks.”

“Merry Christmas, Karyn.”

“And to you. And Cassidy.”

Take some time off. Gloriana’s words echoed in her head as Karyn hung up the phone. Now that she’d canceled her trip home, she could take Vaughn’s suggestion and drive north. Hang out nearby.

She looked up the motel on her cell phone, then checked the time. If she left at four in the morning, she could be only thirty miles from Ryder Ranch between four and five in the afternoon. She’d researched everything last week, hopeful, saving the route on her phone’s GPS.

Karyn reserved a room, then gathered up the gifts she’d already bought and wrapped for Cassidy, although not in Christmas wrap...just in case. Making several trips to her garage, she stowed everything so that she could just get up and go. She drove to a nearby gas station and filled her tank, then stopped at a market to pick up food for the journey. In the stationery products section of the grocery store she spotted a sketch pad. On impulse she tossed it in her cart.

That evening Karyn didn’t think she would sleep but she drifted right off, which meant she’d made the right decisions, she thought when she awakened hours later, clear-headed, at 3:45 a.m. Traffic was heavy, even then, at least until she got about an hour out of town. Then it was just a long drive with only music and her thoughts to keep her company.

She stopped every couple of hours and stretched, had something to eat, then got going again. She hit traffic again in Sacramento. After that it was smooth sailing until, almost thirteen hours after she’d started, she pulled into the motel parking lot, feeling like she’d played a game of tackle football.

It would be dark soon. She would find a place to get a warm meal then go to her room and crash.

But as she walked toward the office, she slowed, then stopped. Her brother’s daughter could be thirty miles away....

Karyn got back into her car, grabbed her directions and started driving. She didn’t know what she would tell Vaughn when she got there. She didn’t even know if she could find his house within the ranch property, but she’d spotted what looked like might be his on Google Earth. She assumed the small, private roads visible from high in the sky would be marked in some way. Except if she didn’t get there before dark, she would probably have to abandon her quest.

For today.

Luck was on her side. The ranch itself was marked with a large sign. She followed her Google photo of the property, took a side road, then another, then another. Just when she thought she was lost, a house appeared, two stories and beautiful, surrounded by trees and with a paddock and barn behind it. A hitching rail stood in front of the house, which made her smile.

“Well, Karyn, you’re not in Hollywood anymore,” she said, staring.

As she sat in her car admiring the house and land, awareness of her actions the past twenty-four hours washed over and through her. She’d reacted emotionally to Gloriana Macbeth’s normal behavior—she’d overreacted, that is. She hadn’t thought through the potential consequences of showing up here. There was a child involved who had already been hurt by her mother’s abandonment. Karyn couldn’t contribute to that pain.

She restarted her engine. She would return to the motel, as planned. She would be patient and wait for the test results. So what if she was alone for Christmas?

As Karyn put the car in gear, the front door opened and the cowboy lawyer came out.

He didn’t look happy.

Chapter Four

Annoyance wrapped around Vaughn like a lasso on a bucking bronc, pulling tighter and tighter as he went down his steps and headed to the electric blue VW Bug parked in front of his house.

She climbed out. Even angry, he acknowledged he was as impressed with her now as he was the first time he met her. Her super-tall heeled boots gave her height, and her fashionable clothes showed off a body he’d recalled with clarity several times in the past few days, but she also looked totally out of place for the environment.

And...fragile.

Which didn’t stop him from laying into her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Leaving,” she said, looking panicked. “I’m sorry. Honestly, I wasn’t thinking. I’ll go right now.” She eyed the house. “Did Cassidy see me?”

“She’s baking cookies with my mother at my parents’ house.”

Some of the tension left Karyn’s face. “Thank goodness.”

“Why are you here?”

She closed her eyes briefly, as if in pain. “You invited me.”

“I believe I told you there was a motel nearby where you could wait for the test results, which won’t be in for at least a week.”

“I needed to get out of town.”

“You made the FBI’s Most Wanted list?”

She shook her head but said nothing.