“A daughter,” Abigail repeated. “She was adopted out to a very nice family. She started looking for us a couple of years ago. And now she’s found us.”
Maureen’s voice was paper dry. “Nicole had a baby?”
Abigail smiled, squeezing her mother’s hand. “My cousin. Your niece.”
Maureen’s eyes welled up with tears, and her hand went to her chest.
“Her name’s Lisa,” said Abigail, speaking more quickly. “I’ve met her. In fact, I know her. She helped with Seth’s campaign.”
“I can’t believe it,” said Maureen, but a smile was forming on her face. “Okay. I do believe it.” The smile turned into a shaky laugh. “Nicole was never a careful or cautious person.”
“So, you’re okay? You’ll like her. She’s a wonderful woman.”
“You said she helped on Seth’s campaign? Is she in Lyndon?”
“She came to town a few months ago. But right now…” Abigail paused. “Right now, she’s in Houston.”
“She’s here?”
“She wants to meet you. And she wants to meet Mandy and Katrina and everyone. But we wanted to start with you.”
“Oh, well in that case.” Maureen promptly stood up, dropping her napkin onto the table. “Let’s go.”
Abigail laughed. “Hold on.”
Her mother paused, waiting.
“We don’t have to go anywhere.” Abigail nodded across the garden to a far table. “She’s over there.”
As Maureen turned to stare, Lisa caught the gist of the body language and came gracefully to her feet. She was wearing a white, sleeveless tank dress, her blond hair loose and framing her face. She looked nervous but brave as she walked forward on delicate, white, strapless sandals.
Abigail rose and moved to stand next to her mother as Maureen approached them.
“Nicole,” Maureen whispered, groping blindly to grasp Abigail’s hand. “She looks just like Nicole.”
Abigail found her own eyes filling with tears.
Maureen let go of her hand, rushing forward to pull Lisa into her arms.
Lisa’s eyes fluttered closed as Maureen rocked her back and forth and stroked her hair.
“Oh, my darling.” Maureen spoke in a choked voice. “I’m so glad you’ve come home.”
It didn’t take Abigail long to realize Zach’s employees were like a family. Thirty people worked in the executive offices, with another hundred and fifty or so between the sales, marketing, accounting and human resources offices on various floors in the office tower in downtown Houston. All of them greeted Zach by his first name. They all seemed to know he’d been in Colorado, and they were all anxious to hear how things were going with Craig Mountain.
She’d been in Houston for three days, and between visiting her father and watching her mother and Lisa get to know each other, she’d managed to power through the application for Zach. Now she sat in a corner boardroom on the thirty-second floor, gazing out the bank of windows at the lights of the surrounding buildings and the clear, night sky. The water-license variance application form 731-800(e) was on the table in front of her, neatly printed out, supported by charts and graphs, and a letter of intent, complete with the company background, prospectus and all the technical data she’d been able to pull together from her previous water-table research. It was a great report, probably the best she’d ever done.
Half the double doors opened, and Zach entered with his partner, Alex Cable. She’d met Alex earlier and really liked him. He seemed smart and motivated, with a wry sense of humor. She knew he’d just broken up with his girlfriend. She also knew he was staying with Zach. Though Alex was fairer than Zach, with blue eyes, light brown hair and a lankier build, the two had a lot of gestures, expressions and speech patterns in common. If she hadn’t known better, she would have taken them for brothers.
Zach glanced at the cover page of the report, then looked to Abigail. “That it?”
“That’s it,” she confirmed. She was done, officially free from his blackmail, ready to go back to her old life.
“It’s really nice of you to help us out,” Alex put in.
Abigail shrugged. “It was no problem.” Then she caught Zach’s ironic brow lift, and she amended the statement. “Uh, not much of a problem. I am glad to be finished, though.”
Zach lifted the report and thumbed through it.
“We should celebrate,” said Alex.
“You don’t have a variance yet,” Abigail pointed out, taking her clutch purse from the table and tucking it under her arm. She should be rushing from the room, but, for some reason, she found herself hesitating.
Her mother was resting at her rented condo right now, tired from her emotional few days with Lisa. She’d taken a shine to Ozzy, and the puppy was keeping her company. It was nearly eight o’clock, and Lisa had asked Abigail to meet for a late dinner or maybe hit a club before they flew back to Colorado in the morning.
It was a strange feeling of deja vu. Abigail was having a final night on the town before heading back to the ranch. She was trying hard not to rehash the Lucky and Doll-Face evening in her mind, but it was proving impossible. She was also trying hard not to think about leaving Zach forever, but that was causing her trouble, as well. Despite everything that had happened, she couldn’t seem to stop herself from liking him.
“How long will the committee deliberations take?” Zach asked.
“Weeks, probably,” she answered, avoiding looking into his eyes. She had to be strong for another five minutes or so, get out of here and forget about looking back.
“We don’t have weeks.”
“You don’t have a choice.”
“Anything we can do to speed it up?” asked Alex.
“You want to try bribing a legislative committee of the state of Colorado?”
Alex coughed out a laugh. “Not a good idea?”
“Not if you enjoy life outside the Colorado penal system,” she responded. Then she shot a stern look at Zach. “And there’s not a thing in the world you can blackmail me with on that one.”
“Blackmail?” Alex glanced from one to the other, clearly in the dark about the details of her and Zach’s working relationship. No matter. It was over now, and Zach could explain himself however he wanted.
“Ask your partner,” she told Alex, starting for the door. “By rights, he should already be in jail.”
“Who’d you blackmail?” asked Alex.
“She’s exaggerating,” Zach drawled.
“Abigail.” Alex’s voice stopped her.
She turned, prepared to answer his question, acknowledging that she’d been the one to drop this bomb into the conversation.
“He actually blackmailed you into helping us?”
It was all a moot point now, and she didn’t really care enough to keep the secret from Alex. Mostly, she just felt tired. “He did.”
“Go, Zach.” Alex whistled in obvious admiration. “What’d he use?”
“He slept with me then threatened to tell my brothers.”
“What?” She stared at him. “You embarrassed about sleeping with me, or embarrassed about committing a felony?”
“It wasn’t like that,” he protested.
“It was exactly like that. And now you’ve got what you want.”
“I threatened to tell them you hated the ranch.”
“I don’t hate the ranch.” Though she once again felt as if a set of walls was closing in on her. By this time tomorrow, she’d be in blue jeans and boots.
He moved toward her. “I was never going to kiss and tell.”
She was vaguely aware of Alex discreetly backing his way out of the room.
“Then you lied to me,” she told Zach as he came to a halt directly in front of her.
“I guess I did.” His eyes reflected the desire she couldn’t deny.
