I’d never get to do this again. I mean it about moving to New York, too. There’s no law that says you have to be the one to disrupt your life and I would never ask you to move away from your father when he needs you, or your job, since you love it.”
“I don’t care where we live. Just so we’re together.” She could do her kind of work anywhere as long as she wasn’t too far from a city. Austin would do. She would move to Texas in a heartbeat if not for her father. But they could figure out something, she was sure of it.
The phone in her office rang. She considered ignoring it, but she wasn’t really in a good position to turn down work. Russ loosened his hold on her enough that she could slip into her office and grab the phone. “Baines Security.”
“Wade Clancy returning your call.”
Oh, hell. The bankruptcy lawyer. She refused to let that reminder dampen her happiness. It was just money. She made an appointment for the following afternoon, then wrote down the list of things she would need to bring with her-financial statements, tax returns and such.
Russ played with Blossom while Sydney conducted business. He loved how cool and efficient she was on the phone. No one talking to her would guess the passion that lay just beneath the surface.
He didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he couldn’t help hearing part of her conversation, and he realized she was talking to someone about bankruptcy. Oh, hell, he couldn’t let her do that. He’d forgotten his most important reason for coming here. Well, second-most important, after making up with Sydney. He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a rumpled and oddly contoured stack of papers. He waited until Sydney hung up, then wordlessly handed it to her.
“You’re taking this back-no arguments.”
She looked at the contract, then burst out laughing. “How long did it take you to Scotch-tape this back together?”
“Only a couple of hours.”
Then she sobered. “Russ, are you sure?”
“I’ve already talked to my mom and she took the news far better than I would have expected. I told her I would set up retirement funds for both of us and for Bert, so we don’t have to worry in our old age, but the rest is going to the Wildlife Preservation Cooperative, earmarked to buy land in the Hill Country and designate it a protected wilderness area. She thinks I need to see a psychiatrist, maybe a whole team of them, but she’ll adjust to the idea. So you can just call that bankruptcy lawyer and cancel your appointment.”
“You’re a strange but generous man.”
“The gesture is completely selfish. I want to raise my kids in a place that still has unspoiled woods and meadows and rivers and lakes. I don’t want Bert’s cabin to end up surrounded by ugly housing developments with cookie-cutter minimansions and no trees.”
Sydney reached for her coat. “C’mon, let’s go. I want you to meet someone.”
“Your father?”
She nodded. “Don’t be put off if he doesn’t give you the warmest of receptions. We spent yesterday evening eating tempura, getting tipsy on saki and trashing you. But he’ll warm up when he sees the contract.”
They put on coats, then walked the seven blocks to her father’s building, their gloved hands clasped. Blossom was on her leash, her behavior impossible. She charged at every person she saw wanting to make friends, wound her leash around Sydney’s legs every thirty seconds or so, and generally made a nuisance of herself.
“Nero’s going to love her,” Russ said with a laugh as Sydney unwrapped the leash from a lamppost. “She needs obedience training, though.”
“It’s on my list.”
They passed a jewelry store, and Russ stopped and looked in the window. “Let’s go in here.”
Sydney hesitated at the door.
“I need to buy my mother a peace offering,” Russ said. “She wants a diamond necklace bigger than the one her friend Eleanor has, and I figure I can unbend my principles enough to do that one thing for her. You can help me pick it out.”
“Oh, okay.”
“But you might look at engagement rings, too.”
For a moment, she had that deer-in-headlights look and he worried that he’d pushed for too much. But he couldn’t help it. He wanted no secrets between them, so she should know just exactly how serious his intentions were.
“If that was a marriage proposal, it lacked a certain something,” she said with a nervous giggle. She looked absolutely adorable, standing there with the dog’s leash wrapped around her once again.
“If I were to do a better job of it, would you say yes?”
She nodded without hesitation.
“Okay, just checking.”
Thirty minutes later, Russ left the store with a necklace in his pocket that was even more spectacular than the one Winnie had picked out at Stover’s. He also had a pretty good idea what type of diamond ring Sydney would like. He would buy that later and give it to her while on one knee in some appropriately romantic place, since that was what she wanted. But right now he was content with the fact that he and Sydney were together. Wherever they ended up, it would be home, because it would be filled with love.
Epilogue
They waited until April for the wedding. It took that long to handle all the paperwork associated with Russ’s inheritance, to set up the trusts and for Sydney to pay off all her father’s debts.
Lowell appeared to be doing a lot better. He’d joined a grief-management group and had started working again. Sydney had patiently showed him how to keep the books-something he’d never bothered with when Shirley was around to handle it.
“I’ll get the hang of it,” he’d said as he struggled with learning the accounting computer program. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, Sydney, but you have your own life to lead.”
“I’ll always be just a phone call away,” she said, and she’d said it again and again as she’d made all the arrangements to move her things down to Texas.
But finally it was all done. Sydney had taken out a Yellow Pages ad, and Russ had helped her set up a spare bedroom in his house as her home office.
By April 1st, she was officially a Texan and about to officially become a married woman. She’d never had a single qualm about marrying Russ. The fact he was stubborn about some things-like his absolute refusal to be interviewed by any reporter-only made him more appealing.
They’d intentionally kept the wedding low-key. Although the press had lost interest in Russ soon after reporting that he was giving his money away, Sydney didn’t want to take any chances. So they had the wedding at Russ’s home and invited only family and a few close friends. Sydney had worn her mother’s 1970s wedding dress, which was simple and classic and had made Lowell cry, but in a good way. The ceremony was short and sweet, and afterward, in true Texas style, they had a barbecue.
Sydney, literally wearing a trash bag over her dress, sat at a picnic table making a dent in a plate of ribs. Russ was in the backyard playing with a couple of kids-Bert’s great-grandkids-and Blossom. He’d already changed out of his dress clothes, which didn’t surprise her. He might look great in a well-tailored suit, but he was far more comfortable in his jeans.
“He’s gonna be great when y’all have kids of your own,” Lowell said. He was sitting beside Sydney at the picnic table, chowing down on a chicken leg. “And this’ll be a great place to raise ’em. Man, it’s beautiful here. I haven’t been back in so long, I’d forgotten how beautiful spring in Texas could be.”
Sometimes Sydney forgot her dad had been raised here. “Who would have ever guessed that I’d be moving to a small town in Texas?”
“Well, it’s in your blood, I guess. You have a lot of your mother in you, but you have a lot of me, too.”
Sydney considered that a high compliment. “Thanks, Dad.”
