I hope he"s lost a great deal more. I"ve learned to hate him as much as I once loved him. I couldn"t have lived knowing he"d left me for that woman. So I planned my own death to make it look as though your father murdered me.
I"ve been very clever about it, getting everyone who had something to gain from my death to tell me what I needed to know without ever letting them know how I intended to use the information. I especially enjoyed arranging the flight to Costa Rica.
But it"s no fun being the only one who knows just how clever I"ve been. So I"ve left this letter as a legacy for you to find-if you can.
Love and kisses,
Eve
Summer sobbed with relief and heard Ren weeping beside her. "Will this be enough?" she asked Billy.
"Seems to me your uncle Harry can use it to free your father."
"Thank G.o.d," Ren whispered.
"Then I take it we"re done here," Sam said.
"Looks that way," Billy said.
"Can I give you a ride home, Emma?" Sam said.
"I"ll go with my brother," Emma replied.
"I could use a ride," Ren said. "One of the hands dropped me off here."
"Sure, Mom," Sam said as he turned to wheel himself out of the parlor.
"Sam," Summer called after him.
He stopped and glanced at her over his shoulder.
"I don"t know how to thank you," Summer said.
"No need. Creeds take care of each other. And we"re all one family now."
Chapter 20.
SUMMER STOOD IN THE VESTIBULE OF THE FIRST Baptist Church with Emma Coburn, who was dressed in a full-length white silk wedding gown with a heart-shaped neckline and capped sleeves that did nothing to hide her advanced pregnancy. They were waiting for the church organist to arrive.
Flossie Hart was always late. Summer wondered why people didn"t just tell her church events began a half hour earlier. But she supposed Flossie saw them posted in the bulletin-as this wedding had been-and came when she felt like showing up.
There was no one in the church other than the bride"s and groom"s families, because the bulletin had also stated that the couple preferred to have a private ceremony and would entertain guests at a reception following the wedding at the home of the groom"s newly married mother.
Because of Flossie"s tardiness, there was no music to temper the utter silence that had descended once both families were seated. And with so few people in the high-ceilinged country church, every sound echoed, so no one was inclined to talk, even in whispers. The church radiated with red and gold light from the stained gla.s.s windows that lined both walls, making it feel even warmer than it was.
Dr. Robert Truman, whom everyone called Pastor Rob, stood in his robes at the pulpit, and Luke waited nearby, while Sam, his best man, sat in his wheelchair next to his brother. Dora, the mother of the bride, sat on the aisle in the first pew on the left and kept dabbing her nose with a lace-edged hanky. Billy sat beside her, Will perched on his lap, impatiently shooting glances over his shoulder toward the church door.
Summer smiled at Billy and waved, then mouthed, "I have no idea why she"s so late."
She knew why Billy was anxious for the ceremony to start. He wanted it over with so he could get away from Blackjack, who was sitting on the aisle opposite him with his new wife, the mother of the groom.
Billy kept shooting furtive glances at his sniffling mother and then glaring at Blackjack. It was an explosive situation, to say the least. If Flossie Hart didn"t arrive soon, Summer wasn"t sure there wouldn"t be fireworks.
Her father turned and glanced back at her, and she smiled and waved at him, too. Summer couldn"t believe how quickly and efficiently Harry Blackthorne had gotten Blackjack exonerated once he had her mother"s letter in hand.
Her father had been sent home the same night they"d found the letter. And since he"d already married Lauren Creed, they"d moved right into the Castle together. Her father"s new wife had done nothing overt to make Summer feel uncomfortable in her own home, but with Ren there and Blackjack back at the helm, Summer felt like a fifth wheel.
And she had nowhere else she belonged. Emma had stayed at the C-Bar for the two weeks until her wedding. When Summer had told Billy about Blackjack and Ren moving in together, and that her father had taken back the reins to Bitter Creek, Billy hadn"t said a word about her moving back in with him. So she hadn"t, either.
Summer wasn"t sure what she was supposed to do now. It had seemed best to let things ride until after Emma"s wedding. Once she and Luke were married, they would move into the main house at Three Oaks. That would be the logical time for Summer to move back in with Billy. That is, if Billy wanted her to move back in. Summer still wasn"t at all sure about his feelings.
"Summer."
She turned to Emma, who"d clutched Summer"s wrists and dragged her back out of sight in the vestibule. "What"s the matter, Emma?"
"I"m not sure I can go through with this."
Summer felt like saying, "Of course you can!" Her own situation would worsen if Emma ended up leaving the church unmarried and moved back in at the C-Bar. But she bit her tongue and asked, "What"s wrong, Emma?"
"I don"t know if Luke can ever love me," Emma said.
"Then why are you marrying him?"
"Because this is his child I"m carrying. And because from the first time I saw Luke, I always dreamed of marrying him."
"Then I don"t understand the problem," Summer said.
Emma took a deep breath and said, "I think I might be in love with Sam." She put a hand to her trembling lips and said, "I know I am."
"How does Sam feel about you?" Summer asked.
"He said he loves me. But he thinks this baby-" she slid her hands lovingly around her belly-"should have his father"s name."
"He"d still be a Creed if you married Sam," Summer pointed out.
Emma laughed through her tears. "I suppose that"s true."
Summer took both of Emma"s hands in hers. "I can"t know what"s right for you, Emma. All I can tell you is that my father married my mother when he loved someone else and ended up pining for that lost love forever after. You should marry for love. Everything else will sort itself out."
Emma gripped her hands and might have said something else, except at that moment, a tremendous swell of organ music filled the church.
Summer let go of Emma"s hands and backed up hurriedly to look down the aisle. Flossie Hart must have come in through a back door, because she was sitting at the organ, a flowered hat on her head, performing some Bach piece at a tempo that suggested she was in a hurry to get the music played to make up for being late.
Billy was waving at Summer to start down the aisle. She turned back to Emma and whispered, "Time to go," and began moving at a hurried step-together, step-together, step-together that matched the accelerated music. She was halfway down the aisle when she realized Emma hadn"t said whether she was going to go through with the wedding. Or not.
When she reached the front of the church, Summer turned and waited to see whether Emma would appear. The first measures of the "Wedding March" filled the church with joyous sound, and everyone except Dora stood up and turned to face the bride, who was coming down the aisle alone. Billy had offered to walk with Emma, but she"d told him she"d rather do it by herself.
Emma was the least radiant bride Summer had ever seen. Her mouth never curved in a smile. Her gaze was somber, her tread measured. Flossie had slowed the tempo to accommodate Emma"s ungainly size. But finally, Emma reached the front of the church and the music stopped.
Summer looked at the groom and his best man and wasn"t sure which of the two looked more miserable. Someone should stop this fiasco. Someone should say something.
But it wasn"t her place to speak. It wasn"t her life. She wasn"t the one marrying the wrong man.
I"ve already married the right one, Summer realized as she looked in Billy"s direction. He was the man she wanted to spend her life with, and she was as bad as Emma, not getting what she wanted because she was too fainthearted to speak up. She knew Billy must care for her. She just had to get him to admit it. Surely that shouldn"t be too difficult. Especially if she was willing to take the risk of being honest with him.
"Dearly beloved," the preacher intoned.
Summer missed a lot of what Pastor Rob said next, because she was too busy making eye contact with Billy. Who was looking right back at her. Most of the time. That is, whenever he wasn"t pulling his suit b.u.t.tons out of Will"s mouth or tugging Will"s hands out of his hair, or rescuing his mother"s hanky from Will"s clutching baby fingers.
"If there is anyone here who knows any reason why these two people should not be joined in holy matrimony, let him speak now, or forever hold his peace."
Summer wasn"t sure who spoke first. It might have been Emma. Or Luke. Or Sam. Or Ren. Or Billy. Or herself.
Billy had dropped Will in his mother"s lap as everyone came out of their seats and congregated at the front of the church shoving aside the standing vases of gerbera daisies Blackjack had provided on either side of the pulpit. All talking at once. All stating reasons why the marriage they"d come to witness-or partic.i.p.ate in-should be called to a dead halt.
"Hold it! Hold it!" the preacher said. "One at a time. Young lady, since you"re the bride, I believe you should speak first."
Emma turned to Luke and said, "I"m sorry, Luke. I can"t marry you. I"m not in love with you."
"Good," Luke said. "Because I"m not in love with you, either."
"Why, you-"
Emma plopped into Sam"s lap, effectively ending any chance he had of attacking his brother. "It isn"t Luke"s fault that I"m in love with you, Sam. It isn"t his fault that there"s no other man I"d rather spend my life with or raise my child with than you."
Sam looked up at Luke, who said, "You ought to marry the girl, Sam. She loves you. I know you"ll be a good father. And your kid will have a great life with the two of you as parents."
The tears Summer saw in Sam"s eyes before Emma bent to kiss him on the mouth made her nose sting. She swallowed over the knot growing in her throat as she turned to share the moment with Billy. Who had tears in his own eyes.
Summer didn"t stop to think, she just walked into Billy"s arms.
"I love you, Summer," he said as he closed his arms around her. "I want to spend my life with you. I don"t care that you"re rich and I"m not. I"ll figure out some way-"
"You"re rich too, young man," a voice said over Summer"s shoulder. "There"s a couple of million in an account with your name on it at my bank."
Summer felt Billy grab her arms and push her away from him as he stared over her shoulder at Blackjack. Billy"s gaze shifted back to her, his dark eyes narrowed, as angry as she"d ever seen him.
"What the h.e.l.l is going on here, Summer?"
"I don"t know," Summer protested. "Believe me, Billy. I have no earthly idea what Daddy is talking about."
"It"s simple," Blackjack said, staring into Billy"s wrathful eyes. "I"ve acknowledged you legally as my son."
Billy hadn"t wanted to come to Emma"s wedding because all the crying she"d done the past week had convinced him she was making a big mistake. But he"d never told her what to do in the past, and he didn"t think he should start now.
The other reason he hadn"t wanted to attend her wedding was because he hadn"t wanted to see Summer in such a suggestive setting. When the preacher started talking about loving and honoring and cherishing, he"d been looking right at Summer and thinking how he wanted to do all those things for her and with her the rest of his life. And that he was an idiot for worrying about something as unimportant as which one of them had more money.
When Will looked up at him and grinned, and then put his shoe in his mouth to chew on it, Billy realized he wanted a lot more children, and he wanted to make them with Summer.
When his mother caught his hand and held it tight and looked at him with tears in her eyes, he was reminded that he didn"t have all the time in the world to fool around. Folks never knew how long they had on this earth and a wise man made the most of it-by spending his life with someone he loved.
Billy suddenly knew that even if it made him an interfering brother, he couldn"t let Emma marry Luke. So when the preacher asked who objected, he"d jumped up and yelled.
But he hadn"t been the only one. It seemed no one in the church wanted the bride and groom to go through with the ceremony, including the bride and groom. Billy had been proud of Emma for speaking up, and moved when he saw how tenderly Sam Creed held her in his arms. He"d felt such joy for his sister welling up inside him that he"d searched out the one he loved to share it with.
Billy had convinced himself that he could handle being a poor man married to a rich woman. He wouldn"t ever be completely comfortable with the notion, but he figured it was a small price to pay to spend his life with the woman he loved.
But he hadn"t wanted or needed Blackjack"s charity. The offer of it had been an ugly slap in the face.
And then Blackjack had said the words that Billy had never been able to admit he wanted to hear. The words that any child who grows up knowing he doesn"t belong, who knows he"s connected somewhere else than where he"s landed, longs to hear.
"I"ve acknowledged you legally as my son."
Billy clamped his teeth together to keep his chin from wobbling.
"I"ve arranged for you to have the same trust fund your brothers each received when they turned twenty-five," Blackjack continued. "It"s only a couple of million, but it"ll give you the freedom to do whatever you want with your life. You can tell me and the rest of the world to go to h.e.l.l. Give it away, throw it away, leave it there to rot. What you do with it is up to you."
Billy opened his mouth to speak and closed it again, because his throat was swollen closed.
"You got anything to say?" Blackjack said with a wry smile.
"I never wanted money from you," Billy managed at last.
Blackjack put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Don"t you think I know that, son? That"s why I gave it to you. Because you never asked. You"re a good man, Billy Coburn. You deserve a share of what"s mine. There"s good Blackthorne blood running through your veins."
Blackjack turned to Summer and said, "And it seems I owe you a wedding present, young lady."
"Daddy, there"s no need-"
"So I"m giving you Bitter Creek to care for and nurture and pa.s.s on to the next generation of Blackthornes." He glanced at Ren and added, "And Creeds." And finally at Billy and said, "And Coburns."
Billy saw the stunned joy in Summer"s eyes as she absorbed the enormity of her father"s gift.
"Daddy, I-"