Eternal Vows (Hideaway (Kimani)) (14 page)

He’d gone through four rigorous years of study at the U.S. Naval Academy and was assigned submarine duty, yet becoming involved with a little slip of a woman had him running in the opposite direction. He’d healed from all of his physical scars while the emotional scars lingered for far too long.

You’ve dealt with a few losers in the past. Especially Arden. So, please don’t let Peyton get away.
He didn’t know why he could remember Celia’s warning as if she’d uttered it seconds before. Earlier that morning he called his brother for advice. It’d been years since he and Diego talked about the women in their lives and Nicholas told Diego everything about Peyton. When he expressed his reluctance to become involved with her because of the unwritten rule that Cole men don’t get involved with their female employees his brother suggested he hire Peyton as a contract worker. Diego also teased him, saying there were special occasions when rules don’t apply, especially when it involved matters of the heart. Diego had married his personal assistant, and now he and Vivienne were the proud parents of a son whom they named for the architect of the family owned conglomerate.

Nicholas knew he wasn’t in love with Peyton, but his feelings for her went deeper than mere friendship. Hiring her was easy. The hard part was convincing her he wasn’t as indifferent to her as he appeared.

* * *

Sunday dinner took on a festive tone when those sitting at the table in the formal dining room lifted wineglasses to toast Peyton’s latest successful endeavor. She smiled at Nicholas over the rim of her glass when he winked at her. Renee had rearranged the seating where he sat opposite her instead of next to her.

Caroline was included in the conversations when she revealed her journalism background. “I worked as a crime beat and investigative reporter for a Portland daily.” She fielded questions about some of the cases she’d covered, many of them connected with drugs and prostitution.

Peyton closed her eyes when Caroline mentioned prostitution. She still found it hard to wrap her head around the realization that Reginald had been arrested for solicitation. She doubted whether it had been his first time and shuddered to think of the times when he’d come home to sleep with her after engaging in sex with a woman who’d had an infinite number of sexual partners.

She exhaled an inaudible sigh when the topic of conversation segued to movies and then food.

Ryan patted his father’s shoulder. “Pop, I think you should enroll in culinary school. You’ve outdone yourself with the turkey.”

“It is delicious,” Jeremy concurred.

Sheldon inclined his head. “Thank you, but cooking is a hobby for me.” He’d made the turkey, while Renee had prepared the side dishes: potato salad, smothered red cabbage and homemade yeast rolls.

Nicholas smiled at Sheldon. “If I’d known you like cooking that much I would’ve asked you to fill in for Cookie while I looked for a new cook.”

“What was wrong with your old cook?” Peyton asked Nicholas.

“He was stuck in one gear. It was either pot roast or beef stew.”

Sheldon shook his head. “He definitely wouldn’t have had continued employment at this farm if that’s all he could put on the table.”

Nicholas nodded. “That’s why I had to let him go. It’d reached the point where the employees signed a petition stating either he had to go or they were quitting.”

“Damn!” Ryan and Sheldon chorused.

“Have you replaced him?” Jeremy asked.

Everyone listened intently when Nicholas told them about his new cook who was expected to begin midweek. “When he came for an interview I had him prepare a sample meal.”

Renee leaned forward. “How was it?”

A flash of humor crossed Nicholas’s face. “I’m inviting everyone sitting at this table to come to the farm next Sunday to find out. Please bring the kids.”

Slumping back in his chair, Sheldon stared at his protégé. “Something tells me we’re really in for a real treat.”

Nicholas kissed his fingertips. “He’s
magnífico!
”

“I’m not saying we’re going to let our cook go, but maybe he could use a little shakeup,” Jeremy drawled. “After I sample what your man is cooking I just may offer to pay him twice what he’s making to work for me.” A series of gasps followed his statement.

The smile parting Nicholas’s lips did not reach his eyes. “That’s not going to happen.”

Tricia placed her hand on her husband’s arm. “What’s wrong with you?” she whispered.

Jeremy gave Nicholas a long, penetrating stare. “If Nicholas can take our vet, then why can’t I take his cook?”

Sheldon smothered a curse under his breath. “Come on, Jeremy.”

Jeremy held up a hand. “Please stay out of this, Pop. This is between Nicholas and me.”

“No, it’s not,” Peyton said. “This is between me and Jeremy.” Sudden anger darkened her eyes. She didn’t know what Jeremy was up to but she intended to end it before it escalated further and she would be forced to choose sides. “Nicholas never asked me to work for him. I approached him and every other horse-farm owner in the county to ask if they would hire me, because I don’t want to rely on my name to advance my career. Nicholas was the only one who was receptive, but I had to wait a year because he had a contract with another vet.”

“A Blackstone is a Blackstone and you can’t change that,” Jeremy argued, engaging in what could only be a stare down with Nicholas.

Nicholas ran a forefinger over his left eyebrow. “I can understand you being a little possessive when it comes to Peyton. I’m sure I’ll be the same when she comes onboard. But this is not about me going behind your back to take your employees. I say that because I’m about to hire someone who grew up on your farm. I asked Jesse Baxter if he would take over as farm manager.”

Everyone laughed when Jeremy let out a plaintive groan. “Who’s next, Thomas? My firstborn?”

“Don’t you mean your trifecta?” Nicholas taunted. “It takes a good man to make three babies at one time, and an incredible woman to carry them to term.”

Jeremy threw up his hands when there was another round of laughter. “Please don’t tell me you’re trying to hit on my wife.” He turned to Sheldon. “Hey, Pop. Where did you find this hustler?”

Pushing back his chair and rising to his feet, Nicholas touched his fingertips to his forehead, mouth and chest while bowing with a flourish. “Nicholas Francisco Cole-Thomas,” he rattled off in an affected Spanish accent.

Dishes rattled when Ryan’s and Sheldon’s palms pounded the table, while Peyton and Kelly couldn’t stop the tears rolling down their cheeks. Jeremy stood, circling the table and slapped Nicholas’s back.

Nicholas put Jeremy in a headlock. “You’re good.”

Jeremy nodded. “So are you.”

Caroline fixed her gaze on the two men giving each other rough hugs. “They were just joking with each other?”

Kelly blotted her face with her napkin. “Yes.”

“What is this? A horse farm or comedy club?” the journalist asked.

Tricia waved at her. “Both. These guys take turns seeing who’ll break character first. I’m sorry, Peyton, but the guys warned me not to let you in on their sick joke.”

Twisting her mouth, Peyton pointed to Nicholas. “You’re going to pay for this.”

Nicholas wiggled his fingers. “Woo, I’m so scared.”

Sheldon shook his head. “When did my family go off the deep end?”

“But you love us don’t you, Pop?” Ryan asked, giving his father a warm smile.

Sheldon looked very much the patriarch. Although he was rapidly approaching sixty he still turned heads with his salt-and-pepper cropped hair, angular face, features verifying his mixed-race heritage, and attractive lines fanning out around large light gray eyes that missed nothing. “More than you could ever imagine.”

Caroline leaned against Peyton. “I like your family,” she said sotto voce.

Peyton shared a smile with her friend. “So do I,” she admitted without a hint of guile.

They were loyal and supportive, and during the year she’d spent in Tuskegee she’d grown to love her extended family as much as she did her parents. She enjoyed teaching but not enough to accept a permanent position. Each day she stayed away from Blackstone Farms was akin to exile. Peyton hadn’t formed any close relationships with her peers because she knew she wasn’t going to stay.

There were times when she felt she’d been in over her head. The other lecturers and professors had had so much more teaching experience, while she spent hours writing and revising her lectures. The few times she was observed fortunately she’d been at the top of her game. She knew the material and was able to execute the lesson flawlessly, but whenever she returned to the apartment she would ask herself what was she doing? Why was she teaching when she should’ve been practicing veterinary medicine?

Emotionally she’d begun to spin out of control. She got up before dawn, reviewed her lessons, drove to class, taught and then returned her apartment to do it all over again. Although she called her parents, emailed Tricia and Caroline, Peyton felt something was missing. And she’d forced herself not to think about Nicholas and the last time they were together. The day that had begun with her looking forward to seeing him had ended with a passionate kiss in the moonlight and him questioning her sexual experience. Would it have made a difference to him if she was a virgin?

Whenever she dreamt of Nicholas the dreams were always erotic and she’d wake in a panic, her body shaking and throbbing from long forgotten passions that left her more exhausted than she’d been when she crawled into bed.

There were nights when she lay awake, staring into nothingness and willing herself to sleep. After a while she’d become an insomniac; the sleeplessness was compounded by her inability to eat more than a few forkfuls of food before feeling full. She lost weight she could ill afford to lose, her eyes were sunken and she operated on a nervous energy that made her heart beat a little too quickly. Under another set of circumstances Peyton knew she wouldn’t have been able to drive fifteen hours, only stopping to refuel and drink enough water to keep her hydrated.

Nicholas had asked if she was sick and her reply was she was run-down, and if she had been forthcoming then she would’ve told him she’d been undergoing separation anxiety. She missed him, her cousins and her mother and father. The one time she broke down when talking to her father, he said he was coming to Alabama to get her. It took all of her powers of persuasion to change his mind.

When the semester ended, she didn’t return to the farm, but to the little town in upstate New York. She needed to sleep in her childhood bedroom with the crush of tattered stuffed animals in bed with her.

And during the nearly twelve weeks she spent with her parents she had come to know her father better. Peyton recognized his drive to make certain his business survived the ups and downs in an unstable economy. She’d offered to give him the money her grandparents left her but when he let loose with an outburst of expletives she decided not to bring up the subject again. Peyton had been tempted to withdraw the monies from her account and deposit them into his business account but didn’t want to start another row that would only end with her packing the rental and driving back to Virginia.

* * *

Dinner concluded with coffee and slices of homemade pound cake. Tricia begged off because it was time to feed her four-month-old son. “Watch it, Caroline,” the nurse warned in a soft voice, “because Pop’s going to offer you a substance that will take off your eyebrows and any hair you have on your upper lip without having to use hot wax.”

Sheldon stood up and kissed his daughter-in-law’s cheek. “Thanks for reminding me that we’re celebrating a special occasion.” Peyton met Nicholas’s eyes across the table. Now he would get to sample the infamous aged bourbon.

Sheldon returned with a bottle of amber liquid, while Renee put out old-fashioned glasses. “The only thing I’m going to say is drink at your own risk,” she said under her breath.

“Are you game?” Peyton asked Caroline.

Caroline flashed a wide smile. “Hit me.” All of the Blackstones gave Caroline an incredulous stare. “We do drink more than Starbucks coffee in the Pacific Northwest.”

Jeremy wagged his head back and forth. “I pity the fool,” he said in his best Mr. T imitation.

Sheldon poured approximately an ounce of bourbon into Caroline’s glass, then repeated it with Peyton, Kelly and then Jeremy, Ryan and Nicholas. He poured the same amount into his own glass, then extended it. “Dr. Peyton Blackstone.” Everyone tossed back their drinks in one seemingly choreographed motion.

Nicholas covered his mouth, blowing through a fisted hand. “
¡Maldito!
Damn!” he repeated in English.

“Boo-Yaw!”
Ryan rasped, blowing out his breath.

Caroline’s face turned beet-red as she struggled to breathe. “Is this stuff moonshine?”

Throwing back his head, Sheldon laughed loudly. “Not all Southerners drink moonshine. We happen to make some of the world’s best bourbon and whisky.”

“My bad,” Caroline apologized as the intense color in her face faded.

Sheldon held up the bottle. “Would anyone like another round?” His query was met with silence. “Well, this old girl will go back to bed until the next special occasion.”

Peyton and Kelly helped Renee clear the table, stacking everything in the kitchen for Claire. Everyone claimed cushioned rockers, love seats and swings on the screened-in back porch. Peyton found herself sharing a love seat with Nicholas. Kicking off her shoes, she pulled her feet under her body and rested her head on his shoulder when Sheldon turned on the flat screen resting on a table, channel surfing until he found one featuring horse racing, muting the sound and turning on the close captions.

She glanced at Caroline who’d rested her bare feet on the rocker’s footstool. Her friend had closed her eyes and with the gentle rise and fall of her chest it was obvious she’d fallen asleep.

“Your friend reminds me of you,” Nicholas said in Peyton’s ear.

“In what way?”

“You’re both very outspoken.”

Shifting slightly, she stared at him. “Is that a problem?”