Chapter 11
M
idmorning of the next day, Alex was in the lounge rearranging papers in his briefcase when he heard the unmistakable sounds of two young voices yelling. Neither sounded happy. Knowing that both Grace and Megan were upstairs readying the vacated rooms for new guests, he walked out the front door.
Ryan’s closest friend, Bobby, was leaving by the driveway and Ryan was shuffling dejectedly toward the inn. And quite a sight he was. His sneakers were untied as usual, his jean shorts were hanging low and his striped T-shirt was dirty and torn on one sleeve. He was fighting tears, his face was smudged, and a nasty red bruise under one eye was beginning to swell. He also had a bloody nose.
Alex waited for the boy to reach him.
Ryan stopped two feet from Alex. “Hi.”
“Hi yourself. Had a little scuffle, did you?”
Sniffling noisily, Ryan nodded. “I got into a fight with Bobby.” He swiped at his nose, stared at the blood on his fingers.
“I thought he was your best friend.” Alex handed him his handkerchief.
“Not no more.” Ryan blotted his nose with the handkerchief.
“I see.” Alex crouched down so they were face-to-face. “What was the fight about?”
“He said bad things about my dad.”
Uh-oh. Walk carefully here, Alex warned himself. “What kind of bad things?”
“He said my dad spent all our money and that’s why Mom has to work so hard. His mom told him. And he...he said my dad had girlfriends. Lots of girlfriends.” Mopping his nose, Ryan squinted as he looked at Alex. “Married dads aren’t supposed to have girlfriends, are they?”
When in doubt, go with the truth. “No, they’re not.”
Ryan kicked at a pebble with a scruffy sneaker. “I guess Bobby was right, then. My dad was bad.”
“Not exactly. Your dad did some bad things, but he wasn’t a bad man. There’s a difference, Ryan.”
The boy looked up hopefully. “You think so?”
“I’m sure of it.”
“Alex, do you love my mom?”
Nearly reeling from the abrupt change of subject, Alex cleared his throat. “What makes you ask?”
“I saw you kiss her neck the other day in the kitchen. None of our other guests kiss her neck.”
Alex sincerely hoped not as he swallowed a smile.
“Well, do you?”
Alex gave him a sheepish smile. “I guess you caught me. Yes, I do love her. How do you feel about that?”
Screwing up his face, Ryan thought for a minute. “Are you going to take her away from me?”
Alex’s reaction was immediate. “Whoa, never! What made you think that? If we ever leave here, you’ll come with us.”
“Honest? You mean it?”
He’d forgotten how often Ryan had been told things, promised things that had never turned out to be so. The legacy of his father and something Alex would have to overcome. “Honest. And another thing, Ryan. I won’t ever promise you something unless I’m really going to do it. Okay?”
The boy studied him silently. “I guess it’s okay, then.” He glanced at his torn sleeve. “Mom’s gonna kill me. My shirt got ripped.”
Straightening, Alex slipped an arm around the slim shoulders. “Let’s see if I can’t help you out with that.” Together, they walked around back.
From the upstairs window where she’d been cleaning the room one of Alex’s old friends had vacated, Megan stepped back. She’d opened the window when she’d heard Ryan and Bobby shouting and had been about to yell down and ask what happened when she’d seen Alex stroll out. Curious as to how he’d handle the situation, she’d unabashedly eavesdropped. And was glad she did.
“He handled that like a pro, didn’t he?” Grace asked, entering the room from next door.
“Oh, you heard, too?” Megan shook her head. “I’m amazed.”
“A born father, I’d say, wouldn’t you?” Grace winked and went back to hauling soiled bed linens down the stairs.
Megan sat on the edge of the bed she’d just finished making up. A born father. Alex had been wonderful with Ryan from the start. He had to know that she and Ryan came as a package deal.
I’m nuts about that boy,
he’d once told her.
And last night, on the hillside, he’d said more.
I love you, Megan. Anything else we can work out.
Could it really be happening, that he loved both her and her son? But what about all his money and all her debts and their entire future? Could all that be worked out? If you loved someone enough, did all the thousand other little details of your lives just fall into place to everyone’s satisfaction? Could it possibly be that simple?
Sighing, Megan got up, patted the bed a last time, looked around the room to be sure she hadn’t forgotten anything, then moved on to the room Alex occupied.
He was neat, she’d give him that. Neater than either she or Ryan. His clothes were all hung carefully in the closet, his underwear and socks in tidy piles in the drawers, the few items on the dresser top lined up just so, including a large assortment of pill bottles. Except for the bed.
His bed hadn’t been slept in because he’d spent the night in hers. A nervous night for Megan since she’d worried that either Ryan on one side or Grace on the other would hear them. But she hadn’t wanted Alex to leave her after their rendezvous on the hillside. She’d been too mellow, too in love to part from him. Yet he’d left before anyone else in the house had awakened.
Apparently, he’d come to his room and spent time going through some business papers since the spread was scattered with them. Megan decided to put them into several neat piles for him, then clean the bathroom. While she was straightening the last pile, something on the top sheet of paper caught her eye.
Her husband’s name. The letterhead gave the address of the hospital in San Diego. Looking more closely, she read the heading. Liver Recipient List. And in the number-one position was Neal Delaney. In second place was Alex Shephard.
What did this mean? Had both men been scheduled for surgery, but Neal had died before a liver had been located, so Alex, in the number-two position, had gotten the next liver? She didn’t know the date of Alex’s operation. But why would he have this list? When had he obtained it? Surely the hospital didn’t hand these out to just anyone. And if he had this list when he first showed up in Twin Oaks, that had to mean he’d known about Neal’s death. Why hadn’t he ever mentioned that?
There was probably a very good explanation, Megan decided as she placed the stacks of papers on his bed. She’d ask Alex first chance she got. On that thought, she went into the bathroom with her cleaning supplies.
Alex was in a good mood. He’d gotten everyone to sign on the dotted line and the agreements were in his briefcase. The financing was in the works, and as soon as that was completed, he’d send his first crew up to see about clearing the land.
Turning the Porsche into Delaney’s parking lot, he decided to try for that cozy dinner for two again tonight. Only this time, he’d clear it with Megan first, make sure she was free, then call for reservations. Whistling, he got out and went inside.
As usual, he found her in the kitchen lining up her baking things. He’d already decided that one of the first changes he would make was to persuade her to give up her second job of supplying baked goods to the Cornerstone. There were other changes he’d been mulling over, but they required more thought and planning. Knowing how touchy Megan was, he’d have to go slowly, be diplomatic.
“Hi there,” he said, moving to her. “How’s it going?” He leaned in and kissed her neck. “Mmm, you taste good.”
Megan had been deep in thought, but the moment he touched her, her heart fluttered. Would it always be so? she wondered. Turning, she went into his arms and rose on tiptoe to kiss him properly. In seconds, he had her all but purring. “Hello yourself. You look pleased. The deal went through, I take it.”
“Yes, indeed.” He locked his hands at her waist, leaned back. “I want to ask you a favor.” He saw the quick worry leap into her eyes and wondered if she’d ever lose that.
“And that is?”
“Tell Emily to get her cookies and muffins elsewhere. I don’t want you working so hard. If we’re going to be a team, I don’t want you exhausted every night.”
A team? What exactly did that mean? “Oh, I don’t think so. I can’t just abandon her. She counts on me.”
“She can count on someone else.” He had plans for her, and for Ryan. Big plans. But he had to initiate changes slowly so he wouldn’t overwhelm Megan. “There are other bakers, I’m sure.”
He’d distracted her with his kiss, with his request. But before they went any further, Megan needed a few answers herself. “Listen, I need to ask you something, too.”
Fortunately, the house was quiet. Grace had taken Ryan to the park and all of her guests had either checked out this morning or were gone for the day, except, of course, Mrs. K who was in the lounge. Megan wanted privacy for this discussion.
Slipping out of his hold, she reached for a sheet of paper she’d placed on top of the refrigerator. “I don’t want you to think I was snooping in your room. This was lying in plain sight on your bed, along with a lot of other papers. I was straightening up when something familiar jumped out at me.” She held the sheet out to him. “Neal’s name is on here, right above yours. Can you explain this?”
Alex’s heart stuttered. He’d waited too long, searched too hard for the best way to tell her. Now he’d have to just spit it out and he still wasn’t prepared.
“Let’s sit down,” he said, leading her to the table and taking the chair next to her, buying a few minutes to organize his thoughts. “I realize I should have told you the whole story a long while ago. I’m sorry now that I didn’t.”
Growing worried, Megan frowned. “What whole story?”
“Let me fill you in.” Alex shifted nervously in his chair. “You remember I told you that I had hepatitis C and that I had a liver transplant last year? Well, while I was in intensive care, I overheard two nurses discussing how my name had been moved to the top of the hospital’s recipient list even though another man had been scheduled to receive the next available liver.”
“How’d that happen?”
“My father’s well-known in San Diego, on the governing board of the hospital and a generous donor. He called in a few favors.” Alex held up a hand, forestalling her predictable reaction. “I know what you’re thinking, that he threw his weight around in favor of his son. And you’d be right, but I’d like to explain why. I’ve mentioned before that Dad lost his wife, my mother, after only fourteen years of marriage. And just two years before the doctors told me I might die if I didn’t get a new liver right away, my younger brother drowned. I was all Dad had left. I’m not excusing what he did, only explaining it. I also want you to know that I didn’t know anything about the switch until after it was a done deed.”
Megan was quiet, thinking over what he’d said. “You’re saying that, according to the list, Neal was scheduled for the next available liver, but your father twisted a few arms and you got it instead. Is that right?”
“Yes, that’s about it.”
“So when you showed up here, you already knew that this inn belonged to the man you replaced on the list and that I was his wife?” She seemed confused, uneasy, but not angry. Not yet.
“Yes. I felt I needed to see how you and Ryan were doing.” Nervous now, he ran a hand through his hair, wishing he’d gone through all this days ago, praying she’d understand at this late date.
“You knew about Ryan, too? How did you know where to find us?”
Alex swallowed hard. “I hired a private investigator to find out all he could about you and Ryan.”
Now her brows shot up. “Why? If this switch wasn’t your fault, why did you want to know more about us?”
“Because I felt guilty. Though none of it was my doing, I couldn’t help feeling guilty.” He dared to reach for her hand and found it cool and unresponsive. “I wanted to make sure you were both all right, financially and otherwise. I knew about Neal’s insurance so I thought you’d be debt free. Then when I got here, I learned that he’d borrowed on the policies and spent it all. I felt I should help.”
Megan felt icy fingers close around her heart. He didn’t love her after all, or Ryan, either. He felt sorry for them. She pulled back her hand, straightened her spine. “So you came to us out of curiosity and remorse, a guilty conscience, to atone for the sins of your father?”
Miserable now, Alex leaned forward. “It started out that way, I suppose. But in no time, I learned to honestly care for both of you.”
“Honestly? Nothing you did here was honest.” She let her anger build. Anger was so much easier to handle than hurt. Rising, she walked to the window, staring out unseeingly. “You don’t care about us. You pitied us, the poor overworked widow and the forlorn little boy who didn’t have a daddy to teach him baseball.” She turned sharply to face him, her eyes boring into his. “How could you do that to us?”
Alex stood, went to her, but didn’t touch her. “Maybe I wasn’t honest, Megan, but—”