Hot Westmoreland Nights - Brenda Jackson [29]
She took another sip of wine. Later she would call Lucia to let her know she’d met Derringer and thought he was definitely a cutie. Although Ramsey had given his brothers and cousin a hard time, she could easily pick up on the love and mutual respect between the four men. And all four were extremely handsome.
But still in her book, Ramsey was her choice. There was something about him that made her heart pound in her chest each and every time she saw him. Maybe the best thing would be to abandon the idea of his posing for the cover of her magazine. She should go ahead and tell him the truth tonight and be packed and ready to leave. But if she did that, it would leave him in a bind. His men were counting on her to provide them with a delicious breakfast in the morning and a tasty meal at lunch. Besides, she was not a quitter, so no matter how tough things got she would not throw in the towel.
She leaned over and placed her glass of wine on the coffee table when she heard her cell phone go off. She pulled it out of her skirt pocket and smiled when she saw the call was from her father.
“Dad, how are you?”
“I’m doing fine. Just where the heck are you, Chloe Lynn?”
She chuckled. Nobody but her father called her by her first and middle names. Only after she’d finished college and started her business did she appreciate what an outstanding man and wonderful person her father was. He had entered politics when she had been in her last year of high school and now he was in his third term as Senator and swore it was the last, but she knew better.
He had always encouraged her to do whatever it was in life that she wanted to do and not live under his shadow as the “senator’s daughter.” She had gone to the college she had wanted to attend and had gotten the degree in just what she’d wanted. The only thing he flexed his muscles about was his belief in helping others during her summers. In the end she’d never regretted doing so.
“I’m in Denver for now.”
“And when will you be coming home?”
She raised a brow. Home for her had always been Tampa, but for her father since becoming Senator Jamison Burton, he’d stayed in D.C. most of the time. “Not sure when I’ll be back in Tampa. Why? What’s going on?”
He paused and then said, “I intend to ask Stephanie to marry me tonight, and was hoping you would be here in case she said yes, so we can all celebrate.”
Chloe’s smile widened. Her father had been dating Circuit Court of Appeals judge Stephanie Wilcox. A fifty-something divorced mother of a son and a daughter in their twenties, her father and Stephanie had been dating for a few years and Chloe had wondered when he would consider asking the woman to share his life.
“That’s wonderful, Dad. Congratulations. I’m sorry I won’t be there to celebrate, but please make sure you let Stephanie know how happy I am for both of you.”
Ten minutes later she was still smiling when she slipped her phone back into her skirt pocket. Finally, her father was about to commit his life to something other than politics and she was happy about it. He had remained a widower and she had often wondered why, when he would be such a good catch for someone. But she’d heard over the years from both sets of grandparents how much he’d loved her mother and he hadn’t wanted to give his heart to another woman. It had taken Stephanie three years, but she had done what some would have thought as impossible.
“After all the work that went into feeding my men breakfast and lunch you have a reason to smile?”
Startled, Chloe inclined her head to glance across the room. She hadn’t heard the door open and now Ramsey was standing in the doorway and looking at her.
Refusing to be rattled, she reached for her glass of wine and took a sip, not sure how she would answer his question. There was no way she could share her father’s good news on the risk that he might ask questions she didn’t want to answer. All he would have to do is to go on the Internet and do a search