Seduction, Westmoreland Style - Brenda Jackson [56]
She inhaled deeply when he walked toward the back room. She had a feeling that going into the back had more to do with emotions then him needing to wash his hands. She hadn’t realized until that moment how calling him Corey instead of Dad had probably bothered him, although he had never mentioned it to her.” He had respected her feelings and had given her time to come around on her own time and her own terms, and she appreciated him for doing that.
“So what are we having?”
She turned when he entered the kitchen. “Nothing special, just chicken salad sandwiches and lemonade,” she said, sitting down at the table.
“But it’s special to me, Casey,” he said in an earnest tone. “It’s not everyday a man gets to have lunch with his beautiful daughter.”
“Especially a daughter he didn’t know he had until a few years ago,” she said, watching him take the seat across from her.
“It doesn’t matter. The moment I found out about you, Clint and Cole, I fell in love immediately. Just knowing the three of you were mine meant the world to me and my love was absolute and unwavering.”
She nodded, believing that. “It took me time to come around,” she softly admitted. “Mom and I were close and she told me these stories and I believed them. I had a vision of the two of you loving each other and it hurt to know everything she’d said had been lies and you really hadn’t loved her at all.”
Corey reached out and captured her hand in his. “I did love your mother but in another way. Carolyn was special to me, Casey, don’t ever think that she wasn’t. She came into my life when I was at my lowest and we had some good times together. And because she was a good woman I knew I had to be truthful with her from the start. That’s the reason I told her that I could never love her completely—the way a man is supposed to love a woman—because my heart belonged to another.”
Casey nodded. “And I’m sure Mom appreciated you being honest with her. Some men wouldn’t have and that’s probably why whenever she mentioned your name, she could do it in a loving way.”
Casey didn’t say anything for a long moment and then she said truthfully, “I was prepared not to like Abby, especially when I found out she was the woman you had always loved instead of Mom. But Abby is someone who’s hard not to like. She’s a special lady, Dad, and you’re lucky to have her, and even luckier that she came back into your life after all these years. It’s as if the two of you are truly soul mates. You and Abby finally being together is a love story with a happy ending if ever there was one. I can see that now. I can also feel the love each and every time you look at her and she looks at you, and I truly believe that Mom never resented you loving someone else because you gave her something special. You gave her a part of yourself, even if it wasn’t your heart.”
Casey smiled and tightened her hold on the hand that held hers. She gazed into misty eyes and the thought that what she’d said had touched him truly meant a lot. “You are my father and I love you and I’m proud that I’m your daughter. I find joy being a part of your life like you’re a part of mine.”
She stood and moved around the table and when he also stood, she went into his outstretched arms thinking it felt good to finally let go of the anger and pain she’d held within her for so long.
She felt her heart thud against her rib cage thinking there was pain still harboring there. But it was pain of the self-inflicted kind. She was in love with McKinnon and was smart enough to know that things couldn’t continue between them as they were. In less than a month’s time Prince Charming would be fully trained and there would be no reason for her to remain on the ranch. She had gotten lax in looking for a place in town, but she knew she needed to start again. The thought had her heart breaking but deep down she knew it was something she had to do.
She forced the painful thought from her mind that, like her mother, she would live the rest of her life loving only one man and only have the memories of their love affair