Stone Cold Surrender - Brenda Jackson [11]
Durango reached out to take the luggage out of her hand. “Then consider it done.”
Madison sat in the vehicle’s back seat. Although she hated being in Montana, she couldn’t overlook the beauty of this beautiful June day, as well as the vast country surrounding her. It was magnificent and left her utterly speechless. The Rocky Mountains were all around and the meadows were drenched with wildflowers: Red Indian Paintbrush and an assortment of other flowering plants. She had always heard about the beauty of being under a Montana sky and now she was experiencing it firsthand.
They were traveling down a two-lane stretch of highway; she knew they were a stone’s throw away from Yellowstone National Park and hoped that she could tour the park before returning to Boston.
At the airport, after Stone and Durango had helped with her luggage, they had walked out to where Durango’s SUV was parked in a “no parking zone” with its caution lights flashing. She smiled when she saw he was driving a nice, sleek, shiny black Dodge Durango.
Stone leaned over and whispered in her ear that Durango owned a Dodge Durango because he was conceited enough to think Dodge had named the vehicle after him. Durango, she knew, had heard Stone’s comment and had merely laughed it off, and she could immediately feel the closeness between the two men.
“So how long do you think you’re going to stay in Montana after meeting with your mother, Madison?” Stone asked, glancing at her over his shoulder. It was easy to see how captivated she was with the beauty of the land surrounding them. Earlier, she had said that she would probably only be in Montana long enough to talk to her mother, but he knew that Montana had a way of growing on you. And he had to admit that there was something about Madison that was growing on him. It was obvious that she had some real concerns about her mother and more than anything he wanted to help her resolve them.
He watched as she switched her gaze from the scenery to him. “I know what I said earlier, but now I’m not sure. I had planned to leave as soon as I had talked to my mother but I might decide to hang around awhile. This place is beautiful,’’ she said, taking a quick glance out of the window again.
She turned back to him to add, “Since school is out for the summer I can enjoy myself. I seldom take vacations during the summer months. Usually I give private music lessons, so this is a really nice break, although I wished it was a planned trip rather than an unplanned one.”
Stone really didn’t care about the reason she was in Montana, he was just glad that she was. He hoped things worked out between her and her mother but it seemed that Madison had never heard of anyone acting out of character. He had a feeling that, in the world she was used to, things went according to plan and as expected.
He smiled inwardly. In that case, his family would take some getting used to if she ever met them. His father had two brothers. Of the three siblings, their uncle Corey was the only single one. Never having been married and the youngest of the three, he had been a surrogate father to his eleven nephews and one niece.
Corey had left Atlanta to attend Montana State University and fell in love with the land. Once he had a job as a park ranger with Yellowstone National Park, he made the state his permanent home. By the time he retired a year ago, he had been president of the Association of National Park Rangers for the past five years and had accumulated a vast amount of land.
“Well, if you decide to stick around I’d like to show you the sights. I spent a lot of time here as a kid while visiting my uncle Corey and know my way around pretty well.”
A smile touched the corners of Madison’s mouth. “Thanks. I might take you up on that.” She then asked quietly, “Just what type of person is your uncle Corey? I know Durango said he was harmless and trustworthy, but I’m trying to come to grips with what there is about him that made my mother act so unlike herself.”
Stone glanced over at Durango and saw the smile