Stone Cold Surrender - Brenda Jackson [48]
“Thank you.”
“And please call me Abby.” She glanced back at Madison. “How do the two of you know each other?”
“We met on the plane flying out here,” Stone said before Madison could respond.
Abby’s smile widened. “Oh, how nice. I’m glad that Madison had some company for the flight. I know how much she detests flying.”
The room got quiet and then Abby spoke again. “Corey and I were just about to have dinner. He can show you where the two of you can stay and then we’ll sit down and eat. I’m sure you must be hungry.”
Madison was more curious as to what was going on between her mother and Corey Westmoreland than she was hungry, but decided she and her mother would talk later. That was a definite. “That’s fine.”
Sighing deeply, she and Stone followed Corey Westmoreland out of the kitchen.
“So you have no idea who’s trying to find you, Uncle Corey?” Stone asked later as he stood with his uncle on the porch. Dinner had been wonderful. For someone who Madison thought couldn’t cook, her mother had prepared a delicious feast. Madison and her mother were inside doing dishes and no doubt Madison was grilling her mother on her relationship with Corey. As yet, his uncle had not explained anything to him. Corey acted like it was an everyday occurrence for Stone to show up on his mountain and find a woman cooking and serving as hostess as if she had permanent residence there.
Corey leaned against a column post. “No, I don’t know a living soul who would be looking for me,” he said shaking his head in confusion. “You said Quade is checking things out?”
“Yes. Durango contacted him.”
Corey nodded. “Then there’s nothing for me to do but wait until I hear from him.” He then looked over at his nephew. “Madison is a pretty thing. She reminds me of Abby when she was young.”
Stone turned and gazed at his uncle. “You knew Abby Winters before?”
Corey chuckled as if amused. “Of course. Do you think we just met yesterday?”
Stone shook his head as if to clear his brain. “Hell, Uncle Corey, I didn’t know what to think and Madison is even more confused.”
Corey nodded again. “I’m sure Abby will explain things to her.”
Stone crossed his arms over his chest. “How about if you explain things to me.”
A few moments later, Corey sighed deeply. “All right. Let’s take a walk.”
The two of them walked down a path that Stone remembered well. It was the way to the natural spring that was on his uncle’s property. He remembered how he and his brothers and cousins had spent many hours in it having lots of fun. The sun had gone down but it wasn’t completely dark yet. The scent of pine filled the air.
“Abby and I met when I was in my last year at Montana State. She had come with her parents to visit Yellowstone as a graduation gift before starting college. I was working part-time at the park and will never forget the day I saw her. She was barely eighteen and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. When I finally got the chance to talk to her without her parents around, I knew she was the person I had fallen in love with and someone I would never forget.” Corey smiled. “And she felt the same way. It was love at first sight and the attraction between us was spontaneous.”
The smile then vanished from Corey’s face. “It was also forbidden love because she was about to become engaged to another man, someone attending Harvard. He was a man her well-to-do family had picked out for her, one of those affairs where two families get together and decide their kids will marry. And no matter how we felt about each other I knew Abby wouldn’t change her mind. She was raised not to defy her parents. Besides, I was not in a position to ask her to stay with me. Her fiancé’s family had money and I barely had a job. When she left I never saw her again and she took my heart with her. I knew then that I would never marry, because the one woman I wanted was lost to me forever.”
Stone nodded, wondering how he would feel if the one woman he wanted was lost to him