An hour later, Vanessa settled on the couch with her mother’s journal and the envelope she’d been avoiding all day. She realized avoidance was her specialty. She’d avoided facing the truth in her life and she’d avoided any serious relationships. She’d avoided coming back to confront her mother about the things they’d left unsaid through the years. She’d avoided making sure the world knew about Gregory Pardue and what he’d done to her. And in a weird way, selling vintage clothes and collectibles had allowed her to avoid moving into the future.
She’d also avoided God and the kind of love that only having faith could bring into her life.
But she had to face facts now. No more excuses. She was done clinging to the past.
And because she wanted Rory in her life and that might mean moving back to Millbrook, she knew it was now or never on getting through this journal.
But first, the envelope, please.
She opened it and found a one-page letter from her mother.
And a birth certificate.
By the time she’d finished reading the letter and glancing over the birth certificate, Vanessa’s whole life had flashed through her mind with a glaring intensity that left her gasping for breath, her sobs caught in her throat.
She didn’t have to read her mother’s journal to realize her whole life had been based on a lie.
* * *
Rory shoved another box of clothing into the big rental truck they’d loaded with what was left from the rummage sale.
“This should be the last of it,” Alec called out, sweat beading on his forehead as he shoved another box up the loading ramp.
Rory nodded and glanced across the street. Vanessa had never shown up to help, and her car had been gone when he’d gotten up. Early-morning errands?
He’d get a shower and go over once he’d checked on the gathering hall. But Wanda and a few other volunteers were giving it a once-over with the vacuum and brooms. The place would be spotless before Wanda released her crew.
Kandi lifted up a bag full of jewelry to him. “Have you seen Vanessa? She called Miss Wanda yesterday after we left the sale and said she had some things for me.”
Rory shook his head. “No. I’ll call her later. Her car’s not in the driveway. Must have gone out early for something.”
“I know where she is.”
Both Rory and Kandi turned to find Miss Fanny standing there leaning on her walker, a gloomy expression on her face.
“Where?” Rory asked, concern mounting only because Miss Fanny had never looked so glum.
Miss Fanny waited until he finished with the truck and came down the ramp. “She’s gone, Rory.”
“Gone?” He checked the house again. “What do you mean?”
“I found this tucked into my screen door.” Miss Fanny handed him a square blue envelope. “It has your name on it.”
Kandi eyed the envelope and then shook her head. “She told me she might not be around for long. But I thought—”
“Me, too,” Miss Fanny said. “I thought we’d won her over.”
Kandi shot both of them a disgusted stare. “I should know not to count on anybody or anything.”
“Hey, we haven’t heard what happened,” Rory warned, his heart sinking. “I’ll read this, and then maybe I’ll call her.”
“Right.” Kandi turned and stalked back into the church.
“I’ll leave you to it,” Miss Fanny said to Rory, her eyes full of sympathy. “I hope it’s nothing bad.”
Rory hoped the same. “I’ll find out, good or bad.”
After they’d finished and he’d closed up the church, he went up to the little porch of his garage apartment and sat down in the rickety old lawn chair. Then he opened the card.
Rory,
I have some urgent business in Alabama. I don’t know when I’ll be back. Thank you again for last night. And for everything.
Vanessa
That was it. No explanation, no reason for leaving in the middle of the night. Or at least before dawn, since he’d been up that long. Rory pulled out his phone. Not even a text or missed call. It was close to two in the afternoon. He had a few hours before the rehearsal dinner for the Kent-Alvanetti wedding.
Taking out his phone, he called Vanessa.
No answer. It went straight to voice mail.
Now he was really worried.
After finding the number on her website, he called Vanessa’s Vintage boutique in New Orleans. But the sales associate who answered said they hadn’t heard from Vanessa today.
“She told us she’d call when she was on her way back,” the woman said. “But for now, that’s probably going to be late next week since she’s mostly finished with clearing out her mother’s house.”
Rory thanked the woman and ended the call.
“Hey!”
He glanced down to find Alec standing by the steps up to his place. “Everything okay?”
Rory nodded and hurried down the steps. “Vanessa is gone. Left me a note saying she had to go to Alabama.”
Alec rubbed the scar that slashed across one cheek. “Well, she does have property there now. Maybe something came up.”
“Maybe,” Rory said. “But she could have called. I’m worried. Leaving a note seems odd, considering.”
Considering how they’d left things last night.
“How was she last time you saw her?”
“She was great. We had a good time. I thought things were looking up.”
Alec slapped his hand against Rory’s arm. “I’m sure she’s still dealing with a lot, so try not to worry. Maybe she’ll be back later today.”
Rory hoped so, too. And he prayed all day long, about a lot of things. When he still hadn’t heard from her later that night after the rehearsal dinner, he had to accept that she might have left because she was scared of what they felt for each other.
That meant he’d have to give her some time to decide what she really wanted to do. Or if she really wanted to be with him after all.
* * *
Vanessa stood looking up at the staircase of the Tudor-style house in Birmingham that had belonged to Richard Tucker.
Her house now. But not just because the man was generous.
She was his daughter.
A mirror centered on the wall in the entryway caught her eye. Vanessa studied herself, seeing it all so clearly now.
Richard Tucker was her father.
The dark-haired man who’d come to visit when she was young.
The man who’d bought the house in Millbrook Lake for her mother, even when he was married to another woman.
A woman who couldn’t have children.
The man who’d made her mother cry over and over again.
His wife had died and Richard had come back to Cora at long last, after years of quick visits and whispered words. But neither of her parents had thought it important to explain this to Vanessa.
We felt it best to leave things as they were. We were happy and we tried to make you happy. It could have made things worse, telling you the truth since Richard had been absent from our lives for so long. I hope you will forgive us. We both loved you so much. I tried to tell you so many times.
Her mother’s words in the letter.
She’d read the journal, too, even though it had made her sick to her stomach and boiling mad with anger.
But the last words of her mother’s journal had finally saved Vanessa by showing her the final thread to the past.
One day, your father’s legacy will become yours. He worked very hard to make sure you’d have a secure future. Vanessa, please don’t waste this opportunity. Use this gift to move forward with your life. And learn from our mistakes.
Always be honest.
Always be kind.
Trust in God.
Fall in love.
Vanessa wondered why none of this had been mentioned in the will, but then Cora was ever the dramatic one. Her mother knew she’d find the journal. Knew she’d be curious.
So Cora had created one last piece of art. Pictures and words, pasted like a collage of Vanessa’s life, against paper, with glue that would stick for a lifetime. Cora also knew that if anyone else found the journal or the letter, they’d make sure Vanessa got them. But mostly, her mother knew that Vanessa would come back to the house because Vanessa loved old things. Because Vanessa would want to know about the past.
So here she stood, in a house that could have been her home. Vanessa moved around the sprawling, elegant mansion, her mind thinking of so many scenarios. Should she sell this place?
Move here and try to recapture her youth?
Go home to Rory?
She voted for the last one.
Checking her watch, she saw the late hour.
Then she pulled out her phone.
Rory picked up on the fourth ring. “Hello?”
His voice slid over her in a husky whisper.
“It’s me,” she said, forcing the tears out of her words.
“Hi. Are you okay?”
“I am now. I wanted you to know... I’m coming home.”
“Home? As in, to me?”
“Home to you, yes.”
“When?”
“I don’t know. Maybe soon. Maybe in a few days. Or weeks.”
“Vanessa—”
“I’ll explain everything when I get there.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Not yet. But I will be as soon as I see you again.”
“Vanessa, I—”
“Don’t. Not yet. I’ll see you soon, Rory.”
“Okay, but when you get here will you please stop interrupting me?”
“Probably not. I have to go.”
She stood in the big, empty house and realized big houses didn’t make homes and bad memories didn’t have to ruin a house or a home. Or a future full of promise.
When her phone rang again, she shook her head. “Rory...”
But it wasn’t Rory.
“Why did you leave? You know Rory loves you.”
Kandi.
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Complicated? Right. Look, I know all about complicated. You’re gonna have to do better than that.”
“It’s tough. I found out something that kind of rocked my world.”
“In a good way?”
“Good and bad. I’m still in shock.”
“Well, snap out of it. We... I mean... Rory needs you.”
“I’m coming back,” Vanessa said to reassure Kandi and herself. “And once I get back there, I don’t think I’m ever going to leave again.”
“That’s more like it. Later.”
“Later.”
Vanessa put away her phone, her mind still on Kandi. She couldn’t disappoint the girl. She didn’t want to disappoint Rory either. Mostly, she didn’t want to let go of the good parts of Millbrook Lake. The church and her friends and Rory.
I can’t avoid this. I love him. I want to be with him.
Help me, Lord. Show me the courage to follow my heart instead of holding on to my pain.
She went from room to room in the big house, studied the huge, airy bedrooms and several roomy bathrooms, stood in the huge kitchen and imagined many happy times here, sat on a white wicker chair in the second-floor solarium and thought about reading books and drinking tea right here, and by the time she’d made it back downstairs, she knew what she wanted to do with this house.
And she knew she wasn’t going to sell the Millbrook Lake house.
* * *
“I don’t think she’s coming back,” Rory told Alec and Blain right before the wedding was about to begin. “Something caused her to run. Something about that house and her mother. Maybe she finally read the rest of that clunky journal she kept moving from room to room.”
Blain quirked his detective eyebrows up in a question. “Do you think she found out something in the journal? Or that she’s using any excuse to avoid commitment?”
“Sounds like the voice of experience,” Alec said with a wink toward Blain.
“It is the voice of experience,” Blain replied. “I wasn’t one for committing to a relationship until I met Rikki.”
“The least likely candidate,” Alec said.
“Same with Vanessa,” Rory said, nodding. “She made it clear she didn’t want marriage and children. And she knows how I feel about that.”
“Maybe she just wants a low-key relationship with no strings attached,” Blain said.
Rory could hear the organ music starting up. People were piling into the church. The smell of fresh lilies and sprays of jasmine filled the air. He had to get it together for Blain’s sake. And the fact that Rikki would throttle him if he didn’t present a happy face while he read their vows to them.
“I could live with that,” he told Blain. “For a while.”
Alec adjusted his tie. “Yes, but you want more, right?”
Rory nodded. “I fought against wanting more for a long time. After I lost Allison—”
“You deserve more,” Blain said. “And Preacher, you might take some of your own advice and trust in the man upstairs.”
Rory couldn’t argue with that. “You’re right. And it’s time to get you to the altar. Your bride will come looking if we’re late.”
Blain grinned, his dark eyes bright with love. “I can’t believe I’m getting married today.”
“We’re both happy for you,” Alec said. “I love being a married man.”
Rory would love that, too. But while he was happy for his two lovestruck friends, he had to wonder if he’d ever have that dream of marriage and a family again.
Vanessa might talk herself right out of coming back to Millbrook Lake.
* * *
She stood in the back of the church until she saw an open spot in the very last pew. Vanessa slid in without being noticed and took in the scene.
White lilies and baby’s breath, trailing sprays of jasmine mixed with tiny white and pink roses. Candlelight and soft music. Blain looked so happy, so expectant, waiting for his bride.
Rory stood staring up the aisle, his own expression expectant. Had he seen her come in? She’d driven across Alabama to get here, but it had taken her a lifetime to find him.
The music swelled and Rikki came into view, her proud father, Franco Alvanetti, walking her down the aisle. She looked beautiful in the slinky white dress that flowed out into a long train complete with a huge bow tied at the back.
Vanessa watched, her eyes tearing up, as Rikki and Blain said their vows. Rory officiated with pride and humor, making everyone laugh and cry.
“Cherish this moment,” he told the couple. “Cherish the people you love. And keep God in the center of your lives.”
He said a prayer, and then he told Blain to kiss his bride.
After that, they turned around and he presented them to the guests as man and wife.
Man and wife.
Soon, everyone poured out of the church to head out to the swank Alvanetti estate. But Vanessa held back and walked up to the altar and closed her eyes. She needed a minute. Just a minute. To tell God that she was home now.
When she opened her eyes and turned to leave, she saw him.
Rory. Standing at the back of the church in a nice navy suit. He looked lovable and scruffy, like a lost puppy come home. Like a man who’d been searching for someone for a long time, his blue eyes bright with hope and surprise.
Vanessa hurried toward him. They met somewhere in the middle of the long aisle.
“You’re here. Now.” He looked completely surprised.
“I told you I’d be back.”
“But—”
Panic rushed over her. “Are you glad I’m back?”
He reached out his hands to hers and laced their fingers together. “I’m thrilled that you’re back. I thought it might take you a while.”
“I thought about taking a while,” she admitted. “You know, avoiding what I could see so clearly.”
He gave her one of his soft smiles. “And what do you see so clearly now?”
She didn’t want to cry, but she couldn’t stop the tears. “You. And that dream. Remember when I told you about standing in the garden at Caldwell House, how I wanted that one day—the garden, the house, the sound of children laughing.”
His eyes got misty, too. “I remember.”
“I think I’ve found it, Rory. And when I turned around just now and saw you, I felt it, too. That feeling you told me I’d feel one day. It’s like a warmth flowing through me and over me, and my soul is full of lightness and joy.”
“Yeah, that feeling,” he said, pulling her close.
Vanessa held him there, silent tears moving down her face. “Richard Tucker was my real father.”
Rory lifted away. “What?”
“She left me a letter and my birth certificate. He was married, but they fell in love and had an ongoing affair. He and his wife never had children and then his wife died. He bought my mother the house here. And of course, he came here and married her, but they both felt it would be too confusing to tell me the truth. So as a conciliation prize, he left everything to me. Everything, except the truth.”
“Vanessa, I’m so sorry,” Rory said on a shattered whisper. “I don’t know what to say. Are you sure you can handle this?”
“I didn’t think so at first. I got in the car last night and left, determined to go to Birmingham and walk through the other house. I think I was searching for something, a sign maybe.”
“And what did you find?”
“A sad, empty house. But I also found closure because now I know the truth.” She wiped her eyes and smiled up at him. “And I realized that instead of avoiding the truth, I wanted to be here with you—living our truth.”
Rory couldn’t believe what Vanessa had told him. “What will you do now?”
She took his hand, and they started toward the back of the church. “Well, our friends are about to celebrate their wedding day, so first, I want to have a big piece of wedding cake.”
He grinned at that. “We can make that happen. They’re probably wondering what happened to me after the photo session was done. I came back in to lock things up.”
“Then we’d better hurry,” she said. “We’ll take my car.”
When they reached her driveway, Rory stared over at the house. “Are you still going to sell this place?”
“No.” She gave him a hopeful smile. “I’m going to renovate it. Sweep it clean of all the cobwebs and secrets. I want it light and bright and sunny and warm.”
His heart did a little flip of joy. Before she could get in the car, he tugged her close. Her eyes were clear and sure, no cobwebs or secrets left there. She looked young and carefree and ...at peace. “It’s a really big house, Vanessa. You don’t need to be there all alone.”
“I won’t be alone.” She reached up to kiss him. “You’ll be nearby.”
“No. I don’t like that,” he said. “I want to live there with you. I want to marry you.”
“Yes,” she said.
“Yes?” He laughed, glad she agreed. “Did you just interrupt me again?”
“I didn’t interrupt you.”
“Can I at least ask the question?”
“Yes. Yes.”
“Okay.” He wanted to laugh and cry, but he held his emotions back and took her hands in his. “Will you marry me, Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
“Are you willing to have my children?”
“Yes.”
“Are you mad that I don’t have a ring for you yet?”
“No. But I can get you a good deal on one through Vanessa’s Vintage.”
“I love you,” he said.
“I love you.” She kissed him again, and then they got in the little car. When she put the top down, they laughed into the wind and made plans for the future.
“I’m going to turn the Birmingham house into a girls’ home,” she told him. “And I want to help Kandi with college and maybe give her a job.”
“And I want to remodel the Craftsman and make it so beautiful, you’ll only have happy memories there,” he told her.
By the time they reached the reception, they’d made a lifetime of plans. A commitment to be together for a long, long time.
Rory got out and came around to open her door. “Let’s go party.”
Vanessa laughed as he lifted her up in his arms and swung her around. “I love you so much,” he told her.
Then they heard a grunt off by the big garage. Hunter Lawson sat there on his motorcycle, watching them. “And another one bites the dust.”
But he was smiling, a twist of bittersweet mixed with the happiness in his eyes.
“Thanks,” Rory said. “You can be my best man.”
“Ain’t gonna happen,” Hunter said. Then he cranked his bike and left.
“He never stays at parties for very long,” Rory explained. “But I love me a good party.”
They laughed and held hands as they headed through the house. They found everyone in the backyard by the pool, enjoying the beautiful view, where the lake and the big bay merged.
“There you are,” Blain called out with a grin.
“Better late than never,” Rory replied.
And he felt sure God thought that a lot, too.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from THE COWBOY MEETS HIS MATCH by Leann Harris.
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