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“Yes,” Reese said. “My mother tried to stick up for me but she was too... I don’t know what the right word is.”
“Political?” Virginia said.
“A pushover,” Reese corrected. “At least in my view.”
“Your mother was in a difficult position with your grandfather with the way he held the ranch over her head,” Virginia stated, like it was common knowledge.
“What do you mean?” Reese asked.
“He used the ranch to keep her under his thumb,” Virginia said. “Don’t count your mother out, though. She was as strong as they come but she’d never worked a day in her life outside of the family business. Duncan used it against her, too. The bastard.”
Reese’s surprise was written all over her face. “Hold on a minute. Are you telling me that my mother would have happily left the ranch if my grandfather hadn’t threatened her with the purse strings?”
“That’s right,” Virginia confirmed. “He must have realized she would leave after her husband...” Virginia locked gazes with Reese for a few seconds. “Logan died. Your mother had six hungry mouths to feed. Seven if you count your grandmother, who was from a generation of women who didn’t have the option of making their own living. She had medical bills, too. Your grandfather on your father’s side threatened to cut your mother off if she didn’t bring you all up on the ranch.”
Reese sucked in a breath. “I’m starting to understand my mother a little better.”
“Marla was a strong woman,” Virginia said. “I’ve always admired her for doing what was right for her family even when it put her in a bad position. She knew how to be delicate, whereas I was always more headstrong in life.”
“The two of you were friends?” Reese asked, surprised.
“As much as we could be considering our lives were so different,” Virginia said. “Our daughters, however, were best friends and we both approved. I’m afraid I was so caught up in my own misery with my first husband that I neglected Camree Lynn. And then she was gone. For months, I believed she hated me. That she couldn’t wait to leave home to get away from the fights. I can’t count the number of times she threatened to run off.” Virginia covered her mouth with her hand, like the words were almost too horrible to speak out loud. A few tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’m sorry.” She shook her head. “You would think it would get easier. It’s just, I never really talk about her anymore. Her father and I lost contact after the divorce. Without her, there wasn’t much left for us to talk about. And then my second husband didn’t know her, so I just stopped.”
“I have twin baby girls,” Darren stated. “Every day, I make mistakes with them. I worry if my tone of voice is too harsh or if they’re sleeping all right. I check their cribs several times a night to make sure they’re still breathing.”
Virginia smiled through tears that ran freely down her face. “How old?”
“Eighteen months,” he responded.
“How precious,” Virginia said. “Do you have pictures?”
He fished his cell phone out of his pocket and thumbed through the pass code before tapping the photo icon. A smile crept across his mouth as the first photo filled the screen. “Here they are in all their glory.” He turned the screen so Virginia could see.
“They’re beautiful,” she said as her gaze immediately shifted to study him and Reese. “I can’t tell which one of you they favor the most.”
“Oh, they’re not mine,” Reese said. “I’m not...haven’t been... We haven’t seen each other in years.”
Virginia balked. “I wondered how you would have pulled off a secret wedding and a life working in two different cities.”
“That would be impossible,” Reese said with a little too much enthusiasm. He tried not to be offended that she seemed so ready to ship him off with someone else. Anyone else. He resisted the urge to say the logistics might be tricky but not impossible. Not for two people who were in love. With technology, long distance was no longer an issue. Except he could admit that he needed someone in the same area now that the twins were in his life.
Virginia looked like she was biting her tongue. Yes, they’d been a couple in high school, but she must not be aware of the fact Reese had easily chucked their relationship for a job then dated his uncle, no less.
“We went our separate ways after high school,” he said, figuring it summed up the past in the most respectful way to both of them. “We had different goals.” He also didn’t see the need to point out her goal had been to date the first man who came along with a job offer. That was probably being harsh and he was most likely speaking from his ego—an ego that had taken more than its fair share of hits years ago.
Hazel might not have lit the same fires inside him as Reese, but he’d loved his wife in his own way. A voice in the back of his head reminded him that she’d betrayed him, too. Maybe that was just his curse with the opposite sex. They were bound to deceive him at some point.
“Did the law ever return any of Camree’s personal belongings?” Reese asked after clearing her throat. The change in subject was a welcomed reprieve.
Virginia handed his phone back to him. “Yes. As a matter of fact, they did. Said nothing was relevant to a runaway case.”
“What about her journal?” Reese continued.
“Still under her mattress,” Virginia said. “I put it there because I knew she’d be so angry if she knew we’d read it.”
Reese shifted in her seat. “Mind if I take a look?”
Chapter Ten
