The Inheritance Read online

  “You didn’t know?” Distress vibrated through the question as realization sank in. “Oh, Rafe, I’m so sorry. If I’d only known, I would have prepared you for this. I’d just assumed that you knew—”

  Rafe still wasn’t sure what his aunt was talking about. “That I knew what?”

  Megan was aware that her children and Hugh were closing ranks around them, drawing as close physically as they did emotionally whenever there was a crisis. “That your father was married before.”

  Rafe took a deep breath before saying anything. He was obviously pulling himself together and regaining control, although Greer could see the muscle in his jaw still tensing.

  “No, I didn’t know he was married before. My father didn’t exactly keep us in the loop about his life.”

  Now that he thought of it, Rafe realized that there had been hints dropped by his mother, though nothing had ever been specifically said about the existence of another wife. And certainly not about the existence of another family.

  His eyes washed over first the man, then the woman. Rafe supposed he could see some resemblance to his father. R.J., was it? R.J. looked a little like an old photograph he’d once seen of his father when the senior Maitland was younger. And Anna had his eyes, although Rafe’d never seen that degree of kindness in his father’s eyes. Mostly there had been scorn or anger.

  Because everyone was staring at him, he grappled with his discomfort at the revelation. He looked at Megan. “Any more brothers and sisters hiding somewhere I should know about?”

  She offered him a sympathetic smile, immediately putting herself in his position and empathizing. “None that I know of.”

  Which wasn’t altogether reassuring, given his father’s penchant for showgirls and seduction, Rafe thought. But he nodded, taking his aunt at her word. Instinct told him she wouldn’t lie to him. Which made him feel a little guilty, but that was another story. He had enough to deal with right now.

  “Hell of a surprise, isn’t it?” R.J. asked, putting out his hand toward his newly discovered sibling. “It is for me, too. Most baby brothers arrive in diapers, not boots.” He nodded at the worn cowboy boots Rafe was wearing to underscore his point.

  In the midst of the emotional turmoil, Greer realized she’d forgotten to get Rafe a pair of appropriate shoes. Another oversight. She wasn’t usually this disorganized, not when it came to details that were related to her job. She had to get centered, she ordered herself silently. But ever since she’d seen Rafe walking toward her, she seemed to have misplaced her efficient manner as well as several other things.

  “I’m Anna,” the woman said to Rafe in case he hadn’t gotten her name. She playfully elbowed her older brother out of the way. “Welcome to the family.” She bypassed the hand he’d put out and threw her arms around him in a warm, welcoming embrace. “There’s always room for one more.”

  Still somewhat numbed, he figured that was a matter of opinion. As far as he was concerned, it was already far too crowded.

  Resigned, Rafe remained where he was as both R.J. and Anna ushered forward their respective spouses. After that, Megan commandeered him again and followed up with introductions to his cousins and cousins-in-law. He supposed that he should be grateful that Megan had decided that for the time being, his cousins’ children wouldn’t be present.

  Not that he was about to remember any of the names or faces that swam by him, he thought, feeling overwhelmed and definitely outnumbered.

  “And that’s all of us,” Megan finally declared, giving Rafe’s arm an affectionate, reassuring squeeze.

  “Don’t worry.” A willowy brunette he recalled as being introduced to him as Megan’s daughter, Abby, came up to his other side. “There won’t be a quiz for at least a week.”

  The same tall, thin butler who had admitted them came into the room to announce that dinner was being served. His ordeal, Rafe thought with resignation, was only just beginning.

  “Shall we?” Megan asked, once more hooking her arm through Rafe’s. Without waiting for his agreement, she began leading him to the dining room.

  “He looks a little overwhelmed,” Abby commented to Greer, her voice low. Hugh surprised her by coming up to her other side and taking her arm. Together, they all left the living room for the dining area. “I would be, too, if I was meeting this crowd for the first time,” Abby was saying. “We never gave Rafe a chance to say more than three words.” She looked at Bethany. “Is this his baby?”

  Greer had almost forgotten she was still holding the toddler. Bethany had dozed through most of the excitement.

  “No, this is his—” What did she call Bethany until things were ironed out and became official? Greer hadn’t a clue. She turned to an archaic word that didn’t begin to reflect the depth of feeling she knew was involved. “His ward, Bethany.”

  “Ward?” Hugh’s interest was aroused as he looked down at the baby.

  Abby smiled, lightly running her hand over the downy head. “You’re too little to be something that cold, aren’t you, Beth?” She raised her eyes to Greer’s face. “She’s beautiful.”

  For reasons she couldn’t begin to fathom, Greer felt pride flicker through her at the compliment. It didn’t begin to make any sense to her, since she had no real ties to either Bethany or Rafe, but it was there, anyway, bright and warm.

  “You think all babies are beautiful,” Jake teased, coming up behind them. He placed a friendly hand on his older sister’s shoulder.

  Abby sniffed. “Well, they are.” She looked at Greer for support. “Aren’t they?”

  Mrs. Malone had told anyone who would listen that she’d been the plainest baby ever to arrive at the orphanage. The woman’s voice still rang in her head sometimes. Plain she was born and plain she will die. It was a terrible legacy to carry around, Greer thought. She’d never managed to get out from under it.

  “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen all the babies in the world.”

  Jake laughed, tickled. “Good answer.”

  In the dining room, Megan relinquished her hold on Rafe, waving him to a seat. Crossing to Greer now, she swatted her ex-CIA operative son back.

  “Don’t start flirting with her, Jake. You’re a married man now. And besides, she’s spoken for.” Megan exchanged looks with Hugh before tapping on the side of a glass with her fork to get everyone’s attention, no easy feat, given the level of the din in the room. “Everyone, I have an announcement.” Eyes turned her way as conversations dissolved or were placed temporarily on hold. “I got so excited introducing Rafe to everyone and everyone to Rafe I forgot to tell you all that in the true spirit of the Marrying Maitlands, Rafe and Greer have become engaged.”

  The others, seated at the long dining table, exchanged incredulous looks.

  She knew what they were thinking, Greer thought. That they couldn’t see someone who looked like Rafe tying himself for life to someone as plain as she was. Though the engagement was entirely a ruse, the reaction she perceived still bothered her. She supposed that made her shallow, but she couldn’t seem to block it out.

  Abby got over her surprise first. “Well, I think it’s wonderful.” Taking her wineglass, she raised it high. “Here’s to love, wherever and how it may find you.” She looked at her husband beside her before continuing. Her smile was sincere as it took in both Greer and Rafe. “I hope you’re both very happy together.”

  Taking her place at the table beside Rafe, Greer mimicked the gesture and lifted up her glass in a toast. This was getting out of hand, she thought. Now it was a battalion of Maitlands she was lying to. Where was this going to end?

  “So I guess this is love at first sight at work?” Connor, Megan’s oldest son, asked.

  Guilt flushed over her. Greer looked to see if Connor was smirking, but to her surprise he seemed sincere in his question.

  “No,” Megan corrected him, “actually Greer informs me that this is the second time around for them.” Her warm smile widened. “They had a summer romance some years ago.”


  “Really?” Anna asked, leaning forward, her eyes bright. “Where, when?”

  “You’ll have to forgive Anna,” R.J. teased. “Her eyes light up at the slightest hint of romance.”

  “Like I’m the only one.” Anna looked at her older brother pointedly before shifting her gaze to include his wife.

  R.J. inclined his head and laughed, retreating. “Point taken.”

  “Cease and desist, you two. This isn’t about you,” Abby told them, then looked at Greer. “So tell us,” she urged.

  On the spot, Greer had no choice but to repeat the story she’d told Megan earlier, adding a layer here, a layer there, trying desperately to remember what she’d read that one time she’d taken Rachel’s diary and hidden with it in her room. She’d learned to live vicariously, beginning to resign herself even at that young age to the fact that love was something that was never going to find her.

  As she told her tale, Greer kept her fingers crossed that no one knew her age. There was a five-year discrepancy between her and Rafe, and though it might not mean that much now, it would have meant a great deal back then.

  Throughout her brief recitation, she noticed that Rafe remained silent. She couldn’t help wondering what, if anything, was going on in his mind about these lies that were multiplying faster now than rabbits. The initial lie was his, but she was adding to it, giving it breadth and life, and she couldn’t help feeling immensely deceitful, even though she was doing it for all the right reasons.

  “Where are you two going to settle down after the wedding?” Jake asked when she finished filling them in.

  “Does this mean Mother’s going to have to break in a brand-new assistant?” R.J. asked before she had a chance to answer.

  Not that she could answer. This was a detail that hadn’t occurred to her. She looked at Rafe. They needed to talk. Extensively, before more questions they were unprepared for came their way.

  Noting that she’d suddenly been rendered speechless, Rafe came to Greer’s rescue. She was coming through far better than he’d imagined and he owed it to her to get her off the hook.

  “We haven’t worked everything out yet,” Rafe told them, wiping the fine layer of applesauce from all of Bethany’s fingers with a cloth napkin as he talked. Megan had had a high chair brought in and placed at the table at his side. The woman apparently thought of everything. “Right now, we’re just taking this one day at a time.”

  Megan nodded her approval. “Very sensible.” She put down her fork, turning to her nephew. “And when the time comes, you can have the wedding here.” She looked at Anna across the table. “I’m sure Anna would love to take care of the details.”

  By her wide smile, Greer could tell that Anna would like nothing better. “You’re talking my language.”

  She’d forgotten that Anna was a wedding planner. Her mind a blank, Greer forced a grateful smile to her lips. She didn’t dare look at Rafe right now, afraid that her distress might come to the surface for the others to notice.

  “You really don’t have to put yourselves out this way, Mrs. Maitland.”

  “Nonsense, you’re family—or will be once the vows are taken. And the Maitlands love to do things in a big way, don’t we—people?”

  Jake caught the near slip as he knew the others did. “You were going to say ‘children,’ weren’t you, Mother?” he chided teasingly.

  Trapped, Megan saw no reason to deny it. “Well, you are, you know. You are my children.” Her gaze took in the entire table except for the man at her left. “All of you, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Megan looked at Rafe. He hadn’t said very much during this entire exchange and she thought she knew the reason why. Though only a distant relation to Connor by virtue of the fact that Clyde, Connor’s natural father, was a distant relation to the Maitlands, Rafe and Connor were very much alike. Connor played his emotions very close to the chest and, so it seemed, did Rafe.

  “I’m sorry, we’ve embarrassed you,” she guessed. “You’ll have to forgive us, Rafe, we take some getting used to.” Her hand over his, she patted it, thinking how, months earlier, she’d assured Connor in just this fashion when he’d finally made his identity known to the others after having been lost to the family for nearly forty years. “But we’re a very affectionate, emotional group and we do mean well.”

  R.J. laughed, taking a sip of his wine before saying, “Which is Mother’s way of saying, put up with it if we butt in. Maybe the man wants a small wedding or to get married in the middle of the desert, under the stars with only the cacti as witnesses. Give him a little room before you start making plans, Mother.”

  Instead of arguing the point or taking umbrage at her son’s gentle reproach, Megan inclined her head toward Rafe. “He’s right, I should back off.” As was typical of her, Megan took on the entire blame for the situation getting out of hand. “But we do mean well,” she repeated.

  Something told Rafe that she was not merely feeding him rhetoric, but meant that from the bottom of her heart. Again, he found himself liking the woman. Just the way Greer had promised that he would.

  “I bet you’re glad that’s all over with,” Greer commented as they began to walk toward the guesthouse together. It was probably the longest three and a half hours he’d ever spent, she guessed, although she’d had trouble reading his expression during the course of the evening. He was certainly playing the part of the long lost nephew who was glad to be back in the bosom of his family well. If she hadn’t known any better, she would have said that he actually meant it.

  Rafe laughed quietly to himself at her observation. The baby was tucked against his chest. Bethany had fallen asleep shortly after dinner and had spent the next hour and a half nestled against Megan, who had taken her into her arms right after dessert. If he tried, he could still detect some of his aunt’s scent on the baby. He realized that, for some reason, the light fragrance gave him a sense of peace.

  “I’ve been more comfortable,” he admitted with a half shrug, watching the baby to make sure that he didn’t accidentally wake her. “Though I guess they’re not so bad.”

  She thought that was rather a paltry judgment for the Maitlands. “By and large, they’re the finest bunch of people I’ve ever met.”

  He slowed his already slow pace. The night was warm and the stars were out, and for once he was in no hurry to be alone again just yet. “You’re pretty sold on them, aren’t you?”

  She shrugged, knowing that in his eyes she probably seemed pandering or subservient. But it wasn’t like that. She truly liked the family she’d observed from the sidelines these last few months at the clinic as Megan’s chief assistant. She liked the way they were all independent but immediately banded together whenever there was any sign of trouble. She would have given anything to have been part of that. Even by proxy.

  Greer smiled to herself, thinking of her situation. Maybe, in a way, she was. Until, of course, the engagement ruse was over.

  But for now, she could pretend…

  “Very,” she answered. She glanced back toward the house and saw that Megan was standing on the patio that overlooked the rear of the property, with Hugh beside her. They made a nice couple, she thought. Megan waved at them. Greer waved back. “I guess Mrs. Maitland wants to see you safely home.”

  She indicated the main house and Megan when Rafe looked at her quizzically.

  His own parents had let him do what he wanted when he wanted at a very young age. At first he’d thought of it as freedom, then later recognized it for what it was: apathy on his father’s part. His mother had cared, but she’d been so wrapped up in her own problems that she had viewed his absence as something to be grateful for. He was one less problem she had to deal with. It felt odd to have someone care what he was doing now that he was twenty-five.

  He nodded toward the house. “She’s going to expect us to kiss good night.”

  Butterflies piloted huge jets in her stomach. Greer could feel each one of the hairs on h
er head as she turned back to face him.

  “Then I guess we had better give her what she expects.” Had that come from her? She hardly felt her lips moving.

  A smile curved his mouth as Rafe looked at her. “I guess.”

  Shifting the sleeping baby to his other side, Rafe cupped the back of Greer’s head with his hand and brought her to him. Their eyes met a second before he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her.

  And ripped open the sky.

  Chapter 7

  Greer caught her breath.

  And then had it snatched away from her again.

  Every butterfly-piloted jet flying in her stomach instantly crashed and went up in flames. The longing that she felt spring up within her had its roots in something that had been created in fantasy when she’d been a lonely child. It had been held in abeyance all these years. Waiting for the right daydream, the right man.

  Waiting for him.

  Knowing it was wrong, powerless to stop it, Greer could feel herself melting in the heat of Rafe’s kiss as it unfurled and spread out to every single space within her body. Claiming it.

  Claiming her.

  Without meaning to, without being fully aware of what she was doing, she slipped her hands around his neck and leaned into the kiss. Leaned into his iron-hard, sizzling body. Determined to absorb every moment, every single sensation.

  He’d made no conscious decision to do it, yet Rafe found himself deepening the kiss. And liking it. Liking the rush that overwhelmed him as the seconds ticked by, slipping into eternity. His hand slipped from cupping her head to caressing her back, pressing her to him.

  He’d seen lightning striking a tree once, bringing it down within moments. But lightning always gave some kind of a warning and rarely came flashing out of nowhere. There’d been no warning here. Not really. A vague suggestion perhaps when he’d accidentally brushed his lips over Greer’s earlier in the day.