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“As far as I’m concerned, he could have done something a lot worse...although what he did do was pretty damn bad.”
“You can say that again. I’m still trying to figure out how he did it. How was he able to time it just right to send those text messages to my and Dylan’s phones?”
“Who knows? At the time Dad had some insalubrious types on his payroll. People known to do whatever they were hired to do. But remember, that was then.”
She lifted a brow. “And now?”
“And now he’s an old man trying to come to terms with his true identity.”
She knew what Garth meant. Finding out his true relations to the Westmorelands and accepting that truth hadn’t been easy for her father.
“And he’s also trying like hell to marry the woman he let get away twenty-nine years ago,” Garth added. “The only woman I’m convinced he’s ever loved. A woman he knows he will lose if he doesn’t make things right with their daughter.”
Charm shrugged. “He would never lose Mom. She loves him as much as he loves her. She just wants to make sure he’s changed. Like you said, what he did to me and Dylan happened ten years ago, but I’m still angry and hurt about it.”
“Have you talked to Dylan?”
“No. At the end of our last conversation he let me know he didn’t want to have anything to do with me.”
“People say things in anger, Charm. Things they might regret later.”
“Dylan meant it, trust me. I was going to play him like Bart played us. I tried apologizing, but he wouldn’t accept my apology.”
“Just like you’re not accepting Bart’s?”
She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it. He was right. Just like she wasn’t accepting Bart’s.
Bart glanced up when his butler entered the study. “Yes, Seals, what is it?”
“There’s someone here to see you.”
Bart frowned. “Who is it?”
“A man by the name of Dylan Emanuel.”
Surprise touched Bart’s face and he released a grateful sigh as he stood. “Please show him in.”
Twenty-Five
In the deep recesses of her sleepy mind Charm heard music. It was the same song Dylan had sung each morning when he serenaded her beneath her window. She was having a beautiful dream. She knew it because she was no longer on the Red Flame Ranch but was back in Alaska in her bed.
She shifted positions and slowly opened her eyes to see daylight filtering through the blinds. She was about to close her eyes again when she realized the music was still playing. How could that be? How could music from a dream still flow through her ears while awake?
She glanced at her bedroom window and a nervous shiver raced through her. After quickly getting out of bed she went to the window, threw back the curtains and looked down. Dylan stood beneath her window serenading her with his guitar.
Grabbing her robe off the chair, she slid it on and raced down the stairs and flew through the front door. He placed his guitar aside and opened his arms to her and she ran right into them. Before she could ask anything, he captured her lips in a Dylan Emanuel kiss.
When he finally released her mouth, she clung to him as tightly as if he were her lifeline. All she could think about was that he was here. In Alaska. “I’m sorry for what I did, Dylan.”
He pulled back and looked at her, swiping a tear from her eyes with the tip of his finger. “And I’m sorry, too, for handling it the way I did. I love you so much, Charm. I always have and I always will.”
When he glanced around and saw that several of her neighbors were either peeping out the window or sticking their heads out their doors, he said, “Let’s go inside so as not to give your neighbors anything to talk about.”
She smiled up at him. “Okay.”
Placing the strap of his guitar across his shoulder he took her hand and they went inside. When the door closed behind them, he placed his guitar aside and pulled her into his arms again. He cradled her face in his hands. “I love you, Charm. We’re no longer teenagers and will do things right this time.” After sweeping her into his arms he carried her over to the sofa and sat down with her in his lap.
“When did you get to Alaska? How did you know where I lived?” she asked excitedly.
