Fugitive Fiancée (16 page)

“It's the only way I'll marry him.”

Paul looked sheepish. “Turns out that last prenuptial agreement was part of the problem, Rupert. Mimi didn't think it was very romantic.”

Rupert's gaze centered on his daughter. “I think we should talk about this.”

Mimi didn't have the strength to argue with him. Her stomach was twisted in knots from all the lies, and her head ached. “I'm very tired. I think I need to go lie down for a while.”

Rupert shook his head. “But you haven't even told me where you've been all this time. Or what you've been doing. I was worried sick about you.”

“I'll fill you in on the details, Rupert,” Paul said as Mimi turned and hastily left the room. She closed
the door behind her, effectively shutting out the sound of her fiancé's voice.

Her fiancé.

Mimi leaned her head against the door and closed her eyes. “Oh, Garrett, what am I going to do now?”

 

T
HREE DAYS LATER
, Garrett sat at his kitchen table with Shelby, Lana, and Michael. “So that's it,” he said. “The history of the Larrimore family.
Our
family.”

His three siblings silently stared at the documents spread across the table. Lana had the Calloway centennial book open in front of her. She looked at Garrett, tears gleaming in her eyes. “This is incredible. I feel like I found a small piece of myself that I didn't know was missing.” She pointed to the photograph. “I can see Michael in this little boy.”

“Our grandfather.” Shelby leaned over to study the picture. “Hans Larrimore.”

“Our name is Larrimore,” Michael said, shaking his head in wonderment. “And we're part German.”

Shelby picked up Garrett's teddy bear off the table. “Can you believe this toy belonged to our grandfather? And our father.”

“Gary Larrimore,” Lana said, rolling their father's name around on her tongue. “I wonder if you're named after him, Garrett.”

“We'll never know,” he said quietly. “Until we find her.”

He didn't have to explain who he meant. The room grew quiet again as all three of them thought about the mother they didn't remember. The woman who
had left them on the steps of Maitland Maternity twenty-five years ago.

“Maybe this is enough,” Shelby said softly, still holding the teddy bear in her hands. “Maybe we should respect her wishes and leave her alone.”

Garrett slammed his hand on the table. “No!”

All three of them jumped. Michael scowled at him. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

Garrett stood up, his chair scraping across the floor. “What about our wishes? What about what we want? Don't our feelings matter?”

“You don't have to yell,” Shelby snapped, setting the teddy bear on the table.

Michael rested his chin on his steepled fingers. “I suppose we could hire a private detective to go to Sagebrush County. There's a chance that someone in the area might know something about LeeAnn Larrimore.”

“I'll go there myself,” Garrett said, walking to the window. He'd looked out the window many times in the last three days. Too many times. Mimi wasn't coming back. It was time he accepted it and put her out of his mind.

“I still don't think we should rush into anything.” Shelby glanced at her watch. “Look, I know we've got a lot of decisions to make but I was supposed to meet Gray at the diner twenty minutes ago. How about supper at my house on Sunday? We can discuss it more then.”

Michael nodded. “Jenny and I will be there. I think Dylan and Gray should be there, too. This concerns all of us.”

Shelby picked up the book. “Can I take this with
me? I'd like to read it again. Give it a chance to really soak in this time.”

“Sure,” Lana said, then looked at her oldest brother. “You don't mind, do you, Garrett?”

He turned away from the window, deeply regretting his earlier outburst. “Of course not. Take anything you want.”

“Where did you get all this stuff, anyway?” Michael picked up their father's birth certificate. “I meant to ask you before, but I got too wrapped up in discovering the long-lost Larrimores.”

“Mimi found it.” It was the first time he'd spoken her name aloud since she'd left.

“Mimi?” Michael grinned. “Hey, is that the new ranch hand Lana was telling us about? I've got to meet her.”

“She's not here,” he replied in a clipped voice.

Lana stood up. “It's getting late, and you probably have chores to do.”

Shelby walked toward the door. “I'll expect everyone on Sunday. Six o'clock sharp.”

“Shelby,” Garrett called as she opened the back door. He walked to her and placed a kiss on her forehead. “Sorry I yelled.”

She smiled at him, then reached out to squeeze his hand. “Forgiven.”

Michael left shortly after Shelby, but Lana lingered in the kitchen.

“Do you want to stay for supper?” Garrett opened the refrigerator door and perused the contents. “I've got salami sandwiches on the menu.”

“Maybe next time. Dylan is expecting me home soon.” Lana fidgeted with the Bruner Bear, setting it on the table, then picking it up again.

Garrett closed the refrigerator door. “Is something wrong?”

“You tell me.”

He folded his arms across his chest, determined not to spill his pathetic story to his little sister. “I'm fine.”

“So that's why you blew up tonight?”

He frowned. “I already apologized for that.”

“I'm worried about you, Garrett.” She moved closer to him. “You look terrible. You haven't shaved and the kitchen sink is full of dirty dishes.”

“This from a woman who didn't own a vacuum for over a year.”

“That was when I was a student,” she explained in her own defense. “Besides, my next-door neighbor let me use hers.”

“I suppose I could buy a dishwasher,” Garrett mused.

She narrowed her eyes. “Stop trying to change the subject.”

“You were the one who brought up the dirty dishes.”

“And I guess I'm going to have to be the one to bring up Mimi, too.” She grabbed her purse off the back of a kitchen chair and reached inside. Then she held up a small newspaper clipping. “Did you see Bettina Collingsworth's latest column?”

He stared at the picture of Mimi. The black and
white photograph didn't begin to do justice to her beauty. The headline hit him like a kick in the gut.

 

Casville Heiress to Marry Saturday.

 

He read the item silently, each word burning into his brain.

Garrett closed his eyes, unable to bear reading any more.

“I don't understand any of this,” Lana said. “I thought her name was Banyon.”

He tossed the newspaper clipping onto the counter. “Apparently, she didn't want anyone to know about her connection to Rupert Casville.”

Her brow furrowed. “Well, whatever her name is, you two seemed so right for each other the night of the barbecue. And the way she looked at you, Garrett.” Lana shook her head. “It's not the way a woman should look at a man when she's planning to marry someone else in less than a month!”

“I don't want to talk about Mimi.”

“Good. Because I think this calls for action, not words.”

He arched a brow. “What exactly do you have in mind?”

“Go to her. Find out if this marriage is what she really wants.”

“Mimi made her feelings quite clear when she rode off this ranch with her fiancé.”

Lana met his gaze. “Look, big brother, don't take this the wrong way, but you're not the best judge of women.”

“Obviously.”

“That's not what I mean,” she replied. “You always see everything in black and white. But sometimes we can get lost in a sea of gray. That almost happened to me and Dylan. I'd hate to see it happen to you and Mimi.”

“You hardly even know her.”

Lana tipped up her chin. “I know she's the woman who found the past you've been searching for so desperately. I hear the longing in your voice whenever you say her name. And I can see what living without her for just a few short days has done to you.”

Garrett could feel the heat burn in his cheeks. Had his feelings for Mimi been that obvious? “What the hell do you want me to do? Beg her to come back to me?”

“How about just telling Mimi you love her?”

He raked one hand through his hair. “But I'm not the man she wants. I'm not a graduate of some fancy Ivy League university. I drive cattle instead of a Jaguar. I'm more familiar with manure than caviar.” He emitted a mirthless laugh. “I'd no more fit into her world than she'd fit into mine.”

“So you're just going to let her go?”

“She's the one who left.” He bit the words out more sharply than he'd intended.

Lana didn't say anything for a moment. Then she
reached out and gently touched his arm. “Sometimes people leave because they feel they don't have any other choice. I truly believe that's why our birth mother left us on that doorstep. The point is, you're not a helpless two-year-old anymore. You don't have to just watch Mimi walk away.”

“It's not that simple,” he said softly.

“Only because you're too stubborn and proud to make it simple.” Lana sighed, then she reached up to kiss his cheek. “I need to go. Just please think about what I said.”

Garrett didn't say anything. Instead he gave her a warm hug, then walked her to her car. But when he returned to the house, he couldn't keep from picking up the news clipping once more. Mimi looked different to him somehow. Remote. A world away.

Too far away to find her way back to him again.

M
IMI STOOD ALONE
in the anteroom of the chapel, watching the old wall clock silently tick down the last precious seconds of her freedom.

She wore a simple ivory dress with matching pumps, and no veil or jewelry. This wedding might be a sham, but she refused to masquerade as a blushing bride.

Thankfully, she'd convinced her father to invite only immediate family the second time around. He'd insisted on a small reception at the house, though, so she'd have to keep up the pretense for at least an hour after the ceremony.

She closed her eyes, reminiscing about how she'd spent another Saturday night. Garrett had cooked a spaghetti dinner, then they'd taken a moonlit ride to the south pasture to check the cattle. She remembered the way the breeze had ruffled his hair, and how straight and tall he'd sat in the saddle.

“Don't do this,” Mimi ordered herself, then opened her eyes. Dreaming about Garrett Lord wouldn't make this any easier. Just the opposite. It almost made her forget the reason, the very important reason, for going through with this wedding. Almost made her give in to the overwhelming temptation to kick off her high-heeled shoes and make a run for it.

A knock at the door put an end to her escape fantasy. Rupert stuck his head inside. “It's almost time.”

She took a deep breath. “I'm ready.”

She joined her father in the hallway, took his arm, and they walked silently toward the sanctuary. Sunlight streamed from the double glass doors of the chapel, and she could see Paul inside, waiting for her at the end of the long aisle. A middle-aged woman sat by the door, strumming softly on a harp.

Rupert gently squeezed her forearm. “This is it.”

Panic seized her, and she fought the urge to scream.

Her father took one step down the aisle, but Mimi couldn't move. She let go of his arm, then grabbed the door frame to steady herself.

“Wait,” she gasped, trying desperately to regain her equilibrium. “Just give me a moment.”

Rupert frowned, then whispered, “Don't you think Paul has waited long enough?”

“No,” said a deep voice behind them. “Not nearly long enough.”

Mimi whirled. “Garrett!”

Garrett nodded toward her father. “Will you excuse us?” Then he turned to Mimi and swept her up in his arms. “We need to talk.”

“No, Garrett,” she cried as he carried her toward the door. “I have to marry him.”

“Hey,” Paul shouted from inside the chapel, “what the hell is going on here?”

But Garrett didn't stick around long enough to give him an answer. With Rupert still sputtering behind them, he walked briskly out of the chapel and down the long row of steps.

Mimi blinked when she saw his horse tethered to
the handrail. “You rode Brutus all the way into Austin?”

“I thought we might need a quick getaway.” Garrett lifted her into the saddle, then loosened the reins.

The chapel door slammed open, and Paul strode down the steps two at a time, her father close behind him. But they were too late. Garrett swung up behind her and spurred the horse into a gallop. He held the reins in one hand. His other hand was firmly around her waist, keeping her safe.

Tears stung her eyes as they raced away from the chapel. She'd dreamed of some type of rescue every night for the past week. But this was only a short reprieve. She couldn't afford to run away again.

Not at the expense of her child.

“I have to go back,” she shouted, but either the wind or the noise of the traffic or his own stubbornness prevented him from hearing her.

They were several blocks from the chapel when Garrett finally slowed his horse. A pristine brick building stood before them, surrounded by a lush blanket of green grass and several trees.

Garrett helped Mimi off the horse, then jumped down, loosely wrapping the horse's reins around a low branch of a nearby pecan tree.

Mimi read the sign at the front of the building, then turned to Garrett. “The Maitland Maternity Clinic?”

“That's right.” He grabbed her hand and led her to the front step. “This is where Megan Maitland found me and my brother and sisters, with nothing but our first names and a note from our mother asking her to find us a good home.”

She looked at him. “Why did you bring me here?”

“Twenty-five years ago the most important woman in my life abandoned me. I didn't know why then, and I may never know. But I refuse to let it happen twice in one lifetime.” He moved closer to her, grabbing both her hands in his own. “I love you, Mimi Casville. I can't offer you a fancy house or a ritzy lifestyle, but I'll give you everything I have. Except my heart. That you already own.”

Tears spilled over her cheeks as she slowly shook her head. “I don't want to love you, Garrett, but I do. More than you'll ever know. I wish I didn't love you. I wish I'd never met you!”

Garrett tenderly brushed a stray curl off her cheek. “I don't think it was an accident that you showed up in my hayloft. I think it was fate. Now you just need to follow your heart.”

“Like Katherine MacGuire?” Mimi took a deep, shuddering breath. “She followed her heart, and looked what happened. She never came back.”

“A good thing, too.”

Mimi blanched. “What?”

“I discovered the rest of her story. Katherine MacGuire ran away from home, planning to marry Boyd Harrison. But she never found him. Instead, she fell in love with another man on the long journey to San Antonio. A man named Wilhelm Larrimore.”

Her eyes widened. “You mean…”

He nodded. “Katherine ‘Kate' MacGuire Larrimore was my great-grandmother. The woman in the picture with the freckles and the six children.”

“I don't believe it,” she breathed.

“I found their marriage certificate among all those documents you brought me, then did a little research of my own. Katherine never came back for her journal because her parents were evicted from the property shortly after she ran away. They ended up settling somewhere near Laredo.”

He took a step closer to her. “Don't you see, Mimi? Katherine was never meant to marry Boyd. But if she hadn't met him, she and Wilhelm probably never would have found each other.”

“Just like if I'd never met Paul, I wouldn't have found you.” Mimi leaned against the brick building, her eyes hot and tired. She wondered briefly if it was already too late. Had Paul sold his secret? “I have to go back.”

“I know you love me.” A muscle flexed in Garrett's jaw. “So tell me why you insist on marrying Renquist.”

She looked into his eyes. “Because my child's life depends on it.”

The door to Maitland Maternity opened, and a very pregnant woman waddled out, one hand pressed against the small of her back. She stared for a moment at the two of them, then at Brutus grazing on the front lawn.

“Come with me,” he said, pulling Mimi away from the entrance of the clinic. He stopped under a shady willow tree that concealed them from prying eyes.

“Tell me everything,” Garrett said, not touching her, but standing close enough that she could see the faint sun lines at the corners of his eyes and the shadow of beard on his jawline.

“I became pregnant when I was eighteen years old and a freshman in college,” she began, finally releasing the secret she'd kept buried inside of her for all these years. “The first time my boyfriend and I were together, we didn't use birth control. We were too caught up in the romance of the moment. But I soon found out that once is all it takes. Unfortunately, we were both too young and naive to realize that sometimes the consequences of our actions can last a lifetime.”

She looked at him, unable to read his implacable expression. “Anyway, by the time I was sure I was pregnant, my boyfriend was in Europe for the semester as part of a student exchange program. I thought he loved me, but all my letters and telephone calls to him went unanswered.”

“He didn't want the baby?” Garrett asked.

“He didn't even know about it. He was killed in an automobile accident in London before I ever got a chance to tell him. By then I was four months pregnant and definitely starting to panic. I decided to tell my father, since it would be impossible to hide my pregnancy from him much longer.”

Mimi closed her eyes, remembering that warm day in March. They'd gone together to the cemetery to put daffodils on her mother's grave. “I told him everything. Then I cried on his shoulder and told him I didn't know what to do. He insisted I get an abortion.”

Her throat grew tight at the memory. “I knew that wasn't the choice for me, but when I suggested adoption, my father exploded. He told me he'd never let
some stranger raise a Casville. He vowed to raise the baby himself before he ever let that happen. Back then I believed my father had the power to do anything he wanted. Sometimes I still do.”

Something flashed in Garrett's eyes, and it spurred her onward. “Yes, my baby could have had the Casville money. The Casville name. The Casville heritage. But at what cost?”

She sucked in a huge breath. “I grew up in a forty-room mansion, but most of the time I was alone. The cook fed me and the housekeeper baby-sat me while my father worked late at the office. Even before my mother died, their social calendar kept them too busy to spend much time with me.”

She repeated the phrase she'd heard her father utter so often while she was growing up. “‘When you're a Casville, you have an image to maintain.'”

She smiled through her tears. “You know how little girls sometimes dream they're really a princess and someone switched them at birth?” She didn't wait for him to reply. “Well, I used to dream I was really the cook's daughter and that someone had switched me at birth. That's when I first became interested in genealogy. I wanted to research the Casville family tree, because I was certain I'd find a mistake somewhere in there.”

Her legs gave way, and she slid onto the grass. Garrett took off his cowboy hat and sat beside her, his back against the tree.

“I wanted a different life for my baby,” she said softly. “I was only eighteen and knew nothing about children. Even worse, I knew my father would take
over. Raise the baby in his own image. He'd probably start by sending my child away to some fancy private boarding school.”

She swallowed hard. “I didn't want that. I wanted him to have two parents who would love him more than life itself. A father to take him camping and teach him baseball. A mother to read him bedtime stories and kiss all his worries away. A normal family. A happy childhood.”

She hesitated, but Garrett didn't say anything. The first frissons of apprehension skittered up her spine. “One of my favorite college professors had been desperately trying to have a baby with her husband for several years. It was common knowledge around campus. So I asked her if she wanted mine. We arranged a private adoption.”

She turned toward him. “Even now, I don't regret my decision. Joshua was born on August 26, 1991. I had to have a Cesarean section, but he was perfect.” She closed her eyes, the image of her baby so clear in her mind. “Beautiful.”

She took a deep breath. “I spent the summer in France with my college professor and her husband during the last trimester of my pregnancy. Bill and Dena are wonderful people. They were at the hospital in Paris when Joshua was born. Dena held him before I did.” Her throat tightened. “But I kissed him goodbye. And I told him that I loved him.”

Garrett reached out and brushed the wetness off her cheek. “What does all this have to do with your marrying Renquist?”

“I showed up in your hayloft after I found out that
Paul was being paid to marry me.” She looked at Garrett. “Now he knows about Joshua, and he's threatened to tell my father. Threatened to turn my son's happy life upside down unless I go through with the wedding.”

Garrett's brow furled. “Your father still doesn't know about the baby?”

She shook her head. “I told him I'd had the abortion in France. It's the only time in my life I've ever lied to him.” She looked into Garrett's eyes. “He never knew the truth. But after he was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, he began to talk about the baby. Wishing he'd encouraged me to keep it. He's become obsessed with having grandchildren. Especially a male heir to carry on the Casville legacy. If he knew about Joshua…” Her voice trailed off.

“Are you saying he'd really try to take him away from his adoptive parents?”

“I don't know,” she replied honestly. “But can I take that chance? And what if it comes down to me choosing sides? Would my son understand why I believe he should stay with his adopted parents? Or would he think I was just rejecting him? Again.”

“Does he think that now?” Garrett asked softly.

“I hope not. His parents planned to tell him the truth about his adoption from the beginning, even before he was old enough to fully understand.” She wiped away the last of her tears. “They've got pictures of me, and I gave them a complete family history. Probably much more than the poor kid will want to know.”

Garrett smiled at that.

“They'll tell him anything he wants to know as soon as he wants to know it.
If
he wants to know it. And in his own good time. Not mine. Not my father's.”

“So you were willing to marry a man you didn't love to protect your son?”

“Yes.” She tipped up her chin. “I still am.”

He scowled. “Like hell.”

She turned toward him, resisting the urge to wrap her arms around him. If she didn't stay strong now, she'd crumble completely later. “Don't you understand, Garrett? I love my son too much to let him get hurt.”

“And I love you too much to let you go.”

A spark of hope flared inside her. “Can you possibly wait for me? My marriage to Paul will be in name only. He's even hinted that he might be willing to get a divorce after a year or two. Especially with no prenuptial agreement.”