Rescue Me (Colorado Blues) (14 page)

Rory
stood with Gina on the porch and watched the big black car come slowly up the
driveway. He could hear her breath coming in short sharp gasps and he did his
best to soothe her with a hand on her back.

“I’m
so scared.”

“Don’t
be. They’re normal people like you and me, just loaded.”

The
shiny car pulled to a halt in front of the porch and the driver jumped out. He donned
his hat before opening the passenger door. He held it open, and leaned in to
help out the passenger. A tiny lady dressed in a dove-gray suit, with silver
hair swept up into a tight bun, stepped out on his arm. Her gaze zeroed in on
Fisher and then Gina before she turned to the interior of the car again and
took the hand of the gentleman inside. He shuffled out of the back and steadied
himself before looking their way. Once they made eye contact, Rory stepped
forward.

“Mr.
and Mrs. Bellingham. Welcome to the ranch. I’m Sheriff Rory Watson.”

“Yes,
I assumed you were.” Mrs. Bellingham looked past him and focused on the baby.
She lifted her chin and brushed past Rory toward where Gina stood. When she got
there she stopped and stared at Fisher. Rory and Mr. Bellingham followed and he
stood beside Gina again, his hand on her arm in support. “He’s the picture of our
Aden at that age, isn’t he Richard?” She looked at her husband as if asking for
confirmation then glanced back at the baby again.

“I
think you’re right, my dear. Hello, Ms. Taylor. It’s very good of you to allow
us to visit and meet this young man after all the drama we’ve caused you.” The
elderly gentleman kept his hand on his wife’s arm as if the contact would help.

“Call
me Gina. It’s a pleasure to meet you both and even though it wasn’t the best
thing in the world, we do understand. Would you like to come inside and have a
coffee? I made cookies this morning.”

 Mrs.
Bellingham glanced at her husband and then back at Gina. “If you’re sure it’s
no bother, we’d love that, thank you.”

Gina
led them inside and handed Fisher over to Rory who guided them into the lounge
and offered their visitors a seat. They sat opposite him together on the couch
and gazed at Fisher, looks of wonder on their faces. “I’ll just be a moment.
Feel free to look around.”

“Oh,
I think I can see all I want to from here thank you very much.” She squeezed
her husband hand and smiled. “I can’t believe we’re really here and seeing our
grandson for the first time.”

“I’m
sure Gina didn’t plan it that way either.” Rory had no intention of letting
these people get the better of her, no matter how much money they had.

“Oh,
please don’t misunderstand me, Sheriff. I’m excited as you can imagine. When we
finally found out Aden was dead, our world crumbled, didn’t it Richard?”

“I’m
sure you can understand that, Sheriff. You only want what’s best for your child
but things don’t always go according to plan.” He stood up to take the tray
from Gina when she walked back into the room and placed it on the small table
by the window. Once she had served everyone coffee and cookies, she sat down on
the arm of the chair next to Rory.

“I
was just saying to the sheriff here that you might wish for the best for your
child although that doesn’t always happen.” Mr. Bellingham sipped his coffee
before continuing. “Aden rebelled as I’m sure you know by now. There was a lot
of pressure on him as far as he could see, and I don’t think he was ready for
it. He would one day take over the companies and it didn’t sit well on his
shoulders, all the pressure and decisions.” He patted his wife’s hand when she sniffed
back a sob. “We understood how he felt and decided to let him have a break as
it were. I promised him he could have twelve months to sort himself out and
live like a normal teenager before we took him into the company and groomed
him.”

His
wife cleared her throat and spoke. “He threatened to leave us forever
otherwise. We couldn’t bear the thought of losing him so we gave him what he
wanted. We never saw him again.”

“I’m
sorry, truly I am. I knew he was troubled but I didn’t know why.” Gina broke a cookie
in half and gave it to Fisher. “I was very lonely when I met your son and I
think we were good for each other, at least at first anyway.”

“I
found it very hard to believe he would turn to drugs and we have to apologize
for what was said between the lawyers. I suppose any parent wouldn’t want to be
the cause of their child’s problems, and to blame someone else is much easier
on the ego.”

“Look,
I can understand that, and even though I hated what you thought, I don’t hold
it against you. After seeing my father hit rock bottom due to drugs, it’s the
last thing I’d do.” She leaned into Rory for comfort and he slid his arm around
her waist. She was being very brave about this meeting with Adens parents. He’d
held her last night she hadn’t slept worrying about what could happen today,
how they would react to her or how upsetting it could get for them all. He had
almost canceled because she was so nervous.

“Anyway,
the reason we are here is to get to know Fisher and you also, Gina. We have lost
time to make up for and we’re not getting any younger as you can see. I hope
you don’t hold grudges because we’re so excited and want to spend a fair bit of
time coming to visit if that’s alright with you both.” Mrs. Bellingham smiled encouragingly
and Rory felt sorry for her.

“Um,
sure. I don’t see any reason why not. I don’t have any other family apart from
Rory’s brothers and father, so it would be nice to see you. That’s okay, isn’t
it, honey?” Gina looked at him, uncertainty in her eyes.

“Whatever
makes you happy. It’ll be nice for Fisher to have plenty of family. And please
call me Rory. Sheriff is a bit of a mouthful all the time.”

Their
visitors seemed to relax at this statement and the tension left the room.

“I’m
so glad you both feel that way. We’ve been on tender hooks, haven’t we, Richard?
I mean, after trying to take your son from you, we didn’t think you’d be open
to us visiting. Regardless, we had to give it a try.”

“Yes
we have. Especially my dear wife here. She was terrified thinking it wouldn’t
possibly all come together. It’s been hard since Aden died and to find out he
had a child is the best news we’ve had all year.”

***

“How
did you find out he died?” Gina held her breath and hoped she wasn’t bringing
up something that should stay in the past.

“When
we couldn’t find him and he never returned home after the agreed time off, we
hired a private investigator. Nothing turned up until we remembered he liked to
call himself by my mother’s maiden name when he didn’t want anyone to know who
he was. He hadn’t done it for years and we’d almost forgotten about it. Anyway,
the police let us know what happened and that in turn pointed us in your
direction, Gina. Your old boarding house friend told us you’d packed the car
and driven to Colorado to start a new life.”

“I
see.” She cleared her throat. “How is she? Do you know?”

“We
eased her burden financially when we found out she was involved in helping with
Fisher when he was born so you could work. Poor thing was beside herself and
tried to refuse but if not for her, we may never have found either of you. She
did ask if we caught up if we would pass on a message from her.” Mrs.
Bellingham opened her purse and took out a crushed envelope, rising to pass it over.

Gina
took it and put it on the chair beside her for later.

“There
is something else we brought for you too. I hope you don’t mind, we wanted to
try and make up for what you’ve been through.” He held up his hand when Gina
tried to stop him. “Please let me speak. If we’d known about you and Fisher to
start with, you would have been well looked after, instead you brought him into
the world in poverty and I can’t forget that. This in no way buys anything from
you or is to make you feel like you owe us something, you don’t. It isn’t a
bribe to let us see Fisher either, I just wanted to make that very clear.” He
cleared his throat and his wife reached for his hand. “It is merely Aden’s life
insurance, which we feel is rightfully yours anyway. If we’d known about you,
it would have been yours earlier considering you were together and had a
child.” He stood up and took a small black folder from his jacket pocket, and
handed it over.

Gina
looked at Rory before taking it. He nodded his head and she looked at the bank
book. When she opened it to the first page, her eyes went wide and she shook
her head. “I can’t take this.”

“Gina,
please be sensible, my dear.” Richard leaned forward. “If you had been brought
into the family when you had Fisher and Aden hadn’t died, you would be
incredibly rich by now. It’s a fact of our life which we need you to understand.
We’re rich and some of that must go to you and our grandson. There is no one
else to leave it to. When we pass on, Fisher is going to be a very wealthy
boy.”

“I
don’t want your money. That’s not why I said you could come here today.” She
glanced at Rory, panic starting to set in.

“We
know that, dear. You’ll have to get used to it. There are opportunities for
Fisher that you couldn’t possibly imagine.”

“I
don’t want you to take over my son. What if he wants to be a cowboy like his
uncle or a sheriff like his father?” She licked her lips and glanced at her
baby boy. “What if he doesn’t want your money?”

“Then
that is his decision to make when he’s of age, my dear. I will make sure that a
management committee is in place to guide him or take over if he decides
corporate life is not for him.” Richard looked between Gina and Rory. “The main
thing is this, I want you both to be taken care of and have everything you
need.”

“I
can support my family, thanks anyway.” Rory’s shoulder stiffened and it didn’t
go unnoticed by the Bellinghams.

“We
know that, Rory, and we aren’t trying to take over or stand on your toes. I
want to make sure that if for any reason, Gina or Fisher need anything at all,
they can have it. Put the money away and don’t touch it if you want, Gina. Just
know that it’s there as a safety net.”

“Thank
you. I appreciate it.” Gina took the soggy cookie from Fisher and wiped his
fingers. When he wriggled to get down, Rory let him go. The little boy looked
at his mother before holding his hand out to his grandparents.

“It’s
okay, baby. You can go and say hello.”

Arabella
and Richard sat with their gazes locked onto Fisher as he tottered over toward
them, gurgling and spitting out unintelligible words as he went. He reached
them and pointed his pudgy little fingers at his grandmother’s gold charm
bracelet. She held it up let him fiddle with the charms. After a couple of
minutes his interest changed to the beads around her neck. Fisher held his arms
out. “Up up.”

Arabella
looked at Gina, tears in her eyes waiting for permission to lift up her
grandson. Gina smiled at her and wiped away a tear of her own before sliding
down into Rory’s lap to watch her son get to know his grandparents.

“Are
you sure that’s what you want?” Rory stared at Gina over their morning cup of
coffee. “We can get married tomorrow you know. I have the license and you have
the dress, and shoes, and sexy underwear.”

She
smiled at him, a serene smile that wasn’t possible for her before. Now with her
future firmly planned out with no hiccups or court cases coming her way, Gina
was a relaxed woman and Rory liked it that way.

“Well,
we could go ahead and get married now but there’d be something missing and I
don’t think that’s fair. I want your brothers to be here for you. I think it’s
important.”

“Are
you sure?” He reached for her hand. “I mean, Chance managed to get a half a
conversation in a few days ago with Evan, but I still haven’t heard from Luke.
He might not call back for days or weeks.”

“I’m
sure. We’re together anyway so it doesn’t matter. And now Fishers Nana and Pop
don’t want to drag us through court, we can take our time.”

“Did
I hear Arabella say she wanted to come to the wedding?”

Gina
smiled. “Yes, you did. I hope you don’t mind. They’re so very easy to get on
with, I seriously don’t know what Aden’s problem was with them. They’re the
sweetest things and they’re going to be a big part of our life so I’m more than
happy to have them there on the day.”

“You
didn’t have to live with them, he did. If you’re sure it’s what you want to do,
I’m fine with it. Don’t think you’re putting this off for very long. I want a
ring on your finger, my darling girl. The sooner the better.”

“As
soon as you nail down your brothers, we’ll do it and if you don’t mind, I’d
really like to get married in that little church in town. It’s so very pretty,
Rory.”

“For
you my love, anything.”

The
End.

COMING
SOON

THE
DOCTORS HUSBAND - Colorado Blues Book Three

Dr
Denver Sinclair has her sights set on the top job as hospital administrator but
Daddy expects her to produce the next generation he thinks he so richly
deserves.

Jaded
and disillusioned Dr Evan Watson needs a change of scene - only his Colorado
mountains can give him.