THE COWBOY SHE COULDN'T FORGET (15 page)

“Oh, Vance.”

He shifted closer. “I care about you, Ana.” He brushed his mouth cross hers. Once. Twice. “Do you want me to show you how much?”

She sucked in a breath. “Showing is good.”

His mouth closed over hers, and he wrapped his arms around her waist and drew her against him. She whimpered and slid her hands up his chest, combing her fingers through his hair as she deepened the kiss. Finally he broke away.

His gaze met hers. “I love you, Analeigh Slater. I think I fell for you at fourteen, and never recovered.”

“Oh, Vance, I love you so much.” She rose up on her toes and kissed him again. “And I don’t want you to ever recover from loving me. Because I never have. I know now that I loved you back then, too.”

He cupped her face. “I don’t plan to. And because of that love, I needed to give you back this land.”

Ana hesitated, but knew they were both being honest, so she needed to say what she wanted. “No, we have to share it.” She hesitated. “What were you planning to do with this meadow?”

He took her back to the window. “In a few years, I want to build a home here. Maybe start a small herd of Herefords, but my main love is horses, both breeding and training them.”

“Funny, that’s pretty much what I want to do, too.”

He grinned at her, and a warm shiver raced through her. “I thought you had a career in town.”

“I can multitask. I’m a Slater. There’s ranching in my blood.”

“I think there’s a lot of stubbornness, too.”

She loved the feel of Vance’s arms around her. “And I don’t plan on making anything easy for you, either. I wouldn’t want you to get bored with me.”

He grew serious. “That would never happen. I can’t imagine my life without you in it, Ana.” He smiled, but couldn’t hide the nervousness. “I want to wake up every day with you. Live right here on this land where your ancestors settled a hundred years ago. I want children with your blue eyes and incredible beauty.” He sank down on one knee on the old wooden floor. “Analeigh Maria Slater, will you marry me?”

Okay, that did it. She couldn’t stop the tears as she nodded. “Oh, yes.” She knelt down and wrapped her arms around Vance’s neck. “Yes! Oh, yes, Vance, I’ll marry you.”

He kissed her, and by the time they broke apart, they were breathless. “Later, we’ll go into Dillon and pick out a ring.”

She could hardly wait to do that, then she remembered. “Oh, Colt comes home tomorrow. Maybe we should tell him first.”

Vance smiled as they got to their feet. “Your father already knows how I feel about you.” He grinned. “I think a better idea is staying here and enjoying the daylight we have left.” He backed her up against the new double bed. “Don’t you think we should celebrate our upcoming wedding?”

“As long as it’s a private celebration.”

His head lowered to hers. “Whatever the lady wants.”

She took a teasing bite of his lip. “This lady wants you.”

“I aim to please.”

Ana wanted this time with her man in her special place. Now they’d both found somewhere they belonged.

Somewhere they could begin a life together, looking forward to another generation, in this magical place.

EPILOGUE

T
HE
NEXT
MORNING
in the meadow, Vance and Ana walked out of the cabin. He drew his future bride into his arms and kissed her in the bright sunlight.

“I like how you say good-morning,” she purred.

“And I liked how you said good-night.” Vance recalled how he’d held Ana until dawn, and soon, they would be able to start their life together. “I’d keep you here longer, but I’m afraid they’ll send out a search party.”

He reluctantly released her, and they mounted the animals he’d saddled earlier, and headed toward the ranch. Once they arrived at the corral, several men looked in their direction.

Vance didn’t care that everyone knew they’d spent the night together. Ana was going to be his wife, and if he had anything to say about it, they’d have a lot more stolen moments at the cabin. He had to agree with her, the meadow was magical.

“I think our secret’s out,” she said.

“You’re not my secret, Ana. You’re going to be my wife.” He grinned. “And I want to shout it to the world.”

Smiling, she climbed off her horse. “Well, my husband-to-be, I’d like to
shout
it to my family first. Do you mind?”

He came around Rusty. “Of course we should tell Colt and your sisters first.” He stared into her blue eyes, and nearly lost it. He pulled her close. “You want me to tell them what a lucky guy I am? How much I love you?”

She reached up and touched his cheek. “No, just keep telling
me.
” She brushed a kiss against his mouth. “Come on, let’s go up to the house.”

Once in the barn, they handed their horses over to Jake. The young man gave them a big smile and walked off with the mounts. In fact, they got several greetings along with smiles as they made their way to the house.

“I guess we never discussed what my job is,” Vance said as they approached.

Ana stopped. “We want you to have your job back, of course. The Lazy S can’t survive without you.”

He loved the ranch, but he didn’t just want to work for Slaters. “I think maybe I should invest in the operation.”

She paused. “What do you mean?”

“If I’m going to be part of this family, I should contribute more. Make an investment in the future.”

“You mean like money?”

He nodded. “I’m not some broken-down cowboy. I could invest in a few broodmares. I’ve managed to save some over the years.”

She smiled, liking the idea. “That’s nice to know. But you already own part of this ranch.” When he started to dispute it, she raised a hand. “Why don’t we discuss this with Colt?”

With that decided, they made their way up the drive to the back door and found Kathleen in the kitchen.

The older woman folded her arms over her chest. “I take it you couldn’t get to a phone to tell me that you weren’t coming home?”

Vance pulled Ana into a tight embrace. “I guess we were thinking about other things.”

“It better be to tell me that you two have come to your senses.”

Vance kissed Ana. “I think you can say that. How do you feel about helping with a wedding?”

Tears sprang to the housekeeper’s eyes. “I’ve been waiting a long time for that to happen.” She hugged Ana and then Vance. “Maybe that will get your sisters home.”

Ana gasped. “Oh, no! Dad! We need to go get him.” She checked her watch. “I have to shower first.”

Kathleen held up her hands. “No need. Wade is escorting him home, along with Joel. You two just get cleaned up and give Colt the good news when he gets here. I think if anything will make him happy, this will.” She rubbed her hands together. “Oh, it’s going to be a good day. Now, you two run upstairs and get showered. I’ll keep your breakfast warm.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Vance took Ana by the hand and they hurried through the house to the stairs, hearing Kathleen’s words about no dallying. He stopped on the landing and kissed Ana. “I’m happy Colt is arriving home today, but I wanted to keep you all to myself for a while longer. You don’t know how badly I want to steal you away and head back to the meadow.”

Ana’s gaze searched Vance’s handsome face. She couldn’t believe how much she loved this man. She also knew how close she’d come to losing him. “We’ll go back to the cabin soon. Remember, we’re going to build our home there.”

“That has a lot to do with getting our business off the ground. How soon are you going to marry me?”

“Tomorrow?” she teased, but she was dead serious.

“Sounds great to me, but I think you’d be happier to have your sisters here for our wedding.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Would you mind?”

He shook his head. “I’m just not sure your sisters are going to accept me into the family.”

“That’s their problem. You’re the man I chose, the man I love. And if I know Tori, Josie and Marissa, they’ll come around to love you, too.”

Vance pulled Ana against him. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re the only Slater sister that’s important to me right now.”

She smiled. “I’m the lucky sister.” She brushed her mouth over his, stirring the flames. “Give it time. My sisters will grow on you.”

He swung her up into his arms. “Like I said, you are the only one I want to marry, to be the mother of our children, to spend the rest of my life with.”

“Oh, Vance. There’s nothing I want more than to build a life with you.”

He carried her down the hall to their room. There wasn’t going to be “hers” or “his”; it was going to be “theirs” from now on.

* * *

Colt was pushed into the kitchen by Wade. He’d been home for a little over a day, and found he hated being in the wheelchair, but knew that he sometimes had to use it. But not for long, he decided. Now that he was finally home, he was going to recover. To get back as head of the ranch, head of his family. With some changes, of course.

Wade walked around him to the coffeemaker. “You need any help getting settled in?” his friend asked as he filled two mugs. He handed one to Colt.

“You d-don’t have to hang around.”

His friend arched an eyebrow. “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

Colt shook his head. “Get a life. You sp...ent too m-much time with me.”

“I would like to think if this happened to me that you’d stick by me. We’re friends, Colt. No matter how stubborn you are, or disagreeable, that will never change.” The lawyer leaned back against the counter. “I only hope you take advantage of this second chance.”

Colt smiled. He couldn’t be happier. “Ana’s marrying Vance.”

Wade nodded. “I’d say that’s a perfect match. But you still have to repair the problems with your three other daughters. You got any ideas?”

He held up a finger. “One at a time. I learned my lesson.”

“It’s about time.”

* * *

Two days later, Vance walked out of the barn and saw Ana’s car pulling up at the house. He picked up his pace and got to her as she was climbing out of the driver’s side. He leaned down and kissed her.

“Oh, I like this kind of welcome home,” she told him as she let him have her briefcase.

“Always. How was your first day back at school?”

She kissed him again. “Well, outside of talking about you, and showing off my new engagement ring—” she flashed the square-cut diamond on her left hand “—there wasn’t time for much else.” She grinned. “Have I told you how much I love the ring and what a special guy you are?”

He nodded. There was a time when Vance hadn’t felt special. Hadn’t felt he belonged. It was Ana who made him feel as if he could do anything. “I always want to be that guy for you, Ana.”

She pressed her lips to his. “Just love me, Vance. No one else does that as well as you do. And I couldn’t love another man as much as I love you.”

He placed his head against hers. “I love you, Ana. We’re going to make such a great life together.”

The look in her eyes told him she believed in him. That was all he needed, that and her love.

He kissed her again—a kiss so sweet he didn’t even hear another car pull up. When they finally broke apart, he noticed a familiar-looking woman climb out.

She was small, with sandy-brown hair, and they were close enough that he could see those Slater-blue eyes.

Ana gasped. “Oh, my God, Josie.”

Her younger sister came around the car, staring at them both. “I guess I surprised you.”

“What are you doing home?” Ana asked.

“I thought you said you needed help with Colt.” She continued to watch Vance. “And there seem to be some things you left out.” A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her younger sister’s mouth. “How many other surprises are there that I don’t know about?”

Ana shot a glance at Vance and caught his wink as he drew her close to his side. “Let’s just start out with saying welcome home, Josie. And secondly, it seems Ana and I are going to need your services as an event planner.” He gave her a big smile. “Do you do weddings?”

* * * * *

Keep reading for an excerpt from
A Marriage Made in Italy
by Rebecca Winters

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CHAPTER ONE

B
ELLE
P
ETERSON
LEFT
the cell phone store she managed, and took a bus to the law office of Mr. Earl Harmon in downtown Newburgh, New York. The secretary showed her into the conference room. She discovered her thirty-year-old, divorced sibling, Cliff, had already arrived and was sitting at the oval table with a mulish look on his face, daring her to speak to him. She hadn’t seen him since their parents’ funeral six months ago.

On the outside he was blond and quite good-looking, but his facade hid a troubled soul. He’d been angry enough after his wife had left him, but the deaths of their parents in a fatal car crash meant he was now on his own. Today Belle felt Cliff’s antipathy more strongly than usual and chose a seat around the other side of the table without saying a word.

Now twenty-four and single, she had been adopted fourteen years ago. The children at the Newburgh Church Orphanage had liked her, as had the sisters. But out in the real world, Belle felt she was unlovable, and worked hard at her job to gain the respect of her peers. Her greatest pain was never to know the mother who’d given birth to her. To have no identity was an agony she’d had to live with every day of her life.

The sisters who ran the orphanage had told Belle that Mrs. Peterson had been able to have only one child. She’d finally prevailed on her husband to adopt the brunette girl, Belle, who had no last name. This was Belle’s chance to have a mother, but no bonding ever took place. From the day she’d been taken home, Cliff had been cruel to her, making her life close to unbearable at times.

“Good morning.”

Belle was so deep in thought over the past, she didn’t realize Mr. Harmon had come into the room. She shook his hand.

“I’m glad you two could arrange to meet here at the same time. I have some bad news and some good. Let’s start with the bad first.”

The familiar scowl on Cliff’s face spoke volumes.

“As you know, there was no insurance, therefore the home you grew up in was sold to pay off the multitude of debts. The good news is you’ve each been given fifteen hundred dollars from the auction of the furnishings. I have checks for you.” He passed them out.

Cliff shot to his feet.
“That’s it?”
Belle heard panic beneath his anger. She knew he’d been waiting to come into some money, if only to make up delinquent alimony payments. She hadn’t expected anything herself and rejoiced to receive this check, which she clutched in her hand before putting it in her purse.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Peterson, but everything went to pay off your father’s debts and cover the burial costs. Please accept my sincere sympathy at the passing of your parents. I wish both of you the very best.”

“Thank you, Mr. Harmon,” Belle said, when Cliff continued to remain silent.

“If you ever need my help, feel free to call.” The attorney smiled at her and left the room. The second he was gone, an explosion of venom escaped Cliff’s lips. He shot her a furious glance.

“It’s all
your
fault. If Mom hadn’t nagged Dad for a daughter, there would have been more money and we wouldn’t be in this mess. Why don’t you go back to Italy where you belong?”

Her heart suddenly pounded with dizzying intensity. “What did you say?”

“You heard me. Dad never wanted you.”

“You think I didn’t know that?” She moved closer to her brother, holding her breath. “Are you saying I came from Italian parents?” All along she’d thought the sisters at the orphanage might have named her for the fairy-tale character, or else she came from French roots.

Her whole life she’d been praying to find out her true lineage, and she’d gone to the orphanage many times seeking information. But every time she did, she’d been told they couldn’t help her. Nadine, her adoptive mother, had never revealed the truth to her, but Belle had heard Cliff’s slip and refused to let it go.

He averted his eyes and wheeled around to leave, but she raced ahead of him and blocked the door. At twenty-four, Belle was no longer frightened of him. Before they left this office and parted ways forever, she had to ask the question that had been inscribed on her mind and heart from the time she knew she was an orphan. “What else do you know about my background?”

Cliff flashed her a mocking smile. “Now that Dad’s no longer alive, how much money are you willing to pay me for the information?”

She could hardly swallow before she opened her purse and pulled out the check. In a trembling voice she said, “I’d give you
this
to learn anything that could help me know my roots.”
While he watched, she drew out a pen and endorsed it over to him.

For the first time since she’d known him, his eyes held a puzzled look rather than an angry one. “You’d give up that much money just to know about someone who didn’t even want you?”

“Yes,” she whispered, fighting tears. “It’s not important if they didn’t want me. I just need to know who I am and where I came from. If you know anything, I beg you to tell me.” Taking a leap of faith, she handed him the check.

He took it from her and studied it for a moment. “You always were pathetic,” he muttered.

“So you don’t know anything and were just teasing me with your cruelty? That doesn’t really surprise me. Go on. Keep it. I never thought we’d get that much money from the auction, anyway. You’re one of the lucky people who grew up knowing your parents. Too bad they’re gone and you’re all alone now. Knowing how it feels, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, not even you.”

Belle opened the door, and had started to leave when she heard him say, “The old man said your last name was the same as the redheaded smart-mouth he hated in high school.”

Her heart thundered. She spun around. “Who was that?”

“Frankie Donatello.”

“Donatello?”

“Yeah. One day I heard Mom and Dad arguing about you. That’s when it came out. He said he wished they’d never adopted that Italian girl’s brat. After he left for work, I told Mom she ought to send you back to where you came from, because you weren’t wanted. She said that would be impossible because it was someplace in Italy.”

What?
“Where in Italy?” Belle demanded.

“I don’t know. It sounded something like Remenee.”

“How did he find out? The sisters told me it was a closed adoption.”

“How the hell do
I
know?”

It didn’t matter, because joy lit up Belle’s insides. Her leap of faith had paid off! Without conscious thought she reached out and hugged him so hard she almost knocked him over. “Thank you! I know you hate me, but I love you for this and forgive every mean thing you ever said or did to me. Goodbye, Cliff.”

She rushed out of the law office to the bus stop and rode back to work. After nodding to the sales reps, she disappeared into the back room and looked for a map of Italy on the computer. She was trembling so violently she could hardly work the keyboard.

As she scrolled down the list of cities and towns that popped up, the name Rimini appeared, most closely matching “Remenee.” The blood pounded in her ears when she looked it up and discovered it was a town of a hundred forty thousand along the Adriatic. It was in the province of Rimini.

Quickly, she scanned the month’s schedule of vacations for the employees. They all had one week off in summer and one in winter. Belle was on summer break from college, where she went to night school. Her vacation would be coming up the third week of June, ten days away.

Without hesitation she booked a flight from New York City to Rimini, Italy, and made arrangements for a rental car. She chose the cheapest flight, with two stopovers, and made a reservation at a pension that charged only twenty-eight dollars a day. No phone, no TV. The coed bathroom was down the hall. Sounded like the orphanage. That was fine with her. A bed was all she needed.

Since she’d been saving her money, and roomed with two other girls, she’d managed to put away a modest nest egg. All these years she’d been guarding it for something important, never dreaming the money would ever help her to find her mother.

“Belle?”

She lifted her head and smiled politely at her colleague. “Yes, Mac?”

“How about going for pizza after we lock up tonight?”

“I’m sorry, but I have other plans.”

“You always say that. How can someone so gorgeous turn me down? Come on. How about it?”

Her new assistant manager, transferred in from another store, was good-looking and a real barracuda in sales, but he irritated her by continually trying to get her to go out with him.

“Mac? I’ve told you already that I’m not interested.”

“Some of the guys call you the Ice Queen.” He never gave up.

“Really. Anything else you want to say to me before you finish the inventory?”

She heard a smothered imprecation before the door closed. Good. Maybe she
was
an ice queen. Fine! So far she hadn’t seen examples of love in her personal life and didn’t expect to.

Her birth parents had given her away. Her adoptive parents had suffered through an unhappy marriage. Her adoptive brother was already divorced, and angry. He’d used her pretty mercilessly as an emotional punching bag. Belle always felt she was on the outside looking in, but never being part of a whole.

She thought about the single girls at the store, who all struggled to find good dates and were usually miserable with the ones they landed. Two of the four guys were married. One of them was having an affair. The other was considering divorce. The other two were players. Both spent their money on clothes and cars.

Her own roommates were still single and terrified they would end up alone. It was all they talked about when the three of them went running in the mornings.

Belle didn’t worry about being alone. That had been her state from the moment she was born. The few dates she’d accepted here and there outside the workplace had fizzled. It was probably her fault, because she didn’t feel very lovable and wasn’t as confident as she needed to be. Marriage wasn’t an option for her.

She didn’t trust any relationship to last, and cut it off early. Belle hadn’t met a man she’d cared enough about to imagine going to bed with. No doubt her mother had experimented, and gotten caught with no resources but the church orphanage to help her. Belle refused to get into that circumstance.

What she
could
depend on was her career, which gave her the stability she craved after being dependent on the orphanage and her adoptive parents. She was a free agent now. Her store had been number one in the region for two years. Soon she hoped to be promoted to upper-level management in the company.

But first she would take her precious vacation time to try to find her mother. If Cliff had gotten it wrong or misunderstood, then maybe the trip would be for nothing, but Belle had to think positive thoughts. Romantic Italy, the world of Michelangelo, gondolas and the famous tenor Pavarotti, had always sounded as delightful and as faraway as the moon. Incredible to believe she’d actually be flying there in ten days.

Tomorrow she’d see about equipping herself with a company GSM phone and SIM card, the kind with a quad-band. Once in Rimini, she’d find a local library and work from the latest city phone directory to do her research.

She was in the midst of making a mental list of things she’d need when Rod, one of the reps, suddenly burst in on her. “Hey, boss? Can you come out in front? An angry client just threw his cell phone at Sheila and is demanding satisfaction. He said it broke after he bought it.”

She smiled. “If it wasn’t broken, it is now. No problem.” No problem at all on the first red-letter day of her life. “I’ll be right there.”

* * *

It was seven in the morning when thirty-three-year-old Leonardo Rovere di Malatesta, the elder son of Count Sullisto Malatesta of Rimini, finally got his little six-month-old Concetta to sleep. The doctor said she’d caught a bug, and he’d prescribed medicine to bring down her temperature. It was now two degrees lower than it had been at midnight, and she hadn’t thrown up again,
grazie a Dio!

After he’d walked the floor with her all night in an attempt to comfort her, he was exhausted. The dog ought to be exhausted, too. Rufo was a brown roan Spinone, a wedding gift from his wife’s father.

Rufo had been devoted to Benedetta and had transferred his allegiance to Concetta when Leon had returned from the hospital without his wife. Since that moment, their dog had never let the baby out of his sight. Leon was deeply moved by such a show of love, and patted the animal’s head.

There was no way he’d be going in to the bank today. Talia and Rufo would watch over his daughter while he slept. The forty-year-old nanny had been with him since Benedetta had died in childbirth, and was devoted to his precious child. If the baby’s fever spiked again, he could count on her to waken him immediately.

He kissed Concetta’s head with its fine, dark blond hair, and laid her in the crib on her back, out of habit. She never stayed in that position for long. Her lids hid brown eyes dark as poppy throats. She had Benedetta’s coloring and facial features. Leon loved this child in a way he hadn’t thought possible. Her presence and demanding needs filled the aching loneliness in his heart for the wife he’d lost.

After tiptoeing out of the nursery, he told Talia he was going to bed, then went to find his housekeeper, who’d always worked for his mother’s family. She and Talia were cousins, and he trusted them implicitly.

“Simona? I’ve turned off my cell phone. If someone needs me, knock on my door.”

The older woman nodded before Leon headed for his bedroom. He was so exhausted he didn’t remember his head touching the pillow. The relief of knowing the baby’s fever had broken helped him to fall into a deep sleep.

When he heard a tap on his door later, he checked his watch. He’d slept seven hours and couldn’t believe it was already midafternoon! He came awake immediately, fearing something was wrong.

“Simona? Is Concetta worse?” he called out.

“No, no. She has recovered. Talia is feeding her.” Relief swamped him a second time. “Your assistant at the bank asked if you would phone him at your convenience.”