Beloved Wolf. Кейси Майклс

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СКАЧАТЬ Rand on what a lady isn’t supposed to let anyone know she knows, even if she knows it.

      Sophie held up a hand and squinted into the setting sun as the car entered the huge circular drive. Nothing had changed since her last visit. Nothing altered the physical beauty that was Hacienda del Alegria.

      There was still the central area of the house, a two-story, sand-color adobe structure sporting California’s version of a pillared porch, and a terra-cotta roof.

      The sun still rose against the front windows, and set behind the house, over the wonderfully blue Pacific Ocean that lay below a series of cliffs.

      Single-story wings wrapped back from either side of the house, affording every room a view of the ocean, of the marvelous gardens, of the courtyard, pool, and gardens that played such a large role in the everyday life of everyone who lived in the house.

      And so many, many people had lived in Hacienda del Alegria over the years. Her parents occupied a large suite in the south wing, Sophie’s and Amber’s bedrooms were also located there, with the north wing housing their brothers and foster siblings.

      A full house. A lovely house. Once a happy house.

      But not anymore.

      “Luckily you’ll have no stairs to navigate,” Joe Colton told his daughter as he stopped the car and turned off the ignition. “Even with the brace off, I think you’re going to have to get used to being called Gimpy for a while, at least by your brothers. Just remember, Sophie, it’s a measure of their affection. Everyone’s been worried sick about you. Boys just often don’t know how to say what’s really in their hearts.”

      Sophie smiled, shook her head at her father. “Senator, you know, you never cease to amaze me. How can you still be giving us all lessons? Did it ever occur to you that we might be grown up now?”

      “Never. Not in my wildest dreams,” Joe answered, reaching over to flick a fingertip against Sophie’s nose. She flinched at the near contact and turned her head, raising a hand to the scar on her left cheek.

      “Baby—”

      “Not now, Dad,” Sophie said tightly. She’d been nervous ever since they’d gotten within twenty miles of the ranch. Nervous about her welcome, who would be there to welcome her home, what they’d think when they saw her. “Let’s just get inside, okay?”

      Leaving the baggage in the trunk, Joe quickly came around and opened the car door for Sophie, then walked with her to the front door that stood open in welcome. Their housekeeper, Inez Ramirez, waited there, a broad smile on her wide, pleasant face. “Welcome home, Miss Sophie,” Inez said, holding out her arms, and Sophie gratefully walked into them, allowing the hug, needing the hug.

      Then it was time to pass into the large great room that made up the nerve center of the house, a huge room furnished well, but casually.

      The empty room.

      “Dad?” Sophie asked, turning to her father, who then pointed toward the wall of glass doors leading out to the courtyard. Following his gesture, Sophie could see Meredith Colton lounging on a chaise beside the pool, clad in a bra-like swim top and a long, filmy, patterned skirt, dark glasses shading her eyes.

      “I’ll go get her,” Joe offered, but Sophie shook her head and started for the doors. “Sophie, she couldn’t know the exact time we’d arrive,” he called after her, then swore under his breath and quickly turned his back on a scene he didn’t have the strength to witness.

      Sophie limped out onto the patio, slowly made her way down the steps and past the fountain. The beauty of the courtyard was lost to her, its sights, its sounds, its glorious smells. All she could see was her mother, the woman who had spoken to her on the telephone only a single time in the past six weeks, the woman who hadn’t had the time or the inclination to visit her in San Francisco.

      Sophie stood beside the chaise and looked down at the woman who had taught her how to tie her shoes, who had giggled with her when Sophie had tried on her very first training bra, who had put up her hair for her the night of the senior prom. The woman who had kissed her cuts and scrapes, hand sewn her Princess Leia Halloween costume, held her when she cried because River James was just the most awful, miserable, nasty boy in the whole entire world.

      Who are you? Sophie asked silently, gazing down at the sunscreen-slick woman with the bloodred fingernails, the perfectly coiffed golden-brown hair, the too-youthful swimsuit…the pitcher of martinis on the table beside her. Who are you? Because you aren’t my mother anymore. You can’t be my mother.

      “Hello, Mother,” Sophie said at last, when Meredith Colton didn’t respond to her presence. “I’m home.”

      Meredith raised a hand, removed her sunglasses, then slid her long legs to one side and stood, looking at Sophie with Sophie’s own huge brown eyes. “Well, so you are,” she said, motioning toward the metal cane in Sophie’s left hand. “Is that going to be around for much longer? I mean, really, it’s so…medical. Couldn’t you find something nicer?”

      “It’s good to see you, too, Mom,” Sophie said, giving in to her fatigue and sitting down on the matching chaise. She kept her head down, so that the curtain of her hair slid forward, covering her cheek.

      “Don’t be snide, Sophie,” Meredith told her, sitting down again herself and taking hold of her martini glass. “Or hasn’t it yet occurred to you that you’re twenty-seven years old? Old enough to move to San Francisco. Old enough to be out on your own, just as you wanted to be. You wanted to be independent, and I let you be independent. But, obviously, for all that independence, you’re still not so grown up that you couldn’t insist that your doting daddy jump up and run when you wanted him.”

      Shock made Sophie lift her head, and she watched in horror as Meredith’s eyes widened at the sight of the scar. She raised a hand to her jaw, but it was too late, because her mother had seen everything there was to see.

      Meredith’s upper lip curled in distaste. “Not bad? That’s what your father said. The scar wasn’t bad. Doesn’t the man have eyes in his head? Oh, you poor thing. How are you going to manage, being so horribly disfigured like that? And your father says you sent Chet away? That wasn’t smart, Sophie. How do you expect to get another man with that ruined face? I really think you should— Where are you going? Is this how you were raised? How dare you walk away while I’m speaking to you. I’m your mother!”

      But Sophie had gotten to her feet as quickly as she could and was already hobbling back toward the house, wondering what on earth had possessed her to come home. Whoever had said it had been right: You can’t go home again.

      At least not to Hacienda del Alegria. The House of Joy?

      No, not anymore.

      River walked back to the stables after watching Joe’s car drive past, seeing Sophie’s form in the passenger seat.

      So. She was home. Healing, but not quite mended. And without a diamond on her third finger, left hand.

      Not that he was going to do anything about that, could do anything about that.

      Besides, it might only be temporary, some sort of emotional fallout from the mugging. Joe had told him how sensitive Sophie was about the cut on her face, how she refused to see that the scar was fading every day, growing less obvious to everyone but her.

      If СКАЧАТЬ