A Daring Vow (Vows) Read online

  “I think he’ll hate them…at first. You’ll just have to keep telling him how handsome he looks,” she said, thinking it was too bad she wouldn’t be there on Christmas morning to tell him herself.

  Maybe she would even go back to Los Angeles before Christmas, she thought, unable to stop the tiny sigh of regret that eased through her. It might be a miserable, lonely holiday there, but in Port William it was guaranteed to be hell.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Kate, I’m coming back,” Zelda announced when she reached her boss in Los Angeles early on Christmas Eve morning. “Do I still have a job?”

  There was a slight hesitation. “Of course, you have a job,” Kate said finally. “But, Zelda, what about the will? What about this man you mentioned, the one you’ve always loved?”

  “None of that matters,” she lied. “I’ll relinquish everything in my mother’s estate. As for any man in my life, I think you’d better call up Brandon Halloran and tell him he can meddle in my love life as much as he pleases.”

  Kate chuckled. “He’ll be delighted to hear that. I think he’s been bored since he got me married off. He’s been making noises about trying to find someone for Sammy, his granddaughter-in-law’s brother. The poor kid is terrified. He’s barely twenty. Jason and Dana say that Sammy’s threatening to disown them all if Brandon so much as invites one eligible girl to dinner. He’d be forever indebted to you for providing a distraction.”

  She paused, then asked, “Zelda, do you want to tell me what’s really going on back there?”

  Zelda sighed at the evident concern. “Nothing that won’t be forgotten as soon as I get back to Los Angeles.”

  “Okay, if you say so, but remember that I’m a good listener.”

  “I know that. I’ll call you when I have my travel details worked out.”

  “Will you stay there through the holidays at least?”

  “No. I’m going to try to get out of here tonight or tomorrow.”

  “On Christmas day?” Kate said, sounding horrified. She drew in a breath. “Never mind. If you get back tonight or tomorrow, you’ll have Christmas dinner with us. No need to even call first. Just show up about four-thirty. Promise me now.”

  “I promise,” Zelda said, already feeling as if her life was getting back on track. It would be fun to share Christmas dinner with a family, even if it was the wrong family.

  When she’d hung up, Zelda walked slowly through the house in which she’d grown up. She wouldn’t miss it, wouldn’t miss anything about Port William, in fact. She was grateful her mother had forced her to come back. She’d definitely put a few ghosts to rest, not the least of them her love for Taylor. She could finally stop clinging to that as an excuse for avoiding new relationships. Nope, there was nothing left for her here.

  Except Sarah Lynn, she thought with a tiny smidgen of regret. Maybe the way the sun filtered through the pine trees early in the morning. And Caitlin. She would really miss Caitlin.

  A tear shimmered on her lashes, then rolled down her cheek. Would she ever know the wonder of holding her own child in her arms? Even if she didn’t, she would treasure the time she’d had with Taylor’s daughter and consider herself blessed for having been part of Caitlin’s life even for such a brief interval.

  An uncontrollable sob rose in her throat. Damn Taylor for ruining it all! Why hadn’t he been able to see that nothing in life mattered a hoot, unless there was someone with whom you could share it? Why hadn’t he been able to trust her, to see that she would never, ever do anything to put him or his daughter at risk?

  Well, it didn’t matter anymore. She was tired of his misjudgments, tired of the way he refused to acknowledge his emotions, just plain tired of being the only one trying to make things work out. She would take her mother’s treasured F. Scott Fitzgerald collection, the only thing in the house to which she was legally entitled, and go back to L.A. emotionally free, ready to find someone new and finally make a commitment that would last a lifetime.

  She picked up the books and caressed the leather bindings and gold leaf lettering.

  “Mama, I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do what you wanted, but I tried. I know what you wanted for me and I really tried.”

  Just then Sarah Lynn snatched open the screen door without even bothering to knock. “Hon, I think you’d better come with me.”

  “What is it? Has something happened to Taylor? Is it Caitlin?” she demanded as an irrational fear sent bile into her throat. Taylor and Caitlin were no longer her concern, she reminded herself sharply. She had to start remembering that. Knowing that didn’t stop her blood from pumping faster.

  “No, it’s nothing like that,” Sarah Lynn reassured her.

  “What, then? I don’t have time for guessing games. I’m trying to pack.”

  “Pack? To go where?”

  “Back to Los Angeles.”

  “On Christmas Eve?”

  “If I can finish this damned packing, yes.”

  “Well, it’s just going to have to wait,” Sarah Lynn insisted. “You’re coming with me.”

  “Sarah Lynn, I am not budging from this room until you tell me what’s going on.”

  “Jeez,” Sarah Lynn muttered. “I’m not sure which of you has the harder head, you or Taylor.”

  “Leave Taylor out of this. I don’t want to discuss him.”

  “Oh, really. Then why was he your first concern when I came running in here?”

  “Will you just get to the point?”

  “The point is that something’s happening on the outskirts of town and I think you’d better see for yourself.”

  Zelda couldn’t think of a single thing on the outskirts of town—or in the middle of town, for that matter—that she gave a damn about. Unfortunately she knew that Sarah Lynn matched her and Taylor for sheer bullheadedness. There would be no peace until she’d done what the woman asked. And there was the little matter of her own curiosity.

  “Ten minutes,” she warned. “I intend to be back here in ten minutes.”

  “Whatever,” Sarah Lynn replied vaguely, dragging her off to her car.

  The drive took less than five minutes, giving Zelda plenty of time to turn around and get back home within her limit…if she’d been able to budge once she got a good look at what had Sarah Lynn in such a dither.

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered softly as she stared up at the Port William water tower. Then she started to laugh, her heart lighter than it had been in months, maybe even years.

  * * *

  Taylor figured he’d gone and lost his mind. Better that, though, than his balance. He was perched precariously several hundred feet above the ground with a can of bright red paint clutched in one hand, a brush in the other.

  He looked from the paint to the brush to his narrow perch and wondered how the devil Zelda had managed to splash her rude commentary on his parentage all over the side of this very same tower ten years ago without breaking her neck. For one thing, she must not have looked down. Every time he did, his head swam.

  Having established that glancing toward the ground was very bad, he drew in a deep breath, dipped the brush in paint and began the message it had taken him too damned long to get around to sending. He just hoped it wasn’t too late.

  Red paint dribbled down from the hastily formed T. The rest of the letters in his name followed in an equally sloppy, though rather jaunty manner. He paused to admire the effect. Rather bold, if he did say so himself. One thing for certain, no one for miles around could miss it.

  The distant sound of a siren told him that one person at least was aware of his highly illegal presence atop the water tower. He figured he had a very few minutes left in which to complete his task.

  L, he began, then followed it with OVES. There was no time now to admire his handiwork. In the biggest letters he could manage without toppling from the narrow metal catwalk, he spelled out Zelda’s name. So, there it was for all the world to see: Taylor Matthews Loves Zelda Lane.
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  “Taylor Matthews, have you lost your mind?” the sheriff shouted through a bullhorn. “You know you’re defacing town property.”

  “And having the time of my life,” Taylor called back, just as he sensed a vibration on the metal stairs up the side of the tower.

  He glanced down and saw a familiar red-haired vixen climbing toward him. He tried to catch a good glimpse of her expression, but all he could tell for sure was that her brow was furrowed with concentration. Her knuckles might have been a little bit white as she clung to the railing for dear life.

  He sat back, relaxed and waited. He figured no one, not the sheriff, not the mayor, not even his own father, would interfere in whatever drama was about to be played out high above the ground.

  Finally Zelda reached the top rung and inched out onto the ledge. “I am too old for this,” she murmured, sounding breathless.

  Her cheeks were flushed. Wisps of hair curled damply around her face. Taylor thought she had never looked so beautiful, so desirable.

  “Hey,” he taunted, “where’s your sense of adventure?”

  “About five hundred feet below here,” she retorted.

  The look she cast him was almost shy. And hopeful, he decided. A good sign.

  “Did you mean it?” she asked, gesturing toward the brightly painted words above them.

  “Sugar, this is not the way to go about keeping a secret. Actually, I had more I wanted to say, but I ran out of room, and I was attracting a crowd.”

  “The sheriff is beginning to look a little apoplectic down there.”

  “How’s my father taking it? I saw him drive up.”

  “He was reaching for his shotgun when your mother came along and told him she’d never forgive him if he did one single thing to interfere.”

  Taylor shuddered. “Thank goodness. He’s a great shot.”

  “He probably would have aimed low,” she told him dryly. “So what else were you planning to write up here?”

  She’d tried hard to sound casual, but he could hear the uncertainty in her voice, an uncertainty that had never been there until he’d come along to shake her self-confidence. Taylor glanced over at her and waited until she’d turned to face him. He put down the nearly empty paint can and the brush, and took her hand in his.

  “I was going to ask if you’d marry me,” he said, searching her face for some clue about what her response would be. “I can’t promise I’ll change overnight, but I know that you’re right. I haven’t been living these past few years. I’ve been existing. It’s way past time for that to change. I’ve missed you so much the past few weeks I could hardly bear it.”

  “I’ve been right here,” she reminded him.

  “But not with me.”

  She studied his expression with evident worry. “Taylor, are you sure? Really sure?”

  “Never more so,” he said adamantly. “It’s time I got a grip on my life and did something to make it better, perfect in fact. Even Caitlin has pointed out that you’re the best thing that ever happened to me. I was even thinking I might like a change of scenery, someplace to start over.”

  He could see the astonishment in her eyes and was glad he still had the capacity to surprise her.

  “You’d move?” she said. “Where? Charleston? Columbia?”

  Taylor shook his head. “I was thinking about Los Angeles. I know someone who already has some great contacts out there. What do you think?”

  Her response was to scramble across the catwalk and fling her arms around his neck. Taylor wasn’t sure if she was going to choke him or send the two of them crashing to their deaths. When her mouth slanted over his, he wasn’t much sure he cared. It would be a hell of a way to go.

  “Is that a yes?” he asked when he could speak again.

  A grin spread across her face. “That is a definite, wholehearted yes.” Her expression sobered, and she regarded him worriedly. “We don’t have to go to L.A., though. We could stay here.”

  “No. I think two adventurous people such as ourselves belong where there’s plenty of action, don’t you?”

  “Taylor Matthews, wherever you and I are, I promise you there will be plenty of action.”

  A little tremor of excitement washed through him. “If it weren’t broad daylight and if there weren’t a hundred people standing down there with their mouths hanging open in anticipation, I’d make you prove that right here and now. Since we can’t, let’s go down and share the news.”

  “Judging from the cheering, I think they’ve guessed,” Zelda retorted as Taylor pulled her to her feet. “One last thing.”

  She took the brush and paint from him and while his heart filled to overflowing, she meticulously added one word to the sign: Ditto.

  Yep, Taylor thought as they descended into the waiting arms of friends and the law. Life with Zelda Lane was going to be one grand and glorious adventure.

  * * *

  Her heart filled to overflowing, Zelda sat in Taylor’s living room on Christmas morning. She was once again wearing the teal blue velvet skirt she had made from the material he’d given her. Caitlin was wearing her matching dress. Zelda watched with delight as Caitlin tore open her presents, exclaiming excitedly over each and every one, then running to hug whoever’d chosen it.

  If Geraldine and Beau Matthews had been stunned to find Zelda here when they’d arrived, they were keeping their opinions to themselves. Beau hadn’t mellowed exactly, but he hadn’t made one single snide remark. In fact, thanks to Caitlin’s exuberance, there hadn’t been much time for conversation of any kind.

  When she’d opened every last present, Caitlin sat back and announced, “This has been the very best Christmas I’ve ever had. Now, Daddy, you open your presents.”

  Taylor ripped off paper with as much enthusiasm as Caitlin had, saving the box from Zelda until last. When he opened Caitlin’s gift to him, he hesitated for only a fraction of a second before proclaiming it the nicest shirt he’d ever received.

  Then he picked up Zelda’s package. Holding her breath, she watched him slowly untie the ribbon, then remove the paper with far more care than he had any of the others. Slowly, as if he was savoring the anticipation, he lifted the lid on the box. “A shirt,” he said. “And two ties. They’re…”

  “Show us, Daddy,” Caitlin demanded, shooting a conspiratorial look at Zelda.

  Taylor held them up as if he weren’t too certain what to make of them. Zelda winked at him.

  “Fancy,” Beau declared. “You’ll look like a real Hollywood entertainment lawyer in that.”

  Taylor grinned. “What would you know about Hollywood entertainment lawyers, Dad?”

  “I watch L.A. Law,” his father retorted. “It’s about time you stopped wearing those boring old white shirts.”

  Zelda, Geraldine Matthews and Taylor all stared at him in amazement.

  “What?” he said. “I’m too old to know about what’s in fashion for men?”

  “Of course not, Dad,” Taylor said. He gave the shirt one more slightly suspicious look, then said, “Okay, Zelda, your turn.”

  She picked up the package she knew Caitlin had wrapped. “Now what could this be? It weighs more than a butterfly.”

  Caitlin came and stood by her knee. “You can’t give somebody a butterfly. Hurry up. Open it.”

  Zelda took her time with the package, to Caitlin’s evident exasperation. When she unfolded the tissue paper inside, she found a lovely ceramic frame containing a portrait of Taylor and Caitlin.

  “Oh, sweetheart, you couldn’t have given me anything I’d have liked more.”

  Caitlin looked at Taylor. “See, I told you she’d like it.”

  “Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?”

  Taylor regarded her ruefully. “She picked it out a month ago.”

  “Oh.”

  Geraldine Matthews handed over a silver-wrapped package then. “We have something for you, too.”

  Zelda’s eyes widened. “You didn’t need to get me anything.”
r />   “We wanted to give you this.” She glanced around at her husband. “Didn’t we, Beau?”

  He nodded, his expression gruff, but no longer angry at finding her a part of their lives.

  When Zelda had unwrapped the package, she found a delicate gold necklace inside with an antique locket. “It was my mother’s,” Geraldine Matthews told her. “She gave it to me on my wedding day and now I’m passing it on to you.”

  Zelda felt tears brimming in her eyes. She blinked them back. “Thank you. I’ll treasure it.”

  “We just want you both to be happy. That’s all we’ve always wanted for Taylor.”

  “Now mine,” Taylor said, handing over a small package that looked suspiciously like a jewelry box. “Usually this is something that should be given in private, over candlelight, but I think we’ve pretty well dispensed with that tradition already.”

  Caitlin was so excited she reached over to help untie the ribbons. “I helped Daddy pick it out.”

  “Did you?” Zelda said, almost wishing she could delay opening the box for an eternity so she could treasure the joy she felt right this instant, the sweet shimmer of anticipation.

  Unfortunately, Taylor was looking anxious and Caitlin was far too excited to be contained for long. She slowly lifted the lid on the velvet box. Inside was the most gorgeous diamond she had ever seen, surrounded by aquamarines.

  “It’s like your eyes,” Caitlin told her.

  “Not nearly so beautiful,” Taylor corrected. “Not the way they’re shining right now. You’re not going to cry on me, are you?”

  “I just might,” she said.

  “Does that mean you’re happy?”

  “Happier than I have ever been.”

  “Then you don’t want to take back your acceptance of my proposal?”

  She slid onto his lap and put her arms around his neck. “Taylor Matthews, you couldn’t get rid of me now if you wanted to.”

  He grinned at her. “Then that makes this good for a lifetime,” he said, sliding the ring on her finger.

  Zelda glanced at his parents and saw that his mother had slipped her hand into Beau’s. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she was smiling. Zelda knew then that nothing would interfere with her happiness again. For the first time in her life, she would have a real family.