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family photo. Pictures of the twins and the little princess. A smile stretched across his lips as he
thought about their rapt attention as he d read the story to them. He hadn t expected to feel that
sense of protection, but he had. The idea that one of the boys could have been hurt climbing that
bookcase had scared him witless. They weren t his children. He barely knew them. How could he feel
that way?
Basic human compassion, he told himself, nothing more.
The next album he opened almost stopped his heart. Tara Cooper. Her Sweet Sixteen party. Dex
swallowed tightly. She was beautiful. He touched the smiling face in the photograph. Blond hair fell
around her shoulders. Bright hazel eyes flashed with happiness. The resemblance between her and his
Grandmother Cooper was striking. And he d been right about the smile. Their smiles were very similar,
both wide, honest, heartfelt.
Dex turned the page and found a picture of Tara and a healthy-looking cow sporting a blue ribbon. He
smiled. The next picture showed her winning yet another blue ribbon. This time from 4-H. He could
barely make out the title of her poster: Better Nutrition, Eating Healthier and Leaner. He remembered
then that Grandfather Cooper had said she d wanted more, just like Ty.
He flipped another page. High-school graduation pictures. Visits home from college. Her twenty-first
birthday. Her graduation from college. The elder Coopers looked so proud. He turned another page. A
kind of shock rocked through him as his brain assimilated what his eyes saw next.
Tara Cooper and Charles Dexter Montgomery, Junior, together. So young& so happy. Dex was stunned
at the smiling face of his father. Every single photo in the Montgomery house showed a solemn-looking
young man. The man in these pictures laughed, hugged and played. Dex shook his head in
bewilderment. Had his mother changed his father s life that much? Had she been the one thing that
made him smile? Was that happiness what had distracted his father from the world the Montgomerys
had so carefully constructed in Atlanta?
Why had no one told him how happy his father was during his brief marriage? Emotions twisting in his
chest, Dex turned to the next page. His hand shook as he released it. His mother and father, tears of
joy glistening in their eyes, holding two tiny babies, captured forever in that one frozen frame in time.
This was his mother and father. He looked about the semi-dark room. This had been their home.
They d been happy here. And no one had ever told him that.
Unable to bear looking anymore, Dex closed the albums. How could the Montgomerys have not known
how happy their son was here? Dex had always been led to believe that even if the tragedy had not
occurred, his father would never have been happy with his mother. Could they really have been that
blind?
Dex pushed to his feet and carried the albums back to the bookcase. Too many unanswered questions
whirled in his head. If he confronted the Coopers, would they tell him the truth? Or would it merely be
their version of the truth? But then, they did have photos to back them up. His father had been happy
here. There was no denying that fact. Could the Montgomerys say the same?
As Dex turned to go, he hesitated. As an afterthought, he flipped through one of the albums again until
he came to the photo of his mother and father holding their newborn twins. Glancing around the room
first, he slipped the photo from beneath its protective cover and tucked it into his pocket. He wanted
this picture. He wanted to understand how fate could have torn such a lovely little family apart.
When he put the album back on the shelf something else captured his attention. Tucked way back in
the corner behind a couple of fallen books he found a bundle of old letters. The once-white envelopes
were yellowed and bound together by a pink ribbon. The return address was his own back in Atlanta.
His heart started to pound all over again. His father had written these letters. He decided to take the
letters as well. He swallowed and struggled for composure. He would read them, just not tonight. He
wasn t sure he could take any more revelations tonight.
Dex climbed the stairs still reeling with the emotions of his discovery. He was too tired and too
disturbed to care about eating or that hot bath he d promised himself. He hid the letters in the top
drawer of the bureau, peeled off his clothes and slid between the cool sheets of his bed. He wondered
briefly how Ty was doing in Atlanta. Though he d rather deny it, he missed his grandparents. Slowly,
but surely, one smiling face after another belonging to the Cooper clan flashed through his mind. He
felt the peaceful silence of the big old house as the family slept, the whole ambiance of the ranch and
its inhabitants. They were two different worlds, this one and the one in which he d grown up.
With no place to meet in the middle.
Dex didn t want to think about any of this any more. This wasn t home. These people were not his
family.
There was nothing here he needed besides some answers.
The blue eyes and sweet smile of Leanne Watley protested his last thought. A warm, somehow softer
feeling cloaked him. He told himself again that he didn t need her, either.
But she needed him.
Chapter Five
Leanne flipped through the rack of dresses once more. She didn t know why she tortured herself. She d
already selected the only one she even halfway liked that was in her price range. She might as well
accept it as her dress for the dance. Mrs. Paula Beaumont, the owner and operator of Paula s Fashions,
the only shop that sold anything besides denim and leather goods in Rolling Bend, had suggested it.
The pink color was pretty, though the design was a little plain. It fit a little too loosely, but Paula would
make the necessary alterations. Leanne held the pink dress against herself once more and peered into
the mirror. There had been a time when her mother could have made her a dress even prettier, but
not now.
That looks lovely, Leanne, Mrs. Paula said as she joined her near the mirror. You can wear those
white shoes you wore to church last Sunday with it.
Leanne frowned. She hadn t even thought about shoes. Her church shoes would have to do. She
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