Randall Wedding. Judy Christenberry
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her name?” Nick asked.
“Actually, her name is Angela, but I call her Angel most of the time.”
“Ready to start again?” Nick asked. “Maybe after we finish I can see Angel. I’d like to bring my wife over to see her, too.”
“I think Mom and Anna brought enough food for dinner tonight,” Russ said. “Why don’t the two of you join us?”
“That would be great,” Nick replied. “Sarah is tired of my company after the blizzard. Is that okay with you, Isabella?”
“Yes, of course.” She didn’t feel she had a choice. It wasn’t her house.
Nick turned the tape recorder on again. “Now, Miss Paloni, are you aware of the extent of your great-aunt’s estate?”
“No. It doesn’t matter.”
Nick looked surprised. “But—”
“She offered me something more important to me than money. She offered me a home, family. But it was too late.” Again her eyes filled with tears. Her teeth settled in her bottom lip, trying to prevent a major meltdown.
Russ leaned forward. “You don’t have any family?”
She kept her head bent, not wanting to face him. “I do, but I don’t want anything to do with them.”
“Why?” Russ demanded.
“I really don’t see the need to talk about this. I was going to live with my great-aunt, me and Angel, but now we can’t.”
Nick intervened in what had become a very personal conversation. “But you can live in her house, because it’s yours now.”
She hadn’t thought of that. But even if she lived there, she wouldn’t have what she wanted for Angel. “I was hoping to have a family for Angel.”
Nick said calmly, “You might marry and provide Angel with brothers and sisters.”
“No!” She didn’t bother to explain, but her answer was firm. Very firm.
Both men stared at her. She clarified. “I never intend to marry again. I won’t give some man control over me or my daughter.”
After a moment of silence, Nick said, “I gather your marriage was not a happy one. Um, how did your husband die?”
She looked him in the eye. “I didn’t kill him. I consider my father to be the killer, though my husband died in a car accident.” Dark thoughts filled her as she added, “But it was my father’s fault.”
“Finish your cake and milk, honey. You’re going to wear yourself out with all this emotion.” Russ watched her to make sure she did what he’d said.
“Fine. You’re always urging me to eat.” She took a bite of cake. “It’s very good cake.”
“Red is famous for it.”
“You didn’t say who Red is,” she reminded him.
“He’s my grandmother.”
Nick protested even more than Isabella. “You’re just confusing her. That’s not fair.”
“No, it’s not,” Isabella said, relaxing against the sofa.
“Why not? It got you to smile, didn’t it?” Russ asked.
“Yes, it did, but now give me the real answer.”
“Okay. When my dad and his brothers were little, their mom died giving birth to my youngest uncle, Chad. Red was a crippled cowboy who did odd jobs for our grandfather. He asked him to move into the house and help him raise the boys. My grandfather died, but Red stayed on and took care of the house. Then Uncle Jake, the oldest brother, realized that if his brothers didn’t marry, they’d have no kids to leave the ranch to.”
Isabella frowned. “Wait a minute. Why did you say if the others didn’t marry? What was wrong with Jake?”
“He was divorced and thought marriage wasn’t for him,” Russ said with a grin. “But once he managed to marry the other three off, his new sisters-in-law decided he deserved the same treatment.”
“Smart ladies,” Isabella said.
“You met two of them today. Janie and Anna.”
Her eyebrows went up and she nodded.
“That’s how matchmaking became a tradition in the Randall family. We’re known for it throughout the county.”
“They don’t get crazy about it,” Nick put in. “But if they can give a match a nudge, they help it along.”
“Did they bring about your marriage?” she asked Nick.
“I didn’t need any help. Once I got out of the big city, Denver, that is, I could tell the glitter from the real gold. When you meet Sarah, you’ll realize how perfect she is.”
Russ smiled. “He’s not prejudiced at all.”
“Of course not.”
“You weren’t prejudiced about Abby, either, were you?” Nick said. Then he immediately apologized. “Sorry, Russ.”
Isabella looked from one to the other, but both men were silent. “What? What happened?”
Russ cleared his throat. “My wife, pregnant with our child, died about eighteen months ago. Most people don’t mention her.”
“But don’t you want them to?” Isabella asked in surprise.
“What do you mean?” Russ asked harshly.
“If you don’t talk about a person, your memories fade. Don’t you want to remember Abby?”
NICK LEFT SHORTLY after Isabella’s remark. Russ wasn’t surprised. He was stunned by her words and couldn’t carry on conversation anymore. And Nick was upset that he’d upset Russ. And since Isabella wasn’t interested in talking about Maria Paloni’s estate, he said they’d discuss it later.
Russ had opened the window curtain in the living room and was staring out at the snow-swept land. Suddenly he remembered a time when he and Abby had joined her students sledding on the school grounds. She’d laughed and chased after the children as if she were a child herself. He could suddenly see her so clearly. And the time he’d watched her teach school. She’d been so gentle, so tender with the little children.
They’d shared their first Christmas together, engaged. It had been special because Abby made it that way. She loved his family and jumped into the preparations for Christmas with great enthusiasm. She had no family of her own. None at all. Sometimes he worried that maybe she loved his family more than she loved him.
But Abby seemed to understand him better than anyone in the world. And she always let him know how important he was to her. Him and their child. She was so happy to have his child. She hadn’t felt exactly well. But she never complained.
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