“It’s nice to meet you, Haley. Don’t worry about it; I know what a rake my brother can be. You have every right to assume the worst, though I will tell you, he was just gushing about you five seconds before you walked up in all your terrifying glory.” Brielle stuck out her hand.
Suddenly unable to speak, Haley met Brielle’s outstretched hand and shook it, feeling like a fool. It was Crew’s fault — she just couldn’t quite figure out how. Never before had she wished for a natural disaster, but she was praying for a hurricane to appear instantly and carry her off deep into the sea. Or a boiler could blow up…
“Sorry,” she finally mumbled when her wish wasn’t granted and the sky remained clear.
“My father wanted to surprise me by showing up out of the blue. Last time we chatted, he just said he was coming sometime. I figured he’d give me notice, but he likes to pop up unannounced. This is my dad, Richard,” he introduced.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Sutherland. As Brielle told you, Crew was speaking highly about you moments before you appeared. I hope you will be joining us this evening for dinner so we can get to know you better.” The twinkle in his eyes looked familiar, but Haley couldn’t trust anything she was seeing right now. She could barely meet the man’s eyes, let alone try to figure out why he looked like someone she’d met before.
Haley would rather be dropped off a cliff than spend time with the people she’d just insulted, but she nodded and smiled, trying furiously to think of any excuse to go running back into the resort. She’d bury herself under a mound of blankets and inhale a gallon of ice cream.
“Excellent. Our family has much to talk about and much to celebrate,” Richard said, taking her nod for affirmation, and then looking back at his son.
Haley spoke a bit too brightly. “That’s wonderful. I really have to be getting back inside. I’ll let you all catch up,” she said, tugging against Crew, ready to make her escape.
“Mmm, I like this jealous streak. Maybe you can punish me later,” he whispered in her ear, making her cheeks heat all over again. “Too bad the anklet doesn’t fit me.”
How could he say that in front of his family? Even if they couldn’t hear, she was terrified they knew exactly what he was whispering in her ear.
Without another word, she managed to untangle herself from Crew’s arms, and she fled inside.
She wasn’t coming out again for another ten years. Maybe her blush would have faded by then. She doubted it, but miracles did come true sometimes.
Chapter Twenty-Two
It wasn’t often that Crew didn’t have a word to say, but this was too much for him. How could it be possible? Things like this happened only in fiction, not in real life.
“I understand your shock, son,” Richard said. “I couldn’t believe it myself, but it is true. Signed, sealed, delivered, and scientifically verified. I didn’t want to give you news like this over the telephone, and I certainly didn’t want to tell you until I knew it was fact. We’ve already spoken to Ashton, Tanner and Lance. Brielle was the stop right before we came here. She insisted on joining us.”
Still, Crew sat there and stared at these men, these near duplicates of his father — his uncles. As the oldest child, Crew had always wanted more family when he was younger, cousins to play with, tell secrets to, and run amok with. Now that he was a grown man, he was finding out they’d been there all along, on the other side of the USA.
His family had taken vacations in California, had been through Seattle. He could have sat next to his cousins at a table, and never known. It was all so overwhelming.
“You’re taking it about as well as my oldest boy, Lucas, did,” Joseph said. The booming sound of his voice finally snapped Crew out of his shock.
“I’m sorry I’m being so disrespectful. I…it’s just a lot to take in,” he murmured.
“Well, of course it is, boy. It’s not every day you find out you have aunts and uncles, and a heck of a lot of cousins. We’ve planned a family gathering so you can meet. They will love you all as if you’ve known each other since day one. Family means everything to George and me. Plus, it’s been a real privilege for us to meet our brother, Richard. We want to know our new niece and nephews.”
The way this larger-than-life man instantly accepted a new family as his own was humbling. How many years had Crew taken family for granted? How many times had he gone off and not once thought of calling his siblings? It had been only after his father’s ultimatum that he’d pulled himself together — finally seeing what he had to lose.
Not the money. Sure, at first, that had been the worst of it, but when he and his siblings had sat down to plot against their old man, something else had happened. They’d bonded again — a bond that had been stretched thin over the years, but never broken. Now, they spoke at least once a week. They knew what was happening in each other’s lives. They were a family again, leaning on each other for moral support during the difficult undertaking of transforming troubled businesses.
Now, they had even more family, and Crew wanted to meet them all.
“When is the soonest we can do this?”
“I want everyone there for Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday because that’s when I get to look around an abundant table and count my blessings. I hope you’ll plan on it,” Joseph replied.
“Yes, of course,” Crew responded.
“There’s an extra setting for your spitfire girlfriend, too,” Joseph said, sending Richard a wink.
Crew looked incredulously from Joseph to his father and then burst out laughing. Despite being apart their entire lives, the men were more alike than seemed possible. Was matchmaking in the family genes? Next Joseph would be yammering on about grandbabies... No. Not likely. No one could be as bad as his dad was when it came to pushiness for the next generation to be born.
“I will consider that,” he said, refusing to satisfy the old meddlers’ obvious curiosity. Let them sweat. Yes, he was in love with Haley, but she was still frightened. He was waiting for the right moment to tell her she was never escaping him. She could run and she could hide, but he would never let her get away.
“Stubborn. That’s definitely Anderson blood,” George grumbled.
Crew sat back smugly, pulled out a cigar and lit it.