Frontier Inferno (8 page)

Heather stood in their little island of unburned woodland and took in the acres of smoking forest stretching up the hillsides. All the beauty gone. As she would have been, if not for her firefighter hero. “We would have died. If it hadn’t rained…we would have died.”

“I covered us with a fire blanket. It was our best shot. But it was pretty hairy there for a while.” Chris smoothed her wet, smelly hair away from her face and kissed her. “Not the first time I’ve been in danger like that, just the first time I’ve been there with my girlfriend.”

“Your girlfriend?” Did everyone consider her his
girlfriend
but her? She liked the sound of it though. Very much.

He kissed her again. “Well, I hope so. I went to a lot of trouble to keep you alive. I don’t do that for just anyone.”

She cupped his chin and smiled into his blue, blue eyes. “Of course you do. It’s your job.”

“Okay, maybe so.” Chris slung an arm over her shoulder and started toward the base camp. “But it’s not usually so much fun.” After a few minutes, they passed a smoking hulk and he paused. “About my truck….”

They hopped out of the jeep at the front door of the Castle Lodge. Down in the inlet, passengers debarked from the paddle wheeler tied up to the dock. The first people they saw were the Nick and Kathryn, Billy and….

“Oh, my God, it’s my father.” Heather clung to Chris’s arm and fought the urge to hide behind him. How the heck had he learned where to find her? Now everyone would know she didn’t have what it took to belong to such a noble family. All her mother’s coaching and insistence, the deportment lessons and prep school. None of which took. She preferred garage rock bands to the symphony and never remembered which fork to use. And she hated her mother’s social whirl. The few times she’d been corralled into sitting in on a meeting of some ladies’ club or other, she’d either spilled her tea or said absolutely the wrong thing. One mistake after another, leading to running away like a misbehaving child instead of holding her ground and making her own decisions like an adult.

“Your father? That’s Nick’s cousin, George Castillo, the land baron. He’s been here several times since the Alaskan expansion of the Castillo chain began.” She ducked behind him, but Chris drew her out again. “You’re a Castillo? Why didn’t Kathryn say anything? What’s the big secret?”

Only her disgrace.

The fact that she knew nothing about either family business, the Castillo hotel chain or her father’s real estate empire, could only make her look worse. But when would she have had the opportunity?

The big man headed straight toward them. “Heather Lynn, you come here right now.”

She approached him, head low. All the planning, the tens of thousands of dollars her father had laid out for the wedding of her dreams. How could she explain her refusal to follow through?

Her steps faltered. It had been the wedding of her
mother’s
dreams, though. Her choice of colors, appetizers, she’d even vetoed Heather’s single suggestion.
Chocolate cake is not done. What would your father say?

How could she possibly know what her father thought of chocolate cake, as little as she saw him. He never shared anything about his own life, only asked about hers. She knew he bought and sold large tracks of land for development or preservation, while his cousins ran the worldwide Castillo Hotel and Resort empire…but it had all seemed far from her life. “What are you doing here, Dad?” Wearing a hooded sweatshirt and jeans, he barely resembled the businessman she did know.

His jovial expression, present when he’d stopped by to take her to lunch a few times a year, wasn’t visible at that point. Instead, he said, “Visiting, relaxing. A little land speculation.” His eyes pierced her, right to the little girl whose daddy moved away. “And apparently, finding my lost daughter.”

After all she’d been through, her parents had found her anyway. Heather gritted her teeth, prepared to insist she wouldn’t leave. She had a job and a place to live…. But would Kathryn keep her on knowing who she was—that she defied the family? She could get another job. With her full week’s experience as a nanny. Or her cooking skills, maybe go back to that plan. And leave Chris behind?

But before she uttered a word of protest or defense, her father gathered her in a big hug. “Now, what’s this I hear about you running away from home? And right before your wedding. Your mother called me in a real snit.”

She wouldn’t melt, do what they wanted her to. “I’m not going home.”

“All right.” He patted her sooty hair.

“And I am not marrying Reggie,” she muttered, the words muffled against his chest.

“I’m very glad to hear that.” Her father set her away from him and rested his hands on her shoulders, looking her up and down. “When I met the young man at the engagement party, I found him entirely unworthy of you. I wanted to say something, but your mother said it would hurt you, that you were in love with him. I guess there’s no accounting for a woman’s affections.”

“He was nice enough, I guess. ” Heather tried to track back, make sense of things. “Mother said I would make the family proud with this wedding. Reggie’s family is in the social register.”

He chuckled. “Social register? As if a family as old as ours would aspire to such a thing. My darling, your mother used us both to achieve her dreams. And I won’t ask how you ended up so close to the altar. The woman got me there and I still have no idea how.”

Streaks of silver threaded through her father’s dark hair and fine wrinkles bracketed his eyes. But he was still a man in the prime of life, with, she hoped, many years in which she could get to know him better. She suddenly felt like a little girl again, wanting her daddy. “Why did I see you so rarely?”

“Your mother said it upset you after I my visits. That you were restless and unhappy.”

“Mom has a lot to answer for.” Heather eyed Nick and Kathryn, standing off to the side. “So did someone recognize me? How did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t. Until Kathryn passed around pictures of the baby while we were all on the boat and I happened to see my daughter in one. Now, what’s all this?”

Sobs began in earnest, shaking her shoulders, her tears soaking the front of his shirt. “Daddy, you’ve gone to so much trouble and expense and if I don’t marry Reggie, you’ll be embarrassed by me and the family name will be…will be….”

He set her away from him. “Will be, what?”

“Ruined.”

He roared with laughter and Nick moved to his side. “So, you’re my cousin? I haven’t seen you since you were so little, I didn’t recognize you, Heather.”

“Her mother and I divorced, as you know, and she managed to keep my daughter mostly to herself. But, darlin’, why on earth would your canceling a wedding ruin our name? I’d never want you to marry someone you didn’t want to.”

Chris cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and said, “Then, since we learn to take our opportunities in Alaska, and I don’t know when I’ll see your father again, Heather…Mr. Castillo, I am Chris Elder, and since she’s no longer planning to marry her mother’s selection, may I have your permission to marry your daughter myself?”

Billy jumped up and down, then flung his arms around her waist. “Yes, marry us! We love you, Heather.”

“And this is my son, Billy.” Chris raised his hands and let them drop. “I would have liked to say it first, but yes, we do. We love you, Heather.”

Laughter broke through her tears. “This is so sudden.”

George’s eyes narrowed on Chris. “Sudden. Yes. What has been going on here?”

She wished she knew. “I think I’m getting married.” Everything was moving so fast. But in the right direction. Finally.

Her father looked at his cousin. “You know this man better than I do. What would you do?”

Nick patted him on the back. “As the father of a willful daughter myself, I say they are going to get their way one way or another.”

George tipped her chin up. “Do you want to marry Chris?”

“More than anything. I love him and I love Billy. They’re my people, I think.”

“Looks like I’ll be visiting more often, Nick. My daughter has been missing the Castillo side of her heritage and I’ve been missing her. But, baby, your integrity in not allowing yourself to be railroaded into a bad choice is a very Castillo-like quality. One I wish I’d developed earlier than I did.” Her father passed her into Chris’s arms. “She’s all yours, my boy. May you do a better job taking care of her than I did. Because this time the Castillos’ eyes are upon you.”

“Oh, Daddy.” She sighed. “You’re there for me when it counts.” Within the embrace of her new family, she smiled at him. “But you get to tell Mother.”

Thank you so much for reading this book. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have the most wonderful job I can imagine and I am forever grateful. I hope you will let me know what you think about the story at:
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Thanks once again and happy reading! Kate

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