Chapter 2

Forrester

Forrester was sipping coffee at the kitchen counter when Faith and Lacey entered, each carrying a beautiful baby girl. His eyes lit up as he saw the babies approaching.

“Say hello to uncle Forrester,” Lacey said to her little daughter, before mimicking the words, “hello, uncle Forrester,” in a mock baby voice.

“Hello, little angel,” Forrester said, reaching down and taking Lacey and Grant’s baby into his arms. Then, greedily, he grabbed Faith and Jackson’s daughter with his free hand, and had the two babies cradled, one in each arm. He looked like someone’s version of a joke nanny, muscles, tattoos, a tight, white t-shirt, and two beautiful, innocent babies in his arms.

“They suit you,” Faith said.

“They really do, Forrester,” Lacey agreed.

“Hold on, hold on,” Forrester said, grinning and shaking his head. “I need a good woman before I can even think about getting one of these for myself.”

Faith nodded. “And how’s that going? You haven’t been on a date in years.”

“Ever, as far as I can remember,” Lacey said.

Instead of answering, Forrester made faces at the babies. It was true, he hadn’t dated in a long time, although he didn’t exactly have a hard time finding a woman to share his bed. He just always made sure the relationship was over before it had a chance to get started. He liked women to be close physically, but he made damned sure to keep them at a distance emotionally.

“Don’t get on to me about that,” he said. “Just let me enjoy these two little beauties.”

He raised his arms, bringing the baby girls’ faces up to his own, and then he kissed them both in turn, making playful sounds as he did. Despite being so young and tiny, they both managed to laugh.

Faith and Lacey already knew he’d be their favorite uncle. He was a natural with them. To the women, it was so obvious that Forrester loved children. He’d make a perfect father. He just had commitment issues. It was a common affliction for men of his type. He lived dangerously, he made and spent huge amounts of money without batting an eye, and he was never far from a fight or a bar. He wasn’t an angry man, nor was he aggressive, but he had a habit of getting into trouble. He had a quick tongue, a hot head, and a sense of humor that got him in more trouble than he really deserved.

“A very nice girl just started working for us at the wine shop,” Faith said, but Forrester was already shaking his head.

“I don’t even want to know her name, Faith.”

“You’ve got to meet someone,” Lacey said. “You just turned thirty. If you wait much longer you won’t be an eligible bachelor, you’ll be an old fart that doesn’t have a woman. There’s a big difference, believe me.”

Forrester laughed. “Is that how it is?”

“Trust us,” Faith said. “Women are very discerning. They know what they like, Forrester. Right now, you’re exactly what they like. You’re the perfect age, you’re rich.”

“You’re hot as hell,” Lacey added.

Forrester smiled at them cheekily. “Don’t forget that I’m hung like a horse.”

Faith rolled her eyes. “But you wait much longer, and the women, the smart ones, will start to wonder why you weren’t snapped up by anyone else.”

“They’ll think there’s something wrong with you, Forrester.”

Forrester handed the babies back to their mothers. He would have liked to spend the entire morning with them but he had things that needed to get done. He’d promised Grant and Jackson that he’d help out on the vineyard, and afterwards he had a job to plan with Grady.

“Listen,” he said, looking Faith and Lacey in the eye, “I’m not sure what I’m looking for in this world, but when I find her, I’ll know it.”

The women each kissed him on the cheek.

“He’s a romantic,” Lacey said.

“He’s a fool,” Faith added.

Forrester took another sip of his coffee and picked up the mail, checking to see if there was anything for him.

“I almost forgot,” Lacey said, “there’s a letter there for you.”

Forrester nodded as he found it. It wasn’t the usual junk mail from his cell phone provider or bank. The name and address were handwritten. He lifted it up to the light to better see the postmark.

“What is it?” Faith said.

“It’s from Montana.”

They both went silent. They didn’t need to know any more than that to know it would be something serious. In the existence that had formed itself into Forrester’s life, and in all the years that both Lacey and Faith had known him, they knew that nothing good ever came to him from the great state of Montana. For Forrester, Montana only ever meant bad news, and bad memories.

“What is it?” Faith said.

“Let me open it,” Lacey added, handing her daughter to Faith.

Forrester let out a small grunt, barely audible, but Lacey and Faith both heard it as if it was a scream from the bottom of his lungs.

“Sit down,” Lacey told him as she took the letter and ripped open the envelope with a knife.

Faith poured him some more coffee.

“Do you want me to read it?” Lacey said.

Forrester nodded. “Thank you,” he said, and even though he was only a few years younger than her, he reminded her then of the boy who’d been brought to the mansion by her father from a Montana juvenile detention center many years earlier.

She scanned the words of the letter as if searching it for hidden traps. She knew there was nothing that could hurt Forrester as deeply as the things that came to him periodically from Montana.

“It’s from your father’s lawyer,” Lacey said.

Forrester shut his eyes and waited for her to continue.

“He’s dead.”

Forrester didn’t say anything to that. The man was old and he’d no doubt prepared himself for that piece of news some time ago.

“The lawyer wants you to return to Stone Peak to settle the estate. It says the funeral is to be held tomorrow at the Good News Cemetery.”

“Good News?” was all Forrester said, and he got up from his seat and left the kitchen.

The two women looked at each other, and then hurried after him.

“Forrester,” Lacey said, and Faith had no difficulty detecting the stress in her voice. Lacey had known Forrester since he was a teenager, in fact, they both had, and they looked at him as if he was their younger brother. They would both do anything in their power to protect him from that sort of pain.

They climbed the sweeping staircase to the upper level of the mansion and found Forrester in his room, hurriedly packing a leather overnight bag with a few things, underwear, a clean shirt, a razor, soap and deodorant.

“You don’t have to go back,” Lacey said.

“You owe that man and that town nothing,” Faith added. “That’s what they gave you, and that’s what you’d be entitled to give them back in return.”

“I know,” Forrester said, gratitude and love in his eyes as he looked at them, “but it’s like you both said earlier. It’s past time I became a man. It’s time I stepped up to the plate. If I wait any longer, I won’t be a hot-headed bad boy with a troubled childhood, I’ll be a man who failed to face his past.”

“It was a little bit more than a troubled childhood,” Lacey said.

“That don’t make any difference,” Forrester said. “A man’s got to face his past. He’s got to face his demons. If he doesn’t, he’s no man at all.”