Page 60 of The Cowboy's Second Chance Bride

“Until…?” Cal asked.

Morgan gave him a watery smile and used the side of her index finger to dab away the tears. “Until we started going up to Massachusetts to Harvard. One of the girls Rachael had made friends with had a brother there, and they would invite us to parties.”

“Dad went to Harvard,” Brynna said.

“Yes, he did,” Morgan said, looking at me. “He was desperately in love with Rachael.”

“What?” Cal nearly roared as he leaped to his feet.

I was beyond stunned. My heart stuttered with disbelief, and a cold wash ran over me. I put my hand up. “Stop. Give me a second to process this.”

I looked at the album and pictures of my mother and felt as if I were seeing a part of her for the first time. In the albums at home were endless pictures. Dad had been the one to pass along the stories of my mom in an attempt to keep her memory alive. But never once had Travis Holloway brought up Dalton Beckett—not before I met his son and certainly not anytime after Cal had been to our house. I knew Mom had gone to Brown, that my grandparents considered it a way for Mom to spread her wings, and that they’d never once held her back. They had adored and supported their only child in everything. And in a handful of years following my mother’s death, they had showered me with just as much love and devotion until they died.

“Mom, what do you mean that Dad was in love with Sabrina’s mom?” Cal was a looming shadow over us. His eyes flashed with anger.

Morgan raised her hands in defense. “Calvin, calm down, and I’ll tell you the story.”

He looked to me and shook his head in disbelief. “I didn’t know. I swear. I never imagined, and had I known, maybe things…” He wiped his hand down his face, looking shell-shocked, then turned and stalked to the fireplace, his back to us, his shoulders a rigid line.

“Maybe what things, Cal?” I asked. Did the history of our parents impact the future of us? When he didn’t answer, I turned to Morgan. “What do you mean he was desperately in love with my mother?”

Morgan flipped the page, and there was an image of Rachael, Morgan, another girl, and three guys. She pointed to the girl. “That’s Maggie. It was her brother Henry who was at Harvard.” She pointed to the tall guy at the edge of the photo. “That’s him. Moving inward is Matthew Thompson, and next to him and Rachael is Dalton.”

Cal moved like a flash from the fireplace and snatched up the album. He stared down at the image. His face softened when he looked at me. “I knew you looked like your mom. I could see that in the pictures you had around the house, but in this one here, you guys could be twins.” He handed the album back to me. “Matthew Thompson used to be Dad’s lawyer, right?”

“Yes,” replied Morgan. “They had a falling-out, and he left the company.”

Puzzle pieces were falling down around me, and I was slowly putting them together, creating a scene that had at one time not made a lick of sense but was starting to become clear.

“So Dalton liked my mother? And how did she feel?” I asked Morgan.

The older woman leaned back into the couch and rested her head back against the top cushion. “At first, she thought he was funny and smart. Because that’s Dalton. He makes a great first impression. It’s once you get to know him that you see how he really is. We’d gone up a handful of times to parties, and one spring break, Henry said they were all going to Vegas and asked if we wanted to come. We did, so we went.”

“My mom met my dad in Vegas.” I looked at Cal. He knew the story. It was why we had gone there in the first place.

“She met him that weekend,” Morgan confirmed. “I think it was our second night there. Travis was in a high-stakes game, and a crowd was surrounding him. We stopped to watch. Many of the others got bored after a while, but your mom?—”

“She said she couldn’t take her eyes off him. She said that for a guy sitting there with a lot to lose, he was still funny and kind and calm and… well, that’s what my grandmother told me.”

“There was just something about him, Rachael said. I think it was love at first sight for both of them, to be honest.” Morgan smiled wistfully. “It was very romantic.”

“Dad said that he almost folded so he could get out of the game,” I said. “She was that distracting to him. But he stayed in and won, albeit a few hours later. He said when it was over, he gathered up all his chips and went up to my mom and said, ‘I need to cash these in, but how about we get some dinner?” and she said, ‘I thought you’d never ask.’”

On the page was a picture of my mom sitting on the lawn at college, dressed in shorts, her legs stretched out in front of her and a braid over her shoulder. I ran a finger over the image. In the place where memories were stored, I heard my father’s voice telling me stories about them every night before bed. Our time with her had been too short. Our love for her had never waned.

“They were together from that moment on. Your dad would play at the casinos near college and see her whenever he could. He refused to let her quit school. All she wanted to do was follow him around. They were married the day after graduation.”

“They eloped in Vegas,” I added.

“With your grandparents present, of course.”

Cal pointed at his mom. “Wait, that’s how you recognized the picture of Travis the other day.”

She smiled at him. “I thought then I had exposed myself, and at the time I wasn’t ready to tell this story. But after I saw that picture and thought about it, I knew you both needed to know.”

Brynna snorted. “Wow, you missed that? For a guy in security, you really suck.”

“I was distracted.” Cal glared at his sister briefly before returning his attention to his mom. “What’s dad’s role in this? You said he was in love with Rachael.”

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