“We’ve always got fresh veggies and sandwich fixings in the fridge,” Cassie said. “For days like today when there isn’t time for a proper meal.”
“You always this busy, then?”
“Sometimes.” The beautiful redhead took a bite of a sandwich and shrugged. “My partner, Zack, is out of town with his wife this week so things are a little more crazy than usual around here.”
His mind reeling with the knowledge that he had a four-legged creature waiting for him in a kennel inside that back door, Josh said, “I won’t keep you long.”
“What can I do for you?” Cassie asked.
She took a sip from a water bottle and offered him a bottle of his own. He declined that, too.
“I have a favor to ask,” he said, suddenly conscious of the fact that the pretty veterinarian had limited time to offer him and was already halfway through her sandwich. “Of sorts,” he amended.
He’d told himself he wasn’t going to ask anything of anyone.
And he wasn’t.
Not of material value, anyway.
“You said your place is only temporary. You’re new to town?” The doctor’s expression was serious.
“Yes.”
“Here to stay?”
“For now.”
Cassie Montford swallowed her last bite of sandwich and wrapped her hands around the plastic bottle, looking at him expectantly.
“I’m Josh Redmond.”
“I know. You said so. Should that mean something to me?”
“I’d hoped not, but I wasn’t sure. My mother promised me she’d stay out of things, but I wasn’t positive she had. It was also possible someone from here had done the same research she did.” Which had been another reason he’d waited to do this in person. He was hoping for anonymity and he wouldn’t have had any chance of success at all if his identity preceded him.
Frowning, Cassie’s gaze remained open. “Do I know your mother?”
“No! And I’m making more out of this than I should. I need to tell you who I am and why I’m in town, but before I do, I’d like to ask you to keep what I’m about to tell you to yourself.”
“I can’t promise that. In the first place, I’m not in the habit of keeping secrets from my husband.”
“Sam, Jr.”
“You know Sam? Were you in the peace corps with him?”
“No.” But he was surprised to hear that Cassie’s husband, Sam, had been. A stint in the peace corps wasn’t typically something you found on the résumés of the sons of the elite.
Curious.
“I’m sorry, I just thought...” Cassie broke off. “Other than Sam’s time in the peace corps, we pretty much know all of the same people. We’ve been friends since kindergarten.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to keep anything from your husband,” Josh jumped in. “Though I’d hope that he’d keep anything you tell him to himself.”
“I still can’t give you any assurances that either one of us will keep your secret until I know the nature of it.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “I wouldn’t have bothered you at all except that I need you to send a letter to my mother, assuring her that I’ve arrived and am being properly looked after.”
She hadn’t asked him to do so. But he knew her. She’d manage to keep her word to stay out of things longer if she had some sort of contact, was involved in some little way.
The other woman’s frown deepened. As did the look of compassion in her eyes.
“Are you ill?” Cassie asked.
“No. I’m in perfect health.” As fate would have it. Michelle was the one who’d paid for his years of selfish indifference. “And I have absolutely no intention of being looked after.” He had to make that quite clear. Whether the Montfords agreed to keep his secret or not was not going to change his plan. It just might change his location.
“Okay, tell me who you are, and I’ll tell you what I’m willing to do for you.”
“I’m your cousin,” Josh said. “Or rather, your husband’s cousin. Twice removed, but not so much when it comes to the family fortunes. As near as my mother could tell, Sam and I are currently the only direct heirs, once our parents pass.”
Cassie’s mouth dropped open. “You’re a Montford,” she said, as though she’d expected him to show up some day.
“My mother is the sole descendent of the Boston Montfords. Your husband’s father is the sole descendent of the Arizona Montfords.”
“It’s my understanding that the Boston Montfords disowned our Sam and that the two branches of the family haven’t been in touch in all the generations since.”
Josh’s mother was an only child. Josh was an only child. The Boston Montfords just might die out.
“I know,” he said. “But my mother, as the only heir to the Boston half of the fortune, intends to change that.”
“And she’s using you to do so.”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“So what’s in it for you?”
Josh bowed his head.
Cassie Montford, who, according to his mother, had been born and raised in Shelter Valley, had obviously learned a thing or two about the outside world, as well.
He sized up the woman across from him. Like he’d study a client across the boardroom table. To see how far he could push, how much he could get.
He saw a spot of moisture on her lip.
A spot of moisture that, in that second, reminded him of Michelle.
“Peace,” he finally answered. “And it’s not something you or anyone else can give me,” he said, knowing that his life in Shelter Valley depended on his honesty in this moment, because it depended on her full cooperation.
“I don’t understand.”
“Like Sam’s great-grandfather, I’m in Shelter Valley to start a new life,” Josh said, looking her straight in the eye. “Also like him, I am choosing to do so without benefit of the family fortune.”
“Choosing to do so.”
“Yes.”
“So you aren’t on the run? Or cut off for heinous deeds?” She might have been joking, if not for the dead seriousness of her gaze.
“No. On the contrary. I’m in Shelter Valley because the only way my mother would be at peace with me leaving Boston was to know that I was coming here. My parents think that I’m living off my monthly inheritance draw.”
“And that’s why you want me to write to her and let her know that you’re here and being cared for, for her peace of mind?”
“Right.”
“What kind of care do you need, Mr. Redmond?”
“Call me Josh...please. And the only thing I need from you and Sam—other than this one communication with my mother who is, by the way, a wonderful lady who will want to meet you someday—is my space and a promise that you will not say anything to anyone, including family, about who I really am.”
“Let me guess, you want your mother to believe you’re here as a Montford, but you want no part of the family name and all that goes with it.”
“Pretty