The Moment of Truth

“Depends on whether or not we play golf first.”

Loosening his tie just enough to get the knot off his Adam’s apple, he grinned. “What time’s golf?”

“I can put us in for eleven if you want to go eighteen.”

L.G. would be alone for five hours.

“You got a fenced backyard?”

“Doesn’t everybody around here? Got to keep the coyotes out.”

“Would Amy mind if I bring my dog to dinner? I can go eighteen if L.G. can come to dinner.”

“Amy loves animals. She’s been bugging me for a pup.”

With a chuckle, Josh said, “You mind if I bring my dog?”

“Bring him on. I know when I’m facing a losing battle and I’ve learned not to fight them.”

“And I know someone who can find you a puppy whenever you’re ready.”

“Better give him a call. I have a feeling I’m going to be ready any time now....” Ian broke off as the door opened and a guy wearing a pair of expensive-looking jeans and a tweed jacket walked in. At first glance, with the clothes and longish, disheveled hair, Josh thought he was a student. One of the many well-to-do kids that populated Montford’s campus.

“Sam!” Ian called out. Josh could see some signs of aging on the man’s features as he turned toward them. He was definitely not a kid.

He didn’t put the pieces together, though, didn’t realize the situation he was in, until Ian said, “You have to meet Sam Montford. He’s one of the school’s biggest supporters.”

Shit. He’d known that the Montford family was one of the university’s largest contributors, that there might be a time when, at a fund-raising black-tie affair, he’d have to arrange with Cassie to keep his distance from her and her husband.

“What’s Sam Montford doing in here?” he said under his breath to Ian as Ian motioned for another beer. And how the hell did a regular guy like Ian know him well enough to call him over to their table?

“Sam’s a great guy,” Ian said. “Not the country club type.”

Holding his hand out to Ian, Sam Montford stopped at their table. And Josh stared. If he didn’t know better he’d swear that his Grandfather Montford had just emerged from a fountain of youth.

Josh took after his father’s side of the family in looks, but the fact that he didn’t look like a Montford wasn’t going to protect his identity from this one.

Setting his jaw and flashing one of his infamous Redmond grins, he wasn’t ready at all as Ian turned to him.

“Josh, this is Sam Montford. Sam, meet our new miracle worker, Josh Redmond. He’s only in his second week and already freed up enough monies to...” Josh didn’t hear the rest.

He was face-to-face with a blood relative he’d never met and wasn’t going to acknowledge. Nothing in the social rule book to guide him on this one.

Sam was grinning at him and could blow his cover at any moment. If he’d had any idea at all that Montford ever set foot in the college pub, he’d have declined the invitation to be there. And to think that his concern about running into the Montfords at the country club had been unfounded.

After hesitating a long moment, Sam held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Josh.”

“You, too.” Shit. He should have tacked on a “sir.” He should have stood up. Showed the deference he was used to receiving.

The waitress delivered their round of beers and Sam Montford slid onto the third of the four stools at their high-top table, staring at Josh.

“So, you’re the new miracle worker,” Sam said, still grinning.

The man was his cousin, albeit a couple of generations removed. Still, he was his flesh and blood—and heir to the other half of the Montford dynasty. For so long, Josh had carried that responsibility alone. And, according to Cassie Montford, some guy named Ben Sanders fit in there someplace, too. He obviously hadn’t been on his mother’s genealogy report. She’d told him the only cousins were Sam and him.

“Not miracles, no, sir,” Josh said. “But I’m good at what I do and I’ll do it well.”

A picture of Michelle, drool at the corner of her mouth, played across his mind’s eye.

“I find my way into every bar we’ve got in this town at some time or another,” Sam announced. “This is the first I’ve seen you.”

Sam was telling him he’d been looking. Josh got the message. And waited to see if Sam was going to keep the word he’d given Cassie.

“Don’t let him kid you,” Ian said, apparently unaware of what, to Josh, seemed like a hell of a lot of tension. “Sam’s not a drinker. He’s too busy being a daddy to do much drinking. He comes in here to check on that daughter of his.”