Chasing a Second Chance (The Westmoreland Legacy #8)

Chapter One

To say Cheyenne Steele Westmoreland had been surprised by the birthday party was an understatement.

Her husband, Quade Westmoreland, told her they would be attending a joint fundraiser in the nation’s capital for his brother, Senator Reggie Westmoreland, and his cousin, Senator Jess Outlaw.

She hadn’t suspected a thing. The shocked look on her face when she’d entered the ballroom to everyone’s shouts of “Surprise!” was priceless.

Now Clint Westmoreland stood with a group of cousins and friends. As he glanced around, he noticed the arrival of an unknown guest. “Holy Toledo!” he exclaimed in shock. “Who is that guy who just walked in?”

Everyone turned toward the ballroom entrance. Chance Steele, one of Cheyenne’s cousins, answered, “That’s Matthew Caulder, Dominic’s best friend since childhood.”

Everybody knew that Dominic Saxon—the wealthy industrialist, hotel owner and shipping magnate—was married to Cheyenne’s sister, the former Taylor Steele. “Dominic and Matt were raised together as brothers,” Chance added.

Clint’s brother, Cole, and sister, Casey, quickly walked up, both wearing the same shocked look as Clint. The three were triplets. “Do you see that guy, Clint?” Casey asked her brother in a voice filled with astonishment.

“Yes, I see him,” Clint replied, still staring at the man.

“Hey, you’re all interested in the guy, but I want to know about the young woman with him,” Alisdare Westmoreland said. “Is that his wife, girlfriend, sister or daughter?”

It was obvious to everyone that Alisdare, who was in his late twenties, single and employed as an FBI agent, was probably hoping it was the latter.

“The young lady with Matt is his daughter,” Sebastian Steele, another of Cheyenne’s cousins, answered. He turned to the triplets. “Why the interest in Matt?”

Cole glanced over at Sebastian and said, “He’s the spitting image of our Uncle Sid.”

“And we want to know why,” his sister, Casey, tacked on.

* * *

The triplets’ strong display of shock had captured the attention of everyone in close proximity.

Not far away, at the buffet table, Iris Michaels, best friend to Pam Novak Westmoreland, stared at the guy whose appearance seemed to have created the excitement.

He appeared to be in his early forties, very handsome and distinguished looking.

Suddenly, their gazes met and held a little longer than necessary. In that brief moment, the look she shared with him unsettled her nerves. Their eye contact ended when Quade and Cheyenne approached him.

Iris released a deep breath. Never had her attraction to a man been so instant and volatile.

Not even with Warren, the man she was presently dating exclusively.

The same man she was unhappy with for standing her up after promising to fly in from Philadelphia to attend this party with her.

He had bailed at the last minute. But then, it wasn’t the first time.

The one thing Warren wasn’t was dependable, but he had promised to work on it.

She tried to be understanding. When you were CEO of a major corporation, there were demands on your time.

Hopefully, one day, he would take her advice to stop micromanaging and delegate more.

She glanced around the ballroom, looking for Pam. She needed her best friend to tell her everything she knew about the stranger who was causing quite a stir…even with her.

* * *

Quade Westmoreland, along with his wife, Cheyenne, greeted the latest arrivals—Matt and his daughter, Deena.

“Happy birthday, Cheyenne,” Matt said to the honoree. “Sorry, we’re late, but we encountered bad weather leaving LA.”

“No apologies needed,” Cheyenne said, giving both hugs. “Thanks for coming.”

“We’re glad you got here safely,” Quade said, giving both hugs as well. “Welcome to DC. When Dominic offered us the use of this Saxon Hotel’s ballroom, we decided to have the party here instead of in Charlotte.”

“Did I hear my name?” Dominic Saxon asked, coming to join them. He gave his best friend a bear hug. “Glad you two made it. I heard about the bad weather in LA.”

He then looked at the young woman at Matt’s side. “And how is my favorite goddaughter?”

She threw her head back and laughed. “I am your only goddaughter, Goddaddy.”

Dominic smiled broadly. “That’s true. Every time I see you, I feel like I’m getting old.

I can remember when Matt and I used to take turns picking you up from daycare.

” He looked over his goddaughter’s shoulder and saw the Westmoreland triplets—Clint, Cole and Casey—headed their way with serious expressions on their faces.

“What’s going on with your cousins, Quade?” Dominic asked.

Quade followed his line of vision and said, “Heck if I know, but we’ll find out soon enough.”

When the triplets reached them, Quade asked his cousins, “Is anything wrong?”

“We’re not sure,” Clint, the oldest of the triplets, said. Not waiting for an introduction, he turned to Matt and extended his hand. “I’m Clint Westmoreland. This is my sister, Casey, and my brother, Cole.”

Matt smiled broadly and shook hands with the three.

“The Westmoreland Triplets. Although we’ve never met, I’ve heard about you from Quade.

Nice to finally meet you three. And this is my daughter, Deena.

” When the spouses of the triplets—Alyssa, Patrina and McKinnon—joined them, more introductions were made.

“We hate staring,” Clint said to Matt. “But you are the spitting image of our deceased uncle, Sid Roberts.”

“Sid Roberts?” Matt asked, lifting a brow. “The Sid Roberts? The cowboy legend and rodeo star?”

Cole nodded. “I take it you’ve heard of him?”

Matt laughed. “Who hasn’t?”

“I haven’t, Dad,” Deena said, chuckling.

“Then let me correct myself for the benefit of my daughter,” Matt said, grinning. “Any guy who, as a kid, ever wanted to be a cowboy has heard of Sid Roberts. He’s a legend. First as a rodeo star and then as a horse trainer. He earned the reputation of being a horse whisperer.”

“Thanks for the history lesson.” Deena smiled.

“Don’t feel bad—I only know about him through my relatives,” Alisdare Westmoreland said, coming to join the group. More introductions were made. When he was introduced to Deena, he widened his smile and said, “Nice meeting you, Deena.”

“Nice meeting you, too, Alisdare.”

Ignoring the fact that Alisdare hadn’t released Deena’s hand yet, Casey said to Matt, “When we say you look like our uncle, you honestly do. The resemblance is uncanny. You even sound like him. You have his voice, his height, his build. Even your beard and the shape of your eyebrows. Everything. It’s like you’re a replica of him. ”

“Is that a fact?” Matt asked. It was obvious from his expression that he found what they were saying intriguing.

“Yes. Look here,” Cole said, showing a photo of their uncle on his cell phone.

Matt sucked in a shocked breath. It was as if he were seeing himself in that photo. The phone was passed around, and after Dominic saw it, he held Matt’s gaze. “There has to be a reason for this.”

“If there is, my sister, brother and I would like to know it,” Clint said.

“You do favor this guy, Dad. A lot,” Deena said when the phone was given to her.

It was obvious Matt was shocked to the point of being shaken. “I don’t understand how or why.”

“I know why.”

Everyone turned to the fashionably dressed woman, Megan Saxon, a renowned designer whose beautiful clothes were worn by some of the most famous models, who walked up with her husband, Marcello, by her side. Megan and Marcello were Dominic’s parents.

“You do?” Matt asked Megan, his godmother, who’d been his mother’s best friend since high school.

“Yes, I do.” Megan turned to her son, Dominic. “Is there somewhere all of us can talk privately?”

“Yes. There’s a meeting room next door. Please follow me.”

* * *

It didn’t take long for everyone to assemble. It didn’t go unnoticed that Alisdare deliberately sat beside Deena Caulder. Matt turned to his godmother. “Now then, could you explain why I look so much like Sid Roberts?”

Dominic had a feeling his best friend already knew the answer but wanted it confirmed by the one person who would know. “Sid Roberts was your father, Matt.”

The room got quiet, and then Clint spoke up. “So you’re the child Uncle Sid looked for all those years.”

Matt, who never knew his father, but had known his conception had been the result of his mother’s short-term affair, asked, “Your uncle looked for me?”

“Yes, for years. He hired a private investigator to search for you as soon as he got a letter from your mother saying he had fathered her child. However, the letter did not have a return address.”

“In that case, why bother to even write him?” Quade asked.

Megan looked at him and said, “Deena and Sid met at a rodeo in Texas while she was there as an intern for three months during her last year of college. They engaged in a short-term affair. He let her know from the beginning that he was a carefree bachelor and intended to stay that way. It was never his plan to settle down and get married.”

Megan paused then added, “Deena felt Sid had been upfront with her in the beginning, but he was a good man. If he found out where she and his child were, he would have done the honorable thing and married her. She didn’t want him to make any sacrifices for her and their child.

She felt it best that he didn’t know how to find them.

However, she wanted Sid to know about his child just in case, one day, when Matt got older, he wanted to seek out his father. ”

“That’s similar to the reason our mother didn’t tell our dad about us,” Casey said softly, glancing at her two brothers.

Matt asked, “Although he went by the name Sid, was his real name Sidney?”

Cole nodded. “Yes. He was Sidney Roberts. Why?”

“Because Sidney is my middle name.”

“And Matthew was Uncle Sid’s middle name,” Clint said, thoughtfully.

No one said anything for a minute, and then Clint added, “Chester always believed Uncle Sid had a child out there.” At Matt’s questioning look, he explained.

“Chester worked as Uncle Sid’s cook, housekeeper and his confidant for years.

He’s still with us, and we consider him part of our family. I can’t wait to tell him about you.”

Matt drew in a deep breath and said, “I never knew the identity of my father and never asked Mom. No discussion of him ever came up…except…”

“Except what?” Dominic asked.

“The day before she died. She asked if I wanted to know who he was, and I told her no. By then, I was a senior in high school and felt I didn’t need him in my life since he hadn’t been there before then.”

When the room went silent, Megan Saxon said, “Deena made me promise if you ever wanted to know, I’d tell you. You never asked, Matt.”

Alisdare glanced over at Deena. “I take it you were named after your grandmother?”

“Yes, I was.”

When the room fell quiet once again, Deena Caulder decided to inject positivity into the awkward silence.

With a huge smile on her face, she said, “Just think, Dad. We have cousins we didn’t know about.

Isn’t that wonderful?” She reached out and affectionately touched Clint’s, Cole’s and Casey’s hands.

“I’m so glad Dad and I finally got to meet you. ”

“We’re glad, too,” Casey said, smiling, but fighting back tears.

“Your mother was right, Matt. Our Uncle Sid was a good man. He and our mother were close, and he provided a home for us on his ranch. We understand how you might be feeling, Matt. For years, we thought our father was dead, but Mom told us the truth on her deathbed when we were adults. We had lived all that time not knowing our dad, Corey Westmoreland.”

Deena tilted her head and stared at Alisdare. “You’re a Westmoreland, too. Does that mean we’re related, as well?”

Alisdare smiled. “No, we aren’t related. Sid Roberts was the triplets’ mother’s brother. I am related to them through their father, Uncle Corey. He’s my grandfather’s brother.”

Her smile widened. “Good. I’m glad we’re not related.”

Alisdare returned her smile. “I’m glad, too.”