The Loner's Thanksgiving Wish. Roxanne Rustand

be a good, attentive dad? He had shared custody, but Cade says he failed to show up most of the time and yelled a lot when he did have Cade with him. It’s so unfair.” Her expression clouded. “And it’s even unfair now.”

      “Why is that?”

      “You should hear the things he says about Cade and me getting married.”

      “About how young you both are?”

      Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Everyone has brought that up. He’s worse, saying crazy stuff about how I’m in cahoots with your grandpa George’s ‘clan’ since I’ve been living with Arabella. And how Cade has no business getting mixed up with the likes of them. Granted, Charley’s always been volatile, but these accusations are ridiculous!”

      “There’s some bad history between the two sides of the family,” Mei said carefully.

      Jasmine snorted. “Old history.”

      “Painful, to some.”

      “But it’s all in the past. I know about how your grandpa cheated his brother in some sort of land deal that left George rich and Samuel poor, and how Samuel has been mad ever since.”

      It was hard coming up with a defense of anyone’s actions—but Samuel’s side of the family tree had found endless ways to cause trouble over the years in retaliation. “Maybe … Charley is only following his father’s lead, then.”

      “But it shouldn’t drive Cade and me apart. It just isn’t fair.” She sighed. “That’s why I’m thinking about putting on a big Thanksgiving dinner all by myself for both sides of the family. If I can get everyone face to face, maybe they’ll finally grow up.”

      Ah, the innocence of youth. “It might not work out quite that way.”

      “But someone needs to try,” Jasmine said with a stubborn lift of her chin. “And because I have the most at stake right now, I guess it needs to be me.”

      “What does Cade think of all this?”

      Jasmine’s mouth twitched. “He doesn’t think anyone will show up, but I think they will. And he knows how much this means to me.”

      “Just be careful to not pressure people too much, honey. I’m not saying you don’t have the right idea, but there’s a long, long history between some of these people, and what some of them have done to seek revenge against each other has left a lot of open wounds.” She shrugged. “Maybe some battles aren’t worth the cost.”

      “Well, this one is.”

      Mei arched a brow.

      Jasmine yawned again and closed her eyes, and in a few minutes her breathing became deep and even. Poor thing—she had to be exhausted from all she’d been through.

      Mei grabbed the only magazine in the cubicle—an old Sports Illustrated—and settled back in her chair with the magazine unopened in her lap. Life could sure change in a second. A dangerous landslide, the unexpected arrival of Jack McCord …

      He’d been just another boy to her during elementary school, but she hadn’t shared the rest of the story with Jasmine. Things certainly changed in high school, when his dark, sun-streaked blond hair and tall, muscular physique reminded her of a Californian surfer and his reckless, defiant attitude promised trouble. His bad-boy allure had been undeniable.

      But beneath that tough shell of his she’d glimpsed something else that had touched her heart. A flash of pain and loneliness in those mesmerizing blue eyes, coupled with an undercurrent of simmering anger that flashed fire if anyone mentioned the name of his former stepfather.

      Mei had known from the first moment of girlish attraction that, though he was far beyond the reach of a shy nobody like her, they were far more alike than anyone could’ve ever guessed. Soul mates, she’d thought then, with the naïveté of a young girl.

      She’d tried to hide her secret, painful crush on him. Then she’d been humiliated beyond measure when her cousin Vincent somehow ferreted out her feelings and broadcast them throughout the school with vicious glee.

      The gentle sympathy in Jack’s eyes when they bumped into each other in the school library a few weeks later had made her humiliation a thousand times worse because then she’d known that he’d heard the gossip and felt sorry for her.

      Her one saving grace had been that he’d gone off to college somewhere on the West Coast and had shaken the dust of Clayton, Colorado, off his feet long ago, while Mei had headed for college in the opposite direction the following year. She hadn’t expected to ever run into him again.

      Yet her traitorous heart had picked up an extra beat at just seeing him again. She’d been sure that he would’ve forgotten her—it would be no surprise. She’d been nearly invisible back in school, just an inconsequential shadow in a sea of boisterous students who’d excluded her.

      Though if Jack had looked her way, there wouldn’t have been any chance to date him.

      She shuddered, remembering once again the vehement dislike between the two branches of the Clayton family tree. Maybe Jasmine and Cade’s generation would finally bring peace to the family, but that hadn’t been a glimmer of a possibility before.

      Grandpa George’s side was filled with good-hearted, hardworking folks, whereas his brother Samuel’s side was filled with resentful ne’er-do-wells who seemed to cause endless trouble … or so her parents had always said.

      That Jack had once been associated—even briefly—with the family from the other side of the tracks had made him completely off-limits.

      It felt good to be older now. Mature. Beyond caring about high school cliques and the subtle social structure that existed even within her own family. In twelve more months she could leave and never look back.

      A young doctor with curly auburn hair slipped into the room, and Mei shook off her thoughts.

      Jasmine immediately sat up straight. “Dr. Kerber—is something wrong? Is Cade all right?”

      “First you, young lady.” A flicker of a smile softened the woman’s stern expression. “Your CT scans, X-rays and labs show no indication of internal bleeding, no fractures. Everything seems to be normal … other than a mild wrist sprain and some minor lacerations, scrapes and bruises.”

      “I’m free to go?”

      “Yes, but I still want someone to be with you for the next forty-eight hours. You experienced quite a fall, and head injuries can still fool us no matter what the tests say.”

      “She lives with my cousin Arabella Michaels,” Mei interjected. “Supervision won’t be any problem at all.”

      “Good, good.” Dr. Kerber looked down at the clipboard she held in the crook of her left arm. “The nurse will be here in a bit to give you a tetanus shot, Jasmine, some going-home instructions regarding your sutures and warning signs of any head injury complications. I’d guess that you are going to be pretty stiff and sore for a few weeks, and you will probably experience headaches. Do you have any questions for me?” “Just—”

      “About Cade. I know.” The doctor smiled. “He signed a permission form so I could share his information with you.” She shook her head in wonder. “Given the distance of the fall and the massive weight of the boulders that went down with the two of you, it could’ve been so much worse. All I can say is that God must have been with you both. You not only survived but missed serious head and spinal cord injuries—all too common in this kind of accident.”

      “God was with us.” Jasmine closed her eyes briefly. “I’ve never prayed so hard in my life—especially afterward when Cade was bleeding so much.”

      Dr. Kerber glanced again at her clipboard. “He wasn’t quite as lucky as you, I’m afraid. He has a severely sprained ankle and significant, deep bruising. It took ten sutures to close up that laceration on his head and another eight on