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debutantes are expensive.”

    “Of all the things he wants,” Liberty said, “money’s the easiest to get.”

    Carrington ran up to us, having finally emerged from the elevator. “Come on,” she said in excitement. “Everyone’s going outside, The fireworks are about to start!”

    Just what I need, I thought. More fireworks.

    The next morning I was packing a suitcase in my room when Nick came in. We had occupied separate bedrooms during our stay in River Oaks, which Nick had said was just line because there was no way he was going to touch me when we were under the same roof as my father.

    “He’s old, and he’s only half your size,” I had told Nick, laughing. “What do you think he’s going to do, beat you up or something?”

    “It’s the ‘or something’ that scares me,” Nick had said.

    As soon as Nick came into the room, I knew he had talked to my father. The stress showed on his face. He was hardly the first to come away looking like that after a heart-to-heart with Churchill Travis.

    “I told you,” I said. “Dad’s impossible. He wouldn’t accept you no matter how wonderful you were.”

    “Were?” He gave me a comical look.

    “Are.” I put my arms around him and laid my head on his chest. “What did he say?” I whispered.

    “Basically a variation on the ‘not a plug nickel’ theme.” Nick eased my head back and looked down at me. “I told him I was going to put you first, always. That I will earn enough to take care of you. I told him I just wanted his approval so there wouldn’t be conflict between you and your family.”

    “Travises love conflict,” I said.

    A smile entered Nick’s hazel eyes, all green and gold and brown. There was a touch of color on his high cheekbones, a remnant of the confrontation with my bulldog of a father. The smile vanished from his eyes as he smoothed my hair back, his hand curving gently over the back of my skull. He was handsome, grave, concerned. “Is this what you want, Haven? I couldn’t live with myself if I did something to hurt you.”

    Emotion made my voice unsteady. “The only thing that would hurt is for you to stop loving me.”

    “That’s not even possible You’re the one, Haven. You’re the one for me, always.” He bent his head, his mouth taking mine in a long, slow dream of a kiss. I responded avidly, lifting against him.

    “Hey,” he said softly. “What do you say we get out of here and go get married?”

CHAPTER THREE

    Contrary to my expections of elopement as a furtive Elvis-supervised ceremony in Las Vegas, there were hotels in Florida, Hawaii, and Arizona that offered “elopement packages” including the wedding service, the hotel stay, massages, and a meal plan. Gage and Liberty paid for our elopement to the Keys — it was their wedding present to me and Nick.

    Having taken a stand against my marriage to Nick, Dad went through with his threat to cut me off entirely. No money, no communication. “He’ll come around,” my brothers told me, but I said emphatically that I didn’t want Dad to come around, I’d had enough of him and his controlling ways for a lifetime.

    Liberty and I had our first argument when she tried to tell me that Churchill still loved me and always would.

    “Sure he does,” I told her curtly. “As a pawn. As a child. But as an adult with my own opinions and preferences . . . no. He only loves people when they spend their lives trying to please him.”

    “He needs you,” Liberty persisted. “Someday — ”

    “No he doesn’t,” I said. “He’s got you.” It was unfair of me to lash out at her, and I knew it, but I couldn’t stop myself. “You be the good daughter,” I said recklessly. “I’ve had enough of him for a lifetime.”

    It was a long time before Liberty and I spoke again.

    Nick and I moved to Piano, north of Dallas, where Nick worked as a cost estimator at a construction firm. It wasn’t something he wanted to do forever, but the pay was