Page 2 of Chasing a Second Chance
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. “TheSid 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.”
