The Ashtons - Cole, Abigail & Megan

brats were the reason his plans for a better life had been put on hold for the past fifteen months.
    Her broken sobs grated on his nerves and had him zipping the bag shut. To hell with the rest of his things.He’d be buying new ones once he reached California, anyway.
    Anxious to escape Sally and the wailing twins, he grabbed the bag and walked out of the room. He heard her footsteps behind him, but he didn’t bother to look back. He never intended to look back.
    He would try to stay in touch with his younger brother, though. Spencer was kind of fond of the kid.
    But David had always been a bit of a sentimental fool about things. Even with the Ashton farm in foreclosure, and their old man dead from a heart attack because of it, the dumb kid had turned down Spencer’s offer at the cemetery to go with him. David had said he couldn’t imagine living anywhere but Nebraska and intended to make a fresh start in a new town—another godforsaken place just like Crawley.
    When Spencer reached the door, Sally’s words broke through his introspection, causing him to pause. “But these…are your children…Spencer. Don’t they mean…anything to you?”
    Turning, he gave her a disdainful smile as he watched her grip the newel post as if it might be the only thing keeping her on her feet. “Not a damn thing. As far as I’m concerned, you and your two squalling brats never existed.”
    Spencer watched her crumple into a pathetic, sobbing heap at the bottom of the stairs. Disgusted, he shook his head, then walked out the door and slammed it behind him.
    He whistled a tune as he walked to his truck, threw the duffel bag on the seat, then slid behind the wheel. He was a free man now, and nothing was going to stop him from living the life he not only wanted but, without question, deserved.

Chapter One
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    February 2005
    A bigail Ashton stepped out of the carriage house, tilted her head back and enjoyed the morning sun bathing her face with its warm rays. California in February was light-years away from the weather she’d left behind in western Nebraska. When she’d flown out of the town of Scottsbluff yesterday morning, the temperature had been in the midteens and there was almost a foot of snow covering the ground. But here in Napa Valley, the temperature was a good forty degrees warmer and felt almost balmy in comparison.
    No wonder her uncle had extended his stay in California. Even if his quest to meet with his father had thus far been futile, the weather was enough to tempt anyone.
    Looking around at the neatly kept grounds of Lucas and Caroline Sheppard’s estate, The Vines, Abby smiled. It had been extremely generous of Caroline to invite her and her Uncle Grant to stay with them for as long as they wanted to visit the Napa Valley area. All things considered, the woman had no reason to be kind to, or even like, them. After all, they had to be a painful reminder of Caroline’s first marriage—to Abby’s grandfather, Spencer Ashton. She shook her head in disgust. When he married Caroline, he’d conveniently failed to mention that he had a family he’d left behind in Nebraska, or that he hadn’t bothered to divorce his first wife, Sally.
    As Abby blindly stared across the dormant vineyard stretching out for acres behind the estate, her heart went out to Caroline. The woman hadn’t so much as a clue that her marriage to Spencer had been illegal, until Uncle Grant showed up last month in hopes of meeting with his father for the first time in over forty years.
    But even though she’d been shocked by the news, Caroline had been the epitome of class and graciousness. Once she’d learned that Uncle Grant was Spencer’s son, she’d insisted that family was family and he needed to get acquainted with her children—his half siblings.
    Abby bit her lower lip to keep it from trembling. She worried about Uncle Grant. He so wanted to confront his father and learn the reasons behind the abandonment of his first family. But the man simply refused to give Uncle Grant the time of day. For that matter, he refused to meet with Caroline’s children, either.
    Starting to walk toward the small lake behind the carriage house, Abby decided that she didn’t care if she ever met her duplicitous grandfather. Anyone who could leave his young wife and eight-month-old twins in Nebraska, marry another woman in California without obtaining a divorce, then abandon that woman to marry his secretary and have yet another family wasn’t