“Yes. And that’s not counting the three Westmoreland wives and a cousin-in-law from Australia. In our family tree we’ve now become known as the Denver Westmorelands.”
“Denver Westmorelands? Does that mean there are more Westmorelands in other parts of the country?”
“Yes, there are some who sprung from the Atlanta area. We have fifteen cousins there, as well. Most of them were at the Westmoreland charity ball.”
An amused smile touched her lips. She recalled seeing them and remembered thinking how much they’d resembled in looks or height. Jason had been the only one she’d gotten a real good close-up view of, and the only one she’d held a conversation with before her uncle had practically dragged her away from the party that night.
She then decided to bring up something she’d detected at the ball. “You and my uncle Kenneth don’t get along.”
If her statement surprised him the astonishment was not reflected in his face. “No, we’ve never gotten along,” he said as if the thought didn’t bother him, in fact he preferred it that way.
She paused and waited on him to elaborate but he didn’t. He just took another sip of tea.
“And why is that?”
He shrugged massive shoulders and the gesture made her body even more responsive to his. “I can’t rightly say why we’ve never seen eye-to-eye on a number of things.”
“What about my grandfather? Did you get along with him?”
He chuckled. “Actually I did. Herman and I had a good relationship that started back when I was kid. He taught me a lot about ranching and I enjoyed our chats.”
She took a sip of her tea. “Did he ever mention anything about having a granddaughter?”
“No, but then I didn’t know he had a son, either. The only family I knew about was Kenneth and their relationship was rather strained.”
She nodded. She’d heard the story of how her father had left for college at the age of seventeen, never to return. Her uncle Kenneth claimed he wasn’t sure what the disagreement had been between the two men since he himself had been a young kid at the time. David Bostwick had made his riches on the East Coast, first as a land developer and then as an investor in all sorts of moneymaking ventures. That was how he’d met her mother, a Savannah socialite, daughter of a shipping magnate and ten years her senior. The marriage had been based more on increasing their wealth instead of love. She was well aware of both of her parents’ supposedly discreet affairs.
And as far as Kenneth Bostwick was concerned, she knew that Herman’s widowed father at the age of seventy married a thirty-something-year-old woman and Kenneth had been their only child. Bella gathered from bits and pieces she’d overheard from Kenneth’s daughter, Elyse, that Kenneth and Herman had never gotten along because Herman thought Kenneth’s mother, Belinda, hadn’t been anything but a gold digger who married a man old enough to be her grandfather.
“Finding out Herman had a granddaughter came as a surprise to everyone around these parts.”
Bella chuckled softly. “Yes, and it came as quite a surprise to me to discover I had a grandfather.”
She saw the surprise that touched his face. “You didn’t know about Herman?”