Alistair Stevens took a deep, steadying breath and asked for guidance before he stepped out to join his Aunt Lizzy on the terrace of their Texas ranch house. Lizzy stared vacantly at the beautiful view of the valley before them, and Alistair was at a loss as to how he could help her.

He placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close as she turned into him with a sniffle.

"I can't believe he is gone. I can't believe I will never get to see his face or feel his arms around me again," Lizzy choked on a sob that racked her body.

They had just buried her husband, Brian Alexander, that morning. He had been taken so quickly that it was hard for any of them to believe he was gone. To the family, it felt as if he was only in the next room or away on one of his many business trips, but Lizzy felt his loss in her soul. She knew he was gone and appeared to have aged overnight because of it.

Alistair rested his head on hers as he squeezed her shoulders. "I'm sorry you're so sad, and I'm sure Brian would be too," Alistair whispered.

"I am sad, but I am also mad!" Lizzy shook her head. "Your Uncle Brian wasted eight years of our lives that we could have been together. I never resented that time we lost until now. Now that he's gone, I keep thinking we could have had eight more years together. Eight more years of memories, but his stubborn ass had to listen to your father!"

"My father?" Alistair asked.

"Yes, I was twenty and in love with Brian, who was thirty-three, and your father, my brother, thought that I was too young, so he told Brian to back off, and he did. It took us eight years to reunite." Lizzy exhaled, and her shoulders were heavy in her sorrow.

"What brought you back together?" He was confused at the idea that his father could have caused so much havoc. Generally, Bryce Stevens was a live-and-let-live kind of fellow. He even kept well out of Alistair's life, letting him live it the way he wanted, so long as Alistair understood the title would one day be his and he would have to accept the responsibility when the time came.

"The same thing that drove us apart, your father. He fell in love with your mother, realized what he had done, and fixed it." Lizzy's voice softened. "So, Bryce is why I lost him and found him again, but I wish to God that Brian would have told your father to go hang himself and swept me away from it all." Lizzy swallowed hard. "If he had, we could have had eight more years together."

"Do you think the heartache of being apart made it that much sweeter when you were finally together?" Alistair thought about his life and the choices he had made or had not made. "Perhaps, knowing what it was like when you couldn't have him made it mean so much more when you did, and that made your relationship stronger than it would have been otherwise?"

Lizzy turned and looked up at him, tilting her head as she absorbed her words.

"You sound like your mother, always looking for the bright side."

Alistair smiled at the compliment.

"You also sound like you know what you're talking about." When Alistair opened his mouth to object, Lizzy held up her hand to stop him from whatever he was about to say. "That's your business, but I will say that if you fall in love, really in love, move heaven and earth to be together because a day like today will come." Lizzy took a deep fortifying breath. "And as painful as it is, the only thing worse would be if that day didn't come because you never got to spend your life with the person you loved."

Alistair gave a forced smile, and a heavy silence descended on them for a moment as he did his best to keep all thoughts of Katherine Randolph at bay.

"Did you know that when your mother and I first met, I didn't like her? I thought she was after your father for his money. I think I was as determined to save him from her as he was to save me from Brian." Lizzy looked back at the view in front of her as her mind wandered into the past.

"I hear a but in there?" Alistair teased.

"But... your father truly thought he was protecting me, and I, sensing that something serious was happening because of family gossip, only wanted to hurt him. I wanted to hurt him the way he had hurt me, and I didn't care if it hurt your mother in the process."  She let out a shaky sigh as if it was a relief to admit it.

"I've heard the story. Is that why you were all right with Rainer and my mother being a possible love match?" Alistair softly asked.

"Must have been," Lizzy agreed.

"What about Aunt Laura? You two still don't get along to this day. Surely, she has proven after thirty years that she's in it for the long haul?" Alistair joked.

"I honestly was trying to protect your Uncle Davis, and once that line was drawn, we were both too stubborn to erase it." Lizzy shrugged. "We are both too much alike to ever really get along anyway, but I believe we respect each other and would have the other's back if it came down to it."

"Family." Alistair nodded.

"Yes, for better or worse, your father and mother, myself and Laura, we are all family."

"Can I ask you a question? It's personal?" Alistair asked as he turned away from the view and looked down at Lizzy. "Why didn't you and Uncle Brian have any children?"

Lizzy shrugged. "We didn't want to share each other, we liked to travel, and with you and your cousins, it was never something we missed. Your Uncle also had a difficult childhood, and he didn't want to risk raising children and passing on bad traits to them."

"Uncle Brian was awesome with all of us when we were kids!" Alistair objected to the idea that Brian would have been anything but a great father.

Lizzy smiled at his outburst. "It's a case of nature and not nurture."

"The kids would have inherited the Stevens genes, I'm sure," Alistair insisted.

"Perhaps, but we'll never know. What about you? Do you want children one day?" It was a probing question. Sadness couldn't keep Aunt Lizzy down for long, and even though she had insisted that it was his business, she was still curious. He had learned the signs of a prying aunt when he was a kid.

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" He lifted an eyebrow in question.

"Sure you do. I'm sure there's a male cousin somewhere willing to take over the reins, but even if there's not, it's not the end of the world if the title dies out. Your father is not as attached to it as our father and grandfather were."

"It's a comforting thought," Alistair responded without really answering the question.

Of course, he would like children someday, an entire house full, but he would need a woman first, and the only woman he wanted had made it clear that she wasn't interested in anything permanent.

"You know what else is a comforting thought?" Alistair said as he gently turned his aunt toward the house. "Food and family. I hear Dad on the piano limbering up the keys, which means Aunt Cassie is about to sing something."

He led Lizzy into the warmth of the house, and as they entered, Poppy, the youngest cousin at 23, flew up to her holding out a magazine. "Aunt Lizzy, look what I found in Uncle Quinn's office!"

Lizzy took the magazine and dreamily sighed as she looked at the cover.

"That's Uncle Brian, isn't it?" Poppy asked.

"Yes, it was an interview that Uncle Rainer begged him to give, and your Uncle Davis took the photos." Lizzy opened the magazine to the four-page story on Brian. The photos showed him in different poses during the interview. He had started with his suit jacket on and a serious face, but by the end, he was sitting with his sleeves rolled up, tie askew, and a drink in his hand.

"He was dreamy!" Poppy said, looking over her aunt's shoulder.

"He was, and he was mine." Lizzy looked at Quinn, who was sitting on the sofa with Dana. "Can I keep this? I seem to have lost mine along the way." Her smile was shaky.

"Please." Quinn nodded.

Poppy and Lizzy sat at the large kitchen table and bent their heads together as they talked about the story. Poppy was interested in all things Stevens and the many stories her aunts and uncles chose to share. Evidently, she would become the family's archivist for future generations. They had thought it would be their cousin Beth many years ago, but then she fell in love and had a family then her interests changed.

Alistair looked over at Beth, who was tending to one of her children. He wanted to ask her how Katherine was doing since he knew they were close friends, but he didn't dare. He knew she would see right through him in an instant.

Perhaps it was time to try and woo the lady again. It had been a few years. Maybe circumstances had changed.