Chapter Ten
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“Hell, you really did it?” Logan asked, peering into his laptop camera until his face filled Connor’s screen. Connor was seated at the desk in his room, trying to keep his voice down so none of the Reed women would overhear him. Sadie had spent the night with him, but she’d gotten up early to get a real breakfast going. He should be working on the wall, or down in the barns helping Lena, but he’d told her he had something to take care of first. After a quick visit with Jo to see the puppies, he’d come back to his room and shut the door.
“I did. The wedding is in about four weeks.” He couldn’t express how much satisfaction that gave him. Never in a million years had he expected to move to Montana, become engaged—and be happy. His role helping with the cattle would expand, of course, but he hoped there were more things to build at Two Willows. He found working with the granite, building the walled garden, oddly satisfying.
“Congratulations,” Hunter said.
“I bet it’s my turn next. Watch out, baby girl. You don’t know what’s about to hit you! A big ol’ dose of Logan love.” Logan turned to one side and Connor could only guess he was looking at Lena’s photograph.
Jack grabbed something and chucked it at Logan, the first time Connor had ever seen him completely lose his temper. With each of them occupying a different box on his screen, the effect was comical; the bottle of water left Jack’s hand in one box and hit Logan in another one. Connor couldn’t help but remember when he’d been back in that rectangular office with them, wondering what was to come next.
Now he had a home—and would have a wife in four weeks. It was nothing short of a miracle.
“Have you told the General yet?” Hunter asked.
“He’s my next call.”
“We’d better let you get to it. Don’t drop the ball now, O’Riley. You’re nearly to the goal line.”
“I won’t drop the ball.” Connor signed off and made a new call. When the General’s face appeared on his screen, the man was frowning.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, sir. I’ve got good news, actually. Sadie agreed to marry me. The wedding is four weeks from Saturday.”
For a long moment the General had nothing to say. Then the strangest thing happened. Half a grin tugged up one corner of his mouth. The half smile disappeared almost before it started, but Connor’s fingers tightened on the arms of his chair. He’d never, ever seen the General smile.
Had anyone else ever seen it?
The other guys would never believe this. And Sadie—was the General different with his girls? From everything he’d seen, the answer was no. Sadie and her sisters avoided talking about their father, and when they did their attitudes weren’t friendly. How would Sadie feel if she knew the General had ordered him to come here and marry her?
“Will you be able to make it?” He wasn’t sure what answer he wanted, but when the General quickly shook his head, Connor was relieved—then disappointed on Sadie’s behalf.
“Why not?” he asked.
“We’ve got teams working all over the world. Trouble’s heating up around the globe. I can’t leave USSOCOM now.”
“With all due respect, General, there are other men who can do your job for a couple of days—”
The General cut the call.
Connor stared at the blank screen. He thought about that smile. Then the General’s palpable anger as he’d reached out to put an end to their conversation.
The General had missed Cass’s wedding, and he wasn’t coming for Sadie’s either. Was he worried the women would figure out his ruse if he did?
When his phone buzzed, he picked it up thinking maybe it was the General again, but it was a text from Lila.
Hey baby. Busy?
Connor nearly tossed the phone away. Instead, he answered her.
Stop texting me. I’m getting married. It’s over, got it?
A knock sounded at his door. “Connor?”
Hell. Connor turned off his phone, jammed it in his pocket, and went to open the door. Sadie stood in the hall.
“Breakfast is ready.”
He waved her in, shut the door behind her, led her to the bed and sat down, patting the comforter beside him. Sadie sat down, too.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just talked to your father,” Connor said.
She straightened. Her eyebrows rose and he could read the question in her face.
Connor shook his head. “I’m sorry. He—”
“He won’t leave USSOCOM. He doesn’t want to set foot on Two Willows—even for my wedding.” She wilted again.
“I can’t believe—”
“I can. The General is the one who taught me to be disappointed by men,” she said sharply.
Connor pulled back and Sadie’s expression softened.
“I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair.” She reached for his hand. “He’s never been here for me—for any of us. I don’t expect any different. That’s probably why I didn’t expect much from Mark—or you, at first.”
“I’m not going to disappoint you,” Connor told her. “I’m going to change the way you think about men.”
“You already have.”
Connor kissed her. “You’ve got a ring. My folks have booked their flights. What else do we need to do to get this shindig off the ground?”
“Lots.” Sadie made a face. “Tons, in fact. You know, Mia Matheson does wedding planning. Should we ask her for help?”
“Hell, yeah. Let a planner do the work. We can have the fun.” He flopped back on the bed and pulled her down on top of him. “I suppose there are a few things we should talk about, too.”
“Like what?”
He tucked her hair behind her ear. “You’ve never said if you want kids.”
She propped her chin in her hands, elbows planted on his chest, and thought about it. “Yes. I do. Two girls and one boy.”
“How about two boys and a girl?” Connor countered. “Don’t want to be outnumbered.”
“You’re going to be outnumbered,” Sadie told him as she began to get undressed. “Get used to doing what you’re told. Now make love to me.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
When Sadie set out toward the walled garden later that morning to help Connor, she couldn’t help the spring in her step. Their bout of lovemaking had left her glowing, and after Connor had taken a quick rinse and headed downstairs for breakfast, she’d luxuriated in the tub for a time before showering off the bubble bath and washing her hair. Freshly dressed, her still-wet hair pulled up in a ponytail on top of her head, she made short work of feeding herself and cleaning up after the meal, all the while looking forward to a morning spent working with Connor.
Outside, the day was lovely, and Sadie increased her pace, eager to reach Connor. But halfway across the garden, a sage plant whispered it was thirsty, and she stopped automatically to shut her eyes and listen to what else the garden had to tell her.
And that’s when it hit her. She could hear the garden—hear the growing things.
And Connor wasn’t anywhere close to her.
Sadie wobbled and sat down hard in the dirt. Messages came from all around her: aphids in the peonies. Mold on the zucchini. The tomatoes were almost past-ripe and needed harvesting.
Sadie laughed as tears started to her eyes. It was back. Her gift was back—which meant—
She lurched to her feet and raced to the greenhouse. Inside, she gathered what she needed, the roots and herbs speaking to her as well. It was back—her knowledge was back. Her intuition.
Her ability to heal.
She was still hard at work a half hour later when Connor let himself into the greenhouse. “Sadie? Everything all right?”
She turned to him and smiled, hardly able to contain her joy. “I can do it. I can make my remedies. Jean is due any minute and I’ve made her tonic.” She held it up, knowing he couldn’t possibly understand.
“You need me to hang close?”
“No!” Connor’s frown had her backtracking. “I mean, I love it when you’re close. Be as close as you want to be. But—I can do it again. Myself!”
He moved toward her. Linked his fingers through her belt loops and tugged her to him. “So you don’t need me anymore? Is that what you’re trying to say?” he growled, then kissed her nose so she knew he was kidding.
“No.” She needed him now more than ever. She kissed him back, buzzing with as much anticipation as she had the first time they’d gotten close. “This means I’m happy.”
“That kind of turns me on.”
“Then you’d better lock that door.” Sadie checked the time. They had a half hour. Enough time if they were quick. Before Connor was gone and back again, she’d shucked off her clothes, and when he turned around and stopped, a smile spreading across his face at her nakedness, she pushed up to sit on the edge of the table. “Time’s wasting,” she told him.
“Then I’d better hurry up.”
When Connor was naked, too, and positioned himself between her legs, Sadie didn’t need any foreplay. She was ready for him. Aching for his touch. Like she always seemed to be when he was near. So when he lifted her up to press against him, she wasted no time in wrapping her legs around his waist and pulling him inside.
“Wait—condom.”
“I’m on the pill,” she told him. “I’ve been checked out. We are getting married, after all.”
“I’ve been checked out, too. And you’re right; pretty soon you’ll be my wife.”
He slid inside her and Sadie relished the idea there was nothing between them this time. As the two of them joined, she felt she was pledging her life to him already. He was so strong he could hold her up and ease in and out of her with such slow precision, Sadie was close to losing control almost from the start.
When he tilted her head back and kissed her neck, still sliding in and out of her with long, strong strokes, the pressure built inside her until she couldn’t hold back anymore. Her orgasm rolled through her in waves as strong, steady and persistent as the ocean, and Sadie was shaking by the time Connor grunted and came inside her, crushing her to him as he gave in to his release.
Afterward, Sadie didn’t want to let him go. But soon they’d have company. “Come on—I need to go clean up quick. Jean will be here in a minute.”
“All right.” They dressed as fast as they could and raced back to the house, laughing like teenagers as they barged through the back door, into the kitchen, down the hall and up the stairs.
“Come find me when your friend is gone,” Connor told her when they’d climbed into the shower for a quick rinse. “I don’t think I’m done with you yet.”
She didn’t think she was done with him, either.
“You’re not coming back to Ireland, are you?” Connor’s brother’s disappointment was palpable even over the phone. Connor was a little surprised. As far as he knew, Dalton had always seemed to enjoy having their mother to himself. He’d certainly enjoyed becoming lord and master of Ard na Greine, their mother’s property, and the small herd of cattle the family owned.
“No. Two Willows is going to be my home.”
“Always thought you’d return in the end. Mom gave up years ago, but I never did.”
His brother’s words twisted a knife in Connor’s gut, as did the pain in his voice. “You never said anything.” Connor couldn’t figure out what Dalton was up to. Surely he’d know it if his brother had missed him. All these years it had been like Dalton hardly cared.
“She said I wasn’t to go driving a wedge between you and our dad. I always said Dad was the one who did that.”
Hell. Connor clutched his phone more tightly, wanting to crush it if he was honest. “I never wanted a wedge between any of us,” he said forcefully. He paced the back porch, not believing what he was hearing. “Why would Mom try to keep us apart?”
Dalton sighed. “I don’t think that was her intention. I think she was trying to be fair to everyone.”
“Well, it didn’t feel fair from where I was standing in Texas.”
“Didn’t feel fair here in Ireland, either, brother.”
Brother. Connor didn’t think he’d ever heard Dalton say the word. God, he’d missed his older brother when his dad had taken him to Texas. He couldn’t understand why Dalton hadn’t followed them somehow, even though he’d known his brother was as helpless as he was in the situation. By the time either one of them was old enough to change anything, it was already too late—their relationship had been strained.
He let his gaze run over the walled garden taking shape out past the greenhouse. He wished Dalton could see it. “You’re coming for the wedding, aren’t you?”
“I don’t know. Someone should stay here and keep watch on the place.”
Connor didn’t think his hesitation was worry about the ranch. Dalton wasn’t sure he’d be welcome after all this time. Connor understood. “You have to come. Get old Seamus to watch the place. He can handle it for a few days.” Seamus had practically grown up on Ard na Greine. He knew all its ins and outs.
“I don’t know.”
“Dalton, as your only brother, I’m asking you to come to my wedding. I want you to stand up with me.” Connor hoped Dalton understood what he was really trying to say. He needed Dalton here. Needed to fix the past and reconnect with his family.
He heard a bird chirping in the hedge maze as the silence on the other end of the phone stretched out.
“There’s not much else you could have said to get me on that plane, you know.”
“I know.” He did know now. He’d never considered that it was Dalton’s pride that kept him so distant over the years. That Dalton had been hurt as much as he had by their parents’ choice. “I’ve missed you, you know. Never forgot what it used to be like.”
“Didn’t think you had time to miss me, so busy on that ranch. Big enough to be its own state, isn’t that what you told me once? Or maybe ten times?”
Connor winced. “I didn’t mean to brag,” he said truthfully. “Just couldn’t believe the size of it myself. I grew up the same way you did, remember.”
“But you’re the one Dad thought could handle the change.”
Connor closed his eyes. He’d never guessed how much pain that had caused his brother. “You’re the one who got to stay with Mom. With Gran and Grandad.”
“Yeah, I guess.” They were both quiet for a long time. “Do you ever want to ask them what the hell they were thinking?” Dalton added.
“Yeah, I used to,” Connor said. “I changed my mind.”
“Why?”
“Because you know what? They’ve already suffered enough. We all have.”
“You got that right,” Dalton said.
“Could we start again, do you think?” Connor asked him. “Go back to what we were? I could use a brother right now.”
“We could try. Lot of water under the bridge, though,” Dalton added.
“Sure and can’t we catch each other up over a pint of Guinness?” Connor laughed, letting a little of his brogue shine through to remind his brother they weren’t so different after all. “Come on, Dalton—we’ll have a grand time.”
“Okay, okay—I’ll come to your wedding. And I’ll be proud to stand up with you.”
“Good.” Connor grew serious. “I do miss you.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
Late that afternoon, when Sadie was frying chicken and topping and tailing green beans for a side dish, Jo padded into the kitchen on bare feet. She opened the refrigerator, pulled out a pitcher of lemonade and poured herself a glass. “I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but I’ve kind of gotten used to Cass being gone.”
“She’ll be home soon.”
“You’ve done a good job stepping into her shoes.”
“You think?” Sadie looked around the kitchen, sure the first thing Cass would do when she got home was scrub the place from top to bottom.
“I’ve been thinking it over,” Jo said casually. Too casually, Sadie thought. She watched her sister out of the corner of her eye as Jo went on. “I want to give Grant one of the puppies.”
Sadie stilled. “Aren’t they all spoken for?”
“Yes.” Jo moved the glass around on the table. “But one of the families is out of town. They don’t even know they’re due to get one.”
“You’ve already given one to Connor.”
“I know.”
“What is this really about? I know you don’t want to damage your reputation as a breeder and a fair dealer.” Was Jo sweet on Grant? After the disaster with Sean, she felt protective of her sister, and they knew so little about Grant. Connor had told her he hadn’t managed to learn much that night he’d gone to the Dancing Boot.
“He’s had it hard. He doesn’t have family—not like us. That’s why he left Tennessee—he wanted to find somewhere he could make a home for himself. I feel like he could use a friend.”
“Where is he staying?” Sadie stalled for time. She needed to get a better feeling for the circumstances. Something about the man bothered her, and she liked most people.
“He’s renting a cabin the Coopers own in Silver Falls.”
“Silver Falls? The Coopers’ ranch is right here in Chance Creek.”
“It’s some other property they own, I guess. I’m not sure exactly where it is.”
Sadie wasn’t sorry Jo hadn’t been there yet. The Coopers had a reputation for lawlessness.
“If he’s mixed up with the Coopers, I wouldn’t give him a dog. First of all, those dogs are worth money; you spend a lot on their food and vet bills and care. You need to earn that back. Second of all, you have customers who’ve waited their turn. Third—” She hesitated. She needed to word this next bit carefully. Jo waited for her to continue, still playing with the glass of lemonade. “Third—the Coopers have a reputation for neglecting their animals—and people, for that matter. Maybe you need to take a step back from Grant.”
“What if he’s not like the Coopers?” Jo asked.
It was progress, Sadie thought. A month ago, Jo would have run from the room in a snit if someone had questioned her choice of boyfriend. She’d grown more cautious.
“Then give him time to prove it. But don’t give him a puppy.”
Jo nodded. “Okay,” she agreed. “I won’t. I’ll tell him again they’ve all been promised.”
“Which they have.” Sadie thought a moment. “Do you want me there when you tell him?”
Jo looked surprised. “No. I’ll be fine. He knows it was a long shot.”
“When will you let them go to their new owners?”
“The day before your wedding.”