Chapter Eleven
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“I’m looking forward to seeing your spread, son,” Sean O’Riley said when Connor picked him up at the airport just over a week later. He was a bear of a man, tanned so deeply by the Texas sun his skin was tough as leather. His blue eyes were deep-set, but piercing, and there was little they missed. Connor always wondered what they saw when they took him in. He knew his father loved him, but wasn’t sure how he stacked up to his dad’s expectations. Sean had been disappointed deeply during his life and it was hard for Connor to remain confident he hadn’t added to those disappointments.
He was glad his dad seemed positive about him settling down in Montana, however. He’d figured his father would make a fuss about him not choosing Texas, but he had begun to get the sense that Sean’s days overseeing the ranch there might be numbered. His dad was getting older. Slowing down. And Connor had a feeling he might be thinking about his future in broader terms than before.
It gave him satisfaction to know he’d get to show his father something permanent he was building on the ranch. He felt sure Sean would appreciate the workmanship he’d put into the walled garden so far. He still had a long way to go before it was done, but with Sean and Dalton, and soon Brian, around, he still hoped to finish it before the wedding.
He thought Sean would like Max, too. His father had always had a soft spot for dogs. They’d never owned one when Connor lived at Valhalla, but there were plenty of them on the ranch, and all of them made a favorite of his father. Sometimes Connor had envied those dogs, and the comfortable way Sean had interacted with them. He seemed far more at ease with the four-legged critters than with his own son.
“That’s my bag.” Sean pointed to a black suitcase that had seen better days. Connor grabbed it off the belt.
“Just the one?”
“That’s it. Let’s find your truck and get out of here. I could use a drink.”
“We can’t leave yet. We’re picking up someone else.”
Connor’s words stopped Sean, who’d already begun to head for the doors.
“Who?”
Connor sighed at his dad’s suspicious tone. “Your wife.”
“I don’t have a wife.”
“Ex-wife, then. Mom. Remember her?”
His father folded his arms over his chest. “You didn’t tell me Keira was coming.”
“Of course she’s coming. It’s my wedding.”
“She’s never come for anything in the past. Missed your graduation, all your military revues—”
“In every case I had visits scheduled with her right afterward. Plane tickets to and from Ireland are expensive. You know that. You never made her feel welcome, either.”
“Don’t you start—” Sean broke off. “Hell, I’ll take a taxi. You wait for your mom.”
“What about Dalton? Don’t you want to see him?”
That brought Sean up short. “Dalton’s coming, too?”
Connor nodded, taking in the emotions crossing his father’s face. Interest. Hope. Regret. Worry.
“I thought you two didn’t talk.”
“It’s you and Dalton who don’t talk, Pops.”
“Don’t call me that.” But Sean’s words were automatic. Connor could tell he was mulling over the news. “You’ll need room in the truck. I’ll grab that taxi.”
“You’ll stay here and get the awkward part over with—away from Two Willows. Just because you and Mom—or you and Dalton, for that matter—can’t have a civil conversation doesn’t mean the Reeds should have to suffer.”
Sean stepped nearer. “It’s a wonder you’ve invited me here at all, the way I act so badly.”
“I hoped you’d surprise me.” Connor glanced over Sean’s shoulder. “Their plane is due in ten minutes. Sit down, take a load off and do this for me.”
Sean’s shoulders were bunched with anger, but he took a seat, his arms still crossed, and studiously watched the muted television screen hanging nearby. Connor supposed it was too much to ask for his father to change his attitude all at once, but he’d hoped for better.
The ten-minute wait seemed more like a couple of hours, and by the time he’d dragged his father back to where passengers entered the hall, his stomach was knotted with concern. They’d get through this wedding. His family wasn’t a bunch of reprobates who couldn’t keep it together for a few weeks. But his dreams of a reconciliation slipped further away with every moment.
“There you are,” his mother cried several minutes later when she entered the arrivals hall. She embraced Connor hard, pulled back, looked him up and down and embraced him again. Keira was a tall woman with dark hair that framed her face in thick curls. To Connor she’d always looked more like an artist than a rancher, but he knew his mother was strong and capable. A woman who knew how to get things done.
Dalton shook his hand and Connor clapped him on the back. His brother matched him in height, if not brawn. He’d inherited their parents’ dark hair and blue eyes.
“Glad you could make it,” Connor said. “Can’t wait for both of you to meet Sadie. She’s—”
But his mother had spotted Sean. “Connor—you didn’t say—”
Dalton went straight to the point. “Have you lost your ever-lovin’ mind, Connor?”
“That’s what I said.” Sean joined them. “Keira. Dalton.” He made no move to hug his ex-wife or shake hands with his son, and Connor’s heart sank another inch. He could handle the family’s rancor, but Sadie would hate it. She was already hurt that her father wouldn’t attend her wedding. If his family was going to be there, they had to behave.
He lost his patience. “Look, all I’m asking you to do is take a single car ride together. Mom and Dalton, you two are staying at the Cruz ranch. Autumn and Ethan Cruz run a guest house that’s second to none, according to Sadie. They’ll spoil you rotten, Mom. Dad, we’ve put you at the Evergreen Motel in town, just like you asked. It’s less than three weeks until the wedding. Three weeks until you all fly home again. You can stand that. I’ll pick you up first thing each morning and you’ll spend the days at Two Willows. Behaving yourselves. Remember you’re here for my wedding, and remember my bride deserves your respect. If you can’t be on your best behavior, then go home. That means all of you.”
A long silence greeted this pronouncement, but when he led them back to the lone carousel to wait for his mother’s and brother’s luggage, all three of them followed.
A half-hour later, when he pulled into the driveway of Two Willows, the truck was as silent as it had been since they’d left the airport. Connor parked the truck and killed the engine.
“Best behavior,” he threatened them again.
“I thought you were taking me to my motel,” Sean said.
It would have been the smarter move, Connor knew. But he needed to get his family invested in the idea of his wedding, which meant introducing them to Sadie—right away.
Sadie expected them, and when he led the way inside, he found she and her sisters had laid out a spread fit for a king on the long, scarred kitchen table.
“Come in,” Sadie said, meeting them at the door. “I’m sure you’re all hungry after your trip.”
Connor made the introductions and his mother, father and Dalton all behaved themselves well enough as they said their hellos, washed up and sat down to the meal. He saw them take in the homey kitchen, their gazes stopping in surprise at the bullet grooves on the table, but none of them mentioned the damage.
Once they sat down, however, things deteriorated.
Sadie had made the mistake of setting his mother and brother directly across from Sean. After she had inquired about their flights and their health, everyone subsided into silence until the scrape of knives and forks was the only sound in the kitchen.
“Have any of you been to Montana before?” Sadie asked brightly, shooting Connor an imploring look.
All three of his family members shook their heads.
“It seems nice so far,” his mother said.
“Can’t hold a candle to Ireland, though,” Dalton said.
His father harrumphed. “Anywhere in the good ol’ USA outshines that little backwater—”
“Dad!”
Sean subsided and Connor tried to eat his meal, but the food tasted like dust in his mouth. Why had he thought bringing his folks here was a good idea?
Jo snorted.
“Shh,” Sadie said.
But Jo couldn’t seem to get herself under control. A funny little sound escaped her, and a smile twisted her lips.
“What?” Connor regretted his tone immediately, but instead of taking offense, Jo laughed.
“All we need is the General here to cap off this love-fest.”
Sadie clapped a hand over her mouth to hide her smile. Lena guffawed.
Connor’s lips twitched despite his irritation. Jo was right. With his prickly attitude, the General would fit right in.
“I apologize for my family’s lack of manners,” he said to Jo. “Seems they were all raised in a barn.”
“Connor’s right; we’re not showing off our best manners today.” Keira gave her husband and son a reproving look. “Family differences can be hard to overcome.”
“We know all about family differences,” Lena told her dryly.
“Amen,” Jo said. “At least your father is here, Connor. We can’t get the General to the dinner table at all.”
“Hell, he won’t even enter the state. Sorry,” Lena added. Connor was pretty sure Sadie had kicked her under the table.
“Then you know that some fences can’t be mended,” Sean said gruffly. “No matter what.”
“I disagree.” Everyone turned to look at Alice, who sat at the foot of the table. “Old hurts can be mended when both parties wish it. Every party at this table wishes it.”
Had that been one of her hunches? Connor wondered, taking in the body language around the room. None of his family would look at each other, while the Reeds were examining all of them curiously.
He looked from his parents to his brother. “That true?”
No one answered, but if there was one thing Connor had learned during his time at Two Willows it was that some hunches were to be trusted. If Alice sensed a willingness to mend fences from his family, he was willing to be patient.
“Glad to hear it,” he said, as if he’d gotten the answer he wanted. “Because when Sadie and I have kids, they’ll need their uncle and grandparents around.”
“He may as well have thrown me to the wolves. He used my future babies as an icebreaker,” Sadie complained to Keira later when the men had headed down to the barns with Jo and Lena to check the livestock, Alice had made for her studio in the carriage house and she and Keira were cleaning the kitchen.
“It worked, didn’t it?” Keira answered. “I have to admit I was disappointed to learn you weren’t pregnant already, although I suppose I should be happy you two are waiting until you’re married. I’ve wanted a grandchild for years, though, and Dalton isn’t in any hurry to settle down.”
“I didn’t think I was in any hurry, either,” Sadie admitted. “But now that I’m marrying Connor, it seems—natural to want a child.”
“It is natural,” Keira said. “And it’s natural for me to want to be part of my grandchild’s life. You’ll let me be there as much as I can when the time comes, won’t you?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?” Sadie was shocked her mother-in-law-to-be thought she had to ask.
“Sean might feel he has a better claim.”
“Grandparents don’t get to make claims,” Sadie said tartly. “Babies need all their people around them.” She wished she’d had more of her people around her growing up. She wished the General had been close to them—had deemed them worthy of his time and attention. Cass had told her she thought it was his memories of their mother that kept him away—that the past, and her absence, was too hard for him to face.
Sadie thought that was an excuse. They could have mourned together. They could have moved on together as time passed. If the General still hurt so badly he couldn’t even set foot on her mother’s ranch eleven years on, then he was long past due for the kind of healing time was supposed to afford.
Many people had told her how brave the General was. Sadie thought he was a coward. He needed to face that fear—bridge that gap.
Come home to them.
Her wedding wasn’t enough to bring him home, though. She hated herself for feeling relieved that Cass’s hadn’t been either. She didn’t need to take it personally, although of course she did.
“I’m glad my son is giving marriage a chance. For a long time I thought what his father and I did would keep him from ever considering it. We made so many mistakes. I’m sure Connor has told you.” Keira dried another dish. Sadie thought she was a handsome woman. Knowing she’d run a ranch on her own for many years—even a small one—impressed her.
“I don’t know that much about your family’s history; just that you and Dalton stayed in Ireland and Connor went with his father to Texas. That must have been hard on everyone.” Sadie rinsed a pot and added it to the pile Keira was drying.
“You can’t even imagine. I hope you can’t,” Keira said. “Although with the loss of your mother and separation from your father, I suppose you probably can.”
Sadie nodded. “What happened to make that… possible? I can’t imagine one of my children moving so far away.”
“My husband grew far too homesick to stay in Ireland. And I couldn’t imagine leaving it. We both dug into our positions. Neither would budge.”
“But to split the kids…” Sadie held her breath. Had she said too much?
“I wonder sometimes if we’ll pay for that in the next world,” Kiera said bluntly. “We broke our own hearts and our children’s hearts. It seemed the fair thing to do, but it was fair to no one. I’d give anything to go back in time and change it.”
“What would you do? Keep both boys? Or send them with their father?” Sadie asked.
“Neither.” Keira pulled open one drawer after another until she found the one that held the silverware, gave the forks and knives in her hand a final polish and put them away. She shut the drawer with a thump. “I would have done whatever it took to keep my marriage whole. I learned the hard way home is home—but love is far more important.”
Sadie’s heart ached for all of them, and wondered if that was true. Could she leave Two Willows if Connor ever wanted to move away? Even the thought of it hollowed her out. He could change his mind about making Two Willows his home. What if he wanted to return to Texas?
Or Ireland?
When she glanced at Keira, the woman met her gaze sympathetically. “We were so young when we married. It didn’t even occur to us our different countries of origin might cause us hardship. We thought love conquered all.”
“But it didn’t,” Sadie said.
“It should have,” Keira said wistfully.
Sadie didn’t know what to say.
Cass and Brian came home a week later, and immediately brightened the mood on the ranch. The bustle and conversation that followed their arrival was just what was needed to dispel the awkwardness that had existed since Connor’s parents and brother arrived. Connor was sure the Reeds had breathed a sigh of relief each night when he’d taken his family members to the places they were staying. They’d probably braced themselves when he left early each morning to fetch his mother, father and Dalton back in time for breakfast.
At least building the walled garden had given the men something to do, and Sean and Dalton a way to spend time together that didn’t require a lot of conversation. Connor was pleased to see his brother and father’s relationship improving day by day as the wall grew higher, and he thought Keira and Sadie were bonding, too. Still, his mother and father hadn’t reconciled, and he was beginning to suspect he’d been naive to hope they would.
As Cass and Brian passed their phones around the kitchen table at lunchtime to show the photographs they’d taken at the Grand Canyon and elsewhere along their travels, however, Connor noticed his father wasn’t following the conversation; he was watching Keira.
Connor stilled. What did it mean? He could barely allow himself to feel any hope as far as his mother and father were concerned.
The ache he felt as he watched his family interact with Sadie’s around the table was more for them than for himself, he realized. Because none of them had done this on purpose. None of them deserved this pain. They simply were as influenced by the landscape of their childhoods as anyone would be. That didn’t mean they loved each other any less.
Later, he stepped outside for a breath of fresh air and Brian found him there.
“Everything quiet while I was away?”
“Mostly.” He filled Brian in on the excitement of the night of the quilting bee, and Steel Cooper’s warning. He wished he didn’t have to tell the other man about his absence from the ranch or the fact that he hadn’t checked in the whole time he was gone, but lying wasn’t his way. He told the tale truthfully, and was rewarded by a long, thoughtful look from Brian.
“Were you in town to find information about Grant—or were you trying to decide whether or not you wanted to go through with marrying Sadie?”
Surprised by the question, Connor hesitated and earned another long look.
“It wasn’t about Sadie at all,” Connor assured him. “You’re right; back then I was still figuring out if I was ready to marry her, but that was about me, not her.”
“You sure about that?”
“Positive.”
After a moment, Brian nodded. “Good.”
Connor leaned against the railing that bounded the porch. “This is where I want to be, and Sadie’s the woman I want to marry.”
“Glad to hear it.” Brian braced his forearms on the railing and stared out at Sadie’s garden. “I don’t think we’ve seen the last of trouble around here, though.”
“Neither do I. Do you have any idea what direction it’s going to come from next?”
Brian shook his head. “That first round of troublemakers—they were all local boys. Seems to me when you’re talking about an operation this big, it isn’t just local.”
“Should we start asking around?”
Brian shrugged. “I think we start by watching and listening. By getting into town more, going to the bars, the restaurants, the grocery stores. Talking to people. Becoming part of the scenery. People need to trust us and feel like we’re part of Chance Creek. Then they’ll talk to us—give us a head’s up when trouble comes calling.”
Connor supposed that was the best they could do. “I think the next time I hang out at the Dancing Boot, I better take Sadie along, though.”
Brian grinned when Connor explained the comment. “That’s right; no more flirting with bartenders. That’s gotta be tough on you.”
“Fuck you,” Connor said companionably. He didn’t care if he ever flirted with another woman again. He had Sadie. He’d put her—and her sisters—ahead of such trivial things. They had to act as a unit now—all of them—to look out for trouble. Connor found himself grinning. That’s what this was—his new unit. Only this time it included women. Half of its members untrained, half wild and entirely disobedient. A unit of renegades.
This was going to be interesting.
“Stand still,” Alice said.
Sadie did as she was told, holding her arms away from her body so Alice could take measurements. She was wearing her mother’s wedding gown, as Cass had done before her for her wedding. Cass was taller than Sadie, however. More curvy. Alice was altering the dress to fit better.
“What do you think of Connor?” Sadie asked Cass. She was nervous about her oldest sister’s reaction, since her entire romance with Connor had happened while Cass was out of town.
“I think the more important question is, what do you think of Connor?” Cass retorted. “You’ve only known him a month. Don’t you think you’re rushing this?”
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Alice said.
Sadie knew what she meant; Cass had met and married Brian in a pretty short time frame, too.
“I don’t think I’m rushing anything,” Sadie said, but Cass’s words plucked the strings of her own uneasiness. Of course she thought they were rushing it, and if Connor hadn’t already invited his family to visit, she would’ve set their wedding day far in the future. But the invitations had been issued, the tables and chairs, dishes and silverware all ordered. Mia Matheson had handled all the details with a smile and a sigh. “Don’t worry about the short notice,” she’d said. “Everyone in Chance Creek gets married on short notice.”
Sadie had thought about it and realized she was right.
“What is it that made you fall in love with him?” Cass asked more gently.
Sadie found it hard to answer that question. There was Connor’s physical attributes, of course. She thought he was incredibly handsome, and his strength and the confident way he conducted himself attracted her. But more than that, she liked his lively sense of humor. His curiosity. The way he’d simply accepted her strange demands when she dragged him around the garden the day she’d realized he could help her listen to the plants. The way he’d held her when she needed to make the tonic for Jean. The way he’d lit up when he’d learned that Halil and his family were safe.
“I like the way he treats me,” she said simply. “Like he’s all the way here with me. Like he… likes me.”
She looked up to see both sisters nodding, and was relieved they understood.
“I think that’s what we’ve all been looking for,” Cass said. “It makes sense, given our past.”
“I sometimes think it would be easier not to want a husband at all,” Alice said. She rushed to add, “But I think Connor’s great. I’m so happy for you two.”
“I’m sure you’ll find someone,” Sadie told her. How could Alice not? She was so beautiful, and so kind. Sadie was surprised no one had snapped her up before this.
Alice nodded, but didn’t look convinced. “When I try to see my wedding, it’s… obscured.”
“It’s Lena I worry about,” Cass said. “She has so much anger in her. She thinks the General wishes we were all boys.”
“I think she’s right,” Sadie said, “but she shouldn’t hold off from marriage on that account. She should do what she wants to do.”
“We all should,” Cass said. “Which is the only reason I’m okay with two of us marrying men the General sent. This trend has to stop, though. So Alice—you, Lena and Jo better start hitting the Dancing Boot every Friday and Saturday night. Find your own guys.”
She was teasing, but Alice frowned. “Isn’t that how we all got in trouble in the first place?”
Cass’s smile faded and Sadie knew she was thinking about the men they’d been dating before Brian came to Two Willows. Men who’d been conspiring together to take their ranch. “I suppose you’re right. Well, anyway—I’m glad you found a man you have a connection with, Sadie.”
Sadie chuckled. “You have no idea.”
Alice looked up. “What do you mean by that?”
Sadie was about to brush off the question when she decided to tell them the truth. It had become apparent during the last few months that the secrets they kept from each other made them more vulnerable.
“When I work in the garden, I’ve always had this—sense—of what the plants needed. It’s as if they’re talking to me, although not in words, obviously,” she hurried to add. “It’s been so strong, it’s enabled me to make the garden what it is today, to tend to the hedge maze and to make my herbal cures. But after Mark—it all went away.”
Alice touched her arm. “I always felt that you must have a sense for plants like that, to be able to grow things as beautifully as you do.”
“But it went away? What you mean by that?” Cass asked.
“I mean—it was like somebody had flipped the switch. Turned it off. I couldn’t feel or hear anything. And the garden started to die.”
Alice and Cass exchanged a look. “Now that you say that, you’re right; the garden wasn’t as green as it should be in summer,” Alice said. “But there’s been so much else to worry about, I guess I wasn’t paying attention.”
Sadie rushed to tell her, “It’s all right; it came back. But I was getting pretty desperate before it did. I thought—I thought the land was telling me—that I should leave. That I wasn’t good enough for it anymore.”
“Sadie—” Cass said.
“It’s okay,” Sadie said again. “Because when Connor came, and he touched me—it all came back.”
“Just like that?” Alice asked.
“Just like that,” Sadie said, “but at first only when I was touching him. You should’ve seen me.” She laughed. “Dragging him all around the garden, keeping him right by my side as I tended to it.” Her voice wavered. “But it’s more serious than I’m making out. The hedge was dying, too. It was all dying.”
“You said at first that sense you have only came back when you were touching him,” Alice pointed out. “What about now?”
“Now I can hear it all the time. He cured me. Somehow.”
Alice went back to her work, but Sadie saw her smile. Had her sister guessed when her abilities had returned fully?
“So Connor restored your ability to hear the plants?” Cass shook her head. “Our family is weird, have you realized that?”
“Are you just realizing that now?” Alice retorted.
“Does that mean he’s like you and Alice?” Cass asked. “He can hear things, too?”
Sadie thought she heard wistfulness in her sister’s voice, and she felt bad for Cass. It hadn’t occurred to her before how it would feel not to have that kind of extra connection to the world. But was that true? Cass was so connected to Two Willows, to their mother—and all of them. She was the glue that held this place together.
“No,” Alice answered Cass before Sadie could. “Connor restored your belief in love, didn’t he?”
She was right; love was at the heart of it, which was why Sadie thought Cass had more of a connection to Two Willows than she even knew. Cass was the embodiment of love as far as Sadie was concerned.
“He did,” she told Alice. “But I think more importantly he restored my belief in myself.”
“I’m glad the General sent him, then,” Cass said. “Although it’s beginning to alarm me how often I’ve said that lately.”
“The General is just trying to harass us,” Sadie told her. “We’re the ones co-opting his men. Pretty soon we’ll have an army.”
“I imagine he’ll stop sending them,” Alice said. “The General isn’t a man who likes to lose.”
Cass nodded, but Sadie didn’t think she was convinced.