CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Miles had phoned the previous evening and invited Gordon for lunch, which was a pleasant surprise. The reservation was for noon at Scaramouche, a restaurant they’d always enjoyed. By the time Gordon arrived, his son was already seated. He looked up from the menu when Gordon joined him.
“This is very nice,” Gordon said. Then he frowned. Something was obviously bothering Miles. During their last conversation his son had seemed overworked and suffering from stress; he’d asked about the cruise, then left as soon as Karen phoned. Gordon couldn’t help wondering if there was a problem with his son’s marriage.
“How’s Karen?” Gordon asked, attempting a less-than-subtle approach.
Miles glanced up from the menu. “Good.”
“The kids?”
“Fine.”
The waiter approached and they both ordered the baked salmon with pecan crust and a glass each of a Niagara chardonnay.
“Actually I asked you to lunch this afternoon to talk about you,” Miles said, pausing when the waiter returned with the wine. “I never thought I’d be having this kind of conversation with my own father, but apparently it’s necessary.”
Gordon squared his shoulders, gazing at Miles over the rim of his glass. “Is something wrong?”
“You tell me.”
“What in heaven’s name leads you to assume I have a problem?” He was feeling better about life than he had in years.
Miles took a moment to smooth his linen napkin across his lap. “Then let me be frank,” his son said. “Are you involved with a woman?”
How Miles knew about Nessa, Gordon could only guess. “As a matter of fact, I am.” He fully intended to tell Miles about Nessa, and would have the night he’d stopped by the house if his son hadn’t left so suddenly.
“That woman in Texas?” His mouth was pinched and his tone disapproving.
Gordon tensed, disliking his son’s tone. He didn’t understand how Miles could object to Nessa, since he’d never even met her. “She has a name, son.”
“I already know her name.”
“You do?”
“I know more than you think I do, Father,” Miles continued stiffly. “I happened to see the telephone bill on your desk the other night. You two seem to have quite a thing going.”
Gordon wasn’t accustomed to being chastised by his son, and he didn’t appreciate Miles’s attitude.
“Are you planning an affair with a married woman?”
Gordon had never heard anything more outrageous in his life. “Have you gone mad?”
“What else am I to believe?”
Gordon nearly laughed out loud when he realized the misunderstanding. “You think I’m involved with Dovie Hennessey, don’t you? It might interest you to know it isn’t Dovie I’ve been phoning every night. My lady friend’s name is Nessa Boyd, and she’s Dovie’s sister-in-law.”
Miles frowned at Gordon as if he didn’t believe him. “Why didn’t you mention her before now?”
“Nessa and I decided not to say anything,” Gordon explained, “not at first, anyway. It’s a bit embarrassing to feel this strongly about someone you’ve spent such a short time with, and…well, Dovie doesn’t know.” Gordon paused when it became apparent Miles wasn’t willing to accept his explanations. “I thought you wanted me to see women,” Gordon said. “Wasn’t that the point of sending me on a cruise?”
“Yes, but I’d prefer it if you’d chosen a widow.”
“Nessa is a widow.”
“So you say, but ask yourself this, Dad. What kind of woman asks you not to mention you’re having a relationship? There’s got to be a reason. She doesn’t want her sister-in-law to know you’re—”
“Talking. That’s all we’ve done,” Gordon said. Miles’s assumptions were beginning to anger him.
“Have you had her checked out?” Miles asked.
“I’m not buying a used car!” Gordon’s anger turned to fury.
“In this day and age—” Miles started, but Gordon cut him off.
“That might be how you handle your personal affairs, but I refuse to act in such an underhanded way.”
“Don’t be stupid, Dad. She has to know you’re a wealthy man.”
“She knows nothing of the sort.”
A muscle twitched in Miles’s jaw. “You’re going to do it, aren’t you?”
Gordon glared at his son. “Do what?”
“Marry her. Promise me you won’t do anything that stupid without talking to me first.”
Their meals arrived, but unfortunately Gordon’s appetite was gone. He placed his napkin on the table and sat back in his chair.
“Now what?” Miles said, then noticed the discarded napkin. He motioned at Gordon with his fork. “For heaven’s sake, eat your lunch.”
“It’s been a long time since anyone’s treated me like an ill-behaved child, and I refuse to put up with it now. You’re not my mother and you’re certainly not my guardian.”
“No, I’m your son, and I’m doing everything I can to stop you from making an ass of yourself.”
“Then I suggest you worry more about being one yourself.” Before their argument could escalate further, Gordon stood and walked out of the restaurant.
* * *
This was the day Nessa had dreaded for weeks. She’d put off telling Dovie about Gordon much longer than she should have. Really, it was ridiculous to have worried about it at all. She waited until Saturday afternoon, when she knew Dovie would be home by herself.
Ever since Dovie and Frank had returned from their European vacation, Nessa had avoided her sister-in-law. That on its own was silly. How much easier everything would have been if she’d told Dovie the first time they’d talked. Now she had only herself to blame for these feelings of guilt.
Nessa had purposely timed her visit so Frank would be away from the house. He’d gotten more and more involved with organizing activities at the seniors’ center and spent much of his free time with his friends.
Dovie answered the doorbell almost instantly. “Nessa, come on in! I’ve hardly seen you in weeks.” She held the screen door open wide, then led her into the kitchen. “Would you like coffee or tea?”
“Do you have anything stronger?”
“Iced tea?”
Nessa laughed. “I was thinking more along the lines of a rum and Coke.” Under normal circumstances she wasn’t much of a drinker, but she needed it just then to bolster her courage.
Dovie hesitated. “Any reason you’re looking to sample the hard stuff in the middle of the afternoon?”
“As a matter of fact, there is. Oh, Dovie, I should have done this long ago.”
Her sister-in-law dragged the step stool to the refrigerator, climbed up and reached into the cupboard above, bringing down an unopened bottle of rum. It was the dark variety; Nessa suspected Dovie had purchased it on the cruise when she’d met Gordon. Obviously hard liquor didn’t see much use in this household.
Dovie poured a liberal dose of the rum into two glasses, then opened a bottle of cola and added that. “Okay,” she said, holding one glass and handing the other to Nessa. “I’m ready. Tell me.”
The words tumbled out of Nessa’s mouth. “I’m in love with Gordon Pawling.”
“Who?” Dovie asked with a frown.
“Gordon Pawling. You met him on the cruise ship a few years back. He stopped here to see you while you and Frank were in Europe and well…Gordon and I’ve been talking by phone ever since.”
“I see.” Dovie sat down on the stool and gave her an odd look.
Oh, my, this was worse than Nessa had feared. “I didn’t mean to fall in love with him,” she blurted. “It just happened. And I do love him, Dovie, really and truly.”
“Gordon Pawling,” Dovie repeated as if she had trouble taking it in.
“He’s asked me to meet him in Kansas City next week.”
“Why Kansas City?” Dovie asked. She still hadn’t tasted her drink, but Nessa had downed nearly half of hers.
“It’s neutral ground for us both. He’s away from his home and family and friends, and I’m away from mine. We need to see each other again—to test how we really feel.”
“You love him?”
Nessa nodded. “If he asked me to marry him—and, Dovie, I pray he does—I’ll leap at the offer.”
“Good for you.” Dovie hugged her.
“You don’t mind?”
“Good grief, why should I? I’d forgotten Gordon’s name, but I do remember him. He’s a real sweetheart.”
“I think so, too,” Nessa whispered. “But when you first realized who I meant, you got the oddest expression on your face.”
Dovie blushed. “I’m afraid I was beginning to believe Sylvia.”
“Sylvia?” Nessa couldn’t imagine what her daughter had said to Dovie.
“She thinks you’re having an affair and frankly, I was beginning to have my suspicions, too.”
Nessa smiled. “Well, now you know. But we’ve only met once—the day he came to the shop—and then it was just three or four hours. That’s why we’re meeting in Kansas City. We need to know if we’ll feel the same way when we see each other again.”
“All I want is for you to be happy,” Dovie told her.
Nessa hugged her sister-in-law. Happiness was what she wanted, too, but it seemed to be getting more and more complicated.
* * *
The last communication from Val Langley had come at the beginning of July. It was a perfumed note informing Travis of her arrival date—today. Nell had been scrubbing and cleaning the house all week. No easy task with a pair of two-year-olds underfoot, plus fourteen-year-old Jeremy and twelve-year-old Emma. While she might not be able to compete with Val in looks and sophistication, Nell was an excellent housekeeper. If ever there was a time she wanted her homemaking skills to shine, it was now.
Homemade bread and cinnamon rolls lined the kitchen countertop. A load of cotton-blend sheets hung from the clothesline. The windows sparkled, the floors shone and a bouquet of fresh flowers decorated the kitchen table.
“I wish you’d relax,” Travis muttered as he came into the kitchen. He’d spent his morning writing, with frequent stops to refill his coffee mug. “You don’t need to do anything to impress Val.”
“I’m not doing this for Val,” she protested.
Travis eyed her quizzically as though he doubted the truth of that.
“I’m doing this for me,” Nell said. “Val’s going to arrive looking like she walked off the pages of Vogue, and I’m going to look—and feel—like a country bumpkin.”
“I’ll have you know I’m madly in love with the woman you’re calling a bumpkin.”
“Good, and don’t you forget it.”
The front doorbell chimed, and Nell felt panic rise up in her. They weren’t expecting any dude-ranch visitors at the moment, and all their friends and neighbors knew to come to the back door. It had to be Travis’s ex-wife.
“Would you stop?” Travis groaned. “Val has nothing on you.”
He said it with such vehemence, she was inclined to believe that he believed it, anyway. The twins started to fuss, and grabbing her youngest daughter and son, Nell held their hands, pulling them with her as she followed Travis to the door.
As she suspected, the visitor was Valerie Langley. The woman was everything Nell had feared: petite, slender and sophisticated. Picture-perfect in what was obviously a designer suit, which probably cost more than Nell’s entire clothing budget for the century. This woman was every wife’s basic nightmare.
“Travis!” Val cried and threw her arms around his neck. You’d think she’d waited years for precisely this moment, Nell thought sardonically. “How good it is to see you again.”
She noticed that Travis extricated himself from the hug with a haste that bordered on rudeness.
Val smiled warmly at Nell and the children. “This must be Nell and those precious twins.”
“Hello,” Nell said, struggling to hold on to Dianna who wanted only to escape. Devon stared solemnly at the other woman as if she were an angel who’d graced the earth with her presence.
“Would you like something cool to drink?” Nell asked once she’d collected her wits.
“That would be delightful. You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to get the rental car and find my way here. You guys don’t exactly live close to anything civilized, do you?” She laughed lightly. “You’ll see to my bags, won’t you, Travis?” she said, trailing Nell into the kitchen.
“Something wrong with your arms?” Travis asked as he went to the kitchen, too.
“Travis,” Nell murmured, secretly glad but preferring that her husband display at least minimal politeness.
“Fine. I’ll take your things to the bunkhouse,” he told his ex-wife.
“Bunkhouse?” Val repeated. “But I thought this was a dude ranch.”
“It is,” Travis assured her. “All guests sleep in the bunkhouse, unless they’re driving the herd, in which case they’re required to sleep under the stars.”
Val pinched her lips together. “I’m sure the bunkhouse will be just fine.”
How she really felt about accepting accommodation in the bunkhouse they’d probably never know, Nell mused, smiling to herself.
“I’m sure it will,” Travis told her, his voice cool. “The price includes two meals a day.”
“I’m grateful you were willing to put me up,” Val assured them both. “You’d think a town this size would have a few more options than a bed-and-breakfast and a dude ranch out in the boonies.”
“That’s what makes it a dude ranch,” Travis said, not bothering to hide his sarcasm.
“I’ll get you some iced tea,” Nell told the other woman, and headed for the refrigerator.
“My,” Val said, glancing about, “you’re certainly the…domesticated type.”
“Well, I do bake all our own bread,” Nell said. What had made her feel proud only a short while ago left her feeling gauche and old-fashioned now.
“How…quaint.”
“Some women are willing to invest that kind of time and love in their families,” Travis said.
“Ouch.” Val spoke out of the side of her mouth. “I think that little barb was intended for me.”
Nell grinned, pouring Val a glass of tea. She had every intention of clearing the air before Jeremy and Emma returned from an outing with their grandmother. She didn’t want her two oldest children exposed to the hostile undercurrents that were bound to continue if Travis and Val went on exchanging insults. “I’m hoping we can be friends, Val.”
“That would be nice,” Val agreed, but she sounded as though she considered it unlikely.
“I’ll show you to the bunkhouse,” Travis said. “It has a communal bath and a two-seater outhouse.”
“Travis,” Nell protested, then turned to Val and added, “We don’t have any other guests currently, so you won’t be sharing the showers. There’s no need to use the outhouse, either. You can use the bathroom here.”
Val looked vastly relieved as she drank her tea. Putting down her glass, she announced, “I believe I’ll go freshen up. What time would you like me for dinner?”
“We eat a whole lot earlier than eight,” Travis informed her.
“Six, if that’s convenient,” Nell said, glowering at her husband.
“I’ll be here with bells on,” Val promised.
“We don’t dress for dinner,” Travis said. He reached for a bread stick and munched on it loudly. “I suggest you leave the bells in your suitcase.”
Nell waited until Valerie and Travis had left the house before quickly making the twins’ lunch. After that, she sat in the rocking chair with them for a few minutes before putting them to bed for their naps. Travis returned just as she finished rocking them to sleep. He carried Dianna and she took Devon. They placed the sleeping children in their beds and quietly tiptoed out of the room.
“Travis, what’s gotten into you?” Nell asked. “You were so rude to her.”
“I didn’t like her attitude toward you.”
“I appreciate your concern, but I can take care of myself.” Her protective feeling toward Travis’s first wife came as a surprise. She hadn’t expected to like Valerie, but she sensed a vulnerability beneath the polished exterior. “Don’t be so hard on her.”
Travis sighed. “I guess she’s not so bad.”
“You know, I think she has a strong need to impress others, which usually stems from insecurity.”
Travis nodded. “Seeing her now makes me wonder how I could ever have loved her. I find it hard to believe we were once married.”
At the moment Nell was wondering what her husband had ever seen in her, compared to the beautiful Valerie.
“She asked if you and I would set aside some time this evening to chat with her,” Travis said.
“About what?” Nell couldn’t help being curious.
“I’m not really sure. She asked about Grady and Savannah. I can’t imagine why she’d come all this way to meet them. Surely it couldn’t have anything to do with Richard, not this long after the trial.”
“I thought she wanted to know about the hill country and Bitter End.”
“So she said, but now I wonder if that was only an excuse to come to Promise. She hasn’t mentioned it yet.”
Nell shrugged. “Then why do you think she’s here?”
“Well, she’s after something,” Travis murmured thoughtfully. “And it sure as hell isn’t me. I know her better than that,” he said in response to Nell’s anguished look.
“If she’s interested in anything about me, it’s the success I’ve had,” he told his wife. “The money I’ve made. Not me.”
“Good thing, because she’d have one hell of a fight on her hands.”
Travis’s laughter filled the kitchen, and he slipped his arms around Nell’s waist and kissed her in a way that made her grateful she was a married woman.
“Travis,” she whispered, her eyes closed, “what was that for?”
“I love you, Nell, and I want to be very sure you know it.”
“I do.” She supposed her feelings were the same as any second wife’s would be after meeting wife number one. Perhaps a bit more complicated, seeing that Val was light-years ahead of her in the beauty department. It helped that Travis cherished her enough to want to reassure her.
“I don’t know why Val’s here,” Travis whispered, holding Nell close. “I just don’t know.”
* * *
Annie and Lucas had been married for two weeks. They remained polite, almost comically so, especially in the bedroom. Every night he held her close, and every night she grew more accustomed to sleeping in his arms. He kissed her when he left for work in the morning and again before they went to sleep at night. Light kisses, more a quick touch of their lips than a real display of affection.
Annie was happy with this state of affairs. It was early yet, she reasoned, and they had a lot to learn about each other.
The girls accepted her without qualms and were excited to have a new mother. Annie lavished them with love and attention, and they thrived right along with Annie, who felt a new confidence, a new serenity—the result, she knew, of being needed and loved.
What with settling in, Annie had little time to spend with Jane, whose baby was due any day. Jane’s parents had decided to come after the birth, so Annie had volunteered to help the midwife when her friend went into labor. Lucas had promised to tag along in case Cal needed someone there for him.
The call came early Monday morning soon after Annie had opened the bookstore. “It’s time,” Cal said calmly.
“I’m on my way,” Annie told him and immediately phoned Lucas. Her second call was to her in-laws to ask if they could watch the girls.
When he pulled up in front of the bookstore, Lucas seemed a lot more excited than Cal had sounded on the phone.
“How’s Cal doing?” he asked with a wide grin as she slipped into the seat next to him.
“Fine,” she said and shook her head. How typical of a man to inquire about the father, instead of the mother!
The drive from town to the Patterson ranch took forty minutes—and that was with Lucas risking a speeding ticket. Cal threw open the door to the back porch the minute they arrived.
“Smile, Cal,” Annie told him after giving him an affectionate hug. “A beautiful baby is about to be born.”
“It’s going to be a difficult birth,” Cal muttered, pale with concern. “I’m sure of it. And Jane refuses to go to the hospital in Brewster. The woman is too damn stubborn for her own good.”
“You don’t know what it’s going to be like,” Annie said, wanting to reassure him. “Relax, will you?”
“But we do know,” Grady Weston countered. He and Caroline, along with Glen and Ellie Patterson, had both come to lend their support. “The baby’s going to take after Cal, and everyone knows what a big head Cal has.”
Glen hooted with laughter.
“But Jane’s overdue,” Cal said in serious tones. “The baby’s going to be big. Huge. Has anyone noticed her belly recently? She should be in the hospital.”
Annie had heard all this before. How could anyone say a baby was overdue? It seemed to her that Jane’s son or daughter would arrive at exactly the right time, despite what others predicted.
“Who’s with Jane?” Annie asked. She assumed Cal would want to be with his wife.
“Leah Collins, the midwife,” Cal told her, then added sheepishly, “Jane kicked me out. She said if all I was going to do was argue with her, she wanted me out of the room.”
“Go to Jane,” Lucas told Annie. “As soon as Cal’s willing to admit his wife knows more about birthing babies than he does, I’ll send him in.”
Annie was halfway to the bedroom when she stopped. “Did anyone think to call Jane’s parents?” The Dickinsons would be anxious to hear the news. Jane was, after all, their only daughter.
“Yes, I’d better let them know,” Cal said, and headed for the phone. He cast Annie a look of gratitude.
Despite Cal’s dire predictions of a long and difficult labor, Paul Calvin Patterson arrived without a hitch at two minutes to ten that evening. Cal was with Jane and Leah, and Annie had dozed off against Lucas’s shoulder when she awoke to the sound of an infant’s wail and a jubilant shout of “Hot damn!”
Soon afterward, Cal burst through the bedroom door and let out a cry of sheer undiluted joy. “I got me a son!”
A round of hugs and tears followed, and soon the living room started to empty. Before she left, Annie went in to see her friend and hold the baby. Gazing down at the newborn, Annie experienced an ache of longing that reached deep inside her. Tears welled in her eyes.
“He looks just like Cal,” she whispered, brushing a finger over the fine soft hair.
“It’s the big head,” Lucas whispered from behind her, making Annie smile.
Annie rested on Lucas’s shoulder again during the ride home. Rather than wake the girls, who were spending the night with Lucas’s parents, they went back to the house alone.
Lucas sorted through the mail while Annie kicked off her shoes and poured them each a glass of wine. This was the first night they’d been without the girls since their honeymoon. After the long exciting day, they were both exhausted.
“I’m thrilled for Cal and Jane,” Lucas said as they prepared for bed.
“This is the first time I’ve been at a birth,” Annie told him. “I’ve never experienced anything even close to this kind of feeling before.” Annie had fallen asleep early in the evening and missed the actual birth—but she didn’t need to be there every minute to experience the wonder and exhilaration.
She finished brushing her teeth, but remained standing in front of the bathroom sink, savoring the good feelings that had come with the birth of Jane and Cal’s son.
“Annie, are you ready for bed?” Lucas joined her in the bathroom and stood behind her.
She turned to face him. Up to this point they’d exchanged chaste careful kisses. Now Annie’s eyes locked with his as she slipped her arms up his chest and linked them around his neck.
Lucas inhaled sharply. “Annie—”
“Yes…I’m ready for bed,” she murmured and brought her mouth to his.
The raw hunger that exploded between them took her breath away.
They stood in the tiny bathroom with their arms wrapped around each other, sharing deep uncontrolled kisses.
“Annie…Annie…Annie.” Between each kiss Lucas whispered her name. “Oh, Annie.” One hand bunched her cotton nightgown, while the other tenderly cradled the back of her head. One hand rough and urgent, the other gentle and loving.
They were on the bed before Annie even realized they’d left the bathroom, the light spilling like distant sunshine into the dark room. Lucas moved away from her and she watched as he tore off his shirt. Then he was kissing her again with an abandon that told her he’d been wanting her far longer than she’d known. Kissing her and impatiently unbuttoning her nightgown.
“Annie, I—”
“Yes, make love to me,” she whispered.
After long minutes of kissing and caressing, of loving with hands and mouths, her excitement grew more and more intense. “Now, Lucas,” she urged. He was about to enter her when he stopped cold, his face in torment.
“What is it?” she asked frantically.
“Your accident. Will I hurt you?”
Annie didn’t know. “I suspect the pain will be worse if you stop now.”
A smile relaxed his features, and he leaned forward and slowly, lovingly, joined their bodies. Annie did whimper, but the sound coming from deep in her throat had nothing to do with pain and everything to do with pleasure. It’d been so long for her. Years. That long for Lucas, too.
“Lucas, oh, Lucas.” All at once she understood how worthwhile the wait had been.
Annie slept in Lucas’s arms all night, as content as she could ever remember being. The alarm rang at the usual time, but Lucas stretched out his hand and blindly turned it off. Grateful, Annie kissed the underside of his jaw, more than happy to return to the blissful oblivion of sleep.
Her reprieve was short-lived, however. Lucas kissed her eyes, then her nose, her cheek and finally her lips. Once, and then a second time. Their kisses lengthened and became more passionate.
“I’ve got three surgeries scheduled this morning,” Lucas murmured between kisses.
Annie rubbed her hands down his bare back. “There’s a shipment of books arriving before ten.”
More kisses, more whispers.
“I’m going to be late.”
“Me, too.”
All the while they listed their protests, they were straining for one another. Soon their voices dipped to sighs and soft pants, followed by eager cries and more kisses, then softer less urgent ones.