by Katie Lane
Once they were on their way to Simple, Devlin couldn’t help bringing up their charade. “We can’t keep lying to your mother. She bought me a wedding gown and soon she’ll start ordering the flowers and rings.”
Instead of getting upset, he laughed. “She does seem to be having fun, doesn’t she? I don’t remember her being this happy planning any of her own weddings.”
“It’s not funny, Holden. We shouldn’t let her get her hopes up.”
“Soon. We’ll tell her soon.” He reached over and took her hand from the two-o’clock position on the steering wheel and held it as he slouched down in the passenger’s seat and started singing along with the country song on the radio.
The feel of his thumb brushing back and forth over her knuckles made her forget all about telling the truth . . . until they got into town.
Everywhere they went, people congratulated them on their engagement and talked about their upcoming nuptials. Obviously, Miss Gertie and Reba had spread the word. While they were getting paint at the hardware store, Emma wanted them to pick a date.
“You should have a Christmas wedding. I’ve always wanted a Christmas wedding.”
“Who wants to attend a wedding on Christmas when you should be home unwrapping presents and eating turkey?” Boone countered. “They should get married Super Bowl Sunday. At the reception, they could have a huge jumbo screen set up so everyone can skip the silly dancing and just watch football and eat chicken wings.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Which is exactly why no woman in her right mind would marry you, Boone Murphy.” She looked at Holden. “I bet you wouldn’t want a Super Bowl wedding.”
Holden squinted his eyes like he was actually considering the question. “I think I’d like a fall wedding before it gets too cold. But it’s really up to Devlin.” He glanced over at Devlin, who was standing there speechless. “What do you think, honey? Would you like a Christmas wedding or a fall one?”
She knew what she thought. She thought Holden was taking the entire charade way too far. It was one thing to tell people that they were thinking about getting married and another to start buying wedding gowns and setting dates.
“Umm . . . I think we need to talk.”
“You’re right. We do need to talk. After we stop by the grocery store and pick up Mom’s wine and a few things Lucas asked me to get.”
But at Simple Market, the wedding charade got even more out of control when Raynelle insisted on throwing them a wedding shower. “I mean it’s only right that I should throw you a shower when I was the one who helped get you two lovebirds together.”
“It wasn’t you who got them together, Ray,” Luanne said. She had followed them to the register after running into them in the liquor aisle. “It was my makeover that sealed the deal. Isn’t that right, Holden?”
Holden nodded. “It certainly helped. After you worked your magic on Devlin, I couldn’t take my eyes off her.” He gave Devlin the once-over. “Of course, she looks pretty hot in regular clothes with no makeup too.”
“Aww,” Raynelle beamed at them. “You two are as cute as bugs’ ears. I knew you were gonna make the perfect couple. Now when do you want to do the wedding shower? How about two weeks from Friday? I have every other Friday off so that would give me plenty of time to get everything pulled together. I bet Reba would let us have it in her garden if the weather is nice and we could play some fun games and eat some snackies like those little wieners Josie makes in her crockpot for book club.”
Luanne pulled out her cell phone and tapped on it. “Two weeks from this Friday works for me. I can do all the decorations and I’ll even donate some Mary Kay samples for goodie bags and a couple of my Ten Commandment bracelets to give away as prizes. And don’t you worry about paying me for the X Sex bracelet.” She winked at Holden. “Not that you two have been heeding that warning.”
Holden laughed, but Devlin didn’t think any of this was funny.
“You can’t plan a wedding shower for me.”
“Why not?” Raynelle asked. “That’s what friends are for.”
Devlin tried to come up with a plausible excuse that wouldn’t let the women know that they’d been lying all this time. “Because Holden has been a bachelor for a long time and could get cold feet.”
Both women turned to Holden with shocked looks. “You wouldn’t get cold feet and break this little gal’s heart, would you, Holden?” Raynelle asked.
“Never. My feet are totally warm . . . with love.” Holden turned to Devlin, who couldn’t help but stare at him as if he had lost his mind. But he didn’t look crazy. His eyes were direct and filled with something that made her car keys slip from her numb fingers and drop to the floor. “Devlin proved to me that love isn’t something to run from, but something to run to.” While Devlin stood there stunned, he gave her a quick kiss before he leaned down and picked up her keys. “I think I’ll just take these groceries to the car. Come out when you’re ready, babe.”
Chapter Fourteen
Holden knew he had handled that badly. He hadn’t planned to tell Devlin he loved her in the middle of the Simple Market with the town’s biggest gossips listening in. But damned if he could keep the words in a second longer. He was in love and he wanted the entire world to know it. Hell, he wanted to shout it from the town hall rooftop.
It was the craziest thing. He never thought it would happen to him. He never thought he would find a woman that he couldn’t live without. And then Devlin had fallen right into his arms. Sort of like a gift from heaven—as if God had planned it all along. As mad as he had been at God after Mandy’s death, he couldn’t help thanking Him now.
Devlin hadn’t told him that she loved him, but he knew she did. He knew it by the way she looked at him as if he hung the stars and moon, the way she touched him as if she couldn’t believe he was real, and the way she made love to him as if she could spend the rest of her life in his arms. And he planned to keep her there.
He had always thought of marriage as a trap set by women to make men’s lives miserable. But now he was the one setting the marriage trap. The entire town seemed to be playing right into his hands. Even his mother.
Or maybe he had played right into hers. If she hadn’t shown up, he might never have given Devlin a chance. He never thought he’d appreciate his mother’s interfering nature, but it had certainly worked this time. She had set out to make sure her son was happy. For the first time in a long time, he was.
He whistled as he headed to Devlin’s rental car. He stopped whistling when he came around the back and popped open the trunk. There were numerous things inside. Traces of red dirt. Plastic bags. A shovel. And a little green pony that he thought he would never see again. Slowly, as if he was in a dream, he reached out to make sure it was real. As soon as his fingers closed around the plastic, he was thrown back in time to a hospital room where his pale, gaunt sister lay on a bed hooked up to oxygen tubes, begging him to play ponies with her a little while longer.
Pain jackknifed through him, and the grocery bags and keys slipped from his other hand and fell into the trunk with a clink of wine bottles and the canned goods Lucas had requested.
“Holden?”
It took an effort to pull his gaze away from the pony to Devlin who stood there with an awed look on her face.
“You’re in love with me?” she asked softly.
He wanted to go back in time. This time, he wouldn’t open the trunk. He’d put the groceries in the backseat and keep the trunk sealed tight. But he couldn’t go back. The green pony in his hand proved that.
He lifted it. “How did you get Broccoli?” He wanted her to have a good excuse. One that would make his stomach stop cramping. But when her eyes widened with guilt, he knew there was only one explanation. And she bluntly gave it to him.
“I dug up the box of ponies.”
His arm fell limply to his side. “Why?”
She swallowed hard. “I didn’t know when I dug them up what they were. I thought they were
just a time capsule buried there by some little girl who had once lived at the ranch. And I put the box with all the others back. All of them except . . . Broccoli. I had one just like it when I was a little girl and I wanted—”
He cut her off. “To steal it. Just like you were stealing soil samples from my land.”
She swallowed hard. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“You didn’t think I’d mind?” he said in a low hiss. “You didn’t think I’d mind you sneaking behind my back and desecrating my sister’s grave?”
As soon as the words were out, he knew they weren’t right. Mandy wasn’t buried there. She was buried in a cemetery in Dallas. A cemetery Holden had never been to. He hadn’t attended the funeral, and he’d never been able to go and see the place where his sister had been laid to rest. And maybe that’s why he thought of the ponies as his sister. He couldn’t stand the thought of her being in a cold, scary cemetery, but he found comfort in her being buried on the Double Diamond Ranch.
Now that comfort was gone. Taken away by someone he’d thought loved him. But if Devlin loved him, she wouldn’t have gone behind his back. She wouldn’t have dug up the memories he wanted to keep buried. He knew she hadn’t purposely dug up the ponies, but the soil samples she’d taken were proof that while he thought she was as loopy in love as he was, making money for her family’s business had never been far from her mind.
When she placed a hand on his arm, he jerked away. “Don’t touch me.”
She let her hand drop. “Please, Holden, don’t do this. I’m sorry I took the samples without your permission. I did it before I knew how much I . . . cared for you.”
“Cared for me? You don’t steal from people you care about. And did you realize you cared for me before or after the results came back from your lab about the soil samples? They supported your theory that there’s oil on my land, didn’t they, Devlin?” She didn’t have to answer. The shamed look on her face told him everything he needed to know. He forced a laugh. “That’s too bad, Ms. McMillian. Because you will never set foot on my land again. In fact, as long as I’m staying with Chester and Lucas, I don’t want to see you anywhere near the Double Diamond ranch.”
An old truck pulled up and the window rolled down to reveal Boone Murphy from the hardware store. “Hey, Holden, I was just headed out to the Double Diamond to see if you needed any help painting the barn. I need to get away from that hellcat of a partner I’m stuck—” He cut off when he noticed Devlin standing there. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you were busy.”
“I’m not,” Holden said. “I’m through here. In fact, you can give me a ride out to the ranch.” Without another word to Devlin, he walked around the truck and climbed in.
Boone glanced back at Devlin. “Are you sure you want to leave? I’m not an expert on women, but Devlin looks pretty upset.”
“Not as upset as I am.” He slouched down in the seat and crossed his arms. “Now drive.”
Thankfully, on the way out to the ranch, Boone didn’t try to get the details of what happened out of Holden. He seemed to understand that Holden didn’t want to talk about it. Instead, he rattled on about the weather, the upcoming vote on changing the town name from Simple, and how much he hated working with Emma Johansen. When they got to the ranch, Chester and Lucas were sitting on the porch with Holden’s mother. Chester immediately got up from his chair and grabbed his shotgun. He set it back down when Boone got out of the truck.
“Well, if it isn’t Boone Murphy. It’s been a while since you were out here, boy.”
“Too long,” Boone said. “Owning your own business is much harder than my father made it look.”
Lucas got to his feet. “If those summers you helped us out were any indication, you ain’t afraid of a little hard work.”
Boone scowled. “Ranch work is nothing compared to working with Emma Johansen. So where are the paint and paintbrushes? I’m ready to help Holden tackle that barn.”
“I’ll show you,” Holden said. But before he could lead Boone to the barn, his mother stopped him.
“Why don’t you let Lucas and Chester show him, Holden? There’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” Once Chester, Lucas, and Boone were gone, she sent him a concerned look. “Where is Devlin?”
“I left her in town.”
“Why would you do that?” she asked.
In the last week, he had started to make amends with his mother, and if not forgive her, than at least accept her for who she was. But after finding out about Devlin’s deception, he felt angry with her all over again for putting her business before him and Mandy just like Devlin had put her business before him.
“Because it’s all been a charade, Mother,” he snapped. “Something I cooked up to get you to leave and stop hassling me about being happy.”
She didn’t seem surprised by his confession. “I know that. I’m not an idiot, Holden.”
“You knew?”
“I had my suspicions from the start, and Lucas and Chester confirmed them.”
He climbed the porch steps. “I should’ve known that they wouldn’t go along with keeping a secret from a mother. So why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I saw something between you and Devlin. Chester and Lucas see it too and we thought all you needed was time together to figure it out.”
He snorted as he flopped down in a rocking chair. “The only thing between us is sexual attraction.”
“Perhaps at first, but things have changed in the last few days. Don’t try to tell me you don’t love her, Holden. I know love when I see it. It’s what I had with your father. What I spent years searching for after he died, but couldn’t find.” Her gaze lowered. “Is that Broccoli?”
He was surprised that he still held the pony. But more surprised that his mother knew its name. “You remember Broccoli?”
“Of course, I do. Amanda always forced me to be the wretched horse when I played ponies with her.”
“You played little ponies?”
“Every morning at the hospital. I choose mornings to be with her because you came in the afternoons and her father came in the evenings.”
He’d had no idea. He’d always thought she’d ignored her daughter as much as she had him. But it looked like that wasn’t the truth.
“Don’t look so stunned, Holden. I wasn’t the most perfect mother, but I wasn’t the completely unfeeling ogre you like to make me out as either.” She took the pony from him and smoothed down the tangled mane. “Poor Broccoli. I always felt like she was bullied by the other ponies. I can’t tell you how many times Amanda put her—or I guess I should say me—in the naughty pony corral corner for being bad.”
As upset as he was, he couldn’t help smiling at the memory. “Mandy did love to pick on Broccoli. Or maybe she was just getting back at you for not being there more.” He paused. “And maybe that’s why she made me be Broccoli too. You know all those times I said I had to stay late at school? I didn’t. I just didn’t want to be at the hospital. And yet, I screamed at you for not being there for her.”
She reached out and took his hand. “You shouldn’t feel bad. You were only thirteen, Holden.”
“I was old enough to know she adored me and loved having me there.”
She squeezed his hand. “She did adore you. And you adored her. Which is why you didn’t want to watch her die. I was wrong to expect you to.”
“If you hadn’t, I would’ve felt even more guilty.”
She released his hand and leaned her head back on the rocker, cradling the pony to her chest. “Guilt. It does seem to rule our lives, doesn’t it? I feel guilty for not spending enough time with Amanda. And guilty for not spending enough time with my son before he grew up. I guess when bad things happen, I hide in my work.” She glanced at him. “Like you are hiding in yours.”
He couldn’t argue the point. He had been hiding in his work. Probably so he wouldn’t feel like he felt now—raw and exposed like Devlin had dug him up after years of being hidd
en under the old oak tree.
“What happened between you and Devlin?” his mother asked.
He didn’t want to talk about it, but somehow the words came out anyway. He told her about the real reason Devlin was there. His mother’s eyes only widened slightly when she heard about the possibly of oil and his refusal to let Devlin drill on his land. They widened more when he told her about finding Broccoli in Devlin’s trunk.
“How did she get Broccoli? After Amanda passed, I looked everywhere for the ponies. I assumed a hospital staffer had carelessly thrown them away. But you took them, didn’t you?”
He nodded. “I carried them around in my backpack for years. I even brought them to the Double Diamond with me. One night, I told Val about them. It was his idea to bury the box under the lightning tree. He’s always had a flair for the dramatic.”
“Or he’s just extremely intuitive. He must’ve known that you were holding on to the past and needed to let go. And that’s what this is all about, Holden. You’re not mad at Devlin for lying to you about taking the soil samples as much as you are about her forcing you to face the past when you don’t want to.”
“It’s not just that,” he snapped. “It’s that making money is more important to her than I am!” Once the words were out, he wanted them back. Not only because of the hurt look in his mother’s eyes, but also because they made him sound like a selfish, immature thirteen-year-old. And maybe he was. Maybe he was still that grieving teen desperately trying to get the woman he loved to show him love back. Devlin hadn’t shown it. She hadn’t even seemed upset. All she’d done was stand there and watch as he drove away.
He ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, Mom. I’m not blaming you for what happened.”
“You don’t need to apologize, Holden. If we’re ever going to have a relationship, we need to speak honestly with each other. We both know that I am responsible. I made a lot of mistakes. Mistakes that you are now paying for. Knowing that, if I thought you were right about Devlin, I’d already have gotten rid of her. But Devlin isn’t the type of woman who puts money before the ones she loves. Believe me, I know that type well. Did she take the samples before or after she fell in love with you?”
