THE BRIDE WORE BLUE JEANS

by Mary Anne Wilson

  "Have a good life," he whispered as his hand slowly fell to his side. "You deserve it."

  He turned away and crossed the room to go back to the bedroom where he'd spent the night. Once in the room, he grabbed his things and pushed them in his duffel bag. Only taking time to steady himself with a deep breath, he went back out and down the hall to the living room.

  Sammi and Jeannie were there now, the child and woman sitting on the rug in front of the couch, and Annie stood over them. Trevor was sitting in one of the leather chairs, and Charlie was on the couch. Quint strode across the room. "Thanks for everything," he said to no one in particular and kept walking for the door.

  "Kint!" Sammi called out.

  He closed his eyes, then turned, making very sure he didn't look at Annie. The little girl was on her feet holding a rag doll in her arms and looking at him with eyes that echoed her mother's deep green. "Sammi, you be a good girl for your Mommy, okay?"

  "Sammi, good girl," she echoed seriously.

  "Yes, you are," he said. "I have to go. Bye-bye, Sammi."

  "Quint?"

  He had to look at Annie. "What?"

  Silently she crossed the room to where he stood, then held something out to him. "Take this."

  He looked down at the money he'd given to Charlie. "I want you to have it."

  When he didn't reach for it, she dropped it at his feet. "I told you, I don't want your money," she said. Quint looked down at Annie, and he knew he didn't belong here. He never had. Ignoring the money on the floor, he turned and left.

  Another car was parked by the Corvette and a balding man was standing beside it leaning against the front fender. Trevor's attorney. Quint walked right to the Corvette, but when he touched the door handle of his car, he looked at the attorney. The man looked incredibly uncomfortable in his three-piece suit, standing on muddy ground, using his hand to shield his eyes from the sun.

  "Downs?" Quint asked.

  The man nodded.

  "I'm Quint Gallagher."

  "I know."

  "Tell your client that I meant what I said to him in there."

  "Just what did you say?"

  "That he'd better behave himself or Mommy and Daddy aren't the only people who'll tear into him."

  The man frowned, but Quint cut off any retort by getting in the car. With the top up since the storm, the interior was musty with dampness and suffocating for him so he couldn't get air in his chest. He started the engine, then quickly put the top down and finally took a deep breath.

  He backed up, then turned around and started down the driveway. For a second, over the sounds of the engine and the moving air, he thought he heard his name called, and he looked in the side mirror.

  The attorney was still by the car looking up at the house. Quint twisted to look over his shoulder, and he saw Annie on the porch holding one of the uprights watching him leave. And the sight of her reminded him of that first time he'd driven away from her, leaving her standing on the side of the road.

  But this time she wasn't alone. She had her child. It was he who was totally alone. He looked away and pressed the gas pedal, squealing the tires on the pavement. When he got to the end of the drive, he turned onto the road.

  He drove away, as alone as the day he left the prison in Boston. But now he truly felt the loneliness. It ate at him, producing a pain that he'd never experienced before.

  Lifting his face to the rushing air, he screamed a curse to the skies, a curse born of pain and anger. And the sound was snatched away by the wind as it tore out of his throat, gone the next instant as if it had never been uttered.

  It was about as real as the dreams he'd started to let himself dream. One minute they were there, the next they were gone as if they had never been. He ran a hand roughly over his face and knew that he'd never dream again.

  * * *

  Chapter 15

  « ^ »

  Annie watched Quint drive away and the ache in her middle threatened to explode and consume her. She called out to him, needing to face him alone and rage at him over the money. Then she saw the car slow, Quint glance over his shoulder at her and, for a split second, she thought he was going to turn around and come back.

  But that never happened. Instead, the car surged forward, its engine roaring, then he was gone and the emptiness around her pressed against her. Slowly she turned and went back into the house, her eyes painfully dry as she stopped in the doorway. Trevor was still there like a bad dream, and Jeannie was playing with Sammi on the rug. Her friend looked up.

  "Is he gone?"

  "Yes." She swallowed hard. "Trevor and I need to talk," she said. "Could you take Sammi out for a walk?"

  Charlie stood. "I contacted my attorney, and if you—"

  "I need to do this on my own." The way she had everything else in her life, except for a few days when a man named Quint had been there for her.

  As Jeannie, Charlie and Sammi left through the terrace doors, Annie looked at Trevor. Suddenly she didn't care why he did what he did, or what he thought or even what he thought of her. All she cared about was Sammi. She had nothing to lose anymore except her daughter.

  She crossed to the couch and looked down at Trevor. She knew she'd do anything it took to keep Sammi and to keep her safe. But she couldn't fight the Raineses' wealth, so she had to do this without a war.

  "Annie, I wish we could turn back the clock—"

  "Forget the games, Trevor. I know you don't love me or Sammi, and the only reason you wanted to marry me was to appease your mother and father. So why don't you tell me exactly what you want and what I get in return?"

  Trevor sank back and stretched his arms out on the back of the couch at either side of himself. His eyes narrowed. "God, you've changed."

  She felt like a completely different woman than the one who'd believed his lies so easily just days ago. "You haven't."

  He shrugged. "Simply put, I want you and the kid to come back to the ranch with me. We tell my parents we've got everything settled. We get married."

  The thought of Trevor ever touching her again made her physically ill and she had to fight sickness burning the back of her throat. "Marriage?"

  "Don't look so uneasy. We'll put on a show for the folks. That's it."

  "And if I don't agree to go back?"

  He sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees, then tented his fingers and pressed them to his lips. "Bluntly put, I get the kid, and you get zip except a jail cell."

  She'd known all along that that was what he wanted, but it made her blood run cold to hear it laid out this way. And she didn't have any options. Quint had robbed her of options when he drove away without her. And for a second she hated Quint with a passion that almost equaled her love for him.

  "You've got your attorney outside?"

  "Yes."

  "Then get him. I want this done legally so you can't get me back there and decide to do whatever you want to do."

  He frowned up at her. "You're getting pretty cold, Anne Marie."

  "You taught me well."

  * * *

  Two weeks later

  Annie stood very still as Marla Clark, the seamstress, put the final touches on the simple white calf-length dress. This wedding dress was plain, with cap sleeves, a softly gathered skirt and a scooped neckline. Plain, and nothing like the original gown that was packed away somewhere in the main house.

  "And I was telling my friend, Alice, that she wouldn't believe what's been happening out here. So romantic," she babbled. "Just wonderful. Him going after you and bringing you back and you two still getting married."

  Annie felt her nerves stretch even further and it was all she could do not to tell the woman to shut up. "Are you almost done?" she asked.

  "Just a minute longer," the woman said around a pin she held in her mouth.

  Annie closed her eyes, then looked out the side window of the guest house. The day was bright and sunny, without a cloud in the sky, and across the rolling grass area she could see S
ammi with Trevor, Senior. The older man, a weathered version of Trevor, had Sammi on his horse with him, riding her all over the grounds. Both child and adult were laughing.

  A sight like that eased Annie a bit. Sammi was happy, and Trevor's parents doted on her. Maybe this could work. Maybe she could make a life here where Sammi had Mamaw and Poppa, and horses and toys and space to run and play.

  Annie looked away from the view and realized that Marla was still talking. "…and I said to Alice, the Raines family is under this lucky sign. You know, the way some people are, where no matter what, everything works out for them?"

  A lucky sign? Annie almost laughed at that.

  "And Alice says that she'd heard that you and Trevor are going to Europe for your honeymoon, and that you're going to be gone for months traveling."

  She took a breath and looked up at Annie, meeting her eyes in the mirror, waiting for some confirmation so she could go and tell it to Alice. Annie wondered what the woman would tell her friend if she was absolutely truthful.

  What if she told her that there wouldn't be a honeymoon, that right after the wedding she and Trevor would move into the west wing of the house, into separate rooms joined by a luxurious bathroom? That for the month they were supposed to be on their honeymoon, Trevor had agreed to let her take Sammi back to Jeannie and Charlie to visit and that he'd meet her there in a month and they'd come back here together?

  "We'll be gone a month," Annie said.

  The woman looked expectantly at Annie. "A month? Then you'll be going pretty far?"

  Light-years away from this place, she thought, and almost couldn't wait for the day after tomorrow when she could go back to sanity for a brief period of time. Jeannie and Charlie were already at Los Olivos, and part of Annie wondered what it would be like going back to the last place she'd seen Quint.

  Just the thought of the man brought every good intention tumbling down. He'd been gone two weeks, but it could have been an eternity. And it still hurt. The old saying about time healing all wounds was proving untrue. If anything, it hurt more now than that last sight of him, turning, seeing her, then leaving.

  She closed her eyes so tightly bright colors exploded behind her lids. "Your friend thinks we're going to Europe?"

  "Yes, ma'am."

  "Tell her she's wrong."

  "The Bahamas?"

  Annie opened her eyes and looked at the woman. "It's a secret. You know, we can't let people know where we'll be."

  "Oh, yes," the woman said with a knowing smile. "And I'd be the same way, what with a handsome husband like yours. I'd be wanting him all to myself."

  "A very good idea."

  Annie saw the flash of movement in the mirror at the same time Trevor spoke. She saw his reflection in the mirror and wondered if Marla still thought he was handsome. It was barely past noon and Trevor was drunk … again. Since they'd come back, he'd been drinking nonstop, but it worked for her. He'd disappear and leave her and Sammi alone. She really didn't care if he drank himself to death.

  Right now his face was flushed, his chambray shirt open and untucked, and his chinos looked mussed, as if he'd slept in them. And he probably had. "So, do you want me all to yourself?" he asked, his voice vaguely slurred as he gripped the doorframe with one hand.

  Marla stood and Annie watched her smile brightly at Trevor. "Oh, sir, I'm sorry. I was just talking and you know—"

  His eyes in the reflection were on Annie, and he didn't even look at the seamstress as he spoke to her. "Goodbye, Marla."

  "Sir, I'm almost finished, and—"

  He stood straight. "Goodbye," he bit out.

  Annie cringed at his tone, and at the way Marla colored as she hurriedly picked up the supplies by her. "Yes, sir," she murmured.

  Annie hated Trevor's power and the way he had to use it, even over someone like Marla.

  "The dress?" Marla said to Annie.

  "I'll take it off and bring it up to the house in a few minutes. Mrs. Raines wants to talk to you about Sammi's dress."

  "Yes, ma'am," Marla murmured picking up her carrying tray. "I'll be waiting." She headed for the door, ducking past Trevor like a frightened mouse.

  When the woman was gone and Annie could see her heading across the grass to the main house, she turned and looked at Trevor without using the reflection in the mirror as a buffer. "What do you want?"

  He let go of the door and came farther into the room, his steps a bit unsteady. "What would you do if I said I wanted you?"

  Bile rose bitterly at the back of her throat. "I'd say you were drunk."

  "Oh, I've had a few drinks … here and there … now and then."

  "Then go and sleep it off."

  He stopped in front of her and the smell of whiskey hung in the air. "Are you propositioning me?"

  Part of her had known this would happen sooner or later, but she'd hoped it would be much later. "No, I'm not."

  "Well, damn, why not? We had some pretty great sex at first, why not let's try it again?"

  They had little to nothing at first, and Annie couldn't really remember much about it. Not when memories of Quint just overlapped every other memory. For a moment, the image of Quint was so strong in her mind that she almost couldn't breathe. His touch on her, his closeness, heat everywhere, taking her, connecting in a way she'd never connected with another man in her life.

  "We've got an agreement," she said, her voice vaguely husky.

  He eyed her. "Yeah, but you're kind of flushed. You remember."

  His voice made her sick. "I remember we've got an agreement, and part of that agreement is that this is going to be a marriage in name only."

  "Screw the agreement," he muttered thickly and reached out for her.

  Annie jerked back. "Stop it."

  He drew his hand back and it curled into a fist. "What are you going to do, be celibate for the rest of your life?"

  Without Quint, there wasn't any man she wanted. But her loving him hadn't made him love her. "That's none of your business, as long as I keep up my end of the bargain."

  "Don't think you're going to find someone like that jerk you were with."

  "I told you—"

  Trevor rocked forward on the balls of his feet and the odor of whiskey got stronger. "Don't even think about it. I'll get rid of any jerk you find. I got rid of one, and I'll get rid of any others that come along."

  She stared at Trevor. "You got rid of whom?"

  "That jailbird."

  "What?"

  Trevor looked uncertain for a second, then he seemed to stand taller. He nodded as if he'd found a cure for cancer. "You heard me. He threatened me and everything, but he's the one who turned tail and ran. Some big man," he sneered. "He crumbled."

  Annie felt as if she couldn't breathe. "What did you do to Quint?"

  He shrugged. "Just told him the way it was."

  She wanted to grab Trevor and shake him. "Trevor, what did you do?"

  "I got rid of him," he muttered, the words slurring more and more. "I gave him a choice, and he made the right decision." He eyed her up and down. "He obviously was looking out for himself. Can't blame him. We all do. But he walked on you, didn't he?"

  And he'd torn her heart out in the process. "He left."

  "Yeah, he sure did. He ran."

  She couldn't breathe now. Her heart was hammering against her ribs. If she could make some sense out of Quint leaving, maybe she could let him go. "Tell me why you think he left."

  He shrugged. "I know why. I told him if he walked out of there, I'd fix it with the cops that they wouldn't go after him."

  So, Quint had been saving his own tail, and in some way that made horrible sense. But she knew in some part of her that there had to be more. "That was all?"

  "I told him to clear out and I'd get you to come back with me. That's all I wanted. He understood completely when I told him I'd take the kid and put you in jail right alongside of him if he didn't get scarce."

  She had her answer. "You told him you'd take Sa
mmi?"

  "I figured he didn't want to go back inside, and the idea of you going along with him didn't sit well. Sure, I told him I'd take the kid and give you to him." He actually laughed. "He obviously didn't want you."

  Annie knew a hatred of this man so pure and focused that it seemed almost spiritual. Trevor had hit all the right buttons, with both Quint and herself. And it hurt like hell that Quint walked away for her, not from her. It hurt, yet at the same time, it was exquisitely wonderful.

  "You didn't want me."

  "Oh, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't be opposed to making this marriage workable, if you know what I mean?"

  She stared at him, his image beginning to blur. "All you ever wanted was the money, wasn't it? All you wanted was Sammi to make your parents happy and make sure you kept your inheritance."

  "Come on, Annie, get real. If it works, it works."

  "And you don't even really want Sammi, do you, just what she can do for you?"

  "I'm sure this father thing's going to kick in … sometime, but for now, she's my insurance policy."

  Trevor destroyed the only thing she'd ever found in this world that might have been right and good and loving. And the anger crystallized into the need to strike out. She swung at his face, wanting to give him pain he'd remember for a long time, but he caught her hand with amazing speed.

  He jerked her toward him and his face was infused with bright color inches from hers. "Oh, no you don't. Don't you ever try that again or I'll have you arrested," he ground out. Then he had her by her shoulders. "I think we're going to have to renegotiate this whole contract thing. And now's as good a time to start as any."

  She tried to fight against him when he tried to kiss her, but his hold on her tightened into agony. "Trevor, stop. Please … no…"

  "Oh, yes," he muttered and he pulled her against him with a jerk. "Oh, yes," he breathed, his breath moist and hot on her neck, then his mouth was on her skin and she thought she'd throw up.

  "Stop that, Trevor, right now!"

  He froze at the sound of his mother's voice, then pushed Annie back from him so quickly that she stumbled and barely kept herself from falling by grabbing the footboard of the bed.