Who would have thought that the boy she left alone and vulnerable in the wilderness would grow up to be the one person who could heal the deep cracks in her soul?
CHAPTER SEVEN
When Reed woke up, the light was streaming through the bedroom window, and his first thought was that he was late for work again and Luke was going to be pissed. He started to move and then realized he was tangled up in Kadence. Her legs and arms were wrapped around him, and her long bouncy hair was fanned out across his chest. He’d thought he dreamt last night. As far as dreams went, it was the best he’d ever had. As far as reality went, it was so good that even though the evidence that it really happened was wrapped around him, he could still hardly believe it.
“Hey,” she muttered with her face still buried.
“Good morning, beautiful.”
She pulled her head up to look at his face. She was rumpled and disheveled and still the most gorgeous sight he’d ever seen. He could look at her all day just the way she was. “Good morning,” she said with a smile. He didn’t see any regret in her eyes or hear any anxiety in her voice, and for that he was relieved. “What time is it?”
He turned his head toward the clock. His stomach clenched slightly as he read the time. Luke was going to be furious. “It’s almost seven.” She smiled again and settled back into the crook of his arm. Getting out of that bed was going to be one of the hardest things he’d ever have to do. He kissed her hair. “Sexy, I have to go to work. I’m about two hours late already.”
She sat up. “Oh no! I’m sorry. Is Luke going to be mad?”
He smiled and pulled her in for a kiss, taking his time and exploring her mouth as if it were unchartered territory before saying, “I really don’t care. If he punches me in the face, it will have been worth it.”
She looked panicked. “He wouldn’t really do that, would he?”
He laughed. “No. He’s all talk, at least where Brad and I are concerned. It’ll be okay.” He let go of her and swung his powerful legs out of the bed.
“I keep making a worse and worse impression on your family.”
“Me being late doesn’t have anything to do with you … okay, it has everything to do with you. You make my bed feel way more comfortable than it ever has. But it’s not your fault. I should have set my alarm.” He reached for his jeans. “Luke will live, and I’ll make it up during lunch or something.”
Her green eyes suddenly lit up. “Lunch! I get to start my job at the Roadhouse today.”
He got up and pulled a clean t-shirt out of his dresser. As he slipped it on, he asked, “Are you excited?”
“Yeah, a little nervous.”
“You’ll be fine. I’m proud of you.”
She looked embarrassed. “There’s nothing to be proud of, but hopefully someday there will be. Maybe karma is done with me at last.”
He sat back down on the edge of the bed and reached for her hand. “I told you, none of what you’ve been through is karma. You may not have always done the right thing in your life … but who has? You’re a good person in your heart. I know it.”
“How do you know it, Reed McMurtry?”
He pressed their joined hands to his chest. “Because I feel it, in here.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “If you get up to the main house before ten, Ma will have some breakfast for you.” A look of terror crossed her face.
“I’m not really hungry.”
“I don’t want to assume after last night that you plan on staying here. I’m hoping and praying you will, but even so, I know it’s farfetched for me to believe you’d really want to get married to me. But I’ll tell you this, no one in my family is going to mistreat you. They might give me shit about being impulsive or stubborn, but they will not mistreat you. I know that as surely as I know my own name.”
“I’m just so … I just feel so bad, Reed, about everything. Does she know what I did to you that night?”
He slid the backs of his fingers down the side of her face. “She knows, sexy.”
“Then how can I face her? When I came here with the intentions of applying for that job she had open, none of that crossed my mind. Can you believe it? I’d let myself put it away somewhere and didn’t begin to remember any of it until I found myself getting close to you. I can’t imagine what she must think of me.”
“Ma is very protective of her boys. But she’s also an understanding, forgiving woman. If you want to get on her good side, the best thing for you to do is face her. She’ll respect that. If you want to, you can apologize to her as well. She’ll respect that even more. She believes in second chances. Just tell her that’s all you’re asking for. I guarantee you that she’ll give it to you.”
“She might, but Luke isn’t about to forgive me. He told me exactly what he thought of me that night.”
“He did?”
“Yes, he never told you?”
“No. He just told me to stay away from you.”
“Well he told me I was a spoiled, arrogant, conceited, hateful bitch, among other things. Nothing he said wasn’t true, but I believe that’s still the image he holds of me. I like to think that I’ve changed, but the only way to show anyone that is to prove it to them.”
“Just go see Ma and get some breakfast. I’ll deal with my brother.”
“Please don’t fight with him over me. I feel bad enough already about coming between you and your family.”
“You didn’t come between anyone. Ma never stays mad for long.”
He kissed her again and again, and finally over a half an hour after he woke up, he walked out of his cabin. He still had a giant grin on his face when he and Phillip rode to where Luke and Brad were feeding the cattle. Reed was surprised to see Brad. He’d been helping out, but he usually stuck closer to home when he did.
“Hey, Brad, why do you suppose a man who is not only over two hours late for work, but has been late every day for an entire week would show up finally with a goofy ass grin on his face?” Luke’s words dripped with sarcasm. Brad was trying to keep a straight face. Reed really didn’t care.
“Good morning, brothers! I’m sorry I’m late. Hey, Brad, you’re out far today.”
“Don’t ‘good morning’ me—”
“Luke, give the guy a break.” Brad was speaking up for Reed as usual, and as usual it pissed Luke off.
“Maybe he should give me a damn break. He hasn’t been here all week, and while I’ve been busting my ass doing three times the work, he’s spending time with a cheap—”
“Don’t say it, Luke.” The warning in Reed’s voice made both of his brothers stop and take notice. He never spoke that way to anyone, much less to Luke.
“Or what?” Luke put down the bale hook he was holding and stepped toward his brother. In another uncharacteristic move, Reed stepped toward him as well.
“I love her. I won’t tolerate you saying anything unflattering about her.”
“The first time you told me you loved her, she left you naked and bawling.”
“Luke, come on,” Brad tried.
“She told you she wanted you then too. How do you know she’s not lying to you now the same way she did then? She’s always been an attention-seeking, lying, little tramp.”
Reed was toe to toe with Brad now. Brad had stepped between the two men, sensing what was coming. “Please move, Brad.”
“I’m not moving, Reed. You don’t want to do this.”
“Yes, I do. He’s been running his mouth for way too long about things he knows nothing about. You know that first hand. He tried to stop you from being with Stephanie, too.”
“Listen to me, you simpleminded little—”
That did it. Reed hated when Luke called him “simpleminded” worse than just about anything. Because Reed didn’t talk much, Luke wrongly assumed his brother was stupid. Reed gingerly moved Brad out of the way, but there was nothing gentle about the fist that landed square on Luke’s jaw and knocked him on his ass. It was surreal, even to him. The look on Luke�
�s face as he wiped at his bloody lip with the back of his hand said he was feeling the same way. Brad looked like he didn’t know whether to laugh or call for help.
“You little bastard.”
“Stop calling me little. I’m bigger than you. Stop calling me a fool. I’m smarter than you. And if you ever call Kadence a tramp again, you’ll get a hell of a lot worse than a fist in your face.” Reed’s chest heaved and his body shook with adrenaline. Brad looked at Luke, obviously worried about what was going to happen when the oldest brother got up. Reed didn’t plan on hitting him again … as long as he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut. He took a step back as Luke started to push up. Brad held out his hand, and Luke brushed it away. When he got to his feet he rubbed his jaw, and then, to the surprise of both of his brothers, started laughing.
“It only took twenty-eight years to get you to stand up for yourself, but I finally found the key.”
“He’s not standing up for himself,” Brad said softly. “He’s standing up for the woman he loves.”
Luke shook his head. “Both of you get your worthless butts to work.” The three of them spent the next several hours working, talking, laughing, and joking. Nothing else about Kadence was mentioned, and Luke acted as if nothing unusual had happened. The only evidence that he couldn’t keep his loud mouth shut and that Reed wasn’t going to stand by and let him disrespect Kadence was the rapidly spreading bruise and the split lip.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Kadence changed clothes three times before finally settling on a green and blue sundress she hadn’t worn in years. The only reason she still had it in her stuff was because it was the dress she’d worn the day she and Mike brought Claire home from the hospital, and she hadn’t been able to bear parting with it.
As she stood in front of the mirror and checked her hair for at least the fifth time, she remembered that day and smiled. Only recently had she been able to remember anything about her husband and child without collapsing into a simpering pile of tears.
Mike had been so excited about taking her home, but at the same time he’d been a nervous wreck. He had the nurse check three times to make sure the car seat was in tightly enough before he’d let them put his baby girl into it. Then he double-checked Kadence’s seat belt too. Before the baby, he was a good guy and a good husband, but from the moment he’d found out Kadence was pregnant, he’d become as protective of both of them as a bear with cubs.
With a resigned sigh, she decided she looked as respectable as she possibly could. The dress was big now, but she had it cinched around her waist with a belt. She’d pulled her hair back into a simple ponytail at the nape of her neck, and the only makeup she was wearing was a small amount of lip gloss. She had two major bridges to cross today. The first one would be the hardest because it meant more to her. She had to go and see Reed’s mother and face her wrath.
She wasn’t sure about the whole being married thing, but she’d come to realize that at the very least she did want him to be some part of her life. This family was so close she couldn’t imagine that working without at least having Celia’s approval. She picked up her keys and kissed the star with her beautiful baby’s face in the middle before sticking them in her pocket and heading to the main house.
The walk to the house helped clear her head slightly. It was another perfect, beautiful day. She breathed in the smells of spring and let the warmth of the sun soak into her pores. When she walked through the doors of the house, she really felt like she could do this. That feeling lasted until she made it past the noisy guests in the dining room and into the kitchen where she was greeted by a suspicious and sullen-looking Celia McMurtry, holding a paring knife.
“Good morning, Mrs. McMurtry.”
The older woman put down the knife, albeit with a reluctant look. She dried her hands on her apron and said, “Kadence Wright, you look just the same after all these years.” Celia wasn’t complimenting her, but that was okay; Kadence hadn’t expected her to.
“Thank you,” she said, as if she were.
Celia smirked. “I’m aware that you somehow tricked my drunken son into marrying you in that tavern of Lena’s.” “I am sorry it happened the way that it did, but I’m here to tell you that I’m not sorry that it happened. My life is better for finally getting to know the man Reed has become.”
“You decided that Reed’s as easy to manipulate now as he was when he was a child, and you didn’t have anything better going on in your life right now?”
Kadence let her sling her insults. She deserved them. When Celia was finished, Kadence said, “No ma’am. What I decided was that for some reason this good and decent man can see something in me that I have failed to see in myself for years. For some reason, in spite of all of the hateful things I did to him when I was a kid, he still loves me. For some reason he still believes there is something good inside of me, and he makes me want to believe it too. Whatever you may think of me, I’m here to thank you for raising such a kind and decent man. And, I’m here to ask you if you and I might be able to reach some kind of understanding for his sake.”
Celia was staring at her with a look that Kadence couldn’t read. After several long, silent minutes she said, “You humiliated him.”
“I know. I was a selfish, spoiled, vain girl. I like to believe that what I’ve lived through in my adult life has brought me to a place where I’m honestly not that person any longer. I’d also like to believe that in spite of the fact he tells me that the past is forgiven, there might be a way I can make some of that up to him and redeem myself in the eyes of the people who love him and don’t want to see him hurt.”
Celia turned her back and stood facing the counter. Kadence thought the older woman was dismissing her but continued, “You don’t have to like me, Mrs. McMurtry. I don’t blame you for being suspicious of my motives. But I’m still going to tell you that no matter what, I won’t hurt him and I’ll do everything I can to make sure he’s happy from here on out. I have no idea what will happen to us, but that much I can promise you.” She turned and started to leave.
“Kadence, wait.” Celia’s voice stopped her and she turned back around. “Sit.” Kadence pulled out a chair and sat down. Celia took a seat as well and once again stared at the younger woman for a long time before speaking. Finally, she said, “I’ve known Reed was different since he was five years old. Even as a toddler, he felt things deeper than other children … most especially other boys. He got teased relentlessly, sometimes by his own brother because of it. People thought he was simple because of the fact that he lived more in his head than he did in society. There’s nothing simple about that boy.
“He’s not only smart, he’s incredibly perceptive. He’s one of the most complex human beings I’ve ever personally met, and I’m not just saying that because I’m his mother. If he’s forgiven you completely, I can guarantee you that he examined the situation from every angle before he made that decision. If he loves you, I can guarantee it’s because there is something inside of you like you said … something that maybe other people can’t see.
“I never tried to talk him out of his feelings for you when he was a boy because even then I trusted his instincts more than I did most adults. But, Kadence, the more you hurt him, the more I came to believe that just maybe you were the one person he was wrong about. I don’t want to believe that. I want to believe he sees the light inside of you in spite of my own feelings about you because that would mean that my boy will finally be happy.”
Kadence waited for Celia to finish. Then she admitted, “I want him to be happy too.”
Celia stood up and said, “Good. It’s settled then. You do what it takes to make him happy and I’ll tolerate your presence here.” She paused and then looked Kadence directly in the eyes. “No, I won’t ‘tolerate’ you. I’ll do my best to get to know you, and I’ll do my best to keep an open mind and try and see what my boy sees. I won’t try to come between you.”
Kadence was in a mild state of shock. She ha
dn’t really expected Celia to give in that easily, but once again she was discovering that Reed had a way of making people want to be at peace with each other. “Thank you, Mrs. McMurtry. That’s more than I could have hoped for.”
“Call me Celia, and make yourself a plate before everything gets cold.”
Kadence suppressed a smile and did as she was told.
*****
When Kadence got to town and to the Roadhouse, it was with a full belly and hope in her heart. While she ate in the ranch kitchen, Celia had asked her questions about her life. Kadence had been honest with her and when she told her about Mike and Claire, Celia expressed heartfelt condolences but didn’t act as if that changed things between them. Kadence was glad of that. She didn’t want Celia to accept her out of sympathy; she wanted to earn Reed’s mother’s respect.
When she walked in she spied Lena’s mousy little daughter behind the bar. It reminded her that Reed wasn’t the only one in this town who deserved an apology from her. “Hi, Annalisa.”
“Hi, Kadence.” Annalisa pushed the bulky glasses she wore up on the bridge of her nose. Kadence had always thought Annalisa was pretty. She would never have admitted that back in the days when Annalisa was one of her favorite targets. For whatever reason, while her mother was never seen without her makeup and her hair just so, Annalisa was just the opposite, and it was hard sometimes to see her beauty. She wore her hair straight down around her face, and most of the time the long brownish-blond strands hung limply across her eyes. She didn’t wear any makeup, not even a touch of gloss, and those glasses she seemed to cling to went out of style in 1975. Her clothes were always too big and dull and she always had a book in her hand. Even now, Kadence could see a dog-eared paperback lying next to the beer tap behind the bar. In school it had seemed as if she had a huge target on her back for girls like Kadence to take shots at … and shots Kadence had taken.
To Love And Honor A Cowboy (Cowboy Nuptials Book 2) Page 5
