The Runaway Bride

by Patricia McLinn

  “You saying you’re on my side?”

  “I wouldn’t go that far. I’m on Judi’s side. She seems to think you’re on her side, and I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt based on that—unless I see evidence to tell me otherwise.”

  “Fair enough.” He tipped his head to the other two men, their frowns apparent even in the dim moonlight. “And these two?”

  Michael chuckled dryly. “I’d say doubt, and no benefit. You’ll have to forgive them. They’ve both known Judi since she was born. She might be frozen in pigtails and braces in my mind, but that’s a giant step up from diapers.”

  “Are you done, Michael?” Paul didn’t sound amused, but neither did he sound angry. He sounded like a man determined to check out a threat to his family.

  Thomas could understand that. He turned to Judi’s brother and said evenly, “Why don’t you say what you’ve got to say?”

  “Okay, I will. Judi says you treated her right and helped her, but she isn’t always the most practical judge of—”

  “Don’t sell her short.” Thomas damped down his anger, keeping his voice cool. “Nobody should question that she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

  “Stalemate,” Michael said. “I think you should try a different move, Paul.”

  Judi’s brother scowled at his long-time friend, but took his advice. “Our parents seem to have accepted that you saved Judi.”

  “She was doing fine on her own.”

  “Nice block, Thomas,” Michael murmured.

  “I meant—”

  “I know what you meant,” Thomas interrupted Paul. “You’re not prepared to treat me like her savior. Hell, you’re not even prepared to trust that I did right by her in any way, shape or form. The thing is, there’s no way for you to know that. Because even if you knew everything that happened between Judi and me—and I wouldn’t tell you because it’s between her and me—it wouldn’t matter. Because it’s like Michael said—it’s how Judi sees it that matters.”

  “So you’re saying—”

  “I’m saying,” he looked at each of them, “that it’s none of your damned business unless Judi chooses to make it your business.”

  He had more to say, but he didn’t rush it. If they wanted to take issue with what he’d said so far, he wouldn’t stop them.

  “That’s what Leslie and Bette said,” Grady admitted, a sheepish grin tugging at his mouth.

  Thomas addressed his next words to Paul, who hadn’t backed down an inch.

  “I’ll tell you this, Judi thinks you three and her father are the best men she’s ever known. And she thinks you’re the finest brother that ever walked this earth.”

  “She said that?”

  Thomas grinned. “No. Are you kidding?”

  For the first time Paul relaxed a little. The other two men laughed.

  Thomas continued, “I’ve got a little sister, too. Fifteen. I’m her guardian.”

  “Fifteen,” Grady repeated, with what sounded like sympathy.

  “Yeah, and every time I turned around, Judi was telling me how I was doing things wrong with her. And how I could do them right—if I’d be more like her brother Paul. How I could end up being friends with her when she’s all done growing up, if I play my cards right—the way you played yours.”

  The only sound was someone clearing his throat—he thought it was Grady.

  “And the last thing I’ll tell you is if somebody arrived at the Diamond V ranch with Becky after a situation like this—and I wouldn’t care if she was twenty-nine years old and independent—I’d feel the way you do, and want to boot the guy out on his butt.”

  In the silence, tension still emanated from Paul. Thomas kept his hands unfisted but his weight on the balls of his feet.

  Then Grady laughed.

  Even before Paul turned away, Thomas knew the first phase had passed.

  “What are you laughing at?” Paul demanded of his friend.

  “You. You know how your mom always said when we were kids and she’d get exasperated with us that she hoped someday we’d have kids just like ourselves, who would drive us nuts? Well, it sounds like Judi brought home a guy just like Big Brother—and now it’s driving you nuts.”

  When Michael joined the laughter, Paul turned back to Thomas.

  “You shoot pool?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Let’s leave these two hyenas and shoot a few.”

  “Sure.” Thomas didn’t fool himself that the examination was over, but it had de-escalated.

  It wasn’t until an hour later—an hour of being observed very closely—that Paul returned to the earlier topic.

  “You know when I asked if Judi had said that about me being the finest brother around?”

  “Yeah?”

  “If you’d said yes I would have said either you were a damn liar, or aliens had captured my sister and I would’ve turned the pod person who’d taken her place over to the CIA.”

  “If you think of anything you need—”

  “Nancy, you’ve told the boy that twice. Let him sleep.” James Monroe stood beside his wife on the stairs, urging her step by step toward the second floor.

  “I’ll be fine, thank you, Mrs. Monroe.”

  Thomas stood next to the bottom of the back stairs. Behind him, the couch in the den had been made up for him. Even the large Monroe house was stretched by the number of guests tonight.

  She would have her old room to herself. Paul and Bette had Paul’s old room. Leslie and Grady were in one of the guest rooms. April Gareaux and Sandy Roberts had another guest room. Anne Elizabeth and Cassie Monroe were in the third one. Their middle brother Nick, Jake Roberts and Brian Dickinson were bunked down dormitory style in the basement rec room. Tris and Michael were in the room over the garage with the twins.

  They had all gone to their separate quarters, although whispering could be heard from the basement.

  “Do call me Nancy or Mrs. M, like the other boys do.”

  From the bottom of the steps, Judi watched her father put his arm around her mother’s waist. “Say good-night to the young people, Nancy.”

  “Night, Mom. Night, Dad.”

  Their quiet good-nights floated back as they disappeared around the corner at the top of the stairs.

  She went up two steps, needing that advantage before she stopped and said, “Guess I’ll say good-night, too.”

  He looked up at her, then placed his hand over hers where it rested on the wide wooden banister.

  “You didn’t have to work so hard.” He took her hand from the banister, turning it over between his two.

  “I wanted to earn my keep.”

  He slid his hand under her palm, stepped in close and brought her hand to his lips.

  Looking down on his thick hair she felt the warmth and tenderness of his mouth as it brushed and caressed her skin. And in feeling the touches now she relived the other touches—of his mouth, of his hands, of his body.

  She glanced toward the top of the stairs. No one was in sight. Just her and Thomas, no surveillance, no watchdogs, no family, no friends. For the first time since nine o’clock this morning they were alone.

  She backed down a step. The longing that flooded through her was deeper and wider than the blade of desire.

  “I could—”

  He shook his head. “Not here. Not now.”

  He reached up and laid his palm against her cheek. The gesture made her want to weep.

  “Get some sleep.” He didn’t need to say she hadn’t gotten much rest the night before. The memory of it was there in his eyes, and in her blood. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “You’ll be here?”

  Oh, God, why had she asked that? She wasn’t going to ask him for a commitment. She wasn’t going to ask him to do what he could not—or would not. And yet she’d said words edging toward it.

  “I’ll be here in the morning.”

  She heard the qualifier like a booming warning bell reverberating through her bon
es. But she wouldn’t—she wouldn’t cry, or beg, or bargain.

  “Good night, then.”

  “Good night, Judi.”

  She made it to the top of the stairs before her eyes filled. She made it to her bedroom before any spilled. But in the sanctuary of her room, she cried tears she would cry nowhere else. And she admitted truths she would admit nowhere else.

  She loved Thomas Vance. And soon he would leave her.

  Thomas wove his fingers together and put them behind his head.

  Thomas, you knew I didn’t have amnesia. You knew I was somebody other than Helga. I know you did—you know you did. There were a hundred times I tripped up, and you caught every one of them.

  She was right. At some level he had known. And he’d gone along with it, because it let him keep her around. He’d even trusted her despite it.

  If he hadn’t trusted her, he wouldn’t have left her to care for Gran.

  If he hadn’t trusted her, he would have searched her room.

  If he hadn’t trusted her, he wouldn’t have fallen for her.

  He couldn’t lie to himself about that. And he couldn’t put all the blame for the lies and secrets on her. That day at Six-Mile Creek, before they’d made love, he’d known he could get the truth. Ask one more question, just one, and she would have told him. He’d bargained away the truth to be with her.

  God, all these years he’d thought his father was so damned weak falling for a woman any fool could see didn’t belong on the ranch, and here he was just like him—falling for the wrong woman, even bargaining away a piece of himself to have the chance to be with her.

  But at least he had the sense to leave Judi where she belonged.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Sterling Carroll is in custody, along with several of his associates,” Katherine Powers told those assembled the next morning in the Monroe kitchen. Her professional demeanor slipped for a second as she gave Judi a slight grin. “Including Geoff. The operation went smoothly, and all the charges should stick.”

  “And Judi?” Thomas asked. “Will she be dragged into this any more?”

  Judi was aware of looks flickering around the room, but didn’t focus on them. She was too busy dividing her attention between Thomas and Katherine.

  “She shouldn’t have to testify, at least not from our end. What the defense does…” She shrugged. “We’ll keep you up-to-date.”

  “So what was the man smuggling?” Leslie asked. “Drugs? Gold? Cuban cigars?”

  “T-shirts.”

  “T-shirts!”

  Katherine smiled at the chorus of exclamations. “T-shirts this time. Other times he and his organization have brought in jeans, jogging suits, ties—about any kind of clothing that could have a designer label. His group has the clothes made in sweatshops in South America and Southeast Asia for pennies, puts false labels on them, smuggles them in, feeds them into the retail system through a few crooked distributors and—voilà—huge profits.”

  Questions came at her from all sides, but she warded them off with a laugh. “Sorry! Even if I could tell you more at this stage, I couldn’t take the time. Gotta go now. Judi? Would you mind walking me out?”

  Thomas was to the door ahead of them, holding it open. Nearby, the kids were playing on the swingset her parents had installed for their grandchildren.

  Katherine gave Thomas a resigned look when he followed them out. “Fine. It’s nothing you can’t hear anyway.” She turned to Judi. “If things play out the way we hope, we won’t need your testimony. But if you’re going to take any more extended trips, let us know where you’ll be.”

  Judi took the business card the other woman held out, then they shook hands.

  “Thank you, Katherine. It’s been…uh…”

  “If you say a pleasure I won’t believe you. Let’s settle for educational. You two take care. Hey, and feel free to keep the toaster from Geoff and me!”

  With that, she disappeared into another tinted-glass car.

  Judi turned to go back in, but Thomas stayed where he was. “They brought my truck back at first light. I’ve got my things in it.”

  It was here already. “Don’t want to burn daylight?”

  “Right. Well…”

  “Thomas, I have something I want to say.” Her rush of words ended abruptly. She dragged in a breath. “I owe you an apology. I did a lot of thinking on the drive back from Wyoming, and I know I gave you grief about thinking money was so important—that wasn’t fair.” She couldn’t sustain the intensity of his green gaze without tears starting, so she focused on her hands. “I think it was Sterling’s relationship with money that I was reacting to, but I took it out on you. I’m sorry.”

  “No problem.”

  But the bigger problem of lies and secrets remained. The problem she couldn’t undo. The problem that meant he would return to Wyoming and she would stay here.

  She looked down. “Thank you for seeing this through with me, Thomas. I’m sorry it’s cost you so much. The ranch, I mean. I wish you would reconsider…”

  But there was a shortage of wishes coming true these days. And that one clearly wasn’t going to be fulfilled

  “I thank you for what you did for us. Taking care of Gran—”

  “Just doing my job. Helga’s job, actually.” She tried to smile. Her lips trembled.

  “Looking out for Becky. Helping get me and Becky straight. And what you said about keeping the ranch but maybe losing the people. I’ll…” He hesitated, then said the final word with deliberateness. “Remember.”

  He bent his head and his lips brushed her cheek.

  Numbed with loss, she watched him swing into the truck with his usual grace. He’d turned over the engine and twisted to look through the open driver’s window to back out before she half ran to the truck.

  “Thomas.”

  She touched his forearm where it rested across the door. He stilled. She waited until his eyes came to her face. She needed him to know the truth of this.

  “I’ll never forget you. Never.”

  “Where’s Thomas?”

  “He’s gone.”

  “He’ll be back for breakfast, won’t he?” Her mother waved a spatula toward a pan where more bacon was cooking.

  “No.” Every face turned to her at that word. Might as well get it out now. “He won’t be back. He’s gone home.”

  Looks ricocheted around the room faster than Judi could have kept up with on her best day. This was not her best day.

  “What are you going to do about that?” Bette asked the question that Judi could see mirrored in all their faces.

  “He went home. It’s where he lives and works. I couldn’t very well hog-tie him in the garage. He’s going back to his life, where he’s happy.”

  “Yeah, he looked real happy this morning,” muttered Michael.

  “Maybe time apart is the best thing for you both,” her father said. “You’ve gone through an intense situation, and you need time to put it in perspective.”

  “Well, I think you should go after him.” Tris had addressed Judi, but as she crossed her arms at her waist, she looked around, challenging all comers to disagree.

  Leslie nodded. “I agree.”

  “Hey! She’s not running after some guy,” Paul objected. “Absolutely not…” The rest was lost among the rising tide of voices.

  Leslie hushed everyone else to let Judi be heard.

  “I know you’re all concerned, and I appreciate that, but this isn’t something… I mean, I’m the only one who can decide whether or not to…”

  “In other words,” said Michael, “we should all butt out.”

  “We’re family,” Paul said. “Butting in is what family does.”

  “What are you going to do, Judi?” asked Bette.

  “I don’t know. I feel… But I jump into things. Sterling and… What if I’m jumping again?”

  Bette studied her face for a long moment. “There are two points about that.”

  “Uh-huh,”
Paul said. “A list.” While the others chuckled, his wife pretended to scowl.

  “First, Sterling. Granted he was trying to rush you off your feet. But you usually don’t let yourself be railroaded. Why do you think you did this time?”

  One part of Judi wished this conversation could be in private. But what shred of pride she had left was nowhere near as important as the possibility that Bette might help her find answers. Besides, what good was pride with the people who not only knew all your foibles but loved you anyhow?

  “Because I wanted what you all have.”

  “What we have?” Grady sounded perplexed.

  “The single among all the couples,” Leslie murmured.

  Judi glanced at her, thankful she’d said it. “Yes. Finding love, settling down, having kids, homes of your own. Lives.”

  Bette nodded. “And you very reasonably thought Sterling could help you find all that—you grew up together, your families knew each other, as far as you knew they liked each other—”

  “As far as I knew?” Judi looked around at her parents. “You don’t like them?”

  “No,” her father said.

  “Larraine Carroll cheats at bridge. I refuse to play with the woman anymore.” Nancy Monroe’s defiant stance melted into concern. “I knew I should have told you.”

  “And,” Bette picked up seamlessly, “Sterling was knocking himself out trying to persuade you that he would be exactly what you thought you wanted.”

  “But I fell for it! I shouldn’t be allowed loose on the streets much less…”

  “Falling for someone else,” Tris filled in.

  “Give yourself credit, Judi,” Bette said. “You got out.”

  “Yeah, after I was hit over the head with it.”

  Bette was shaking her head. “You had doubts or you never would have listened. If someone—a stranger—had said to you that Thomas was doing something illegal—no proof, just said it—would you have believed them?”

  “No, but he would never—”

  “That’s the second point. Who Thomas is, and even more important, how you feel about him.”

  “I love him.” The words sounded solemn and grand, yet they floated through her like bright balloons. Then reality popped the brightest balloon. “I love him, but he—”