“I don’t want you to be hurt. My father can be…brutal if it suits his purposes.”
“Quit worrying about me. My family will stand beside me. He’ll be the outsider if he comes here. And if he doesn’t come here, he won’t be a bother.”
“I hope not.”
“What do you think he can do?”
“He’ll get his lawyers to trick us, or harass us, or…”
“And you’re thinking Nick is just a country attorney who won’t know what to do?”
“There is a difference in practicing law in Rawhide and New York City,” Isabella pointed out.
“Nick practiced corporate law with one of the most important law firms in Denver. So he’s not entirely inexperienced.”
“Okay.”
But she didn’t seem completely reassured.
After lunch they returned to the office where the marriage licenses were acquired. Isabella was a little embarrassed, but Russ wasn’t. After they got the marriage license, he asked about the form to fill out to apply for adoption. The woman handed it over with instructions.
Then they were on their way back to Rawhide.
“I hope Sarah didn’t have any difficulties with Angel,” Isabella said, worrying her bottom lip.
“Angel? I’m sure she was perfect.”
Isabella laughed. “I think I took advantage of your innocence.”
He smiled at her, showing no worry. “No, I know babies can be a problem. I’ve even heard Rich and I were a handful. Once, when we were about four years old, all our folks went to Hawaii, leaving us in the care of Red and his wife Mildred and Uncle Griffin and Aunt Camille before they got married. There were five of us little ones, and Toby was in elementary school. One of us came down with chicken pox and quickly spread it around. In the meantime, Red and Mildred had an emergency and left before they knew about the pox. That left Camille to cope, with Griffin’s help. Until he got chicken pox, too.”
“Oh, my, that’s dangerous. That poor woman. How did she manage?”
“Doc helped, and she hired some ladies to come clean up after us. Once the parents got wind of it, they all came home. So, see, my family knows about hard times.”
“I guess they do.”
When they stopped at Nick and Sarah’s, Angel was sleeping soundly.
“Oh, she was wonderful, Isabella. If you need me to keep her while you’re on your honeymoon, I can,” Sarah offered.
Isabella looked as if Sarah had slapped her. “Honeymoon?”
“We’ll postpone that for a while, Sarah,” Russ said quickly. “With her great-aunt having just died and the move from New York to here, Isabella’s got enough adjusting to do.”
“That’s true. I only had to move across the street and it wasn’t easy.”
“But…but the general store is across the street,” Isabella said. “You lived there?”
“Yes. That’s my family’s store. I ran it when my father died, and my sister and I lived on the second floor. Now my manager lives there.”
“Oh. That worked out well.”
Sarah looked at her husband, laughing. “Yes, it did.”
“Don’t let her fool you,” Nick said. “She had her doubts.”
Isabella nodded, an understanding look in her eyes.
Russ grinned. “The important thing is you gave it a try, Sarah. Now, we’re on our way to the ranch. Isabella and Angel are going to stay there until the wedding.”
“We will be invited, won’t we?” Sarah asked. “I guess it will be small, but we are family.”
“Oh, I doubt we’ll have any guests, Sarah. We’ll just find a justice of the peace to marry us.” Isabella looked at Russ to agree with her description of their coming wedding.
Russ laughed, enjoying her confusion. “She hasn’t encountered the Randall women as a whole. Nor does she know how much they can accomplish in three days. I’m sure you’ll be invited.”
Isabella waited until they were in the truck again, with Angel strapped in between them. “Russ, surely we won’t have a guest list with three days’ notice.”
“Are you against guests? My family does things in a big way. They’re not going to want it to look like they’re not happy about our marriage.”
“They probably aren’t happy, truth be told. I’m sure they think I’m taking advantage of you.”
Russ sobered. “No, they’re going to be grateful to you. I’ve come back to life, and that’s what they wanted.”
“Was it that bad?” she asked.
“I haven’t been to the ranch but once in the last eighteen months, Isabella. I hid from life. It was cowardly of me, but it was all I could manage. I hadn’t laughed, either. But now I’m living again. You know I’m not marrying you because I’ve fallen in love with you. I wouldn’t mislead you. But I’ll take care of the two of you. I’ll be a good husband.”
“Yes. I’ll try to be a good wife like…like that. A partnership. That’s what we’ll have.”
“Exactly.”
ISABELLA’S FIRST GLIMPSE of the Randall ranch was a surprise. There were a lot of buildings, as well as a large house.
“How many people live in the house?”
“Ten adults and two children most of the time.”
“Who does that include besides your parents? Red and Mildred?” She’d been paying attention.
“Nope. Red and Mildred live in that house to the left of the third barn. That’s where B.J., Toby and Mildred lived when they first moved to the ranch. After Jake and B.J. married, Red and Mildred married and they moved to the other house to have a little privacy. No, Toby and Elizabeth are the other couple, with their two babies.”
“How old are the babies?”
“The oldest, a boy, is three. The baby is a year old, just about three months older than Rich and Samantha’s little one.”
“Oh.”
“Don’t worry. Angel is going to fit right in.”
“I hope so.”
He could hear the concern in her voice. “She already has more hair than all of them.”
Isabella ran her hand protectively over her baby’s curls and said nothing.
After Russ parked the car, he took Angel’s carrier from Isabella and guided both females into the big kitchen.
All the introductions were made, with help from various family members. Toby was the only member of the household who hadn’t quit work early to meet her. Elizabeth apologized, explaining he was on a deadline with the horse he was training, but Isabella told her she wasn’t offended.
“I’m sorry the rest of you thought you should stop work just to meet us.”
Janie, unable to hold back, hugged her. “We’re so pleased to meet you. I told them all how beautiful you were. But Angel is even prettier than I described. Those curls are spectacular.”
“Janie’s excited because she’s never had a baby girl to buy for. She’s got a daughter-in-law, of course, but all her babies have been boys,” B.J. said.
“May I hold her?” Janie asked, hovering over the sleeping baby.
“Mom!” Russ protested. “Let her sleep. She’ll be up in about fifteen minutes if she’s on schedule.”
“I have a bottle ready,” Isabella said hurriedly. “She’s very noisy when she’s hungry.”
That statement brought a lot of smiles.
“Come sit down. We have so much to ask you.” Janie guided Isabella over to the big table.
Isabella shot a worried look at Russ. He knew she thought his mom’s questions would be about her family and her past life, but Russ didn’t think so. They had already made plans for the wedding.
The men excused themselves to go back to work.
“They stopped work just to say hello?” Isabella asked, surprised.
“If you want them to stay, they will, but they’re not interested in discussing wedding plans,” Janie said, watching her.
“No! I mean, I wasn’t complaining. I was feeling bad that I caused them such a disruption.”
At t
hat, everyone laughed and the men left, except for Russ. He thought, from the look on Isabella’s face, that she was glad he stayed.
“Let me take your coat,” Janie said. Isabella had worn the mink, but she wasn’t coat proud. She slipped out of it.
“I’ll hang it in the hall closet. It’s lovely.”
“Just put it anywhere. It doesn’t matter.”
Again, tension relaxed. Russ realized that his mom thought he might be marrying a woman unwilling to get off her high horse.
“Mom, Izzy is not like the woman Uncle Brett got engaged to. Just relax,” he said.
“I wasn’t…” Janie began. Then she looked sheepishly at her son. “I’ll admit, we were worried.”
“Do people call you Izzy?” Anna asked.
“Yes. Isabella is too formal, I think. I’d be happy for you to call me Izzy.”
The women all smiled.
“But…was Russ talking about you, Anna?”
Everyone laughed then.
“No, not me. When I met Brett, he was already engaged to a senator’s daughter.”
Megan added, “She thought she was the most important person in the world.”
“And she hated living on the ranch,” Janie said. “We wanted to make sure Brett caught on to that fact, so we invited her for a visit before the wedding.”
Red brought a plate of cookies to the table, along with mugs of coffee. “She was awful. Didn’t want me to eat with the family.” He plopped down beside Mildred.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Red asked Isabella.
She smiled at Red. “Of course not.”
Red sighed. “Yep. This is gonna work out fine.”
“Now, our first question is changing the date of the wedding,” Janie said. She suddenly had a piece of paper in front of her with writing all over it.
Before Isabella could say anything, Russ spoke. “We have a difficulty that makes it necessary—”
“I’m only talking about postponing it until Saturday. That would be much better for our guests.”
“Isabella didn’t think we’d have any guests,” Russ couldn’t resist saying with a grin.
His mother stared at him, tears suddenly in her eyes.
Isabella rushed in to say, “I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”
Janie wiped her eyes. “It’s not that, dear. I…I haven’t seen Russ smile in so long.”
“Mom!” Russ protested, embarrassed by his mother’s behavior.
Isabella remembered his words in the truck. “Maybe you’d better go away, so I can hear all the women’s ideas. I think I’m going to like them.”
“The women or the ideas?” Russ asked.
“Both!” she replied, a big smile on her lips. A beautiful smile.
Russ hadn’t seen her smile like that until now. A good thing. He would’ve agreed to anything if she’d looked like that. And she even had her hair pinned down in that French knot again.
“Okay, I’ll go. But whatever else you decide, I want your hair down on your shoulders when we get married.” Then he got up, accompanied by Red, and headed for one of the barns.
ISABELLA WAS AFRAID she’d done something wrong. Everyone was silent. “I’m sorry. Did you want him to stay?”
Janie squeezed her hand. “Oh, no, honey, nothing’s wrong. Everything’s right. I haven’t seen Russ act like he was alive in so long.”
“Mrs. Randall—”
Everyone protested. B.J. spoke for all of them. “We banned formality a long time ago, Izzy. We all answer to that title. Stick to first names and there’s no confusion.”
“I see. Janie, our marriage is not…not like his marriage with Abby. You may feel I’m taking advantage of him when you understand why we’re getting married.”
Everyone leaned in closer. “We’re all ears,” Elizabeth, Toby’s wife, said, “but I doubt you’ll convince us. It’s such a joy to have Russ back. I’ve got to call Samantha. She and Rich will be so pleased!”
Isabella wanted to make them all happy, but she had to tell the truth. “I need a family for Angel. And Russ fell for Angel. He wants to be her daddy.”
“Are you going somewhere?” Janie asked, confusion on her face.
“My father is going to be very angry with me.”
The implications were obvious to everyone.
Mildred stared at her. “You mean you think he would hurt you?”
Isabella licked her lips. “Hopefully not if Nick does his job well. I’m making sure the inheritance I received from Aunt Maria can never be taken by my father.”
There were several questions and Isabella answered them as honestly as she could, until Janie asked a more difficult question.
“But how do you feel about Russ?”
Isabella had been open, and now they all watched as that openness disappeared. Cautiously, she said, “I think Russ and I will be good friends. He’s a…a good person, and he’ll be a great father for Angel.”
“Nicely said,” B.J. replied. “Are you still mourning Angel’s father?”
“No! Not at all. I’m ashamed to say it, but I married him to spite my father. I thought he would stand up to my father. Instead, after about six months, he sold out for a sports car that killed him. I was four months pregnant at the time.”
The women all looked at each other and nodded. Then Janie said, “Welcome to the family.”
“You don’t mind? I mean, I promise to try to make Russ happy.”
“Good. Wear your hair loose at the wedding. He’s right. It’s gorgeous. It’s like the baby’s except much longer,” Janie said to the others. “It will be spectacular.”
“But I don’t have anything to wear. There’s a yellow dress, but it’s for summer.”
“How about my wedding gown?” Elizabeth asked. “We’re about the same height. Mildred does wonderful tailoring.”
Before Isabella knew what was happening, she found herself up the stairs, trying on a beautiful white gown. Janie got on the phone and ordered a tux for both her sons, since she figured Rich would be Russ’s best man.
B.J., Megan and Anna began planning the meal they would serve to the neighborhood. Suggestions flew fast and furious.
“But…I mean, there’s snow everywhere. Where can we have that many people for dinner?” Isabella asked.
“In the arena. You’ll see. It’s where Toby and Elizabeth got married,” B.J. explained.
Isabella nodded, but she had no idea where or, just what the “arena” was. Yet she was glad she’d turned her life over to these women. They were wonderful.
Then Angel, in the carrier on the bed in the room Isabella had been given, announced her feeding time. Everyone flew to the carrier, and Isabella got to show off her pride and joy. They all thought Angel was beautiful. Just another reason to realize how fortunate she was.
Chapter Eight
Russ flipped on the kitchen light as he entered his apartment. Tonight was different.
Angel and Isabella weren’t here.
It was really Angel he missed, of course, but he couldn’t have Angel without Isabella. That was why he’d included Isabella in that thought. He should be glad she wasn’t here. He’d get to sleep in his own bed tonight.
He should change the sheets, but he was tired. He’d had a long day. Somehow, jumping back into the family activities had taken a lot out of him. But he couldn’t leave Isabella on her own. So he’d stayed all afternoon, visiting with Red. Then he’d stayed for dinner, sitting beside Isabella at the family table, interacting with everyone.
He even stayed for Angel’s ten-o’clock feeding. Isabella had let him feed her, but she’d sat beside him, her scent encircling him and the baby.
Angel had been particularly sweet. After she’d finished her bottle, Isabella and he had talked to her. The baby had listened intently, her gaze moving from one to the other. Izzy had burped her. Then she’d placed Angel in a baby bed and Russ had spread a blanket over her.
He’d bent over and kissed the baby good-night.
Then he’d turned to Isabella. It had seemed natural to place a kiss on her cheek, too. Her skin was almost as soft as the baby’s, but the temptation to kiss Isabella’s lips had surprised him. He’d beat a fast retreat.
Russ checked the thermometer. The place seemed cold. No wonder. It was close to zero outside. He stepped into the kitchen and put on some water to boil. A cup of instant decaf would help settle him down.
He couldn’t have gotten so used to Isabella and her baby in the few days they’d stayed with him. And Saturday night, they’d be back together again. Forever.
He made his cup of coffee and headed for his bedroom. Isabella had been very neat. There was almost no trace of her. He sat on the edge of his bed and took a sip of coffee. Then he realized what he was smelling. Isabella had left her scent in his room. It made it impossible to forget her warmth, to forget her. If he stayed in there he feared she’d invade his dreams and he’d lose all control of his feelings.
Suddenly he stood and returned to the living room. Turning on the television, he settled on the couch. He was more comfortable there than in his bedroom.
When he awoke the next morning, he was still on the sofa with the television playing.
He went down to the office after he’d showered, shaved and changed. He found Bill Wilson already there. “Bill! I didn’t expect you this early.”
“It’s not like I had to crawl through the snow, Russ.”
Russ laughed. Bill, Jon’s father, rented the apartment next to his and worked at the accounting firm with Tori and Russ. “I guess I don’t have that excuse, either. Did your wife try to make it out to Gabe’s ranch?” Bill’s wife worked during the day as Gabe and his wife Jennifer’s housekeeper.
“She talked about it, but Gabe told her not to try. He was staying in with his wife and babies today. So I told her to make us a good lunch.”
“Does that ‘us’ include me?”
“It does.”
“Good. Uh, by the way, Bill, I should tell you I’m getting married this Saturday.” He watched as Bill stared at him in surprise.
“Who are you marrying?”
“You don’t know her. I found her and her baby in the blizzard and rescued them. Her baby is six weeks old and called Angel. Isabella was sick and I took care of Angel and fell in love with her.”
Randall Wedding Page 7
