McKettricks of Texas: Austin

by Linda Lael Miller

  She was still searching her mind—and her heart—for an answer, when Libby came down the third stairway, stood just where Tate had a little while before. She even looped an arm around the newel post, the same way he’d done, and Paige wondered if it was really true, the old saying that the more people were together, the more alike they became.

  Tate rose to his feet after he followed Paige’s gaze and realized that Libby was standing behind him, on the bottom step. “I tried to give her an out,” he told his future wife, “but she wouldn’t take it.”

  Paige smiled at her sister. “Tea?” she asked, holding her cup aloft.

  Libby finally pulled herself loose from the newel post and smiled back, with a bit of a wobble to her lower lip. “Yes,” she said with a little nod and a sniffle. “Thanks.”

  Tate, still standing, said he thought he’d go on out to the barn and see how Molly and the other horses were, maybe feed them a little early, just this once.

  With that, he crossed to Libby, squeezed her shoulders and then kissed the top of her head.

  Paige, meanwhile, went to the sink and filled another mug with hot water, then added a tea bag. Brought it to her sister, who had taken Tate’s place at the table.

  “Lib?”

  Libby sniffled again, cupped her hands around the mug. “Thanks,” she said.

  “What’s the matter?” Paige said, worried. Libby wasn’t the weepy type, nor was it likely that she felt guilty for any part she might have had in throwing her kid sister and Austin together, per Paige’s earlier conversation with Tate.

  “Sometimes things don’t happen the way we expect,” Libby said, looking up at her with a peculiar combination of misery and starry-eyed wonder that made Paige’s breath catch.

  “What do you mean?” Paige asked softly, still standing, holding one hand to her heart. Some of her tea sloshed over the rim of the mug and burned her fingers.

  Libby gave a husky little chuckle and reached out to pull Paige’s free hand away from her chest and squeeze. “I’m pregnant,” she said.

  Paige plunked down onto the bench beside Libby, and they didn’t let go of each other’s hands.

  “I thought you were going to say you were sick,” Paige whispered, dizzy with relief. “Or that you and Tate had decided not to get married—”

  Libby bit her lower lip, stared down into her tea for a few moments before meeting Paige’s gaze again. “Tate thinks we should get married right away,” she confided.

  “And you?” Paige asked, her voice going hoarse. Libby was expecting a baby.

  How amazing. How miraculous. How positively wonderful.

  Libby’s lips moved, but nothing more came out.

  “You’re happy about this, right?” Paige prompted.

  Tears filled Libby’s eyes. “Of course I’m happy, goose,” she said, with a moist little laugh and a bump of her shoulder against Paige’s. “But the wedding—Julie and I have made so many plans, bought our dresses—and, Paige, hundreds of people will be converging on this ranch on New Year’s Eve expecting the event of the century—”

  Paige put her arm around Libby’s shoulders and hugged her. “Lib,” she reasoned, “you can still have the big wedding. Lots of people have a civil ceremony first and follow up with the whole white-lace and birdseed thing later. I don’t really see the problem here.”

  Libby began to cry. Loudly. “But I’m pregnant,” she repeated.

  “So you said,” Paige replied, hugging her again.

  “I didn’t want it to be like this,” Libby said, and now she cried in earnest.

  Paige got up from the table just long enough to snatch a whole roll of paper towels from the holder near the sink and bring it back to Libby.

  With a giggly sob, Libby reached out to tear off a towel and half the roll unfurled, and they both laughed. Libby pressed a huge wad of crumpled towel to her face and blew her nose.

  “I didn’t want it to be like this,” she said again.

  “Like what, Libby?” Paige asked. “You love Tate and he loves you. In addition to becoming a stepmom to Audrey and Ava, you’re about to have a child of your very own. What would you change about this?”

  “Nothing,” Libby said with a watery smile. “I just wish this baby had been conceived later on, that’s all. On our wedding night, for instance, or any time after that.”

  Paige’s mouth twitched at one corner. “You do know what causes these things, don’t you?”

  Libby laughed at that, truly laughed, and it was a wonderful sound. She flung the enormous ball of paper towels at Paige. “Yes, Dr. Remington,” she answered, her eyes shining with tears and joy. “I have figured out that much. And we were, for your information, using birth control. But—things happen.”

  Paige folded her arms and tried to look dour. “Well, I only have one thing to say about all this,” she said very solemnly.

  “W-what?” Libby asked, looking wobbly again.

  Paige leaped into the air and punched at the sky with one fist. “Yes!” she cried.

  More laughing followed, along with more crying, and certainly more paper towels.

  Libby and Paige were hugging each other, and Libby was getting the right shoulder of Paige’s T-shirt all wet, when the door to the garage burst open and Calvin raced in, closely followed by Julie. Garrett brought up the rear.

  Both Libby and Paige were startled to see Julie home so early. The rehearsals for her play often lasted until eight or nine at night, and here she was at three-fifteen.

  “Mom’s taking time off to be a chaperone when my class goes to Six Flags!” Calvin announced exuberantly just as Tate came back in from the barn and Austin wandered out from the guest apartment bedroom, pausing in the big arched doorway and looking curious.

  As well as hot.

  Julie smiled.

  Calvin turned to look up at Paige. “I love you a lot,” he said. “But it will be cool to have my mom there.”

  Paige grinned, mussed up his hair. “That’s great, honey,” she said.

  “You’re not disappointed?” he asked, worried. “Six Flags is a lot of fun.”

  Disappointed? To miss out on escorting twenty-three excited five-year-olds through a huge amusement park on the day before Thanksgiving?

  “I’ll recover,” Paige said, hiding her relief.

  “You’re taking time off?” Libby pressed, watching Julie closely. Her expression was mildly troubled.

  “Come on,” Julie protested, feathers ruffled. “You make it sound like I’m some kind of—of workaholic, or something. Anyway, it’s only one day.”

  “Calvin,” Garrett interrupted, after clearing his throat, reaching out to catch the little boy playfully by the hood of his nylon jacket, “why don’t you head on upstairs and take Harry out the back way.”

  Calvin loved his dog, not to mention the man who was about to become his stepfather, so he didn’t argue. He pounded up Garrett’s stairs, shouting, “Harry! Harry, I’m home!”

  In the distance, Harry began to bark in frenetic celebration of the news.

  The adults stood around, still as a garden of statues.

  Paige finally cast a sidelong glance in Austin’s direction, noted that he was keeping his distance. His hair was sleep-mussed and Shep was at his side.

  “I’d rather just get it out there,” Julie said after she and Garrett exchanged silent communiqués. “My sisters and I don’t keep secrets from each other.”

  “Much,” Paige whispered to Libby, giving her a light elbow jab.

  “I was going to tell her,” Libby whispered back.

  Alerted, Julie looked from Paige to Libby and back again. Shrugged out of her cloth coat, which Garrett automatically lifted from her shoulders and draped over the stair rail.

  “What?” Julie demanded. “What were you going to tell me, Libby?”

  Libby glanced at Tate.

  Tate gave an almost imperceptible nod.

  “Tate and I are—having a baby,” Libby said.

 
Julie let out a squeal of joy.

  Tate, Garrett and Austin all winced, but they were grinning, too. With all three of them looking that good at the same time, Paige thought, it was a wonder the ocean temperatures didn’t rise.

  Paige, Libby and Julie met in the middle of the floor like cheerleaders after a big win and did a lot of jumping up and down and hugging and laughing and crying. Then, when things had calmed down to a moderate uproar, Julie went to the sink, washed her hands and brewed herself a cup of tea.

  Garrett went outside to keep an eye on Calvin and the dog.

  Tate ambled over to consult with Austin about something.

  And so the three sisters were semi-alone when Julie returned to the table with her tea and sat down.

  There was more coming, Paige was sure of it.

  “You both knew I was planning to take a few years off from teaching,” she said, “so Garrett and I can give Calvin a brother or a sister as soon as possible.”

  “Yes,” Paige said. “But you love teaching.”

  Julie sighed. “Yes,” she agreed. “I do. But I love Calvin more, and I want more time with him. Things are already pretty hectic around here, and the momentum is building, and I don’t want my son to get lost in the shuffle.”

  “Julie,” Libby said, “what are you saying?”

  Julie looked both happy and sad, a condition Paige well understood. “There was a staff meeting today. There were some cuts made in next year’s budget, and one teacher—if not several—will have to go. I wasn’t coming back after summer vacation anyway—that’s common knowledge. So I raised my hand and volunteered to be voted off the island, so to speak.” Julie’s shoulders slumped slightly, but her eyes were clear and her smile was genuine. “Principal Dulles jumped right on that suggestion and generously informed me that I could be of further help to the cause by going part-time as soon as the play is over and the profits have been tallied up.”

  “Oh,” Libby said.

  “Yikes,” Paige added.

  “All is not lost,” Julie said bravely. “I’ll still be teaching part-time, and now I’ll have time to help the kids develop the showcase.”

  Over the previous summer, Julie had helped three of her best students, ranch hand Ron Strivens’s daughter Rachel among them, to write and polish their own one-act plays. She’d planned to produce the three pieces and have them recorded on video, hopefully resulting in college scholarships for the young playwrights. The musical the drama club was about to stage had taken precedence, however, because it was a consistent moneymaker.

  Julie looked hard at both her sisters. “Stop it,” she said.

  “Stop what?” Libby asked.

  “Stop looking as though somebody died,” Julie said. “You’re going to have a baby, Libby. And if that doesn’t call for a celebration, I don’t know what does.”

  Tate and Austin rejoined the group, and Garrett returned from the yard, accompanied by Calvin and Harry.

  “Sister conference!” Libby declared, raising both hands.

  “Beer conference,” Tate countered with a chuckle. He opened one of the refrigerators, extracted a six-pack and blazed a trail into the pool area.

  Garrett followed with Calvin, after giving Julie a look of such exquisite love that Paige’s heart danced just to see it.

  Austin and the dogs brought up the rear.

  When the men were gone, Paige, Libby and Julie all sat down at the table, Paige and Libby on one side, Julie on the other.

  “You’re pregnant,” Julie said to Libby.

  “Yeah,” Libby said.

  Paige studied both of them in turn, and marveled at how much she loved these sisters of hers.

  “Oh, Lib,” Julie said, “that’s wonderful.”

  Libby swallowed visibly, nodded.

  Julie’s expression grew more intent and she folded her arms. “Libby Remington,” she said, “what’s the matter?”

  A little silence fell.

  “How long have you known you were expecting?” Julie asked Libby.

  “Since this morning,” Libby answered with a watery smile, “when I locked myself in the bathroom and peed on one of those little plastic sticks from the drugstore.”

  “So does all this mean I don’t have to wear that stupid pink dress?” Paige asked. “I mean, if Tate wants to marry Libby right away, then you and Garrett might as well—”

  Julie smiled with her eyes as well as her mouth. “I’m not missing out on the glam wedding, and that’s final.”

  “You don’t think Tate and I should cancel?” Libby asked, her voice as soft as the look in her eyes. “Just have a small, private ceremony, so he can make an honest woman of me?”

  Paige thought of Mary Kate, who was so looking forward to the holiday wedding, with all the bells and whistles. A lot of people would be let down if the social event of the year were canceled, or even reduced from a double to a single.

  “I want a wedding,” Julie said, and though her tone was pleasant, her eyes flashed. “Flying doves. Fireworks. The whole county in attendance.” She leaned forward a little. “And you should, too, Libby. Because, I don’t know about you, but I’m only going to do this once. Garrett McKettrick is it, the one man I’ll ever love and certainly the one man I’ll be married to until the end of our lives. And there will be a magnificent wedding to look back on.”

  Libby sighed. “I wanted a fancy wedding, too,” she admitted. “But Tate’s pretty firm on the idea that we should make it legal right away, because of the baby.” She started to cry again, just like that. Such was the power of female hormones. “You know he had to get married the first time around, because Cheryl was pregnant with the twins—”

  Julie was immediately on her feet, rounding the table, sitting down beside Libby, gathering her close. “Oh, honey,” she said, “this is different.”

  “How?” Libby asked, pulling away.

  “First,” Paige broke in, in a whisper, “where are Audrey and Ava?”

  Libby reached for the roll of paper towels and tore off a sheet. “They’re upstairs in their room, watching a movie. I kept them home from school today because they were coughing.” She paused, looked back at the staircase just to make sure the twins hadn’t snuck up on them somehow. “And how is this situation different? Cheryl was pregnant, so Tate put a wedding band on her finger. And as much as he loves his daughters, he resented that woman every day of their marriage. Now I’m pregnant. And Tate wants to do the right thing. What if he decides I trapped him, just as Cheryl did, and his feelings change?”

  “Oh, for Pete’s sake,” Julie scoffed. “Tate was going to marry you before this baby was conceived, Lib. The man adores you.”

  Libby took that in, nodded reflectively. Sat up a little straighter. Still, she wasn’t through playing devil’s advocate. “People will talk,” she said, and her eyes were wide.

  “People are already talking,” Julie said. “Get real, Lib. The gossips in and around Blue River marked their calendars weeks ago. Two sisters marrying into the fabled McKettrick clan at once? It’s too juicy not to talk about. Heck, I’d probably be in on it myself if I weren’t directly involved.”

  The blunt honesty of Julie’s remark definitely lightened the mood.

  Out by the pool, the men were laughing about something.

  Libby gnawed at her lower lip. She’d always been the worrywart in the family, in Paige’s opinion. Both her sisters, of course, would have awarded the title to her instead, but that was just because she was the most practical of the three.

  No other reason.

  Was there something Austin hadn’t told her, after his visit with Dr. Colwin that morning?

  “Won’t I be showing?” Libby fretted, looking from Julie to Paige. “Looking like a pillow smuggler in my wedding dress wasn’t part of the fantasy, ladies.”

  Paige laughed. “You won’t show,” she assured her sister. “Not unless you’re way more pregnant than you seem to think.”

  “If necessary, you could have th
e dress let out a little,” Julie speculated.

  Paige sighed inwardly. “So the wedding is still on?”

  Libby, warming up to the idea, nodded distractedly. “What if Tate insists that we go ahead and get married right away?” she asked. “He’s pretty stubborn, you know.”

  Julie laughed. “A stubborn McKettrick? Now there’s a concept.”

  Libby blushed. “You know what I mean,” she said.

  “If Tate insists on tying the knot, fine,” Julie told her. “We all go down to the courthouse and watch the two of you get hitched and then we do it all over again, on a much grander scale, on New Year’s Eve.”

  Libby began to smile, albeit tentatively. “I guess that would work,” she said.

  Paige waved a hand between her sisters’ faces to get their attention. “So does this mean I still have to wear that god-awful pink dress?”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  THE HOUSE WAS QUIET, now that Garrett and Julie and Tate and Libby had retreated to their private quarters.

  Paige and Austin were sitting at one of the tables by the pool, sharing one of the many delicious entrées the housekeeper, Esperanza, had whipped up and frozen before leaving for her niece’s place. Shep, as usual, was resting at Austin’s feet.

  “Is it just me,” Austin asked casually, and with a mischievous twinkle in those insufferably blue eyes of his, “or are you starting to feel like a slacker, too?”

  Paige felt as though she’d been put through an emotional wringer, and a moment or two passed before she picked up on his meaning. “No,” she said, leaning in a little and widening her eyes at him for emphasis. “I am not feeling like a slacker. I have no wish to be part of this—rash of weddings.”

  Like hell you haven’t, countered some inner voice.

  “I’d say it was more of a plague than a rash,” Austin remarked lightly. “Seems to be running rampant around here.”

  Paige pretended to be affronted, but she knew she wasn’t very convincing. “A plague?” she repeated. “Hardly what I’d call marriages between my sisters and your brothers.”