Which was great. She had homework to do, anyway—that was, if in fact Will now had Wi-Fi, as he’d been so sure he would last night. The big-screen TV over the fireplace seemed a good sign. And the TV wasn’t the only new addition. A leather sofa, coffee table and two comfy chairs made the living room a lot more inviting. In the utility room, she found a brand-new washer and dryer, hooked up and ready to go. There was also a new table and six chairs in the breakfast nook.
When it came to getting things done, Will did not fool around. She might almost admire him—if she wasn’t so pissed off at him.
The billy goat must have heard her drive up. He was crying like a baby, as usual. Chuckling to herself, she went to work feeding the goats and the lone rooster. She’d stopped in at Crawford’s for cat food, so she fed the mama cat and petted all the kittens.
Back inside, she went upstairs, where she discovered a sticky note on her bedroom door. Wi-Fi operational, Will had scrawled in his bold hand, along with the necessary password. She kicked off her shoes, got comfy on the bed and got started on her homework.
At a little before six, she heard the men come in downstairs. She might have stayed in her room for a couple more hours just to avoid playing dueling silent treatments with Will, but she liked his brothers, and it would be rude not to go down and say hi.
She found the Clifton men in the kitchen, each with a beer, all in stocking feet with their faces and hands freshly scrubbed. Carol Clifton had raised them right. Those boys knew to wash up when they came in the house, and to leave their muddy boots at the door.
Craig, the oldest, had the lid off the slow cooker. “Jordyn Leigh, this smells great. Will’s a lucky man.”
The lucky man in question sipped his beer and said nothing.
Jordyn avoided Will’s eyes and told his brother, “Thanks, Craig. Great to see you.”
Rob, the youngest, grabbed her and spun her around. “Are you nuts, Jordyn Leigh, to go and marry him?”
“Robbie!” She kissed his scruffy cheek. “I think I might have lost my mind for a moment there—and how you been?”
“Can’t complain. You’re beautiful, as always.”
Will muttered something under his breath. Jordyn didn’t hear what, which was probably just as well.
She laughed. “Oh, Rob. I know you’re just after my pot roast.”
Rob confessed, “Well, it does smell mighty fine.”
Jonathan, third born after Will, pulled her close next. “Will gives you any trouble, you let me know. I’ll adjust his attitude for you.”
She hugged him back. “I can always count on you, Jonathan.”
Will cleared his throat. “So. Dinner ready?”
She turned to him, really tempted to say something caustic in response. But his brothers were watching—and besides, she had another way to get under his skin. She went to him, put her hands on his big, hard shoulders and smiled up at him sweetly. “Yep. Dinner’s ready. Someone just needs to put it on the table.”
He kept his hands at his sides and looked down at her, suspicion in his eyes. “Great. We’ll do that.”
“Thanks.” She couldn’t resist playing the moment for all it was worth. “So, honey, how was your day?”
His eyes turned turbulent, and his square jaw twitched—and then he moved, reaching. His warm hands slid around her waist and came to rest at the small of her back. Dear Lord, for someone so annoying, he was such a big ol’ hunk of pure manliness. “It was a good day,” he said gruffly. “Got a lot done.”
“I noticed.” She smiled wider, and he volunteered some actual information. “Several head of cattle arrived. I bought them at auction last week.”
“I spotted a few of them on the ridge above the stock pond when I drove up.”
His right hand moved at her back, a slow glide that could only be called a caress. She felt powerful, suddenly, her blood racing swift and hot through her veins, a warm, lovely shiver moving over her skin. She let her gaze stray to his mouth. His lips were so full and soft compared to the rest of him.
Now he was staring at her mouth. She held her breath. And then those big arms closed around her, and his dark head came down. He smelled so good—a hint of soap and warm, healthy skin.
And his kiss? Spectacular. It made heat bloom in her belly and her knees feel wobbly. No wonder Desiree Fenton was still bitter that she’d lost him.
When he lifted his head, she felt branded, as though his big body had imprinted itself all down the front of hers. They stared at each other, partly in anger—but anger wasn’t all of it. Not by a long shot. Heat still lingered, burning between them.
It was only a kiss, she reminded herself. A nice little public display of affection, for the sake of their newlywed act.
Jonathan teased, “Okay, you two. Any more of that and you really need to get a room.”
That broke the tension. Everybody laughed.
Jordyn pushed at Will’s rock-hard chest. He let her go. She said, “All right, boys. Get the table set. I’ll put the food on.”
The Clifton brothers ate heartily. Once the meal was cleared off, they all sat around and visited for an hour or so. At seven-thirty, the boys headed back to Maverick Manor, promising to return the next morning. Tomorrow would be another busy day at the Flying C. The new foreman and his wife would arrive from Thunder Canyon. Also scheduled to show up tomorrow: a moving van of Will’s furniture and the three horses he owned.
With the brothers gone, the house seemed way too quiet. It was just Jordyn and Will, with the bad feelings from last night like an invisible wall between them. Jordyn got to work on the dishes.
Will grabbed the towel and started drying.
More silence. He was the one who finally broke it. “I bought a dishwasher yesterday, when I bought the washer and dryer. You see the washer and dryer?”
She didn’t really want to fight with him anymore. But she didn’t feel kindly toward him, either. So she answered flatly, “I did. Looks good.”
“The dishwasher will be installed tomorrow.”
She rinsed a soapy dish. “Great.”
“You, uh, get the password all right, for the Wi-Fi?”
“I did, thanks.” She handed him the rinsed dish.
He dried it and set it on the stack he’d made beside the dish rack. “Your homework?”
“All done.” She washed and rinsed the last dish. He dried it and put it on the stack. She got going on the glassware. He dried each one and put them away.
Eventually, he tried again. “The Realtor called back. About the goats and the cats and that rooster?”
“Yeah?”
“The former owners have no place for animals where they live now. The Realtor said they’re ‘in no position’ to deal with any leftover livestock. Long story short, I own three goats, a mama cat with kittens, a bad-tempered, self-important rooster—and whatever other critter shows up at the back door.”
Jordyn said nothing to that. What was there to say? She felt a flicker of satisfaction at the news. After all, she actually liked the critters in question. But in the end, she reminded herself, she shouldn’t get too attached. She would have to walk away from them when she left for Missoula. They were his responsibility now, and he could do with them as he pleased.
Will set down the towel, carried the dried plates to the cabinet at the end of the counter and put them away. She slid him a glance when he just stood there, staring at the cabinet once he’d shut the door, his back to her.
Then, abruptly, he turned. “How long are you gonna be mad at me?” His beautiful mouth curved down at the corners, and his fine eyes were troubled.
Sudden warmth bloomed in the center of her chest, a definite tenderness toward him. She answered honestly, “Oh, probably until you talk to me.” She grabbed the terry-cloth hand towel from its hook and
wiped her hands.
He said, “We could go in the living room, sit on that couch I just bought...” He offered his hand.
She took it. His fingers closed around hers, and she felt better about everything.
In the living room, they sat at either end of the sofa. She kicked off her shoes and drew her legs up sideways, facing him.
He hitched one knee to the cushions, shifting his big body her way. “It’s pretty simple,” he said. “I was never getting married until I had my place. Desiree knew that when we started in together.”
“You mean you told her that up front?”
“Yeah. And I told her how long that would be—at least fifteen years. At the time, I had no clue that we’d lose Aunt Willie in two years, so I was still working on my original schedule then. I was twenty-eight when Desiree and I started going out. And I generally tried to keep things honest and upfront with any woman I went with. I tried to have the talk with them early.”
“Wow. There’s an actual talk?”
“Yeah.” He gave her a sideways look. “Does that sound bad or something?”
She blew out a breath. “I’m not sure...”
“Remember Brita Foxworth?”
Jordyn did remember. “You went with her in high school. Everyone thought you two would get married after graduation.”
“Brita was planning our wedding by Senior Ball.” He sounded weary. “I finally had to tell her that there wasn’t going to be one. Not for years and years, anyway. Not until I got my place, which by my calculations then was going to be at the age of forty-five—maybe a couple years earlier, if I scrimped and saved and pinched every penny. Brita and I broke up right before graduation, the night that I finally got through to her that I wasn’t marrying anyone for a long, long time. From then on, if I really liked a woman and wanted to see her more than a time or two, I made sure we had the talk good and early.”
Jordyn shifted, stretching out an arm to rest it along the sofa back. “So you had the talk right at the first, with Desiree?”
“Yeah. And she said that was fine with her. She said she didn’t want to get married, anyway.”
“Hmm. Judging by the expression on her face yesterday when she put it together that you and I are married, she either lied or changed her mind.”
Now he was the one shifting, facing forward, bracing both elbows on his spread knees. “We went out for almost a year, Desiree and me.”
Jordyn winced. “I hadn’t realized it lasted that long.”
“Jordyn, I liked her. I had fun with her. I thought she was fine with the way things were. But then one night we went out to dinner, and we went back to her place. And suddenly, we were into this big scene. She was crying and telling me she loved me and she couldn’t do it, couldn’t wait anymore. She wanted to get married. She wanted us together in the way that really mattered. She wanted a ring, and she wanted it now.”
“Did you...I mean, were you in love with her?” She asked the question and kind of wished she hadn’t. If he said yes, the next question would have to be, Are you still in love with her? And Jordyn didn’t know if she could bring herself to ask that one.
Okay, their marriage might be just for show, but some part of her kept growing more...invested every day. To learn that he still carried a torch for Desiree Fenton, well, that would make her feel awful on any number of levels.
And he was taking way too long to answer. “Will?” she prompted impatiently.
He finally put it out there. “I told you. I liked her. But I wasn’t in love with her, and I didn’t want to get married.”
Relief. She felt relief. She decided not to think about that and to focus instead on what a thickheaded fool he’d been. “Men can be so clueless.” Jordyn hadn’t realized she’d said that out loud.
Not until he said, “Clueless? She never said anything for all those months and months. She acted like she was happy. And then, all of a sudden...she wasn’t.”
“I’m sure there were signs. You just refused to see them.”
He threw up both hands. “Maybe. I don’t know. I do know that I felt like a first-class jerk when it ended, and I felt like one again yesterday, at the sight of her. And right now, too, as a matter of fact. I really didn’t mean to hurt her...”
She mimicked, “I really didn’t mean to hurt her.”
“Well, I didn’t.”
“And I need to embroider that on a sampler and hang it in your kitchen.”
“All right, Jordyn. Why don’t you just tell me, then. What the hell should I have done?”
That did give her pause. She confessed, “I don’t know. Sometimes, in love, people just get hurt—and I think someone told me that after it ended with you, she went out with Roger Boudreaux and that he broke it off, too. So I’m guessing she’s not real happy with your gender at this point in her life.”
He braced his elbows on his knees again and hung his head. “I need a beer. You want one?”
“No, thanks.”
He got up, disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a cold one. Dropping down beside her again, he took a long pull off the can. “So, you and me? We’re okay now?”
She held his gaze for a moment and finally nodded. “Yeah. We’re okay.”
He let out a hard breath and slumped against the cushions. “That’s a relief.”
She considered their hasty marriage, told herself not to go there—and then went right ahead and brought it up, anyway. “Lucky you got this ranch before Saturday night, huh?”
He slid her a frown. “Why do you say that?”
“Think about it. What if you woke up married to me and you didn’t have your place yet? A lifetime of big plans right down the drain.”
“Jordyn...” He gave her a warning look.
Which she blithely ignored. “So after we’re divorced, you’ll be lookin’, huh? Ready to find yourself a nice little wife—and fifteen years ahead of schedule, too. Ain’t life grand?”
“Jordyn Leigh.” That time he said it in his boss-man voice.
She made a show of batting her eyelashes and drawled, “What, Will?”
“I may be clueless, but even I know that finding the right person to spend my life with doesn’t happen on a schedule. I know it’s not like buying a couch or a big-screen TV.”
She snickered in a way that she knew was nothing short of evil. “Will. You hopeless romantic, you.”
“Don’t mock me. I’m serious. Yeah, in a couple of years, after I’ve got this ranch up and running, I’ll be looking. But I want it all. I’m not going to settle. I want what my folks have. What your parents have. Love with the one and only. I’m not taking less than that.” His words made her heart hurt, which served her right for goading him in the first place. And he was watching her. “Okay. Now you look sad. What’d I do this time?”
She met his incomparable eyes and refused to look away. “Nothing.”
“Come on.” So sweet. So gentle. The man could coax the moon from the sky if he put his mind to it. “Tell me.”
She gave in and admitted, “It was beautiful, what you just said, that’s all.”
His dark brows lifted, and he asked hopefully, “And beautiful is good?”
Now she felt shy and too young and way too tender. “Yeah. Beautiful is good.”
A lock of inky hair fell across his forehead. Her fingers ached to brush it back.
But she didn’t. That would be kind of intimate. And they didn’t really do intimate—except when they had an audience.
He grabbed the remote off the coffee table. “You want to watch some TV?”
“Sure. Why not?”
The big screen over the fireplace burst into life. ESPN, of course, with a baseball game in progress. She liked baseball as much as the next girl, which was to say maybe not as much
as some. But enough to sit on Will’s new couch with him and cheer if somebody hit a home run.
He settled into the cushions and stretched his arm across the back of the sofa. His fingers brushed her shoulder. A little thrill shivered down her arm.
Get a grip, Jordyn Leigh.
“Come on,” he said. “Make yourself comfortable.”
She swayed toward him—because she wanted to, wanted to lean against him, have his arm around her, pretend...
Okay, never mind what she might want to pretend.
He aided and abetted her in her foolish desire, hooking that big, hard arm around her, drawing her against his side. She let herself lean into him.
And it felt really, really good.
Too good, she knew that. And too intimate, considering it was just the two of them on that sofa, no one else in the room to put on a show for.
“Better, huh?” he asked, giving her an extra squeeze.
“Yeah,” she said, and snuggled closer still.
* * *
She woke up in the middle of the night, upstairs in her own bed, still wearing her jeans and T-shirt, with the blankets tucked in around her.
Will. What a guy.
She pushed back the blankets, took off her jeans, wiggled out of her bra, but left the T-shirt on. Then she settled back under the covers and drifted to sleep again, smiling to herself.
* * *
The next day was Friday.
When Jordyn got home from work, Will’s brothers had already left for Maverick Manor. Will took her over to the foreman’s cottage and introduced her to his new foreman, Myron Stevalik, and his wife, Pia. Jordyn liked them both and told Pia if she needed help with anything, just to let her know.
Pia thanked her for the offer and said that, so far, she was managing just fine. The three-bedroom cottage was a little dusty but clean, Pia added with some relief, and all the kitchen appliances worked. Jordyn and Will stayed only a few minutes, clearing out quickly so the couple could get back to putting their new home together.
The movers had come with the contents of the little house Will used to rent in Thunder Canyon. The front porch and the entry hall were crammed with furniture and stacks of boxes containing clothes and household goods.
The Maverick's Accidental Bride (Montana Mavericks: What Happened At The Wedding Book 1) (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) Page 11
