But what happens when she’s not your wife anymore?
Better not to even go there.
And so what if Rob had a crush on Jordyn Leigh? Who wouldn’t have a crush on Jordyn Leigh? She was smart and pretty, and she had a good heart.
And he might as well face it. Rob wasn’t the only one who had a thing for Jordyn Leigh. What had happened at the creek that day had forced him to admit that he wanted her. Bad. Odds were he was never going to have her. And that messed with his mind.
“Will?”
“Yeah?”
“Is something still bothering you?”
Now, what was he supposed to say to that? The truth would just get him deeper into territory he didn’t want to explore. And a lie was plain wrong.
So he hedged. “I’m okay, really. I still feel bad about...everything that happened, that’s all.”
It worked. She told him softly, “Let it go. We’re fine now.”
* * *
Jordyn thoroughly enjoyed the rest of that evening. They took second cups of coffee into the living room and streamed a movie. Will let her choose a romantic comedy. He watched the whole thing and even seemed to enjoy it.
She kind of wanted his arm around her, but he didn’t offer. And after what had happened at the swimming hole, well, maybe cuddling up close to him was only asking for trouble. After the movie, she went upstairs to bed. And even with two cups of coffee buzzing through her system, she went to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Cece called her the next morning while she and Will were having breakfast and invited them over to her place for dinner that night. Will nodded when Jordyn passed on the invitation, so she told Cece they would be there.
They caravanned into town with the Stevaliks for church. It was nice, sitting next to Will in the pretty little community church, singing the hymns she’d known all her life. The sermon was on hope, and she found it uplifting.
Twice Will caught her eye, and they shared a smile. Both times a warm, cherished feeling bloomed within her. She decided that coming to church had been a great idea, after all.
After the service, they lingered awhile. Jordyn introduced Will and the Stevaliks to the pastor and to various members of the local Traub, Dalton and Strickland families. Then Myron and Pia went across the street to the doughnut shop, and Jordyn and Will drove to Kalispell to stock up on groceries for the week ahead.
That evening at Cece and Nick’s, Rita and Charles Dalton joined them. The Daltons had five grown children, including the twins Kristen and Kayla. Before the evening was through, Jordyn and Will had an invitation to next Sunday’s dinner at the Dalton ranch north of town.
Monday came, and Jordyn realized that her life on the ranch had a nice rhythm, a productive routine. She went to work. And when she came home, she helped Pia clean out and organize the barn. She fussed over the goats and the kittens, and had dinner with Will.
It was good between her and Will. They got along great.
Tuesday, as usual, she and Will had their breakfast and dinner together. They discussed her day’s work and his progress at the ranch. They laughed together. He teased her, and she joked back.
They were just like any married couple, she thought, except that, at the end of the evening, they went to bed in separate rooms. She was starting to see that if there was a baby, she and Will would get along together just fine. They could have a good life, build a family, be happy. She just knew that they could.
They were actually pretty well suited, she decided—very well suited, as a matter of fact. Her confidence increased that they could make it work.
And if there was a baby, well, then they could be together in every way. She would finally find out what it was like to make love with a good man. It wouldn’t be her dream come true exactly, but close enough.
Definitely close enough.
Wednesday very early, she woke up with an ache in her lower belly. She tried to ignore it. But it was a familiar sort of ache, a definite cramping feeling.
She turned over, closed her eyes and willed the feeling away.
It refused to go.
Finally, she sat up and threw back the covers. Even in the dim light just before dawn, she could see the blood on the white sheet.
Her period had started.
So much for having to make it work with Will.
Chapter Ten
Something was bothering Jordyn.
Will noticed it first at breakfast on Thursday. She was too quiet, and she seemed preoccupied. He asked her what the matter was. She said it was nothing, so he took her at her word.
She went off to work.
When she got home, he was still outside with Myron, putting together a lean-to to protect the goats when the weather got bad. He didn’t see her until dinnertime, when she was even more withdrawn than she’d been at breakfast.
After the meal she went outside for a while—probably to spoil the goats and pet the kittens and make sure the ornery rooster had enough feed. He wandered into the living room and turned on the TV. By nine she hadn’t come in to join him, or even checked in to say good-night.
That bothered him. Even if she didn’t hang with him, she always told him good-night before she went upstairs.
He turned off the TV and sat there in the quiet for a few minutes, listening for a sound of her. Nothing.
So he got up and circled the first floor. She wasn’t down there. He went outside, checked the barn and the goat pen. No sign of her. She must have gone up to her room without a word to him.
Back inside, the dryer alarm buzzed. He went in the utility room, pulled open the dryer door and found a load of clean sheets.
Might as well take them up to her. It was as good an excuse as any to try to talk to her again, to find out what had happened to make her start acting like a ghost of herself.
* * *
Jordyn closed her laptop and tossed it down beside her on the bed. Enough with pretending to do homework. She was too crampy and miserable to concentrate.
She really should go back downstairs and give Will the big news that she wasn’t having his baby. She should have told him this morning. Or over dinner.
But she hadn’t. She was putting it off because...
Well, she didn’t know why, exactly. She only knew she felt low and depressed, and she didn’t want to talk about it. Hormones, probably. Or so she kept telling herself.
She was just about to go take another painkiller to knock the cramping back a little when he tapped on the door.
“Jordyn? You awake?”
She just sat there for a second or two, staring at the shut door, considering pretending to be asleep.
But come on. She’d been blowing him off all day, and she needed to snap out of it.
“It’s open,” she called. The door swung inward.
And there he stood, his arms full of her sheets. “Thought you might want these.”
She had others, and he knew it. He’d come upstairs to check on her, to find out why she kept saying she was fine, and then dragging around like something awful had happened—and somehow, the sight of his coaxing smile and worried eyes made her feel more depressed and miserable than before.
“Come on,” he said. “I’ll help you fold them.”
She just sat there, looking at him, thinking how manly and handsome he was, wishing...
What?
She really didn’t know what she was wishing. Just that things could be different, somehow.
“Jordyn?” He crossed the threshold, dropped the big wad of sheets on a chair and kept coming until he stood by the bed.
She heaved a giant sigh and patted the mattress.
It was all the invitation he needed. He sank down beside her, swinging his stocking feet up onto the comforter next to hers. �
��Okay. So, what’s up with you?”
How to tell him? How to explain this bizarre, depressed state she’d fallen into because there wasn’t any baby? She should be overjoyed. After all, they’d only ended up married by accident, and they had a Divorce Plan. They were not what they pretended to be when other people were watching.
“Jordyn, come on. What’s up?”
She blew out her cheeks with a weary breath. “Good news?” Somehow, it came out as a question.
“If the news is good, how come you look like somebody died?”
She pressed her fingers to her temples and rubbed in a vain effort to ease her sudden headache away.
He caught her wrists in either hand and gently pulled them away from her face. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s eating at you. Give me a chance to make it better.”
“You can’t make it better—and anyway, it’s nothing horrible. It’s a good thing, it really is.”
“And this good thing is...?” He gazed at her with real concern.
And that did it. He really did care, and he wanted to know. She couldn’t hold it in anymore. “I got my period. There’s no baby.”
For about a half a second, he looked as stricken as she felt. But maybe that was only her imagination. Because a second after that, he said, “Well, that is great news.”
“Yeah. It’s great. Terrific. Wonderful.”
He tipped his head and studied her. “What is it? What’s wrong? Come on, you can tell me.”
She let her shoulders droop. “It’s cramps, that’s all. And I have a headache...” Not a total lie. If the cramps and the headache weren’t all of what had her feeling low, they definitely contributed.
“Come here.” He did the sweetest thing then, easing an arm around her, pulling her close. She surrendered to the comfort he offered, curling her tired, aching body into him, resting her head on his strong shoulder. He asked, “You want some aspirin or something?”
She snuggled in closer, breathing in the scent of him, feeling better about everything, just to have his big arms around her. “I’ll get something in a few minutes. It’s strange...”
“What?” He put a finger under her chin, tipping it up.
She met those gorgeous eyes. “I don’t know. I guess I was kind of getting used to the idea that there would be a baby. Is that odd or what? I mean, it was only one night—and that’s if we actually did anything.”
“Not odd,” he reassured her. “Not strange. You were preparing yourself, that’s all. In case it turned out we were going to be parents.”
“Preparing myself. I guess that’s one way to look at it.” She dipped her head and snuggled close to him again.
He wrapped his arms tighter around her and rubbed her back. “You’ll feel better soon...”
“I know.” Actually, she felt better already. His warm hands felt so good, stroking her shoulders, fingers digging in a little to ease out the kinks. And more than the magic he worked with those rubbing fingers of his, just having his arms around her gave her comfort. She could have sat there, snuggled up with him forever. And he didn’t seem in any hurry to get away from her, either.
Jordyn closed her eyes...
* * *
Will cradled Jordyn close and listened as her breathing evened out into the shallow rhythm of sleep. He thought about the baby that they weren’t going to have.
And he knew it was a good thing. The best thing. She had big plans for her life, and a baby would have changed everything.
And he, well, he had a lot of work ahead of him to get the ranch whipped into shape. It was a round-the-clock job, and he hadn’t planned to start a family for a few years, at least.
Better for both of them that the marriage would end as they’d agreed. They could go forward with the plan, get divorced in August and get on with their lives.
Still, a certain heaviness dragged on him, a let-down kind of feeling. He must have been preparing himself, too. Getting himself ready to go forward as Jordyn’s husband, getting ready to be a dad.
Now it wasn’t going to happen. He should be glad about that. Relieved, even.
But instead, he felt a bone-deep sadness.
As though something so precious was not only lost, but had never been.
* * *
Jordyn woke alone in her bed the next morning. Will, sweet and considerate to a fault, had pulled the comforter over her before he left.
She sat up against the headboard—and burst into tears.
Which was totally stupid. She had nothing to cry about.
So she tossed back the covers, ran into the bathroom, stripped down and climbed in the shower. She stayed in there, under the hot spray, until the water ran cool.
And when she got out, she felt a lot better about everything. Will was a great guy, and there was no baby and those were the facts.
Time to get on with the plan.
She put extra effort into her hair and makeup, kind of pulling herself together, putting her depression of the night before behind her. Downstairs, she made French toast for breakfast.
Will had two helpings and told her she looked great. “Seems like you feel better today.”
She beamed him her brightest smile. “Much better, thank you.”
“Cramps all gone?”
She knew he was only being supportive. But still, today was a new day, and she didn’t want to talk about her cramps or the lack of them. She realized that maybe she’d shared too much information with the guy.
After all, he wasn’t really her husband. And she’d gone too far last night, crying on his shoulder because she wasn’t pregnant after all, whining about her cramps and her headache, cuddling up good and close, inviting him to rub her back and hold her, and then falling asleep in his arms.
Boundaries were important, and she seemed to be crossing them constantly lately, treating Will like she owned him or something, kissing him and cuddling up to him when it was just the two of them, alone, and no displays of affection were called for.
It had to stop. “I’m feeling great,” she said. “Honestly.”
He gave her a sideways look, as though he wasn’t quite sure what to make of her right then. “If you say so...” He sounded doubtful. Like he thought she was faking it, and she didn’t feel great at all.
She almost snapped at him that she didn’t like his attitude. But somehow, she restrained herself. No need to get annoyed over nothing.
It was time to move on, definitely. Time to get out the dissolution papers and fill in all the blanks. She had to stop putting off dealing with them. And she would, as of today.
But where were they, exactly? Had he even given her the ones she needed to fill out? She couldn’t remember.
She sent him a covert glance across the table.
He frowned. “What?”
And she just didn’t feel like getting into it with him right then. “Nothing, really. Not a thing.” They were probably upstairs in her room somewhere.
Before she left for work, she went looking for them. She turned her room upside down in search of them, but they weren’t there.
Didn’t matter, though. At Sara’s, she went on the county website and printed up a fresh copy of all the forms she needed. Back at the ranch that afternoon, before she got going on her homework, she tackled those forms.
They really were extensive. Everything she owned had to be specifically listed and claimed. Had Will started on his yet? He owned a lot more than she did, and it was bound to take him longer to get everything listed, to get all the exact amounts and the numbers of his accounts. She should probably check with him, make sure he was on top of it.
That night at dinner, when they were halfway through the meal, she said, “I started on the dissolution forms today. They’re long. They want to know everything you own and
its value. I mean everything, so that we can each claim what’s ours and there’s no dispute later. It’s going to take a while to fill out. Especially for you, Will, with the land and all the buildings, the cattle, the vehicles, the furniture. It goes on and on.”
He shrugged. “I should get going on that,” he said, and kept eating.
Really, she ought to get more of an acknowledgment from him that he was on top of it. “So you will, then? You’ll get them out and get going on them?”
He swallowed a bite of pork chop. “Isn’t that what I just said?”
“You said you should, not that you would.”
“Fine. I’ll get going on it.”
She sipped from her water glass, pushed her peas around on her plate and tried to figure out why he suddenly seemed so pissed off. “Okay. What’s wrong? Out of nowhere, we’re in a conversational minefield here.”
“Nothing’s wrong.” He scooped up a big bite of whipped potatoes and shoved it into his mouth.
Lovely. She decided she needed to keep her eye on the prize. The point was to get him going on the papers. “I mean, do you even know where you put those papers? Because I looked for mine and couldn’t find them and had to reprint them today at Sara’s.”
“I know where they are.” He said it flatly. “You could have just asked me if you wanted them so bad.”
And you could stop acting like a douche, if you don’t mind.
Oh, she was tempted to say it. But she didn’t. She kept her tone calm and reasonable. “I didn’t want to bother you.”
“You wouldn’t have been bothering me.”
“Great. But the point is we need to get back to the courthouse by the thirty-first at the latest. That’s two weeks from now. If we get to the courthouse by the thirty-first, then we get our final court date within twenty-one business days...” She shook her head. “Actually, that’s cutting it kind of close. I need to be in Missoula by the third week in August. Yes, all right, if I had to, I guess I could come back, just for the hearing. I’d really rather not, though. I’ll be busy when I get there, and it’s two hours each way, here and back...” She let her voice trail off and waited for him to say something.
The Maverick's Accidental Bride (Montana Mavericks: What Happened At The Wedding Book 1) (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) Page 14
