He didn’t even glance up, but just kept right on eating his dinner.
* * *
Will ate the rest of his potatoes.
He finished off his pork chop. He even ate his peas, and he’d never been all that big a fan of peas. He was seriously pissed off at Jordyn about then. She was getting to him, bugging the crap out of him with her phony behavior since breakfast that morning.
What was her problem that, all of a sudden, she had to nag him up one side and down the other about something he’d already told her he would take care of?
Would she ever shut up about it?
No. She kept talking, telling him what he already knew. He’d been there at the courthouse with her. He had a firm grasp of the time frame, and he would hold up his end. There was absolutely no reason for her to keep yammering on about it.
She nagged him some more. “So you need to get on those papers, Will.”
He dropped his fork. It clattered against his empty plate. “How many times are you planning to tell me that?”
She gasped like he’d insulted her. “I just want to be sure that you’re on top of it, that’s all.”
“I’m on top of it,” he said, in barely more than a mutter. “You can be sure.”
“Well, terrific, then. Let’s leave it at that.”
“Hey. I keep trying to.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
Let it go, he thought. But he didn’t. “It means that you won’t leave it at that. What the hell is it with you today, anyway? You came downstairs this morning with that big fake smile on your face, acting like you and me are strangers or something. And tonight you suddenly just have to tell me twenty times to fill out the dissolution papers. I don’t get what’s going on with you. And I don’t like it, either.”
Her mouth was pursed up tight. “Are you finished?”
Was he? Oh, yeah. Pretty much. “Just back the hell off, Jordyn. I don’t know what’s up with you all of a sudden, but you can stop about the damn papers. When the time comes, I’ll have them ready.”
“Thank you,” she said in a tone that wasn’t thankful in the least.
And then she slid her napkin in beside her plate, pushed back her chair and marched from the room. He heard her swift footsteps climbing the stairs, followed by the slamming of her bedroom door.
What? She thought she was punishing him, leaving him all alone downstairs?
Hardly.
He cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher and then he went to his office nook off the entry hall, got out the papers she wouldn’t shut up about and sat down to fill them out.
She was right about them, which only served to make him even madder. He had a lot of crap to list and a lot of information to gather. But he kept after it, working well into the night, digging through the documents in his file cabinets and online for account numbers and proofs of sale. By the time he finally went to bed, he had more than half of it done.
The next morning, she was in the kitchen fixing breakfast when he came in from tending the animals. They sat down to eat in a silence as deep as a bottomless well.
He just didn’t get it. Wednesday night, when she’d told him there was no baby, she’d been so sweet, reaching out to him for comfort, falling asleep in his arms. He could have sat there on her bed, just holding her, forever. He’d even considered staying there with her, cradling her slim body in his arms through the night, waking up beside her in the morning.
But he’d left her regretfully several hours before dawn.
And then faced her across the breakfast table Thursday morning and wondered what she’d done with the warm, direct, affectionate woman he’d comforted the night before.
Now it was Friday and they were not speaking. By the time she left for work, she’d yet to say a word to him.
He went to his office and worked on the forms for hours—hours he should have been out taking care of business on the Flying C. But by lunchtime, he’d done it. Those forms were ready for that end-of-the-month visit to the Kalispell Justice Center.
Feeling self-righteous and badly treated and madder than ever, he put them back in the desk drawer, grabbed a sandwich and went out to help Myron move cattle from a near pasture to one farther out.
That night at dinner, he kept waiting for her to ask him about the forms he’d spent half of last night and half of today completing. She didn’t ask. She didn’t say a word to him beyond “Dinner’s ready,” and “Please pass the green beans.”
It was a cold war they were into now. So, all right. He could do that.
Yeah, he was starting to feel crappy about it, and he wasn’t all that proud of his part in it. But then, well, maybe they’d been getting in a little too deep with each other, anyway, acting as if they had more going on together than they did. Maybe a little distance wasn’t such a bad thing.
They loaded the dishwasher in total silence.
Once that was done, he said, “I’m going into town to the Ace in the Hole to get a beer with my brothers.”
“Great.” She granted him a smile so cold, it was a wonder her lips didn’t crack and fall off. “I’m going into town, too. I want to see how Melba’s doing.”
“Have fun,” he said in a growl.
“I will.” Another brittle smile. “You, too.”
* * *
Will had already left when Jordyn got in her car and headed for town.
She reached the boardinghouse at a little before eight. Inside, Melba greeted her with a hug and then led her to the front parlor so that she could say hi to Old Gene.
“How’s married life treating you?” Old Gene asked.
Jordyn played her part. “Never been happier.” As the lie passed her lips, she realized it would have been true a couple of days ago.
Melba grabbed her hand and took her back to the kitchen where they had coffee and brownies—chocolate chip–cookie Oreo-fudge brownies, to be specific. They were wonderfully rich and way too delicious. Jordyn ate one and then couldn’t resist having another. Sometimes a girl really needed a gooey Oreo dessert.
She told Melba all about the ranch, about the goats and the kittens, about how the place was really coming together.
Melba told her not to work too hard, to take it easy, relax and smell the flowers. “You sure you’re doing okay, honey?” Melba asked. She’d always had a sixth sense about what was really going on with people.
Jordyn kept it light. “Nothing wrong with me that another of these brownies won’t cure.”
“Help yourself.”
Jordyn reached for another one as Claire came in carrying baby Bekka. Claire poured herself a cup of coffee and let Jordyn hold the baby.
Bekka was in a good mood, giggling, waving her fat little hands around. Jordyn cuddled her close and kissed her plump cheek and tried to ignore the sadness that plucked at her heartstrings.
The sadness made no sense, really. But still, she felt it, and strongly—a sadness for the baby she wasn’t going to have, the baby she’d somehow started to love and want, even though that baby had never actually existed.
She hadn’t talked privately to Claire since that afternoon at Sara’s when Claire had cried and confided about her husband going home to Bozeman without her. Jordyn wanted to ask if Claire had heard from Levi, but somehow, the moment never seemed right.
Claire asked, “Did you see last Sunday’s edition of the Rust Creek Falls Gazette?”
When Jordyn said she’d missed it, Melba filled her in. “The mystery gossip columnist reported that a certain Kalispell detective is looking into the possibility that someone doctored the wedding punch on the Fourth of July.”
Jordyn kissed Bekka’s cheek again. “Any speculation as to who that mysterious someone might be?”
Melba and Claire both shook their
heads. Claire said, “So far, not a clue.”
Eventually, Bekka started fussing, and Claire took her off to get her ready for bed. Reluctant to return to the empty ranch house, Jordyn hung around. She asked Melba how Claire was doing.
Melba shook her head again. “About the same, I’m afraid. I keep hoping Levi will show up, or at least get in touch, that the two of them can make up. So far, though, it hasn’t happened.”
Jordyn’s thoughts—as they too often did—turned to Will. “I guess sometimes people say things they shouldn’t—hurtful things. And then they let their pride keep them from apologizing and working things out.”
Melba patted her arm. “I know they love each other. I stay focused on that, and I don’t let myself get discouraged. Real love takes hard times, too. Real love is like faith. It grows stronger when it’s tested.”
Jordyn sighed. “Melba, that’s beautiful. I do believe you are a philosopher.”
“No, just an old woman who’s lived a full life.” She offered the half-empty plate of brownies. “Go on. Have another.”
“I’ve already had three. They’re so hard to resist.”
“Then don’t. Give in. Enjoy. You only live once.”
So Jordyn had another. Melba brought the coffeepot over and refilled their mugs. It was nice. Comforting, to sit there in Melba’s cozy kitchen, eating those decadent brownies, chatting about love and life and what was going on in town. She could have sat at Melba’s kitchen table late into the night.
But by ten, she knew she was pushing it, keeping the older woman up past her bedtime.
Melba hugged her again at the door. “My best to your handsome husband,” she said.
“I’ll tell him,” Jordyn promised. That is, if I ever speak to him again. She ran down the front steps in the gathering twilight and gave Melba a last wave as she ducked into her Subaru.
She started it up and turned the corner onto Cedar Street. The quickest way back to the Flying C was a right turn on Main Street. But she went left instead. The next street was Sawmill, where she should have gone right. She turned left again.
Two blocks later, she turned into the parking lot of the Ace in the Hole.
Chapter Eleven
Will nursed his second beer and wondered what he was doing there.
His brothers played pool and flirted with the waitresses and seemed to be having a really good time. Will wasn’t. He kept thinking about Jordyn, wondering if she was enjoying her visit with the old lady who ran the boardinghouse.
Wondering if maybe he’d been a little too hard on her. She was right, after all. They had a plan, and the plan included the necessity to fill out the damn divorce papers. He’d needed to get on that. And when she’d first brought it up to him, he had blown her off. Could he blame her that she kept after him?
When he got home, if she was there and still up, he would apologize to her for being a horse’s ass. Maybe he could even get her to open up and talk to him about why all of a sudden she had to treat him like some stranger, why she had to give him fake smiles and cold, distant looks.
And if she wouldn’t open up about what was really going on with her, well, so what? She didn’t owe him the secrets of her heart.
He was her husband, yeah, but not in the deepest, fullest way. And not forever. They got along great most of the time. He loved having her around. She was different than any woman he’d ever been with. She took care of business, never slacked. And until the other morning, she’d always been straight with him, always spoken right up and said what was on her mind.
She didn’t cling—or maybe, it was more that, when she did cling, he liked it. He liked feeling needed by her, which, with any other woman, always made him want to move on. Plus, she was quick-witted and funny and easy on the eyes.
But what they had together was stamped with an expiration date. And he had no right to blame her for maybe wanting to keep him from getting too close.
Over at the pool table, Rob looked up from taking a shot. His right eyebrow inched toward his hairline as he tipped his head at the arch that led to the main bar. Will followed the direction of his brother’s gaze.
And saw Jordyn, in the same snug jeans and purple tank top she’d been wearing when he’d left her in the kitchen hours before.
Jordyn. Damn, she looked good.
All of a sudden, the night brimmed with promise. The music sounded better, the lights shone brighter.
And then he started wondering what she was doing there. Had something gone wrong?
He set down his beer and went to her.
She spotted him—and her eyes got bigger. Softer. Her lips parted slightly. She looked breathless. Excited.
Like she was really glad to see him.
Like he was the only guy in the room.
He eased his way through the crush to get to her. “Jordyn.”
She tipped up that sweet face to him. “Will. I, um...”
“Are you okay? Did something happen?”
“No. No, nothing. I mean, nothing important. I mean, well, it’s...” Her beautiful mouth trembled in the most endearing way. “I don’t know. I was at Melba’s. And then I was going back to the ranch—but I didn’t. I came here instead. And then I drove up and down the rows of cars in the parking lot until I saw your pickup. And then I parked and told myself I wasn’t going to come in here...”
He needed to touch her. So he did. He cradled the side of her head, ran his hand down the silky length of her shining hair. And she didn’t jerk away—the opposite.
She stepped even closer. “I...well, I was feeling bad, you know? For getting all up in your business over those papers.”
He gave it up. “I was a jerk.”
And she admitted, “I was a nag.”
He took her arm. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
She hung back. “But your brothers...”
“Don’t worry about them. They’re having a good time.”
“Won’t they wonder where you disappeared to?”
“Rob saw you. He watched me come for you. He’ll tell them we went home together.”
“I wasn’t going to ruin your evening...”
“Jordyn. You haven’t ruined my evening.”
“Honest?”
“As far as I’m concerned, the evening’s finally looking up.”
A glowing smile bloomed. “You mean that?”
“Damn straight—now stop dawdling. Let’s go.”
* * *
She dawdled some more in the parking lot. He wanted her to ride with him, and she didn’t want to leave her car.
Finally, he gave in. She followed him home.
They pulled into the yard twenty minutes later and parked side by side beneath the half disc of the silver moon. He got out fast and went to open her door for her, taking her hand and pulling her up from the driver’s seat.
And into his waiting arms.
“Will...” She was sounding breathless again. Her eyes glowed silver, reflecting the moon. “At breakfast yesterday, when I acted so distant?”
“Yeah?” He smoothed her hair again. It was silvery, too, in the moonlight, and so soft and warm.
“I’d started thinking we were getting too intimate, you know? That we needed boundaries.”
“Yeah, I get that. I can see why you would want to back off, after Wednesday night...”
She nodded. “When I told you that there wouldn’t be a baby?”
“Yeah?”
“I felt so close to you, then, Will. I loved the way that you were with me, the way you held me and rubbed my back. The way you comforted me...”
“But?”
“Well, but then in the morning, I got scared.”
“I should have been more understanding. I see that.”
She made a soft sound low in her throat. “And I should have been more honest, should have told you that I was scared, instead of putting up walls.”
“Jordyn, it’s okay.”
Those moon-silvered eyes searched his face. “It is? Really?”
“Yeah.”
“So then, we’re good again, you and me? We’re friends again?”
He wanted to be a lot more than just her friend. But he would take what he could get. As long as she didn’t shut him out, didn’t treat him like some stranger. “Yeah,” he answered in a rough whisper. “We’re friends again.”
“Oh, Will. I’m glad. I don’t like it when things aren’t right between us.”
What was it about her? The light in her eyes, the way she somehow managed to be shy and bold at the same time. She was something, all right. She was one of a kind.
She slid her hand up to his shoulder and then around his neck. Her soft fingers threaded up into his hair. “And can you maybe...?”
“Maybe, what?”
“Ahem. Um...”
He coaxed her, “Come on. Just say it.”
“I, well, I like it when you hold me, Will. I like it when you kiss me. We only have so much time, you and me, together. You know?”
His chest felt suddenly tight, and his heart had set to beating hard and deep. “I know.”
“I don’t want to waste it. I don’t want only to have your affection when someone is watching. I want...” She chickened out.
But by then, he was more than willing to help her along. “Do you want me to kiss you, Jordyn Leigh?”
She swallowed, nodded. “Yeah. That’s what I’m asking. That’s what I want.” She tipped her chin higher, offering those soft lips to him. “Kiss me, Will.”
It was the best offer he’d had since the last time he kissed her, an offer there was no way he was going to refuse.
The Maverick's Accidental Bride (Montana Mavericks: What Happened At The Wedding Book 1) (Contemporary Cowboy Romance) Page 15
