Practically Married

by Christine Rimmer

  From somewhere within the wind that blew around her, Tess could almost hear a sad voice chiding, If he’s to be your husband, he deserves the truth.

  Tess ignored the voice. She would tell no one of her love for Cash. No one. Ever.

  “Tess?”

  She turned back to Zach and gave him a wobbly smile.

  He asked, “Are you worried about Jobeth?”

  Her smile grew brighter. The answer to that question was easy. “I’m not worried in the least. Jobeth is crazy about you.”

  Strangely Jobeth was enough like Zach that she could have been his natural daughter. She had light brown hair like his, and eyes of a similar shade. But more than looks, she had a temperament like Zach’s: even and serious, cautious in a touching and tender way. Jobeth had always looked at her own father with wariness. She’d shied away from Josh’s loud voice and pulled into herself when he grabbed her for a hug. Yet she reached out to Zach, she followed him around. She lived for visits to the ranch, where she loved nothing more than to go out with Zach in the morning and come home at noon, grinning and covered with mud, to announce proudly that she’d helped pull a calf from a ditch or been chased by a bad-tempered bull.

  “She’s a fine girl,” Zach said. “Marry me, and I will treat her as my own—if she’ll let me.”

  Tess wrinkled her nose at him. “She’ll let you. And you know she will.” An extra hard gust of wind hit her, cutting right through her heavy jacket like an icy knife. Tess wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

  Zach watched her shiver and felt like a fool for dragging her out here. It had seemed the right thing, the fitting thing to do: to bring her out on the land to make his proposal. But now they were here, he could see that a warm living room with a cheery fire blazing in the grate would have been a wiser choice.

  She cupped her gloved hands over her red nose and blew on them, warming her face a bit with her own breath. The harsh wind pulled wisps of her curly dark hair from under her hat and blew them wildly around her face.

  Zach wanted to reach out and put his arms around her, to protect her from the cold. But he restrained the urge to shield her with his body. That was something a lover would do.

  And love was not the issue here. They both knew that. They’d discussed what they each wanted from a life’s partner often and at length.

  Both of them had married once for what they had thought was love; and both were determined they wouldn’t make that mistake the second time around.

  This time, Zach had chosen a woman purely for compatibility. Tess had been born to ranching people and she loved the ranching life. He’d learned the hard way that a woman’s love of his chosen life mattered a lot more than any passion she might feel toward him.

  There was one more subject to tackle before he asked for her answer. ‘We should probably talk about “Starr, too.”

  Tess nodded and dropped her hands away from her face. “Oh, yes. Your daughter. She’s...?”

  “Sixteen,” he supplied flatly, wanting to get the information out, to get this talk of his lost, messed-up child behind them. “She lives in San Diego, with her mother. She used to come and stay with me in the summertime. But the past few years...” He didn’t know how to finish, so he just shook his head.

  Sympathy and understanding made Tess’s fine dark eyes look even softer than usual. “I’m sorry.”

  Zach took off his hat again, hit it against his thigh and then eased it back on once more. “It’s how it goes sometimes. Over the years, with the distance between us and the...hostility between her mother and me, well, somehow I lost Starr. She’s like a stranger to me now. But I just wanted to be sure you understood that she’s still my responsibility. I send her mother regular support checks. And it’s always possible she could turn up one of these days. If that happened...”

  Tess finished his sentence for him, with much more assurance than he could have mustered. “...we would welcome her, for a visit, or to live with us, whichever it turned out to be. And I sincerely hope to meet her soon.”

  Zach quelled the urge to mutter, Not damn likely and you’d be sorry if you did. Instead he asked the big question, directly this time. “Will you have me as your husband, Tess?”

  After a long and agonizing silence, she gave him the words he sought.

  “Yes, Zach. I will.”

  Chapter Two

  During the drive back to Medicine Creek Tess asked, “What about Angie?”

  Zach shot her a quick look. “Didn’t I tell you? She’s leaving a week from Monday. Going to live with a daughter in Denver.”

  Angie Iberlin was Zach’s current cook and housekeeper, the latest in a long line of them in the past couple of years. For over two decades, Edna had handled the job. But her illness had forced her to quit and she’d decided not to return. Zach hadn’t had much luck in trying to replace her.

  Tess hid a smile. Now she understood what had finally pushed Zach into popping the question. He would rather take a chance on marriage again than to try to find another housekeeper. That was okay with Tess. She didn’t care what had inspired him to take the big step. He had done it; that was good enough.

  When they got to the house, they found Edna waiting for them.

  “Did you have a nice ride? Brr. It’s so cold out today. Come in, come in.” She took their coats and hats and gloves and hung them on the rack by the door, then she herded them into the kitchen. “Coffee?”

  Tess took the older woman by the shoulders and aimed her at the table. “Sit down. I’ll get it.”

  “It’s made. Fresh. I knew that when you came home, you’d probably want—”

  Zach laughed. “Edna, sit down.”

  Edna dropped to the chair and looked from Zach to Tess and back again. “I...I had the strangest feeling, while you were gone. I thought that maybe...” Her voice trailed off on an expectant note.

  Tess got the cups from the cupboard and the little cream pitcher, too. “You thought that maybe what?”

  “Oh, you know. I know you know.”

  Zach laughed. “You know we know what?”

  Edna pursed her mouth. “Zacharius Bravo, don’t tease me. You know I hate to be teased.”

  Zach gave in. “All right. The truth is, I proposed.”

  Edna let out a glad cry. “I knew it. I knew it.” She turned to look at Tess. “And?”

  Tess filled the cream pitcher. “I accepted.”

  Edna put her hand to her heart. “Oh. I can hardly believe it. When? When will it be?”

  With Angie leaving, Tess knew Zach would want the wedding soon. She shot him a questioning look.

  “This coming Saturday?” he suggested. “At the county courthouse?”

  “Sounds fine with me.”

  “And we’ll have a party after,” Edna announced. “Out at the ranch. Oh, there’s so much to do....”

  Jobeth came in a few minutes later. At the sight of Zach, her face lit up. “You’re still here. Are we going out to the ranch?”

  Tess answered for Zach. “Not today.” She watched the excitement fade from Jobeth’s eyes. “But sit down. We want to talk to you.”

  As soon as she heard the news, Jobeth was beaming again. “We’ll live at the ranch, won’t we? Forever and ever. When can we move in, Zach? When can we go?”

  “Right after the wedding. How’s that?”

  With shining eyes, Jobeth declared that right after the wedding would be just fine with her.

  Tess worked full-time at a gift shop, Amestoy’s Treasure Trove, over on Main Street. First thing Monday, Tess told her employer, Carmen Amestoy, that she was marrying Zach Bravo and that Friday would be her last day.

  Carmen threw up her plump hands and exclaimed, “Oh, no! How will I get along without you?” And then she went on, in that way she had of never waiting for the answer to a question. “Well, it’s not exactly tourist season yet. And things have been slow as molasses in January flowing uphill. So I guess I’ll manage somehow. And it’s about time Zach Brav
o proposed. I want you to be happy. You will be, won’t you? And please don’t be a stranger. All the customers will miss you. Am I invited to the wedding? Well, of course, I am.”

  “Carmen, we’re only going to the courthouse, over in Buffalo.”

  “The party after, then. I’ll come to that. It’ll be at Cash and Abby’s, am I right?”

  Tess shook her head. “Well, no. It’ll be—”

  “If not at Cash and Abby’s, then out at the Rising Sun.”

  “Yes. At the ranch. But it’s only going to be a small—”

  “Whatever. I’ll come.”

  “Of course, if you’d like to.”

  “I suppose you’ll want to shorten your hours a little, for the rest of the week, in order to get everything ready.”

  “As a matter of fact—”

  “All right, all right. Consider yourself part-time.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Now, where are you going for your honeymoon? I think, this time of year, someplace tropical would be—”

  “We’re not.”

  “What? That’s insane. Zach Bravo’s got plenty of money. He can certainly afford to leave his precious cows for a week or two and take his new bride someplace she’ll always remember.”

  “Carmen, we can’t spare the time to go on any honeymoon.”

  Carmen looked crestfallen. “But...you’re newlyweds.”

  “We have a ranch to run.”

  The older woman muttered something about ranchers and the total lack of romance in their souls. Then she spoke briskly, “All right, all right. If you don’t want a honeymoon, that’s your business. Who am I to tell you how to run your life? Who am I to point out that a man and a woman should have a little time, just for the two of them, when they first start out? I’m only Carmen. Your boss, part-time, until Friday...”

  “Oh, Carmen...”

  “No, no. It’s all right. It is your life, after all. What will you wear to be married in? I know. You’ll wear the dress you love. Come right this way.”

  Carmen kept a small clothing section in the rear of the shop. She led Tess there and made her try on the lavender silk dress with the peplum waist that Tess had been coveting from the day it came in.

  “I know you love it,” Carmen said. “And I know you couldn’t afford it. But now you don’t have to. Because I’m giving it to you. As a wedding present.”

  “Oh, no, Carmen, I couldn’t—”

  “Don’t argue with me. I’m your boss. Until Friday, anyway. That dress was made for you. No one else will have it. And you will not pay a cent for it. Now here, try it on....”

  Tess tried to keep saying no, “but Carmen was determined and Tess did want the dress. In the end, she accepted the gift—and spent money she shouldn’t have spent on a satiny nightgown and lacy negligee in almost the same shade as the dress.

  “Just be happy,” Carmen sniffed. “That’s all I ask. Now, don’t stand around. Check that shipment of hurricane lamps. See that none of them are broken. Can you do that? Of course you can. You’re a gem and I don’t know how I’ll get along without you....”

  Tess spent Monday and Tuesday nights packing up for the move. She and Jobeth didn’t have a lot, but still, getting everything ready to go took time.

  On Wednesday, Jobeth turned eight. They had talked the week before about inviting a few of her school friends over for cake and party games. But with all the excitement about the wedding, Tess had dropped the ball. The party just wasn’t going to happen.

  “I’m so sorry, honey,” she told Jobeth that morning.

  Jobeth looked puzzled. “Why be sorry? Zach’s coming tonight, with a stock trailer to move our stuff, isn’t he?”

  “Yes. And instead of celebrating your special day, we’ll be moving our things.”

  “But, Mom, we’ll go out to the ranch! I’ll see Tick and Tack. And Bozo.” Tick and Tack were her favorite barn cats. And Bozo was a bum calf, orphaned during a big blizzard a few weeks before, a calf that Jobeth already thought of as her own. “That’s the way to spend a birthday, if you ask me.”

  “Well,” Tess said indulgently. “I’m glad you’re not too disappointed.”

  “Mom. How could I be disappointed? We’re going to the ranch.” And with that, she slung her pack onto her shoulder and headed out for school.

  Zach arrived with the stock trailer, as promised, at a little after four. They had everything loaded within an hour. Naturally Jobeth begged to ride with Zach. So Tess followed behind them in her ancient 4X4 Tercel. She had a gift for Jobeth on the seat beside her. She planned to present it to her daughter during dinner—which she had prepared herself and put in plastic containers, all ready to heat and serve. Angie Iberlin, Zach’s soon-to-be-ex-housekeeper, was a neat and polite person. She kept things tidy. But her cooking left a lot to be desired. With Tess bringing the meal, she could be sure they would eat well. Earlier that afternoon, she’d called Angie and told her not to worry about fixing dinner for them.

  When they pulled into the yard at the ranch, Tess looked out the windshield at the two-story ranch house and just couldn’t help feeling a little proprietary. The wood siding on the house had been painted a soft dove gray. Tess liked the color, but had noticed during other visits that the paint had started to fade and peel in a few places. She would have to do something about that—after the weather warmed, of course, after she got her garden going and whipped the interior of the house into reasonable shape.

  Zach pulled the trailer around back. Tess followed where he led.

  They found the house empty, as expected. By now, Angie would have gone on over to the foreman’s cottage across the yard, where she stayed when she wasn’t engaged in her housekeeping duties. The three cowhands who worked alongside Zach lived in individual house trailers not far from Angie’s cottage. Angie would serve them their meals in the trailers.

  By six, the stock trailer was empty. Tess’s things waited in the big master bedroom. And Jobeth had carried hers to the room Zach had chosen for her. Zach began lugging the rest—a few pieces of furniture and some kitchen equipment—down to the big basement, where Tess could deal with it later.

  In the master suite, Tess discovered that Zach had cleared out one side of the walk-in closet. Half of the huge double bureau was likewise empty, ready for Tess’s clothes. As she hung her new nightgown and negligee in the closet, Tess couldn’t help thinking that in just a few days, she and Zach would be sharing more than a closet and a bureau in that room. She blushed at the thought, and felt grateful that no one was there to see.

  It would be awkward, she was certain, to make love when they didn’t have that kind of feeling for each other. But she wanted more children so very much. She had always wanted more little ones to raise, though she’d taken great care never to get pregnant again during her marriage to Josh. They’d had too much trouble getting by as it was.

  But now, with Zach, things would be different Zach knew how she felt about children and he had agreed that having more would be fine with him. So after they married on Saturday, they would sleep together, in the big four-poster bed with its pineapple finials. And if God was kind, soon enough there would be a new Bravo baby for Tess to love.

  Tess hung her few good dresses on hangers and filled three of the bureau drawers. The rest of her wardrobe she left in boxes, which she pushed into the closet on the side Zach had cleared for her. She would put it all away properly after the wedding.

  She had just gathered up the empty boxes to carry downstairs when she thought she heard a car pull up out in the yard. The big windows of the master bedroom faced the front of the house, so she drew back the curtain and looked out. Down below, Cash’s Cadillac gleamed in the gathering twilight.

  Tess’s heart leapt in guilty joy at the thought of seeing him—of sharing a few friendly words, of watching him smile. Dropping the empty boxes to worry about later, she flew to the mirror over the bureau and smoothed her hair. Then she hurried from the room.

  She fou
nd Edna waiting at the foot of the stairs, holding a layer cake on a silver plate. Tess could make out the words, Much Happiness—Tess and Zach written in blue icing on top.

  “Surprise!” Edna exclaimed. Then she grinned. “We’re here to make a party. An engagement and birthday party. We’ve brought food. And two cakes. One for the birthday girl. And this one—” she lifted the cake she held higher “—for you and Zach.”

  “But...I brought our dinner,” Tess explained idiotically.

  Cash, who stood a few feet behind Edna, laughed his deep laugh and held out the second cake. “The more food the better, especially if you cooked it, Tess.”

  Thrilled at the sight of him, warmed by the sound of his voice, Tess beamed at him in pure adoration—but only for an instant. She quickly caught herself. She blinked and looked away—and right into Zach’s eyes as he came up the basement stairs across from where she stood.

  Tess’s stomach lurched. For a second that seemed to stretch on into forever, time stopped.

  Tess thought, He knows. He saw. It’s all over now.

  Then Zach asked in a perfectly normal tone of voice, “What’s going on?”

  “A party,” Tess said faintly. She forced a light laugh. “They’re giving us a party.”

  Just then, they heard voices in the front hall.

  “That will be Nate and Meggie,” Edna said.

  “And the baby?” Tess asked, always excited at the prospect of a little one to hold—and right then eager to focus on anything else but what Zach might or might not have seen. “Are they bringing the baby?”

  Edna nodded. “Let’s go have a look at him. And then we must help Abigail. She’s bringing in the rest of the food.”

  Ten minutes later, Edna had commandeered the formal dining room and bidden Angie to come back across the yard and help her with the table. The men and Jobeth had wandered out to the barn to have a look at a Black Angus bull that Zach had just bought. The younger women, Meggie, Abby and Tess, had moved into the great room with the new baby and Abby’s toddler, Tyler Ross.