His Shotgun Proposal

by Karen Toller Whittenburg

  It had taken roughly five minutes after Mac’s forced proposal and her flat refusal of it to get her brothers out of the bedroom. First there had been a scant two seconds of silence as her no bounced off brother after brother after brother after brother. Then Ty grinned as if she’d made a very clever joke and said, “Don’t mind her, Mac. She’s just ticked that we were all in here to hear the proposal.”

  “She’s always tried to be such an independent little thing,” Jaz added.

  “Don’t worry, she’ll marry you,” Brad said.

  “We’re staying until after the wedding,” was Quinn’s thinly veiled threat.

  Mac folded his arms across his chest. “I didn’t doubt it for a second.”

  Abbie didn’t know where to turn her argument and lost the opportunity as first one brother and then the other three moved forward to offer Mac a growl of insincere congratulations. She suspected each of the grudging handshakes they delivered were just this side of bone-crushing and contained more warning than welcome-to-the-family. Certainly, not one of them—including Mac—smiled at any point in the proceedings. Oh, no, the smiles—excluding Mac’s—came as each of her brothers skirted the bed to deliver a proprietary and very big-brotherly kiss on her cheek.

  “Don’t worry about a thing,” Quinn advised her.

  “You okay now?” asked Jaz, who—no surprise—didn’t wait for an answer.

  “You’ll be a beautiful bride,” Tyler assured her.

  “We’ll take care of everything,” Brad said.

  She managed to keep the covers pulled up to her neck and refrained from screaming at them to get out. Not that screaming was apt to have any more favorable effect than not screaming. They weren’t going to listen to her either way.

  So she held her tongue and her temper in check, suffered silently with a fast-shifting array of high emotions—anger, embarrassment, exasperation, frustration, and indignity, to name a few—and waited for the Jones men to get out of the bedroom. But her brothers were in no hurry to leave her alone with Mac and would probably have escorted her out of the bedroom if she’d been wearing even a stitch of clothing. As it was they seemed to be debating their exit, asking and answering each other’s questions, discussing how soon the wedding could take place, where and what time of day, what kind of reception they ought to plan. The four-sided conversation turned to which one of them should call Mom and Dad, who were preparing for a long-planned anniversary trip to Hawaii. The wedding, Brad and Quinn had decided, should take place before Bill and Edie flew off to Maui, which meant it had to take place sooner rather than later. Considering Abbie’s condition, however, any wedding was already later than it ought to have been.

  But finally the brothers tromped out of the room, saying they’d bring in some decaf coffee for her the minute it was ready, advising her—with a final shot to Mac—that they’d be right outside the door should she need them. She released a long, heartfelt sigh the minute the door closed behind them and realized, suddenly, she was angrier with Mac than with any one of her brothers. They, at least, had her best interests at heart, however misguided their methods. Mac on the other hand…

  She turned to him, ready…eager, even…to vent her frustrations. “I don’t know what you thought you were doing, proposing marriage like that.”

  He threw back the covers and hauled his butt out of bed, giving her a premium view of his backside, but otherwise ignoring her, which made her even madder.

  “You should have let me handle them,” she said.

  He raised one arm, reclaimed his Levi’s from the ceiling fan with an efficient little jerk and pulled them on in precise, tightly controlled movements. “I’d say you’ve handled this perfectly already. You should quit while you’re ahead.”

  He thought she’d planned this. After last night, he still thought she was lying. “You’re the one who told them where to find me,” she said tightly in her own defense.

  “I’m sure you had an alternate plan to get them here. I just jumped in to play the hero and saved you the trouble.” He pulled on his boots with such force she thought he might shove his foot right on through the sole. “Either way, you’re getting what you came for, aren’t you?”

  She wished she had one of the boots to throw at him. “I don’t want to marry you!”

  He stood, grabbed his shirt and headed for the door. “Yeah. If I were you, I’d stick to that story. Adds a nice touch of maidenly outrage to a premiere performance.” Then he walked out and closed the door quietly but decisively behind him.

  Abbie hadn’t wasted any time after that attempting to educate her brothers about the mistake they’d made. She hadn’t even bothered to try to correct their erroneous assumption that she would marry Mac because they believed that she should. Instead, she answered a few of their questions about her job and dismissal from Miss Amelia’s Academy, and she did her best to persuade them that no amount of interference on their part would get her reinstated. She ignored their inquiries into where, when and how she’d met Mac, admitting only that she had met him the night of the graduation party. In answer to why she’d picked Texas, of all places, to hide out in, she’d said simply that her friend, Jessica, had invited her. It wasn’t until Quinn wanted to know what in heck had prompted her to invent a summer camp in the Poconos instead of coming straight home to tell her family she was in trouble, that she clammed up like an oyster and said she wasn’t really feeling well enough to talk about it.

  Perhaps because her condition was apparent and unavoidable, now that she was up and dressed in her maternity jeans and big shirt, not one of them seemed eager to mention it. Abbie figured they’d pretend it wasn’t the reason they were set on getting her married and had decided amongst themselves not to say anything at all about the baby until after the wedding had made an honest woman of her again. Which would be just fine with her. She didn’t want to talk about the baby yet. She hated knowing that she’d disappointed them, but regret wouldn’t undo even one of the mistakes she’d made. Better all around to spend her energy on not making the further mistake of getting married for all the wrong reasons.

  An hour later, she’d escaped to the big house, showered, changed her clothes and found refuge in the office. She settled behind her desk to brood over the mess she was in now while Jessica argued loudly and apparently without much success with Nick Grayson, the son and heir of the Dallas branch of Coleman-Grayson. Abbie didn’t actually know that was who was on the other end of the phone conversation, but since Nick seemed to be able to incite Jessie’s red-haired temper simply by being on the same planet, it was a good guess.

  A few minutes later, Jessie slammed down the phone and glared at it for good measure. “Eat dirt and die, Nick Grayson!” she said, confirming Abbie’s suspicion. “That man is so stuck on himself he probably saves the stubble from his razor for future generations to marvel over. Yuck! I know Dad has always wanted me to take over the management here, but I swear, Abbie, if I have to work with Nick, I’m not sure I want to learn to run this damn company!”

  Abbie offered a sympathetic nod, although privately she thought she’d happily trade all the obnoxious men in her life for the one who was a bee in Jessie’s bonnet. Nick had been very nice to her the couple of times they’d spoken over the phone. “My brothers are here,” she said to Jess, getting straight to the subject she knew her friend was dying to discuss. “Still want that introduction? Take your pick. There’s four of them and I’ll give you a discount if you take more than one.”

  Jessie’s cheeks stayed flushed in the aftermath of her argument with Nick, but she did manage a wry smile. “I met them earlier. Four big, good-looking guys who hopped a red-eye flight to Austin because they were worried sick about their baby sister.”

  “Yes, well, now they’re just worried about getting her married.”

  Jessie didn’t seem surprised. “I heard. They’re going to be staying in the guest house until after the wedding,” she said, which wasn’t exactly news to Abbie, either. “I
’d say it was a wholesale Jones invasion, except that Mom invited them to make themselves at home. I guess your parents will be coming, too?”

  Abbie sighed, dreading everything about the day ahead of her. “I hope not. I told Quinn that I wanted to be the one to phone them today and explain what’s happened. If my brothers will let me do that much, maybe I can stop Mom and Dad from making an unnecessary trip.”

  “I, uh, wouldn’t count on that,” Jessie said, her expression sympathetic but consoling. “I think my mom’s already offered to call and invite them to stay here, too. Knowing her, she’s probably already phoned, and double-checked whether they take their coffee black or with cream and sugar.”

  Abbie appreciated the Colemans’ generous hospitality. She really did. But she wished they didn’t have to be such gracious and accommodating hosts. “I’ll straighten it all out somehow.”

  “You want to practice on me?” Jess suggested.

  Abbie sighed, knowing she had to start somewhere and deciding she’d keep her account brief and vague until she’d sorted out the rumors circulating among the Colemans. “Mac proposed,” she said dully.

  Jessie’s eyes widened in surprise. “He did?”

  Oops. Obviously that detail hadn’t made it into the loop.

  “I thought maybe your brothers just sort of took that part for granted.” Sinking into the desk chair, Jessie seemed momentarily lost for what to say. “But he actually said the words ‘will you marry me?’”

  No point in denying it now. “Yes.”

  “And what did you say?”

  “No.”

  “No?”

  Abbie frowned at her friend’s astonished response. “Did you expect me to go along with this wedding nonsense just because my brothers are behaving like insane dictators?”

  Jessie made a face. “No, I thought you were getting married because Mac said you were.”

  “Mac said that?” The last Abbie had seen of him, he’d been walking out the door, too furious with the world to offer a word of explanation.

  “He walked into the kitchen over an hour ago and announced to everyone assembled there that he was the father of your baby and the two of you would be getting married right away. Then he walked out, leaving us in something of an uproar.”

  Abbie lifted her chin. “He said that?” Surely Jess was exaggerating, putting her own spin on what had actually been said. Mac wouldn’t suddenly claim paternity of the baby he was dead set on denying was his. He might have said she was claiming the baby was his. He might have said she was insisting he was the father. He might even have said she didn’t know who the father of her baby was. None of which made any of this easier. “Who was there?”

  “In the kitchen, you mean?” Jessie thought back and ticked off the names. “Me, Mom, Dad, Aunt Rose, Hannah and Alex, Ella and Hal, Stanley Fox, Olivia, and a couple of the boarders…Savannah, I think, and oh, I can’t remember the other one’s name right now.” She turned a wry expression to Abbie. “It was a good crowd. I imagine everyone on the ranch has heard about it by now.”

  Abbie wished her bones would just dissolve so she could slink through the floorboards and slither off into oblivion. “And I thought getting fired because I was pregnant was as embarrassing as it could get.”

  “I guess getting caught in bed with Mac sort of upped the ante, though, huh?” Jessie said, then added a sly, “You were in bed with him, weren’t you?”

  There didn’t seem any point in lying about that, either. “Yes,” she admitted glumly, and decided to just confess the rest of the story and get it over with. “Mac is the mystery man I met at our graduation party. We spent that one night together, I left the next day for my job, but I swear, Jessie, I had no idea he was your cousin. I didn’t know until I got here.”

  “And he had no idea you were the friend I’d begged to come help me in the office.” Jessie didn’t wait for Abbie to confirm or deny it, as the pieces of the story began to fall into place for her. “I wondered why he was so interested in who I’d been in school with, and why he kept asking questions about what my friends were doing since graduation, as if I’d know about every single person who made an appearance at that graduation party. I can’t believe he was charming enough to sweep you off your feet and then was too backward to get your name. He must have been really intoxicated.”

  “He wasn’t drunk,” she said, offended. “And neither was I. It was just the atmosphere.”

  “I didn’t mean to make it sound like he’d have had to be drinking to fall head over heels for you in the space of one night, Abbie. I’m just surprised that after being so cautious for so long he’d fall hard without being absolutely certain of who you were.”

  “That was my fault. I wanted to be anonymous, mysterious. I had plans, you know, and didn’t want the complications.” Abbie sighed. “Boy, was that a stupid idea. The Fates were probably lined up, jostling each other to be first to hand out my comeuppance for that bit of impertinence.”

  “I knew something was going on the minute the two of you walked in after he picked you up at the airport, but it didn’t dawn on me that he was the baby’s father until a few days later when you and I were talking. You could have told me, Abbie. I am your friend.”

  “But he’s family.”

  “One doesn’t cancel out the other. It makes you just that much more special to me.”

  Surprise brought a sting of tears to her eyes, but Abbie blinked them back. She wasn’t crying—or even coming close to it—today. Too much depended on her getting this situation straightened out. Hormones or no hormones. “You believe me?” she asked simply.

  Jessie’s quick frown was reassurance in and of itself. “Why wouldn’t I?” Then, in an instant, the frown switched to a look of comprehension. “Mac doesn’t believe you, does he? He thinks you set him up, got pregnant on purpose, showed up here knowing he was a newly discovered prince. That’s why he’s been so angry lately.”

  Abbie sighed. “He doesn’t believe it’s his baby, either.”

  “Since he asked you to marry him, Abbie, he must think that, at least, is possible.”

  Abbie shook her head. “I don’t know why he didn’t just tell my brothers to get the hell out of his bedroom and off his ranch. I don’t know why he proposed. But I do know he’s never going to believe I’m telling the truth about any of this.”

  “A paternity test will convince him.”

  “I’ll die a slow and lingering death before I ever give him the satisfaction of submitting my child to that. He either takes us on faith or not at all.” She paused, realizing what she’d said. “Not that I care one way or the other what he does. If I’d known he would be here, I’d never have set foot on the Desert Rose ranch in the first place. No matter how much I wanted to see you.’

  Jessie pressed her lips together, as if she had to stop herself from defending Mac further. She got up from her desk and walked around it, crossing the space between the two desks and reaching across the cluttered desktop to close her hands comfortingly over Abbie’s. “Don’t worry. It’ll all turn out for the best. He’s going to marry you and make a home for you and the baby. After his experience with Gillian—I’ll tell you all about her later—it’s understandable he’s a little uncomfortable with your brothers showing up and all. It’s an awkward situation. But believe me, Mac would not have asked you to marry him if he hadn’t been planning on doing it anyway.”

  Abbie shook her head, knowing Jessie would want to see her cousin in the best possible light. “He told me about Gillian,” she said. “I know he’s still bitter over the way she tricked him and you’re right, it’s understandable that he’d be leery of any pregnant woman who pointed an accusing finger at him. But I know for a fact, Jessie, he’d rather shoot himself through the heart than marry me.”

  It was clear from her expression that Jessie didn’t believe that. She didn’t, however, say so aloud, and for that and her friendship, Abbie was grateful.

  “I think you could use some a
dvice about how to handle a royal, princely pain in the butt.” Jessie squeezed her hands in a gesture of support. “Come on. Let’s go find Mom and Aunt Rose.”

  “I can’t face them,” Abbie protested. “They’ve been so kind and they’re not going to believe me and…and my brothers are here, and it’s all so awful.”

  “You’re carrying Mac’s child,” Jessie said softly. “Trust me, the Coleman women are on your side.”

  “I SUGGESTED YOU TRY being nice to her, spend some quality time with her. I didn’t advise you to sleep with her and then get caught by her brothers red-handed and bare-assed in bed with her.” Cade stood next to his truck, one foot on the running board, one foot flat on the ground, preparing to head to Austin on business, but taking a few minutes to give his unsolicited opinion. “Jeez, Mac, what were you thinking?”

  “I wasn’t,” Mac snapped, angry with the world as a whole and his lot in particularly. He certainly wasn’t in the mood to discuss the morning’s events with his twin or anyone else. “Just drop it, will you?”

  “Well, I’d like to, but from what I’ve heard already, I don’t think you can expect the subject to just up and go away.” Cade tipped back the brim of his hat. “Damn, Mac, Alex told me you stood right there in the kitchen and said straight out that it’s your baby.”

  “I also said I’m marrying her. Did he tell you that?”

  “Yeah, he mentioned that, too.” Cade gave his head a shake, clearly disgusted with the turn of events. “It is your property, you know. You could have just ordered her brothers off it.”