Man of Honor, A

by Tina Leonard

  probably get a ton of cancellations this a.m. Come over in fifteen, Tessa. Cord, we'll probably just start easy today with two hours, and if the roads get bad, I'll get the little pre- bundle of joy right back here."

  She never even looked back for his confirmation. Together, Tessa and Cord watched the elderly woman make her way across the gravel driveway to the open field that lay between the two houses. Once she gained her own yard. Cord swung the door shut. "Tessa"

  "Don't ever tell me what to do." Her large eyes were full of blue fire, her skin flushed along the cheekbones with anger. "Please, Cord. Mrs. Ashley is offering me an opportunity I don't

  intend to pass up. I need a job. I know I said I'd stick close to the house, today at least, but I won't be alone, and it's just a short drive into town."

  He stared at her, suddenly starting to understand the hasty jump at employment.

  "Tessa, I'm just worried"

  "I know you are. And I appreciate that. But please try to understand that both of us are worrying right now." She put her hands on her hips. "I don't think you understand that I'm going to be raising a child alone. Even if Hunt isn't d-dead" she hesitated after forcing the

  word out "he might not be able to help me with the baby. She's offering me a chance I just can't afford to pass up."

  "Tessa!" Cord couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Surely you don't think I wouldn't provide for my own blood."

  "I know you would." Her voice was full of quiet determination. "You want to provide for me right now and I'm no blood relation of yours. But, Cord, I can't go from one brother to the other just because there's a child involved. I have to stand on my own two feet. "

  He recoiled from the meaning in her words.

  "God, Tessa, I…"

  They looked into each other's eyes for a long moment. He nodded once, his heart tearing. Somewhere in his subconscious, maybe, just maybe, he had been relishing his role of stand-in man in Tessa's life. Sure, he owed it to Hunt to take care of his girlfriend, but she was Hunt's girlfriend. Not his. And she never would be. The tearing went further than his heart and deep into his soul.

  "You're right," he said quietly. "I may be trying to hold you too tightly because of Hunt. I may be overly suspicious because I got spooked last night. But I won't interfere in your personal life again, Tessa. " He swallowed, avoiding her gaze. "You are your own woman in my eyes."

  Before she could reply, he strode out the door, heading for the barn. So she couldn't see that there was more than brotherly concern in his eyes.

  Chapter Three

  Cord waited until he saw Tessa walk across the field to Nan Ashley's house before emerging from the barn. He went into his study through the back door, watching out the window until Nan's car pulled out of her driveway and pointed toward town.

  Sighing, he picked up the phone and dialed some numbers.

  Tessa had unfortunately been right. He had been overbearing in his role as protector. He had basically forced her to come to his ranch for his own feelings of security. He had asked her to stay close to the ranch today to ease his own fears.

  He bowed his head as the phone rang at the other end. Tessa had made it as clear as the glassy icicles hanging from the eaves that she wanted to fly solo, regardless of whether Hunt ever returned to her.

  She wanted to find her own way in the world.

  He understood that desire. He simply wished her way in the world led to him.

  No one answered at the military base. Frowning, he considered his two options: Call again later, or go looking for answers.

  Putting on his Stetson and grabbing up his keys, Cord locked the door behind him. Tessa would be with Nan at the beauty parlor for a few hours; knowing she was safe gave him unworried license to leave the ranch.

  "This is going to work out very well for both of us."

  Tessa smiled at the pleased note in Nan's voice as she steered the vintage sedan into town.

  "I'm so glad you needed help."

  "I'd say you're the one who needs help," Nan pointed out wryly. "Cord looked like he swallowed a rock when you asked me for a job."

  He had looked dismayed. Tessa guiltily shoved the memory aside.

  "Cord's got enough to do without watching out for me."

  "Could be he wants to."

  Tessa shook her head at the pert reply.

  "Cord considers it an obligation on his brother's behalf."

  "Because of the baby?"

  Tessa started to shake her head again but realized the baby likely had a lot to do with his vigilant watch over her last night.

  "Partly," she admitted reluctantly, not willing to divulge that Cord had received unwelcome news last night from men he didn't trust. That was a confidence she wouldn't share with anyone until Cord could determine whether he had reason to mourn his brother or not.

  "You know, Tessa, from where I'm sitting, it seems you're in a bit of a pickle."

  Tessa sighed.

  "When do you plan to tell your mother?"

  "I'm not. Not right now." Her answer was sharp.

  "I suppose it's too much to hope that a grandbaby in the picture might soften Hester up."

  Tessa pressed her lips tightly together and shrugged at the pain-inflicting words. Nan didn't mean to pry at old, never-healed wounds.

  "Where I'm concerned, my mother is never going to believe there is any good in me. A grandchild out of wedlock will certainly clad her opinion in iron."

  "Oh, gal." Nan settled her rain bonnet more firmly onto her hair. "How long are you staying at Cord's?"

  "I don't know." The question was startling. "I didn't mean to stay there last night, but he insisted. He felt it was in my best interest."

  "Oh?" Nan jumped on that information.

  Tessa struggled to think of a way out of her accidental admission. "I think he was worried about the ice storm the weathermen were predicting for today."

  "Pooh. TV weathermen are just props. Gives the viewers a break to see someone with a smile on his face. Not that those guys know beans about what they're forecasting." Nan waved that away. "Ice storm's coming tonight. I've been keeping an eye on the Farmer's

  Almanac, and there are several clues in the woods around my house and Cord's that make me think it's tonight, tomorrow night at the latest.

  And when it comes, it's going to be a doozy! " She sneaked a glance at Tessa. "You'd best stay at the ranch a few more days."

  Tessa parked in front of Nan's Beautiful Woman salon.

  Turning off the ignition, she faced her new employer "There is nothing going on between Cord and me."

  "Oh, I believe you." Nan nodded sagely in perfect understanding. "But would it hurt if you gave it a chance, honey?"

  Tessa stared at Nan.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Simply that love can grow in the rockiest soil if all the other conditions are right. Cord would make a fine husband and father. You'll be a fine mother and could be a wife he'd be proud of. After all the years of searching, you could finally have a real family." The

  elderly woman put a hand over Tessa's briefly. Nan's skin was warm, wrinkled and imparted caring, which felt like heaven to Tessa's starved heart.

  "But you've got to allow yourself to be open to being loved, Tessa. If you push it away all your life by looking in the wrong places, you never will find it. You deserve to be loved, Tessa."

  She couldn't look at Nan any longer. It was a benediction to hear that someone believed in her - and yet Tessa wondered if Nan's faith was misplaced.

  "We'll be late," she said miserably, hoping to get the good-hearted woman off the subject of handsome Cord. She just couldn't think of him too much. It would be wrong, wrong to fall into his arms when she was pregnant with his brother's child.

  "One of the perks of being companion to the boss lady is that you're on my time," Nan said

  cheerfully.

  "I get to work when I feel like it." She opened the door, carefully setting her snow-booted feet onto the pa
ved road. "I won't bring it up again, Tessa," she suddenly said with a backward glance. "I certainly don't mean to make you uncomfortable. And I sure am going

  to like having a driver." She gave Tessa an irrepressible grin.

  Tessa doubted that Nan would be able to stay off the subject of Cord, but she knew the woman meant her no harm. Like the horse that was led to water but did not drink, Tessa did not have to fall in love with Cord. It was as simple as that.

  "Senor cowboy is leaving." Salvador put down his field glasses and looked at Rossi.

  "He is guarding her."

  Salvador pulled a warm knit cap over his bald head.

  "She would have been upset last night when he went to her with the bad news about his brother." He sent his companion a shrewd look.

  "It is all proceeding according to plan."

  "I hope so. I don't want to freeze out here for days. Killing them both would be easier. "

  "We won't have to be cold much longer. If she is going to walk to the old woman's house, she will be in the open and that is so easy, like" Salvador snapped his fingers "- like that."

  "It's daylight," Rossi protested.

  "What's the difference? If he is out with his cows, he cannot hear her. The old woman would not be any trouble, either."

  "Could be yes, could be no."

  "Come on." Salvador was impatient with Rossi's lack of awe for his brilliant plan, which so far was working like a clock. Smooth, unhurried - and on time. They could snatch the girl and drag her out of the country quickly.

  That would bring the enemy known as the Hunter out of hiding. Salvador smiled grimly to himself as he pulled on brown leather gloves. Or a brother for a brother would be a fair payment.

  All he needed was the woman to bring the Hunter into the open again.

  The woman might not betray her lover willingly, but he could think of ways to make her do what he wanted.

  Cord didn't even make it past the MP at the gate.

  "I'm sorry, sir," the regretful MP told him. "I can't let you in without instructions."

  Cord ground his teeth. The kid was all of twenty- two, and this morning Cord was feeling every day of his thirty years.

  This young, crisply uniformed MP knew nothing about war while Cord had a war waging inside him.

  "Can't you call someone? My brother's old CO, Col. John West? I just want some answers. I only want to know if he's dead or alive, for crying out loud. Is that too much to ask?"

  "Try calling for an appointment, sir," he said respectfully. But firmly.

  Cord sighed, realizing he'd gotten as far as he was going to.

  "I'm just doing my job, sir. I hope you find out what you need to know."

  The MP's eyes held concern for an instant. Just doing my job. Well, Hunt had just been doing his job when he disappeared without a trace.

  And Cord was doing his job taking care of his brother's pregnant girlfriend. He sighed through the pain in his heart, nodded at the MP, then circled his truck around to the exit. He couldn't fault the MP for doing such a conscientious job.

  Hopefully, the military would be just as diligent in turning up his brother's whereabouts.

  All he could do was return home and place a few more phone calls. By then, he trusted he'd have figured out a way to convince Tessa that she was better off under his roof until Hunt was found.

  the truck left the base while the MP watched, his eyes no longer sympathetic but focused. He reached for the phone and dialed a number.

  When the call was answered, he recognized the voice. "Colonel?"

  "John West speaking."

  "My orders are to call you if anyone should ask to see you. Civilian Cord Greer was just here. He is trying to locate his brother"

  He heard a sigh at the other end of the line.

  "Why?"

  "Said he wanted to know if his brother is dead or alive, sir."

  "That will be all. Lieutenant. I'll take care of this matter from here."

  The last thing Tessa expected was to find herself in a salon chair under Nan's ministering fingers.

  "You need a day of pampering," Nan told her firmly.

  "I need a job," Tessa protested as her employer gently pressed her head back into a sink.

  With determination. Nan picked up the squirter and began rinsing Tessa's hair.

  "Nothing like a new do to a lift a gal's spirits."

  "My spirits are fine. It's my purse that's lighter than air. I really need a job, Nan.

  "You've got a job. Relax." Nan kneaded her scalp with soothing digs.

  "You're too keyed up." She leaned down to whisper in Tessa's ear, "And stress isn't good for the baby."

  Tessa gave up and closed her eyes. If she had to be a prisoner of Nan's interference, at least it was in a beauty-salon chair.

  I wonder if Cord likes my hair so long. Her eyes snapped open at the stray thought.

  "All this blond hair is like sunshine in winter," Nan told her. "Wasn't that a poetic turn of phrase?"

  Tessa closed her eyes again, unwilling to reward the woman's romantic penchant.

  "Relax," Nan commanded her in a firm voice. She massaged the skin behind Tessa's ears and above her neck.

  Tessa could feel herself slowly succumbing. The languor was magical and enticing. What would it hurt to enjoy this for just a moment?

  It would hurt. Because you like the idea of looking pretty for Cord - and that's wrong.

  "Men go crazy for long blond hair," Nan stated blithely. "Yours has natural highlights. I bet Cord will just about drop his teeth when I get finished with you. You're going to be sexy, gal!"

  Tessa struggled not to jerk her head out of the basin and leap away from Nan's mind reading.

  "It doesn't do me much good to be sexy when the father of my child is... in another part of the world, does it?" She made her tone purposefully forbidding to force Nan onto the proper track.

  Away from Cord.

  Nan hummed benignly as she scrubbed. Tessa wanted to snap at her to stop, to quit being so bent on seeing her fall for Cord, but she set her teeth and refused to encourage the woman any further. Any protest she offered would no doubt become ammunition for Nan's cause.

  "Now, then. You're as clean as a fresh canvas. Let me help you," Nan said, easing her up from the basin, "and get you over there, then I'll get started. When I'm done with you, Tessa, no man will be able to resist you."

  Great, Tessa thought. Unfortunately, the only man who should resist her was the only one who would lay eyes on Nan's handiwork.

  "Look at these puppies!" a lady called as she came into the salon. "I wish you'd look at the puppies my Bertha is about done nursing!"

  Several women peered into the basket.

  "Oh, they're adorable," someone said.

  Tessa read a magazine and concentrated on Tom Cruise pushing a stroller with his wife beside him. The picture of domestic harmony made her a little envious. Would Hunt want to push their baby's stroller? She found it difficult to imagine where Hunt was concerned.

  Not so difficult to imagine it with Cord.

  "Here, Tessa." Nan's voice in her ear suddenly alerted Tessa to the object being placed upon her gown-protected lap. "This is what you need to cheer you up!"

  The black-and-white-spotted puppy went back to sleep in her lap as if it hadn't been removed from its bed in the basket.

  "I can't keep a dog," Tessa said though she desperately wanted to pat the chubby animal.

  "Take it away. Nan."

  "Nonsense." Nan ignored her. "A dog will give you some of that stability you've been searching for. You can start building a home with such stability."

  "With a man who isn't mine and a dog that isn't mine."

  Tessa's voice was wry as she relented and picked up the puppy. Its eyes were closed, but its plump body was warm and soft.

  "They could be - if you take them. Sometimes we have to reach out in life to say yes to the things we want. Nobody's going to shove security down your throat, Tessa. You
have to accept that you want it before you can have it."

  The puppy sleepily opened its eyes, staring into Tessa's gaze with absolute trust. With absolute patience.

  "I wish you'd look at what a fine pup my Bertha had. You won't find patience and calm in just any old dog. Bertha took such good care of her entire litter that they are all like that!" the owner boasted.

  "I don't think I'm up for housebreaking," Tessa said, her tone uncertain as she tried to think of rational excuses to say no to this shaggy dog that appeared to have all the signs of becoming one big Border collie.

  "You'll probably want to go out at night. I bet your owner is overly touting your serene disposition. Are you an every-hour-on-the-hour needy hound that's going to keep me up all night?"

  "Give you practice. We'll take him," Nan said, taking the woman by her elbow and leading her to the front of the beauty shop.

  Tessa saw Nan give the woman some money. Unhappily, she looked back into the puppy's troubled eyes.

  "You just cost me money I don't have." The puppy yawned, its tongue pink and tiny.

  "Oh, dear. You are cute." Reluctantly, she gave herself up to the dog's charm and held his warmth under her chin.

  Breathing deeply, she smelled the warm puppy fragrance. What if it was all that easy? What if the dreams of a secure future for her child were so near her grasp that all she had to do was reach out - then hold on to them the way she was holding on to this bundle of fur? She settled the puppy on her lap, and it curled itself up next to the roundness of her stomach. A baby and a puppy.

  Parts of a family. But not the whole picture she had in her dreams.

  Salvador peered into the bedroom window where the woman obviously slept. Her robe and gown were neatly laid on the bed in the sparsely furnished room.

  "What if she does not stay here again?" Rossi asked.

  Salvador shook his head, memorizing the location of the furniture in the room and the placement of the window.

  "She will. He will not let her go. He is suspicious, I think."

  Salvador enjoyed knowing he was getting to the man in the black cowboy hat. He was like one of the villains he'd seen in many American movies. The bad guys always wore black hats. Salvador was not the bad guy. The cowboy was, because his brother had gotten Salvador's brother killed. It was a matter of honor to avenge his brother's death.