Marriage On The Edge

by Sandra Marton

  Jonas poured, tipped a drop of water into each glass, then raised his in a toast.

  "To the Baron dynasty. And to my sons, who are its future.”

  Gage, Slade and Travis paused with their glasses halfway to their mouths, stopped cold by the untypical sentiment. They looked at each other, then at their father.

  "You are ill," Travis said flatly.

  Jonas snorted. "I'm as fit as a bull in season, boy." "Well, in that case ... Thank you, Father. I'm sure Gage and Slade are as pleased as I am that you feel-"

  '''Course, I'm not fool enough to think all three of you see it that way."

  Gage looked at his brothers, who shrugged. "Sorry?" "Sorry for what, boy?" Jonas puffed out a cloud of cigar smoke. "Far as I can tell, you haven't done any thin' to apologize for. Not yet, anyway."

  "I meant that I didn't understand what you Just said, Father. About us being your future but not seeing it that way."

  "I didn't say you boys were my future. I said you were the future. A man works his ass off all his life, he don't want to see it all go to the grave with him."

  Slade stretched out his legs and crossed his booted feet.

  "You're a long way from the grave, Pop," he said lazily:

  "Sit up straight. Don't call me 'Pop.' Don't tell me he’s, neither. I'm eighty-five tomorrow. How much longer do you think I've got?" Jonas tossed back the last of his bourbon, put down his glass and ground his cigar into it. "Here's the situation. Baron Oil and Baron Mining, Baron Properties ... every last one of my companies can go on without me. You know that, or you should, considerin' that you three sit 'on their boards."

  "Dollar-a-year men, Father," Gage said with a glittering smile. "We don't take a penny from you. And we'd appreciate it if you'd remember that."

  Jonas laughed. "Standin' up to me, are you, boy? Well, that's fine. You might not have learned how to smoke a cigar or to handle that wife of yours-"

  Gage shot to his feet. "Are we back to that crap?" "Gage," Slade said softly, "take it easy."

  "No. Hell, no. I want to know what that remark means." "Don't bust a gut, boy. Any fool could tell that girl pardon me-could tell that your Natalie would sooner have found herself standing next to a rattler than next to you."

  Gage glared at his father. "Maybe she finally figured out that your blood flows in my veins," he said, and walked out of the room.

  Slade and Travis found him exactly where they'd expected to find him, sitting on a bale of hay up in the loft of the old barn where they, used to gather when they were boys and called themselves Los Lobos.

  "By God," Slade said as he sank down beside Gage, "I can't believe we really used to hang out in this place."

  Travis grinned as he settled opposite them. "Hey, Brother Wolves, we were kids, and kids aren't noted for being too clever."

  "Seems as though I haven't made much progress from then to now," Gage said glumly. He leaned back on his elbows. "Tell me I didn't let the old man get under my skin just now."

  Slade sighed. "You want to tell him that, Trav?"

  "No way. If one of us is gonna lie, Slade, I figure it might as well be you."

  "Okay, okay, I get the message." Gage sat up, plucked a strand of hay from the floor and twirled it between his fingers. "I was an idiot, right?"

  "Right," his brothers said in unison.

  Gage glowered at them both. "Thanks." "You're welcome," Slade said, and smiled.

  After a moment, Gage smiled, too. "Amazing. I'm thirty-one years old, and he still knows how to push all the right buttons."

  "Well," Travis drawled, "of course he does, otherwise he wouldn't be Jonas Baron, now, would he?"

  The brothers laughed. There was a silence, and then Travis cleared his throat.

  "You want to talk about it?" Gage shook his head. "No." "You sure?"

  "Positive.'

  Slade and Travis looked at each other. "Well," Slade said, "in that case-" "She left me." "She what?"

  "I said, she left me." "Natalie left you?"

  "What is this, a Greek chorus?" Gage glowered at his brothers. "Take a number, okay? One of you speak at a time."

  Travis cleared his throat. "Natalie and you split up?"

  "No."

  "But you just said-"

  "He said she left him," Slade said.

  "Well, I know he did. But if she left him, that means-" "Holy Toledo!" Gage jumped to his feet and planted his hands on his hips. "I am right here. Right here, in front of you. You want to talk about me, at least wait until I leave." He stalked towards the ladder that led down from the loft. "Matter of fact, I'll take off right now and give you guys the chance to talk yourselves blue in the face."

  ''I'm sorry," Travis said quickly.

  "Yeah," Slade added. ''I'm sorry, too. Come on, Gage, sit down."

  Gage took a deep breath. Then he turned and looked at the two of them.

  "Hell," he said miserably, "I didn't meant to jump all over you guys. It's just that-that-"

  He sank down on the bale of hay again, propped his elbows on his knees and put his face in his hands. Travis and Slade exchanged glances, and then Slade spoke.

  "What happened?" he said softly.

  Gage sighed, sat up straight and shook his head. "I don't know."

  Slade looked at Travis. "He doesn't know."

  Travis nodded. "Yeah." He leaned forward and laid a hand on Gage's knee. "It's rough man. I've been there."

  "Give me a break, Trav. You were married for, what, a year? Nat and I have been together ten years. Longer, if you count the times we used to sneak around here, avoiding her old man and ours. And Cathy didn't leave you, you left her. For damn good reasons."

  "Details," Travis said.

  A smile eased across Gage's mouth. "Maybe. But important details, you have to admit."

  Travis sat back. "Sure, but it's the same point. I left, but I didn't really know all the reasons I'd left until I'd had time to calm down."

  "Look," Gage said tightly, "I'm telling you it isn't the same. Nobody married anybody for money. Nobody cheated on anybody. Nobody's fallen out of love."

  "Then, how come Nat left you?" Slade asked.

  Gage swung towards him. "How in hell should I know?

  Dammit, Slade ... " His angry words drifted to silence. "She didn't marry me for my money," he said after a minute.

  "What money?" Slade said, and Gage laughed.

  "Exactly. I had fifty bucks in my pocket the night we ran off to Vegas." He sighed, rose to his feet, tucked his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. "And she hasn't cheated on me-and don't either of you risk a fat lip by asking me if I'm sure about that." Gage shrugged his shoulders. "I know Natalie, at least, I used to know her. And no matter what else has changed, that hasn't. She wouldn't do something like that, and you guys know it."

  Slade and Travis nodded. "You're right," Travis said. He blew out his breath. "So, that leaves the last thing."

  "What thing?"

  "The bit about nobody falling out of love."

  "Well, nobody has. Dammit all, I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to convince myself that I don't love Natalie anymore but who am I kidding? I love her. I always have, and I always will."

  Slade and Travis exchanged glances and then Slade cleared his throat.

  "Yeah," he said carefully, "but that doesn't mean nobody's fallen out of love." . "

  "I just told you. Nobody has. I still love... Gage fell silent. His eyes met his brother's. "Oh, man," he whispered, and shoved both hands through his hair. "She can't have stopped loving me. She can't."

  "Well," Travis said after a couple of minutes of endless silence, "you know that old cliché, right? It takes two."

  Gage shot him a look that was part fury and part despair. "Look," Travis said, "I'm not going to lie to you, man. I'm a lawyer. I don't specialize in divorce law but I see enough of it to know that, well, things change."

  "No," Slade said firmly. "You're saying that because you've been b
urned yourself, but what Gage and Nat have is different. Don't give me that look, Travis. I’m right and you know it." He sighed. "Their marriage is the only one I've ever seen that works."

  "It did work," Gage said. "And, by God, I'll make it work h " again. I just need to figure out w at went wrong ..

  "Gage," Travis said gently, "any man who thinks he can get into a woman's head is a man with a big problem. Women are beautiful. They're bright. They're exciting." He shook his head. "But even the good ones, like Natalie, are too complex for any poor bastard in pants to figure out."

  "Amen to that," a male voice said.

  The brothers swung towards the ladder, and towards the head and shoulders that had appeared.

  "Sorry," Slade said politely, "but this is a private-".

  Gage rose slowly to his feet. "Grant?" he Said in disbelief. Grant Landon, dressed in a dark suit, starched white Shirt and red silk tie, smiled.

  "Yeah," he said, batting unsuccessfully at the hay caught in his hair. "It's me." He glanced around the loft, at the all male contingent, and smiled again. "So, what's the deal here, Gage? Do you have to be a Baron to join this I Don't Understand the Female of the Species Club, or can any poor, benighted S.O.B. become a member?"

  Gage, Travis, and Slade grinned.

  "You've got the agenda right," Gage said, "but the name of the club is Los Lobos." He looked at his brothers. "Fellow Wolves, what do you think? I can vouch for this guy. He's lean, he's mean ... ·'

  "'He's part of the team,''' Slade said, and extended his hand to Grant. "You're in, pal."

  "Yeah." Travis shook Grant's hand, too, then smiled as Grant climbed the last rungs of the ladder and stepped into the loft. He eyed him up and down and his smile turned into a grin. "Except, you're gonna have to learn to wear the Los Lobos uniform. Suits, ties and wingtips just don't cut it."

  Grant rolled his eyes. "Maybe I joined the wrong club," he said. "You're starting to sound just like my wife."

  Gage laughed. Really laughed, which was something he hadn't done in a very long time. Slade and Travis, then Grant Landon, joined in.

  And it occurred to Gage that maybe coming home hadn't been such a bad idea, after all.

  CHAPTER SIX

  CAITLIN MCCORD felt helpless.

  It was a new and altogether unpleasant sensation, but try as she might, she couldn't feel any other way.

  What did you do, when your stepsister-in-law bawled her eyes out? Well, you asked what was wrong. And when she shook her head and went right on crying, you hustled her into the house, up the steps and into her room. Then you asked the question again, and when she blew her nose into a handful of tissues, then looked at you through tear-filled eyes and said that nothing was wrong, that she was weeping and snuffling because of an allergy, you were really at a loss.

  Caitlin, naturally, didn't believe any of it. Allergies didn't put that look of despair on a woman's face. Still, if that was the story Natalie wanted her to swallow, she'd pretend to gag it down, at least until she could get Gage alone and find out what he'd done to make his wife so miserable.

  Men, after all, were the cause of misery. And Gage, though she loved him dearly, was a man.

  So Caitlin smiled and said, oh yes, allergies were horrible things, weren't they? And then, to keep the ball rolling, she'd launched into some light anecdotes about the problems she'd had planning Jonas's big birthday party ...

  "Birthday party?" Natalie said, looking startled.

  "Yes. Well, I suppose you're right. You can't call a weekend celebration something as simple as a party, but-" "Birthday party," Natalie repeated, and her eyes flashed with anger. "That's what's happening to Jonas this weekend? He's celebrating his birthday?"

  "Yes," Caitlin said uneasily. Didn't Natalie know? "His eighty-fifth. "

  "Oh, that rat," Natalie muttered as she sank down on the edge of the bed. "That no-good, rotten, stinking-"

  Caitlin sat down beside her. "Some might say that describes my stepfather to a tee, but I take it we're not talking about him," she said with a hesitant smile.

  "Gage," Natalie muttered. "Gage, that selfish, arrogant, miserable-'

  "He didn't tell you, you were coming to Espada for Jonas's birthday party?"

  "No," Natalie said calmly, while she plotted ways to murder her soon-to-be ex. "No, he most certainly didn't."

  "Oh," Caitlin said, and shut her mouth. One look at Natalie told her that saying anything more would have been like trying to tap dance through a minefield.

  "Oh, indeed," Natalie said grimly. She honked one last time into the tissues, then shot to her feet and marched to the mirror. A woman wearing a creased linen suit and a nose as red as Bozo the Clown's glared back at her. "I don't suppose this is going to be a quiet family dinner?"

  Caitlin cleared her throat. "You might say that."

  Natalie swung around. "Might I also say I won't be able to get away with looking like I picked my outfit up at a rummage sale?"

  "It's not a problem," Caitlin said quickly. "You know how my usual tastes run to jeans, boots and sweatshirts. Well, Jonas must have figured I'd turn up like that tonight so he had Neiman Marcus send boxes and boxes of dresses and stuff, and I'd just bet you and I are about the same-"

  "Tell me all of it." Natalie folded her arms. "I want to be able to tell Gage exactly why I'm going to kill him."

  Caitlin sighed, crossed her booted ankles, folded her hands and looked down into her lap. "It's black tie. Cocktails at seven-thirty, dinner at nine, dancing on the terrace, fireworks at midnight ... "

  "Fireworks sooner than that," Natalie said coldly. "Who's on the guest list?"

  . Oh, Gage, Caitlin thought, you are a dead man! "Well, there's the governor and his wife."

  "The governor," Natalie said calmly, smoothing down the skirt of her crushed suit. "Go on."

  "A couple of U.S. senators. That new Hollywood hunk.

  Some TV people ...

  And not a one of ' em here for a death watch." "Huh?"

  Natalie slapped her hands on her hips. "I know he's your stepbrother and you love him, but I think it's time you knew that Gage Baron is a genuine, gold-plated stinker."

  "Nat, look-"

  "Do you know what he did, that brother of yours?" "Well, -"

  "He showed up at my door," Natalie said, storming across the room, grabbing the carry-on bag she'd packed with nothing more than a change of underwear, a toothbrush and a comb, "showed up uninvited, unannounced-"

  "At your door? Natalie, you're losing me here. Isn't your door and his door the same?"

  "Not anymore," Natalie snapped-and saw, too late, the look of shock that transformed Caitlin's face. "Oh, Catie," she said, hurrying to her side. "Catie, I'm sorry. I wasn't going to tell you ... "

  "You and Gage split up?"

  Natalie sank down on the edge of the bed. "Yes." "But-but that can't be." Caitlin clasped Natalie's hands.

  "You and Gage have the perfect marriage. Not like my mother and her ex's, or Jonas and his."

  "I don't know what to tell you, Catie, except that-that things happen. People change."

  "But you and Gage...?"

  "Me," Natalie said. "And Gage." She pulled her hands free of Catie's and shot to her feet again. "And if he really thinks he can get me to go back to him by-by kidnapping me for the weekend ... "

  "Is that what he thinks?" Apparently."

  "He still loves you, then?"

  "Love," Natalie said with disdain. "He just doesn't like to lose."

  "He wants you back, Nat. Is that right?"

  "Look, what's the difference? I'm not going back. I don't want to. I don't love-I don't love ... " Natalie's voice broke. "Oh, hell," she said, snatching at the tissues and wiping her eyes. After a minute, she looked at Caitlin. "Obviously, Gage and I can't spend the night together in this room."

  "Obviously," Caitlin said calmly.

  "You'll have to put me in a different room, Catie."

  "Oh, of course." Caitlin mentally crossed her f
ingers.

  "And I would, if I could. But there's no space."

  "No space? In this huge house?" "Not even a spare comer."

  Well, it wasn't a lie. The guest rooms were all assigned, it was true. The overflow crowd would be staying at a hotel in Austin, shuttled back and forth by a mini fleet of vehicles hired for the weekend. There was no reason for her to mention that there were still a couple of rooms available at the hotel, or that she could always give her room to Natalie and bunk with Esme down in the tack room. No reason at all.