by Diana Palmer
Recalling Luke’s shocked reaction when she’d told him that Ray had hit her, Maris bit down on her lower lip. “Apparently not,” she said after a moment, her voice husky and emotional.
“I wonder why Luke didn’t tell you about it himself,” Lori mused.
“He said it was because I wouldn’t believe him. He added that I doubted everything he says,” Maris said quietly.
“Do you?”
Maris took a rather shaky breath. “Maybe it seems that way to him. I haven’t always been…kind to Luke.” Not only that, I tricked him into making me pregnant. Maris felt about two inches high. “Lori, thanks for the story. I’ll let you get back to work now.”
“I’ll drop off that test sometime today, probably this evening.”
“Thanks, Lori. See you then.” Maris nearly hung up, then said, “Lori? Are you still there?”
“You darned near lost me,” Lori said with a laugh.
“I’ll pick up that test myself.”
“Really? What about John Tully catching on and spreading it around town?”
“To hell with what John Tully or anyone else might think,” Maris said emphatically.
“Good girl. See you when I see you, okay?”
“Bye, Lori.”
Maris put down the phone. Ray had fought in bars just for the hell of it; Luke had fought to protest Benteen’s treatment of Melva. There was a world of difference between Ray’s temperament and Luke’s. And Judd himself had told her Luke hadn’t been drunk. She’d been too quick to judge, and who was she to judge anyone’s ethics or behavior, anyway? It took a pretty sneaky woman to make love with a man just so she could get pregnant, and in the process make plans never to let him know about his own child should her deceitful plot be successful.
But she hadn’t only made love with Luke to get pregnant. She must have fallen in love with him very early in their relationship to have made love with him that first time. Hadn’t she stood around outside, trying to look busy, just so she could watch him working without his shirt? He had affected her right from the first and she had fought and denied the feelings developing within her as hard as she could, simply because he was a rodeo rider.
Getting to her feet, Maris went to the window over the sink. Luke was in the corral with a reddish brown horse; Keith was nowhere to be seen, probably putting the already trained horses through their paces in one of the pastures.
Maris’s pulse began a faster beat. Her own nerve astounded her. Going to the back door, she stepped outside and shouted, “Luke?”
He turned his head toward her. “What?” he yelled back.
“Could you come to the house?”
“Yeah. Be right there.”
She went inside to quiver and tremble and pray she was doing the right thing.
Luke loped from the corral to the house and went inside. “What is it?”
Maris’s legs felt about as steady as a bowl of gelatin. “I…I love you.”
His eyes widened, but surprise didn’t prevent him from closing the gap between them in two long strides and pulling her into his arms. “I love you, too, baby.”
Her face was against his bare chest, and she could smell the musky maleness of his sun-heated skin. “There’s something I have to tell you,” she whispered tremulously.
“Tell me anything.”
“You’re not going to like it.”
“Try me.”
“Yes…I have to.” Maris pushed herself free of his embrace. “I…” She couldn’t look at him. “I think I’m pregnant.”
He was stunned for a moment, but then a slow grin broke out on Luke’s face. “Maris, that’s great! Why would you think I wouldn’t like it?”
She swallowed nervously. “Because I…I planned to lure you into making me pregnant, knowing you were going to leave in September. You never would have known about the baby.”
He sat down. Rather, he plopped into the nearest chair as though every ounce of strength in his body had suddenly deserted him. “I don’t believe you’d do something like that,” he mumbled.
“It’s true, Luke,” she whispered with her eyes cast downward.
“Why are you telling me about it now?”
“Because I’m ashamed. And sorry. I always had so much to say about your…uh, faults, or what I considered faults, and then I did something worse than you’ve probably ever done.”
“But you really are pregnant?” Luke asked, as though needing to hear it again.
“I’m not a hundred percent sure yet, but I think so.” He still looked shell-shocked, she saw with a sinking sensation. Maybe he didn’t want children. Oh, God, why hadn’t she considered that before calling him in to confess her sin?
But no, he’d declared her pregnancy great. What had stunned him was her deceit. He probably hated deceit and anyone capable of it.
The strangest sense of calm suddenly descended upon Maris. She wasn’t any more perfect than the next person. She was willing to overlook Luke’s flaws and only he could decide if he was able to accept hers.
“If you don’t love me now, I won’t be angry, Luke,” she said quietly.
He jerked his eyes toward her. “Don’t love you? Do you think my feelings for you are that shallow? There are only a few things that could destroy my love for you, lady. One of them is infidelity and the others…Well, I can’t think of them right now, but it would take something pretty damned serious to turn me off on you.”
Thrilled at his attitude, Maris opened her mouth to say that she felt the same about him, but the front doorbell rang before she could express herself. She nearly jumped out of her skin. “Who on earth could that be?”
Luke got up. “Why don’t we go and find out?”
It was a deliveryman with a large cardboard carton. “I have a delivery for Mrs. Maris Wyler,” he said cheerfully.
“I’m Mrs. Wyler.”
“Sign here, please.” The man held out a clipboard containing a receipt.
Maris glanced excitedly at Luke. “It’s the package from Katherine Willoughby.” Quickly she signed the receipt and the deliveryman tore off a copy and handed it to her. Luke picked up the carton. “Thank you,” Maris told the man.
“You’re welcome. Have a good day, Mrs. Wyler.” Whistling, he walked off to his truck.
Luke carried in the carton. Maris quickly closed the door and followed him to the kitchen. “Set it on the table. Do you have a knife?”
“Right here.” Luke pulled a jackknife out of his pocket. The box was opened in no time, and they could both see that it was crammed full of file folders.
Maris took out the top folder and read its label. “‘Satin Dolly.’ Oh, my goodness, Luke, it just occurred to me. How will we decide which horse belongs to which file?”
“We’ll figure it out.” Luke picked up a folder and began thumbing through the papers in it. He smiled. “Everything’s here, sire, dam, grandsire, grandam, and even farther back than that. Physical descriptions, time of birth…” He looked at Maris. “Do you realize what you have here?”
“Uh…records?”
“Damned good records. I wonder why Ray neglected to ask for these files when he bought the horses.”
“I think the key word in that statement is ‘neglected,’ Luke.”
Their gazes meshed for a long moment. “If you hadn’t taken care of this ranch, there wouldn’t be a No Bull, would there?” Luke said.
“I’m sure the ranch would still be here, but I wouldn’t own it.” Maris smiled a trifle grimly. “Me and the bank, that is.”
“You said you planned to go back into the cattle business, once the horses were sold.”
“That’s true.”
Thoughtfully Luke looked at the carton of breeding records. “How about raising horses instead?”
“Luke, I understand the cattle business. Raising horses is a whole other ball game.”
His gaze pinned her with its intensity. “I understand horses.”
Maris’s heart skipped a bea
t. “We’re talking about you and me now, aren’t we?”
“We’re talking about a lot of things, Maris, mainly our future. Are you going to marry me? I said I didn’t have much in the way of assets to offer you, but there’s one I didn’t think of until now. There’s very little I don’t know about horses.” He laid his hand on the carton of records. “With these we could breed and raise the best cutting horses in the country. There’s always a demand for good cutting stock, Maris. Ranchers use them as well as rodeo riders. I paid ten thousand dollars for Pancho and he was worth every cent. That’s the kind of price you could get for properly trained cutting stock.”
“Ten thousand!” Maris drew a startled breath. “Do you mean to say that my horses are worth…” She multiplied ninety-three times ten thousand and gasped. “Nearly a million dollars?”
Luke chuckled. “No, I don’t mean that at all, though it would be great, wouldn’t it? I’d say that about half your herd has the traits needed for good cutting stock. What I would do is keep the best and sell the rest, which would result in enough animals to get started in the horse breeding business and the cash to keep the ranch going through the winter. By spring I’d have some of those horses so well trained, ranchers and rodeo riders would be begging to buy them.”
“We would still hold the auction,” Maris said, a little breathless over Luke’s ambitious and exciting ideas.
“Definitely. With these records of ancestry, any of your horses will bring a good price. But some of them will never be more than what they are right now. A good cutting horse needs to possess three qualities, Maris—the ability and desire to learn, a lot of endurance and a natural freedom of movement. I could go on and on about that subject, and I will if you think my idea is worth pursuing. But our first decision isn’t about the horses, is it?”
She knew what he meant. “No, I guess it isn’t,” she said quietly, though her heart had started beating double time.
“It seems relatively simple to me,” Luke said almost casually. “I love you and you love me. Maris, I’m asking you to be my wife.” His nonchalance vanished. “I’m also asking you to believe in me, aren’t I?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “But that coin has two sides. Can you believe in me after what I did?”
“You really weren’t going to tell me about the baby?”
“No,” she said meekly.
“Last night you said you needed time to think about my proposal. What changed your mind?”
“I called Lori and she told me why you fought with Jim Benteen. Lori’s proud to even know you, and Luke…so am I.” Tears were beginning to blur Maris’s vision. “I love you. I fought it so damned hard. I kept telling myself you were like Ray, but you’re not. You’re not like anyone else I’ve ever known.”
A corner of his mouth turned up in a wry little half smile. “I can say the same about you, believe me.”
She couldn’t help laughing, though it came out rather shaky. “I guess that’s a compliment.”
Luke moved to pull her into his arms. “Here’s a much better one. You’re a beautiful, sensual, intelligent woman, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. If you want to sell every horse on the place and raise cattle, that’s what we’ll do. If you want a dozen babies, that’s what we’ll have. Marry me, Maris. Make me the happiest man on earth.” He grinned then, surprising Maris. “Make my mother the happiest woman on earth. She’s always wanted me to settle down. ‘Like normal folk’ is the way she puts it. Think what a favor you’d be doing her by marrying her son.”
“And giving her grandbabies?” Maris threw her arms around Luke’s neck. “Oh, Luke,” she said on a sob.
He squeezed her tightly to himself. “Was that a yes, honey?”
“Yes…yes…yes!”
Epilogue
Luke asked Keith to be his best man at the wedding and Lori acted as Maris’s matron of honor. It was a quiet affair, with just a handful of Maris’s closest friends in attendance. The bride was indeed pregnant, having seen a doctor for verification of what she already knew. Keith was bursting with pride over his role in the affair, and actually strutted during the small reception held at the ranch after the ceremony, Maris saw with great affection. Of course Susie was there, and Keith’s machismo was directed at her. She was a pretty little thing, but what Maris really liked about her were her plans for her future.
“Oh, yes, I’m definitely going to college,” she told Maris while they chatted over a cup of fruit punch. “Keith has been talking about Montana State U, in Bozeman, so I’m also considering that school. He told me that Luke really gave him a pep talk about going to college.”
Maris sent first Keith then Luke a pleased glance across the room. “Is that a fact? Montana State U, hmm? That’s my school.”
After the wedding there was a lot of work to do to get ready for the horse auction. School had started for Keith, but as long as he kept up with his homework, Maris and Luke thought it was fine for him to continue working with the horses.
Maris worked hard on the piles of records that Katherine Willoughby had sent. Finally, she and Luke managed to figure out which records belonged to each horse in their herd. As they had planned, Luke picked out the best of the lot for breeding. He was pleased with their bloodlines and temperament, and assured Maris that they had the start of a fine stock.
As she worked with Luke through the last weeks of September, Maris was thrilled not only by the thought of the growing life inside her, but by the wonderful new future she and Luke were building together with each passing day. Luke felt badly that he wasn’t able to give his bride what he called a “proper honeymoon,” but she felt those first days—and nights—of their marriage couldn’t have been happier, or more satisfying.
The auction was a great success, with buyers coming from miles around and the bids flying fast and furiously. Next to her wedding to Luke, Maris thought it had to be the most exciting day of her life. Luke himself ran the auction with impressive professionalism and flare. Maris was thrilled as the high-figured sales totaled up, and feeling quite proud that day to be Luke’s wife.
With the proceeds from the auction and the money received from Jim Humphrey for the Corvette, Maris set about making some much needed repairs on the ranch. And there was still enough extra money for Luke and Maris to fly to Texas. The trip was not only their honeymoon, but Maris wanted very much to meet Luke’s mother. Lila Rivers actually wept when Luke introduced his bride, then she wiped her eyes and served them a sumptuous home-cooked meal.
They didn’t sleep at Lila’s house, however. There was a very nice motel in that small Texas town and they rented a room for the five nights of their stay, the time they had allotted themselves to be away from the ranch, as there was so much to do before the cold weather set in. Their honeymoon days would be spent with Lila, but they wanted to be alone at night, which Lila Rivers understood and graciously accepted as only natural for a newlywed couple.
Maris had splurged on some lovely new nightgowns, and she picked what she thought was the most appealing to wear on their first night in the motel. She came out of the bathroom all perfumed and pretty for her husband, and saw Luke already in bed. One small light was on, casting the room in soft shadows.
His gaze washed over her, ardent and loving. “Stand there for a second and just let me look at you,” he said huskily. Maris got warm all over from the heated head-to-foot inspection she received. “Damn, you’re beautiful,” he whispered. “Come here.” He held up the sheet in invitation.
Maris slid into bed and was immediately brought into a feverish embrace. “I love you, baby,” Luke said hoarsely.
“And I love you.” She wrapped her arms around him and held on tightly, almost fiercely. “I love you so much it scares me.”
He nuzzled his mouth in her hair. “It scares you because you loved Ray and it didn’t last. We’re going to last, Maris. Count on it. I don’t want you scared or worried about anything. I’m always going to be there, honey, always.
You can talk to me about anything. Let’s make a pact right now. I saw this in a movie a long time ago and even then it made good sense to me. Let’s never go to bed angry. If either of us does something to annoy or anger the other during the day, let’s talk about it and make up before we go to bed.”
Maris smiled tremulously. “That’s a wonderful idea, Luke. I swear I’ll do my part.”
“And I’ll do mine. We’d be fools to let anything undermine what we have, Maris.” He tipped her chin to look into her eyes. “And we’re not fools, either of us. We’re going to have the best marriage ever, honey.” His mouth covered hers in a passionate, loving kiss, and in seconds neither was thinking of anything beyond the ecstasy and joy of being together.
Before they left Texas they told Lila about the baby. Again she shed tears. Maris took her mother-in-law’s hands in her own. “Will you come to the ranch when the baby is born?”
“May I?”
“Lila, you may come anytime you wish, but I would be particularly pleased if you were there when the baby is born.” Maris smiled. “And as I said before when I was telling you about Keith, you have to meet him. Luke and I both think of him as our son, which sort of makes him your grandson.”
During the flight home, Maris put her head back and thought of her incredible happiness. She felt Luke take her hand, and she turned her head to smile at him. “I love you,” she whispered. Then she realized that he was pressing something into her hand, a small piece of paper. “What is it?”
“Take a guess.”
Instead of guessing, she unfolded the little square of paper and looked at it. It was Ray’s IOU, and across the face of it Luke had printed in bold letters PAID IN FULL.
Her lips twitched with a smile, then she gave a little laugh. But when Luke laughed, too, she began giggling. They lost it then, both of them laughing so hard that other passengers started smiling at them.
They finally calmed down. Maris looked at the IOU again. “I’m going to frame this and hang it in our bedroom.”
