3, 2, 1...Married!

by Sharon Sala

  “Jake?”

  He turned. “Yeah? You okay?”

  She nodded. “It’s not that. It’s just that there’s something I’ve been thinking about all morning…something I should have said to you last night.”

  “What?”

  “Thank you for saving my life.”

  The knuckles on his fingers turned white as he tightened his grip on the steering wheel. When he spoke, he heard anger in his voice.

  “You should never have been put in that situation to begin with.”

  “She’s gone. I’m satisfied with that.”

  His expression was grim as he started the engine. “You’re more forgiving than I am.” Then he cleared his throat. “If anything had happened to you, I don’t know—”

  “But it didn’t,” she said, interrupting him before it went any further. “Let’s go, okay?”

  He managed a smile. “You’re right. Everyone is anxious to see you. A couple of guys got some minor burns trying to get to you, too. They deserve as much thanks as me.”

  Her eyes widened. “I didn’t know.”

  “There’s a lot you don’t know,” he said softly, then put the truck in gear. “One being, for the rest of your stay, your new room is in the main house.”

  “Oh, but—”

  “You have to,” he said. “No other vacancies and your cabin was a total loss.”

  She leaned back in the seat, contemplating the fact that she would be spending her days—and her nights—under the same roof as Jake. The idea was enticing—and just the least bit frightening, as well.

  “Is that okay with you?” he asked, as he maneuvered them into the traffic. Although he dreaded asking, there was an offer that still had to be made. “God knows I don’t want you to leave, but please know that after all of this mess, if you would rather be home, I’ll see that you get there.”

  “I don’t want to go home,” she said. “And, the better question would be, is my staying in your home okay with you?”

  He paused at a stop sign and then gave her a cool, studied stare.

  “Oh, yeah,” he said softly. “It’s more than okay.”

  Hallie shivered and then looked away. The closer the inevitable moment came, the more disconcerted she became. If she let him, they would wind up in bed, of that she was certain. But was she willing to settle for a fling, or would it only exacerbate the pain of leaving him? She sighed, then frowned. The best thing for her to do was just cross that bridge, when and if they came to it.

  A short while later, their arrival at the ranch was the spark to start her welcome party. An impromptu shower had been organized and Hallie was moved to tears by the thoughtfulness of strangers as they replaced the things that she’d lost—from something as simple as hair spray and hand lotion to a brand-new cowboy hat from Luke and John. But it was the small, unwrapped gift Dobber laid in her lap that touched her the most. It was a band-new, sky-blue bandanna.

  “Every good cowgirl needs herself a bandanna,” he said, and then stuffed his hands in his pockets, suddenly embarrassed.

  Hallie looked up in surprise. “Am I really a good cowgirl?”

  His eyes twinkled. “Purty near the best I’ve ever seen,” he drawled.

  She beamed.

  “Okay, everybody, party’s over. I think she’s had enough excitement for now. The doctor told her to take it easy for another day or so,” Jake said.

  Hallie was tired, but it was a good kind of tired. “Thanks to all of you for being so thoughtful. I’ll see you later.” Then she caught Dobber by the hand as he started to leave. “Would you do me a favor?” she asked.

  “Just ask,” he said.

  “Would you make sure Sugarfoot gets a treat today?”

  He grinned and then winked at Jake. “Anytime you get a woman who worries more about her horse than herself, she’s a keeper.”

  Before either Jake or Hallie could respond, they found themselves alone.

  “I guess I’d better get this stuff out of your living room,” she said, and began gathering up her gifts.

  “Leave them,” Jake said, and scooped her into his arms.

  “You don’t have to carry me,” she protested. “I can walk.”

  “Humor me.”

  She leaned back in his arms, trying to calm a racing heart as he carried her down the hall to her new room, then laid her in the middle of the bed. Before she could move, he had taken off her boots and gotten an extra blanket from the closet. He paused at the foot of the bed, trying not to focus on the fact that she would be sleeping across the hall from his room.

  “Need anything else?”

  She hesitated a moment too long. A muscle jerked at the side of his jaw.

  “Hallie, I—”

  “Thanks for everything,” she said softly.

  He shrugged. “No big deal. Get some rest.”

  He was almost out the door when she called him back.

  “Jake?”

  He turned quickly, eagerness in his voice. “Yes?”

  “See you at supper?”

  Masking his disappointment, he nodded. “I’ll save you a place.”

  She smiled to herself as he closed the door. A few minutes later she was fast asleep. She never saw him peek back inside, or walk to the foot of her bed and stand quietly within the room, watching her sleep.

  But she slept through supper. In fact, when the second bout of thunderstorms began building just after dark, she was still fast asleep. The Miracle brothers were in the living room, watching the news and weather and discussing the next day’s events, when a belch of thunder suddenly rattled the windows. Luke got to his feet and walked toward the window, looking past the perimeter of the security light to the darkness beyond.

  “Looks like it’s going to storm again tonight,” he said.

  Jake’s thoughts were on Hallie and the fact that she was still asleep. He barely nodded, which didn’t matter, because Luke wasn’t paying any attention to him, either. His worries were on his favorite mare.

  “Runner is due to foal any day now. I’ve got a gut feeling tonight’s the night. Think I’ll get my sleeping bag and spend the night in the barn.”

  John jumped up from the sofa. “I’ll go with you,” he said. “Give me a couple of minutes to get my stuff.”

  This finally got Jake’s attention. He glanced out the window to the approaching storm, then back at his brothers.

  “You’ve never spent a night in the barn with a horse in your lives,” he muttered.

  Luke shrugged. “Well, big brother, you’ve never spent a night under the same roof with Hallie O’Grady, either. The way I look at it, there’s a first time for everything. Come on, John, let’s hustle.”

  Jake’s eyes narrowed with an unspoken warning. Wisely, neither brother chose to make further comment. A few minutes later, they were gone. Jake walked through the house, checking locks on windows and doors, then turned off the television and turned out the lights. He had a big day ahead of him tomorrow. It was time to get some rest. But before he did, he would check on Hallie, one more time.

  Smoke drifted through Hallie’s dream, wrapping itself around her legs, then her arms, then sliding up her nose in insidious silence. Fear suffocated her as she rolled onto her side, struggling to breathe.

  Hot! Hot! Everything’s hot! Can’t breathe! Can’t see! Jake, don’t let me die!

  The last bit of her dream came aloud in her mind, then spewed from her lips into an ear-piercing scream. Even as she was waking up, she felt Jake’s arms around her—just as they’d been when he’d carried her from the fire.

  Then his voice broke the thread between reality and sleep just enough to know that she was in his arms.

  “Hallie, it’s me, Jake. You’re dreaming, honey. Wake up. Wake up.”

  His touch was gentle as he pushed the hair from her face. Sweat had beaded her clothes to her body and she was trembling from head to foot.

  “Oh, Lord,” she moaned, and hid her face against his chest.

>   Jake laid her down and hurried into the bathroom, returning moments later with a wet cloth.

  “What are you doing?” she mumbled, as he swiped the cloth across her face, then down her neck and arms.

  “Something my mom used to do for us when we were kids. I’m wiping away the bad dream.”

  She looked up at him then, hovering above her with a look of concern on his face. At that moment, everything became so suddenly clear. If she’d died last night, she would have never had a chance to tell Jake Miracle what was in her heart. Before she hadn’t had the guts, believing that it was far too soon to believe she was in love. For fear of rejection, she had almost lost her chance. She wasn’t going to waste it again.

  “Jake, how do you feel about me?” she asked.

  He inhaled slowly, watching the way the terror on her face give way to passion.

  “What the hell do you want me to say?” he growled. “That you make me ache in all the right places? Well, you do.”

  She sat up in bed, then tossed the washcloth on the floor.

  “If I asked you, would you do something for me?”

  “Ask,” he said.

  “Make me ache, Jake Miracle…in all the right places.”

  His answer was a groan as he took her in his arms and fell back with her onto the bed. Clothes came off, adding to the pile with the wet washcloth underneath, until they were lying face-to-face, arm in arm, shaking from anxiety and need.

  Jake caught her lower lip between his teeth and tugged just enough to make her groan.

  “You sure about this?” he asked.

  Her dark eyes narrowed as she raised up on one elbow and raked a fingernail down the middle of his chest—then lower. This time he was the one who groaned. The discussion was over.

  The beauty of her body stunned him as he began his exploration, sweeping delicate curves and taut limbs with both his hands and his lips. When he cupped her breasts, he felt an involuntary flinch and remembered her reaction to Jewel Franklin’s slight. He kissed the tip of each nipple, then raised up on one elbow long enough to whisper, “Hallie, don’t do that.”

  She looked away, well aware of what he meant.

  “Look at me, woman. I’m about to make love to you and there’s something I think you better hear first.”

  Her eyes widened.

  He traced the shape of her mouth with a fingertip and watched the pupils in her eyes slowly dilate. “You are about as beautiful a female as I’ve ever seen in my life, both inside and out. And…just for the record, in my opinion, anything more than a handful is a waste.”

  She sighed and dug her fingers into the hair at the back of his head.

  “Okay,” she said softly. “Then just for the record, if you’re as good at making love as you are at sweet talk, I’m a goner.”

  “Try me,” he said.

  So she did.

  Sometime during the night, the storm came and went, but it was nothing to what had gone on inside Hallie’s room. Dawn wasn’t more than a couple of hours away when Jake finally rolled over onto his back and fell asleep. Hallie lay cuddled in the crook of his arm, her cheek upon his chest, her arm around his waist. Her worst fears had been answered. She was, indeed, a goner.

  Five days later, she was packing to go home with an ache in her heart and tears in her eyes. Every night since that first one, she’d slept in Jake’s arms with no apologies to the rest of his family. They seemed to take it as a matter of course that she was “Jake’s woman.” But what that entailed had yet to be seen. She tossed the last of her clothes into a new suitcase and slammed the lid shut just as Jake appeared in the doorway. His expression was blank, his posture stiff and unyielding.

  “Are you ready to go?” he asked.

  She bit her lip to keep from crying again and nodded.

  “I’ll carry that,” he said, and took the bag from her hand. The look on her face was killing him. He knew what she wanted to hear, and God help him, he wanted to say it worse than anything he’d ever wanted in his life. But he was all too aware of holiday romances. They were passionate but brief, and rarely lasted. Theirs had definitely been brief and passionate, but damn it, he wanted more. He wanted her to love him—at least forever. Longer if she really cared.

  She hesitated, unable to believe he would let her go without a word, although she kept remembering last night, and the panic with which they’d made love. Maybe that had been his way of saying goodbye. She was heartsick and angry with herself for believing he loved her, and for him, for pretending it was true.

  “Jake, I—”

  He dropped the suitcase, then took her in his arms. “I don’t know whether you want to hear this or not,” he said harshly, “but I’m going to say it anyway. I love you, Hallie O’Grady. I don’t know how I’m going to ever sleep again without your breath on my chest and your head nestled under my chin.”

  A weight rolled off of her.

  “Oh, Jake, so do I, but I thought you—”

  “Don’t say anything more,” he warned. “Just know this. We’re not over. Not yet. You’ve been on vacation. Now I want you to go home and take a deep breath. Stand back from the drama of everything that happened and take a real good look at your heart. I don’t want your gratitude, honey, I want you. I have your parents’ address from the registration you filled out. You said your family always spends the holidays together there. So…on Thanksgiving Day I will be at their house. I will meet your family and I will tell your father that I’m marrying his little girl. I don’t give a damn whether he likes it or not. All that matters is if you say yes.”

  Hallie started to laugh. “Yes,” she cried. “Yes, yes, yes.”

  Her joy was like a knife in his gut. “Tell me that again on Thanksgiving,” he growled.

  “But Jake…”

  “You heard me,” he warned. “Go home and take a deep breath. If you don’t want this as bad as I do, then stop me before I get there.”

  Later, leaving him at the airport was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do. During the entire flight, she kept seeing his face and the fear in his eyes. But what he didn’t understand was that she was afraid, too. She wasn’t the only one who might suffer a change of heart. Anything could happen between now and Thanksgiving. Time enough for his ardor to cool and rationality to return. She closed her eyes and said a quick prayer. She didn’t want him cool and rational; she wanted him crazy in love—with her.

  Petra sidestepped a crawling baby as she carried two pumpkin pies to the sideboard in the dining room.

  “Hey, Dana, move your urchin before he gets squashed,” she yelled.

  Dana picked up her son and headed for the play-pen in the corner of the room.

  “How did he get out, anyway?” she muttered, as she walked away.

  In the other room, a loud roar of male disapproval suddenly sounded. Evie grinned as she came out of the kitchen with a bowl of mashed potatoes.

  “Sounds like the wrong team just scored a goal,” she said.

  Petra rolled her eyes. “Men. They’re nothing but overgrown babies. They are helpless when sick and have the memory of a gnat.”

  Evie giggled. “So…it sounds to me like Wayne forgot and left the toilet seat up again.”

  Petra made a face. “It was just after three in the morning. I fell all the way in.”

  Evie chuckled. “I know just how you feel.”

  Hallie came out of the kitchen with a basket of hot bread for the table. The smile on her face hadn’t made it as far as her eyes. As soon as she was gone, both sisters dropped into the whisper mode and started to speculate.

  “See, I told you the other day something was wrong. She hasn’t been the same since she came back from her trip. Has she talked to you? Did she have a good time?” Evie asked.

  Petra shook her head. “I don’t know. I just assumed she’d talked to you.”

  “Who talked to who about what?” Dana asked as she slipped into the huddle.

  “Hallie,” they echoed. “What did she
say to you about the trip?”

  Dana looked startled. “Well, nothing. I just supposed she’d talked to you guys. I’ve been so busy with the baby’s earache and all, I just assumed…”

  The trio turned, casting a speculative glance toward Hallie, who was coming back out of the kitchen with another hot bowl in her hands.

  “What’s going on?” she asked.

  They looked at each other than shrugged. “Nothing,” Petra finally said. “Just bitching about men and toilet seats…stuff like that.”

  Hallie went pale. To their shock, she reacted angrily.

  “Shut up. Just shut up,” she muttered. “You don’t know how blessed you are. At least you’ve got a man to gripe about.”

  Then she shoved the bowl she’d been carrying into Petra’s hands and pivoted sharply, heading back to the kitchen for more.

  The sisters’ mouths dropped. Stunned into momentary silence, they looked at her departing figure, and then back at each other.

  Evie was the first to grin. “She met a man.”

  “You’re wrong,” Dana hissed. “If she had, why would she be so mad?”

  Petra sighed and set the bowl aside. “Because she came back alone, that’s why.”

  They sighed in unison. Before they had a chance to mend fences, a child shrieked in anger as another erupted with a scream. They spun around, racing to cool baby Irish tempers before disaster followed.

  Hallie was sick to her stomach and sick at heart. It was almost one o’clock and Jake Miracle was nowhere in sight. The past twenty-something days had been nothing but pure hell. She couldn’t sleep, she couldn’t eat, and she hadn’t been able to write. Everywhere she turned, she kept seeing Jake’s face. She missed the vast open spaces of Texas and the man who lived there. All day she’d been jumping at shadows, listening for sounds of a knock that never came. Thank God she hadn’t made a fool of herself by racing home and announcing her love to the world. At least now she could suffer in silence—at least, it would be silent when she went home. Right now, focusing on family chaos rather than her pain was all that was keeping her together.