Promise, Texas

by Debbie Macomber

  “For what?”

  Damned if he knew. “Whatever I’ve done to upset you.”

  “You haven’t upset me.”

  “You’re absolving me from all wrongdoing, then?”

  She gave him a quick smile. “I wouldn’t go as far as that.”

  He laughed and squeezed her hand, and she smiled again, but he could tell her joy was fleeting. He was the cause, and the knowledge weighed down his heart.

  Unexpectedly he found a parking space relatively close to the hall. A long walk wouldn’t have bothered him, but he didn’t want Jane to have to go far. She rarely complained about being uncomfortable with the pregnancy, but he knew these past few months had drained her physically and emotionally. He was sure his moods hadn’t been any help, either.

  He was excited about having a baby, but it all seemed unreal to him. He recognized that soon he’d be a father and he was determined to be a good one; he just wasn’t sure when fatherhood started. Jane was already a mother. Her body proved as much. But he didn’t feel any different now than he had when she’d told him she was pregnant. His elation had lasted a long time, but at the moment all that was required of him seemed to be this infernal waiting. He wasn’t very good at it.

  The hall was crowded, the way it always was for the annual dance. Cal slid his arm protectively around his wife as they walked in.

  “Glen and Ellie are over there.” Jane pointed.

  His brother was standing and waving his arms above his head to attract their attention. Glen had secured a table; Grady and Caroline Weston and Nell and Travis Grant sat with him.

  “You’re late,” his brother said as he neared the table. Glen slapped him on the back. “Mighty fine duds you’re wearing.”

  “Should be, seeing that I borrowed ’em from you.”

  The music was loud, too loud for extended conversation. Glen left to get them each a drink—a cranberry juice for Jane, a Lone Star beer for Cal.

  Cal pulled out Jane’s chair and draped her shawl over the back. “Look,” she said close to his ear once they were both seated, “Annie’s dancing with Lucas.”

  Cal glanced toward the dance floor. Sure enough, there they were. He studied them for a minute, wondering if he was witnessing the start of a romance. Jane certainly seemed to think so. Cal wasn’t sure. Lucas had asked him some questions about Annie early on and a couple more that week. So the vet asked a few questions. Big deal. Didn’t prove a thing. Jane, however, saw this as a clear indication that something might happen soon.

  “Annie’s with Lucas?” Ellie asked, raising her voice to be heard.

  “Jane’s already got them engaged,” Cal informed his sister-in-law.

  “I do not,” Jane protested. “It’s too early to tell.”

  Cal rolled his eyes, thinking he was being clever, but he caught the look on Jane’s face and saw that he’d hurt her. Again. Another on his growing list of sins.

  The band began a ten-minute break then. “I’m going over to talk to Dovie and Frank,” she told him and excused herself to the others.

  “I’ll go with you,” Ellie said, slipping past Glen and Cal.

  The women left the table and Glen moved into the chair Jane had vacated. “What’s going on with you and Jane?” his brother demanded.

  “What do you mean?” Cal asked irritably. Even if he’d been sure of what it was, he wasn’t going to discuss it with his brother.

  “She isn’t herself.”

  That, Cal already knew.

  “Neither are you,” Glen added.

  “Me?” This surprised Cal; then again, it didn’t. The problem with his parents had been consuming him for weeks. At first everyone had discounted his concerns. More recently he’d felt vindicated, but being right in this instance brought damn little satisfaction.

  “How’s Jane feeling?” Glen asked next.

  “She says she’s fine.”

  “Ellie was really moody when she was pregnant with John.”

  “Jane isn’t the moody type,” Cal snapped.

  “No, but you are!”

  Cal refused to dignify that with a response.

  “You missed seeing Lyle Whitehead make a fool of himself,” Glen told him, changing the subject. “Adam put him in his place quick enough.”

  “What happened?”

  Glen described the incident, and as his brother spoke, Cal surveyed the room, seeking out Jane. This was supposed to be a night of celebration, a night to enjoy, and here he was talking to his brother, while his wife stood on the other side of the room with Dovie. It wasn’t right.

  “Hey—where are you going?” Glen muttered when Cal got to his feet.

  “To ask my wife to dance.”

  “You’re volunteering to dance?” Glen made it sound as if the band should do a drum roll before he walked onto the floor. Under normal circumstances Cal wouldn’t volunteer, not when he possessed two left feet, but he needed to have Jane all to himself for a little while.

  Jane looked up with surprise when her husband approached. “How you doing, Dovie?” His mother’s friend was a favorite of his. He exchanged handshakes with Frank. “Hear you two had a great time in Europe.”

  “It was wonderful,” Dovie said rapturously.

  “Sit down,” Frank urged.

  “Actually, I came to steal my wife away. I thought we’d dance.”

  Jane cast him the same shocked look he’d gotten from his brother. He smiled and held out his hand.

  “You want to dance?” she asked as Cal led her toward the floor.

  “Anything wrong with that?”

  “Not wrong, just unusual.”

  He couldn’t argue. His timing was perfect, he noted with some relief; the first number was a slow one. All he had to do was put his arms around Jane, shuffle his feet back and forth, and that passed for dancing. Good enough for him.

  Jane walked into his arms, and it felt so damn good he nearly groaned aloud. He hadn’t held her like this in weeks. What was happening to them? Whatever it was had to stop. He needed his wife and loved her beyond measure.

  Breathing in the scent of her hair, he closed his eyes and gently swayed with the music.

  “I love you,” Cal whispered.

  She nodded, tightened her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder.

  It took him longer than it should have to realize she was crying. “Jane, love…what is it?”

  She shook her head silently.

  “You’re crying because I love you?”

  She nodded.

  That was when it happened, when he felt the solid unmistakable kick against his ribs. His child had belted him. “Did you feel that?” he asked excitedly. He remembered Wade telling him how the same thing had happened when Amy was pregnant with Joey—at this same dance, too—but Cal hadn’t understood the significance. He did now.

  Jane gave an amused shrug. “Yes. He likes music, I guess.”

  “She,” he corrected. From the first Jane had been convinced the baby was a boy. He’d never understood why; the ultrasound hadn’t indicated one way or the other. “It has to be a girl. If it was a boy, he wouldn’t be this happy about being on a dance floor.”

  Jane laughed sweetly, softly, and his heart felt so full he thought it might burst wide open.

  Flattening his hand against her stomach, he nearly laughed out loud when the baby kicked, harder this time. That incredible surge of emotion, of love, happened all over again.

  “That answers my question,” he whispered.

  “What question?” She leaned her head back far enough to give him a quizzical look.

  “When a man starts to feel like a father. I did just now—that’s my child punching at me.”

  “Our son,” Jane said with a happy smile.

  “Daughter,” he murmured, and seeing the love in his wife’s eyes, he knew what he had to do next.

  Jane frowned when he stopped dancing and took her by the hand. “Where are we going?” she asked as he tugged at her ar
m.

  “Outside.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I need to kiss you so much right now, it’s either embarrass us both or get off the dance floor.”

  “Cal,” she protested weakly as they wove their way through the crowd, “we’re married!”

  “So? Is that a problem? Does that mean I can only kiss you at home?”

  Her eagerness as she followed him out the side door told him she needed this as much as he did. They needed each other and always would. They were a team, a couple, a family. Lovers and friends, confidants and companions. And now, parents.

  As soon as they were out of sight of everyone else, Cal drew her into his arms. She opened her mouth to him in a kiss that started gentle, but quickly became intense. Jane tasted like heaven, sweet and passionate, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

  Cal didn’t know how long they kissed before he was aware that they weren’t alone. He dragged his mouth from hers and stared into the shadows, where he saw another couple. It took him an instant to identify them—Bernie and Cheryl Benton. The last he’d heard, they’d separated. Now, apparently, they’d worked out their differences. He fully intended to resolve any differences in his own marriage—without the help of a knife-pulling idiot like Lyle Whitehead.

  Whatever was wrong, he intended to fix it or die trying.

  CHAPTER 13

  Sunday morning after the dance, Annie Applegate lay in bed and thought about what she’d done. She’d agreed to marry a man who didn’t love her. She expected, in the clear light of day, to feel some regrets; to her astonishment, she didn’t. She’d accepted the proposal of a man who was looking for a companion, and a mother for his children. It had seemed a straightforward arrangement—until she’d complicated it. By asking him to get her pregnant. He’d said nothing about sharing a bed; she’d in effect made it a condition of the marriage. More than anything, she wanted a baby. And Lucas had agreed to be the father.

  Annie hadn’t told anyone, not even Jane. Last night, Lucas hadn’t mentioned the wedding again until the end of the evening, and then he suggested they seek out Wade McMillen. They’d managed to corner the pastor by himself, and if he was surprised by their news, he didn’t let it show. The short conversation ended with Wade making an appointment with them for Monday afternoon.

  Annie supposed that some ministers might refuse to marry them. Their marriage agreement was unusual, but she sensed that Wade understood they were two lonely people seeking solace in each other. They weren’t in love, but they respected and cared for each other, and both wanted the best for Lucas’s children. Besides, Annie had married for love the first time and the feeling hadn’t lasted.

  Midafternoon on Sunday, Annie phoned her father.

  “Sweetheart, it’s good to hear from you,” Brandon Applegate said. He rarely called her. Annie didn’t doubt his love, but often wished he were a different kind of person. A different kind of father. They’d never been close and she didn’t know how to bridge the emotional distance between them.

  “I thought I should tell you I’m getting married,” she said.

  Her news was greeted with a brief silence. Then a somewhat startled “Married? To whom?”

  “His name is Dr. Lucas Porter. He’s a veterinarian. A widower with two daughters.”

  “You knew him before you moved to Texas?” her father asked, as if that would explain her sudden desire to leave California.

  “No, I met him shortly after I arrived.”

  “But it’s only been a couple of months.” He sounded appalled.

  “I know.”

  Brandon’s sigh was deep enough to be audible. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “I do,” Annie assured him. “I’m not sure when the wedding will be, but I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

  “This is a busy time of year for me,” her father said. It was his way of telling her he wouldn’t be attending the ceremony. He probably figured he’d done his duty the first time round, and one wedding was his limit, Annie thought with some amusement. Eventually he’d send Annie and Lucas his congratulations, together with a generous check, confident he’d fulfilled his role as her father.

  Monday afternoon Lucas showed up at the bookstore a full hour before their scheduled appointment with Reverend Wade McMillen. He walked in and studied her for a moment, as if he half expected her to tell him she’d changed her mind.

  “Hello,” she said. Countless questions had occurred to her since Saturday night, and all she could think to say was, “You’re early.”

  “I know. I just wanted to make sure you’re still willing to go through with this.”

  “I’m willing. Are you?”

  He nodded firmly. “I’m not sure it was a good idea to say anything this soon, but I told the girls.”

  Her one hesitation had been Heather and Hollie. How would they really feel? Would they resent her, think she was trying to replace their mother?

  “They’re thrilled,” Lucas told her. “I am, too. I’m grateful, Annie. Incredibly grateful.”

  “Me, too.” She smiled. “I phoned my father.”

  Lucas tensed as though he anticipated an argument. “He was opposed to the idea, wasn’t he?”

  “No. All he wanted was my assurance that I know what I’m doing.”

  Lucas glanced away. “Do you, Annie? Do you really know what you’re letting yourself in for?”

  Lucas didn’t understand. His proposal offered her an opportunity she’d stopped hoping for. He was going to marry her, complete with her flaws and her scars, both physical and emotional. He’d be giving her a family, two lovely little girls who needed her, and a baby of her own. It was enough. More than enough.

  “I talked to my parents, too,” he confessed.

  “What did they think?” Annie remembered they had a travel trailer and were parked somewhere in the Florida Keys, spending a lot of time deep-sea fishing. She’d met them shortly after she arrived in Promise, but only in passing.

  “My mom was a bit concerned that it’s too soon.”

  “By anyone else’s standards, it is too soon.”

  “I told her I hadn’t called to ask her permission. Both Mom and Dad like you, and that helps. Dad seemed to think we’d be able to make a good marriage. I agree with him.”

  “And your mother?”

  “She advised us both to think this through very carefully.”

  “I already have,” Annie said.

  He grinned, satisfied. “I have, too.”

  They discussed a few details while they waited for Gina Greenville to arrive. Once she got to the bookstore, Annie and Lucas left for their meeting with Wade.

  Annie noticed the curious stares as they walked the short distance from the store to the church rectory. She felt self-conscious, as if everyone in Promise had already guessed they were getting married.

  “Hello, Lucas. Annie,” Louise Powell trilled when they passed her on the sidewalk.

  “Hi, Louise,” Annie said. Lucas merely nodded.

  “Great weather we’re having, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah, great,” Lucas echoed without enthusiasm.

  “Where are you off to?” Her eyes flashed with undisguised curiosity.

  Annie looked at Lucas, wondering how he’d respond.

  “To see Wade McMillen about a wedding.”

  “Yours?” She offered the suggestion with a laugh, turning it into a joke.

  “As a matter of fact, yes,” Lucas supplied, and his hand squeezed Annie’s.

  “I knew it. I knew it all along,” Louise chanted gleefully. “The minute I saw you together, I could smell romance in the air. I went home and told my husband it wouldn’t surprise me if you two got married by the end of the year. When’s the date?”

  “Soon,” Lucas told her shortly.

  In truth, Annie would have preferred they not tell anyone until they’d spoken to Wade. Other than her father, she hadn’t told a single person, not even Jane. Well, if nothing e
lse, the fact that Lucas had shared the news with the town busybody meant he was serious about this wedding. She guessed that if Wade refused to perform the ceremony, they could find someone who would.

  “Word’ll be all over town by the time we finish talking to Wade,” Lucas said as they climbed the stairs to the church rectory. “You don’t mind, do you?”

  “No,” Annie replied. And on second thought, why should she? They’d made their decision; they both wanted this marriage.

  Martha Kerns, Wade’s secretary, seated them in the pastor’s office and explained that Wade would be with them in a couple of minutes. Then she quietly left the room and closed the door. “Have you given any thought to when you’d like the wedding?” Lucas asked.

  “No.” She glanced at him. “Have you?”

  Lucas shrugged. “Is two weeks enough time for you?”

  They’d already agreed it would be a small private wedding. “All right with me, if it is with you.”

  He grinned. “That’s long enough for me. Mom and Dad asked to be included, and that’ll give them the time they need to drive back from Florida.”

  “I’d like Jane to be my maid of honor.”

  “I was thinking of asking Cal to stand up for me.”

  “Heather and Hollie will be there, won’t they?” Annie asked, wanting to make the girls feel part of things.

  “I’d like them to be,” he told her, “if you’re okay with it.”

  Annie nodded.

  Their eyes met and they smiled slowly. Lucas reached for her hand, raising her fingers to his lips. “You won’t be sorry, Annie,” he promised. “I’ll do everything in my power to be a good husband to you.”

  Annie believed him.

  The door opened then and a breathless Wade McMillen rushed in. “Sorry, I’m late,” he apologized as he pulled out the chair at his desk. “Now, what’s all this about a wedding?”

  “Mother, are you seeing someone?” Sylvia had arrived unannounced at lunchtime—highly unusual for the middle of the week.

  Nessa had been expecting her daughter’s question. “Seeing someone, dear?” she repeated, keeping her voice low as she pierced a piece of lettuce with her fork. Sylvia had driven from her home in New Orleans for a “quick visit.” Nessa didn’t know what she’d said during their last phone call to raise her daughter’s suspicions, but whatever it was had Sylvia packed and on the road within twenty-four hours.