“I picked up my dress,” Heidi said, her face bright with excitement. “Want to see?”
“I’d love to.”
They went upstairs to one of the spare rooms. Off the bedroom was a small alcove that had obviously once been used for a nursery. A beautiful white wedding gown hung from a big, brass coatrack. The dress faced the rack, with the train spread out on the sheets spread over the floor.
“I’m so paranoid about it,” Heidi said. “I couldn’t even steam it after I picked it up. I was shaking too much. May did it for me. Now I come in here every day and look at it. I know. I’m such an idiot.”
“You’re not. You’re excited about getting married. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to be? Honestly, I’d be worried if you weren’t looking at your dress every day.”
Heidi hugged her. “Thank you.”
Annabelle hugged her back, then tugged on one of Heidi’s blond braids. “You’re welcome. Now show me this fancy wedding gown.”
Heidi slipped off her boots and walked to the dress. She carefully lifted the hanger, then expertly turned the dress so the train was still protected by the sheets.
A heart-shaped neckline had been done in pure white silk. The bodice was pleated and fitted. At the waist was delicate beading. The skirt was full with only a few scattered beads. Simple. Cap sleeves added to the air of innocence, while the fabric and pleating were more elegant. The train was long and had the most beading.
“It’s perfect,” Annabelle breathed. The gown was all things Heidi. Sweet and pretty, with unexpected touches. “How are you wearing your hair?”
“Up, I think. Of all things, May has a diamond tiara that belonged to her grandmother. It’s silly, but I actually love it.”
“Why not? Every bride should be a princess on her wedding day. Rafe isn’t going to know what hit him.”
Heidi put the dress back on the coatrack, then carefully smoothed the train into place.
“I hope so,” she said as she faced Annabelle again, then led the way out of the room. “I want him to be happy.”
Annabelle waited until they were in the hall to touch her friend’s arm. “The man is crazy about you. Seriously. If you’re in the room, he can’t stop looking at you. When he talks about you, he grins like a teenager on his first date. Do you really have any doubts?”
“No.” Heidi drew in a breath. “But sometimes I can’t believe I got so lucky. Six months ago I would have told you I didn’t believe in love and if someone convinced me it was real, I would never trust it. But then he was here and I couldn’t help myself.”
“The irresistible man?”
Heidi laughed. “Something like that. I never thought I could be this happy. First buying the ranch, then almost losing it, then having Rafe fall in love with me.”
Annabelle enjoyed her friend’s happiness, even as she felt a little knot of worry in her tummy. She wanted what Heidi had. Wanted to feel those feelings, wanted to be secure in knowing she was loved. She’d never had that with Lewis. Deep inside she’d always sensed she wasn’t a partner in their relationship.
For a while she’d assumed she was simply one of those women who wasn’t destined to find love. That she would make her life fulfilling in other ways. But now, with Shane, she found herself wanting her happy ending. Wanting him to be the one.
She just wasn’t sure it was possible.
* * *
“IT’S A FAUCET,” Shane said. “For a kitchen. Don’t I only need one?”
“Yes,” Annabelle said patiently. “One is great. So which do you like?”
He stared around in obvious bewilderment. Normally she would have taken advantage of the situation and mocked him, but right now she sort of understood his confusion.
On the advice of his contractor, they were in Sacramento at a bathroom and kitchen fixture specialty store. They were going to be able to make all the decisions regarding plumbing at once. There was only one problem. The store was the size of a grandstand and there were hundreds of choices for each option.
Shiny, brushed, stainless, copper-colored, brass, black, white. There were tall faucets and stubby faucets. Faucets that bent or sprayed or filtered water. She was half expecting to see one that talked.
There were even more choices for the bathrooms, along with sinks and tubs and shower fixtures. Oh, and there were rows and rows of toilets.
They were being assisted by a well-dressed thirty-something man named Marcus who had received the contractor’s email with the list of what Shane should be buying.
“We’ll start easy and work up to what’s difficult,” Marcus said, attaching their list to a clipboard and then handing it to Annabelle. He pulled out a touch-pad device and started entering information.
“What’s easy?” Shane asked warily.
“The kitchen. A faucet and a sink.”
Annabelle knew that wasn’t exactly true. There would be appliances and lighting, not to mention countertops, backsplashes and flooring. But none of that was Marcus’s problem.
“Farm sinks are very popular,” Marcus told them, leading them over to the kitchen area. Several displays showed the sinks and faucets in an actual kitchenlike setting.
“They’re large, which gives you a nice working space. Deep enough for pasta pots. Some people don’t want their sink split into two parts.”
Shane stared. “It’s a sink.”
Marcus gave a little sigh and pushed up his rimless glasses. “Yes. I hear that a lot.”
“This is important,” Annabelle told him.
“Why?” Shane looked genuinely confused.
“Are you going to be washing any small livestock in the sink?” she asked.
“No.”
“Then let’s get a traditional two sink configuration. With the one side deeper.”
Marcus nodded and led them to that part of the display. They debated stainless versus the other materials. Marcus asked about a faucet over the stove. As Shane laughed, Annabelle told him, no, that hadn’t been ordered.
She quickly narrowed the faucet selection down to three and he picked the one he liked best.
“Why that one?” she asked as Marcus led them to the bathroom fixtures.
“It was the biggest.”
“I figured,” she said, linking arms with him. “You’re such a guy.”
“It’s one of my best qualities.”
They reached the showers. Before Marcus could explain much, his cell phone buzzed.
“It’s one of my suppliers. Would you excuse me please while I take this call?”
“Go ahead,” Shane said.
“Thank you. There’s coffee over there, if you’d like.”
He quickly walked away.
Shane stared at the displays of showers.
“Don’t,” Annabelle told him, looking down at the inventory list. She couldn’t remember if the house had two or three full bathrooms.
“Don’t what?”
“Say ‘it’s just a shower.’ You were going to.”
“I wasn’t,” he said, but he sounded a little defensive.
She glanced at him and grinned. “You so were.”
“Maybe on the inside.”
She found the right part of the list. “There are three full baths, including the master, a half bath and a sink in the mudroom.”
“I need coffee.”
She followed him over to a coffee station complete with a sofa, a small table and chairs and several plates of cookies. Shane poured her a cup, then a second for himself.
“It’s too much,” he said. “We should have gone somewhere with a smaller selection.”
“Most people appreciate all the choices.”
“Most people are idiots.”
“You’d rather be back doing horse stuff,” she said.
He raised his eyebrows. “You did not just say horse stuff.”
She held in a smile. “I did.”
“You’re in big trouble now.”
“Are you going to punish me?�
�
Instantly his features sharpened as his gaze centered on her mouth. “Have you been bad?”
“Very.”
“I like your honesty.”
He continued to look at her. She felt the temperature in the room rise about ten degrees and her skin got the pre-kiss, tingly tightness. It sure didn’t take much for Shane to get her distracted.
She cleared her throat and searched for a safer topic. “So, um, how’s Wilbur settling in?”
“You really want to talk about the pig?”
“It seems safer.”
He glanced around, then returned his attention to her. “Good point. They probably don’t want us taking one of the tubs for a test drive.”
“It could be awkward. I’m not sure Marcus would approve.”
“Wilbur’s fine. Reno likes him more than Priscilla does, I think. It’s not like they share their innermost feelings with me. But he’s settled in and now the odd duet has become an even stranger trio.”
“I’m glad Priscilla isn’t alone. She must have been lonely by herself. Elephants are social animals.”
“Someone’s been doing research on the internet.”
“A little,” she admitted.
“Study any horse stuff?”
She laughed. “Some. Khatar is my one true love. I need to understand him.”
“He’s a pretty simple guy.”
“As are you.” She linked her arm with his and enjoyed the socially polite feel of his body next to hers. “Come on. Be a brave little toaster. We’re going to look at showers. This is going to be fun because some of them come with gadgets.”
“What do you mean?”
“You can get a steam shower if you want. Or one that you can program the temperature. You punch in what you want it to be and it tells you when it’s there.”
“I like technology.”
“I thought you might. There are also showers with heads coming out the side, so every part of you gets clean.”
He glanced at her. “I don’t need that. I have a woman come in every morning to wash me.”
“Really? I haven’t met this woman. What’s she like?”
“Beautiful. Naked. It’s how I start my day.”
She drew back. “Interesting. I think I liked you better when you were frightened of the sink choices.”
He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “Don’t be jealous. She’s a professional. It’s a business arrangement.”
“The strange woman who bathes you every morning?”
“Uh-huh. But you could try out for the job. I’m a very easy grader.”
They’d arrived back at the bathrooms. She pointed to the electronic display. “See if they have a setting for icy cold. Because that’s all you’re getting from me.”
“I’m wounded.” He faced her and put his free hand on her waist. “If it really bothers you, I’ll get rid of her.”
“I think I’d like to meet this mystery woman of the professional washing.”
“You’d have to come over very early.”
“I guess I’d better get used to waking up early if I’m going to milk Heidi’s goats.”
“You should probably spend the night, just to make it easy on yourself.”
She found herself getting lost in his dark eyes. This was the Shane she liked most, she thought, wanting to lean in and feel his mouth on hers. The teasing, fun guy who made her heart beat faster.
Nearby, someone cleared his throat. Annabelle saw that Marcus had returned. She took a quick step back and sipped her coffee.
Shane didn’t look the least bit chagrined. “We were discussing the digital temperatures in the shower.”
“Ah, I see. You should look at this one. It changes color as the temperature changes.”
Shane grabbed her hand and drew her along after Marcus. “It changes color. I like that. Maybe we can find one that makes the water different colors, too.”
* * *
“YOU DID REALLY WELL,” Annabelle said four hours later as they drove back to Fool’s Gold. “We got everything you needed from the store. It will be shipped to the job site and make your contractor very happy.”
“Good. Because she has serious attitude if she’s not happy.”
Annabelle didn’t want to think about how much money Shane had spent in a single afternoon. All those fixtures added up, especially since he tended to choose high-end materials. She supposed she was going to have to integrate the fact that he wasn’t just a guy who worked with horses. He was a successful breeder and racehorse owner. She had a feeling he paid more in taxes than she made.
“With the measurements for what you bought, construction can continue,” she said.
“Yeah. I’ll get a two-day break and then she’ll be on me about lighting fixtures.”
“The electrician is going to need to know what goes where.”
He turned off the main highway for the road to the ranch. “Want to pick them for me?”
“No, but I’ll go with you.”
“Thanks.”
Their eyes met for a second and she felt the familiar flutter in her chest. He was good, she thought. Better than good.
As he made another turn, they passed a flatbed truck with the name of a delivery service going the other way. Shane groaned.
“What did she buy now?”
“At least it’s not an animal,” Annabelle said, looking at the flatbed, hoping to see a clue. “They always come in enclosed trailers.”
“Unless it was in a cage or something. Like a lion.”
“Your mother wouldn’t buy a lion.”
“You sure about that?”
Annabelle thought about May’s eclectic menagerie. “Um, no. Not really.”
They drove onto the ranch only to see a shiny new red truck parked by the house. It was big, with massive tires and an extended bed.
Shane slowed his truck and stared. “Because the Cadillac wasn’t enough?” he muttered.
“Cadillac?” She stared at the truck. “You think Clay bought it?”
“No one else would want anything that flashy. That has my little brother written all over it.”
“When does he arrive?”
Shane came to a stop and turned off the engine. “Earlier this afternoon.”
She glanced toward the truck and saw a man standing on the porch. He was obviously a Stryker brother—with dark hair and eyes. The same broad shoulders and long legs. But he was also different.
He wasn’t just good-looking. He was handsome in a whole other league, his features just a little more perfect than everyone else’s. And his appeal didn’t stop there. The man had an amazing body, expertly shown off in tight jeans and a formfitting T-shirt.
“You can close your mouth now,” Shane grumbled.
Annabelle tore her gaze away from Clay. “My mouth wasn’t open.”
“It kind of was. Don’t worry. We’re used to it. Clay has always been the pretty one in the family. Try not to drool. It makes things awkward.”
He was joking. Sort of. She looked at Shane and thought of how much she enjoyed everything about him. Then she undid her seat belt and leaned toward him.
“You’re very concerned about my reaction to your brother. I think the person you really have to worry about is your bathing lady.”
As she spoke, she put her hand on the back of his head and drew him to her. When he was close enough, she leaned in and kissed him. She thought about how he made her laugh and how she looked forward to spending time with him. Then she thought about all the ways he amazed her in bed and let her kiss do the talking, so to speak.
When she finally drew back he smiled. “Nice.”
She raised her eyebrows.
“I got the message,” he added.
“Good. Remember that.”
As she got out, she wondered if Shane’s reaction to her looking at Clay had been about her or if this was another example of his dealing with his ex. Had she been a little too interested in Shane’s
brother? Because if she had been, this was more proof of Annabelle’s uphill journey to prove she was someone Shane could trust. That she would never betray him or trick him or hurt him.
Easy enough to say, she thought. But much, much harder to prove.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“I’M SO HAPPY,” MAY said, checking the roast she’d put in the oven, then closing the door and straightening. “All my boys are home with me.”
Shane collected plates and flatware to set the table, as instructed. “Were you this excited when I moved back?” he asked, his voice teasing.
“Of course,” his mother assured him.
“Only Clay’s a little more special,” Rafe called from the sideboard by the table. He pulled the cork from the bottle of wine May had insisted they would have with dinner.
“He’s rarely here,” May told them both. “That makes it special.”
“Face it,” Rafe said, returning to the kitchen to get the wineglasses. “He’s her favorite.”
May put her hands on her hips. “I love all my boys the same. You two know it, too.”
Rafe paused to kiss her cheek. “We do, Mom. But sometimes it’s fun to mess with you.”
It was just the four of them for dinner that night. Heidi and her grandfather had gone into town to leave the Strykers to enjoy their reunion in private.
Clay strolled into the kitchen and walked up to his mother. “You’re even more beautiful than the last time I saw you,” he said, pulling her close and hugging her. When he released her, he turned to Rafe. “Hey, there’s some white dress upstairs. You know anything about that?”
Rafe narrowed his gaze. “You didn’t touch it, did you?”
“No.” Clay held up both his hands. “I just looked.” He winked. “Marriage, huh? What does she see in you?”
“More than she’d see in you.”
Clay slapped him on the back then turned to Shane. “See my truck?”
“It’s hard to miss.”
“If you ask real nice, I’ll let you drive it.”
Shane grinned. “No, thanks. By the way, I took the Cadillac to San Diego. Got it all broken in for you.”
Summer Nights Page 22
