The Colton Bride

by Carla Cassidy

  Catherine pulled a green-and-gold patterned chair closer to the side of the bed, ignoring the IV and medical equipment hooked up to the sick man in the bed.

  “Hi, Daddy. It’s me, Cath.” For a moment she merely sat quietly. Jethro Colton was a complicated man and he’d been a difficult man to love, as a man and as a father. He’d always loved the women and women loved him back, a reality that usually placed his daughters on the back burner of his life.

  Still, there had been moments in her childhood when she’d seen him be the kind of father she yearned for, the daddy she could love with all her heart, and it was the memory of those rare moments that kept her loving him now.

  “I’ve gone and done something stupid, Daddy,” she finally said. “I was hoodwinked by a man I thought I could love but I discovered all he was after was my inheritance. When he found out I wouldn’t get it for another four years, he dropped me like a hot potato. Unfortunately, he left a little something of himself behind. I’m pregnant, Daddy. You’re going to be a grandfather again and you need to wake up and get well.”

  Her eyes blurred with tears as she realized the futility of the conversation. The cancer was draining the very life from Jethro. He’d probably never live to see his new grandchild.

  If only they could find Cole. Surely being reunited with his firstborn son who’d been kidnapped so many years ago would rally Jethro to aggressively fight the disease that was eating away at him.

  Her mind drifted from her father and his missing son to Gray Stark and that moment in front of the petting barn fence when she’d opened her eyes and had been in his strong arms.

  His sandy blond hair had gleamed in the dusk light of day creating a halo effect around his head. In the depths of his brown eyes she’d imagined the soft, sweet emotions she’d believed he’d once felt for her.

  Reality had slapped her in the face as he’d quickly released her and she realized his eyes were dark, assessing. No illusion of evening sunshine could turn Gray Stark into a loving, caring angel of a man.

  The few times they encountered each other all she got from him was dark eyes, fathomless stares and few words. The boy she’d loved was gone, replaced by a man she didn’t know, a man who made no pretense that he didn’t want to know anything about the woman she had become.

  She wondered if he’d loved somebody in the five years he’d been gone from Dead River Ranch. She wondered even more why she cared. In the four years he’d been back she’d never heard any gossip about him and any woman.

  What little gossip she had heard about him was that he was all work and little play, a tough but fair taskmaster who kept a keen eye on the wranglers who worked beneath him.

  She returned her gaze to the man on the bed. “Daddy, you need to fight this.” She gently picked up one of his hands that lay on top of the bedspread. Calloused from hard work, yet thin and cold, it lay lifeless in hers. She rubbed his hand with both of hers, trying to warm his, but it didn’t work.

  She returned his hand to the top of the spread and then stood, unsure what she was hoping to gain from being here, but knowing she’d gained nothing.

  * * *

  Dinner had just finished up in the employee dining room when kitchen helper Lucinda Garcia reentered the room, her brown eyes sparkling with excitement. “Looks like there is going to be another Colton heir,” she announced.

  “Miss Gabby going to give the little princess a baby brother or sister?” George Jeffries, one of the ranch hands, asked.

  “Nope, it’s Miss Catherine,” Lucinda replied.

  Gray’s blood turned cold as he shoved back from the large, rough-hewn wooden table. What in the hell had she done? Made an official announcement over dinner?

  Hadn’t he warned her to keep the information about her pregnancy to herself for her own safety? Now everyone in the entire house would know...all the family...all the staff and Gray was positive that the evil that had created such havoc in the past couple of months had come from within, not from some outside source.

  It was with a head full of steam that he left the employee dining room and went in search of Catherine. He knew her habit was often to visit Jethro’s suite right after dinner and that was where he headed.

  He stalked the long hallways toward the master suite, unsure what he intended to say to Catherine, even more uncertain why he felt the need to discuss the matter with her at all.

  What he wanted to do was take her by her slender shoulders and shake her for telling everyone. What he wanted to do was forget that for just a moment at the petting barn as he’d held her in his arms and she’d smiled up at him he’d wanted to lower his lips to hers and plant a kiss that would possess her completely. He’d wanted to brand her as his own in a way he’d obviously been unable to do as a teenager.

  He clenched his hands into fists at his side. The fact that he’d entertained any notion of kissing her ticked him off. He was now ranch foreman, but that didn’t mean he would ever be good enough for Catherine Colton.

  This simmering old anger mixed with the aggravation he felt for her over spilling her secret. When he reached Jethro’s suite he stood just outside the door, able to hear Catherine’s soft voice murmuring from the bedroom.

  He leaned against the wall, unwilling to interrupt her time with her dying father, but determined to have his say to her. In the distance he could hear others in the house moving around, going to their own suites or gathering in the great room for some conversation before heading their separate ways. He easily imagined he could hear the whispering of deadly secrets, the plotting of evil, the suppressed air of danger ready to spring at any moment.

  The problem was he wasn’t sure where the danger might come from or who it might be directed at, he only knew that Catherine, with her surprising news, had just placed herself in a potential place of extreme vulnerability and she had absolutely nobody to watch her back.

  It didn’t take long for Catherine to leave the suite and as she turned in the opposite direction of where he’d been waiting for her, he took two long steps forward and reached out to grab her by the arm.

  She gasped in alarm and only relaxed a bit when she turned to see him. “Gray, what are you doing lurking around in the shadows of the hallway?” She pulled her arm from his grasp. “What do you want?”

  He was momentarily speechless as he gazed at her in the semidarkness of the corridor. She’d changed for dinner from the sweatshirt and jeans into a blue dress cinched at her slender waist, fitted across the bodice and then flaring out in a short fall of silk to her knees, exposing her long, shapely legs.

  She looked stunning and the fact that he noticed only raised the level of his anger. “I want to ask you if you have a death wish,” he replied, his words clipped, terse with his displeasure.

  “What are you talking about?” She frowned.

  “I thought we’d agreed that you would keep your pregnancy a secret for as long as possible.”

  “I don’t recall agreeing to anything with you,” she replied. Her cheeks dusted with color. “Besides, I didn’t actually tell anyone. I just refused wine at dinner and asked for decaffeinated coffee afterward. Darla and Tawny noticed and made a big deal out of it and before I knew it everyone had guessed my secret.”

  “I told you that this ‘secret’ puts you at a higher risk for something bad happening to you,” he replied.

  Her frown deepened. “You’re making this into too big a deal.”

  “Too big a deal?” he asked incredulously. “Have you forgotten that three months ago somebody tried to kidnap Cheyenne and in the process Faye Frick was killed? Have you forgotten that Jenny Burke was found dead in the kitchen pantry? Only a month ago another attempt was made to take Cheyenne?”

  “Okay, stop!” Catherine placed her hands over her ears, not wanting to hear anything more. She knew awful things were happening all around her, but she didn’t want to hear them listed out loud. She didn’t even like to think about them. “I know what’s been going on,” she said as s
he lowered her hands to her sides.

  “You don’t seem to be taking all of it seriously enough,” Gray retorted, some of his anger seeping out of him as concern took over. “You need to hire yourself a bodyguard or something.”

  Catherine looked at him in disbelief. “This is my home, my family. I shouldn’t need a bodyguard here. Besides, Gabby doesn’t have a bodyguard.”

  “True, but she’s living and sleeping with Trevor, the head of security.”

  “What about Amanda? She comes and goes as she pleases.”

  “And also has an ex-marine tough guy playing bodyguard to Cheyenne.” He leaned against the wall. “In fact, you’ve probably done him a favor by taking the target off Cheyenne and putting it right on your back. Maybe he’ll be able to sleep a little better at night now knowing there’s a new target to take the heat off him.”

  “You’re just being hateful,” Catherine replied, her tone of voice slightly higher than usual.

  “I’m being realistic,” he countered and pushed himself off the wall as she continued down the hallway. “If you were smart you’d marry that kid’s father and move him in here where he could keep an eye on you.”

  “That’s never, ever going to happen.” She stopped walking and turned to face him once again. “I wasn’t sure I was in love with Dirk before he broke up with me and since then I’m positive that marrying him would have been the absolute worst mistake of my life.”

  Her eyes flashed with the certainty, with the fury of her emotions and words. She looked absolutely magnificent. Gray was oddly pleased by those words, although they certainly didn’t help her situation at all.

  “I don’t need him and I don’t need your help, Gray. I’ve done just fine without your advice, without your presence in my life for the past nine years. Since you’ve been back at the ranch for the past four years we’ve scarcely exchanged ten words with each other, so don’t go pretending that you care about my well-being now.”

  She raised her enchanting delicate pointed chin. “I don’t need Dirk. I don’t need a bodyguard and I certainly don’t need you.”

  She whirled around and stalked down the hallway as Gray gazed after her, wondering why in the hell after all these years he felt that an obstinate part of his heart was still invested in her.

  Chapter 3

  Dreams of Gray haunted her sleep, erotic, hot dreams of the time when they were teenagers and meeting secretly in the stables after dark. She’d loved him since she was fifteen and he’d been sixteen, but he’d refused to make love to her for two years, although there had been plenty of snuggling and making out and almost lovemaking in those two years.

  When they’d finally allowed themselves the pleasure of going all the way, Gray had been tender and so sweet and after that first time they had shared a passion for each other that had been explosive, magic and insatiable.

  There had also been a lot of planning in those teenage years. They’d talked about owning a little ranch not far from here, having a couple of kids to raise and a lifetime of love and happiness together.

  Catherine awakened and in that brief limbo between dreams and complete consciousness, her heart was filled with love for Gray. The scent of him lingered in her brain, reminding her of how it had felt to be held in his arms, how his lips had plied hers with such fire. In her vision his whiskey-brown eyes gazed at her with such want, such need, it burned deep inside her soul.

  Then full awake slammed into her and the fantasy shattered into a million pieces, leaving her heart aching and empty. She clutched her pillow to her chest and lingered for a few minutes, the dream still far too fresh in her head.

  Oh, what fantasies they had spun so many years ago and then one morning she’d gotten up and discovered he was gone. She now released her hold on the pillow and got out of bed. And he’d remain gone from her heart, she told herself as she headed into the adjoining bathroom for her morning shower.

  He had some nerve, anyway, acting like he was concerned about her, acting like he cared about her safety. After four years of pretending she didn’t even exist, he had no right to be concerned about her now.

  She shoved all thoughts of Gray Stark from her head as she stepped beneath the water in the large glass enclosure. She had other things to think about...like the pregnancy test she’d taken that had given her a positive result.

  She needed to see a doctor and get confirmation of the test. There were prenatal vitamins to take, instructions to listen to and things to learn. She wanted to do everything she could to ensure that she carried a healthy baby and once she or he was born she’d make sure she was the best mother she could be.

  There was really no role model for her to follow. Her own mother had left Jethro and the three girls when they were young and she hadn’t been much of a mother before she’d deserted them. Catherine had never seen her mother again and had little interest in ever reconnecting with her.

  Catherine didn’t really know what it was like to have a mother, but she certainly knew what it was like not to have one.

  All the things she had longed for as a little girl, as an insecure teenager would be gifted to her own child. Her child would never spend a second wondering if he or she was wanted and loved.

  She’d spent far too much of her life wondering that very fact. Her mother had run out on her. Gray’s abandonment in her teens hadn’t helped her insecurities, and Dirk’s desire to marry her only for her inheritance had just been the icing on the cake.

  Catherine had what she wanted, a baby growing inside her, and she didn’t need a man to complete her. She could do this all just fine by herself. As she toweled off she realized that the pregnancy had made her decide that she had no intention of ever bringing a man into her life again.

  She’d never have to wonder if she was loved for herself or for her enormous inheritance that she’d receive in four years. She never had to go through the dating game again. Love just wasn’t in her cards, except the love of her child. And that was more than enough to make her happy for the rest of her life.

  By the time she left the bathroom dressed for the day, the young maid Allison Murray was in her room, tidying up and making the bed. “Good morning, Miss Catherine,” she said with her usual bright, cheerful smile.

  “Good morning, Allison. How are the weekend classes coming along?”

  “Great,” Allison replied as she fluffed a pillow. “My economics teacher told me I have a natural knack for numbers.” She laughed, her green eyes sparkling. “Who would have thought?”

  “I think it’s wonderful that you’re pursuing your education,” Catherine said to the pretty young woman.

  Allison cast her a sly glance. “And I think it’s wonderful that you’re pregnant. Have you been to the doctor yet?”

  “Not yet. I just found out by taking one of those home pregnancy tests.” Catherine sank down in her favorite chair while Allison finished plumping all the pillows on the bed.

  “You should get yourself to a doctor. I’ve heard that sometimes those home pregnancy tests can give you a false positive,” she said.

  “I’ll check in with a doctor as soon as possible,” Catherine replied, although she knew the test was right. Even though it was far too early for her to feel anything or for her belly to show any signs of the life inside, Catherine knew with certainty it was there. She felt it in her heart, in her very soul.

  She visited with the woman for a few more minutes and then when Allison went into the bathroom to clean up, Catherine headed for the dining room. She was later than usual and was grateful to find herself alone except for Amanda, who was at the table lingering over a cup of coffee.

  “Hey, Cath.” She greeted Catherine with a smile and gestured to the chair next to her. “You missed the usual breakfast fracas. Darla spent most of the conversation whining that she wanted their suite redecorated and I swear Trip had already been drinking.”

  “Gee, sorry I missed the fun,” Catherine replied dryly. “I was wondering if you could get me in to s
ee your OB/GYN doctor in Laramie.”

  “Dr. Kendall? You’ll love her, and if I give her a call right now I’ll bet she could work you in before the end of the day.”

  Catherine laughed. “I don’t think it’s necessary to move that fast.”

  “That baby of yours is going to be Cheyenne’s first cousin, her first real playmate. There’s no time like the present to get you in to the doctor and on a regimen of healthy eating and vitamins.”

  At that moment head cook Agnes Barlow stepped into the room, her short red hair an indication of her fiery disposition with the kitchen staff. “Miss Catherine, would you like something for breakfast?” she asked. There was no hint of warmth or welcome in her voice. She was all work and no-nonsense.

  “Thank you, Agnes, maybe just a glass of orange juice and a piece of toast,” Catherine said.

  “Are you having morning sickness?” Amanda asked.

  “No, nothing like that. I’m just not that hungry this morning.”

  By the time Catherine had finished her glass of juice and toast, Amanda had set her up with a four-thirty appointment with Dr. Victoria Kendall.

  The sisters parted then, Amanda heading toward the nursery to check in on Cheyenne and Catherine leaving the house for the petting barn to take care of the morning chores.

  She could have hired somebody to do the caretaking of the animals for her, but Catherine didn’t mind getting her hands dirty and the work out there gave her a sense of purpose that she needed in her life.

  She left the house for the walk to the barn and although she saw several ranch hands out in the pastures, thankfully she didn’t see Gray.

  With her dreams of him still so fresh in her mind, she wasn’t ready to see him anytime soon. It was bad enough that she couldn’t get the scent of him out of her head and that he’d invaded her sleep all night long.

  He’d stood so close to her when he’d encountered her outside of her father’s suite that she’d been able to feel his body heat radiating toward her, smelled the scent of fresh minty soap and shaving cream and a hint of woodsy cologne that was so familiar.