The Best Catch in Texas

by Stella Bagwell

  If something had happened to him, if she lost him before she had the chance to tell him how she really felt, she’d never be able to survive, she thought sickly.

  At the hospital she parked her vehicle at the emergency entrance and raced inside to the admitting desk.

  A nurse that Nicolette was acquainted with was on duty. She practically yelled at the other woman. “Joan, where’s Ridge? What’s happened?”

  The tall blonde looked at her with mild confusion. “You mean Dr. Garroway?”

  Nicolette’s knees were so mushy she had to grip the edge of the desk to keep herself upright. “Yes! What’s happened to him? What examining room is he in?”

  The nurse’s head swung back and forth. “Nothing has happened to Dr. Garroway. He came in with a patient, a young boy.”

  Nicolette’s hand flew to her mouth. “Corey! Oh, no!”

  Joan glanced at the set of papers she’d been working on. “Yes, that’s his name. I think there was some sort of accident with a horse. Anyway, I believe they’ve already gone up to ICU with him.”

  “Thank you!” she called over her shoulder as she took off in a run to the elevator.

  Because she was considered a part of the hospital’s medical staff, she didn’t pause in the waiting room but walked straight through to the nurse’s station in the Intensive Care unit.

  The head nurse gave her a quick rundown on Corey’s condition, which she described as stable, and promised Nicolette to let her know if there were any changes.

  Not wanting to cause any further interruption, Nicolette thanked the nurse and went back to the waiting area, where she practically collapsed on one of the couches. Ridge would have to appear sooner or later. In the meantime, she could only hope and pray that he wouldn’t turn his back on her.

  More than an hour passed before Ridge finally stepped into the waiting room. His jeans and boots were covered with dirt and splotches of mud, but he’d apparently changed his shirt for a green scrub. Weariness tugged at his features, and for a moment she feared for Corey’s condition.

  “Ridge! How is he?”

  Unaware of her presence, he jerked his head in her direction.

  “Nicci?” His eyes narrowed on her face. “What are you doing here?”

  Swallowing at the lump of nerves in her throat, she left the couch and walked over to him. “I…I went to your house and saw the ambulance leaving. I followed. Is Corey—”

  “He’s going to be fine, thank God.” Briefly closing his eyes, he raked a hand through his hair. “There for a while I wasn’t sure, though. His heart stopped completely. I had to do CPR before the ambulance got there.”

  “Oh, Ridge,” she said softly. “I can’t imagine the terror you must have felt. Corey is such a sweet boy, and I know how much he means to you.”

  His eyes met hers with bleak certainty. “He’s like my son. I don’t know what I would have done if he’d died.”

  “How did the accident happen?”

  Shaking his head, he said, “The storm was approaching and the horses got shook up from the lightning. One of them bucked and Corey was close enough that a hind hoof slammed him in the chest. The impact was so great it stopped his heart.”

  Nicolette had experienced a few ranching injuries herself, so it wasn’t hard to imagine the horror Ridge had experienced when he’d witnessed Corey being kicked by a twelve-hundred-pound horse. “Will there be any permanent damage?” she asked.

  “I don’t think so. He’s young and healthy, and his heart has already returned to a normal rhythm. In fact, he’s complaining now for making him stay in the hospital overnight. Especially when I’d promised him a trip into town for a hamburger.”

  Relief flooded through her and she smiled. “I’m so glad. What about his mother? Has she been told about the accident?”

  He nodded. “Suzette’s in there with him now. You probably saw her come flying through here earlier.” He indicated midchest height. “About this tall, red-headed with lots of freckles.”

  “I did see the woman and wondered if she might be Corey’s mother. I’m sure she was in a panic. Were you able to reassure her?”

  He wiped a hand over his strained features. “Yes. She’s calm now. In fact, she kept thanking me over and over for saving her son’s life.” The corners of his mouth turned downward. “But I don’t know how she’s going to feel about things once it sinks in that Corey was hurt because of me. She may not want the boy to associate with me anymore.”

  Desperate to comfort him, Nicolette placed her hand on his forearm. “Accidents happen, Ridge. Especially when you mix animals and people. I’m sure Corey’s mother understands that. And she must also know that you love the boy.”

  Faint surprise flashed in his brown eyes, then softened with gratitude. “At least you realize that I’m a man capable of loving someone other than myself.”

  Pain squeezed Nicolette’s heart, causing her fingers to unconsciously tighten on his arm. “Ridge, I—” Shaking her head, her voice lowered as she tried again. “I need to talk to you. Can we go somewhere—” she glanced around at the weary people sitting on chairs and couches as they waited to hear the condition of loved ones “—a little more private?”

  Skepticism marked his face as he took her by the shoulder and guided her out of the ICU waiting room. Out in the hallway, he silently urged her to a door with the word Private posted in the middle. After opening it, he gestured for her to precede him into a room that was hardly more than a tiny alcove equipped with a small desk, a sink and a light for viewing X-rays.

  Nicolette braced herself as he shut the door behind him and turned to her.

  “All right,” he said quietly. “Here we are. No audience.”

  From the moment she’d spotted him stepping into the waiting area, her heart had begun to hammer out a tune of hope. But now that the two of them were cocooned together and she was staring at the cool, doubtful expression on his face, her pulse slowed to a fearful crawl.

  “I, uh, I suppose you’re wondering what I was doing at your house this evening.”

  Nodding, he silently waited for her to continue.

  Nicolette swallowed. “I was—hoping to surprise you. Instead I saw the ambulance driving away and I—” Her head fell forward until she was staring at the tile beneath their feet instead of his stern face. “Oh Ridge, Ridge,” she said in a choked voice. “As I raced here to the hospital, I was so afraid. I couldn’t bear to imagine my life without you!”

  His hand curled around her arm, and with hopeful anticipation, she slowly lifted her head.

  “But what about before, Nicci?” he questioned softly. “Before you thought I might be hurt. You were coming to the house to tell me something?”

  Stepping forward, she placed her hands on his chest and marveled at the sense of peace she felt at just touching him.

  “Yes,” she answered as she tilted her head back and looked into his brown eyes. “I wanted to tell you that I love you. That I’ve been a fool and an even bigger coward for running away from you—from marriage.”

  Incredible joy swept across his face, and as he pulled her into his arms, Nicolette felt such a thrill of pleasure that her head reeled with it. The scent of him, the hard strength of his body and the warm breath caressing her cheek felt like a delicious drink filling up the empty holes inside her.

  “Oh, Nicci, Nicci,” he said with a groan against her hair, “I love you so much. I was beginning to think I’d never hear those words from you. What made you change your mind?”

  Easing her cheek from the middle of his chest, she looked up at him and smiled through tears of joy. “Mother. She can be a formidable force at times, especially with her children. And let’s just say she shook me up pretty good. She made me see how awful it would be to lose you.” Nicolette cupped her hands against the sides of his face. “Have I anyway, Ridge? Please tell me I’m not too late. Please tell me that you still want to marry me.”

  He groaned again, but this time it was a sound
of sheer relief. “You’re crazy, Nicci, if you think I’d given up on you. Just before Corey’s accident I was agonizing over what to do about you—about us. I’d decided I would swallow my pride and try once again to change your mind. I just hadn’t figured out yet how I was going to go about doing it.” His head shook back and forth with amazement. “Dear God, I never dreamed you’d be coming to me—like this.”

  His arms tightened around her as though he never intended to let her go, and Nicolette felt the scars inside her blow away like dead leaves tossed into the wind. Ridge truly was a heart mender. He’d made her heart whole again, able to love again.

  “I couldn’t stay away,” she murmured. “These past couple of weeks without you have been utter hell for me, Ridge. And I—” Her head shook with regret as she looked into his eyes. “Well, now I realize that I’ve handled everything badly. I should have been more open with you from the very start and then maybe—well, maybe you would have understood why I ran from you like a timid little mouse who saw its shadow.”

  He stroked her hair, and the love she saw in his eyes was such a wondrous sight that she wanted to weep with joy and relief.

  “It doesn’t matter, Nicci. You don’t have to explain.”

  “Yes,” she urgently countered, “I do. I need to tell it all to you. I don’t want us to start our life with anything standing in the way. Let me throw this burden away once and for all, Ridge.”

  Nodding gravely he said, “All right. I’m listening.”

  Easing out of his arms, she turned her back to him as she tried to pull together the words she needed to say. She didn’t know where to begin or how to convey the crushing self-doubt she’d lived with for the past few years. She only knew that she wanted Ridge to see all the fears she’d carried in her heart and why it had made her so hesitant about loving him.

  Finally she gathered enough inner strength to face him and speak. “You already know that my marriage to Bill was not an easy one.”

  He gave her a single nod.

  Clenching her hands in a prayerful clasp, Nicolette went on, “You’ve got to understand that when I married him, I loved him very much. While we were engaged, he was attentive and dedicated to me and appeared to care for me just as much as I did for him. We made plans for the future just like any normal couple does before they walk down the aisle. I had always wanted a family of my own, even more than I’d wanted a medical career. To have a husband and children would be a dream come true for me.”

  “But it didn’t come true,” he said grimly.

  Pressing fingertips to her drawn forehead, she said, “We were happy at first and I wasn’t too disappointed after a couple of years passed and I still hadn’t gotten pregnant. Being a P.A. I understood that these things sometimes take time. But then another year slipped by and I started getting anxious, especially when the doctors continued to tell me that they could find nothing that would keep me from conceiving.”

  Caught by her story now, Ridge’s gaze earnestly searched her face. “What was Bill thinking about all this?”

  Nicolette’s features tightened. “Oh, he played the concerned husband. He tried to reassure me that we’d eventually have children and that I just needed to give it more time. But I was beginning to sense that he wasn’t really bothered by the matter. Especially when I suggested we both go for fertility tests and he flatly refused. We had a big row over it and he told me I needed to forget about having babies—that he should be enough to make me happy.”

  “Oh, Nicci, I’m so sorry,” he said softly. “You must have felt like he’d deserted you.”

  Ridge’s empathy brought a lump to Nicolette’s throat, and she had to look away from him and swallow before she could go on. “Yeah. I realized then that there was a huge gap between us, one that I hadn’t even been aware of. When he told me to forget about having children, the joy went out of me, Ridge. I threw myself into my work to forget and maybe even to pretend that everything was right with my marriage. But it wasn’t.”

  To forget. To pretend. Ridge had heard his own mother speak those very words, and suddenly he understood, even more than he had the day of Lillian’s visit, how one person could crush the other’s spirit until nothing was left.

  “So your marriage slid downhill,” he said with certainty. “What happened? What finally brought about the divorce?”

  She grimaced. “Looking back on it now, I realize I should have gotten out of the marriage earlier, but I kept hoping things would get better, especially if we had a child. I had always considered marriage a sacred vow to God. I didn’t want to give up on it—even through bad times. But Bill finally took that choice out of my hands. He asked for a divorce and confessed that while I was working six days a week at the clinic, neglecting him, he’d been using that time to see other women.”

  “Bastard!” Ridge cursed beneath his breath.

  Nicolette sighed. “I called him more than that. Especially when he told me he had plans to marry another woman, one much younger than me, who wasn’t married to her job. But the young woman wasn’t the biggest hurt Bill hurled at me. He laughingly told me that all the years I’d been trying to conceive a child, he’d been hiding the fact that he’d had a vasectomy.”

  Ridge stared at her in utter disbelief. “Nicci! No!”

  Sarcasm twisted her lips. “Oh, yes. It was medically impossible for Bill to have children. He’d lied and led me on all those years. I’ll never understand why. Why he married me in the first place or stayed with me for nearly nine years. I can only think that it was for my money—Sandbur money—because in the end it was obvious that he didn’t love me, and that our goals in life were far, far different.”

  Ridge was silent for long moments as he digested everything she’d just told him. Wordlessly he reached for her and enveloped her within the tight circle of his arms.

  “I wished you’d told me before, when we first met, Nicci,” he whispered against her cheek. “I might have understood. Instead, I was asking myself if I’d become tangled up with the same sort of woman who’d broken my heart before. Brittany led me to believe she wanted to be my wife. But when she finally saw that I intended to live the simple life, she left as fast as she could.”

  Nicolette looked at him with surprise. “You never mentioned that you were engaged before.”

  “I didn’t get as far as giving her a ring. I was headed in that direction, but I guess I was much luckier than you. At least Brittany was honest enough to admit that she couldn’t live the sort of life I wanted. That’s more than Bill ever was with you.” He shook his head with regret. “I feel so awful about all those things I said to you that night you left, Nicci. I wish I could take them all back.”

  Shaking her head, she tightened her arms around his waist. “We both said awful things. But that’s over, Ridge. Now we’re going to concentrate on loving each other. If we do that, everything else will fall into place, and our home will fill up with babies. Once that happens, I’m going to cut down on my work so that I can devote myself to our children. And you,” she added impishly.

  A sexy grin slanted his lips as he turned and quickly locked the door.

  His intentions obvious, Nicolette chuckled under her breath. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those kinds of doctors.”

  With a hungry growl, he snatched her close and brought his lips against hers. “Only with you, my sweet Nicci. Now and forever.”

  Six weeks later the Sandbur was a picture of merriment. Thousands of clear tiny lights were draped through branches of the oak trees and around the portable dance floor erected in the backyard. The scent of beef smoking slowly over mesquite coals filled the warm night, along with the sounds of a live country band twanging out plenty of Texas two-steps. In addition to the Sandbur’s barbecued beef, hundreds of guests were being served from kegs of cold beer and champagne bottles shoved into crushed iced. Loud conversation and laughter competed with the happy sound of music and popping fireworks.

  The Fourth of July had already com
e and gone, but several of the wranglers were out in the open area of the ranch yard setting off firecrackers and Roman candles. After all, the boss lady’s daughter had gotten married to her young handsome doctor. It was a time for celebration.

  Earlier that evening, Nicolette and Ridge had exchanged vows in the small church he’d attended since moving to Victoria. The building was equipped with only enough pews to handle a few family members and close friends, and the ceremony itself had been quiet and simple, just the way Nicolette and Ridge had wanted it to be.

  Barry Macon had driven down from Houston to serve as Ridge’s best man, while young Corey had been proud to be a groomsman. Mercedes had miraculously managed to obtain enough leave from her military service to fly over from Diego Garcia to act as maid of honor to her sister. And to Ridge and Nicolette’s great surprise, his mother, Lillian, had made the trip to attend her son’s wedding and was even planning on staying a few days with Geraldine.

  Roses and candles had dressed up the little country church, but it had been Nicolette in her long ivory dress, her face radiant with love, that had made the ceremony beautiful.

  Now as hundreds of guests kicked up their heels at the Sandbur reception, Ridge held his wife tightly as the two of them swayed around the dance floor and dreamed of the Hawaiian honeymoon they would be leaving for in just a few short hours.

  Some distance from the dance floor, Cordero stood on the patio, silently taking in the merrymaking as he washed down wedding cake with a glass of beer.

  Mercedes fondly wrapped her arm around the back of his waist. “First our cousin Raine. Then your brother, Matt. Now my sister, Nicci,” she said to her cousin with wry speculation. “The mosquitoes around here must be spreading some sort of love fever. You’d better watch out, Cordero. You might get bitten yourself.”

  With a mocking laugh, he looked down at her sweet face. “No way! You’re the one who caught the bride’s bouquet. You’re the one who’d better watch out. Some good-looking fly boy might come along and sweep you off your feet.”