McCade's Wish (The McCade Family Series Book 2)

by McBain, Mara

  The lock sounded loud in the quiet bedroom. Grey eyes locked with blue as Gen met his gaze in the dressing table mirror. Stepping up behind her, Trey let his fingers glide through her burnished copper mane. How she saw the long tresses as carrot orange was still a mystery. He smiled at her in the mirror. He’d questioned her vision from day one. There was nothing plain about the woman sitting in front of him. Hopefully, he’d proved that to her a few times over. Now she was carrying his child. If possible, that made her even more beautiful.

  He held his hand out and she handed him the silver brush without hesitation. Her hair gleamed like a new penny in the bedroom light as the bristles lifted each strand. She’d started the ritual with her fascination with his long blond mop. He’d been embarrassed at first to have someone brush his hair like he was a child but, truth be told, he found it to be soothing going both ways.

  “Everything about today was perfect.”

  “Thank you,” she said, closing her eyes to the stroke of the brush. “Thank you for indulging me. I was going to say that I can’t tell you how long it has been since I’ve enjoyed a holiday feast like that but, the truth is, I never have.”

  Frowning at her words, he tried to frame the question right, but she beat him to it.

  “All those years that we had the bakery, the holidays were our busiest time. Sure, we would try to do a special meal of some sort, but after making everyone else’s perfect, the energy and time just wasn’t there to contribute to ours. Today, we had the Thanksgiving feast of my dreams. Thank you for giving me that. Adrienne and I might have prepared it, but you gave us the means.”

  “You’re welcome, darlin’. I know life hasn’t always been easy for you, but I’m going to do everything I can to change that.”

  “Why would you do that?”

  “It’s simple, darlin’. You make me happy, and I’ll move heaven and earth to return the favor.”

  “I’m a very lucky woman.”

  “Maybe not yet, but I’m willing to see what I can do about that,” he growled, leaning down to nuzzle behind her ear.

  Her beautiful eyes widened in the mirror. Surprise was not the expression he’d been shooting for, and it put an immediate damper on his desire. Straightening, he waited, steeling himself. She’d said she enjoyed it, that their time in bed together was her favorite time of the day. Was that going to change now?

  “You still want to, even though I’m pregnant?”

  “From what I know, there’s no reason not to. We enjoy it. Why stop?” he asked, trying not to be gruff about it. She didn’t exactly sound opposed. What did she sound?

  Her face lit in a smile. “I was hoping you’d feel that way, at least until I get large and inconvenient,” she said, a blush making her smile fade.

  He frowned at the odd choice of words until his uncle’s sneering face leapt to mind. That had been one of the nicer ways that Wade had described his pregnant wife’s shape. Trey urged Gen to stand, catching her hand to lead her around the stool and into his arms.

  “Darlin’, you’re carrying my baby. I can’t think of anything sexier. I’m always going to want to make love to you. There’ll probably be nights you’ll just have to tell me to get the hell off you.” He silenced the protest he saw coming with a finger over her lips. “And that’s okay. I’ll make love to you as long as it’s safe and comfortable for you and the baby. If it’s not, then you need to tell me that. Promise you’ll be honest with me.”

  “I promise. As much as I want to please you, I won’t do anything to risk our baby.”

  “I know you won’t. You warned me that you were going to be all shades of protective of our babies, and I like and respect that.”

  “I love you,” she said simply, smiling up at him with tears in her eyes.

  Trey shook his head and caught a runaway tear with his thumb. “Don’t get all weepy on me already, woman.” He bent and gave her a firm kiss before turning her toward the bed with swat to her behind. “Get that sweet ass in bed. Your husband wants some.”

  Her laugh was beautiful. He smiled watching her scramble under the blankets without further prompting. She wiggled to strip out of the robe she’d been wearing and toss it across the foot of the bed. His smile widened spotting one of his old pajama tops on her. When she’d said she could find a use for them since he never wore them, he hadn’t known what to expect. One thing was for certain, he hadn’t imagined his thrifty wife would repurpose them for her own nightwear. They looked much better on her.

  He took his time stripping and shucking his clothes into the hamper. The way her eyes followed him, running over his big body, made him want her even more. The moment he hit the bed, his wife squirmed over to mold her body against his side. Shutting off the lamp, he smiled into the dark. Her eagerness to be close eased any lingering doubts. Rolling her underneath him, Trey kissed her until they were both panting for breath. His hips rolled against her in blatant interest as his hand slipped between them to stroke her belly.

  “Just because we made it look easy this time doesn’t mean we should stop practicing.”

  Chapter Two

  A haze of sunlight shone through the grimy window in the barn’s peak, trying in vain to warm Cole’s lofty haven. Sprawled in the nest of a broken hay bale, he idly wrapped a length of twine around his hand. He felt like a kid again hiding out in the loft, but he’d needed to escape the bustle of the house. With Thanksgiving barely out of the way now, the women were already hell-bent on preparing for Christmas. Here, only the occasional rustle of the horses below broke the silence, and there was nothing to still the spin of his thoughts. Adrienne could do that. All she had to do was walk in the room, and all rational thought flew out the window.

  She still hadn’t given him an answer, but he wasn’t giving up hope. From that first day standing in the street, he’d been enamored with the petite songbird. If her stunning beauty weren’t enough, there was the fire she’d shown smacking Trey upside the head with her purse. The way her cute little chin had jutted out and she’d stood her ground against his behemoth of a brother had stolen his heart. That didn’t even factor in the sultry purr of her voice, shimmering emerald eyes, or the smoky quality to her laugh that threatened to turn him inside out. He sighed. There was no question that she was the complete package and he was completely in over his head.

  Plopping his hat on a bent knee, he ran a hand thru his collar-length mop. As painful as it had undoubtedly been for her, Adrienne had been honest about her past. It wasn’t just the slightly risqué nature of her stage work, but a long term relationship with a wealthy man who’d dumped her for a more advantageous match that made her doubt her suitability for marriage. Her doubts stabbed deep at his heart, but he had his own. Could he be what Adrienne wanted? Fair or not, he kept drawing comparisons to Trey’s first wife. Catherine had despised the farm, and at least she’d been from Virginia. Used to New York City and the finer things in life, would he be enough for Adrienne? Could she adapt to life here?

  While it hadn’t been a flowery proposal, he’d meant it. If she thought he could be what she wanted, he’d marry Adrienne in a heartbeat. Her past was just that, history. It was the future he was looking at. It seemed his brothers had theirs all figured out. Love for their father would never allow Trey to desert the family farm and, thankfully, his new wife seemed happy here. He envied the bond he could see forming between Trey and Gen. It reminded him of their parents. Nate had ran as fast and far from the farm as he could get, going to college and getting a job with a prestigious law firm in Philadelphia. With an active social life, he didn’t seem too inclined to settle down but said he was happy.

  Cole was somewhere between the two as usual. As the middle son, he’d always been the filler. He’d filled in on the farm for seven years when Trey had gone down to Texas to live with Mama’s relatives. When their father had gotten sick, it hadn’t been surprising it was Trey he wanted. He’d always been the most like Daddy. They were close. Besides, Cole hadn’t been sure th
e farm was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He’d been honest about that, even though he hadn’t been sure what else he was suited for. He shook his head. He still wasn’t. His stint working in a factory hadn’t appealed to him, and he’d never been passionate enough about anything to make school an option.

  Scrubbing his palms over his face, he closed his eyes. He’d been blunt telling the raven-haired beauty that with her rich boyfriend no longer footing the bills, she didn’t have a lot to go back to. Recalling his words, he was surprised she hadn’t slapped his face. Still, despite the truth in his words, what did he have to offer a sophisticated woman like Adrienne? He grimaced. Trey had said that he and Genevieve worked because his offer of marriage had rescued her from poverty so miserable, anything would look better. From the sounds of it, besides a career, Adrienne had left behind a luxurious apartment when she boarded the train for Virginia. Could home, hearth, and stability match up to the big city lights?

  The slam of a door yanked him from thought. When the bellow of his name didn’t follow, he laid his hat aside and rolled to his hands and knees. Crawling stealthily across the stacked bales, he worked his way to the loft edge and peered down. As if on cue, dancing flame lit the face that haunted his thoughts. He held his breath as the glow flickered over Adrienne’s high cheekbones and flawless features. Dark lashes drooped in appreciation as she drew in the first soothing lungful of tobacco. Extinguishing the flame, she tilted her head back and released the breath she’d been holding in a graceful plume.

  Stepping back over by the door, she flicked her long fur coat out of the way and bent to retrieve something from the foundation ledge. He squinted, trying to identify it in the dim light as she strolled toward the stalls. She tapped the glowing end of her cigarette against the item, and he recognized it as an empty jelly jar. He grinned. She’d taken his warnings of a barn fire to heart. She startled, skittering toward the center of the aisle as Bowie stuck his head over the stall door. Adrienne pressed a hand over her heart with a quiet laugh as she looked up at the dapple grey stallion. The husky purr of her voice reached Cole’s ears, but he couldn’t discern the words as she reached for the charcoal muzzle.

  “Careful. Bowie can be surly like his owner.”

  A strangled scream tore from Adrienne’s throat. The jelly jar hit the floor and shattered. She spun frantically, searching the shadows.

  “Up here. It’s okay,” he said hastily.

  Her head jerked up and, even at the distance, he could see the ire in her narrowed shamrock glare. He had no trouble making out most of the words this time as she hotly cursed him through gritted teeth. Glass crunched under the hard leather sole of her heeled shoe as she scuffed the ashes to be sure they were out. Easing back the way he’d come, Cole recovered his hat and climbed down the ladder to face the music. Now squatted down, Adrienne was carefully picking up the shards of glass. She didn’t turn at his approach. Crouching beside her, he saw that she had the worst of it already cleaned up.

  “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to scare you.”

  She ignored him, straightening and looking around, her full hand outstretched uncertainly.

  “There’s a barrel in the tack room.”

  He followed her. Dumping the broken glass in the trash, she spun on her heel to find him blocking the door. Presenting him with a cold shoulder, she carefully ground out her cigarette and tossed the butt after the glass before trying to brush past him. He caught her arm.

  “I said I was sorry,” he offered softly, not sure what else to say.

  She finally looked up, the color on her cheeks giving him hope she was more embarrassed than angry now.

  “I thought I was alone. You scared the hell out of me,” she admitted, smacking his chest lightly in reproach. “Again. What were you doing up there anyway?”

  “The loft has always been a place for me to get away and think.”

  She nodded as he released his hold and wrapped his arm loosely around her instead. Surprisingly, she didn’t question him further, but her lips pursed in thought. Strolling back toward the stalls she looked up at him, a little skepticism in her expression as she nodded at Bowie.

  “Does he really bite?”

  “He’s been known to,” he said with a wry smile. “A lot like my big brother and his mutt, you never know what you’re going to get.”

  “Gen said Trey’s moods can be dizzying.”

  Cole chuckled and nodded. “That’s one way of putting it. He has a temper.”

  “What about you?”

  He shrugged. There was something in her voice that warned this wasn’t a casual question. What was she fishing for? “I’m more like our mama. I have a slow fuse unless you mess with my family.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?” she mused, looking up at him out of the corner of her eye.

  “What is it you want to know?”

  “When something seems too good to be true, it usually is.”

  “I don’t follow.”

  “Why aren’t you married?”

  “I haven’t found the right woman,” he said with a shrug.

  “I don’t buy that,” Adrienne said, shaking her head. “There has to be more to it.”

  She stepped in front of him, stopping their stroll. Eyes narrowed and lips twisted in a questioning quirk, she searched his face like the answers she sought were written there. Cole fought a grin and waited. He wondered if she had any idea how beautiful she was.

  “There hasn’t been anyone that you were serious about?”

  “Not really. Nate was advanced for his age and left here just a few years after Trey went to Texas. Four less hands on the farm meant a lot more work for the rest of us. Other than church, I didn’t have a lot of time to socialize.”

  “Do you resent that?”

  Cole smiled and shook his head. “Not at all.”

  “How can you not?” she asked, surprise clear on her upturned face. “Nate got to go to college to become a lawyer. Trey went off to Texas to do God knows what, and you stayed here and did the work of three men. You’re a better person than I am if you never felt a little bitter.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” he said spreading his hands. “I did what needed to be done. Maybe if I’d met the right woman or suddenly hit upon a path that I was passionate about, I would’ve felt differently, but I didn’t.”

  Adrienne’s teeth sank into the full swell of her bottom lip and she shook her head looking uncertain.

  “Part of me says it’s hard to argue with the results here. You and your brother are obviously making your payments when a lot of families are losing everything, but what about what makes you happy?”

  He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, suddenly uncomfortable with the direction the conversation was taking. She was delving into territory he had no answers for. On top of that, even discussing it felt disloyal somehow. “Trey paid off the bank and poured a lot of money into the farm when he came back from Texas. He busted his ass in the oil fields. Any sacrifice I made is worth it.”

  “You McCade’s are a loyal bunch. The horse and dog fit right in.”

  Cole laughed. “That they do, and so do you.”

  Adri tilted her head in question.

  “Look at the way you took Trey on when you thought you were defending Genevieve. That’s loyalty.”

  “I didn’t stop to think about it. I just reacted,” she admitted with a sheepish smirk.

  “That doesn’t change anything. You stood up to the giant with nothing but a purse.”

  “A well weighted purse,” she said with a snicker.

  “That purse nearly took him down when a truck failed.”

  “I would’ve loved to have seen the look on that truck driver’s face when Trey jumped up on his bumper. I was so excited to see Gen that I was focused on her, and everything happened so fast.”

  “She’s lucky to have a friend like you.”

  “I’m the lucky one. That kid has taught me more about str
ength than anyone I’ve ever met.”

  “It sounds like you already had your fair share. It takes a lot of courage to get up there in front of an audience and do what you do.”

  “You’ve never even seen my performance,” she said, trailing a teasing finger down his chest.

  Cole felt his cheeks heat but laughed. “It doesn’t matter. They couldn’t pay me enough to get me up on stage in front of an audience and do anything.”

  Adri’s hands circled his bicep giving it a squeeze. “That’s too bad. I know a lot of women, and a few men, that would pay dearly to watch you strut your stuff,” she said with a wicked grin.

  His horror must have shown because she burst into laughter.

  “I wouldn’t have thought such a handsome man would be so shy,” she said, amusement still heavy in her voice.

  Shrugging, Cole was glad for the distraction when his buckskin stuck his head over the stall door. He reached up to stroke the gelding’s ears and snorted when the beast roughly rubbed a cheek against his.

  “Hello to you too,” he said patting the other side of horse’s thick neck in a hug. “You can pet this one. Cody is a lover.”

  “I can see that.”

  He pressed his face against Cody’s mane to cover his reaction to the innuendo in her tone. What was it about her husky voice that just slipped inside him and lit his blood like gasoline? He was as awkward as a school boy around her and damn her, she knew it.

  “Should I be jealous?”

  He jerked his head back to look at her. The smile that twisted her lips was far from innocent, and she didn’t meet his gaze as she stroked the buckskin’s dark muzzle. When he continued to stare at her, the smile widened into a wicked grin. She shrugged, giving her ebony tresses a toss before reaching up to straighten Cody’s black forelock. Snagging her waist, he accepted the challenge and burrowed his nose in her fragrant locks, nuzzling her neck.