The Sheriff's Mail-Order Bride (The Watson Brothers #2)

by Ann B. Harrison

  “Rory Watson. How wonderful to see you again.” Menus were placed in front of them. “Heard you were back.”

  He looked up into the face of an old school friend. “Sally, good to see you too. Gina, this is Sally Driscoll, best barista in Marietta. She makes a mean latte from memory. Sally, my fiancé, Gina Fletcher.”

  “Lovely to meet you. Welcome to Marietta, Gina. Now what can I get you two lovebirds?”

  Once Sally had taken their order, they sat holding hands until their food arrived. When they finished lunch, Rory paid for their meal and walked her out the door. Hand in hand they wandered over to his office.

  She kissed him on the steps before hopping into her car and driving over to the furniture store to get a high chair for Fisher. It was getting too hard to feed him on her knee when she needed to do other things as well. Finding what she was after, Gina paid for it and the shopkeeper loaded it in the back of the car for her. The hair on the back of her neck prickled as she got in behind the wheel and she shivered before looking around. It felt as though someone was watching her, although there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary happening in town. No one lurked under lamp posts or hid behind corners peeking at her. The kind of people that worried her in San Francisco’s poorer streets were a long way away from this small country town. She was as safe as she could be here under the protection of the local deputy and his family.

  Chapter Nine

  Rory decided to pick up Gina and Fisher and take them to the cottage before dinner. So far they hadn’t managed to get over there together for a good look with his work schedule and he wanted to see what else she’d done. If he knew what she wanted in her new home, he could start the contractors and it wouldn’t be too long before they’d be in their own place. When he pulled up at the ranch house, she was out the back bringing in a basket of washing and Fisher was tottering around the lawn on his chubby little legs.

  Gina smiled and waved when he hopped out of his truck, hurrying over to greet him. His arms wrapped around her welcoming body, Rory leaned down for a much needed kiss. She tasted like warm sunshine and roses, her lips soft and supple under his. He slid his hands down over her back to cup her butt, lifting her against his awakening body. The moan coming from her throat sent his blood racing and he decided then and there that tonight he would go to her bed. They were both ready for each other.

  A small fist grabbed a hold of his jeans leg and slapped against him. Rory broke the kiss and looked down, a smile readily coming to his lips. “Looks like this young man wants the attention his mama is getting.” He kissed Gina on the nose and leaned down to pick up Fisher. The child wriggled and bashed his small fists against Rory’s chest, excitement evident on his little face.

  “Seems to me you’ve made a hit with the biggest critic. He doesn’t usually take to many people like he has with you.” Gina bent over and picked up the washing basket, hitching it on her hip.

  “The feeling is mutual, believe me. I love the little guy already.” He followed her inside the house and watched as she placed the basket on a chair and started to fold the laundry. “I thought since it’s not late, we could go to the cottage and maybe work out what you want in a home so the contractors can get started.”

  “Are you for real? I thought I would do a big cleanup and we were moving in.” She stood still, the folding suddenly forgotten. “I didn’t think you were serious about gutting the house.”

  Her voice had chilled and Rory was wary. “No, I was always going to fix it up. There’s no way I’d expect you to move into it like that. The kitchen has to be, what—thirty years out of date?” He had a sinking feeling she wasn’t as happy as he thought she’d be by this news.

  “So, tell me, why did you pretend that was my new home then?” Gina’s face showed her building displeasure, her lips tight and pressed together. “Why let me work my butt off making it habitable if you were only going to go and mess it up?”

  “You seemed happier doing it, so why not?”

  She tilted her head and looked at him, waiting for more.

  “And, well, in the beginning I wanted to see if you were money-oriented or not. If you knew who my brother was, you might think it was an easy ticket to the good life. Not that I think you’re like that now I’ve met you and I’ve seen how hard you’ve tried to make the house a home for us. But I wanted someone to marry me for me and not what they thought I could offer.” This wasn’t feeling good and he knew he should have kept his mouth shut and just told her she deserved better, no test involved. She’d more than proven that to him.

  She thumped him on the arm, her knuckles digging into his skin. “You have an ego the size of a house, Rory Watson. If you knew my past, you’d know that money means nothing, especially when I grew up with less than nothing. Funny how you learn to get by when you don’t have any. How much is it going to take to get it through your thick skull? I might be poor but I’m not mercenary.”

  Her lips thinned and he reached for her, trying to stave off the rising temper. Brave would be the man who crossed Gina when she was in a mood. “I’m sorry, I did that all wrong. Please forgive me.”

  Gina leaned against his chest and he could feel her breathing slow down as the anger subsided. Way to go, Rory. He looked up as a truck pulled into the yard beside his and his shoulder sagged. Right now this was a bad time for Tyson to show up.

  “Hey.” He kissed the top of her head and leaned down to look into her eyes. “We have a visitor. My younger brother Tyson is here. Don’t let anything he says get to you, okay? His big mouth can sometimes be his downfall, although he usually means well. We’ll talk about the renovations later.”

  Rory turned as the truck door slammed and boots sounded on the gravel then the porch. The look of surprise on his brother’s face as he spied Fisher nestled in his arms would have been hilarious if Rory didn’t know there would be an interrogation to follow; he was all too aware of how Tyson worked. The reason he was shunned by the brothers as a kid was because he was always telling on them to their father. Nothing was a secret with him around and it hadn’t changed over the years as he’d grown older.

  Rory walked over and opened the door, breaking his brother’s trance-like stare. “Hey, what’s up?”

  Tyson looked at Fisher and then peered over at Gina. “Uh, just thought I’d come up and see if Chance is interested in a couple of stock horses I’ve come across. Not really what I want because they’re broken in and I need bucking broncos.” He scratched his head and pulled his gaze back to Rory. “Yeah, I don’t need them but they’re cheap and it would be a shame to see them go to the glue factory.”

  “How much are we looking at here, Tyson?” Rory relaxed when Gina slipped her arm through his and inwardly grinned when his brother’s eyes bugged out of his head.

  “Ah, um…sorry what was that?”

  “I said, how much do they want for them and do you think they’re worth it?”

  “Yeah, I do otherwise I wouldn’t be up here.” Tyson named a price that bordered on being ridiculously cheap. “Going to introduce me to your girlfriend here? Heard you had one.”

  “Gina, this is my brother Tyson. Tyson, I’d like to introduce you to my fiancée Gina and her son Fisher.”

  “Your what? You never told me when you came back home that you were getting married. Like I have to hear there was a lady here from someone else in town. Thanks for nothing.” He glared at Rory. “What the hell changed in the last few weeks that I don’t know about?” Rory could see the cogs working in his head.

  “Back off, brother. Don’t you dare go letting loose your uppity attitude on me. Nobody said you had to be involved in my decision-making process.”

  “I take it then that you’ve done the same fool thing that Chance did—signed up on one of those damned dating sites for a wife, otherwise I would have known about this. You two will never learn, will you? And a woman with a kid, only after one thing if you ask me: money.”

  Rory turned and handed Fisher to Gina b
efore turning back and decking his brother with a decent right hook to the jaw. Tyson landed on his butt on the porch, shock the expression on his face. He looked up and scowled before wiping his hand across his mouth. Blood pooled in the corner of his lips and he spat it out and reached for his hat.

  “Take your damned attitude back where you came from. If you can’t be respectful, stay the heck away from us.”

  Tyson crawled to his feet, glaring at Gina. “You’ll regret this, mark my words, brother. Just you wait and see. Soon as you buy yourself a nice little plot of land, she’ll dig her claws in and take you for everything you have.”

  *

  Gina shook inside and stepped back, shielding her son. Another bout of violence wasn’t what she wanted to see, the type of behavior she wanted her baby around. It made her feel queasy and doubt the position she was in, ring on her finger or not. She heard the intake of Rory’s breath, and so did Tyson.

  “You’re kidding me, right? You’ve gone and bought the little lady a place already, haven’t you?”

  They didn’t notice Callie walking up toward the house. “Making an ass of yourself again, Tyson? You’ll never learn will you?” She strode up to him and slapped him on the back, none too gentle, making him stumble and struggle to regain his already unsteady footing. “So, what’re you after this time, apart from being a nosy little turd?”

  “I’m not here for gossip. I thought you might be interested in a couple of horses I was offered before they go to the glue factory. I didn’t expect to walk into a punch in the face.” He banged his hat against his leg and jammed it back on his head.

  “Well, you should learn to mind your manners then. Chance is down at the barn; come and talk to him about it.” Callie winked at Gina and hooked her arm through Tyson’s, giving him no option but to go with her. They watched as she dragged him down to the barn, gripping his arm so he couldn’t get away.

  “I can’t believe the little punk could be so damned rude.” Rory rubbed at his knuckles, frowning at the back of his brother.

  “Don’t let it worry you. Nothing I wouldn’t have heard before, I’m sure.” She sighed, the pleasure of the day gone with one tense moment. “I think we should give the cottage a miss today, don’t you?” I need to regroup my thoughts and calm down before I say something I might regret.

  Rory looked at her, concern in his eyes. “No, I don’t. Don’t worry about him; his mouth is always running off. We’re used to it but that’s just Tyson, he’ll come around.”

  She tried to smile and couldn’t quite make it happen. “I’m taking Fisher inside. It’s getting cool out here.” Her heart grew heavy as she walked over to the toy basket under the dining room window and placed her son down on the ground. He turned and wailed looking for Rory. Gina saw him striding down to the barn, no doubt to give his brother another lesson in manners.

  Trying to distract her son, she crouched down on the floor beside him and started taking out some of his favorite toys. They were immersed in a game of trains when the door opened and Callie strolled in.

  “Hey, you okay?” She walked over and ruffled the curls on Fisher’s head.

  “Yeah.” Doubt still chipped at her back and she couldn’t make up her mind which direction to take.

  “Don’t lie to me. I can see from the look on your face his words hit you hard.” Callie dropped down onto her butt on the floor beside them and grabbed a little red car from the toy box. “You have to stand up to people like Tyson. It’s the only way he backs down, you know. I learned that pretty quick. He was ready to ship me back to Australia until I gave him a mouthful of my own. Settled down after that and now I never let him get in the last word.”

  “That’s all well and good for those of us that don’t have anything to be ashamed of. Unfortunately for me, I’m not one of them, so what he says hits home whether or not I like it and that in turn reflects on Rory. Not a good idea when he’s the local deputy.”

  “Pfft. As if he cares anyway.” She spun the wheels of the little car up the legs of her jeans and down around the little boy making all the appropriate sounds.

  “I care. I care that my son will grow up seeing that kind of behavior as normal or that people might see me as a gold digger, someone only interested in Rory because of what he can give me.”

  “And are you?” She ran the truck up Fisher’s arm.

  Gina lifted her chin and looked at the woman she thought was her new friend. “No. Perhaps initially I would have said yes but he was after something, too. Since I’ve been here something has changed between us.” She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t see him so much as a meal ticket now. It sounds horrible but that was what I imagined him as when we first started talking.” She tucked a stray curl behind her ear and gave a self-conscious smile. “He’s special. I know that now. I couldn’t want for anything else in a partner, you know what I mean?”

  “Yeah, it’s those Watson brother genes. I was the same when I met Chance. Prepared to do the right thing because we had a deal and he got me out of a tight spot but once that charm started to melt down my defenses, I was useless against him.”

  Gina smiled, knowing Callie had it so right. “But you have it right though. They both wanted something from us too, so no foul as far as I’m concerned.”

  “That’s exactly how I feel. And if anyone points the finger at me, I can say, hey, Rory placed the ad, not me. It’s like we were meant to be together. I’ll have to grow a thick skin. I get that there will always be someone who’ll think the worst about me.” She swallowed. “I really hope Tyson doesn’t try to talk him out of our marriage. I wouldn’t blame him if he did.”

  Callie looked at her, the way her eyebrows were raised showing just how much she believed Gina. So much for the day getting better like she’d planned. Now Rory was probably thinking over what his brother said. Could he be having second thoughts about marrying her when she had been sitting here thinking the same thing?

  Eventually, Callie offered to give Fisher his bath while Gina started on dinner. She heard the roar of the truck as Tyson left but didn’t look up, preferring to ignore him. Dinner was almost ready when Rory and Chance came inside. She glanced at her man and noticed a graze on his cheek. The knowledge that he had been he had been fighting over her made her cringe. Chance grinned from ear to ear.

  When Callie came down with the baby all snuggled up in his pajamas, she whistled at the mark. “Gave as good as you got, I’m hoping.” She put Fisher in his high chair and reached for the plate his mother had prepared for him, letting the little boy eat his chopped vegetables with his fingers.

  “Yeah, he did too.” Chance laughed and slapped Rory on the back. “Damned if Tyson doesn’t get it. Thought by now he’d know to keep his mouth shut and mind his own business.”

  “It’s all my fault.” Gina plated up the beef stew and mashed potatoes, pooling the gravy in the middle of the white fluffy mound.

  “No, it’s not and you need to learn to deal with it. Tyson has a chip on his shoulder a mile wide. Always has.” Rory took the plates out of her hand and placed them on the table before walking back and resting his hands on her shoulders. She glanced up into his face. “He’s always been the same and over some of the stupidest things too. It’s the way his brain is wired, I reckon. From day one the little pest has been a gossip and if there’s nothing there, he’ll make it up, blow everything out of proportion for god knows what reason.”

  “That still doesn’t mean you need your name dirtied around town. That’s my fault.”

  He dipped his head and kissed her, stopping the buildup of words that she was getting ready to spurt out. His tongue pushed between her lips and his hand slid down the length of her back to cup her butt. As he deepened the kiss, her body took over and she wound her arms around his neck, sinking into the kiss, her response on autopilot. Gina forgot her surroundings as she raised her hips to press into his, feeling the length of him through his jeans.

  The need rushing though her body made
her forget where she was and she dropped her hands to undo the buttons on his shirt before sliding a hand in over his chest. Rory moaned when her finger tips grazed his hardened nipple.

  She cried out when he broke the kiss and gasps of her audience reminded her she was in the kitchen. Shame raced over her cheeks and she wanted to crawl up the stairs and hide. Never before had she reacted to anyone the way she was reacting to Rory. The man was seriously hot and it turned her on just thinking of him undressing in front of her. She couldn’t have backed out of this marriage if she’d tried.

  “Wow.” Callie grabbed the two other plates and put them on the table. “I think an early night is in order for you and me, husband of mine, after that little taste of romance. These guys know how to heat up a room.”

  “I’m sorry. Really sorry.” Gina wiped her hands over her face and looked up into Rory’s face. He grinned from ear to ear.

  “There is no way you are getting away, not when you do this to me.” He wiped his thumb over her bottom lip, sending small jolts of electricity to her girly bits, pulsing with need. “My brother can go and beat his head against a brick wall for all I care. You are the one I’m going to marry and that’s final, okay?”

  “Say yes so we can have dinner and get some alone time, for the love of all things beautiful.” Callie laughed and Gina could see the light in her eyes as she looked at her own husband.

  “Yes.”

  Chapter Ten

  Rory walked Gina up the stairs. Chance and Callie had long since gone to bed, as had Fisher, while they’d stayed downstairs snuggled up on the couch talking and smooching in front of the fire. The light of the flames cast the house in a warm haze. Rory placed the guard in front of the fireplace and took her hand, leading her up the stairs to her room. The door was ajar and the only light upstairs came from almost-shut bathroom door, leaving a soft glow over her room.