The part, he realized after he’d pulled all of the pieces out of the bag, that Rodney had cut neatly in half.
Sighing, he tried to ignore the shaking of his hands as he fit the two pieces together.
And then all he could do was stare at the sawed edges of her writing.
“Even the best plans can change,” she’d written, “when you find something better than 37892.”
He closed his eyes as pain—worse than anything he’d ever felt—ripped through him. Pain of his own making because he was too damn stubborn to see what had been in front of him all along.
And then, doing the smartest thing he’d done in the past twelve hours, he pulled out his phone and he called Cole.
Courtney saw the truck as soon as she rounded the corner on her street. It was parked directly in front of her house.
She had a stitch in her side from running too hard and too fast for too long. But no amount of running had been able to get the pain out of her chest.
Shaking her head at her own foolishness, she pressed a hand to her side and slowed to a walk as she finished crossing the distance to her house.
She gave the truck—a delivery truck, she realized as she got closer—another glance as she passed it. One of her neighbors must have purchased some building supplies from one of the big-box places in Gillette. Two men were unloading a shrink-wrapped pallet onto the sidewalk, and they gave her a nod. “Afternoon.”
“Afternoon.” She turned up the walkway, which she’d shoveled clean of snow that morning when she couldn’t sleep, and wondered how long it would be before she would be able to sleep again.
She supposed that depended on how long it took a broken heart to heal.
She pulled off her gloves and went up the front steps, trying hard not to look at the wooden ramp that was still in place.
She’d call Ryan before she went to work and ask him to pull it off. The one over the back steps, too. The sooner she got rid of the evidence that Mason had been there, the sooner she could start pretending she could forget him.
She walked in through the front door and stopped dead in her tracks.
Mason was sitting at her computer desk, Plato and Woof lying by his feet. “You ran longer than I expected,” he greeted.
She actually felt dizzy.
“What are you doing here?” Her voice sounded breathless, and her pride hoped he’d attribute it to her running.
Her heart, though, didn’t care about anything except the sight of him. He was clean shaven and he’d had a haircut. The thick hair that had grown unruly and over-long was now short and brushed away from his hard-hewn face. He was wearing a white button-down shirt tucked into black jeans. Jeans that hadn’t been cut up to accommodate a cast. “You, uh, you left,” she reminded him needlessly.
“Yeah. You going to close the door, or do you plan on kicking me out of it?”
She realized that the door was still open behind her, and she pushed it closed against the cold air. “That depends on whether you deserve to be kicked out.”
His brows pulled together in a frown. “It’s not about what I deserve.”
She crossed her arms tightly, hoping to hold in her shaking. “Mason, what are you doing here?”
He glanced at her computer. “It was off,” he murmured. “I noticed it before but didn’t take note of it until it was too late.”
“So?” She lifted her chin a notch. “Turning it off saves electricity.”
“You quit looking at the cryobank’s website,” he said. “The last time you looked at it was the day Plato found Woof.”
It was better that her hackles rose, because she could concentrate on them, rather than the aching inside her. “More spying?”
He didn’t deny it. “Why?
She swallowed the knot in her throat and looked at him, not answering.
“What did you find that’s better than 37892?” His pale green eyes stared back at her. “I finally read what you wrote on my cast.”
“It’s not like it was a secret,” she reminded him. “It’s been there for the past week!”
“Yeah, well, for the past week, I couldn’t see behind my ankle, which is pretty much where you wrote it.”
“Don’t act irritated with me,” she retorted. “If you wanted to know what it said, you could have asked anyone. Even me.”
His lips thinned. “I didn’t come here to argue about things that don’t even matter.”
She took an involuntary step forward. “Then what are you here for?”
“For you.” His answer was quiet. Simple.
And it stopped her in her tracks.
She trembled harder than ever, afraid to let herself believe he could possibly mean what her heart was begging him to say. “Why? Because you feel badly now that you know I’ve changed my mind about using the cryobank? You can have your check back, by the way.” She gestured with one arm, only to quickly rewrap it around herself. “It’s in that envelope on the table. I was going to mail it back to you this afternoon.”
“If I hadn’t wanted you to have it, I wouldn’t have left it.”
She forced her chin up. “And as you now realize, I don’t need it. I can support myself,” she reminded him, less tartly than she would have preferred. “I can even afford to take care of Plato and Woof—” she waved her hand toward the two animals, who were watching their exchange “—since you abandoned her, too.”
His lips tightened. “Would you rather have had me take her back to an apartment that I’m never at? Break Plato’s heart?” He shook his head and clawed his fingers through his hair. “This is not going how I planned.”
“Well.” Her jaws felt clenched together. “Plans change, don’t they?”
Her blood pounded heavily inside her head when he started crossing the room toward her. He didn’t stop until he was only a few feet away. “What’d you find that’s better than 37892?”
His eyes were searching hers, seeming to look straight through to her soul. And the only thing she had left was the truth. “Not what.” Her voice sounded raw. “Who.”
His scar was standing out whitely. “You want my baby.”
She blinked hard, but the tears burning behind her eyes wouldn’t go away. “I want everything,” she whispered. “You. Our baby. The whole deal. But the only thing I need is you.”
“You can do better than me.” His voice turned husky.
She shook her head. “No. I really don’t think so.” She swiped a tear from her cheek. Took a bracing breath. “But I don’t want you here unless this is where you want to be. I don’t need you throwing yourself in front of this particular bus to save me from being hurt, Mason. I can take most anything but that.”
He closed his eyes for a long moment. When he opened them again, they were bloodshot. And damp. “Then save me.”
She pressed her hands to her chest. “Oh, Mason.”
“There aren’t many things I’ve loved in my life,” he said gruffly. “And everything that I had, I’ve lost. It’s always been safer not to let myself feel anything. And then I met you. Doling out kisses for five bucks a pop. I don’t want to end up like that guy at the hospital, old and alone because he didn’t stop to make time for what mattered. You are what matters, Courtney. If I’m not too late.”
She couldn’t bear another moment.
She reached out and wrapped her arms around him, stretching her cheek up toward his. “You haven’t lost me.”
His arms came around her, nearly lifting her off her feet. “Not yet.”
“Not ever,” she vowed. She pulled back to look into his eyes. “That’s the thing about us Clays.” She smiled shakily. “We’re stubborn. And when we find what we want, we don’t budge.”
He lowered his forehead to hers. She could feel the charge of his heart against hers. “It might take some stubbornness. I’m told I’m thickheaded.”
She gave a tearful laugh. “Well, you are. And I love you anyway.”
His arms tightened around her. “I’
m thirteen years older than you,” he reminded her. “I’m not getting any younger. And my job isn’t going to go away. I’ll do what I can to stay in Weaver. Tristan’s got some ideas about that—”
She caught his face in her hands. “See? Thickheaded. I love you, Mason. Just as you are. I couldn’t care less how old—”
He covered her mouth with his. And when the words died on her lips and her knees had gone to gelatin, he let her up for air. “I’m not getting any younger,” he repeated softly. “Which means I don’t want to waste any time.”
“I can’t think straight when you kiss me like that,” she complained.
His lips tilted crookedly. “I’ll have to remember that. It might come in handy in the future.”
Butterflies flew around inside her stomach. “Future?”
He grasped her ponytail and gently tugged her head back until her eyes met his. “I want you. For now. For always.”
Her vision turned watery, all over again. “You promise?”
His expression went soft. His thumbs brushed over her wet cheeks. “I promise.” He kissed her gently. Slowly. And so sweetly that if her heart hadn’t already been his, it would have fallen into his hands right then and there. “I even brought proof.”
“What’s that?”
He pulled her hands from his hair and kissed her knuckles. Then he tugged her toward the front door and threw it open. Wholly bemused, she looked out into the yard.
The two men she’d seen before were still standing outside the delivery truck. Mason waved at them. “You can start,” he called.
“Will do, Mr. Hyde.” The first guy swept a knife over the pallet and lifted something off the top.
Her lips parted as she realized what it was.
A white picket fence panel.
Mason turned her toward him. “I love you, Courtney Clay. Will you take my picket fence and all that goes with it?”
“I will.” She threw her arms around him and laughed through her tears. “For the rest of our lives, I will.”
Epilogue
They were married in the candlelit living room of her parents’ house on Christmas Eve.
Courtney wore a simple white gown with her hair pulled back in a ponytail and looked like his own personal angel. Mason wore a dark blue suit and managed not to pull off his silvery tie, even though he wanted to.
Plato was too dignified to wear a ring of flowers around his neck, though both Chloe and Shelby gave it their best efforts to keep it on him. He was also kept pretty occupied during the ceremony, corralling Woof so she wouldn’t run up the gold-and-silver-decorated Christmas tree that filled part of the room.
The entire family was there, and Coleman Black, too, who’d stood up as Mason’s best man.
It was crowded and cozy, and even though Mason had worried that Courtney was only going along with the small, quickly planned ceremony to keep him happy, all he had to do was look at the glowing face of his bride after they’d slid their rings on each other’s fingers to know that their wedding had been everything she’d wanted it to be.
And she was everything he’d ever wanted.
“Come here.” The vows were said and Sawyer and Rebecca were busy handing out flutes of sparkling champagne. Taking advantage of everyone’s distraction, Mason tugged Courtney toward the French doors that opened onto the deck overlooking the back of the property.
Her palm slid against his, and she gave him a knowing look. “It’s cold out there. How do you intend to keep me warm, Mr. Hyde?”
He nudged her through the door and wrapped his arm around her. “I have a few ways, Mrs. Hyde.”
She shivered and snuggled close into his chest. Her hands slipped beneath his jacket and her sparkling eyes met his. “And I do love those ways,” she admitted throatily. “Have I told you today how much I love you?”
Desire was ripping through him. But there would be time for that. Plenty of time. “Agreeing to wear this—” he grabbed her hand and kissed her finger where the narrow platinum wedding band rested “—tells me a lot.”
Her smile softened. “Agreeing to wear this—” she returned, finding his hand with hers and rubbing the ring on his finger “—tells me everything.” She leaned into him again. “I wonder how quickly we can escape our own wedding without looking rude,” she whispered.
He laughed softly. This woman was either going to keep him young or make him die a very old, very satisfied man. He took off his jacket and slid it around her shoulders before pulling a ring-sized box out of the lapel pocket. “I wanted to give you this.”
Her lips parted. “Mason, I don’t have my gift for you. It’s back at the house. I should wait until you can open yours, too.”
He just shook his head. “This is a gift for me. Open it now.”
She nudged her finger against the thin, white satin ribbon that surrounded the box. “Is this by any chance an engagement ring?”
The box had contained the diamond ring she’d insisted she didn’t need, telling him the only ring she cared about was a wedding band. And while he believed her, he still wanted her to have the diamonds that went with it.
He wanted her to have everything.
Which was why the ring was not actually in the box but in his pocket to give to her later.
“Open it and see.”
“You’re spoiling me,” she told him wryly. But she pressed open the box anyway and gave a surprised “oh.” She laughed a little, pulling out one of the familiar condom wrappers that he’d tucked inside in place of the ring. “It’s empty.” She pulled out another. She lifted her eyebrows. “They’re all empty.”
“I know.” He lowered his head to whisper in her ear. “The only gift you need to give me now is that baby.”
Her lips parted. She pulled back her head to stare into his eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Never more.”
Her eyes glowed. She tucked the wrappers back in the box, closed it, then slid it back into its place inside his jacket. “Poor 37892. He never even knew he didn’t have a chance against you.”
“Good grief.” Squire’s distinctive drawl came through the door, making them both jump. “What’re you doing out in the cold? Gonna turn into Popsicles if you’re not careful.” He jerked his head. “Get in here and drink some champagne so I can have some cake.” Then he grinned and turned back into the house.
Courtney and Mason looked at each other.
He smiled. She giggled.
And hand in hand, they went inside.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-0931-2
COURTNEY’S BABY PLAN
Copyright © 2011 by Allison Lee Johnson
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†Men of the Double-C Ranch
§Return to the Double-C
**Montana Mavericks: Striking It Rich
‡Family Business
†The Hunt for Cinderella
*Back in Business
§The
Fortunes of Texas: Return to Red Rock
‡The Baby Chase
§§The Fortunes of Texas: Lost…and Found
Courtney's Baby Plan Page 18
