“To be honest, I hadn’t really thought that much about Thanksgiving. Mother mentioned it earlier this month. I suppose my parents will be there?”
“Of course they’ll be there. And hopefully the rest of the family. Although I’m never certain about Charlie.”
Emily’s cousin, Charlie, was a Texas Ranger. And though she knew Justine and Roy were very proud of him, she was well aware that they worried about him a great deal, too.
“I guess he never knows until the last minute whether he’ll be able to get off work,” Emily remarked. “Have you talked with him lately? How’s he doing?”
Justine sighed. “My son is working himself to death. But he insists it’s what he wants to do.”
Emily smiled at her aunt. “Charlie always puts his heart in whatever he does. That’s why he’s such a good Ranger.”
Justine sighed once more, but this time a smile accompanied it. “I know. I just wish he’d put a little more heart into finding a wife.”
Emily had always been close to Charlie and she wanted him to be happy. She didn’t want him to marry just for the sake of being married. She wanted him to find a woman who would be wonderful to him.
“I’m sure he will one of these days, Aunt Justine. Just let him do it on his own.”
Justine nodded with understanding. “Charlie wouldn’t let me interfere even if I wanted to. Now what about Thanksgiving? We’ll miss you if you’re not there.”
“Well, I don’t know. I...” The Bar M was the Murdock home place. Although Chloe, the youngest of the three sisters actually lived there now, Justine and Rose still considered it their home, too. Most all holidays and family reunions were held there because it had the biggest house and because the old ranch had been a major reason for bringing all three Murdock sisters to their future husbands. It was a family place, through and through. How could she take Cooper there?
“Well, I don’t know. I...”
Justine regarded her thoughtfully. “Is Cooper still on the Diamond D with you?”
Other than her mother’s opinion and her father’s lack of one, Emily didn’t have any idea what the rest of her family thought about Cooper being back in Lincoln county and living in the same house with her.
“Yes. He’s been...working hard, trying to get the place patched back together.”
Justine smiled warmly. “Then you must bring him with you, too. Unless he has—other commitments somewhere.”
Emily grimaced. “If you mean a family, Cooper doesn’t have any.”
“Oh, how sad.” She smiled again and patted Emily’s shoulder. “That’s all the more reason you should bring him along.”
Emily opened her mouth to tell Justine she didn’t think Cooper was the family holidaying sort, but her aunt reached for a stack of medical files on the counter and started back down the hallway toward the examining rooms.
“Take care of yourself, honey, and we’ll see you later,” she called back to Emily.
With a sigh Emily took the card from the receptionist and walked to the front entrance of the building. The weather was cold and snowy and Cooper had refused to let her drive into Ruidoso on her own. Earlier, he’d dropped her off at the clinic for her monthly checkup, then went on to take care of some business of his own.
Buttoning her coat, she glanced at her wristwatch. She’d been here for more than an hour. He should be driving up any moment.
Less than five minutes later, she spotted his black pickup pulling into the clinic parking lot. Tossing the hood of her coat over her head, she left the warmth of the building.
Halfway down the sidewalk Cooper met her and she looked up with surprise as he took hold of her arm.
“You might slip on the snow,” he explained his actions, then added with a frown, “I don’t know why you wore those cowboy boots with slick leather soles.”
“Probably because my snow boots are worn out and these at least keep my feet dry.”
In the past month and a half since Cooper had been back on the Diamond D, he’d noticed plenty of things Emily needed. But not until this moment did he realize just how much she’d done without and sacrificed so that the old ranch might survive. The whole idea filled him with shame and anger and an unexpected need to protect and care for her.
“Well, I guess they’ll have to do for the time being,” he said more gruffly than he’d intended, then helped her into the cab of the truck.
“So how did your visit with the doctor go?” he asked as they left the clinic parking lot.
“Dear heaven, I’ve gained eight pounds! When I stepped on those scales, I couldn’t believe it.”
Cooper could believe it. He’d noticed how her appetite had picked up and her body had blossomed from the nourishment. Her face had lost its gaunt look and her arms and shoulders were no longer bony. Then there was her tummy, which had grown much more obvious beneath her clothing. Most of her sweaters and shirts barely stretched across her now.
“You’re supposed to gain weight,” he reasoned. “You don’t want to have a scrawny, sickly baby.”
She placed her hand over her abdomen. “You sound like Dr. Bellamy. And you’re right. I don’t care if I look like a blimp afterward. I just want him to be healthy.”
He looked at her with raised brows. It was the first time she’d ever mentioned the baby’s sex. In fact, she rarely mentioned her pregnancy at all around him. He didn’t know why and he wasn’t at all sure he wanted to know.
“Did the doctor tell you it’s going to be a boy?”
Emily shook her head. “No. I told him not to tell me. I want it to be a surprise. But deep down, I think it’s a boy.”
Cooper kept his eyes fixed on the traffic as he headed the truck onto one of Ruidoso’s main streets. “Is a boy what you want?”
Surprised that he was even interested enough to ask, she looked at him. “The sex doesn’t matter...I’ll be happy with either.”
Happy. Kenneth’s child would make her happy. Why did the idea cut into him so? He’d never thought of himself as a mean or selfish man, but after living with Emily these past weeks he was having to take a second look at himself. God help him, he wanted her to be happy. She’d already had her share of heartaches. But why did she have to be pregnant with Kenneth’s child? It wasn’t that he’d hated his brother. But for as long as Cooper could remember, Kenneth had taken everything he’d ever wanted. His father’s affection, The Diamond D and most of all, Emily.
Whether his brother had purposely coveted anything Cooper had ever touched, or whether Fate had simply stepped in and given it all to Kenneth, he didn’t know. But either way Cooper felt cheated and wronged. The baby Emily was carrying should have rightfully been his. Instead Kenneth was still haunting him, still getting and taking even though he was gone from this earth.
Trying to shake his dark thoughts, he asked Emily, “Is there anything else you need to do in town?”
“Not really. I suppose I should go by the grocery store. I still have some things I want to do, anyway.”
Nodding, she kept her surprise to herself. Try as she might she could never figure out what Cooper was feeling or thinking. And ever since that day the two of them had kissed in the tack room, he’d been even harder to figure. True, he’d kept his distance from her. The few times he had touched her was only in a distant manner, as one might touch a very old or very young person who needed a helping hand. But his words and tone had become far less biting now and he seemed to actually care if she was warm or cold or hungry or hurting. Moreover, he appeared to be content with his life on the Diamond D and that in itself surprised her more than anything.
A few moments later he braked the truck to a halt in front of one of the larger grocery stores in town.
“Twenty minutes will be plenty of time,” she told him as she opened the door and slid to the ground.
“I may not be finished by then. Why don’t you go to the beauty salon next door and get your hair done while you wait on me.”
Her face screwed up with com
ical disbelief. “Cooper, have you gone crazy or something?” she asked, then tentatively touched her hand to her French braid. It was clean and neat. Or at least she thought it had been. “Or do I look that bad?”
Snow was falling on her wool cap and shoulders and her breaths made little puffs of steam in the cold air. Looking at her, Cooper wanted to shake her and kiss her and tell her she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever known. Instead he raised up off the seat and dug his wallet out of the back pocket of his jeans. “Here,” he said, throwing a couple of large bills at her. “Do as I say and don’t argue.”
Her mouth fell open as she picked up the money. “But Cooper—”
“Damn it, get inside before you freeze to death!”
Glowering at him, she slammed the door shut, then mouthed through the window at him. “Gladly!”
After he’d driven away and Emily had collected her senses, she decided to go to the salon first and pick up the groceries she needed last.
A young hairdresser reading a tabloid magazine perked up when she spotted Emily coming through the salon doors. Tossing the sheets of gossip aside, the woman rose from the dryer chair. “Can I help you?” she asked pleasantly.
“I’m not sure. Do you have time to do my hair?” Emily asked as she glanced around the large room decorated in shades of pink and white. It was a rare day when Emily went to a hair salon and she’d never been in this particular place. She had no idea if she could trust her hair to any of the three women. But she was here and it had been a long time since she’d had a good trim. Now was her best chance to get one.
“Sure. Why don’t you get unwrapped and come sit down by the shampoo bowls,” she cheerfully invited.
Still uncertain, Emily slowly took off her wool cap and coat and hung it on a nearby rack. When she turned back around, the hairdresser was patting the chair in a way that made her think of her first visit to the dentist.
“I really don’t know what I’m doing in here,” Emily said as she took a seat and the woman began to fasten a plastic cape around her neck. “I don’t do anything to my hair except wash and brush it. Maybe you could just trim the dead ends. That should do it.”
“Oh, surely you’d like to do something a little bit different.” The woman’s nimble fingers began to unbraid Emily’s long hair. “Do you always wear it pulled back?”
Emily nodded and wondered why she felt like she’d been committing a crime. “I...don’t have much time to spend on my hair.”
“Hmm. None of us do. And even if we do, we don’t like to.” She lowered Emily’s head back into one of the pink shampoo bowls.
“I’m going to have a baby the first part of March,” Emily felt inclined to warn her. “So I don’t want anything that requires a lot of care.”
“Oh, a new baby! Well, this calls for something extra special,” she exclaimed. “And I know just what you need.”
The “something” pushed a panic button in Emily. Her eyes darted to the girl’s name tag pinned to the pocket of her white uniform. “Uh, Lori, I don’t think I need anything special.”
“Nonsense!” She blasted Emily’s scalp with a spray of warm water. “You’re too pretty to be pulling your hair back in a braid every day. And I promise, once I get through with you, I’ll bet your husband will agree. He won’t be able to keep his hands off you.”
Emily opened her mouth to tell her she didn’t have a husband, then just as quickly closed it. She didn’t want to explain anything about being a widow. For the next few minutes she simply wanted to enjoy being a woman and try not to think about Cooper’s hands on her now or in the past.
A little more than an hour later, Emily climbed back into the pickup and fastened her seat belt.
Cooper stared at her as if he wasn’t quite sure he’d picked up the right woman. “You are Emily Dunn, aren’t you?” he asked. “And where’s your cap?”
She shook the snowflakes from her hair. “That’s the problem about a woman getting a hairdo. It makes her lose all common sense. My cap is in my coat when it should be on my head. But I didn’t want to hurt the hairdresser’s feelings by ruining all her hard work.”
His gray eyes continued to roam over her hair, which had been shortened to frame her face and rest on the tops of her shoulders.
His scrutiny brought a warm blush to Emily’s face, making her feel like a foolish schoolgirl. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
Why didn’t he put the pickup in gear and go? The grocery attendant had already loaded her few sacks in the back of the vehicle. There was no reason for them to keep hanging around in the parking lot.
“Like I’ve suddenly grown a set of horns or something,” she told him crossly.
He laughed, then shook his head. “Emily, I can’t figure out whether you’ve grown incredibly young or ridiculously old. But either way, you look very pretty.”
She hadn’t thought of getting a compliment from him. Nor had she expected it to fill her with such pleasure. What was the matter with her anyway?
Jerking her eyes off him, she stared out the windshield. She’d never been a woman to primp and fuss. From the age of seven to thirteen she’d grown up without a mother. During that time her father had taught her to be a cowgirl, nothing more. Later, Rose had come into their lives, but by that time Emily supposed she was too much of a tomboy to ever become a feminine fashion plate.
“Thank you, Cooper. Now can we go home?”
Home. Cooper had never believed that word would sound good to him. Especially when it was connected to the Diamond D. But more and more when he heard Emily say it, he got a warm feeling in the middle of his chest.
He was beginning to feel as if the old ranch was his home again, that being there with Emily was right and natural. Yet he knew those feelings had to stop or he was going to be in deep trouble.
Ever since he’d kissed Emily more than a month ago, he’d decided his time on the Diamond D had to be limited. As soon as the baby got here and she could do for herself, he had to leave. Maybe that was the cowardly way out for him, but the way he saw things, there was no other course for him to take. It was already becoming an effort to keep his hands off her. Nor could he bear to stay and watch her with Kenneth’s baby. Either way he was damned and there wasn’t a thing he could do to change it.
“Yeah, I think it’s time we got home,” he said.
That evening while Emily was cooking supper, Cooper carried a large box and several sacks into the kitchen and placed them on the table.
“What’s all that? Early Christmas shopping?”
He gave her a sly little smile. “I guess you could call it that.” With his head he motioned for her to come there. Emily laid down her turning fork and walked over to where he stood by the table.
“What is it?” she asked. “I can’t let the steaks burn. All the other meat I bought is frozen.”
“I’ll tend to the steaks, you see if you can use any of these things.”
More than curious, she dug into the first sack and immediately let out a loud gasp. It was maternity clothes! Quickly she looked in the next sack and the next. There were all sorts of slacks made of warm corduroy, velvet and knit, sweaters of cotton and cashmere, and dresses of soft jersey.
Looking up at him with shocked eyes, she asked, “Where did all this come from?”
“Don’t worry about that. Will the things fit?”
This afternoon in Ruidoso he’d said he had something else to do while she finished her shopping. She couldn’t believe he’d gone to a boutique and bought her these things! Her mind spinning with questions, she glanced at the tags inside the garments. They were all pretty much her size.
“Yes, they’ll fit. But—”
“Open the box.”
“The steaks—”
Waving away her protest, he went over to the stove to tend the frying meat. “Okay, they’re not burning. Now open the box.”
Like a kid at Christmas, Emily didn’t have to be told a
second time. She tore into the box, then simply stared at the contents.
“What’s the matter? Wrong color?”
Slowly she lifted the red wool coat from its nest of tissue paper, then held it in front of her. It was a classic cut that buttoned down the front and stopped just above her ankles. The fabric was tightly woven, not only making it baby soft, but also very warm.
Tears stung her throat as she looked at him. Her mother had given her things she needed from time to time, but this wasn’t the same. Not nearly the same. “The coat is beautiful, Cooper. But I don’t understand—”
“There’s something else in the box,” he interrupted.
Carefully lying the garment to one side, Emily peeled back another layer of tissue paper. “Snow boots!”
Quickly she kicked off her loafers and pushed her feet into the black, fur lined boots. The warmth of them was like heaven against her toes. “Oooh,” she exclaimed, “these feel delicious.”
“Then they fit?”
“I think so. Let me see.” She zipped the sides, then tentatively walked across the kitchen floor. “They’re perfect. How did you know what size to get? And my clothes?”
He gave her a lopsided smile. “I have a good eye.”
Laughing with disbelief, she pulled on the coat, buttoned it, then turned slowly in front of him. “How do I look? Like a fat red robin?”
She looked like the Emily he used to know, the happy laughing woman that had stolen his breath away. “You look...beautiful.”
She laughed again as though she didn’t believe him about that either and hurried toward the door. When she started to step outside he asked, “Where are you going?”
“I’m going out to see how my coat and boots work.”
“They’ll work fine,” he said, shaking his head with comical disbelief. “It’s too cold to be going out now!”
Ignoring his objection, she shut the door behind her.
Cursing, Cooper forked the steaks onto a platter and hurried after her. When he stepped onto the small square porch, he saw Emily out in the yard dancing happily around in the snow.
“I can’t feel a thing,” she called. “I’m as warm as toast and my feet are as dry as powder!”
The Rancher's Blessed Event Page 8
