by Alice Sharpe
And never more than now. Cassie noticed how often her brother-in-law’s gaze settled on Echo, who had wandered into the room a few moments before him. She revealed she had taken accelerated EMT training at the university. With Sally leaving, Echo claimed, someone on the ranch needed basic medical knowledge.
Echo was about as opposite from the bleached, opulent Sally as a woman the same age could get. A television producer until falling in love with Adam, she sported a lithe figure, very short, glossy dark hair, remarkable black eyes and a quick, sassy wit. The smoldering way she and Adam looked at each other was a painful reminder to Cassie of what she and Cody had lost.
“Pauline says dinner’s ready,” Adam added. “Can you join us, Sally?”
“Not tonight,” she said. “I’m driving into Woodwind to have dinner with Ethan. Bye everyone.” She tossed the blue scarf around her neck and added, “Thanks again, Cassie.”
Dressed in a dry jumper, Cassie went down to dinner, which was being served that night around the butcher-block island in the kitchen. Cassie thought she detected Pauline’s hand in that decision—it was much more intimate than the dining room.
Pauline stopped ladling soup into a tureen as she saw Cassie. They’d always been friendly with each other. Pauline rushed over for hugs, her round face wreathed in smiles.
“I am so happy you’re back,” she said. “And with a bun in the oven, too! What is it, a girl or a boy?”
“I don’t know,” Cassie said, looking around the country kitchen for a glimpse of Cody, but he wasn’t there. “I didn’t find out.”
“I love a surprise,” Pauline gushed. “A holiday baby! Is there anything better?”
“That goes for me, too,” Birch said, and Cassie turned to her father-in-law, who was seated at the island. The last time she’d seen him his steel-gray hair had been longer, his complexion pale due to the broken knee and the subsequent infections that had plagued him all winter. He appeared much healthier now, his skin a better shade, the old snap back in his eyes.
“I was beginning to think I was never going to have another grandchild,” Birch continued. “Pierce was so out of sorts after his son died, I thought he’d never find his way back. And Adam seemed content to wait for a girl to drop in his lap. We all thought he was nuts, but look what happened. Echo came—”
“—and more or less dropped in his lap,” Echo finished with a laugh.
“And as for Cody, well, he shocked the hell out of me when he allowed himself to marry you. I just never thought he’d be able to take the next step and have himself a baby. Glad to see you talked some sense into him.”
Birch’s gaze met Cassie’s and there was a question lurking in the depths, one she’d been expecting. She said, “Did Cody tell you why I left?” Her gaze took in the others. “Did he tell any of you?”
“Not exactly,” Adam said.
“You tell us,” Birch said.
She shook her head. “No, that’s for him to explain in his own way.” Curiosity burned in every set of eyes. They were all wondering why she’d stayed away practically her whole pregnancy if this was Cody’s baby. Cody needed to sit everyone down and be frank with them, tell them the truth.
“Eat something, dear,” Pauline urged. “You must be hungry. You’re eating for two now, but you’re skinnier than ever.”
Cassie sat, painfully aware everyone was either staring at her or trying not to.
Adam brought up details of the trial and soon focus shifted away from Cassie. “I’m worried about Dennis Garvey,” Adam said, as the back door blew open and Cody and Bonnie entered the adjoining mudroom. He was followed by an older man Cassie easily pegged as a Westin. Same bold features and rangy build.
Echo introduced her stepfather, Pete Westin, Birch’s younger brother, to Cassie as Bonnie settled on her dog bed and Cody hung his wet hat on a hook.
“Why are you worried about Dennis?” Birch asked.
“I’m afraid he’ll go down the same path his brothers went down,” Adam said. “I don’t think he’s as intrinsically worthless as they are, however, but I don’t know how to help.”
“He’s only what, sixteen?” Echo asked.
“Turns seventeen in a few weeks,” Adam said. “I feel for the kid. Folks dead and surviving brothers both major losers. I mean, you can see Hank is going to go to jail for several years, and Tommy will face criminal charges once he heals. Dennis is pretty damn alone in the world.”
Cody nodded. “It’s a shame.”
“Whole family is a waste of time,” Birch said, as he poured himself hot coffee out of an insulated carafe. “We got our own problems. We need to bring back the herd still up at Hayfork pasture. This year I want them closer to the ranch before the weather turns. That field is just too far away. Then there’s the Herefords over at Straw Creek. Soon as Pierce arrives, we need to go fetch them, too.”
“What we need is someone who’s good with a rope,” Adam said. “I mean besides Pierce.”
Cassie only half-listened to the conversations whirling around her. For her there was really only one other person in the room, and that was her husband. She loved it when he was like this: a little worn, a little frayed, a little tired—gorgeous. It was one of the times where his masculinity didn’t confuse her at all, and it reminded her of the first time she’d seen him.
She’d gone to the rodeo with a wannabe cowboy, a guy named Josh who wore new jeans and pearl buttons on his stylized shirt. She’d been bored out of her mind.
Until they hit the bull-riding arena. And that was where her attention had been captivated by a tall, good-looking cowboy who shot out of the chute atop two thousand pounds of angry Brahma. He held on for a bloodcurdling eighty-eight seconds before being tossed in the air and falling to the ground. When he’d gotten to his feet and reclaimed his hat, his gaze had met hers. And as the brim had slowly settled above his dark eyes, she had known she’d just met her match.
He was staring at her now in the same intense way he had at the rodeo. A shot of pure lust flooded her as he turned his attention to his brother and father.
“I spoke with Jamie and Mike out in the barn,” Cody said, as Pauline delivered the tureen of vegetable beef soup and a basket of crusty bread to the island. “I’ve asked them to keep a sharp eye, especially when it comes to strangers.”
“What’s this about?” Birch demanded.
Cody placed both hands flat on the table. “Someone is trying to kill Cassie.”
The comment hung there a second, then Cody perched on the stool next to Cassie. “Let me explain,” he said.
She watched their faces as he spoke, expecting to see signs of shock or horror as the details unfolded, but she should have known better. It took a lot to rattle a Westin man or the kind of woman a Westin man was drawn to.
As Cody finished, Adam put down his spoon so hard it rattled against the bowl. “No one can get past all of us, Cassie. We’ve defended this place from worse things than a bad marksman. You’ll be safe here.”
Echo nodded in agreement.
But it was Pauline who heaved a deep sigh. “Lord have mercy,” she murmured. “Here we go again.”
Chapter Seven
Cody was relieved when Cassie, pleading fatigue, excused herself to go up to their room. After the difficult conversations of the afternoon, he didn’t think he could take anymore. By the time he was ready to retire, though, he was sorry they hadn’t discussed sleeping arrangements.
Should he move back in with her tonight or wait until tomorrow? Was she laying there wondering where he was, or was she relieved she didn’t have to put up with him? How could she have been back for most of a day without them figuring out where they were going to sleep?
You left, remember? he reminded himself. You got all uncomfortable and ran away to the barn and the horses where you felt safe, so don’t blame her.
Leaving Bonnie on her blanket downstairs, he entered the small room he’d been using since March, but it seemed a mile away from Cassie.
What if the killer decided to close in at night? If this was the same person who had murdered Mrs. Priestly, they’d proven they knew how to break into a second-story bedroom. There were ladders all over this ranch, and the gunman had obviously looked around while the place had been more or less deserted. Otherwise he never would have known he could advance on Cassie from that particular road.
Cody paced a little. He needed a shower and dry clothes and a decent night’s sleep so he could function. He accomplished the first two, redressing in jeans just in case he needed to be ready to defend Cassie from some new disaster, and dug through his duffel for the book he couldn’t seem to get into. Maybe tonight he could finally concentrate.
But the book wasn’t there. Maybe Cassie had stuck it in her purse in their rushed haste to leave the inn.
What he did find was the small black box containing the ring he’d intended to give her to cement their new beginning. Somehow, what they had so far still didn’t feel like much of a beginning. Sticking the box in his robe pocket, he went downstairs and into the office. A painting of the old hunting lodge hung behind the desk. He moved it aside to get to the safe located in the wall beneath, opened it and deposited the box.
Then he climbed the stairs again and strode down the hall like he was getting ready to rope a steer, nerves flaring in his gut. He was going to sleep in his own room. It was safer for Cassie. That was his reasoning, or at least the part of his reasoning he was comfortable thinking about.
He opened the bedroom door as quietly as possible. Cassie lay asleep on her side of the bed. She’d left the lamp on his side burning, which he took as a good sign. But in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to join her. Instead he settled with a blanket in the upholstered armchair, turning it to face the window.
He listened to her breath, listened to the rain against the window, listened to his own heart beating and yawned.
He awoke when hands touched his. Cassie leaned over him, her loose blond hair falling forward in a fragrant cloud of honey gold. She looked like an angel.
“Come to bed,” she whispered, tugging on him. He got to his feet, stripped off everything but his underwear, and made it into bed, where he scooted close to her and opened his arms. She curled against him, her head right beneath his nose, just as she always had.
He wanted her in the worst way possible.
It seemed forever since they’d made love, and now didn’t seem a real good time to enter into a discussion of the merits of sex during the late stages of pregnancy. He settled for kissing her hair and running his fingers over her petal-soft skin until one hand drifted to rest atop the baby. He could feel no movement and for a while that worried him, and then there was a tiny push beneath his fingers. Reassured but exhausted, Cody drifted into dreamless slumber.
The next morning, waking in their room, dressing within sight of each other, Cody finally felt as if he was married again. He was fascinated with the changes in Cassie’s body. Besides the obvious bulge in the middle, her breasts were fuller, too. She was simply bursting with sexy new curves her nonmaternity wardrobe couldn’t disguise.
“You’re staring at me,” she said, as she loosely braided her hair.
“I’ve always loved watching you dress, you know that,” he said, pulling on his boots.
She came around to his side of the bed and perched on the mattress in front of him. “I don’t look the same as I always looked,” she said.
“No, you’re even prettier.”
“Bigger, anyway.”
He got off the chair and sat down next to her. Placing his open hand on her rounded jaw, he stroked her skin, and she leaned against him. Her soft hair teased the back of his hand. Her earlobe was like a drop of satin against his fingertips. He kissed her cheek and heard her sigh, and then he kissed her lips.
How could a moment be so tender and so explosive at the same time? It was, though, and he knew her well enough to know it was the same for her. He’d felt that quickening response before, and it drove him insane. He kissed her deeper as he pulled her against him, and there was no hesitation in her response.
“Oh, Cassie,” he said against her skin, as he trailed kisses down her neck.
“I know, I know,” she said, cupping his chin and raising his head to look into his eyes. “I was beginning to think we’d never—”
“I know,” he said, nuzzling her neck again.
“Why didn’t you come to bed last night? Why did you sit in that chair?”
Her question caught him off guard. “I was worried about you.”
She withdrew, not in distance, but in attitude. He could feel it, like clouds covering the sun. She finally whispered, “Did you think I was going to sneak off in the middle of the night?”
“No,” he said, startled. “I was afraid someone might try to climb in the window!”
She closed her eyes for a second. “Oh.”
“I wasn’t—”
Her eyelids fluttered open and she covered his lips with her fingers. “I made a mistake. I jumped to a conclusion.”
He kissed her fingers. “It’s okay—”
“No, it’s an indication of how we need to take it slowly and figure this all out.”
“Our original plan.”
“Yes. If we skip building something we can both trust, there will always be misgivings. You’ll be thinking I’ll leave when the danger is past. I’ll be thinking you’re waiting for me to go because I’ve tricked you into a child you weren’t ready for.”
“That again,” he said, but he could also sense the wisdom of her words even though he didn’t want to hear them. He stood up and looked down at her. “First things first,” he said.
“Yes. And one of the first things you need to do is talk to your dad and brothers. I’ll do it with you, if you want, but they have to understand what really happened between us or they’re going to wonder if I got pregnant after I left here. In other words, they’re going to wonder if this baby is really yours.”
“Yeah, I can see that. I’ll talk to them this morning.”
“Thank you.”
Back to being formal. “By the way, did you pack my book when we left the inn? It’s one I borrowed from Uncle Pete.”
“No.”
“And about a doctor—”
She looked away from him. “I don’t know.”
“Cassie? Come on. Be reasonable. Please. You need to have a new doctor.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll call,” she said, struggling to get to her feet. He gave her a helping hand. Cradling the bump, she added, “Does it seem to you I’m getting bigger by the second?”
He smiled, and because he couldn’t help himself, leaned down and briefly kissed her lips.
An hour later, she’d made an appointment with the doctor who’d had a timely cancellation, and by late afternoon they were back on the road, driving toward Woodwind.
Cody had spent the first part of the day working on chores with the other men, as his father and Uncle Pete had forgone the dubious pleasure of accompanying Adam and Echo to court. He knew Cassie had spent the morning helping Pauline bake, and he wondered if she’d really enjoyed it or if she missed being on her own. They drove to Woodwind in near silence, but it wasn’t oppressive, just thoughtful. At least he hoped that was all it was.
An hour later he realized why Cassie had seemed jittery about coming in to see the doctor.
“You’ve never even had an ultrasound?” Dr. Falstaff asked after the initial examination. “Or a blood test or anything?” He was a man of fifty with a halo of graying frizz and lively blue eyes, kind of like a thin, new age version of Santa Claus.
Cassie shook her head. “I went to a clinic when I could, you know for prenatal vitamins and such. They had connections with a midwife. I was planning on using her. My pregnancy has been uneventful until the last couple of days and even then, I’ve no twinges or indications anything is wrong. It’s just that now that I’m not near the midwife, I decided I should get to know a doctor.”
“The stable hand didn’t mean to hurt me,” she said, as the doctor treated the scratch on her face, too. Cody sat by, amazed, as she rattled off this fictional tale of an inept stable hand when Falstaff recognized the gash for what it was. He was doubly amazed that she hadn’t seen a doctor until now. She was just full of surprises.
“He was cleaning the gun and it discharged,” she added.
The doctor shook his head. “Still, do us all a favor and stay away from him.”
She met Cody’s gaze and he saw the memory of being shot at blaze in her eyes. “Oh, I plan to,” she said. “You can count on it.”
THEY MADE A QUICK STOP at a department store so Cassie could replace some of the maternity basics she’d lost in the explosion. While she tried things on, Cody wandered off, so after she’d paid for her choices she had to go look for him. In the past, he had usually wound up in the tool section or perusing the books, so she walked right past the baby aisles until she caught a glance of his brown Stetson.
There he was, all six feet two inches of him, considering a pink-and-blue receiving blanket, then a green-and-yellow. Then she noticed he also had a cart nearby, and it was piled high with everything from diapers to booties. There was a car seat, too, and a box of rattles.
For a second, her vision blurred. Never in a million years had she thought she’d find Cody Westin addressing the merits of baby blankets, or any other infant accessory for that matter.
A saleswoman bustled up to him, speaking as she moved. “I found the music mobile you asked for, sir. It’s up at the desk when you’re ready.”
