Tall, Dark & Western

by Anne Marie Winston

  The place was all chrome and black with huge speakers and a microphone at the front of the room. The bar to the right was crowded with cowboys, but Marty led her to a couple standing not far from the entrance. He took her coat and tossed it over a nearby chair, then turned and indicated the pair.

  “This is my brother Deck and this is his wife, Silver. This is Juliette.”

  Deck was a slightly taller version of Marty and his eyes were a darker, deeper blue beneath the brim of his black hat. He wasn’t quite as blatantly in-your-face handsome as his brother, but his rugged, formidable good looks were compelling all the same. His features looked as if they didn’t smile easily as he took her hand. “So you’re really married to my brother. Guess I’d better say congratulations.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled at him and the coolness in his eyes warmed slightly, a glint of humor surfacing.

  “I wish I’d met you before the wedding. I could have warned you about Marty—”

  “Shut up,” Marty growled. There was no amusement in his tone and the grin faded from Deck’s face as he stared at his brother with narrowed eyes.

  Silver, Deck’s wife, stepped into the uneasy silence. “It’s so nice to meet you, Juliette.” Silver took her hand. She was a lot taller than Juliette would be even in her highest heels, and she was lovely, with a heavy cloud of black hair and the most striking eyes Juliette had ever seen. It was obvious where her name had come from. “That’s a lovely dress.”

  “Thank you.” Juliette looked down at herself ruefully. “I’m afraid it’s a bit too dressy for tonight.”

  Silver laughed. “You’ll find it’s a bit too dressy for any night around here. South Dakotans live in Wranglers.” She smiled. “I’m originally from Virginia and I still haven’t gotten used to the fact that most of my pretty clothes are going to turn to dust before I have a chance to wear them again.”

  Wranglers. A new dismay struck her. She didn’t even own real jeans, just one pair of lightweight denim pants that she’d brought from California. She hadn’t been here long enough to need them, since she had dressed up for work at the mall, and the only other clothes she had were unsuitable, being made for California’s mild climate.

  “Wranglers,” she said slowly. “That could be a problem.”

  “We’ll get together in a day or so and have a real visit, and I’ll help you get a head start on your cowgirl wardrobe.” Silver said. “I probably won’t be here long tonight—I’m a bit more tired than usual these days.”

  Silver was pregnant. Very pregnant, if the rounded shape beneath the black sweater was an indication.

  “When are you due?” Juliette asked. It was the first, and most crucial, piece of information most women wanted to know—

  “Juliette has a baby,” Marty said.

  The conversation stopped again.

  “Say that again.” Deck was clearly used to issuing orders.

  Her cheeks were burning, but she forced herself to keep her chin up and smile. “I have an eleven-week-old son. My husband died unexpectedly ten months ago.”

  Deck and Silver stared at Marty, then turned back to look at her. Their faces were equally dumbfounded, and she was sure she knew why. They probably couldn’t believe Marty had married a woman with an infant son.

  Silver recovered first. “I’m sorry about your husband,” she said. “What’s your son’s name?”

  “Robert, but I call him Bobby.”

  “I like Robert,” Silver said. “We’ve been arguing over names for months now.”

  Deck touched his wife’s arm. “I’m going to buy my brother a drink. Would either of you ladies like anything?”

  Juliette declined as did Silver, and a moment later Deck had hustled Marty up to the bar. Silver suggested that they sit down, which Juliette did gratefully. She felt ridiculously out of place here, in this bare little bar with its metal tables and vinyl-covered chairs and bright neon signs advertising beer behind the bar. She’d never been much of a bar person at all. She didn’t drink alcohol except for the obligatory sip of champagne at weddings, and as she’d told Marty the day they’d met, she wasn’t the world’s greatest dancer.

  Someone had taped up big white paper wedding bells on one wall, and a sheet cake covered in white icing was set on a nearby table. It apparently wasn’t intended for a grand cake-cutting ceremony, since a cowboy came over and cut himself a whopping chunk as she watched. Frankly, she was relieved. A wedding reception with its attendant rituals could only make this whole mess worse.

  And then someone started clanking a spoon against a glass. Within seconds, the bar resounded with the sound of metal clanking against beer bottles as people used utensils, pocketknives and anything else they could find to clang out the signal.

  Juliette knew what it meant and her heart sank even lower. It wouldn’t stop until the groom kissed the bride. At the bar Marty appeared oblivious until his brother poked him in the ribs and said something, pointing in her direction. Marty shifted his body toward her and their eyes met. Then, unsmiling, he stood and strode her way.

  She put out a hand to stop him as he approached. “I don’t think—” But it was like trying to stop a freight train.

  He grabbed the hand she extended and dragged her to her feet. Then, before she knew what he intended, he scooped an arm beneath her knees and lifted her high against his chest, his mouth coming down on her startled one even as she gasped in surprise.

  Her arms went around his neck more out of reflex than passion, but as he kissed her hungrily, she clutched at his shoulders and her mouth opened under his, allowing his tongue to seek out hers in the automatic response she’d been unable to hide since the first time she’d seen him. Her fingers tightened on him and her hands stole up around his neck. How could she love him so much?

  And then the bar erupted in cheers and catcalls and whistles. Marty lifted his head with a grin, the first hint she’d seen of his normal good humor since he’d learned about Bobby. “Those suckers will be lining up asking me to help them write ads for wives after tonight. You’re about the best-looking thing most of them have ever seen.”

  The words were a splash of cold water on the moment of passion. “Great,” she said, trying to mask the hurt his casual comment had caused. “I’ll add that to the list of reasons you married me.”

  The grin faded from his face. Slowly he set her down. “I told you exactly what I wanted when we met,” he said and his eyes were angry. “You’re the one who didn’t play fair.”

  She collapsed into her chair as he stalked back to the bar, resting her elbows on the table and putting her face in her hands.

  “Juliette?” Silver’s voice sounded worried. “You do know about Marty placing an—”

  She nodded, dropping her hands and attempting a smile. “I know. I answered his ad. We came to a very civilized agreement about marrying.” She looked at Silver and was moved almost to tears by the sympathy in the other woman’s eyes.

  “He didn’t know,” she said before she could catch it back. “Marty didn’t know about my baby until after we got married today.”

  Silver’s mouth rounded and her lovely eyes widened in evident dismay. “That explains it.”

  “What?”

  “Why he seems so…odd tonight.” Silver shook her head. She appeared to be holding a debate with herself for a long moment. Finally she said, “Has he told you about his wife and son?”

  “I knew he was a widower,” she said quietly. “But I only learned about his little boy after…”

  The dark-haired woman put a soothing hand over hers. “You couldn’t have known,” she said. “I never knew her but Deck told me Lora went into premature labor with their second baby. She had to drive a truck out through the fields to find Marty. He rushed her to the hospital but he had to stop to deliver the baby on the way and she started to hemorrhage badly. She bled to death before he could get there.”

  Juliette felt as if someone had hit her squarely in the chest. Suddenly, with full cla
rity, she could understand why the horror of his loss would make it difficult for Marty to talk about it. “And the baby died.”

  Silver cleared her throat. “Three days later. He was just too little and his lungs weren’t developed enough. Marty took it really, really hard, Deck says, but you’d never know it to talk to him. He’s covered up his true feelings with wit and charm for years. I suspect that probably started when his sister Genie died. Nobody gets close to the real man beneath that killer smile.”

  Juliette took a couple of deep breaths, hoping the sick feeling in her stomach would subside. Was there any way she could ever make up for forcing Bobby on him?

  The rest of the evening didn’t get any better. Marty came over to check on her once in a while but she didn’t know what to say to him, so after a few stiff encounters, he hung out by the bar with a gang of men who guzzled beer while she sat at the little table with Silver. She tried not watch him, but she couldn’t help but be aware of his unusually quiet presence nearby. She was relieved to note that he wasn’t drinking much at all.

  Silver’s sister-in-law Lyn McCall joined them, and other people came by occasionally to introduce themselves. The speakers and the mike up front, she discovered, were for karaoke, which Lyn and most of the people in the bar pronounced “croaky,” a fact that brought the first genuine smile of the evening to her face.

  Lyn had recently announced her own impending motherhood, and if Juliette hadn’t been so aware of her husband’s brooding presence at the bar, she would have enjoyed the talk of pregnancies and babies with the other two women.

  “Juliette needs clothes,” Silver shouted at Lyn above the caterwauling of one off-key karaoke performer. She glanced at Juliette. “Boots, too?”

  Juliette nodded. “Almost everything but underwear.”

  “We can get jeans in Phillip,” Lyn said. “And boots and a coat there, too. Did Marty keep any of his first wife’s things?”

  “Wouldn’t matter,” Silver said. “I’ve seen pictures of her. She was as tall as I am and—” she made an indelicate motion that conveyed exceptional size in the chest area “—well-endowed.” Then she gave an enormous yawn. “Sorry,” she said, chuckling. “It’s getting past my bedtime.”

  As if he’d heard the words, Deck detached himself from the group of men at the bar and came over to the table. “Are you ready to go?”

  Silver nodded. “And I’m sure Juliette’s exhausted, too.” She gave Deck a meaningful look.

  “Why don’t I tell Marty she’s ready to go?” He turned on his heel and headed back to the bar.

  “We need to get going, too.” Lyn stood and walked across the room to her husband, Cal. She stretched on tiptoe to whisper something into his ear when she reached him. Juliette’s heart ached at the way the man’s arm went around her and his finger tilted her chin up for a lingering kiss.

  Then Marty was coming toward her, and they all walked out to the parking lot together.

  The air was brisk and biting and a lot chillier than it had seemed on the way in.

  Deck pointed at the moon, and Juliette glanced up at the red halo surrounding it. “Snow before morning,” he said.

  “Oh, great.” Lyn shook her head. “Your first week of marriage and already South Dakota’s giving you a taste of its miserable winters. Call me if it gets to you.”

  On the way home, Marty explained that Lyn and Silver were both newly married, also. Juliette was relieved to learn this would be Silver’s first winter in the area. At least she wouldn’t be alone in her newness.

  Cal and Lyn turned off the highway ahead of them, and when Marty turned off a few minutes later, Juliette was pleasantly surprised to realize how close—relatively speaking—Lyn lived. When they arrived at the house, Marty paid the baby-sitter and took her home while Juliette hurried upstairs to check on Bobby.

  And Cheyenne, she reminded herself. She was a mother of two now.

  She checked on both children. Bobby was still sleeping in the same position she’d left him, lying on his side. He had a funny habit of stretching one leg clear out, and sure enough, his little leg was extended as if he were planning on taking a walk upon awakening.

  Cheyenne was sleeping on her back with both little hands outflung. The child looked totally angelic, and Juliette smiled ruefully as she brushed a kiss over the soft cheek. Life wouldn’t get dull with this one around. Cheyenne had come out of her room with a whispered apology as pleasant as you please after Marty had disciplined her earlier, and Juliette had taken special pains to include her in the dinner preparations. All in all, she thought their first day together hadn’t gone too badly after the initial shock.

  She shut the little girl’s bedroom door and went back downstairs to let Inky out one last time before going to bed, then shut him in the kitchen. Though he normally slept on her bed, she had a feeling Marty would have a few choice things to say about that. Weary, she slipped off her shoes and carried them as she trudged back up the stairs.

  If only she felt as optimistic about her marriage as she did about stepmotherhood. She couldn’t imagine how they were going to manage to get through the days ahead if Marty couldn’t even bear to be around babies. Tears stung her eyes and she blinked them back. She wasn’t a quitter, she reminded herself. She’d married Marty and she’d keep the promises she’d made in the judge’s chamber.

  He just needed time to get used to the changes her presence and Bobby’s would bring to his life. He had good friends and family who were obviously deeply in love with their wives. Maybe there was a chance that he could grow to love her, too.

  Oh, boy. Might as well wish on a shooting star, girl.

  Quickly she got ready for bed, but when it actually came time to slide into the big oak bed where Marty slept, she hesitated. She stroked an absent hand over the quilt as she acknowledged the hopes she’d had for tonight, the fulfillment of the attraction she’d felt since the moment she’d seen him. She wanted Marty to make love to her in a way she couldn’t ever remember wanting a man in her whole life.

  But Marty wasn’t here. And worse, when he did come home, he was going to be as quietly miserable as he’d been since she’d come down the stairs from her apartment with her son in her arms.

  She didn’t want her first night in her new marriage to be like that.

  Slowly she turned. Leaving one small lamp burning on the bedside table, she made her way back to the room where Bobby slept and crawled into the king-size bed there.

  Marty entered the house after dropping off the baby-sitter to find the place totally dark. In the kitchen, his new wife’s little dog gave a halfhearted yip that stopped the moment he said, “Can it, critter.”

  Then he took the stairs to the second floor. Anticipation had created a steadily growing arousal that burned in his system, and he headed directly for his bedroom—

  Only to find his bed as cold and empty as it had been every night for more than two years. Disappointment rushed through him, killing his desire. It was swiftly followed by anger, the only other emotion he could allow himself to feel at the end of this hellish day.

  He’d hoped she would be waiting for him. Hoped that perhaps they could salvage something from the collapse of the relationship he thought they’d been building. But apparently Juliette wasn’t interested in a relationship with him, except as it pertained to having his ring on her finger. Why in hell had she married him?

  She’d hooked him, but good. And he’d fallen for every flirtatious bat of her eyelashes, every swish of those slim skirts across her trim little bottom, every hesitant response she’d given him.

  Now it was painfully clear that he’d been the biggest kind of idiot. He’d been so hot to get married before she got away, and she’d had no intention of getting away. She’d been as desperate as he had for this marriage. The only question now was: why?

  To gain a father for her fatherless son? He didn’t think so. If that were the case, she wouldn’t have hidden the kid from him, she’d have checked him out right aw
ay to see if he was a good parent candidate….

  He felt as if he was missing something important, as if some crucial piece of information was eluding him. Why hadn’t she been up front with him about her baby?

  The answer was suddenly crystal clear, even if the reason behind it wasn’t. She had been desperate to get married. So desperate that she wouldn’t take a chance on jeopardizing the opportunity by scaring away the potential spouse with a baby that wasn’t his. She needed to get married.

  Now all he had to do was figure out why.

  She was in the guest bedroom that had been his brother Deck’s, sleeping alone in the big bed with her baby in the little portable thing nearby. He pulled the door almost shut, weariness and sadness tugging at him, and quietly returned to his own room, where he stripped and crawled into the bed he’d hoped to share with his bride.

  And his dreams were a restless, anguished jumble of hospitals, red flashing ambulance lights and crying babies.

  The house was chillier than usual when Marty awoke in the morning. He dressed and went downstairs to the kitchen and turned up the heat. Juliette’s dumb little dog danced around his feet, and he figured if he didn’t want it to have an accident he’d better let it out.

  It was snowing when he opened the door of the utility room, little tiny flakes that had already piled several inches of fluffy stuff on the ground, and it was cold. Really cold. The thermometer on the porch post read ten degrees, and there was a vicious north wind blowing, which probably meant it was at least fifty below. Damn. He and the men couldn’t ride more than a quarter mile in that without freezing solid.

  The little dog, Inky, didn’t like the cold much. He scampered out, did his duty and ran right back to Marty’s feet again.

  Marty couldn’t help but laugh. “Good job,” he told the dog. “Gotta keep it quick so we don’t freeze out here.” He took Inky in with him, and the kitchen was still empty.

  He’d hoped Juliette would be up, but he ate his breakfast and she still didn’t appear, so he shrugged into his warm clothes. She probably was wiped out after yesterday. She might need to catch up on her sleep.