by Diana Palmer
‘‘Well, thanks for everything,’’ she began.
He stared down at her with a sense of loss. After their ride up to Houston to visit her father, there seemed to be a curtain between them. They’d been very close that Sunday. But he’d gotten cold feet, he admitted to himself, and he’d drawn back. He felt the threat of her in his heart and he was trying to run from it. Suddenly it was like trying to run from himself.
‘‘You’ll be here alone,’’ he said quietly. ‘‘Make sure you keep your door locked. We haven’t had any reports that they caught the guys who rolled Leo. Just in case, don’t let your guard down.’’
‘‘I’ll be fine,’’ she promised him.
She looked so small and vulnerable standing there. He hated leaving her.
‘‘You wear your jacket when it’s cold like this,’’ she told him firmly, noticing that he was standing in the cold wind in just the shirtsleeves of his chambray shirt.
‘‘And my raincoat when it’s raining,’’ he said with a mocking smile. ‘‘You wear yours, too.’’
She hesitated. ‘‘Well, goodbye,’’ she said after a minute.
‘‘You and I won’t ever say goodbye, Meredith,’’ he replied. ‘‘It’s ‘so long.’’’
She forced a smile to her lips. ‘‘So long, then.’’
He was still hesitating. His face was absolutely grim.
‘‘I know where a jeweler’s is open this early,’’ she said suddenly, with mischievous enthusiasm.
It warmed him to hear her tease, to see that wonderful smile. ‘‘Do you, really?’’
She nodded. ‘‘You can even have a diamond. But it would have to be a small one.’’
His dark eyes twinkled. ‘‘You just hold that thought,’’ he said gently. ‘‘One of these days we might talk about this marriage hang-up of yours. Meanwhile, I’ve got to…’’
‘‘f you say ‘wash the dogs,’’’ she interrupted, ‘‘I’ll slug you!’’
He chuckled. ‘‘I wasn’t going to say that. I’ve got to get back and finish my marketing strategy for the next year before we have our year-end board meeting.’’
‘‘I guess that’s pretty complicated.’’
‘‘No more than treating diseases and plotting nutrition,’’ he replied. He studied her quietly. ‘‘I’ll miss you. Don’t stay away too long.’’
‘‘Why?’’ she prodded.
‘‘You have to save me from attacks on my virtue from hordes of amorous, sex-crazed women,’’ he said without cracking a smile. ‘‘Who knows when I might weaken and give in to one of them, and then where would we be?’’
‘‘I’ve got my heart set on a virgin,’’ she informed him.
He laughed helplessly. ‘‘Sorry, honey, you missed the boat by a decade or so.’’
She snapped her fingers. ‘‘Damn!’’
‘‘On the other hand, I didn’t,’’ he said in a deep, soft voice, and moved closer. He framed her face in his lean hands and studied it hungrily for several seconds. ‘‘You make me ache every time I touch you,’’ he whispered, bending. ‘‘I’ll starve to death before you get back.’’
‘‘Starve…?’’ She wasn’t thinking. She was watching his long, hard mouth come closer. She held her breath until it settled, ever so softly, on her parted lips. And then she didn’t think at all for several long, tempestuous seconds.
Too soon, he caught her by the arms and pushed her away. ‘‘You stop that,’’ he muttered breathlessly. ‘‘I refuse to be seduced on the front lawn.’’
She was trying to catch her own breath. ‘‘No problem. There’s a nice soft carpet just five steps this way,’’ she indicated the hall.
‘‘I’m not that kind of man,’’ he said haughtily.
She made a face at him.
He chuckled and kissed her one last time, teasingly, before he pulled back and started toward his car. ‘‘I’ll call you.’’
‘‘That’s what they all say!’’ she cried after him.
‘‘Then you call me, honey,’’ he said in that deep, sexy voice that made her melt. ‘‘You’ve got my number, even if you don’t know it yet.’’ He winked and went on to the car. He didn’t look back, even as he drove away. Meredith’s eyes followed the car until it was out of sight. She didn’t cry until she was inside, behind the closed door.
She was back at work and going crazy in no time, overrun by people with everything from stomach viruses to the flu. She had a good immune system, and she didn’t catch any of the ailments, but she missed Rey terribly.
Three days before Thanksgiving, her father telephoned her from the ranch, full of excitement about his new job. He seemed like a different person. He told her he was still going to therapy sessions, but in Jacobsville with a psychologist. He was doing much better, and he was going to make everything up to his daughter, he swore it. And wasn’t she coming for Thanksgiving?
It took real nerve to tell him the truth, that she hadn’t been able to get off because of the time she’d already missed. There was simply nobody available to replace her. She’d have Thanksgiving Day, but nothing more.
She’d tried to beg the time off to have a long weekend, but her boss hadn’t been pleased and he refused. He wanted her on call that weekend, and she couldn’t be and go to Jacobsville. The office held a huge clinic for the local immigrant population on Saturdays, as well as Sunday afternoons, and Meredith was competently bilingual in medical terms. It made her indispensable. Not that she minded. These people were desperately in need of even the most basic health care, and Meredith was a whiz at preventive medicine. She counseled them, advised them on nutrition and wellness, and tried not to let her heart break at the sight of little children with rotting teeth and poor vision and a dozen other ailments that money could have corrected easily. The disparity between the rich and the poor was never more evident than in minority communities.
But the fact was, she had one day off for Thanksgiving and no real time for herself. It was a reminder of just how pressured her job really was, and how demanding. She loved what she did, but she hated being made to feel guilty when she asked for time off—something she hadn’t done since her brother’s and mother’s untimely deaths. Actually it had been a battle royal to get time off for bereavement leave, and the funerals, and she’d had to go right back to work the day after the burials. It had been too soon, but she’d thought work would be good medicine.
Perhaps it had been, but she was living on nerves. The weeks at the Hart ranch had given her a taste of a whole other life. It was one she recalled with joy and missed every day. Most of all, she missed Rey. Now she wouldn’t even see him. Her father said that he’d ask someone to loan him a vehicle, and he’d come to have Thanksgiving with her. That cheered her up a little, but it would mean she wouldn’t see Rey. It was a bad blow. She told her father that she’d make dinner, which cheered him up as well.
Thanksgiving Day came, and Meredith got up before daylight to start cooking. She was determined that she and her father were going to have the best Thanksgiving dinner she could manage. She’d bought a turkey and a small ham, and raw ingredients to make dressing and sweet potato soufflé, green beans, ambrosia, homemade rolls and cherry and pumpkin pies.
She’d just taken the last pie out of the oven when she heard a car pull up in front of the house. She didn’t stop to take off her apron or run a brush through her disheveled hair. She ran to the front door and opened it, just in time to see her father and Rey come up on the porch.
‘‘Happy Thanksgiving, Merry,’’ her father said, and hugged her warmly.
Rey grinned. ‘‘We thought you might like company to help you eat all that food,’’ he told her.
‘‘I didn’t make any biscuits,’’ she said worriedly. ‘‘Just homemade rolls.’’
‘‘I love rolls.’’ He held out his arms. ‘‘Well, come on,’’ he chided when she hesitated. ‘‘You can’t treat a red-hot matrimonial prospect like me to the cold shoulder! You’ll never get me to say
‘yes’ from arm’s length!’’
Her father coughed. ‘‘I’ll just, uh, check on the turkey,’’ he said with an impish smile and went into the kitchen.
Rey nudged Meredith back inside the house, closed the door, and kissed her to within an inch of her life. He barely stopped to breathe before he was kissing her again, enfolding her in a bearish embrace while he made up for what seemed like years of abstinence.
‘‘You’ll smother me,’’ she complained weakly.
‘‘Stop complaining and kiss me,’’ he murmured against her swollen lips. He kissed her ever harder.
‘‘I’m not…complaining!’’ she gasped when he finally stopped.
He bit her lower lip ardently. ‘‘I am,’’ he groaned. ‘‘Come on, woman, ravish me!’’
‘‘Here?’’ she exclaimed, wide-eyed.
‘‘Well, give your father a quarter and send him to the store for cigarettes!’’ he asked with comical desperation between kisses.
‘‘Nobody here smokes,’’ she pointed out.
‘‘Excuses, excuses,’’ he murmured against her lips, using her own favorite complaint. His arms tightened and he only stopped when he had to breathe. ‘‘What a long, dry spell it’s been, Merry,’’ he whispered huskily. ‘‘Come back here…’’
She kissed him and kissed him with no thought of the future. It was wonderful to be held and cuddled and wanted. She thought she’d never felt so much joy in her whole life as she did here, in Rey’s hard arms.
‘‘There’s that carpet you mentioned when I left here last time,’’ he said breathlessly, indicating the floor. He wiggled both eyebrows. ‘‘We can lock your father in the kitchen and you can ravish me, right here!’’
‘‘Not on your life.’’ She linked her arms around his neck. ‘‘I won’t ravish you until you agree to marry me,’’ she managed unsteadily.
‘‘Is that a proposal?’’ he murmured huskily.
‘‘Sure. You can have a ring. I think there’s a ten-year-old cigar around here somewhere with a band on it…’’
He was still kissing her between words. ‘‘I’ll phone the minister first thing tomorrow. You can have a blood test at work. I already had Micah Steele do one on me. He said he’d love to have a nurse practitioner of his very own, by the way, if you’re interested. We can have a Christmas wedding in Jacobsville.’’
Her mind was spinning. She couldn’t quite understand what he was saying. Of course, he was kissing her and she could hardly think at all. ‘‘Blood test…work for Micah…Christmas wedding?’’ she murmured.
‘‘Mmm-hmm,’’ he whispered, kissing her again. ‘‘You can get me a ring whenever you like, but I got you one already.’’ He fumbled in his jacket pocket and pulled out a velvet-covered jeweler’s box. He opened it and showed it to her. Inside was a glorious emerald solitaire, and a diamond and emerald wedding band. ‘‘If you don’t like it, we can throw it in the fishpond and go buy you something else…’’
‘‘I love it!’’ she exclaimed, flustered by the sudden turn of events.
‘‘Good. Here.’’ He took out the engagement ring, pocketed the box and slid it gently onto her ring finger. ‘‘Now it’s official. We’re engaged. Remember what you just promised,’’ he added with a wicked grin. ‘‘The minute your father leaves, I’ll let you ravish me on the carpet!’’
Eleven
‘‘But, Rey, Daddy won’t leave,’’ she whispered. ‘‘There’s a turkey in the kitchen!’’
‘‘He can take it with him,’’ he said generously.
She laughed and hugged him very hard. ‘‘I can’t believe this.’’
‘‘Neither can I,’’ he said, nuzzling his cheek against hers. His arms tightened. ‘‘Even when I was suspicious of you, I couldn’t bear you out of my sight. I still can’t. This past week has been endless. I thought we could cool it for a few weeks, while I got things into perspective. But the only thing I got into perspective was how lonely I was without you.’’ He lifted his head and looked down into her wide, rapt eyes. ‘‘I love my freedom. But not as much as I love you.’’
‘‘And I love you, Rey,’’ she said huskily. ‘‘I was lonely, too. I feel as if I’ve known you for centuries.’’
‘‘Same here,’’ he replied. ‘‘We’re going to make a good marriage.’’
‘‘A very good marriage,’’ she agreed, and lifted her face so that he could kiss her again. He did, at length and very nicely, until her father came out of the kitchen with a turkey leg in one hand and asked if there were plans to take the dressing out of the oven before it got any blacker. Rey told him their news while Meredith took off at a dead run to rescue dinner.
Meredith worked out a two-week notice and gave up her job, to the dismay and regret of her boss, who hadn’t wanted to lose her. He did see that she couldn’t have a husband in Jacobsville and a job in Houston, however, and he made them a wedding present of a beautiful faceted crystal bowl.
Micah Steele offered her a job at his office, which she accepted with pleasure, on the understanding that she could work three days a week instead of six. Micah understood being a newlywed, since he and his Callie were still newlyweds as well, even with a baby on the way.
The only hitch was that all Rey’s brothers got together and took over the wedding plans, to his dismay and Meredith’s horror.
‘‘It’s going to be a humdinger of a wedding,’’ Leo promised with relish, rubbing his hands together. ‘‘Cag had this great idea for entertainment.’’
‘‘I don’t want to hear it,’’ Rey said firmly.
‘‘You’ll love this,’’ Leo continued, unabashed. ‘‘He’s got this great hard-rock band from Montana coming down to play their new hit record. They just had a hit single about getting married,’’ he added with a rakish grin. ‘‘And they’re having a caterer from San Antonio bring down the buffet lunch. The wedding gown is coming from one of the couture houses in Paris…’’
‘‘But you don’t even know my size!’’ Meredith protested breathlessly.
‘‘We looked in your dresses,’’ he said imperturbably. ‘‘Got your shoe size, too, and we also looked in your drawers and got the, ahem, other sizes.’’ He grinned sheepishly. ‘‘Everything is couture, and silk. Only the best for our new sister-in-law,’’ he added sweepingly.
Meredith didn’t know whether to laugh or scream.
‘‘We booked you a room at a five-star hotel for your honeymoon,’’ he continued, glancing at Rey. ‘‘You still speak French, don’t you?’’
‘‘French?’’ Meredith gasped.
‘‘Well, your rooms are in Nice,’’ he said. ‘‘The French Riviera. You’ve got a suite, overlooking the beach. Monaco is just on down the beach from there.’’
Rey whistled. ‘‘Not bad, for a rush job.’’
‘‘We try to be efficient,’’ Leo said, and his eyes twinkled. ‘‘We even ordered her a trousseau with formal gowns and casual clothes. Lots of pinks and blues and soft beige colors. We thought pastels would suit her.’’
Her mouth was open. She was trying to take it all in without fainting. She was only beginning to realize that the horror stories she’d heard from Tess about weddings and the brothers were true.
‘‘You did kidnap Dorie and tie her in a sack with ribbon and carry her home to Corrigan!’’ she gasped.
‘‘He didn’t have a Christmas present,’’ Leo explained patiently. ‘‘We gave him one. Look how well it worked out!’’
‘‘You hooligans!’’
‘‘Our hearts are all in the right place,’’ Leo protested. ‘‘Besides, Dorie could bake. Which brings us to Tess, who could also bake…’’
‘‘You blackmailed Callaghan into marrying her, I heard!’’ Meredith was getting her second wind now.
‘‘He’s very happy. So is Tess.’’
‘‘And poor Tira,’’ she continued, unabashed. ‘‘You arranged her wedding and she didn’t even get to choose her own gown, either!’’
/> ‘‘She was pregnant. We had to hurry, there was no time,’’ Leo explained matter-of-factly.
‘‘I am not pregnant!’’ she exclaimed, red-faced.
Leo gave Rey a quick, speculative glance. ‘‘Yet,’’ he replied. He grinned.
‘‘If you would just give me a little time to organize my own wedding,’’ she began, exasperated, and thought, I’m being nibbled to death by ducks…!
Leo checked his watch. ‘‘Sorry, I’m running late. The printer is waiting for me to check the proofs.’’
‘‘Of what?’’ she burst out.
‘‘Oh, just the wedding invitations. We’re overnighting them to the people we invited. The governor’s coming, so is the lieutenant governor. The vice president wanted to come, but he has to be in Singapore…’’ He frowned and checked his back pocket. ‘‘There they are! I almost forgot the interview questions. Here.’’ He handed Rey two folded sheets of paper. ‘‘You’ll have time to look them over before the camera crews move in.’’
Meredith and Rey exchanged wide glances. ‘‘What camera crews?’ she asked.
‘‘Just a few reporters,’’ Leo waved them away with a lean hand. ‘‘You know, CNN, Fox, the international press…got to run!’’
‘‘International press!’’ Meredith choked.
‘‘We’ve just signed an important export deal with Japan, didn’t I mention it?’’ Leo called back. ‘‘They love organic beef, and we’ve got some. I mentioned it to our public relations people and they called the news people for us. Your father’s writing the statement we’re giving them. He’s sure got a way with words, hasn’t he?’’
He waved again, climbed into his truck, and sped off.
‘‘Invitations,’’ Meredith said haltingly. ‘‘Clothes. Honeymoons. Reporters.’’
‘‘Now, now,’’ he said, pulling her into his arms. ‘‘Just think of all the work they’ve saved you. You’ll have nothing to do but dress and say yes, and fly off to the Riviera with your brand-new husband!’’
