by Tina Leonard
“You mean Judah,” Sam said.
“I mean Darla,” Rafe retorted. “He really isn’t much of a catch, like I said.”
They sat silently, mulling over the situation. Then Jonas leaned over, kicked at Judah’s leg with his boot. Judah’s eyes snapped open.
“What?” he said. “Are you losers still playing Scrabble? Don’t you know how to spell a word longer than three letters?”
“Rafe has something to tell you,” Jonas said.
Rafe looked miserable. “We think marrying in haste means repenting in leisure.”
“Whatever.” Judah moved his hat down over his eyes and shifted to a more comfortable position on the leather couch.
“We think,” Rafe said, trying again bravely, “that marriage isn’t your style. You’re more of a drifter.”
“No, I’m not,” Judah said from under the hat. “I’m a pragmatic romantic.”
They went dead silent for a moment. He grinned, but the felt of his Stetson covering his face kept them from knowing he was laughing at them. They thought they were being so Fiona, but they weren’t. No one could plot like Fiona, and Judah had learned at her knee.
“I’m going to tell Darla I’m willing to marry her so her babies will have a name,” Rafe said.
Judah rolled his eyes. “You do that.”
Silence met his pronouncement. Judah snickered. His brothers were always trying to help, though not successfully, and he had to admire their ham-handed ways.
“You don’t mind?” Rafe asked, sounding a little less sure of himself.
“Nope,” Judah said. “Have at it.”
“I vote we resume this game later,” Jonas said, and Sam said, “A fine idea, since Rafe has to be somewhere.”
Sam said it importantly, as if Rafe was about to run right over and pop the question to Darla. These goofballs, Judah thought. I don’t know what they’re up to, but Darla would never want to marry anyone but me. She wants me bad.
“Okay,” Rafe said, “see you later.”
The door opened, and Judah heard boots moving out the door. “Called your bluff, didn’t I?” he said, sliding the hat from his face. He was alone. They’d gone, ostensibly to scare him into thinking Rafe was actually heading off to save Judah’s princess from her self-declared dilemma. But Darla wanted only one cowboy. And that’s me, he assured himself.
He glanced over at the Scrabble board, seeing a lack of imagination in the chosen spellings. “‘Marriage, wife, convenience, bad idea,’” he said out loud, eyeing the tiles. “Oh, very funny. You guys are a laugh a minute.” He went back to sleep, completely unconcerned. He had everything under control.
“MARRY YOU?” Darla asked twenty minutes later, when Rafe had hotfooted it over to her house and banged on her door. He’d told her he’d just left Judah, after telling him he was going to propose. Darla didn’t know what to think about the Callahans anymore, except that maybe they were just as crazy as everyone said. “Why would I want to marry you?”
“You’d like me better in the temporary sense,” Rafe said, “and after all, it was my twin’s gag gift that got you into this dilemma. I feel a certain irony to putting matters right.”
She frowned, wondering why Judah hadn’t told her about a gag gift. “Gag gift?”
Rafe nodded. “Judah didn’t tell you?”
She shook her head.
“Creed gave us all prank condoms as groom gifts. Clearly, the joke was on Judah.” Rafe stood straighter. “Like I said, I’m here to put things right.”
Darla’s heart was sinking. “Judah didn’t mind you proposing to me?”
Rafe shook his head. “No, he said to have at it.”
Darla wondered what new game Judah had up his sleeve. Her pride came to the fore as she said, “I don’t understand why this would solve anything.”
“Well, if it’s a temporary situation you’re looking for, and I guess it is, due to the pink ultimatum you gave Judah, it would be better to marry me, because I am all about temporary. Short Term is my middle name. In fact, No Term is what they should have named me—”
“You don’t think Judah will honor the divorce?”
“Nope,” Rafe said. “We’re territorial in my family. He’s not going to give you up once he has those little cherubs under his control. I mean his, uh, loving guidance.”
Darla considered that. “But Judah doesn’t love me.”
Rafe shrugged. “Hasn’t he told you that he does?”
“No.” Darla looked at Rafe. “I can raise these children on my own. I don’t need anyone to help me with that. I want to marry for love.”
“I know. But it may not happen.” He looked properly saddened by this revelation, which didn’t make her feel any better. “As you know, you’re like a sister to me. I’ve always loved all women, but you have a special place in my heart. I don’t want to see you get hurt.” Rafe wondered if he was carrying his role a little too far. The more he talked, the more he believed his story. The truth was, Darla and Judah didn’t love each other; getting a divorce after the babies were born was going to hurt them, their children and the family.
But if Rafe married Darla, and she knew he was doing it to give her children a name, then there was no ulterior motive. But there was the small matter of him carrying a super-secret torch for Judge Julie, Bode’s daughter. He sighed deeply.
“Darla, I’m here for you if you don’t want to marry Judah, and probably no sane woman would want to, I suppose.”
“I guess you’re right,” Darla said, thinking that she’d have loved to marry Judah, if things had been different. If they’d fallen in love gently and slowly, finding each other of their own will and choosing, not this slamming together of their separate galaxies. “It’s nice of you to offer, Rafe, but actually, I don’t want to marry you, either.”
He blinked. “Either?”
She sighed. “No. I don’t want to marry you, of course, because you’re right. You are a brother to me. And I don’t want to marry Judah. I’d always feel like the wallflower that got asked to dance because the guy felt sorry for her.” She felt tears prickle her eyes, but stood her ground. “Thank you for coming by, Rafe. It’s been helpful.”
“It has?” Rafe wasn’t certain the conversation hadn’t gone wildly off the guided track. She wasn’t supposed to be saying she didn’t want either of them. She was supposed to insist that Judah was the only man for her, once she realized it was true. Clearly, she’d realized something of a totally different sort. “So what are you going to do?”
Darla smiled. “What I should have done all along.”
“I HAVE TO GIVE THIS BACK to you,” Darla said, laying the magic wedding dress carefully over the bed in Sabrina’s room at Rancho Diablo. “It’s lovely.” She gave Sabrina a smile she didn’t realize was sad until she felt it on her face. “Thank you for offering it to us. Jackie felt like a princess when she wore it to her wedding.”
Sabrina studied Darla. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“There’s nothing to talk about. I think our customers just aren’t looking for gowns that are quite so vintage.”
“I meant do you want to talk about your wedding? Or anything else?”
Darla shook her head. “There won’t be a wedding. For one thing, Sidney and I have decided to remain simply friends.”
“And Judah?”
“Judah and I have a complicated situation. We’re still trying to figure out how to say hello to each other without feeling awkward.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
Darla shook her head again. “I don’t think so. Callahans are different types to deal with, as I’m sure you know.”
Sabrina smiled. “It’s true.”
“Do you think you and Jonas will ever—”
“No.” Sabrina shook her own head. “You and Judah do not have the market cornered on awkward.”
Darla smiled. “Why that makes me feel better, I don’t know.”
“Misery loves company.”
Sabrina hung the gown in her closet, closing it away. Darla fancied she could still hear the lovely song of its allure calling to her. It was like looking at a sparkling diamond a woman dreamed of one day owning—
“Oh!” Darla jumped to her feet. “I’m sorry to cut this short. I just remembered something I have to do.”
Sabrina nodded. “Judah’s in the bunkhouse. And if you change your mind about the dress, it’ll be here, ready to go on short notice.”
“Thanks,” Darla said, thinking that short notice and her wedding would never go together. She’d learned about being hasty—and next time, if there ever was a next time she planned a wedding, she was taking the long route.
“SO THEN WHAT DID SHE SAY?” Jonas asked. Sam was glued to Rafe’s every word. They sat around the Scrabble board, but they weren’t playing. Judah was nowhere to be found. There were chores that had to be done—ASAP—but at the moment, Jonas and Sam were spellbound by Rafe’s bungling of the Darla Problem.
“She said she didn’t want to marry me or Judah,” Rafe said. “She was pretty definite about it, too.”
“Judah’s going to kill you,” Sam said. “You were supposed to help Darla see that Judah is the only man for her.”
“She doesn’t think like most women,” Rafe said in his defense. “She’s pretty independent. And I think Judah annoys her fiercely.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Jonas demanded. “We don’t care if she’s annoyed. We care that she takes Judah off our hands and keeps him forever.”
“It was scary,” Rafe said. “For a minute, I thought she was going to take me up on my offer.” He shuddered. “I don’t think Judah understands how thin a thread he’s hanging by with Darla.”
“This isn’t good.” Jonas considered the information about Judah’s precarious nuptials. “We could talk to Fiona, tell her that the lovebirds are planning to get a divorce inmediatamente. That would frost her cookies. I think that falls under the heading of no fake marriages, and puts him out of contention for the ranch. She won’t be happy.”
Sam swallowed. “I’ve got to have a fake marriage if I play the game. I’m never letting a woman lead me around by the nose.”
Rafe sighed. “If you don’t think that women are doing that every day of your life already, you’re dumb.”
Sam sniffed. “Well, we can’t tell Fiona. She’d just throw a party. That’s her answer for everything. Party, party. It’s her stress buster.”
“Any news on the filing?” Jonas asked. “What’s the update on our legal status?”
Sam shrugged. “We could stand for Judah to get married and populate this joint. If we had a small city of kiddies here, maybe we could make a case that we are the people. The people would be best served by us keeping the ranch and opening an elementary school for the community. Something like that, anyway.”
Rafe straightened. “That’s a great idea. We need an elementary school. I like kids. I like school bells. Let’s build a school with a school bell!”
Jonas sighed. “Let’s not put the bell before the babies, all right? First we have to get Judah to slide over home plate.”
“Yeah,” Rafe said, “and since he told me I could marry the mother of his children, I’m pretty sure he’s not in love. It would stand to reason.”
“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “You wouldn’t even need a lawyer to make that case. If I was in love with a woman, I wouldn’t let any of you fatheads near her. Probably not even to offer her a glass of water.”
“You’re selfish, though,” Jonas said. “Maybe Judah is more generous.”
His brothers blew a collective raspberry at him.
“Judah’s not in love,” Sam said, “or he would have kicked Rafe’s ass when he told him he was going to pop the question to Darla.”
“Yeah,” Rafe said, “and my ass is un-kicked. It’s depressing.”
“Look at that,” Jonas said, waving at his brothers to come to the bunkhouse window. “Darla just came out of the house. She’s heading this way.” He glanced at Rafe. “Suppose she’s changed her mind about you?”
“Hide me,” Rafe said. “She’s got a gleam in her eye that doesn’t bode well.”
“Where’s Judah?” Jonas asked. “We need him front and center to catch this incoming fireball.”
“Probably in the tub with his rubber ducky. How would I know?” Sam asked.
“Let’s sneak out the back,” Jonas said. “They’ll find their way to each other eventually, and I don’t want to be in the path of love.”
“Or not,” Rafe said. “Last one out the back door has to tell Fiona we screwed up Judah’s life.”
The brothers did their best Three Stooges impersonation getting out the door. Judah heard the back door slam, looked out his bedroom window in time to see the trio of siblings running for the barn.
“Immature,” he muttered, pulling on a shirt. “Always competing.”
“Judah?” a female voice called, and he grinned. I knew that little gal couldn’t resist me.
“Hi,” he said, framing himself in the bedroom doorway. “Little Red Riding Hood must be looking for her wolf,” he said, taking Darla by the hand and tugging her into his room. He locked the door. “Lucky for you, I just happen to be very hungry.”
Chapter Ten
“Very funny.” Darla swallowed her unease. “I’ll wait out in the den.”
“Don’t be scared. I’ll be good to you. No biting.”
Warily, she removed her hand from his. She hesitated to be anyplace that contained Judah and a bed, but he was hardly going to jump on her and eat her like a chocolate bunny. As he said, no biting.
“I brought you this,” she said, trying not to look at him as she set his ring on the nightstand. She glanced around, curious in spite of herself. His bunkhouse room was sparsely furnished, but he kept it neat. The quilt on the bed was vintage, a beautiful patchwork pattern that must have taken months. Someone had cared deeply about the project. But Darla could hardly pay attention to the room’s decor when Judah’s shirt was open and he was zipping up his work jeans. She wished she hadn’t accepted his invitation to enter his lair.
Bedroom. It was just four walls. Four walls and a bed where they could be together.
There was a time she’d dreamed of nothing more.
“I’m not marrying you, Judah,” Darla said, and he grinned at her, a slow, confident grin that unsettled her and got her off her planned script.
“I got that part.” He jerked his head toward the ring. “Rafe talk you out of it?”
“No.” Darla frowned. “Did you want him to?”
He shrugged. “Only if you could be talked out of marrying me. I knew you wouldn’t say yes to him. He’s too wild and woolly for a straight-laced little mama like you.”
She raised her brows. “You’re not exactly tame yourself.”
“But the difference is,” Judah said, sitting on the bed to pull on his boots, “I’m willing to be tamed.”
“I’m pretty sure every single woman in this town has set her cap for you at one time or another,” Darla said, “and you’ve never been available for more than a one-night stand. Two nights at the most, according to gossip.”
Judah grinned. “I wouldn’t pay attention to gossip, darlin’. This town loves to talk, but talk’s cheap.”
“It may be cheap,” Darla said, “but it’s usually pretty much on the money.”
He laughed. “Let’s just say I’m trying to mend my ways, then.”
“Anyway,” Darla said, “let’s go back to being the way we were before we ever…you know. Next time I talk to you—”
“I’ll be a father?” He winked. “I think you’re going about this all wrong, sweetheart.”
“What do you mean?”
He leaned back, lounging on the bed. “This Dear John business. It’s premature.”
She edged toward the door, not trusting the look in his eyes, which had turned distinctly predatory. “How so?”
&
nbsp; “Usually a Dear John letter is reserved for people who are breaking up, which implies that there was a relationship of some sort. We have no relationship. I would suggest, therefore, that you don’t know what you’re missing out on.”
She blinked, trying to follow his thought process. “What exactly am I missing out on?”
He moved off the bed and took her in his arms. “Let me show you what you’re trying to write off, babe.”
She could feel warmth, and strength, and full-on sex appeal radiating from him. It made her weak in the knees, faint in the heart. The problem was, she’d always been in love with this man. She couldn’t remember a time she’d ever wanted someone else. He ran his hands along her forearms up to her shoulders and she froze, mesmerized by his touch. She had no wish to escape him; she’d wanted to be in his arms for too many years. “This isn’t a good idea.”
“We don’t know that it’s a bad idea, either.”
He kissed her on the lips, and she melted into his embrace. It hadn’t been a dream; she hadn’t imagined the overwhelming passion that swept her when he held her. At some point, she wondered why she was bothering to fight him when she wanted to be with him so much.
It was something about pride, she reminded herself, and not wanting to trap him. But it felt as if he was trying to entice her into a trap. “Judah,” she said, breaking away from his kiss, “parenthood isn’t a good reason to marry.”
“It’s not the worst reason. Ships have been launched because of babies, fiefdoms have risen and fallen. I say you let me kiss you for a while before we try to solve the world’s big questions. Let’s just figure out if you even like kissing me before you Dear John me.” He slipped his hands along her waist, holding her against him. “You’d hate to kick yourself later for giving away a very good thing.”
He was so darn confident that he held all the keys to her heart. Darla supposed he was like this with every woman. “Maybe the only way to prove that you’re not as irresistible as you think you are is to prove you wrong.”
“I’ll take that dare,” Judah said. “What time do you have to open the shop?”
She looked at him, her blood racing. “What difference does that make? You just kissed me, and I can live without it,” she fibbed outrageously. “There’s nothing between us that neither of us can’t live without.”
