by Tina Leonard
She couldn’t bring herself to think about the fact that Bode had tried to kill her nephew. “You know, they said the bullet was small, not meant to do anything more than incapacitate, but I don’t believe that. Even a .22 can kill.”
“Shoot, even a BB gun can kill a person,” Nadine said morosely. “My husband used to shoot varmints with BBs, and you’d be surprised the damage they can do.”
“I don’t want to think about it,” Fiona said, swallowing against a rush of coldness seeping into her body. What would her brother, Jeremiah, and Molly say if she let something happen to one of their sons? She had to keep the family whole and together—and at Rancho Diablo. “Judah will go home from the hospital tomorrow, and then we’ll see what he’s planning.”
“I hope he’s planning another wedding,” Nadine said, and Fiona nodded.
“Me, too. I’ve about run out of lures to convince these boys that marriage is the holy grail.” Fiona put down her teacup and pursed her lips for a moment. If Bode had gone to the trouble of harming Judah, basically scaring him away from Darla, then her plan of getting the boys married off was working.
She just didn’t know why. “Why wouldn’t Bode want Judah to marry Darla?”
“Because your family is growing and his is not, and he’s a jealous old coot,” Corinne said with some heat. “You don’t think he’ll ever allow his daughter, Judge Julie, to leave his house, do you? So while you’ve got grandkids popping out all over, he has no hopes whatsoever of having any at all. Because he’ll never allow Julie to leave his home to marry someone. And pity the poor man who ever does try to take her off Bode’s hands.”
Fiona snapped her fingers. “That’s what we need to do.”
“What?” Nadine asked, lost. “What are we doing?”
“If we find a beau to hang around Bode’s, eager-beaver for Julie, Bode won’t have time to be in my business!” Fiona said with delight. “I believe the shock would almost end his ability to do harm to anyone on the planet.”
“Except for the poor suitor,” Nadine said. “You couldn’t pay a man to date poor Julie.”
Fiona blinked. “There’s that.”
Corinne nodded. “For every plot, there’s a twist.”
“But maybe the best way to declare war,” Fiona said, “is to take it right to his door.”
“We don’t know a bachelor brave enough nor stupid enough to… Why are you looking like that?” Nadine asked. “Fiona, it appears as if someone turned a lightbulb on over your head.”
Fiona smiled. “I have three nephews left, and all of them are very brave, and not stupid in the least.”
Her friends stared at her.
“Can you imagine how upset Bode would be if one of my nephews started coming around his place? He wouldn’t be able to focus on anything but Julie, and we could plan another wedding!” Fiona clapped her hands. “I just knew we’d come up with an answer if we brainstormed enough!”
“It could work,” Corinne said. “In fact, it’s impressive. I do see one tiny problem, however.”
They all looked at her expectantly. Corinne shrugged. “Which one of your nephews would you sacrifice to the dragon, Fiona?” Just as she posed the question, the store bell tinkled and Darla walked in, locking the door behind her.
“Darla!” Mavis exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
Darla accepted a cup of tea from Fiona and took a tufted chair in the circle. “This is the only place where I can come and have a good…I don’t know. I don’t want to cry, but I definitely want to talk to women who’ve been through everything.”
The four women looked at her carefully, and Darla felt comforted by their interested perusal. If anyone could give her solid advice, it was these four.
She hoped they had some advice.
“Are you feeling all right?” Corinne asked.
“The babies are okay?” Nadine inquired.
“Did you just come from the hospital?” Fiona demanded.
“Yes, yes and yes,” Darla said. “Judah is raising Cain with the doctors to release him, so he’s in peak form.”
“As I expected.” Fiona nodded with satisfaction. “All the Callahans are tough nuts.”
Darla nodded in turn. “Tougher than you think. Judah broke off our engagement.”
“What?” The women exclaimed as one and began offering sympathy in huge doses, which Darla needed.
“That scoundrel,” Fiona said. “Honey, he didn’t mean a word of it. You just give him a day or two to cool off, and he’ll be throwing himself at your feet again, if I know my nephew.”
Darla’s heart was heavy as she shook her head. “I don’t think so this time. He said there are too many things that endanger me and the children for him to marry me. He said there are too many family ghosts, and until they’re laid to rest, he can’t put me in jeopardy.”
“With two little babies on the way he doesn’t want to marry you?” Mavis asked, proud mother coming to the fore. “Fiona, I don’t think your nephew is being honorable.”
Fiona puffed up like a small bird. “If there’s one thing Judah is, it’s honorable, Mavis Cameron Night.” She leaned toward Darla. “It sounds like shock to me, Darla. We have no family ghosts, not really, not of the variety that would harm anyone, anyway.”
Everyone stared at Fiona. Darla said, “I’m not afraid of ghosts. He is.”
“Silliest thing I ever heard,” Nadine said. “Ghosts at a wedding, indeed. Fiona, you tell Judah to buck up.”
Darla’s heart hung heavy in her chest. After all of Judah’s romancing her through her own case of cold feet, she had never expected to hear him say that the wedding was off.
He felt that she was safer without him.
It broke her heart.
Fiona looked uncomfortable. “I think there’s been a miscommunication.”
Darla shook her head. “After the surgery, he distinctly said, ‘I can’t marry you, Darla—’”
“Pain pills,” Nadine sniffed. “Sounds like they fed him a handful, and I wouldn’t listen to a word he said, Darla. You were a nurse. You know how drugs can make people time travel right out of their normal dispositions. I’ve never seen a man crazier for a woman than Judah is for you.”
“He said it’s not safe,” Darla said, not drawing any comfort from their words. “He said that in order to keep me safe, he has to keep away from me.”
“I don’t understand,” Fiona said, blinking. “It’s like he got shot with the opposite of Cupid’s arrow.”
“Yeah, it was called Bode’s bullet,” Mavis said.
“Oh, dear,” Fiona said. “Darla, I’m so very sorry. Surely this will all pass after my renegade nephew gets out of the hospital. He was never very good with injuries, you know that. Look at the last one he had. He thought he had a concussion when he didn’t. I’m not saying Judah’s a wienie, but he’s not a patient patient, and—”
“It’s all right,” Darla said, even though it wasn’t. Her heart was shattered.
“Well, it just shows you should have married Dr. Tunstall,” Mavis said hotly. “Dr. Tunstall wouldn’t have put you through all this nonsense. He’s a steady man with a good income, and no one would shoot at him.”
Fiona stiffened. “That’s my nephew you’re calling unsteady, Mavis.”
“That same nephew who can’t be bothered to read a big-ass label that says Party Condoms on the side,” Mavis returned, her cheeks pink.
“Prank Condoms,” Darla said. “And it was just as much my fault as is. I seduced him.”
The women went quiet, staring at her.
“I did,” Darla said. “I’ve been wanting to for years, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. In fact, I’d seduce him tonight if he didn’t have an injury. But it really doesn’t matter. Judah has vowed to stay five miles away from me until all the ghosts in your family have been laid to rest. That’s what he said, and I could tell he meant every word.”
“What are these ghosts, Fiona?” Corinne asked. “I don’
t remember anything phantasmagoric hanging about your place.”
Fiona cleared her throat. “I think Judah means the whole Bode problem.”
Darla shook her head. “He muttered something about aunts who keep secrets.”
“Well,” Fiona said uncomfortably, at her friends’ curious perusal. “Pain pills are powerful.”
Mavis gathered her teacup and purse. “You’d best talk to your nephew, Fiona. We have another suitor in the wings, and we’re not going to wait around for Judah. To be frank, it sounds like the man got a case of winter-cold feet. Darla shouldn’t be dumped and humiliated—”
“Mom,” Darla said, “I’m not humiliated.”
“You will be when your children are born and people wonder why you and Judah were getting married and then didn’t.” Mavis glared at Fiona. “This is what happens when you meddle, Fiona. Clearly, you hurried a man along who wasn’t ready to accept his responsibilities. Getting shot is no excuse. Darla’s a nurse, for heaven’s sake. If anybody could nurse a man back to health, it’s her.”
“Oh, dear,” Nadine said. “We need more tea. And cup-cakes.”
“Ladies,” Corinne said, “I vote we adjourn our chat before fur really begins to fly, and words are spoken that can never be taken back.”
“Goodness,” Fiona said, “this is all a tempest in a teapot.”
“A cracked pot, if you ask me. Come on, Darla,” Mavis said, and swept from the store.
Darla blinked, then hugged Fiona goodbye. “It’s not your fault,” she whispered. “I always knew he didn’t really love me. Not the way I was in love with him.”
Darla followed her mother. “Mom, you shouldn’t have said those things to poor Fiona. It’s not her fault someone shot Judah.”
“She raised a back-sliding nephew,” Mavis said, “and it’s high time she get her house in order over there.”
Darla sighed. There was a house that needed to be put in order, and it was her own. Her mother wouldn’t want to hear that right now—she was too upset over everything that had happened, and Darla understood. Everyone was upset. People would be talking in Diablo for weeks.
But she didn’t care. All Darla knew was that Judah had pursued her, finally convincing her that she was the only woman for him. Even if it had been all about the babies, he’d still pursued her.
Now she intended to pursue him. She owed it to her children, and to their father, to make certain that they all ended up as a happy family, no matter how many ghosts Judah thought he had to protect her from.
She was in love with him, and he was just going to have to deal with that. And I’ve never been afraid of ghosts, or anything else that goes bump in the night. What I fear is losing the one man I know in my heart is a good man, the right man, the only man, for me.
Chapter Fifteen
The next evening Fiona walked into the bunkhouse and gave her four nephews, who were trying to resurrect their lagging game of Scrabble, a baleful stare. “Judge Julie’s got herself quite the conundrum,” she said. “She’s trying to get that longhorn you brought from El Paso untangled from the fence, and she’s wearing a tight dress and fishnets. I guess that’s what a beautiful judge wears under her black robes.” Fiona bleated a pitiful sigh—theatrical, to Judah’s ears—and said, “I never knew why you boys had to have that longhorn, but if I was you, I’d go save it from the judge. Julie looks fit to slip it on the grill.”
Jonas, Rafe and Sam abandoned Judah on the double, as Judah was certain Fiona had hoped they would. She looked at her nephew. “Why aren’t you at the main house?”
“I’m fine here,” Judah said.
“Usually when you boys have some kind of issue, you stay at the house.”
“I don’t have an issue,” Judah said, not about to be lured by coddling.
She put her hands on her hips, staring at his arm, which he’d propped on a pillow. He preferred that to wearing the sling the doctor had given him. The sling made him feel like an invalid, and Judah wasn’t giving in to any weaknesses when he most needed to be strong.
“You do have issues,” Fiona said. “What in the world did you mean by telling Darla about ghosts?”
Judah shook his head, in no mood to be questioned the day after his wedding had taken a sinister turn. He leveled a wary eye on his aunt. “You should know about ghosts, Aunt.”
“Well, I don’t. I’ve never seen a ghost in my life,” she snapped, and he grunted at her truculent tone.
“I don’t know what all you’ve been keeping to yourself, Aunt Fiona. All I know is that Darla might have taken a bullet that was meant for me. And until I’ve got everything figured out, I’m not putting her in harm’s way.”
“The only harm that’s going to come is when she decides not to wait for your silly butt.” His aunt glared at him. “You do not take a bullet and then use that as an excuse, a pitiful one, not to marry the best woman that’s ever been placed in your path. Trust me, even a woman who owns a shop full of wedding regalia doesn’t put on the old satin-and-lace lightly. You should rethink your situation when you’re not chock-full of hallucinogens.”
“I haven’t taken any pills,” Judah said. “I don’t like pain pills. So don’t worry.”
“You’re not thinking straight, and I hate to see you make the mistake of a lifetime. You’re going to look quite the ass when Darla marries Sidney.”
“She won’t,” Judah said, though he didn’t admit to a twinge of unease. But Darla’s safety had to come first. “I’d almost rather she marry Sidney. Then I’d at least know she’s safe.”
“What?” Fiona exclaimed. “Don’t talk like a quitter! I can’t stand quitters!” She sank into a chair across from him. “One thing I won’t have people saying is that I raised a bunch of lily-livered, weak-kneed men.” She passed a hand over her brow, rearranging her hair a little, as if that would help reorganize her thoughts.
“There’s been nothing but craziness around here for a while. I’m sorry to say it, Aunt Fiona, but your plan has definitely not been conducive to communal calm.”
Tears jumped into her eyes, brightening them as she stared at him remorsefully. “I just want the best for you and your brothers.”
“I know you do,” Judah said softly, “but you don’t give us all the facts. You wouldn’t even have told us you and Burke were married except that we figured it out.”
“You boys were so young when your parents…well, you know.” Fiona sniffled into a tissue for a second, then stiffened. “Burke and I made the decision that we didn’t want to confuse you. He always loved you boys, but he knew he couldn’t take the place of your father, nor could I take the place of your mother. We felt it was best if we always were just aunt and bodyguard to you.”
“Bodyguard?” Judah frowned. “Burke isn’t your bodyguard.”
“He was quite the fighter in his youth,” Fiona said. “A street fighter for the cause. Things changed for us when we came over here to take care of you boys. We had to make fast decisions. Maybe we didn’t make them the best we could, but I stand by them.” She wiped at her eyes and put her tissue away. “I’m not going to say we didn’t make mistakes. But there’s a lot we didn’t want to burden you children with.”
“We’re not children anymore.”
“True,” Fiona conceded. “Which is why I don’t want you babbling about ghosts. You just marry Darla and raise your babies, and that’ll be more than your parents were able to do for you.” She sighed heavily. “People don’t always get the chance to do what they really want to do.”
Judah felt as if a knife had been stabbed into his gut. Never had it occurred to him that his father had been unable to raise him and his brothers. It was almost like an unbroken chain of missed parenting, he realized. The shock of being shot at, and being determined to keep his little family safe, had made him think that the best thing to do would be to let Darla have a life far away from Rancho Diablo and its spiraling misfortunes.
But should one bullet keep him and Darla apart
?
He thought about the cave, and the secrets he knew were there, and the silver bar that had been in the kitchen, and the ancient Native American who visited their home every year. He thought about Sam coming after their parents were gone, as Jonas had pointed out years ago, and he wondered if it wasn’t family ghosts he should fear, but far-reaching skeletons that had never rested comfortably. “I don’t know,” he murmured. “This isn’t the way I envisioned a marriage beginning.”
“That should be up to Darla, I would think. But you do what you think is best. Heaven only knows I’m all out of ideas.”
Fiona left the bunkhouse, hurt and unsure, and Judah felt bad for the words he’d spoken to her. But then he got thinking about Darla for the hundredth time that day, and wondered if all his brave words about breaking up with her to protect her were really based in the fact that he’d never known a father growing up—and maybe he didn’t know what being a father actually meant.
NOT THIRTY MINUTES LATER, Judah’s jaw dropped when Darla wafted into the bunkhouse, wearing a blue dress and looking like something out of his most fervent dreams.
“This is the simplest decision you’ve ever made,” Darla said. “Get up and get in my truck, Lazarus. Where’s your overnight bag?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, just to test her, and she looked at him with a patient, determined gaze.
“Yes, you are,” she said sweetly. “Because if you don’t, I’m staying here, and I’m pretty certain a lady isn’t welcome among bachelor men in a bunkhouse.”
Darla would be. His brothers would welcome her with open arms. They liked Darla a lot, and they would feel that if she wanted to coop up here with the father of her children and the man she’d nearly married less than twenty-four hours ago, that was certainly her priority. Shoot, they’d probably roll out a red carpet and the family crystal.
