by Ann Major
“Maybe we should put that off and just enjoy each other for a while.”
She sensed his hesitation and doubt. He’d been sweet and understanding when she’d told him about Vernon. But would he fight for her? Did he truly believe in her?
Or did he just want Noah?
Sixteen
Cole looked up from his desk just as his mother’s Lincoln pulled up to Coleman’s Landing in a cloud of dust. He got up slowly and strode outside to greet her, letting the screen door bang behind him. She’d been on a tear ever since Maddie and Noah had moved in with Miss Jennie for Maddie’s visit. When his mother frowned, he knew he was in for it.
“It’s hot. I could do with an iced soda,” she said coolly when he met her at the door holding a cup of coffee.
He led her inside and brought a soda to the den where she waited for him. “Why did you drive over here when you could have called more easily?” he asked.
“Because I can’t stand the way you flaunt your relationship with Jesse Ray’s girl so publicly, Cole.”
“Maddie’s my fiancée, Mother.”
“I’m sick of everybody telling me where they’ve seen her and that gaudy ring you gave her. Sick of the way people are laughing behind your back.”
“You’ve got a lot of influence on the women in this town. Tell them you won’t listen to another bad thing about Maddie, and a lot of them will shut up.”
Cole hated the way his mother and the people in the town acted toward Maddie, lifting their noses and staring at her coldly, even when she was on his arm and Noah was with them. It was as if they were more against her than ever—just because he planned to marry her. He’d had words with nearly everybody in town. “Maddie is an educated woman who spends her life trying to help the less fortunate.”
“I have no doubt about her ability to relate to such people. After all, she’s an inferior herself.”
“Adam likes her.”
“Because he’s jealous of you and wants to bring you down to his level. He sees that by marrying her, you’ll do just that.” Her eyes narrowed. “Besides, Adam’s a man.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means he probably finds her attractive…in that base sort of way men find women like her attractive. If you don’t watch them, they’ll end up in bed together.”
Bright, hot anger flared inside him. “I respect her more than I respect the people who are gossiping about her—and that includes you!”
“Because she’s using sex and that child to hook you. She’ll use the same appeal on Adam and on every other man she meets. Did you know he drops by Miss Jennie’s nearly every afternoon to see her?”
“He’s doing that to show his support for me.” But Cole’s gut clenched as he remembered how Maddie had slept with him and then sneaked downstairs to get her letters. How far could he really trust her? Trust either of them?
“Be careful what you say about her, Mother.” His doubts made his voice harsh.
“I saw Adam’s truck at Miss Jennie’s when I drove over here.” She arose. “Enough. I’ve done my duty. Don’t come running to me when you find her in some other man’s bed.”
“If that’s all, I’ve got work.”
He hated himself when he didn’t go back to the stack of papers on his desk after she stormed out his front door. Instead, he drove straight to Miss Jennie’s, where the sight of Adam’s truck parked out front made him go hot with fury. Instead of knocking on the front door, he stomped around to the back where he found Maddie, her face rapt as she stared up at Adam. Not caring that Bessie Mueller was probably watching, Maddie leaned forward to catch whatever Adam was telling her.
“Maddie! Adam!” Cole called.
As the pair sprang apart, Bessie’s window shade fell.
Maddie smiled guilelessly as she ran toward Cole. “Adam’s been playing football with Noah,” she said.
“Noah sure can pass a mean football,” Adam said. “But hey, I’ve got to get back to work—so I can rest from all the running outside in the heat. Your kid’s fast.” With an easy grin, he tipped his Stetson and strode past Cole.
Maddie watched him until he vanished behind the house. “Your brother’s so nice.”
Tension made a muscle tick in Cole’s jaw. “I hear he comes by nearly every day.”
“Noah looks forward to his visits. At least he’s on our side and trying to show people he supports us.”
Cole was careful to keep his voice neutral. “I’m not sure that’s how the town sees it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Never mind. Where is Noah?”
“Inside. Playing a computer game.” She paused. “What’s the matter? Did something happen?”
“My mother came over to tell me people are talking about you and Adam.”
Her expression darkened. “And she made you doubt me. So you came over here because…because you thought maybe I was as bad as they say I am?”
“No!”
Her brows knitted. “You still don’t trust me, do you?”
“I didn’t like hearing about you spending time with somebody else, even my brother. He and I haven’t had the easiest relationship. He resents being the bastard son, so that makes him resent me at times.”
“You don’t trust him either?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying.” Then why was it suddenly so hard to meet her gaze as she studied him?
“Cole, let’s get something clear. I enjoy your brother’s company…as a friend. He’s the only person besides Miss Jennie and a few of her elderly friends who’ve been at all supportive of me while I’ve been here. Several men have dropped by but…they—”
“They hit on you?” She didn’t deny it. “Damn it. Tell me who they are, so I can deal with them.” He let out a low curse. “For the life of me I can’t see why it is so all-fired important to you to stay here and expose yourself to more unjustified criticism by a bunch of dirty-minded gossips.”
“Maybe you’re right. Maybe I was wrong to come back here. As a kid, I had a fantasy. I used to hope that if people here saw that you cared about me, well, they’d finally accept me.”
“When are you going to figure out they don’t matter? You’re kind and hardworking. You’ve accomplished a lot. All that matters is that you and I are trying to make a life together for the sake of Noah. We can live in Austin.”
“I know. And we will. But Coleman’s Landing is your ranch. I want you to be able to come here whenever you like or need to and enjoy it without worrying about me. I want you to be able to bring Noah here, and for Noah to feel safe and accepted.”
“The ranch is just a place.” He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hard. She turned into him and clung with a desperation that drove out his doubts, at least temporarily.
“All my life I’ve wanted to be accepted and loved. Even here. I’m just so afraid that the past and these people will find a way to make you regret marrying me.”
“That’s not going to happen. I’m not going to let it happen. When are you ever going to learn that other people’s opinions don’t matter all that much?”
“That’s easy for you to say, since you’ve always enjoyed their good opinions.”
Holding her close made his breath quicken. She’d been baring her soul, and suddenly all he wanted was her naked. He needed to make love to her so he could focus on what mattered instead of the town’s vicious lies about her. “Hey,” he murmured, “I was wondering if you think we could sneak off for a swim? Just the two of us?”
Her sparkling gaze lifted teasingly to his. “I’d have to ask Miss Jennie to watch Noah.”
“Do it.”
* * *
“Can we please get chocolate pudding for our picnic with Cole?” Noah asked as Maddie pushed their grocery cart down the aisle past a row of boxes of instant pudding.
“Pudding is not on Cole’s list.”
Noah scowled as he struggled to read a label on a box.
“Howev
er…he did put down chocolate chip cookies.”
“But can we have pudding, too? Please, can we?” Noah’s bright green eyes pleaded.
“Okay,” she said, smiling. “One. Just pick one.”
“Oh, boy!” Noah leaned closer to the puddings so he could concentrate on the words and pictures.
Maddie caught a whiff of all-too-familiar whiskey breath and looked up in alarm.
“Is that your brat?”
The woman who’d spoken was shuffling clumsily toward them. When she burst into rough laughter, Maddie felt an icy chill race down her spine. Kneeling, Maddie clutched Noah closer.
Caught off balance, he dropped a box of pudding and sent it sliding down the aisle straight at the woman.
“Hey, my pudding!” he cried and would have run after it if Maddie hadn’t held him fast.
“You’re a bad child!” the woman scolded. “Just like your mother was.”
“Pick another pudding,” Maddie ordered through clenched teeth even as she stood up and whirled her cart around to escape.
But the woman, who was faster, lurched toward Maddie and seized her cart. “You think you’re too good to speak to your own mother, do you? Because that fool Coleman gave you a big rock and says he’s marryin’ you? Well, you’re not, girlie. You’re no different than me. You should hear what people around here are saying about you. They say you snuck around…chasing him when you were a girl ’cause he was rich. They say you lucked out…havin’ ’is baby, keeping it a secret, so as you could make him pay for it later. If they play, make them pay. That’s what I taught you, baby girl, didn’t I?”
Maddie was desperate to get Noah away from this woman, who was kin to her biologically but in no other way. Several shoppers, who had frozen to watch their embarrassing exchange, were standing together in a tight little clump, their mouths hanging open. No doubt they’d heard every ugly word and believed every ugly lie and would repeat them to anyone who would listen.
Feeling the weight of their contemptuous gazes, Maddie’s mouth went dry. But it was her mother she most wanted to escape. Feeling queasy, it was all she could do not to abandon her grocery cart, grab Noah and race out of the store.
But she wouldn’t cower or give any of them the satisfaction of seeing how devastated she was, so, instead, she notched her chin higher and drew herself up straighter. Shoulders back, she marched toward the checkout counter where she waited patiently while Noah tugged at her jeans, begging for candy while the teenage checker with multiple piercings took forever to scan their groceries.
Seventeen
Tears streaming down his cheeks, Noah burst into Miss Jennie’s kitchen like a tornado.
“Don’t stomp or run in the house,” Maddie said to Noah as Cole, who was drinking coffee at the table, looked up from an agricultural journal.
“I hate Bobby Mueller! I hate him!”
“Remember now, we don’t hate people. We may get angry at them,” she said. “We may not like what they do, but we don’t hate them. And what did I tell you about slamming doors?” Noah’s chest rose and fell with impotent fury as he struggled to process what must have seemed like very ill-founded advice.
Cole’s dark brows drew together. “What’s wrong, son?”
“Mueller called me bad names.” Warily Noah approached the table where they sat. Then his face contorted with misery as he stared up at his mother. “He called you a bad name, too, Mommy. He’s always calling you bad names. Then Luke and him laughed. They say you’re a bad lady because I don’t have a daddy.”
“That’s bull,” Cole thundered. “Why didn’t you tell them I’m your father?”
“Easy,” Maddie murmured.
“Easy? No way! You want me to go easy on the morons in this town who attack you?” His carved face fierce, Cole turned to Noah. “Listen to me. The next time you see that big-mouthed brat, you tell him who I am.”
“But you’re not married to Mommy!”
“Okay, you’re right. I should have married her a long time ago. Before you were born. But do you see that ring on her finger? It’s called an engagement ring. I gave it to your mother because I love you and because I’m going to marry her. Soon. But we don’t have to be married for you to know you have a daddy.”
“Really?” Noah asked, his eyes brightening ever so slightly. “Can I tell Mueller?”
Cole and Maddie both spoke at once.
“No,” she said very firmly. “Stay away from him.”
“Yes,” Cole said. “Tell him if he says any more bad things about your mother, you’re going to tell me, and I’ll go over there. Then he’ll have to deal with me.”
“Will you beat him up? Oh, boy! Can I tell him right now?” Noah demanded eagerly.
Maddie felt her collar tighten. “I don’t think…”
“Sure,” Cole said, meeting her gaze. “Why not? If you don’t fight for what’s important to you, you don’t have a chance in hell of getting it.”
Noah leaped for the door and raced out of the house, banging the screen behind him even harder than before.
Maddie turned on Cole, but he spoke first. “I think we’ve given everybody in this town long enough to get used to the idea that we’re getting married. And where has it gotten us? Brats are attacking Noah. I say we move on to the next step.”
“But they don’t accept us as a couple.”
“Who says they ever will? I know their acceptance is important to you, but I say to hell with them. What matters is being a family for Noah.”
How did he feel? she wondered. He wanted Noah, and he liked to sleep with her. But what kind of person did he believe her to be? Could he ever feel close enough to her to share his soul, to love her? Would she always feel this guarded and defensive around him because she wasn’t sure he thought she was good enough for him?
“Let’s have our engagement party,” he said. “We’ll invite everybody you’re so set on impressing out to the ranch for the best barbecue in the county. I’ll hire the best band. They can come or not—whatever. We’ll get married a week later and move to Austin. Then they can gossip all they want to.”
When she would have protested, he arose and pulled her into his arms. “I’m tired of sleeping at the ranch and you and Noah sleeping here. Every night just seems to get longer and lonelier.”
At his words, Maddie felt something hot and wanton flicker to life inside her.
“Don’t make me wait any longer,” he demanded, his low, hoarse tone holding more impatience than ever.
“All right,” she finally agreed. “All right.” Not that she felt completely sure of him. Still, she repeated, “All right.”
* * *
The ranch house exploded with music and people, people who were making it obvious they didn’t want her in Cole’s life.
Maddie needed to get a grip, to relax, so that she could at least pretend to enjoy herself at her engagement party. Not easy, since she was in an overly sensitive mood that had her feeling everything was false, even the few smiles tossed her way. She could think only about one thing: Would Cole have considered marrying her if Noah hadn’t been in the picture?
If only he respected her as much as he lusted after her. If only he’d let her wear something she’d picked out instead of the sexy blue number that shimmered and clung to her body like a second skin.
“I want them to eat their hearts out because you are so beautiful,” he’d said.
Apparently curiosity trumped disapproval in Yella, Texas, because nearly everybody who’d been invited had come. Or else, like most Texans, they were all addicted to barbecue.
Exhausted from having worked so hard to put a party together on such short notice and from standing in three-inch heels in the receiving line for nearly an hour, she roamed the throng jamming the rooms of Cole’s brilliantly lit ranch house. Her stomach growled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten in a while, but she felt too nervous to eat spicy barbecue. She considered going outside where a tent had been set up and a second band play
ed, but decided that maybe she needed a drink to settle her nerves first.
Four young women she’d gone to high school with brushed past her on their way to the bar without even looking at her while several men she’d known her entire life stared at her with lewd frankness. When she glared back at one of them, he smirked. The only friendly faces belonged to Cole’s employees.
Halfway to the bar she saw Hester, so Maddie ducked into a shadowy corner to search for Cole. Finally she found him in the middle of a group, talking to Becky Weber, a beautiful brunette who’d been Lizzie’s best friend. Just as Maddie was about to move out of the shadows and go after her drink, leaving Cole to his conversation, a deep, friendly voice behind her said, “There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
She whirled. “Adam!”
“Would you care for a drink?”
“I’d love one.”
“What would you like?”
“Pinot grigio.”
He vanished, returning with it almost immediately.
“That’s some dress,” he said, his friendly brown eyes skimming her figure. “You look stunning.”
She blushed self-consciously. “Cole bought it for me and wanted me to wear it.” She smiled. “I’m so glad you showed up. At least now there’s one friendly face.”
“Wouldn’t have missed it. I know what it’s like to have Hester Coleman against you. Cole doesn’t. His mother’s relentless. In her opinion, I’m the bastard brother who doesn’t belong, and you’re the wrong girl for Cole. She thinks she’s protecting Cole and the family, but in truth, she’s so insecure she’s easily threatened and excessively territorial. Bottom line, we’ve both got to fight to win any sort of acceptance here. I’ve made a little headway, but it’s slow going.”
When his dark face began to spin against the sea of people, she realized she shouldn’t have drunk the wine before she ate.
“I should be used to it,” she said with a pretense of bravery, but her voice quavered a little. “I shouldn’t care so much about her opinion at this point in my life. Mainly, I just want to know how Cole truly feels about me.”
