Texas Bride

by Kate Thomas

  “It was plain as dirt that she had a lot on her mind when she came back from Virginia,” Pete Caldwell said, eyes narrowed now. “Wouldn’t talk about nothin’, though. Once we got the air cleared between us, she accepted our offer to watch Michael for a couple of days so’s she could think things through.”

  “What things?” Josh wanted to know. Needed to know. Had she already dismissed him from her life or was there another second chance for him? “No, wait—don’t tell me.” He would give the past value by using what he’d learned from it. “Let me ask Dani that question. Do you know where she is now?”

  Pete Caldwell studied Josh for a long moment. “Not exactly,” he offered finally. “She’s been checking in with us. But she said if we needed to get a message to her, we should call a Dr. Ravjani in No Lake and he’d send word out to the cabin, wherever that is.”

  Josh forced himself to keep patting Michael’s back; he wanted to jump and shout and twirl Edna around until they were both dizzy. “Mr. Caldwell, I’m going to ask you a very important question. How would you feel about somebody helping Dani raise Michael? Somebody who’s probably going to make plenty of mistakes along the way, but who loves your grandson—and his mother—more than life itself.”

  The Caldwells communed silently for a few seconds, then—“Mistakes make us human, son. I made some I’ll always regret...” Pete said. “But the pain of losin’ Jimmy has taught me one thing—in the end, love is all that matters.”

  Michael’s grandfather held out his hand. “Welcome to the family.”

  Josh carefully transferred the now-sleeping Michael to Edna’s arms, then shook Pete’s hand.

  Then he got the hell out of there.

  Drove due west for about six hours. Found San Angelo this time. Rented a motel room long enough to sleep a little, then shower and shave. Pulled on jeans, his lucky chambray shirt and his boots. Wolfed down a fast-food breakfast, bought some buckets to set behind the car’s front seat, filled them with water and all the roses he could find.

  Then, settling back against the upholstery, Josh slipped sunglasses on against the bright Texas morning and headed west again.

  As he drove, Josh prayed that he’d been through hell for the last time this lifetime....

  Though the chilly predawn and the spectacular purple, gold and magenta of sunrise had long since given way to bright sunlight and burgeoning heat, Dani remained seated on the rocky ledge behind the cabin, looking out over the desert, willing its deep, eternal silence to seep into her soul, to ease the pain of missing Josh.

  It didn’t work this time, either, so she uncrossed her legs with a sigh and prepared to leave her perch. Time to go back inside and pretend again to work on her lists of menus, cost estimates and marketing ideas.

  When she’d mentioned her plan to supply home-cooked meals to people with no time to cook, Pete Caldwell had insisted on providing the start-up money. She’d accepted his offer because—brokenhearted or not—she had a child to raise. Although he refused to sign formal loan papers, Dani wanted to show him some facts and figures when she returned tomorrow to get Michael.

  She’d called the Caldwells from Little Rock and they’d met the bus when it arrived in Lufkin. They’d had a long talk and shed a few tears together and although their relationship was still fragile, Dani believed the Caldwells’ desire to reconcile with her and their grandson was sincere.

  That’s why she’d returned to Texas, why she’d agreed to let them keep Michael while she gathered her thoughts and prepared to cope with the rest of her life.

  Oh, be honest. She’d hightailed it back to the Lone Star State to avoid temptation. Only by putting a thousand miles or so between her and Josh Walker could she be sure her heart wouldn’t overrule her head and ask him to renew his offer.

  A tear trickled down her cheek. She closed her eyes, trying to hold the rest back. She’d cried enough already and not one of those tears had changed the facts.

  She loved Josh, but he didn’t love her.

  Are you sure? whispered her foolish heart. And even if he doesn’t, he asked you to marry him. Wanted to adopt Michael...

  This was no boy proposing on a whim, making promises he didn’t know if he could keep.

  Josh Walker was a man. Tried, tested... and true.

  Can you say the same for yourself?

  Even if she’d done the right thing, Dani realized as she plodded back to the cabin to escape the glare of the desert sun, she’d done it the wrong way. Carrie’s way.

  He’d asked her to wait, to work something out—and she’d just walked away without a word. “Not even a thank-you,” she muttered as she rounded the corner of the cabin and climbed the porch.

  She owed him that, at least. And not just for standing by her all these weeks and caring for Michael. Josh had helped her overcome her reluctance to dream again, to try again. To risk love again.

  True, her heart was broken—but she’d known real, adult, lasting love.

  If she fell short of achieving her career goals, too, well...at least, she’d given it a shot. Failing was more of a success than never trying at all.

  Dani curled her hand around the doorknob. “Okay,” she promised, “I’ll write him a let—”

  “Help!”

  A shiver ran down her spine at the faint cry. Was that a real voice or her imagination? It sounded like—

  “Help! Help!”

  “Hold on!” she whispered as her heart began pounding. “Oh, hold on...”

  Then Dani was sprinting down the path that led from the cabin to the highway. Risking her neck as her feet slipped on the loose pebbles, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered because...

  “Help me!”

  She skidded around the big boulder at the bend in the path, grabbed its rocky curve to halt her progress. And stared.

  It was him.

  Her dear, crazy, handsome, gruff, tender, darling Josh Walker stood on her boulder’s twin, out in the dry streambed—his arms filled with roses.

  “Help.” he said quietly, that lopsided grin echoing the uncertainty she could see—even this far away—in his beautiful turquoise eyes. “You’ve got to help me, Dani,” he declared, and jumped down from the boulder with his armload of roses.

  Stunned by the intensity of her desire to hurl herself into his embrace and spin away to heaven with his kiss, her voice was unsteady as she asked, “How... Wh-what kind of help do you need?”

  “I need another second chance, Dani.” He took one step toward her. “And only you can give it to me.”

  The Queen of Coping couldn’t manage anything more intelligent than, “Huh?”

  “When you pulled me out of that arroyo during that flash flood—” Josh held the mass of roses, already drooping in the desert heat, against his massive chest “—you gave me a second chance to live. Now I’m asking for a second chance to propose.”

  “Josh, I...” Nervously she brushed loose curls away from her face as selfless love and selfish desire warred inside her.

  “Please,” he said raggedly, closing the distance between them. “If you turn me down, I’ll—” He shook his head and somehow did that granite jaw thing while flashing a wry, sexy, irresistible smile.

  And Dani didn’t want to resist any longer. Why not take what he offers and love him for the rest of your life? she asked herself. Maybe, sometime in the future, he’ll—

  “No, I won’t promise to go away, Dani,” Josh said, his deep voice melting the very last of her resistance. “I can’t. Marry me, Dani, please. I love you. Maybe I don’t know how to express it, but I’ll learn. You can teach me, like you teach Michael.”

  Dani couldn’t believe her ears. “Y-you love me?”

  “Hell, yes,” he growled, and her feet overruled her head.

  Some of the roses fell into the desert dust. Some were crushed between them as she flew into his arms.

  “Does that mean yes, I hope?” he asked, reveling in the feel of this woman—his woman, as soon as he could arran
ge it—in his arms. Where she belonged forever.

  “Say it again,” she commanded in a dreamy voice.

  “I love you, Dani Caldwell.”

  “And Michael, too?”

  “Oh, yes. And my—our darling baby Michael, too.”

  “Show me,” she said, leaning back without breaking the embrace. He could see deep into her forest-glade eyes. Her shadowless forest-glade eyes, brimming with love and desire. “Take me up to the cabin right now and show me how you love me, Josh.”

  He raised one trembling hand to capture a strand of curling maple hair. Nothing about their relationship had been “normal” since the very beginning, but Josh was determined to be traditional from now on.

  “As soon as we’re married,” he promised, “I will show you in every way that I love you with all my heart and all my soul.

  “In the meantime—” he dug the little velvet box out of his pocket and pried it open “—let this symbolize my love.”

  Josh jerked the ring free of its box, which he dropped into the arroyo’s dust along with a leftover rose or two. Carefully, he slid the solitaire into place. On Dani’s third finger, left hand.

  Her green eyes were warm now, like Montana pine trees caught in spring sunlight, and Josh gathered her close. She nestled her cheek against his chest.

  “I don’t expect you to love me back, Dani. Not ye—”

  She touched a finger to his lips. “I do love you, Josh,” she assured him, “and I’ll marry you as soon as the law allows.”

  He couldn’t help it. He picked her up and twirled her around until they were both laughing and dizzy. Because Dani had just turned his empty, sterile existence into a lifetime of passion and joy.

  “What about children?” she asked when he staggered to a halt

  Josh set her down gently. He’d expected her question. In fact, he’d been prepared to raise it himself. This time, the subject would be discussed beforehand.

  None of which made it easy, but Josh knew his answer came from his heart.

  “We have Michael,” he said, brushing his lips on the top of her head. “Being his father is all any man could ask for.”

  “Michael is not going to be an only child,” Dani declared as her fingers stole to the top of his shirtfront. “Wouldn’t you like another little boy someday?” she asked and undid the first button. “Someday soon,” she elaborated, working on the second and third buttons. “With blond hair and blue eyes.” Her fingers trailed liquid fire down his chest as she reached for the next button on his shirt.

  Reluctantly, Josh closed his hands over her fingers. This sensual torture had to stop until they got one or two things straight. They weren’t doing anything precipitate. Not this time.

  They were going to wait, if it killed him—and it might.

  “Green,” he gasped as Dani abandoned do-buttoning in favor of kissing the skin she’d exposed. “I want a daughter with green eyes and your hair.”

  His hands wrapped themselves around her silky braid and tugged gently to halt her erotic exploration of his torso. “I’m not making the same mistake twice,” he insisted with a groan. “We’re going by the book from now on. First, we get engaged—”

  “Done,” Dani chimed, turning her hand to make the diamond sparkle.

  “Then we get married,” Josh went on doggedly, “then we go on our honeymoon. Then and only then do we make love. And babies.”

  “No.”

  Everything stopped. “No?” She’d changed her mind? Already? Not much of a last second chance, he thought as waves of anguish crashed over him.

  Dani studied the play of emotions over his features, heard the hurt and confusion vibrating in his deep voice. Felt a flutter of feminine pride that this man, this sophisticated, successful, sexy-as-hell man needed to be assured of her love. Needed her. As much as she needed him.

  “I mean—maybe we should skip the go-somewhere part of the honeymoon,” she explained quickly, her green eyes dancing as she smiled mischievously. “Why don’t we just stay home with Michael?”

  Josh sighed with relief—and anticipation. Still... “Nope,” he said as his lips nuzzled the satiny skin below her earlobe. “We’re going to go the whole nine yards. You just name the date. I’ll make all the arrangements. For once,” he added with a rueful chuckle, “let me handle the situation.”

  Dani chewed on her lip. She couldn’t possibly wait to commit her life to Josh Walker—not long enough for Mr. Messy to pull together a big wedding. But why argue? When the senator had driven her to the bus station, he’d informed her that Virginia had no waiting period, so if worse came to worst, there was a simple solution.

  With a giggle, Dani wrapped her arms around Josh’s neck. “I’ll give you a week,” she said. “And not a moment longer.”

  Epilogue

  This time, Dani stopped to smooth out a fold in the skirt of the organza and lace creation hanging on the closet door. Then—she couldn’t help herself—she patted the cloud of tulle gathered into a pearl-studded headdress that hung atop the gown.

  “It is a beautiful dress, isn’t it?” she whispered as she forced herself away from its exquisiteness. Just a few more hours now and she could put it on. Climb into the limo and be driven to the church.

  Where she and Josh—

  “Ahbeege.”

  And Michael. And one or two more children. Soon, if they were lucky. We are, Dani thought with a laugh as she lifted the baby from his playpen and kissed his cheek. Lucky child. Lucky me.

  “Ahglooo.”

  “I agree, tiger,” Josh said from the stairway, where he stood with a suitcase in each hand.

  Automatically shifting Michael’s weight against her hip, Dani smiled up at her very-soon-to-be husband.

  Because he’d done it. Just as he’d promised.

  After feverishly studying every bridal magazine and book in the D.C. area, Josh had hired a wedding consultant, two florists, a travel agent, and a caterer, then recruited not only his secretary but Senator Perrodeaux, too.

  Together, they’d pulled it off. One week after that second proposal, a flawlessly orchestrated and thoroughly traditional wedding was about to commence.

  So traditional that Josh had insisted on moving out of the house until they were married because, he said, he didn’t trust himself to stop at courtship kisses and he was determined to wait until their wedding night.

  He’d stopped by the town house this morning only to pack what he needed for the honeymoon.

  Now he was headed for the airport to pick up the Caldwells, who’d agreed to give away the bride.

  Which reminded her—

  “Josh, are you sure you want to bring the baby on our honeymoon?” she asked. “The Caldwells said they’d be happy to keep him while we’re in Florida.”

  “No way,” Josh declared, his turquoise eyes warm as he dropped the suitcases to pluck Michael from her arms and settle the infant against his massive chest. “Our son wants a set of those mouse-ears.”

  Dani laughed at his fatherly foolishness, then asked softly, “And what do you want, Josh?”

  “You, darling. My Texas bride. And all the children you’ll give me.” His slow, lopsided smile promised a lifetime of sensual delight and husbandly devotion. “Just let me love you always the way I love you now.

  “Of course, if you’d like a technical suggestion...” He leaned toward her.

  Dani closed her eyes as he whispered in her ear. Oh, yes, she would definitely fulfill that fantasy—“You above me, your glorious hair tumbling loose, brushing over me....”

  It was only fair. Josh had already fulfilled her dreams. Lasting love. A home and family. A happily ever after they’d share for a lifetime.

  Josh’s mouth hovered above hers. Dani lifted her head, eager to receive one of his bone-melting kisses. She’d missed him so much this wee—

  “Get away from that woman!” Marletta yelled from the foyer. “Go wait at the church.” She’d come to boss, er, help the bride dress.

/>   Obediently, Josh handed over Michael, picked up his suitcases, and loped downstairs. As he headed through the front door, he paused. “Oh, uh, Dani?”

  “Mmm...” With difficulty, she dragged her thoughts back to the present from the almost-here future of her wedding night with the most wonderful man on earth. “What, darling?”

  “Don’t, ah, don’t go in the master bedroom, okay? I’ll, uh, I swear—I’ll straighten it up when we get back.”

  ISBN : 978-1-4592-5937-9

  TEXAS BRIDE

  Copyright © 1999 by Catherine Hudgins

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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