The Bride Said, I Did?

by Cathy Gillen Thacker

  “You don’t want to see the same thing happen to Billy.”

  Beau looked at Dani, his blue eyes full of sympathy and understanding. “He’s still young, Dani. He could change his mind a hundred times between now and then about what he wants to do with his life. I’m not all that sure it would hurt him to go to Texas A&M for a year, get some of the basic courses out of the way.”

  Dani sighed. “You don’t know him like I do. If Billy goes to A&M, something in him is going to die.”

  “Or get stronger.” Beau looked at Dani equably. “In the meantime he won’t have totally alienated his parents or done damage to his relationship with them. Now, enough about Billy,” Beau said. Keeping his hand linked with hers, he guided her over to the mattresses. “Come and help me pick out a mattress and box spring.”

  Deciding this was not a discussion she wanted to have, even if they were the only two currently in that part of the showroom, Dani dug in her heels and wrested her hand from his. “Why? I already have a bed.”

  “I don’t.” Beau shot her a sexy sidelong grin as he tested first one mattress, then the next, with his palm. “And I’m not sleeping on the sofa again.”

  Dani huffed out a breath. “There is a remedy for that, you know.”

  “I tried that.” Beau grinned and, finally finding a mattress and box spring he liked, stretched out on the king-size display bed. “Unfortunately,” Beau lamented, too loudly for Dani’s taste, “the lady of the house said no way was I sharing her bed.” Beau tipped his hat over his eyes as if he was preparing to go to sleep. “In fact, the only time I’m allowed to be in her bed is when—”

  Deciding he’d said quite enough, Dani sat down beside him and silenced him with a finger to his lips. “Hush,” she admonished in a stern whisper. “Do you want someone to hear?”

  Beau caught her by the wrist and pressed his lips to her skin. “You’re my wife.”

  Tingling all over, and he’d barely touched her! “You know that.”

  Casting a look behind her to make sure they were still alone and finding to her relief they were, for the moment, anyway, Dani extricated herself from his grip. “I know that. But no one else here does.”

  Beau merely smiled and patted the mattress. “Come on. Try it out. Tell me what you think.”

  Dani had only to look at his face to know he wasn’t giving up. Shaking her head, she lifted her feet off the floor and lay back, being careful to keep a good foot of space between them. The ceiling in the bed section was covered with blue velvet fabric, a curving yellow moon and a sprinkling of silver stars.

  Beau looked up, too. “Romantic, hm?” He nudged her lightly.

  Glad to be talking about something—anything—other than their sleeping arrangements, past or present, Dani nodded. “It reminds me—” She broke off as a fleeting picture of a pristine beach flashed in her mind. Without warning, she heard the sound of the ocean lapping gently against the shore. A man’s voice, Beau’s voice, whispering softly in her ear.

  “What is it?” Beau asked, noticing the dwindling color in her face.

  “I remember something,” Dani said desperately, flashing once again to the private beach outside his villa in Mexico, the velvety blanket of stars overhead. She and Beau…tugging at each other’s clothes…kissing wildly…

  “Oh, my heavens!” Dani gasped, her hand flying to her chest.

  “What?” He rolled onto his side, immediately concerned.

  “Beau!” Dani trembled as even more potent images came flashing back.

  “What!” he demanded just as urgently, leaning ever closer.

  “The beach.” In her excitement Dani grabbed the front of his shirt in both her hands and hauled him closer and didn’t stop until they were nose to nose. “We didn’t just make love in the hotel. We made love on the beach. Before we were married!”

  Beau blinked at her once. And then again. A flash of recognition lit his face. She knew, even before he spoke, that he was starting to remember things, too. “You were wearing that—”

  “Gauzy dress,” Dani supplied.

  “And we were arguing about something,” Beau continued, looking stunned. “Just before I grabbed you and kissed you.”

  “And I kissed you back,” Dani added. More thoroughly and wantonly than I have ever kissed anyone in my life. She sighed, recalling the passion, the wonder, of the moment. Even as she reeled from the knowledge that they had not just been together once, as they had first assumed, after their marriage, but before.

  “And from the beach we moved to the villa—to the bed inside,” Beau said, his memories of that afternoon suddenly coming as fast and furiously as hers. “Which means it wasn’t just a one-night lapse in judgment,” he concluded heavily, stunned.

  For a long moment, they were both silent, thinking. Their eyes met, held.

  “Just how serious were we about each other down in Mexico?” he wondered out loud.

  Dani didn’t know the answer to that, either. But she figured, as the furniture salesperson approached them to see if they needed any help, that it wouldn’t be long before they remembered even more and found out.

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE you managed to get everything delivered in an hour,” Dani said as they reached the outskirts of Laramie once again.

  “It’s all in how you ask,” Beau remarked as he drove his pickup down Main Street, waving as he spotted people he knew.

  “Or who you are,” Dani said, rolling her eyes at his cavalier attitude.

  Beau pretended to be surprised. “You think that saleslady recognized me?” He gave Dani an innocent look.

  “Oh, puh-leeze. She wasn’t just salivating over the sale of the armoire, the fainting sofa, the dressers, china cabinet and dining-room table and chairs, pricey as they all were.” To Dani’s annoyance, the young woman had done everything but offer to take Beau on a date. And she’d been so ridiculously smitten with Beau she probably would have done so even if she’d known Dani and Beau were married. Which of course, she couldn’t, since neither Dani nor Beau were wearing wedding rings. Dani sighed. She didn’t like feeling jealous. It was a completely foreign emotion to her.

  Beau stroked the chiseled contours of his chin with the flat of his hand. As they paused at the traffic light at the corner of Spring Street and Main, he slanted her a glance. He seemed to know she was annoyed with him. He didn’t seem at all sure why, Dani noted. “You think I overdid it with the shopping back there?”

  Which was another thing, Dani thought, feeling her annoyance increase. Couldn’t the man do anything in half measures? But no. From his kisses to his acting to his lovemaking to his furniture shopping, Beau followed the all-or-nothing rule. Knowing that made her very nervous about their marriage. She was beginning to see he wasn’t going to give up on that, either. Not now. And not eight or so months from now when their baby was born.

  Aware he was still waiting on her verdict on the shopping and whether or not he had gone overboard, Dani said, “I think I got tired of arguing with you, of asking you not to do it.” She shook her head, wishing he wouldn’t look at her that way, as if it was all he could do not to haul her into his arms and kiss her.

  “It’s eventually going to have to go back, probably at considerable cost to you.” Bottom line, she couldn’t accept such a lavish gift from him. It might give him the wrong impression. Might make him think she had accepted him as a permanent fixture in her life, and as of yet, she had done no such thing. They were having a baby together. They’d made love a few times. But he hadn’t said he loved her. He hadn’t even come close. And she couldn’t build a life with a man unless he loved her the way she was beginning—against her better judgment—to love him. She knew it, and she was pretty sure so did he.

  But Beau merely smiled. The traffic light changed. He turned left and drove on.

  As they neared her block, Dani said seriously, “I meant what I told you in the store, Beau. I am not going to accept all that from you.”

  Beau reached over and squ
eezed her knee. “Then accept it for the baby. Our baby,” he said softly. “It doesn’t have to be just you taking charge here. I want to do things for us, too, you know. All of us.”

  Yearning swept through her, so strong and sweet it brought moisture to her eyes. Dani swallowed around the growing lump in her throat and turned her glance to the house. It was the pregnancy. It was making her all emotional. Creating fantasies of the three of them—her, Beau and their baby—living happily ever after. Even when she knew the likelihood of such a fairy-tale ending was practically nil.

  Dani blinked as they approached her house. “What are all these cars and that…other moving van doing here?” she demanded as Beau parked his truck at the curb several houses away. The only vehicle she recognized was Billy’s beat-up blue Honda.

  To Dani’s mounting irritation and suspicion, Beau seemed not at all surprised by the vehicles surrounding her house. With an economy of motion, he got out of the pickup and sent her a deliberately mysterious look. “Let’s go see what’s going on, shall we?” He came around to help her out.

  Dani focused more on what he hadn’t said than what he had. “You know what’s going on here, don’t you?”

  He didn’t answer as he opened the front door of the house.

  Dani blinked, and blinked again. Once more Beau was a steamroller, taking over her life.

  A woman with a clipboard in hand rushed up to them. “We’re almost done.” The woman smiled at Dani cheerfully. “So! What do you think?”

  Chapter Nine

  Dani stared at the interior of her house. Gone were all the moving boxes she had left stacked every which way. The living room had been nicely arranged, with the sofa and two matching club chairs forming a cozy conversation area in front of the fireplace. One corner of the room held her stereo and compact-disk collection. Another nook held her antique writing desk and telephone. The three big bookshelves she hadn’t been able to find room for had been moved to the wide front hallway, opposite the stairs, and were now filled with an orderly combination of books, plants and baskets.

  The study across the hall was still a work in progress, but her desk, computer, fax and printer were all nicely arranged in a comfortable L, which would make working very pleasant. Her vertical files and sleek black office-supply cabinet had been set up neatly along one wall; her TV set and home-movie screen on another. Comfortable chairs, the kind used in movie-studio screening rooms, had been brought in and arranged nicely. Billy, who was busy arranging several thousand videotapes in the built-in bookshelves, merely grinned at her and kept working.

  The formal dining room featured a beautiful Persian rug and, minutes later, the dining set and china cabinet Beau had just purchased. Thanks to the crew still working busily, the kitchen had also been transformed. The shelves were lined and filled with her dishes. The appliances she used most were set up on the counters. The pantry was stocked with all manner of gourmet foods and neatly arranged. Fresh flowers and place mats adorned the glass-topped table in the breakfast nook. Directing all the activity was Kiki Harrison, one of the most sought-after young set designers in Hollywood.

  Spying Beau and Dani, a grinning Kiki came over to join them. “I had hoped to be totally done before you two got here. Obviously that’s not the case.”

  “Close enough,” Dani murmured appreciatively, still looking around her in awe. “What you’ve done here is nothing short of fantastic.”

  “I’m glad you like it.” Kiki ran a hand through her spiked blond hair. “Beau didn’t give me much notice.”

  Eyes wide, Dani continued to look around. “He didn’t give me any at all.”

  “He wanted you to be surprised.” Kiki squeezed Dani’s hand warmly, then winked at Beau. “I’m going to have to get you to talk to my husband. These are the kinds of things that warm a woman’s heart.”

  Beau grinned back at Kiki. “I’ll try to remember that.”

  “Give us another forty-five minutes on the upstairs,” Kiki said to Dani, “and then you can see that, too.”

  “So what do you think?” Beau asked after the kitchen had cleared out, all the activity and workers moving to the second floor, along with Kiki and the furniture deliverymen.

  “Is this a good surprise or a bad one?”

  “Good,” Dani admitted. She hated the process of moving in and trying to sort out what went where. To have it all done for her—better than she could have done it herself—was a dream come true. She turned to him, grinning and propping her hands on her hips. “Okay now, fess up. When did you arrange this?”

  “Yesterday when I stepped out to get lunch. Calling Kiki was the errand I ran off to do. I figured if we didn’t have the professionals come in and help us out, we’d be forever trying to do it ourselves.”

  Dani blushed self-consciously. “True.” Beau was right. This wasn’t her forte. Nor was it his.

  Beau laced his hands around her waist. Gently, he tugged her close, so that the length of her was pressed against his body. “And I wanted you, and your attention, all to myself.” Sounding as pleased and happy as she felt, he nuzzled the sensitive skin on her neck.

  And he’d done all this before they’d made love yesterday afternoon, Dani realized as she melted helplessly against him. Because he wanted them to be as comfortable and happy here as possible. “If I didn’t know better,” Dani said, swallowing nervously around the dryness of her throat, “I’d think this meant you were moving in here permanently.” Not just until they decided what to do about the marriage neither could quite remember and the baby.

  “That,” Beau said quietly, looking deep into her eyes, “is exactly what it means.”

  Beau watched the gamut of emotions cross Dani’s face. Shock, dismay, wariness, interest. She wanted to think this marriage of theirs—this family they were creating—was real enough to last a lifetime. Beau knew exactly how she felt. He wanted to believe that, too. The difference between them was, he was willing to work to make that happen. Dani had yet to make such a commitment. But she would.

  “You work in Hollywood—when you’re not off on location somewhere!” Dani sputtered finally, extricating herself from his arms and spinning away. Upstairs the sounds of activity continued unabated.

  Confident that Kiki and her team of experts had things well in hand, Beau watched Dani pace the length of the sunny kitchen. Settling back against the counter, he braced his hands on either side of him. Dani was right. It was time they talked about this. “During pre-and postproduction, that’s true,” he admitted candidly, knowing even that didn’t have to be a problem for them if Dani didn’t want it to be. Plenty of spouses and kids who placed a premium on their family life accompanied actors to location for filming. Other actors filmed movies only in the summer, when their families could easily accompany them. Or lived in cities like Los Angeles, New York or Orlando, where film studios kept soundstages.

  For anyone who wanted a family life, the possibilities were boundless. For those who didn’t, well, he supposed, excuses would always be made. “As for the rest of the time, I tend to be in the Southwest, anyway—I’ve filmed nearly every movie I’ve made in either Texas or Mexico. We could do even more here if we had a soundstage, so I’m moving my production-company offices here and adding a soundstage, which I will also rent out to other film companies when not in use. I’ll still have a branch office in Hollywood, but all the main work will be done right here.”

  Dani blinked, stunned. “In Laramie?”

  Beau nodded, glad to see she seemed receptive to the idea thus far. “I purchased several hundred acres of land just south of town last week.”

  “Before we—”

  “—saw each other again. Knew about your pregnancy or made love again. Before any of that happened,” Beau supplied, looking her straight in the eye. “I began making these arrangements.”

  Dani edged closer. “Why?” she whispered.

  Beau reached out and took both her hands in his. “Because I don’t do things halfway, Dani,” h
e said softly, twining their fingers together intimately and searching her face. “I knew if I had married you I had a damn fine reason for doing so. And that I would see it through. I’ve already had one failed marriage,” Beau said somberly. “I don’t want another one.”

  Dani swallowed. Stepped back a pace. “I don’t want that, either.”

  She withdrew her hands from his.

  “But…?” Beau prodded, sensing there was more.

  Dani raked her hands through her hair. “You’re moving awfully fast.”

  Beau didn’t discount that for an instant. He folded his arms, studied her bluntly. “I know what I want,” he said softly, first meeting, then holding, her wide amber gaze. “The question is, do you?”

  DID SHE? DANI HAD TO WONDER. Her heart was telling her to stop worrying about all the things she couldn’t change and just go for it. Her head was telling her to stop now, before she got in any deeper, hurt any more. Because if and when her relationship with Beau did come to a grinding halt, it was going to hurt. More than anything ever had in her life.

  “We’re ready for you to see the upstairs now,” Kiki said.

  Beau gestured toward the back stairs, off the kitchen. “After you.”

  Dani followed Kiki to the sprawling second floor. All the moving boxes were gone. That, she’d anticipated. What she didn’t expect to see was that her dresser and queen-size bed were no longer in the master bedroom. They had been moved to the smaller guest bedroom next to it. The master bedroom contained the king-size mattress and box spring Beau had purchased for himself at the furniture store. They had been set in a massive four-poster frame in rich cherry with a canopy over top. The bed canopy, bed curtains and coverlet had been done in a dark-blue damask that perfectly complemented the pale-blue wallpaper. Elegant lengths of rich blue fabric formed valances that had been draped along the windows.