Megan's Marriage

by Annette Broadrick

“I know.”

  “You never wear dresses.”

  “You’ve already pointed that out, Mollie! I know I never wear them, which is why I’m asking to borrow one of yours. We’re close to the same size. I’m probably no more than an inch shorter than you. It won’t really matter what it looks like on me.” She shoved her hand through her hair. “I know I’ll look silly, but I wanted to appear more—” she waved her hand in a circle “—you know, more feminine.”

  Mollie’s smile was filled with amused affection. “You couldn’t help looking feminine if you tried, Megan.”

  “Huh! You’ve got to be kidding. With my bobbed hair and in my coveralls more than one stranger has thought I was a boy!”

  “Only if the stranger was blind. You have a very feminine face, a long slender—almost regal looking—neck, a graceful way of moving, and a beautifully shaped body.”

  “Now I know you’re crazy! Me? I’m too skinny. I’m—”

  “You’re small-boned and delicate looking…not skinny. I think we could maybe trim your hair a little, find one of my dresses that you’d like as well as be comfortable in, and perhaps try a little makeup on you.”

  “I’ve never worn makeup in my life.”

  “So? If you’re going to change your habits by wearing a dress, you might as well go whole hog and do it all.”

  Megan hesitantly touched her hair. “I don’t know what to do with it. I just whack it off when it starts getting in my eyes. You’ve always been the one who trims the back for me.”

  “Teresa at the beauty shop in town has been teaching me how to cut hair when she didn’t have any customers. It’s not all that hard. She gave me some scissors and things. I think I could do something really cute with your hair.” She, too, ran her fingers through Megan’s hair. “It’s so thick and curly.”

  Megan scowled. “Looks like a mop.”

  Mollie grinned. “Once it’s shaped, I think it’ll look fine.”

  “Whatever you think,” Megan replied, sighing. “I’m going to put myself in your hands on this one.”

  Mollie slipped off the bed. “Okay, we’ll look through my closet in the morning, and I’ll do your hair. It shouldn’t take long. When is he coming?”

  “About one o’clock.”

  Mollie paused in the doorway of the bedroom and said, “I don’t understand. Why, after years of not dating, would you suddenly decide to accept a date with Travis Kane, of all people?”

  Megan tried to think of something to say that would prepare Mollie for what was going to happen, but her mind remained blank. After a moment, she shrugged and lamely offered, “He isn’t that bad, Mollie.”

  Mollie snorted. “Hah! He’s arrogant, he’s egotistical, and he’s irresponsible. And that, my dear sister, is a direct quote from you the last time he happened to be mentioned in a conversation. Exactly when did he redeem himself in your estimation?”

  Megan clasped her hands in her lap, carefully studying them. “He’s offered to help us out until we can get back on our feet. He doesn’t want us to lose the ranch.”

  Mollie leaned against the doorjamb, folding her arms. “I find that a little hard to believe. What’s in it for him?”

  Megan avoided Mollie’s gaze. “He says he just wants to help, since we’ve known each other for so long and we’re neighbors and all.”

  “Uh-huh. And then he asks you for a date. What exactly is the catch here? There’s got to be a few strings attached. I’m sure Maribeth fed him all the details about our situation. No doubt he knows there’s no way we have the money to pay back any loan he might make to us.”

  So there it was. There was no way she could avoid telling Mollie the truth. She clasped her hands tightly in her lap and looked up at Mollie, who continued to steadily watch her from across the room. “He asked me to marry him.”

  “What?” Mollie shouted, leaping away from the doorway and over to the bed as if she’d been shot out of a cannon.

  “Shhhh! Don’t let Maribeth hear you.”

  Mollie clasped both hands over her mouth and began to pace jerkily up and down the room. Megan closed her eyes. This wasn’t going well at all, but then, what had she. expected, given the circumstances and the long-standing feud she’d carried on—albeit a trifle one-sided—with Travis.

  Mollie finally paused long enough beside Megan to hiss, “The nerve of the man! Thinking that you would even consider selling yourself like some—”

  “Mollie, I told him I would,” Megan said quietly.

  Mollie looked as though she’d been slapped across the face. She’d been leaning over the bed when Megan gave her the news of what she’d done. Mollie’s blue eyes slowly widened, larger and larger, as though she was seeing a specter slowly rising from the grave. “Oh, Megan, no,” she whispered, scarcely breathing. “Please no. You mustn’t do this. I know you’ve been worrying about what’s going to happen to us, but nothing is worth your sacrificing your happiness like this.” Tears began to fill her eyes.

  Megan scrambled off the bed and threw her arms around her sister. “Oh, Mollie…it’s okay. Really it is. We’re treating it like a business arrangement. He won’t even be around all that much. He’s going to be on the rodeo circuit, traveling for most of the year. You know the circuit runs from January to December and he has to enter as many as he can to get the points he needs. Why, we’ll seldom see him.”

  She leaned back so that she could see Mollie’s stricken face. She grabbed a handful of tissues and patted Mollie’s cheeks. “I couldn’t accept a loan from him, Mollie. I didn’t want to be obligated to him.”

  “Megan! What in the world do you consider marriage to be, if it isn’t an obligation?”

  “A partnership,” she hastily replied. “That’s what we’re forming…a partnership. He says it’s time for him to settle down. He says he wants a home. He says—”

  “Oh, Megan, honey,” Mollie said, shaking her head. “Travis Kane is going to break your heart.”

  Megan tilted her chin slightly. “Not unless I let him.”

  “You may not have a choice.”

  Megan dropped her arms and moved away from the bed and her sister. She walked over to her dresser and picked up a comb. Absently playing with it, she said, “We always have choices, Mollie. Remember that. Both Travis and I know and understand what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. It’ll be okay, I promise. Please don’t worry about me. I’m a big girl now.” I would do this—and more—to take care of you and Maribeth, she added silently.

  Mollie just shook her head. “I know. You’ve been like a parent to us for so long,” she replied, as though reading Megan’s thoughts. “But in some ways you’re still so young and so naive. I swear, if that bastard ever tries to—”

  “Mollie! I’ve never known you to use such language.” Megan stared at her in disbelief.

  “I’ve never watched my sister sell herself to the highest bidder, either,” she blurted out before Megan’s shocked look registered. Mollie hurried over to her, hugging her older sister. “I’m sorry, Megan! I’m so sorry. I didn’t really mean that. It’s just that you’ve made so many sacrifices for us already that it breaks my heart to see you throwing yourself away on someone who isn’t worth it.”

  Megan hugged her back before she said, “You know, Mollie, I think that maybe we’ve both been too quick to judge Travis. Let’s face it, if he was really as irresponsible as we think, he would never have made such an offer in the first place. Besides, look at it this way. I’m twenty-four years old. I’ve never dated anyone. I’ve never socialized. I never—ever—thought that I might get married someday. And now, all of that is going to change. Maybe, for the very first time in my life, I’ve got the chance to have what other women take for granted—a man who cares about me, who’s willing to help me with my responsibilities. It’s not as if we’re total strangers, after all. Our families have been friends and neighbors for years and years.” She went back to the bed and sat down. “I want to give him a chance, Mollie. I think
I owe him that much, just for his willingness to help us out. I also want the ranch to have a chance to survive as the Circle B. Please trust me to know what I’m doing. Please?”

  Mollie walked over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “You’re worn-out, Megan. I should have seen that before. Get some sleep now. Just because he made the offer doesn’t mean you have to take him up on it. Let’s just treat tomorrow as a chance for you to go out and have some fun for a change.” She turned off the lamp beside the bed. “We’ll work on getting you dolled up in the morning. Ol’ Travis won’t know what hit him when he gets a look at you all fixed up. He won’t believe his good luck at getting the chance to take you out for the day!” She turned and left the room, quietly closing the door behind her.

  Megan sat there in the darkened room, staring toward the door for a long time before she got into bed. She pulled the covers, up around her shoulders and stared at the ceiling, wishing she knew if she was doing the right thing. Mollie’s arguments were valid and she knew it. Megan knew she was way over her head on this one. What if she was wrong? She’d sounded so sure of herself, asking Mollie to trust her judgment. What a fraud she was.

  She had no idea if she was doing the right thing. The only thing she knew was that she had to try to save the family’s legacy. She had to do whatever she could, no matter how painful or uncertain the future appeared.

  Marrying Travis Kane seemed to be the only answer.

  Four

  Travis turned off the county road onto the lane leading to the ranch buildings of the Circle B. His dad’s ranch entrance was a little over five miles down the road from here. The O’Brien house could be seen from the road, sitting on a rise overlooking the surrounding countryside. The two-story building had an old-world grace reminiscent of a much earlier era, its stone walls decorated with wooden filigree and curlicues around the veranda, which circled the lower floor and provided shade from the hot Texas sunshine.

  The house where he’d grown up didn’t look all that different. Many of the ranches in this area had been established more than a hundred years ago, handed down from one generation to the next in keeping with family tradition.

  The closer he got, the more he could see the signs of neglect and decay around the aging dwelling. One of the front porch steps looked rotted through and would probably be a hazard to anyone unsuspecting enough to approach the often ignored front entrance of the house.

  Nobody living in these parts used front doors to a house, anyway, which was probably why Megan hadn’t attempted to make an unessential repair.

  His knowledgeable gaze noted that all the fences he could see were in good working order, as were all the out-buildings such as the barn and shed located a short distance from the house. Like most ranchers, Megan had neglected the house in favor of keeping the ranch property itself in repair.

  Travis pulled up beside the low stone fence that separated the house and its neglected lawn from the rest of the ranch yard. From the corner of his eye he caught the slight flutter of a curtain in one of the upstairs windows. Somebody knew he’d arrived.

  He’d been awake since before dawn this morning, thinking about the day ahead. He more than half expected Megan to greet him with the news that she’d changed her mind about going to Austin with him, much less marrying him.

  If she wasn’t the most unworldly person he knew, she was certainly high on the list.

  Did she honestly believe that the only reason he had offered to marry her was so that she would accept his help to save the ranch? Could she possibly be so blind to her many wonderful qualities, to her attractiveness, to her adorable traits that she didn’t recognize the way he felt about her, the way he had always felt about her?

  Travis couldn’t remember how old he’d been when he first faced the realization that he loved Megan O’Brien, but it must have been while they were still in grade school. He’d been a typical show-off male back then, vying for her attention by dropping pebbles down the back of her shirt, grabbing her pigtails and treating them like reins of a horse, and teasing her unmercifully at every opportunity.

  Hadn’t she known, even then, that little boys signal their devotion in such a way? He sighed. She sure didn’t know much about the male animal, that’s for sure. Everybody else in the county had known what his behavior meant. He’d gotten a lot of teasing, which was why he’d backed off by the time he reached high school. She’d had little use for him by then and made her opinion of him quite clear, snubbing him, ignoring him. His adolescent ego had taken a real beating and he hadn’t wanted to place himself in a position to be rejected by her back then.

  Instead he’d gone out of his way to excel in sports and in the classroom in hopes of impressing her with his abilities. Even his rodeoing had been an attempt to show her what he could do.

  As soon as Maribeth had told him what a struggle she was having, he’d immediately wanted to leap upon his dazzling white charger and come dashing to her rescue. His concern had been enough to overcome her last rejection of him when he’d come home a couple of years ago, flush with success, and had dared to invite her out on a date. She’d turned him down.

  Well, now he had that date…finally…after all these years.

  He’d scarcely slept the night before, his mind racing with thoughts about today. They were going to spend several hours together for the very first time as adults. He was no longer that silly kid with a crush. He was now a grown man with a deep abiding love for a woman who could barely tolerate him. However, she had agreed to marry him. Wasn’t that a start?

  The hardest part for him was to remember not to show too much interest in her. He kept reminding himself that he had to remain casual and offhand toward her. The family friend role, that’s what he had to concentrate on. Man oh man, that was going to take some real concentration on his part. He’d spent most of his life comparing every girl he met—then all the women he’d met—to Megan O’Brien. None of them had been able to measure up.

  He’d never forget that time back when he’d been a senior in high school and captain of the football team. The team was doing great that fall and he’d been looking really good on the playing field. All of that had finally given him enough confidence…finally…to get up the nerve to ask her to the homecoming dance.

  At sixteen, she wasn’t dating anyone. He’d made it his business to find out for sure. Her folks had always been very strict with her, and he hadn’t been sure exactly how to go about asking—whether or not to discuss it with her father first in order to convince him that she would be perfectly safe going out with him and that he would treat her with respect and care.

  Before he could get up his nerve for that particular hurdle to his hopeful plans, her parents had been killed in that god-awful car crash. She’d missed several weeks of school after that and, even when she’d returned, he’d known she wouldn’t be interested in anything he could say to her.

  All of that was years ago, though. They’d both grown up. They’d both survived. Now, here he was once again determined to win his fair lady, even if she thought it was merely a business offer.

  He had a year to convince her to make it a permanent merger.

  He glanced up at that window again, trying not to think too much about the possibility that she might have already changed her mind.

  Travis slowly opened the truck door and stepped out of the truck cab, tugging his hat low over his sunshades.

  “Howdy, Travis,” Butch called from where he stood between the wide opening of the barn. “You lost or somethin’? What brings you back out here today?”

  Travis briefly glanced at the house before sauntering over to where Butch stood watching him. Facing Megan once again would come soon enough. He wasn’t in any hurry if she had bad news to tell him. If the news was good, she’d be spending the rest of the day with him, anyway.

  “It’s nice to see you again, Butch. How’re things going with you?” he offered, holding out his hand. The men shook hands.

  “Can’t co
mplain. I been hearin’ some good things about you, son. You been winnin’ some pretty fancy titles on the circuit, I hear.”

  “Yeah.” Travis grinned. “It’s been a hoot, all right.”

  “Kinda dangerous profession, though. I mean, it’s okay to go to some of these regional affairs, but doing it all the time can get kinda rough, can’t it?”

  Travis nodded. “Yeah. It’s definitely a young man’s sport. I figure I’ll have to quit by the time I’m thirty or so. That gives me another three or four years.”

  “When are you going out on the road again?”

  Travis glanced at the house before answering. “Probably next week.”

  “So what brings you out here today?”

  “I’m taking Megan to Austin for the afternoon and evening.”

  Butch shoved his hat to the back of his head and scratched his temple. “The hell you are! Did she agree to go?”

  “Um, yes,” Travis mumbled, looking down at the pointed toes of his boots. “Yes, she did.”

  Butch grinned broadly. “Well, I’ll be hornswoggled. That’s good news. That girl never does get away from this place. You know, now that you mention it, she didn’t come outside this morning. I didn’t give it much thought…figured she’d finally decided to rest up a little. Looks to me like she decided to take the whole day off!”

  Travis glanced toward the house. “Guess I’d better go see if she’s ready.”

  “Well, y’all have fun today.”

  “Thanks, Butch. See you later.”

  From her position behind the sheer curtains of her bedroom, Megan watched Travis walk away from Butch in his loose-limbed saunter toward the back entrance of the house. She shivered. What had caused her to toss out all her longheld beliefs about this man and decide to accept his unorthodox offer of marriage?

  Travis Kane was a law unto himself. She was the first to admit that he’d always made her jumpy and nervous. What if she couldn’t get over the way she reacted around him?

  Mollie’s blunt comments last night had shaken her more than she had expected. Mollie was right. Megan had never had anything good to say about him. Her decision to marry him made no sense whatsoever.