“I doubt he’d have made any impact, given he had no desire to be part of this,” Decker said, knowing that would irritate his father. “Unlike me.”
Russ’s face grew stern with displeasure. “I know you respect him for going off to do what he wanted, but a rodeo star is hardly up to this family’s standards.”
Decker suspected that could be debatable. “He runs the Crooked C Ranch. That’s up to your standards.” Decker watched his father catch that he’d said your standards.
After a while, Russ’s annoyance eased and a new, slightly shrewd grin inched up more on the left side. “That’s what I like about you, son. You never back down. That’s what makes the difference between a good CEO and a great one. You have to have the balls to run a business like this.” Russ stood.
Decker didn’t know what to say. His father had actually complimented him.
* * *
Kendall indulged her mother and went with her to Roaring Springs’s most elite bridal shop, a boutique that offered both top designer labels and custom-made gowns. She had wavering feelings about this outing. Inner excitement clashed with anxiety over whether she should even be looking at wedding dresses when she was not at all sure she would go through with this absurdly concocted idea of an arranged marriage.
Her leather boots tapped on the wood floor as she passed white-trimmed, inlayed arches in the walls on each side, beautiful wedding dresses hanging next to each other. Manikins in the front windows and placed throughout the shop showcased more. Even if Kendall were certain she’d walk down the aisle to meet Decker at the altar, she’d have a difficult time choosing. But one dress across the shop snagged her attention before she could even scan the rest.
Her mother stopped at a dress hanging in one of the left inlayed arches. It had a lace bodice and off-the-shoulder sleeves; its skirt was sheer over silk and the train not overly long. Meanwhile, Kendall went to check out the dress on a manikin that had caught her eye the moment she’d entered. She often found things that way; something struck her fancy and nothing else matched her taste. Shopping went fast when that happened. She began to let her earlier anxiety go and the excitement take over. What girl didn’t like wedding dresses?
Sleeveless and dipping just enough to show a modest amount of cleavage, the bodice was made up of stunning silver-white reflective beads of varying sizes and shapes and round white pearls. The pearls ran down each rib of the corset and the beads thinned over the stomach, revealing see-through lace. The beadwork picked up again at the waist and dipped to a V at the lower abdomen. The Cinderella-style skirt had no train, just a puff of tulle.
“That’s lovely,” her mother said.
Kendall realized she’d fallen into a distracted study of the dress and hadn’t noticed Marion appear beside her.
“Yes. Quite.”
“Try it on.”
A clerk approached, having seen them admiring the gown. “Would you like a dressing room?”
“Yes, she would,” Kendall’s mother said.
Kendall sent her an unsure look.
“Go, go, go.” Her mother shooed her beneath the smiling clerk’s eyes.
After the clerk retrieved her size, Kendall went into the dressing room. Moments later she just stared. The beadwork and pearls were magnificent. She indeed felt like Cinderella. And she could imagine herself walking down an aisle toward Decker. The image was vivid, with Decker so handsome in a tuxedo and her own heart beating with sexual attraction. Not love.
Her excitement waned just then.
She should just take this off and give it back to the clerk and leave the shop. Tell her mother to back off too.
But instead, she left the little room with nerves churning her stomach.
As soon as Marion saw her, her mouth dropped open and her blue eyes seemed to gobble up the sight of Kendall. The dress was that magical.
“Oh, sweetie,” her mother said. “You look absolutely stunning.”
“You do look beautiful,” the clerk concurred. “I’ve never helped anyone who found the perfect dress for them in such a short amount of time.”
Despite her inner turmoil, Kendall did feel like a princess in this dress. It was okay to enjoy this. She did not have to think about the end of the month and what it would bring, not yet. “Maybe I’ll spend more time on the veil,” she said.
“We’ll take the dress,” her mother said.
Kendall felt tugged along by an invisible force, pushed ever closer to some unknown precipice. Would she be carried on clouds when she reached it or would she fall to a rocky bottom?
She changed and gave the gown to the clerk. Her mother paid, even though she really didn’t need to. The dress was very expensive but Kendall could afford it with her trust fund. Her mother was traditional that way.
She left the shop with her mother smiling all the way.
As she walked toward their sedan, where the driver waited at the rear door, Kendall noticed a man sitting in a parked car across the street, watching them. She didn’t recognize him. Wearing dark sunglasses and a black beanie, he looked like a big man, with his shoulders above the back of the seat and his head topping the headrest. His arms were large, as well.
Although she couldn’t see his eyes, she could tell he looked right at them, or maybe only her. His mouth remained in a flat line.
“Who is that?” she asked.
Her mother looked across the street, stopping at the sedan. “I don’t know.”
“He’s staring at us.”
Her mother climbed into the back of the sedan and Kendall followed.
“He’s staring at you, not me,” her mother said, adjusting herself on the other side of the car.
“In a creepy way.”
“He was probably just noticing a pretty woman.”
Kendall wasn’t so sure. She had a feeling he wasn’t looking at her for her looks. Maybe he’d watched a strange woman come out of a bridal shop and had his own thoughts on that. Maybe he’d been dumped by a woman or his bride-to-be changed her mind. Who knew?
What other reason would a man have to park along the street and watch her? Kendall had no enemies.
Then why did she have this bad feeling?
She glanced back as their driver pulled out into traffic. The other car turned out onto the street and made a U-turn.
“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” her mother asked, looking back like Kendall was.
“That car.”
“It’s that same man,” Marion said. “Is he following you?”
The driver glanced in his rearview mirror. Kendall was glad he’d listened and was now alert to the potential danger. She glanced back again. The other car stayed three cars back but followed them down Main Street. As the town faded away and they headed back up the mountain toward home, the car remained behind them.
The driver didn’t try to lose the other vehicle. Kendall wondered if that was a mistake. Would they lead the man to their home?
As they approached the turn to the road that would lead to their property, Kendall and her mother watched through the rear window. Their driver made the turn.
Kendall’s heart pounded as the other car neared the turn. He didn’t appear to slow and she breathed a sigh of relief when the driver passed on by without so much as a glance their way.
Kendall faced forward and leaned back against the seat.
“You sure are jumpy,” her mother said.
“Maybe it’s just the day. Buying a wedding dress is kind of a monumental event.” Or maybe she hadn’t imagined the man watching her and maybe he had deliberately followed them. Was it a message? But why on earth would a stranger be after her?
After hugging her mother goodbye, she got out of the car when it stopped by her house.
She locked the door and set the alarm, not understanding why she still felt so unsettled. She remov
ed her jacket and other winter clothes and started farther into her house when the doorbell rang.
She stopped and stiffened. Could that driver have turned around and driven up the road and found her? She didn’t see how. There were other driveways along the road they’d turned onto. Turning to the door, she went there and cautiously peeked out the side window. A florist stood there, holding a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers and a stuffed wolf. Instantly lighter of heart, she disarmed the alarm and opened the door.
“For you, ma’am,” the middle-aged man in a baseball cap and a maroon puff jacket said.
She took the flowers and then the wolf. “Thank you.”
The wolf felt soft and furry and the flowers wafted a sweet summery scent, a refreshing difference from the chill in the air today.
Closing and locking the door and rearming the security system, she took the stuffed animal and the flowers and left the entry, passing white-and-dark-wood-trimmed stairs and a console table. In the spacious, high-ceilinged living room, she went to the seating area, which was furnished with off-white chairs and a sectional sofa around a rectangular wooden coffee table.
Smiling to herself, she put the flowers on the coffee table and inspected the wolf, thinking this quite a creative gift. Looking for a card, she found it in the flowers.
Dinner was nice, but just a taste. I’ll have a car pick you up at seven for another. Just you and me this time. Formal attire. D.
He’d gotten her wildflowers because she’d told him she loved the outdoors and he’d gotten her the wolf because she’d told him about the pack she’d spotted. How very thoughtful of him. She hadn’t expected that.
Nevertheless, she wasn’t sure if she liked his boldness. What if she had plans tonight? Did he expect her to drop everything just to go out with him? She’d have to ask. One thing she’d establish right from the start—she would not change her life to suit his schedule or his business aspirations. She had her standards and she would not compromise herself for him. He had to respect her.
Would he?
Chapter 4
Decker hadn’t heard from Kendall, so he assumed she’d be ready when he had his car pick her up. He waited for her in the Columbine off the main lobby of The Lodge, where he’d reserved a section just for them. He had warned the staff to be at their top performance. Tonight he wore a suit and tie. He couldn’t wait to see what Kendall had decided to wear, although she would look great in anything, even if she showed up in jeans just to spite him.
He received a text indicating Kendall had arrived. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back; soft jazz music played. No center candle tonight, instead, a brass table lamp. The small bar had a bartender who waited in his suit and tie. Decker had put them in a room often reserved for moderately large dinner parties. The two double-door-sized archway entries had glass French doors with draperies for privacy that he’d ordered closed, but the lights from the start of the gondola could still be seen from here.
He spotted Kendall walking toward him and froze for a second as her beauty dazzled him. Adorned, in a simple long black dress that V’d modestly at the bodice, it complimented her tall, graceful physique beautifully. She wore a sapphire necklace and matching earrings and had put her long blond hair up.
“You look radiant,” he said, lifting her hand to his lips to plant a soft kiss along it as he had the other time.
Behind her, one of the waitstaff closed the French doors.
“You did say formal,” Kendall said.
Straightening, he thought he detected a slight edge to her tone. “You could have come in jeans and I wouldn’t have minded.”
“You could have asked me to dinner instead of summoning me.”
Oh, yes, definitely an edge. “I wouldn’t call it summoning. Charming you into joining me, perhaps.” She’d taken offense.
“It was presumptuous of you to assume I wouldn’t have any other plans and if I did, that I’d change them.”
He grunted, trying to smother a laugh. He would never presume anything of her. “Actually, I was sure you’d turn me down. When I didn’t get a call, I got excited.”
He saw her immediately soften. “Okay, you’ve redeemed yourself.” She smiled. “Thank you for the flowers and the wolf. They were very considerate gifts.”
“As was my intention.” He indicated for her to join him at the bar.
She preceded him there, giving him a view of the scooping back of her dress and the curves it accentuated.
Champagne in hand, she faced him as he took a glass from the bartender.
“Do you have another elegant dinner planned?” she asked, taking a sip.
“Of course.”
She moved away from the bar and went to the windows. He followed.
“Do you do this for all your girlfriends?”
He quirked a brow. “Are you my girlfriend or my fiancée?”
She glanced at him without replying.
“No,” he said.
“Why are you trying so hard?” she asked.
“Because I want you to marry me.”
With another glance, this one quicker and more uncertain, she turned and wandered into the space between the table and the bar.
“You fit me.” He went to stand behind her, giving her plenty of distance to adjust to his blunt announcement. “You have a career you love. You come from a family that’s similar to mine. And I get the feeling you want a no-fuss relationship as much as I do. I already know you’re a great kisser. The only thing I don’t know is if you want children.”
Slowly she faced him, not as rattled. “No fuss?”
“We both want to continue to pursue our careers without worry that the other will walk away due to lack of understanding.”
“Okay, but I’m not sure I want a relationship where I never spend any time with the person I’m with.”
Had he gotten that wrong about her? She hadn’t struck him as a woman who’d complain when her man didn’t pay enough attention to her.
“We’d spend plenty of time together. We’d just have to work around our schedules, that’s all.”
That seemed to placate her. She continued to look at him and he fell into the spectacular blue of her eyes.
“Aside from the suddenness, what’s holding you back from committing to marriage?” he asked. She was far too cautious to take marriage to him seriously. Yet.
“Remember that man I told you about?”
The jerk she’d caught with another woman? “Yes.”
“That’s why.”
“You want my assurance that I’ll never cheat? You have it. That’s not my style. I’d divorce you before it came to that.”
“Gee, that’s comforting.”
He chuckled. “I doubt I’d ever have a reason to divorce a woman like you. I’d have to be an idiot to do that.”
“How can you be so sure when you barely know me?”
“I have a pretty strong feeling on the matter.”
She met his eyes a moment and then went to the dining table to set down her glass. He waited for her to turn.
“It’s more than that,” she confided, bracing her hands on the back of a chair. “I loved him. His betrayal and the rude awakening that I never saw it coming made me withdraw from men. I like relationships that don’t threaten to make me feel too much.”
He failed to follow her meaning. Did she think she would feel too much with him...or did she worry she’d marry him because she knew she wouldn’t feel too much?
He suspected it was both, but more of the latter. “Then it’s good you won’t feel threatened by marrying me. Whatever comes after that will happen on its own and in time.” Whether they truly fell in love would remain an unknown until after they married. He saw that as a bonus. If they fell in love, great, but if not, they’d still have a solid companionship.
A slow smile emerged on her pretty face. “I like that. A lot.”
“Good.” He stepped closer and took her hands. “Let’s dance.” The jazz song had a perfect rhythm for romance.
She followed him into a dance and asked, “Aside from your excuse of being too busy to find love, does this arrangement appeal to you because of that woman who left you for another?”
“Women. Plural. I haven’t been able to find any woman who could tolerate my schedule.”
“How do you know I will?” she murmured.
He couldn’t read her very well, but he thought she had concerns over whether she’d need more from him than he could give. “I suppose I don’t. It’s that feeling I have. I think we can make it work.”
She gazed up at him, seeming satisfied with this heart-to-heart they’d just had. Good. She’d be all in then and he could focus on work. He still wasn’t finished wooing her, though. He had to be sure he could secure this marriage.
“I do want children,” she said out of the blue, as though capping off the discussion.
“That’s good. I do too.”
“You want a family but you work sixty hours a week? How is that going to work?”
“Work from home more.”
She laughed. “You might as well hire a nanny.”
“If we need to we will. But if you’re worried we won’t spend time as a family, I promise you we will.” It might not be every night, but they’d have quality time together, especially after he was promoted to CEO and didn’t have to constantly stroke his father’s ego. Certainly after he inherited the entire business.
Kendall moved within his arms, relaxed and content, and Decker looked forward to another fantastic evening with her—one step closer to sealing the deal.
* * *
Kendall appreciated Decker’s candor, but she still wasn’t ready to commit to a hasty wedding. Not with her and Decker’s fathers both overzealous to merge families and money. All business to them, but this involved her personal future. She didn’t care about any business deal. Decker definitely intrigued her and she did feel sparks with him, but she wouldn’t sacrifice herself for anyone, not even her father.
Colton's Convenient Bride Page 5