by Diana Palmer
She felt breathless, joyful, absolutely gloriously loved. “In that case,” she whispered, “you can have two pansful!”
By the time the brothers arrived that evening, Cag had already gone through half a panful. However, he seemed more interested in Tess than the food, anyway, so the brothers finally got their fill of biscuits after a long, dry spell.
“What are you two going to do when I build Tess a house like Dorie’s got?” Cag asked them.
They looked horrified. Just horrified.
Rey put down his half-eaten biscuit and stared at Leo. “Doesn’t that just beat all? Every time we find a good biscuit-maker, somebody goes and marries her and takes her away! First Corrigan, now him!”
“Well, they had good taste, you have to admit,” Leo continued. “Besides, Tira can’t bake at all, and Simon married her!”
“Simon isn’t all that crazy about biscuits.”
“Well, you do have a point there,” Leo conceded.
Rey stared at Tess, who was sitting blatantly on her husband’s lap feeding him a biscuit. He sighed. He’d been alone a long time, too.
“I’m not marrying anybody to get a biscuit,” he said doggedly.
“Me, neither,” Leo agreed, stuffing another one into his mouth. “Tell you what—” he pointed his apple butter spoon at Rey “—he can put up his house in the daytime and we’ll take it down at night.”
“You can try,” Cag said good-naturedly.
“With our luck, we’ll never find wives. Or if we do,” Leo added dolefully, “they won’t be able to cook at all.”
“This is a great time to find a veteran housekeeper who can make bread,” Cag stated. “Somebody who can take care of both of you when we move out.”
“I can take care of myself,” Rey muttered.
“So can I,” Leo agreed.
“Be stubborn,” Cag said. “But you’ll change your tune one day.”
“In a pig’s eye!” they both said at once.
Later, lying in Tess’s soft arms, Cag remembered when he’d said the same things his brothers just had.
“They’ll fall like kingpins one day,” he told Tess as he smoothed her hair.
“If they’re lucky,” she agreed.
He looked down into her gentle eyes and he wasn’t smiling. “If they’re very lucky,” he whispered. “Was I worth all the trouble, Tess?”
She nodded. “Was I?”
“You were never any trouble.” He kissed her tenderly. “I’m sorry I gave you such a hard time.”
“You’re making up for it,” she returned, pulling him down to her. “I’d rather have you than that million dollars, Cag,” she breathed into his lips. “I’d rather have you than the whole world!”
If Cag hadn’t been so busy following his newly acquired nesting instinct, he could have told her the same thing. But he was certain that she knew it already.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-8998-1
CALLAGHAN’S BRIDE
Copyright © 1999 by Diana Palmer
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