Tensing, Chase warned, “Lulu...”
“What?” The ebullient beekeeper turned around. “We’re not going to talk about the elephant in the room? We have to! Sorry, Bridgett, but we have to discuss this.”
Bridgett agreed. Cullen needed to know—directly from them—how much his family supported him.
Quietly, the nanny caught Jack’s eye and ushered his children out to the back porch to play.
With the young audience gone, Lulu continued, “Personally, I think all the rumors were starting to force the price of your cattle down, even drive some potential buyers out entirely. Thank heaven Cartwright came along and saved the day with his bid. Talk about perfect timing!”
“It was, wasn’t it,” Cullen said. To Bridgett’s dismay, his cold, peremptory tone had everyone in the room staring and going silent. “The only question is,” Cullen continued with sad resignation, “how did Dirk Cartwright happen to do just that?”
* * *
CULLEN WASN’T SURPRISED no one answered. Only his father seemed to know where he was going with this. Heart aching, he strode forward to confront the man whose respect he most wanted. The bitterness of all the years spent elsewhere clogged his throat. Reduced once again to the black sheep, illegitimate son, he rasped, “Tell me. How much did you have to pay Cartwright to offer me a job elsewhere?”
Rachel gasped, her hand flying to her throat.
Frank’s gaze narrowed in steely warning. “Careful, son.”
Cullen knew he should keep his feelings to himself, the way he had for years now. This once, however, he couldn’t do it. Maybe because he had worked his ass off to earn his father’s love and respect, only to have this brick wall between them remain.
Able to feel Bridgett quaking beside him, he kept his eyes locked with Frank’s. Then he shook his head and shrugged off the soul-deep disappointment. “I understand why you’d want me gone. I’m nothing but a reminder of a time, with my mother, you to want to forget.”
“You don’t know what I want to remember and what I don’t,” Frank returned.
“Ah, maybe we should leave,” Dan cut in uncomfortably.
“Nope,” Frank said, his hard, uncompromising gaze still locked with Cullen’s. “Everyone stay. We’re having this out here and now.”
Rachel, Lulu and Bridgett all eased onto the padded island stools. The men remained standing at various places along the counters.
Frank looked at Cullen, for once not about to mince words, either. “I loved my time with your mother. I would have married her, had she been willing. And I certainly would have stepped up from the get-go had I known she was carrying my child. But I didn’t and we can’t change that. All we can do is move forward with the love we should have had all along.”
His eyes glistened as his voice grew hoarse. “And I do love you, Cullen. Every bit as much as I love my five other children and Rachel. You are a part of this family,” he continued sternly. “You always will be. I know you’ve felt you never really belonged here, but you’re wrong. You do.”
Cullen stared at his dad, clearly taken aback by the emotional declaration.
“Would I go out of my way to help you succeed in business?” He shook his head. “That answer is more complicated.”
Frank paused again. “If you came to me, asking for help, which you haven’t, none of you have, I would consider it. But mostly,” he continued, putting his arm around his wife, “I expect every single one of you to make your own way, the way Rachel and I did, and the way your mother apparently did, too, Cullen.”
Cullen paused, accepting that.
Frank continued resolutely, “It is not the result that impresses me.” He shrugged. “It never has been. It’s the effort.” He looked at all six of his children. “I want to know that whatever you decide to do, you’ve given it your best effort.”
Silence fell.
Cullen continued to look at his father and Frank stared right back, a telltale glimmer in his gaze. Cullen felt his own eyes welling. Bridgett was tearing up, too. And they weren’t the only ones.
Guilt spread through him, along with the relief.
Smiling, he realized, he wasn’t being forced out.
No one here wanted him to go.
Especially and including the remarkable woman who had arranged the festivities.
“Now—” Frank scrubbed a hand over his face, a smile spreading “—last I heard, we had a celebration happening here...”
* * *
“I MADE A horse’s ass out of myself, didn’t I?” Cullen sighed, hours after everyone had finally left.
“Yes. But you and your dad hugged and made up, and everyone else was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief—because you both did say all that—and nothing happened except everyone finally knew what he and you were both thinking and feeling.”
Fine lines appeared at the corners of his eyes, and he smiled. “It’s funny. I never knew he loved me. He never said it. Until tonight.”
Bridgett snuggled in the curve of his body, loving his warmth and his strength. “Maybe he didn’t think he needed to. Maybe he thought you knew.”
He slid his thumbs beneath her chin and raised her face to his. “You’ve got a point, darlin’,” he told her tenderly. “None of us go around saying we love each other all the time, yet...we feel it...even when we’re not physically together.”
Bridgett turned her head slightly and kissed the center of Cullen’s palm. “It’s the same with my sibs.”
They stood in the kitchen, locked in each other’s arms, both baby and puppy contentedly sleeping in their beds.
Looking pretty relaxed and happy, too, Cullen exhaled and looked around. “It was a good party, wasn’t it?”
“It was,” Bridgett murmured.
The food had been a stellar impromptu Mexican feast. The hot sopaipillas, covered with confectioner’s sugar and drizzled with homemade honey, had been the crowning glory.
Everyone had helped clean up, then gone home well fed and happy. The goodbye hugs had been long and fierce and genuine.
No one had commented further on the proposition Cullen had received. But Bridgett thought she knew what they all felt. Unable to stand the suspense any longer, she asked impulsively, “What are you going to do about the offer Dirk Cartwright made?” Please don’t tell me you’re packing up and moving to Nebraska.
Cullen exhaled, his expression maddeningly inscrutable. “Honestly? I don’t know yet. I have to think about it.”
It was what she had thought he would say, given the scope of the opportunity. Still, Bridgett could not deny she was disappointed.
He turned, backing her up against the counter. Caging her in with his arms on either side of her, he slanted his head over hers and lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss was an explosion of tenderness and heat, longing and fulfillment.
She knew he wasn’t in love with her, but when they were together like this, she felt loved. Warm and safe. She felt secure in her life in a way she had never felt before.
They made their way to the bedroom and undressed each other in the moonlight. They kissed and stroked and caressed until she thought she would melt from the inside out. He reached into the nightstand and found a condom. She sheathed him, protecting them both.
Her eyes drifted shut as he parted her thighs and settled between them. Cupping her bottom, he lifted her toward him. Sliding home. Going deeper, and deeper still, until pleasure flooded her in fierce, unchecked waves. And then there was no more holding back. She shifted, so she was straddling his hips, her moan of ecstasy mingling with his.
And still he kissed her, taking her, the delicious glide in. And out. And back in...
He laid claim to her as no one ever had before. Kissing her breasts. Diving deep. Incoherent, she let her head fall back. Gave herself over to him and the feelings gathering deep inside her.
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She’d thought she could separate love and desire. Make love with him without being in love with him.
She’d been wrong. He made her feel like a complete family was within her reach. That it was okay to want...everything. As long as it was with him. And, heaven help her, she did.
* * *
WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, Mitzy summoned them to the Social Services office in San Angelo. The teenage girls were not being cooperative. It was Mitzy’s hope Bridgett and Cullen might be able to help get the information they needed, so of course they agreed to go.
She and Cullen were silent on the drive, each of them wrapped in their own thoughts.
Finally, they walked into the building together. They signed in at the reception desk and made their way to the appropriate conference room, Bridgett carrying Robby and Cullen leading Riot.
Around the large table were the two teenagers, their parents, Dan and Mitzy. Sherri and Dawn both looked mutinous. And guilty.
“As you can see,” Mitzy observed kindly, indicating the baby and puppy with a tilt of her head, “Robby and Riot are both fine.”
Dan added with law enforcement practicality, “But it’s been a hard road for Bridgett, the nurse who found the baby and the puppy, and Cullen, the man who was charged with caring for them.”
Actually, it hadn’t been much of a burden at all.
It was not knowing what was going to happen next that was tearing her heart apart, Bridgett thought anxiously.
The girls couldn’t take their eyes off the baby or the puppy.
They looked incredibly relieved, yet somehow awestruck.
The way Mitzy was looking at her, silently beseeching her to take the lead, Bridgett knew it was up to her to somehow find a way to reach them and get them talking.
So, using the same approach she used with the parents of her tiny patients at the hospital N-ICU, she started with the truth.
“We’re worried about Marie,” Bridgett stated matter-of-factly, cuddling Robby close. “When a woman gives birth, she needs proper care during her pregnancy, the actual birth and the aftermath. If the mother doesn’t get it at any one of those stages, there are a multitude of complications that can occur, some of them even life threatening. Plus, there are the emotional aspects of giving birth and surrendering a child to be dealt with.”
She turned to Cullen.
He weighed in. “If you’ve helped her...we know you were too young to be thrust into this situation. That you stepped up, anyway, and did the best you could in a very difficult situation. And we want you to know we’re all grateful.” Cullen looked Sherri and Dawn in the eye. “Everyone last one of us.”
Mitzy and Dan backed this up.
Bridgett pressed on emotionally. “But we still need to find Marie. Make sure she is okay.”
“Can’t she just go to a doctor anywhere?” Sherri asked belligerently.
“Why would she need to do it here—assuming she did have anything to do with this, anyway?” Dawn added hastily.
Firmly, Bridgett explained. “Because time is of the essence if Marie does have any kind of postpartum health problems.”
Sherri bit her lip. “What would that look like?”
Bridgett listed the most obvious. “Fever. Flu-like symptoms. Soreness around the area of the birth canal. Menstrual-type bleeding that goes on and on...”
Sherri and Dawn both paled. Dawn said, “You’re a nurse. Can’t you help her?”
Bridgett was trying. “She really should be seen by an obstetrician.”
Cullen cut in, “I think it might help Marie to physically see Robby and Riot, and know they are all right, too.”
“Bottom line,” Bridgett said, knowing it was the right thing to do, even as it cost her dearly. “Marie needs to know she still has options.” Even as her heart was breaking, she paused to let the weight of her words sink in. “That nothing has been set in stone. She had no support system prior to this. We can and will give her that.”
Whether through social services, or her—and perhaps Cullen’s—own largesse, if need be.
“Then...” Bridgett took another deep breath, and pushed the words through the ache in her throat. “When Marie’s had time to really think about it and consider, she can decide with an open heart and open mind what she wants to do. Give the baby and puppy over for adoption. Or—” It was all she could do not to break into sobs herself as she prepared to give up what she wanted so dearly in order to do what her heart was telling her was the right and decent thing. “Or receive a lot of help—and there is a lot of that out there—and keep them.”
Because, as much as Bridgett wanted to keep Robby and Riot, she was not going to do it at another woman’s expense. Not under these horrific circumstances.
Sherri and Dawn looked at each other. “You’d really do that for her?” Dawn asked in amazement. Staring at her as if she were an angel just sent down from heaven.
Bridgett thought of Robby, who was so sweet, so innocent and untouched by all this. And Cullen, who’d suffered because he hadn’t known his biological father for so long. And Marie, who apparently had grown up a burden to her own parents, feeling unwanted and unsupported. And probably unloved, as well.
Robby might not care now who had given birth to him. But one day he would. He’d want to know where he came from and why his birth mother had given him away. And though it would be difficult to face, in the long run it would be better for all involved if they used every avenue available to them to help his mother, the way they had helped him and his puppy companion. They all needed to know where—and with whom—Robby and Riot really and truly belonged.
Otherwise they’d always wonder. Always feel guilty. Always feel like maybe they hadn’t done enough for everyone involved—and should have.
Bridgett looked at Mitzy, Dan and Cullen, the parents of the teens, the girls themselves.
They were staring at her as if they couldn’t believe her unselfishness.
She knew she had surprised them. She had surprised herself. She hadn’t thought she had it in her to love and possibly let go.
She’d just found out she did.
Heaven help her, heaven help Cullen, she did.
Chapter Fifteen
An hour later, they finally had the news they had been waiting for. The two teens had confirmed what everyone else had long suspected, that Cullen was not related to Robby biologically in any way. And Marie Griffin had been found at Dawn’s family’s vacation home on Lake Laramie.
Cullen and Bridgett left the family crisis center and made their way to the Laramie Community Hospital, where the teenage mother had been taken. Mitzy Martin arrived just ahead of them and was there to greet them. Bridgett had called Violet and Gavin, and they’d taken Robby and Riot to their home nearby.
“How is she?” Bridgett asked, her nurse’s training kicking in.
Mitzy had just spoken with the ER doctor. “Dehydrated. Suffering from a mild pelvic infection. A few days in the hospital with some IV fluids and antibiotics and she should be okay.”
Bridgett and Cullen breathed a mutual sigh of relief.
In full social-worker mode, Mitzy escorted them to the second floor. “I filled Marie in about the two of you taking care of Robby and Riot. She asked to speak to you both. So if you-all are okay with that...?”
Bridgett looked at Cullen, unsure where the latest developments left the two of them, since his name had now been cleared. “Do you want to do this together?”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said gruffly.
He took her hand and gave it a hard, reassuring squeeze. Their gazes meshed and they took a simultaneous breath, then walked in.
Marie Griffin was sitting up in a hospital bed, an IV in her arm. Her long, curly brown hair was drawn into a low ponytail. Clad in a hospital gown, covers pulled up to her waist, she looked pale an
d anxious. And so very young and vulnerable.
Mitzy Martin made introductions then eased away from the bed so Cullen and Bridgett could step in.
Marie swallowed. “I guess you remember me?”
Cullen nodded. “You and your friends were at the high school Career Fair in San Angelo last fall.”
Marie flashed a wan, grateful smile. “You came to talk to us about ranching and what it meant to you. How you moved around a lot when you were a kid, but even when you felt your dog, Riot, was your only friend, you were always able to find something worthwhile and satisfying to do on the ranch.”
“You asked a lot of questions.”
Marie sighed wistfully. “I always wanted to live on a ranch. Work with horses. Maybe cattle, too. I just couldn’t figure out a way to make it happen.” She knitted her hands together.
Bridgett saw her nails were bitten to the quick.
“But I knew I was going to have to do something since all the rest of my dreams had just gone bust.” In a halting voice, she told them about the clandestine romance she’d had with a boy she’d met at a weekend-long concert in Houston the previous summer. By the time she realized he had been lying to her about everything, including his name and phone number, he had disappeared and she was pregnant. Unable to turn to her parents, she’d gone to a couple of her girlfriends for help.
“I had a lot of time to think about who I wanted to give my kid to when he or she was born, and I kept going back to Cullen. He seemed so good and kind. And he sort of looked like the baby daddy, too.” She released a quavering breath. “And then, when Riot showed up on my doorstep, just a tiny shivering little thing last February, I thought of the stray dog that Cullen found when he was a kid. It seemed like a huge sign. So my girlfriends and I figured out a plan to take them both to the Laramie fire station and leave them for Cullen.”
“Except I found them,” Bridgett put in.
“I know. We saw. We were hiding a short distance away, just to make sure that Robby and Riot got found. When they did, we went back to the lake house.”
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