by Tina Leonard
No, not properly. Cared for on her terms.
Her parents still didn’t get it.
But now she did.
“Nurse, there is something you could get me,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “That handsome cowboy down the hall? Please tell him I need him.”
“GUESS WHAT, cowboy?”
Ranger opened his eyes to see the nurse looking down at him with a smile.
“She wants to see you.”
He jumped to his feet. “What changed her mind? Is she okay?”
The nurse laughed. “I think I’ll let her tell you.”
Ranger tore down the hall and into Hannah’s room, holding back the gasp when he saw her face. “Oh, Hannah. Oh, boy. You look like you’ve been in a barroom brawl with the Jefferson boys.”
“Oh, God, don’t make me laugh,” Hannah said, managing a smile. “It hurts way too much.”
“I won’t even tell the smallest joke. Um, the nurse said you wanted to see me?”
“I need a rescue, if you’ve got one left in you.”
“Whew. I never thought I’d hear those words come from your lips! Are you sure you didn’t crack your skull?”
“You said you wouldn’t make me laugh.” Hannah groaned. “And I’m about to.”
“Don’t do that! I don’t want to be sent out of here by the sentry.”
“The what?”
“The nurse. She guards you like a hound guards his dinner!”
Hannah nodded. “I know. She’s been wonderful. They don’t pay her enough, I’m sure.”
“Hey!” Ranger said. “What’d you need from me, then?”
“First,” Hannah said, “I want you to find Jellyfish and check on him. I get a periodic update from my nurse, but he’s on a different floor, so it’s an effort for her. I want you to lay eyes on him and make certain he doesn’t need anything.”
Ranger tried not to be jealous that the first thing Hannah asked for was a Jellyfish report. “And then?”
“And then I really need you to be married to me.”
He couldn’t help it; his jaw dropped. “Married?”
“Yes. Mother’s here, and she’s determined to rescue me. Only her rescuing nearly ruined my life. Could we be married just a few more days, at least until she returns to the commune?”
“I don’t know if it’ll work,” Ranger said. “The nurse is suspicious of the depth of our commitment.”
“It won’t be a problem,” Hannah assured him.
“I don’t get it.”
“As a husband, you’ll have rights my parents can’t override. You’ll be my next-of-kin, as it were. My guardian. My lawful protection. But just until I’m out of the hospital.”
“Oh, Hannah,” Ranger said with a grin as he slipped her braided ring back on her finger, “You have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy this charade.”
Chapter Eighteen
“You can’t keep us from our daughter,” Hannah heard her mother say in the hallway.
“Five minutes,” the nurse said sternly.
“Oh, no,” Hannah moaned.
Ranger patted her hand. “Don’t worry. I’ve got it covered. You just lie there and look pretty.”
Her mother and father stopped when they saw Ranger’s bulk next to their daughter. “Who are you?”
He stood, his hand out. “I’m Ranger Jefferson, Hannah’s husband. Pleased to meet you.”
“Husband?” her mother repeated. “Husband? As in married?”
“Yes,” Ranger said cheerfully. He held up his hand and Hannah’s. “With matching rings even.”
Her mother stared for a moment. “Rope? Very economical.”
“Well, you know Hannah’s not a girl for pretensions,” he said. “Are you, muffin?”
Hannah pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t laugh, but later, she was going to show Ranger just what marriage to a muffin entailed. “No pretensions here.”
Her mother blinked, neither pleased nor convinced. Her father hung in the background, seemingly speechless. “Why didn’t we know about this?” her mother asked.
“She was going to tell you. That’s why she called. I kind of swept her off her feet,” Ranger said, making it up as he went along. “And truthfully, I got swept so hard I nearly rolled away. In fact, I still find an occasional grain of sand in my ears.”
Hannah cleared her throat to warn him that enough was enough. He grinned at her.
“I’m not sure if I believe this,” her mother said, her tone displeased. “Hannah has a tendency to…twist the facts when she’s being stubborn.”
“Oh, Hannah doesn’t lie,” Ranger assured her. “Hannah obfuscates, maybe, but she never lies.”
“That will be enough, husband,” Hannah said through her teeth.
He patted her hand. “We’re ever so happy together. We were meant to be. Like two peas in a pod. Two ribbons in a little girl’s hair.”
“Ranger!” Hannah said.
“I cannot imagine you married to this man,” her mother said. “He seems…odd.”
“Well, nevertheless,” Ranger said, kissing the tips of Hannah’s fingers, “this is my little sugarcake, and as soon as she’s well, I’m taking her out of here.”
“We were planning to secure her release today. She’d get well much faster with us.”
“Excuse me, I didn’t get your names?” Ranger said. “Rude of me, I know, but I can be slow on details.”
“I’m Pandora, and this is Planet Hotchkiss.”
“You don’t say,” Ranger said dryly. “Again, it’s a treat to meet you. Well, having spoken to the nurse, who is quite capable, and having consulted the physician, we feel it is in Hannah’s best interests to have a conventional medical path to wellness at this time.”
“Another obfuscation, my studmuffin?” Hannah murmured under her breath.
He patted her hand.
“Well, we feel, as her parents, that we have a better knowledge of—”
“Mother,” Hannah said sternly. “I trust my husband to make the right decisions for me. And I trust myself even more. I called you so that we could put the past behind us. But if you’re going to try to force your way of life on me, you might as well go back home.” She took a deep breath. “Only if you do, it’s the last time I’m going to be the one to make the phone call.”
Pandora took a step back. “Your tone is disrespectful.”
“My tone is honest. Take it or leave it, Mother. Father. I’m finished running through life afraid I can’t trust anyone to truly want what’s best for me. I don’t need to do it anymore.” She felt Ranger squeeze her hand and was glad he was there. “I trust myself to make my own decisions, my own mistakes and, most of all, my own happiness.”
AFTER Hannah’s parents left, looking like a couple of naturally squeezed oranges, Ranger kissed his wife on the forehead. “I guess you’re worn out from that.”
She looked at him, and his heart expanded inside him. But he knew better than to hope. She’d just told her parents how she felt about them trying to change her. He sure wasn’t going to make the mistake they had.
“I am worn out,” she said, “but not by you. Thank you for being there for me.”
“You mean, I pulled off a decent rescue?” he teased.
“Shut up and sit back down.” She patted the bed beside her. “In fact, as soon as they pull this tube out of me, I may want to try out this hospital bed. With you.”
That sounded like a maneuver Ranger could manage. “I am always happy to be of service.”
She gazed at him. “Why didn’t you leave? Why did you hang around for three days?”
“Because you needed me, even if you didn’t know it. And I love you.” Now he was stepping into the danger zone, Ranger knew. If there was ever a time for him to get the boot, it was now. He held his breath.
She nodded at him. “I’m in love with you, too.”
“For how long?”
“It started at the rodeo last month. The feelin
g built when you picked me and Cissy up. It hit last-forever when you put the letter about divorce in the truck. That’s when I knew you understood me better than I understood myself. And I like it,” she told him. “I’ve never had anyone accept me for myself. Warts, bumps, bruises and all.”
“Jellyfish?” Ranger asked, forcing down his jealousy.
“Is a friend. We could never marry each other for real. Not the way I want it to be with you. Do you know you haven’t mentioned that stupid curse once since you’ve been in the hospital?”
“That’s because it turned out to be the Curse of the Drunken Boat Driver,” Ranger said. “Anyway, I don’t believe in curses anymore. True love has cured me of that.”
They gazed at each other. “What about your military aspirations?” Hannah asked.
“Maybe my military aspiration is to give you a nine-gun salute every morning.”
She nodded. “That sounds promising. But where will we live?”
“Not on that damn riverboat, that’s for sure,” Ranger said. “I need something solid under my feet. How about my truck? Or even an RV? We’ll just keep moving on.”
She giggled. “So, we’re going to be vagabonds together.”
“I like seeing the country and doing new things. You fit in my truck okay. You survive on beef jerky and soda like a real woman. What else do I need?”
She glowed, and he fell even more in love. “Hannah, will you marry me? For real, this time? In a church, with the family present, and a minister? I like Hawk and all, but I’m not certain his ceremony had the proper stick-it power. And I definitely want this marriage to stick.”
“If you can handle an unorthodox way of life, Ranger, then my answer is yes. Absolutely yes!”
“As far as I can see, we’ll both have all the excitement we can manage. And I call that a good thing.” Ranger took Hannah in his arms and kissed her long and slow, though gently because of the tubes. They embraced, relaxing in nothing more than the feel of each other. And then he put his face in her hair. “I will love going nowhere with you.”
Because somehow, nowhere with Hannah felt like the perfect destination.
Epilogue
The wedding was a romantic riverboat affair. Evening stars glowed as Hannah and Ranger said their marriage vows. Jellyfish gave the barefoot bride away, though bare feet were the only non-traditional part of Hannah’s ensemble. Her stylist sisters had found her a lovely gown and veil, and even managed to talk Ranger into a tux.
The newly repaired riverboat was festooned with tiny white lights and gardenias—everyone agreed it was the perfect place to hold a wedding. Both branches of Delilah’s salon had come to see their sister married, and the girls did a wonderful job of keeping the Jefferson brothers, Jellyfish and Hawk from being bored. They simply flirted the evening away, and gambled, and there might have even been a playfully stolen kiss or two.
“Since Marvella passed on the cowboy raffle idea, we should use it,” Jessica said, gazing with longing at all the handsome men.
“I agree,” said Kiki. “Think of the money we could raise.”
“It would be the first thing the two salons have gotten to do together,” Shasta pointed out. “Union Junction and Lonely Hearts together again.”
“We’d have to think of a good cause,” Gretchen said.
“Sticking it to Marvella is good enough for me.” Velvet dipped into the punch bowl and served her sisters as they clustered around.
“Raising money for charity is good enough for me,” Jessica said. “We could do it at the next rodeo. It would be such a novel idea, I’m sure we’d draw a huge audience. What woman wouldn’t want to bid on gorgeous men?”
Gretchen shook her head. “If we can talk all these guys into doing it. What’s the motivation for them?”
“Free haircuts,” Remy suggested.
“They rarely get a haircut, and it’s just a little trim on the ends when they do,” Violet stated. Then she snapped her fingers. “Homecooked meals for a week!”
“Taken to their house,” Tisha said, warming to the idea.
“No fair,” someone complained. “That means only the girls in Union Junction get to participate. We’re too far away to take food to them.”
“Well,” Gretchen said, thinking hard, “Then you girls offer to come out and clean out the barns for them one weekend. Or some other chore that requires their full attention. You can be their personal slaves for a day.”
“I like that idea,” Kiki said.
They looked at the cowboys, who were grouped around the gambling table.
“It may become more of a cowboy hunt than a raffle,” Shasta said, “but we won’t tell them that.”
“Oh, no,” Gretchen agreed. “What they don’t know certainly can’t scare them!”
“I’m ready to have rice thrown on me,” Lily said. The women’s attention turned to the newlyweds. Across the room, Ranger and Hannah danced together, close and intimate. “They make a beautiful couple,” Lily said on a sigh.
Hannah smiled, knowing she’d never dreamed she could be so happy. Marrying Ranger made her life complete. To her relief, her parents had decided to skip the occasion. Too much time had passed between Hannah’s childhood and Hannah’s adult years, and though they agreed to keep in touch occasionally, Hannah knew that the rest of her life would be devoted to Ranger.
“From arroyo to riverboat,” Ranger said to his bride. “You’ll never be able to say that I kept you in a pumpkin shell.”
“And you’ll never be able to say that I tied you down,” Hannah teased. “It’s kind of fun being foot-loose and fancy-free, isn’t it?”
“As long as my finger’s tied, I’m happy.” And it was true. Ranger knew he was going to love the ups and downs of being married to Hannah. They’d had gold rings made that matched the rope rings they’d originally married with, but he still wore his rope ring, too. For good luck. He was, after all, a somewhat superstitious man. “So, how about another chance to kiss the bride, Mrs. HotKiss?”
She laughed as she slid her arms around his neck. “You really can’t call me that anymore.”
He took her wrists as she slid them behind his neck so that he could pull her tighter against him. “Oh, yes, I can.”
And then he proved it.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5853-6
RANGER’S WILD WOMAN
Copyright © 2003 by Tina Leonard.
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
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