The Cowboy's Pride

by Charlene Sands

  “She was reliable and independent and my parents thought that she didn’t need them. They never were there for her, Clay. Not for school functions. Not for shopping dates. There were never any mother/daughter things. Trish had been forced to grow up fast. And she feared becoming a mother and making those same mistakes. She feared not being good enough. She didn’t want to injure a child the same way she’d been injured. By neglect. She held on to her independence as a crutch, yes, but more so, to keep from getting hurt. It’s the way my sister defends herself.”

  Clay’s muddled brain filed the information away. “That’s why she leaves?”

  “I think so,” Blake said. “She wants someone to put her first, Clay. That’s all she’s ever wanted. To be blunt, you didn’t make much of an effort to get her back the last time. And then you sent the divorce papers. It really broke her up.”

  “Damn it.” He ran his hands through his hair, pulling the strands taut. He blew out a breath, letting everything sink in. He saw Trish more clearly now and the mistakes he’d made with her. “Okay, I get that.”

  “Good. Then I’ll be on my way.”

  “Thanks.” Clay rose from the sofa to shake Blake’s hand. “I appreciate your staying to explain.”

  “You’re welcome.” Blake studied him with narrowed eyes and gave a shake of the head. “You should get some sleep, Clay. You look like hell.”

  He didn’t know where it came from, but laughter escaped and the release of tension felt damn good. “Do me a favor. Don’t say anything about this conversation to Trish. I need to explain everything to her myself. I need to apologize. In person.”

  “You got it.”

  “You’re a good brother, Blake.”

  He nodded before he reached the front door. “Be sure to remind Trish of that when you see her.”

  Toss out unnecessary junk. Check.

  Pack up your collectibles. Check.

  Call the Realtor. Check.

  Stop thinking about Clay…

  Trish sat in her kitchen and stared at the list on the table. That last box to check off wasn’t written down on paper but was on her mind constantly. She had a mental check-off list that included Don’t Be Too Stupid to Live, Don’t Look Back and Stop Crying among others, but so far, Trish hadn’t been able to put a check mark in any of those boxes.

  Worse yet, she feared she’d hurt Meggie by allowing her to get close to Clay. She wondered if the baby felt the loss.

  As much as you do.

  The gala had been the highlight of her life, both professionally and personally. She’d felt a deep sense of community with the patrons that night and with the children who’d been so eager to show off what they’d learned and by doing so, they’d also shown everyone how far they’d come. People seemed to enjoy themselves.

  Donations had come flooding in once the benefactors realized that the smaller scope of the facility was exactly what made it work so well. She’d wanted townsfolk as well as the big-money donors to see the Worth charity not as an ostentatious foundation but one that really touched hearts and minds.

  The problem was her heart and mind had been severely shaken that night. From a distance, she’d seen Suzy snuggled up against Clay’s chest and being huddled off into his car and only the worst-case scenarios played in her head. Clay and Suzy had plans to celebrate the gala’s success on their own. They couldn’t wait to be together. Trish had done her part for Penny’s Song and he was through with her. She’d served her purpose. Clay hadn’t even stuck around until the very end.

  Like a dope, Trish had held out hope for their marriage. But seeing him leave with Suzy had been the last straw. Her heart torn to shreds, she couldn’t stay in Red Ridge any longer. There was no sense in prolonging the divorce. It was what Clay wanted all along. She’d been a fool to think she could dazzle him and make her marriage work.

  It was a painful pill to swallow.

  Her tears were like an automatic faucet. As soon as she thought of Clay, they’d spill down her cheeks. She hated her weakness. She hated the feeling of failure, yet again. She had to be strong for Meggie’s sake, but inside she was completely shattered.

  She wiped her face with her sleeve and sniffled. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed a sheet from a stack of unfolded newspapers and picked up one of her Waterford crystal wine goblets. “Don’t think I’m going to need any of these for a while.”

  Meggie sat in the high chair beside the table and looked on, fascinated by the sound of paper crinkling as Trish positioned the glass on the sheet and rolled it until the goblet had disappeared into newspaper print. She set the wrapped glass into a square box labeled “Kitchen” and then started on the next one.

  There was a knock at her door and Meggie turned to the sound. “That’ll be your aunt Jodi,” she explained to the baby. “She’s coming to help us pack.”

  Trish was grateful for the company. Her assistant was a godsend. They’d been cooped up in her apartment for two days. It was time to start living again.

  When she opened the door, she froze. A dozen thoughts entered her head, but she could only concentrate on one. “What are you doing here?”

  Dark brows lifted at her sassy tone. Clay didn’t answer. Instead he strode past her and entered the room without invitation. He held a manila folder in one hand and then whipped off his hat with the other as he took in her tiny apartment. He glanced at Meggie and the darkest rims of his eyes brightened for a second.

  Meggie practically burst out of her high chair when she saw him. Trish was furious. He couldn’t just show up here unannounced. He couldn’t come in and out of her life this way. She ignored Meggie’s reaction and prayed the baby wouldn’t cry for him.

  “I asked you a question, Clay. What are you doing here?”

  He opened the folder and pointed at the papers inside. Trish recognized them immediately as the signed divorce papers she’d left for him. “You do know that I’m a very wealthy man.”

  Trish took a swallow. She nodded.

  “My part of Worth Ranch is worth millions, not to mention the wad of dough I made before that on the music circuit.”

  Trish knew what he was worth. And he knew that she knew. “So?”

  Clay glanced at the half-packed box on the table and the few other boxes sitting on the floor. Her new home wouldn’t close escrow for weeks, but Trish had wanted to get a head start before the actual move.

  He strolled around the room, taking it in and keeping her waiting. Her nerves jumped as he stopped by the kitchen window to look out. His presence filled the small area and it drove her crazy, his casual meandering. When he walked over to the high chair, all of the breath she held whooshed out.

  Don’t pick Meggie up, Clay. Don’t make her want you.

  Clay stroked Meggie’s head. Her tiny curls sprung up under his fingertips. Then he bent to kiss the very top of her head. It was the gentlest, sweetest kiss on earth.

  Trish’s heart couldn’t break any more. There was nothing left to splinter.

  Clay tossed the folder down on the table, his gaze pinned to hers. He moved toward her and with each step he took, her body trembled more and more. When he finally faced her, they stood inches apart and his voice broke the deafening silence. “So,” he began, “why is it you ask nothing of me? And I want to give you the world.”

  Her eyes drifted closed. She didn’t just hear that. He didn’t just say he wanted to give her the world. Was that financially, because he felt sorry for Meggie? “I…don’t understand.”

  Clay smiled, a widespread, eye-crinkling, beaming, megawatt smile. “I know you don’t. That’s our problem, you don’t understand me and I don’t understand you. But I love you, Trish. I love you and the baby. It’s the one thing I truly understand.”

  She couldn’t believe her ears. He sounded sincere. And she wanted to believe him, but there was Suzy. There was always Suzy. “You stood me up. To be with Suzy. I saw you leave the gala with her.”

  He winced. “I know and I’m very sorry
about that. I wanted to be with you that night, Trish. You have to believe me. I’d planned to come over and ask you to stay with me, but Suzy’s dad had a heart attack. He died and she was in-consolable.”

  Clay explained the circumstances of that night and all Trish could do was listen to him plead his case. “I never wanted you to think you didn’t matter to me. If I could do it all over again, I would have found you first, to explain where I was going. I’m sorry I made you doubt me.”

  Trish saw the unabashed truth in his eyes. Then she thought of Suzy and what it must have been like for her, losing her father that way. “Is Suzy all right?”

  “She will be. She’s strong. And it’s time she realized that. I told her I was coming here. I told her how much I love you. Suzy and I…it was never real between us and she knows that now. I had to come for you, Trish. You belong with me. You’re the most important person in my life.”

  “Oh, wow.” It was the moment she’d secretly prayed for, to hear Clay say that and really mean it. Clay had come for her. He’d made the effort to seek her out and apologize. This was the white-knight moment she thought would never happen for her.

  He went on, “I let my friendship with Suzy get in the way of our marriage and that won’t happen again. I had one woman who relied on me too much and then I had you…who never relied on me for anything. You never gave me your trust, Trish. I need that. You need to know that I’d move heaven and earth for you and Meggie. I won’t fail you.”

  Trish wrestled with the hope that overwhelmed her. She wanted to believe him. “Suzy seemed like the perfect woman for you. That’s why I couldn’t stand her being around. She was everything I wasn’t.”

  Clay took her into his arms. He held her firmly, his grip wrapping around her as if to say he won’t ever let go. His eyes softened and he spoke with dire conviction. “I’m looking at the perfect woman for me. There’s not a doubt in my mind.”

  “Really?”

  He smiled again—a dazzler—and her heart burst with joy. “I should have never pressured you about having a baby. I guess I couldn’t understand why you kept denying me, but I get it now. Your brother made me see what I couldn’t grasp before. I’m sorry, Trish, for all you’ve gone through.” His head began shaking as he continued, “You deserve so much, the best. And I want to give that to you. I hope you can forgive me for being thickheaded.”

  Trish steadied her out-of-control breathing. She paused for a few moments and then nodded. “Yes, yes, I can forgive you, if you can forgive me for walking out on you. I shouldn’t have. I should have confronted you and gotten the truth.”

  “That would’ve been nice,” he said guilelessly.

  “I’m sorry, Clay.” She meant it from the bottom of her heart.

  Clay’s lips twisted. “I was an ass.”

  Trish threw her head back and laughed. Meggie chimed in with infectious cackles that filled the entire apartment with sweetness. “You’re forgiven.”

  His dark eyes gleamed with so much hope that Trish wanted to pinch herself to make sure all of this was real. Clay had come for her. He’d put her first. He really loved her. “I will spend my entire life making you happy. I’ll do whatever it takes and that’s a promise. So are we good, sweetheart? Can I burn those damn divorce papers?”

  She smiled. “I’ll light the match.” There was no doubt left in her mind. “We are so good.”

  Clay sighed with relief and wrapped her in his arms. His lips came down on hers again in a lighter kiss and he poured his heart out to her with three simple words she’d never tire of hearing. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  But then a thought struck and she nibbled on her lower lip, hesitating.

  “What is it?” he asked, ducking his head to level a gaze at her.

  She hated to bring this up, but the air needed clearing. “There’s still my career to think about and the house I just bought.”

  Clay only smiled at her, his expression earnest. “I never expected you to give up your work, Trish. Maybe you thought you had to, to be a good mother, but—”

  “No, I’ve been thinking about it,” she said softly. “I want to be with Meggie as much as I can. And spend time at Penny’s Song. Jodi has been hinting about a partnership. Maybe it’s time for me to let go a little. I can do that.”

  “Whatever you decide is fine. We’ll work it out. And if you love the house, we’ll keep it and spend time here in Nashville if you want. I don’t care. As long as we’re together.”

  That’s exactly how she felt. She wanted to be with Clay. She wanted the three of them to be a family. All the other things would work themselves out. “Oh, wow. It’s so liberating.”

  “What is?” Clay asked with a big smile.

  “Letting go.” Trish felt a great weight lift from her shoulders. She could finally breathe again. She could finally see a future that wasn’t all planned out before her, one that might take twists and turns. And that was okay. Everything was going to be all right.

  He walked over to Meggie and unfastened the strap on her high chair to lift her out. Trish stood beside him as Meggie wrapped her arms around Clay’s neck and cuddled his chest. He held her tight and breathed in her precious baby smells. There was no doubt they loved each other.

  Clay met her gaze over the baby’s head. “Trust me?”

  “I do.” And she really meant it. “Save your I do’s until we get back to the ranch.”

  “Why?”

  A teasing glint entered his eyes. “You’ll both have to wait and see.”

  Trish sent him a dubious look. What was he up to?

  “You trust me, remember?”

  And suddenly Trish wasn’t sure that was wise.

  They stood on the bank of Elizabeth Lake just before the sun set beyond Red Ridge Mountains. The sky screamed with an eruption of pink-orange hues and the air held on to its last breath of warmth.

  The Worth clan—Jackson, Tagg and Callie—along with Wes and Helen looked on as Clay spoke vows straight from his heart to his wife and child. It was right to do this here, in the place where every Worth man had proposed marriage to his bride since the ranch was founded.

  Trish, in turn, spoke her vows, too, renewing the love they shared, including Meggie in her pledge as his newly adopted daughter. Clay had never felt so proud and honored and he choked up a little when it came time to seal their marriage vows.

  Tagg handed him the ring box made of fine black velvet. Clay opened it and nimbly lifted out the ruby-and-diamond ring he’d had made for Trish over a year ago. He slid it carefully onto her finger. “To the woman I love most in the world, my wife.”

  Trish gasped and held back tears as she looked lovingly at the ring he’d put on her finger. Her voice trembled when she spoke. “I love you, Clay. I will be the mother to your children and I will love us forever.”

  Clay felt himself beaming inside. They were a family.

  Next, he was handed another box, this one made of carved leather, weathered and old. It held the family legacy, the ruby necklace that had been in his family for generations. It had once belonged to the namesake of the very body of water and land they stood upon, his great-grandmother many times over, Lizzie Worth.

  With trembling fingers, he lifted the necklace out, the gold catching the last of the day’s light and the pear-shaped ruby meant only for the first Worth heir. It was to be handed down from one generation to the other. “To the other woman I love most in the world, my daughter, Meggie.”

  With intense pride, Clay put the ruby necklace around Meggie’s chubby throat and secured the clasp. The pear-shaped gem shone as rosy and beautiful as his baby’s cheeks. He kissed both wife and child softly, the power of his love too strong to say with words alone. But Trish knew. And so did Meggie.

  The three of them were a pretty little picture.

  Clay had no doubt.

  ISBN: 978-1-4592-8192-9

  THE COWBOY’S PRIDE

  Copyright © 2011 by Charlene Swink<
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  *Suite Secrets

  †Napa Valley Vows