“No. The clothes have already been donated and tagged, and the money goes to the church.” Reverend Franklin’s stentorian tones resonated throughout the kitchen. He cleared his throat and cast the Wilde children a dismissive glance. “We’re veering far from the subject at hand, which is Kara coming to town with me.”
“I want Aunt Kara to stay here, not go to some dumb elephant clothes sale,” whined Clay. “Tell her she can’t go, Uncle Mac.”
Kara tensed. She saw Autumn and Brick glance from the reverend to their uncle, their heads moving back and forth like spectators at a tennis match.
“Of course, she can go,” Reverend Franklin said firmly. “Kara is not a prisoner here, and it is time she visited with her friends in town.”
“What if she wants to stay with her friends here at the ranch?” Autumn asked innocently enough. But her dark eyes sparkled with an instigating gleam.
“Yeah,” agreed Brick. “She’s my uncle’s girlfriend, and you can’t tell her what to do. Only he can!”
Mac smiled at the boy, a grin of masculine approval that set Kara’s teeth on edge. She could not let such unbridled machismo go unchallenged. For herself, for young Courtney Egan and every other woman, present and future, in the Wilde men’s lives, she had to take a stand.
“I’m not exactly your uncle’s girlfriend, Brick.” Kara’s cheeks pinked. Well, she wasn’t, certainly not in the usual sense of the word. “Furthermore, men don’t order their girlfriends around, women make up their own minds. No one tells me what to do,” she added resolutely.
“You mean you can do anything you want?” Autumn wanted to know.
“Yes. Well, anything within reason,” Kara clarified. “Anything that isn’t at odds with the rules and responsibilities and laws that must be followed,” she added, attempting to clarify even further. She didn’t want the Wilde children believing that adulthood was a barbaric free-for-all!
“That doesn’t sound like doing anything you want, to me.” Brick smirked. “Uncle Mac makes the rules and you don’t break them. See, he does tell you what to do.”
“Uncle Mac is the boss around here,” Clay declared, sounding as if he was echoing a much-repeated quote.
Apparently he was, for Mac nodded his approval. “That’s right, pal. And don’t you forget it,” Clay chimed in with him on the last part.
“Could we get back to the matter at hand?” Reverend Franklin was impatient. “Kara, I do hope you’ll join us tonight. I have been so looking forward to spending some time with you.”
“I would like to,” Kara said. “I’m going to,” she added, more for Mac’s sake than the reverend’s.
“All right, you may have dinner with the Franklins, Kara,” Mac agreed, though he did not look particularly pleased.
“How magnanimous of the boss to grant me permission,” Kara said through gritted teeth. She turned to her ex-stepfather. “Yes, I’ll come. Thank you, Reverend.”
A shadow crossed the pastor’s face. “Not even Uncle Will, anymore?”
“That was simply a courtesy title for a little girl to use,” Mac said coolly. “‘Daddy’ was another one, wasn’t it? But Kara is all grown up now, Rev, and the title Mrs. Macauley Wilde will be lasting and for real.”
Kara’s eyes met Mac’s and she saw the determination and the challenge there. She wanted to assert herself; she would’ve if Uncle Will and the kids weren’t present.
Mac, however, had no trouble asserting himself in the presence of anybody.
“Did I mention that the kids and I are going to have dinner in town ourselves tonight?” Mac’s voice warmed considerably as he turned to the children. “Clay is no longer contagious and he’s feeling good. I think he’s ready for an outing. How about it, kids? Burger Barn or Pizza Ranch?”
That set off an internal argument among the three young Wildes.
Mac walked Kara and the pastor to the front door. “After we eat, we’ll stop by the white elephant sale, since Clay is so fired up over it.”
“Fired up?” That was too much for Kara. She felt as if she were being steamrolled, first by her uncle Will, then by Mac. “He doesn’t even know what it is! He—”
“Then it’ll be a good learning experience for him,” Mac said. “We’ll meet up with you at the church hall later this evening and I’ll drive you back, Kara. No use having the Rev make another round trip out here.”
“I was going to suggest that she spend the night at our house,” Reverend Will said tightly.
Mac shook his head. “I’m bringing her back here.” He hauled Kara against his chest in the most proprietary way, his arms holding her tight for a long moment. He rested his jaw against her temple. “I’ll see you later, honey.”
“You sound so grim. Are you making her a promise or a threat?” demanded Reverend Will.
“That’s for her to decide,” Mac said, releasing her.
Nine
“Kara, my dear girl, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am for bringing you to Bear Creek under false pretenses.” Reverend Will sounded distraught as he drove his gray Ford along the rain-swept road toward the town. “I can never apologize enough for getting you mixed up with the Wildes. I am so truly sor—”
“Uncle Will, it’s okay,” Kara interjected. The poor man had been apologizing since they’d gotten into the car.
“No, no, it’s not okay, at all. I can see that Mac is determined to go through with this wedding. Though I admire his dedication to his brother’s children, I do not think it’s fair that he is trying to railroad you into a one-sided relationship, strictly for his own benefit.”
Kara stayed silent. She felt uncomfortable confiding just how far her relationship with Mac had progressed in such a short time.
“Mac is a strong man, a dominating man,” the reverend continued. “A good man, but he is accustomed to having his own way. I’m afraid of what he’ll do to get it. I believe he’d go to any length to make you marry him and stay on that ranch with those difficult children.”
“They’re just active and high-spirited,” Kara defended the Wilde bunch.
“My dear, you needn’t choose your words with such discretion, you can speak frankly with me. I’m concerned about you, Kara. I don’t want you to be trapped out there by—”
“Uncle Will,” Kara interrupted. “I think I’d better tell you that I am seriously considering marrying Mac.”
The reverend wiped his brow with a crumpled handkerchief. “I would be delighted to hear that news if I thought you knew what you were doing, Kara. But you don’t! Mac has kept you out there, isolated you...” Will swallowed hard. “He’s used his undeniable sex appeal and...experience to hustle you into a marriage of convenience. Convenient for him, that is.”
Kara tried and failed to stop the blush which suffused her cheeks. “Mac hasn’t hustled me into anything.”
“I’m sure he’s convinced you of that. I’m sure he had you believing that you have been a more than willing participant. He’s got you so bamboozled you’ll think whatever he wants you to think.”
Kara sighed. “Mac’s not some kind of villainous cad, Uncle Will. You wanted me to marry him, remember? You were the one who suggested that I would—” she cleared her throat and stared at the windshield wipers swishing back and forth “—suit his purposes.”
Reverend Will turned crimson. “I hoped you two could make a match,” he conceded. “But not like this! I intended for you two to become acquainted in the normal way and develop a compatible relationship that might hopefully lead to marriage. Instead, he practically kidnapped you at the airport, held you prisoner at the ranch...”
“As you can see, I’m not being held prisoner, Uncle Will. I’m here with you right now, aren’t I?”
“He’s allowing you a few hours away to delude you into thinking that you aren’t being held captive. Which, of course, you are. You’ll notice how insistent he was about taking you back to the ranch tonight.”
“Yes.” A frisson of excitement heat
ed her. She thought of the glitter of desire in Mac’s dark eyes, of his body’s tautness when he’d pulled her into his arms before sending her on her way. He wanted her, he hadn’t bothered to hide it. He wanted her back in his bed tonight.
Heady stuff for a woman who’d been feeling like the rejectee on the Old Maid card only a week ago, Kara thought wryly. But while Uncle Will was right that Mac had used “sex appeal and experience” to his advantage, it wasn’t the only lure this mail-order marriage of convenience held for her. By marrying Mac, she would acquire a home and a family.
She cast a covert glance at her former stepfather. She’d felt superfluous and unnecessary since her mother and Will’s divorce. They had both gone on to love others who loved them, but Kara hadn’t belonged anywhere—until she’d met the Wildes and found that they needed her as much as she needed them.
But how to explain that unexpected, profound bond to Will Franklin? Kara knew she never could.
“Where is your common sense, Kara? Where is your pride?” the reverend lamented. “You used to be such a down-to-earth, practical child. It isn’t you that Mac wants, it’s a keeper for those kids. And while he certainly doesn’t mind using you physically, his actions are not based on caring and love and respect. He doesn’t see you as an individual. He would be perfectly willing to marry any young woman who agreed to—” he paused and coughed discreetly “—to meet his terms.”
“Mac has been honest about why he wants to marry me, Uncle Will. He hasn’t tried to dupe me or deceive me. Honesty is a sound basis for a relationship, isn’t it? We could have a successful marriage based on—”
“Mac didn’t have to dupe or deceive you, Kara. You’re doing a spectacular job of doing it yourself. I know from my own personal experience that the kind of marriage you’re considering won’t work.”
He drew a deep breath. “I was deeply in love with your mother and I wanted to marry her so badly, I didn’t mind when she told me she didn’t love me, that if she married me, it would be strictly because she needed a husband to support her and her child, who, of course, was you. And it all blew up in my face when she met Drew Ansell and fell madly in love with him. I don’t want you to suffer that kind of heartbreak, Kara.”
Kara didn’t say another word during the drive into town. Reverend Will did all the talking. More about how Mac was using her. How he didn’t value or appreciate her as a unique individual but viewed her as merely a commodity and a convenience, interchangeable with any other woman.
The longer Uncle Will bemoaned her lot, the worse she felt. Fungible. Unlovable. Undesirable. Replaceable by any woman at any time. Kara was totally demoralized by the time the reverend swung his car into the driveway of a neat frame house on a well-kept, tree-lined street.
“Kara, before we go inside...” He sounded uncomfortable and kept his eyes straight ahead. “Tricia and Joanna don’t know that I was married before. Ginny never wanted to tell them. She felt they might be...traumatized, knowing that their father used to, uh, love a woman who wasn’t their mother.”
“I think Ginny was the one who’s been traumatized by that fact,” Kara said quietly. “It sounds like she still is. But you don’t have to worry about me saying anything to your daughters about your marriage to my mother. I can simply say you knew my family when you lived back East.”
Reverend Will nodded, his expression one of regret mingled with relief.
Ginny, Tricia and Joanna welcomed her cordially. As the minister’s family, they were quite accustomed to entertaining guests in their home, and Kara knew she was being treated as well as any friend or parishioner. The meal—Montana steaks, fresh fall vegetables and apple pie—was delicious.
Conversation flowed easily enough during dinner, though Kara remained on guard. But Ginny didn’t betray a hint of her former animosity. Reverend Will had a seemingly endless supply of amusing anecdotes and, in between, Kara fielded eager questions about Brick from Joanna. The young girl had a whopping crush on Mac’s nephew, despite Will and Ginny’s tight-lipped disapproval at the mere mention of the boy’s name. Tricia made a few catty remarks about Lily, which Kara pretended not to comprehend.
It wasn’t until after dinner—when the Franklin daughters were in the kitchen doing their clean-up chores, and Reverend Will was called to the phone—that Kara was left alone with Ginny. Though she knew it was ridiculous—she was no longer eight years old, she was twenty-six!—Kara felt her palms begin to sweat, and apprehension rose like bile in her throat. Now that there was no audience, she half expected Ginny to drop her polite facade and turn into the archetypical wicked faux stepmother before her very eyes.
“How is your mother?” Ginny asked, and Kara nearly dropped the cup of coffee she was drinking.
It took her a moment to gather her scattered thoughts. “She’s fine. Thank you for asking.” The silence was heavy as lead. “Mother and Drew moved to North Carolina seven years ago,” Kara offered, desperate to fill the void. “She’s still a buyer with the Miller-Richards department-store chain, and Drew has his law practise down there. They’re very busy.” She felt herself winding down under Ginny’s steady stare.
“Your mother was one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen,” Ginny said tersely.
Kara waited for the inevitable “You don’t look a bit like her.”
Surprisingly, it didn’t come.
“I couldn’t believe Will would marry someone who looked like me after being married to a raving beauty like your mother,” Ginny murmured, her eyes darting to the door, making sure her daughters could not hear. “And I couldn’t understand how she could’ve walked out on a wonderful man like Will. I kept expecting her to come to her senses, to realize what she’d given up and show up on our doorstep to reclaim Will.” A dark flush suffused Ginny’s neck and spread upward.
Kara felt a swift rush of empathy. Wasn’t her own situation depressingly similar to what Ginny Franklin believed she’d faced all those years ago?
She was in love with a man who wouldn’t have chosen her but was willing to settle for her for strictly practical reasons. Did that knowledge ever cease to be painful? Surely Ginny Franklin wasn’t still hurting after all these years!
“I’m sure Will wouldn’t have married you if he didn’t love you,” Kara said, to be kind. But she wasn’t at all sure. She well knew Mac was willing to marry her without loving her. And according to Uncle Will, her mother had married him without loving him.
“I’ve been wanting to talk to you, woman to woman, to clear the air.” Ginny’s smile was strained. “From what I hear, you might very well become a permanent resident at the Double R Ranch. As a member of our congregation, we’ll be seeing each other regularly.”
Kara did not reply. Away from Mac and the children and having listened to Will’s and Ginny’s views on love and life, a gloomy pessimism had begun to settle over her.
If Mac didn’t love her—and she knew he didn’t—how long would it take him to tire of her? He was currently sexually interested in her because she was easily available—right under his roof!—and as Lily had so bluntly pointed out, he’d been without sex for quite some time. She meant nothing to him, as Uncle Will had so acutely assessed. Nothing at all. And that being the case...
Suppose that sometime in the future Mac met a woman and fell passionately in love with her? Her mother had ended her marriage without a second thought when she’d fallen head-over-heels in love with another man.
Kara winced. People did not behave rationally when they were in love. She was walking, talking proof of that, willing to marry Mac after knowing him only a few days, fully aware that he didn’t love her.
She considered her options. Was living in Washington with her cat and scrambling to pay bills while looking for work any worse than being rejected by the man you love, in favor of his new love? As for the kids, well, if Mac wanted someone else, the kids’ opinions wouldn’t matter, anyway. Kara had learned that sad lesson when she was just a kid herself.
“I was very surprised when Will told me you were out here visiting Mac Wilde,” Ginny continued, oblivious to Kara’s troubled silence. “I wasn’t aware that you two even knew each other, but of course, I suppose it wasn’t unusual that your paths would cross, with your stepfather and the Wilde brothers both being active in environmental causes.”
So that was how Reverend Will had explained her connection to Mac and her presence in Bear Creek, without involving himself at all. Kara was rather impressed with his inventiveness.
She thought of Mac, unwilling to go along with any ruse to romanticize their relationship. He hadn’t needed even to pretend to woo her; she’d fallen for him and ended up in his bed, anyway. To her dismay, tears filled her eyes. She quickly, forcefully willed them away.
“Will your mother be coming out for the wedding?” Ginny asked, a little too casually.
“There are no definite wedding plans.” Kara’s cheeks grew warm, and she averted her eyes from Ginny’s sharply curious gaze.
“I can understand your hesitation. Oh, not concerning Mac himself, of course. He is so good-looking, a rugged and rough rancher that women have been swooning over for years!” Ginny sobered and leaned closer to Kara, lowering her voice to a whisper. “But having to take on his brother Reid’s children practically negates Mac’s very considerable appeal. Those four are a handful, and that’s putting it very kindly.”
Kara merely shrugged. She had no intention of discussing the Wildes with Ginny Franklin. But Ginny was bent on discussing them, no input from Kara required.
“As a newlywed, you’ll want to be alone with your husband, but those kids will be around,” the older woman said, grimacing. “And later on, when you have your first baby, you’ll resent having to take time and attention from your own child to give to those other kids. Oh, if I were you, I would do everything in my power to send those kids back to James and Eve, or to either grandparent. Why should you and Mac be stuck with them?”
Kara stared at her, nonplussed. Did Ginny realize she was describing her antipathy toward her husband’s ex-stepchild, who just happened to be her? She realized something else, too. Since she knew how it felt to be an unwanted child, she would make a conscious effort never to make any child feel like an outsider in their home. But whether or not she would have a chance to make good on her vow within the Wilde family circle was another matter. Right now she felt too raw, too vulnerable, to even think of a future with anyone but Tai in it.
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