“I think Webb and Uncle Mac could use something a lot stronger than that.” Lily smiled, amused. “Maybe a bottle of hundred-proof whiskey apiece.”
Kara marveled at the girl’s poise, her own was practically nonexistent. Mac was still gripping her hand, but she felt the tense energy emanating from him. He was furious, and she wasn’t sure how much he felt like controlling his rage. Certainly, the sight of Lily clinging to Webb didn’t please him. Nor had the young woman’s breathless declaration of love.
But when Kara gave Mac’s hand a gentle pull, he allowed her to lead him into the kitchen. Webb and Lily followed.
“Why in the hell are you still here, Asher?” Mac growled. “If you had a lick of sense, you’d be halfway back to Texas by now.”
“He loves me too much to run out on me, Uncle Mac,” Lily interjected.
Webb looked at the floor, then lifted his eyes to meet Mac’s flinty-eyed glare. “It’s true, Mac. God knows, I tried to fight it. But I couldn’t, damn it! I really do love her. I felt like a rat sneaking around behind your back, and when the kids came running in here tonight, I knew I had to face you. I finally admitted to myself how much I care for her, and it’s time you knew, too.”
Kara paused in her frantic search for tea bags to stare in astonishment. No matter what Lily claimed, she really hadn’t expected the tough ranch manager to admit to loving the boss’s niece.
“She’s just a kid, Webb,” Mac exclaimed, exasperated.
“I stopped being a kid a long time ago, Uncle Mac,” Lily said softly. “I had to grow up fast, and I did. I’m a woman in every sense of the word.”
Mac choked and sank into a chair. Kara crossed the room to lay her hands supportively on his shoulders.
“I wanted Webb from the moment I met him when we moved here this summer,” Lily persisted. “Oh, he tried to fight it, he tried to fight me. He tried to keep away from me but I wouldn’t keep away from him. I’d sneak out of the house at night and into his trailer—”
Mac uttered a particularly descriptive epithet.
“Nothing happened then, Uncle Mac, honest!” exclaimed Lily. “I tried to seduce him, but he wouldn’t let me. We sat around and talked, we listened to music. Webb kept telling me he was too old for me, but I didn’t care. Because he’s not! I need a man, not a boy, Uncle Mac.”
“And Webb Asher is the man you need?” Mac asked sardonically.
Lily ignored the sarcasm. “Yes.” She nodded her head vigorously. “All this summer I went after him, I spent hours with him and he never even kissed me, Uncle Mac. Not till September. And he felt so guilty after that and really tried to stay away from me, but we wanted each other too much. I wouldn’t let him avoid me.”
“You are relentless,” Mac agreed darkly.
“It seems to be something of a family trait,” Kara said wryly, massaging Mac’s taut shoulders with her fingers. He’d been so relaxed out in the garage a short time ago, and now he was tense and stressed out. She wanted to comfort him, to provide herself as an outlet to relieve all his tension and stress. She brushed her lips against the top of his head.
Mac responded to her gesture of tenderness by reaching up to cover her hand with his.
Lily’s dark eyes took in the scene and she sent Kara an appreciative smile before picking up her narrative. “Anyway, I knew I loved Webb and I was sure he loved me, even though he’d rather be shot than admit it. I had to take drastic action. So I went to the Rustler the day Kara arrived in Montana. The sheriff called Webb and he came to pick me up and got really mad at me. I deliberately provoked him by being unbearably obnoxious, you know, teasing him and trying to run away again and—”
“We came in on that scene,” Mac growled. “You were tied to a chair here in the kitchen.”
Lily nodded. “And the very next day, the stalemate was broken and we—”
“That’s enough, Lily,” Webb interrupted firmly. To Mac’s and Kara’s surprise, Lily actually obeyed him and stopped talking.
“Mac, I know it’s crazy,” Webb said ruefully. “If anybody would’ve ever told me I’d end up wrapped around the finger of a pretty little girl half my age, I would’ve said they were certifiable. I never wanted a serious relationship—I’ve actively avoided them for years. Back in Texas, my boss’s younger sister fell for me. I ended up leaving because she wanted more than I cared to give. When I came here, the last thing I ever expected—”
“—was to fall victim to my niece’s wiles,” Mac concluded. “I realize that you’re not fully to blame, but Lily is still in high school, Webb! I can’t sit by and condone this—this affair of yours.”
“I know.” Webb nodded his head. “But it’s more than an affair, Mac. I’m going to marry Lily. I realized tonight, when the kids came in to tell me that I’d better get the hell out of here, that I couldn’t give Lily up. I have some money saved and my great-uncle is going to sell me part of his horse ranch in Colorado. It’s a nice piece of property, and I know how to work it. I’d always intended to go there someday, and the time is right now. I’ll leave as soon as you hire a replacement for me, and Lily is coming with me. She can finish school there and—”
“Marriage! You and Lily?” Mac exploded. “That’s the stupidest, craziest idea I’ve ever heard!”
“I can think of a stupider, crazier one, Uncle Mac,” Lily said tartly. “You mail-ordering a bride and then falling in love with her and rushing her into marriage before you’ve known her a week.”
“That’s different,” Mac snapped.
“We’re different, Uncle Mac. It’s the Wilde way to do things—differently from other people.”
Mac leaned his head back against Kara’s breasts and closed his eyes. “Since I fail to see any way out of this, I have no choice but to wish them luck,” he said, more to himself than Kara. “I don’t want to alienate my niece or force her into running away.”
“Which I’d do in a minute if you tried to keep me from Webb,” Lily assured him. She crossed the room to hug her uncle and Kara in turn. “Be happy for me,” she ordered. “This is the happiest I’ve ever been my whole life. You don’t have to worry about me, Uncle Mac. Webb and I will be fine. It’s going to work between us.”
Kara was struck by Lily’s determination, a blend of that same self-confidence and arrogance that her uncle possessed. She looked and sounded just like Mac pronouncing that marriage to his mail-order bride couldn’t possibly fail.
Mac hugged Lily and manfully shook Webb’s hand, though his face was wooden. But fire flared in his eyes when Lily attempted to leave the house to go with Webb to his trailer.
“You’re not spending the night with him until you’re legally married,” he said firmly.
“Don’t be so retro, Uncle Mac,” Lily pouted. “I’m going with Webb.”
Kara held her breath. She’d spent enough time with the Wildes to recognize that yet another battle-of-wills was brewing.
Apparently, so had Webb. “Mac is right, Lily. We won’t spend the night together until we’re man and wife.”
“Isn’t that like locking the barn door after Clay has let the stallion out?” Lily demanded. “I can do what I want and if I want to spend the night with you, I will, Webb Asher.”
“Not until you’re Mrs. Webb Asher.” Webb’s tone and hard stare were unyielding.
Kara and Mac exchanged uneasy glances. And then Lily stunned them.
“Oh, all right,” she said crossly. “I’ll stay here.” She turned to leave, holding her head high and haughty. “I’m going to my room now. Good night!”
Webb caught her and wrapped a proprietary arm around her. “First walk me to the door and kiss me good-night,” he ordered, grinning.
Lily hesitated for a moment, as if debating whether or not to argue. Finally, she gave in with a sigh, slipping her arm around Webb and leaning against him as they walked down the hall.
“Well, he seems able to handle her,” Mac remarked as he and Kara walked hand-in-hand back to his bedroom. “B
ut I feel like I’ve failed Lily, and Reid and Linda, too,” he added dispiritedly. “Lily getting married so young—”
“Has nothing to do with you, Mac,” Kara injected. “I think Lily needs to belong to someone, she needs to have somebody all her own. A need like that is too profound to be bound by conventional rules about age and—”
“—the length of time required for falling in love.” Mac gave her a knowing look.
Kara nodded. Her love for him was no longer a secret to be concealed from him. “Lily must have instinctively known that Webb could provide her with the security and the love that she craved, and she went after him. She wasn’t about to let you or anyone else interfere. You Wildes are hard to stop when it comes to getting what you want,” she added, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Mac looked at her, and something hot and intense sparked in his eyes. “I guess the word relentless is an apt description of both Lily and me.” He carefully locked the bedroom door behind them.
Kara’s heart jumped. When he reached for her, she went eagerly into his arms.
“Lily was determined to have Asher, and she got him. Just like I was determined to have you.”
“Well, you have me,” she admitted softly.
He began kissing her again, deep drugging kisses that stoked the flames between them all over again. Mac picked her up and carried her over to the bed, laying her down with infinite tenderness. It was in his dark eyes as he gazed at her.
“I love you, Mac,” Kara breathed on a sigh.
“I know, baby. I love you, too.” He lay down beside her, reaching for her.
“You don’t have to tell me what you think I need to hear, Mac.” She gazed up at him, her hazel eyes solemn and sincere. “I know you want me and—”
“I also love you,” Mac insisted. “I realized how very right Lily was when she said I’d fallen in love with you. I think it started the moment I met you at the airport. By the time we’d arrived back at the ranch, I knew I was going to do whatever it took to keep you here. And that was something I hadn’t done before,” he added, grinning.
At her droll look of disbelief, he grew more insistent.
“It’s true! After each woman refused my lukewarm suggestion to move in to take care of the kids, I simply shrugged and didn’t bother to pursue any of them. They said ‘no’ and I said ‘okay.’ Until you, Kara. I didn’t shrug off your refusals. And I certainly pursued you. All of which refutes the Rev’s fungibility charge. You are one of a kind, Kara, unique and irreplaceable. You’re the woman I love, and I’ll spend the rest of my life proving it.”
“Beginning right now, I hope,” Kara whispered, wrapping her arms around him.
“Beginning right now.”
* * * * *
ISBN: 978-1-4592-8676-4
The Wilde Bunch
Copyright © 1995 by Barbara Boswell
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