by Tina Leonard
“Come inside.” Taking her by the arm, he led her indoors. She wore white mittens, a white scarf and a cream-colored coat, which set off her dark hair. But it was the look in her eyes that caught Pete’s attention. Her eyes were sparkling, but it wasn’t a happy sparkle. “Have you been crying?”
She didn’t reply. Instead, she took several deep breaths.
She was scaring the hell out of him. Pete’s heart skipped into faster beats. “Come sit down,” he said, taking her by the arm and leading her into the family room of the main house. “Can I get you something? Water?”
“No. Thank you.”
He waited, his breath caught in his chest. Whatever she wanted to talk about, she seemed to be hesitating. Maybe she regretted giving him the boot. Was there a chance she wanted him back? His heart soared at the thought.
If he could only be so fortunate.
“Jackie,” he said, “tell me what’s on your mind.”
“I think I’m pregnant,” she said, so softly he nearly missed what she said.
He couldn’t help the grin that spread over his face. “What did you say?”
“I think I’m pregnant.” And then she burst into tears.
“Oh, wow.” He laughed, delighted. “This is great! Why are you crying?” Suddenly, he was bewildered. Why was she crying? Wasn’t a baby a great thing? A miracle?
“Because I’m pregnant!”
“Oh, no, no, don’t cry, Jackie,” he said. “I’ll take care of you. And the baby.”
She jumped to her feet. “I don’t need to be taken care of.”
“Well—” He stopped, considered the mulish set to her face. “You don’t want me to take care of you?”
“No.”
He frowned. “But that’s what men do. They take care of their women.”
“I am not your woman.”
“If you’re having my child, Jackie, you’re my woman.”
“You sound like a caveman.” She blew her nose into a tissue, which he thought was darling. She was so upset—and just like a woman, insisted she didn’t need help when she so obviously did.
“If you don’t need anything from me, why did you come here?” Pete asked, trying to reason with Jackie. Make her understand that clearly she did need him.
“Because everyone in Diablo will talk. So I just thought you should be the first to know.”
Pride puffed Pete up. “We’ll get married, Jackie, and no one will be the wiser nine months from now.”
That brought a fresh burst of waterworks.
“We never talked about marriage before. Not really. Not seriously.”
“True,” he said, pulling her toward him. She allowed him to rub her back as she buried her face in his chest for a moment. She felt so good to him. He’d been dreaming of a reason to touch her again, see her again and now he’d been handed this golden opportunity. He was going to be a father. “Aunt Fiona will be so happy.”
“What?” Jackie raised her head to look at him.
“Oh, Aunt Fiona wants us all married.” Smiling, he touched his palm to her cheek. “We need to be married and have children if we want her to will us the ranch.”
She blinked, her dark-brown eyes wet with tears. “What are you talking about?”
“Rancho Diablo. Aunt Fiona seems to be trying to make us believe she’s on her deathbed. She’s not, of course. Jonas says she’s strong as a horse and will probably outlive us all. But,” he said, brushing his lips against hers in a fast kiss, “now she claims she’s changed her will. Whichever of us gets married and has the most children will inherit the ranch.”
“So Rancho Diablo would be yours, now that we’re having a baby?”
Pete shook his head. “Not all mine. My brothers and I agree that we’re going to split the ranch anyway. Only one of us needs to get married to get the ranch under Fiona’s rules, right? So it was going to be Sam, because he…I don’t know.” Pete stole another kiss. “I think Sam figured it would be easier on him to get married. He’s less set in his ways.”
Jackie pulled from his arms. “But now it could be you. You could make this sacrifice for your brothers.”
“It’s not a sacrifice, Jackie.” Pete reached for her hand, drawing it to his lips. “You know how I feel about you.”
She nodded. “I do. Every Saturday night, I’ve known exactly how you felt about me.”
He shook his head. “It wasn’t how I feel just on Saturday nights. But with your schedule at the hospital, when else could we be together?”
“I’m buying a business,” she murmured. “A bridal shop.”
He grinned. “That’s timely. Order up a dress, sweetie. We can fly to Las Vegas this weekend.”
She backed up a couple of steps. “Pete, I didn’t come here to get you to marry me. I simply felt it was important that you be the first to know that we’re having a baby.”
“And that’s great. I’m thrilled. Boy, am I thrilled.” He was. He wanted to whirl Jackie around the room in his arms, laughing. He couldn’t understand why she didn’t seem off-the-floor happy.
“I’ve got to go,” she told him. “Thanks for listening.”
He grabbed her hand as she turned to leave. “Where are you going?”
“Home.” She looked at him, her delicate dark brows high above her beautiful eyes. His heart sank as he decided she looked annoyed with him.
“And you need to catch up to your family,” she said.
He was pretty certain she was giving him the royal wave-off. “I can go to a later service. Right now, we have a million things to talk about. And, Jackie,” he said, deciding to try to get a fast point in while he could, “I’d like you to start thinking of home as wherever you and I decide to live.”
She shook her head, an imperceptible motion that he realized didn’t bode well for him. “No, Pete. When I broke up with you, I didn’t see a future for us. This doesn’t change anything.”
He stared at her. He couldn’t swallow past the lump in his throat. Something told him to go easy, not to explode, not to lose his mind over what she was telling him. Now was not the time to push Jackie for decisions. Everything was too fresh, too raw. “All right,” he said. “I guess I’ll have to respect that.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
When she pulled her hand from his, he didn’t stop her. This time, he let her go. He listened as the front door closed, heard her boots crunching the snow as she walked to her truck.
He moved to a window to watch her. She got into her truck and he thought he saw her glance toward the house. Then she drove away.
He let out the breath he’d been holding. “Miss Jackie Samuels, you and I have a lot more talking to do,” he murmured.
That little woman could run all she liked, but in the end, the only place she was going was right back into his bed—where she belonged.
Whether she believed that or not.
He was hit by a sudden urge to drive right down into Diablo and buy the tiniest pair of western boots he could find, dark-brown and masculine as heck and just right for a baby boy who would one day grow up to be a rodeo badass like all the other Callahan cowboys. “Yeehaw!” he yelled in triumph, punching the air with his fist. “I’m going to be a dad!”
JACKIE WAS DONE WITH TEARS. Done. Never crying another tear over Pete Callahan. The man was a dunce. “You do realize,” she said to Darla when she met her at Diamond’s Bridal so they could look over the stock, “that men are insane? They have some kind of chromo-some that is unique to them that causes them not to think like rational humans?”
“Well,” Darla said, “men say we’re the ones who are wacky.”
“Maybe.” Jackie stepped inside after Darla unlocked the door. “All I know is that Pete Callahan takes the cake for crazy.”
“Come look at this wedding gown.” Darla held up a hanger sheathed in a white covering. “You won’t believe your eyes. This one’s vintage.”
“Do we sell vintage in our shop?” Momentarily, Pete and his an
tics flew right out of Jackie’s mind.
“Some ladies really like vintage, so I think we should. If you like the idea, that is. What do you think about this classic?” Darla unzipped the bag and carefully pulled out the fairy-tale creation.
“Oh,” Jackie murmured, touching the tiny crystals and luminous sequins, “it’s like something out of Cinderella.”
“Exactly what I thought. So when Sabrina brought this dress to me—”
“Sabrina McKinley?”
“Fiona’s friend.” Darla nodded. “The one who’s going to work for Mr. Jenkins.”
Jackie blinked. “But isn’t she a fortune-teller?”
“And we’re nurses selling wedding and maid-of-honor gowns. Changing jobs isn’t all that unusual. Some people like change. Like us.”
Jackie looked at Darla. “Is she not going to do fortunes anymore?”
“I didn’t ask.” Darla hung the gown on a hook. Late-morning sun streamed through the window, dancing on the crystals. It seemed the wedding dress came alive with passion and wishes and dreaming.
“That’s the most beautiful gown I’ve ever seen.” Jackie’s breath hung for just a second as she thought about wearing something that wonderfully lovely for Pete.
Darla zipped the gown back into its bag. “I bought it because it’s totally stunning, and somebody will buy it, probably the first day our shop is open. We’re in this to be profitable, and this gown is a sure sale.” Darla headed to the back of the store. “And Sabrina said she was low on funds, so it seemed the right thing to do. I hope you don’t mind that I bought it without consulting you. I promise never to make business decisions without you, but I couldn’t resist the gown. I swear I could hear it talking to me.”
“What did it say, exactly?” Jackie followed Darla after a cautious glance at the covered gown. Darla was right about the dress: it would make a woman feel like a princess on her special day. Jackie almost thought she heard a chorale of softly tinkling bells luring her back to it.
She turned off her imagination.
“It said, ‘I’m perfect for your friend, Jackie,’” Darla said, stopping outside the storeroom.
“You’ll wear it before I will,” Jackie said, “I’m expecting a baby.”
Darla turned to stare at her, then her stomach. “Sabrina was right!”
“Oh, pooh.” Jackie dismissed that notion without a qualm. “You’re a nurse. You know how these things work, Darla. A little nausea, some tiredness, more nausea, that’s all the fortune-telling a woman needs to know she probably needs to take an in-home pregnancy test.”
“Okay,” Darla said, “last night you were swearing you weren’t.”
“I got suspicious, so I decided to take a test.” Jackie sat on a stool. “I’ve been moody lately—”
“Just a little.”
Jackie shook her head. “And so there it was. The reason for the moodiness, the desire for pickles and chocolate cake, all foretold by a little blue line on a stick.”
Darla threw her arms around Jackie. “It’s wonderful news!”
Jackie smiled. “I keep thinking I’ll wake up and it’ll be a dream, and then my toes curl and I pray it’s not a dream.” Jackie laughed. “I never thought I’d be a single mom, but for some reason, going into debt with this business makes me feel very optimistic about the future.”
“Really? No regrets?” Darla asked. “You might prefer the steadier income of nursing.”
“But not the late hours and long shifts.” Jackie smiled. “Everything is happening at the right time.”
“What did Pete say?”
The smile left Jackie’s face. “That he’s happy. He wants to get married.”
Darla squealed. “You can still fit into the magic gown!”
“Now wedding gowns are magic?” Jackie laughed.
“Well, you never know.” Darla flung her arms around Jackie again. “I’m going to be a godmother!”
“How did you guess?”
“Because I’d kneecap anybody else who tried to take my place.” Darla squealed again. “So if Pete wants to get married—”
“No,” Jackie said, the smile sliding away again, “we’re not getting married.”
“But if Pete wants to—”
“He really doesn’t.”
Darla snorted.
“He never asked me before. He was happy with our relationship just the way it was. I’m not going to drag him to the altar after I’d just broken up with him, Darla.” Jackie peered into the stockroom, intrigued by all the boxes. “Let’s get down to business and forget about weddings right now, okay?”
“Won’t be very easy, considering where we work. But all right.” Darla followed Jackie into the storeroom. “Pete’s going to be a hard guy to say no to.”
“Not really. If he gets married, he gets Rancho Diablo. Call me crazy, but I don’t know if this marriage enthusiasm is about me or the ranch.”
“He gets Rancho Diablo?” Darla asked. “All of it?”
“There’s some complicated rubric of how the brothers would split it. They just need a sacrificial lamb to get married, and Fiona wants to turn over the ranch. Any of them can be the stooge, but Pete thought about me. I can’t decide how I feel about being included in his caper.”
“Is that what Pete said when he proposed? That this was great timing or something?”
“I can’t really remember. It all sort of ran together. But that was pretty much the gist of it. I got the feeling it was a two-birds-with-one-stone moment for him.”
“That’s not good,” Darla said. “That sounds like a business proposition.”
“That’s right,” Jackie said. “Just like buying this shop.”
“Oh, hell. That means Judah will have to find a bride!” Darla pulled out some veils that looked like they’d seen better days. “These are some of last season’s leftovers that could neither be sold nor returned. We’re not going to do a whole lot of this kind of vendor business. Besides, these are not magical.” She put the veils back away. “What am I going to do?”
Jackie agreed; the veils were not “magical.” “We’ll make better selections, although it may take us some time to develop our own vendor relationships.”
“I meant about Judah.”
Jackie’s gaze flew to Darla’s. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You really are crazy about him.” She looked into her friend’s eyes, seeing the worry there. “You’re in love with him!”
Darla nodded. “Always have been.”
Jackie thought for a minute. “Well, if one of them has to get married,” she said thoughtfully, “it could be Judah.”
“Newsflash—he’s never knocked on my door.”
Jackie couldn’t bear the look on her friend’s face, a cross between resigned and hopeless. “Why don’t you ask him out?”
“No. Didn’t you just say that Callahan men have a strange gene that makes them…strange? Who knows how he might take a woman making the first move?”
“It’s not a first move. Judah could use a wife. Technically, it could be considered a date with his destiny.”
Darla shook her head. “We focus on making you realize that you can’t turn down a hot cowboy like Pete. Not when you’re having his baby. You have to think of that, Jackie.”
And then it hit her. Hard, like a snowball in the face: From now on, she was thinking for two.
JACKIE AND DARLA FINISHED going through the store’s stock, examining every cabinet and drawer, checking out anything that needed to be repaired before they signed the final paperwork to take over the building and the business. “Everything feels very organized,” Jackie said.
Darla nodded. “I agree.”
The shop bell rang. Pete walked in, despite the Closed sign on the door, and Jackie’s heart fell into her boots.
“Hello, Pete Callahan!” Darla said, cheery as all get out. “What’s that you’re carrying? A little friend?”
Pete set the black-and-white puppy on the counter. “Mr. Dearborn�
��s wife, Jane, called about a litter of puppies. This is Fanny, a border collie. She’s looking for a wedding shop to live in. That’s what she told me, anyway.”
Jackie picked up the puppy, cuddling her. “Hello, Fanny.”
“I’m going to run grab a cup of coffee. Either of you want anything?” Darla asked, slipping on her down jacket.
“No, thanks,” Pete said, and Jackie shook her head.
“Be back in a jiffy,” Darla said.
“Pete,” Jackie said when the door closed behind Darla, “what are you doing here?” She held Fanny just under her chin for support and comfort, the fat wiggly puppy body comforting. Jackie’s eyes drank in the tall cowboy, even though she’d just seen him this morning.
Pete was too big, too manly, to be in a bridal shop surrounded by white gowns. The shop seemed smaller with him in it, as though the walls had shrunk. Jackie wanted to put the puppy down and reach for Pete instead, but she couldn’t. She’d broken up with him. Hugging him, holding him now, wasn’t fair to either of them.
“I stopped by to see your folks. They told me you were here.” Dark-blue eyes stared at her, leaving so much unsaid.
Jackie hesitated, before handing the puppy back to Pete. He put the small creature inside his suede jacket, and Fanny seemed delighted to be up against his broad chest. Jackie forced her gaze back up to Pete’s face. “You went to my parents’ house?”
He shrugged. “I went by your house first. When you weren’t there, I decided to check with your folks.”
In the five years that they’d been seeing each other on Saturday nights, Jackie had never taken Pete over to her parents’. “They don’t know about the baby yet.”
“I figured as much. I didn’t bring it up.” He studied her for a moment. “Consider Fanny a bribe.”
“A bribe?” Jackie looked at the brown-eyed puppy peering out over the jacket zipper. “For what?”
“Just think about making a family with me.” Pete took her hand. “We need to be together.”
She blinked. “Saturday-night fun doesn’t translate into wedded bliss.”
“I’m good with the sneak peek I got.”