Rancher's Creed (Ciaran O'Connor Book 2)

by Alyssa Bailey

  "Thanks, but I think I will just chew on him a little. Maybe I'll go shopping and make him wait for me for a change."

  "I am not sure that would go over any better," predicted Katie. "Ciarán would not be happy and he would order me home. Of course, I could be a distance away so that he would have to wait some until I got back." She flashed a mischievous grin.

  "Oh, that is perfect. Mom is going to drop these cookies off in a few minutes and we can leave as well. If you don't go with me, it won't be near as fun. Besides, you are leaving tomorrow and I won't get to see you for a while."

  "I don't think I will be able to walk very well. I won't be any fun for you."

  "Sure you will, we will put you in one of those carts for people with broken legs or whatever. Let's go to the warehouse store and just look around. Please?"

  Katie thought a moment and decided, if she was already in trouble, and she had spent the morning at home, she should be able to go without any more trouble than she was in at the time. Besides, Ciarán said she couldn't go with him, he didn't say anything about her not enjoying time with Cheyenne. The hardest thing about living with a man who is possessive and overprotective but loves you to distraction is that until she understood those little nuances, it was hard to accurately read his reactions to things.

  "Okay, will you run up the stairs and get my jacket and bag hanging on the bedroom door?"

  While Cheyenne was upstairs, Siobhan left to drop the cookies off after making sure that Katie would be all right.

  "Sure, you go ahead, I'll just stay with Cheyenne, and we will figure out something to do." Siobhan was climbing into her car and Katie was waving her along as Cheyenne came down with Katie's things.

  "Let me go to the bathroom and we can leave. If Quinlan is upset, this was not my idea. I won't rat you out, but don't throw me under the bus, either," stated Katie.

  "No worries, no one said we can't go to the store. We are grown women."

  "I hope that works out for us. That grown woman defense, I mean." Katie laughed and Cheyenne laughed as well knowing they were good at working their men.

  They spent the next few hours wandering through the store and learning each other's likes and dislikes. Katie also suggested they might also just build her a house like the other couples except for Liam. Liam just added to the small ranch house there already doubling its size and added a few outbuildings. That meant they didn't need any new building when he and Jocelyn married.

  Quinlan being a deputy sheriff had a good job and it was too bad that they could not move closer to her. Katie felt confident that if they did, however, Cheyenne would be getting them all into more trouble than was good for any of them. Besides, Ciarán would be roasting and lecturing on a regular basis. She thought she was rather lucky not to have to experience the warming of her butt yet, for real, but she had a feeling that with Cheyenne, she would be at risk often.

  Cheyenne's cell phone rang and she went to grab it and saw that it was Quinlan. As soon as she identified who was on the phone, Katie felt the bottom drop out of her stomach, and her body flush.

  "Hi, Quinlan, where are you? Me? I am shopping. I came by the house and you weren't there, so after I waited a while, I left to do some things that I needed to do. You said you would be there at eleven and for me to meet you but since you were busy, I decided I would do something else. Katie? Yes, she is here. I dragged her along for the ride. No, I don't know why her cell phone doesn't work. Okay, hold on." Cheyenne handed her phone to Katie and whispered, "Quinn didn't really know what to say. Here, talk to Ciarán. Let me see your phone while you do."

  "Ciarán? I don't know what is wrong with my phone; Cheyenne is looking at it now. Oh, it is dead, I guess. I forgot to charge it yesterday and last night so it died. My established evening routine was disrupted." Katie hoped that there was some ownership of Ciarán's distraction of her last night, but it didn't seem as though that was going to happen.

  "I am not walking; I am sitting in one of those store scooter things. You surely didn't think that I would just sit around waiting for you to get back, right? Cheyenne and I have had fun seeing what our tastes are. No, we had a little lunch already, I mean it is 1:30. Why were you guys gone so long? You went to a gun show, huh? Well, we are finishing up here and will be back home within the hour. I don't know how far we are from the house. Anyway we are almost done in the store. I am going to get a few cute scrubs for the summer and another pair of shoes, then we will get back. Love you."

  Katie said to Cheyenne after ringing off and giving the phone back to her, "That was sweet. I cannot imagine that Ciarán could have been more frustrated than when I pointed out the time. His irritated voice rather deflated. That was priceless. What about Quinlan?"

  "He was all fired up to chew me out, and then when I said he told me to be there at eleven and he wasn't there, he backed down. Nice to know that we can catch them out and they just have to swallow it. Can't chew us out without admitting they were wrong and somehow I am not sure that will ever happen. Let's finish this and get back. It really will be almost an hour by the time we finish in here, check out and drive home so you were pretty accurate.

  When they got back to the O'Connor home, Ciarán and Quinn were doing some spring cleanup around the outside of the house.

  "Hello, mo bhean álainn, my beautiful lady, not too patient today, are you." Quinlan reached to help Cheyenne out of the car and she smiled brilliantly and met his statement with a possessive kiss before she allowed him to retrieve her bags.

  "Mo chroí, you should have stayed home. I guess we were gone for a while, sorry we were not more considerate. Did you have a good time? And did you stay off of your foot?"

  "Yes and yes and thank you for understanding because I was expecting this to upset you and add to your scolding," said Katie as she accepted her husband's assistance out of the car and let him take her bag.

  "Mo chroí, I think we will save that conversation for when we are on our way home and if there are things that need to be addressed, they'll wait until after we have gotten back. I want you to enjoy the rest of your day here. We will leave rather early tomorrow morning and I want you to sleep well tonight and sit well tomorrow."

  "What do you mean 'sit well' tomorrow. I am not accepting you doing… you know, so don't even consider it." Katie's voice lowered considerably so that they were not overheard.

  Ciarán's voice resumed a tougher tone and lowered his voice to speak into her ear. Katie's face always flushed and her heart always began a tap dance when he did that.

  "You will accept whatever the end result is because if that is what we decide, you have agreed to me making that decision. You are in some hot water and how hot it gets will depend on the conversation we have on the way home. If you want to have that conversation here, I am happy to do so, but then the results of that little chat will also happen here. Are you prepared for that, mo beag amháin? Because I promise, my little one, you won't like the house knowing your husband is physically explaining his viewpoint."

  "Fine, Ciarán, but you are not physically explaining anything."

  "Perhaps." Ciarán swooped down and picked up his indignant wife and over her protests to which he grinned in response, he carried her into the family room and sat her on the sofa, carefully propping up her foot. He offered and then fetched some over the counter pain reliever, something to drink and a blanket. He then rested her on his lap, playing with her hair until she fell asleep, and then Ciarán indulged in an afternoon nap as well.

  The next morning was sunny and promised to be a warmer day. The travelers were up bright and early, had some breakfast, and set off for home. Ciarán's legs were longer than Katie's were and he had to push the seat all the way back to feel comfortable in the little car.

  "I guess we will need to get a larger car if we ever have children because there is no way you would be able to drive this one comfortably."

  "Or, I guess we could put a car seat in the front seat of your pickup," Katie said, teasi
ng Ciarán for she knew he would not agree to a car seat in the front of any car. And not his truck. Period.

  "Yeah, guess a bigger vehicle it is. Are you thinking about kids these days?"

  "Not in the context of 'time to have some', but in general, 'kids would be nice,' sure. We are coming up on the next depo injection and so I guess we need to have the conversation before I just go and get it. Is this still what you want to do? I am fine with it."

  "After having a little taste of Jos and Liam's gang, I think we will do well to just keep it to us for a bit. I am watching Liam and Jocelyn work on raising all those boys, Bailey and little Paddy with the full schedule they have and I think we will have to look hard at any type of work schedule for you after we have a baby. So, for the next three months, I am good with birth control."

  "When we are ready, we will know."

  "Are we ready for the next topic?"

  "Maybe, what is the next topic?"

  "Okay, how about my wife deciding to drive to Sheridan without talking it over with me first?"

  "Oh, well, I guess so. What is there to talk about? I thought we had already done that."

  "I know that you are capable of doing your own thing. That being said, there are some things that I need to be informed of; you know, allowed to at least be a part of the decision-making process and to be able to weigh in on the outcome. My job as your husband gives…"

  "What do you mean, 'your job as my husband'? If I am a job, to be done because you have to, then we need to have a different discussion, Ciarán."

  "My bad choice of words, I meant to say, as your husband, I am charged with the responsibility…"

  "Charged?" exclaimed Katie.

  "Yes, and it affords me the privilege of taking care of you. When we married, I vowed to love, honor, and protect you. To do that I need to know what you are up to so that I can fulfill that promise. Loving and honoring is easy, natural, but the 'protect' is the issue. I can get darned irritable if you do not allow me to meet my obligations and if I get irritable, your bottom will likely get a new version of a tattoo." He looked in her direction quickly before turning back to watch the road ahead.

  "You have got to be kidding. I can make my own decisions without you deciding what those decisions need to be."

  "You are the most precious thing on this earth to me. You are not just capable, you are astounding in your ability to work with all kinds of people, including your over-protective husband. I know that you know how to care for yourself in all types of situations. My vow to protect you overrides your need to make all of your decisions about safety and health. It has to for this to work. I need you to give when I say give, and I promise to be selective when I say that."

  There was a pause before Katie weighed in. "There needs to be an agreement here. I need to be able to make decisions with confidence. Not looking over my shoulder."

  "I know you feel like I am overbearing at times, suffocating your creativity and freedom to be who you are, but try as I might, my thinking goes straight to protect at all costs. I have to be the head of my household and we have already discussed this at length. As the leader of the house, I am sometimes going to make decisions you do not agree with. That is just not going to change for my love is not going to decrease and neither will my desire to take care of you."

  Katie was quiet for a few moments, trying to put into perspective her views while also striving to put Ciarán's reasoning in a comfortable spot in her thinking. Talking before marriage was different than after you have lived it for a while.

  "Logically, some of what you say sounds archaic and old-fashioned, like I am your responsibility and that sometimes I am just going to have to allow you to make the decisions even if my thinking is different. Then I think how wonderfully comforting it is when you just take over some of the trying and tough things. Like driving me home when I could have done it. It is so much easier to let you do it. Or when you pay all the bills when I am the one who probably should be doing it because I have more time to do it. I enjoy that you took that over. But when I want to go for a walk to a lake, I want to be able to make those decisions without doing more than telling you." Katie turned sideways the best she could as the seatbelt pinned her to a restricted range of motion.

  "You know I have a problem with not doing things the way I want to and I know I have to compromise, but I am afraid I will lose myself in the role of your wife rather than merging the two parts. Please help me be a good wife to you without losing myself to that role. I love you and I am willing to submit to your will for our life if you also consult me. If you feel you need to step in, temper it with your tone, or offer an explanation or something. Can you do that?"

  Again, there was silence. This time, Ciarán was thinking about his response.

  "Okay, I think we are both saying the same things just differently, so I promise to try to temper or explain my responses when I can and you promise to abide by my protective decisions if you possibly can. Right?"

  "I think I can say that."

  "Good, let's stop for a moment and get a snack, something to drink, maybe a bathroom run and stretch our legs, sound good?"

  "Perfect."

  After spending a few moments looking for snacks to nibble, things to drink, and a bathroom run before going on, they had decided just to drive straight through without stopping for lunch, so they got sandwiches, fruit, and chips for their makeshift picnic.

  "Now, back to our conversation," said Ciarán. "Now, your safety. This is something I cannot compromise on in our life. While you can yell all you want, if I say it is unsafe, that is the end of the conversation. Do you understand?"

  "Ciarán, like walking to the lake alone, I just can't go with that."

  "Well, then you are just going to expect a paddling every time because there are bears, mountain lions, moose, and more so that will never be okay with me. The thing I was thinking about now was the drinking and driving. Under no circumstances are you to drink and drive. Not with one drink or more, and you do not get into the car with anyone who drinks. Miss Cheyenne is Quinlan's responsibility, but I can tell you that he told her the same thing. So if she goes against him on it again, there will be hell to pay. If you choose to do it anyway, then expect no less. I promise to follow the same guidelines and restrictions as I demand of you in this matter."

  "Fine, I can agree to this."

  "Good, because this is one of those, I didn't ask you because it wasn't a request."

  "Ugh, okay. Next?"

  "In the future, I want you to make sure that if you have something that changes your plans, like coming home considerably later than you normally do, changing travel plans, those types of things, you need to call and talk to me. Not leave me a message. You need to actually call and speak to me. If you need to leave a message, fine, but keep trying me."

  "Okay, then you need to do the same. Sometimes you are at the kennel or those stables so long that I think you like them more than me."

  "Point taken. I need to get into that same mode of thinking so I promise to do better as well. Deal?"

  "Deal."

  "Now, we are on to following guidance from your family. I know your dad pretty much allowed you to do whatever you wanted and since you were a good kid, it didn't really matter, but that is not what happens here. You just need to do what you are told to do when the men in this family are charged to watch over you while I am gone. If Liam had been there and he had been the one to tell you to get your ankle looked at, I know for a fact that you would have complained and you would have gone because he would not have cared what you said.

  "Quinn and I have had a discussion and he knows now that I expect him to use his better judgment and not to let you override him with complaints, crying, tantrums, or anything else. For the record, Da was upset about Quinlan giving in. It caused them to have words about it. Neither will allow you to do that again so just be aware.

  "Remember last Fourth of July with Jocelyn and you got the doctor anyway because even though
Jocelyn didn't want to bother him, it was the right thing to do? The same goes here."

  "I am a nurse and you said I could weigh in heavily on medical issues. So I don't think it was unrealistic for me to say I didn't need a doctor."

  "Okay, besides the fact that your safety makes all bets null and void, just what was your reasoning behind not going in?"

  "I guess I could just tell. Besides, Ciarán, you were coming soon and I didn't want to miss that. I wanted to go and pick you up. And it would be money we didn't need to spend."

  "And how did that work for you? This is another no negotiation point. And, we have plenty of insurance. That is a bogus reason."

  "Well, I will negotiate it anyway. Anytime I think I am fine, I will try to get my point across."

  "Fair enough, but don't expect me to listen to it if I am worried about you and Liam already doesn't. Now Quinn and Da won't anymore, and I am confident that Shane and Andrew will be fine with packing your argumentative butt to medical assistance as needed. I am just trying to save you some energy, sweetheart." Katie answered with a grunt and Ciarán smiled.

  The rest of the ride passed with Katie sleeping off and on between lots of conversation. As they were getting close to the ranch, Katie said, "I am so glad we drove home together. Not because I did no driving, but because we got to spend lots of time just talking and enjoying each other's company. Not the first part as much, but even then it was nice to talk things out. Are you still angry with me, Ciarán?"

  "About what, mo chroí?"

  "Well, about the Cheyenne incident and the ankle thing and the driving down instead of flying?"

  "No, I'm not angry."

  "So, does that mean no retribution?"

  "Hmm, do you think you deserve one?"

  "No, because I called you on the driving thing. I was so worried about you not knowing. The Cheyenne incident, we really thought we were doing all the right things, and the ankle thing you are just going to have to concede because my ankle is going to heal."