Although she was crazy in love with Tim, Francine couldn’t help wondering about the adjustment in both their lives. It hadn’t been easy for either one of them. They were both independent people with strong personalities. In addition, Francine missed her family dreadfully. The little things about island living continued to irritate her, but she was learning.
Tim seemed to have made the transition effortlessly, but there were times when she wondered. As she did now. Her fear was that Cain had returned to talk Tim into going back for one last mission. The very thought caused her blood to run cold.
“Murphy, Keller, and Jack all send their best. They’re doing great.”
“And you?” Tim asked.
“I’m getting stronger every day.”
“I’m glad to hear it.”
Francine poured coffee into three mugs and carried two over to the table. Tim snaked his arm around her waist and held her against his side. “We’ve been married six months now, and I swear I still get horny every time I look at her.”
“Tim!” Francine dared not look at Cain. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment.
Tim laughed and, after bouncing a kiss off her tummy, released her. Francine brought her coffee to the table and joined the two men. She studied Cain and realized how thin and pale he was. From what she understood, he was lucky to be alive.
“I’m thinking of selling Deliverance Company,” Cain announced out of the blue.
Francine tensed, thinking Cain was giving Tim first crack at buying the business. Tim must have assumed the same thing, because his eyes found hers. It wasn’t necessary to voice her objection. One look assured her that her fears were unsubstantiated.
Tim reached for her hand and laced his fingers through hers. “If you’re offering it to me—”
“I’m not.” Cain cut in. “At this point, Murphy’s the one most interested, but I haven’t completely made up my mind. I wanted to talk to the two of you first.”
Tim and Francine looked at each other. “Us?” Tim asked, clearly puzzled.
“I wanted to see for myself if you were as happy as Mallory implies in his letters. I’ll admit that when I learned you two were marrying, I didn’t give the union much of a chance. I know Mallory too well. I wasn’t sure he was the type to settle down and raise llamas.”
“The hell I’m not,” Tim protested.
“You’ve proved me wrong,” Cain said, and he looked pleased to admit the fault. “You’ve beaten the odds all to hell. It gives me hope.”
“What would you do without Deliverance Company?” Tim asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” Cain said after a short hesitation. “I’d probably move to Montana. I’ve got a spread there, but what I know about cattle ranching would fit inside the eye of a needle.”
“You learn fast,” Tim said, “trust me. Cattle can’t be all that different from llamas. Besides, don’t you have the world’s best foreman? I remember you bragging about him a couple of years back.”
“John Stamp and his family are the salt of the earth.”
“Are you going to wait to see if you get some nibbles on Deliverance Company before you make up your mind?” Francine asked.
“No,” Cain said, surprising them both. “Everything depends on a certain woman who owns a yarn shop. If she hasn’t already decided she never wants to see me again.”
“Linette?” Francine guessed.
Cain nodded. “I can’t give her one good reason to marry me.”
“She won’t need any reasons,” Francine said with unshakable confidence. “I didn’t when I married Tim. Loving him was enough, and Linette loves you.”
Cain certainly hoped what Francine said was true, and that Linette still loved him. It had been over six months since he’d last seen her. A whole lot could have changed in that time.
Cain arrived in San Francisco and checked into a hotel room. Slipping the room key into his pocket, he sat on the side of the mattress and closed his eyes. He’d thought about this day, lived for this day, for months.
He checked his watch, debating if he should phone her first. After a moment he decided it would be harder for her to close the door in his face than to hang up on him.
He caught a cab to her apartment building and took the stairs. A year earlier he’d raced up the three flights, taking two and three steps at a time. This year he walked up one step at a time and was shaky and weak before he reached the third floor. If Linette did agree to marry him, she should know she wasn’t getting any bargain.
Straightening his shoulders, he pushed the doorbell and waited. An eternity passed before he heard the lock turn. The door opened, and all at once she was there. They stared at each other, breathless and stunned.
Cain didn’t think she could be any more beautiful than the way he remembered her. But she was. She wore a winter rose silk dress, and her hair was pulled back from her face and held in place with pearl-edged combs.
She whispered, “Cain.”
“Hello, Linette.”
As if unaware of what she was doing, she raised her hands to his face and gently flattened them against his cheeks. Her touch was light and uncertain.
He briefly closed his eyes and smiled. “I’m real,” he assured her.
All at once she was crying. Of all the responses Cain had anticipated, he hadn’t thought she’d break down and weep. He held her against him. Once they were inside her apartment, he closed the door with his foot.
Cain felt as if he’d die if he didn’t kiss her soon. He brought her close to him, and it was like stumbling through the gate of paradise. His heart swelled with a love so strong, so potent, he feared it couldn’t withstand the pressure.
Sobbing, her tears moistening his face, Linette kissed him again and again and again as if she couldn’t get enough of him.
It was that which broke him. Cain’s arms tightened around her waist, and he lifted her from the floor. All the weeks of lying in the hospital, of dreaming of this moment, praying she still loved him, that he still had a chance with her. He’d been to hell and back, and he’d gladly retrace his steps if it meant he hadn’t lost her.
“I love you,” he chanted between long, deep, desperate kisses. “Marry me, Linette.” He hadn’t meant to propose like this, first thing. He’d thought long and hard about how he planned to ask her.
She lifted her face from his and stared down on him as if afraid she hadn’t heard him correctly.
“You heard me right,” he said. “I’m asking you to be my wife.”
“What about—”
“I’m selling it to Murphy.”
“You’re sure?”
He smiled and nodded. “Positive.”
The doorbell chimed, and Linette sighed and braced her forehead against his shoulder.
“Who’s that?” Cain asked.
It took her a long moment to answer. “A…friend.”
“Male or female?”
Again Linette hesitated. “Male.”
Cain didn’t have a single reason to be jealous. Linette’s eager kisses convinced him she loved him. Nevertheless the green monster ate at Cain’s confidence like a hungry rabbit devouring fresh garden lettuce.
The doorbell chimed again, and Cain stopped her from answering. “Is it that attorney you were seeing earlier in the year?”
“No. His name’s Phil.” She bit into her lower lip and moved toward the door. As if reading his thoughts, she offered Cain a weak smile. “He’s just a friend.”
A tall, attractive man stepped into the apartment, looking bright and cheerful. His gaze immediately connected with Cain’s and narrowed. The laughter drained from his eyes.
“Hello,” Cain said, and held out his hand. “It seems we have a bit of a problem.”
“Phil Duncan, meet Cain McClellan,” Linette murmured.
As Cain moved forward to exchange handshakes with Linette’s date, he noticed how flustered she looked. It would have been better if he’d phoned first, he realized now, instead of placing he
r in this awkward position.
“Linette’s mentioned you before,” Phil said thoughtfully, and following the brief introduction, he sat on the sofa. It seemed to Cain that the other man went to lengths to make himself comfortable, or at least give the appearance of being so. “How long are you in town for this time?”
The censure was too thick to ignore. “As long as Linette will have me. I’ve asked her to be my wife.”
His words were met with a strained silence. Then, “She’d be crazy to accept.” Phil looked to Linette for a response. “You haven’t, have you?”
“Not yet,” Cain answered on her behalf, and sat across from the other man. He was on the edge of the cushion, and their eyes were level. It was a matter of male pride, but Cain didn’t want her answering to anyone but him.
“Linette?” Phil looked directly at her, waiting. She was the only one left standing, and frankly Cain wished she’d sit down.
“I…I…” She hesitated. “I have a few questions I need Cain to answer first.”
“Great, ask away,” Phil instructed, showing enthusiasm. He leaned forward and pressed his elbows to his knees. “While we’re at it, let me throw my hat in the ring.”
“Throw your hat in the ring?” Linette echoed, frowning.
“Right. We’ve been dating how long now? Three, four months?”
Linette opened and closed her mouth before casting Cain an apologetic look.
“Four. Actually, now that I think about it, it’s closer to five,” Phil answered for her.
Cain hadn’t expected her to keep a silent vigil awaiting his return, but it pricked at his pride that she had gotten involved with another man so soon after her return from Grenada.
“We were friends a long time before we ever started dating, isn’t that right?”
“Yes,” Linette admitted reluctantly.
“I’m not willing to do the gentlemanly thing and step aside because you’re infatuated with your soldier friend here. He’s moved in and out of your life like a bad storm for the last year.”
“I’m here to stay,” Cain said forcefully. It was apparent that buddy boy wasn’t going to surrender without a fight. What the man apparently didn’t realize was that when it came to war, Cain was the expert. He’d make mincemeat of Phil Duncan in seconds.
But at what price? Cain asked himself. He studied the other man and found him to be clean-cut, successful from the looks of him, a decent sort. As much as it irked him, Cain experienced a grudging respect for Linette’s friend.
“I’d like to marry Linette as well,” Phil announced. Silence fell like a butcher’s cleaver into the middle of the room.
“Phil.” Looking shocked, Linette pressed the tips of her fingers to her lips.
“Exactly how long have you two known each other?”
Cain directed the question to Linette, but it was Phil who answered. “Long enough. I was a friend of Michael’s.”
“I see,” Cain murmured.
“Phil and Laura are…were good friends of ours,” Linette explained.
“Our divorce was final this summer,” Phil went on to explain in that nonchalant way of his. He spoke of the end of his marriage as he would report the stock market averages, revealing little emotion.
It certainly hadn’t taken good of’ Phil long to seek out greener pastures, Cain noted.
“It’s apparent I can give Linette what’s important in life,” the other man went on to say. “Love, security, and a solid future.” Leaning back, balancing his ankle on his knee, Duncan appeared cocky and sure of himself. “What is it you intend to offer her?”
Cain weighed his response carefully, knowing it could well sway her decision. “My heart. Children. As for the future, it doesn’t come with any guarantees. Linette’s probably more aware of that than either of us. So I can’t and won’t predict what could happen there.”
Buddy boy frowned. “Frankly, that doesn’t sound like much.”
“It isn’t,” Cain agreed readily enough. “All I can offer her is my love. It’s taken me nearly twelve months to figure out what I should have recognized from the first. I need her. You’re right, I’m no prize. Linette would be a fool to marry me and move to some cattle ranch with a man who doesn’t know a bloody thing about being a rancher.”
“We’d live in Montana?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Children?” This word quivered as it left her lips.
“As many as you want, but you should realize I don’t know any more about being a husband and a father than I do about ranching.”
“You’ll learn,” she said confidently, and then frowned. “What about Deliverance Company? You’re through with fighting?”
“Never again.”
Linette laughed softly and kissed Phil Duncan on the cheek. “You really ought to take up acting, Phil. You gave an Academy Award performance. Thank you.”
“Who said I was acting?”
“Laura might take exception to your becoming a bigamist.”
Cain frowned and looked from one to the other. “What’s going on here? I thought you said you were divorced.”
The other man grinned broadly. “I lied, but you know what they say about love and war. I figured this was as good a way as any to have you spell out your intentions.”
Frankly Cain didn’t appreciate Phil’s efforts and told him so with a menacing look.
“Be good to her, McClellan, she deserves a man who appreciates her.”
This was exactly what Cain intended to do. “I will,” he promised.
Phil stood and addressed Linette. “I suppose this means you won’t be joining Laura and me for dinner?”
Linette laughed and nodded. “You’ll forgive me?”
Phil answered her with a dramatic sigh. “I suppose. Just make sure we get an invitation to the wedding, understand?”
“You’ve got it,” Cain promised. The men shook hands a second time, and Phil left shortly afterward.
No sooner had the door closed than Linette was back in Cain’s embrace. “Did you mean what you said about children?”
“Every word.”
“How soon can we be married?” Linette wanted to know. She asked this as if she were afraid he would change his mind. Quickly she added, “Soon, I hope. I’ve waited a long time for this moment.”
“I’m not going to change my mind.” He felt as though her love would heal him faster than any doctor. The emotional wounds had marked him far more intensely than the physical ones.
His arms linked around her waist, Cain pulled her close. “We can apply for the license first thing in the morning. Where would you like to spend our honeymoon?”
A twinkle came into her eyes as she lifted her mouth to his. “Bed.”
Nancy and Rob agreed to stand up for them, and Linette was grateful for their love and friendship. If it hadn’t been for her brother-and sister-in-law, Linette would never have met Cain McClellan.
Linette knew Nancy had her doubts. Perhaps Rob did, too, but neither voiced them. It was hard for Nancy to hold her tongue. All Linette wanted was for her former sister-in-law to be happy for her. Marrying Cain was what she wanted, what she’d dreamed would happen. She might be a fool, but she was grabbing this opportunity for happiness with both hands and holding on as though her life depended on it.
Bonnie was a godsend in the days before the wedding. Linette swore she was more nervous as a bride the second time than she had been with Michael.
When the time arrived, the church was filled with a party of nearly fifty people. Her own family and Michael’s parents were there. Linette was touched to find that Cain’s foreman and wife, John and Patty Stamp, had flown in for the ceremony from Cain’s cattle ranch in Montana.
Linette held a bouquet of pink rosebuds and proudly took her place next to Cain at the altar. In her heart she recognized that she would be content to spend the next fifty years beside this man. Love was like that.
Following the short reception, they left in Cai
n’s vehicle, heading north.
“Where are we going?” she asked, her head resting against his shoulder.
“To bed,” Cain teased, and kissed the crown of her head. “That was where you said you wanted to spend our honeymoon, but you omitted saying exactly where that would be, so I took matters into my own hands.”
“Frankly, I wouldn’t care if it was on the moon as long as I could be with you.”
“Wife,” Cain said, as if testing the word on his tongue. “It has a nice sound to it.”
“Trust me, so does husband.”
For a long time they rode in silence, content to be close to each other, eager to be closer and more intimate. After a while Linette traced her fingertips down the side of his face and over the rigid line of his jaw. She swore Cain stopped breathing.
Linette experienced a rush of love at the sensual power she had over him. No more than a moment passed before he captured her hand and entwined his fingers with hers.
“You’re making it difficult to concentrate on driving.”
“How far do we have to go yet?”
“Too damn far if you continue touching me.”
“I was hoping on doing more than that.”
“So was I.” He mumbled something more under his breath that she didn’t understand. “Fifty miles,” he said. “I promise to make it worth the wait.”
“I should hope so,” she said, loving the freedom to be close to him. She placed her hand on his thigh and gently dug her nails into the hard muscle of his leg.
“Linette,” he said between his teeth. “You’re playing with fire.”
She laughed softly. “Fire always did intrigue me.”
Cain pulled off to the side of the road, and the tires spat up dirt and gravel. He set the car into park and reached for her. Linette barely had time to recover before his mouth swooped down on hers. He kissed her deep and hard, his hands expertly finding their way to her breasts, cupping them in his palms.
Her nipples beaded instantly under the manipulation of his fingers, and she moaned softly.
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