A Bride for the Boss

by Maureen Child

  “We’re family, you knot-head,” she snapped, and leading with her prodigious belly, encroached on his personal space. “If you think you can scare me off with that nasty streak of yours, you can forget it. I’m only here because I love you.”

  He had already been pushed way past the edge of his control. The woman he wanted insisted she loved him, but didn’t want him. His company didn’t interest him. He couldn’t even work up any concentration for the horses he loved. The heat was boiling his brain and his little sister dropping in to insult him was just the icing on his damn cake.

  Scrubbing his hand through his hair, he muttered darkly, “Suddenly I’ve got women who love me giving me nothing but grief.”

  “That’s right. Andi loves you. What’re you going to do about it?”

  He frowned at her, eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Does Rafe know you have Oreo breath?”

  Vi jerked back, looked embarrassed, then shook it off and argued, “This isn’t about me.”

  One eyebrow lifted. “So my life is up for grabs, but yours is private?”

  “Yes,” Vi said, lifting her chin to glare at him. “Because I’m not currently being an idiot.”

  Mac scowled at her. “You’re not exactly endearing yourself to me.”

  Sighing, Violet moved in closer, gave him a hard hug and whispered, “I love you, Mac. I want you happy. So I’m asking you to try some personal growth. Fast.”

  He hugged her back, then released her. “It’s over, Vi. Let it go.”

  “She’s pregnant,” Violet blurted out.

  “What?”

  “Andi. She’s pregnant.”

  Ears ringing, heart slamming in his chest, Mac was staggered. Pregnant? Why hadn’t she told him? What the hell kind of love was it that made you leave and hide a child? Breath caught in his chest until it felt as if he might just explode. Instantly, images, thoughts, emotions chased each other through his mind. Panic was there, naturally, along with pride, excitement, anger and a sense of satisfaction. Pregnant. Andi was carrying his child. His baby.

  Mac examined exactly what he was feeling and realized the one underlying emotion that was strongest was also the most unfamiliar. Happiness. Hell, it had been so long since he’d really been completely happy, no wonder he hardly recognized it.

  “Mac? You okay?”

  He came up out of his thoughts like a diver breaking the water’s surface. “I’m better than okay.”

  Giving his sister a hard kiss, he grinned at her and said, “This may never be true again, so listen up. Thank you for interfering. For sticking your nose in. For loving me.”

  Violet smiled up at him. “It was my pleasure.”

  “I know it.”

  “So, since you’re so grateful to me, we don’t have to say anything to Rafe about the cookies, right?”

  He only smiled. He loved her, but his little sister could just go home and worry that she’d be ratted out. It would do her good. Leaving her there by the corral, he headed for the house. He had to change, get to town, then go see the woman who was currently driving him nuts.

  * * *

  Andi couldn’t take boredom for long. By the following day, she had been to the Royal nursery and come home with a plan.

  She had a half-dozen bags of red cedar mulch, flats of petunias and gerbera daisies and a few bags of peat moss. She didn’t know much about gardening, so she also bought a book that promised to teach garden-challenged people to grow beautiful flowers. She just wanted to know enough not to kill the jewel-colored blooms.

  For an hour, she worked steadily, digging holes, planting flowers, laying mulch. The sun blasted down on her, making her feel as if her blood was boiling. Didn’t help that there was no breeze at all and the oaks in her yard were busily shading the area where she wasn’t.

  She liked knowing she was continuing to make her house beautiful. But the downside to gardening was you had too much time to think. Naturally, her thoughts kept spinning back to the man who held her heart and didn’t want it.

  “Way to go, Andi,” she muttered, patting the dirt in around a bright red petunia. “You’re doing great on the not-thinking-about-Mac thing.”

  Disgusted with herself, she sat back on her heels to admire her work and gave a small sigh of satisfaction. The flowers were red, white and blue, and with the red mulch it looked patriotic and fresh and beautiful. Now all she had to do was find some other chore around the house to keep her busy. Gathering up her tools and the empty bags of mulch, she stood up and wished for a moment or two that she had a pool to jump into.

  Her cutoff jeans shorts were filthy, her white tank top was sticking to her skin and her ponytail was slipping free, with tendrils of hair hanging down on either side of her face. She wanted a shower, a glass of wine and maybe to lie prostrate on the cool, tiled floor of her kitchen while the air conditioner blew directly onto her.

  She might have wished she was out at the ranch with Mac, maybe swimming in the pond behind the house. Skinny-dipping would have been fun on a hot summer day. But that wasn’t going to happen, so she let it go on a sigh. Carrying all of her things into the garage, she heard a truck pull into her driveway. The thought of having to be polite and welcoming to a visitor right now made her tired.

  Andi wanted some time alone. Time to sulk and brood and enjoy a little self-pity with her glass of cold white wine. So, if it was Vi or Jolene, she’d send them home. The two women had been tag teaming her lately, each of them taking turns to check in with Andi and make sure she wasn’t lonely. Well, she needed a little lonely at the moment.

  With her arguments ready, she came around the corner of the house and stopped dead. Mac. His huge black truck sat in the drive, sunlight glinting off the chrome. The man himself was walking toward her house, looking so good Andi wanted to bolt back into the garage and close the door after her.

  She looked hideous. Why did he finally decide to come to her when she was hot and sweaty and covered in garden dirt? Quickly, she gathered up her hair, tightened the ponytail, checked out her reflection in the side mirror of her car and brushed spots of dirt off her cheeks. She wasn’t wearing makeup because her thought that morning had been, who needed mascara to plant flowers? So getting rid of the dirt on her face was really the best she could do and wasn’t that all kinds of sad?

  She closed her eyes and took a breath. Why had he come here? Was this just another attempt to get her back to the office? Well, she thought, why else would he have come? The man didn’t like to lose; Andi knew that better than most. So he’d come back to try to convince her. Again.

  Steeling herself for another argument with him, Andi walked out to meet him.

  He gave her that wide, slow grin when he saw her and Andi’s heart jumped in response. The man would always have that effect on her, she knew. It just wasn’t fair that he could score a direct hit on her heart without even trying.

  “Flowers are nice,” he said.

  “Thanks.” She tucked her hands into her shorts pockets. To resist the urge to reach for him? Probably. “What’re you doing here, Mac?”

  “We have to talk.” His expression unreadable, Andi thought about it for a few seconds, then nodded. If this really did turn out to be a futile attempt to get her back to the office, it would be better to deal with it. To finally and at last make him see that she wasn’t going back. No matter what.

  “Okay, fine. Come inside, though. It’s too hot out here. And I need something cold to drink.”

  “Should you be outside working in the heat that way?”

  She tossed a quizzical glance at him over her shoulder. “The flower beds are outside, Mac. Hard to plant from the living room.”

  “I’m just saying, you should be more careful.”

  Well, that was weird. She headed down the hall toward the kitchen, with Mac right behind her. Andi wen
t straight to the fridge and opened it, relishing the rush of cold air that swept out to greet her. “Tea? Beer?”

  “No beer. I’m driving. Listen, Andi—”

  “I’m going to stop you right there, Mac. If this is about the office, you can save your breath.” She poured two glasses of tea and handed him one. After she took a long drink of her own, she said, “I’m not going over the same old ground again just because you can’t accept no for an answer.”

  “It’s not that.” He set his tea down, then plucked her glass from her hand and set it aside, too.

  The air in the room was cool, but he was standing so near to her that Andi felt the heat of him reach out for her. She’d wished to see him again, but now that he was here, it was painful to be so close to him and yet still so far away.

  “Why are you here, Mac?”

  He dropped both hands onto her shoulders, looked down into her eyes and said, “It’s time you married me.”

  “What?” This was the last thing she’d expected. A proposal? Granted, not the most romantic proposal in the world, but that didn’t matter so much. Demanding she marry him was very Mac after all. But the fact that he was proposing at all was so stunning, Andi felt shaken. Was it possible that he really meant it? Were her dreams about to come true?

  He let go of her long enough to dip one hand into his jacket pocket and come up with a small, square ring box. He snapped open the deep red velvet to reveal a round cut diamond so big that when the sunlight caught it, the glare almost blinded her.

  She slapped one hand to her chest as if she were trying to keep her heart where it belonged. Slowly, she lifted her gaze from the ring to Mac’s eyes.

  “Marry me, Andi,” he urged, eyes bright, determination stamped on his features. “Right away. We can do it this weekend, if you want. I’ll call the mayor, he’ll fix us up with a license and it’ll be all taken care of.”

  “This weekend?”

  He leaned in and planted a fast, hungry kiss on her mouth. “I think that’s best. Look, I don’t know why you haven’t told me yet, but you should know that Violet spoiled the surprise. She told me about the baby.”

  Andi’s mind went blank. She stared at him and tried to get past the knot of emotion lodged in her throat. For a second or two, she couldn’t even draw a breath. Of course. This was why he’d proposed to her and was insisting on a hurried wedding. It wasn’t about love at all. He hadn’t had an epiphany. Hadn’t realized that she was what he wanted. Mac was only doing what he would consider his “duty.”

  “No.” Andi pushed away from him and took a step backward for extra measure. “Violet lied. There’s no baby. I’m not pregnant, Mac.”

  He looked as though someone had punched him in the stomach. “Why would she lie?”

  “I don’t know.” Andi threw both hands up and let them fall again. Sorrow fought with anger and the sorrow won. Logically, she knew her friend, Mac’s sister, had done all of this to bring the two of them together. But emotionally, she had to wonder what Vi had been thinking to play games like this with people’s hearts. “She’s a romantic,” Andi finally said, her voice soft and tinged with a sigh. “She wants us together and probably thought that this was a sure way to make that happen. And I’m sorry but I may have to kill her.”

  “Get in line,” he grumbled, staring down at the ring in his hand before snapping the box closed with what sounded like permanence.

  Her heart aching, tears she refused to allow to fall burning her eyes, Andi whispered brokenly, “The point is, I’m not pregnant. At least I don’t think so—”

  His head came up and his gaze pinned her.

  “—but even if it turns out I am,” Andi qualified, lifting one hand for emphasis, “that doesn’t mean I would marry you just because of a baby. I’m capable of raising a child on my own and I won’t get married unless it’s for love.”

  And that was never going to happen, she thought, at least not with Mac. Why was the one man she wanted also the one man she couldn’t have? Spinning around, she stomped to the kitchen window, then spun back.

  Furious with Violet, Andi blinked hard to keep those tears choking her at bay. For one all-too-brief moment, she’d thought that Mac had come to her because he wanted her. Instead, they were both being dragged over the coals again. And there was just no reason for it.

  “Just take the diamond and go, Mac.” Please go, she prayed silently. Before she cried.

  He opened the jeweler’s box, looked down at the ring, shining so brightly on its bed of red velvet, and he shook his head. “No.” Shifting his gaze to her, he started toward her with long, slow steps.

  Andi groaned, and naturally backed up until she hit the wall. Then she had no choice but to hold her ground and try to keep it together until he left again. Please let that be soon.

  “I’m not going anywhere.” His gaze moved over her face, her hair, her mouth, then settled on her eyes again. “When you just said there was no baby, you know what I felt?”

  She huffed out a breath, then firmed her bottom lip when it trembled. “Relief?”

  He shook his head. “Disappointment.”

  Andi blinked at him and apparently he read the surprise on her face.

  “Yeah, caught me off guard, too.” He laughed softly to himself. “Trust me when I say that my little sister and I are going to be having a talk about this.”

  “Get in line.” She repeated his earlier words and he grinned.

  “But,” he added, moving in on her, crowding her until she couldn’t draw a breath without his scent surrounding her, invading her, “it’s because of Vi that I’m here. It’s just the push I needed, though I doubt I’ll be admitting that much to her. Being here with you, thinking about us being married and having a family, made me realize something important.”

  Andi swallowed hard and whispered, “What’s that?”

  “It wasn’t a baby that had me proposing, Andi. It was you.” He smiled, stroked her hair back from her face with the tips of his fingers. “A pregnancy gave me the excuse I thought I needed to come here again. To look at you and admit to both of us that it’s you I want, Andi. You I need.”

  “Mac...” Thank God her back was against a wall. Otherwise, her liquefied knees just might have her slumping onto the floor.

  “Not done,” he said, winking. “I love you, Andi, and I’m just as surprised by that statement as I see you are.” His expression went tender, soft, as he tipped her chin up with his finger to close her mouth. “The thing is, I’ve counted on you being a part of my life for so long, I never noticed that you had become my life.”

  A single tear escaped and slid along her cheek. He kissed it away.

  “Without you, nothing’s fun anymore,” he whispered, gaze roaming over her features, voice thick. “Not work. Not relaxation. Not the ranch or a damn picnic or anything. I need you, Andi, and more than that, I need you to believe me.”

  “Mac, I want to. I really do. More than anything.” Her heart in her throat, blood rushing through her veins, she couldn’t look away from those green eyes of his.

  “Then do it.” He cupped her face in his palms. “I’m mad at Vi, but I’m grateful to her, too. Her lie gave me the push to come here. To find my life. To do what I should have done years ago.”

  Confused, shaken, so touched she could hardly see through the blur of those sneaky tears in her eyes, Andi could only watch as he dropped to one knee in front of her.

  “Since I’m only doing this once in my life, I’m going to do it right.” He took her hand, slid the ring onto her finger and kissed it. Then looking up at her, he said, “I love you, Andrea Beaumont. Maybe I always have. I know I always will. And if you’re not pregnant now, I hope you are soon. I want a houseful of kids running around the ranch.”

  Her free hand covering her mouth, Andi looked down at him and nodded,
unable to speak past the growing knot of emotion clogging her throat.

  “I’m taking that as a yes.”

  “Yes.” Slowly, Andi sank to her knees beside him. “I love you, too, Mac. So yes, I’ll marry you and have babies with you and ride horses and have picnics—”

  “And sweaty Easter eggs?” he asked, his smile shining in his beautiful eyes.

  Andi threw her head back and laughed. “God, yes. Sweaty Easter eggs.”

  “And you’ll explain that to me at some point, right? Been driving me crazy trying to figure it out.”

  She laughed again and felt the easing of hurt and disappointment and regret as all of the negative emotions drained away leaving behind nothing but hope. And joy.

  “I promise.”

  “Come home with me, Andi.”

  “I will.” She looked around her shiny new kitchen and knew she’d miss it. Though Mac’s ranch house was wonderful and she knew the life they would build there would be amazing, there would always be a place in her heart for this tiny house. Because it was this place that had brought her and Mac together. The hours they’d spent working on it were memories she’d never part with.

  As if reading her mind, Mac whispered, “Let’s keep this house. You can use it as an escape route the next time I make you mad. Then I’ll always know where to find you so I can come get you and bring you home again.”

  How lovely to have a man know her so well and love her, anyway. Yes, there would be times they’d fight, argue, and she might storm off and come here. Where she would wait for him to come after her to take her home. Home. A home and a family with Mac.

  “That sounds just right,” she said. Then drawing her head back, she looked up at him and asked, “So, is this another rescue?”

  “Yeah,” he said softly, wrapping his arms tightly around her. “But this time, you rescued me.”

  And he kissed her to seal the promise of their future.

  Epilogue

  Five months later

  A Christmas party at the Texas Cattleman’s Club was not to be missed. It looked as though half the town of Royal was gathered to celebrate.