The Bride Said, Finally! (The Lockharts of Texas)

by Thacker, Cathy Gillen

  As soon as the water was turned off, and Buster under some modicum of control, Melinda charged forward, screaming like a shrew. “Alexandra Remington, you are a very, very bad girl!”

  Alexandra jerked upright. Her eyes widened in shock, then just as quickly filled with tears as she stepped back out of her mother’s reach.

  Realizing a lot of damage could be done in very little time, Jake put himself between Alex and Melinda. “Jenna, take Alex upstairs now and get her cleaned up.”

  “That’s it?” Melinda fumed, the moment Jenna and Alex were out of sight. “That’s all you’re going to do, Jake Remington?”

  Jake held on to the squirming, barking Buster with effort, while Miss Kitty, who’d taken off for the shrubs when things got really wet, emerged headfirst from the top of a bush, then bounded down to the ground in a single leap. Jake looked Melinda straight in the eye. “What would you have me do that wouldn’t make things worse?” he demanded harshly.

  Melinda smiled at him in a brisk, impersonal manner. “Try a little discipline, for once.”

  “Alex’s upset,” Jake replied, communicating all that and more in a single glance.

  “Well, so am I, Jake,” Melinda shot back, just as harshly. “And you don’t seem to be going out of your way to comfort me!”

  Jake wanted to point out that Melinda was a grown woman, and Alex a child, and that as Alex’s parents, they ought to let Alex’s needs take precedence over theirs. But Melinda hadn’t gotten that nearly five years ago, when Alex was born. There was even less chance now in the heat of temper and disappointment. His patience with his former wife exhausted, Jake turned away with Buster still in his arms.

  “Look, we can still go to the party together,” Melinda murmured huskily.

  Jake hadn’t thought it was a good idea five minutes ago. Now he really didn’t think it was a good idea. He sighed and uncomfortably aware just how wet he was, set Buster down on the ground, well away from Melinda. The puppy immediately began to sniff the ground intently. “Maybe Alex just shouldn’t go tonight,” Jake said.

  “No,” Melinda shot back defiantly. She walked slowly over to him, holding his eyes all the while. “Alexandra has to be there with you and me tonight.”

  “Why?” Jake narrowed his eyes at Melinda, wondering what destructive, self-serving scheme she was cooking up now. “What are we trying to prove?” he demanded, “And to whom?”

  “I want people to see we are still a family,” Melinda insisted as Buster moseyed off to relieve himself, and Miss Kitty circled around them.

  But that was just the problem, Jake thought, as every protective instinct in him went on full alert. The three of them never had been a family. Or would be in even the loosest sense of the word given the way things were going. “People know we are divorced,” Jake reminded her calmly. “They know we both love Alex.” Or should. At this point, Jake wasn’t sure Melinda was really capable of loving anyone but herself.

  “That’s not enough—” Melinda shot back, uncertainty in her eyes, as Miss Kitty sat down primly right behind her.

  “Then what would be?” Jake demanded impatiently as Miss Kitty suddenly bounded up on her hind legs. Her front paws batted the handkerchief hem of Melinda’s chiffon dress. Melinda frowned as she felt something tugging on her hem, then turned around and let out a shriek that would wake the dead.

  “Oh, for pity’s sake! Shoo-shoo!” Melinda tried to wrest her gown free. The action only served to embed Miss Kitty’s claws in the fabric. Melinda jerked back, taking her gown with her.

  “She’s shredded my dress,” Melinda screamed. “I can’t go to the party like this!”

  “Just take off the outer dress, and wear the one beneath,” Jake said, beginning to feel very irritated that Melinda, who had more clothes than Neiman-Marcus, was more concerned about what she was going to wear to the party than the well-being of their daughter.

  Melinda spun around and glared at Jake as if he’d lost his mind. “What is wrong with you? Can’t you see this is an utter disaster?” Kicking the cat away with her foot, she brushed past Jake. “I’ve got to go change. I can’t let people see me like this.”

  Not really all that sorry Miss Kitty had altered their arrangements with Melinda for the evening, Jake followed lazily. “What do you want me to do about the party?” he called after her.

  “Just show up.” Melinda whirled, the hem of her shredded dress dragging behind her. She glared at him pointedly. “And I’m warning you, Jake, there had better not be any more trouble.”

  Jake hoped there wouldn’t be, too. Though, strangely enough, Melinda seemed to have the most riding on tonight…

  ANXIOUS TO GET to Alex—he was sure his daughter wanted to talk to him as much as he wanted to talk to her—Jake dried Buster off as best he could, put him back in his box, found Miss Kitty and took her back to the laundry room, then went in search of Alex and Jenna. They were in Alex’s suite. Alex’s wet and muddy clothes were in a pile on the floor, and she was cleaned up and wrapped in a warm, fluffy robe. She sat on Jenna’s lap, her small arms wrapped around her neck. To Jake’s dismay, Alex was holding on for dear life and sobbing like her heart would break. When she saw Jake, she jumped up immediately, went to him, still crying hard, and hugged him fiercely, too. “I’m so s-s-s-sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to get in trouble.”

  That was just it, Jake thought. He was pretty sure Alex did mean to get in trouble just now—at least on some subconscious level. Otherwise she wouldn’t feel so darn guilty for all the trouble she’d been causing everyone the past couple of weeks.

  Aware—until recently anyway—that it wasn’t like Alex to misbehave at all, he sat down on the bed beside Jenna and shifted his still-sobbing daughter up onto his lap. “What’s going on here, Alex?” Jake asked gently, determined to get to the bottom of all this calamity, whether Alex wanted to talk about what she was doing and why or not. “You’re a pretty smart little girl. You know better than to play with the garden hose when you’re all dressed up and we’re about to go to a party. So why’d you do it?” Jake took the tissues Jenna handed him and wiped Alex’s eyes.

  For a second Jake thought Alex wasn’t going to answer him. Then she looked up at him and said, “Because I don’t want Mommy to take me away with her.”

  Shocked speechless, Jake looked at Jenna—who also didn’t have a clue what was going on, either—then back at his daughter. “What do you mean—take you away?” he demanded.

  Alex sniffed and rubbed her teary, red eyes. “If I wear pretty dresses and do everything Mommy wants me to do, she’s going to take me to Europe or somewhere way far away, and I won’t never get to see you hardly at all.”

  Jake tightened his arms around Alex protectively. “Alex, no one is taking you away from me,” he assured his daughter firmly.

  “Mommy wants to,” Alex protested.

  “How do you know?” Jake waited until Alex looked at him. “Has Mommy told you that?”

  Still clinging to Jake with all her might, Alex shook her head. “I heard you talking to your lawyer on the phone when you thought I was asleep. You said if I started acting like a little lady and wore dresses Mommy was going to try and take me away.”

  Regret washing through him like a tidal wave, Jake shook his head. “No. I said if you didn’t start wearing dresses and acting like a little lady Melinda might do something rash, like sue for custody.” Jake continued gently but simply, “I was just worried your mommy thought I let you be too much of a tomboy.”

  “But I like being a tomboy!” Alex protested. “Playing with animals and chasing frogs and stuff. And it’s even better now that I’ve got a kitten and a puppy!”

  Jenna grinned, as did Jake. At least he’d done one thing right, bringing more love into Alex’s life. Through the pets, and through Jenna.

  “I know, honey.”

  “So if I like those things, why doesn’t my mommy like to do those things, too?” Alex persisted.

  Jake stroked his hand t
hrough the tangled dampness of Alex’s hair. “Because Mommy likes other things better,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of Alex’s head. “It doesn’t mean one way is right and one way is wrong. It just means you and Mommy are different. Different is okay.”

  “Oh.” Alex thought about that as Jake and Jenna exchanged another soft, sad, mutually worried smile. Alex clutched the damp, muddy fabric of Jake’s tuxedo shirt. “Then why is my mommy trying to take me away?” Hurt Jake would have given anything to take away radiated in Alex’s young eyes.

  “That’s not going to happen,” he told his daughter firmly.

  Alex studied him suspiciously, looking suddenly so much older than her almost-six years. “How can you be sure, Daddy?”

  Because she doesn’t have a maternal bone in her body and can’t be bothered to spend even five minutes with you, never mind have the tenacity to weather a long drawn-out custody battle. And that was what it would take, because Jake had no intention of letting Melinda come in and take Alex away from him. But unwilling and unable to say anything that would hurt his daughter more than she had already been hurt, Jake said solemnly, “Because I won’t ever let it get to that. Because I would see that your mommy and I worked together to solve our problems and do what’s best for you.” And he would enlist the court’s help in that, too.

  “But what if Mommy won’t cooperate with you?” Alexandra asked worriedly.

  Out of the mouths of babes, Jake thought as he caught the increasingly worried look in Jenna’s eyes. “Then I’ll work harder,” Jake promised Alex as he pushed the hair from her face. “And I’ll fight for you. And I’ll never stop. Because that’s what you do when you love someone as much as I love you, Alex. You don’t let anything come between you,” he told her fiercely. “No matter what happens, you don’t walk away. You hang in there and let them and everybody else in the world know that you love ’em with all your heart and soul and you’re never going to stop.”

  To Jake’s relief, Alex finally seemed reassured that everything was going to be okay. Just as Jenna began to look all the more distressed. Why, he couldn’t figure.

  “Daddy?” Alex demanded his full attention once again.

  “Hmm?”

  “I don’t think I want to go to the party,” Alexandra said, cuddling closer.

  Downstairs, a door slammed. Seconds later, footsteps thudded on the stairs. Clara appeared in the doorway. Her glance fell to Alex’s muddy party dress and shoes. “Whoa, cowgirl! Looks like I got back just in time.”

  “What are you doing back?” Jake’s brow furrowed. As much as they needed Clara, he wanted her to have all the time she needed with her daugher, son-in-law and new grandson.

  Clara shrugged and stuck her hands in the pockets of her jeans. “Nathan James’s other grandparents are in town. They’re going to be here for the next few days. I thought I’d let them have some privacy.”

  Alex hopped off Jake’s lap and went over to give Clara a big hug. “Clara, will you baby-sit me tonight so I don’t have to go to the party?” Alex asked.

  Clara looked at Jake, seeming to say: It’s okay with me, if it’s okay with you. “What do you think?” Clara asked Jake. “Should Alex go or stay?”

  HE HADN’T MEANT IT, not the way it sounded. Jenna was still telling herself that half an hour later, as she and Jake turned into his parents’ summer ranch. Just because he hadn’t fought for her years ago, the way he was now pledging to fight for Alex, did not mean he hadn’t didn’t love her then, or loved her now. It just meant he was more mature now. To think otherwise, well…she was making too much out of this, that was all.

  Although it was still early, dozens of cars lined the grass on either side of the drive. Lights and white catering tents had been set up on the green lawn. A country-and-western band was already playing in front of the dance floor that had been erected. Flowers and ice sculptures were everywhere. The scent of the finest Texas cuisine money could buy filled the air. “You okay?” Jake asked as he drove up to the ten-thousand-square-foot country manor house that served as Patricia and Danforth Remington’s “summer place.”

  Jenna shot Jake a glance. “I’m fine,” she fibbed, noting without wanting to how handsome he looked in the Armani tuxedo the gala affair required. Lucky for him he’d had three more of them hanging in his closet at home. Which just went to show, she thought wearily, how different they were. The only reason she had gowns galore to choose from was because she made them for a living—for other people.

  Aware Jake was still waiting for her answer, Jenna turned to him and shot him a careful smile, “Why wouldn’t I be?” She hadn’t had to change clothes. Her evening dress had come through the fracas back at the ranch just fine.

  “Oh, I don’t know,” Jake said, after he had turned the truck and keys over to one of the ranch hands serving as valets. Bypassing the path to the yard, he guided her in the opposite direction from the party, behind the barns. “Maybe because you don’t want to be at this shindig any more than Alex did.”

  Unable to help but note that they were running off to “hide” again at Jake’s behest, Jenna sent Jake a challenging glance and shot back angrily, “Can you blame me? The party is in honor of your ex. And I’m not exactly on your parents’ Most-Wanted-Guest list. Why would I be eager to attend?”

  Momentarily, Jake seemed shocked by Jenna’s sarcasm.

  Jenna was a little shocked herself. It wasn’t like her to complain. Even when she had something to complain about.

  Looking as desperate to comfort her as he had been to comfort Alex, back at the ranch house, Jake took her hand in his and squeezed it reassuringly. “You’ll have your sisters for moral support.”

  And maybe go home early with, if all went as Jake’s parents hoped…. “I’m surprised your parents invited my sisters.”

  “So was I, frankly, but maybe they think it’s time we all put the past behind us and moved on.”

  His attempt to soothe her did little except irritate her more. Jenna knew Jake’s family did not like scandal. But right now they were championing Jake and Melinda, hoping the two would reunite and become a family again for Alexandra’s sake.

  Beginning to wish she had begged off, too, and stayed home with Alex and Clara—it probably would have been more fun and a lot less nerve-racking—Jenna withdrew her hand from Jake’s. “Yes, I’ll have my sisters,” she parroted wearily. Thank heaven for her sisters—she didn’t know how she would have managed the past seven years without them. “Except Meg, of course, who won’t be arriving until later.” But even her sisters wouldn’t be able to protect her from Melinda, should Melinda decide to make a scene or some major public play for Jake, Jenna thought.

  Accurately reading Jenna’s fears, Jake reiterated firmly, “Melinda knows we’re a couple.”

  “Right. She just doesn’t want anyone else to know.”

  Jake regarded Jenna stonily. “I don’t think it is as simple as that.”

  Simple. Complicated. What did it matter? Jenna wondered dispiritedly. Having Melinda here in Laramie with them still meant trouble. Having Melinda at the party meant even more. “I think we should join the party before someone starts to talk,” Jenna murmured.

  Jake nodded. Again, he took her hand in his. “It’s going to be all right,” he promised firmly.

  If only, Jenna thought, she were so certain. As they approached the crowd on the lawn, she felt more than a few curious glances coming their way.

  Kelsey made her way to their side. Brady Anderson—Kelsey’s newfound business partner—was with her. He looked about as happy to be attending the party as she was. Kelsey inclined her head in the direction of an exceedingly handsome, dark-haired man, dressed all in black—black tuxedo, black shirt, black tie. “There he is,” Kelsey told Jake in a voice slightly above a whisper. “That’s Rick, the guy who was asking all the questions about the two of you this morning in town.”

  Jake studied the mystery man with a frown. “I’ve never seen him before in my life.�
�� He turned to Jenna. “Have you?”

  Jenna shook her head. Try as she might, she couldn’t place the stranger, either. Not only did she not know him, she couldn’t recall ever having seen him in Laramie, either. “I haven’t a clue who he is.”

  “Probably a guest of my parents, then,” Jake said, “although what he’d be doing asking questions about me is a definite mystery.”

  “Unless,” Jenna murmured, “he’s a private detective.”

  Jake frowned at her. “Don’t start.”

  “About time you got here.” Melinda sashayed up to join them. “Where’s Alexandra?”

  “She was too tired to come,” Jake said. He gave Melinda a look only she could see, daring her to disagree.

  Jenna expected Melinda to throw another fit.

  Instead, acting as if he had just given her a stunning compliment, Melinda linked arms with Jake and smiled as if she were still very much the woman in Jake’s life. “Perhaps that’s just as well,” Melinda said, looking for all the world as happy as could be.

  Jenna saw the shock in Jake’s eyes. The confusion.

  “We have something very important to discuss,” Melinda murmured mysteriously. She ran her fingertips across Jake’s chest in an incredibly intimate gesture. “Inside the house. Away from all this.”

  Jake caught her hand, lifted it away from his chest, and held it—firmly—in his. “Surely it can wait,” Jake countered, just as insistently. Letting Melinda know with a look to knock it off.

  “I’m afraid not.” Melinda lifted her other hand and, ignoring the silent warning in his eyes, touched Jake’s cheek affectionately, smoothing away an imaginary smudge. “If you care about our daughter at all, meet me in the library in five minutes.” Standing on tiptoe, she kissed his cheek, gave his arm a final affectionate pat and, ignoring Jenna and the rest of them completely, glided off.