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

by Thacker, Cathy Gillen

  “That is correct.” The count puffed out his chest like a strutting peacock. “I see you have heard of me.” Shooting another glance at Melinda, he looked very pleased.

  “Only in passing,” Jake acknowledged with a sigh, realizing he should have put this all together much sooner, would have if he’d been paying a lot more attention to Melinda, and a lot less attention to Jenna. Even so, he wouldn’t do any of it over for anything in the world—the days and nights with Jenna had been the best in his entire life!

  Determined to sort this out once and for all, Jake looked at the handsome Italian count. “What are you doing here?”

  Riccardo slipped his arm around Melinda’s waist. “I have come to claim my woman.”

  Melinda lifted her chin haughtily and pushed Riccardo away like some odious piece of trash. “I told you. It’s over. Completely.” She taunted Riccardo with a haughty look and physically aligned herself with Jake. “I’m getting back together with Jake, for our daughter’s sake.”

  Riccardo remained both unimpressed and disbelieving—as was Jake. “You do not love him, darling,” he said, giving Melinda a coaxing glance. “You love me.”

  Ain’t that the truth, Jake thought, not sure whether to be amused or just annoyed by the drama unfolding before him.

  Melinda’s chin lifted even higher as she informed her former suitor coldly, “Jake has offered to remarry me.”

  Riccardo scoffed. “That is what it will take to get you to return to Italy?” he demanded. “Marriage?”

  Melinda gave Riccardo a wickedly derisive look. “That, Riccardo,” she said sweetly, “is the only way I will ever go….”

  HALF AN HOUR later, Jenna had endured all the suspense she could handle when Melinda suddenly swept through the crowd of revelers, glided up onto the outdoor stage, grabbed the microphone off the stand, and stopped the band in midsong. As the music faded abruptly, the crowd turned their eyes to her. She beamed out at them joyously. “Everyone! I have an announcement to make!” She waved to the tall, dark and handsome man Kelsey had pointed out earlier, grasped his hand and tugged him onto the bandstand with her. “We are very honored to have a member of the nobility here with us tonight. I’d like to introduce Count Riccardo della Gherardesca from Italy. And I would also like to tell you that he has asked me to marry him tonight and I have said yes!”

  For a moment, everyone stared at them in stunned disbelief, including Jenna. Most shocked of all, though, were Jake’s parents. Hurt, embarrassment and disillusionment flickered across their faces in rapid succession. At last they seemed to realize they had put all their faith in the wrong person. But whether or not that meant they would accept Jenna as the woman in Jake’s life was another matter entirely, Jenna thought worriedly, as she joined in the polite ripple of applause following the announcement.

  “Can you believe it?” Melinda asked one and all, beaming. “I’m going to be a countess by Christmas!”

  Smiles frozen on their faces, Patricia and Danforth Remington continued to stare at Melinda with obvious disappointment. Clearly, this had caught them as off guard as it had everyone else. Jake had been right, Jenna realized. Melinda had had another agenda—one that had nothing to do with him and Alex—all along. She had used his parents to get what she wanted, perhaps even more heartlessly than she had used him and Alexandra.

  Relief flowing through her now that they knew what Melinda had been up to, and that she would soon be out of their lives—hopefully for a long time—Jenna watched as Jake finally emerged from the ranch house and threaded his way through the crowd to her side.

  He looked happy and relieved, and not the least bit jealous or distressed by his ex-wife’s announcement. Which was odd, Jenna thought, suddenly feeling even more upset than his parents were at that very moment, given the incriminating stains on the starched white collar of his tuxedo shirt.

  “I told you my plan would work,” Jake said, taking Jenna into his arms and leading her back onto the dance floor as the music and revelry began once again.

  “Perhaps better than you thought?” Jenna prodded furiously, unable to take her eyes from the faint but distinct stains trailing from his collar, across his throat and jaw, all the way to his lips. She did not want to imagine how all that pale rose lipstick had gotten there. Never mind how or why Jake had allowed such a thing to happen!

  Oblivious of the evidence on his own face, Jake frowned at the sarcastic note in her voice. Staring at Jenna in frustration, he tugged her close and whispered in her ear, “She just told me she thought Alex would be better off with me, now that she’s going back to Italy to marry Riccardo.”

  “Congratulations. I’m sure Alex will be very sad—at being abandoned again—and relieved that the threat of a custody fight for her is over.” And for that much, Jenna was grateful, too. It had been wrong of Melinda to put their little girl in the middle of any of this. But as for the rest…How Jake could come back out here, reeking of Melinda’s expensive perfume, his face and neck smudged with her lipstick, and act as if nothing had happened was beyond Jenna. Way beyond her!

  Jake frowned as Jenna stiffened in his arms. He studied her as he deftly kept time to the Clint Black tune, “I thought you would be happy, too.”

  “Oh, really happy,” Jenna agreed. Unable to bear looking at the lipstick stains on his face one second longer, she moved away from Jake. “I’d like to go home. Now, Jake.”

  Jake continued to study her unrepentantly and with a little annoyance. “Fine,” he said eventually. “I suppose our business here has been done anyway. Just let me tell my parents we’re leaving—”

  Jenna put up a hand to stop him. Her pride was already smashed to pieces. Much more of this and her heart really would break. “You don’t have to leave the party on my account,” she said tersely. “I can leave by myself.”

  “You don’t have a car.”

  “I’ll get one of my sisters to take me.”

  Jake’s gray eyes darkened to pewter. His expression grew all the more worried. “I want to go with you,” he said softly.

  Jenna did not have the patience to argue further. “Fine. Give me the keys. I’ll ask the valet to get your truck and bring it around while you say good-night to your parents.”

  His expression still concerned, Jake wordlessly did as she asked. By the time he caught up with her again, Jenna was already in the passenger seat. His mouth was grim as he got behind the wheel. The faint but distinct smudges of lipstick that had been on his face were no longer in evidence—obviously someone had told him about them and he had wiped them off—but he said nothing as he drove, not toward his own J&R Ranch, but toward Laramie.

  Jenna told herself his silence was fine with her. What she had to say to Jake would only upset him, upset them both. It was best they not be driving somewhere when she did so. Best they not be back at his ranch, where Clara and Alex could overhear.

  Finally, they reached her shop. “I can take it from here.” Jenna slammed out of his truck as soon as it stopped.

  “No doubt,” Jake countered dryly. “I’m still coming up with you.”

  Jenna gave him a withering look and swept up the exterior stairs to her second-floor apartment. “Don’t bother.”

  “It’s no bother.” Jake’s voice was calm, very calm.

  Jenna’s hands shook as she let herself in. She flipped on the lights, but barred his way inside. “I think it’s best if you and I don’t see each other again.”

  “I had a feeling you were going to say that.” Jake took her elbow and steered her inside. He took off his bow tie and dropped it into the pocket of his tuxedo jacket. “I don’t agree.”

  “That is just too, too bad.” Jenna dug in her heels and squared off with him. She refused to notice how sexy he looked with his jacket open and the first couple of buttons of his shirt undone. “Because this is what I want and in this situation what I say goes.”

  Jake removed his jacket and dropped it over the back of Jenna’s sofa. He went to her refrigerat
or and helped himself to a bottle of water. “I understand you’re upset about the lipstick on my face.”

  Jenna shook her head. “No joke, Sherlock.”

  Jake twisted off the cap in one smooth motion. “You could have told me about it, instead of leaving it to my mother to point out.”

  Jenna’s heart pounded as Jake strode closer and took a long, thirsty drink. “Why would I, when it made such an attractive and telling clue to your recent activities?”

  Jake frowned as he put the half-empty bottle down on the counter with a thud. “I know what it looks like,” he said evenly, keeping his eyes on hers.

  Jenna backed up until she felt the counter against her hips. “That makes two of us then.” She folded her arms in front of her militantly.

  Jake braced his hands on either side of her. He leaned in close, so his head was slanted just above hers and there was no avoiding the heat or the calm determination in his eyes. “I didn’t kiss her.”

  Jenna tore her eyes from the intent set of Jake’s lips. “She kissed you.”

  “Yes.” Jake clenched his jaw and continued to look deep into Jenna’s eyes. “And not on the mouth, either, just exactly where you saw.”

  Jenna flattened her hands on Jake’s chest and shoved; he was about as movable as a two-ton boulder. “That is so lame,” Jenna muttered. Unable to budge Jake an inch, she dropped her hands and once again folded them at her waist.

  Jake continued to loom over her. “She was using me to get to Riccardo, to make him jealous enough to propose. Our so-called clinch precipitated their reconciliation.”

  Jenna did her best not to breathe in the compelling, woodsy fragrance of Jake’s aftershave. Her overwhelming attraction to him was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place! Jenna tilted her head back, putting some distance between their lips, and continued to glare at him furiously. “And if he hadn’t come along and saved the day for you, then what?”

  Jake shrugged his broad shoulders and edged back just a little. “She still would have turned my proposal down.”

  “Or seduced you to make Riccardo even more jealous,” Jenna suggested sarcastically.

  Jake’s jaw tightened. “That wouldn’t have happened.”

  Jenna wished she could have been so sure! But it had happened before, just weeks after she and Jake had broken up. “And yet you were in Melinda’s bedroom this evening, were you not?”

  Jake frowned. This, he had apparently not planned to tell her. “How do you know that?” he demanded unhappily.

  Jenna sighed as misery rushed over her anew. “A dozen guests saw you. It was all over the crowd, long before you even came out of the house.” She just hadn’t wanted to believe it. And hadn’t, until Jake had shown up with smudges of lipstick on his face.

  Apology radiated from Jake’s gray eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean for you to be humiliated.”

  “Just like you didn’t mean for me to be humiliated when you told me that our elopement wasn’t cancelled—just postponed, that you were coming back for me. And then never showed?”

  Jake’s face tightened with chagrin. “I explained to you why that happened.”

  “And you explained to me why you had to go to Melinda and propose tonight, too.” Tears stung Jenna’s eyes. “Neither incident stopped me from being hurt, Jake.”

  Jake spread his hands wide and stepped back, his frustration with Jenna evident. “I told you I didn’t kiss her!”

  Shaking her head in futility, Jenna slipped past him. “That’s not even the point,” she retorted sadly. “Although the evidence does suggest you let yourself be kissed. Which in my point of view, for the record, is just as bad.” Her eyes shot accusing daggers at him. “The point is that our relationship will always take second place for you. Whether it’s the welfare of my sisters or your parents or heaven knows what else, you will always choose to protect others rather than preserve our relationship.”

  Jake clamped both his hands on her shoulders and forced her to face him when she would have turned away. “I’m not going to apologize for what I did tonight—especially given the results!”

  “I didn’t expect you to,” Jenna muttered contemptuously, as tears of abject misery slid down her face. “I know you think you’re right now, just as you did then. And I also know the bottom line is you don’t love me enough for this to work, Jake. You never have, you never will. Because otherwise we wouldn’t have been putting others first and sneaking around, hiding what we feel for each other from everyone else. We would have been proclaiming our love to anyone who would listen from the very beginning.”

  “You know why we did it that way when we were kids!” Jake said, desperation edging his low voice. “I was trying to spare you the grief you would have gotten from my parents.”

  “And last week you were trying to spare me the grief I would have gotten from Melinda! Don’t you see?” Jenna dashed the tears away with her fingertips. “It doesn’t make any difference,” she said bitterly, painfully aware that had Jake’s instincts been wrong tonight, had Melinda accepted instead of rejected his proposal that they elope, her heart would have been broken again. “The only time our relationship works is when it’s completely separate from everything and everyone else. Well, I’m tired of indulging in a backstreet affair, Jake! I’m tired of feeling like I’m someone you have to ignore in public or hide away!”

  Jake’s pewter eyes gleamed with hurt. “I took you to my parents’ ranch tonight. I walked in proudly with you on my arm.”

  “Then ditched me and went to an upstairs bedroom with your ex-wife and returned with lipstick on your face.”

  Jake was silent, unable to deny that had been a public-relations disaster for him and Jenna, even if it had ended with Melinda joyously announcing her engagement to Riccardo.

  Jenna sighed miserably and pushed both her hands through her hair. After just one week with Jake she had gone from being one of the most creative and respected businesswomen around to an object of pity and a hopelessly romantic idiot. “Once again, Jake, we’re the talk of the town.” Everyone was going to be saying she had made a complete fool of herself over Jake Remington. Again. And, as usual, they’d be right.

  Jake leaned against the opposite counter and kept his eyes on hers. “We can turn this negative into a positive.”

  Jenna was tired of viewing their romance through rose-colored glasses, only to get slammed back to reality again. She regarded Jake with a weariness that went all the way to her soul. “Is that really the way your parents will see it?” she asked softly, fighting for serenity. Or were Patricia and Danforth Remington one more stumbling block she and Jake would not be able to overcome?

  “I guarantee you after the way Melinda treated them tonight they won’t be championing her anymore.”

  Jenna pushed away the mental image of Melinda kissing Jake in an upstairs bedroom of the Remingtons’ summer ranch house. “So then they’ll be championing someone else in your blue-blooded social set.”

  Jake scowled at her unhappily. “You don’t give yourself enough credit.” He pushed away from the counter and started toward her.

  “No, Jake,” Jenna replied, “you don’t give me enough credit.” She could see the future as it was going to unfold, even if Jake couldn’t or wouldn’t. As long as his parents disapproved of his relationship with her, there would never be a happily-ever-after for the two of them. Having lost her own parents, she couldn’t see herself willfully separating Jake from his. “What was it you said to Alex? ‘I’ll fight hard for you and I’ll never stop, because that’s what you do when you love someone as much as I love you. You don’t let anyone come between you. 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.’ Well, that’s what I want. I want you to feel the same way about us!”

  “I do feel the same way about us!”

  “No, Jake. Yo
u don’t.” And sadly, Jenna had known that ever since she had heard Jake talking to Alex about the potential custody fight earlier that evening. She just hadn’t wanted to admit it to herself. But once Jake had left her and gone off with Melinda she’d had no choice but to see the situation the way it was, instead of the way she wanted it to be.

  Feeling like her heart was breaking, Jenna continued hoarsely, “I do feel that way about you—but you don’t feel that way about me, you never have. And you can’t build a relationship by yourself.” Jenna blinked back a fresh flood of tears. “It takes two people to make a marriage. Two people, equally committed, to make the kind of long-lasting union that Lilah and John McCabe have, that my parents had and that even your parents have.” Jenna knew she did not deserve any less.

  Jake stared at her incredulously. “You really think that little of me?” he demanded, looking as deeply disappointed in her as she was in him. “That I would let anything or anyone come between us again?”

  “You already have,” Jenna whispered, wishing with all her heart that things were different. “And I can’t live that way, Jake, always waiting for the ax to fall. Waiting for the next thing to come along and get in the way of our relationship. Waiting for another reason for you to once again abandon me or push me aside or ask me to wait until you come back, and never knowing whether or not you actually will!” She couldn’t bear for him to make seemingly heartfelt promises to her, only to break them. It would be better not to have him in her life at all.

  “Nothing is going to get between us unless you want it to,” Jake retorted furiously, pushing the words between his teeth. Looking exasperated beyond belief, he planted his hands on his hips and regarded Jenna sternly. “But then maybe that’s been the plan all along,” he said slowly. Moving closer, he narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. “What was it you told your sisters—that the only reason you were seeing me at all again was to get your revenge? That you wanted me to suffer the way you had suffered the last time, when you were dumped unceremoniously? Well, congratulations, lady,” Jake growled as he stormed toward the door, grabbing his tuxedo jacket as he went, “you got your revenge.”