“Your turn, Uncle Jake,” J.J. said.
Jake dragged his attention from Claire, realizing he’d missed an entire side of the table. He didn’t have to think about his own gratitude, and he didn’t have to lie. “I’m thankful that I found Claire who has brought new meaning to my life, not the least of which is becoming a member of this wonderful family.”
His words seemed to release the hordes, because everyone reached for the food that sat in front of them. Everyone except him and Claire. Their eyes locked in silent communication, but asked more questions than they answered.
As Travis told a story about getting a whipping from his father for sneaking a cigarette behind the barn at the Garden, Jake shifted on the couch and settled Sarah against his other arm. The little girl murmured sleepily, nuzzled her sweet face against his chest, then went on sleeping.
“Let me take her upstairs,” Claire suggested quietly.
Jake shook his head. “She’s okay.”
He didn’t want to disturb the familial ambience in the room. Replete with Thanksgiving dinner, the entire clan had gathered in the living room. The adults lounged on the furniture, the boys on the floor. Claire snuggled next to Jake, her arm slung across his shoulders.
As the Edens told stories about growing up on their Wyoming ranch, it struck Jake that this was what family life should be—love and support without exception, without question, without excuses. That these people had included him in their circle of love made his heart feel like it had grown ten times its normal size.
What had he done to deserve their friendship, their trust, their love? All he did was marry Claire, and that under what the Edens would consider false pretenses. What would they say if they knew he’d married her just to have a baby?
Now he knew why Claire was so concerned about making her family believe they were in love. She didn’t want to lose their respect, didn’t want anything to mar this wonderful inclusion. Now that he’d been embraced, drawn into this circle of love, he understood completely.
Jake wanted to be exactly what these people thought he was—an honest man, a reliable brother-in-law, a loving husband.
The last part was the hardest...or maybe the easiest.
During the past two days, he’d come to realize that the way he acted toward Claire was exactly the way Hank acted toward Alex. The way Hank seemed to feel about his wife was the way Jake felt about his. Jake wanted to protect her, to make her happy, to delve deep inside her and know her inside out, to hold her and never let go.
She asked him once what he would do if she didn’t get pregnant, and he couldn’t give her an answer then. He could now. It didn’t matter if they never had children. He’d leave the Bar Hanging Seven to his niece and nephews. They were part of his family now. It didn’t matter that their name wasn’t Anderson. All he wanted was for Claire to stay with him forever.
Did that mean he loved her? He was fairly certain it did, but would his love be enough for her? It never was for anyone else. He loved his mother and she left him. He’d thought he loved Melissa and she left him. He loved his father as long as the old man would let him. Somehow Jake’s love hadn’t been enough to make any of them love him back.
Jake slowly turned his head to gaze at his wife. She met his eyes with a question in her own.
He leaned toward her and placed a reverent kiss on her lips.
Claire shivered in the cool air when she heard the back door creak open, but she didn’t turn from her position at the porch rail. She knew who it was. A frisson of excitement ran down her spine every time Jake came near—like some kind of inner radar.
He slipped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He drew her back against him, and his breath tickled her ear as he whispered, “Escaping the hordes?”
She nodded and leaned against his warmth. “My family is hard to take in such large doses. I’d ask how you’re holding up, but for some strange reason, you seem to like them.”
He chuckled and pulled her a little closer. “I do like them, and so do you. But it’s great to have a minute alone with you.”
“It was nice of you to loan Hank that bull. He’s as happy as a spring colt.”
Jake placed a kiss on her temple. “I’m glad to do it.”
They watched silently as more stars popped out in the inky sky. Moments like these were what she missed about ranch life, and being in Jake’s arms made the moment doubly precious. She’d be content to stay wrapped in his arms the rest of her life.
The feeling amazed her when she remembered how determined she’d been to never depend on a man, much less a cowboy. Jake had brought many changes to her life. She didn’t even pretend to understand them all.
“I think your plan worked, don’t you?” Jake asked softly. “Your family seems convinced we married for love.”
She went still as his words knifed deep into her heart. He still didn’t love her. Because he treated her so lovingly—kissing her whenever he entered a room, touching her when she was within reach, not making any kind of decision until he consulted her—she’d begun to hope that maybe he was learning how to love.
“Claire,?”
She blinked back the tears stinging her eyes and tried to make her voice sound normal. “Yes, we convinced them. You’re a good actor, Jake. You even fooled me there for a minute or two.”
He turned her in his arms and gently lifted her chin. “We need to talk. angel. I’ve been—”
“Hey, you two!” boomed a voice from the back door. “You’re married now. You can save that kind of stuff for later.”
Jake scowled at Travis. “Can’t a man be alone with his wife?”
“Why, sure.” Travis’s grin broadened as he rubbed his chin. “That’s what bedrooms are for.”
“For Pete’s sake, Travis,” Claire huffed.
“I thought you were watching the football game,” Jake said.
“I am. But though Sarah has had a kiss from nearly everyone in the house, she won’t go to bed without one from ‘Unca Jake.’ Alex sent me to find you.”
Jake shook his head with a smile. He obviously cared a lot for Hank’s children. Would he ever care as much for his own wife?
He ran a finger across her cheek. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. Wait for me.”
Claire shrugged. “Where am I going to go?”
He placed a tender kiss on her lips, then went into the house.
Stretching broadly, Travis walked over to lean against the porch rail beside her. “Well, you’ve gone and found yourself a good man.”
Claire smiled sadly as she watched the door close behind Jake. “Have I?”
“For years now I thought Hank was going to be the only lucky one in this family. I was beginning to give up on you getting hitched as much as I’ve given up on myself. But you done good.”
Claire knew her older brother better than she knew probably anybody, and so recognized the sadness behind the ever-present smile. Wrapping her arms around one of his, she said, “Telling you you’ll find somebody one of these days doesn’t help when you’re feeling lonely. I know. But you will.”
He placed a kiss on the top of her head. “I’m thirty-two. On the road three hundred and sixty days out of the year.”
“That’s how you found CherylAnn.” CherylAnn Barnes was a barrel racer Travis was engaged to several years ago, before he caught her with another man.
Travis snorted. “Yeah, and you see how well that worked out. She only wanted me because I’m ‘The Cowboy with the Million-Dollar Smile’—and the million dollars to go with it. Where am I going to find a woman who wants me for who I am, instead of what I ride and how many times I’m interviewed on ESPN?”
Claire sighed. “It happens when you least expect it, believe me. But if you can’t find someone on the road, why don’t you settle down?”
Travis rubbed the back of his neck and turned to gaze over the dark hills. “I’ve tried. But it’s too hard living at the Garden, being around Hank and Alex. They’re
so happy, and they try so hard to make me happy.” He leaned onto the porch rail with a white-knuckled grip. “It makes me crazy, and I have to get away, so I go back on the road.”
“So that’s why you’re still rodeoing.”
He nodded. “And it’s why I’ve been concentrating on team roping. My bull riding days are about over, but I can rope for another twenty years or so.”
“You can always live here, but that wouldn’t help much, would it? Why not get your own ranch? Or do you still have your heart set on the old Larson place?”
He nodded. “The Circle E is the closest place to the Garden. Hell, it used to be part of the Garden. Hank and I are partners. If I’m not on the road selling the stock, I need to be close so I can help him train.”
“But I thought Sam Duggan wouldn’t sell the Circle E. At least, not to you.”
“You didn’t hear he sold it back to the Larsons last summer? I swear he did it just to spite me. Then he up and died a month back.”
“Becca lives at the Circle E again?” Claire asked. “I think about my old friend now and then. What’s she doing?”
“Barrel chasing,” Travis spat.
“I know CherylAnn was a barrel racer, but that doesn’t mean they’re all spoiled brats.”
Travis snorted his derision.
Claire slipped her arm around his waist. “So forget about the Circle E. Won’t some other place do?”
He shook his head. “I’ve wanted to live on the Circle E since I was a boy. It’s hard to give up on owning it. The ranch house isn’t much to look at, but there’s a spot about half a mile away on Yellow Jack Mountain with a view that would make a bighorn sheep cry. You know the place. I’ve already got the blueprints for a log cabin I want to build there.”
“Since you’re as pigheaded as Hank and as determined to have your own way as my husband, I know you’ll own the Circle E one of these days.” Claire leaned against him. “Make it a big house, Travis, so I can come and visit.”
Travis hugged her back. “I’m glad you’re happy.”
“Thanks. I hope you find somebody soon. You deserve to be happy, too.”
Chapter Ten
Mrs. Warren vigorously pumped Claire’s hand in the small grocery store parking lot in Pawnee. “Well, I gotta run. It was good to meet ya, Mrs. Anderson. Maybe now that Jake’s settled down, he’ll spend a little more time at home. You see that he does, ya hear?”
“I’ll try, Mrs. Warren,” Claire said. “It was nice to meet you, too.”
The middle-aged woman waddled away across the asphalt. With an auburn mane, permanent freckles and dressed in rusty browns, her new neighbor reminded Claire of a red hen.
Alex leaned close. “Get the feeling Jake’s proud of his new bride? That’s the seventh person to introduce themselves in the last half hour. He must be telling people all over town about you.”
Claire’s lips twisted wryly as she opened the rear door of the Jeep. It was hard to imagine Jacob Anderson of Pawnee Investments running around Pawnee bragging about getting married. But then, her image of that man had changed considerably during the month they’d been married, especially during the past few days. “He’s probably just explaining what he’s doing with three kids. Where are they, anyway? How long does it take to get ice cream?”
Alex lifted a bag of groceries from the cart and placed it in the car. “If he’s like Hank—and he certainly seems to be—he’s shooting the breeze with some guy at the feed store or tack shop.”
“I don’t know why he had to come along, anyway. Do men think women lack the driving gene or something? I was afraid he’d insist on following us around, and I certainly didn’t want to stand in the middle of the drugstore and explain why I was buying a pregnancy test.”
“Men like to get to town as much as women do.”
Claire rolled her eyes. “The man lives in Denver, Alex.”
“Oh, that’s right. I keep forgetting. He probably just didn’t want to let you out of his sight. Look, there they come.”
Claire placed the last bag in the Jeep—the one with her pregnancy test buried deep in the bottom—then turned to see her husband swaggering down the sidewalk with three kids in tow. Why had she never noticed he walked like a cowboy? Or did the simple act of shedding expensive Italian shoes and donning boots change his gait?
When Matt spied his mother, he broke rank and ran toward them. “Mama, look! Uncle Jake bought us all new boots.”
The boy proudly held up one foot to show off a bright blue boot with red, green and yellow arrowheads decorating the side.
The other kids were two steps behind Matt. Sarah’s boots were red with a snowflake design. JJ.’s were a practical brown.
“My goodness, new boots,” Alex exclaimed. “Is it Christmas already?”
Sarah shook her head emphatically. “Unca Jake said we get more presents at Christmas.”
Even levelheaded J.J. was excited. “Uncle Jake said we could have any boots we wanted. We didn’t even have to look at the price.”
With dread washing over her, Claire looked at her husband. Jake smiled broadly, obviously pleased at having pleased the children.
What was wrong with the man? Wasn’t he capable of learning anything? She thought she’d taught him he couldn’t buy love, but here he was throwing his money around like a snowstorm in January. He might fool the kids, but Hank and Alex and Travis would see right through him.
“Those are very nice presents,” Alex told her children. “Did y’all thank Uncle Jake?”
“Profusely,” Jake said with a grin.
But the kids threw themselves at him for another big hug and many exuberant thank-yous.
The kids began a loud argument over who would sit by Jake during the ride home, and Claire turned to Alex. “Sorry.”
Alex glanced at her in surprise. “What for?”
Claire shook her head and climbed into the Jeep. If Alex hadn’t put two and two together yet, Claire certainly wasn’t going to do the math for her.
As she buckled her seat belt, she realized that the implications of Jake’s actions stretched far beyond new boots. If he hadn’t learned he couldn’t buy love, how would he learn how to give it?
Heart in her throat, Claire stared down at the white plastic stick. She lifted the instructions with a shaking hand and compared it to the samples given. A blue cross meant the test was positive. The blue cross on her indicator was twice as dark as the one on the sample.
The result couldn’t be plainer. She was pregnant.
A grin of relief swept across her face, and she released in a whoosh the breath she’d been holding. A baby. In nine months she’d hold her son or daughter in her arms.
“Well?” Alex asked from the bathroom doorway.
Claire turned and held the indicator up like a trophy.
Alex took one look and flung her arms around Claire. “You’re pregnant. Oh, Claire, that’s wonderful!”
“After all these years...” Tears stung Claire’s eyes. Her heart raced so fast she felt light-headed. “Can you believe it?”
Alex drew back to arm’s length. “Of course I can. Between you and Travis, you’re the one I never gave up on.”
Claire stared down at the stick. “You’re sure it’s accurate?”
“Ninety-seven percent. Says so right there on the package. And it told me the last three times I was pregnant.”
Claire placed a hand over her stomach. A baby. Somewhere deep inside her a tiny part of Jake grew into a child who would bind them together. Forever.
Suddenly she couldn’t breathe.
“Now you need to visit your doctor as soon as possible,” Alex said firmly. “Prenatal care is very important. She’ll let you know your due date and give you vitamins and—”
“Claire, you in here?” Jake’s voice called from the bedroom.
“In here, Jake,” Alex called. Then she lowered her voice to a whisper. “There’s the proud father now. As much as I’d like to see his face when you
tell him, you need to be alone.”
As Alex left, Claire barely kept herself from grabbing her sister-in-law’s sweater and hanging on for dear life. Dropping the instructions and bracing a hand on the cool porcelain sink for support, she heard Alex and Jake exchange comments. After a laugh from Alex, the bedroom door closed.
A second later Jake filled the connecting doorway. “Why are you hiding in here?”
Claire stared at her husband’s face for a long moment. His dark, hawkish features had become familiar to her during the month of their marriage, as if they’d always been together. But she still didn’t know how he was going to react.
They’d been working hard to get her pregnant, and they’d succeeded. Mission accomplished. So where did they go from here?
Would he treat her like he treated all his other investments? When they paid off, he shoved them onto a back burner so he could concentrate on the next one.
Only one way to know. Taking a shaky breath, she held out the stick. He took it with a puzzled frown. A second later his brow cleared. His gaze scanned the bathroom and landed on the box sitting openly on the closed toilet seat. Then his eyes locked on hers. “Does this mean...?”
“It means I’m pregnant,” she said quietly.
His reaction was everything a woman could hope for. Joy lit his face, and he swept her off her feet. He spun her around several times, holding her tight. When he finally put her back on the floor, he buried his face in her hair and whispered, “This calls for a glass of champagne. Hell, this calls for a whole bottle.”
She couldn’t help smiling and hoped the relief she felt would last. “None for me. I’m drinking for two now.”
Jake pulled back enough to see his wife. Placing a hand on either side of her face, he studied her as if she were a rare and precious jewel. But that’s exactly what she was. When she yelled at him in that elevator a month ago, he never dreamed this woman would bring so much happiness into his life. He felt like a new man, like it was a different Jake Anderson who had stepped onto the elevator that stormy night. He’d never curse the rain again.
And Cowboy Makes Three (Cowboys To The Rescue 2) Page 15