by Jodi Thomas
“Anything else?”
“Yes. I’ve been thinking about it. We need to go tell your dad about the wedding in person.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“A man shouldn’t find out about his only child’s wedding when he gets the invitation.” Griffin swore he saw worry in those blue eyes. “I’ll be right beside you. And no matter what he does or says, nothing changes between us, right?”
“Right.” She kissed his cheek and smiled. “I’m going to like being married to you. I love the way you lay the cards on the table and don’t try to manipulate me. Would you have gone alone to talk to my father if I’d said no?”
“I would have and I swear I will never tell anyone about our bargain. Some things are only between us and they always will be.”
“Till death do us part?”
“Till death do us part.”
They walked back to the headquarters holding hands. He was trying his best to get used to the touching that was just for show. In truth, unless a girl tended to wander off or was drunk, he’d never held hands. It seemed something kids would do. But with Sunlan, it felt right. Her stride matched his. Her fingers laced comfortably in his hand. A give-and-take union. A bargain. No manipulating. All fair between them. It sounded like the perfect marriage.
Except for one thing. No sex. No love. And it crossed his mind like a will-o’-the-wisp over still water that they were going to be nothing more than polite strangers for a lifetime.
Polite strangers.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Maverick Ranch
A FEW DAYS after Sunlan went back to Denver, the decorating began to spill down the stairs into the dining room, then the kitchen and finally the great room. First, the new housekeeper removed Cooper’s collection of old boots he’d kept in the corner of the entryway for years. Then the couch and TV got moved to face away from the fireplace, and end tables were added. Next, ten-foot-long curtains were hung over the huge window and pulled back on the sides.
The scarred dining table disappeared and another twice as big was brought in from Dallas in a truck that also carried rugs so big it took three men to carry them in. Next came a massive sculpture of cattle crossing the Red River that sat on the new table.
The three brothers took time to stare at each change.
“It’s like this bronze has always been missing on our table.” Cooper spoke first. “Anyone can see it belongs there. I just didn’t know it until I saw it.”
“I agree,” Elliot voted. “I’ve heard about a woman’s touch in a room, but our Sunlan isn’t just putting her stamp on our place. Somehow she knows what our tastes are, and she’s making it look like the Holloway headquarters should have always looked. No frilly curtains, no furry pillows lying around. No ashtrays that look like you can’t drop ashes into ’em.”
“I, for one, wouldn’t mind a few furry pillows.” Cooper wiggled his eyebrows. “You know, just in case I come in drunk and crash on the couch. I’d have something to cuddle with. Tell our Sunlan to add that to the next shipment, would you, Griff?”
Griffin glared at both his brothers. “She’s not our Sunlan. She’s mine. You two are going to have to find your own wives, because this is one thing we’re not sharing.”
“But where are we going to put wives, Griff? She’s got the third floor. Our bedrooms are on the second, and everything downstairs is public space.”
Elliot looked bored. “I asked that very question, and she told me we could build two wings on. Make the place U-shaped in back. Then she said she’d have an outdoor kitchen built and seating for thirty. She even hinted she’d like a pool for the kids someday.”
“I thought the fire pit was our outdoor kitchen.” Cooper shrugged. “A pool would sure be nicer than the pond. Last time I went for a swim I came up for air, and a cow licked my ear so hard I didn’t get the snot out for a week.”
As they sat down to eat, Cooper complained about missing the Wednesday night meat loaf. But he ate two plates of tortellini with grilled mushrooms and chicken on top.
The new cook wouldn’t talk to them and she hadn’t cooked the same thing twice. When she started serving desserts, Cooper asked her to marry him. She didn’t answer, but she raised her wooden spoon like a weapon when he stepped into her kitchen space.
Griffin picked at his food. The cook who came the day after Sunlan left was good, quiet and professional, but it wasn’t the same as having his almost-wife there. The house felt empty. Like a piece of their family had been missing and no one noticed until Sunlan came. He missed her laughter. She made the old house seem more like a home somehow.
Sunlan was flying in tonight. He had other things on his mind besides food. Details they needed to talk over. Plans to make. The wedding was fast approaching and after that, there would be the actual marriage.
Griffin had got the new runway ready on the Maverick Ranch, even though Sunlan said she didn’t mind landing on the airstrip one ranch over until he finished.
She’d even met Staten Kirkland and his wife’s niece, Madison O’Grady-Weathers, the day she’d taken her first look at Griffin’s ranch. Madison’s long name fit her and she and Sunlan had bonded at once, talking about planes and their love for flying.
Griffin liked the idea of Sunlan finding a friend. Maybe after the wedding, they’d invite Fifth Weathers and his wife, Madison, over for dinner. The women had a great deal in common and Griffin guessed Fifth would fit in with him and his brothers—after all, he was the fifth boy born into the Weathers family. His mother had been so upset she didn’t have a girl she’d just given him a number and moved on.
Couple friends. Griffin laughed. Sounded strange.
This was the first time Sunlan would be trying out the runway Griffin had overseen. It was smaller than Kirkland’s. Not as well lit. He’d followed her design she’d emailed, and made sure it was just the way she wanted it.
He had no doubt if Sunlan wasn’t happy with it, she’d let him know.
Halfway through the meal, he heard the roar of the ATV and stood. All three men met her at the door. Cooper and Elliot both hugged her as they talked at once about how much they missed her. She’d brought bottles of wine for Elliot, and Cooper seemed just as happy to get a six-pack of beer from a new brewery in Denver.
As Elliot and Cooper took their gifts to the kitchen to open, she turned to Griffin but didn’t hug him. He hesitated, never knowing exactly how to act.
“You made good time,” he said. She’d kept her word and notified him just before she took off. “I wasn’t expecting you for another hour or so.”
“I did. How did you like the things I sent for the house?”
“I thought they were great.”
“The sculpture?”
“It looks like it belongs there.”
“I knew it would the minute I saw it.”
Griffin nodded, acting like he cared. “It fits the house, the ranch.” He couldn’t bring himself to ask if she was staying. What would he do or say if she said no? She was her own woman. He had no right to make any demands.
As she turned toward a stack of plates on a sideboard that hadn’t been in the dining room a week ago, she asked, “Would you mind getting my bags? I’m starving.”
“You’re staying?”
“Of course, and I’m so hungry I’d even eat cold roast beef. I’ve finally figured out I’m eating for two.” She didn’t look up.
He wasn’t sure what to say. This was her first reference to the baby since they’d told his brothers she was expecting. Was it okay to talk about it now? Six months seemed a long way off.
After a minute of silence, she changed the subject. “The first of my horses will be arriving here tomorrow. They’ll get used to the new place a few at a time. I want to be here to calm them as they learn their new home. They’re young stallions that a
re too rowdy to be around my mares right now.”
“Everything is ready for them. The men finished work last night.” He guessed he was telling her what she already knew. “That round pen you had built looks strong enough to hold a herd of elephants.”
Halfway to the ATV to get her luggage, it registered that she’d said she was starving. He’d never seen her eat more than two bites. But she was hungry. That had to be a good sign. Griffin grabbed her three bags and walked back to the house.
He sat down beside her, eating his own meal as she talked to Cooper about horses and Elliot about the stock market. And she ate. Something else had changed, too, besides her appetite. There were no dark shadows under her light blue eyes.
Somehow, this crazy bargain they’d made seemed to have settled her. The few times they’d talked had been all business, but their conversations were growing easier, more comfortable.
When they were all lingering over dessert, Griffin put his hand on her back as she leaned forward to make a point.
He let his fingers slowly slide over the silk of her sweater. A gentle touch. Not the start of anything.
She tensed but didn’t make any attempt to move away. All it would have taken was one look and he’d have lifted his hand. But she didn’t seem to mind. Maybe she thought he was doing it for show.
He lightly stroked her again, feeling her bow slightly toward his touch. Part of him reasoned she’d obviously known the touch of a man before; after all, she was pregnant. But the way she responded made him feel as if this was a first for her.
The baby was his, she’d said, making it plain they’d never talk of the lover or boyfriend or the one-night stand who had been with her.
When the brothers offered to take the plates to the kitchen, she turned into him. He leaned back in his chair and held her for a moment.
“I’m exhausted,” she whispered.
“How about I walk you up to your room?”
“Great. If I stay here much longer, you’ll have to carry me up the stairs.”
He took her suitcases and slowly followed her. “These feel like lead.”
“I know. There were things I wanted to bring to leave here.” She reached the third floor and smiled. “Looks like my room’s finished and they’ve moved on to my study and sitting room, which will turn into the nursery next year.” She looked around as he turned on lights.
He thought of asking how the baby was, how big, was it moving, but they weren’t to that point. After the wedding, they’d have six months to work out details of what was okay to talk about and what was off-limits.
“I don’t spend much time checking on your workers up here. I figure they have their orders and I’d just be in the way.” He set the cases down by the closet. “Two or three of the carpenters come in early every morning, but except for them, I’m gone before the others arrive. All of them are usually gone before I make it in at night. They’re like the housekeeper and the cook. Shadows. I know they’re here, but I don’t really see them.”
He watched her hang up her coat and put her shoes neatly in the empty closet. “Elliot is the only one they’ll talk to.” Griffin knew he was rattling but he wasn’t ready to leave. “One of the decorators told Cooper he only ate vegan, and Cooper asked him to point out the critter and he’d shoot him one for supper. Ever since that conversation, the decorators go back to town for lunch.”
Sunlan stretched as she walked toward him. Her sweater lifted enough to show a few inches of skin at her trim waist. “One hug and I’m off to bed.”
Closing his arms around her, Griffin finally got his hug. Gentle. Lingering. Warm.
“Good night, Griff,” she said, and she moved to the bed.
“Good night, Sunshine. See you at dawn.”
“Dawn,” she whispered as she pulled the blankets back and crawled into bed.
He turned out the light and silently closed the door. Her world might be dark tonight, but come sunup, thanks to that huge window she’d had installed, Sunlan was about to meet sunshine in its full glory.
The next morning, he wasn’t surprised to find that she was up and dressed before he came down. Like the men, she grabbed a biscuit sandwich and went to work.
Griffin wanted to follow her, but he had a full schedule this morning. When they reached the porch, he nodded in her direction and said simply, “See you at supper.”
She nodded back and headed toward the white barn. The eyesore had never looked better. An army of workers had come out in trucks loaded down with supplies. They not only rebuilt stalls and corrals, they’d painted a sky blue strip three feet wide near the bottom of the building. The structure that had cost his family almost a million dollars now looked like it belonged on the ranch.
Griffin knew his father would have liked that. He’d been a dreamer. A good father. A loving husband to the end. But he hadn’t had a head for business. Griff smiled. Maybe if you have to drop one card in life, in the end, that one mattered least of all.
Only for Griffin, losing the ranch mattered. This wasn’t just where he grew up, it was where he belonged. Maybe he fought so hard every day to keep it because he couldn’t see himself anywhere else. He was bone and blood a piece of this land. He wasn’t sure his heart would beat if he left for long.
If anyone understood that, it might be Sunlan. Maybe they were a better match than he’d first thought?
Griffin circled by the headquarters every few hours on horseback while he worked cattle in a nearby pasture.
The sun melted away most of the dusting of snow, making the prairie look less like a Christmas card. A carpenter’s work van was pulled up close to the porch, but there was no sign of the horse trailer that Sunlan had mentioned coming in from her place in Colorado.
About noon, two other small trucks pulled up. One held plants and another belonged to a flooring company out of Lubbock.
Finally, at about two, a long silver trailer arrived. This one didn’t have the Krown branding on the side, just a light blue strip running near the bottom. The same color as her eyes, he thought. Sunlan’s brand.
By the time Griffin reached the yard, Sunlan was right in the middle of helping to unload the horses.
Griffin fought the urge to rush in and pull her back from any danger. She was pregnant, after all, and loading or unloading was always a tricky job. But he knew he’d be breaking the rules if he ordered her away. She probably knew the danger and maybe knew she could handle it.
Cooper was right beside her, taking half the load. He had a way with horses. If one acted up, Griffin had no doubt his brother would step between trouble and Sunlan.
Moving to the corral gate, Griffin joined in the work. Within thirty minutes, they had the first six of Sunlan’s new stock home. She leaned against the railing and introduced each one. There was no doubt how much she loved them. Griffin might call horses by their color, but his wife seemed to think they needed to be addressed by their proper names.
“I’ll bring more next month, after we’re married.”
Two hands from her ranch walked the mares. They looked to be in their early twenties and seemed more like college boys than ranch hands. “Andy and Dave plan to stay a few days until the horses are settled in,” Sunlan announced. “They’re both taking a year off from school to decide what to major in. I think the hard work is convincing them to go back to pre-law, it’d be easier.” She looked at Griffin. “I know you wouldn’t mind them staying in the bunkhouse, but I thought I’d put them up at the Franklins’ place. The ladies will love feeding them and the guys promised to help Rose and Daisy decorate for Christmas as well as the wedding. With all the excitement no one had time to decorate for Thanksgiving.” She grinned. “They’ve got so many ideas. I think the ladies think they’re my fairy godmothers. Don’t be surprised if you see a pumpkin carriage.”
Griffin fought down a groan. “They may need to stay longer
than a few days. I’ll hire on a few more day hands and let these boys show them exactly what you want done with the horses. Cooper will make sure they stay in line with how you like things.”
She bumped her shoulder against his. “You know, Griffin, you’re starting to grow on me. I need the guys back with me as soon as possible, though. We’ve got our hands full at Misty Bend and soon I’ll have to leave long enough to get married.” She kissed his cheek. “A man whose only fear seems to be cartoon characters should be easy to get along with. I think I’ll snatch you up fast.”
“I’m not afraid of them.” He doubted she even heard him. Sunlan was busy nuzzling her face into a hay-colored Morgan’s neck. Her love for the animal was obvious. Griffin realized just how much these horses meant to her. They were her life, her family. He knew she’d do anything to protect them, even marry a stranger.
When she turned the horse loose, the two-year-old took off in a run around the corral. Sunlan turned back to Griffin and patted his arm. “I’ll have to go into town a few mornings while I’m here to see how the wedding plans are coming along but I thought it might be fun to see some of your ranch on horseback this afternoon. Have you got the time?”
“I’ll make the time.”
He thought of reminding her that they needed to drive down and see her father, but it could wait a week. With her staying here nights and moving horses to his land, the possibility of the wedding really happening seemed to be growing.
Something had changed about her, and he had a feeling it was more than just having the horses here. She’d relaxed since she’d left. She might not be to the point of liking him, but she no longer seemed afraid of him. She hadn’t lectured him on the rules of their agreement for a few days, and she was touching him, almost as much as she was touching the horses. That had be a step up in rank for him.
The days were dropping off the calendar and there was still a great deal to do, but he could see life calming in the future. She’d float in and out of his life, and he’d build his ranch thanks to her giving him the chance.