A Bride for Liam Brand

by Joanna Sims

  “What?”

  “Keep your cool.”

  * * *

  Callie hugged her father good-night for the third time before Kate could get her to go on to bed. Her daughter was, understandably, afraid that she wouldn’t see Lloyd for a long time.

  “Good night, kitten.” Lloyd leaned over a bit, that smooth smile in place, and blew his daughter an air kiss.

  Kate heard Callie giggling happily as she shut the door to her bedroom. With a sigh, Kate went in to the kitchen to run the water over the dirty dishes to soak them before she rinsed them off.

  She felt Lloyd come up behind her, so she shut off the water. Before she could turn around, Lloyd wrapped his arms around her from behind.

  “I’ve missed us.”

  The feel of Lloyd’s hands on her body, the feel of his breath on her neck, made her cringe. She didn’t know why, couldn’t explain it later, but instead of elbowing him in the gut, her body froze. She couldn’t move. And that, of course, was the moment Liam opened her front door.

  “Hello.” The sound of Liam’s voice spurred Kate into action. She wrenched herself away from Lloyd, who nonchalantly leaned back against the kitchen counter like he owned the place and had always belonged there.

  “Lloyd was just about to leave.” Kate made a bee-line for her fiancé. “I’m so glad to see you.”

  She kissed Liam in greeting, wanting Lloyd to see her kiss her man, as if that would convince him that he didn’t have a shot with her. Not that he really wanted a shot. What he wanted was to screw things up for her with Liam and then bail on her for a second time.

  Thankfully, Liam hadn’t misinterpreted the situation in the kitchen.

  “Sorry I’m late.” He actually apologized, and she knew that he was apologizing for the fact that he couldn’t get there sooner.

  “Liam, you remember Lloyd?”

  After giving her another reassuring hug, Liam crossed the room to Callie’s father. He offered Lloyd his hand. “Lloyd.”

  “Liam.”

  The handshake was brief, but the eye contact between the men lingered, as if they were sizing each other up.

  “I’m surprised to see you here.” Liam’s eyes were narrowed.

  “Likewise,” Lloyd retorted.

  “I’m here every week.”

  “Is that right?” Lloyd tucked his hands into his pockets.

  “That’s right.” Liam wasn’t smiling. “I know Kate told you about our engagement.”

  “She mentioned something like that.”

  “Are you hungry?” Kate wanted to change the conversation.

  “Always.” Liam smiled at her briefly before he turned his attention back to Lloyd.

  “What brings you to town?” he asked her ex while she fixed Liam a plate.

  “Just checking on my girls.”

  Kate glanced over to see Liam’s features harden. “That’s an interesting take on this situation.”

  “You don’t say?”

  “I do,” Liam said in a sharp tone.

  “Katie Did.” Lloyd finally, thankfully, pushed away from the counter, set to leave. “Tell our daughter that I’ll see her tomorrow.”

  Liam caught Lloyd’s arm when he tried to pass by him. “You’d better plan on moving along, Lloyd.”

  The man laughed, but Kate heard a new nervousness in that laugh. Liam had gotten to him and she was glad. Lloyd may have started this game, but she had no doubt that Liam Brand was willing to end it.

  “Thanks for dinner.” Lloyd gave her a little salute before he walked out the door.

  Kate stopped what she was doing, walked over to Liam and hugged him tightly.

  “Are you okay?” He kissed the top of her head.

  “No.” She shook her head. “Yes. I don’t know.”

  Liam took her face in his hands. “We’re going to handle him together.”

  She fed him, and they both agreed that he would spend the night on the couch. But after she made up the couch with a sheet, blanket and pillow, Kate realized that, tonight, this situation wouldn’t do at all.

  Liam moved past her to lay down on the couch, but she stopped him.

  “I want you to stay with me. In my bed.”

  “Are you sure?” he whispered, not wanting to awaken Callie.

  She nodded. “I’m sure.”

  Together, they walked down the hallway to her bedroom. Lloyd had tried to ruin her relationship with Liam, she was sure of that. But he had failed. Instead, he had pushed them closer together. And for the first time since high school, Kate felt as if she were finally free of Lloyd Harrison.

  Chapter Twelve

  The first night after Lloyd had arrived was the first night Liam stayed over at Kate’s place, in her bed. They had made love in a slow, sweet, poignant way, different from any other time. And then he had held her until she got too hot and turned onto her side and away from him. For hours, he listened to Kate breathing in her sleep. He, on the other hand, hadn’t been able to fall asleep at all that night. Lloyd’s sudden appearance in their lives had thrown him into crisis mode—he didn’t think Kate’s ex had any power over their future relationship, but he did hold the key to a future adoption of Calico.

  While Kate slept, Liam thought. He tried to think strategically, trying to anticipate Lloyd’s next step. But it wasn’t just the ex that had kept him awake—it was Kate’s mattress, which had to have been manufactured around the time of the floods. It was lumpy, hard and there was a wayward spring poking him in the back. He hoped that she wasn’t seriously attached to the monstrosity because after they were married, it was going to be the very first thing to go.

  At the crack of dawn, and before Callie awakened, Liam snuck out of Kate’s bedroom and made a pot of coffee. Kate and Callie, both ranch women, got up just as the sun was rising.

  “Hi, Dr. B-Brand!” Callie greeted him with a smile and a hug.

  “Good morning, Callie.” Liam was standing at the stove, overseeing some scrambled eggs. “How am I doing so far?”

  Callie looked concerned. “Not good at all.”

  Liam laughed, handed her the fork in his hand and stepped aside. Callie naturally took over in the kitchen while Liam and Kate went out to the barn. It was summertime and the Triple K Ranch was a huge spread, so most of the horses stayed out all day and all night. The horses still in the barn were boarded horses whose owners wanted them in at night.

  Kate fed her barn cats, saying, as she always did, that she needed to get a kitten who would grow up to actually mouse the barn. After his fiancée checked to make sure that the stable hands had all arrived and were on track with her protocol for taking care of the animals, she had a minute to speak to him before he left to get started with his full day.

  Kate wiped her hands off on her cutoff shorts. “Do you have a busy day?”

  They were standing at his truck now.

  He smiled down at her—she was so pretty, with that sun-kissed skin and sun-streaked hair that was escaping from her ponytail holder more than usual because of her recent haircut. Liam brushed some strands hair away from her forehead.

  “Packed.”

  She reached for his hand; slowly, Kate was showing him more affection. And that incremental improvement in her ability to show her feelings for him bolstered his confidence in the future success of their marriage. He was a man who wanted the touch of his spouse. In fact, one of the biggest hallmarks of the failure of his last marriage was the fact that he chose a woman who wasn’t physically affectionate.

  “Did you sleep okay?”

  “Baby—that mattress.” He shook his head with a grimace. “I hope you’re not attached.”

  She laughed. “No. There’s just always something else around here that needs fixing. We can get a new one.”

  “All right. First potential marital crisis avert
ed.”

  Another laugh. “I didn’t snore, did I?”

  Liam gave her a kiss on the lips. “Not much.”

  * * *

  It was a rough day, the day after he spent the night at the Triple K Ranch. He lost steam around noon and had to gulp down several super-caffeinated drinks just to get through the day. Kate texted him to let him know that, despite their best hopes, Lloyd had returned to the Triple K to visit with his daughter. It took every ounce of his professionalism not to cancel his afternoon appointments and head straight back to the Triple K. What kept him on the job was the fact that Kate was a strong, savvy, capable woman who was smarter than Lloyd by a long shot; Liam had a lot of faith in his woman’s ability to handle her ex. Between clients, he had asked his brother Bruce to get one of the Sugar Creek Ranch hands to take care of his horses for the next couple of weeks. He also called the family attorney to discuss the process of Lloyd relinquishing his parental rights and adoption of a special-needs adult. At the end of his day, he stopped by his cabin, threw some changes of clothing into a duffel bag and then hightailed it to the Triple K. If Lloyd was going to show up every day, then he was going to make sure he was on-site every day too. Was that naked, blatant male posturing? Sure. With a guy like Lloyd, if he didn’t do it, it would signal to Kate’s ex that things weren’t so set in stone between them. Liam had every intention of “marking his territory.”

  That evening, when he arrived at the Triple K, Lloyd had already taken off. Liam was relieved because he was exhausted. He wasn’t even really all that hungry, but he ate anyway just to spare Callie’s feelings. While he ate, Callie talked ceaselessly about her day with Lloyd. It seemed that her father, for the first time, was trying to take an active role in his daughter’s life. He took her out to lunch in town and then took her shopping for cooking utensils, the quickest way to Callie’s heart. Liam had to admit he was impressed with Lloyd’s game, but he wasn’t impressed with the motives. Lloyd coming in at the eleventh hour to assert his rights had absolutely nothing to do with love for his daughter and everything to do with his overinflated ego.

  After Callie went to sleep, Kate sat next to Liam on the couch and leaned her head on his shoulder with a heavy sigh.

  “He exhausts me.”

  “I think that’s the point.”

  “But Callie loves him. She loves him being here.”

  “I know.” He took her hand into his. “But how is she going to feel if he pulls another decade-long disappearing act?”

  “It will crush her,” Kate admitted easily. “Again.”

  Liam lifted his head so he could look down into Kate’s face. “We can’t stop her from getting hurt. I wish we could. But we can make sure she had a really soft place to land.”

  Kate tilted up her chin so he could kiss her. They sat together, kissing, nuzzling each other, taking comfort in the other.

  “I’m so tired,” he told her. “I want to make love but...”

  His woman shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m exhausted too. I just want to take a shower and crawl into bed.”

  Kate stood. “You can sleep with me again if you want. It worked out that you got up ahead of Callie.”

  Liam was willing to do time on that lumpy, spring-loaded mattress in order to be with Kate. If it made her feel better to have him next to her, then next to her was exactly where Liam was going to be. That was true love in his book.

  * * *

  Much to his and Kate’s surprise, Lloyd stuck around for the entire week. What they had first initially dismissed as some sort of ego-driven gain, if it had begun that way, ended much differently for all of them.

  “Are you okay?” Liam asked Kate, who was sitting across from him at the Nova Café where they could get all-day breakfast.

  The papers for Lloyd to relinquish his parental rights to Callie were signed and a copy was in the glove box of his truck. Ever since they left his lawyer’s office, ever since they had watched Lloyd drive his rental car away, Kate had been quiet and pensive. Not at all the reaction he had expected. Not at all the reaction he had hoped for.

  She nodded, her face pale, her eyes worried and distant.

  Liam leaned his forearms on the edge of the table, leaned forward so he could speak in a lowered, private voice.

  “I can see that something’s wrong, Kate,” he told her. “Are you having buyer’s remorse?”

  Another shake of her head. It occurred to Liam that she hadn’t hardly said more than two words beyond ordering her food.

  “Tell me what’s on your mind. I can’t help if I don’t know what’s going on.”

  Suddenly, there were tears in Kate’s eyes. He watched her stiffen her resolve and stop the tears from falling on to her cheeks.

  “Do you want to go home?” he asked, confused. “I can take you home.”

  “No.” She finally seemed to find her voice. “No. I don’t want to go home.”

  Now that she was talking again, he wasn’t going to interrupt. He waited for her to continue.

  “I think I’m...shocked that it’s finally over. I finally have what I want, and yet.” She paused, seeming to search for the right words. “I don’t feel happy about it. Why did I think it would be so easy? The father of my child just signed over his parental rights. It feels like the ground just shifted beneath my feet.”

  She had been looking at the window; now she was meeting his eyes again.

  “But, there’s a part of me that still can’t believe that he agreed to give Callie away.” Tears were swimming in Kate’s wide eyes. “It hurts, Liam. I hurt so much for Callie.”

  Liam reached for her hand across the table.

  “It’s just a really big deal. That’s all.”

  He nodded. It was a big deal. But he didn’t necessarily understand her shock. Lloyd had been absent before Callie had even been born. He hadn’t paid one cent of court mandated child support. No, that bill had been paid by Liam, and he was glad to have done it in order to secure Callie’s future.

  “Even after all you’ve been through with him, you’re still shocked that he agreed? Is that it?”

  Kate rearranged her silverware. “I don’t know. I guess. A little. I mean, I know that he hasn’t been in Callie’s life, but to sign away his rights. That’s forever. He can’t take that back.”

  “Would you want him to?” he asked quietly, his stomach feeling unsettled by her reaction.

  It took her longer than he would have liked to answer that question. “No. That’s not it. I’m glad that we can move forward with our plan. I just can’t understand anyone wanting to give Callie away. She’s an angel on Earth.”

  Liam squeezed her fingers reasurringly. “I’m sorry he hurt you. I’m sorry he hurt Callie. But in the end, we’ve got to give him credit for finally doing the right thing for the both of you.”

  Liam had spent a week with Lloyd Harrison, and even though he had every reason to dislike the guy, he’d ended the week actually liking him. Lloyd was funny, laid-back in a devil-may-care way that was appealing for the rest of the world beholden to adult responsibility. Lloyd was the guy at the bar that everyone liked, but never expected him to show up on time or keep his word or pay back the money he owed. They guy was likable, that was just the truth. And by the end of the week, Liam had begun to appreciate the fact that Lloyd wanted to see for himself that Callie would be truly taken care of by him. Humans were complicated, and it didn’t make sense that Lloyd would spend years avoiding his parental responsibilities, only to show up in the eleventh hour and actually act like a dad. Liam didn’t understand it, but he had found a way to respect it.

  “I can’t begin to explain this to Callie,” Kate said after a long pause. “This is something that has happened to her, and I can’t explain it in a way she would understand.”

  “I know, baby.” Liam kept on holding her hand. “But Lloyd will alw
ays be welcome in her life, that hasn’t changed. Callie hasn’t lost a father—she’s gained one.”

  * * *

  Several weeks following Lloyd’s departure, Liam’s relationship with Kate felt strained. He had decided to return to his cabin, under the guise of wanting to get the horses back into a routine, in order to give her some space. No matter how many times he asked if she was okay and she answered yes, the feeling between them was distant. He just couldn’t seem to break through with her, and the only thing he could think to do was give her some space and let her come back to him. It made him feel powerless and unsettled, but what other choice did he have? Kate wasn’t the type of woman to be pushed.

  He went through his routine, did his work and was always available on the other end of the line when Kate needed him. Liam kept on being a steady, calm force in his woman’s life, and finally, finally, his strategy paid off.

  “Hi, there!” Kate was working with a new horse in the round pen. “I’ll be done in a minute.”

  “Take your time.” Liam hung his arms over the top rail of the round pen.

  Kate was amazing to watch with a horse. She was an incredible, confident rider, but where she really shined was on the ground with these magnificent, powerful creatures. She was an expert in natural horsemanship, and he managed to learn something new from her every time he watched her work.

  “She’s a beauty,” he said as Kate clipped the lead rope onto the mare’s halter to lead her to a nearby pasture.

  “She is,” Kate agreed. “This is North Star. Just arrived yesterday.”

  “Is she one of yours?”

  Kate let the mare go into a small pasture where she could acclimate to her new environment alone.

  “I wish,” the horse trainer said. “She’s only here for training. But I’ll love her while she’s here.”

  Kate turned to him and kissed him on the lips. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” He smiled at her, wondering why she had invited him to the ranch in the middle of the afternoon.

  “There’s something I want to show you.”

  “All right.”