by Joanna Sims
Forgetting to be quiet in his release, Liam drove into her one last time, his arms locked and tense, and found his release.
Kate pulled him down on top of her and pulled the covers over their bodies. “Shh! That wasn’t quiet at all.”
Under the covers, their bodies still intertwined, they held each other tightly, kissing and laughing as quietly as they could.
“How was that for you, Mrs. Brand?”
Their bodies naturally fell away from each other and he lay on his back, while she used his arm as a pillow.
“I think I had three orgasms. Three. That’s a record.”
“That’s great for my ego.”
“Good.” Kate hugged him. “There’s something about making love as a married woman that just does it for me.”
“Married sex is the best,” Liam agreed.
They fell asleep in each other’s arms; somewhere along the way, Liam had slipped out of the room and bedded down on the couch. Before they fell drifted off to sleep, they both agreed that they would have to sit down with Callie soon. And as far as the Brand family was concerned, Sunday brunch was as good a time as any to let them know that they had gotten married.
* * *
The first person they told about their marriage was Callie. Understandably, she was upset that she hadn’t been able to be a part of the ceremony. Mainly, she had wanted to get a new dress, new shoes and maybe catch the bouquet as a sign that she would marry Tony. Liam planned on telling his father, stepmother and siblings first, and then right after brunch, call his kids. That wasn’t a phone call he was looking forward to making. When they were in Montana, neither of them really warmed to the idea of Kate. Which didn’t make a bit of sense, in light of the fact that their mother had left him and had remarried over a year ago.
Sunday brunch was a loud affair, as per usual. His family was boisterous, opinionated and often talked over each other. He waited until most of the food was gone—his father often handled things better on a full stomach.
“Ready?” Liam asked Kate.
She nodded.
“Ready?” he asked Callie, who had been very good at keeping their secret.
Callie’s eyes lit up and she nodded definitively. “Yes!”
“All right, then.” Liam stood.
“Can I have your attention everyone?” He had to shout over his siblings.
“Will you guys shut it?” Jessie, Liam’s sister, shouted. “Liam’s got something to tell us!”
“Jessie—” Lilly’s steady voice cut through the noise, as it always did “—that’s not the way I raised you to act.”
Jessie backed off, because Lilly did rule the roost, but she pointed to her siblings. “It’s their fault! They’re rude, so I have to be rude.”
“What’s got you out of your chair, Liam?” Jock bellowed. His father spoke only in a shout.
“Let Liam speak,” Lilly commanded in her calm way.
There was one person to whom all of Jock’s children deferred and that was Lilly. The table went silent and suddenly everyone’s attention was on him.
“Many of you know how I feel about Kate and Callie.” Liam reached for his wife’s hand. “I haven’t been this happy in a long, long time. I asked Kate to marry me.”
His family wasn’t quiet after that announcement. A flurry of congratulations flew around the table.
“Actually, I asked you,” Kate reminded him.
“Well, technically, I asked you first and then you asked me.”
“Have you set a date?” Lilly’s voice cut through the noise again.
“Yes.” Liam nodded. “We have. Yesterday.”
That stumped his family for a solid second or two before they all started to talk at the same time again.
Liam tugged on her hand to get her to stand up. “I’d like to introduce you to my wife, Kate!”
Then he took Callie’s hand and encouraged her to stand up with them. “And my daughter, Calico.”
Standing there, a proud husband and father, with two of his best girls on either side, Liam couldn’t remember a time when he felt more content with his life. The only piece missing was moving forward with the adoption so Calico was officially his daughter. Then their picture would truly be complete.
“You’re married?” Jessie, loud like their father, slammed her palms on the table. “How could you go and get all married without us!”
“It was the right thing for us.” Liam eyed his siblings, sending them a silent signal to just deal with the news.
“Welcome to the family.” Lilly came to the other side of the table to hug Kate and Callie.
“You know we’re going to have to have a party, right?” Savannah made the rounds hugging each of them. “Call me later today, and we can start putting something together.”
Jessie threw herself at Kate, almost knocking her down. “You must be certifiable to marry into this crazy family. Welcome to the fam.”
“Don’t strangle her, Jess,” Liam joked with his sister.
“Sorry.” Jessie gave his wife a sheepish look. “That’s just how I hug.”
All in all, the announcement had gone better than he’d anticipated. His family liked Kate and Callie, and liked them with him, so it wasn’t such a big shock after all. Everyone agreed that they would have one heck of a reception and that way the entire family would have a chance to celebrate the union.
The dining room cleared, and as it happened, Liam was left alone with his stepmother, whom he had called mom since he was a youngster. His own mother had died when he was just a boy. Lilly, so kind and caring, was the only mother he had ever really known.
Liam kissed his mother on the cheek. “Do you like her?”
Lilly sent him a gentle smile. “Yes, I do.”
“But,” she continued. “Do you know what I like even more?”
He shook his head.
“I like how happy she makes you.” Lilly touched his arm. “I have prayed for this, Liam. I am so grateful that my prayers have been answered and you have been blessed with such a lovely wife and daughter.”
Chapter Fourteen
“What do you think?” Kate had been putting off the question of California until after they had shared the news of the marriage with all of their family members.
Perhaps she was just avoiding the topic, but now it was front and center once again. At dinner, Callie brought it up. Tony had called, and really, the topic of this trip was the only thing the two of them talked about. This wasn’t going away.
“Have you talked to Tony’s parents?”
“Not yet.” Kate took a sip of her coffee. “I suppose I’ll have to.”
“It’s not going away.”
“That’s exactly what I thought tonight. It’s not going away.”
Liam reached for his hand, which was his way.
“Our daughter will not be contained,” he said. “She’s got bigger plans for herself than anyone, even you, imagined for her.”
It warmed her heart to hear Liam refer to Callie as “our” daughter. He loved Callie as his own, and Kate had a feeling that she was going to have to lean on Liam pretty heavily during this next phase of Callie’s life.
“I know.” Kate sighed. “Why couldn’t she have been content here on the ranch?”
“Then she wouldn’t be Callie.”
He was right. She knew he was. But it still hurt. Her daughter wanted to leave the ranch; her daughter wanted to leave her. She wasn’t ready for it, but Callie was ready to flap her wings and fly out of the nest.
“Just do it and get it over with,” Liam added. “The quicker you get it done, the better you’ll feel.”
He was on a roll with that being right thing.
“I’ll set up a video chat with them,” she said after a moment. “You’ll do it with me, won’t you?�
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“Of course. All the parents have to get along, isn’t that what you said?”
“That’s the way it works.”
“All right, then. We’d better start getting along with these folks. I’ve seen the way Tony and Callie look at each other, Kate. It looks like the real deal to me. They love each other.”
* * *
“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Salviano.” Kate sat stiffly next to Liam.
“Please—call us Tottie and Tony Sr.”
“I’m Kate and this is my husband, Liam.”
“It’s so nice to finally meet you.” Tottie smiled at her with a toothy, super-white smile. She had a tanning-bed tan, salon-blond hair and she was draped in very expensive jewelry paired with casual designer clothing.
“Hi, Mrs. S! Hi, Mr. S!” Callie was wiggling next to her, hands clasped, so excited that her mom was finally talking to Tony’s parents about the trip to California.
“There’s Callie! Hi, sweetheart.”
Kate watched Tony’s parents closely. Both of them, as much as she hated to admit it, were very kind and accepting of Callie. They approved, at some level, to the match between Tony and Callie.
“Where’s Tony?” Callie leaned forward as if getting closer to the screen would make Tony appear.
“He had to go to work, sweetheart. He wanted us to make sure that we tell you hello.”
“Hello!” Callie bounced a little in her chair.
“Kiddo, why don’t you groom Visa. He’s caked with mud.”
Her daughter waved goodbye to the Salvianos, tilting her head sideways. “Mommy wants privacy.”
Kate waited until Callie had shut the front door behind her before she said to Tony’s parents, “I had no idea when I signed her up for that online support group that she would...”
“Fall in love?” Tottie completed the sentence.
Kate nodded.
“I know it,” Tottie agreed with a relieved expression on her face. “It was a shock for us too.”
“We thought it might fade with time,” Tony Sr. added.
Kate put her hand on her chest. “So did I.”
The four of them spoke for almost an hour; even though they came from very different lifestyles and parts of the country, they all agreed that Callie and Tony needed to slow things way down between them. Tony’s parents confirmed that he was, indeed, talking about proposing to Callie. And, on her end, she knew that Callie wanted to say yes. By the end of the conversation, Kate felt much more comfortable with the idea of Callie visiting the Salvianos in California for a week or two.
“When am I—I going to California?” Callie asked for the third time while they were cleaning up the dishes from dinner.
“Callie,” Kate said evenly. “What did we talk about earlier?”
“That I—I have to wait.”
“And...?”
“And you liked Mr. and Mrs. S.”
Kate dried her hands on a dish towel and hugged her daughter. “I did like them. Very much. And I like Tony.”
“I-I’m going to California.”
Kate kissed the top of her daughter’s head. “Yes, kiddo. You’re going to California.”
“B-by myself.”
“Well, you won’t be flying by yourself. I’ll have to fly with you.”
Her daughter frowned. “Why can’t I—I go b-by myself?”
“Because you’ll have difficulty getting around the airport once you land,” Kate reminded her. Callie got very confused when it came to following directions, especially when there were crowds and lots of noise.
“B-but you aren’t staying?” This was a question as much as a statement.
It hurt a little, this desire that her daughter had to separate from her. But, on the other hand, typically developing kids would have gone through this in their tweens and their teens. She at least got a couple extra years with Callie close by her side.
* * *
“Did you finally get to talk to Sarah and Cole?”
They had both been too worn out to make love; they lay in bed together, the lights off, the curtains open, talking. Liam had been having a difficult time getting his kids on the phone at the appropriate moment. They were with their mom or with their friends.
Liam wiped his hand over his face with a sigh. “I did.”
“Oh.” Kate sat up in a cross-legged position and faced her husband. “That doesn’t sound good.”
“No.” He shook his head. “It didn’t go well at all.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Cole’s not upset. He likes Seattle—he doesn’t mind his new school. Of course, he has a lot more freedom than Sarah. He’s older. But he’s also a lot easier going about things than Sarah. She takes things to heart and Cole doesn’t.”
“What did Sarah say about the marriage and the adoption?”
“Once I saw the way she reacted about the marriage, I didn’t say anything about the adoption.”
“That bad, huh?”
“That bad.”
They were both silent for a moment; everyone wanted family and friends to be happy about their marriage. That was human nature. It felt uncomfortable when folks weren’t happy.
“I think...” Liam said, “that Sarah believes that my marriage to you means that she’s stuck in Seattle and she’ll never be able to come home to Montana.”
“But that’s not true.” Kate put her hand on her chest. “At least not on our end.”
“I told her that. But words are cheap with Sarah these days. She knows her mom is in control, and her mom wants her to stay in Seattle. Now that I’m married, Sarah figures there’s no way her mom will agree with letting her come live with me.”
Kate lay back down beside Liam, her hands resting on her stomach. They were both caught up in their own thoughts, not speaking.
“We have got to do something about this mattress,” Liam grumbled, shifting uncomfortably.
Kate popped up again. “Let’s switch. I’m used to the spring.”
Liam reached for her and pulled her back down. “No. Come back here.”
She lay back down, but the minute her head hit his shoulder, an idea came to her and she popped back up.
“What are you doing now?”
Kate went back to sitting cross-legged and facing him. “I just had a great idea.”
“What’s that?”
“We haven’t even talked about our honeymoon.”
“We’ve been so busy, with your back-to-back clinics and my exploding practice. I feel real bad that we haven’t—”
“No,” she said, cutting him off. “I wasn’t trying to make you feel bad. I had an idea.”
“Okay.” Liam laughed. “You’re so damn cute, Kate. Tell me your idea.”
She touched his leg. “I love your laugh. Okay. Why don’t we honeymoon here? We can both clear our calendars for two weeks. I’m actually kind of light next month. And, then, we can invite Sarah for a special trip to the Triple K. If she’s here with us, we’ll be able to show her that our marriage isn’t a bad thing for her.”
“You want my daughter on our honeymoon?” Liam sounded surprised and touched.
“Why not? Like you’ve said, we aren’t teenagers. We both have children, and we need this marriage to work for everyone in our family, not just us.”
Liam pulled her down playfully on top of him and kissed her. “Have I told you lately that I love you, Mrs. Brand?”
“No.” Kate rested her head on his chest, listening to the steady, strong beat of his heart.
Liam ran his hands over her back.
“I love you.”
“Oh!” Kate exclaimed. “Itch. Itch!”
Her husband started to scratch all over her back until she stopped squirming.
“Did I get it?”
&nb
sp; “Yes! Thank you.” She went back to resting on him. “I love you too, Liam.”
They lay together, enjoying the quiet of the night, not feeling the need to fill every minute between them with talk.
Sleepily, Liam asked her, “Are we still too tired to fool around?”
Kate rolled off his body and curled into a ball facing away from him. “Yes.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “Kate?”
“Hmm?”
“We’re buying a damn mattress tomorrow.”
* * *
“How did you manage to get all of this done so quickly?” Kate couldn’t believe that Savannah had managed to transform the main house of Sugar Creek Ranch into a wedding reception extravaganza. There was a band, and catered barbecue, and a photographer there to capture candid moments for a keepsake photo album.
“I was worried you wouldn’t like it.” Savannah looked around at the decorations with a critical eye. “Is it too fussy?”
“No. Not at all!” Kate was more than amazed, she was touched to her core. The Brand family was showing, by way of this party, that they were welcoming Callie and her with open arms.
“Then, I’m relieved.” Savannah smiled, then her expression changed as her hand went to her noticeable baby bump. “My baby just gave me one heck of a kick! Must approve of the music.”
Kate laughed feeling lighthearted and safe with her new family. “Do you know if you’re having a boy or a girl yet?”
Savannah’s face softened, her eyes filled with love for her unborn child. “A girl. We’re having a girl.”
She put her hand on her sister-in-law’s arm. “Girls are so much fun. Any names picked out?”
“Amanda,” Savannah told her. “After her great-great-aunt who came here for a visit with her father from South Africa and ended up falling in love and marrying into the Brand family. Family legend has it that Amanda Brand was a hard-as-nails trailblazer with a can-do, never-quit attitude.”
“Amanda Brand.” Kate tried out the name on her tongue. “I like it. I like it a lot.”
* * *
It was moments like these that Liam appreciated his family the most. Yes, they were a large bunch, a rowdy opinionated bunch, with family dysfunction to spare. But the Bozeman Brands could pull together like no other family he’d ever seen. When someone was in need, they circled the wagons.