But his friends would be here, just as he’d been at most of their weddings. They’d toast his happiness and really mean their good wishes, which was all a man could really want, right?
With a sigh, Travis took his mug of coffee to his studio. Since it was bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, he had several hours to kill until it was time to get ready. After the noon ceremony, they’d have a lunch for half of Ranger Springs. Then they’d leave for the honeymoon.
He was looking forward to getting Jodie alone. Maybe once they were man and wife, they could recapture the magic of their first three days together.
If they couldn’t…well, it would be a long, long wait until the baby was born and Jodie hightailed it back to California.
THE PRESS RELEASES were ready to send, the photographer was all set up in the foyer, the guests were waiting…and Jodie was a nonfunctional bundle of nerves as she stood in the small back room of Bretford House.
“You look like a deer in the headlights,” Chelsea complained as she adjusted the circle of roses Robin Parker had fashioned to go with the creamy dress.
“I feel like a deer in the sights of a rifle,” Jodie responded.
“Not the sentiment I would have expected on your wedding day, Jodie Ann Marsh,” her mother said, folding her arms over her chest. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, I meant with the media and all. Neil and Felicia have been after me constantly about leaking the story, getting the photos out to the right people and all that other stuff. This doesn’t feel like a wedding.”
“But you love Travis, right? I mean, he’s a hunk and he’s got money,” Chelsea said. “His house is awesome.”
“You sound like one of those teenagers in the movies,” her mother complained.
“Please, no arguments today. I’m already strung too tight.”
“Sorry, baby. I’m a little nervous myself. And now I’m confused. What’s the real problem?”
“Nothing. Everything’s fine. Everyone has done a remarkable job to get this wedding planned in only three days.” The restaurant looked beautiful, like spring combined with winter, with all-white decorations of roses, ribbon, tulle and bare branches. Robin Parker had done a fabulous job by enhancing the fairy-tale quality of the old house-turned-restaurant.
Her mother took her by the shoulders and looked in her eyes. “Jodie, why did you really have to rush so? We could have planned a wedding in California or Texas, one that wasn’t so frantic. Why today?”
“Didn’t you read the press release?” Jodie asked, hearing the nervous, almost panicky tone of her voice. She had to conquer that. She had to calm down.
“That’s for the public. We’re your family. What the heck is going on?”
Jodie felt tears form in her eyes. Her throat burned and her head felt as thought it might explode from holding everything back. She couldn’t do it. This was her mother and her sister. What had she been thinking? She needed to tell them the truth. She needed to do it now, before she walked out that door and told a lie to the rest of the world.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered so softly that she wondered if they’d heard. “I’m having Travis’s baby and that’s why we rushed the wedding.”
“Oh, Jodie.”
“Oh, wow.”
“I should have told you before. I don’t know why I didn’t. I’ve been so confused and tense and worried about how this changed everything.”
“Changed your relationship with Travis?” her mother asked.
“No! Changed my plans. My career.”
“So this is all about that new contract you signed with the cosmetics company,” her mother stated.
“Well, yes. Mostly. I mean, some of it is about the baby. I really want this baby.”
“How much of it is about you and Travis?”
“Oh, Mom, I just don’t know. I wanted a temporary marriage, but he wants one that will last. He wants to try to make this real and forever, and I just don’t know if I can do forever.”
“Do you love him?”
Jodie turned away to dab her eyes. She wore waterproof everything—mascara, eyeliner and shadow—but that didn’t mean she would look good when she walked down the makeshift aisle. She could still look blotchy and swollen if she wasn’t careful, and wouldn’t that make a charming photo in People?
“He’s really hot, Jodie,” Chelsea said, placing a hand on Jodie’s arm. “He’d be really easy to fall in love with.”
Jodie nodded, her throat closing up again. Travis would be easy to fall in love with. Too easy, maybe. And maybe that was the problem. She didn’t want to fall in love. She’d never really been in love and the idea was frightening.
Of course, she’d never seriously considered having children, either, and now she was. Anything was possible.
“Travis is very lovable, Chelsea.” Jodie attempted a smile. “But he’s taken. You need to remember that.”
“Like I’d fall for a guy in Texas!”
“Like I thought I would, either,” Jodie countered. Her immediate response surprised her. Had she fallen for Travis? Or was she experiencing a delayed reaction to their passion? A friend who was a graduate student in anthropology had told her once that great sex made you think you were in love. She’d claimed it was a biological reaction to make you procreate. Maybe that’s all that these feeling amounted to—pseudo love produced from their wild weekend of immediate and mutual lust.
And if they started having great sex again, how would she ever know her true feelings? She was going to be married to Travis; she needed to understand how she felt about him.
“I’m doing the right thing, Mom,” she finally said after getting her tears under control. “Travis is a good man and we’re having a baby together. Getting married is the right thing to do.”
“For you, the baby, or your career?”
“Hopefully, for all three.” She’d debated that very question almost nonstop for days without arriving at a definitive answer.
“I want you to be happy, baby.”
“I want to be happy, too,” Jodie said, giving her mother a hug. “So we’d best put on our happy faces and get on with the ceremony. There are hungry people in the restaurant who were expecting a Valentine’s lunch and got a noon wedding, instead. And Travis is probably ‘chomping at the bit,’ as they say in Texas. So let’s finish up here and take that walk down the aisle.”
“I’m ready,” Chelsea said. “The best man is a hottie, too.”
“He’s also taken. Happily married.”
Chelsea shrugged. “Are there any single men in this town?”
Jodie chuckled, glad to take her mind off her worries. “Some, but the number is dwindling according to the gossips at the local café.”
“Bummer. Let’s get this over with so I can get back to California. My own cutie isn’t all that happy that I left him alone for the weekend. No telling what kind of trouble he might get into on his own.”
“Sounds like a true romantic,” her mother said with the dry sense of humor Jodie had grown up with.
She smiled, stood up straight and gave one final adjustment to her pretty, gauzy dress. Her wedding dress. “Okay, let’s go.”
Her mother rapped on the door, the music began and Jodie took a deep breath. The ceremony would be over soon, but then the marriage began.
She was as ready as she would ever be to walk down the aisle, but was she ready to be Mrs. Travis Whitaker? Or would she forever be Jodie Marsh, model and cosmetics spokesperson, girl-next-door and paragon to thousands of overweight teens and women?
She didn’t have the answer, but she was going to search for the truth during the next few days, as she and Travis went on a short honeymoon trip. She needed time to think, although she wondered if she’d have much opportunity for mental activity with her “hottie” husband around.
TRAVIS STOOD AT THE END of the main dining room, his back to the windows overlooking the still barren gardens, and watched his bride approach. She took his breath
away, filling him with a sense of awe that he was actually getting married again, a sense of responsibility for their unborn child and a sense of excitement over what would unfold in the next months. Life had become pretty darn predictable lately. Maybe a wedding was just what he needed to shake things up.
She wore a gauzy, cream-colored dress that flowed over her full breasts, nipped in at her waist, then clung to her hips and thighs as she walked. Her hair was swept back in a circlet of small cream-colored roses, then loosely curled on her shoulders when she walked toward him. She looked beautiful and fertile in a way that made him want her right here, right now.
Unfortunately they had the rest of the ceremony to get through, then a wedding luncheon for their guests and the rest of the town who had made Valentine reservations. Everyone had taken the change of plans well, maybe because they were getting a free meal, but more likely because they thought the idea of a surprise Valentine’s Day wedding to be the ultimate romantic gesture. Just as he’d thought, this was turning into a PR coup for Jodie.
But he didn’t want to think about that now. He wanted to enjoy the day, appreciate his bride and then get on with the honeymoon.
Hank nudged him, then gave him a knowing smile when Travis turned to face his best man. “I knew she was right for you,” his friend whispered.
I hope you’re right, he thought. He hoped a lot of things now, things he hadn’t thought of in many years, like becoming a father. Becoming a husband again. But so many variables were up to Jodie. He could only do what he thought was best and see what happened.
Pastor Carl Schleipinger motioned for the audience to be seated as Jodie reached the makeshift wedding arbor Robin had fashioned of roses, some wispy fabric she called tulle and white-painted branches.
“Dearly Beloved,” he began as Travis took Jodie’s trembling hand in his and prayed for the best.
Chapter Seven
“I’m sorry your parents and your sister didn’t get to come to the wedding,” Jodie said as they settled into Travis’s SUV for the drive to the cabin. He’d explained that on such short notice, and due to her public persona, he’d arranged for Grayson Phillips’s cabin on Lake Buchanan, which was northwest of Austin.
They’d stopped by his house to change from his suit and tie and her dress into casual clothes. They’d also grabbed the suitcases they’d packed earlier, plus a cooler of food. Now they were heading north out of town on the state highway.
“That’s okay. It wasn’t a surprise that my parents were unavailable. I would have enjoyed my sister saying ‘I told you so’ from the front row, though.”
“Still, I’m sure you would have rather your parents came to your wedding.”
Travis shrugged. “Actually, it would have been very awkward if both of them came. They despise each other. Plus, my mother can’t stand my father’s wife, who is the age my mother wants everyone to believe she is.”
“I’m sorry they can’t get along. I grew up without a father, and my mother, my sister and I are very close. I’m so glad they were there for me.”
Travis drove for a while, then turned to look at her. “Did you tell them about the baby?”
“Yes, earlier today. I thought I could keep it from them, but…well, I just couldn’t.”
“Why didn’t you want them to know?”
“I guess I have a little of my rebellious sister in me. I didn’t want my mother to think poorly of me, as though I’d made a stupid mistake.”
“We made a mistake by not using protection, but our baby isn’t a mistake.”
“No, of course not! That’s not what I meant. But in my family, Chelsea is the one most likely to forget birth control. I’m the responsible one.”
“Nobody’s perfect.”
“Obviously. If I were perfect, I’d be a size eight and would always think before I acted.”
“What makes you think a size eight is perfect? I think you’re absolutely perfect for your body type. You’re a tall woman. I hope this doesn’t sound offensive, but I believe you’re what is called ‘big boned.’ You’d be nothing but bones if you were a size eight.”
“You’re right that I couldn’t get down that small without seriously damaging my health, but this,” she said, sweeping her hand from head to foot, “is more than bones.”
“Yes, and you look and feel very good that way.”
“Why, thank you. I wasn’t sure you remembered.”
“Did you interpret my restraint for inattention?”
“With everyone in the house, I don’t suppose I could blame you. Er, not that I’ve been expecting you to take any action. We had three good chaperones for the last couple of days.”
“I know. I was beginning to feel completely overwhelmed by females of every age, type and shape. And then I thought about your publicist—whom you have to admit isn’t the most manly man in the world—staying in the cowboy room at the bed-and-breakfast and I got even more amused. All I can say is that I hope we have a boy. I’m going to need someone to help even the balance of your mother and sister, and my sister.”
“I didn’t know you had so many women troubles.”
“A man needs someone to watch football with, throw a baseball, teach to ride and rope.”
“As if you couldn’t do that with a girl!”
Travis shook his head. “Wouldn’t be the same.”
“I didn’t know I’d married such a male chauvinist pig!”
“I’m just kidding. Of course I’d treat a girl the same. Or nearly the same. I probably won’t teach her to spit, and she won’t be able to pee standing up.”
“Travis!”
“It’s the truth, sweetheart. You’re in Texas now. You have to learn to live and talk like a Texan.”
“I’m a California girl. I don’t think I can turn into a Texan overnight by signing my name on a piece of paper.”
“I’m not asking for overnight. I’m just asking for a chance.”
She smiled in reply, but inside she knew she wouldn’t be turning into anything but what she was—an average girl-next-door who had been successful due to her talents and God-given attributes. With a little help from highlights, cosmetics and Sara Lee cheesecake.
Travis drove well on the curving roads of the Hill Country. The hills weren’t nearly as steep or high as those that separated the flat beach area around Los Angeles from the inland deserts. There were more trees and water here. Even though spring hadn’t come yet to Texas, many of the trees stayed green year ’round, giving the landscape a texture and color that Jodie appreciated.
Still, before long her eyes grew heavy and she rested back against the seat. The SUV interior felt warm and cozy. She couldn’t fight the urge to nap, which had grown stronger in the past week. At this rate, she was going to sleep right through her pregnancy!
She jerked awake sometime later, her heart racing. She’d had a disturbing dream where she was lost inside Travis’s house, where mirrored hallways went on forever and she couldn’t find the doors. When she looked at herself in the mirrors, she didn’t recognize her image. She heard Travis calling her from somewhere in the house, but she couldn’t find him and ran and ran until she was exhausted.
She rubbed her temples with trembling fingers. “How long was I asleep?”
“About thirty minutes. We’re skirting the western side of Austin right now. Are you okay? Do you need to stop?”
“No, I just had a bad dream. A silly dream. I’m fine.” Slowly, her heart rate returned to normal, but she couldn’t help wondering why she’d had such a disturbing dream now, when the stress of the last few days should be going away. She didn’t feel threatened by Travis. Yes, he could be intimidating, but surely now that the marriage issue was settled, he’d calm down.
She fell silent until he asked more about her childhood, and then they talked off and on until he pulled off the four-lane highway onto a smaller road. Slowly the dream faded in the comfort of the SUV and the unfamiliar landscape. This area was a little more flat, but s
till held her interest as they drove by pastures and houses and an occasional mobile home sitting alone in a field. Cattle and horses grazed on the mostly brown winter grass, but they saw few people.
That was fine with Jodie. She’d been around his friends, her family and business associates far too much lately. She was looking forward to some peace and quiet on their honeymoon.
She assumed they’d have some peaceful time. They hadn’t actually talked about plans. They hadn’t even really talked about their sleeping arrangements, although Travis had said he didn’t want a marriage in name only. Since then they’d had no time to get reacquainted. Six weeks ago they’d met and made love, even conceived a baby together, but at the moment she felt awkward and even a little bit tense being alone with Travis. Would they suddenly start sharing a bedroom?
“I think it’s just around the lake, maybe a quarter of a mile more,” Travis said, cutting into her thoughts of their time alone. Their long winter nights.
“Good. I’m ready to get out of the car and get some exercise. How about a run before dark?” Maybe some physical exertion would alleviate the tension.
“Don’t you want to get settled in first?”
“We can do that later. I feel restless.”
“Did the doctor say it was okay for you to run?”
“Yes. Did you think I’d do something that was dangerous to the baby?”
“No, of course not. I didn’t mean it that way. I’m not familiar with pregnancy, except what my sister told me before I insisted I didn’t want to hear about it. Mostly I remember tales of swollen ankles, sore backs and sleepless nights, but that was later, maybe around seven or eight months.”
“Ugh! That doesn’t sound like something to look forward to. I hope this pregnancy is different.”
“I would think you won’t have problems if you’re cautious and don’t overexert yourself.”
“I’m going to do my best to stay healthy, which means I need to keep exercising. And a mother’s health is very important to the baby.” She wanted her child to have every advantage, especially a good start in life. “So, how about that run?”
Coming Home to Texas Page 7