3, 2, 1...Married!

by Sharon Sala

  Her heart skipped another beat. Oh, Lord, is he really flirting…with me?

  “Besides,” Jake added. “It’ll give me a real good excuse to put my arms around you, which is what I’ve been thinking about for most of the morning.”

  This time she made no pretense of hiding her shock. He is! Jake Miracle is flirting with me!

  In spite of her excitement, she managed to maintain her composure. She gave him a long, slow look, taking note of the gleam in his eyes and the muscle jerking at the side of his jaw and then shook her head.

  “I don’t know whether to believe you or not,” she said.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Because in my experience, men aren’t usually interested in a woman like me.”

  A dark flush spread up his neck and he gave her a sidelong glance. “I don’t know where you come from,” he finally said. “But the men must all be fools.”

  Hallie let herself grin. “Why, Mr. Miracle, is that a compliment?”

  The gleam in his eyes disappeared, leaving them completely unreadable.

  “Do you want it to be?”

  She held her breath, almost afraid to answer. And then she reminded herself that coming here had been a gift, and she’d been brought up to believe that it was a sin to refuse a gift. The least he deserved was her honesty.

  “Yes, Jake, I believe that I do.”

  He reached for her hand. “Then I’ve—”

  But before he could finish, a shrill feminine squeal drifted into the air. Startled, he looked up.

  “Oh, holy hell,” he muttered.

  Hallie followed the direction of his gaze, staring in disbelief at the curvy blonde running toward them and calling Jake’s name. Even from here, the bouncing breasts and flyaway hair were impossible to miss. It was Hallie’s worst nightmare all over again.

  Jake reined up, then turned in the saddle to look Hallie square in the face.

  “Look, Hallie, this is not what it seems.”

  She reined up, too, then dismounted. “You mean that woman is a hallucination?”

  Jake dismounted as well, grabbing at her arm before she could move away. A dark flush spread up his neck.

  “No, but—”

  “Jake! Darling! I didn’t think you’d ever get back!”

  They turned. Jake tried to move, but he was a little too late. Before he could say anything, the blonde had wrapped her arms around his neck and planted an open-mouthed kiss in the middle of his lips.

  Disgusted with herself for believing that anyone like Jake Miracle would ever be seriously interested in someone like her, Hallie took Sugarfoot’s reins and led her toward the stables. In the background, she could hear the woman’s lighthearted giggles and Jake’s husky growl. She just bit her lip and kept on walking.

  Chapter 4

  Hallie strode toward the stables with her chin held high. The smile on her face was as fake as the bounce in her step as she handed Sugarfoot’s reins to a wrangler and headed toward her cabin.

  “Hey, Missy, how did the ride go?”

  Hallie looked up. It was Dobber. She made herself smile and wave, but she kept on walking. Even though she felt like a coward, she didn’t have it in her to face anyone. She kept seeing that curvy blonde with her arms around Jake Miracle’s neck and her mouth upon his lips.

  You’re stupid, stupid, stupid, Hallie O’Grady. It’s your own fault for believing his lies.

  But the mental castigation she was giving herself didn’t help the pain in her heart. For a short while, she’d let herself believe that Jake liked her. It hurt like hell to know he’d just been fooling around.

  “Hallie, aren’t you going to eat lunch?”

  She looked up to see the couple who were staying in the cabin next to hers.

  “I’ll be along later,” she said. “I want to wash up.”

  She kept on walking. Food was the last thing on her mind. A sudden film of tears blurred her vision and she stumbled, then started to run. She had to get to the cabin. The last thing she wanted was for someone to see her cry. Moments later, she reached the porch, fumbled in her pocket for the key and then let herself in. Only after the door was shut and locked behind her did she let herself go. Tears slid from her eyes and ran down her cheeks as she dropped onto the side of the bed.

  “Oh, Lordy,” she muttered, and tossed her hat across the room.

  It landed on the floor next to her tennis shoes. The incongruity of the items hit her like a fist to the belly. Tennis shoes and cowboy hats didn’t match and neither did she and Jake.

  She lay back onto the mattress and flopped an arm across her eyes, willing herself to stop crying. It hurt to accept, but Jake Miracle had led her on and she’d believed him. The worst of it was, it was her own fault. She’d come here looking for love, and as the old country song went, in all the wrong places. She should have paid attention to her good senses instead of her heart. There was no such thing as making love happen. If it wasn’t spontaneous, it wasn’t real.

  In the midst of her misery, her stomach suddenly growled. The traitorous sound made her laugh. So, her heart was a little bit broken, but obviously not enough to stifle her need to sustain life.

  She dragged herself up from the bed and stalked to the bathroom, sloshing water on her face and then scrubbing it dry with a towel. She glared at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were red, her hair was a mess, but what the hell. So she got a little dust in her eyes and she looked like she’d been rolled in the hay. She was on vacation. This time next month, these people would be nothing more than a memory. With a heartfelt sigh, she ran a brush through her hair and tucked her shirt into the waistband of her jeans. Her daddy had taught her to face her disappointments as readily as she faced her enemies. It was one lesson she’d learned all too well.

  Jake was beside himself with frustration. By the time he’d unwound himself from Jewel’s arms, Hallie was nowhere in sight. He handed the reins of his horses to one of the wranglers, all too aware of the woman still clutching his arm.

  “Jake, we must sit together at lunch. I have tons of things to tell you.”

  He looked at her in disbelief. What the hell would it take for this woman to get the message that he just wasn’t interested? It was all he could do not to throttle her.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “But I have to tend to some business. One of the riders was taken ill during the ride. I need to check on her condition.”

  “Oh, no! How awful for you.” Then she leaned a little closer, pouting her lips and lowering her voice. “Then we’ll touch base at the dance later tonight.”

  Before he could argue, she winked and blew him a kiss, then sauntered off.

  He headed toward the office, cursing fate every step of the way. Why did she have to show up now? As he walked, he caught himself listening for Hallie’s laughter, hoping to catch a glimpse of her face. He groaned, remembering the stiff set to her shoulders as she’d walked away from him at the barns.

  He wanted—no—he needed to explain. He didn’t want to lose Hallie’s good graces—and anything else that might have developed. She was the first woman in years who’d stirred his interest and by damn, he wasn’t going to lose her before he found out if she felt the same way.

  “Jake! There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

  He looked up. The concern on Luke’s face made him panic. What if Mediflight had been too late?

  “Cheryl Packston. Is she all right?”

  Luke nodded vehemently. “Yeah, didn’t mean to scare you,” he said. “In fact, her husband just called. It was her appendix. They caught it just before it ruptured. She’s in recovery and doing fine. He said to tell you thank you a hundred times over for sending the helicopter. It probably saved her life.”

  A burden lifted from his heart. “That’s good, but the diagnosis wasn’t mine. It was Hallie O’Grady who made the guess. I just followed suit.”

  Luke rolled his eyes and then snapped his fingers.

  “Speaking of
women,” he muttered. “That’s what I was coming to tell you. Jewel Franklin is back.”

  Jake gritted his teeth. “I know.”

  Luke grinned wryly. “Sorry, but what do we do?”

  “Wipe that damned smile off your face,” Jake muttered. “She’s here, so we’ll just have to deal with her. But you better spread the word. If she calls for a reservation again, tell her we’re all full up.”

  Luke chuckled. “And what if we’re not?”

  Jake poked a finger against his little brother’s chest.

  “All I’m telling you is, the next person who takes her reservation is fired.”

  Hallie would have sworn she’d never be able to eat a bite of food again. But that was before she’d seen the spread at lunch. Besides fried chicken, there was corn bread, brown beans and ham, cole slaw, fried potatoes and what looked like enough peach cobbler to feed the Dallas Cowboys football team. She dug into the food with abandon, certain she’d never tasted anything so fine.

  Halfway through her meal, she got up to get a second helping of corn bread and found herself face-to-face with the buxom blonde. Through chatty table partners and an overzealous waitress who’d identified the newcomer in the dining room as a regular to the ranch, Hallie now knew her name.

  Jewel Franklin.

  Jewel recognized Hallie as the woman who’d been riding beside Jake and eyed her somewhat like she might have a dirty-faced child.

  “Excuse me!” she drawled, and stepped aside, as if standing too close to Hallie might in some way contaminate her.

  “Oh, that’s okay,” Hallie said. “You’re not in my way.”

  She reached in front of Jewel for a piece of corn bread, broke it open and slathered a huge hunk of butter between the slabs. Then, licking her fingers, she headed back to her table. She couldn’t see Jewel’s stare, but she felt it just the same.

  Dobber sauntered by Hallie’s table on his way back to the buffet table for seconds. He glanced at Jewel and then gave Hallie a wink.

  “Better watch your step, little one. If looks could kill, you’d be toes up in the dust.”

  Hallie plopped her corn bread onto her plate, then covered the entire hunk with a dollop of sorghum molasses.

  “Whatever,” she muttered, forking a big bite of the food. “But I’m not going anywhere, not even to hell, until I’ve finished my food.”

  Dobber grinned. He liked this one more and more every day.

  “For whatever it’s worth, I’m in your corner,” he drawled, and then headed for the beans.

  The woman across the table frowned as she leaned forward.

  “That’s an odd little man, don’t you think? And whatever did he mean by ‘if looks could kill?’ Is someone angry with you?”

  Hallie swallowed her bite and washed it down with a sip of iced tea before answering.

  “He doesn’t seem odd to me. In fact, I think he’s sort of cute, but then my family believes in leprechauns, you know, so I could be prejudiced.”

  The woman laughed. “I suppose so.” She gave Hallie’s arm a squeeze. “I don’t know what’s going on, and as my husband so fondly likes to remind me, I suppose it’s none of my business. But if you need a friend, you know where we are.”

  Hallie laid down her fork and gave her table companion a smile.

  “Thanks, but I’m sure it’s nothing.”

  Then she saw movement at the door. It was Jake, and he was looking around the room, obviously in search of someone special. Probably Jewel Franklin, she thought, and ignored the twinge in her heart. But when he suddenly saw her and headed her way, she froze.

  “I’ve been looking all over for you,” Jake said, and then slipped into the empty chair next to her.

  Hallie’s mouth dropped. “You have?”

  He nodded at the other people around the table, then focused on her. “I thought you would want to know that Cheryl Packston came out of surgery just fine. And you were right. It was her appendix.”

  “Wow,” Hallie said, and leaned back in her chair. “Thanks for telling me. I’ve been thinking about her ever since the helicopter took her away.”

  Jake smiled, then absently glanced at her plate, focusing on the corn bread she’d been eating. A surprised grin spread across his face as he pointed at her food.

  “So…you like that, do you?”

  Hallie knew she was gawking at Jake, but for the life of her she couldn’t quit. And to her dismay, she could see Jewel Franklin staring at them from across the room. The last thing she wanted was to get in the middle of a lover’s tiff.

  “Like what?’ she mumbled.

  “Sorghum molasses.”

  She managed a grin. “As my five-year-old niece often says, it’s my new best thing.”

  He laughed, and without thinking, reached over and wiped at a tiny smear of sorghum on her lower lip and then licked it off of his thumb.

  “I’m with you all the way on that,” he said. Then he stood abruptly. “Save me a seat,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

  Shocked by what he’d just done, it was all Hallie could do to speak.

  “But what about her?” she asked.

  Jake didn’t have to look to know who she was talking about. He could guess.

  “What about her?”

  “I thought you…I mean, aren’t you two…?”

  He stared her straight in the eyes. “No.”

  She waited for further explanation. It didn’t come.

  “I’m going to get some food. Are you still going to be here when I get back?” he asked.

  Still reeling from the feel of his thumb on her lip, she managed a nod.

  Jake hid a huge sigh of relief and walked away.

  The woman across the table giggled at Hallie. “Oh, honey, I think he’s sweet on you.”

  Hallie rolled her eyes. “At my age, I have learned not to put credence in fantasies.”

  An elderly man at the end of the table cleared his throat and then stood.

  “If you kind people will excuse me, I feel a nap coming on.”

  One by one, the other people began to leave until Hallie found herself alone. At that point, something inside her began to quiver. Was it hope? Or could it be that last piece of corn bread threatening to come up? Either way, the feeling was unnerving. She reached for her tea and took a long drink. By the time Jake got back to the table, she had her emotions under control.

  Jewel was livid and doing a poor job of concealing the fact. Not once had Jake ever sought her out as he had that skinny little bitch. She’d spent the better part of two years trying to land that man, if only for a night, and the best she’d gotten out of him was a couple of dances. Before, he’d at least been courteous enough to accept her company, but not today. Less than an hour ago, she’d invited herself to his table and he’d declined. Now she knew why. Certain that all the employees were laughing at her behind her back, she flung her napkin onto her plate and stood up with a jerk, storming out of the dining room as if she’d been set on fire.

  Neither Jake nor Hallie saw her go, but Dobber did. He shook his head and took another bite of peach cobbler. They’d better be watching that one, all right. She reminded him of a dog he’d once had. That dog would lick your boots clean and then bite you in the butt when you weren’t looking. Yeah, that woman would cause trouble before she was through, or his name wasn’t Joe Dobbs.

  Hallie was beside herself with anxiety as she dressed for the dance. Blue jeans and boots were the standard, and she’d chosen a long-sleeved white shirt to go with them. Although the walkway between cabins and outbuildings was well lit, it was already dark outside. In deference to the evening chill, she left her hair down. The weight of it brushed against her collar as she leaned forward toward the mirror, peering at a spot on her face. When she realized the spot was on the mirror and not her, she burst out laughing.

  And that was what Jake heard as he stepped up on her porch. He paused, then took a deep breath, wondering if she laughed like that when she made
love.

  “Hell,” he mumbled, and made himself focus as he knocked on her door.

  Moments later, Hallie was standing in the doorway with the remnant of her laughter still on her face.

  “Jake!”

  He thought about pushing his way inside and kissing that smile off her face. Instead, he yanked off his hat and managed a smile of his own.

  “I thought I might walk you to the dance?”

  Hallie’s heart skipped a beat. “I’d love it,” she said. “Just give me a second. I was about to put on some lipstick.”

  “Yeah, sure,” Jake said, and leaned against the doorjamb, watching as she darted into the bathroom.

  He glanced around the cabin, taking note of her neatness, and how everything was hung up and put away. The only thing out of place in the room was a laptop computer in the middle of her bed. He frowned. It just occurred to him that he didn’t know what she did for a living.

  “Hey, Hallie.”

  She took a step backward so that she could see him as she ran a brush through her hair one last time.

  “Yes?”

  “As I was coming up on the porch, I heard you laugh. What was so funny?”

  She grinned. “The best jokes are the ones on ourselves.”

  He nodded slowly, taking careful note of everything about her, from the way she rocked back on the heel of one boot when she was talking, to the haphazard way she was brushing her hair. He’d never met a woman so at ease with herself.

  He pointed toward the laptop. “Don’t tell me you’re one of those people who brings work on a vacation?”

  She tossed her hairbrush on the counter and sauntered back into the main room, tucking in her shirt as she went.

  “I’m a writer. I never leave home without it.”

  His whole face lit up. “Really? Are you published?”

  She nodded.

  “Tell me some titles,” he asked. “Maybe I’ve read some.”

  She grinned. “Umm, the most recent ones are Cricket Takes a Vacation, and Howie at Mystery Mansion.” Then she added, “I write children’s books.”

  The relief on his face was priceless as he absorbed the explanation for the childish titles.