Winter's Proposal

by Sherryl Woods

  Janet thought the greeting sounded suspiciously cheery, as if they’d plotted this little gathering. When Kelly strolled in not five minutes later, she knew it.

  “Okay, what’s going on?” she demanded.

  “That’s what we want to know,” Kelly said, propping her elbows on the counter and leaning forward intently. “Harlan’s been grumbling like an old bear for the last week. Jordan, Cody and Luke are practically busting with curiosity, but he refuses to say a single word to any of them. Cody told Jordan you’ve been dropping Jenny off at the end of the lane again.”

  “I had no idea everyone was so fascinated with my habits,” Janet said irritably.

  As if she sensed that Janet was about ready to bolt, Jessie laid a soothing hand on top of hers. “Look, we all like you and we love Harlan. You seem to make him happy. He’s crazy about Jenny. I doubt the two of you would have gone sneaking off and tearing down that lane in the middle of the night, if you weren’t more than fond of him. So, what’s the deal?”

  “It’s complicated,” Janet summarized.

  “Nothing’s too complicated it can’t be worked out, if two people love each other,” Melissa declared, distributing milk shakes without even being asked. “I can vouch for that.”

  “Me, too,” Jessie said.

  “And me,” Kelly added. “We had three of the most reluctant bridegrooms in Texas and look at us now. We’re all deliriously happy.”

  “Well, most of the time,” Jessie amended. “After all, those Adams stubborn streaks didn’t vanish overnight.”

  Two “Amens” greeted the comment.

  “Anyway,” Melissa said. “You clearly have Harlan in the palm of your hand, yet you’re throwing away the chance to marry him. How come? Is Jessie wrong? Don’t you care about him?”

  “I love him,” Janet forced herself to admit to these three women who were clearly so concerned with their father-in-law’s future that they’d ganged up on her. “That’s why I can’t marry him.”

  “Huh?” Kelly said blankly. It was echoed by the others.

  Janet pushed aside her practically untouched shake. “I can’t explain. Not to you, anyway. I can’t even make myself tell Harlan all of it.”

  “Are you still married or something?” Melissa asked, eyes wide.

  Janet grinned. “No, it’s nothing like that.”

  “Then you can work it out,” Jessie said confidently. “Just tell him what’s on your mind. Harlan loves to fix things up for the people he cares about.”

  Kelly nodded. “He doesn’t lay on some heavy guilt trip like a lot of men would. He just takes care of things.”

  Janet wondered if she could bring herself to tell Harlan that she had wanted the very land he was living on. If she did, would he ever believe that she was marrying him for any reason except to get her hands on that land? It didn’t seem likely.

  “At least think about it,” Jessie prodded. “You won’t regret marrying Harlan.”

  That had never been her fear, Janet thought. She was far more concerned that Harlan would regret marrying her.

  * * *

  That night, now fully aware that her every move was being scrutinized by fascinated relations, she drove all the way up the lane at White Pines to the house to pick up Jenny. She had almost managed to convince herself to lay all of her cards on the table and tell Harlan everything. She would test Jessie and Kelly’s theory that Harlan would somehow make everything right and forgive her.

  When she arrived, he was nowhere in sight. Maritza answered the doorbell.

  “You are here for Jenny, sí? She will be back soon, I think.”

  “Actually I’d like to speak with Mr. Adams if he’s available,” she said.

  “He’s in his office. Come, I will show you.”

  She led Janet down the hall and pointed to a heavily carved door. “In there. You would like me to tell him you are here?”

  “No, I’ll knock. Thanks, Maritza.”

  She stood outside the door for several minutes summoning up her courage before finally rapping softly. “Harlan?”

  “Janet, is that you? Come on in,” he called out so eagerly that she was immediately consumed by another bout of guilt.

  He was on his feet and halfway across the room by the time she had the door open. His expression made her heart skitter wildly. There was so much hope there. So much love.

  “I wasn’t expecting to see you today. You’ve been making yourself scarce.”

  “I had some thinking to do.” She looked into eyes so blue they reminded her of the summer sky. “Thank you for letting me do it in peace.”

  He looked as if he wanted to reach for her, but he shoved his hands into his pockets instead. “Reach any conclusions?”

  “Just one, thanks to Jessie, Kelly and Melissa. I have to tell you the truth about something.”

  His eyebrows rose. “Sounds serious.”

  She nodded.

  “Then come on over here and sit.” He gestured to a big leather chair in front of the fireplace, then settled into the one beside it.

  Janet liked the arrangement. She didn’t have to look directly into his eyes while she talked. She began slowly, telling him about the summer she had spent with Lone Wolf. Then she repeated all of the stories he had told her about their ancestors being forced out of Texas.

  “I resolved then that I wanted to make it right. I came here wanting to get that land back. If I could have found a legal way to do it—which I couldn’t, by the way—I would have taken White Pines from you,” she summarized.

  There, it was all out in the open. She glanced over at him to gauge his reaction. To her astonishment, he smiled.

  “I know,” he admitted without batting an eye. “I’ve known for some time now.”

  “You’ve known,” she repeated blankly, then wondered why she was so surprised. Of course he would have put all the pieces together. He hadn’t become a successful rancher without knowing how to read people. What she couldn’t seem to absorb was the fact that he had taken the discovery so well. Where was the ranting and raving she’d anticipated with such dread?

  “And you still wanted to marry me?” she asked, bemused.

  “How could I blame you for thinking of Lone Wolf and wanting to make amends for what happened to his father?”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  He shrugged. “Because you needed to figure out you could trust me enough to tell me the truth.”

  Tears stung her eyes. “Oh, Harlan.”

  “Hey,” he protested, “don’t start crying. I won’t say I wasn’t mad as a wet hen when I first figured out what was going on after Jenny spilled the beans about where Lone Wolf had once lived. Then I did a little research of my own. I discovered you had cause to come here and do what you were doing. I’m sorry you couldn’t figure out a legal way to do it.”

  “But you see, then, why we can’t get married,” she said. “I just wanted you to know that it’s not because I don’t love you. It’s because you’ll never know for certain if it’s you I want or White Pines.”

  “Darlin’, my ego’s in no danger of being deflated by uncertainty,” he said, waving off that argument dismissively. “You’d never marry a man you didn’t love. There’s never been a doubt in my mind about that.”

  She refused to accept that. It was too easy. She deserved his hatred or, at the very least, his disdain. Yet he was still claiming he wanted to marry her.

  “I have to go,” she said, leaping to her feet and heading for the door.

  He stepped in front of her. “Not without saying yes to my proposal. All our cards are on the table now. There’s no reason to say no.”

  “I can’t,” she insisted, guilt and confusion tumbling through her. How could she say yes, when she didn’t deserve the love of a man like Harlan?

  “Mom!” Jenn
y wailed from the doorway.

  Her gaze shot to her daughter. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “Long enough to know you’ve flipped out completely. I can’t believe you’d do something like this.” With that she whirled and ran from the room.

  Janet stared after her in shock, then turned back to Harlan. “I have to go after her.”

  He nodded. “Go. But this isn’t over, Janet. Not by a long shot.”

  Jenny refused to say a single word during the entire drive home. She huddled against the passenger door and stared out the window, her expression sullen. Janet felt as if they were right back where they’d been when they’d first arrived in Texas. All of the progress she and Jenny had made over recent weeks had disappeared in an instant back in Harlan’s study.

  When they got home, Jenny headed straight for her room.

  “Jennifer, get back here.”

  “I’m not in the mood to talk.”

  “Then you’ll listen,” she said. But once Jenny had reluctantly sprawled in a chair in the living room, she had no idea what to say. She wasn’t even entirely sure why her daughter was so furious. She could hazard a guess, though.

  “Look, I know you like to think of Mr. Adams as the enemy,” she began. “But he’s not. And there’s no need for you to concern yourself that I’ll marry him, anyway, because I turned him down.”

  Jenny shot her a look of disgust. “Jeez, Mom, don’t you think I know that? I heard everything.”

  “Well, then, why are you acting as if I’ve gone over to the enemy?”

  “You’ve got it all wrong. I think you’re making the worst mistake of your life, if you don’t marry him.”

  Janet’s mouth dropped open. “What?”

  “I know why you’re turning him down, though. It’s not because of all that stuff about Lone Wolf and the land.”

  “Of course it is,” Janet insisted.

  “It is not. Not really. He told you that stuff didn’t matter to him anyway. You’re saying no because of your own stupid pride.”

  The accusation stung, not because it was unjustified, but because somewhere deep inside it rang all too true. “I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” she said stiffly.

  “Oh, puh-leeze!” Jenny retorted. “When you left Daddy, you swore you’d show him you could stand on your own two feet. You’re afraid if he hears you’re marrying some rich guy, he’ll think you’ve sold out.”

  Before Janet could gather her wits to react to that, Jenny went on.

  “Do you think it even matters to him what we’re doing?” she said with adolescent bitterness. “He never calls. He never comes to see us. The only time you hear anything at all is when he sends a child support check. I think you’d tear that up, if you could.”

  It was true. Only the awareness that the money belonged to Jenny kept her from doing just that. Every cent was in an account in her daughter’s name, meant for her college education.

  “So what’s your point?”

  “Just that you’re afraid if you marry anyone, much less a guy like Harlan Adams, Daddy will see it as an admission that you couldn’t make it on your own. Like he really cares,” she said with more of that angry sarcasm Janet had never heard before.

  Feeling both bemused and under attack, she asked carefully, “Do you want me to marry Harlan?”

  “I want you to be happy, Mom. It’s all I ever wanted. And Harlan’s a pretty cool guy. I knew that the minute he caught me after I stole his truck. He didn’t freak out, like some guys would have. I’ve been pretty rotten sometimes since and he hasn’t hated me for that, either.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe I was testing him, to see if he’d be like Daddy and abandon me just because I wasn’t behaving suitably.” The last was said in precisely her father’s judgmental tone.

  Janet sighed heavily. At last the reason behind Jenny’s behavior for the past few months was coming clear. She’d lost her father, even when her behavior had been exemplary. She’d been testing, not just Harlan, but before that, Janet herself, to see if they would abandon her at the first sign of trouble. Now her gaze was fixed anxiously on Janet’s face. “So, will you at least think about it?”

  “I’ll think about it,” she promised.

  She did little else for the next twenty-four hours. By morning, she thought she had figured out a way to prove to Harlan that it was him—and him alone—she loved.

  15

  When Harlan turned up to take Janet to lunch the next day, he sensed right away that something had changed. He couldn’t tell exactly what it was, just a bit more color in her cheeks, maybe a glint of confidence in her eyes.

  “I have some papers here for you to sign,” she said when he walked through the door.

  He frowned at her businesslike tone. Was she about to get into the land ownership issue, after all? Had she found some blasted loophole she hadn’t admitted to the last time they’d talked?

  “What sort of papers?” he asked suspiciously.

  “It’s a legal agreement.”

  His wariness doubled. “Who are you representing?”

  “Myself.”

  His heart slammed against his ribs. So it was about the land.

  “Suing me, are you?” he asked, keeping his voice light, when he wanted to lay into her at the top of his lungs for spoiling everything, for not trusting him to do what was right.

  Her mouth curved into a sensuous smile that made his heart go still. If that smile had anything to do with a land deal, he’d eat his hat. But what, then?

  “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” she taunted. “You’re never one to back down from a good fight.”

  “Gets the juices flowing, that’s for sure.” He reached for the papers and began to read. His eyes widened at the first line. “A prenuptial agreement? What the hell is this for?”

  “It’s an agreement between you and me, before marriage, guaranteeing that I won’t take a dime of your money if the marriage ever breaks up.”

  “Like hell!” he exploded, too furious to even think about the fact that she was apparently agreeing to marry him. He didn’t like the terms she had in mind. He didn’t like ’em one damned bit! “I’m not going into a marriage thinking about how it’s going to end. The day you and I get married it will be forever, Janet Runningbear, not one of those blasted things where one of us skedaddles at the first hint of trouble.”

  To his astonishment, she chuckled. “I had a feeling you were going to say something like that, so I made a few alterations from the traditional prenup agreement. Perhaps you should read the details.”

  He was about to rip it to shreds when a phrase caught his eye. Something about guaranteeing that White Pines would remain with his sons.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  “Just putting what’s right in writing,” she said. “I want to be sure there’s never a doubt in your mind about why I’m marrying you. Read the rest. See how it suits you.”

  The next paragraph legalized his adoption of Jenny as his daughter. He couldn’t have been more flabbergasted if they’d let him win at poker. He searched Janet’s face for proof that this wasn’t some sort of diabolical hoax.

  “She’s sure about this?” he asked, not able to control the hint of wonder in his voice.

  “She and I talked it over this morning. It’s what she wants. She wants to be your daughter.” Her gaze caught his. “If you’ll have her.”

  Tears stung his eyes. “It would make me proud to have her call me daddy. Your ex-husband, though, he won’t mind?”

  “He’ll have to be consulted, of course, but I don’t see why he would, especially if it would let him off the hook with the child support he sends so grudgingly.”

  He couldn’t believe that everything was finally coming together just the way he’d imagined. He cupped Janet’s face in his h
ands. “You’re dead serious about this? You’re not going to back out of this on me, are you?”

  She shook her head. “Not a chance.”

  “You know we’re going to be butting heads every now and then. That’s just the way of marriage.”

  “So I’ve heard. Your daughters-in-law have informed me what it’s like to be married to a stubborn Adams.”

  “Traitors,” he muttered, but he was smiling. He knew he owed the three of them for making Janet take a second look at his proposal and forcing her to shed her conscience of that secret she’d been keeping. He had a feeling he might owe Jenny, too. She’d promised to intercede in his behalf and it looked as if she had.

  He studied Janet intently, not quite able to believe that she was almost his. She was so beautiful she took his breath away. He’d be counting his blessings till the day he died.

  “How soon?” he asked.

  “How soon what?”

  “When can we get married? You want a big to-do or can we sneak off and keep it from those brats of mine?”

  “It doesn’t have to be big, but I want those wonderful children and grandchildren of yours to be there. We’re going to start this off as a family,” she insisted. “No more secrets. Understood?”

  “Don’t look at me with those big brown eyes of yours,” he accused. “I’m not the one who was hiding what I was up to. You knew from day one what I wanted from you.”

  She grinned and looped her arms around his neck. “And what was that?”

  “This,” he said, and settled his mouth over hers. He ran his tongue along the seam of her lips until they parted. The taste of her was sweet as peppermints and far, far more intoxicating.

  “If you hadn’t said yes soon,” he declared when his breathing was finally even again, “I’d have had to kidnap you and haul you off to some justice of the peace.”

  “And what if I still hadn’t been willing?”

  “I’d have used all of my considerable influence to see that the ceremony came off anyway,” he declared, liking the immediate flare of temper in her eyes.