by Tina Leonard
Tears of relief.
THE RINGING of his cell phone pulled Fannin from a sound sleep. Gently moving himself from Kelly’s arms, he got out of bed and left the room so he wouldn’t wake her. “It’s Fannin,” he said.
“Fannin, dude, you’re going to have to come home,” Last said.
Fannin frowned as he stared out the window into Kelly’s yard. By daylight, the yard seemed much smaller, more compact. Compared to looking out at his ranch’s vista, it was strange. “What’s up?”
“You’re not going to believe this, but—” Last’s voice trembled “—Mason’s gone.”
“Where did he go? Store? Cattle auction?”
“No, he’s gone. As in left. Hit the road. We are triple-O.”
When they were younger, the boys had idealized 007, the spy who could solve any problem. They’d come up with triple-O for their alias, short for “on our own.” It was strange that Last had brought it up now and forced Fannin to pay closer attention to Last’s current rambling. “Last, calm down. It’s going to be all right. There’s an explanation. Mason wouldn’t desert the ranch and Mimi and his new niece—”
“He did. There’s a note here saying—” Last choked back tears in his voice “—the note says he’s never been away. Never had a vacation. He loves us, but he needs time. Time for what, he doesn’t say. How much time, I don’t know, either. All he left was this note, Fannin.”
Cold chills ran over Fannin. There was no way Mason would just leave the way Maverick had, would he? A note was too cruel. Why not sit the brothers down and tell them?
“I don’t understand,” Fannin said.
“I think I do.” Last blew his nose. “Mason was afraid.”
Fannin grunted. Mason was afraid of damn little. “Of what?”
“He…he felt he was having inappropriate feelings for Mimi. And her baby.”
Fannin closed his eyes. “Do you know this for a fact, Last, or is this the family philosophe speaking?”
“I feel I’m pretty dead-on about this. He’s been spending a lot of time over there, you know, with the baby and all. Heck, all of us have, I mean, Helga’s over there.”
“Helga?”
“Well,” Last said, his tone embarrassed, “she cooks better than any of us. And I think sauerkraut may be growing on us.”
Just like a dog, following his bowl. “And so how is this different from how Mimi and Mason always were?”
“I don’t know. It’s just a hunch I had. It was the way Mason looked at Mimi when she was nursing the baby. And the way he…looked at Mimi, period. He looked like he was in love.”
“Big shock, that.”
“Yeah, but Mason has never admitted it to himself.”
“He wouldn’t abandon the ranch over Mimi.”
“Not necessarily Mimi. But honor, Fannin, honor. If he realized that he’d fallen in love with another man’s wife, that living next door to her was too much temptation and that he was eventually going to make a mistake, yeah, Mason would go. Mason would tear off his hand before he did something he considered wrong. You know that.”
“Damn it, I’ve sort of got my own fire I’m trying to put out,” Fannin said with a glance back toward Kelly’s bedroom. He hoped she was feeling better. He’d hated seeing her sick. When she awoke, he was going to fix her whatever she wanted—
“Fannin, I wouldn’t have called you if it wasn’t an emergency,” Last said desperately. “We’re direly shorthanded. We can’t run this ranch with the both of you gone. It leaves just a few of us here. As it is, we’re about two ticks shy of having to hire outside help. Or calling home the married brothers.”
Neither of those options was workable. Where the hell could Mason have gone? Surely it was simple. Maybe he went into the city for a fast lay, drinks and tears over love gone wrong.
Fannin shook his head. Any of them might live their life to the lyrics of a hurtin’ country-western tune, but if Mason had left, it was because his soul was truly tearing.
And they’d all witnessed that before. With Maverick. “I’ll be there as quick as I can,” Fannin said.
KELLY OPENED HER EYES to see her cowboy staring down at her. “Hey,” she said softly.
“Hey.” He touched her hair, gently moving it from her face. “You look like a child when you’re asleep. No worries.”
She rolled onto her side, cushioning her head on her arm so that she could look up at him. “Because you were here. I felt safe, I think.”
A shadow crossed his face, and Kelly knew she’d slept through one of those seconds when you were never quite sure what happened, but your life changed. “Have you changed your mind about offering yourself up as a husband sacrifice?”
He smiled. “It’s not a sacrifice to be a father.”
“Do you wish it hadn’t happened?” she asked softly.
“The pregnancy or you?”
“Either.”
“I think you were the smartest delivery that ever got made to my house.”
She tugged on his shirt. He leaned down to kiss her, warmly, deeply.
“Do you regret it?” he asked.
“I don’t think so. I mean, at first I was pretty overwhelmed. Twins scared me. But even if we decide not to do anything more than a trial marriage, I know you intend to be a father to my children and that means a lot to me.”
“Husband and father,” he said, growling into her neck so that she giggled. “Unfortunately, I’m going to have to wait on the husband trial.”
A shiver sneaked across her skin. “What happened?”
“I’m needed at the ranch.”
She blinked at him. “So we’ll start later than we planned, I guess.”
“I don’t remember you ever saying yes. All this enthusiasm is good for my heart.”
Only a small smile rose to her lips. Fear was touching her heart. Kelly sat up and walked into the den, deciding that if Fannin was leaving her, she didn’t want to be lying in a bed when he told her. “When will you be back?”
“Not sure. Mason’s gone.”
“Gone?”
“I’m sure he’s not gone for long. Mason’s never left that ranch for more than a couple of weeks for market.”
“Yes, but…” Mason was the backbone of the ranch. Everybody did their share, but he was the soul. “I’m so sorry, Fannin. I mean, I know that’s not the most appropriate thing to say, because it sounds like he’s never coming back, which of course, he will—”
Fannin put a hand over her mouth. She looked up at him, her eyes wide.
“He’ll be back,” Fannin said, taking his hand down. “He would never abandon our family for good.”
“Of course not,” Kelly said hurriedly. “Fannin, my God.”
“So. The only way this is going to work is if you come back with me, Kelly. Right now. Today.”
“I can’t do that. My job is here,” Kelly said. “I can’t just leave Julia in the lurch.”
“Then I’ll come back and get you this weekend. Be packed and ready.”
Her eyes widened. “Fannin, I can’t just leave like that.”
“I don’t think we should waste time telling the family about the babies. Do you?”
“I guess not…” She wasn’t ready to tell Helga.
“When were you planning on telling your mother?”
“I don’t know. I think I’m still in shock. Having twins is something I have to fit into my life. And I wasn’t expecting you to show up yesterday.” She took a deep breath. “I really need a little time to get the big picture all figured out.”
“Kelly.” He put his hands on her shoulders. “We need to figure out the big picture now. I’m leaving. I don’t know when I can come back. I’d rather you come with me, because I don’t want to sort out details over the phone.”
They didn’t know each other that well. Phone discussions of the big decisions facing them didn’t appeal to her, either. But she was so scared of making the wrong turn with this man. There was so much to think
about at one time. “Fannin,” she said, her voice soft, “what about love?”
His hands fell from her shoulders. “I’m hoping it will come with time.”
She took a deep breath. “All right.”
“All right, what?”
“All right, next subject.”
He seemed disappointed. She didn’t know what else to say. Love mattered for her.
“Come back with me,” he said huskily.
“Call me crazy, but I don’t see how it’s beneficial to us to be around your brothers and my mother when we’re trying to fall in love. To feel romance. Am I wrong?” Kelly asked, her tone wondering.
He ran a hand back through his hair. “You know, I had a cow I wanted impregnated by a bull I felt had great potential and bloodlines. So I brought him in. And I remember my brothers laughing at me as we all stood around watching, and me telling Princess to feel the romance.” A wry smile touched his lips. “They told me it would be so much easier with a syringe.”
She knew parts of this story. “And?”
“I wonder if Princess and Bloodthirsty couldn’t get it together because we were standing around watching.”
“It’s hard to make love grow when it’s under a microscope. I would be so embarrassed. You know, everything’s fine between your brothers and me now. They apologized for giving me a hard time.” She looked down at her hands. “But I can’t say I’d be comfortable being romantic around them. I’d probably feel like I needed to be fixing them meals. You know, to earn my keep. And I’m sure you wouldn’t be all that comfortable kissing me around my mother, would you?”
“We might want to wait for that phase of our relationship,” he said hastily.
“Well, there we have it. You can watch me throw up with ease, but you wouldn’t kiss me in front of my mother.”
“I didn’t say wouldn’t,” he said, touching the tip of her nose gently, “but I’m pretty sure it would feel strange.”
“I’m not coming with you,” she said.
“Maybe that’s for the best. It goes against my nature, but I…I think maybe you have a point.”
She felt tears fill her eyes against her will. “This isn’t going to work, is it?”
He wrapped his arms around her. “Yeah. It will.”
Kelly closed her eyes, hearing his words—but also hearing the doubt in his tone.
FANNIN WAS HIDING under brave words. He waved goodbye as he left Kelly on the porch of her house. There were no kisses, no tears for their parting. He was so torn in two he didn’t know what to think. First, to discover he was going to be a father, and then to realize from Kelly’s own lips that she didn’t love him. What had she said? What about love?
And he’d said, I’m hoping it comes in time.
He headed his truck down the road. Love didn’t come in time. She either loved him or she didn’t. Certainly he was in love with her, had been from the moment he laid eyes on her. Why couldn’t it be simple?
The truth was, Kelly was right—everything about them was opposite. Different dreams, desires, hopes. He wanted her to come live at the ranch with him, fill in that piece of his comfortable life that was missing.
She wanted him to follow her to Ireland. He blew out a breath. That was not going to happen. While he understood her need to go, he hoped she understood his need to stay where his job was. His brothers had been all about getting off the ranch. All four of them had been delighted to leave Malfunction Junction behind.
He wouldn’t feel that way.
But twins.
Somehow, he and Kelly were going to have to…what? Fall in love? Make sacrifices for each other? For the children?
And underneath these raging thoughts was fear. Mason had left, just like Maverick. Maybe not for forever, but he had left. And when your eldest brother, the man you admired most in life, had cashed in his chips and hit the road running, it kinda made a man evaluate just how much caca he was getting himself into.
The worst thing that could happen would be for him and Kelly to make a decision that would make them miserable.
Chapter Sixteen
Two weeks passed agonizingly slowly for Kelly. Every night Fannin called. He was doing the manual labor of three men and making the hard decisions Mason usually made. When Fannin finally got to his room at night to call her, he sounded exhausted.
Kelly wasn’t faring a whole lot better. She didn’t have morning sickness. She had all-day, minute-to-minute sickness.
Julia was getting worried. “What does the doctor say?”
“That it will pass.” She handed Julia a file and wrote down a client’s name for an order. “Three to four months into a pregnancy is when it supposedly gets better.”
“You seem so thin and tired to me,” Julia said. “I really hate that you’re working so much. Maybe you need some time off. A change of scenery. A look at Fannin.”
Kelly smiled. “Even if I went to Union Junction, I’d just be in the way. He’d be checking up on me all the time.”
“But still. Are you really going to marry him?”
“I don’t think so. To be honest, I think he was trying to do the right thing when he suggested the trial marriage. I’m sure both of us are thinking with clearer heads now.”
“He did send you two dozen red roses for Valentine’s Day. One dozen for each baby.”
Kelly nodded. “I’m glad he’s happy about the pregnancy.”
“Mimi called me.”
Kelly glanced up. “She did? What did she say?”
“That the baby is adorable, but she’s still tired. Her father is happier than she’s seen him in years. That if she didn’t know better, she’d think he was making some kind of recovery. And that Mason is an ass.”
“Yeah, but she says that every time you talk to her. I knew Mason was an ass before I ever met him. It’s her pet name for him.” Kelly frowned. “Actually, when you meet Mason, you’ll see at once that he’s the last man you’d ever call an ass.”
“Mimi feels totally betrayed that he left the way he did.” Julia snapped her fingers. “Just like that. After spending days holding Nanette and taking care of Mimi, the last thing Mimi expected was for him to disappear.”
“Wonder why Mimi doesn’t ever talk about Brian?” Lately it seemed Kelly was possessed of an urge to talk about Fannin all the time. She had to bite her tongue sometimes to not wear poor Julia out with talking about him, wondering what he was doing.
It was actually starting to get on her nerves. His comment about hoping love would come in time had really rankled her. “Love just doesn’t grow on a bush,” she said grumpily.
“Pardon?” Julia asked.
“I was thinking about Mimi,” Kelly said hastily. “And wondering why she doesn’t have a pet name for Brian.”
Julia put down a stack of papers. “Marriage of convenience. What can I say? I’ve known my friend for years. I know things about her that only Mason knows, or maybe only suspects. The sheriff, me and Mason are the only people who really know Mimi, and we’re just scratching the surface of that woman. The unpretty answer is that Mimi wanted something. She met a man who would give it to her. Now that she’s got it, it’s the end of that relationship.”
Kelly’s eyes widened. “Doesn’t he want to be around his child?”
“Does he act like he does? Has Brian been in to see Nanette?”
“Only once that I know of. There could have been more times—”
“No.” Julia shook her head. “That was a true marriage of convenience. And he’s conveniently gotten lost.”
“But what did he get out of it?” Kelly couldn’t understand the concept.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
Kelly’s eyes widened.
“You cannot tell a soul,” Julia said. “Though it will come to light eventually.”
“I’m not certain I should hear this,” Kelly murmured, her curiosity burning all the same.
“Mimi gave Brian a quarter of her property if he m
arried her and she became pregnant. Sex of child didn’t matter.”
Kelly put down everything she was holding. “No.”
Julia nodded. “Yes. Mimi would have sold her soul to have a grandbaby for her father. Whatever she has to do to keep him alive, she will do.”
“Does her father know?”
“I think the sheriff suspects about the land and knows the truth about the marriage. But I tell you who it will kill—Mason. He would have bought that property from Mimi. The Jeffersons always saw their properties as intermingled.”
“Oh, dear.”
“Notice I said Mason would have bought the property. He would not have married Mimi, nor have given her a child. Of course, that’s probably no longer true, now that Mason’s had the pincers of sense applied to his skull.”
“Pincers of sense?”
“Well, I’m no oracle, but I don’t think there’ll ever be anybody for Mason except Mimi. You know, I’m kind of a believer in the one-true-love theory. We can have many loves, but there’s usually only one true love per lifetime. What do you think?” Julia looked at her curiously.
“I think…” Kelly said thoughtfully. “I think I didn’t have to give away a quarter of anything and I ended up with two.”
Julia laughed. “Might be true love.”
“YOU’RE GOING TO BE A FATHER?” Last asked, gaping at Fannin intently as they all sat around the dinner table at the sheriff’s house. Mimi was upstairs nursing, and the brothers had learned to turn their faces away from the stairwell to discuss anything they didn’t want the sheriff to be privy to.
But this just burst out of Last’s mouth.
Fannin held up a hand, motioning for everybody to turn their heads and talk low. “Yeah, I am, actually.”
Last nearly jumped up out of his chair. “That’s great news!”
Fannin grunted.
“Are ya gonna be a husband?” Crockett wanted to know. “And whose is it?”
“Kelly’s,” Fannin said sternly.
“Oh,” the brothers chorused.
“But she hasn’t been around in a long time,” Last said, confused. “Does she like you?”