So did he. The road to hell was paved with good intentions. “That’s the problem,” Josh said gruffly. “Despite our best intentions, things don’t always work out.”
“But they could,” Cisco insisted with lawyerly calm, “if you were willing to meet her halfway on whatever this mysterious issue is that is pulling the two of you apart.”
To do that meant promising he might have to put Patience in the kind of danger that could cost her her life. And though Josh was willing to risk it for himself, he wasn’t willing to risk it for her. He loved her too much for that. Surely when Patience thought about it, she would see that. “I can’t.”
“Then you’re a fool,” Cisco said, exasperated.
“Maybe,” Josh allowed.
“And that being the case, I suggest you either wise up fast—before you blow the chance of a lifetime—or forget the marriage Max wanted for you two and clear the hell out, now, before you hurt Patience any more than you already have. Because if you turn Patience down in such a public way, knowing she has already been publicly humiliated and left at the altar once, there is going to be no way she’ll ever forgive you for this.”
Chapter Thirteen
Dear Patience,
I am not sure what to do. To reconcile with my fiancé, I’d have to eat crow.
Sincerely,
Proud In Pecos
Dear Proud in Pecos,
Pass the salt and pepper, please. Choose your pride or your love.
Thinkin’ It’s No Contest,
Patience
00:29
“Stop looking at me like that, Goldie,” Josh told his golden retriever as he reluctantly carried a packed bag to the front door and went back for the plaid cedar cushion Goldie slept on. “You know as well as I do we have to move on again.”
Goldie let out a bark and ran after him. Snatching the cedar cushion in her jaws, she tugged it back to its place beside the fireplace. Setting it down there, she plopped on top of it.
Josh released a heartfelt sigh of exasperation. “You’re going to want that cushion when we get to wherever it is we’re going,” he warned.
Goldie wouldn’t budge.
“Fine.” Josh picked up his suitcase. His expression all business, he inclined his head toward the door. “C’mon then. We’ll just have to leave without it.”
Goldie’s ears lowered in the way they always did when she was depressed. She put her head down on her paws and regarded him mournfully. Josh hated to admit it, but Goldie was displaying his feelings exactly.
Nevertheless, he thought with a heavy heart, he had a job to do, and it was an important one. He had to prevent Patience from getting hurt even more, even if it meant he was annihilated in the process. “Goldie, c’mon. Let’s go.” Josh followed his firm words with a whistled command.
To no avail. Goldie just lay there.
Josh dropped his bag and went back to Goldie’s side. He knelt next to the retriever who had been his only steady companion and confidante for years now. Because they were of similar heart, it seemed only right that Goldie would attach herself to Patience, too. “What are you trying to tell me, Goldie?” Josh asked gently, stroking the underside of her jaw. “That I shouldn’t leave? You know as well as I do that it’s the only way to protect Patience. It’d be wrong to take her with me. She deserves to be safe.”
Goldie lifted her head and let out a soft whine.
Josh’s throat grew tight as he realized what Goldie was trying to tell him. “Yes, Goldie, I know Patience is miserable now. That’s no doubt why she rushed in here and locked herself in the bedroom for the last hour or so. But she’ll eventually find someone else. And hell, even if she doesn’t, she’ll still be better off.”
Goldie let out another sharp bark.
Josh nodded, letting his canine pal know he was listening. “You’re right, Goldie. There’s still the problem of Patience’s inheritance. I know how much Max wanted her to have part of this ranch for herself and her children. And on a practical note, she does need someone to run it for her, and a veterinarian on the premises.”
Goldie whined her agreement and licked Josh’s hand before looking up at him with dark, pleading eyes.
Knowing it was what he wanted, too, Josh capitulated without further argument. “Maybe you and Cisco are right. Maybe I should hang around for the wedding.”
Goldie’s tail thumped happily as Josh continued, “Maybe I should exchange I do’s with Patience and let her save face in front of all her family and friends. Then later it can be said she found out I was a louse and she kicked me out. That’ll make her look good and me look bad.”
While Goldie watched attentively, Josh stood and glanced at the stairs. “So what do you think? Is there still time for me to change into my tux and pull this off?”
00:25
THE CATHEDRALTRAIN of her old-fashioned white satin dress flowing behind her, Patience rushed out of the bedroom and ran smack-dab into a hard male chest covered by a dove gray coat and starched white shirt.
“You’re dressed,” Patience and Josh said to each other in unison.
Patience touched the cap that held the veil on her head and took a deep breath. Josh had never looked handsomer. She had never been so glad to see him.
True, they hadn’t really been apart all morning. They’d been under the same roof or outside within eyesight of each other, but it seemed as if it had been ages since they had talked. Even longer since they had kissed or touched.
Was that about to change? To her disappointment, his impassive expression gave no clue.
“Seems we have a wedding to go to,” Patience said after a moment.
Josh motioned for her to go first. “Seems that way, yes.”
Patience swept down the stairs ahead of him. “I’m glad you came to your senses.”
He joined her at the foot of the stairs. “I’m glad you came to yours.” He looked her up and down in an approving manner. “I know it’s been a rough couple of days for you, Patience—”
“For us both,” she agreed softly.
“But you’ll feel better once you inherit,” Josh soothed.
Patience quirked a brow. He was making this sound awfully one-sided. “And you won’t?”
“I’m leaving it all to you.”
“I see.” Patience gritted her teeth and folded her arms in front of her. She glowered up at him as she inhaled the bracing scent of his after-shave. “I’ve written letters to readers about men like you,” she stated obstinately.
He quirked a brow, intrigued. “Men like me being men who—?” His gray eyes still fastened on hers, he left the thought hanging.
She spun away from him. “Have one foot—or in your case, both feet—out the door from the start.” She headed to the kitchen to check on Tweedles and her kittens. They were still in their basket in the utility room and doing fine, to her relief. Goldie had dragged her cushion in and was lying next to them, her head on her paws, peacefully watching over them all.
Leery of disturbing them, Patience tiptoed back out and into the living room, Josh hard on her heels.
“Is that what you think?” Josh cornered her next to the bookcase. “That I don’t want to marry you?”
Patience backed up until she touched wood and tilted her chin at him. Their eyes clashed and held. She drew a breath at the dangerous glimmer in his gray eyes. “I think you have always been afraid of marriage to me, yes. As a matter of fact, I think you’ll look for any and every excuse not to—”
Josh interrupted her with a hard, swift kiss. Ignoring her gasp of dismay, he braced an arm on either side of her, leaned in close and deepened it even more.
Sensations swept through her, more potent than before. Though Patience had sworn she would not give in to him again until he did things her way, she found herself responding anyway. Only when she was limp in his arms, her mouth softening unmistakably beneath his, did he lift his lips from hers.
Shaken by the ruthless display of passion that had and alwa
ys would exist between them, Patience stared up at him. “What was that about?” she whispered finally, still tingling from the top of her head to her toes with the impact of their fiery embrace.
“I don’t know,” Josh drawled, stroking a hand gently down her face and looking deep into her eyes. He grinned and continued with the swaggering confidence all the McKendricks and their partners seemed to have. “It just felt right. Kind of like my staying on is beginning to feel right.”
Patience sucked in a breath, almost afraid to hope. Unable not to. “If you chose to do that—” she began, knowing this was her chance to make amends, too. To come out of this with the happy heart and full life Max had wanted her to have. And a baby, too. A baby that belonged to her and Josh.
“Yes?”
She curled her fingers around the lapels of his dove gray coat. “I wouldn’t ask you to promise me anything, Josh.” She looked into his face, her heart pounding. As she continued softly, persuasively, her voice brimmed with all that was in her heart. “I know we can’t predict the future. And I understand now—you wanting to protect me.”
Josh’s eyes darkened with relief as he clasped her to him and waited for her to go on.
Swallowing around the lump in her throat, Patience did. “So, after reconsidering, I have decided I won’t insist you take me with you, should the time ever arrive when you might have to leave.”
Josh went very still. So still she thought she might have lost everything.
“What if I want to take you with me?” he asked quietly, searching her eyes. “What then?”
Patience didn’t even have to think about it. “Then I’d go. No questions asked. No argument given,” she said simply, knowing she trusted him and his love and concern for her that much. He’d been talking about taking her with him this time! She paused, her heart pounding as his words sank in. “Does that mean—?”
“Yes.” He bent to kiss her. As she returned the lingering caress, joy bubbled up inside her, almost overwhelming in its intensity.
Finally, trembling, they broke apart. The moment they did, she had to ask. “Josh?”
“Hmm?” He brushed the moisture from her lip with the pad of his thumb, and she did the same for him.
“What changed your mind?” Patience asked.
Josh quirked an eyebrow, his gentle gaze never leaving her face. “Besides the fact that Goldie flat out refused to leave?” he teased.
Patience nodded. “Besides that.”
Josh wrapped his arms around her and gathered her close. “I realized that my deep need to protect you came from the fact that I love you more than life. And that without you, I have no life. And,” he said, his voice catching slightly, “I realized that if you felt even half of what I do—”
“For the record,” Patience interrupted with a smile, “it’s equal to, if not more.”
“Then we really have no choice but to stick by each other, through thick and thin.”
“On the run, or home on the Silver Spur,” Patience concurred.
Josh kissed her again, then, still holding tight, drew back to warn, “I’ll always be looking over my shoulder, Patience.”
She knew. “Then I’ll be looking over with you,” she promised calmly. “The important thing is that we love each other.”
“And we do,” he said firmly as happiness surged back into his eyes, “love each other deeply.”
Patience smiled, knowing all was right with their world at long last. “Yes,” she said softly, standing on tiptoe to kiss him once again. “We do.”
00:15
READY TO HEAD OUT, Josh and Patience opened the door and found Soaring Eagle standing on the other side. He was grinning from ear to ear. “Cisco Kidd bet me you two would come to your senses, and just in the nick of time. He was right.”
Josh nodded at the horse saddled and waiting, a magnificent white stallion. It was bedecked in silver wedding finery. “What’s this all about?” he asked, clearly as surprised as Patience.
Soaring Eagle smiled and elaborated. “Max felt you two should ride to the wedding site in the most romantic style possible.”
“Then we won’t disappoint.” Josh lifted Patience up into the saddle and climbed on after her.
Patience arranged the skirts of her wedding gown and cuddled against him. “At last we have everything we’ve ever dreamed of. The question is,” she said worriedly as they took off, “have things worked out as happily for my siblings, too?”
Josh tightened his arms around her waist. “There’s only one way to find out.”
00:00:56
AS THEY ARRIVED at the wedding site, Pearl came out to greet them. She was followed by Patience’s brother Cody—who to Patience’s surprise and delight had shaved off his beard!—and his bride-to-be, Callie Sheridan. Both looked as deliriously happy as she and Josh were, Patience was pleased to note. In fact, Cody looked a damn sight more civilized than when she had last seen him. But where were the other two in the triple wedding party?
“Where’s Trace and Susannah?” Patience asked as Josh dismounted and, capable hands on her waist, swung her down from the saddle, too.
“We don’t know,” Cody said, looking worried.
“None of us have heard from him or Susannah or any of their kids for hours now,” his bride-to-be, Callie, added. Like Patience, she was dressed in a beautiful white wedding gown. Cody was wearing a tux. “And considering the storm we had last night, we can’t help but wonder if they are all right,” Cody said grimly.
“Never mind if they’ll make the wedding on time,” Pearl worried.
Patience glanced at her watch. This was not like Trace. He was always punctual to a fault. Early, even. Susannah, though not as rule-driven as her brother Trace, was equally responsible. Which made this turn of events even stranger. With just seconds left to go until the deadline set by their Uncle Max, Patience wondered anxiously, what could be keeping Susannah and Trace?
eISBN 978-14592-7486-0
THE RANCH STUD
Copyright © 1996 by Cathy Gillen Thacker.
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The Ranch Stud Page 21