by Tina Leonard
“Yeah, right,” said Judah, who’d come up to read the letter. “But who cares what Sam’s doing in his love life? He ran off ol’ Bode, and that’s all that matters.”
Sam sighed. “Could you please start this shindig?” he asked the priest, feeling testy with his brothers’ teasing.
Seton said he could have gotten her. He had to hold on to that thought.
“Sam,” Seton said, and Sam said, “Nothing has changed.”
“Everything has changed,” she insisted. “You don’t need me anymore.”
Oh, I need you.
“Maybe a short recess,” Father Dowd suggested, and Sam practically growled, “Seton, will you marry me?”
Seton looked at him, studying his face for a moment.
“Do you want me to?” she asked.
“I do,” Sam said.
Seton bit her lip for one second, then nodded. “I’ll marry you, Sam.”
“Hurry before she changes her mind,” Rafe, son-in-law to the man Sam supposedly had run off, said. “If she’ll have him, he’s a lucky man. And I can testify that marriage is a good, good thing.”
Father Dowd looked at Seton and Sam, obviously trying to decide if both of them wanted to get married under what had turned out to be unusual circumstances.
“All right,” he finally said, and began the ceremony.
SAM AND SETON’S WEDDING WAS, in a word, the most awkward one Sam had ever been to. But she was his now—though he wasn’t certain why she’d actually said yes at the altar, once Bode had dropped his überbomb. No one was talking about how Sam and Seton had happened so suddenly; they were all abuzz over Sabrina’s obvious pregnancy, wondering who the father was, and then guessing about why Bode Jenkins would finally give up his bitter lawsuit after all these years.
Sam could barely exhale the sigh of relief stuck in his chest. He felt he had to get away, had to escape. Diablo was closing in on him. “Hey, it’s honeymoon time,” he told Seton.
“We weren’t planning on a honeymoon.” She looked at him with big eyes.
When the priest had said, “Kiss the bride,” Sam had done it with gusto. The thing was, he hadn’t expected Seton’s lips to be so sweet and soft. It was like kissing an angel. He wanted to spend an entire year doing nothing but kissing her. “Let’s take one now. I’m a free man—no more court for me, beyond some loose ends. You’re my wife now, so you don’t have to work.”
“Easy, cowboy. I’ll always work.” She sent him a semi-annoyed glance. “I have a case I’m working on, but it could wait.” Then she asked curiously, “What kind of honeymoon?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said. “Let’s get in my truck and drive until we’re sick of driving, then get on a plane and fly to Australia. I just have to get out of this town. I have to get away from my family. Everything.”
Seton gazed at him. “Sam, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” So much was wrong he didn’t know where to start. All he knew was that if he stayed here, Seton might somehow slip away. She might go back to D.C. to help her sister with her pregnancy. Anything could happen. He needed to be alone with her, big-time. “Let’s just disappear.”
She blinked. “For how long?”
How long would it take for him to know that she wasn’t going to skip out, now that she figured he didn’t need her anymore? As she’d said, a good bargain was struck between two people who each needed something. Seton didn’t need anything from him. “A week,” he said at last. “Let’s head off for a week.”
“Who’s leaving?” Jonas demanded as he overheard Sam’s proposition. “Besides me?”
“What?” Seton stared at her new brother-in-law. Jonas had come over to join them where they stood near the cut wedding cake. Guests were milling and chatting, still gossiping about the big news. Sabrina and Jonas stayed so far away from each other they were like continental shelves that had split apart. “You’re going to leave now?”
“I’ve got a flight out tomorrow. I’m going to Ireland to find Aunt Fiona and Uncle Burke.”
Sam swallowed. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
Jonas looked like a haunted man. “I think it’s for the best.”
“You two probably need to talk. Sam, I’m going to go thank the guests, and then we can drive over to my place so I can pack,” Seton said, skittering away from the tension between him and his brother.
“Ten minutes,” Sam said, feeling an impending sense of doom. “You and I hit the road in ten.”
“Okay.” Seton gave him and Jonas a last strained glance and went off.
“Jonas, dude,” Sam said, “cool down, man.”
“I can’t. I’m going crazy. You guys think that’s my baby. But I’m telling you, Sabrina will barely speak to me. It can’t be my baby, and my heart’s cracking in two. I can’t even be glad that ol’ Bode finally gave up trying to screw us.”
Jonas’s cheekbones stood out like knife edges under his pained eyes. “Jeez, I’m sorry, bro,” Sam said. “What a kick in the pants.”
“Yeah, well. Just be sure you hold on to your girl, if this dog-and-pony-show wedding wasn’t just about the ranch.”
Jonas departed, and Sam snagged a bite of wedding cake on his way to find his bride. His itch to get married had started about the ranch, but now Sam knew it was about so much more.
Now that Sabrina and Jonas were farther apart than ever, Sam feared Seton might not be up for any more of his bright ideas. It seemed he’d lost a little luster in her eyes, and maybe she’d lost faith in him.
He had to convince her he wasn’t just the half-baked cowboy she thought he was.
He had seven days to convince her that he was the real deal.
Chapter Eight
Seton’s heart was heavy as she kissed her sister goodbye. “Sabrina, I’ll be gone for a week. Then I’m all yours, for whatever you need.”
Sabrina smiled. “I think you’ll be your husband’s from now on.”
Seton shook her head. “I intend to help you with this pregnancy. Is there any way I can talk you into staying in Diablo? Aunt Corinne would love to have you, you know that. You can stay in my room, even move in there for good.” She thought Sam would probably want her at the ranch, though she didn’t know for certain. Things were changing so fast between them she could hardly keep up. What had started out as a proposition felt as if it was turning into something else. He’d shocked her when he’d declared that he wanted to marry her, even after knowing he no longer had a reason to need a wife.
“I’m going back to D.C.” Sabrina smiled at her. “Don’t worry about me. This is your big day, the biggest of your life, and I want you to be happy. I’m going to be fine.”
“I know.” Seton felt tears spring into her eyes. “But you’re my sister. I love you better than anyone on the planet. And I want you to be happy, too. You deserve it.”
“We both deserve it.” Sabrina hugged her. “Now go, before your husband decides you don’t need to change out of that pretty suit or pack more clothes. He looks so eager he might decide to just take off with you.”
“Oh.” Seton glanced at Sam, who was indeed gazing their way, trying not to barge into their goodbye, but obviously ready to leave. “He’s not in a hurry because of me. I think the lawsuit thing threw him. He’s a free man now.”
“Not really.” Sabrina laughed and hugged her once more. “I’ll see you soon enough.”
Seton got misty all over again and hugged her back. “I’ll be there for the birth of this special baby.”
“Don’t tell Jonas,” Sabrina said. “Promise me.”
“I won’t.” Seton sniffed. “But he’s dumb for not carrying you off and marrying you. I would never have thought Jonas would run from responsibility. Ireland, my foot,” she said, anger drying up her tears.
“Ireland?” her sister asked, pulling back to look at Seton. “He’s going to Ireland?”
“That’s what he says.” Seton blinked. “I’m so sorry, Sabrina.”
S
he shrugged. “We were destined never to be, I suppose.”
Seton didn’t know whether she and Sam were particularly destined. They’d just made a bargain between them that he didn’t seem overly pressed to wiggle out of. “Goodbye,” she told her sister. “Thank you for being my maid of honor.” Sabrina was so lovely, even pregnant, that Seton couldn’t imagine how Jonas could fail to fall in love with her.
“Goodbye,” she replied, just as Sam ambled over.
He gave Sabrina a hug, saying, “Take care of yourself.”
Seton felt slightly mollified that Sam had plotted so hard to bring Sabrina and Jonas together. He’d meant well. It just hadn’t worked out.
Sam grabbed Seton’s hand, and with one last glance at her sister, the two of them sneaked off to his truck. They waved goodbye to the wedding guests, who seemed in no hurry to depart.
“Everyone’s having a great time,” Sam said, turning down the drive. “It was a great party.”
“Yes.” Seton looked out the window at Diablo as Sam drove toward Aunt Corinne’s house. “But as a plan, it was an epic failure.”
“Yeah,” Sam said. “I didn’t factor in the variable of Jonas’s idiocy.”
Seton looked at Sam. “Idiocy? The whole plan backfired. We can’t blame all this on Jonas.”
“Sure we can. Our family’s been doing it for years.”
“My sister has a share of the blame. She didn’t exactly open up her mouth and tell him about the baby. Jonas isn’t a mind reader.”
“True,” Sam said, “but he claims that can’t possibly be his baby.”
“What?” Seton was outraged. “What does he think, that my sister is—”
“That’s why I say we can park most of the blame at Jonas’s door. You know and I know that’s his baby. It has always taken Jonas a little longer than the rest of us to follow clues.”
“I’ll say.” Seton sat back, annoyed. “This whole thing, this whole sham, didn’t come close to achieving any of our goals, and now we’re married.” She looked at Sam. “Married, Sam. Husband and wife.”
“I know.” He grinned, looking less unhappy about it than she thought he would. “Crazy, huh?”
He was crazy. She’d married a man who operated by his own rules. Seton looked out the window, pulled off the white rose-covered barrette she’d worn in her hair in lieu of a veil, and wondered when her normally practical mind had deserted her.
“SANTA FE’S AS GOOD a place as any,” Sam said a few hours later, as they pulled into a quaint bed-and-breakfast. “Our first honeymoon stop should be in a romantic place.”
“Why?” Seton asked, getting out of the truck. “We made a business agreement.”
“Yeah,” Sam said, “but we just got married. It seems like romance is important on a wedding day. I’m a traditional guy.”
Seton looked at the bed-and-breakfast, the bougainvillea trailing down the adobe walls, the delicious smells of artistic cuisine, the tourists meandering down the quaint streets. “I heard they have donkey trail rides here. Let’s ride donkeys.”
Sam laughed. “I ride horses. Did you see the beautiful horses we have at Rancho Diablo?”
“I did,” Seton said. “And I’ve heard about the Diablos, too.”
“Those we don’t ride,” Sam said, his face growing shadowed for a moment. “I haven’t seen them in a while.”
Seton looked at him. “We’re going to do the donkey trail for our wedding celebration.”
Sam shrugged. “Donkeys it is. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you that donkeys aren’t what you want to ride on your wedding night.”
“Why not?” she demanded.
“We’ll be sore and stinky and too tired to do much of anything productive,” Sam said.
“Perfect,” Seton said, and went inside the bed-and-breakfast to check in and change.
CLEARLY, HIS WIFE DIDN’T have romance in mind, or he wouldn’t currently be sitting upon a very stubborn, unhappy donkey that seemed to have it in for him. Sam decided Seton was probably still angry with him about springing Jonas on her unsuspecting and pregnant sister, and Sam couldn’t blame her.
Seton didn’t seem to be having any trouble at all with her donkey. If he hadn’t known better, he would have thought she was born in the saddle. Her donkey was well-behaved, almost pleasant. Seton chatted with the guide and oohed and aahed over everything on the trail, while Sam could feel certain parts of him getting stiff and sore.
The scenery was beautiful, but he was pretty sure he’d rather be in bed with Seton. Still, their marriage agreement had never been about sex, and that’s when Sam realized why he was on the back of a recalcitrant animal and not in bed with his beautiful wife.
“Hey,” he said, easing his donkey—named Happy, ironically—up next to Seton’s. “Are you still annoyed with me about sending Jonas to the airport to get Sabrina? In my defense, I’d like to present to the court the reminder that I had no idea Sabrina was pregnant, and I was acting in what I considered the best, most romantic interests of both parties involved.”
“I know.” Sabrina sighed. He thought his wife was beautiful with her hair up and wearing comfy blue jean capris. “But we made everything worse. And now it’s so bad I don’t think it will ever be right. That’s the trouble with best intentions.”
“I agree. The road to hell is paved with them.” Sam looked hopeful. “But our marriage may go better.”
“It may,” Seton said, “except that I don’t understand why you married me.”
“I married you because I said I would. I’m tired of shopping around,” Sam said. “You have no idea how boring it is to talk to different women every night.”
Seton shook her head. “A true trial.”
“So why’d you marry me?”
“I—” Seton glanced at him. “I don’t know. We were at the altar, and—I really don’t know. Maybe I got all caught up in the moment. Actually,” Seton said thoughtfully, “I think I was scared, seeing what had happened to Sabrina.” It couldn’t have been easy on her sister to feel Jonas hadn’t wanted to know that she was pregnant by him. Seton had felt so sorry for Sabrina, who had to stand at the altar with Jonas and know they would never be together.
“Don’t be scared, Seton. I promise not to get you pregnant,” Sam said. “Unlike my brother, I don’t participate in sleepy sex.”
“What does that mean?” Seton tried not to notice that Sam was the most handsome man—devil—she’d ever laid eyes on. “What is ‘sleepy sex’?”
“Jonas said that a few times, when they were both tired and half-asleep, I guess, and woke up in the morning—or whenever—they just didn’t, I mean, well,” Sam said, clearly feeling awkward, “he didn’t wrap up. But I swear I’ll never make that mistake with you.”
“Lovely,” Sabrina said, thinking that she’d married the brother who would probably make double and triple certain he didn’t get her pregnant. She sighed. “So what’s the real reason you married me, if you don’t want children and don’t need marriage for the ranch?”
“I don’t know,” Sam said, looking out over the painted landscape near Santa Fe. “I think I just feel I’ve found part of myself with you.”
“What part would that be?”
He looked at her. “The part of me that believes that I’ll find myself one day.”
“Sam,” Seton said slowly, “I would have helped you try to find out who you are. I would help you any way I could.”
He shook his head. “I mean the part of me that’s content. I’m comfortable when I’m around you, Seton,” Sam said. “For some reason, you make me smile. And you make me horny, too, but we’re not talking about that right now.” He grinned, taking the serious note out of his words, but Seton looked at her husband, not fooled a bit.
“I make you happy? You don’t even know me.”
He shrugged. “As I said, you also make me horny. You could focus on that part of my confession, if you’d like.”
Seton shook her head. “We’ll see
if you’re still in the mood to talk about sex when you get off that donkey.”
Sam laughed. She completely underestimated his growing desire to share a wedding night with his little bride.
SAM WAS FINE when he got off the donkey after their long trail ride. He was fine while he and Seton ate in a tiny, rustic restaurant that served some of the most delicious stuffed chilies and potato cakes he’d ever had. The chilled mango dessert went down wonderfully.
It was when he and Seton started to walk back to the bed-and-breakfast that Sam realized he was sore as hell. In fact, he was stiffening up like one of Jackie’s and Darla’s mannequins in their wedding shop.