“I won’t look, either.” Matt stepped away. “Brotherhood solidarity.”
Rafe smiled. “Thanks.”
Lucy took the phone and her eyes widened. “I love it. Gorgeous. She’ll look amazing when she walks down the aisle in that.”
Rafe had no doubt. She’d come toward him wearing her pretty new dress and her hair in some special arrangement. And it was all for show.
He’d promised her he would be fine and he would be, damn it. Even if it killed him. “Hey, I’ll go see if Nick needs help with firewood.”
“I’ll go with you.” Matt followed him out the back door and lowered his voice. “This sucks for you, bro.”
“What else was I going to do? Let her marry some bozo who answered her ad in the Gazette?”
“You did what you had to, but I feel for you. Your wedding is supposed to be one of the best days of your life. Instead, at the end of the reception, she’ll go one way and you’ll go the other.”
“At which point, I plan to start drinking.”
“We’ll all bunk down here tomorrow night. Keep you company.”
“No, I can’t let you do that. Leo and Garrett will be here. I don’t need—”
“Yes, you do. Hey, weren’t Millie and Isabel supposed to be out here? Nick’s over by the fire, but I don’t see the ladies.” He raised his voice as they approached the fire pit. “Where’d you stash Millie and Isabel, Nick?”
“We’re here.” Millie’s arm appeared over the back of one of the Adirondack chairs arranged in a semi-circle in front of the fire. She was holding a bottle of cider.
“Me, too.” Isabel stuck up her arm from the chair next to it.
“Well, that’s a relief.” Matt walked over to the ice chest, pulled out two bottles and handed one to Rafe. “I get nervous when people disappear into thin air.”
“We’re just staking our claim to the Adirondacks. Isabel needs one because she’s PG. And I’m saving this one for Kate.” She pointed to her left.
“And the two on my right are reserved for Lucy and Eva,” Isabel said.
“I see.” Matt glanced at Nick. “Do you get one?”
“I’m next to Eva. That’s my bottle on the ground by the chair leg.” He grinned. “First come, first served, bro.”
“Hey, Rafe.” Millie looked up at him. “You should claim the one next to Kate. Go sit in it before Matt does.”
“I don’t want that one,” Matt said. “I want the one next to Lucy.”
“Sorry, dude.” Isabel shook her head. “That’s Eva’s.”
“I’ll fix this,” Nick took off his work gloves and stuck them in his back pocket, walked over to the chair he’d claimed and picked up his cider bottle. “Matt, you sit next to Lucy and I’ll give Eva my chair. Then I’ll take the one on her right.”
“Perfect arrangement.” Millie smiled.
Rafe stayed standing. “What about everybody else?” He glanced at Isabel. “What about CJ? Gonna make the father of your baby sit on a chummy stump?”
“Oh, he’d prefer that. These chairs would be terrible for playing his guitar. A chummy stump is way better.”
Rafe shifted his gaze to Millie. “What about our hard-working chef in there? Your sweetheart Jake? And Leo and Garrett? They made the trip to Great Falls to buy the chairs.”
“I’m not sure what to do about Leo and Garrett. You make a good point. But if Jake wants my chair, that’s fine. I’ll just sit on his lap.”
“I like that idea.” Nick exchanged a glance with Matt. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“That you’re going to sit on my lap?”
Nick grinned. “We should do that. It would be worth it to see Eva and Lucy’s faces.”
“We’re not doing that. We’re going to act like normal people.”
Millie giggled. “That’ll take a lot of acting, Matt.”
He rolled his eyes. “As I was saying. Nick, you invite Eva to sit on your lap and I’ll invite Lucy to sit on mine. That frees up two chairs, so Leo and Garrett can each have one. Problem solved.”
“I should get credit for solving it,” Millie said. “The lap thing was my idea.”
“I’ll give you credit.” Rafe took a seat, leaving one empty between him and Millie. Kate’s chair. “And my thanks for taking on the extra work of this wedding tomorrow.”
“No thanks needed. I’m happy to be there for you guys. We all are.” She hesitated. “I guess you could ask Kate to sit on your lap, but I don’t know if that’s a good—”
“Probably not.”
“We can say you each get a chair because you’re wedding royalty.”
“I guess, although I don’t know if that works, either, now that you mention it. Maybe I should just take a chummy stump and let Jake have my chair.”
“That’s even more pointed, like you don’t want to sit with her. You used to sit with her all the time.”
“Millie’s right,” Nick said. “No worries if you each have a chair and the rest of us cozy up with our ladies. Sitting on your lap isn’t something Kate would have done before, so no big deal if she doesn’t do it, now.”
“Hope so.” Rafe heaved a sigh. “Tonight’s going to be awkward, isn’t it?”
“Maybe not. We’ve stashed in a good supply of cider. And awkward or not, we need to move beyond this rift that developed between Kate and us.”
“We will move beyond it.” Matt glanced over at Rafe. “I know the wedding isn’t making it any easier, but I shudder to think what a mess this could be if Kate had ended up with somebody we barely know.”
“Yeah,” Nick said. “That would have been bad. For one thing, we wouldn’t have wanted to be part of the wedding. If it had turned out she needed us to, I guess we would have done it, but this way, it’s all in the family.”
Rafe nodded. “That was my thinking.” Except he hadn’t been thinking at all when he’d raced over to her house last night. Faced with the specter of her marrying another man, he’d acted from a primitive instinct, throwing himself into the breach without considering the consequences.
And he’d do it again.
Chapter Ten
Kate cleaned the dining hall kitchen surfaces until she was in danger of scrubbing off the finish. Then she noticed a spot she’d missed and wiped down the entire counter again.
After sweeping the floor, she gave it a thorough mopping. Usually she let it air dry, but tonight she took off her boots, tossed down a couple of old towels and skated around on them until the floor was almost as shiny as the counters.
She was stalling. The trip to the courthouse had ended on a good note, but she’d been emotionally wiped out by the time Rafe had dropped her off at home. Her duties at the dining hall had been light, thank goodness—four couples who hadn’t lingered. No complaints, there.
But she wasn’t ready to face the Buckskin gang, much as she loved them and was grateful for their support. They were expecting her, though. Millie was counting on it, and this afternoon she’d confirmed with Rafe that she was going. Jake would have saved her some chuck wagon stew like he always used to.
Stripping off her gloves, she got her jacket from the storeroom and put it on before heading out the front door of the dining hall. Focused on her mission, she locked up quickly, pocketed her keys and started out, moving fast. Race walking would calm her jitters.
“Kate.”
She swung around. “Rafe!” She pressed her hand to her wildly beating heart. “I didn’t see—”
“Didn’t mean to scare you.” Hands shoved into the pockets of his open sheepskin coat, he stepped away from the corner of the dining hall. “I was waiting for you to finish up. Thought I’d walk you over, if that’s okay.”
“That’s… very nice of you.” She sucked in the cold night air as her breathing slowly returned to normal. He’d startled her, but that wasn’t the only reason she was rattled.
Before the bachelor auction, she’d kept a low flame under her simmering attraction. Then he’d ridden
into the arena at breakneck speed, a gorgeous man astride one of Ed’s spectacular horses, and she’d reached the boiling point in seconds.
Two months later, she was still susceptible, particularly when he caught her off guard like this. His sheepskin coat made his shoulders look a mile wide and he had some end-of-the-day scruff going on. Hel-lo, sexy cowboy.
Had he buried his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t reach for her? Could be. That was why she’d kept her hands tucked away. Otherwise she was liable to grab him by the soft lapels of his coat and haul him in for a kiss.
She cleared the lust from her throat. “I hope you haven’t been waiting long. I had some extra cleaning to do.”
“Yeah, I figured you were stalling.” He smiled.
“Why didn’t you come in?”
“I wanted to let you take whatever time you needed.”
“Did you think I’d wuss out? Because I wasn’t going to.”
“Figured that, too, which is why I’m here, to give you company on the way over. Thought it might help.”
“It does. Thanks.”
“I also wanted to give you a heads-up about a couple of things.”
“Want to tell me on the way?”
“I’d rather tell you before we start out, in case… well, to begin with, we have eight new Adirondack chairs around the fire pit.”
“Wow, when did that happen?”
“Yesterday afternoon. There was an end-of-season sale in Great Falls. Hard to believe it was only yesterday.”
“I know what you mean. Yesterday seems like years ago. The chairs sound nice, though. You guys are such gentlemen I’m sure there’s one saved for me, but I don’t mind the chummy stumps.”
“You’ll have a chair and so will I, places of honor, in a way.”
“Because of tomorrow?”
“Sort of. You know how you can have an un-birthday party?”
“Yeah.”
“The gang’s giving us an un-bachelor/un-bachelorette party. They want it to be festive, and we get our own chairs, but nobody’s going to jump out of a cake naked.”
She grinned. “Well, darn. That would have been something to see.”
“Jake volunteered to do a cowboy striptease, but Millie—”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve never seen one, but I think it involves getting down to a jock strap and chaps.”
“Wow. The things I still need to learn about the wild West.”
“You need breakaway pants, which Jake doesn’t have.”
“But clearly he wants some.”
Rafe snorted. “Could be. Anyway, Millie nixed the idea for a lot of reasons, but mostly because this isn’t a bachelor or bachelorette party. No strippers. No wedding talk. No jokes about weddings, wedding nights, or marriage in general.”
“So what’s different about tonight besides the chairs?”
“It’ll just be… more festive. At least that’s the idea. I had nothing to do with it. They cooked it up while we were gone this afternoon and didn’t ask my permission on purpose, for fear I’d say no. Evidently they think we need a special party.”
“Then we’d better make tracks.” She started down the path at her usual brisk pace.
He fell into step beside her. “They’ll be happy to see you.”
“I’ll be happy to see them. I was just dawdling because it’ll be a little uncomfortable at first. There was the weirdness of our blowup and now the weirdness of this wedding.”
“Everybody wants it to work.”
She skidded to a stop. “Our marriage?”
“No, no! Our group, getting to where we can all hang out together again and everybody’s relaxed.”
“In other words, you and me back to our casual friendship mode.”
“Right.”
“I’d like that, too.” She blew out a breath and continued down the path. “Sorry I came unglued. If I ever thought there was a secret plan to turn this wedding into an actual marriage, I’d—”
“No such plan. Believe me, I asked. I can tell when they’re up to something and they’re not. Everyone respects your stand on marriage, including me.”
“You do?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You don’t think I’m—how did you put it two months ago? A damn coward who’s willing to let one lousy experience rule her life forever?”
He winced. “I had no business saying that and I apologize.”
“Thank you.”
“I haven’t been in your shoes. I didn’t go into a marriage with stars in my eyes and come out with two black eyes.”
“That’s a colorful way of putting it.”
“I should have clarified why you bid on me at the bachelor auction. I didn’t realize….”
“What?”
“You were just hot for my body.” There was a hint of a smile in his voice.
Could they tease each other about this? Maybe. “I wasn’t the only woman thinking that. You’ve got it goin’ on, cowboy. That bidding was fierce.”
“Surprised the hell out of me.”
“Did you take note of who else was bidding?”
“No.”
“Well, I did. I could draw you up a list of who—”
“No, thanks. I’ll soon be a married man.”
“Cut out the married man nonsense. You’re free to date. That’s part of the deal.”
“Will you?”
“Um… sure….”
“That didn’t sound very convincing. Tell you what. You first. Start going out with someone and I’ll follow your example.”
“You shouldn’t wait for me. I’m not all that fond of the dating game.”
“That makes two of us.”
“But how else are you going to find someone who wants the same things you do?”
“Maybe she’ll just show up. Lucy came back to the Buckskin after years away and reunited with Matt.”
“Is there an old flame of yours who might drop in unexpectedly?”
“Not that I remember.”
“And you would remember. You have a memory like an elephant.”
“Isabel arrived out of the blue and CJ—”
“Not out of the blue. For a wedding. Is that your strategy? Wait for the next wedding and hope you fall for someone in the bridal party?”
“It could happen.”
“Waiting for someone to magically appear is not realistic.”
“Worked for Matt and CJ.”
“You need to be proactive. Your temporary marriage to me would give you time to learn whether the person you’re dating is the right one, since you can’t rush into that legal trap like some do. Like I did. You could use the time to your advantage and start exploring.”
“Or I could wait for someone to show up.”
She groaned. “Meanwhile your sperm is losing motility.”
“What?”
“You haven’t heard that?”
“No, and I can’t believe we’re discussing my sperm.”
“It’s a fact, Rafe. Sperm motility declines after twenty-five. You turned thirty this year. You’re on the downhill slope, my friend. And if you want kids, you—”
“My sperm is up to the job, thank you very much.”
“Maybe, but the clock is ticking. Besides, even if you started dating someone this weekend, it would take weeks before you had sex and weeks more before you’d evaluated whether she’d make a good partner.”
“I won’t start dating someone this weekend. I have a wedding to attend.”
“I’m aware of that.” The lantern by the front door of the bunkhouse shone through the trees and the sound of CJ’s guitar drifted from the picnic area in the back.
“As for the rest of your timetable, who gave you a crystal ball?”
“It’s a calculated guess I made from observing that you’re cautious and methodical.” She liked that about him.
“No, I’m not. When I heard your gonzo plan of putting an ad in the Gazette, I was at your do
orstep within minutes offering myself as an alternative. There’s nothing cautious or methodical about that.”
“Everybody acts out of character sometimes.” She stepped into the pool of light by the front door and turned to him. “But the fact remains that in general, you—”
“Hang on.” He faced her and shoved back his hat. “If you have no interest in marriage and kids, why are you such a sperm motility expert?”
Trust him to zero in on that. “I used to want a family.”
“Aha.” He pointed a finger at her. “Then that’s another thing you’ve—”
“Yep. No kids for me. I’m past thirty, like you, and age is even more critical for women.”
“But you can still have them, right?”
“I can, but I won’t.” She looked him square in the eye. “My research isn’t doing me any good, but if it lights a fire under you, my efforts won’t be wasted.”
“I didn’t know you wanted a family.” His gaze searched hers. “It seems wrong that you’ve given up when you could still—”
“You’re entitled to your opinion. I’m not changing my mind.”
His jaw tightened. “We could get in a fight over this point.”
“Probably.”
“Let’s not.”
“Yeah, let’s not.” She took a breath. “Do you need to go in the house for any reason?”
“No.”
“Then let’s do this thing.” She took the alternate route to the fire pit, walking around the end of the bunkhouse. Then she stopped. “Oh, Rafe, that’s so pretty! What’s making those sparkly lights in the trees out by the fire pit?”
“Leo stopped by the hardware store and got one of those projectors that gives you the sparkly effect. Had to buy a couple of long-ass cords to connect to an outlet at the house, but the result is worth it.”
“He did that just for this party?”
“Well, he wanted it for tonight, but we can use it other times.”
“What a sweetheart he is.”
“You have a lot of fans in this group, Kate.”
Her throat tightened. “I’m getting that. It’s humbling.”
“Ready to join the party?”
“So ready.” She hurried up the path. “Hey, you guys! We’re here!”
CJ stopped playing, and the group erupted from the semi-circle of chairs, laughing and calling her name. As the Buckskin gang surrounded her in an epic group hug, she vowed to keep this connection strong. No matter what.
Strong-Willed Cowboy (The Buckskin Brotherhood Book 5) Page 6