Three Reasons to Wed

by Helen Lacey

  Not a chance...

  He might not have made love with a woman since forever, but that didn’t mean he was going to start thinking about Marissa in that way. That would be just plain stupid. And he wasn’t a stupid man.

  “Hi,” she said, a little breathlessly. “I’m here.”

  “So I see,” he replied and held the door back for her to enter. “The girls are waiting patiently in the family room. And on their best behavior,” he added. “The promise of a day with you had them up and dressed at dawn. Now they’re sitting quiet as mice—they’ve been watching cartoons until it was time to go.”

  She laughed and the lovely sound echoed down the hallway. He watched her walk, couldn’t help but notice the gentle sway of her hips and the sexy-as-all-get-out boots. She had a style that was an intriguing mix of big city and small town. There was nothing obvious about Marissa; everything was understated and elegant. She was beautiful enough to grace a billboard but always looked just as much at home in jeans and sweaters as she did in a fancy suit or an evening gown.

  Grady dismissed his wandering thoughts and ushered her into the kitchen. His mother and Brant both raised their brows when she entered, even though they knew she was taking the girls out for a few hours. His mom came forward immediately and drew her into an embrace.

  “It’s lovely to see you, Marissa. I was so pleased when Grady told us you’d come back for good. And Violet must be delighted.”

  “I hope so,” Marissa said and hugged his mother in return. “She said you’ve been visiting her this week, so thank you.”

  “My pleasure,” Colleen said and smiled.

  “You remember Brant?” Grady asked.

  She nodded. “Of course,” she replied and flicked her gaze to his brother. “Nice to see you again.”

  “Likewise,” Brant said, flashing her a grin as he sipped his coffee.

  Grady watched as she made a beeline for Tina, who was now bobbing up and down with her hands outstretched. Marissa enfolded his child in her arms as though she was the most precious thing in the world, and something hot pierced his chest. It always moved him to see how attached she was to his daughters. Of course, Liz had been her closest friend, which would explain some part of it. And the girls were delightful. But there was an earnest, deep kind of love between Marissa and his daughters that rattled him in a way he couldn’t quite figure. And she was one of the few people he trusted wholly and completely when it came to the care and well-being of his children.

  As if on cue, Breanna and Milly raced into the room and shrieked delightfully when they saw her. She hugged them both while still holding the toddler, and he realized it had been an age since he’d seen the girls so happy. Marissa brought out the best in them, and from the loving expression on her face, it was clearly mutual.

  Grady glanced toward his mother and saw how keenly she watched the interaction. He knew that look. Great. His mother liked Marissa...but the last thing he wanted was Colleen getting any ideas that included him and Marissa being any kind of anything.

  He excused them to follow the kids and Marissa down the hall, then he grabbed the girls’ bags from beside the front door, hauled Tina into his arms and headed back outside.

  “I installed the car seat you gave me last time I was here,” she said as they walked toward the car. “You know, the one for Milly,” she explained as she unlocked the vehicle.

  Grady was touched that she’d remembered. “Thank you.”

  Once they were all in her Volvo, she spoke.

  “I’ll have them back by four, if that’s okay?”

  “Sure. Have a nice time.”

  Then he waved them off and watched his daughters’ delighted faces through the window as the car eased away. He took a breath and hugged Tina close as he headed back inside.

  “And you, honey,” he said as he kissed her head, “get to spend the day with Daddy.”

  She laughed and gently grabbed a handful of his hair. Tina was such a placid and lovely child. Not as serious and temperamental as Breanna or energetic as Milly, but more like her mom. She’d been six weeks old when Liz died, and it saddened Grady that she’d had only such a small amount of time with her mom.

  Once he was back in the house, he made for the kitchen to collect Tina’s princess backpack. His mother and brother were still sitting at the table, and both gave him an odd look when he entered the room.

  “Marissa seems happy to be back,” his mother said, her lips curling in a smile. “And it looks as though she’s well and truly recovered from her divorce. She’s such a beautiful woman, don’t you think? And she’s so attached to the girls. I know Liz thought the world of—”

  “Mom,” Grady warned gently. “Don’t.”

  She sighed. “All I’m saying is that—”

  “I know what you’re saying,” he said, cutting her off. “So just don’t.”

  “I only—”

  “No,” he said, a little firmer. “Never. Understand? Never.”

  She nodded and stood, rattling the wedding band she still wore against the side of the cup in her hand. She was smiling. A typical Mom way of diffusing his impatience. There was no way he could get mad with his mother. She was all heart and the most generous person he had ever known. Even if she was set on interfering in his private life.

  “Never say never.” She looked at Brant. “That goes for both of you. Now, skedaddle out of here so I can get to my quilting class.”

  Grady said goodbye to his family and headed back to the ranch, determined to get his mother’s words and ideas out of his thoughts.

  And failed, big-time.

  * * *

  Marissa had a wonderful afternoon with the girls. She took them to see Aunt Violet at the hospital and stayed for a while, then afterward they all got their nails painted at the beauty salon in town before going to the Muffin Box café for a shared plate of home-style sweet potato fries followed by pear-and-pecan-flavored mini cupcakes and vanilla bean milk shakes.

  By the time she pulled up outside the ranch house, it was five minutes to four. Grady came out onto the porch, wearing jeans and a T-shirt that showed off his well-defined physique. He was broad in the shoulders and narrow in the hips and waist and well muscled. Not the kind of muscles from a gym as her ex-husband had boasted about...but from his years of working the ranch. From repairing fences and hauling hay bales and rounding up cattle on horseback. There was something so elementally masculine about him it was impossible to ignore. And the purely female part of her that registered an attractive man was on the radar was quickly on full alert, even if it was Grady. She’d have to be a rock not to notice he was attractive.

  “Daddy!”

  Milly was out of the car and up the steps in a flash, holding out her sparkly fingernails as if they were the greatest of treasures. She watched as Grady crouched down and examined Milly’s nails and then ruffled her hair. Breanna was a little more subdued, but still happy to share the day’s events with her father. She took out the girls’ pink and purple backpacks, grabbed her own handbag and walked toward the steps. The girls were now inside and Grady stood alone on the porch. There was such scorching concentration in his stare she could barely handle meeting his gaze.

  “I take it a good day was had by all?” he asked as he came down the steps and held out his hand to take the bags.

  “Yes,” she replied, suddenly breathless.

  “Including you?”

  She nodded. “Including me. They were very well behaved, even after I plied them with sugary food and drinks.”

  His expression narrowed for a moment and then he grinned. “I don’t believe that for a second.”

  She shrugged. “I took them to the Muffin Box, so it was a healthy alternative. We had healthy cupcakes and soy milk shakes. I see that the O’Sullivans bought the place from the original own
ers.”

  “Yeah,” he replied and swung the backpacks over his shoulder. “Too much competition for the café they had added to the pub, so they bought them out. Now they have the monopoly in town.”

  “Shrewd.” She crossed her arms. “I guess they’re happy about the towns merging?”

  “They haven’t any reason to complain. They own the biggest hotel in town and bought most of the commercial real estate on the Riverbend side of the bridge. A bigger, more economically viable town means more money in their pockets.”

  “I gather the relationship between you and them hasn’t changed?”

  She knew Liz’s family hadn’t really approved of Grady. He was a rancher, a cowboy, and they had wanted their only and beloved daughter to go to college. But Liz had been adamant. She had wanted to stay in the small town and become a rancher’s wife. The O’Sullivans were old money from Riverbend, and as well as Liz they had three sons. One who ran the hotel and pub in town, another who was a doctor in Sioux Falls and the third who was a music producer in LA. It didn’t matter that Grady’s ranch was one of the largest and most successful in the county. They had wanted a certain life for their daughter, and since Liz’s death their resentment had amplified. Marissa admired Grady’s resilience, though, as he still ensured the girls spent time with Liz’s parents and siblings.

  “No,” he said after a moment. “But I don’t get so worked up about it these days.”

  “I’m not sure why they didn’t approve of you. Liz said it was because they wanted her to go to college, but she was never all that interested in hitting the books. She liked to be outside, in her garden or riding her horse.”

  “Yes,” he said, shifting on his feet. “She sure did look good in the saddle.”

  Marissa smiled. “I used to envy the way she could ride like that...sort of fearless.” She crossed her arms. “Now I’m back for good, I should probably learn how to ride. Maybe I can trade some babysitting duties for lessons?”

  His gaze widened. “You want me to teach you to ride?”

  “Why not? You’re pretty good on a horse, right?”

  His mouth creased at the sides. “I do all right.”

  “And until you replace Mrs. Cain, you probably need all the help you can get in the babysitting department, right?”

  “I guess so.”

  “You get a complimentary sitter and I get to learn a new skill. I’d like to be able to go riding with the girls. They were telling me today how much they love their ponies.” She noticed he was watching her intently, and she wondered if she’d said something she shouldn’t have. It was impossible to tell with Grady. “Unless you’d prefer I didn’t. I mean, I know that was something Liz used to do with them and if you think I’m overstepping my—”

  “I think they’d like it very much,” he said, cutting her off.

  She nodded. “Okay. Although, I’ll probably end up landing on my behind. I’ve never been all that athletic. Liz used to beat my socks off in track in high school.”

  “Yeah, she was quite the athlete. But if it’s any consolation, she used to envy your long blond hair.”

  “My hair?”

  He reached out unexpectedly and touched her hair for a second, twirling a few strands around his fingers, then quickly snapped his hand back, as if he’d come into contact with a hot poker. The mood between them seemed to shift on some kind of invisible axis. And even though there was a breeze, Marissa turned warm all over. It stunned her that he had that effect on her—and it made her want to run. But she stayed where she was and sucked in a breath.

  “She always wanted straight hair.”

  Marissa remembered Liz’s mass of fiery red curls fondly. Once, when they were teens, they had tried to iron it straight. She still remembered Aunt Violet’s despair at finding them in the bathroom, water running everywhere as they tried to douse Liz’s smoldering locks underneath the faucet.

  “Her hair was beautiful,” Marissa said.

  “I know that,” he said and smiled fractionally. “She was beautiful inside and out.”

  There was pain and longing in his voice, and Marissa’s heart constricted. “I still miss Liz every day.”

  “Me, too,” he said.

  Marissa’s throat tightened. They’d talked about Liz many times during the past two and a half years, and yet she still felt the emotion rise up. It would always be like that. Liz was one of a kind. And her one true friend in the whole world.

  “She was so...grounded. So sensible. Exactly the friend I needed as a teenager growing up. My mother had just died and since I never knew my dad... I guess that’s why I was drawn to her. Her life was so different from mine, and yet we became firm friends. I guess she seemed to have this picture-perfect family.”

  “Nothing is perfect. Her parents put a lot of pressure on her. I think that’s why she...” His words trailed and he grinned ruefully. “You know.”

  “Rebelled and married you? But she adored you.”

  “It was mutual. She made loving easy.”

  Marissa’s heart tightened. She’d longed for that kind of love. She’d never seen it firsthand until Liz and Grady had gotten together and married. Her mother had raised her alone until Marissa was twelve, and Aunt Violet had never married. Her father, whom she only knew was some random cowboy who’d drifted through town, was never mentioned. Whenever she’d asked Violet, her aunt had told her to leave the past where it belonged. When she’d married Simon, Marissa believed she’d found the kind of love and family she was looking for—until he betrayed her with another woman.

  Shaking off the memories, she focused on Grady. “I know she did. Liz had a great capacity for love...and a big heart.”

  “A weak heart, as it turned out,” he said soberly.

  Marissa nodded. The car accident that had landed Liz in the hospital was a result of a virus that had caused a massive heart attack. At just twenty-nine, she died three days later from a second attack. Six weeks after the birth of her third child, with her husband and family at her side.

  “I’ll always marvel at her strength that day,” Marissa said quietly. “She knew... She knew she was so very ill, and she still made the time to talk to me and Aunt Violet. The last thing she told me was about you.”

  One brow rose. “It was?”

  “Yes. She asked me to make sure you weren’t sad all the time.”

  “Well, I’m not,” he said and smiled. “The girls make that impossible.”

  “I know. And they adore you. You’re a good dad.”

  He smiled. “Thank you. They adore you, too, by the way. I appreciate you taking the time for them today. Painting nails and cupcakes aren’t really my specialty. Heaven help me when they hit puberty.”

  She chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine. And it was my pleasure to spend time with them,” she assured him. “I think of it as good practice for when I have kids of my own one day.”

  His gaze narrowed. “So, you want children? I thought you might have started a family while you were married.”

  A familiar pain lodged behind her ribs. “Simon didn’t want children. Just as well, really, considering the divorce.”

  “That’s a shame for him. It might have made him a better man.”

  “Nothing would have done that.”

  Grady’s brows came up. “Really? You know, you never did say why you broke up.”

  Marissa shrugged. It was an old hurt she had no intention of sharing. “Irreconcilable differences.”

  “Because he was a pretentious jerk, you mean?”

  Marissa laughed. “Something like that. I wasn’t aware he’d made such a bad impression.”

  “Sure you were,” Grady flipped back. “He called the town Hicksville and me John Wayne, remember?”

  She laughed again. She did remember. Simon ha
d complained the entire duration of their trip. He’d refused the invitation to stay at the ranch or Aunt Violet’s and then had complained about the modest motel accommodation in town.

  “I’m sure he would have been better tempered if the O’Sullivan Hotel hadn’t been booked up that weekend. We had to stay at the Cedar Motel instead. It wasn’t so bad, but he complained for three days straight.”

  “It wasn’t booked up,” Grady said and grinned. “Liz made that up just to antagonize him.”

  Marissa laughed again. “Bless her. It worked.” She rattled her keys. “Well, I should get going. Thanks again for letting me spend the day with the girls. I hope they’re not too hyped up to sleep tonight.”

  “I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

  She was about to say goodbye when someone approached from around the side of the house. Marissa recognized Grady’s foreman, Rex Travers, and nodded when he came toward them.

  “Afternoon, miss,” he said politely. “Boss says you’ve got some palings that need fixing.” He removed his hat and tilted his shaggy blond head with a kind of old-fashioned cowboy respect. “I thought I’d come around Monday morning, if that’s okay with you.”

  Marissa smiled. “Of course. I’ll see you then.”

  “Around nine, if that suits.”

  “Sure,” she said and smiled at the older man. He was in his midfifties and had a kind, weathered sort of look about him. He’d worked at the ranch for about six years and by all accounts was a good man with a solid work ethic. She knew Grady wouldn’t tolerate anything else from the people who worked on the ranch. He said something to Grady about one of the cows and then ambled back toward the stables.

  Marissa sighed. “Well, I’ll be off.”

  He nodded. “Okay. Thanks again.”

  “No problem.”

  She was just about to open the driver’s door when he spoke again.

  “If you want to learn to ride a horse, I’d be happy to teach you.”

  She stilled. “Oh...sure. That would be great.”