Four-Karat Fiancee

by Sharon Swan

“There has to be another way.” She paused for a thoughtful beat. “Unfortunately the only thing I can come up with at the moment is to try to put the best face possible on whatever Louise learns. And even to do that much we’ll probably need some help,” she acknowledged. “Maybe a lot of help.”

  “Well,” he said after a second’s consideration, “between the two of us we have more than a few friends in town.”

  Her spirits took a slight shift for the better. “Yes, and at least some of them are sure to be willing to help us.” She longed to reach out and touch him, longed for a comforting touch in return. Instead she held back, mindful of the fact that although they continued to turn to each other in the middle of the night, they remained far from the happily wedded couple they’d gone out of their way to present to the rest of the world.

  But this wasn’t the time to think about that, she told herself. Right now the most important thing was to join forces yet again with the man she’d married to convince the authorities once and for all that her sisters and brothers should remain with her, safely and permanently.

  She had to hope against hope they would be successful.

  Chapter Twelve

  Dev fired up the grill on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was another beautiful May day, warm enough for the kids to play outside without a jacket on. The backyard grass was sprouting up, providing a good spot for them to tumble around in their bright T-shirts and lightweight pants.

  Patrick wore his straw cowboy hat, one he hadn’t let stray far from his head since he’d first put it on. Caleb had taken a shine to his baseball cap, as well. Liza was showing her brothers how to do a cartwheel without falling on their face while Betsy babbled to the birds chirping up a storm in the trees. The whole bunch was having a fine time enjoying the great outdoors, Dev thought.

  Too bad he wasn’t.

  Forty-eight hours had passed without so much as a word from Louise Pearson on what she’d been able to dig up on him and Amanda. As a result, they still had little clue as to what was in store for them—or the kids. And the waiting was getting to him, he had to admit.

  Rufus hopped down from his perch on the deck railing and stalked over to rub himself against Dev’s denim-clad legs. “I suppose you’d like me to think you’re trying to raise my spirits,” he muttered, dropping a look down at the cat, “but you don’t fool me, pal. You’re cozying up to me because I’m about to burn some hot dogs and sweet sausage for lunch.”

  A loud purr greeted that statement.

  “Yeah, yeah. Tell it to someone you didn’t throw over for a pretty young face.”

  Amanda stepped through the sliding glass doors to the kitchen carrying a large platter covered with tin foil. She was dressed almost as casually as the kids in a V-necked sweater and khakis. Still, she wasn’t nearly as rosy-cheeked as her sisters and brothers, Dev noted.

  Not that she hadn’t put up a cheerful front for them. She had. They didn’t see the growing worry in her eyes when she watched them having a good time just being young and carefree. But he saw plenty.

  The waiting was getting to her, too.

  “Here’s the hot dogs and sausage.” She set the platter down on the shelf jutting out from one side of the gas grill.

  “Just make sure you eat your share,” he told her. He hadn’t missed the fact that her appetite was a long way from normal. “No just shoving the food around on your plate and pretending that you ate a real meal.”

  She didn’t deny it. She simply looked up at him and arched a brow. “I’m beginning to think you’re nearly as sharp-eyed as a certain social worker we both know.”

  He thought about trying out a smile, then decided against it, figuring it would be a halfhearted effort at best. “Why don’t you forget about her for a while?”

  Amanda’s expression sobered in a heartbeat. “I can’t.”

  “Then try remembering that we’ve got some friends on our side,” he told her, knowing the truth of that. He and Amanda had wasted no time in telling Shelly O’Rourke the details behind Louise Pearson’s visit to Jester, and the Brimming Cup’s owner had promised to quietly pass the word along to the rest of their friends.

  We won’t let you down. That’s what Shelly had said, Dev recalled, not for the first time. It had helped him resist the urge to slam a frustrated fist into the wall more than once during the past two days.

  “You’re right,” Amanda conceded. “Thank God for friends. I just wish I knew whether they’ve been able to accomplish anything. I tried to call Shelly a little while ago and there was no answer at her place.”

  Just then the cordless phone on the deck’s redwood table rang. Amanda made a beeline for it and picked it up. “Shelly—” she started to say. A short silence followed before she spoke again. “But what—” Frowning, she set the phone down.

  Dev found himself frowning in return. “Was it Shelly?”

  She shook her head. “No, it was Roy Gibson. He said the two of us have to get over to the Heartbreaker right away. Then he hung up.”

  He couldn’t figure that one out. “The bar’s not even open on Sunday.”

  Concern clouded her gaze. “It sounded urgent.”

  That news prompted some concern of his own. His head bartender wasn’t a man to get riled up over anything less than a real emergency. “All right, I’ll go and you can stay here with the kids.”

  “Roy stressed that we both had to come.” She picked up the phone again. “I’ll call Mabel and see if she can watch the children.”

  But the Murphys didn’t answer, any more than Shelly had earlier. “I guess we’ll just have to take them with us,” Dev said. He could only be thankful that Amanda had already made some changes at the saloon. At least the two ripe beauties on the wall behind the bar, now covered with some fancy lace, wouldn’t have the kids’ eyes popping out of their heads.

  With a quick nod, she hurried over and grabbed up the food platter. “I’ll put this in the refrigerator while you turn off the grill.”

  He switched off the burners and bent to twist the gauge on the gas tank shut, then straightened and called to the kids. “Lunch is going to be late today, guys. We have to go over to the Heartbreaker for a little while.”

  The boys came running up to him. “We get to see where you work?” Caleb asked with clear enthusiasm.

  “That’s right.”

  “Can I wear my hat?” Patrick wanted to know.

  “No place better to wear it,” Dev told him. “The Heartbreaker’s seen more than its share of cowboys.”

  Betsy toddled toward him, her grin as jolly as the one displayed by the cartoon elephant on her yellow shirt. Liza followed, decked out in cheery pink and looking as eager as her brothers to inspect a spot they’d only seen from the outside.

  They all trooped into the house together. The house, Dev reflected as he locked the sliding door behind them, that he’d built with only himself in mind and that was now home to a family. It was hard to imagine living there by himself anymore. Which could happen, he knew, if things didn’t work out.

  Not that he was anywhere near prepared to concede defeat when it came to the gut-wrenching prospect of seeing four towheads being taken away by the authorities. We won’t let you down. He was determined to keep that promise in mind. It hadn’t been made lightly, he recognized, and he had to count on the Devlins’ friends to make good on it.

  But even if the kids stayed in Jester and the adoption went through, he could well still wind up living alone.

  “Ready to go?” Amanda asked.

  “Yeah, I’m ready.” Ready to be a father to the kids and a husband to you in every way that matters, he added silently. Ready to be a man who looks forward to coming home to his family night after night as the years go by. Ready to start being one half of a real, true-blue, happily married couple…and never stopping.

  Trouble was, the odds against any of that happening were zilch as long as his wife doubted his sticking power.

  Dev grabbed his Stetson from the hall c
loset and left the house with Amanda at his side, thinking that it was just his bad luck that he’d been wrong when he’d told her he thought he was falling in love with her. He no longer thought it. He flat-out knew it.

  And now he might have to watch her walk out of his life.

  “MAIN STREET isn’t usually this quiet,” Amanda said. “There’s not a soul in sight.” Then again, she reflected as she glanced around her, on the evening she’d met trouble in the form of a burly drunk bent on giving her a major problem to deal with, no one had been around to come to her aid. No one, that is, except the man currently seated beside her.

  So maybe it wasn’t so unusual to find Main Street empty, but this was a gorgeous day, the kind not common enough at this time of year to be taken for granted. With that in mind, she couldn’t deny it seemed odd to see the street deserted.

  Dev headed the minivan toward the saloon. “At least there’s no commotion outside the Heartbreaker. Whatever Roy considered urgent, it hasn’t led to a mob scene.”

  He parked the van in front of his business and came around the passenger’s side to help get the children out. Hoisting the littlest of the group into his arms, he brought up the rear as Amanda started across the sidewalk with the older children. They were steps from the corner entrance to the saloon when she came to a sudden halt.

  “You know,” Amanda said, glancing back at her husband, “I have the strangest feeling that something’s going on.”

  He arched a brow. “What do you mean, a feeling?”

  “I’m not sure what I mean exactly,” she had to concede. She didn’t know why a small voice seemed to be telling her that everything wasn’t as it appeared to be. She only knew what she heard in the back of her mind.

  “Women’s intuition?” he asked with a wry slant of his lips.

  She hesitated. “Maybe.”

  “Well, let’s go in and see if there’s anything to it.” That sounded so reasonable, she could hardly object. The heavy door kept locked when the Heartbreaker was closed now stood open, she noted, again moving forward. Only the swinging doors were shut. They creaked a greeting as she slowly stepped inside. And then a chorus of shouts broke out, melding into a single word.

  “Surprise!”

  Amanda’s mouth gaped open as she stared at the crowd crammed into the saloon. It seemed as if half of Jester’s citizens were looking back at her with wide smiles. At last she found her voice. “What in the world is going on?”

  “It must be a surprise birthday party,” Caleb offered from beside her. “I went to one once when I was little.”

  Shelly laughed and stepped forward. “Well, you’re certainly not little anymore,” she told the five-year-old. Then she raised her sparking gaze to include the rest of the new arrivals. “As it happens, though, this is a surprise wedding.”

  A surprise wedding. Amanda was still trying to grasp the implications of that statement when the crowd parted down the center and she saw that the saloon had been decorated with flowers in all colors, shapes and sizes. Its long oak bar now held a lengthy buffet filled with food, and the star attraction was a three-tiered cake with creamy white frosting.

  “But who’s getting mar—” she started to ask. Then she spotted the large, hand-lettered sign draped high over the small wooden stage at the rear of the room, where a five-man country band was assembled.

  “Congratulations, Amanda and Dev,” she murmured, reading the sign out loud.

  “Well, I’ll be dam—darned,” a low voice offered from behind her.

  She glanced back to find her husband looking every bit as amazed as she was. Even Betsy, still held securely in his arms, was studying the scene before her with wide eyes.

  “That’s right,” Shelly told Dev with mock censure, “you need to mind your language.” Then she reached out and caught Amanda in an enthusiastic hug. “I told you weddings should be a big deal.”

  “So you did,” was the only response Amanda could manage at the moment.

  “And the women at the boarding house have made sure that Mrs. Pearson is here to take it all in,” Shelly added, dropping her voice to a whisper. “Your friends are going to show her that we think your marriage is more than romantic enough to deserve two weddings.”

  Amanda aimed a sweeping look over her friend’s shoulder and found the social worker standing off to one side of the room between Irene and Stella. Where everyone else seemed to be casually dressed for the occasion in a mixture of Western-style wear and colorful cotton dresses, shirts and pants, Louise wore a tailored navy suit. Her narrowed stare said she was assessing the situation.

  Amanda sighed. “I just hope it works.”

  “Keep a good thought,” Shelly advised before pulling back. “Now it’s time to get this show on the road. I’m offering my services as matron of honor, by the way.”

  Amanda found her lips curving despite concerns about the future that refused to fade. “You’ve got the job.”

  Finn Hollis, wearing one of his tweed jackets and looking scholarly even with a saloon as a backdrop, stepped forward. “I’m prepared to give the bride away, if she’ll have me.”

  She couldn’t think of anyone in Jester who would better suit her. “I’ll have you,” she didn’t hesitate to tell him.

  “Good.” Shelly linked her arm with Amanda’s. “Let’s head to the ladies’ room and put the final touches on your outfit.”

  Amanda dropped a look down at her ivory sweater, khaki slacks and tan loafers. “If I’d had any inkling that you were going to spring this on me, I would have at least worn a dress.”

  “I told everyone this would be a come-as-you-are wedding,” Shelly informed her as they started across the room. “If my expanding waistline wasn’t making it more and more difficult to close the zipper of my jeans, I would have come that way, believe me. As it is, I had to settle for a roomier outfit if I wanted to be comfortable.”

  Gwen Tanner waved a greeting as they passed her. Like Shelly, the boarding-house owner and avid baker wore a lightweight floral-print dress with a loose waistline. Unlike Shelly, however, the identity of the man who had gotten Gwen pregnant remained a mystery.

  “You made the cake, didn’t you?” Amanda called out.

  Gwen smiled her sweet smile. “Guilty as charged.”

  Amanda and Shelly entered the restroom and found Sylvia Rutledge waiting for them. The tall, slim and always stylish blonde who operated the Crowning Glory hair salon had plainly had no trouble donning a pair of snug designer jeans that were a fitting match for her fashionable turquoise-and-silver striped blouse. She held a short length of gauzy white fabric topped with a circle of fresh flowers in one of her well-manicured hands.

  “Even if it this is a come-as-you-are wedding,” she told Amanda with a sly grin, “we decided the bride needed a veil.”

  “And while Sylvia’s putting it on, I have to get your wedding ring and give it to the best man,” Shelly said. “Which should be Roy unless Dev turns him down flat for hauling the two of you over here with that trumped-up phone call.”

  Amanda pulled off her plain gold ring and handed it to Shelly. “I’ll keep my engagement ring.”

  Sylvia laughed softly as Shelly left. “I would, too, if I had a rock like that.”

  “I never expected to have it,” Amanda admitted, dipping her gaze to the elegantly cut diamond. “But you can afford to buy one.” She knew the truth of that, since Sylvia was another of the big lottery winners.

  The woman who seemed to enjoy her single status shook her head. “That’s not the kind of ring a female buys for herself. Takes a man to do it right. Now, let me get to work.”

  MINUTES LATER, to the tune of “Here Comes the Bride” skillfully played on a lone fiddle, Amanda walked down a makeshift aisle on one of Finn’s lanky arms with her long hair swept up off her neck and her veil brushing the small of her back. It was so different from the first time, she thought, recalling the earlier ceremony conducted in the judge’s chambers. This time there were mounds of f
lowers, a beautiful wedding cake and a sea of friendly faces.

  Even some much-loved faces, she could hardly deny, catching sight of the children who watched her with clear wonder in their eyes. A beaming Mabel, looking as pleased as punch with her part in surprising the couple next door, now held Betsy while the three older members of the Bradley bunch stood next to the part-time nanny and her equally beaming spouse.

  “Mandeee!” Betsy called out, waving one tiny hand.

  Amanda waved back, deciding that this time wasn’t only different, but far better in many ways.

  Nevertheless, something remained the same, she realized as she continued to take measured steps toward the rear of the saloon and recognized the big, broad-shouldered judge who awaited her at the foot of the stage that held the band. Today Judge Corbett looked more like a rancher than a court official in his Wranglers and leather vest, but the large smile he offered as she came to a halt in front of him was unmistakably familiar.

  “Nice to see you again, little lady.” He tipped his wide-brimmed hat in greeting. “I’m glad you didn’t keep the groom waiting too long. He had the look of a raring-to-go male who wants to get hitched pronto as he watched you walk down the aisle. Probably,” the judge added, cocking a bushy brow, “so he can get started on kissing the bride one more time.”

  Finn patted her hand. “I’m guessing His Honor is right,” he remarked with a low chuckle before stepping back.

  Amanda slowly turned her head and looked at the man she’d deliberately avoided so much as a glance at for the last few minutes, the man who was about to become her husband yet again. The same man who stood next to his head bartender and stared at her from under the rim of his Stetson with a resolute set of his chiseled jaw, as though determined to do something come hell or high water. But what? she wondered.

  Then she found out in the next breath when he broke with tradition and reached out to pull her to him in one swift motion. Before she could so much as blink, he lowered his head and brought his lips to her ear.

  “You may not want to hear it,” he said in a rough whisper, “but I have to say my piece. This time, I want it to be the real thing, Amanda. A real love match, not a sham one. That’s why, even though the odds might be against me, I’m dead-set on asking you here and now to take a chance and trust me when I swear that I mean to spend the rest of my life with you.”