by Kit Morgan
Melanie laughed despite herself. “That bad, huh?”
“Worse. I left when I was sixteen and never looked back.” She turned to Melanie. “I will never, ever, live like that again!”
Wow, Melanie thought. It was that bad. No wonder Cassandra made the comments she did about the ranch, the photo shoot in the barn, the surrounding area – it reminded her too much of a past she wanted to forget. “Does Tate know you’re leaving?”
“Does he need to?”
“Uh, yes! You are here as his guest. Don’t you think you need to let him know?”
Cassandra stopped what she was doing, rolled her eyes and groaned. “Just see if Casey can give me a ride to the airport, will you?”
“Cassandra!”
“Fine.” She threw down a pair of socks and stormed out of the room. “I’ll ask her myself.”
Melanie took a deep breath. What had her so riled up all of a sudden? Did she and Tate have a fight? It couldn’t just be that her shopping trip had been cut short or that Bend didn’t have a Sak’s Fifth Avenue. Or could it be it was just the last straw for a girl forever fleeing whatever had happened in Kansas?
By the time Melanie got downstairs, Casey was putting a batch of cookies into the oven. “Good, you’re just in time!” Cassandra was pouring herself a cup of coffee. Had she asked Casey yet? Obviously not, or Casey and Samantha would be asking her why she was leaving in such a hurry.
“What are you doing?” Melanie asked as Cassandra took her cup to the kitchen table and sat.
“Waiting for the cookies,” she replied sullenly
Melanie stared at her a moment. “But aren’t you going to ask …”
“No.” Cassandra cutting her off. “I need sugar first.”
“Going to what?” Casey asked.
Before either Melanie or Cassandra could answer, the truck pulled into the driveway. “Ah, just in time,” Samantha said. “Casey, get that next batch ready. They’ll tear through the first one in no time. I have to run to the post office – I forgot to stop by there earlier.”
Cassandra gave Mrs. Sullivan an expectant look before her eyes flicked to the back door. Now what? Melanie followed her gaze. The men were just outside. She glanced at Cassandra, who at this point was looking a little nervous, and stifled a gasp. So she was walking out on him, wasn’t she?
Don’t even think it, her conscience warned.
Oh, do shut up, she told it. Miraculously, it did.
Tate, Liam and Jake came into the kitchen, wet and muddy. “It is pouring out!” Jake announced.
“Yes, we know,” his mother said. “Are you done for the day?”
“Thanks to Tate, we are,” Liam replied. “That boy can fix anything.”
“Good. I’m heading to the post office – I’ll be back in a few.” She looked at the three young women now seated at the kitchen table. “Hopefully those cookies will cheer things up around here. I swear, it’s like a wake right now.” She put on a raincoat, grabbed her purse from the kitchen counter and left.
“What did she mean by that?” Tate asked as he slipped out of his wet jacket and hung it on a peg by the back door. Liam and Jake did the same.
“It’s raining,” Cassandra said, stating the obvious.
“Yes, but why does everyone need cheering up?” he asked.
“I don’t,” Casey said. “Melanie might.”
“You do?” Tate said, the concern in his voice loud and clear.
“Not me,” she said, then looked pointedly at Cassandra.
“That’s right, blame me for everything.” Cassandra sipped her coffee, rolled her eyes and looked at Tate. “Fine. I’m leaving.”
Everyone watched him as he tried to grasp the situation. “L … leaving?!”
Cassandra stood. “Look, this is ridiculous. I can’t go on like this. You can’t go on like this. And Melanie …” She pointed across the table. “… doesn’t deserve to go on like this.”
Everyone looked at everyone else with identical expressions of whaaat?
Yeah, even I’m stumped, Melanie’s conscience managed.
Cassandra put her hands on her hips. “Oh come on, don’t tell me you’re all that blind?”
Liam snorted, then quickly covered his mouth with his hand. “Went down the wrong way,” he muttered through his fingers.
“You’re not eating anything,” Tate pointed out, his voice sharp. He turned back to Cassandra. “What are you talking about?”
She threw her hands in the air. “You idiot!”
“What?” he shot back.
Now Casey snorted into her hands. She took one look at Liam and they both did it again.
Tate glanced between them. “What’s the matter with you?”
Cassandra got up and stood behind Melanie. “How about, what’s the matter with me?!”
Tate could only gape at her.
She rolled her eyes in disgust and went on. “Tate Sullivan, I don’t know why you’ve been wasting your time with me when anyone with half a brain can see how much you love Melanie!”
Melanie gulped. She hadn’t seen that coming! She turned to Cassandra, her mouth hung open like a village idiot.
Cassandra looked at her. “Yeah, he does. A lot. You’re all he talks about when we’re together.”
“She’s not all I talk about!” Tate spouted.
“Yes, she is!” Cassandra shot back.
Tate was about to retort when the oven timer went off, indicating the cookies were done.
“Are those chocolate chip?” Liam asked with interest.
“Never mind about the cookies!” Cassandra shrieked. “I’ve been watching this the whole time I’ve been here! I listened to you talk about Melanie in New York! I listened to you talk about her on the trip here, and every day we were here, and all the way to Bend and back. To think I was worried about dumping you, but not anymore! What I want to know is why you hung on to me all this time when it’s obvious you’re in love with her!”
Tate stared at her, dumbstruck. He looked at Melanie, blinked, and they both looked at Cassandra and back. Finally Melanie took the plunge. “Is … is what she says true?”
Now he swallowed. “Er … pretty much, yeah.” His eyes flicked between the two women as he flushed red.
Liam, who’d taken the cookies out of the oven, began to move them to a plate with a spatula. “Toldja.”
“Told who what?” Tate spun on him.
Liam pointed at Melanie with the spatula.
“What?” she blurted.
“I told you I saw how it was.”
“What?!” Tate said, his face redder than before.
Liam swallowed. “I told Melanie I saw how it was. I knew she liked you. Though judging from the look on her face, I’d say it’s a lot more. And I was pretty sure you liked her, but just got blinded by Cassandra’s great bod … er, if you don’t mind my saying,” he added to Cassandra.
Cassandra went from frustrated to coquettish in no time flat. “No, I don’t mind at all,” she purred.
“I mean, you look nice too, Melanie – I ain’t saying you don’t …”
Melanie wanted to dive under the table at this point. “Oh geez!”
“… but there ain’t no sense denying it,” Liam finished. “Cassandra nailed it, and so did I.”
Casey stood, a huge smile on her face, put the next batch of cookies into the oven and set the timer. “So what are you two going to do about it?”
Tate and Melanie looked at each other again, both with mortified expressions on their faces. What were they going to do about it?
Without warning, Tate went to the table, took Melanie by the hand and pulled her up. “Come with me.”
“But … but …”
You know all those things I said before? her conscience declared. Forget them. They don’t apply anymore – he’s a nice guy, he’s available, and if you don’t rope and tie him right darn NOW, I’m going to hound you about it until your dying day. Capisce?
“… ok
ay,” she replied shakily – to Tate, to her conscience, and maybe to herself.
Tate led her into the living room, let go of her hand and faced her. “Melanie, I’m so sorry about Cassandra …”
“I’m not.”
He shuddered and blinked a few times.
She took a step forward, closing the distance between them. “Really, I’m not,” she repeated softly.
“Uh … you’re not?” he said, his voice just as low. He raised a hand, held it suspended for a second, before letting it rest on her shoulder. “But I thought you …” He looked into her eyes. They were so full of emotion he thought they might burst. Never mind what he thought! What had he been thinking all this time? “… I thought you weren’t interested.”
She almost laughed. “Oh good grief, that’s what I thought about you. You were so busy with Cassandra …”
He looked helpless. “I didn’t know what I …” He stopped, closed his eyes, opened them. “I didn’t know what I wanted.” He put his other hand on her arm. “Not until I realized it was you.”
Melanie shook her head as if to clear it. “Then what have you been doing with Cassandra all this time?”
“Wasting time, it seems. Hers and mine – and yours, I guess.”
“I wouldn’t say it was a complete waste,” Cassandra commented from the foot of the stairs. “After all, I spent long enough with you to find out where your heart really was.” She looked at Melanie. “No charge, Mel. You can thank me later.” She went back up to the guest room.
They watched her go, then locked gazes. “Melanie,” Tate whispered, then finally did what both of them had been longing for all along. The kiss was gentle at first, but grew as their arms locked around each other. Tate broke it only long enough to say, “I’m such an idiot!” then pulled her against him again as if he could weld them together. He kissed her, whispered in her ear, held her like a drowning man to his only lifeline. She heard him say, “Can you forgive me?” and a string of “idiot, blind, dumb, stupid …”
Finally she put a hand over his mouth. “Late,” she said. “You’re just late.” She swallowed hard, removed her hand and rested her forehead against his. “And I forgive you.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Can we start over?” he whispered against her hair. “Can I have another chance?”
She looked at him. “Tate Sullivan, we haven’t even started. But I’m willing if you are.”
He smiled. “So am I.”
You’re both idiots – you deserve each oth–, Melanie’s conscience managed, before she shut it out for good.
Epilogue
April, Brooklyn Botanical Garden, New York City
“Okay, that’s it, close together … and smile!” Jinny Mae Monroe’s camera whirred to life as she moved catlike through the grass in her bare feet. She’d kicked off her heels earlier – they were useless on this soft ground. Thankfully it was a warm day and the grass was dry. “That’s good – thanks, everyone.”
The Sullivan family clapped their hands, half of them sighing in relief that the photos were finally done. Samantha approached, a huge smile on her face. “I can’t thank you enough, Jin, for taking pictures for us.”
Jin smiled back. “It’s the least I can do for Mel and Tate.” She watched Melanie kiss her new husband on the cheek. “I should take their story and turn it into a screenplay. It’s so romantic – I bet it would sell.”
“Yes, I imagine it would.” Samantha agreed. “And to think if it wasn’t for Cassandra, it might never have come about.”
“Cassandra?” Jin said with a laugh, watching as the infamous Cassandra flirted with one of Tate’s cousins. “That’s hard to believe. She’s … well, it’s not my place to say.”
“I think I understand,” the older woman said with a bemused smile.
“Oh, Samantha?” a voice called, interrupting them. They turned to see Douglas Haeger approaching. “We should head to the Palm House now.”
Jin nodded, glanced at the happy couple once more, then sighed. It would be a bit of a hike to the reception, which meant loading all her equipment up and hauling it across the gardens. She tried to keep the look of dread off her face and turned to Mr. Haeger. “Right. Do you want pictures of your guests as they enter the reception?” She thought it a nice touch. The Palm House was a beautiful glass atrium the gardens used for events such as this.
But he didn’t answer. He was too busy studying Samantha Sullivan, who in turn was observing Cassandra working her wiles on … what was his name, Lennie? Larry? Liam, that was it. Jin stood and waited, wondering how long it would take Mr. Haeger to quit staring at the back of Samantha’s head. “Sir?” she prompted.
“Oh, ah, yes.” He turned at last. “Sounds good to me. Samantha, what do you think?”
Mrs. Sullivan turned to him. “What?”
“Pictures. The reception.”
She glanced between Jin and Mr. Haeger. Her eyes met his and locked. “Yes?”
Jin bit her lip to keep from smiling. It was obvious Melanie’s dad was smitten with the woman and vice-versa. “Shall I take pictures of your guests as they enter the reception area?” she asked for him.
“Oh, of course,” she said absently, her eyes still glued to Mr. Haeger’s.
“Good,” she said with a smile, turned then muttered, “Now that we have that established, I’ll just drag everything over there.”
“Would ye be needing some help?” came a familiar voice.
Jin grinned in relief. “Yes, thank you, Bernard.” Apparently she needed to work on her indistinct mutterings – if she didn’t watch it, she’d get as bad as Mel used to be. That girl used to talk to herself like she had multiple personalities …
Bernard the doorman turned to his wife. “Ye heard the lass, Silvie. Best get to it.”
Silvie, a dark-haired woman with bright green eyes, smacked him with her purse. “Bernard MacKenzie! Don’t ye dare presume I’m going to carry all that equipment by meself!”
“Ow! Did I say that?” he shot back, his arms out wide.
“Pull yourself together, man!” she snapped.
He let out an exasperated sigh and positioned his arms as if he was carrying a load of firewood. His wife wasted no time in loading him up with Jin’s things.
Jin herself was laughing so hard at the couple, she didn’t notice Melanie and Tate next to her, nor that each of their parents had wandered off. “Hi, Silvie,” Tate greeted. “Keeping your husband in line, I see.”
“Someone has to!” She slung the strap of a duffel bag around his neck. “There – now off with ye!”
Bernard waggled his eyebrows. “What a woman! Ya cha-cha-chaaaah!” Silvie rolled her eyes and gave him a shove.
Everyone laughed as the pair set off. “I’m going to miss Bernard,” Melanie said.
“At least you’ll see him when you come to visit,” Jin consoled with a grin.
Melanie gave her a big hug. “Thank you so much for shooting the wedding. I know it was last-minute.”
“No worries. Besides, it’s good for me to pick up a camera now and then, keep my hand in the game.”
“Melanie says you’re a writer,” Tate inquired.
“Most of the time – at least I try to be,” Jin said with a smile. “I dabble with camera work too.”
“‘Dabbles,’ she says,” Melanie commented with a laugh. “She’s won awards.”
Tate’s eyebrows shot up. “You have?”
“I do a different kind of photography – nature, mostly. But I’ve shot weddings before.”
“Your friends have no shortage of talent, Mel,” he said.
“So what will the two of you do now?” Jin asked, curious. Getting hired to do their wedding at the last minute didn’t leave much time for catching up. She hadn’t seen Melanie in years, and had only gotten the rundown of her relationship with Tate last night at the rehearsal dinner.
“Honeymoon and a little traveling, then back to the ranch,” Melanie said. “Still not sure wh
at we’re going to do about Dixie’s while we’re gone.”
“Dixie’s?”
“The stable our family owns,” Tate offered and turned to his wife. “It’s all taken care of.”
“It is?” she asked in shock. “But Jake said there’s no way he can get away while we’re gone, and your cousins are all tied up with their own ranch so they can’t help …”
“What?” Jin said, confused. “What’s the problem, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“I’m sure that Mel told you my family inherited Dixie’s Riding Academy,” said Tate.
“Yes, I knew that.”
“Well, my brother and I have been taking turns seeing to it. The arena needs some maintenance work and so do a few other outbuildings before summer. We don’t want our barn manager to have to deal with it, and we don’t want to have to hire out to do it.”
“Then who are you going to get?” Melanie cut in. “Who’s going to do it? You said you wanted that work done before summer, but between our travel plans and the ranch work, there isn’t anybody.”
Tate smiled. “Liam’s handling it.”
Melanie’s eyes widened. “Liam?!” She turned to see Cassandra still flirting, much to Liam’s amusement.
“That ought to make Cassandra happy,” Jin commented dryly.
“He’s too smart to fall for her,” Tate said. “He knows her too well. We all do.”
“But if it wasn’t for her …” Jin said.
“Yes, yes, we know,” Melanie said. “Cassandra may be a pill, but she does have her moments. And we’re both thankful she had one when she did.”
“Well, that’s one thing about Cassandra – she’s honest about who she is.” Jin herself hadn’t had much to do with the woman, but she’d heard enough from her circle of friends and fellow debutantes to know that one, Cassandra wasn’t from the city, and two, she was learning things the hard way, most by tripping and falling over her own ego. That she’d spoken up for Tate and Melanie was noble, and it made her a bit of a celebrity in their circle – much to the woman’s delight.
Jin’s eyes drifted to Tate’s cousin Liam, who was clearly more than a typical country boy. He wore cowboy boots and jeans with a blazer over a white shirt, and he looked nice, especially when he put on his black Stetson. One of the Sullivans told her earlier that he’d worked the rodeo circuit before. Doing what, she had no idea, but the fact he was a real cowboy sent a small thrill through her.