“Something’s got to give, if Andi won’t,” Jane said.
Tina nodded. “I never thought I’d say this, but we may need to do something drastic.”
“Hold off a bit on that,” he said.
Both girls stared at him.
“Oh, don’t you worry,” he assured them. “Your old granddaddy’s got a few tricks up his sleeve yet.”
He chuckled, liking the thought he could still surprise them. Taking Tina and Jane into his confidence had worked well for him. But there were some things a man just had to do on his own.
Nobody in Cowboy Creek would have a clue what else he had in store for Mitch and Andi.
* * *
“GREAT MEAL, MOM,” Mitch said to Nancy.
He sat back in his chair in the dining room and looked at all the empty plates. The rest of their family had already left the house, and he and Laurie were the only two still sitting at the table with their parents.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it, Mitch. And that you won’t have to eat warmed-up leftovers again, Lyle.”
Considering his dad could rarely make it home at this hour, the early suppertime tonight was odd. On the other hand, it had been so long since Mitch had been around here on a regular basis, he wasn’t sure of the family schedules anymore.
He had more of a handle on what went on with the Garland family, who lived by the clock when it came to mealtimes for the Hitching Post’s guests.
He wished he had more of a handle on what had gone through Andi’s head yesterday. Last night. This morning. He could come up with all the reasons in the world why she had changed her mind about sharing his bed, but he would never know the right reasons if he didn’t get the answers from her.
A chance he didn’t plan to have, since he didn’t intend to go near her again.
“What’s on the menu for dessert?” he asked.
“Nothing, I’m afraid,” Nancy said serenely.
Another surprise. In his day, the Weston family had never skipped dessert after their main meal. Obviously, his day around here had come and gone.
Nancy poked Lyle in the ribs.
“Oh, yeah,” his dad said, slapping his stomach. “I’ve got to cut back on all those sweets.”
Now, that was something he’d never heard before. In fact, Lyle always joked that he would never get a reputation as a lawman who liked his doughnuts—because he liked anything with sugar on or in it.
Mitch gave a mental shrug and turned to Nancy. “Well, if we’re all done, I think you ought to sit and relax and let Laurie load up the dishwasher.”
“Or you could do it,” she said. “Couldn’t he, Daddy?”
“I don’t see why not. This is an equal opportunity household.”
Mitch shook his head. “Next time you’re around, kid, remind me to give up my right to free speech.”
“Never mind.” She gave him her best devious-little-sister smile. “I’ll help you out this one time, if you’ll help me.”
“With what?”
“Giving me a ride to Garland Ranch for Trey’s birthday party. I have a present for him. And you could get some dessert.” Before he could respond, she had grabbed a few dishes and rushed to the kitchen.
“I think I’ll help before it runs too late,” Nancy said. “Jed told me they would wait on the cake until you got there.”
“‘You’?”
“Well...” Her smile looked almost as conniving as his sister’s. “Laurie and whoever she got to take her to the party.”
Frowning, he carefully reviewed the evidence.
Early dinner with his dad home, but no dessert.
Laurie dropping her request and running.
Laurie’s and Nancy’s smiles.
And, topping the list, Jed holding up his family’s party.
All proof enough to him that his family had joined Jed Garland as coconspirators in one of those matchmaking schemes his mom had mentioned.
A scheme that appeared to involve him.
Seeing how Jed had encouraged him to drive Andi to the airport, he shouldn’t have been surprised. Knowing his former boss’s unwavering concern for family and for employees old and new, he should have figured out before now what Jed was up to.
Leading him into a trap. Tightening a noose around his neck. Attempting to rope him into the Garland clan the way he had Cole and Pete.
And all a complete waste of effort, as the overnight trip with Andi proved Jed’s scheme wouldn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Fourteen
The dining room was filled and overflowing into the hallway. At the moment, people were mingling and carrying glasses of birthday punch. There would be enough seating for them all, but with so many guests, Andi regretted she hadn’t suggested using the banquet hall just to give everyone a little more elbow room.
Most of the ranch hands who worked with the guests were in attendance, including Eddie. The poor kid kept looking toward the doorway as though judging how easily he could make a run for it.
She smiled sympathetically. He would be happier if Laurie were here. The thought made her think about Mitch. Pushing him out of her mind, she went over to Tina. “Where’s our other cousin?”
“She and Pete had to run to town. They should be back here any minute.”
“Okay. I’m going to fill up another pitcher of punch.”
“Great. I’ll make another pass with the appetizers.”
Slipping through the doorway and between chatting guests, Andi made her way down the hall toward the lobby. Ahead of her, she heard the rumble of a man’s deep voice and then female laughter. With luck, that was Jane and Pete.
Smiling, she rounded the corner into the lobby. When she saw the couple crossing toward her from the front door, she nearly skidded to a halt.
Not Jane and Pete. Mitch and Laurie.
Laurie’s bright smile almost rivaled the shiny ribbons on the gift she carried. “Hi, Andi! Has the party started?”
“It sure has.” She forced a smile. “In the dining room. You know the way. And I think you’ll find someone there who will be very happy to see you.”
Laurie giggled and took off.
Andi couldn’t have described anything about Laurie other than her smile and the beribboned box. But she took in every inch of Mitch, from his thick, wavy hair to his button-down blue shirt to the polished belt buckle and black biker boots. After a long moment, she realized she was staring—and probably giving him the wrong idea.
Still, she couldn’t keep from meeting his eyes.
“Trey, I presume,” he said.
“What?”
“The someone who will be happy to see Laurie.”
“Oh. Yes, of course, Trey, too. But I meant Eddie.”
He nodded. “I can understand that. In his shoes, I’d be just as glad. In my own shoes, I’m not complaining.”
He moved forward.
She rested one palm on the flat, steady surface of the registration desk. As Mitch reached for her hand, she couldn’t help wanting to link her fingers with his as they had done last night at the restaurant. The memory made her hesitate just long enough for him to brush her wrist with his fingertips before she moved her hand out of reach. “Mitch, don’t.”
“What? Don’t touch? Don’t stare, the way you just did? Don’t darken your door again?” He smiled without humor. “I’ll oblige you with the first two. As for the last, I’m invited to this party—sort of, since I was Laurie’s ride.”
“It’s down the hall.”
He nodded. “Maybe we should wait a few minutes. With the expression you’re wearing, it’s going to be obvious you’re not in a party mood. Look, let’s just forget last night and move on.”
She flinched. Hadn’t she been telling herself that, trying to do that with so many things for so long? She hadn’t known it would include moving on from Mitch again. “That’s a good idea,” she agreed. “You go your way, I’ll go mine. I’m headed to the kitchen.”
“That won’t help matters. Walk
ing around each other’s as much a dead giveaway as your expression. Act normal.”
“Normal?”
“Yeah. Smile.”
Rolling her eyes, she forced her lips to curve.
“There you go. Now hold that, no matter what. No matter if someone surprises you.” He reached out again, putting his hand over hers, warming her skin. “No matter if someone attempts to catch you off guard.” He slid his hand along her forearm, sending a wave of heat through her entire body.
“What is this,” she asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking, “a lesson you learned in the police academy?”
“Exactly. If you don’t want to blow your cover, don’t let anything throw you.”
He moved a step nearer. How could she find him closer than she wanted and yet still too far away?
The front door swung open. This time, for certain, she recognized Jane’s husky laugh.
Quickly, she stepped away from Mitch and pasted her act-normal smile on her face—just in time to watch her mother-in-law enter the lobby.
* * *
THE PARTY WAS winding down. Trey had torn open his gifts. Tina was topping off the guests’ glasses with the last of the punch. The cake platter sat empty but for a few crumbs and a smudge of frosting.
Jed, in his usual place at the head of the long dining room table, had insisted on seating the guests earlier. Odd for a kid’s birthday party, at least in Mitch’s opinion. Heck, he didn’t care. He had made the first cut and wound up sitting next to Andi.
Now he shifted his chair closer to hers, trying to lend her moral support without a word or a touch.
She would never make it on an undercover op. In the lobby, in the space of an instant, he had seen her expression go from cardboard happiness to stunned surprise to genuine delight. She had added that delight to her voice when she’d greeted her mother-in-law. But he’d spent too much time watching faces and listening to voices not to pick up a disconnect.
He was tuning in to another one now, from the head of the long dining room table.
“I brought along the rest of Trey’s gifts from last night,” Ginnie was saying. She laughed. “But I can see they won’t be missed.”
“He was as happy to see you as the gifts,” Jed said. “We’re glad you’ve come to the party, too.”
“Very glad.” Andi smiled.
In the lobby, Trey’s grandma had given him a smile, too, and a big hello, but nothing beyond that. Nothing to indicate they’d sat down to dinner together in her home less than twenty-four hours earlier. It seemed almost as if she didn’t want folks to know they had already met.
There were disconnects and undercurrents and events going on around here that he couldn’t figure out. He’d swear they all revolved around Andi, and not only because he had every one of his senses hyper-focused on her.
To his mind, her mother-in-law’s showing up unexpectedly was a hefty coincidence. And he didn’t believe in coincidences.
Jed’s taking the woman under his wing, so to speak, and ushering her to the seat right beside his might be nothing more than a host catering to one of his guests. Or it might be another of Jed’s schemes.
Folks began to get up from their seats and mill around the room. Andi went over to talk with Tina.
From one corner, Cole lifted a beer in salute, and Mitch wandered that way, stopping only to snag a bottle from the ice bucket on the drinks table.
“I see you grabbed yourself one of the best seats in the house,” Cole said with a grin.
He shrugged. “I sat where the man directed me.”
“He sure planned that well.” Pete laughed.
Mitch looked from him to Cole and back again. He recognized a setup when he saw one. They were about to spill the details of Jed’s latest scheme. After Cole’s speech about the benefits of marriage, he wouldn’t put it past his own best friend to be in on the deal with Jed. Well, playing along was always a good way to get information. He spoke in a lowered tone under cover of the conversations around them. “What are you two talking about?”
The other men exchanged a glance. Obviously, they had planned some fun at his expense.
“Matchmaking,” Pete said in a low voice.
“What?” He shook his head. “No way.”
Pete laughed. “Believe what you want, buddy, but I’ll bet my Christmas bonus Grandpa Jed is fixing to get you hitched.”
Mitch looked at Cole, who nodded emphatically. “He’s unstoppable. The man got us, but good. First me, then Pete.”
“And he didn’t try to hide what he was doing?”
“Sure he did. At least, with me. I was able to head Pete off, just the way we’re doing for you now. But he was too hardheaded to listen, and look where it got him. He and Jane are set to tie the knot soon, too.” He shrugged. “If not for you being too tied up with the job these past few months to stay in touch, you would have known all this already.”
If not for his undercover op, he’d have been here in Cowboy Creek, standing up for his best friend when he’d married Tina.
“All I’ve got to say,” Cole added, “is that the boss has one granddaughter left, and trust me, he’s itching to get her married off, too.”
“Not to me. You two can put that idea right out of your minds. He knows I’m not his man.”
He wasn’t Andi’s man, either. Through both her words and her actions, she had made that plain.
Fine by him. He didn’t want a relationship with the woman, just the chance to help her.
* * *
FEELING AS IF he had a target pinned to his back, Mitch stood for a while longer with Pete and Cole.
He saw Andi and Tina round up their kids to get them to bed.
Despite the way he had shrugged off his buddies’ ideas, he knew Cole and Pete were right. Jed saw him as a contender in his matchmaking stakes. He still had his suspicions about Cole’s involvement. And though he couldn’t be sure about Pete, he’d begun to have second thoughts about him, too. About everyone.
He wondered if he was the last person in Cowboy Creek to know.
Why hadn’t he caught on before tonight to what the old man was up to? Were his instincts entirely shot to hell?
His skill at watching other people’s backs had surely taken a beating. He didn’t have great faith in his ability to watch his own.
A short while later, Tina came back alone.
Laurie and Eddie had drifted over to a love seat in the corner of the dining room, where they looked to be settled in for the night.
In another corner, Jed and Ginnie sat at a table for two. They had their heads together as if they were old friends, which, for all he knew, was exactly the case.
The rest of the family and guests all seemed good to hang on for a while.
He finished his conversation with Cole and Pete and left the room. As he climbed the stairs to the second floor of the hotel, he noted with satisfaction that his knee hadn’t stiffened up a bit. Progress.
Now he hoped to make some headway with Andi.
He tapped his knuckles softly on the door, expecting that the kids would be asleep inside. Andi opened the door just as quietly.
She looked surprised to see him. She also looked resigned. “Why did I have the feeling I would see you again tonight?”
“Wishful thinking?”
She shook her head.
“I want to talk.”
“I’ll bet. But I can’t stand out here in the hallway ‘talking’ with you.”
“Let me in, then.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Come on, do you really think I’d try to pull a fast one with your kids in the room? All I want to do is talk.” He smiled. “You owe me for not blowing your cover when your mother-in-law showed up.”
He saw her wince.
“Look,” he said, “I know something’s wrong. Something more than just being surprised to find me here tonight. More than you had time to tell me last night. And I know it somehow involves your mother-in-law. What else? Some
thing connected to Jed? To someone else in your family? Is that what brought you back here?”
“I came here for just the reason I told you, to help Grandpa get the bridal business up and running again.”
“That’s not all of it.” Her distress only confirmed what his gut had already told him. She was hiding something. “Talk to me.”
He could see her indecision, and his need to find out, to comfort her, to protect her from whatever was bothering her outweighed the thought of any more strain between them.
He smoothed a strand of her hair away from her face. He wanted to stroke the fine lines near her eyes, wanted to lean down and kiss her, but he flat-out refused to give in to the urge. That wasn’t why he’d come upstairs to find her, and for once he was not going to lose sight of his goal. He tipped her chin up to get a look at her eyes. They seemed unfocused. “I don’t like seeing you this upset.”
“I’m not upset.”
“The hell you’re not,” he said evenly, keeping his voice low. “Andi, I’m not going until you give me some answers.”
Again, he waited. Why did she have to make helping her so darned hard?
Finally, she sighed. “The kids are asleep.”
“We’ll talk quietly.”
She opened the door wide. He stepped inside without making a sound.
Trey was sprawled across a corner of the king-size bed. Missy lay asleep in a nearby crib.
When Andi took a seat on the small couch off to one side of the room, he joined her. “I know you didn’t expect me here tonight,” he said. “But why were you so surprised to see your mother-in-law?”
After a quick glance at the kids, she looked back at him for a long moment. Finally she said, “I didn’t know she was coming to the party, either.”
“She invited herself?”
“I don’t know.”
“You were all right at her house last night. Why are you so uptight now she’s here? Maybe Jed or Tina invited her as a surprise for you and Trey.”
“I don’t know,” she said again, looking away.
He rested his hand on her shoulder until she turned back to face him. “I’m not leaving,” he reminded her. He couldn’t condemn himself for that. If he didn’t push, she wouldn’t talk, and it looked as if talking was exactly what she needed.
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