by Merry Farmer
“Well, I won’t.” Cooper added an extra nod for good measure. “Faith wants a life where she can be free to do what she wants. She doesn’t want to be under anyone’s thumb. In this last week, I’ve come to see that she will make a perfect mother. Something about her seems born to it.”
Karlan shrugged as he considered the statement. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“So I’m going to do whatever it takes to make her happy and to give her babies. That way, she’ll have someone to love and nurture—even if it isn’t me—and I’ll make sure the terms of Granddaddy’s will are fulfilled.”
“Save the girl, save the ranch, save the world,” Karlan chuckled.
“Something like that,” Cooper replied with a little more force than he needed to use.
Karlan held up his hands in surrender. Karlan may have been the oldest of the four of them, but Cooper had always felt as though it was his responsibility—his destiny—to make sure the ranch was taken care of and the family secured. That went for more than just this generation. If he was going to call himself a man worth his salt, it was his duty to make sure the next generation made it into the world safe and sound and as fast as possible. At least he would enjoy that part of the process.
He was about to ask Karlan how he’d approached the subject of jumping into bed with Hope after knowing her for only a day when the chapel doors opened and the four Quinlan sisters appeared. Mrs. Grundy, the organist, struck up the familiar strains of the wedding march, and Faith’s three sisters proceeded slowly down the aisle. It dawned on Cooper that Faith had wanted to have their wedding in a church for the sole purpose of giving her sisters a chance to strut down the aisle. She was considerate like that, something Cooper liked a lot. Karlan, Kolby, and Chris all straightened up and smiled at their girls, but Cooper barely noticed. His attention stayed at the back of the chapel.
As soon as Hope moved into the aisle, Faith stepped appeared in the doorway. She lifted her delicate chin to look straight at Cooper, and his heart went off like a firework in his chest. He’d had warm, fuzzy feelings about girls before, but none of that compared to the whirlwind that struck him as Faith made her way up the aisle to stand by his side. She wasn’t just some nice girl with a pretty face and a killer figure, she was about to be his wife.
“You look amazing,” he whispered as she reached him. He offered his hand and she took it.
“Thanks.” Her whisper was soft and tremulous. “You look good yourself.”
Cooper took a quick look at the suit he’d managed to squeeze into. It was a far cry from his standard jeans and flannel shirt. Then again, some things were worth dressing up for.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the sight of God and family to witness the union of Cooper Culpepper and Miss Faith Quinlan,” Brother Anthony began the ceremony with a broad smile.
The rest zipped by like lightning. The marriage ceremony seemed a thousand times shorter when it was yours. As thrilled as he was and as deep as his sense of duty ran, Cooper couldn’t help but think there should be more. He should have come up with vows to say, ways to make Faith understand that this was more than just convenience. He should have special ordered her a ring instead of picking up one premade from Zeke Young’s Jewelry and Bait Store. It was probably his imagination, but he swore he caught a whiff of fish when he slid it on her finger. Faith smiled anyhow, her eyes going misty so fast that Cooper had to swallow the sting at the back of his eyes.
“By the power invested in me by God and the State of Wyoming, I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss your bride.”
Cooper sucked in a breath at Brother Anthony’s words. His heart thumped like thundering hooves as he turned to Faith, slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her close. She relaxed against him—a good sign—and tilted her head up to smile at him—another good sign. There was nothing left to do then but kiss her.
The moment their lips met, Cooper felt a spark zing through him. It was their first kiss. Every other kiss vanished from his mind. This woman was his wife—no matter how she got that way—and here he was, kissing her for the first time of what he planned to make a lifetime. It was supposed to be a quick, gentle kiss, but she felt so right in his arms, smelled so sweet and flowery, and tasted like heaven itself, that he couldn’t stop himself from teasing her lips apart, tasting her deeply, and making her his. The deep hum that rose up from Faith’s throat only encouraged him. So did her arms snaking around his neck. His whole body fired up, blood pumping, chest constricting, and pants getting tight. Yep, he intended to get started filling Faith with babies as soon as he could.
“A-hem.”
Beside him, Karlan cleared his throat. Further back in the pews, Kolby and Chris were snorting with laughter. His mom grinned and shook her head.
“Uh, Coop, you might want to wait until tonight to get on with that,” Karlan said, thumping his back.
Cooper twisted to scowl at his brother as Faith let go of him and stepped back.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with Mr. and Mrs. Cooper Culpepper,” Brother Anthony finished the ceremony, then thrust out a hand to congratulate Cooper.
With the informal ceremony over, everyone got up and came forward to congratulate Cooper and Faith. There wasn’t much left to do at the church besides signing a few documents that Cooper made a note to remember to take down to the courthouse tomorrow. A few friends were coming over for the reception at Linda’s house, so all they needed to do was make their way out to the trucks and head back to the ranch.
Only, Faith stopped him just outside the church door with a tug on his arm. She held back, and when Cooper turned to see what was wrong, his heart dropped to his boots. Faith looked about as worried as a hen in a fox’s den.
“What is it, sweetheart?” Cooper did what he figured a good husband would do and drew her into his arms.
Faith let out a breath that could have been a gasp or a sigh. She kept her eyes fixed on his bolo tie and rested her hands on his lapels. Cooper tried not to let that turn his bowels to jelly.
“There’s something I probably should have told you before the wedding,” Faith began in a voice that was little more than a mumble.
“Okay.” He shifted his stance to brace himself and support her. “What is it?”
She licked and bit her lips, fiddled with the fabric of his lapel, and turned pinker and pinker. “Well, there’s a couple of things, actually.”
“I’m listening.”
She peeked up at him, but couldn’t maintain eye contact. Every protective instinct from Cooper’s toes to the top hair on his head wanted to wrap her up and keep her safe from whatever was eating at her.
“It’s…” She shot a look to the side at where Linda was backing out of her parking space, Joy and Chastity in the car with her. Tension seemed to shimmer around Faith, like humidity in August. Another quick breath later, and she said, “It’s about my kiln.”
Cooper blinked. “Your kiln?”
“Yes,” she went on slowly. “Well, sort of. And the supplies. All of it, really. It’s…it’s about what I do with all of it.”
Why, of all things, did she feel the need to bring up her hobbies now?
“What about it?” he asked aloud.
She chewed her lips some more, fluttered her lashes as she tried to look at him, and wiggled her foot on one high heel. “See, the thing is—”
“Faith Quinlan?”
An unfamiliar female voice had both of them turning toward the parking lot. At the far end, a woman in a skirt suit that Cooper didn’t recognize was just getting out of a sedan. It had Kentucky plates. A sour feeling hit Cooper’s stomach.
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” the woman said as she marched across the parking lot. She took a handheld recorder out of her jacket pocket. “Nancy Tilson, from the Louisville Recorder,” she said, extending her other hand.
It didn’t take Faith recoiling beside him for Cooper to know that the lady reporter was bad news. �
�Excuse me, ma’am.” As politely as he could, he stepped out in front of Faith and held up his hands to encourage the woman to stop where she was. Good thing for her, Ms. Nancy Tilson did just that. “My wife here and I have just finished getting married.”
“Oh.” Nancy’s face lit up. “Congratulations. Of course, I’d heard about the Quinlan Quads. I confess, I snuck by the Quinlan house near Paducah, but the younger sisters said the quads come out West to marry four brothers.”
That was it. The woman was after the story. It would make the perfect human interest piece too. Four brides for four brothers, a wonky will, Dr. Lachele’s involvement. Well, the last thing Cooper wanted on his wedding day was to be a piece for the evening news.
“I appreciate your interest, ma’am.” He was still able to maintain his calm, but as harmless as Nancy seemed, she was intruding. “Today isn’t a good day for interviews, though. We’re on our way back to the ranch for a wedding reception. Maybe some other time.”
“Oh, okay.” Nancy frowned, putting her recorder back in her pocket. She tilted her head to the side, as if rearranging her thoughts. “I guess there’s no hurry. You two enjoy your special day. I’ll be in touch.”
Before Cooper could ask what she’d be in touch about or tell her that they weren’t really interested, Nancy turned and headed back to her car.
“What the heck was that all about?” Cooper asked, scratching the back of his neck. “Do you know her?”
Faith was not only frowning when he glanced at her, she’d gone pale. Cooper’s protective instincts mingled with a fair bit of wariness. How many reasons could a reporter have to go all the way from Kentucky to Wyoming to interview her?
“I don’t know her.” Faith rolled her shoulders and took a breath. “Honestly, we’ve had reporters after us our whole lives.”
“That’s why you wanted to come here and marry us.”
It seemed to make sense, but that didn’t explain why the itch hung around Cooper’s back.
He chose to shrug it off. Reaching for Faith’s hand, he walked toward his truck. “So what were you going to tell me?”
Faith’s face flooded with color again. “Um, yeah, that I should have mentioned we get reporters sometimes,” she said in a rush.
It wasn’t what she had been about to tell him.
“That’s nothing that we can’t handle.” Cooper nodded and held the truck’s door for her. Faith would say whatever else she’d been about to say in good time. And honestly, with a family like the one she’d come from and the attention they’d had their whole life, how bad could whatever she was holding back on be?
3
Cooper had all but forgotten the nosy reporter by the time he pulled his truck into the long drive leading into the ranch. Faith hinted that they had reporters bothering “The Quinlan Quads” all the time. There was certainly nothing newsworthy in his life, unless nutty grandpa’s smacking their grandsons with crazy provisions in their will counted. He doubted it did, and promptly put the whole thing out of his mind. His mind had far better things to do.
“Let me just pop over to the stable to make sure the horses get their three-thirty exercise,” he said as he handed Faith down from the passenger side of the truck.
She blinked as her high heels hit the gravel. “Their what?”
Cooper made sure she was steady and started her on her way to Linda’s front porch. “Their three-thirty exercise. Not all of the horses are ridden every day as part of ranch work. They get restless if they’re cooped up too long, so I make sure they get a good run around the large paddock at three-thirty every day.”
“Every day?” There was just a hint of teasing in her eyes. On Faith, that sparkle and flashed looked good. Too bad he saw a far less kind version of that teasing from everybody else.
“Schedules are important.” He tried not to clench his jaw as he said it. “A ranch this size needs efficiency and regulation if it’s going to keep operating. We came too close to losing it all once before, and what with Travis being a donkey’s behind about this buy-out…” He let his words trail away and shook his head. They were at Linda’s porch anyhow.
Linda herself swung the front door open to welcome them in. “My fine, married son,” she cooed over Cooper. “I made your favorite—fried chicken.”
“Thanks, Ma.” Cooper glanced to Faith—who was still sparkling with happiness, even if she had gone a little quiet—and dropped her arm. “I’ll get some just as soon as I get back from the stables.”
“What?” Linda’s voice rose, and so did her eyebrows. Then she tsked and shook her head. “It’s your wedding reception, Cooper. The horses can wait.”
Cooper opened his mouth to protest that it wasn’t really a reception, and that they would be having a much bigger reception in a month or so, but before he could, Angus wedged past Linda and out onto the porch.
“Are ye tryin’ to weasel out of yer own party, mate?” Angus snorted.
“It’s almost three-thirty, Cooper argued. “The horses need their—”
“Exercise. Aye, I know, I know.” Angus rolled his eyes and held up his hands as he marched past Cooper and Faith. “I’ll take care of it. You celebrate.” He pivoted to walk backwards, telling Faith, “I hope yer ready for military-style scheduling, because Cooper here shoulda been a Marine the way he goes on.” He hopped down the porch stairs and set off across the yard for the stables.
“What’s this?” Faith grinned up at him as if she too was in on the joke.
Cooper let out a breath. “I like to keep to a schedule, that’s all. It’s nothing for everyone to get upset about. In fact, if we plan to make the ranch as efficient as possible so it brings in more money, we should all be time-conscious.”
He walked through the front door as he spoke, finishing his statement in the hall, where everyone in the front half of the house could hear.
“It’s not that we’re ignoring efficiency.” Kolby jumped right into the conversation. “We just think you missed your calling as a drill instructor.”
“Yeah,” Chris added. “That or a train conductor.”
Cooper made a face as he led Faith into the family room, where everyone had already fixed themselves plates of Linda’s best cooking and were lounging around enjoying it. “Yeah, well, if I ran the trains, you’d better believe that every one of them would be on time all the time.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Faith added, giving his hand a squeeze.
It didn’t matter that his brothers laughed and snorted, shaking their heads and talking with their mouths full. The way Faith smiled at him and stood by his side filled him to bursting with pride. He made a mental note to send Dr. Lachele the biggest dang edible arrangement he could order as thank you for finding Faith for him.
“You sit down and I’ll fix a plate for you.” Cooper gave Faith’s hand a final squeeze and let go, gesturing for her to into the family room and relax.
“Oh no.” Linda walked up behind him and swatted his arm. “This is your wedding reception, goober, and since we can’t have it in a big town hall with everyone we know wishing you the best like you deserve, the least you can do is go sit down with your lovely wife and let me fix the plates.”
“Ma…” Cooper gave up with a chuckle and a sigh, sharing a knowing glance with Faith. There was no talking his mom out of something once she’d set her mind to it, and since this wasn’t a battle that it would do any good to fight, he caught Faith’s hand once more and drew her into the family room.
As receptions went, this one was Cooper’s style. His mom may have wanted the entire town of Culpepper to fawn all over him at the big reception they had planned once all four of them were married, but he was just fine with his brothers, Faith’s sisters, Ma, and a few of their absolute closest friends. The food kept coming every time his or Faith’s plate got even close to being empty, and somehow it seemed better than his mom’s usual best efforts. Or maybe that was because the woman sitting next to him kept smiling and humming with delight ov
er every bite.
He liked the way she hummed. He liked the way she licked her lips and giggled when a dribble of grease escaped from her mouth and ran down her chin. Cooper had half a mind to shove her plate aside and lick her lips clean. Who would have thought that something as homey as Ma’s fried chicken could get him fired up faster than a bonfire in mid-summer?
“Ma truly outdid herself,” he said a couple hours later as he walked hand-in-hand with Faith across the field separating his house from his mom’s.
The party had gone on long enough, as far as he was concerned. Hope and Karlan left early to be about their own business, and Chris and Chastity hadn’t been paying attention to anyone other than each other anyhow. As soon as their friends had left and Kolby started hinting about taking Joy out for a ride before it got dark, Cooper was more than happy to move on to other wedding night activities.
“Your mom is a fabulous cook,” Faith agreed. “If she keeps setting a table like that, I’m sure to blow up like a blimp in no time.”
Cooper laughed. It was so reassuring to hear her talk freely after being so quiet all through the reception. Her sisters had tried to draw her into conversation—they’d succeeded to a point—but Faith didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk. He couldn’t blame her. It had been a whirlwind of a day. And as long as she was in a mood for other things, talking wasn’t necessary.
“I’ll be honest with you.” He gazed off at the sun setting behind the mountains on the horizon, breathing in the peace of the ranch, knowing it was well taken care of. “I’m looking forward to seeing you blimped out when you’re carrying our child.” In fact, the mental image he conjured only made his trousers tighter.
The cozy grin on his face dropped like a rock as soon as he peeked at Faith. She’d gone pale again. Her cute chin was pointed down and he could see the tightness in her neck.
“I’m sorry, did I say something wrong?” he blurted, desperate to make whatever it was right.
“No.” She glanced up quickly, eyes filled with worry. “No, nothing.” She paused and bit her lip, but kept walking with a shake of her head. “I’m just a little overwhelmed. That’s it. This is all such a sudden change, and I want to be a really good wife.”