Texas Christmas Bride: The Gallaghers of Sweetgrass Springs Book 6

by Jean Brashear

  She buried her faced in her hands and whirled away. “I’m so embarrassed.”

  Then there they were, one to each side. Penny drew her close and let her sob on her shoulder, while Rissa patted her back. “You’re not alone anymore, Veronica,” Penny murmured. “Not ever again. You have a family. All of you do.”

  Oh, the relief of it, the breathless wonder…the unimaginable luxury. She and Tank had been alone to face their childhood, each in their own way, and they’d never been close, but her brother had tried to shield her from the violence always lurking, threatening to explode.

  David had been aware of the artificiality of their joining. She’d done everything she could to overcome their rocky start and they’d built a life together, but then David, too, had been snatched away. She’d dug in, squared her shoulders and pushed on through days and months when she could barely breathe around the pain of losing him, the shock, the terror of how she’d manage to keep body and soul together for all of them.

  And now…

  She had a chance at her dream—if only she could make peace with her past.

  She straightened. Drew in a jagged breath. Scrubbed at her face. Rissa turned away and found a tissue box, handed them around.

  “Don’t even think you’ve finished crying until you’ve heard the bad news.”

  “What?” Veronica’s heart seized.

  “Hayley’s back in town,” Rissa pronounced in tones of doom.

  Relief swamped her.

  They broke up laughing.

  It felt…amazing.

  They sniffed and blew their noses and wiped their eyes…and giggled.

  She felt reborn. “Okay.” She heaved a breath. “Okay, let’s do this.”

  “Strip ’em,” Penny ordered.

  “Um…”

  “Oh, don’t tell me you’re modest. Sorry, but you’re in our wheelhouse now, the sister zone. You don’t have anything we haven’t seen.”

  “Except mine are better,” Rissa intoned.

  Penny snickered. “You think that.”

  As the two bantered, Veronica managed to take off her blouse and jeans and resisted the urge to cover herself.

  A whole new world indeed.

  Then the dress was being lowered over her head, and she wanted to turn to look in the mirror, but Penny wouldn’t let her. “Not until I’ve got you fastened up.”

  “Is it going to—”

  But Veronica could already feel that it fit.

  “It’s as if it was made for you, I swear. You’re going to need probably three-inch heels, since this can’t be hemmed with that lace around the edge, but hey—shopping trip!”

  “Kill me now,” Rissa groaned.

  “Beth and I got this. And Hayley, of course.”

  Veronica wanted to laugh, but she wanted worse to see. “Now?”

  “Almost—okay, yes. Turn around.”

  Veronica bit into her lower lip as she turned and… “Oh.” Her eyes filled again.

  She turned from side to side, adoring the swish of the chiffon as it fell so gracefully to the floor. “It really does fit.”

  “As though it was made for you, for real,” Rissa agreed.

  Veronica glanced over at Penny. “You’re not that much taller than me.”

  Penny snorted. “Yeah, only about seven inches. Before heels.”

  “I just feel bad…”

  “Don’t.” Penny touched her arm. “Seriously. If you don’t have one from your mother you’d rather wear—”

  “No.” Her mother had been a sad excuse for a parent, a wraith who was too terrified of her husband to care for her children. “No. Not even if I did.” She couldn’t bear thinking of her mother in the same breath as Mary Gallagher. “It would be an unbelievable honor. I mean, I would love this gown even if it hadn’t belonged to Mary, but that it did…I can’t tell you what this means. If you’re sure.”

  The sisters glanced at each other and clasped hands. “Positive.”

  She summoned a wobbly smile. “It definitely meets Abby’s princess dress qualification.” She smoothed the skirt. “I know it’s not mine, but I don’t want to take it off.”

  “Then don’t. Well, at least until Jackson gets home.”

  “I wonder who made it,” Veronica asked.

  “I think Mama had a hand in the design and probably helped, but I’m guessing her mother did. We can ask Aunt Ruby.”

  A quick knock on the door made it swing open. “Mom, I need to talk to you for a sec—”

  Veronica froze.

  “Sorry, the door wasn’t latched—” Ben went stock still.

  Veronica found herself unable to speak at his stricken look.

  “Doesn’t your mother look gorgeous?” Penny asked. “It was your grandmother’s wedding dress—

  Ben didn’t say a word, only met his mother’s shocked gaze with his own. Something dark and hurt rippled through his eyes.

  He turned and fled.

  Leaving a stunned silence behind him.

  Suddenly Veronica couldn’t get out of the gown quickly enough. “I have to talk to him. Please—help me—”

  “Sure. I’m sorry. Maybe we shouldn’t have—”

  “Vee?” Jackson’s voice came from down the hall.

  “I’ll get the door.” Rissa raced over and locked it.

  Veronica’s thoughts scrambled. Her fingers were clumsy, and she was terrified of harming the gown.

  But more terrified of hurting her son.

  “Don’t come in, Jackson,” Penny shouted.

  “What’s going on? Ben raced past me without a word, and the bedroom door is locked—”

  It was all Veronica could do to be careful enough as she raced to get out of the dress and into her clothes. “I’m sorry. I should hang it up, but—” Every cell of her vibrated with the need to follow her child. “I have to talk to Ben.”

  “We’ve got this,” Rissa reassured. “Could we help?”

  “Thank you, but no. This is my mess to fix.” Dressed, she yanked open the door and vaulted past a gaping Jackson. “Don’t go in that room,” she shouted at him as she tore out after her child.

  Jackson started after her, then glanced back at his sisters. “Where are the girls?”

  “Upstairs, doing homework,” Rissa said.

  “Will you stay with them?”

  “Of course.”

  “What the hell happened?”

  He could barely make himself linger long enough for Penny to answer. “She was trying on a wedding dress. Ben saw her and freaked. Took off.”

  He swore, then nodded and charged off in pursuit. Loped out the back door.

  Ben was climbing the rise to David’s grave.

  Veronica was scrambling after. “Ben, please. Talk to me.”

  “Leave me alone, Mom!” he shouted.

  Jackson caught up with her quickly.

  She looked…wrecked. “I have to talk to him.”

  Jackson nodded. “I’ll go with you.”

  She started to shake her head but halted. “It should be me.”

  “I’m the problem, Vee. You and he were fine before.”

  Tears spilled over her lashes. “It’s not your fault, it’s mine.”

  He reached for her hand. Closed it inside his. “We’re in this together. I won’t try to stop you, but I should be there if we’re ever to have any hope of being a family.”

  Her lips pressed together, and he could see her swallow. “All right.” Chin lifted, shoulders resolute, she began to climb again.

  But her hand trembled in his.

  He closed his other hand around her delicate one. Deceptively so. She might be the strongest woman he’d ever met, as strong as his mother. He lifted their clasped hands to his lips and kissed her ice-cold fingers. “You’re not alone anymore, Veronica.”

  She cast him a grateful, terrified glance.

  Then they were at the spot beneath the towering oak where David was buried.

  “I don’t want to talk to you.�
� Ben’s voice shook.

  Veronica stepped up beside him. “Then we won’t talk.”

  Jackson took his other side. And said nothing.

  But the boy’s pain hurt him. Jackson waited. Locked his jaw.

  Ben cast him an odd glance, almost pleading.

  Jackson had been trying to respect the greater bond of mother and child. Veronica had been with this boy all his life. He didn’t want to get between them, but—

  He knew how it was to be a young man trying to figure out how to be a grown man.

  With no father to help him. Jackson’s own had been alive, but he’d cared nothing for Jackson. Had loathed everything about him at the end.

  Jackson cast a glance over at Veronica, who stood so bravely, so fiercely in defense of her child.

  Behind Ben’s back, he touched her shoulder.

  She glanced over.

  His next words had better be the best of his life.

  “Would you give us a minute, Vee?” Then he asked the more difficult question. “Would you trust me?” He looked into her eyes, those he loved beyond life and death and promises of forever. I won’t hurt him, he tried to convey with his eyes.

  Hers were tremulous. Heartsore.

  For the longest moment, time spun out and worlds collided. He was Ben’s father by birth, but David had been the man who’d formed Ben. The man who lay in the grave here had proven himself; Jackson had only begun.

  At last, she nodded. Turned to her son, hand on his arm. “Ben, I would never hurt you…”

  The boy’s jaw flexed. “I know, Mom.” With visible effort, he faced her. “I’d be an idiot if I didn’t know you love me.”

  She scanned her son’s face for the truth, then, at last, nodded. Her gaze switched to Jackson’s, visibly pleading.

  Jackson reached out and stroked her cheek. Thank you, he mouthed.

  Then she left them, though Jackson could see the reluctance in every line of her frame.

  When Veronica returned to the house, her features were ravaged.

  Penny glanced toward the stairs.

  “I’ll go hang out with them to give you time to talk,” Rissa offered. “But I want to know what’s going on. I don’t want Jackson hurt.”

  “Me, either. Thanks.” Penny went to meet Veronica and led her deeper into the kitchen where they wouldn’t be overheard. “What’s wrong? Ben doesn’t want his mother and father to get married?” She had to work to keep the shock out of her own tone.

  “No, it’s not that, I don’t think.” She bit her lip. “But he’s hurt Jackson, and I don’t know how to fix this.”

  “I thought they were getting along great now.”

  “So did we. But then the girls started asking if they were Gallaghers, and Jackson asked if he could adopt them, and then they asked if he’d adopt Ben, too, but—”

  “But what? Jackson doesn’t need to adopt Ben. He’s Jackson’s biological child.”

  “Yes, but… I think Ben is…torn. He didn’t answer, and I could see how that hurt Jackson, even though Jackson said it was okay. It wasn’t. You could see it in his eyes.”

  “Why does Ben need to agree? He’s Jackson’s son.”

  “David is listed as father on his birth certificate. His legal name is Butler.”

  Penny hadn’t stopped to consider that legalities would be murky. “Jackson has all kinds of lawyers on retainer.”

  “That’s not it. And I understand Ben’s hesitation. He’s proud of Jackson and is beginning to love him, but…” She exhaled. “David raised him. David was the only father he ever knew. It was wrong of me not to tell him about Jackson, I see now, but…we thought Jackson was never coming back. For all we knew he was dead all these years. David offered to raise Ben as his, and I promised I’d never tell Ben that he wasn’t David’s child.” She looked up. “He is David’s son, in so many ways. He may look like Jackson, and he has some of Jackson’s skills, but…David made him who he is. Ben loved his fath—David. Looked up to him. So yes, he’s torn. He doesn’t want to betray David, however illogical that sounds. My first instinct is to insert myself between them to try to keep them from hurting each other—but they’ll never form a relationship if I do. I have to trust Jackson with him. Mostly I do, but…Jackson’s never been a father. He’s trying so hard, and he didn’t push Ben on it earlier. He wants Ben to have time to think, but…it hurts him, that hesitation. As it understandably should.”

  Veronica wrapped her arms around her waist. “It’s all my fault. And even though the girls are all for it, they’re David’s biological children. Do we just erase David as though he never existed? He was a good man, Penny. He doesn’t deserve that.”

  Penny clasped her arm. “He was a very good man. Wow. I’m sorry—I never even thought—”

  “Ben’s hesitation blindsided Jackson—me, too. And I feel guilty. He wouldn’t be running into this if I’d told Ben who his biological father was long before. I handled it all wrong.”

  “It wasn’t all your fault. There were two of you there the night Ben was conceived.”

  Veronica shook her head. “The accident changed everything. Jackson would never have left with David’s sister Beth that night if he and I hadn’t fought.”

  “But he didn’t know you were pregnant.”

  “I didn’t know, either. He couldn’t stand how things were with your father any longer. Everything was piling up on him. He wanted to leave, but I wouldn’t. I thought he should graduate first. Then we’d leave together.”

  “What about you? You still had a year of high school to go.”

  “I would have followed him anywhere. It was our vow. We would leave together. Go back East. Go to college—did you know he’d been admitted to MIT? With a full scholarship?”

  “Yes. He told me before he told Daddy.”

  “He knew your father would be furious, not proud.”

  Penny shook her head sadly. “It’s criminal, how Dad treated him.”

  “You don’t know criminal. My father, what he did to Tank—”

  Penny wanted to hear more, but not right now. She was worried for her twin.

  Veronica continued. “Your father only wanted his son and heir to follow in his footsteps. He handled it wrong, though.”

  “He did. It’s a relief that they’ve moved on. They’re doing so much better.”

  “I agree.”

  “And Dad is over the moon about Ben. We all are. He’s amazing, Veronica. You’re a wonderful mother.”

  “I don’t feel very wonderful right now. I’ve created such a mess. I thought the worst was over, but…maybe it will never be.” Troubled hazel eyes rose to meet Penny’s. “I never loved David the way he deserved to be loved. I did my best, and we were happy, but…it was never the passion I feel for Jackson. Jackson always had this hold on me, and David knew it.” She swallowed visibly. “I don’t know if I can marry Jackson under these circumstances. And I shouldn’t be telling you this. He’s your twin.”

  “But you’re my friend. And, I very much hope, my new sister. Look, Jackson doesn’t have to have his way on the timing. You can wait.”

  “We could. But you didn’t see his eyes when he asked me. This is the only Christmas gift he wants.”

  “He’s used to getting what he wants. He can buy out half the known universe.”

  “He hasn’t had what his heart longed for, not in all the years since the accident. He’s been so alone, Penny. He may have lots of toys, but he hasn’t had love. He hasn’t had family. He needs that.”

  “So what will you do?”

  “I don’t know,” Veronica murmured. “I just don’t know.” She looked up, eyes tormented. “I love them both. How do I choose? I can’t. I’m responsible for both their hearts.”

  Chapter Six

  Jackson waited to see if Ben would speak first.

  When the boy said nothing, Jackson took a gamble.

  He knelt by David’s headstone and placed his palm on the grass covering his friend’s remains. “
I wish you were here, bud.”

  “No, you don’t,” Ben retorted. “How could you?”

  Jackson shifted his weight back to his heels, then rose. “Do you think I’m glad your father is dead?”

  Ben’s eyes wavered. “But he’s not my—”

  “He is, Ben. I wish to hell that wasn’t the case, that our lives had played out differently, the way your mother and I always intended, but…we wouldn’t have you if all of that changed. And I would never give up knowing you, however much it tears at my gut that I missed so much of your life.

  “David is your true father.” Jackson forced the words past his throat. “The earliest memory I have of him was about five years old. Ian and I were throwing rocks at a snake, trying to make it use its rattle.”

  Ben’s surprise registered. “That’s stupid.”

  He shrugged. “We were kids. It seemed exciting.”

  “What did Dad—David do?”

  “You can call him Dad. I don’t take offense.” Even though Jackson had been honored when Ben began calling him that. When confusion rose in Ben’s eyes, Jackson returned to the memory. “He told us we were idiots.” Jackson grinned. “Then he hunted for a rock and showed us a better way.”

  A small laugh escaped Ben.

  “I loved David. I wish to hell he was still here.” He cleared his throat. “Do I want him to have your mother? No. I loved her first.” He pinned Ben with his gaze. “But I’d want to win her honestly. Dead is an advantage.”

  “What?”

  He’d just gambled all the marbles, hadn’t he? “What I mean is…being dead keeps David from being real. He was a really great guy, but he wasn’t perfect. Ever notice how he was fussy with everything needing to be in its proper spot?”

  A quick, fond smile. “Yeah.”

  “Ian was a total slob, since he didn’t have a mom. Me, my mom just closed the door to my room when she couldn’t stand it. Or threatened to bring in a shovel and toss it out my window.”

  Ben laughed. “My mom’s done that. And my dad—”

  “Yeah. Talk about anal.” The atmosphere lightened a little with the revelation that they both knew David well.