“Probably.” They rose with their arms around each other and he held her tight. “But who cares?”
“Surely,” she said, kissing his neck, his jaw, his cheek. “Surely somebody somewhere does.”
Caleb threaded his fingers into her hair and angled her mouth toward his. “To hell with them.” He took her mouth with his and drank deep and long. A need rose up in him, sharp and strong. He fed it, fed on her. She was his. She’d said yes. He still couldn’t believe it. Could he be dreaming?
He prayed not. Prayed that he was awake and this was real and they were really getting married.
“I want you,” he murmured against her mouth.
“Yes.” She sounded as breathless as he was. “Yes.”
He tore his mouth from hers and buried his face against her hair. “We’re in your kitchen.”
Melanie pulled back and blinked. “Oh. Yeah.”
“We’ve got a problem,” he told her.
She nudged her hips against his, putting pressure on his erection, and smiled slyly. “I’d take care of that for you, but as you say, we’re in the kitchen.”
“And your parents are home. But our main problem is, neither one of us ever left the damn nest.”
“Ah.” She didn’t need it spelled out. “I live with my parents, you live with your family.”
“I’m going to be taking a lot of cold showers between now and the time we’re married.”
She leaned up and rubbed her smooth cheek against his raspy one. “We’ll find a way. I promise.”
“A quick wedding date would solve the problem. After that, I’ll just have to get used to making love to you down the hall from your parents.”
Melanie chuckled. “I think for the next little while my parents are going to so preoccupied with each other that they’ll never notice.” body Chapter
Chapter Ten
It should have been a relatively simple matter, Caleb thought, to set a date, make arrangements, get married. It wasn’t the invasion of Normandy, for crying out loud, it was just a wedding. His wedding, Caleb acknowledged, and he wanted it done.
But that contrary woman he’d proposed to and who had accepted could think up more delaying tactics than fleas on a hound.
First, she and her parents needed a few days together as a family. After her mother’s two-year absence and her father’s recent disastrous gambling streak, Caleb was forced to agree a little family time for the three of them was surely called for. He couldn’t begrudge them a few days. A week.
Then she had to help her dad hire new men and spend a few days getting them acquainted with the PR and how things were done there.
Okay, Caleb could buy that. How could a woman think about picking a wedding date when she had all that on her mind?
Events at his home weren’t helping anything, either. It took nearly a week to get one group of the Mexicans settled in New Mexico with family members who had immigrated years earlier. Then they made arrangements for some to go to Texas where they said they had friends.
Most of the rest of the group decided to go to Tennessee where they heard that a food-processing plant didn’t care if their workers were illegal. They paid what to an American would be slave wages, but to the Mexicans was decent money for plucking and cutting up chickens.
That left only Pedro, Maria and little Rosa. They would have been gone by now, but Pedro had made himself practically indispensable taking up some of the slack caused by Caleb spending so much time at the PR of late.
Melanie might be having trouble deciding on a wedding date, but Ralph seemed downright eager to settle the details of the new partnership. They had decided that Melanie would, indeed, keep her fifty percent. Fayrene, Ralph and Caleb would split the remaining fifty percent equally among them, giving them each one-sixth of the Pruitt Ranch. When it came to ranch business, Melanie’s decisions would be final unless the other three partners agreed on a different course of action. Then they’d be tied, fifty-fifty, and nothing would get done, but what the hell. The point was that the ranch would always belong to Melanie. Caleb had no quarrel with that. He would work his fingers to nubs to make the ranch prosper for her and their children.
Children. There was another topic Melanie hadn’t found the time to discuss. She had always said she wanted children, so he didn’t know what the big deal was. If he could ever get her alone for five damn minutes, maybe he’d ask her about it.
But then, who was he kidding? If he got her alone for five damn minutes he wasn’t going to want to talk about anything. He was going to want to jump her bones.
“You look like you’re a thousand miles away.”
Caleb jerked away from the corral fence involuntarily as if shot. He hadn’t heard Sloan come up behind him.
“But I guess you’re just over on the next ranch.” Sloan punched him on the upper arm and chuckled.
“Actually,” Caleb said, “I was wondering how Earline’s enjoying her retirement.” It wasn’t a complete lie. He’d been thinking about Earline about an hour ago. Thinking how odd it was to walk into the house and find Maria doing all the things Earline used to do. The cooking, the cleaning, the general taking care of the house and family.
Earline had been keeping house for the Chisholms for more years than Caleb could remember. That she would finally retire to enjoy her golden years at home with her husband and all the grandchildren who lived near them shouldn’t have come as a surprise. But Earline had seen in Maria someone capable, eager, and in dire need of a home and job.
Earline’s recommendation alone would have been enough to guarantee Maria the job, considering how much Rose liked the young woman. But Pedro was equally well liked by Sloan and Justin.
Caleb hadn’t spent as much time with the man as his brothers had, but from what he’d seen, the Cherokee Rose would benefit from his presence. He wasn’t a rancher, but he was an excellent caretaker of buildings, equipment and animals. He could do all those pesky things Caleb and his brothers kept putting off because they couldn’t be done from the back of a horse.
And they were going to need an extra full-time person once Caleb made the move to the PR.
“If you ask me,” Sloan said, “she was just waiting for someone like Maria to come along so she could retire. She might have retired when she met Emily, but Emily made it plain that she wasn’t after her job.”
“Speaking of Emily,” Caleb said, “how is married life these days?”
Sloan chuckled. “Contemplating your future, are you?”
Caleb shrugged and turned back to watch Sloan’s new mare prance around the corral.
“Getting cold feet?” Sloan asked quietly.
“Hell, no,” Caleb said forcefully. “Not me.”
“Melanie, then.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because it’s been two weeks and the two of you haven’t set a date yet.” And because he knew his brother and didn’t want to see him brood, he asked, “Are you really going to like living with her parents?”
Caleb’s lips twitched. “Probably not. How do you think Emily likes living with all of us?”
“I’ll admit I was concerned about that at first.”
“Not anymore?”
Sloan shook his head and propped his boot next to Caleb’s on the fence rail. “Emily never had a family. As far as she’s concerned, the more people in this house the better she likes it.”
“What about you?” Caleb asked. “Wouldn’t you like a little privacy for the two of you now and then?”
“Not really. The honeymoon was great, don’t get me wrong. We did need that, and probably will again, maybe on a regular basis. But no matter how much we enjoyed our time alone together, we were both glad to get home. There’s a lot to be said for being surrounded by family.”
“Yeah, but all the time?”
Sloan laughed. “There’s always the lock on the bedroom door. And when we use it, we’re lucky enough to have somebody else in the house to look after the girls for us. If it was just us
, Emily and me and the girls, our privacy would be even more scarce.”
“Melanie and I won’t have children to worry about. Not right off, anyway.”
“Oh, I don’t know. From what I hear, Fayrene and Ralph have been acting like a couple of teenagers in heat. They probably qualify as children.”
“Man.” Caleb shook his head and laughed. “Poor Ralph can’t keep his eyes off her. Or his hands, I imagine. He just about drools over that new chest of hers.”
Sloan shook his head. “Why’d she go and do that to herself? I mean, she looks great, but there was nothing wrong with her before.”
“She says she did it to get Ralph’s attention.”
“I’d say it worked.”
“She got her money’s worth, that’s for sure.”
“Is Mel still dragging her feet about a wedding date?” Sloan asked quietly.
Caleb let out a harsh breath. “Yeah. That sure seems to be what she’s doing, even though she denies it.”
“Have patience, bro. She’s just a little scared, that’s all.”
“I’ve figured that much out for myself. Every time I try to get her to talk about it she finds a way to dodge the subject. What I’m not sure of is what she’s afraid of. Me? Marriage? Marriage to me?” He shook his head.
Sloan worried that he might be betraying a confidence, but Emily had not asked him to keep it a secret, hadn’t mentioned Mel extracting any promise of secrecy from her. Caleb was his brother. He loved Melanie like a sister, but his loyalty went first to Caleb. Until the two of them married, he thought with a smile, then all bets were off.
For now, however, he couldn’t leave Caleb stumbling around in the dark if he had the means to shed a little light. He leaned his elbows on the top rail and watched his new mare.
“And here I thought you were the one who knew her the best,” he offered lazily. “She’s scared of herself. Unsure of herself.”
“I suspected as much, but I can’t get a handle on it. And Lord knows she won’t talk about it.”
“She thinks she’s, I don’t know, fickle or something. She figured out she didn’t really love me, and every man she’s been interested in since, she’s gotten bored with after a few weeks. She thinks that’s all she’s able to do. I imagine she’s afraid what she’s feeling for you won’t last.”
“She’s told me something similar. But she’s wrong. She’s got the biggest heart, and no one on earth is more steadfast.”
“I know that, and you know that. You’ve just got to find a way to make her see it.”
“Ha. Is that all? Get Melanie to change her mind about something?”
“You got her to change her mind about just being friends, didn’t you?”
“Yeah.” Caleb perked up. “I did, didn’t I.”
“So maybe you’re not as useless as I’ve always thought you were.”
“Hey, I resemble that statement.”
At the PR, Melanie wasn’t as amenable to advice as Caleb had been. She wished heartily that no one knew she and Caleb had agreed to marry.
Why did everyone want to talk about it all the damn time? First her mother, then her father, then her mother again. She was only glad there wasn’t anyone else around except two new hands who didn’t know her well enough to open their mouths to her about anything personal.
There must be a chart somewhere, she decided, that told her parents whose turn it was to corner her and oh so casually pressure her to set a wedding date. Pink square for Mama’s turn, blue square for Daddy. This evening must have been a blue square. He found her in the barn with their three boarder mares.
“No,” she said before he could open his mouth. “We have not set a date yet.”
“Did I say anything?” he cried. “I didn’t say anything. You’ve just got a guilty conscience, that’s all.”
“What do I have to feel guilty about?”
Her father shook his head. “From a female point of view, probably nothing.”
“What’s that mean, female point of view?”
“You women just live to make a man dance to your tune. Promise a man you’ll do something he wants real bad, then hold out as long as possible and make him sweat, just for the fun of it, before you finally make good on it.”
Melanie paused before turning away toward the tack room. This wasn’t about her. “This is about you and Mama, isn’t it? She promised you something and now she’s putting you off.”
“Damn woman.”
“You’re crazy in love with that damn woman.”
He stomped away three paces, then back again, his arms flapping at his sides. “Of course I am. Always have been. What’s that got to do with anything?”
“How did you know, Daddy? All those years ago, how did you know she was the one, that you two would stay together, that it would work out between you?”
“Work out? You call this working out? She’s driving me crazy.”
“Maybe, but she’s here, isn’t she? And you still love each other.”
“For all the good that does.”
Melanie snorted. “And you want to know why I won’t pick a date to get married?”
“Ah, hell, little girl, forget I said anything. Just because I’m miserable doesn’t mean you will be.”
Didn’t it? She had to wonder. “What did Mama promise that she won’t deliver on?” Then she held out a hand. “If it has anything to do with sex forget I asked.” Logically, she knew her parents were two warm-blooded people who adored each other. She couldn’t help it, however, if it seemed weird to her to know they were having sex.
Having sex, hell. They appeared to have been going at it like a couple of bunny rabbits since her mother’s return, if the number of times her father disappeared into the house each day was anything to go by.
“No.” He laughed. “It’s nothing that private. It’s just that she keeps stalling about sending for her things in Phoenix.”
“Why would she stall? She’s already said she’s home to stay.”
“My thoughts exactly,” he said with a sharp nod. “But if she won’t send for her things, maybe she’s thinking she might not stay after all.”
And it hurt him. It was easy to see in his eyes now that she knew what was going on. Her mother’s uncertainty was tearing her father apart.
“Oh, Daddy.” She slipped an arm around his waist and put her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I’m sure she doesn’t mean it like that. Maybe she’s just scared.”
“She doesn’t trust me, that’s what it is. I promised I wouldn’t gamble or take her for granted anymore, but I’ve given her no reason to trust me in the past.”
“I’m sure that’s not it, Daddy. Maybe it’s herself she’s not sure of. She gave up on us before. Maybe she’s afraid she doesn’t… oh my God.” It all came clear to her, like a heavy fog suddenly lifting to reveal a sharp, clear landscape.
“What? What’s wrong, Mel?”
She shook her head and looked at her father. “Nothing. I just think maybe she’s afraid she doesn’t have what it takes to stick it out if everything doesn’t go smoothly in the future. Maybe she’s afraid she’s the one who’ll fail.”
The way I’m afraid, she thought with new clarity.
It wasn’t setting a date that scared her, or even marrying Caleb. What scared her was her own lousy track record with relationships. With the exception of chasing after Sloan all her life, she had never stuck with anyone for any length of time. She never let anyone get close. She never tried to get close to anyone.
Until Caleb. Even then, it wasn’t as if she had let him get close. He’d more or less barged his way into her heart and planted himself there. And now that he’d gone and made her fall in love with him, he thought they should get married. He’d asked, she’d said yes. And had dragged her feet in the two weeks since.
Was she hurting him the way her mother was hurting her father? Was Caleb making excuses for her the way her father was for her mother?
She searched her h
eart for answers but could find only one: yes. Yes, she was hurting him, and yes, he was probably making excuses for her behavior.
But there was another question, a harder one to answer. What was she going to do now? She couldn’t expect him to wait around forever for her to make up her mind. After all, she had told him she would marry him. She wanted to marry him. Didn’t she? She loved him, wanted no other man but him, wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
But, maybe like her mother, she feared she didn’t have what it took to make a marriage work.
What she had to do now was make up her mind. She could set a date and pray like crazy that she didn’t screw up Caleb’s life by marrying him, or she could call it off and maybe, if she was very, very lucky, be his friend again.
Who was she kidding? Why would he ever want to be her friend again if she turned her back on him now? She had to marry him or let him go. There could be no in-between.
Later that evening Caleb stood before the mirror in his room and gave himself the once-over. Twice. Clean shirt and jeans, boots shined. Hair combed. Freshly shaved.
He would have to do. He rushed down the stairs and toward the door. “I’m going out,” he called. “Don’t wait up.”
Behind him, his grandmother, sister-in-law and two brothers shared a look and a knowing smile.
“Give our best to Melanie,” Rose said.
Caleb didn’t bother replying. There was no such thing as a secret in this house, he thought. But then, any idiot could have figured out where he was going, if the smell of his new aftershave was any indication.
Had he overdone the aftershave?
Hell with it. It was too late now, in any case. He jumped into his pickup and barreled down the driveway. He was a man on a mission.
He hadn’t called Melanie to tell her he was coming or ask if she was available. He didn’t want to take the chance that she might come up with an excuse to put him off. She hadn’t done that yet, but whenever they saw each other she seemed to be holding her breath to see what he wanted to talk about. Or she would start rambling about something that had nothing to do with anything, talking so fast that he couldn’t get a word in.
The Chisholm Brothers:Friends, Lovers... Husbands? Page 38