Hunter and Jeremy brought the drinks back to the table and waited. Jeremy had his back turned to the hallway leading to the restrooms, but Hunter could see them. He watched the door with one eye, the people with the other, and tried to listen to what Jeremy was telling him about a cantankerous old bull on his property. Then he saw Kim and Marta explode out of the bathroom, both of them stomping mad.
"Oh, damn it all, anyway." Hunter set his jaw and Jeremy turned around to look at whatever had upset him, and saw the two women evidently telling their dates that they were leaving.
Hunter stood up so fast his chair made a thud when it overturned. "If Kim and Marta caused me more trouble, I'm banning them from this ranch forever, and every cowhand that comes in will have to sign an affidavit saying they won't bring them to any of the socials."
"Sit down," Jeremy said. "Gloria's in there. And don't underestimate Mercy. She can take care of herself."
"Maybe you're right." Hunter picked up his chair and sat down, but his his heart was heavy.
"I'm surprised Gloria didn't chase them out of there. She sure didn't want them to stir up trouble again," Jeremy said. "Here they come now."
"Whew." Hunter got up and pulled out Mercy's chair with a gentlemanly flourish.
"Strawberry daiquiri. You remembered." Mercy picked up her drink and tossed back about half of it. Nothing like a cat fight to make a woman plumb thirsty.
"Of course." Hunter raised an inquisitive eyebrow at Gloria, who just smiled.
"I'm ready to dance again, darlin'." Mercy sat down in Hunter's lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Unless you want to leave your party and go throw a blanket on the ground and watch the moon come up."
"Guess we better dance." The heaviness left his heart in a split second and he kissed the tip of her nose. "Maybe we'll watch the sun come up from a blanket on the ground, though. I like that idea."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Hunter and Mercy watched the first orange glimmer of the fall sun appear on the horizon the next morning from the porch swing. She was snuggled down into his shoulder, wondering why she wasn't sleepy after dancing the night away and then driving into town for breakfast with Jeremy and Gloria.
"Now we've done it all," he said. "Danced, ate, and watched the sun come up. Think maybe now we'd better sleep a while before we have to go out to dinner tonight with Gloria and Jeremy? I tried to get out of it, but they insisted," he explained.
"Darlin', we haven't quite done it all just yet." Mercy pushed away from him and took his hand in hers. "There's something else I've got in mind before we call it a night. You want to make love on this porch swing? Chains look a little weak to hold both of us up, and it would take an acrobat to keep from falling out of it, but I guess we can try, if you're too tired to drag your handsome self into the bedroom."
"You're always full of good ideas," he laughed. "How about taking a shower together like we did in Mexico?" His eyes twinkled.
"Just what I had in mind," she said. "I feel like I've run a marathon." Mercy dropped her clothes on the bathroom floor and stepped into the shower with him. "Do my back." She handed him a soapy washcloth.
"Don't you ever say please? Anyway, I'd rather do your front," he laughed.
"That's next." She kissed him until they were breathless, then turned her back to him.
When they were clean and Hunter had patted her dry with a big soft bath towel, he quickly wrapped it around her and swept her up into his arms.
Mercy giggled. "Just what do you think you're doing, Hunter Wilson?"
He nuzzled her neck. "I'm taking you where you belong. My bedroom." He carried her all the way to his king-size bed without even knocking her into anything once. Mercy had a wonderful feeling that sometimes real life was just as good as romance novels . . . if not better.
Hunter settled her gently on the bed, and unrolled her from the towel that hid her glorious body.
Mercy didn't say a word. She just stretched out her arms to him, and Hunter didn't waste a second.
"You wildcat." He rolled over to take her in his arms and kiss her until she couldn't breathe.
When she begged for more than kisses he just caressed her as only he could, making her beg even more. Finally, when he could restrain himself no longer, he made wild, fervent love with her until the room seemed to explode in a brilliant array of gorgeous fireworks just as it had in Mexico. He cradled her tenderly in his arms, showering her with kisses.
"Mmmmm. I love this feeling almost as well as the bright lights and shooting stars." She laid her head on his chest, loving the way the soft brown hair felt against her face.
Now was the time to tell her the truth, and Hunter knew it. It was the right time. But somehow he couldn't utter a sound. So he shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep while he berated himself for letting the perfect time pass, the perfect time to tell Mercy he was madly, happily in love with her.
They met Gloria and Jeremy at a Mexican place in Dallas that night and somehow got through dinner without acting like a couple of lovestruck high school kids. All evening, he wanted to touch her hand, or slip his hand under the tablecloth and let it rest on her knee. Anything to keep assuring himself that she was real flesh and blood and not just a figment of his imagination. Mercy managed to smile at the right places and make small talk with Gloria when what she wanted to do was drag him out to the car and see if the girls she went to college with were right when they said it could be done in the back seat.
It was well past midnight when they returned to the ranch and Hunter sat down on the porch swing and pulled her down into his lap. "We can't watch the sun come up again or else I'll snore in church tomorrow morning, and Momma will rise up out of her grave and thrash me." He kissed that special spot on the back of her neck that drove her crazy with desire.
"Church?" She edged off his lap and sat beside him on the swing, kicking back to make it sway. "Did I hear you say church?"
"Sure, church," he nodded. "You think that halo wearing altarboy your parents fixed you up with is the only man in the world who goes to church?"
"You mean Cody? Don't tell me you're a youth director or a Sunday school teacher," she said.
"Nope, neither one. But sometimes I sing in the choir on Sunday when I'm not down in Mexico running a little cantina for my buddy," he told her. "So you have to sit beside me in the choir loft and sing in that pretty soprano voice of yours."
"I don't believe it." She shook her head. "But just in case you're telling the truth, let's go to bed . . . and to sleep!"
"Well, you better believe it, honey," he declared and she began to see the truth. "Everyone who works here goes to church on Sunday. Momma insisted. And even when she died, Daddy kept the rule. We could party all night on Saturday if we wanted to, but church on Sunday was a must. Daddy used to say it was for our own good."
"Okay." She laughed, and pulled him up from the swing. "Let's go polish our halos and get our horns cropped. Tomorrow is Sunday. Wait until I tell Jenny you made me crawl out of bed with you and go to church. She'll think I'm lyin' for sure."
Hunter was dressed in a black Western-cut shirt and she wore an electric blue silk suit and matching kid leather shoes. He wanted to march up to the front of the church and introduce her as his fiancée but he hadn't even had the courage to tell her he was in love with her yesterday, so she'd probably slap him for public humiliation. Why had it been so difficult to get those words out when they were in each other's arms after such glorious lovemaking?
"Do you like her?" He remembered his father asking when he'd announced his engagement to Tammy.
"Like her? I love her with my whole heart." His indignant reply came back to him.
"Love ain't exactly what I'm talking about," his father had said. "I loved your mother with my whole heart and when she died, she took my heart on to heaven with her and I'll get it back someday. But I liked your mother as well as loved her. She was my best friend. So do you like this woman, son?"
"Yes, Daddy
," Hunter said aloud as he fixed his crimson choir robe. "I like her, and I think we might be best friends."
"Who you talkin' to?" Jeremy asked.
"Daddy," Hunter said honestly. "Just a conversation with a friendly spirit."
"That's good," Jeremy nodded. "I'm glad you can still feel him around. I found out what happened in the ladies' room at the barn the other night, but never did have a chance to tell you about it. Gloria said Mercy held her own. Kim probably won't come near the ranch again even if some rich old cowpoke paid her to go out with him."
Hunter gave him the biggest grin that Jeremy had seen in years. "Don't tell me. I don't even want to know," Hunter said. "I'm going to marry that girl."
"Well, hallelujah," Jeremy slapped him on the back. "When?"
"Someday. Right now I'm just having trouble telling her that I'm so much in love with her that it hurts," Hunter said. "We better get out there in the choir or they'll send a search party in here for us. Don't tell Gloria yet. It may take me until I'm old and gray to work up enough courage to try again after the mistakes I've made."
"Partner, didn't anyone ever tell you that the third time's the charm?" Jeremy opened the door for him.
After lunch Mercy disappeared into the bedroom to get all her things ready to leave and Hunter's heart sank. How was he going to make it through the week without her? He couldn't wait to hold her in his arms again.
Mercy almost let a tear drop off her heavy eyelashes when she snapped the suitcase shut. This was it. She was going home and he still hadn't mentioned anything except to invite her back next week. But she'd sworn that day on the way home from Mexico that she'd wait for his love—even if she had to wait until her thick blond hair had turned to short wisps of gray and she wore bifocals and walked with a cane.
She set her suitcase in the living room floor beside his chair and he swallowed the lump in his throat. "All ready?"
"Hell, no." She plopped down in his lap and laced her arms around his neck. "My suitcase is ready. My car is ready. But I'm not ready, and I never will be, Hunter Wilson. Half of my heart will be right here with you all week. Because I love you. You may not love me yet, but someday you will and when you do, you'll tell me. Want to know why I know you'll tell me when you do?"
Hunter was amazed that she could sit on his lap and say what she did with such guileless innocence. But something soared inside of his soul to hear her put into words the very way he felt about her.
"Why?" he managed to reply.
"Because we're friends. That's what it takes to make a real marriage. It takes friends who love each other. I didn't realize that until this week when I really thought about what makes my parents' marriage work so well. They love each other deeply and sometimes even desperately, but they're friends, and that's what I want. Someday when you find out you love me then you'll tell me, because we can't ever keep secrets from each other." She kissed him.
"Oh, Mercy," he hugged her tightly. "I do love you. I've loved you since that night you busted into the cantina and backed me down about the music on the jukebox. Ever since then you've been on my mind. But I don't want to make a mess of your life." He looked into her blue eyes, mesmerized as always.
"You can't make a mess of it. I refuse to let you," she whispered.
"Now that we know where we stand, what are we going to do about it?" he asked, almost afraid to say anything else.
"I think you're supposed to drop down on one knee, look up at me and say, 'Mercy, will you be my wife?' Then I'm supposed to swoon and say, 'I thought you'd never ask,' but we're not that kind of people, are we, Hunter?"
Hunter threw back his head and laughed and she knew he had let go of the past with that single laugh and was ready to look ahead to a bright future of love which included her. "Maybe not," he said.
"So when are you going to marry me?"
"As soon as possible?" he said firmly.
"Hunter, I thought you'd never ask." She fluttered her eyelashes and kissed him a million times all over his face. "Let's do it in the cantina. With Jenny and Gloria as bridesmaids and Mickey and Jeremy on your side."
"How long have you been planning this?" he asked.
"Oh, since I snapped my suitcase shut," she said pertly.
"I can see you've given this a lot of thought," Hunter teased.
"But why Mexico? I thought you hated Mexico."
"Not any more. Anyway, that's where I met you. In the cantina."
He nodded. "Mexico it is. Whatever makes you happy. Now head on home and tell your folks!"
Bob Spenser raised up in his recliner. "Welcome home, Mercy. How was your weekend?"
"I got engaged, Daddy." She patted his bald head. "Momma, can you put together a simple wedding in four weeks?"
"Of course I can." Angie smiled brightly, as if she'd been expecting the question. "At our church here?"
"Nope, in Mexico." Mercy said. "In the cantina."
Bob stood up with a dramatic flourish. "Over my dead body. No daughter of mine is getting married in a Mexican beer joint! Respectable people say their vows in a church and you will, too."
Angie quelled him with a look. "Bob Spenser, if our only child wants to get married in a cantina, I'll make it look just like a church and you can pretend."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Hunter dressed in the guest bedroom at Mickey and Maria's house. They would be moving to Boston next week and Mickey was going to wear a suit and tie every day to work in the business left jointly to him and his father when his grandfather died. Maria's brother and his family would take over the cantina and the house.
A strange sadness filled Hunter. The time had passed when Mickey would call him up on the spur of the moment and ask him to drive to Mexico and run things.
He pushed his legs into stiffly starched black jeans and tucked in a white shirt with pearl snaps. He slipped a black leather bolo tie over his neck and slid the sterling silver steer horns up to a comfortable place. He feathered back his freshly styled light brown hair and wished that just once, when something important was about to happen in his life, his hands wouldn't be clammy.
"Hey, man, don't you look sharp." Mickey poked his head in the door just as Hunter was slipping on his tuxedo jacket complete with tails. "Maria thinks it's real funny that I have to dress up to see you get hitched. I wore a bright floral shirt to my own wedding," he laughed. "Well, how do I look?" He swung the door open and Hunter laughed.
"You look like a penguin," Hunter said. "Maria cooks too well for you. You'll have to go to the Big And Tall shops for your suits if you gain any more weight."
"You think so?" Mickey frowned. "Hey, we'll see what you look like in a couple of years. Bet you won't be wearing those tight jeans!"
"Mercy, whatever are you thinking about? You look like you are really floating in the clouds," Jenny giggled. "Have you been reading the books you send me before you mail them?"
"What books?" Gloria asked.
"Self-help books," Jenny said seriously. "Without them I wouldn't still be married to Kyle. Mercy ought to think about being a counselor."
"All Mercy is going to counsel is cows," Gloria said merrily. "Are you ready for ranch life, Mercy?" Mercy rolled her eyes to the ceiling of the church sanctuary where they were getting dressed. It was right next door to the cantina. Bob had argued that the church was close enough to the cantina for the wedding to take place there and the reception in the cantina, but Mercy had stood her ground.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Mercy declared. "Anyway with Hunter beside me, I can handle anything. Now if we don't get me laced into this dress, I'm going to be late to my own wedding."
Hunter stood at the front of the cantina with his friends and the preacher when the processional music started. And then Gloria strolled up the aisle made by putting folding chairs in two neat rows on the sides of the cantina. Then came a few young girls from the church choir, dressed up in that beautiful shade of electric blue that Mercy liked so well. And then came Jenny, that shrew of a
roommate of hers. She seemed to have been tamed down some by marriage, Hunter had noticed. But he never would have believed that panty-waist husband of hers had enough gumption to tame a baby kitten, let alone a flesh and blood woman.
Before another thought entered his mind, his heart stopped beating for just a second when he saw his beautiful bride. Carla had worn white illusion and yards of gleaming satin, and Tammy had worn a plain white linen suit, since it was the second time for them both. But somehow today seemed like the first time he'd ever been married when he saw Mercy, on her father's arm, at the door of the cantina.
Her ivory brocade dress left her shoulders bare and she wore a single strand of pearls . . . the ones he'd given her last night. The same ones his mother wore the day she married his father. By the time Mercy reached his side and her father had even smiled when he handed her to her groom with his blessings, Hunter just hoped he wouldn't forget his vows. He gulped and nodded at the preacher to begin.
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to finish a fight that began many months ago right here in this cantina," the preacher said and grinned at them. "I'm told that Mercy didn't like the noise from the jukebox interfering with her gospel singing next door, and she came in here to argue with Hunter. And that's how they found each other, and fell in love. I'm honored to be asked to perform this ceremony . . . ."
Mercy's hand trembled slightly and Hunter squeezed it firmly. He would always be there for her and she knew she would always be there for him.
This marriage was forever and for keeps.
"Mercy, would you now repeat your vows to Hunter," the preacher said after he'd talked about the verse in Corinthians that said that love was patient and love was kind. Mercy had always liked that verse.
"Hunter." She looked up into his green eyes and noticed that he had nicked himself shaving this morning in the same place he always did. She resisted the urge to spit on her forefinger and wipe away the dried droplet of blood. "I love you. I've loved you forever but I didn't know you until recently. I promise to share my dreams with you, my hopes with you, and give you my heart and my love for the rest of this life, and through eternity. We are two souls made to love, honor and respect each other here on earth. When this life is over, we will begin another in a different form but we'll still be in love and still one complete soul. I give you my promise to be your wife until and even on the other side of death," she said and slipped the plain gold band on his finger.
Small Town Romance Collection: Four Complete Romances & A New Novella Page 40