White Pines Summer

by Sherryl Woods

  “Use you to get the ranch.”

  She shrugged as if that was no surprise. “Never thought you could.”

  He stared. “Why not?”

  “Because it’s not the kind of man you are,” she said confidently. “I knew you’d never go through with it. It was just a matter of waiting you out until you saw what I knew all along.”

  “Which is?”

  “That you could never do anything to hurt someone you love.”

  Chance started at the mention of love. “What makes you think I love you?”

  “You’re giving up on White Pines, aren’t you? Why else would a man give up something he wants so badly?”

  “Is there anything else you think you know about me, Miss Smarty-Pants?”

  “That you’re going to ask me to marry you,” she suggested, but she couldn’t keep a hint of hesitation out of her voice. What if she was wrong? What if he didn’t want to marry her? She held her breath as she waited for his response.

  “And what would your answer be if I did?”

  She grinned. Naturally he couldn’t have made a straightforward reply, not a man like Chance.

  “Oh, no, you don’t, Chance Adams. If I’m going to be saddled with a couple of hellions like you and Petey, you’re going to have to do it the old-fashioned way. I want a brand-new, genuine, from-the-heart proposal.”

  “Will you marry me, Jenny Runningbear Adams? It’s you I want.”

  “Say that again,” she said softly.

  He hesitated for one long endless beat of her heart, then said, “Marry me and I’ll forget about White Pines.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’re more important,” he said, and now he spoke without any hesitation at all. “It’s a funny thing about land. One piece is pretty much the same as another. It’s the people who make the difference. I can make a home wherever you are. I can’t make one anywhere without you.”

  Tears welled up in Jenny’s eyes halfway through this pretty speech. “Why?” she asked again, this time in a whisper.

  “Because you were right. Somewhere along the way I’ve gone and fallen in love with you.”

  “You’re sure?” she asked, not quite daring to believe it.

  “I’m sure,” he said emphatically. “What about you, darlin’? I haven’t heard you say a word about what you feel.”

  Jenny’s throat was so clogged with emotion she couldn’t manage to squeak out so much as a single word. She settled for rounding the chair and throwing herself into Chance’s waiting arms and peppering his face with the kisses he’d demanded and she’d withheld. She added a few more for good measure.

  “I can’t hear anything,” they heard Lizzy whisper from the other side of the door.

  “Get away from the door,” her mother said. “You, too, Harlan.”

  “How the heck are we supposed to know what’s going on if we don’t listen in?” he demanded, sounding thoroughly disgruntled. His voice faded a bit, though, suggesting that her mother had gotten him to move.

  Chance chuckled. “It’s always going to be like this, isn’t it?”

  “Worse,” Jenny confirmed. “If we get married, you’ll be switching from outsider to family member, which means Daddy will assume a God-given right to meddle in your life.”

  “If?”

  “Okay, when.”

  “That’s more like it,” he said solemnly. “Petey told me last night he was giving us his blessing. I figure that’s too precious to waste.”

  Jenny smiled. “He mentioned the same thing to me.”

  “Smart kid,” Chance said.

  “The brightest,” Jenny agreed.

  Chance shook his head, his expression one of disbelief. “You sound a whole lot like a proud mama.”

  “Isn’t it amazing what a difference a few weeks makes?”

  “A few weeks and the love of a good man,” he said.

  “That, too.” She wound her arms around his waist and fit her body to his.

  There were more whispers outside the door, then a thump as if someone had bumped against it. Jenny sighed.

  “We might as well put them out of their misery before someone out there gets hurt,” she said.

  Chance glanced over her shoulder toward the door, then grinned. “Nah,” he said. “Let ’em sweat. I have more fascinating things in mind than satisfying your daddy’s curiosity.”

  He edged over to the door and flipped the lock to assure their privacy, then grinned at her. “Come here, darlin’.”

  Jenny heard the indignant muttering on the other side of the door that indicated her father was aware he’d just been locked out of his own living room. She chuckled.

  “That bought us maybe five minutes,” she warned. “Daddy has a key in his office.”

  “Then I guess we’d best make the most of it,” Chance said, and angled his mouth over hers.

  Jenny lost track of time, lost track of everything except the feel of Chance’s lips, the hard warmth of his body. She was about to suggest a test run of the love seat when she heard the spare key rattle in the lock over her mother’s protests.

  Chance kept his arms looped around her waist from behind and faced the door as her father burst through. Jenny couldn’t see Chance’s face, but she saw the expression of satisfaction on her father’s.

  “I guess she didn’t tell you to get lost,” Harlan said dryly.

  “To the contrary, she’s agreed to marry me,” Chance told him.

  “I see.”

  “Do we have your blessing?” Chance asked, then held up a hand. “No, wait, don’t answer that yet. Do you have those legal papers anywhere around here?”

  “Right here, snug in my pocket,” her father said, pulling them out.

  Chance took them from him and ripped them in half. Jenny recalled another legal agreement that had been shredded on another wedding day years before. Her gaze flew to her mother, whose nostalgic smile suggested she was recalling the very same thing.

  “Now do we have your blessing?” Chance asked.

  Harlan grinned at him. “It was never in doubt, son. Jenny has a way of getting what she wants.”

  Jenny reached for her father’s hand. “Of course I do. I’m an Adams.”

  “Always will be, too,” Chance said. “It’s a proud name, don’t you think?”

  “That it is,” her father replied. “That it is.”

  Epilogue

  Jenny had never envisioned herself in a fancy white wedding gown. She wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was for the same reason she’d never played with dolls or makeup and had climbed trees and painted graffiti on her daddy’s old shed, instead. As a kid, it had been pure rebellion. Standing in the Fort Worth bridal shop, it was pure gut-deep panic.

  “I’ll look ridiculous,” she muttered, even as she fingered the delicate lace and the smooth satin of the samples the shop owner had supplied.

  “You’ll look beautiful,” her mother corrected. “All women look radiant on their wedding day.”

  “But me? In frills? I don’t think so.”

  Her mother grinned. “Forget the frills, then. Go for simplicity.”

  Simplicity turned out to be more outrageously expensive than frills, but Jenny stood in front of the mirror in a slim gown that hugged her breasts and flowed to the floor in endless yards of satin, and her breath caught in her throat.

  “Oh, my,” she whispered.

  “I guess you’re not a tomboy anymore,” her mother said, brushing her cheek with a kiss and squeezing her hand. “You’re all woman.”

  “Do you think Chance will like it?”

  “I think you could wear a terry-cloth robe and Chance would like it.”

  “Mother!”

  “Okay, okay, Chance will love it. He’d be a fool not to.”

  Lizzy grinned.
“What Chance will love most is getting you out of it. It has a nice simple zipper down the back, instead of all those tiny impossible buttons.”

  “Careful, sis. We still have your dress to pick out. I could decide I want you in pink tulle.”

  “Then you’d have to get yourself another maid of honor,” Lizzy shot back. “And all those bridesmaids you’re planning on would wind up hating you because they’d have to wear mauve or something to coordinate with me.”

  “Pink and mauve, the perfect colors for the day before Mother’s Day, wouldn’t you say, Mama?” Jenny asked.

  Janet chuckled. “I think pink and baby blue would be even more appropriate.”

  “You two are awful,” Lizzy declared. “How did I survive growing up around you and turn out so good?”

  “You can thank Daddy for that!” Jenny said, laughing. “You’re one hundred percent Daddy’s little girl.”

  “Oh, go to—”

  “Mary Elizabeth Adams,” their mother said. When Lizzy fell dutifully silent, Janet fiddled with the train on Jenny’s dress. “I think this is the one, don’t you?”

  Jenny gazed at herself once more in the triple mirror and slowly nodded. “Oh, yes,” she said softly. “This is the one.”

  For one day in her life, she was going to look every inch a lady. Of course, more than likely, no one in town would recognize her. “Daddy, did you wear a tuxedo when you married Mama?” Petey asked.

  Chance ran a finger around the too-tight collar of his white shirt and cursed the day he’d agreed to wear one for this wedding. “No, son, and don’t ever let a woman talk you into wearing one, either.”

  “But I think you look real handsome. I’ll bet Jenny’s going to think so, too.”

  She’d better, Chance thought grimly. He’d put on this monkey suit for her and her alone. Of course, when he thought of the grumbling she’d done when she’d had to go shopping for a wedding dress, he’d figured it was worth it.

  It still astounded him how things had turned out. Coming to Los Piños had been the best decision of his life, even if it had shattered forever his impression of his daddy being wronged by a cheating older brother. He’d forced Harlan to tell him the whole story one night when they’d been sipping bourbon and talking about life’s astonishing twists and turns. Chance had been saddened by what he’d heard, but at last he’d understood his father. Some of the old Hank had lived on in his father until the very end, enough that Chance had recognized the truth in his uncle’s story.

  He reached into his pocket and fingered the ruby-and-diamond pin his father had stolen all those years ago. Tonight he would give it to Jenny. Tonight it would be back where it belonged as part of the Adams-family heritage.

  “Daddy, I hear the music,” Petey said, his voice quivering with excitement.

  “Then I guess it’s time.” He hunkered down in front of his son and straightened his tie. “Looks to me like you were made for a tux yourself, young man. A few years from now every girl in Los Piños will be chasing you.”

  “Oh, yuck!” Petey declared with a grimace.

  Chance laughed. “You’ll change your mind.” He tapped Petey’s pocket. “You have the ring?”

  “Dad! You’ve asked me that a million times.”

  “So what? Things have a habit of disappearing around you. Give me an answer one more time.”

  “It’s right here,” Petey said, dragging it out of his pocket. “See. I’m not going to mess up, Dad. That’s why I’m called the best man.”

  Chance grinned and ruffled his son’s hair, which had been slicked back a little too neatly to suit him. There, he thought. Now Petey looked more like the pint-size scoundrel he was.

  “You are happy about this wedding, aren’t you?” he asked, also for the millionth time.

  “Dad!”

  “Okay, okay, I was just checking.”

  “Can we please go get married now?” Petey asked.

  Chance looked at him and grinned. “Yes, son. Yes, we can.”

  * * *

  The wedding had gone off without a hitch. In fact, it was the first thing in Jenny’s entire life that had.

  When she’d spotted Chance and Petey waiting in the front of the church, her heart had climbed into her throat. She’d thought for a minute she was going to burst into tears from sheer happiness. Then she’d looked up into her father’s sparkling eyes.

  “Ready, darlin’ girl?”

  “Oh, yes,” she’d whispered.

  Lizzy, Sharon Lynn and Angela had started the procession. He’d grinned at her and said, “Just one last thing before we walk down that aisle. I may be giving you away to Chance today, but you will always be my darlin’ girl. Don’t ever forget that.”

  Tears had spilled down her cheeks and she’d dabbed them away. “Look what you’ve done,” she chided. “You’ve made me cry. I thought it was only the bride’s mother who was supposed to cry.”

  “In this family we’ve never done anything according to the rule book,” he said. He glanced toward the front of the church. “Looks like your groom might be getting a mite anxious. Shall we put him out of his misery?”

  “There are some who’d say his misery will start the minute we finish saying I do,” Jenny said.

  “Not around me, they won’t,” Harlan said, tucking her arm through his and taking the first step down the aisle....

  * * *

  Now Jenny was standing in the middle of the honeymoon suite at a very fancy Dallas hotel. In the morning they would fly off to an undisclosed destination for their honeymoon. To her exasperation, Chance had been adamant about keeping the details a secret.

  “A man’s got to find an edge wherever he can,” he’d told her repeatedly. “Something tells me I’ll never get one with you again.”

  Smiling to herself, she resolved to wrangle the secret out of him before the night was over.

  “What are you grinning about?” Chance asked, coming back into the suite’s expansive living-room area wearing only his tuxedo pants.

  “Nothing in particular,” Jenny claimed as her gaze zeroed in on his bare chest. How could she possibly think about anything except how desperately she wanted to touch him, to be touched by him? She’d waited so long for this moment, her entire life, it seemed.

  He crossed the room slowly. “Have I mentioned that you’re the most beautiful bride I’ve ever seen?”

  “Once or twice,” she teased, hoping he’d tell her again. She liked hearing it, loved the way his gaze heated when he said it.

  He moved closer, close enough for his scent to surround her, but to her deep regret, he didn’t touch her. Instead, his gaze locked with hers.

  “You are the most beautiful bride I have ever seen, Jenny Runningbear Adams.”

  “Really?” she whispered.

  “Absolutely.”

  His hands settled on her shoulders, his thumbs touching bare skin at the edge of her gown. Jenny trembled from that oh-so-slight caress.

  “You know what, though?”

  Jenny swallowed hard. “What?”

  “Lovely as it is, I really want you out of this dress.”

  Her lips curved into a smile. “I would have been out of it hours ago if you hadn’t insisted on scooping me up while I was still wearing it and carting me off to Daddy’s plane for the trip to Dallas. I had a very expensive, very prim going-away suit I was supposed to change into back at the house.”

  “Forget prim. It doesn’t suit you, at least not around me. You can show it off some other time. I was too anxious to get you to myself.”

  She touched his face, felt the way his skin burned. “You’ve got me. Now what?”

  He took a step back and Jenny felt suddenly bereft.

  “Champagne?” he asked lightly.

  This time she was the anxious one. She shook her head. “No champagne.”r />
  “A late supper?”

  “No food.”

  He grinned. “What then?”

  She shrugged and feigned a yawn. “I suppose we should get some sleep.”

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” he said. “I’ve waited way too long to get you in my arms and in my bed.”

  “Actually the bed doesn’t belong to you,” she teased.

  “Funny.” His gaze locked with hers again. “Come here, darlin’. Turn around.”

  Heart hammering in her chest, Jenny moved closer, then turned her back to Chance. She felt the skim of his fingers as he found the zipper and tugged it smoothly down. His knuckles burned a path down her spine.

  She felt the bodice of the gown fall loose. And then, as the zipper dipped below her waist, all those yards of satin slid into a pool at her feet.

  “Sweet heaven,” Chance murmured as he turned her around to face him.

  The adoration Jenny saw in his eyes in that instant took her breath away. For one long endless moment time stood still. The power of love shimmered in the air, as pure and radiant as anything she’d ever felt in her entire life.

  Then, with a single touch of his hand on her breast, it exploded like fireworks into a spectacular barrage of sensation. His mouth was everywhere, tasting, teasing, magical.

  And his hands, oh, his wonderful, gentle, persuasive hands slid over her, lingering, tormenting, magical.

  The last of the clothes—her lacy lingerie, his slacks and shorts—disappeared in a trail as they worked their way toward the bedroom. It took an eternity to get there. With each step, with each scattered piece of clothing, there was something new to explore, a new sensation to rock them both.

  By the time they reached the bed, Jenny’s knees were shaking and her heart was thundering like a summer storm.

  “I love you,” Chance murmured as he settled her in the middle of the huge soft mattress and stretched out beside her. He began exploring her body all over again, as if it were a brand-new experience to be savored.

  Jenny thought she was going to shatter into a million pieces from the wonder of it. When Chance finally kneeled above her, when he slowly entered her, filling her, then withdrawing until a scream of protest formed on her lips, only to die with the next thrust, she felt as if she’d finally found what she’d been seeking her entire life. She felt whole, a part of something larger than herself. She felt as if she’d come home.