Married by Christmas (Sapphire Springs Book 2)

by Angie Campbell

  Brock’s head snapped around in immediate interest and he gave the other man a thoughtful look. “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how Mark and Jenny ended up married.”

  Brock gave him a far-off look, like he had one of those really crazy ideas forming. “I’ve got to think about it for a little bit, but I think that’s the answer.”

  “What’s the answer?” Zane asked in alarm.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it this time,” he mumbled before running out of the barn.

  “What?” Zane asked, watching him run out the big barn door. “No, Brock, whatever you’re thinking, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine,” he heard Brock call from a distance.

  “Great. Now, Mary Ellen is going to want to kill me, too,” Zane grouched, shaking his head and following after his crazy friend. “I’m going to end up with that black eye yet.”

  Chapter 4

  Tuesday, December 16

  6:10am

  Brock walked into his office at the paper ten minutes late with a huge smile on his face. “Hello, Mary Ellen.”

  “What are you smiling about?” she grouched, giving him the evil eye. “You’re late and we have a paper to run.”

  “Yes, I know,” he smirked. “I also knew my wonderful assistant would keep things running smoothly till I got here.”

  “Where were you? What happened to being here at least thirty minutes before everyone else starts showing up?”

  “I had to take care of some personal business.” Most of that personal business had to do with calling his cousin to have him get his grandmother’s engagement ring from the lock box it was in at the bank, for when he finally proposed to his future bride. And making plans for he and Mary Ellen to go get it.

  She glared, wishing she was able to choke him with her mind like Darth Vader. “I’ll make you think personal business.”

  He just smiled, pretending like she wasn’t seething with frustration, or looking at him like she might like to take his head off. “I want to see you in my office, immediately. We need to talk about yesterday. It’s occurred to me I need to explain to you more thoroughly what I expect out of a wife.” He hid a grin when he heard her grumble under her breath, “I’ll show you what to expect.”

  She entered his office a few minutes later to find him already seated, calmly waiting for her. She shot ice daggers at him with her eyes, then plopped down in a chair across from his. Without looking up at him, she growled, “You do have a death wish, don’t you?”

  He just barely managed to hide a smile and proceed as if she had said nothing. “It occurred to me after I left yesterday that you may have thought I wanted a ‘trophy’ wife. Someone whose only talent is complaining. While I’m not sure why anyone would think of any of those three as trophies, especially Ashley Mullins, I want a real wife, and mother for my children.”

  “You want someone who’s willing to be a stay-at-home mom?” she managed to ask before her jaw dropped open.

  He shook his head in confusion, wondering how she had gotten that idea from what he had said. “Only if that’s what she wants. She can have a career if she wants one.”

  “But what about taking care of the kids?”

  “It’s my belief that parenting is a two-person job. That’s why there’s a mommy and a daddy,” he said with a cheesy grin.

  “Funny.”

  He just chuckled. “Obviously, we’ll work together to raise the children.”

  “Of course,” she spat through gritted teeth.

  He waited a few seconds to see if she would say anything else before moving on. “I want someone willing to have a real marriage. Who’s going to spend time with me. Those women you brought me yesterday were only interested in my money.”

  “Well, if you feel that way, maybe you should go about this the traditional way.”

  “Traditional, according to who? Arranged marriages were quite common at one point.”

  “Yes, they were,” she growled, sitting forward to make it easier to glare at him right in the eyes. “But they were usually arranged by fathers and grooms. Not personal assistants.”

  He chuckled, giving her a big cheesy grin. “My personal assistant has a bad attitude this morning,” he said in a singsong voice.

  “Well, if you don’t like it, you could always fire me,” she snapped, then grit her teeth praying he didn’t do just that. At the moment, she wasn’t feeling too sure she was the one he really wanted to marry.

  He just chuckled, shaking his head. “Why would I do that? It’s much more fun to drive you crazy.”

  “Yeah, I’ve figured that out,” she bit out between her teeth. He just smiled as if he was waiting to see if she would explode. She glared back, finally snapping, “Anything else?”

  “Yeah. I don’t like skinny women. I want a real woman,” she said, giving her a very serious once over, starting at her toes and slowly working his way to her icy blue eyes. “Not a bean pole.”

  “You know, some women are naturally thin,” she answered. She gave herself a mental pat on the back for not cracking a smile when she noticed the true appreciation in his eyes while he was looking at her.

  “And they are far more attractive than the ones that you can see bones sticking out everywhere on. Two of those women yesterday, were way too skinny. Ashley Mullins made me want to shove a whole chocolate cake down her throat. Of course, part of that might have been my need to choke her,” he stated with a grimace. “I prefer a woman with curves.”

  “Fine. Curves,” she snapped. “Anything else?”

  “Just that I need three more choices by Monday.”

  Another freaking week! Why is he in such a hurry?

  5:48pm

  Mary Ellen banged on the front door of Jenny and Mark’s house, not bothering with the doorbell and stepped back to wait for the door to open. When the door swung open, Mark greeted her with a big smile. “Hey, Sweetie, Jenny didn’t say you were coming for supper.”

  She just shook her head, blushing. “She didn’t know. Is it okay?”

  “Sure,” he stated, looking concerned. “What’s going on? You seem upset.”

  “One word,” she said on a huff. “Make that one name.”

  He chuckled and shook his head. “Enough said. What’s Brock done now?”

  “This bride search he has me on,” she huffed, throwing her hands up in the air.

  Mark gave her a puzzled look, mumbling, “Bride search?”

  “You mean Jenny didn’t tell you? Doesn’t she usually tell you everything?”

  “Usually, but we’ve had a crazy few days, including a fussy baby who’s cutting teeth.”

  “Ah,” she sighed. “Poor Gavin. Where is the little guy?”

  “Right here,” Jenny said, walking up beside them.

  Mary Ellen reached her hands out to take him, and he immediately gave her a big grin, with one tooth showing, and started waving his arms.

  “That’s baby, for take me,” Jenny grinned, handing him over.

  “It’s good to know at least one guy wants me.”

  “Back to thinking he doesn’t want you again?” the other woman asked, dryly.

  “What else is there for me to think?” she retorted, struggling to hold back the tears.

  Jenny raised an eyebrow at her before turning toward the kitchen. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  She followed close behind, snuggling the baby close and rubbing kisses over his soft hair. “He asked me to get him three more choices.”

  “He what?” Jenny exclaimed on a laugh.

  “You heard me.”

  “I thought he was done with that crazy scheme after he talked to me yesterday,” she mumbled under her breath with a shake of her head.

  “What choices?” Mark asked from behind her, not sure if this had to do with the ‘bride search’, or if it was something else.

  “Wait. You talked to
him yesterday?” Mary Ellen asked, giving her a curious look.

  Jenny sighed, wishing she hadn’t spoken out loud a second ago. “Yeah. He came in and got breakfast while I was getting my daily chocolate pie and peach cobbler fix,” she answered, moving to grab another place setting for their unexpected guest. “We’re eating burgers and salad. We decided to keep it simple. Does that sound good to you?”

  “That sounds wonderful,” she said, fastening the tray onto Gavin’s high-chair and giving him a few pieces of dry cereal from a bowl that was sitting on the dining room table.

  “What choices?” Mark asked again.

  “What did you tell him?”

  “I just tried to steer him in the right direction,” she huffed, throwing a hand in the air, signaling her frustration. “Apparently, it didn’t work.”

  “What do you mean ‘right direction’? What did you tell him?”

  “Nothing to be embarrassed about. He obviously didn’t hear anything I said anyway.”

  “What choices?” Mark asked once again, raising his voice this time to be heard over their conversation.

  Jenny shook her head. “Help get supper on the table, and we’ll tell you after we’re all sitting down. This one’s a doozy. Even for Brock.”

  Mark sighed and shook his head. “How can it be any worse than anything else he’s ever done?”

  “You’ll see,” Jenny answered, raising an eyebrow.

  A little bit later, once they had everything on the table and were sitting down enjoying their cheeseburgers and salad, Jenny and Mary Ellen had managed to work through the whole story of how Brock had asked Mary Ellen to find him a wife. Including the first three choices she had presented him with. Mark just looked at them like they had lost their minds. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “No, we’re not. That crazy fool actually asked me to find him a wife, like I’m a match making service,” Mary Ellen huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and sitting back in her seat with a pout. She knew she was acting like a five-year-old, but at this point, she really didn’t care.

  “And even after the first three obviously bad choices, he asked you to find him three more?”

  “Yeah,” she said, nearly crying. “I’ll give him three more choices, if I don’t break a baseball bat over his head.”

  “Oh, boy,” Mark blew out through his teeth.

  “She’s planning on giving him worse choices,” Jenny added. “And he knows,” she mouthed the second half so only Mark could see.

  “Wow,” he uttered, getting up from the table. “I need to make a phone call. I’ll be back.”

  “Mark, what are you going to do?” Jenny asked with concern.

  “Just hang on,” he mumbled without looking back.

  “Sure thing,” Jenny said, looking back over at a sulking Mary Ellen.

  Mark continued down the hall at a jog, wondering if Brock was intentionally trying to make Mary Ellen angry. As crazy as some of the stunts the man had pulled over the last three years were, he wouldn’t put it past him to try exactly that.

  He entered his home office, closing the door behind him and took out his cell phone. It only took a few seconds for him to find Brocks number and dial. The other man picked up on the other end almost immediately.

  “Hey, Buddy. What’s up?”

  “I should be the one asking that,” Mark snorted.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Mary Ellen’s here.”

  “Oh,” he mumbled, sounding like he was deep in thought.

  “What are you trying to do? You’re going to ruin any chance you have of her marrying you if you’re not careful.”

  “I’ve got everything under control.”

  “What you’ve got, is a rotten watermelon where your head is supposed to be.”

  “Hey,” Brock exclaimed, sounding hurt. “That wasn’t nice.”

  “What are you trying to do? If you’re not deliberately trying to make that woman mad, you’ve fooled me.”

  “Well…”

  “Well, what?” Mark huffed.

  “I am deliberately trying to make her mad.”

  “Why?”

  “I was testing something Zane said.”

  “Now you’re trying to tell me Zane told you to try and make her mad?”

  “No, that’s not what he said.”

  “Okay, then what did he say?”

  By the time Brock had given Mark a rundown of the part of his conversation with Zane about how he would react if Mary Ellen had asked him to find her a husband, Mark was shaking his head. “How did you get trying to make her even angrier out of that?”

  “That was my idea?”

  “Oh, I don’t doubt that. Zane wouldn’t have ever suggested that.”

  “I know what I’m doing.”

  “Then what are you doing?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got everything under control.”

  “You’ve said that once already, and for some reason I doubt it more this time than I already did.”

  “I know what I’m doing.”

  “Just tell me what your plan is.”

  “I’ll tell you this much. Something else Zane said gave me an idea.”

  “What else did he say?”

  “I’m not telling you. You’ll just tell me I’m crazy.”

  “Brock,” Mark groaned.

  “Bye, Mark.”

  “Brock, don’t…” Mark tried to stop him, but it was too late. He already cut the connection. “Dang it,” he huffed, dialing Zane.

  “Yeah,” Zane answered on the third ring.

  “Sorry to have to pull you away from Amanda, but I think we have a problem.”

  “Brock?”

  “How’d you guess?”

  “Gut instinct.”

  “Well, he’s up to something, and he won’t tell me what.”

  “There’s nothing unusual about that.”

  “Well, that may be so, but he also said he got the idea from something you said.”

  “Oh boy. That could be a real problem.”

  “What did you say?”

  “I don’t want to cause any false alarms, so why don’t you tell me what you know so far.”

  By the time Mark had repeated everything the ladies had told him, as well as his conversation with Brock, Zane was groaning so loud, Mark didn’t have to hold the phone to his ear to hear him. “Now, tell me what you said that’s gave him his latest, great idea,” Mark said with a deep sigh. He could tell by the way the other man was acting, this was going to be really bad.

  “I might have mentioned something about how you and Jenny ended up married.”

  “Zane!” Mark nearly roared.

  “I wasn’t trying to suggest he take her to Vegas and get her drunk. I just said that would have been better than what he is currently doing.”

  “What were you thinking?”

  “I’m not sure I was,” he groaned again. “I’ve been living with my fiancée for the last few months, trying to keep my hands to myself until after the wedding. And she’s no help, I might add. I think all my circuitry is fried. It’s a good thing we only have nine more days till the wedding.”

  “You’ve got it down to the days, do you?” Mark chuckled.

  “I’ve got it down to the minutes, but I didn’t think you wanted an exact calculation,” he answered back very dryly.

  “You are a very smart man, and a great police officer. That has to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of you doing.”

  “Tell me about it. I was hoping he wasn’t really paying attention after I realized I had said it out loud.”

  “We’re going to have to do damage control.”

  “How?”

  “I’m not sure,” Mark said, rubbing his temples. “Tell her to go along with anything he suggests?”

  “You mean tell her to marry him?” Zane grumbled. “I think that should be her decision.”

  “Well, that is what she wants, but that wasn’t what I meant.”
>
  “Well, explain.”

  “I just meant, tell her to try to keep her cool and go along with him. He’ll eventually get to the point if she just stays patient.”

  “Well, I guess it’s worth a try. If he messes this up completely this time, I’m going to feel like it’s at least partly my fault.”

  “Oh, you know Brock,” Mark sighed. “He would have come up with an equally crazy scheme, no matter what. Don’t beat yourself up over this one.”

  “Whatever,” Zane grumbled, really not feeling any better about is part in this mess. “Do you want me to talk to her, or do you think you and Jenny can handle it?”

  “We’ve got it covered. Just say a little prayer this works. That crazy idiot is going to need all the prayers he can get to pull this out of the fire.”

  “Yeah, but he may just be crazy enough to do it,” Zane added with a touch of optimism. “If anyone is, it’s Brock.”

  “Let’s hope so,” he grumbled. “The man may be able to run the town paper with utmost efficiency and ride a horse like he grew from its back, but he’s as crazy as they come.”

  6:17pm

  Mark returned to the kitchen with a strained look on his face to find Mary Ellen with her head laying on her arms on the table and Jenny doing her best to calm her down. Seeing the look on his face, his wife raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s going on?”

  He gave her a tight smile before puffing out a sigh. He wasn’t sure how to answer her question. He didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell Mary Ellen what he and Zane suspected Brock was planning, but she definitely needed some kind of heads up. “Well, he may be about to top the bride search.”

  “Top the bride search?” Jenny screeched, causing Mary Ellen to sit up and glare at him. “How could that even be possible?”

  “You might be surprised,” he grumbled, rubbing his hand over his face.

  “Well, what’s he planning now?” Mary Ellen asked, giving him a hard look.

  He sighed, pulling out one of the empty chairs to take a seat beside his wife. “Well, I really don’t know for sure and I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to tell you, just in case I’m wrong. I wouldn’t want to send you flying after his head, then find out later Zane and I are wrong in our deductions.”