Always a Lady

by Sharon Sala

  “Pete knows,” Lily said, as she watched the men walk away with their heads together.

  “So does Duff,” Case grinned. “It’s no wonder. I can’t get this bedroom look off my face, Lily love. You’ve branded me for life.”

  Lily blushed and swiped at him with the dish towel.

  “Get out of my kitchen, mister,” she teased. “I’ve got work to do.”

  “We call your dad, this evening,” Case reminded her.

  Lily nodded, and tried to hold back the tears. She couldn’t believe she was this happy. She was afraid to count her blessings.

  “Wipe that look off your face, girl,” Case growled and pulled her into his arms. “I don’t have time to remind you how you drive me crazy. We’ve got to finish up the last of the storm repairs before the extra help is gone.”

  “I wasn’t doubting you, Case,” she said softly as she slid her hands around his back and down into his hip pockets, pulling their lower bodies into sensuous alignment. “It’s just leftover memories.”

  “If I ever get the chance, I will personally rearrange Todd Collins’s body. He’ll have a hell of a time getting clothes to fit him when he finds my boot permanently up his...”

  “Case!”

  The look of amused shock on Lily’s face was worth it. Case grinned wickedly, cupped her face and leaned forward. He could hardly wait for the rest of his life. One minute a teasing temptress, the next a prim and proper lady. He’d never know what to expect.

  “And that’s a promise,” he repeated, branded her with a sultry kiss, and followed his men to the day’s work.

  * * *

  Morgan Brownfield hung up the phone with a smile on his face and a light in his eyes. He turned around, faced his brood of sons and grinned widely.

  “Cole wins,” he announced. “He said Case would call before the month was over. Personally I gave him until July. I guess I underestimated either Lily...or him. Either way, we’re getting ourselves another member of the family.” And then he turned and fixed Cole with a telling expression. “And, Cole, it seems that your target practice with Lily finally paid off. He said she saved his life...with one shot.”

  Cole Brownfield grinned as he buckled on his shoulder holster and then punched his pistol into the case laying just below his armpit. Pride welled within him. Lily was a special sister...in more ways than one.

  “Told you Lily was in love,” he said softly. “Hey, Buddy!” he yelled, as he stuffed his badge into his jacket pocket and waited for his absentminded but brilliant brother to emerge from his makeshift office off the kitchen.

  Buddy Brownfield stuck his head out of the door and shoved his glasses on top of his head.

  “What’s the big deal?” he yelled. “I was right in the middle of something.”

  “You’re always in the middle of something,” the twins taunted. “Lily Kate is getting married,” they said in unison.

  “I knew that,” Buddy sighed, and pulled his glasses back on his nose. “When an immovable object meets an unstoppable force...”

  “For pete’s sake, Buddy,” Morgan muttered in disgust at his second son. “They’re in love.”

  Buddy rolled his eyes before slipping back into his room.

  “That’s just what I was saying,” he muttered beneath his breath. “It would be nice if just once, just once!...someone understood plain English around here.”

  The Brownfield men stared first at the door as it closed in their faces and then back at each other. They burst out laughing. Buddy was Buddy, and their world was back on track. Case Longren would take care of their Lily for the rest of her life. Of that they had no doubt. Of that they were glad.

  * * *

  “Where do you want to hold the wedding?” Case asked, as he watched Lily deftly twisting her long, silky hair into a neat braid, and he resisted the urge to stop her hands and take it all back down again. “I don’t mind traveling to L.A. with you if that’s what you want. After all, that’s where most of your friends must be.”

  Lily’s hair mesmerized him. It was his favorite thing about her. He didn’t care how she wore it, he just wanted it to be the only thing she was wearing. Making love to Lily was becoming an addiction. But she hadn’t complained yet, so he had no intentions of bringing anything to a halt.

  Lily smiled softly and turned to face Case who was stretched out full-length on his back, on her bed, watching her finish her morning routine.

  “You’re wrong, mister,” Lily said. “Most of my friends seem to be here in Oklahoma. They may be new, but they’ve been truer friends than any I’ve left behind. My dad and brothers will fly out. I don’t have any other close relatives. How about you?”

  Case grew solemn. This was something he and Lily had never discussed, but if she was going to be the other half of his heart, it was time she knew what she’d tied herself to.

  “As you know, my dad died several years ago.”

  Lily nodded, sensing that the light manner in which the conversation had begun had just taken a more serious note.

  Case took a deep breath, arose from Lily’s bed, and walked over to stare sightlessly out her bedroom window. He didn’t see the bright sun climbing relentlessly upward, nor the hummingbirds darting in and out of the feeders that Duff kept strung across the back porch.

  He was seeing another time long ago when clouds rolled across the sky and a bolt of lightning bounced across the prairie as his mother flung herself from the porch. She was running toward their old Chevy, out into the oncoming storm, her screams of anger lost in the rush of the wind and the pounding of his heart.

  Chock Longren stood silent in the onslaught that was tearing his world apart. He’d seen it coming but he’d been unable to stop her growing dissatisfaction with a life-style that had been sparse and hard.

  Carrie Longren had driven away without ever looking back. Case had long ago forgotten what his father had said by way of excuse. But he’d never forgiven his mother for what it had done to the once proud man. Case had watched his dad turn hard, bitter, and drunk by degrees, until there wasn’t a shadow of his former self alive. Case didn’t know where his mother was, and as God was his witness, he didn’t care. He just didn’t know if he could make Lily understand. Her family was so close.

  Case turned away from the window and fixed Lily with a hard, piercing stare.

  “I don’t know if you’re going to understand this, but believe me, I mean every word I’m saying.” He took a deep breath. “My dad is dead...but my mother’s not. At least I don’t think she is. And frankly, I couldn’t care less.”

  “Case!”

  Lily’s shocked response was expected.

  “I was nineteen years old when she walked out on Dad and me without ever looking back. It killed him, and...well...I grew up pretty fast. She wasn’t much of a mother to begin with. She didn’t ever go for this life. But she damn well could have kept in touch with me. She didn’t, and I quit caring years ago.”

  Lily was in his arms. The hurt was still there. He just didn’t know it. She heard it swell within him as the words boiled out of his mouth and she knew that it would take her a lifetime of loving to wipe away the pain of abandonment he’d suffered.

  A sweet, deep feeling of belonging swept over her as she slid her mouth across the base of his throat. His pulse was throbbing beneath her lips as she leaned back and pulled his face toward her.

  “I’m so sorry, my darling,” Lily whispered. “But you’ve got me. And I swear by all that’s holy that you’ll never see me leave. Not until God himself comes and takes me. For as long as we have, you have me.”

  Case groaned. Her words were too much, just as the depth of her loving.

  “I know that, Lily Catherine. And I thank you...” his voice broke, as he wrapped her in a hug before he continued. “And you’ll never be sorry you trusted me.”

  Lily grinned, instantly sensing that it was time to lighten the mood.

  “Oh,” she teased, as she moved gently back and forth ag
ainst the bulge below his belt buckle, “I’m glad about a whole lot of things, cowboy. One being...”

  She never got to finish her statement. Case had her in his arms and back in bed.

  “Are you undressing me again?” Lily asked in mock disgust. She could hardly wait.

  “Yep,” Case said solemnly, as he deftly removed the clothes she’d just put on. “And I’m real sorry, Lily Kate, but your hair’s comin’ down, too.”

  “Lord have mercy,” Lily moaned in fake distress. “What’s a lady to do?”

  “Honey,” Case breathed across her breasts and watched in delight as they peaked to attention. “Being a lady has nothing to do with this. Nothing at all.”

  Lily gasped in delight as Case’s hands slid across her body.

  He was absolutely right!

  It was hours later when Case shoved a pillow beneath his head, propped himself up on one elbow and ran his forefinger from the tip of her chin, down her neck, between the valley of her breasts, circled the dip of her belly button, and started toward territory that Lily knew would only prolong their day in bed.

  She grabbed his hand just before it got them both into trouble, and muttered, fixing him with a sharp, green stare.

  “Case! We’ve just made love enough for three honeymoons, and we still don’t have the wedding planned.”

  “Oh, honey,” Case whispered as his mouth lowered toward that teasing tip of breast closest to his lips. “If you think this is too much, just wait. You plan the wedding. I’m looking on to better things. Like the wedding night.”

  Lily sighed. “You won’t be disappointed? We’ve kind of...well, we’ve already...”

  Case laughed. They were buck naked, they’d made love twice this morning and many times before, and all of a sudden she was shy. He loved his L.A. lady. She was a constant mixture of contradictions.

  “Yeah, we did,” he grinned. “But there’s ways you’ve never even heard of...let alone participated in, Lily love. I’m saving them for the wedding night.”

  “Well, I never!” she gasped and stared, uncertain whether to be shocked or excited.

  “I didn’t think so,” Case grinned again. “But you will, Lily. You will.”

  The promise was one to sleep on.

  * * *

  Halfway across the continent Todd Collins slammed down the phone and leaned back in his powder blue executive’s chair and ran his fingers across the expensive leather. He stared at the perfectly coordinated furnishings and frowned. Nothing was going according to plan.

  He’d expected to get the junior partner’s position a month ago, and instead Marve Leedy had been chosen. They’d patted Todd on the back, murmured comforting things about working hard and hoping that everything panned out soon, but it had only been platitudes and he knew it.

  He knew exactly when his plans for advancement had gone awry and it had begun the moment he’d let Lily give him back his ring. His bosses had been dismayed to learn of their breakup, and Todd had felt an instant rebuff when he’d mentioned her face and how he’d wanted her to get it fixed before they’d married. If she hadn’t been so hasty, and if he’d just had time to think it over. He knew once he’d had time to digest the fact that Lily was permanently scarred that he could have learned to live with it. They were doing wonders with makeup these days. After all, he was living in the movie capital of the world. There wasn’t anything they couldn’t do with a little bit of plastic and some greasepaint. Surely something could have been done to disguise Lily’s disfigurement.

  A deep feeling of panic began to form in the pit of his stomach. Some instinct told him that if he ever expected to make it in this firm, he had some fence mending to do with Lily Brownfield.

  She had been a very well-liked employee, and the fact that their engagement had ended promptly on the note that she’d been scarred had not set well with the powers that be. More than once he’d caught people staring at him. And he knew he wasn’t imagining it when a conversation would suddenly cease upon his entering a room.

  Well, he just wasn’t having it. Not any of it. He’d simply have to find Lily and get her back. It would be easy. Once she knew how he felt, he was certain that she’d be more than happy to take him back. After all, he thought, as he shuffled through his Rolodex for her father’s home number, who else would want her?

  Chapter 10

  Todd kept one eye on the traffic and the other on the freeway signs overhead. He didn’t want to miss the one that would take him into Laguna Beach.

  He’d made a phone call to Lily’s beachfront home, thinking that he would begin the mending of their relationship there, but his plans had gone awry when a strange woman had answered the phone.

  The ditzy female had informed him in the worst “valley girl” accent he’d ever heard, that “Lily was...like, not here...and that...she was, like...gone for the summer.”

  Todd could only assume that Lily had gone home to Laguna Beach to be with her family. He could hardly blame her. If spending the summer with Mitzi was her only option, he’d have gone, too. He’d hung up in disgust. It was his opinion that people like Mitzi gave Californians a bad name.

  Todd frowned and ran his fingers through his blond hair in practiced perfection as he drove. He’d only been to Lily’s home twice and both times she’d been driving, so he watched the road carefully for the proper signs that would alert him which highway to take.

  After the last time, he’d had no desire to go back again. Her brothers didn’t like him. Not one bit. And he wasn’t so sure about her father, either. He’d spent their entire last visit wondering if Cole was going to slap him in handcuffs and drop him in the ocean, or if Buddy was going to stage an accidental electrocution with some of his damnable computer equipment. It was all over the place. Just like the Brownfield men. Everywhere he’d turned, there’d been at least one of them. And when her twin brothers had arrived, Todd had been at his wits’ end. Two of them, looking alike, thinking alike, and with equally conniving minds, had been the last straw. He’d insisted that they leave. Right then and there. By that time, even Lily had seen the wisdom of the decision. The only thing that aggravated Todd was the fact that Lily thought their behavior amusing.

  Suddenly the exit came into view, and Todd took the turn with his heart in his mouth. He didn’t know who’d be there when he arrived, but he hoped it would only be Lily. He didn’t want to face any of her family just yet. Not until he and Lily had made up. And it would happen. Of that, he was totally convinced.

  * * *

  The last person Cole Brownfield expected to see at the front door was Lily’s ex-fiancé, Todd Collins. He didn’t know whether to just hit him now, or wait until he’d opened his mouth. If he hit him now, he’d only bust his lip. If he waited until he opened his mouth to talk, maybe it would loosen a few of those perfectly capped teeth in the process.

  Todd saw the look of anger sliding across Cole’s face and held up his hands in mock surrender.

  “Now, Cole,” he said, flashing his famous smile. “I’ve come to see Lily. Surely you wouldn’t begrudge me the chance to make up for any misunderstandings that have come between us.”

  “You what?” Cole muttered. He couldn’t believe his ears.

  “I want to see Lily,” Todd repeated. “I’ve missed her terribly. I can’t wait to see how she’s doing. I don’t suppose she’s mentioned me?”

  “I don’t suppose,” Cole drawled.

  Todd suppressed a groan of dismay.

  “So...would you tell Lily I’m here?” Todd continued.

  “Can’t.”

  Todd rolled his eyes. This brother was the most damnable of the lot. He was the oldest, the most arrogant, and...the most likely to shoot! He’d just remembered that Cole Brownfield was a policeman. It wouldn’t do to antagonize him.

  “Why can’t you, Cole? Is Lily asleep... shopping...?”

  “She’s gone. She’s out of state.”

  If Cole had announced that Lily had gone to the moon, Todd would h
ave been no less surprised.

  “Gone?” Todd mumbled.

  Cole nodded. A sudden inspired thought just took hold. Maybe he wouldn’t hurt Todd Collins after all. Maybe he’d just tell him where Lily really was. He remembered the predatory manner in which Case Longren had greeted them on their arrival to the ranch. He could hear the menace in Case’s voice now as he’d threatened them all when he thought one of them had been Lily’s ex-fiancé.

  “Actually, she’s in Clinton, Oklahoma. Well no...that’s not exactly accurate,” Cole mumbled, and leaned against the doorjamb, delighting in the nervous way Todd Collins kept watching him, making sure that there was just enough distance between them to maintain a level of safety.

  “Where exactly is she?” Todd persisted. “I need to see her. It’s a matter of extreme importance.”

  “Important, you say?” Cole muttered. “Well, since you put it that way, I guess I have no choice.”

  Todd sighed. Now he was getting somewhere.

  “What’s the address?” Todd asked, pulled out a notebook and pen, and poised it above a clean sheet of paper.

  “It’s not exactly an...address,” Cole continued. “She’s on a ranch outside of the town...working as a cook...for spring cattle roundup.”

  Todd poked a hole in the clean sheet of paper with his pen. His mouth dropped and his eyes rolled back in his head, and if Cole hadn’t known better, he would have thought that old Todd “The Bod” Collins had just had a stroke.

  “Cook? Ranch? Roundup? Oh my God! What have I done? How can I reach her? I had no idea!”

  This was getting better and better. Cole could hardly contain his glee. And he wished with everything he owned that he could be a fly on the wall when Case Longren and Todd Collins met face to face for the first time.