by Kate Pearce
* * *
HW came out of the ranch house and went down the steps to greet Sam and Cam as they got out of Sam’s truck.
“Hey.” HW smiled at his beloved and her best friend. “Isn’t it unlucky for you to see me?”
Sam frowned. “Is it?” She kissed his cheek and gave him a bright smile. “Then maybe you’d better go away.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” HW kissed her back. There was something up, but he wasn’t going to mention anything yet. He’d learned with Sam that sometimes the less said the better because at some point she usually blurted it out all by herself.
“Everything okay?” HW asked casually as he held the screen door open for her and Cam to go past him.
“Yes! Everything’s great!” Sam said, avoiding his gaze, which really set his alarm bells ringing. “Is January around?”
“She’s upstairs with the baby. She said to tell you to go on up when you arrived.” He leaned against the doorframe as she and Cam took off their boots and coats and hung them in the mudroom. “You sure everything’s good?”
He caught the glance between the two friends and silently groaned.
“Everything is great!” Sam said enthusiastically. “Can you tell Avery I’ll be over to speak to her at the guest center after I’m done with January?”
“Sure.” HW stepped back as Sam went by him and marched up the stairs. He touched Cam’s shoulder. “Are you sure everything is all right?”
Her smile was about as genuine as Sam’s. “Absolutely! Nothing to worry about at all!”
HW walked down the hall to the kitchen, and sat at the table where his grandma was reading the local newspaper and sipping tea.
“What’s wrong?” Ruth asked from behind the paper.
“I didn’t say anything was wrong,” HW objected.
“You’re sighing like someone let all the air out of your tires.” Ruth studied him over the top of the newspaper. “Is something up with Sam?”
“Ah, the million-dollar question,” HW muttered. “When isn’t there something wrong with Sam? She’s acting weird, and I don’t like it.”
“Have you asked her what’s going on?”
“Of course I have.” HW scowled at his grandma. “I’m not a complete idiot.”
“Could’ve fooled me.” Ruth set the paper aside. “Do you want me to talk to her?”
“No! Because then she’d know I was worried, and that would just make things worse. It always does.”
Ruth shook her head and tutted. “Why do you boys always make everything so complicated? Maybe she’s just a bit nervous about the wedding tomorrow.”
“It’s more than that,” HW said slowly. “I feel it in my gut.”
“Maybe you’re the one who is nervous and you’re overreacting?” Ruth met his gaze. “Getting married is a big commitment for both of you.”
HW let out another sigh. “I suppose Sam will let me know one way or the other at some point what the heck is going on.”
“I’m sure she will.” Ruth reached over and patted his hand. “She loves you very much, HW. Don’t forget that.”
* * *
“Hey, Sam!” January grinned as Sam and Cam came into her bedroom. She was sitting in a rocking chair close to the window nursing her son and looked so happy that Sam had to smile back at her. “Hope you don’t mind me feeding Chase William. The dress is hanging up in the bathroom. I washed and ironed it last night when no one was around, so feel free to try it on again.”
“Thanks.” Sam gestured at Cam, who was smiling fondly at the baby. “Why don’t you two chat about baby things while I put on the dress?”
“Okay, but give me a shout if you need any help with the fastenings,” Cam said.
“Will do.”
January had also put out the fancy petticoat that went under the dress, so Sam put that on first, and then the dress. She was a little taller than January so the length was perfect for her. She checked herself out in the full-length mirror on the back of the closet door. The dress fitted her nicely, it didn’t drag on the floor, it was white, and it would do just fine. She wasn’t going to waste another second bemoaning the fate of her first choice, which had actually been her second choice, because she was being practical and frugal.
“Come and show us!” January called out.
“Okay.” Sam walked out into the sitting area where her two friends awaited her. “Ta-da!”
“It’s very nice, Sam.” January nodded. “You look better in it than I did. Your coloring is much more striking in white.”
“Thanks.” Sam took a few experimental steps. She had left her boots downstairs but guessed the tips would just show beneath the skirt, which suited her just fine.
“HW is going to be blown away,” January said happily.
“I hope not,” Sam cracked back. “Can I leave the dress here with you, and come and get changed in here tomorrow?”
“I was just going to suggest the exact same thing.” January beamed at her as she expertly patted the baby’s back, impressing Sam with the loudness of Chase William’s burp. She wasn’t used to being around babies and would now be an official auntie to this one, and to BB’s teenage daughter, Maria. “This is the biggest room, so we can all get changed in here.”
Sam carefully hung the dress back on the hanger and stepped out of the petticoat, mentally reviewing all the other things she needed to bring with her before she married HW. Avery had arranged for someone to come in and do the hair and makeup, and Daisy was bringing the flowers. Was there anything else she’d forgotten?
“My parents!” Sam shrieked, startling the baby and making his lower lip quiver.
“What about them?” Cam asked.
“They’ll be arriving here at the ranch around four o’clock, and I haven’t checked in with them!”
January handed the baby off to Cam and came over to pat Sam’s back. “It’s all good. I spoke to them this morning. They have directions, they are on their way, and looking forward to seeing you.”
“Thank goodness for that,” Sam exhaled. “With all the drama over the dress I completely forgot about my family.”
“That’s what I’m here for,” January joked. “I coordinate things. We’re hosting a dinner over at the guest center tonight for all the guests who are staying at the ranch. You are coming, right?”
“Of course!” Sam nodded as though she hadn’t completely forgotten about that as well. “I’m looking forward to it.”
“We can run through our plans for the actual wedding at the dinner, make sure everyone knows what time the ceremony and reception are taking place, and where they are sitting.”
January sounded so calm and competent that Sam wanted to hug her, so she did.
“Thanks for doing all this.”
“You’re going to be part of our family.” January hugged her back. “We love you. And don’t forget to bring everything with you tonight so you and Cam can sleep over in one of the guest cabins.”
“I’ll get her organized, don’t worry,” Cam chimed in as she handed the baby back to his mother.
Sam smiled dubiously at Chase William and received a toothless grin in return. From what she had seen, he was a very happy baby who didn’t cry much, but that might be because so many helpful pairs of hands and so much love surrounded him.
“Did you tell Chase about me borrowing your dress?” Sam asked. January’s husband was a lovely man, but he was famous for his total inability to keep a secret.
“Nope.” January shook her head. “You know what he’s like.”
“Won’t he wonder why the dress is hanging in your bathroom?” Sam asked.
“I’m going to hide it away as soon as I put Junior down for his nap,” January reassured Sam. “He probably won’t even notice that you are wearing it at the wedding tomorrow.”
“I hope he doesn’t, because being Chase he’d probably point it out, and then HW would be all over me asking why I’d borrowed a dress rather than buying my own.” Sam
sighed. “And, then I’d have to explain it to him, and we’d be well on the way to having our first row as a married couple.”
Cam stifled a laugh. “I can see that all too clearly.”
Sam smoothed a finger over the blond fuzz of the baby’s hair and smiled at January. “He’s going to be fair like you.”
January groaned. “Another blond Morgan. Just what we need.” She walked over to the door and opened it. “I’ll see you later tonight, okay? Now go and talk to Avery. She wants to go over the menu for tomorrow, and all the other stuff.”
“Yvonne’s baked the wedding cake.” Sam remembered that at least.
“I know. She brought it up early this morning. It’s safely in the refrigerator.” January made the baby wave good-bye with his pudgy starfish hand. “Text me if you need anything, okay?”
Sam went down the hallway, and then the stairs, and instead of heading out the door went toward the kitchen.
Ruth Morgan, HW’s indomitable grandmother, greeted her with a smile.
“Sam! How are you?”
“Great!” Sam gave Ruth a hug and introduced her to Cam again just in case. She was missing so many things worrying about the wedding that she’d decided it was better to be safe than sorry.
“I’m just going over to see Avery and talk through the final arrangements. Is HW around?”
“I think he’s already on his way over there.” Ruth offered them coffee, but Sam declined. “He’s worried about you, though.”
“What’s new?” Sam countered. She had a sense that if the Morgans had their way she’d be confiding the story of the missing dress to all of them, and eventually someone would tell HW. “He knows that if anyone is going to mess up his big day it will be me.”
Ruth studied her with all the uncanny observational skills of an almost eighty-year-old woman—which basically meant she had X-ray vision as far as Sam was concerned. Sam concentrated hard on looking like a very happy bride-to-be, but suspected she wasn’t fooling anyone.
She held Ruth’s gaze. “Everything between me and HW is fine. I swear.”
“Okay, then.” Ruth nodded. “Maybe you should tell him that.”
“I will.” Sam kissed Ruth’s cheek. “I’ll see you later at the dinner.”
Chapter Four
HW took hold of Sam’s hand, and dragged her out of the dining room where most of the guests for their upcoming wedding were having a great time chatting and getting to know one another. It was the first time that Sam’s grandparents had been to the ranch, and they were enjoying sharing long, boring stories of the good old days with his grandma and Roy, the ranch foreman.
Sam grumbled a bit but didn’t stop him leading her out into the inky blackness of the clear night sky.
“Where are we going?” Sam asked.
“Down to the barn.” HW winked at her. “I know how much you love it in there.”
She blushed and looked down at her boots. “It’s all very nice until you get pricked by the hay.”
“Pricked?”
Sam frowned at him. “Behave yourself.”
“I said you should’ve let me be on the bottom.” HW grinned. He tried to study her expression, but she wasn’t giving much away, which was unusual for Sam.
“Next time, I’ll take your advice, okay?”
Sam squeezed his fingers, which made him feel a whole lot better. All through the dinner he’d sensed that something was troubling her, and his unease still hadn’t gone away.
“I offered to do Dad’s final rounds tonight so he could spend some time with Bella,” HW said. “It won’t take me long.”
He flicked on the lights in the old barn, and several of the horses immediately poked their heads out of their stalls to see what was going down. Sam went over to Dollar and made a big fuss of him while HW got on with the task of making sure all the horses were secured for the night. After a while, Sam started to help without being asked, and they were soon done.
HW washed out the sink in the tack room and stacked the feeding bowls belonging to the barn cats ready for the morning. He also made sure the chickens were locked in their pen and that there were no escapees to tempt the local coyote pack.
When HW returned to the barn, there was no sign of Sam, but he knew where she’d be. Even though it was hard for her to climb the ladder up to the hay store, she loved the view looking out at the Sierra Nevada mountain range as much as he did.
He went up and smiled as he located her sitting on one of the hay bales, her jacket firmly under her butt.
“It’s beautiful out here tonight,” Sam whispered.
“Yeah.” He put an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him. “Not half as beautiful as you are though.”
“Flatterer.” She elbowed him in the ribs.
“I mean it.” He put a finger under her chin and raised her face until he could stare into her green eyes. “What’s up, Sam?”
She swallowed hard. “Nothing.”
He continued to study her, weighing up the risks of challenging her the day before he was expecting her to walk down the aisle to him. But wasn’t that the whole point? If he didn’t feel she was being straight with him now, wasn’t it better to have it out before the big day?
“What if I said I don’t believe you?” HW asked slowly.
“About which particular part?” Sam was hedging now, and he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.
“So there is something wrong.” HW hesitated. “Can you just tell me?”
“It’s nothing worth telling,” Sam blurted out. “It’s just a stupid thing, which won’t make any difference to the day, and I can’t even believe I allowed myself to get worried about it.”
“If it’s worrying you, I’d still like to know what it is,” HW persisted. His grandma had always insisted his middle name was stubborn.
“Then you’ll be worrying about it too, and the whole point of not telling you is so that doesn’t happen!” Now Sam sounded exasperated, and suddenly everything was his fault. “It really is okay. In fact you probably won’t even notice.”
HW considered his options. His gut was telling him to keep asking questions, but experience told him to shut the hell up.
She touched his cheek. “Don’t make that face.”
“Which face?”
“The one when you look all worried, and then I feel bad, and want to hold you tight, and tell you that everything is going to be okay,” Sam whispered. “I’m not going to leave you at the altar, HW. I swear it.”
Sometimes she knew him far better than he was comfortable with. Knew that inside him, the fears of a little boy who’d been abandoned by his mother sometimes got out and took hold of him.
“Sam . . .”
She stopped his words by scrambling into his lap and kissing him. She kissed him with all the intensity she was capable of, wanting to erase the look in his eyes that expected to be kicked back again and left behind. He tried to pretend he was such a bad boy without a care in the world, but she knew better. But if she told him about the dress, he’d move heaven and earth to sort it out for her, and it really wasn’t worth his time.
“My mom thinks you are adorable,” Sam told him in an attempt to head him off at the pass. “My dad, not so much, because I’m still his little girl.”
HW’s expression relaxed a little as he wrapped his arms around her waist so that she straddled him. “Your parents are great, and nothing like you at all.”
“Yeah, I know. They are really nice, aren’t they? I’m a throwback to my wild Irish granny who came over to New York from Ireland without a penny to her name, a head full of dreams, and a drive to succeed.”
“She sounds just like you.”
“She also wore out four husbands,” Sam noted.
“Wow.” HW shuddered. “Maybe not.” He kissed her again. “Are you and Cam staying up here tonight?”
“Yes, we are. January said she’d come and wake us up at eight so we can have breakfast, and then start getting ready. She
said it would take hours.” Sam grimaced. “I’m worried you won’t recognize me after they’ve all gotten their hands on me.”
“You’ll be the one wearing white, and coming down the aisle, right?”
“Yes, that one.” She smiled at him.
“If it’s too much pressure,” HW said carefully, “we can just get in my truck, drive to Vegas, and get married there.”
She petted his chest. “That’s very sweet of you, but my mother would kill me.”
“So would my grandma.” HW sighed. “But I just wanted to put it out there for you.” His hand slid over her ass and her hips rolled toward his. He groaned and gathered her closer until the zipper of her jeans pressed against the hard bulge in his. “I miss you.”
“Mmm . . .” Sam sighed as she rubbed herself shamelessly against him, her nipples hardening against his chest as she bit and sucked on his lower lip.
“Let me . . .” HW murmured in her ear. “Just let me in, let me make you feel good, okay?”
His work-roughened fingers slid under her T-shirt making her shiver as he bit down on her throat, distracting her as he unzipped her jeans and fitted the palm of his other hand over her mound.
“You’re wet for me.” He stroked her through her panties. “Yeah, you’re soaking.”
Sam whimpered as his thumb settled over her most sensitive flesh, and he gently caressed her. She wasn’t even aware that she was rocking into his touch, inviting him deeper.
“Oh, yeah,” HW crooned to her as his fingers slipped beneath the cotton and slicked through her wet welcome. “That’s my girl. Give it up for me.”
She shuddered as his touch turned from playful to demanding and his fingers penetrated inside her. He placed his thumb firmly on her bud, driving her on until she climaxed so hard she froze, dug her fingernails into his scalp like a startled cat, and yelped his name.
He reached up and gently removed her hand from his hair. “Ouch.”
“Sorry,” she gasped against his lips. “It was just so good.”
“Thank you.”
She eased back a little so she could see his face in the darkness. “No, thank you.” She ran a hand down over his stomach and tapped his belt buckle. “Now, it’s your turn.”