“How did you guys know—”
“The chief made a call, and that started the rest of us calling until we reached everybody,” one firefighter said. “We all wanted to be here to cheer you on.”
“We’re going to make sure you bust your butt getting up those stairs and back down again,” another said.
The crowd hooted and hollered and cheered, and Brian responded by slapping hands and bumping shoulders with firefighters on his way to the chief.
She stood at the foot of the stairs holding a stopwatch. Brian handed her the document from his physician confirming his physical fitness for duty. She glanced at it, stuck it in her back pocket, and said, “Gear up, firefighter.”
Brian suited up in his jacket, pants, air bottle, SCBA, boots, helmet, and gloves. He’d worn his gear when he practiced, so it felt like a second skin.
“You have five minutes to complete all items on the Work Capacity Test. Are you ready, firefighter?”
“Ready,” Brian said, taking an extra-deep breath and letting it out.
The chief clicked the stopwatch and yelled, “Go!”
AIDEN HAD DONE his best to hide his despair from Brian. He’d woken up suffering the sort of anguish he hadn’t experienced since the day Leah had learned about the bet he’d made with Brian and walked out of his life. Actually, this was worse, because then he’d had a hope of winning her back someday. Now, he had the prize within his grasp—mere inches from his fingertips—and knew there was no way he could ever reach it.
His head was back in his hands, and his heart was lodged in the soles of his feet. He could think of no way to change his father’s mind. He was sure his desire to marry a Grayhawk would not be the least encouragement for Angus to forgo his revenge. In fact, it might make him even more determined.
“Why are you sitting there with that hangdog look?”
Aiden raised his head at the sound of his father’s voice and glowered at him from his seat at the breakfast bar. “You’re the reason I look like this.”
His father looked both startled and offended. “Me? What did I do?”
“It’s what you’re planning to do.”
“I’m planning to have an English muffin with honey and butter and a cup of coffee. I fail to see how—”
Aiden rose like an avenging fury, his bar stool loudly scraping the floor, to confront his father. “You’ve got King Grayhawk in a vise from which he can’t escape. Is it really necessary to crush him?”
Angus froze at the door to the refrigerator. “Are you suggesting I let him go?”
“Why not? What would you lose? How would it hurt you?”
Angus cocked his head and eyed his son. He closed the refrigerator without retrieving his English muffin.
Aiden had studied his father’s business tactics all his life. Angus always searched for the hidden meaning in what his adversary said. What did the man want? What was his ultimate aim? For perhaps the first time, Aiden found himself on the dangerous end of his father’s scrutiny.
“What’s in it for you if I let him go free?” Angus asked.
Aiden balled his hands into fists below the bar so his father wouldn’t see them trembling. “Not much. Just my future happiness.”
Angus snorted. “Got to be a woman involved when you start talking ‘happiness.’ Since it’s King you’re trying to save, that makes it a Grayhawk woman. Which one?”
“Leah.”
“Ah. King has a soft spot for that one. Never understood it, when there’s not a drop of Grayhawk blood running through her veins.”
He left Aiden standing with his heart in his throat—it had shot up there from the soles of his feet—and headed back to the refrigerator. Angus took out the package of muffins, removed the plastic catch and took one out, replaced the catch and threw the rest of the muffins back in the fridge before closing the door.
He took his muffin with him to the counter, grabbed a serrated knife from a block standing on the counter, cut the muffin in half, and dropped it in the toaster. He opened the cupboard above the toaster and took out a small plastic bear filled with honey. He took the lid off the butter dish sitting next to the toaster and found a knife in the silverware drawer with which to spread the butter once the muffin came up.
Aiden watched every step of the ritual his father followed every morning, waiting impatiently to hear whether his announcement had changed anything. Or nothing.
His father twirled the butter knife as he said, “I have to ask myself what I would get if I let King escape his just deserts.”
Aiden recognized this ploy. He’d seen his father use it a hundred times. He gave the expected response. “What do you want?”
The muffin popped up, and his father left him in suspense while he buttered the muffin and drizzled honey into all the tiny holes that were distinctive to English muffins. When he set down the bear, he turned to Aiden and grinned. Broadly. Then he chuckled. And waggled his brows. And laughed with glee.
“I take it you’ve figured out something that will turn King’s hair even whiter than it is.”
“I have,” Angus said. “In fact, this may be an even better—infinitely more satisfying—revenge than the one I had planned.”
“I’m afraid to ask what you have in mind.”
“I don’t have to ruin King financially. I can take something else—something I suspect is infinitely more precious—from him.”
“What is that?” Aiden asked.
“Leah.”
“What does Leah have to do with your revenge?”
“You’ll be bringing her here to live, correct?”
“That’s my plan.” He wasn’t sure how easy it would be to get Leah to go along with it.
“Do the math. I get a daughter. He loses one.”
“Is that it? That’s your substitute for squashing King like a spider under your boot?” Aiden was unable to believe his father was giving up so much and gaining so little.
“There is one more thing.”
Aiden held his breath, afraid to ask. This would be the kicker, the intolerable term to which he would have to agree to make the deal. “What is that?”
“I want a promise from you that when your first son is born, you’ll name him Angus Ryan Flynn. After me.” His father took a bite of his English muffin and made a satisfied sound in his throat.
Aiden eyed Angus askance. That was it? That was the intolerable term? “I’ll have to talk to Leah before I can promise something like that.”
“You do that.”
Aiden didn’t point out that they might have only girls. No sense creating problems where they didn’t exist. He was so excited, so happy, he wanted to grab Angus and dance around the room. He didn’t because he was also suspicious of his father’s capitulation. It had been far too easy to get him to back off.
“Dad…”
“What is it now?”
“Why are you doing this? Really?”
Angus threw the rest of his muffin on the counter and grabbed a dish towel to wipe the inevitable honey and butter off his hands. “Can’t I love my eldest son?” he said gruffly. “Can’t I want him to be happy?”
Aiden felt tears threaten and blinked them back.
“Besides.” His father’s grin reappeared. “I’m going to get a great deal of satisfaction from knowing King’s favorite daughter is living in my home. Not to mention the fact that he’ll have a grandson named Angus.”
Aiden allowed himself to believe in the miracle. Leah was his. He might have to earn her love again, but once they were living together as husband and wife, anything was possible.
“Well? Is everything all right now?” Angus asked. “Are you happy?”
Aiden threw back his head and laughed. Then he grabbed his father and danced him in a circle. He let go of him suddenly, and Angus whirled awa
y behind the breakfast bar.
“I have to go!” Aiden said. “I have someone to see.”
His father calmly picked up his unfinished muffin and said, “You do that.”
Aiden snatched his coat on the way out the door and ran to his pickup—the one with the plow. He had his cellphone out and had called Leah before he even cranked the engine.
“Angus agreed to forgo his vengeance, Leah! He’s going to make whatever arrangements are necessary for King’s loan to be renewed.”
“How did you get him to do it?”
“I’ll tell you all about it. Meet me at the stock tank.”
“Now?”
“Right now. Oh, baby, I can hardly believe it myself. You’re finally mine and—”
She interrupted to say, “I’ll see you there,” and hung up.
Aiden refused to let her lukewarm response dim his joy. Apparently, although she’d asked for the impossible, she hadn’t expected him to succeed. He was going to hold her to their bargain. She would be coming to live at the Lucky 7, and they would start their life together as husband and wife within the next few days.
He would work out that little detail about naming their firstborn son Angus if and when the situation ever arose.
LEAH HAD NEVER been so glad—or so troubled—at the same time. She’d been in the stable when she got Aiden’s call, and she continued brushing down the horse she’d ridden that morning. Aiden could wait for her a few minutes if she was late getting to the stock tank.
Her life was about to change. King hadn’t lost Kingdom Come, but she wouldn’t be here to fight Matt over possession of it. She’d agreed to be a wife, which meant she would be living with her husband at the Lucky 7.
Presuming she didn’t back out of their bargain.
She wanted to trust Aiden, but she didn’t. She wanted to be with him, but she wanted them to live at Kingdom Come. That way, if he ever left her, she would still have the ranch.
Leah wished she believed in the fairy-tale version of happily ever after. That Aiden would never disappoint her again, that he would always be faithful, that he would never walk away from her.
She just didn’t. She’d been disappointed and betrayed and abandoned by loved ones in the past. It wasn’t that easy to shrug off a lifetime of negative experiences and believe that Aiden would turn out to be different.
She was scared. And wary. And wanted so badly to believe in him that she felt sick to her stomach.
The buckskin nickered, and she ran a comforting hand over its nose. “I know you’re hungry. I’m done. I’ll get you some oats and get out of your way.”
She drove the truck with the snowplow attached. The wind had drifted last night’s three inches of powder into eighteen across parts of the unplowed road.
Sure enough, Aiden was there before her. No wonder. He finally had what he wanted. She was the one being asked to step off a cliff and hope someone was there to catch her. She wanted to be married to Aiden and have his children. At the same time, she was terrified that he would walk away someday and leave her so devastated she would never recover.
Leah felt like a trapped animal. She’d heard a wolf would gnaw off its own foot to escape steel jaws. She felt equally desperate. What should she do? Which decision was the right one? Did she dare reach for happiness? Or was she just fooling herself?
Leah had no better idea of what she was going to say to Aiden now than she’d had when she answered his excited call early that morning.
Aiden didn’t wait for her to come to him. He came running toward her, yanking her truck door open and pulling her out and into his arms. He swung her around, a smile as big as Wyoming on his face.
“Put me down!” she protested.
“I can’t believe this is real.” He stopped swinging her long enough to kiss her with abandon. “Finally, you’re mine.”
She shoved at his shoulders, feeling panic at his possessive words and at her body’s avid response to his kiss.
This feels real. This feels like love. But what if I’m wrong? What if it’s just passion? What if he abandons me like my mother abandoned my father? She was happy at first, too.
Her fear overwhelmed her desire for a life with Aiden, and she kicked her booted feet until he released her. It seemed like she sank through the snow forever before she hit solid ground.
When he reached for her again she said, “Aiden, stop! We need to talk. Stop!”
She saw the sudden wariness in his eyes. And the love.
She held out her hands in supplication. “Please. Can we talk about this? I’ll be happy to celebrate—”
“You will? Really?” he said sarcastically. “You asked me to perform a miracle, Leah, and I did it. Now you’re acting like I should go away and leave you alone.
“We had a deal,” he said in a hard voice. “And I’m, by God, holding you to it! You’re my wife, and it’s time—past time—you acknowledged that fact to your family and mine.
“I want us to live together. I want to wake up with you in the morning and make love to you in my own bed. I want to make babies with you. I want us to raise a family and—”
“Don’t,” she said. His voice had softened, and she wasn’t unmoved by his entreaty. “Don’t say any more.” Tears glistened in her eyes and one spilled over.
In days gone by he would have offered comfort. But he stayed where he was, his hands stuffed in his pockets, probably to keep from reaching for her, while his jaw remained clenched.
“Tell me what I can do, Leah. Tell me what I can say to make things right between us. You can’t be this unforgiving. You can’t intend to hold one mistake against me forever.”
“All right.”
“All right, what? You’ll tell everyone we’re married? You’ll move in with me? What?”
“Did you tell your father we’re already married?”
His lips twisted cynically. “No.”
“Why not?”
“I wasn’t sure what he would do.”
“Then we have time, Aiden. Let’s take it. Let’s tell everyone, and I mean everyone, we’re dating.”
“Dating?” He pulled his felt Stetson off his head and swatted it against his jeans. “Dating?”
“It’s what people do to get to know each other better. It’ll give me a chance to learn to trust you again.”
He stuck his hat back on and yanked it low on his forehead. “We’re already married,” he shot back. “You’ve already said ‘I do.’ ”
“That was before I knew you’d tricked me into liking you.”
She saw him flinch when she used the word “liking” instead of “loving.”
“How do I know what my feelings for you really are?” she said. “How do you know what you really feel for me? You had as much to drink as I did before we decided to get married in a wedding chapel in Vegas. You must admit, that’s not the behavior of two rational adults.”
“I wasn’t drunk, and I wasn’t out of my mind, Leah. I love you. My feelings haven’t changed. What I want hasn’t changed.”
“If you love me, you’ll give me a chance to be sure that marriage to you is what I want.”
He looked sick, like he might throw up, at her suggestion that whatever love she might have felt for him no longer existed. He met her gaze and said, “I think you could learn everything you need to know about me more easily by living with me than by living apart from me.”
“I don’t agree.” She took a deep breath and said, “There’s something else.”
He looked at her, his heart in his eyes, like a man waiting for the ax to fall and end his life.
“Matt doesn’t own Kingdom Come yet. I don’t intend that he ever should. Married or not, I intend to manage the ranch when he’s gone.”
“You know the Lucky 7 will be mine eventually,” he said. “I nee
d to live there.”
“I know.”
“How do you propose we resolve this little problem? Where do you suggest we raise our kids?” His lips twisted. “Assuming we’re married, of course.”
“When Kingdom Come is mine, and you have control of the Lucky 7, we’ll merge the two ranches.”
He looked stunned. “Our fathers—”
She interrupted in a steely voice, “Our fathers have messed up our lives plenty. I plan to consolidate my position and get my right to Kingdom Come in writing. Once you’ve done the same thing at the Lucky 7, what’s to keep us from doing whatever we want? There would be no question of you living at your ranch and me living at mine. We’d be living at ours.”
Aiden whistled. “You think big, little lady. By the way, my father thinks I’m wooing you.”
“You will be.”
“He wants you to live at the Lucky 7 when we marry. That’s his price for taking his foot off your father’s neck”
“I will. When it’s merged with Kingdom Come.”
“He’s going to want to see our courtship progress.”
“You can bring me to dinner. I promise to bat my eyes at you.”
He laughed. “I promise to be suitably impressed.”
She grabbed the lapels of his sheepskin coat. “I need you to be honest with me from now on, Aiden. You need to prove yourself trustworthy.”
“Just be aware that if you back off—if we end our relationship—my father will back off on his promise as well. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I hear you. I understand. But I can’t commit to a marriage I think will fail. Even to save my father.”
“Fair enough. Just tell me what I have to do to make you trust me again.”
She looked troubled. “I don’t know, Aiden. I guess we’ll just have to spend time together and see what happens.”
They had plenty to do while they “dated.” It could take months of planning to get legal possession of their respective ranches. Aiden would have to convince Angus to cede him the Lucky 7 sooner than his father might have wished. She would have to evict Matt and get King to transfer ownership of Kingdom Come to her. It wouldn’t be easy, but the result would give them both what they wanted.
Surrender: A Bitter Creek Novel Page 28