Marriage By Necessity Read online

  “You’ll get nothing?”

  “Not exactly. My father set it up so that the herd will be sold at auction and all proceeds from that auction will be mine. I’ll also get the money from the sale of the home place, which includes the main house, the old bunkhouse where my cousin and his family live now, the homesteader’s cabin and the outbuildings, including the forty acres those buildings stand on. With that, and the profits from the sale of the stock, my father figured I’d have enough for a fresh start.”

  Nate found he could breathe a little easier. “So you won’t be destitute.”

  “No. But I will lose the Double-K.”

  “What I mean is, you’ll end up with a decent chunk of change, anyway.”

  Her generous mouth was a thin line. “Without the Double-K, who cares?”

  He’d had enough of circling the point. He said flatly, “You called me here to ask me to marry you and try to get you pregnant.”

  She just stared at him with those big, soulful eyes.

  “Have I got it right?” he demanded.

  Very slowly, she nodded.

  Nate stood. “No.” He headed for the exit.

  She jumped up, zipped around him and plastered herself against the door. “Nate. Just listen. Just give me—”

  “Get away from the door.”

  But she refused to budge. “Nate. Please. You have to listen to me.”

  If she’d been anyone else, he would have shoved her aside and gotten the hell out. But somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to lay a hand on her.

  “Nate.” Her husky voice reached out, curled around him like smoke. “I told you how I felt about you once. And you sent me away. And I never meant to bother you again. I swear to you. But I had two dreams, Nate. My ranch. And you. How can you ask me to give up both?”

  “I’m not asking a damn thing of you.”

  She let out a tight, frantic-sounding laugh. “I know. You never have. And you never will....”

  “Find someone else.”

  She pressed herself harder against the door, her eyes burning with a purposeful fire. “That’s exactly what I intend to do. If you turn me down.”

  That gave him pause; he refused to think why.

  She talked-fast. “Listen. This is my offer. I’m not asking for a lifetime from you. I don’t want to fence you in and I’m not asking you to settle down. I want a ring on my finger. And a baby. And as soon as the baby’s born, we can get a...” She hesitated over the next word, but she did get it out. “Divorce.”

  “This is insane.”

  “Not for me. For me, it would be the best of a bad deal. Because at least my baby’s father would be the man I love.”

  That spooked him good. He fell back a step.

  She must have seen the panic in his eyes. She put up a hand. “It’s just a fact, Nate. I don’t expect it to mean a thing to you. I swear. I love you, have loved you and will always love you. And if I’m going to have a baby, I want it to be yours. I won’t tie you down. Just a ring and a baby, and then you’re free.”

  He shook his head. What she asked was so much like her: a total contradiction in terms. He spoke more kindly. “Meggie...”

  “No. Listen. There’s more.”

  “Meggie, this isn’t going to—”

  She ran right over him. “I have twenty thousand dollars that my grandmother Kane left to me. It’s mine, free and clear. And I’ll give it to you. As payment for...what I’m putting your through.”

  His gut tightened all over again. Essentially, she had just offered to pay him for fathering her child. The thought sickened him.

  She wasn’t finished. “I will go on my knees to you, Nathan Bravo. I will do anything. Anything at all.”

  “Stop.”

  She obeyed his command, waited there against the door, still begging with those big eyes.

  He decided to try reason. “Look. Just slow down here. Let’s just look logically at what you’re asking.”

  “Yes,” she agreed eagerly. “Fine. Let’s look at it logically.”

  “Okay, then. What exactly are you thinking about here? Is this going to be some kind of test-tube thing?”

  She stared. “What?”

  “Are you talking about artificial insemination?”

  Her face went crimson. She stammered, “Well, no. I mean, we would be married. And married people, um...”

  “So you plan for us to have sex together?”

  “Urn. Well. Yeah.”

  “The more sex the better, right? To increase the odds that you’ll actually conceive.”

  She frowned. “Yes. So?”

  “Think. How are we going to do that, Meggie? I do have a life and a business to run—here, in L.A. I can’t move to the Double-K for however long it takes you to get pregnant. And you can’t run a ranch from my apartment.”

  “We could work it out. I know we could. I’ve thought it through. You could stay at the Double-K as much as possible through the fall. Oh, I know you’d have to leave sometimes, when something just couldn’t wait. But you’re your own man, right? And we could it make a point to, um, get together at the most crucial times, when I’m...ovulating.”

  Ovulating. Where the hell did they get words like that? “Meggie, listen—”

  But she wouldn’t listen. “No, really. It could work. It will work. And the money I’d pay you would help to make up for any business you might lose.”

  Anger arrowed through him again at the mention of the money. “Forget the damn money.”

  “No, really. I would want to pay you. I would want you to get something out of this for yourself.”

  “I said, forget the damn money.” It was a command.

  She raised both hands, palms out. “All right. Whatever. But listen. We could work it out, so we could be together. You could stay with me as much as possible until the snows come. And then, when things get quiet at the ranch, Sonny and Farrah could handle things.”

  “Sonny and Farrah?”

  “My cousin and his wife. They work for me now, for the last three years or so.”

  He thought he remembered hearing that somewhere. “Right.”

  She rushed on. “Anyway, as soon as winter comes, I would come here and stay with you, until calving season. And with any luck, by then I’d be pregnant. You’d go back to your life and I’d go back to mine and when the baby comes, I’d send you the divorce papers in the mail. Okay?”

  He only looked at her, shaking his head.

  “Nate, please...”

  He kept looking at her, showing her nothing—except his refusal. And then he said it aloud. “No, Meggie. I just can’t help you with this. Now, get out of my way.”

  “Nate...”

  “I said, get out of my way.”

  That did it. He watched the hope fade from her eyes. “That’s your final decision?”

  He nodded.

  “Oh, Nate...”

  “Move aside.”

  She drew her shoulders back. “Fine. But I mean it. If you won’t do it, I will find someone else.”

  He looked her up and down. “That’s supposed to change my mind? Give me a break.”

  Give me a break....

  Those were the words he had said to her all those years ago, when she had told him she loved him.

  “I love you,” she had sworn. “And I will always love you.”

  He had looked down at her flushed face, at her full lips, which were soft and swollen from his kisses. And he had sneered, “Give me a break.”

  She hadn’t forgotten, any more than he had. He could see it in her eyes.

  Now, foolishly, he felt remorse. For hurting her again. For dimming the brightness of those beautiful eyes. “Meggie...” He reached out.

  She ducked away, before he could touch her. And then she drew herself up once more. She turned and opened the door, stepping back, so the exit was clear. “Goodbye, Nate.”

  He had an idiot’s urge to say more. But he quelled it.

  With a final curt
nod, he left her.

  Chapter Two

  Unfortunately, over the days that followed, Nate couldn’t get Meggie out of his mind.

  On Wednesday, three days after the meeting in her hotel room, he called his cousin Zach. Zach Bravo ran the family ranch, the Rising Sun Cattle Company, which shared more than one boundary with the Double-K. Zach and Meggie were good friends. When either came up shorthanded, the other would help out. The Kanes always put in an appearance during branding time at the Rising Sun. And there was usually a Bravo around if Meggie needed help in calving season.

  Nate waited to call until nine at night, which was seven in Wyoming. By then, the day’s work should be through and the dinner dishes cleared from the table.

  Some strange woman answered the phone. “Yeah?”

  Nate wondered if he’d dialed wrong. “Is this the Rising Sun?”

  “Yeah.”

  “This is Nate. Nate Bravo?”

  “Yeah, I heard of you.”

  “Let me talk to Zach.”

  “Hold on.”

  It took Zach forever to come on the line. Nate started to wonder if the strange woman had bothered to tell his cousin that he had a call. But finally, Nate heard the quiet, low voice.

  “Hello, Nate.”

  “Hey, Zach.”

  “How are you doing?”

  “Fine. Who the hell was that?”

  Zach chuckled. “Mable LeDoux. She and her husband, Charlie, hired on about a month ago.”

  “She’s keeping house and cooking?”

  “You got it.” Zach sounded grim. “And she’s no Edna.”

  A year ago, Edna Heller, the ranch’s longtime housekeeper, had become ill and been forced to retire. Edna had always taken care of the house—and the Bravos—as if they were her own. And the meals she used to put on the table, both in the main house and for the hands, kept everyone smiling. Zach was having a hell of a time trying to replace her. And it sounded as if Mable wouldn’t last much longer than the others had.

  Zach asked, “You coming home?”

  “Not unless you need me.”

  “Nah, I’m dealing with things all right.” Zach waited. He knew Nate. And Nate never called just to shoot the breeze.

  Nate realized he probably should have thought this through a little better before picking up the phone.

  “Nate? You okay?”

  “Yeah. I’m fine. Listen. I heard that Meggie May’s dad died.”

  Dead silence. Then Zach said, “Yeah. About-a week and a half ago.”

  “How’s she been?”

  Another silence. Nate could almost hear Zach’s mind working, as he carefully chose what to say. At last, he muttered grudgingly, “She’s all right, I guess.”

  “You seen her much, since the funeral?”

  More dead air. Then Zach said, “Meggie May’s a good woman, Nate.”

  Damn. That was the thing aboat family. They always knew too much. “You don’t have to worry about her and me,” Nate said. “Nothing ever happened between us to speak of. And there’s nothing going on now.”

  “Did she show up down there to see you?”

  Nate muttered a word that would have made Edna Heller threaten to wash his mouth out with soap. “How did you know?”

  “The Merchant’s Society put on a dance, over at Medicine Creek Park, on the Fourth. I saw Meggie there. She asked about you.”

  “Asked what?”

  “Asked if your name was in the L.A. phone book.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “I said, ‘Bravo Investigative Services, in the Yellow Pages.’ So. Did she come and see you?”

  “Yeah, she came.”

  Another disapproving silence, then Zach asked, “Are you gonna tell me what this is all about?”

  “No.”

  Zach grunted. “I don’t think I like this.”

  “Don’t worry, it’s no big deal,” Nate lied. Then he added, “I just need to know if she’s all right.”

  “She’s fine, last I heard. You remember that cousin of hers, Sonny? Used to come and stay over at the Double-K sometimes, in the summers?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, Meggie and Sonny are running the Double-K together now.”

  “Yeah, I heard that.”

  “Sonny dropped by yesterday. Said they hired a new hand on Monday. Just temporary, Sonny says, until they get on top of things. I guess they fell behind some when Jason died.”

  A new hand. What did that mean? Did she plan to ask some no-account cowpuncher to father her child? “What do you know about him?”

  “Who?”

  “The new hand.”

  “Not a thing. Listen, Nate. That’s all I can tell you. Because that’s all I know. Last time I saw Meggie was on the Fourth. She seemed okay, for a woman whose dad had just died.”

  “Look...”

  “What?”

  He realized he didn’t have anything worthwhile to say. So he muttered, “Hell. Nothing.”

  “Why don’t you come on home for a while?” Zach suggested, more gently. “I’m not short of hands, but I can always use another pair. Lots of weeds to poison and ditches to burn. Not to mention hay to cut and fences to mend.”

  Nate felt the pull. He always did. If he closed his eyes, he could see the Big Horns, looming so high and proud over the endless, rolling prairie land. Overhead, there would be clean blue sky, with clouds like castles, white and high. And off to the east, a hawk soaring...

  “Nate. What do you say?”

  He remembered his freedom. He remembered his life. “Nah. Not right now.”

  “It is your place, too,” Zach reminded him. Technically, the Rising Sun belonged equally to Nate and Zach and their third cousin, Cash. But Zach was the operator; he loved the ranching life and he made it pay.

  “Some other time,” Nate promised.

  “I know, I know. Thanksgiving. Or Christmas. Don’t let that L.A. smog fog your brain.”

  Nate promised he wouldn’t and said goodbye.

  He managed to hold off two more days before he got nuts enough to call Edna. Edna Heller was not only the former housekeeper of the Rising Sun, but also the mother-in-law of his other cousin, Cash. She could drive a man crazy, telling him what to eat and warning him to take care of himself, but Nate loved her anyway. She’d looked after him good, all those years ago, when his dad died and his mother turned him over to his grandpa Ross and took off for parts unknown. Edna had clucked over him and hugged him whether he liked it or not and generally treated him like a son, the way she’d done all three of the Bravo cousins. Widowed for two years now, Edna lived in a nice two-story house, which Cash had bought for her, in Medicine Creek.

  And Edna always knew who was seeing whom.

  “Why, it’s funny you should ask about Megan May,” Edna declared just a little too knowingly. “Because only this past Friday night Tillie Spitzenberger saw her at Arlington’s Steak House with Barnaby Cotes. Kind of a surprise, everyone says, since we all thought she’d more or less told that boy she wasn’t interested years ago....”

  Edna chattered on, but Nate wasn’t listening. Barnaby Cotes was the son of a Medicine Creek shop owner. And a smug, self-important piece of work if there ever was one. The thought of Cotes putting his slimy hands on Meggie made the blood pump too fast through Nate’s veins. She deserved better than some fatheaded prig like that.

  “Nathan, are you listening to me?”

  “You know I am, Edna.”

  “Well then, what are you planning to do about Megan May?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Then why did you ask about her?”

  “Edna.”

  “Yes, Nathan?”

  “Let’s drop it.”

  “Always so prickly. When are you coming home? We miss you. And you should see that nephew of yours. He’s getting bigger and better-looking every day. Just like his daddy.” Cash’s son, Tyler, had been born just the Christmas before. “Nathan?”

  “I’m
still here.”

  “Well? Are you coming home? We haven’t seen you in months. It’s too long. And I worry that you don’t eat right, and it’s bound to be dangerous, chasing after criminals and shady characters the way you do.”

  “I’m not planning to come home right now.”

  “When, then?”

  “I can’t say for sure.”

  She lectured him some more. And finally, about ten minutes later, he managed to say goodbye and get off the phone.

  After that call, he swore to himself that he would make no more attempts to learn about Meggie May. He told himself that her search for a husband to father her child was none of his damn business, and promised himself he’d put her completely from his mind.

  But then, on Monday, a week and a day after meeting with Meggie at the Hollywood Franklin, Nate got a job offer to track an embezzler down into Mexico. The money was right and expenses were generous. And still, he heard himself turning it down.

  The new hand, Lev Jarvis, jumped out to open the gate and Sonny drove the pickup through. Lev walked the gate closed and sprinted over to join Sonny and Meggie.

  Meggie leaned out the passenger window of the cab as a pair of grasshoppers leaped out from under the wheels, their wings snapping and shining in the sun. Meggie looked up at the blue bowl of the sky. The few clouds in sight looked like little shreds of white cotton. It was hot. Not far off, barn swallows hovered, ready to swing away after any hopper that dared to jump too high.

  Meggie smiled to herself. She was happy to be out, doing useful work. The days really weren’t so bad. It was the nights that killed her lately. Thinking of her home. And what she must do if she hoped to keep it.

  But when she trundled around checking the stock with Sonny, she could tip her face to the sun and keep her mind on work. She glanced out over the pasture. It had been a pretty good year, with respectable rainfall. The grass still had green in it. And here and there, even now in July, she could still pick out the tiny bright heads of purple flax and the sunny faces of black-eyed Susans.

  Lev, who was shy and respectful and young enough not to fear skin cancer, took off his shirt and tossed it in the back of the pickup. Meggie grinned at him and pointed. “There’s a pond over that ridge there. I figure there should be fifteen heifers and their first calves hanging around it. We’ll check the salt box and the mineral tubs.” They’d also check the stock. They’d look for heifers with tight bags, which would mean a calf wasn’t sucking. They’d search for any sick animals, which they’d take home to treat. They’d look over the calves for any sores. In the heat, a calf could be dead in a day or two from an untreated wound. And they’d hope to find only the Black Angus bulls they’d put in that pasture last month. Black Angus bulls produced a small, wiry calf that hit the ground running. They were the perfect bulls to put with heifers, both in their first and second years of calving out, because a smaller calf made for an easier birth.