Practically Married Read online

  Meggie and Abby sat on the big sofa. Tess sat across from the Bravo wives in an easy chair, with tiny Jason James cradled in her arms. Tyler Ross, standing on his own two pudgy legs, clutched the side of her chair and gazed up at her through eyes as blue as his father’s.

  “Bay-bee,” Tyler Ross said with great care.

  “Yes,” Tess replied dreamily, reveling in the sweet, warm weight of the bundle in her arms. “Baby. A big, handsome, incredible baby boy.”

  Over on the couch, Abby chuckled.

  Tess looked up and caught the other two women sharing a glance. “What?” she demanded.

  Abby brushed a hank of blond hair out of her eyes and spoke with affection. “It’s just you. You’re such a...woman. Put a baby in your arms and give you a menu to plan and you’re in hog heaven.”

  Tess pursed her mouth. “And this is bad?”

  Meggie, who had circles under her eyes as a testament to her new motherhood—and a soft smile on her face as proof that things really were going well with Nate—spoke up. “No, it’s not bad. It’s terrific. You’re terrific. And we’re so relieved Zach has finally snapped you up.”

  “I’ll second that.” Abby laughed. “Though of course, I knew from the first that you and Zach were meant for each other.”

  Tess tried not to think of blond hair and sky blue eyes. “You did?”

  Abby nodded, looking smug. “On my wedding night, after all the guests went home and Cash and I were finally alone, I predicted that Nate would marry Meggie. And that Zach would get hitched up with you. Cash said I was nuts, that Zach would never marry again and Nate would never marry at all. But who’ll have the last laugh here?”

  Tess smiled and gently rocked the baby in her arms. “You, Abby. Definitely you.”

  Abby pushed her hair out of her eyes again. “You bet I will.”

  Tess went on smiling. She cared deeply for Abby. And she knew that Abby cared for her. Over the past two years, since Tess had come to Medicine Creek, they’d been through some scary times together. And when Abby and Cash had hit a rocky patch in their marriage, Tess had gone right to Abby and urged her to work things out. For Tess, there had been no thought of doing otherwise. She had known from the first time she saw them together that Abby and Cash were born to be man and wife.

  Abby leaned forward on the couch. “What is going through that mind of yours?”

  Tess only kept smiling and rocking the baby. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

  Right then, Edna appeared in the door to the hall that led to the kitchen. “Tess, there is simply too much food. I’m going to have to put what you brought in the refrigerator. Angie can heat it up for tomorrow. Is that all right?”

  “That’s fine.”

  Edna looked at her daughter. “Angie and I could use a little help around here.”

  Tess shifted the precious bundle in her arms. “Let me—”

  “No,” Edna said firmly. “You will sit there in that chair and relax for once. You’re always waiting on us. Tonight, it’s our turn.”

  Abby laughed. “As much as I hate to agree with my mother, she’s right. Stay there. I think I can manage to put the food into serving bowls and carry the bowls to the table.”

  “Just as long as you don’t actually have to cook anything,” Tess teased. Abby had little skill in the kitchen—and was darn proud of it.

  “Don’t worry,” Abby promised. “If she tries to make me do anything resembling actual food preparation, I’ll run out the back door—for everybody’s sake.”

  “Come on, Abigail, don’t dawdle,” said Edna, turning back toward the kitchen and the food waiting there.

  Alone with the little ones, Meggie and Tess talked mostly of mundane things, of the weather, which should be warming to true spring very soon, and of Tess’s various plans for getting the house in order.

  At one point, Tess couldn’t resist remarking softly, “It’s good to see you and Nate looking so happy.”

  Meggie colored a little. “He’s the only one I’ve ever loved. And he’s finally realized he loves me, too.” She reached for her nephew, Tyler Ross, who had toddled over to drool on her leg. He went into her arms and she pulled him up to perch on her lap.

  “You’ll be working the Double-K together, I take it?” Tess asked. The Double-K was Meggie’s ranch.

  “Yes,” Meggie said. Tyler Ross had started squirming. She set him on the floor and handed him a rubber ring to chew on. “We’ll be working together.” She looked up and met Tess’s eyes. “From now on.” Her tired face seemed to glow with pure happiness.

  Tess felt glad for her. And just a little bit jealous, too. Meggie and Nate were like Abby and Cash: a man and a woman perfectly suited to each other, who also happened to be deeply and passionately in love.

  Tess knew that she and Zach were well suited. But as for the rest...

  Well suited is fine, she told herself firmly. Well suited is a lot more than you ever dared to hope you would get.

  She was no longer some dreamy-eyed teenager. She knew now that the world could be a cruel, unforgiving place, that a person had to work hard—and grab her chance when it came.

  She also knew that passionate love was a luxury, one that rarely came in the same package with a good and dependable man. A fortunate few, like Abby and Meggie, might find everything rolled into one. But for people like Tess, a productive life and a solid partnership would just have to do.

  Right then, Abby appeared from the central hall. “Somebody go get the men and Jobeth. They have to wash up. My mother, the drill sergeant, says we’re sitting down to dinner in ten minutes.”

  “I’ll go.” Tess rose from the chair and gave the baby to Meggie.

  Outside, it was a clear night with only a mild wind. Tess left the house through the rear door off the enclosed back porch, and started across the backyard to the barn and sheds. But the night beguiled her. For a moment, she paused and looked up at the pale stars that would grow brighter as the night deepened. The air smelled sweet, of new grass with just a hint of cedar blown down from the distant mountains. Oh, yes, it was spring, all right.

  She heard a sound, and turned to find that little black-baldy calf, Bozo, ambling toward her. He came right up to her and nuzzled her fingers.

  “Sorry, boy. No milk here,” she told him.

  ‘The little bum figured it out himself after a few seconds, and trotted off on his spindly legs. She smiled, watching him, thinking that she’d have to insist he stayed fenced once she got going on her garden. He was a bandit already; she could tell by the way he’d tried to suck from her fingers, a survivor who would steal milk from any cow who stood still long enough. Tess respected survivors; she considered herself one. But Bozo wouldn’t get a chance to devour the tender leaves of her bedding plants if she had anything to say about it.

  She started toward the outbuildings again, but she didn’t get more than a step or two before the men appeared around the side of one of the sheds. They saw her standing there and they stopped for a moment, three tall, proud figures against the night.

  They moved toward her with their long strides again. As they approached, Zach asked, “What is it, Tess?”

  Through the darkness, Tess tried to read the secrets behind his eyes. What did you see? she wondered silently. And what did it mean to you? But his eyes gave nothing away.

  Over the months they’d been seeing each other, she had thought that she’d grown to know him. Yet right then she felt as if she didn’t know him at all. He was the stranger who would soon be her husband.

  “Tess?” He was frowning at her.

  She realized she hadn’t answered his question. “Dinnertime. Where’s Jobeth?”

  He turned and called for her daughter. Jobeth appeared immediately, sliding out from between the big doors of the barn. “I’m here, Zach.”

  “You let Bozo out,” he told her in that kind, careful voice of his. “Better get him back behind a fence.”

  “I will, Zach. Right away.”
r />   “And then come in and wash up. It’s time for dinner.”

  “Okay.” The child hurried after the calf.

  Tess sighed when she looked at what Edna had wrought, at the ivory lace tablecloth, the gleaming china and silver, the snowy linen napkins, all set off so perfectly by the soft glow of candlelight. “Oh, Edna, it’s beautiful.”

  Edna went to one end of the table and pulled out the chair there. With great formality, she instructed, “You will sit here.” She gestured at the other end. “And Zacharius will sit there.”

  Tess remained standing. Edna always took the hostess’s seat at any formal meal. Tess knew how much that seat meant to her. “Oh, Edna. No...”

  Edna pulled the chair out farther. “I mean it. You sit down. You sit down right here.”

  Tess obeyed, sliding into the seat of honor. She felt Edna’s slim hand touch her shoulder lightly and she reached back long enough to give that hand a quick squeeze. Then she busied herself with sliding the silver filigree ring from her napkin and smoothing the napkin across her lap.

  When she looked up, she found Zach watching her from down the table. She thought of that moment on the stairs and her heart kind of froze for an instant, then commenced beating too fast. He smiled. She smiled back, praying that she looked more composed than she felt, wondering if his smile was a real smile, thinking that his eyes looked a little bit cold.

  She picked up her water glass and drank from it. As she set the glass down, she told herself to quit worrying. It must be okay, with Zach. If he had seen anything in that look she’d given Cash, he wouldn’t be smiling at her.

  Would he?

  Abby appeared then, bearing a huge rack of lamb. Everyone oohed and ahhed over it.

  “Don’t worry,” she assured them all, laughing. “I didn’t cook it. It’ll taste just as good as it looks.”

  It turned out that Abby’s housekeeper, Mrs. Helm, had prepared the feast. Everyone agreed that it was almost as good as something Tess might have done.

  Cash had provided several bottles of excellent wine. The toasting went on long after most of the food had been eaten. Through the meal, Tess took great care never to look too long in Cash’s direction. And when she thought Zach didn’t notice, she watched him a lot. By the time dessert was served, she had succeeded in convincing herself that Zach had noticed nothing. Everything was just as it had always been. Her secret remained hers alone.

  As Edna carried Jobeth’s cake to the table, Cash produced a pile of presents to go with the one Tess had brought. Tess felt the usual flush of adoring thankfulness toward him. He was so generous, so thoughtful, so kind.

  But this time, she kept her guard up. Her expression remained composed and her smile was no more than appropriately grateful.

  Jobeth made a wish and blew out her candles. Then she opened her gifts.

  Next came the engagement cake. And more toasts. It was near nine before Meggie and Nate insisted they just had to go. Everyone trooped outside to say goodbye. Then Edna kept Cash and Abby there an extra half hour, getting the plates scraped and stacked so that Angie wouldn’t have too big a job the next morning.

  Finally Tess and Zach stood together on the porch, waving, as Cash and his family piled into the Cadillac.

  As soon as the big car drove away, Tess turned to Zach. “It’s almost ten. We should get going, too.”

  He said nothing.

  She pulled her sweater closer around her and folded her arms across her waist. “Zach?” Her pulse picked up, as the guilt and worry she’d managed to push to the deeper recesses of her mind came popping to the surface once again. “Is something wrong?” The dangerous question escaped her of its own accord.

  Zach’s brows drew together. Hardly daring to breathe, cursing herself for a thousand kinds of fool for asking a question to which an answer would most likely bring disaster, Tess waited for him to speak.

  But he didn’t speak. Instead, very gently, he put out a hand.

  Wary, not knowing what he meant to do, she almost jerked back.

  But then she stopped herself. He would be her husband. She shouldn’t shy away from his touch.

  His hand slid under her hair, to wrap around her nape. His skin felt rough—and warm. She gasped a little, in surprise. It was crazy, but now she thought about it, she couldn’t remember ever having felt his touch before.

  Was that possible? They would marry in three days—yet this was the first time he had laid a hand on her. How could that be so?

  Really, he must have taken her arm now and then, grasped her hand in greeting or in aid.

  Yet she could not remember any of those casual contacts. Surely they had occurred. So why couldn’t she recall a one of them?

  Somewhere out in the night, an owl asked, “Who? Who?”

  Tess started to turn her head toward the sound.

  “No. Don’t,” Zach whispered softly.

  She blinked and met his unreadable eyes, trying to appear calm and relaxed, praying that he couldn’t hear the rapid pounding of her heart.

  His rough thumb moved. It caressed the pulse point at the side of her throat.

  And she realized that whether he heard it or not, he did know. Oh, yes. He knew how fast her heart raced. He could feel it, right under his hand.

  Gently, relentlessly, he pulled her closer. She didn’t fully believe that he would kiss her until his lips met hers.

  Chapter Three

  At first, Tess kept her arms wrapped protectively around herself, so that her body hardly touched Zach’s.

  But the distance she maintained didn’t seem to bother him. He kissed her sweetly. Slowly. Tenderly. He didn’t try to pull her closer.

  Tess closed her eyes. She found she liked the scent of him, a healthy scent of soap and clean skin and leather. He tasted faintly of coffee, which Edna had served with dessert. After a moment, she stopped clutching her middle and dared to reach up, to put her hands on his shoulders. They were lean and hard under her fingers, the shoulders of a man who used his body in his work.

  He let go of her nape and slid both hands to her waist, grasping firmly, stepping a fraction closer, brushing himself against her, but just barely. It felt nice. It felt as if his body was kind of whispering to hers.

  She heard herself sigh.

  And then he lifted his head and put her carefully away from him.

  She let her eyelids flutter open. The night seemed so still. In the light of the porch lamp, she could see him quite clearly. She stared up at his craggy, serious face—and couldn’t think of a thing to say.

  She felt stunned. As tender as the kiss had been, there was no mistaking its intent. It was a kiss a man gives a woman. The kind of kiss Tess had only shared with one other man in her life—her husband, Josh.

  Hardly knowing she would do it, she reached up and touched her lips. It seemed she could still feel the kiss there, so warm and sweet. So full of the promise of what was to come.

  He smiled, just a little.

  And she smiled back. She was glad he had kissed her, glad to learn that she could enjoy kissing him. Maybe when they got to the big bed with the pineapple finials, it wouldn’t be so terribly difficult, after all.

  “Come on,” he said, taking her hand.

  They went back inside to find Jobeth snoozing on the sofa in the great room.

  Tess perched beside her and tenderly stroked the brown hair back from her forehead. “Honey, wake up. Time to go home.”

  Mumbling and groaning, Jobeth sat up and stretched. “Oh. Do we have to?”

  Tess nodded. “Yes, we do. And right now.”

  A few minutes later, Zach stood in the back driveway watching the taillights of Tess’s battered little car as it disappeared around the front, headed for the gate and the highway beyond. He heard the car’s tired engine revving as Tess turned onto the road. Moments later, the sound had faded to nothing.

  He was alone with the night.

  He started for the house, but then a nighthawk called from somewher
e nearby. Turning that way, he saw the shadowy outline of the bird as it dived through the dark after some luckless insect.

  Zach changed his mind about going in. Right then he would feel trapped in the house. He turned and headed for the horse pasture instead.

  At the split-rail fence, he whistled. Ladybird, his favorite mare, came trotting over.

  He stroked the blaze on her forehead and blew in her nostrils. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he whispered, when she nuzzled his palm. “No carrots tonight.”

  She gave him a little snort and allowed a few more strokes before she turned and took off. Leaning on the fence, he watched her go, then ended up staring off blindly across the dark pasture toward the mountains and the quarter moon that hung low in the sky.

  He kept thinking of Tess. Picturing her face, remembering her expression just after he’d kissed her. She’d looked so sweet and pretty and surprised, putting her hand to her mouth, as if his kiss still lingered there.

  She had liked that kiss. And her expression had told him as clearly as any words that she hadn’t expected to like it.

  Probably, he shouldn’t have kissed her. Not tonight, anyway.

  Maybe not ever...

  Zach turned and braced the heel of a boot on the bottom rail of the fence. He stared at the house his grandfather had built and tried to get used to what he’d probably suspected all along, but knew for certain as of tonight.

  He had seen the look she’d given Cash. And now he had to face the truth: Like nearly every other female for miles around, his wife-to-be was totally gone on his big-spending, blue-eyed cousin.

  Zach tipped his head back toward the sky and looked at the stars as thick and shiny as glitter-glue overhead. He knew damn well that, whatever Tess felt, nothing would come of it. Cash belonged to Abby, heart and soul. And, anyway, Zach had learned a lot about Tess in the months it had taken him to ask her to be his wife. He knew, with no doubt whatsoever, that she wasn’t the kind who would let herself get too close to another woman’s man, no matter what she felt for that man.