Practically Married Read online

She looked down, smoothed her robe over her knees. Then she looked at him again, in rising hope that made her eyes look misty and her skin all sweetly pink. “You apologize?”

  “I do. And I hope you’ll forgive a man for not knowing how to behave.”

  She looked away, uncertain, embarrassed.

  Damn. She was pretty. A pretty woman. He liked the soft way she could smile and the exotic way her brown eyes tilted up at the corners. He recalled, for some crazy reason, the day that Cash married Abby. Tess had been there, newly widowed, hiding behind the punch bowl, waiting on the guests, trying, it had seemed to him, to make herself invisible.

  Abby hadn’t allowed that. She’d grabbed him and grabbed Tess and ordered them to dance with each other. He’d done it willingly, smiling at the way the widow DeMarley blushed and got all flustered, thinking that she looked like the type of woman who would make a man the perfect wife—if a man was willing to take another chance on marriage.

  Which he hadn’t been. Not right then, anyway.

  But then, in the months that followed, he’d seen her in action. Tasted the food she cooked. Watched the way, whenever she came to the ranch with Edna for a visit, everything suddenly ran smoothly. Mouthwatering meals appeared right on time. There was cleanliness where there had been a layer of grime, order in place of chaos.

  She was frowning again. He realized she wanted a little extra reassurance.

  “Tess. I am sorry. Please won’t you accept my apology?”

  Her brow smoothed out. She lifted a hand and put her fingers to her lips, the way she had done the night he’d kissed her. But this time it wasn’t because of a kiss. It was a way to gather courage. To ask a question whose answer she probably didn’t really want to hear.

  She got the question out on a shaky breath. “Why? Why did you change your mind, about...the room? The bed...” She winced and then swallowed. “You know what I mean.”

  He considered his answer, pondered going straight for the throat, hitting her with something like, I saw that look you gave Cash the other night. And I believe I’ll take a pass on making love with a woman who just might be pretending that I’m someone else.

  But he couldn’t bring himself to do that. She was a good woman, a fine mother—and she had been a loyal wife to that damn dreaming fool, Josh DeMarley. Looking into her sweet, scared face, Zach understood exactly how her love for Cash must shame her. It went against all she held true and right. He didn’t doubt that her only consolation in the matter was the belief that no one else knew her guilty secret.

  He just couldn’t tell her that he did know. He couldn’t do that to her.

  Or to himself.

  He was a man, after all. And a man had a right to a little damn pride. He didn’t need to hear how his new bride loved his cousin. Not now. Probably not ever.

  Time. That was what they needed. Time to work side by side. Time to forge a real bond. Time to let what she felt for Cash fade by itself.

  What makes you think it’s going to fade? a cynical voice in his mind demanded.

  “Zach?”

  He realized he’d made her wait way too long for his answer.

  “Zach, please.” She stood and dared to approach him, her slippers making no sound as she tiptoed across his grandmother’s rug. “You have to tell me why.” She stopped three feet from him, close enough that he imagined he could smell that light, flowery perfume she wore, close enough that the soft luster of her skin taunted him, close enough that he couldn’t help thinking, Why the hell not just take her to bed? She is my wife. As of today, the state of Wyoming says we are joined....

  Grimly he kept to his original intention. “I think we need time, Tess.”

  She stared at him. Then she asked doubtfully, “Is that all? Just...time?”

  He nodded. “I got to thinking how we really don’t know each other all that well. That we could take our time about this. There’s no law that says we have to jump into bed together.” As he spoke, he watched her face. She wanted to believe him. Desperately. If time was the only issue, that would mean her secret was safe.

  And then she frowned again.

  “What?” he demanded.

  Haltingly she argued, “But Zach, we are married. And it really does seem like married people ought to, um, be intimate. That they should—”

  To cut off that dangerous line of reasoning, he invaded her space a little, stepping forward, eliminating what was left of the distance between them. “They should what?”

  She stared up at him, her eyes widening. “I...”

  “What?”

  “I just...”

  He’d accomplished his goal: to make her lose her train of thought—but at a certain cost to his own self-control. This close, the scent of her was all around him. He breathed it in, looking at her mouth, thinking of what he wasn’t going to do. Very slowly, because he wanted to and he had the right and he wasn’t going to do anything more, he lifted a lock of her hair and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger.

  She struggled to continue her debate. “I, um, told you I wanted children. I thought...you agreed about that.”

  “I have a child.” The strands of hair felt like silk. Warm silk. “And so do you.”

  Her breasts rose as she sucked in a big breath. “Well, I know. But I mean, um...”

  He knew exactly what she meant. “Children we made together?”

  “Yes.”

  He let go of the silky strands and made himself step back. “If it works out that way, sure.”

  “Well, but...”

  “What?”

  “Well, Zach, as I just said, I do want more children. I know I told you that more than once. But maybe you didn’t really understand. I’ve always wanted at least three or four.”

  He had understood. Perfectly. Again, he suggested, “Give it time.”

  She stared at him. “Time,” she repeated. Her eyes seemed to ask How much time? But she didn’t get the question out, which was fine with him. He had no answer to it, anyway.

  He decided he could use one more drink. He turned back to the liquor cabinet.

  Tess watched him pour the second drink.

  She was trying to tell herself that maybe what he suggested wasn’t such a terrible idea. They could play it by ear, day to day. She could earn his trust. And a place at his side. And the children she longed for, as well.

  And maybe, with time, it wouldn’t feel quite so...awkward to imagine the two of them together, in the bed upstairs. Maybe he had grasped the situation better than she had. Maybe he was right. And in the meantime, as they grew to know each other better, she would work hard as mistress of the Rising Sun. She would take care of him and the hands, just as she’d promised. She would have her garden and paint the house. She would be his wife in every way but one.

  It wasn’t so terrible. She could handle it, she was sure.

  And clearly, this had nothing to do with Cash. Nothing at all. Her fears on that score had been groundless.

  Zach knocked back the second shot and set down the glass. “Well?”

  What else was there to say? Except, “All right, Zach. We’ll give it time.”

  Chapter Five

  The next morning, Tess was up well before anyone else. She set right to work whipping up a big breakfast, pausing only to murmur, “Good morning” to Zach when he went out into the predawn chill to tend the animals in the barn and sheds. Angie appeared from the foreman’s cottage soon after Zach went out. Tess greeted her and told her to go on back to bed. “I’ve got things under control, don’t you worry.”

  Angie yawned. “Do I look worried? I’ll be out of here tomorrow, in case Mr. Bravo didn’t tell you.”

  Tess paused in her work to smile at the housekeeper. “He did tell me. And we’ll miss you.”

  Angie made a scoffing sound, as a wide grin broke out on her usually serious face. “Right. You cook circles around me, you’re neat as a pin and I’ve never seen a better organizer. I’m not needed here anymore, and we both kno
w it.”

  Tess tactfully moved the subject along. “Zach did give you a reference, didn’t he?”

  Angie shrugged. “He did. And a nice one, too. Not that I’ll need it. I’m through taking care of other people’s houses. Going to spend the rest of my days with my daughter and her family. And if you meant what you said, I believe I will steal another few winks.”

  “I meant it. You go on.”

  Moments later, Jobeth came bouncing down the stairs. “Where’s Zach? Did he go out already?”

  Tess pointed with a spatula toward the barn. Jobeth bounced on out the door. She and Zach came back inside fifteen minutes later, just as Tess was taking the second sheet of biscuits from the oven.

  “Jobeth, go ring that bell for the hands,” Tess instructed. “And then get washed up. Quick time.”

  Jobeth flew out to the front porch. The dinner bell clanged long and loud. A few minutes later, everyone but Angie was seated at the big pine table in the kitchen, passing mounds of biscuits and a huge bowl of gravy, helping themselves to orange juice and breakfast sausage.

  Tess looked around the table and felt pretty good. Both Zach and Jobeth were packing it away. And the three hands had droopy eyes, hair still wet from a morning wake-up dunking—and full mouths.

  “This is great, Mrs. Bravo,” said Beau Tisdale, the youngest of the three. He sandwiched the praise between one huge bite and the next.

  Zach had told Tess about Beau and his family. Not that long ago, the Tisdales had run their own ranch in the shadow of the Big Horns. But in the end, low beef prices and high bank loans had done them in. Much of the Tisdale land belonged to the Bravos now. And their youngest son worked for Zach.

  It wasn’t the first time Tess had heard a story like that. In fact, she had pretty much lived that story herself. When her father died, her own family’s ranch had been badly in debt. Her mother had asked Tess and Josh to come home and help her out. Josh had been in the middle of one of his big schemes, one that he swore would come in a gusher. He said they just couldn’t afford to go back then—and anyway, he wasn’t about to waste another minute of his life knee-deep in cow manure.

  Tess’s mother hadn’t been equipped to run the place herself. Soon enough, she had been forced to sell everything to pay off the debts.

  So Tess felt a certain compassion for Beau. She gave him a smile. “I’m pleased you enjoy the food.”

  He grinned back at her. “I surely do.”

  “I want to head out to the North Pasture,” Zach said flatly. “So eat up.”

  Beau turned his attention back to his plate. Confused, Tess looked down the table at Zach. “You won’t be going to church with me and Jobeth?”

  For months now, Zach had shown up at Edna’s door every Sunday, smelling of soap and aftershave, wearing his best boots, ready to squire her off to the little white-trimmed brick building over on Antelope Street where the Reverend Applegate presided. Until just now, Tess had assumed that today would be the same. However, after last night, she supposed she’d better not assume anything when it came to her new husband.

  “I’ll be back by nine and ready to go by nine-thirty.”

  His tone was a little cold and his expression stern.

  Still, he would go. A smile broke across her face. “Oh, good.”

  And something happened. His stern look melted. He smiled at her. And she smiled back. For one lovely moment, there was only the two of them, a warm feeling passing back and forth; each to the other.

  And then Lolly Franzen, one of the other two hands, who sat to Beau’s right, let out a small noise that just might have been a snicker. Tess blinked and looked at the man, who obviously thought he’d just witnessed some romantic interchange between smitten newlyweds.

  Zach was looking stern again. “Got a problem, Loll?”

  “No, boss. No problem. Nosirree, no way.”

  “Good. Finish up. Work’s waiting.”

  Lolly dug into the rest of his meal as if his life depended on how fast he could get it down.

  The men were gone in ten minutes. Jobeth sulked a little at not being allowed to go with them, but once they’d cleaned up the table, Tess sent her out to hand-feed Bozo and that perked her up. When she came back in, a full hour and a half later, Tess ordered her upstairs to wash and put on one of her two nice dresses.

  The phone rang as Tess was bustling around the bedroom, getting herself ready to go. It was Edna.

  “Well,” the older woman said cheerfully. “And how is Mrs. Bravo this morning?” The simple question had a thousand shades of meaning, most of them concerning the wedding night just past.

  Tess had no intention of letting Edna know she’d spent her wedding night alone. She infused her voice with warmth and happiness. “Mrs. Bravo is just fine.”

  “I am so glad.”

  “And how are you?”

  Edna sighed. “Well. Maybe just a little lonely. I’m used to having you to talk to—and Jobeth running in and out.”

  Tess caught sight of herself in the bureau mirror and smiled at her own reflection. She had figured this would probably happen. “You could come and stay here—for a while, or even indefinitely. You know that.”

  “Oh, no. Absolutely not. You have a right to your own life and I—”

  “Edna. You are a part of my life. A big part. And Zach and Jobeth feel the same way.” She thought, suddenly, of exactly what it would mean if Edna came to stay. She would surely find out that the new Mr. and Mrs. Bravo slept in separate beds.

  Edna sighed again. “No. I couldn’t. I’ll be fine. I have my dream, don’t I? This beautiful house that Cash bought me.” Cash had given Edna the house during her illness, two years ago. “It’s just that I’m a little down, getting used to the quiet around here without you and Jobeth. And I just called Abigail. She and Cash are taking off again—and my grandson, too, of course.”

  Cash made money in a variety of investments, from oil to real estate to computer software. If he heard of a good thing, he put money in it. And Abby, with her degree in finance from CU, was his business manager. They were forever packing up and heading for Reno or Cheyenne, to meet with Cash’s wheeler-dealer friends. “Oh, well.” More sighing. “I suppose I’ll just be going over to church all on my own.”

  Tess took the hint. “We’ll be there to pick you up.”

  She could actually hear Edna’s grateful smile. “You’re a dear.”

  “Be ready to go at ten-fifteen.”

  “You know I will.”

  At church, before and after the service, both Tess and Zach received endless congratulations and wishes for their long-lasting happiness. Tess smiled and said “Thank you” so many times, it began to seem to her as if the two words were nonsense sounds, without any real meaning at all. More than once, as she was saying those two words, she cast a quick glance at her husband. He was smiling and saying “Thank you,” too. He seemed to be taking it all in stride. Really, no one in the world would have imagined anything at all wrong between him and his new bride.

  Tess caught her thoughts up short. There was nothing wrong. They had agreed to take it slow, that was all. In their situation—not a love match but a practical pairing—taking it slow made perfect sense.

  Or so she kept telling herself.

  After church, Edna insisted they all come over to her place for lunch. She flitted around them, serving them, clearly excited over their newlywed state.

  At last, Zach told her, “Settle down, Edna. All your fussing and fluttering will put me off my feed.”

  Edna put a hand to her throat. “Oh, I know. I’m terrible. But I can’t help it. Seeing you two together. Seeing how perfect you are for each other, well, it does my heart good, that’s all.”

  Tess felt a silly blush starting, moving up her neck toward her cheeks. She didn’t realize she was staring at Zach until he turned and looked at her.

  “We’re very happy,” he said, and he smiled.

  Tess wondered how in the world he could hide hi
s feelings so completely. In her mind’s eye, she saw all those people at church, shaking her hand, hugging her, wishing her well. She felt like a complete phony. Taking it slow was just an excuse, and she knew it. Her husband didn’t want her and her practical marriage was a total sham. She blinked and looked down at her plate.

  “Mom?” Jobeth, always sensitive, asked in concern. “Are you crying?”

  She wasn’t, of course. She never cried. Not in years. She looked up and smiled. “I’m just fine.”

  Edna turned to Jobeth. “She’s a bride, honey. It’s a beautiful, magical, emotional time.”

  They got back to the ranch at a little after two. Zach took one of the pickups and drove out to the North Pasture again, this time letting Jobeth accompany him. They returned two hours later.

  “We’re branding tomorrow,” Jobeth explained proudly as she set the table for dinner. “Way out in the North Pasture. Nate and Sonny will be there. Nate will handle the irons and Sonny will help in the crowding pen.” Sonny Kane was Meggie’s cousin. He and his wife and children lived and worked at the Double-K with Nate and Meggie. “Since this will be my first branding,” Jobeth continued, “I’m gonna do the tallying. Zach says we have to be out by four in the morning, so—”

  Tess knew a snow job when she heard one. “Jobeth. Stop.”

  Jobeth glanced up from her task, her eyes wide and innocent. “What?”

  “Did Zach tell you that you could help with the branding tomorrow?”

  Jobeth took a napkin, folded it with great care into a triangle and tucked it beside a plate. “Zach said that for a person’s first time, she usually does the tallying.”

  “That was not my question, and you know it.”

  Jobeth looked down, up, sideways—anywhere but at her mother.

  Tess said gently, “Tomorrow is a school day.”

  Jobeth groaned. “Mom!” She stretched out the word so it sounded as if it had several syllables in it. “We are

  ranchers now. Sometimes, when you’re a rancher, you have to miss a little school.”

  Tess hid her smile. Jobeth had a point. As she grew older and acquired the thousand and one skills a true rancher needed, she would make herself invaluable. And she would be allowed to miss some school—all this assuming that Tess and Zach stayed married, of course, and that Jobeth got her chance to grow up here.