Country Brides (21 page)

“Luke,” she said, slowly expelling her breath, “I had a terrible day and I'm rotten company.”

“What happened?”

Kate didn't want to talk about it. Dredging up her lunch-hour conversation with Sally Daley would only refuel her unhappiness.

“Kate?” Luke coaxed.

She shrugged. “The other teachers heard about Dad and Dorothea and seemed to think the shock would do me in, if you know what I mean.”

“I think I do.” As he was speaking, he took two bowls out of the cupboard and set them on the table.

Kate stirred the soup energetically, not looking at him, almost afraid of his reaction. “In addition, people are talking about us.”

When she glanced in his direction, Luke nodded, his eyes twinkling. “I thought they might be.”

“I don't like it!” she burst out. The least Luke could do was show the proper amount of concern. “Sally Daley told me how pleased she was with the way I'd rebounded from a broken heart.” She paused, waiting for his response. When he didn't give one, she added, “Sally seems to think you and I are perfect together.”

Luke grinned. “And that upset you?”

“Yes!” she cried.

“Sally didn't mean anything. She's got a big heart.”

“And an even bigger mouth,” Kate retorted. “We 're in trouble here, Luke Rivers, and I need to know how we're going to get out of it.”

“The answer to that is simple. We should get married and put an end to all the speculation.”

Kate's shoulders sagged in defeat. “Luke, please, I'm not in the mood for your teasing tonight. We have to get serious about…”

Her voice dwindled away as Luke, standing behind her, placed his hands on her shoulders and nuzzled her neck. “I 'm willing.”

His touch had a curious effect on Kate's senses, which sprang to sudden life. It took every ounce of fortitude she possessed to resist melting into his arms and accepting his comfort. But that was how they'd got into this mess in the first place.

“The gossips are having a field day and I hate it.”

Luke drew her away from the stove and turned her toward him. He searched her face, but his own revealed not a hint of annoyance or distress. “I don't mind if folks talk. It's only natural, don't you think?”

“How can you
say
that?”

“Kate, you're making this out to be some kind of disaster.”

“But don't you see? It is! There are people out there who actually believe we're falling in love.”

“You do love me. I told you that earlier. Remember?”

“Oh, Luke,” she cried, so disheartened she wanted to weep. “I know what you're trying to do and I appreciate it with all my heart, but it isn't necessary. It really isn't.”

Luke looked baffled. “I don't understand.”

“You've been so sweet.” She laid her hand against his clean-shaven cheek. “Any other man would've laughed in my face when I made him promise to marry me, but you agreed and now, out of consideration for
my
pride,
my
feelings, you claim you're going through with it.”

“Kate,” he said, guiding her to the table and gently pressing her into a chair. “Sit down. I have something important to tell you—something I've been trying to tell you since the night of the wedding.”

“What is it?” she asked, once she was seated.

Luke paced the floor directly in front of her chair. “I should've told you much sooner, but with everything else that's going on in your life, finding the right time has been difficult.” He paused and frowned at her as though he was having trouble choosing his words.

“Yes?” she coaxed.

“I'm buying the Circle L.”

The kitchen started to sway. Kate reached out and gripped the edge of the table. She'd hoped it would be months, at least, before a buyer was found. And it had never occurred to her that Luke might be that buyer. “I see,” she said, smiling through her shock. “I…I'd have thought Dad would've said something himself.”

“I asked him not to.”

Her troubled gaze clashed with Luke's. Despite her shock she felt curious. How could Luke afford to buy a ranch, especially one as large as this? She knew he'd been raised by an uncle, who had died years before. Had there been an inheritance? “Luke,” she ventured shyly, “I know it's none of my business, but…”

“How did I come by the money?” he finished for her. “You have every right to ask. I inherited it from my uncle Dan—I've told you about him. He owned a couple of businesses in Wyoming, where I grew up. There was also a small sum left to me by my grandfather. I invested everything, together with most of what Devin's paid me over the years, and I've got enough now to buy the ranch outright—which'll leave your dad and Dorothea in good financial shape for their retirement. I'll be able to expand the operation, too.”

Kate nodded absently. She hadn't known much about Luke's background, apart from the fact that he had very little family, that he'd lost his parents at an early age. She supposed those losses were the reason he'd been so sympathetic, such a comfort to her and Devin, at the time of Nora's death.

It still seemed too much to take in. Her home—it was going to belong to Luke. He'd move his things from the small foreman's house, though she knew he hadn't accumulated many possessions. But it meant that soon she'd be sorting through and packing up the memories of a lifetime…. She bit her lip.

He knelt in front of her, grasping her fingers with his warm, hard hands. “I realize you've been through a lot of emotional upheaval lately, but this should help.”

“Help!” she wailed. “How could it possibly—?”

“There's no reason for you to be uprooted now.”

For a stunned second she didn't react. “I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about.”

“Once we're married, we'll live right here.”

“Married!” she almost shouted. “I'm beginning to hate the sound of that word.”

“You'd better get used to it, because the way I figure, we're going to be husband and wife before Christmas. We'll let Devin and Dorothea take their vows first—I don't want to steal their thunder—and then we'll wait a couple of weeks and have the Reverend Wilkins marry us.”

“Luke, this is all very sweet of you, but
it isn't necessary.
” Kate was convinced that this sudden desire to make her his wife was founded in sympathy. He felt sorry for her because of all the unexpected jolts that had hit her recently. Including this latest one.

“I can't understand why you're arguing with me.”

Her hand caressed his jaw. How square and strong it was, and the eyes that gazed at her had never seemed darker or more magnetic. She smiled sadly. “Don 't you think it's a little…odd to be discussing marriage when you've never once said you love me?”

“I love you.”

It should have been a solemn moment, but Kate couldn't help laughing. “Oh, Luke, that was terrible.”

“I'm serious. I love you and you love me.”

“Of course we love each other, but what we feel is what
friends
feel. The kind of love brothers and sisters share.”

Fire leaped into his eyes, unlike anything she'd seen in him before. With any other man, she would have been frightened—but this was Luke….

“Instead of looking at me as if you're tempted to turn me over your knee, you should be grateful I'm not holding you to your word.”

“Kate,” he said loudly, “we're getting married.” He spoke as though he was daring her to disagree with him.

She lowered her head and brushed his lips with her own. “No, we're not. I'll always be grateful to have a friend as good as you, Luke Rivers. Every woman deserves someone just as kind and thoughtful, but we'd be making the biggest mistake of our lives if we went through with this marriage.”

“I don't think that's true.”

“I'm sane and rational, and I'm not going to disintegrate under the emotional stress of Clay's wedding or my father's remarriage, or the sale of the ranch. Life goes on—I learned that after my mother died. It sounds so clichéd, but it's the truth. I learned to deal with losing her and I'll do the same with everything else.”

“Kate, you don't get it. I
want
to marry you.”

“Oh, Luke, it's so nice of you. But you don't love me. Not the way you should. Someday, you'll make some lucky woman a fantastic husband.” Kate had grown accustomed to his comfortable presence. But while she felt at ease with him, she experienced none of the thrill, the urgent excitement, that being in love entailed. Well, of course, there was her reaction to Luke's kisses—but that was an aberration, she told herself.

With Clay, the intensity of emotion had wrapped itself around her so securely that she'd been sure it would last a lifetime. Kate hadn't fooled herself into believing Clay felt as strongly for her. He'd been fond of her, and Kate had been willing to settle for that. But it hadn't been enough for him. And she wasn't allowing Luke to settle for second-best, either.

“People are going to talk, so we both have to do our best to put an end to the rumors.”

“I don't intend to do any such thing,” Luke said, his jaw rigid. His eyes narrowed. “Kate, darling, a marriage between us is inevitable. The sooner you accept that, the better it'll be for everyone involved.”

“T
he way I figure it,” Kate said, munching on a carrot stick, “I'm only going to convince Luke I don't intend to marry him by dating someone else.”

Linda looked as if she were about to swallow her apple whole. The two were seated in the school lunchroom on Friday afternoon, reviewing plans for the Thanksgiving play their two classes would present the following month.

“Dating someone else?” Linda echoed, still wearing a stunned expression. “A few days ago you said you were finished with love and completely opposed to the idea of men and marriage.”

“I'm not expecting to fall in love again,” Kate explained impatiently. “That would be ridiculous.”

“You talk about being ridiculous?” Linda asked, setting down her half-eaten apple. “We were discussing Pilgrim costumes and suddenly you decide you want to start dating. I take it you're not referring to Miles Standish?”

“Of course not.”

“That's what I thought.”

Kate supposed she wasn't making a lot of sense to her friend. Luke and the issue of marriage had been on her mind all week, but she'd carefully avoided any mention of the subject. Until now. The rumors regarding her and Luke continued to burn like a forest fire through Nightingale, aided, Kate was sure, by the silly grin Luke wore around town, and the fact that he was buying her father's ranch. True, he hadn't pressured her into setting a wedding date again, but the thought was there, waiting to ambush her every time they were in the same room. She used to be able to laugh and joke with Luke, but lately, the minute they were together, Kate found herself raising protective barriers.

“All right, you've piqued my curiosity,” Linda said, her eyes flashing with humor. “Tell me about this sudden interest in the opposite sex.”

“I want to stop the rumors, naturally.” And convince Luke that her marriage proposal had been rooted in self-pity. He'd been so strong and she'd felt so fragile….

Linda pushed aside the pages of the Thanksgiving project notes. “Have you picked anyone in particular?”

“No,” Kate murmured, frowning. “I've been out of circulation for so long, I'm not sure who's available.”

“No one,” Linda told her in a despondent voice. “And I should know. If you want the truth, I think Nightingale would make an excellent locale for a convent. Have you ever considered the religious life?”

Kate ignored that. “Didn't I hear Sally Daley mention something about a new guy who recently moved to town? She seemed to think he was single.”

“Eric Wilson. Attorney, mid-thirties, divorced, with a small mole on his left shoulder.”

Kate was astonished. “Good heavens, how did Sally know all that?”

Linda shook her head. “I don't even want to guess.”

“Eric Wilson.” Kate repeated it slowly, letting each syllable roll off her tongue. She decided the name had a friendly feel, though it didn't really tell her anything about the man himself.

“Have you met him?” Kate asked her friend.

“No, but you're welcome to him, if you want. My track record with divorced men isn't exactly great. The only reason Sally said anything to me was that she assumed you and Luke would be married before the holidays were over.” Linda grimaced. “She thought I'd need her help in finding a date for the wedding.”

A sense of panic momentarily overtook Kate. This wedding nonsense was completely out of hand, which meant she had to come up with another man
now.

“There's always Andy Barrett,” she murmured. Andy worked at the pharmacy and was single. True, he wasn't exactly a heartthrob, but he was a decent-enough sort.

Linda immediately rejected that possibility. “No one in town would believe you'd choose Andy over Luke.” A smile played across her mouth, as if she found the idea of Kate and Andy together somehow comical. “Andy 's sweet, don't get me wrong,” Linda amended, “but Luke's a real man.”

“I'll think of someone,” Kate murmured, her determination fierce.

Linda started to gather her Thanksgiving notes. “If you're serious about this, then you may have no choice but to import a man from Portland.”

“You're kidding, I hope,” Kate groaned.

“Nope. I'm dead serious,” Linda said, shoving everything into her briefcase.

Her friend's words echoed depressingly through Kate's mind as she pushed her cart to the frozen-food section of the grocery store later that afternoon. She peered at the TV dinners, trying to choose something for dinner. Her father had dined with Dorothea every night since they'd become engaged, and the wedding was planned for early December.

“The beef burgundy is good,” a resonant male voice said from behind her.

Kate turned to face a tall, friendly-looking man with flashing blue eyes and a lazy smile.

“Eric Wilson,” he introduced himself, holding out his hand.

“Kate Logan,” she said, her heart racing as they exchanged handshakes. It was all Kate could do not to tell him she'd been talking about him only minutes before and that she'd learned he was possibly the only single prospect in town—other than Luke, of course. How bizarre that they should run into each other almost immediately afterward. Perhaps not! Perhaps it was fate.

“The Salisbury steak isn't half-bad, either.” As if to prove his point, he deposited both the beef burgundy and the Salisbury steak frozen dinners in his cart.

“You sound as though you know.”

“I've discovered frozen entrées are less trouble than a wife.”

He frowned as he spoke, so she guessed that his divorce had been unpleasant. Sally would be able to provide the details, and Kate made a mental note to ask her. She'd do it blatantly, of course, since Sally would spread Kate's interest in the transplanted lawyer all over the county.

“You're new in town, aren't you? An attorney?”

Eric nodded. “At your service.”

Kate was thinking fast. It'd been a long time since she'd flirted with a man—if you didn't count the way she'd behaved at the wedding. “Does that mean I can sue you if the beef burgundy isn't to my liking?”

He grinned at that, and although her comment hadn't been especially witty, she felt encouraged by his smile.

“You might have trouble getting the judge to listen to your suit, though,” he told her.

“Judge Webster is my uncle,” she said, laughing.

“And I suppose you're his favorite niece.”

“Naturally.”

“In that case, might I suggest we avoid the possibility of a lawsuit and I buy you dinner?”

That was so easy Kate couldn't believe it. She'd been out of the dating game years, and she'd been sure it would take a while to get the hang of it again. “I 'd be delighted.”

It wasn't until Kate was home, high on her success, that she realized Eric, as a new man in town, was probably starved for companionship. That made her pride sag just a little, but she wasn't about to complain. Within hours of declaring that she wanted to start dating, she'd met a man. An attractive, pleasant man, too. It didn't matter that he'd asked her out because he was lonely or that he was obviously still embittered by his divorce. A date was a date.

Kate showered and changed into a mid-calf burgundy wool skirt and a rose-colored silk blouse. She was putting the last coat of polish on her nails when her father strolled into the kitchen. Even from her position at the far side of the room, Kate caught a strong whiff of his spicy aftershave. She smiled.

“You look nice, Dad.”

“Thanks,” he said, tugging on the lapels of his tweed jacket, then brushing the sleeves.

“Do you want me to wait up for you?”

A flush worked its way up Devin's neck. “Of course not.”

Kate loved teasing him, and as their eyes met, they both started to laugh.

“You're looking awfully pretty yourself,” Devin commented. “Are you and Luke going out?”

“Eric Wilson is taking me to dinner.”

Devin regarded her quizzically. “Who? You're kidding, aren't you?”

“No.” She gave him a warning frown. “Eric's new here. We met in the frozen-food section at the grocery store this afternoon and he asked me to dinner.”

“And you accepted?” His eyes were wide with astonishment.

“Of course. It beats sitting around here and watching reruns on television.”

“But…but what about Luke?”

“What about him?”

“I thought…I'd hoped after Clay's wedding that the two of you might—”

“Dad, Luke's a dear friend, but we're not in love with each other.”

For a moment Devin looked as if he wanted to argue, but apparently decided against it. “He's a good man, Princess.”

“Trust me, I know that. If it wasn't for Luke, I wouldn't have survived the last couple of months.”

“Folks in town have the impression that you two might be falling in love, and I can't say I blame them after watching you at the wedding.”

Kate focused her attention on polishing her nails, knowing that an identical shade of red had crept into her cheeks.

“Luke and I are friends, Dad, nothing more,” she repeated.

“I don't mind letting you know, Kate, that I think very highly of Luke. If I were to handpick a husband for you, it would be him.”

“I…think Luke's wonderful, too,” she said, her words faltering.

“Now that he's buying the ranch, well, it seems natural that the two of you—”

“Dad, please,” she whispered. “I 'm not in love with Luke, and he doesn't love me.”

“That's a real pity,” came Devin's softly drawled response. He reached for his hat, then paused by the door. “I don't suppose Luke knows you're going out tonight, does he?”

“There isn't any reason to tell him.” She tried to act nonchalant. But she desperately wanted to avoid another showdown with Luke. Pleadingly, she raised her eyes to her father. “You aren't going to tell him, are you?”

“I won't lie to him.”

“Oh, I wouldn't expect you to do that,” Kate murmured. She blew at the dark-red polish on her nails, trying to dry them quickly. With luck, Eric would arrive soon and she could make her escape before she encountered Luke.

Kate should have known that was asking too much. She was standing at the kitchen window beside the oak table, waiting for Eric's headlights to come down the long drive, when Luke walked into the house.

Kate groaned inwardly, but said nothing. Her fingers tightened on the curtain as she changed her silent entreaty. Now she prayed that Eric would be late.

“You've got your coat on,” Luke observed as he poured a mug of coffee.

“I'll be leaving in a couple of minutes,” she said, hoping she didn't sound as tense as she felt. Then, a little guiltily, she added, “I baked some oatmeal cookies yesterday. The cookie jar's full, so help yourself.”

He did exactly that, then sat down at the table. “If I didn't know better, I'd think you were waiting for someone.”

“I am.”

“Who?”

“A…friend.” Her back was to him, but Kate could feel the tension between them.

“Are you upset about something?”

“No. Should I be?” she asked in an offhand manner.

“You've been avoiding me all week,” he said.

He was sitting almost directly behind her and Kate felt his presence acutely. Her knees were shaking, her breath coming in short, uneven gulps. She felt light-headed. It had to be nerves. If Luke discovered she was going to dinner with Eric, there could be trouble. Yes, she told herself, that explained the strange physical reaction she was experiencing.

“Kate, love—”

“Please,” she implored, “don't call me that.” She released the curtain and turned to face him. “I made a mistake, and considering the circumstances, it was understandable. Please, Luke, can't you drop this whole marriage business? Please?”

His look of shocked surprise didn't do anything to settle her nerves. A strained moment passed before Luke relaxed, chuckling. “I 've broken stallions who've given me less trouble than you.”

“I'm no stallion.”

Luke chuckled again, and before she could move, his arms reached out and circled her waist to pull her onto his lap.

Kate was so astonished that for a crazy moment she didn't react at all. “Let me go,” she said stiffly, holding her chin at a regal angle.

He ignored her demand and lightly ran the tips of his fingers along the side of her jaw, stroking downward to cup her chin. “I 've missed you this week, Princess.”

A trail of warmth followed his cool fingers, and a foreign sensation nibbled at her stomach. Kate didn't know what was wrong with her—and she didn't
want
to know.