Here Comes the Bride (21 page)

He stopped, shrugging his shoulders in resignation.

“You mean she deserves better ’n you.” Bart’s frustration boiled over. “An’ yer right. She deserves a man who’s willin’ to fight for her, who ain’t sittin’ here feelin’ sorry for himself when he ain’t got no right to be. She deserves a man who ain’t scared of ’er.”

“I’m not scared of her!” Gabe snapped, sitting a little straighter. “It’s . . .”

“It’s just you’re scared she’s gonna up an’ die on ya.”

Gabe stopped his horse with a jerk.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded, Zeus rebelling against the hold Gabe had on the reins.

Bart pulled up beside him and stopped.

“Come on, Gabe, I know I ain’t the brightest star in the sky, but hell, this is as plain as the day is long. You think ’cause she’s a city girl like Mama and Catarina, she’s got no business living out here.”

“It’s not just that. . . .”

“No, I know it ain’t. Yer so damn scared that even if she could stand livin’ out here, she’d prob’ly up and die on you anyway. Well, I got news for you, big brother—we’re all gonna die one day.”

“I know that!”

“So wouldn’t you rather spend what time you got here with someone worthwhile rather than a bunch a stinkin’ ol’ cow punchers?”

Gabe set his jaw before he spoke.

“But what if . . .”

“What if she decides tomorrow or next week or next year she can’t stand livin’ out here? What if she decides you ain’t the man for her? Or what if she’s the next one to get bit by a rattler?”

“Yeah, Bart, now that you mention it, what if any one of those things?”

“The hell with all of those things, Gabe! I coulda easily said what if she decides this here’s heaven right on earth? Or what if she decides for some crazy reason yer the only man she’s ever gonna want? Or what if she lives to be a hundred? Sure it’s a gamble, but hell, Gabe, if you don’t take that gamble, how you ever gonna know?”

“I’m not the gambler in the family,” Gabe said cynically.

“Yeah, well, I ain’t usually the one talkin’ sense neither and look at me go.”

Bart spat into the dirt below him and spurred his horse forward, leaving Gabe to stare in wonderment after him. Who was that man and what the hell did he do with the old Bart?

“Frankie tells me yer acquainted with them Calloways.” Wyatt Langman made no attempt to disguise his accusatory tone.

The Langman kitchen fell deathly quiet.

“Yes,” Tess answered tentatively, peering over her coffee cup.

“Don’t much like them boys,” he said, picking his teeth with his long, yellowed fingernail. “Their pa weren’t good fer nothin’.”

Tess arched her brow. “I’m afraid I never met the man.”

Wyatt grunted. “Man murdered my boy Adam, right there in Dottie’s saloon.”

“Now, Pa,” Collette intervened. “The judge ruled that an accident. Besides, you and Adam—and probably Clayton, too, as far as that goes—were too drunk to know what was going on or why.”

Tess thought she caught something strange in Collette’s expression but it passed too quickly to be sure.

“Don’t you talk to Pa that way!” One of the brothers, Tess guessed it was Evan, was on his feet, his pasty face splotched in anger. “You ain’t got no idea . . .”

“Sit down, son,” Wyatt ordered. “I won’t have no one raisin’ their voice to a lady in my house. It ain’t right.”

The man sat down, but his glare only darkened.

“She shouldn’t be talkin’ to you like that, Pa. She don’t know what happened. She weren’t there.”

“Neither were you, Evan,” Collette pointed out. “The only witnesses were either already passed out or too drunk to see clearly, so we’ll never know what really happened, will we? Besides it was almost twenty years ago, why can’t we let it go?”

“Let it go?” Wyatt repeated. Tess noticed the blue vein on the side of his neck begin to throb. “Now you listen here, Lettie. Adam was your brother, whether you remember him or not, and I don’t care what no one says no how, murder is murder, and so help me God, Clayton Calloway should rot in hell fer what he done.”

“Pa . . .”

“That’s the end of it.” He turned his attention back to Tess who had to force her eyes to blink back the fear she felt lurking within them.

“Now, Miss Tess,” he said. “I won’t have those Calloways on my land, you hear? As long as yer a guest in this house, you keep that in mind. I can’t stop you from seein’ them in town but if I ever see them on my land again, I’ll shoot ’em both deader ’n a can of corned beef. Understand?”

Tess could only nod for fear if she opened her mouth she would scream.

“Good.” Wyatt pushed back from the table. “Come on, boys, we got us some work to do.”

The Langman boys, all six of them, filed out of the house behind Wyatt, leaving Tess and Collette alone in the kitchen. Tess had been living at the Langman ranch for over a week but still was not accustomed to the Langman brothers.

“Don’t mind Pa,” Collette said softly, her voice shaking. “As Damon says, he’s more gurgle than guts. He’d never do anything to Bart or Gabe.”

“He sounded very convincing to me.” Tess lowered her cup and reached for Collette’s hand. “You can’t have Bart coming to call on you here if that is how your father feels about him.”

The girl nodded. “I know, but if Pa finds out I’ve seen Bart on the side, he’ll be even angrier. Oh, Tess, what am I going to do?”

Tess inhaled deeply, patted Collette’s arm, and smiled her determined smile.

“Don’t you fret, we’ll figure something out. Now why don’t you explain your family to me?”

“What do you mean?” Collette asked. She lifted the coffeepot from the stove and filled their cups.

“I don’t mean to pry,” Tess was quick to say, “but if Adam was already grown by the time you were born and he’s been dead almost twenty years, your mother must have been an incredibly strong and durable woman.”

Collette laughed. “My mother was, yes. Adam’s mother on the other hand . . .”

“I don’t understand.”

“My pa’s been married four times, Tess.” She laughed harder at Tess’s shock. “Yes, it was quite the scandal, I suppose, but it’s so long ago it doesn’t really matter anymore, does it?”

“Four times?” Tess asked. “He doesn’t seem old enough. . . .”

“He’s close to sixty.” Collette nodded. “You’d never guess it to look at him, but he is. He married his first wife, Adeline, when he was eighteen. Adam was born within a year, and then a year later she died birthing Beau.”

“That’s awful,” Tess sighed, her thoughts straying to Emma Calloway and her own tragic demise.

“Yes,” Collette agreed, “but that’s only the beginning. Pa had no idea how to look after babies, nor did he have any interest, I suspect, so he remarried right away.”

“That’s not so unusual,” Tess said. “Don’t men usually remarry quickly when they have young children?”

“Maybe, but they don’t usually marry their dead wife’s sister!” She giggled. “It’s okay, Tess, I think it’s all rather amusing myself. Pa married Adeline’s sister, Virginia, less than a month after Adeline died. Virginia soon found herself in the motherly way as well, and over the next seven or eight years, they had Clint, Damon, and Evan. Apparently, she was unable to carry any more children after that, though God knows they tried. To hear Beau tell it, poor Virginia lost at least one child every year after that until her death.”

“How did she die?” Tess asked, shaking her head in disbelief.

“I believe she bled to death after losing one of the babies.”

“Oh my Lord.”

Collette nodded. “Anyway, Pa took his time in remarrying after her. Evan was the youngest at that point, I think he was about three or four. Then Pa married Harriet, who gave him Frankie and Garth, and finally he married my mother, Margaret. She passed when I was fourteen.”

“My goodness, Collette, that’s quite a story.”

“I know there’s more to the stories than what I’ve been told, but I’m almost afraid to ask.”

“What do you mean?”

Collette’s face flushed. “There’s been talk in town for as long as I can remember that my parents were . . . that they . . . knew each other long before they were married. Long before Harriet ever died.”

“Oh dear,” Tess breathed. “That must have given the old biddies in town something to flap about, I’m sure. Has your father ever said anything to you about it?”

Collette shook her head. “I’ve never asked. He did marry my mother, after all, whether it was out of love or duty, I don’t know, and quite frankly, I don’t think I want to know.”

“You’re probably right,” she nodded. They sat in silence for a few moments, sipping their coffee. “May I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

“It’s really none of my business.”

“Tess,” Collette smiled. “I have no secrets from you. Go ahead.”

“Okay.” She chewed her lip for a moment, unable to find a tactful way to phrase her question. “What is it about Adam’s death that has you so guilt ridden?”

Collette blanched.

“I’m sorry, Collette,” Tess hurried on. “You don’t have to answer; it’s none of my business. I just . . .”

“No, Tess. I’ll tell you.” Tess waited patiently while Collette gathered herself. “There was talk, just talk mind you, that my mother wasn’t as faithful to Pa as she should have been.”

“You mean . . .”

Collette nodded. “People started talking about how much time she was spending away from the ranch, away from Pa, and how much time she was spending with . . . with . . .”

“Collette?”

She cleared her throat. “With Clayton Calloway.”

“What?” Tess’s jaw dropped nearly to the table. “Surely . . .”

“No,” Collette hurried to say, “it turned out she was going over to El Cielo quite often, but it was because of Rosa. She and Rosa had become close friends, but to the snoops in town all they saw was a married woman spending time at a widower’s ranch. They even went so far as to accuse her of trying to pass me off as Pa’s child when I was really Clayton’s.”

“But you look just like your pa!” Tess cried. “How could they even think such things?”

Collette shrugged. “People are nasty. Anyway, Clint and Damon say I looked more like Mama when I was a baby so there was really no way to tell. Pa met up with Clayton at the saloon one night and they got into it pretty badly. Pa can get terribly mean when he’s been drinking, and I believe Adam was trying to keep the two of them apart when he got caught in the middle.” She paused, took a sip of her now tepid coffee, and continued. “So you see, Tess, if it hadn’t been for me, Adam would still be alive today.”

“Oh, Collette, that’s not true! It wasn’t your fault, for goodness’ sake. You had nothing to do with it.”

“I’d like to believe that, but my stomach tumbles and rolls every time I think about it.”

Tess studied the girl’s face. She was sure just by the look in Collette’s eyes that Wyatt Langman had done next to nothing to assuage the girl’s worries.

“Mama told me the truth,” Collette almost whispered, “but I still can’t help but feel responsible.”

“You see?” Tess smiled back. “There you go—your mother would never lie to you about something like that, would she?”

“No,” she said. “Especially since she knew how I felt about Bart. If he and I shared the same father, I would need to know.”

“But you said your mother passed away when you were fourteen. Surely . . .”

Collette flushed clear up to her scalp. “I’ve always loved Bart,” she confessed. “For as long as I can remember, he’s always been the one. I have always hoped and dreamed one day . . . well, that one day I would be more to him than just another stupid Langman.”

“Collette!”

“It’s true.” The girl laughed. “I know what people say about my family, and when it comes to my brothers, they’re usually right. Please don’t misunderstand me, Tess. I love my brothers to death—all of them—but they do tend to be a little thick sometimes. And Bart knows it, too.”

Tess’s heart tightened in her chest. “You’ve known your whole life Bart was the one for you?”

Collette nodded.

“And you’ve waited all this time, even when he left town and stayed away all this while?”

Another nod. “I love him. I’ve always believed in the power of love, even if it seemed impossible.”

Tess sighed. “That’s exactly how Gabriel makes it seem—impossible.”

“You haven’t given up on him, have you?”

“I don’t know, Collette. I know I love him, I know I will always love him, but he’s determined not to love me back, so what can I do? I can’t force him to love me any more than I can force myself not to love him.”

“Maybe he’ll come around.”

“I don’t think so.” Tess lifted her chin a notch and tried to smile. “He’s a very determined man.”

“And you, Tess Kinley, are a very determined woman. If it’s Gabe Calloway you want, then you have to believe it is Gabe Calloway you will have.”

“It takes two, Collette, and he will not let himself get close to me.”

“So what will you do? Find another man to love?”

“It’s not quite that simple I’m afraid. I wish it was, though.” Tess frowned down to her soul. “I won’t ever love another man the way I love Gabriel. And I will not marry unless I’m in love.”

Collette nodded. “We are so alike, you and I. Pa has tried, God bless him, to marry me off more times than I can count, but I always refused. I knew what I wanted; I just had to wait for him. Maybe that’s all you have to do, too.”

“I’d wait forever if I thought for one minute Gabriel would eventually love me, but I don’t think he ever will. I sound so pathetic, I know, but the only man I will ever marry is Gabriel. Unless he can let himself feel the same way about me, I will die an old spinster.”

“Oh, Tess, there must be something we can do.”

“I’m afraid not,” she answered, her heart breaking as hard as her voice. “But enough moping about me. Tell me about you and Bart. What happened the other night? I was so caught up in my own selfishness, I never thought to ask.”

Collette’s face lit up like the morning sun.

“Oh, Tess, it was so wonderful.” She closed her eyes, her hands clutched under her chin. “He told me he means to court me, to woo me, to make himself the only man in my life.”

“That’s wonderful!” Tess cried. “You must be so happy.”

“I am,” she gushed. “It’s . . . well, you heard Pa. Bart Calloway is not exactly the man Pa ever envisioned me married to.”

“Yes, well, I’m sure he never envisioned he’d be married to his own sister-in-law either. We can’t always control our fate, Collette.”

“I know, but it’s going to take some time before Pa is ready to accept the fact I am going to marry Bart. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but some day.”

“What about your brothers?”

Collette waved her hand through the air. “Pish. Who cares what they think? They do what Pa tells them to do and that’s it. I don’t think they could come up with a single idea between them.”

Tess laughed. “That’s an awful thing to say.”

“I know, but it’s true. The last great idea they had was to sneak onto El Cielo and rustle some of Gabe’s herd. Just ask Beau how well that went—and he’s supposed to be the smart one of the bunch.”

“Bart told me about Beau and his . . . mishap,” Tess admitted guiltily. “It must have hurt something awful.”

“He deserved it.” Collette shrugged. “Now, what do you say you and I walk into town? I hear Mrs. Clark got in a whole passel of fancy dresses and I’m dying to see them.”

Tess smiled warmly. It had been a long time since she had enjoyed a relaxing afternoon with a good friend, and since Lily had agreed to share the Saturday shifts, Tess had the whole day off.

“I think that sounds wonderful. I’ll go freshen up a little.”

“Good idea.” Collette smirked. “You never know who you might see in town, do you?”

“I . . .” Tess fumbled, a guilty grin finding its way to her mouth.

“Never you mind.” She laughed. “Get yourself upstairs and make yourself as pretty as you can. If nothing else, getting all gussied up will make you feel better, and that’s half the battle right there, isn’t it?”