Promise Me Texas (A Whispering Mountain Novel) (27 page)

He brushed his hand over her warm body as he kissed her throat. “Wake up, dear, it’s time to make love again.”

She stretched, pushing her breasts against his chest. “Wake me up with your hands on me, Andrew.”

And he did.

CHAPTER 35

T
HE NEXT MORNING
A
NDREW OPENED ONE EYE AND
saw Beth rushing about fully clothed, unfortunately, and making coffee.

“Wife.” He said the word as if it were an endearment. “We’re going to have to cure you of this infernal habit of waking up early. Come back to bed.”

She laughed and came to him, carrying a cup of steaming coffee. “We promised we’d have breakfast with the kids, so you have to get up.”

“No, come back to bed.”

She smiled. “I’d like to. Last night was wonderful, Andrew.” Setting the coffee on the table, she perched on the edge of the bed. “The first time was all new and I was half afraid I’d do something wrong; the second time was slow and I felt like I was floating; but the third time . . . The way you did that thing with your—”

He grabbed her arm and pulled her to him. After a quick kiss, he said, “Are you always going to talk about it? Beth, people just do it, they don’t talk about it. I don’t think it’s proper conversation over breakfast.”

“Why not? I think it would be fun to write a book about making love. Of course I’ve got a lot to learn first, so I’ll have to practice and I’ll have to use a pen name. My papa would kill me.”

He cupped the back of her head and kissed her again. She might be headstrong, but she was adorable, and her talking about what they’d done filled his mind. He’d never made love so completely, and one night’s taste of her body would never be enough.

When she giggled, he pulled away and raised an eyebrow. “You’re teasing me about the book?”

“Of course. How else will I get you to kiss me so early? Have you ever noticed you always kiss me when you want to shut me up?”

He reached to kiss her again.

She moved away before he could make his brain work. His woman was teasing him. No one ever teased him. Not lovingly. Not for fun.

“You’re sleeping with me tonight, and I plan to make you pay by torturing you with the promise of a morning mating, then moving out of reach.”

Her sweet innocent smile was back. “Sounds like fun. I’ll make a note to allow time for that next time, but right now you have to get dressed.”

They were still laughing as they walked toward the main house hand-in-hand. All he wanted to do was spend the day in bed, but she had other plans, and Beth wasn’t a woman easily talked into changing her mind.

“Are you sure your leg is strong enough for this walk? It’s almost a mile to the house.”

He gripped her hand as he shortened his step to match hers. “I’ve been walking a little more each day. In truth, I think the bath helped more than anything, but I’m not moving back to the main house. While I’m here, I’ll stay at the cabin.”

He looked at her. “And you’ll be staying with me at night.”

She was silent. An ocean of unsaid words floated between them. They might talk about their mating, but they’d never talked of a future. He knew it was too late to walk away with his heart, but how would she react if he told her he wanted what they had to be real? She’d said she loved him, but she hadn’t asked for love in return.

He held her hand tighter, wishing everything could stay exactly like it was now. Only he knew it couldn’t. The world never stopped spinning and changing. There was so much he had to say to her, but he wanted it to be the right time, the right place.

As they walked in the crisp morning air, she told him about the horses raised on their ranch. Andrew only half-listened. Everything between them had changed last night in the little cabin. They’d changed. He’d stopped fighting his need for her, and she’d told him she loved him. The feelings were too raw to talk about. For now, it seemed all right to pretend there was only today.

Colby and the boys rushed out to greet them, Levi talking as fast as he could and Leonard smiling. Colby had already taken them riding at dawn, and Levi claimed he rode faster than the wind.

Andrew didn’t miss the way Colby stared at Madie when she stepped onto the porch. She smiled at him.

“Mr. McLaughlin,” Colby said, pulling off his hat as they entered the house, “I was wondering if I could have a word with you two before we go in with the others.”

“Can this wait until after breakfast?” Andrew asked.

“No, sir,” the cowboy answered.

Andrew nodded and crossed to the study with Beth beside him. “We must have trouble if it has to be talked about before we eat.”

“No, sir,” Colby answered, but he had the look of a man about to be shot.

Andrew studied him. “Just say what you need to say, Colby. You know we’re on your side whatever happens.”

Colby made an effort to stand still. He cleared his throat twice and started. “Since you’re the closest thing Madeline has to parents, I thought I’d ask you if I could marry her. We talked about my place last night, and she said she wouldn’t mind living out on a ranch. I’d have to teach her to ride and shoot, but she says she’s willing to learn.”

Beth shook her head and moved forward to protest, but Andrew spoke first. “Are you sure you could provide for her?”

“I can. I got a nice house on my land, and I’m planning to run three hundred head come spring. There’s a spot for a garden behind the house, and my grandma planted apple trees down by the stream. She and the baby wouldn’t want for anything.”

“Have you asked her?”

“No, not directly, but I mentioned it.” Colby looked nervous. “I thought I’d talk to you first. Then, I’d tell her to pack.”

Andrew swore he could feel the heat firing from Beth.

“You’ll do no such thing,” Beth snapped. “You’ll ask her, right and proper, and if she says no, you’ll walk away without saying a word to hurt her feelings.”

Colby looked at Andrew and asked, “That’s how it’s done? I don’t see no need of it. She’ll marry me if I tell her to.”

Andrew had no idea how it was done. He and Hannah just spent an evening talking and went to the courthouse the next day. She moved her things in that night.

He cleared his throat. “That’s how a man does it, Colby. It’s her decision, not yours. If she says no, you walk away.”

Colby didn’t look happy. “Then call her in now and I’ll ask. I don’t want to do any more planning if she’s not smart enough to say yes.”

Since Beth looked like she might hit Colby at any moment, Andrew asked her to go get Madie. While she was gone, he talked to the kid. Andrew felt like he knew little more than Colby about women, but Colby knew nothing.

Madie seemed frightened when she stepped into the study. “What’s wrong?” she questioned. “Breakfast is ready.”

“It will wait,” Colby said. “I have something I want to ask you in front of witnesses.”

Madie straightened, but her eyes showed her fright.

Colby awkwardly took her hand. “Madeline, will you marry me and come live with me?”

“All right,” she said. “But I’ve been thinking about what you said last night and, if you won’t sleep with me until after the baby comes, I want to stay here until then.”

“But—”

She raised her head. “Mrs. McLaughlin said I was to speak my mind when I came in here. I love you, Colby, but I want a real wedding in a church with a white dress. I want a hope chest to bring with me that’s full of all the things I’ve made, so your house will be my house too.”

Colby frowned, glanced at Andrew, and then made up his mind. “All right. You stay here until the baby’s born and you’re recovered. It will be easier on you having other women around, but we marry now. I have to leave at dawn tomorrow and I’ll know you’re my wife before I go.”

“But why?” Madie asked. “The wedding can wait a few months.”

“No,” Colby answered. “I need to know that you belong to me. I need a wife and you need me.” He looked at Andrew as if remembering what he’d been told. “We’ll make a good life together, you and me. I’ll be kind to you.”

“Do you love me, Colby?”

The cowboy blushed. “How could I not, Madie? I should tell you it wasn’t something I planned, but when I left you in Fort Worth, you refused to leave my head. I need to be on my ranch, but I needed to see you more. The only peace I’ll get in this life is if I have you with me.”

Madie agreed. “Then we go to town today. You can find a preacher and ask if we can borrow the church. I’ll buy a dress from the store.”

Beth straightened like a soldier hearing the battle call. She’d planned parties for years; a wedding wouldn’t be that different. “The McMurrays keep a little house next to the church in town. You can dress there while we make all the plans.”

Andrew shook his head. “We can’t leave the ranch. This is the one place we know we’re safe. Beth, this doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s the only thing that makes sense.” Beth moved away from him. “We’ll take guards. It will only be for a few hours, and Madie will have the wedding she wants. You don’t understand how important it is for a woman.”

He looked over at Madie and Colby. They were both kids, probably having no idea how hard their lives would be, but as they looked at each other, he saw all he needed to see. They belonged together.

“All right. I’ll talk to Tobin. We’ll go in early and make sure everything is safe. All of you can drive in under guard later. Two hours in town. No more.” Andrew reasoned that the only threat was Peterson, and he wasn’t likely to pull anything in the middle of town. Besides, Peterson just wanted the map, and maybe Andrew dead. He wasn’t after anyone else. “Two hours,” he repeated, as if he thought they could pull off a wedding in that amount of time.

“Yes, dear,” she said as she kissed his cheek and vanished to find her mother.

Six hours later Andrew stood next to Colby in the little chapel and watched Madie walk down the aisle in a white dress with bluebonnets embroidered on the hem. It was a size too big for her in the shoulders, but it fit around her waist.

Father Benjamin sang a song in French that he said was a love song. With his beard now two inches long, he really was starting to look like a priest.

The young preacher, whom they’d found still moving into the parsonage, nervously performed what was obviously his first wedding. The boys and Tobin sat in the first row along with Beth and her mother. A line of old Texas Rangers who’d retired to Whispering Mountain sat in the back acting as guards.

When all the
I do
’s were said, they moved to the little house and had a late lunch. Madie cried with joy at each one of the gifts Jessie McMurray had bought and put a different person’s name on.

Colby couldn’t seem to stop smiling. Andrew heard him tell Madie that they were now a family, and before long he’d have to build onto the house to hold all the kids.

She kissed his cheek. “Promise me you’ll never toss the oldest one out because we have too many.”

“I promise,” he said. “With each one I’ll count it a blessing.”

Andrew wasn’t sure he’d ever given much thought to having children, but he doubted he’d ever be brave enough to tell a woman who seemed to get in a family way as easily as Madie did that he’d welcome as many as possible.

Beth moved beneath his arm. “It was a nice wedding even if we did have to put it together in a few hours.”

“Do you ever wish you had a wedding, Beth?”

“No, I guess I’ll stick to my plan to never marry once you leave me. I’ll wait for a while, claiming you’ll be back, and then I might wear black and tell everyone you died. After a year, I’ll move into town, a respectable widow. There will be no wedding for me.”

Suddenly the plan they’d talked about seemed terribly sad. He wanted to tell her that maybe there was a new plan if she’d consider keeping him on at the job of husband. But now wasn’t the time or the place.

He tried to keep the mood light. “If I die in this plan of yours, do I have to show up in a box? I can manage to play a pretend husband, but I’m not so sure about a pretend corpse.”

She shrugged. “I’ll tell everyone you died at sea.”

“You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you, wife? What if I spoil your plan and stay around for a while? I wouldn’t mind repeating last night a few thousand times.”

She shook her head as her thoughts tumbled into words. “No. If you stayed, you’d have to marry me for real, and I’d never marry a man who wouldn’t say he loved me.”

Andrew closed his eyes. “Don’t tease me, Beth; we promised we would never lie to each other. Not about this. You must know how deeply I care for you.”

“I’m not teasing. I’m stating a fact. Because of last night I know what paradise I’m giving up, but if you can’t love me, then you have to leave me.”

Other people circled around them and he had no time to say more. He wanted to tell her how much she meant to him, but not like this. Not in a room full of people. Not because she’d driven him to it.

They were silent on the way home. Beth sat at his side and joined all the others in conversation. He could feel the warmth of her leg pressed against his. He could see her frosty breath in the cold air, but she seemed a million miles away.

When they reached the main house, she climbed out with the others, and he knew he’d be sleeping alone tonight. She was stubborn, headstrong, spoiled, and about to drive him mad.

“Beth,” he shouted as she reached the door. “Could you bring me that journal I left in the parlor?”