Texas Tango: Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 2 (11 page)

Travis handed the wedding bands to Noah. “Hold these for me, okay? I’ll need them in a minute.”

Noah shrugged and nodded before closing his fingers around the rings resting in his palm.

“Ready, my dear?” Mamie asked.

Caroline nodded.

“We are gathered here today to witness the wedding of my beloved Caroline to Travis Montgomery. Over my lifetime I have performed hundreds of wedding ceremonies, but none more important than today’s.” She paused to cough. Patrick handed his mother a glass of water. After a couple of sips, she continued. “I’ve prayed to live to see the day Caroline joins her life with the man she loves. Thank you, God, for allowing me to be here today.” She coughed again. Her breathing became a little more labored. Caroline moved to help, but her grandmother waved her off. “I’ll be all right. Just give me a minute.”

“Mother, do I need to call a nurse?” Patrick asked.

She shook her head. “No. I can go on.” She smiled at the bridal couple. “I’d give you the short vows, but I have some I use only for the special people I marry.”

Travis leaned toward her. “I’m sure whatever vows you use will be perfect, Judge Bridges.”

“Travis, take both of Caroline’s hands and face her.”

Caroline passed the roses back to Leslie and took both of Travis’s hands. The shake of her hands had made its way up her arms. Muscles twitched and jerked with nervousness. Travis stood as straight and still as a post. He smiled and gave her fingers a light squeeze. Then he winked and Caroline’s heart sighed.

Travis was a good man. She said a quick prayer that he find love again and live the remainder of his life in happiness.

“Repeat after me,” Mamie said. “I, Travis Montgomery, take you, Caroline Bradley Graham, to be my lawfully wedded wife, my trusted friend, my faithful partner and my everlasting love from this day forward.”

“I, Travis Lane Montgomery, take you, Caroline Bradley Graham, to be my lawfully wedded wife, my trusted friend, my faithful partner and my everlasting love from this day forward.”

“In the presence of God, our family and friends.”

Guilt about what she was doing tickled Caroline’s nose. She nervously swiped her tongue across her dry lips since she couldn’t possibly scratch her nose right now. She forced her eyes to focus on his face. His somber expression melted her fear. As the deep bass of his voice repeated each sentence of the wedding vows, shards of lust vibrated through her veins.

“I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health. In good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow.”

Her heart jumped. Surely her ears were playing tricks on her. She could have sworn Travis had just said in bed instead of in bad.

Damn Texan accent.

“I promise to love you unconditionally. To support you in your goals. To honor and respect you.”

If anyone ever found out about her staging this phony wedding and basically blackmailing Travis into it, Travis could be embarrassed socially and professionally, something she’d never want. She might become the laughing stock of Whispering Springs, but that didn’t matter as much to her as protecting Travis’s name and reputation. She vowed to do whatever necessary to protect his good name.

“To laugh with you and cry with you
–” Travis flashed her a smile as he voiced her grandmother special vows. Her already trembling legs threatened to collapse under her, “—and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live.”

Mamie pressed a tissue to her mouth for a long coughing spell. Caroline noticed the tissue had a small spattering of blood due to broken blood vessels from the violence of the cough. She leaned forward. “Mamie. We can stop if this is too much for you.”

Mamie shook her head. “No. I’ve lived for this day. I want to go on.”

Caroline stood and faced Travis. She still wasn’t sure that she’d made the right decision to do this. Doing the wedding vows were using up every ounce of energy her grandmother had. But to stop now?
“I’ve lived for this day
,
”
kept reverberating through her mind. She wouldn’t take this away from her grandmother. She stiffened her back…and her resolve to continue.

“Caroline,” her grandmother rasped. “Repeat after me.”

Caroline went through the same vows Travis had just recited. The sound of her voice repeating those words sounded foreign and dreamlike, as though she were in an amateur community production of a wedding play. But as she repeated after her grandmother, she felt every word in her heart, in her soul, deep in the nucleus of every cell in her body.

And she feared that could be a problem in the future.

“Can I have the rings?” Mamie’s request jarred Caroline back to the hospital room. Noah placed the two gold bands on the Bible his grandmother held. “Patrick, would you bless these rings for me?” Mamie’s voice was barely audible. Exhaustion pulled at the lines in her face.

“Of course, Mother.”

After the blessing, Mamie said, “Travis. Take Caroline’s ring and put it on her finger while repeating these words. With this ring, I thee wed.”

Travis slid the cool metal down Caroline’s overheated finger. “With this ring, I thee wed.”

“Caroline, I need you to do the same.”

She took the heavy gold band and pushed it onto Travis’s ring finger. “With this ring, I thee wed.”

Mamie coughed and blood tinged the tissue again. “With the power vested in me by the State of Arkansas, I pronounce you are husband and wife. What God has brought together, let no man divide. You can kiss your wife now, Travis.”

Kiss her? Caroline had not given this part of the ceremony any thought. Bad planning on her part. What if he was a bad kisser? Worse yet, what if he wasn’t?

Travis placed his hands on her shoulders and leaned forward. His hands were big, and hot and heavy. Erotic heat seared through her light jacket and silk blouse, burned right into her flesh. He lowered his face toward hers. Her nervous system was already over stimulated, but at the first brush of his soft lips against hers, her lungs seized. Her knees softened and threatened to fail altogether. She grabbed his waist for support, to hold her upright when her legs wanted to melt into the floor.

He angled his head to extend the kiss while he slid his arms around her shoulders, pulling her against his hardness. It was like a light was flipped on in every atom in her body. Jolts of energy rattled through her. Atomic fusion in action.

When he broke the kiss, she gasped in a breath. Her eyelids fluttered as though awaking from a deep sleep.

Okay, now she knew. This man could kiss. If she could bottle her reaction, the world energy crisis would be solved.

A harsh, ragged cough broke through Caroline’s lust fog. She snapped her attention back to her grandmother. Leslie was holding Mamie’s shoulders as she struggled to get her breath. Her face, already pale, seemed to have lost all trace of color except for the bluish tint to her lips.

Caroline stepped out of Travis’s embrace. “Leslie, ring for a nurse. Patrick, hand me the oxygen mask on the wall next to you.”

After securing the mask around Mamie’s mouth and nose, she reached over and turned the oxygen flow up to six liters. The door pushed open as she was pushing pillows behind Mamie’s back.

“What do you need?” a nurse in blue scrubs asked.

“Get her doctor on the phone. I need a nasal cannula for her oxygen. Let’s get an IV going too.”

The nurse hesitated.

“Now,” Caroline snapped.

The nurse left in a hurry.

With those few actions and words, Travis’s pseudo-wife transformed from blushing bride to in-control doctor. Stepping back and out of the way, he bumped into Noah standing as still as a tombstone. His face bore a mask of despair and fear. His gaze was glued to the action around the bed. Travis put his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “Your sister’s got everything under control.”

Noah’s shoulders began to tremble. Travis put his arm around him. “Let’s step outside until they get your grandmother settled. Okay?”

“No. I have to stay here. She might need me.”

“Noah—”

“No. I’m not leaving.” He jerked away from Travis and moved to the bottom of the bed.

Poor kid. There was no worse feeling than helplessness. Travis knew that feeling. He’d lived it. Pulling him away from Susan’s side at the end had been almost impossible. Two-minute showers. Dinners eaten sitting at her side. Naps in uncomfortable chairs. His rational mind understood there was nothing he could do…not then and not now. Emotionally, he wanted to help…to do something, anything, to improve the situation. But like Noah, he had been unable to do much more than hold his late wife’s hand.

The door swung open with a crash, admitting a heavy-set man with white hair. “I was doing my noon rounds when the nurse paged. Mamie, Mamie, Mamie. You causing trouble again today?” He kept a light, joking tone to his voice but his gaze moved rapidly to the oxygen mask then to the people at the side of the bed. “Dr. Graham. Good to see you. Care to fill me in?”

Caroline gave the man a tight smile. “Dr. Stewart. Mamie’s having a little trouble catching her breath. I started oh-two at six liters. Her color’s a little better but her coughing was quite explosive and harsh. I’ve asked that her IV be put back in and to get a nasal cannula to replace the mask.”

“I agree.” He looked at the nurse who’d followed him into the room. “Let’s get this moving now.”

“I’ll be right back,” she said and left.

“Probably be better if I got out of this fancy get-up before y’all begin sticking me with needles,” Mamie said in a rough whisper. “And hand me that license, Travis. I need to sign it.

Caroline smiled. “Right you are. Out of your fancy clothes and into something more comfortable.” She turned toward Travis. “Okay, guys, everybody out. Go to the cafeteria or outside or something. Don’t come back for thirty minutes.”

Travis placed his hand on Noah’s shoulder. “You heard the lady. Let’s split.”

“But—”

“No buts,” Patrick said. “We’ll see you ladies in thirty.”

Dr. Stewart followed the men into the hall.

“Shouldn’t you be in there?” Noah asked. “You’re her doctor. You should be doing something.”

A sad smile creased the old man’s face. A knowing sympathy reflected in the look he gave Noah. “Dr. Graham has it under control. They’ll get your grandmother comfortable and you can see her later.” Being almost the same height as Noah, he looked him straight in the eye. “But, Noah, we’ve had this discussion. Your grandmother’s not going to get well this time. I’ve done everything I can for her, but sometimes things are out of a doctor’s power.”

Noah shoved the man. “No, damn it. She’s not going to die. Don’t say that. We’ll find a better doctor than you.”

“Noah—” Patrick said.

“No!” Noah turned and fled down the hall, slamming open the door to the exit stairs.

“Do we need to follow him?” Travis asked, admittedly a little alarmed by Noah’s abrupt exit.

Patrick shook his head. “No. I know where he is. He just needs a little time.” He turned his attention to Dr. Stewart. “I apologize for the boy. This is tough on him.”

Dr. Stewart nodded. “No need to apologize. I understand. I wish there was something I could do, but you know your mother’s smoking did serious damage to her lungs and her circulatory system.” He shrugged. “I am sorry. There’s just nothing more I can do but make her comfortable. She told me last week that she knows her end is near, and I think she’s accepted that.” He looked at Travis. “She mentioned that her granddaughter was getting married today. You must be the groom.”

“I am. Travis Montgomery.”

The two men shook hands.

“Well, good luck to you and your bride, Mr. Montgomery. It was a nice thing you did, moving up the wedding. I know how thrilled Mamie was.”

Travis nodded, but before he could reply, the overhead hospital speaker blared Dr. Stewart’s name. He sighed. “That’s me. I’ll check on our patient later.”

“Coffee?” Patrick asked. He hitched his thumb over his shoulder. Travis saw the patient kitchen area behind the nurses’ station. “C’mon. I can see the need in your eye.”

“A rancher never turns down coffee.”

Travis followed him to the kitchen and watched as Patrick poured two tall black coffees.

“You’re taking this awfully well,” Travis observed. “I mean, I would have expected you to be, well, I guess more upset.”

Patrick sipped his coffee. “Mother has been sick for quite some time. I’ve watched her suffer and it’s killing me. She might be only eighty-two, but she’s got the heart and lungs of a ninety-year-old.” He leaned against the wall. “I love my mother, but I’m tired of watching her suffer. She doesn’t deserve that. She’s an amazing woman who did wonderful acts of kindness, as a judge, as a mother and as a grandmother. I’ll miss her more than words can express, but I don’t want her to be in pain any longer.” He looked at Travis. “Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I understand.”

Patrick glanced at him. “She’s ready to die. She’s tired of the struggle, and I don’t blame her. She made all of her own funeral arrangements some time back. Told me she didn’t want us to have to do it. She doesn’t want a big to-do either. Graveside service only.” He shrugged and looked away. “I didn’t agree. She’s been a legend in this town for years. There are a lot of people who will want to honor her by attending a funeral, but she was adamant on that. No funeral.”