The Cowboy's Triplets (9 page)

But Jackie couldn't help noticing that Pete wasn't the only one bluffing a bit. Darla and Judah acted like polar opposites on a magnet; even Twister couldn't pull them near each other. They played, but it was like watching two mannequins stiffly maneuvering into positions. Sabrina and Julie and the other Callahan brothers all
twisted like pretzels, quite willing to try to get into the spirit of the game, but Jackie was worn out from trying to smile.

She couldn't stop thinking about Pete's kisses, and how her body just wanted to rock into his every time he touched her. It was all she could do to slow her brain down, remind herself that there was no going back.

And then, when Fiona and Burke toasted her and Darla's new business venture, Jackie felt dishonest. These were her friends, most of them people she'd known all her life. She felt as though she was cheating them of the truth.

She felt as though she'd cheated Pete.

He followed her into the kitchen when she went to pull out some Christmas fudge to send home with everyone.

“I'm going to go,” he said, and she nodded.

“Okay.” But then she couldn't help being honest, at least just for the moment. “Pete?”

He turned to look at her, his dark hair falling over his blue eyes. Rarely did a man have the combination of sexy and handsome and sweet all wrapped up in one package. “I'm sorry about tonight. I meant to protect myself, and I ended up spoiling something you were trying to do for me. It was mean. And I'm sorry.”

He touched her chin. “One thing you've never been is mean, Jackie Samuels. Scared, unsure and occasionally grouchy—”

She raised her brows, drawing a laugh from him.

“But you're not mean. I just rushed you. You've got a lot going on in your life right now.” He dropped one hand casually to caress her still-flat stomach. “I'm the one who should apologize. But I guess I won't.” He grinned at her.
“It's better if I keep you just a wee bit annoyed with me. Eventually, you'll run out of reasons to say no.”

“Maybe I won't.”

“Yeah. You will.” He kissed her eyelids, then her lips so softly she wanted to stay near him, touch him, all night. “We'll go slow. We can start over. I don't mind convincing you that the first five years were just good friends getting together on Saturday nights. And now the fun stuff can begin.”

“You're scaring me,” she said, leaning her head against his chest. “I want to believe that we'd be right together forever because we always were. I just don't think we are, Pete.” It was hard to say that, but it was how she felt. People who loved each other didn't get together only on Saturday nights. They shared things, their lives, their hopes and dreams.

“Just don't forget that if I marry you, I have a head start on my brothers.” He gave a sly wink. “There's so many dividends to getting one of your wedding gowns on you, it's all upside for me.”

She crossed her arms. “Now
you're
being mean.”

He laughed, and dropped a kiss on her nose. “I'm just reading your mind, my angel cake. I leave you to your sweet dreams of what might have been tonight, and the exquisite joy I would have given you.”

Jackie stared at Pete. “You think highly of yourself.”

He grinned and left. She picked up a sponge, wishing she'd been holding it just a moment ago. It would have felt great to bean him with it.

Darla came into the kitchen to toss paper cups into the trash. “How did it go?”

“Insufferable,” Jackie said. “The man is an ass.”

Darla laughed. “And you love him madly.”

Jackie didn't say anything, but in her heart, she didn't argue the point. She wished Pete would magically appear in her bed tonight, which was exactly what Pete claimed she really wanted. “I'm fighting admitting that. I may be losing.”

“He seems to know you pretty well,” Darla said, wrapping up the pies that had been brought. “He's got you completely flustered. Eventually, he's going to wear you down. And you'll be so happy you'll forget to say no.”

Jackie thought about Fanny. Fanny could sleep with her tonight. “There's no way a baby should make two adults, who didn't have a real relationship before, have a relationship.”

“I don't know. Maybe a baby is like a bandage. Patches up all the rough spots.”

Jackie stared at Darla. “That doesn't sound right somehow,” she said, wishing it were true.

Two weeks later, Jackie and Darla had the grand opening of their new shop. They'd decided to name it The Magic Wedding Dress, after the gown that Sabrina had asked Darla to sell for her.

“Not that we have any magic, personally,” Darla had said.

“We're going to need magic to make this business venture work,” Jackie replied. “Think magical. Think hard.”

Owning a half store seemed magical enough to Jackie. It looked like a wedding cake, with white shutters and pink letters scrolled on the windows. She and Darla had selected cabbage-rose-flowered settees for the ladies to lounge on while brides tried on dresses. The whole effect was comfortable and bright and romantic, and Jackie loved it to bits.

Fiona brought some of her friends to the opening. Mavis Night, Corinne Abernathy and Nadine Waters surveyed the store with delight.

“Think of the things we can cook up now that we know someone in the biz,” Fiona said.

“It's almost too good to be true.” Corinne smiled at the young store owners. “There are a wealth of beautiful gowns in here, Jackie. You must be so tempted!” Corinne
giggled, her blue eyes dancing behind her polka-dotted-rimmed glasses.

“Not really,” Jackie said, which wasn't entirely true. Secretly, she'd held the “magic” wedding gown up to herself once, surveying herself in the mirror. It
was
magical. There was no label on the gown to tell where it had come from, but it had never been worn. She wondered about Sabrina—and how much she'd talked Darla into paying for the gown. She'd meant to check the business register and had forgotten in the excitement of getting everything ready for the opening.
I'll do it tonight.

Nadine patted her arm. “I predict you'll be wearing one of these lovely creations by spring, my dear.”

Jackie backed away, keeping the smile on her face. “You ladies go pick on Darla. I'm going to check the punch.”

“Whew. So that's why you never wanted anyone to know you and Pete were dating,” Darla said with a laugh when Jackie retreated into the stockroom. “Smart move.”

“It's just going to get worse once everyone knows I'm expecting Pete's baby.” Jackie sighed. “Maybe I'll ask Sabrina which way her circus went and go join them.”

Darla grinned and handed her a cookie tray. “Be brave. They mean well.”

Jackie carried the tray out and set it on the white-linen-covered table. About twenty ladies milled around, admiring the dresses and wedding gowns. It was all going well. Even Fanny was on her best behavior, sitting in her basket with a pink ribbon around her neck.

Then Pete walked in, and all the ladies turned to send delighted glances Jackie's way. Broad-shouldered, tall, handsome, vital—he was every woman's dream prince.
Mine, too.
But then she shook the thought aside.

“I've come to lend my support to this shindig,” Pete said, making his way politely through the crowd of ladies greeting him. “I've told my brothers that they have to put in an appearance, too.”

“Why?” Jackie stared up at him, her heart practically in her throat. He was so handsome. When he looked down at her, his eyes sparkling like that, it was all she could do not to throw herself into his arms.
I should. Give the crowd of busybodies what they came for.

He tapped her on the nose. “If you want to make this place a success, you have to have bachelors to be caught.”

“You're setting up your brothers.” Jackie looked at Pete in surprise. “Isn't that a little devious?”

“To dangle the lure in front of the eager fish in here?” He grinned at her, leaning forward on the counter so their conversation was private. “No way. It's high time they were caught.”

She shook her head. “If they ever figure out what you're up to, they'll be annoyed.”

“Well, it's all for a good cause.” He looked around the store. “It's weird seeing you in here instead of at the hospital. I had fantasies about your nurse's uniform, you know.”

Jackie warmed all over, in spite of herself.
Don't think about fantasies,
she told herself.
Fantasies are the past.

“But the innocent-bride fantasy works just as well.” He winked at her and took the cup Darla was offering him. “Don't you think, Darla?”

“What do I think?” Darla asked.

“That nurse or bride, white is a great color for Jackie.”

Darla glanced her way. Jackie could feel the blush rise in her cheeks.

“Oh,” Darla said, “Jackie's playing hard to get. You'll have to romance her with something other than the fashion color wheel if you're going to drag her out of her ivory tower.” She went off to greet Fiona and company with a teasing smile on her face.

“Ivory tower, huh?” Pete asked.

Jackie glared at him. “Don't you have fences to fix? Horses to train? Chores?”

He took her hand, gently brushing his lips against it. Jackie's gaze followed him, as did twenty other pairs of eyes in the store. She flushed, the heat in Pete's gaze trapping her. “I'm heading out for a week or so with Judah,” he said. “When I get back, I'm coming through the window of your ivory tower. Expect it.”

Jackie couldn't think of a swift reply. Pete winked at her, turned and left, sauntering through the throng of admiring females. More than one woman shot a wistful gaze after Pete's very sexy behind.

Silence descended on the store as Pete departed. Jackie tried to catch her breath, but then the five other Callahan brothers suddenly pushed through the door, to the delight of the women inside. That meant that more ladies crowded into the store from the street, all eager to be wherever good-looking bachelors were. Out of the corner of her eye, Jackie could see Darla taking orders and ringing up sales; the ladies wanted new spring things to catch a Callahan with, no doubt.

The fire marshal's going to cite us,
Jackie thought.
I'm pretty sure we have too many people in here. Too many single ladies wanting a man.

She watched the Callahan brothers seat themselves on the cabbage-rose sofas and accept tea and cookies from helpful females. They seemed to be enjoying the attention. That was the problem, Jackie thought. Callahan
men loved female attention. They ate it up like peach ice cream in summer, which put her in a totally sour humor, because she knew Pete was just the same, no matter how much he tried to act as if he wasn't.

Jackie bit back a little jealousy, telling herself that it was none of her concern what any of the Callahan men did with their bachelorhoods. Then she went to help Darla, and tried not to think about Pete leaving town for a week.

She already missed him.

 

A
FTER THE RUSH WAS OVER
and most of their guests had gone—and after the rascal Callahans had finished holding court—Darla turned to Jackie. “So, partner, this may work out.”

Jackie nodded. “Did you ever have any doubts?”

Darla smiled. “I did. I just didn't share them. Kind of like you not sharing how you and Pete really felt about each other. That man is crazy about you! How did you manage to keep that under your hat for so long?”

Jackie shook her head. “Pete is not crazy about me.”

“Trust me, he's crazy about you.” Pete
had
seemed different. Jackie frowned. “It's the baby. He was never this way before.”

Darla laughed and pulled her blond hair up into a high ponytail. “I don't think it's the baby, Jackie. Maybe he was always crazy about you, but didn't express it the way you expected him to.”

“All I know,” Jackie said, “is that one day I decided to change my life. I had to move on, from everything. Then you showed up with a new business, and I broke up with Pete and everything changed. I even have a dog.” She picked up Fanny to take her outside. After being made the belle of the ball, Fanny was almost too excited to
be excited about going out. “Of course, I love the dog. Come on, angel, you need to get out of the store for a minute.”

She didn't make it to the back door before Darla called after her. “Jackie? Did you move the magic wedding dress?”

“Hang on,” she told Fanny, “I promise your bathroom break is next.” She went back inside the showroom. “It was on its hanger right there. Several ladies were oohing and aahing over it.” Jackie frowned. “Maybe someone moved it near the big mirrors to see how it would look on them.”

Half an hour—and a Fanny excursion later—Jackie shook her head at Darla. “Are you sure you didn't ring it up for someone?”

“Trust me, I would have remembered it. I wanted it for myself.” Darla looked stricken. “And I'd bought it from Sabrina. So I would have been extra certain to note the sale.”

No one would have stolen anything from them. At least Jackie didn't think they would. But they'd searched the store over twice. They'd checked the register tapes and the receipts—nothing. “I can't imagine,” Jackie said.

Darla sat down on a cabbage-rose sofa. “It's gone. Vanished.”

Jackie held Fanny in her arms, stroking her fur absentmindedly. “It'll turn up, I'm sure.”

“No one in town would dare wear it. We'd recognize it at once.”

“And there wasn't anyone here who wasn't from Diablo.” They'd had a steady stream of well-wishers and shoppers that day, all people known to them all their lives. “Let's close the shop up and go to my place
for hot cocoa. I don't want to sit home alone wondering how a magic wedding dress disappears.”

“Great idea. We just need a little Kahlua for the cocoa, and I'll feel a lot better.” Darla put on her blue wool winter coat and locked the front door.

Jackie opened the drawer underneath the register to get her keys and saw a plain white envelope.
Jackie
was written on it in blue ink. “What's this?” she said to Darla.

Darla looked over her shoulder. “Open it.”

Inside was cash, in hundred-dollar bills and a few ones. Jackie counted it. “Exactly the price of the magic wedding dress, plus tax.”

Darla took the envelope from her. “I don't recognize the writing. It's so generic it could be male or female.”

Jackie shrugged. “Someone who didn't want anyone to know they'd bought it.”

“And they carried it out of here while we were busy with guests.”

“We can't report it as stolen,” Jackie said, “but I suppose we could get the sheriff to dust the envelope for prints.”

“Except you and I have both handled it.” This was true.

Pete had walked out empty-handed. She remembered because she'd been staring at his backside as he walked—and watching him jealously as other women tried to catch his eye. And she didn't think it was Fiona or any of her friends. Fiona would do a lot of things, but if she was buying a wedding gown for someone, she wouldn't be quiet about it. She'd want everyone to know. Shaking her head, she added the cash to the total of the night deposit they would make on their way home.

“Well, if it was magic, we'll never know.” Sabrina
followed Darla out the back. “Not that I really believe in magic anyway.” She set the alarm and locked the door.

Darla shook her head. “I do. And I believed that gown was one day going to magically be mine. You could use a little magic in your life, too, you know.”

It hadn't escaped Jackie that Judah had never come over to speak to Darla beyond a casual hello. Her match-making dinner the other night hadn't worked. “I'm no Fiona,” Jackie said, picking up Fanny to carry her to the truck.

“No one is.” Darla laughed as they walked together in the cool night air. Neither of them saw the shadows moving behind ivy trellises that framed the store, watching as they got into their trucks and drove away.