Last Year's Bride (Montana Born Brides) (15 page)

“
Do Sal a favor and don’t wake ‘em,” Cole said.

Nell tiptoed in just far so that she could stare down at them, watch them stir slightly, then when one looked as if it were awakening, she eased back out of the room and pulled the door shut.
“Why didn’t you tell me? They’re gorgeous.”

“
I’d have shown just you,” Cole said. “Didn’t want anyone else disturbing them.”

She knew he was right.
They were still very tiny. “How old are they?”

“
Just over two weeks. Opening their eyes.”

“
Yes, I can see why you didn’t want them disturbed. But I am glad I got to see them. Yet another reason to wish I could stay right here.”

“
You could,” Cole said, but they both knew she couldn’t. His expression was rueful.

Nell slipped into her jacket and zipped it up. Then she closed the gap between them and put her arms around him. His own closed around her, hard and strong and warm, holding her tight, as if he would never let her go.

He buried his face in the top of her hair, kissed her there, then tipped her face up to look down into her eyes. His were dark, unreadable. She gave him her heart in hers as she lifted up to touch her lips to his.

“
I’ll be back,” she promised.

He swallowed, didn
’t speak. His jaw was tight, she could tell.

“
I will be back,” she vowed once more—and stepped out into the April dawn.

There was no easy way to slide the words into the conversation. No means of making the announcement not an announcement at all, but just a casual statement of fact.

So Cole just flat out said it the first time they all managed to sit down to a meal together
—he and Sam and Gran and Sadie—at the dinner table.

It had been a week since Nell and the crew had left.
The pups had opened their eyes and were beginning to explore their pen. He’d delivered another half dozen calves, had driven to Choteau to check out and eventually buy some cattle for Tom McKay that Sam would be raising on the ranch, and had brought home a load of posts to repair the fence line near the ridge when the ground permitted. Sadie had a new job at some gift shop in town and was demanding more and more of his whittling and carving which he didn’t have time for because he was fixing up the cabin for when Nell came back.

She called him every night.
Some nights they actually got reception and could talk. Not that Cole ever knew what to say.

Life was getting back to normal
—except for the fact that Jane seemed to be an increasing presence in it. But that was actually good because Sam was less prickly. A less prickly Sam made it easier to say.

So he did.

“Nell and I are married,” Cole told them all between forkfuls of Gran’s pot roast. Then, “Pass the potatoes,” he added to his sister who had just finished adding more to her plate.

She promptly dropped the bowl and stared at him, her mouth forming an astonished O.
“
What?
What did you say?”

“
What did you say?” Sam demanded. He had stopped cutting his meat. The knife hung in mid-air.

Cole
’s jaw tightened. Consciously he eased his teeth apart, then took a breath before he said again, as levelly as he could, “I said Nell and I are married.” He took another deliberate bite of the roast and chewed stolidly, letting them all stew in the revelation while he ate. It didn’t go down as easily as he had hoped.

They were all still staring at him when it finally did, even his grandmother, who was scooping potatoes off the table and back into the crockery bowl which amazingly hadn
’t broken. His dad and sister looked stunned. But Em looked dismayed. “You got married and didn’t even invite us to the wedding?” She sounded crushed.

It was the first time Cole had experienced being the cause of her disappointment since he was twelve and had lied about not breaking the living room window when he
’d been throwing rocks at Clint. He didn’t like the feeling.

“
It wasn’t here,” he explained. “We got married last spring ... when I went down to Reno.”

Sadie let out a little squeak of astonishment.
“You’ve been married a year?” Her eyes simply bugged.

His grandmother stopped scooping potatoes and abruptly sat down.

Sam just looked at him, then very deliberately set his knife and fork down onto his plate. “You got married in Reno and you didn’t bother to mention it because ...”

Cole felt a prickle of mingled wariness and worry across the back of his neck.
He glanced at his grandmother. She was darting glances at first one of them, then the other.

“
Because it was a spur of the moment thing,” he said. “And after—” he shrugged a little awkwardly “—when I thought about it, I didn’t see how it was going to work.”

Sam
’s mouth pressed together in a taut line.

“
What?
” Sadie looked at Cole as if she’d been pole-axed. “Of course it will work! You and Nell—”

“
Let him finish,” Sam said sharply, never taking his eyes off Cole.

Cole
’s gaze locked with his. He gripped his fork and knife a little tighter as he took a breath and tried to say it as casually as possible. “We got married because it seemed like a good idea to both of us at the time.” He shrugged as if it had been nothing more than a lark. “You know what Reno’s like—it’s ... not the real world. Not my real world. It’s a long way from Marietta.” His mouth twisted. “Anyway, when I got home I decided I hadn’t been thinking straight. But there’s so much of my life tied up with the ranch ... And Nell has a life, too. Hell, you saw it! She’s clever, smart, talented. She can be a success anywhere. I’m here.”

The last two words dropped like stones into the silence. He didn
’t mean them as some sort of accusation, just as a statement of fact. “I’ve always expected—wanted—to stay here, take over the ranch. I’ve got ... responsibilities.” He gave a light shrug.

“
Responsibilities,” Sam almost spat the word. “You had me havin’ a heart attack while you were still gone,” he said, his tone redolent with self-disgust. “And that’s why you decided.”

“
That didn’t have anything to do with it,” Cole protested.

“
The hell it didn’t.” Sam picked up his knife and thwacked it back down on his plate for emphasis. “Look me in the eye and say that.” He narrowed his gaze further in Cole’s direction. “Lie to me again and I swear I’ll still take you to the woodshed.”

“
Like to see you try,” Cole said mildly.

Sam shoved his chair back.

“Stop it, both of you,” Gran cut in. Her voice was as mild as Cole’s, but neither he nor Sam were fooled. Emily McCullough might speak softly, but you didn’t want to rile her. The food would be awful for weeks to come. There would be no clean bedding. No laundry done. Worst of all, no conversation either. Except Sadie. God knew he and Sam never talked unless spoken to, and Emily McCullough didn’t talk when she was mad.

As she
’d told Cole when he was ten, “I might regret something I’d say. Better to say nothing.” So that was what she did. Weeks of disapproving silence from Em didn’t bear thinking about.

Now she pointed a finger at her son.
“You didn’t have your heart attack on purpose to make Cole shoulder all the responsibility of the ranch. So you can stop blaming yourself. And you—” the finger moved from Sam to Cole “— have always done more than your share. You’re a blessing, Cole. But you don’t have to shoulder the whole world by yourself. We’re your family. We love you. We can help. We want to help.”

“
I know that,” he protested, shaking his head. “You do help. We all help. But we’re here. On the ranch. In the middle of nowhere. I didn’t think it was fair to her to ask her to give up what she has to come back here.”

“
So are you leaving?” Trust Sadie to cut to the chase.

“
No,” Cole said sharply. “I’m not going anywhere. Nell is. She’s finishing up the show—coming here in May for the last episode—then wrapping everything up and moving back to the ranch.”

“
Really? So ... you really are ... staying married?” Sadie asked cautiously.

He nodded.

“She’s quitting?” Sam looked stunned, as astonished as Cole had been when Nell had vowed she would do so,

He took a breath and let it out slowly, then met each of their gazes in turn.
“That’s what she says.”

Nell told Grant she was married.

She told him she would finish up the last episodes on
The Compatibility Game
and then she was quitting. She said she was giving up her career and moving back to Montana to live on the ranch he’d thought was a perfect reality TV location.

“
So it does have indoor plumbing?” he asked, which proved that at least he’d heard her.

But he didn
’t believe a word she said.

“
Sure,” he said, blowing her off every time she mentioned her impending departure, and if she pressed him, he just said, “No time now, Corbett.”

They didn
’t need time, Nell wanted to tell him. He needed to hear what she was saying. He didn’t believe her any more than Cole had.

Well, his loss, she decided. She told the cameramen. She told Judy who worked in the office as The Person Who Kept Grant Organized If Not Sane.
And as often as she could, she told Cole.

While they were apart, all five and a half weeks, she tried to call him every day. Some days she got through. Most days she got voice mail and left a message. Occasionally he got the messages and actually called back.

Every time they talked she said she missed him and she loved him. He said the pups were getting bigger and friskier, that the crocuses were blooming or the daffodils were or they might see tulips before the month was out. The weather was warmer most days, he told her. He said that last week they’d had eight inches of snow or it had sleeted during the night. He told her that Gran had bought some tomato plants for the garden but she wasn’t putting them in yet, that Jane had brought Gran a bouquet of ‘store-bought flowers’ for Mother’s Day.

“
She and Sam are definitely ...”

“
Definitely what?” Nell prodded when he didn’t finish.

“
Definitely ... together.” The notion seemed to make him squirm. As Jane was probably only five or six years older than he was, Nell supposed Cole might be having trouble coming to terms with that. “What’s she thinking?” he demanded.

Nell wasn
’t sure Jane was thinking. She seemed more likely to be feeling. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. “Maybe she loves him.”

“
Yeah, but—” He didn’t finish that thought either.

“
Like I love you,” Nell said for the second time that call, determined to make him say it. He could say it easily enough when they were face to face.

But now there was a pause, seconds of dead air during which she envisioned him glancing around to make sure no one was listening before he said gruffly,
“I love you, too.”

She smiled.
“I’ll see you Sunday. The plane gets in a little after four.”

The pause wasn
’t nearly as long this time. “I’ll be there,” he said.

She should have told Cole not to come.

Not because she didn’t want to see him. She’d been dying to see him since the day she’d left him back in April. But there was so much to do getting ready from the minute she got off the plane. There were trucks to rent, equipment to pick up, last minute discussions with the cameramen and the rest of the crew as well as with the talent that Nell barely had time to throw her arms around Cole while they waited for the luggage.