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Authors: Tina Leonard

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BOOK: Mason's Marriage
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Chapter Nine

Mason waited for Mimi to tell him what he wanted to know. What else was there for them to discuss? He’d already proposed to her. He really had nothing else to offer. Ever since he’d learned about Nanette, he had tried his best to be a very present father. He’d been so scared—really, scared was the only word he could think of—when Mimi told him she was seeking custody arrangements.

But when Brian had been honest with him… Why would she tell such a terrible untruth?

He waited, his heart in more of a wringer than he could ever remember it being. She was so beautiful; she was so much a part of him, that he couldn’t understand how his best part could hurt him so much.

“Mason, if you want the honest truth—”

“And I
do
want it,” he said sternly.

“I did call.” Her eyes were as sad as his felt. “Brian wasn’t in. The recorder came on, and…I just hung up. Something told me that I needed to talk to you first before I did anything with Brian.”

His chest eased a bit. “Inexcusable.”

“I know. I’m sorry for that.”

He liked that she didn’t try to justify her actions. “No fighting over Nanette.”

“I don’t ever want to fight with you,” Mimi said, her tone as sincere as he’d ever heard it. “Mason, I—”

He held up a hand. “Whatever it is, don’t say it. I am admiring your forthright approach.”

She blinked. “I’ll say whatever I want, and you don’t need to be a smart-ass.”

True. He was being a bit of a bear, but what was Papa Bear supposed to do when his cub wasn’t in his house where she belonged? “Mimi, you need to come back to the ranch.”

Mimi shook her head. “It’s very awkward for me.”

He sighed. “Fine. We’ll take turns being awkward. Scoot over.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, he hung his hat on the lamp on the bedside table, and decided he liked seeing his worn hat over Mimi’s girlie lamp.

“Mason, we
cannot
sleep like this,” Mimi said. He ignored her and settled his head on her comfy white pillow. God, he was tired. He was tired of arguing,
and he was tired of thinking about all the dilemmas a big family entailed, and he was definitely weary of being responsible for everything under the sun where the ranch and all its remote members were concerned. “Mimi,” he said, his eyes drifting shut, “for once, I am not interested in your protests. I’m imagining myself in a big fluffy white oasis of clean sheets and softness, and you can be my most warm and round maiden of the sheets.”

“Mason, take your arm off my waist,” he heard Mimi say, but he didn’t care. He held her tighter to him, and his last conscious thought was that he never wanted to spend another night without holding his little Mimi-jinx.

 

M
IMI COULDN’T SLEEP AT ALL
. She glanced at the clock, seeing the numbers glow 3:00 a.m. Something heavy was squashing her—Mason—his big, muscled frame encroaching upon her space and her person. She was on her side, and he lay against her back, his big, hairy leg resting on her most private area.

It was quite intimate. Somehow it felt right. Mimi didn’t dare move because she didn’t want Mason to wake up, but something hard at the base of her bottom let Mimi know he was as awake as she was.

“Mason,” she said, “don’t even think about it.”

“Calhoun’s not here,” Mason said, snuggling into her. “We’d be undisturbed.” He nipped her neck, giving her delicious chills all over her body. “You go back to sleep, Mimi. I’m not ready to make love to you. I’m not about to take any milk unless I get the cow, too. And until I hear you moo, I’m a free man.”

Mimi wriggled out of his arms. In the darkness, she could barely make out the lines of his face, and only that much because of the glow of the digital clock. But she knew his gaze was watching her possessively. “I do not moo, Mason. I will never moo. However,” she said, giving his chest a poke, “we can’t sleep together every night. You’re going to have to change those plans.”

“I guess the sheriff wouldn’t like it,” Mason said.

“I wouldn’t like it,” Mimi said. “I don’t want to play house with you.”

“All we’re playing is bed,” Mason said, giving her a little bounce. “Unless you feel like going downstairs and making me breakfast, you can’t really say there’s anything serious we’re playing.”

She sighed. “I think you’re going to go hungry unless you know how to fix your own breakfast.”

He nuzzled her shoulder, right into the curve of her neck. “You’re a hard woman to get along with,
Mimi Cannady. But I miss you when you’re not around to bother me.”

She sniffed. “So you’re forgiving me so soon? That’s not like you.”

“Maybe I’m getting used to having you in the crook of my arm,” Mason said, pulling her next to him. “Anyway, nothing you do surprises me. I’m relieved you were fibbing about joint custody.”

“It wasn’t really a fib,” Mimi said, starting to get annoyed. “I had every intention. I dialed the number. It’s just not so easy…but maybe tomorrow,” she said, struggling for her pride.

“Nah,” Mason said. “If you quit trying to be the bossy old hen, everything will go a lot more smoothly.”

“As long as you’re the farmer in charge of the coop?” Mimi said, tensing. “When I told you about Nanette, I didn’t realize I was going to be adding another person to my life. I thought we’d stay pretty much on the same paths we’d been on.”

“Are you complaining?” he asked, choosing that moment to feather some light kisses along her hairline. The tension left Mimi slowly. What he was doing to her felt so good!

“Loudly complaining,” she said, and he laughed.

“Sure you are. I hear you. But every once in a
while, you get real quiet,” he said, kissing her lips and drawing a sigh of pleasure from her that Mimi was almost embarrassed to hear herself release.

He knew her so well that it was ridiculously easy for him to push her pleasure buttons. The hard part was being in bed with Mr. Hardheaded Cowboy and keeping herself from being tempted beyond all control! She was only human after all, and a human who had been proven quite weak where Mason was concerned.

“Stop,” she said, tearing her lips away from his and pushing against his chest. “I admit it, you’re driving me wild. It feels vaguely sinful and terribly wonderful.” She flopped onto her stomach, protecting her space. “So if you don’t mind, I’m going back to sleep.”

He chuckled. To her amazement, she felt the bed give, and realized he was leaving. Not daring to see what he was doing, she listened as he put on jeans and zipped them. A few more movements and rustling noises, and then he left her room and walked down the hallway.

A few seconds later, she jumped as he said, “I’ve given Nanette one of her stuffed animals she left at my house. I expect her back tomorrow night, and you, as well, Mimi. Or else I will be back.”

“I’ll nail the window shut,” she said, which drew
a hearty chuckle from him, and then he left out the window. Mimi blinked in the darkness, somehow feeling abandoned. “We have a front door, you know,” she said sourly. “You don’t have to act like Tarzan, swinging on tree branches.”

But Mason would do exactly what Mason wanted, she knew, and mostly, coming in and out of her window suited him just as well as a door. All the brothers had made use of any entrance and exit to the houses of girls they were pursuing. Why should Mason be any different?

Pursuit,
Mimi thought with a start. Mason was pursuing her! Just the way she’d always wanted! Okay, maybe not the way she’d dreamed about, but he was pursuing her as the other Jefferson men had pursued their women!

She tingled all over thinking about it. But it was his heart that she wanted most of all. She’d waited all these years to get it, eventually giving up hope.

And Mimi held close to another secret, one she hadn’t included in the truth she’d told Mason tonight. She longed for another child…with him. He had many times said he didn’t want children, that he’d raised all his brothers and had no desire whatsoever for more raising to do. But when he’d found out about Nanette, he’d realigned his position to include
raising his daughter. And he
had
mentioned another child on the day they hadn’t made love….

He was a good father. Such a good father, in fact, that a sweet kernel of desire for another one of Mason’s babies had sprung to life inside Mimi’s heart.

I want him. I want his love. I want to share his life, and I want him to tell me he wants our family to grow.

Then she would know that he was marrying her for her—and not just because he was determined not to be a deserting father. This way of thinking was dangerous territory, she knew, but it was the only territory she wanted to claim as her own. House was not a game she was interested in playing. It was all or nothing. And since she’d already had nothing with Mason, she could easily hold out for all.

No matter how sexy his kisses.

 

M
ASON GRINNED
as Sheriff Cannady came into his office. Since it was Sunday afternoon, and not much was happening in town, there was probably only one reason Mimi’s father was coming to visit him, and it wasn’t to see his old office.

“Hello, Sheriff,” Mason said, standing to shake his hand. “Sit down and tell me how life’s treating you.”

The sheriff sat, but he really didn’t smile. “Life’s good. Can’t complain. Helga’s making me eat lacto
fermented cabbage and health foods, and I have to go see a woman who gives me a special rubdown once a week. She’s a big girl, like Helga, and I don’t dare tell her no. Helga claims it’s all beneficial to my liver. Mimi agrees with everything Helga says, so I’m starting to be more pliable about it.”

Mason grinned. “I only get the cabbage treatment.”

“You wait,” Mimi’s father told him. “One day, there’ll be no more carrot cake for you. You’ll get ginger tea for dessert instead.”

Mason laughed. “She’s a gold mine.”

The sheriff looked at him, then kicked his boots up on his old desk. “So last night, I was getting some winks in, and I heard a strange noise. Sort of like a window going up, and then boots dropping on the floor.” He pinned a gimlet gaze on Mason. “Strangely, I never heard the doorbell ring, nor the front door open.”

Mason raised his eyebrows and said nothing, realizing the sheriff had decided to get on with the topic he’d come to discuss.

“So I was thinking about this, seeing as how I really enjoy nighttime visitors,” the sheriff said. “I was thinking how much sheriffing meant to me over the years. Maybe I would have been nothing in life, but this town elected me to be sheriff, and I hung on to that faith the people had in me, even when I was
real sick. Damn near died, you know, but I wouldn’t surrender my badge.”

“No, sir, you didn’t.” Mason nodded. “Mimi was real proud of your spunk.”

The sheriff scratched his head. “See, and that’s the funny thing. I thought my daughter would take my spot. Mimi would be a good sheriff, you know. She loves everybody, and everybody loves her. But she’s tough as nails, by golly, and wouldn’t think twice about spitting in the eye of the meanest bull on the planet.”

Mason laughed. “She’s run us all ragged over the years, Sheriff. No end to the excitement she brings to life.”

“Yep.” He nodded, satisfied with the compliment. “So I was thinking about that window and those boots and I’m thinking about how we live in town now. It’s not like living out on our ranch, you know. Not nearly so much privacy. Tons of social occasions, and it’s great to be close to Valentine’s bakery, but no privacy. If you know what I mean.” His stare was pointed.

“Ah, I think I’m getting your meaning,” Mason said slowly.

“It’s only because of what the badge meant to me,” the sheriff said. “Respect. It’s a helluva lot of respect the people of Union Junction give their sheriff. I think there comes a time when fun and
games must go by the wayside.” He pointed at a picture on the wall of himself as sheriff with several prominent townspeople. “Perhaps it’s hard to respect a sheriff who shinnies up trees and sneaks in windows to get to a lady’s bedroom.”

Mason nodded. “Yes, I do see your point.”

The sheriff stood. “Well, I hope you do. As I say, we really enjoy our visitors at the town house. In fact, you might even say that a certain sheriff is a great favorite in our home.”

Mason nodded. “But you’d prefer the sheriff to use the front door.”

Sheriff Cannady held up his hands as he walked to the door. “Or the back door, son, it doesn’t matter. We’re not particular in the Cannady household. Door, not window, is all we ask. For the sake of the badge. And…for my daughter’s reputation. People would be expecting me to get a shotgun after a man sneaking into my daughter’s bedroom, you see. And I haven’t got a shotgun or any firearms anymore. Not since Nanette came into my life. Not safe around children, you know.”

Mason looked at the sheriff. Nanette had brought a lot of changes to everyone’s life. He knew how much a grandchild had meant to Sheriff Cannady. “Appreciate you coming by, Sheriff.”

“Good visiting with you…Sheriff,” he said. Then he nodded. “You boys are like sons to me, Mason.”

Mason smiled. “I know. Thanks.”

The sheriff left, his shoulders straight and proud, and Mason knew he was looking at one of the finest men he’d ever known. “Door, not window,” he murmured, trying not to smile.

The sheriff was absolutely right. Mason needed to respect the badge, and Mimi, and the sheriff himself. Which meant he was going to have to find another way to sneak up on Miss Mimi. She was known for keeping doors tightly shut.

He was shocked when she stepped inside his office just then, like really good karma. “Hey,” he said. “Your dad just left.”

“Oh?” Mimi’s eyebrows rose. “What was he doing here?”

Since he could tell she honestly had no idea about her father’s request, Mason decided to avoid raising the issue and see what she had on her mind. “Reminiscing over his old office,” Mason said.

Mimi nodded. “The only reason Dad’s been able to completely give up being the sheriff is because you took the job. He thinks you’ll make a good one.”

“If I put away my childish ways,” Mason said.

She frowned.

BOOK: Mason's Marriage
10.52Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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