Montana Reunion (4 page)

“You, ah, make the gravy yourself?”

“Yes, ma’am.
From the pea water.”

Maddison
laughed. “Jack, how is it that I’m sitting in your kitchen, with you wearing an
apron? The last time I saw you, I don’t even think you were capable of boiling
an egg. You were good at making up horse feed and that was about it.”

He put one hand on his hip like he
was about to sass her, before bursting into laughter. “You seriously don’t
know?”

“Know what?” She had no idea what
he was talking about.

“If you want to know why I’m
cooking virtually the same meal as your mom was going to, it’s because she
taught me.” He grinned. “She told me that if I wouldn’t join them for dinner a
few years back, then she’d damn well teach me how to cook for myself. So now
I’m exceptionally good at a few meals, and really crap at everything else.”

Now it was
Maddison
grinning.
Her mom?
She’d
hardly learned her mom’s recipes, and here was
Jack Gregory
making her family’s gravy.
“Not bad,
Jack Rabbit, not bad at all.”

She knew that would get a rise out
of him, the name she’d called him years ago, and he fired another wink her way.
Only this one sent a ripple down her spine that forced her to look away.

“I’m trying to impress you here,
Maddie
,” he said, eyes flitting from her to the chicken and
back again. “All these years you’ve spent in L.A. with fancy city boys made me
want to show you that I’m not just some hick rancher, I guess.”

“Oh, Jack.” Was he serious? “You
have no idea the kind of men I’ve met over the past few years, and I can tell
you right now that they’ve got nothing on you.”

She took a nervous sip of wine,
avoiding his gaze rather than having to look up at him. But there was no way
she couldn’t look at him – his chocolate brown eyes kept on drawing her in.
Forced her to stay focused on him.
And if she was going to
say things like that, then she needed to own her words.

“So you’re single?” His voice was
gruff, like he wasn’t sure how to ask her.

He was focused on carving again,
and it gave her time to study him and wonder what the hell she was doing feeling
this attracted to the man. Was it because he was safe? Because he was
comfortable and reminded her of the great times they’d had together before life
had become complicated by feelings and adult worries? Or was it just that he’d
turned into such a gorgeous man that no woman could be expected
not
to feel like that about him?

“I’m surprised my dad hasn’t told
you about my love life.” She answered, sighing and stared into her wine.

“I’ve spent plenty of time with
your dad lately, but we tend to talk about heifers and horses more than
romance.” Jack was grinning again, the unpleasant silence gone. “I always asked
after you, but you know men.
We kind of focus on the easy
stuff.”

“So he never mentioned that I was
getting married?”

Jack stopped carving then and set
the knife down. His face hardened as he paused to watch her, slow and steady. “
Married
?”

“Yup,” she said, twirling her glass
between her fingers. “Or at least I was, until something, um,” she swallowed
hard, refusing to go back in time to what had happened. “It’s over.”
Maddison
wasn’t going to elaborate, not now.

Jack glared at her then, his face
tight with anger. “And?” he
demanded,
his voice deeper
than she’d ever heard it.

“Seriously, Jack, can we just leave
that story for another day? It’s not something I want to focus.”

Jack looked angry but he managed a
laugh. The kind of laugh that told her he’d never let anyone mess with her if
he could help it. “You tell the bastard that you can shoot a can square in the
center from a mile off?”

It was funny how talking about it
with Jack was making her smile instead of cry. “When I confronted him he left
kind of quickly, so maybe someone had already told him.”

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,”
Jack told her, piling two plates with food before leaning forward to place one
of them in front of her. “You deserve better than some asshole,
Maddie
. Way better. And from the look on your face I can
tell that he
was
an asshole, so just
forget him.”

“He hurt me,
Jack,
I’m not going to deny it.” She let out a big breath. “He played me for a fool
for years, and I was stupid to trust like that. It’s not a mistake I’ll be
making again anytime soon.”

“Don’t think you can’t trust anyone
again,
Maddie
. Because then you’ll just end up
cynical and bitter like me.”

“Oh, Jack.” She refused to think of
him like that, not ever. “That’s not who you are. I know it and deep down so do
you.”

The mood changed between them, it
was impossible not to notice, but she tried her best to ignore it. All she
wanted was to be
herself
, to relax with Jack, and now
he looked like he was going to throw his plate across the room he was so angry
on her behalf.

She needed to change the subject,
talk to him instead of
think
about
him.

“Jack, you know when we were young,
how we could just talk about anything?”

“Or not talk, in my case,” he
smiled as he spoke. “That’s what I always liked most about you. That you would
sit beside me and not say a word, and it was exactly what I needed.”

Maddison
had
a warmth
creeping into her body that she hadn’t
felt in a long time. A contentedness that she’d longed for without realizing
it. “Let’s talk about you. What’s going on, Jack? You said you had some
troubles?”

He ate a few mouthfuls of his
dinner, carefully cutting his chicken and covering it in gravy. She did the same.
That was what she did with Jack. She’d always taken his lead, waited him out,
knowing that he’d tell her what was on his mind when he was good and ready.

“You sure you want to hear my
problems?”

Hearing his issues was exactly what
she needed.
Something else to focus on other than her own
soap opera of a life.
“Shoot.”

He smiled, so gently, and she was
close enough to him to see the genuineness in his dark brown eyes. “Try not to
laugh, okay?
Because this is going to blow you away.”

“Okay.” She had no idea what he was
going to say, but she agreed anyway.

“We had the reading of my father’s
will last week,” he said. “It’s a wonder you didn’t hear me cursing him from
L.A.”

“Oh no, don’t tell me he didn’t
leave you the ranch?”
As if that would
have ever made her laugh.

Jack chuckled. “Oh no, he left me
the ranch. Just to me, like we always knew he would, but as soon as it’s mine
I’ll be transferring half ownership to my brother.
So long as
he still agrees to come back here and work the land with me.”

Now she was confused. “So you have
the ranch and Scott’s coming back. Did I miss where I was supposed to laugh?”

“Oh no, wait for it.” Jack paused,
leaning back again. “He left a clause with his last will and
testament,
that
was read out in the lawyer’s office. He wanted it noted what a
disappointment I’d been to him, from letting my mom die to not having a wife
and family of my own.”

Maddison
couldn’t believe it.
“Once an asshole always an asshole, huh?
I can’t believe he actually put that in there to be recited like that.” The old
bugger had blamed Jack for his mom’s death all these years, despite the fact
that he’d been a scared twelve year old boy who’d witnessed a horrific accident
and run for help. “Your mom would be more than proud of you, and that’s what
counts. You know that, right?”

He nodded, but she could tell it
was troubling him. That it upset him more than he would ever admit.

“But here’s the good part,” he
said, pushing his chair back so it leaned back on two legs. “To inherit, I have
to get married within the year. It’s bogus, because legally it won’t stand, but
I’ll still have to have the clause officially overturned, and that’ll take time
and money. Or I can just get married.”

Jack
married
? Right now the thought of him with
any woman
, let alone married, had her tingling with… jealously. She
was jealous. How the hell would he find a wife that fast anyway?

“You know what would really make
him flip in his grave?” Jack had a twinkle in his eye that she remembered from
childhood, that glint that had warned her they were about to get into trouble.

“What, Jack?” she asked, eyes
locked on his.

“Me marrying
you
.”

Madison laughed, but it was a
high-pitched, nervous twitter that didn’t sound anything like her normal laugh.
Marry
her?

“He hated your parents always
interfering, trying to help and sticking up for me and Scott. And he hated that
I spent so much time with you, because it meant I could get away from him so
often.”

Maddison
took a deep breath. She didn’t want to push him, but… “Yes.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What do you
mean,
yes
?”

She met his gaze.
“To marrying you.
One final up-yours to
your dad, and the experience of walking at least one of his daughters down the
aisle for my father.”
Maddison
shrugged. “I’ll
do it.”

Jack chuckled, but he took a long,
slow sip of wine. “You would seriously marry me? You know I was just playing,
right?”

“Didn’t we always say we would?
That when we hit 30 we’d just get married so we could stay best friends?”

“When we were kids,” he interrupted.
“We said that when we were kids.”

“I’d do anything to see my dad
happy, Jack, and I’d do anything to help you keep this ranch. It’s a win-win
situation for both of us.
A marriage of convenience.”
Even as she said it she knew she was lying to herself, because the way she’d
been feeling about Jack earlier would be classed as anything other than
just convenient
, but if they could help
each other out, why not? These past few months she’d thought of nothing more
than wanting to be a mom, even considered sperm donors, to make sure her dad
didn’t miss out on being a granddad. And Jack would be the perfect father, if
they could go through with it.

Jack’s eyes were going from happy
to stormy and back again. She swallowed, knowing that if they were truly going
to consider this, she’d have to honest from the start.

“I have another reason, Jack,” she
confessed.

He raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“If we get married, I want to have
a baby. Sooner than later, so my dad can enjoy being a grandparent. So he doesn’t
miss out on anything, you know, if his health doesn’t hold up” She smiled at
him. “Besides, you’d make a great dad, Jack.”

“No,” he shook his head, had a look
on his face like she was about to unleash a venomous snake on him. “Not a
chance.”

Now it was
Maddison’s
turn to look confused. “You don’t want to be a dad?”

“I don’t
ever
want children,
Maddison
, and no one,
not even you, will ever change my mind.” He paused, looked down at his dinner
then back at her. “I’ll marry you,
Maddie
, to piss
off my old man and do the exact opposite to yours, but
there’s
no children
in that bargain. Not
now,
and not
ever.”

What? “But…”

“Come here.” He pushed his chair
back and stormed around the table, pulling her up and pushing his body into
hers, pelvis locked against her, keeping her in place.
Maddison’s
heart was racing, her mouth dry, she stared into Jack’s eyes like she was stuck
in an imaginary web, unable to escape.

“This,” he said, reaching one hand
up, palm soft against her cheek, his other hand cupping the back of her head,
“is why I’d marry you.”

Jack’s face came closer to hers,
his lips grazing hers in the gentlest kiss she’d ever experienced. His mouth
moved slowly, not rushing, so slow that it made her
want
to grab him and demand more.

He broke the contact, stepped away,
eyes never leaving hers.

“I’d marry you in a heartbeat,
Maddie
. Even if I didn’t have some stupid clause to
satisfy, I’d do it for you. But I can’t be a father.” He paused. “I’m sorry.”

This time it was
Maddison
who reached for him, her hand touching his face,
to tell him that it was okay.
Because whatever reason Jack
had right now for
not
wanting to be a
dad?
It had to be something damn important. But she wasn’t prepared to
give up yet.

And the way her skin seemed to
ignite at his touch, the way her pulse was racing just meeting his gaze and
holding his hand, told her that marrying Jack, for
convience
or otherwise, wouldn’t be hard at all.

Not
one bit
.

CHAPTER
FOUR

“So tell me
Maddie
,
what really happened?”

They were sitting out on the porch,
feet dangling as they swayed slowly back and forth in the big swing. After two
glasses of wine she was starting to relax, even with her thigh pressed to
Jack’s, her arm bumping him every time they swung back.

“You know, part of me still wonders
if it was somehow my fault. That maybe it’s something wrong with me that made
things turn out the way they did.”

Jack slung his arm around her,
tugging her closer. She let her head fall onto his
shoulder,
eyes squeezed shut tight because she didn’t want to tell him. It had taken her
long enough to deal with what she’d seen, what had happened. Airing her dirty
laundry to anyone wasn’t something that came easily to her.