An Unlikely Lady (23 page)

Of all the nights he'd spent alone, relishing his solitude, last night was not one of them. Never had he been more aware of the woman lying nearby, close enough to touch; what made it worse was that last night was his wedding night. What was it about her that sent his senses spinning and put his emotions in turmoil?

Hell, maybe he should have bedded her and gotten her out of his system. Exercised his husbandly rights. Except, if he'd bedded Honesty last night, she might have gotten the idea that he wanted to make this a real marriage, and nothing could be further from the truth. As soon as he found a judge to undo the damage Cooper had done, he'd be a free man again.

And Honesty, he realized with a heavy heart, would be a free woman.

S
he was, without compare, the most stunningly beautiful woman Honesty had ever seen. She rode a pale brown horse inside a circular pen to the delight of two little girls standing on the fence. Her long blond hair had been caught into a ponytail high up at her crown, and the straight, silky hair brushed the curve of her bottom. Her skin was tanned golden by the sun, her eyes were as blue as the sky, and her face looked as if it had been sculpted by angels in heaven.

“Is she your sister?” Honesty asked. She and Jesse shared a slight resemblance, with their fair hair and slender builds, but the resemblance ended there.

“Something like that.”

A stab of jealousy drove itself into her heart at the unconcealed adoration in his voice. It didn't make any sense. Of course Jesse would have known other people. Other women. She just hadn't expected to come face to face with one of them.

“Uncle Jesse!”

Honesty tore her attention from the woman on horseback as one of the flaxen-haired little girls threw herself at Jesse. He caught her up in his arms and smothered her chubby face with sloppy kisses.

The second one squealed with all the excitement of a three-year-old, and followed in her sister's wake. “Unca Jesse!” He caught her up in his other arm, and the sight of him holding the children unexpectedly swelled her heart.

“Mama, Uncle Jesse's here!”

“Jesse, you old scoundrel!”

Honesty glanced up just as the woman climbed over the fence. She had to turn her face away so she wouldn't have to watch the woman embracing Jesse. Or Jesse embracing her back.

“What brings you out this way?” the woman asked when he set her back on her feet.

“I'm hoping I can charm you into keeping Gem for a while and let me borrow a couple of fresh mounts.”

“You could charm the skin off a snake.”

“Everyone's got his talents.”

Honesty couldn't decide what irked her more: the stupid grin on Jesse's face as he looked at Annie, or the obvious affection and respect between them. “Aren't you going to introduce me to your lady friend?”

He looked at her as if just then remembering her presence. “Of course. Honesty, Annie Corrigan. Annie, this is—”

“Jesse's wife,” Honesty supplied.

Surprised blue eyes snapped to Jesse. “Wife?”

“I'll explain later.”

Honesty ignored his warning glower, summoned a polite smile, and stuck out her hand. “A pleasure, I'm sure.”

“I wouldn't be
too
sure,” Annie countered. “Wait'll you get to know me, then be the judge.”

“Uncle Jesse, did you bring us a present?”

“We got to ride Destiny today!”

“Girls, stop pestering him,” Annie scolded the girls who clung to Jesse's legs.

“They're no bother, Annie.” He caressed each cap of gold hair, then glanced around. His brows narrowed. “Where's Justine?”

“With Brett. She's been begging to go to the canyon with him and I finally couldn't resist letting her go.”

Honesty's ears perked. “Canyon?”

“The Palo Duro. We had some land there
until we sold it to a friend of Brett's, but Charlie still lets my husband make a trip down there at least once a summer and look through the wild bands for breeding stock.”

“I'd love to see it.”

“Not this trip,” Jesse answered, shaking his head. “It's too far out of the way.”

“But wild horses, Jesse! I might not get this way again! And who knows? My brother may have gone that way.”

“We will not discuss this now, Honesty.”

She fumed from fury and humiliation when he left her to follow Annie to an outside pump by the stables. She and Jesse chatted while she washed her hands. And laughed. And touched. Innocent touches, yes—a hand to the shoulder, a playful slap to the arm—but touches all the same. A camaraderie and comfort with one another that made Honesty ache. Normally she didn't give in to bouts of self-pity, but it was hard to fight it when these two had something she desperately yearned for.

He returned to her side shortly and said tonelessly, “We've been invited to stay the night.”

“I don't want to stay.”

“You're being childish, Honesty, not to mention rude. Brett and Annie have been friends of mine for years. I'll not insult them by refusing their hospitality.”

“And we wouldn't want to insult them, would we?”

“What's the matter with you?”

The genuine confusion in his eyes made her feel silly for letting her insecurities and petty jealousy reveal themselves. Of course it made sense to stay with his friends; they couldn't afford many more nights in hotels. “Nothing. Of course we'll stay.”

While Jesse went to settle the animals in their temporary home and choose the mounts they would borrow, Honesty followed Annie onto the veranda that wrapped around the single-story ranch house. The girls played jump rope in the yard—actually, one played jump rope while the other perfected the art of lassoing a short-haired hound.

She took a seat in one of the whitewashed chairs, feeling awkward and unsure of herself. She didn't know what to say to this woman who seemed so important to Jesse. They shared a past, a present, a future . . .

“I've got to say, Honesty, you're quite a surprise,” Annie said, handing her a bowl of freshly picked pea pods.

So are you
, she almost said, but bit her tongue at the last moment. “I apologize if we are causing you any inconvenience.”

“Not at all. Jesse knows he's welcome here
anytime, and so is any friend—or wife—of Jesse's. So where did you two meet?”

Honesty wasn't sure how to answer; she was almost ashamed to tell this woman, who'd probably never set foot in a bar in her life, that they'd met in a saloon. “In a little town in Colorado called Last Hope. He helped a friend of mine save her business.”

“Sounds like something Jesse would do.”

“You've known him a long time, then?”

“'Bout ten years or so. He's been a good friend to Brett and me.”

They fell into a companionable silence, splitting pods with their fingernails, breaking them open, and dumping the tiny round peas into another bowl. It was a mindless and mundane chore, and yet there was something about preparing a meal for her man that made Honesty feel womanly and content and . . . wifely.

Except she wasn't a real wife.

And Jesse wasn't her man.

“This canyon you were talking about earlier,” she said, trying to keep up with Annie as she shelled peas with enviable speed. “How far away is it?”

“Two days' ride south as the crow flies.”

“Are there by chance any stones that look as if they're flowing?”

“There's only one spot that I can think of that might be considered flowing. A sheet of sand
stone that looks like a slide, with a pool of water beneath. It's on the north end, near a formation called the Spanish Skirts.”

“It sounds beautiful.”

“Maybe you can talk Jesse into taking you there.”

“Maybe.” But she doubted it. “He's different with you than he is with me,” she confessed to Annie.

“'Course he is. I'm not a threat to him.”

She wished she could hate the woman. It wasn't as if she was easy to talk to; she wasn't. In fact, she was probably as wary of Honesty as Honesty was of her, and she made no secret of her place in Jesse's life.

But maybe that's what Honesty liked about her. She was a straight shooter who spoke her mind. “I would never hurt him, Mrs. Corrigan.”

The soft declaration earned her a searching look from those striking blue eyes. “Is it that obvious?”

“That you care about him?” Honesty nodded.

Annie smiled. “Yes, I do. And I'm glad you wouldn't hurt him, but that isn't what I meant.”

“What did you mean?”

“Jesse comes here when he's feeling lost. Off balance. Confused. He jokes around with me, plays with the girls, wrestles with Brett. Then he leaves. We're his friends, but he's not so
involved with us that he can't live without us for weeks or months or even years. No threat.”

Before Honesty could pursue the topic, the air filled with the sound of pounding hooves. Annie glanced toward the horizon. Her eyes glowed and a beaming grin split her face for a second before she checked the response. “There's my husband now.”

Three horses bearing an older man, a younger man, and another young girl broke over the crest in the distance. Several head of horses trailed behind by lead ropes. Annie set aside the bowl of peas, brushed her hands down her trousers, then stepped to the edge of the veranda to wait.

The girls weren't that patient. They dropped their ropes and tore across the prairie as fast as their little legs could carry them. Annie's husband swooped one child in front of him, the other behind him, and carried both of them back to the house.

“Jesse! Jesse!” called his other daughter, trotting up on a black horse that looked far too big for her to handle.

“There's my girl!”

There was nothing tender about the way Annie and her husband looked at each other. It was pure sizzle.

He swung out of the saddle, set his girls on the ground, and swept Annie into his arms for a
kiss that nearly singed the hairs off Honesty's arms.

Jesse stood near the corral with a little girl of ten or so; their gazes met over her head, then dashed away, but not before she saw her own longing reflected in his expression.

“'Bout damn time you came home, gambler,” Annie told her husband several moments later.

“I missed you, too,” came his deep reply. When he could finally tear himself away from his wife, he turned to Jesse. “Hey, Jess. I thought that was your horse tied to my hitching rail. Who's your lady friend?”

“His wife,” Annie announced with a cheeky grin.

Jesse sent her a glower that warned of later retribution.

“Ace, this is Honesty. Honesty, this is the biggest cheat in Texas.”

Piercing green eyes looked Honesty up and down with such intensity that Honesty felt a flush creep up her cheeks.

“Have we met?” he asked.

Oh, Gosh, she hoped not. “I don't think so.”

“You look really familiar.”

Aware that Jesse was watching the byplay with avid interest, Honesty lowered her lashes. “I'm sure I would have remembered if we had met before.”

“I'm escorting her to her brother.”

“In the escort business now, are you?”

“Something like that.” Jesse's smile never reached his eyes, though, and Honesty knew he'd not let go of Brett's statement until he learned why she was so familiar to him.

“Ah, never mind,” Annie's husband finally said. “And please forgive me, Honesty. You probably just look like someone I know.”

Supper at the Corrigan house had always been a lively affair that kept Jesse's mind off his troubles. But tonight, trouble was dining with them.

He could hardly keep his eyes off Honesty. She sat across from him, next to the Corrigan's son Dogie, wearing a dress he'd seen on her a dozen times before—the rose print one with the bits of lace at the sleeves and the heart-shaped neckline that left her skin bare, revealing the tantalizing curve of her breasts and the slender column of her throat. She'd brushed her amber locks until they shone, and caught them up at the sides of her head with combs in a simple but flattering style.

Honesty smiled at something five-year-old Emily said to her. It lit up her face and crinkled her eyes and made her look so damned desirable that his heart about stopped beating.
Funny, he couldn't remember seeing her smile all that much when she was around him.

Annie and Ace didn't make the situation any easier to bear with their heated glances and secretive smiles. Criminy, if not for Dogie's and the girls' presence, Jesse would have sworn they'd have gone at it right there on the supper table.

He regretted the thought the instant it hit. Images of doing just that with Honesty sliced through his mind with such clarity that he could only thank God Annie liked cloths on her tables. Long tablecloths.

“Justine is such a pretty name,” Honesty told the oldest girl.

“Mama and Pa named me after Uncle Jesse, didn't you Pa?”

Jesse froze, and snapped a glance at Brett.

“How do you get Justine out of Jesse?” Honesty asked.

“Not from his first name,” Justine giggled, “from his—”

“Girls, time for bed,” Brett announced, rising from the head of the table.

“Oh, Papa, it's still early!” Justine wailed. Emily and three-year-old Amelia chimed in with their objections.

“It's eight o'clock.” He set one hand each on the two older girls while Dogie plucked Amelia
from her high chair. “Now, if you want to ride Destiny again tomorrow, I suggest you pop your little fannies in your rooms.”

As they left the dining room, Jesse released a relieved breath. That had been close.

Seeming to take their leaving as her cue, Honesty set down her napkin and also got to her feet.

“Honesty, I put you and Jesse in the blue room,” Annie said as she picked up plates. “It's the one Jesse always uses when he comes to visit. I think you'll find it to your liking.”