Fannin's Flame (17 page)

“Who’s going to call Mason?” Archer wondered. “We’re going to have to find him now. He’ll kill us all if he comes home and finds we’ve lost that much money.”

“Out of the question,” Fannin said. “We are neither going to call Mason nor pay this woman that money.”

“What are you proposing?” Calhoun wanted to know.

“For now, we call her bluff. She may not be pregnant,” Fannin said.

Last’s head raised with hope.

“I’ve got a girlfriend who is, and not only will she not marry me, but she never asked for a dime. All she ever wanted was for me to move to Ireland, which in retrospect sounds like a very small request.”

The brothers gasped.

“That would be number five,” Crockett said. “Only seven of us left, six if Mason pulls a total Maverick.”

“Man, we’re in deep doo around here,” Navarro moaned. “We are Malfunction Junction for sure.”

“I don’t think we should be held hostage by a female,” Fannin said.

“One of us is always being held hostage,” Calhoun said on a groan. “Who are you kidding?”

“I don’t know,” Fannin said. “Something just isn’t ringing true.”

“Fannin,” Kelly said urgently. “Fannin.”

She stood in his living room, watching him sleep. He looked exhausted. He had what looked like four days’ beard growth, and his clothes were wrinkled. His face was gaunt, cheekbones showing beneath dark lids.

He didn’t move, so she set Joy and her luggage down. The little dog jumped up in her favorite cowboy’s lap, and Fannin instantly woke up. “Hey, little lady,” he said to Joy, glancing up suddenly to see Kelly looking down at him. “Hey, big lady!” he said, leaping to his feet to grab her in his arms.

Kelly laughed, knowing she’d done the right thing by coming to the ranch. “Big because of my stomach or big because of my height?”

“You’re no teacup poodle,” Fannin said, holding her tightly. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see the father of my children,” she said simply. “I needed to see the man I love.”

He blinked. “Love?”

“Yeah. Love,” she replied.

“But you were in Ireland,” he said, and she smiled, running her fingers over his cheeks.

“I was. And Julia called me three days ago and said you’d canceled a trip to Ireland. I was astonished that you’d planned to come at all.”

“And so?”

“So I decided to come check on my mother,” she said coyly.

“And?”

“And Joy.”

“And?”

“And you, cowboy. I figured if you’d bought a plane ticket and still something was keeping you from my side, it must be bad. I want to help you.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“I’ll confess to calling Mama,” Kelly said. “She gave me the rundown.” She snuggled underneath his arm so she could stand close to him. “I choose to stand beside you and take care of you while you go through this.”

She saw tears in his eyes.

“You’re everything I ever wanted in a woman,” he told her.

“You’re everything I ever wanted in a man.”

He nodded, then kissed her deeply. “God, I missed you.”

“You won’t have to anymore.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means,” Kelly said slowly, “that I belong with
you. And if that’s here at the ranch, then that’s where I’ll be.”

He put a gentle hand on her stomach. “I can’t ask that of you.”

“You didn’t. I ask it of myself.”

“When this is over,” he said, his tone serious, “and Mason has returned and everything is normal, you and I are going to live in your ring house. At least six months out of every year.”

She looked up at him, her eyes full of love. “Once I heard that you’d tried to come to me, I knew that you loved me. Me. That it wasn’t just a fling.”

“Yeah. It was,” Fannin said, “and I’m going to keep flinging with you until the day I die.”

She giggled. “I am going to hold you to that promise.” Then she turned serious. “What are you going to do about Last’s problem?”

“Fight,” he said. “That’s all we can do. I suppose you realize you’ll be marrying me with possible poverty in mind. And maybe a stain on the family name. I’m not joking you. This one’s going to be serious.”

“Pfft,” Kelly said. “We can take ’em.”

He grinned, the happiest she’d ever seen him. “I love you,” he said. “I always knew you were going to be mine.”

“I love you,” she said, “and I wanted you to make me yours.”

“The house is empty,” he told her. “We could have a fling before we run to the jewelry store. I can’t wait to put my mark on you.”

“Fannin,” she said, giggling as he carried her up the stairs, “you’re going to hurt something. I’m getting too big for you to carry.”

“Let’s find out. Because this feels pretty much like heaven to me.” He squeezed her bottom as he carried her, and Kelly laughed, completely in love.

This cowboy was made-to-order—for her.

Down by the pond that Tex had beautifully landscaped, tiki torches blew gently in the early-evening breeze. The stylists from Union Junction Salon and the Lonely Hearts Salon had banded together, stringing Tex’s trees with tiny white lights and making a wonderland of the lawn.

Kelly wore a tea-length white gown that her mother had sprinkled with tiny white seed pearls and sequins, which twinkled in the firelight. Her hair had been pulled up high by the Union Junction girls, and beautiful diamond earrings Fannin had chosen dangled from her ears.

The ring they’d selected together was a stunner. Two carats of heart-shaped flawless diamond, it was the loveliest ring Kelly had ever seen.

She looked up at her handsome husband, her heart beating with happiness. Helga gave her daughter away, a broad smile on her face. Everything had worked out just fine between her mother and her new husband.

She had learned so much in her short time in Ireland. Touching her father’s things, walking where he’d walked and living where he’d lived had given her time to forgive the past. He’d had weaknesses, and two of those were his temper and an unforgiving nature. In a letter he’d left her in the family Bible, her father had talked about the disaster pride could wreak in a person’s life. You could give up the very things you loved most fighting for your pride.

Kelly had vowed then and there to lance the unhappy memories of her past out of her soul.

And this was the most wonderful night of her life. Kelly touched her stomach where her two babies were growing and thought about the amazing miracle that she was experiencing.

Joy sat at her feet, her attendant. Or maybe Joy was Fannin’s attendant. It didn’t matter. The little poodle was thrilled to be down by the pond where all the action was.

Mimi came down for a few minutes after the Jefferson men helped her father down from the house in his wheelchair. All the Jefferson brothers who still lived on the ranch were in attendance. And Frisco Joe, Annabelle and Emmie had driven in especially for tonight.

Even Jerry and Delilah from Lonely Hearts Station made it for Fannin’s sake. They said only seven more weddings to go—and then the Jefferson boys would be the most married family they’d ever known.

Of course, that brought on some sly, friendly ques
tions as to whether Jerry and Delilah ever intended to tie the knot.

Delilah had simply smiled.

But Kelly knew that strangely wonderful, miraculous things could happen, sometimes when you least expected it. She was sorry about Last’s problem and Mimi’s predicament and the brothers losing Mason, but she was by Fannin’s side now, and she intended to stay there always, for better or worse.

Being with Fannin was a wonderful place to be.

“You’re gorgeous,” he whispered in her ear.

“I’m wearing the thong that brought us together,” she confessed, her smile naughty. “You can look for it tonight. Think about it when you’re reaching under my dress to take my garter off.”

“Oh, no,” Fannin said. “Garter tossing is outlawed for this wedding, my love. No one’s ever touching anything of yours except me.”

“Whew,” Kelly said. “You’re making me want to leave my own wedding early and head upstairs.”

Fannin grinned. “And one day, my love, I’m going to chase you around Irish fields of green.”

She laughed. “And I, my cowboy, will be more than happy to kiss your blarney stone,” she said as Fannin pulled her into his arms for a kiss that told her that the happiest beginning of her life was tonight.