Rough Diamonds: Wyoming Tough\Diamond in the Rough (26 page)

She hugged him warmly and laid her cheek against his chest. “Do you want to have kids?” she asked.

His eyebrows arched and his blue eyes twinkled. “Of course. Do you want to start them right now?” He looked around. “The kitchen table’s just a bit short…ouch!”

She withdrew her fist from his stomach. “You know what I mean! Honestly, what am I going to do with you?”

“Want me to coach you?” he offered, and chuckled wickedly when she blushed.

“Look out that window and tell me what you see,” she said.

He glanced around. There were people going in and out of the unfinished stable, working on the interior by portable lighting. There were a lot of people going in and out.

“I guarantee if you so much as kiss me, we’ll be on every Internet social networking site in the world,” she told him. “And not because of who you are.”

He laughed out loud. “Okay. We’ll wait.” He glanced outside again and scowled. “But we are definitely not going to try to honeymoon here in this house!”

She didn’t argue.

He tugged her along with him into a dark hallway and pulled her close. “They’ll need night vision to see us here,” he explained as he bent to kiss her with blatant urgency.

She kissed him back, feeling so explosively hot inside that she thought she might burst. She felt shivery when he kissed her like that, with his mouth and his whole body. His hands smoothed up under her blouse and over her breasts. He felt the hard tips and groaned, kissing her even harder.

She knew nothing about intimacy, but she wanted it suddenly, desperately. She lifted up to him, trying to get even closer. He backed her into the wall and lowered his body against hers, increasing the urgency of the kiss until she groaned out loud and shivered.

The frantic little sound got through his whirling mind. He pushed away from her and stepped back, dragging in deep breaths in an effort to regain the control he’d almost lost.

“You’re stopping?” she asked breathlessly.

“Yes, I’m stopping,” he replied. He took her hand and pulled her back into the lighted kitchen. There was a flush along his high cheekbones. “Until the wedding, no more time alone,” he added huskily. His blue eyes met her green ones. “We’re going to have it conventional, all the way. Okay?”

She smiled with her whole heart. “Okay!”

He laughed. “It’s just as well,” he sighed.

“Why?”

“We don’t have a bed. Yet.”

Her eyes twinkled. He was so much fun to be with, and when he kissed her, it was like fireworks. They were going to make a great marriage, she was sure of it. She stopped worrying about being poor. When they held each other, nothing mattered less than money.

But the next hurdle was the hardest. He announced a week later that his family was coming up to meet John’s future bride. Sassy didn’t sleep that night, worrying. What would they think, those fabulously wealthy people, when they saw where Sassy and her mother and Selene lived, how poor they were? Would they think she was only after John’s wealth?

She was still worrying when they showed up at her front door late the next afternoon, with John. Sassy stood beside him in her best dress, as they walked up onto the front porch of the Peale homeplace. Her best dress wasn’t saying much because it was off the rack and two years old. It was long, beige, and simply cut. Her shoes were older than the dress and scuffed.

But the tall blond man and the slender, dark-haired woman didn’t seem to notice or care how she was dressed. The woman, who didn’t look much older than Sassy, hugged her warmly.

“I’m Kasie,” she introduced herself with a big smile. “He’s Gil, my husband.” Gil smiled and shook her hand warmly. “And these are our babies…” She motioned to two little blond girls, one holding the
other by the hand. “That’s Bess,” she said, smiling at the taller of the two, “and that’s Jenny. Say hello! This is Uncle John’s fiancée!”

Bess came forward and looked up at Sassy with wide, soft eyes. “You going to marry Uncle John? He’s very nice.”

“Yes, he is,” Sassy said, sliding her hand into John’s. “I promise I’ll take very good care of him,” she added with a smile.

“Okay,” Bess said with a shy returning smile.

“Come on in,” Sassy told them. “I’m sorry, it isn’t much to look at…” she added, embarrassed.

“Sassy, we were raised by an uncle who hated material things,” Gil told her gently. “We grew up in a place just like this, a rough country house. We like to think it gave us strength of character.”

“What he means is, don’t apologize,” John said in a loud whisper.

She laughed when Gil and Kasie agreed. Later she would learn that Kasie had grown up in even rougher conditions, in a war zone in Africa with missionary parents who were killed there.

Mrs. Peale greeted them with Selene by her side, a little intimidated.

“Stop looking like that,” John chided, and hugged her warmly. “This is my future little mother-in-law,” he added with a grin, introducing her to his family. “She’s the sweetest woman I’ve ever known, except for Kasie.”

“You didn’t say I was sweet, too,” Sassy said with a mock pout.

“You’re not sweet. You’re precious,” he told her with a warm, affectionate grin.

“Okay, I’ll go with that,” she laughed. She turned to the others. “Come in and sit down. I could make coffee…?”

“Please, no,” Gil groaned. “She pumped me full of it all the way here. We were up last night very late trying to put fences back up after a storm. Kasie had to drive most of the way.” He held his stomach. “I don’t think I ever want another cup.”

“You go out with your men to fix fences?” Mrs. Peale asked, surprised.

“Of course,” he said simply. “We always have.”

Mrs. Peale relaxed. So did Sassy. These people were nothing like they’d expected. Even Selene warmed to them at once, as shy as she usually was with strangers. It was a wonderful visit.

“Well, what do you think of them?” John asked Sassy much later, as he was getting ready to leave for the ranch.

“They’re wonderful,” she replied, pressed close against him on the dark porch. “They aren’t snobs. I like them already.”

“It’s as Gil said,” he replied. “We were raised by a rough and tumble uncle. He taught us that money wasn’t the most important thing in life.” He tilted her mouth up and kissed it. “They liked you, too,” he added. He smiled. “So, no more hurdles. Now all we have to do is get married.”

“But I don’t know how to plan a big wedding,” she said worriedly.

He grinned. “Not to worry. I know someone who does!”

The wedding was arranged beautifully by a consultant hired by John, out of Colorado. She was young and pretty and sweet, and apparently she was very discreet.
Sassy was fascinated by some of the weddings she’d planned for people all over the country. One was that of Sassy’s favorite country western singing star.

“You did that wedding?” Sassy exclaimed.

“I did. And nobody knew a thing about it until they were on their honeymoon,” she added smugly. “That’s why your future husband hired me. I’m the soul of discretion. Now, tell me what colors you like and we’ll get to work!”

They ended up with a color scheme of pink and yellow and white. Sassy had planned a simple white gown, until Mary Garnett showed her a couture gown with the three pastels embroidered in silk into the bodice and echoed in the lace over the skirt, and in the veil. It was the most beautiful gown Sassy had ever seen in her life. “But you could buy a house for that!” Sassy exclaimed when she heard the price.

John, walking through the living room at the Peale house, paused in the doorway. “We’re only getting married once,” he reminded Sassy.

“But it’s so expensive,” she wailed.

He walked to the sofa and peered over her shoulder at the color photograph of the gown. His breath caught. “Buy it,” he told Mary.

Sassy opened her mouth. He bent and kissed it shut. He walked out again.

Mary just grinned.

He had another surprise for her as well, tied up in a small box, as an early wedding present. He’d discovered that she’d had to pawn her grandfather’s watch and pistol to pay bills and he’d gotten them out of hock. She cried like a baby. Which meant that he got to kiss the
tears away. He was, she thought as she hugged him, the most thoughtful man in the whole world.

Sassy insisted on keeping her job, regardless of John’s protests. She wanted to help more with the wedding, and felt guilty that she hadn’t, but Mary had everything organized. Invitations were going out, flower arrangements were being made. A minister was engaged. A small orchestra was hired to play at the reception.

The wedding was being held at the family ranch in Medicine Ridge, to ensure privacy. Gil had already said that he was putting on more security for the event than the president of the United States had. Nobody was crashing this wedding. They’d even outfoxed aerial surveillance by putting the entire reception inside and having blinds on every window.

Nobody, he told John and Sassy, was getting in without an invitation and a photo ID.

“Is that really necessary?” Sassy asked John when they were alone.

“You don’t know how well-known our parents are,” he sighed. “They’ll be coming, too, and our father can’t keep his mouth shut. He’s heard about you from Gil and Kasie, and he’s bragging to anybody who’ll listen about his newest daughter-in-law.”

“Me?” She was stunned. “But I don’t have any special skills and I’m not even beautiful.”

John smiled down at her. “You have the biggest heart of any woman I’ve ever known,” he said softly. “It isn’t what you do or what you have that makes you special, Sassy. It’s what you are.”

She flushed. “What about your mother?”

He kissed her on the tip of her nose. “She’s so happy
to have access to her grandchildren, that she never raises a fuss about anything. But she’s happy to have somebody in the family who can knit.”

“How did you know I can knit?”

“You think I hadn’t noticed all the afghans and chair covers and doilies all over your house?”

“Mama could have made them.”

“But she didn’t. She said you can even knit sweaters. Our mother would love to learn how. She wants you to teach her.”

She caught her breath. “But, it’s easy! Of course, I’ll show her. She doesn’t mind—neither of them minds—that I’m poor? They don’t think I’m marrying you for your money?”

He laughed until his eyes teared up. “Sassy,” he said, catching his breath, “you didn’t know I had money until after I proposed.”

“Oh.”

“They know that, too.”

She sighed. “Okay, then.”

He bent and kissed her. “Only a few more days to go,” he murmured. “I can hardly wait.”

“Me, too,” she said. “It’s exciting. But it’s a lot of work.”

“Mary’s doing the work so you don’t have to. Well, except for getting the right dresses for your mother and Selene.”

“That’s not work,” she laughed. “They love to shop. I’m so glad Mama’s getting over the chemo. She’s better every day. I was worried that she’d be too weak to come to the wedding, but she says she wouldn’t miss it for anything.”

“We’ll have a nurse practitioner at the wedding,” he assured her. “Just in case. Don’t worry.”

“I’ll do my best,” she promised.

“That’s my girl.”

Finally there was a wedding! Sassy had chewed her nails to the quick worrying about things going wrong. John assured her that it would be smooth as silk, but she couldn’t relax. If only she didn’t trip over her own train and go headfirst into the minister, or do something else equally clumsy! All those important people were going to be there, and she had stage fright.

But once she was at the door of the big ballroom at the Callister mansion in Medicine Ridge where the wedding was taking place, she was less nervous. The sight of John, in his tuxedo, standing at the altar, calmed her. She waited for the music and then, clutching her bouquet firmly, her veil in place over her face, she walked calmly down the aisle. Her heart raced like crazy as John turned and smiled down at her when she reached him. He was the most handsome man she’d ever seen in her life. And he was going to marry her!

The minister smiled at both of them and began the service. It was routine until he asked if John had the rings. John started fishing in his pockets and couldn’t find them. He grimaced, stunned.

“Uncle John! Did you forget?” Jenny muttered at his side, shoving a silken pillow up toward him. “I got the rings, Uncle John!”

The audience chuckled. Sassy hid a smile.

John fumbled the rings loose from the pillow and
bent and kissed his little niece on the forehead. “Thanks, squirt,” he whispered.

She giggled and went to stand beside her sister, Bess, who was holding a basket full of fresh flower petals in shades of yellow, pink, and white.

The minister finished the ceremony and invited John to kiss his bride. John lifted the beautiful embroidered veil and pushed it back over Sassy’s dark hair. His eyes searched hers. He framed her face in his big hands and bent and kissed her so tenderly that tears rolled down her cheeks, and he kissed every one away.

The music played again. Laughing, Sassy took the hand John held out and together they ran down the aisle and out the door. The reception was ready down the hall, in the big formal dining room that had been cleared of furniture for the occasion. As they ate cake and paused for photographs, to the strains of Debussy played by the orchestral ensemble, Sassy noticed movie stars, politicians, and at least two multimillionaires among the guests. She was rubbing elbows with people she’d only seen in magazines. It was fascinating.

“One more little hurdle, Mrs. Callister,” John whispered to her, “and then we’re going to Cancún for a week!”

“Sun and sand,” she began breathlessly.

“And you and me. And a bed.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

She laughed, pressing her face against him to hide her blushes.

“Well, it wasn’t a bad wedding,” came a familiar drawl from behind them.

Chief Graves was wearing a very nice suit, and nicely polished dress boots, holding a piece of cake on a plate. “But I don’t like chocolate cake,” he pointed out. “And there’s no coffee.”

“There is so coffee,” John chuckled, holding up a cup of it. “I don’t go to weddings that don’t furnish coffee.”