Wise Folly (29 page)

Her smile widened. "No. I'd rather
live
where you are."

He grinned
,
and
there was
laughter in his gaze.
“Believe me, darling, we’ll be gentlemen farmers. I enjoy the ranch, but
I
don’t really have to work by the sweat of my brow for a living anymore. Now
I
want to spend time with my wife and my daughter, and enjoy
lif
e.”

His lips softly touched hers, coaxing, pleading, and she responded with all the love that overflowed from her heart

“Think you can start again as a lady of leisure and my wife? No more
secrets
between us?” he
finally
asked

She nodded, her smile growing bigger as
a huge bubble
of happiness
grew inside.

He stood up, putting out his hands and slowly drawing her up and into the comfort of his embrace. Her arms crept around his neck, softly playing with his hair, feeling the texture and vitality of it
. Of him.

“We’ll start again,” she promised. “I think it’s time you got busy with the rest of our family. Tabby can’t be an only child forever.”

His laugh was soft. "I think we ought to start now."

*****

Mrs.
Dianna
Weston
lounged in the hammock on the large shaded rear patio of the ranch house as she sipped her iced tea. Some ranch house! It resembled more closely the large hacienda of a terribly important
D
on in the
Sunny So
uth of Mexico. The house was
built in
the shape of an H with both front and back patios enclosed by a large
tan
stucco wa
ll
.
The front patio was
a
garden, complete with i
t
s own double fountain, while the rear patio circled the rectangular swimming po
ol and spa
. A large wooden gate stood in
the
center back wall leading out to the other buildings on the ranch. The stable was directly in line with the rear of the house and
Dianna
could hear the f
a
int whinny of the horses as they pulled in from the cattle pens. Noah was out there today, taking a stock count
with his foreman.

She stretched her toes and pulled her arms over her head, completely drugged with the happiness she had known these past eight weeks
-
since she had come here with Noah. It was amazing how wonderful it felt to belong, truly belong, to someone you loved. Her tan jean
s
stretched over slim legs and she chuckled to herself as the button above her zipper tautened over the faint rounding of her stomach.

Honey’s voice broke the silence. “Well, the last of the packing is done and in the morning I’ll be ready to vacate.”
The older woman s
lumped in a chair directly across from Dianna
.
She was a woman well into her
fifties
, with hair already beginning to grey and a pleasantly plump figure. Her face was creased with lines that told
the
story of many days in the sun and a tendency toward
nearsightedness
. There was no trace of the stroke she’d endured seven years ago. She grinned broadly at Dianna. “I guess you won’t feel too badly being deserted like this, will you?’

“I just don’t see why you and Frank can’t live here, Honey. After all, it’s your home too, and in much better repair than the old homestead.”

“You’re a doll, and I love you, but I want a little privacy for my new husband and m
e
, even if we have known each other f
o
r years.
Besides, we're having a ball fixing it up the way we want."

"Are you sure?" Dianna asked.

Honey gave a hearty laugh. "Well, I can't get too lonely.
After all,
I'll
only be down the road a ways. We’ll see each other more often than you think!”
H
er light gray eyes lit up at the mention of her future husband. He had been the foreman of the ranch for the past ten years and it had taken him the last three to convince Honey he was the only man for her. “Just ’cause there’s snow on the roof...” She plucked a lock of gray hair and raised her eyebrows, making Dianna chuckle again. “Besides, you two need to have some privacy, too.” She glanced at Dianna’s middle. “Have you told Noah, yet?”

Absolute delight filtered through Dianna. “That he’s going to be a proud papa? Yes, I told him last night
.
He didn’t seem to be at all surprised.”

Honey grinned. “Why should he be—he’s been working on it ever since you two got married!” They both giggled as Dianna blushed becomingly.

“Anyway, we’re going to wait and tell Tabby a little later. Seven months is a long time for a child to wait for a brother or sister.”

The back gate opened and Noah strode in, his boots thumping on the concrete
path
as he walked around the po
ol
to the canopied patio, his eyes shining as he grinned at both of them. He took his hat off and wiped his brow with his sleeve. He looked tired and dusty and gorgeous.

I'll
go get some more iced tea,” Honey said to no one in particular as she stood and ambled toward
the
large, sliding glass doors.

“Make mine a beer.” Noah sat down next to Dianna, his hand holding hers as his
lips
brushed her hair. “How’s the little mother today?” His skin had darkened from the harsh
West
Texas sun and his eyes crinkled in
the
comers. His grin widened as he pointedly glanced at Dianna’s stomach.

“Doing fine and waiting for you with good news. Jessie called and she and Philip are accepting our invitation to spend next weekend with us. I told them we’d send
the
plane to Love
Field
in Dallas to pick them up Friday morning. They’re taking the girls out of school for the day.”

“Good. It’ll do both of
them
good to have a change of scene
.
Maybe they’ll take a better look at what they’ve got and both of them will come to their senses.”

Dianna hooted “And they call women devious matchmakers!”

“Well,” Noah said laughingly, “I know it’s impossible for anyone to be as happy as I am when I’ve got you under control, but I’d
like
my friends to be at least half as happy.”

“What do you mean, when you’ve got me ‘under control,’ Mr. Weston!” she asked in mock anger.

He grinned.
“You
are
the person
who
bought five bushels of apples at the market, then didn’t have the
recipe
for apple sauce,
or apple butter. Nor did you buy
jars, or paraffin, aren’t you?” His brow rose and a lazy mocking smile turned up the comers of his mouth.

She tried to look indignant, but laughed instead.
“It takes time to get the hang of everything. Besides, you said you loved apples.”

His hand slid behind her waist, lifting her into his lap with one deceptively easy movement “
I
love my wife more, and if it pleases her to play Eve and tempt me with apples, then
I'll
eat the damn things
, j
ust as soon as
I'm
sated with her.” He murmured the words lovingly as he nibbled on her ear, making bursts of electricity sing through her veins.

“And you promise you won’t get tired of me, even when
I'm
big and grumpy?”

“
I'll
never get tired of you, Dianna. Never.” He spoke softly, earnestly, his eyes probing hers. “This child and all others we have are going to have their father where he should be: at their mother’s side so I can watch them grow even before they are bo
rn
as well as after.” He smoothed her hair back and kissed the tip of her nose before continuing. “
I
missed so much with Tabby. I don’t ever want that to happen again.”

“It won’t,” she promised, knowing that this was the way it should be, the beginning of a dream come true.

             
             
             
             
             
###