The Texas Rancher's Marriage Read online

  Wasn’t that the truth, Merri thought, as she and Chase stood before the chaplain.

  The ceremony began, the words familiar, but the man beside her little more than a distant, casual friend. More than once Merri wondered if they were making a mistake. But all she had to do was look at the children, standing trustingly beside them, and know that she and Chase were doing what was best for Jeffrey and Jessalyn. And in the end, wasn’t that all that really mattered? Seeing that the kids didn’t suffer for mistakes made by others years ago?

  Finally, with vows exchanged and rings on their fingers, the ceremony was complete. “Chase, you may kiss your bride,” the chaplain said.

  And he did.

  * * *

  CHASE HADN’T MEANT TO GIVE Merri more than a peck on the lips, but with everyone standing there, watching, the adults with more than a little skepticism, he decided to take the plunge and give it his all.

  Wrapping one arm around her shoulders, his other her waist, he drew her against him. She lifted her face and he lowered his. As contact was made, potent desire roared through him. She caught her breath and gave a little sound that was half murmur, half moan. Her unbidden response compelled him to draw her closer still, allowing the passion zinging through him to dictate the pressure and the pace. Only the fact that they had an audience made him put on the brakes.

  Slowly, he released her. Merri stared up at him, dazed. He felt the same shock and amazement.

  Kurt cleared his throat. “Wow,” Chase’s old pal murmured. “This is for real.”

  It certainly felt that way, Chase realized. He just wasn’t sure if the chemistry between Merri and him was going to make things easier or harder in the days and months ahead.

  A hospital volunteer appeared in the doorway of the chapel. “There you are, Dr. Armstrong! I heard you were here. These came for you!” The pink-coated woman rushed forward, a big autumn floral arrangement clasped in her arms. In the center was a large envelope with Chase’s name written on it.

  Jeffrey tugged on Chase’s jacket. “Is that a present?”

  “Open it!” Jessalyn demanded, crowding in, too.

  Chase broke the seal, and pulled out a card.

  It featured an eight-by-ten glossy photograph, not the kind that any groom should be receiving on his wedding day. As his “wife” looked over his shoulder, she seemed to agree.

  * * *

  “WOW,” MERRI MURMURED in shock.

  Half a dozen young women were gathered in what looked to be a field hospital. All were clad in desert fatigues, boots and T-shirts. All were holding signs.

  “What does it say?” Jessalyn demanded.

  “Yeah, Mommy, read it,” Jeffrey chimed in.

  “Well, it says ‘We love you, Chase. Miss you already! Can’t believe you actually left us! Holidays are meant to be shared! Texas equals home and home is where the heart is.’ And last but not least…” Merri read the sign held up by a particularly beautiful brunette. “‘We hate that you left us, but…see you soon!’”

  She turned to Chase. “Got quite a cast of admirers there,” she drawled.

  He grinned good-naturedly. “They like to tease me, that’s for sure.”

  As long as teasing was all they were doing, Merri thought irritably.

  “Where should I put them?” the volunteer asked. “Your office…?”

  “Sure you don’t want to take them home with us?” Merri asked tartly.

  “Actually,” Chase said, keeping the photo, and giving back the floral arrangement, “why don’t you set this in the lobby? That way, everyone can enjoy it.”

  “Good idea.” Smiling, the volunteer walked out, vase in hand.

  Kate Marten-McCabe came in with a young nursing student at her side. Head of the hospital grief counseling services for the last thirty years, Kate was beautiful, kind and direct to a fault. “Chase, Merri, good to see you.” She knelt by the twins with a charismatic smile. “I need to talk to the bride and groom. And it’s grown-up talk.” Kate made a face. The kids giggled and wrinkled their noses back at her. “How would you two like to go down to the playroom in pediatrics for a few minutes? We have a lot of fun toys, and Sally here—” Kate pointed to the nursing student

  “—would love to show them to you.”

  When Jessalyn and Jeffrey nodded, Kate looked at the newlyweds. “Is this okay with you?”

  Aware that whatever this entailed was definitely not for children’s ears, they assented. After the kids took off with Sally, Chase and Merri followed Kate into her office.

  The grief counselor sat down behind her desk. “Luke Carrigan, the chief of staff, asked me to speak with you. There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll be blunt. He heard about the marriage and he’s concerned.”

  Chase frowned, clearly taken aback. “Because…?”

  Compassion lit Kate’s kind eyes. “You’ve just returned from a very stressful situation. And he wants to make sure you’re not suffering from any kind of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

  Chase blinked, a little stunned by the assertion. He reached over and took Merri’s hand, letting her know he was more than capable of handling this concern on their behalf. “I was never wounded. Or captured.”

  With a cajoling smile, Kate continued, “But you dealt with people who were.... And there are family deaths you never really had a chance to deal with, all of which could combine to make you do things that you wouldn’t normally.”

  “I didn’t marry Merri out of any reaction to that,” Chase said, confident as ever.

  The grief counselor relaxed. “I’m glad to hear it.”

  And yet, Merri thought, Kate obviously continued to sense something was up.

  Eager to end this line of questioning, Merri slid her hand into Chase’s and sent him a warning glance. “I think she’s concerned because no one knew you and I were thinking along these lines, Chase.”

  Kate nodded soberly, picking up where Merri left off. “You have to admit it’s a shock to the community at large.”

  Aggravation twisted the corners of his lips. “It’s also no one else’s business,” he stated in a flat, implacable tone.

  Suddenly feeling as if she were dealing with a bull in a china shop, Merri continued to play peacemaker. She stood, dragging Chase along with her. “I—we—understand where you and Dr. Carrigan are coming from, Kate, and believe me, we appreciate your concern.”

  Merri flashed a reassuring smile, while Chase played along, wrapping an arm about her waist. “But there’s really no need to worry.” Drawing strength from his warmth, she took another bolstering breath. “Chase and I know we did the right thing in getting married. Not just for the two of us and our future, but for the twins.” She paused, letting her words sink in. “The kids need a daddy. And Chase and I are going to see that they get the complete family they deserve.”

  * * *

  CHASE’S EXPRESSION WAS maddeningly inscrutable as they left the hospital counseling center. “You didn’t have to defend us,” he stated.

  Merri flushed self-consciously. “Uh, yeah, I did.”

  “How come?” he asked.

  Aware this was a conversation that should not be overheard, she ducked into a small alcove in the painted, cement-block corridor. Defiantly, she lifted her chin. “Laramie County is a small, close-knit community, remember?”

  He folded his arms across his chest and shot her a laser-sharp look.

  With her back against the cool hospital wa
ll, she ignored the sexual heat radiating from him, and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Everyone watches out for everyone else here.”

  He shrugged and leaned in closer yet, dropping his voice, too. “So?” he prodded in a sexy murmur.

  Merri drank in the crisp, masculine fragrance emanating from him. “So people are understandably concerned and confused…given how fast this has all come about.” She drew a breath, reassuring herself that despite the impact of their post-nuptial kiss, they were in no real danger of hooking up in the near future. Both of them were much too sensible. “You don’t agree?”

  He braced his hands on his hips, his expression becoming even more guarded. “I think they should mind their own business. We’re adults, after all.”

  She forced herself to glance away. “Who, you have to admit, are now acting very mysteriously.”

  He bent down, caging her with his arms and lowered his face until their mouths were an inch apart. He lifted a strand of hair from her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. Came even nearer, so their bodies were touching and she could feel the heat emanating from his. “So what you’re saying is we’ve got some convincing to do if people are going to believe this marriage is for real,” he proposed silkily.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Merri saw people lingering at the far end of the corridor, near the elevators.

  “No.” She swallowed as he cupped her face in his hands. “That’s not what I said at all.”

  “Too bad,” Chase murmured, the amorous glint in his eyes letting her know he planned to make their union as realistic and convincing as possible, for all the doubting Thomases in the vicinity. After all, he knew as well as she did that word of the incident would quickly spread, through the hospital grapevine, then the community at large.

  His lips touched hers in a sweet, chaste kiss. “Because it’s what I say,” he vowed, planting a hotly possessive kiss on her mouth.

  Merri knew it was all for show. As his lips moved slowly and sensually over hers, she swore that she wasn’t going to kiss him back, but instead would let him do all the work.

  It was a good plan. A very safe, intelligent way of resisting him. Unfortunately it backfired big-time. Before even a millisecond went by, her lips parted beneath the persuasive pressure of his. Her knees weakened and her heart rate skyrocketed. Succumbing, she wreathed her arms around his neck and kissed him back, melting against him.

  And that was when the polite throat-clearing sounded, followed by rapid footsteps. Breathlessly, Chase and Merri moved apart, only to see Jessalyn and Jeffrey skid to a halt on the shiny linoleum floor.

  Then came the confused, indignant demand, “Mommy! Why are you kissing that man!”

  * * *

  REMINDED THAT ALTHOUGH Chase might secretly be the kids’ biological father, they barely knew who he was—a fact that would quickly have to be rectified—Merri flushed. “We’ll talk about it at home.” She took the children’s hands and told Sally, “Thank you for watching over them.”

  “No problem,” the nursing student replied cheerfully. “And congratulations, you two! Everyone is saying this came out of left field, but the way the doc was kissing you just now? No way!” she proclaimed. She pointed to Merri and Chase before heading off to resume her duties. “That’s definitely the real deal.”

  “Mommy! You didn’t answer my question! Why were you kissing him? Again!” Jessalyn said in annoyance.

  “Because we’re married and married people kiss sometimes. Especially—” Merri elbowed Chase “—when they are trying to make a point.”

  He leaned down to whisper in her ear, “Hey, it worked, didn’t it?”

  To rev her up, maybe. And start more gossip.

  Jeffrey and Jessalyn looked at each other, perplexed. Clearly, they didn’t know what to make of this. “So what now?” Chase asked as he and Merri left the hospital, kids in tow.

  “I still want to go milk the cows,” Jessalyn insisted.

  “Me, too,” Jeffrey chimed in.

  Chase waited for Merri to decide. “Actually, we do have to get back to the ranch,” she said eventually.

  “Hurrah!” Jeffrey and Jessalyn cried in unison.

  “I thought you got rid of the beef cattle years ago.” Chase held open the car door for the kids.

  “I had to. Scott and Sasha went deep into debt to pay for their fertility treatments, and it was the only way to settle the estate so it could get through probate.”

  Chase didn’t look surprised to learn his brother and sister-in-law had gravely mismanaged the ranch. “And you’ve just leased the land since, for crops and grazing?”

  Nodding, Merri leaned in to help Jessalyn fasten her safety harness. “Initially, all I did was allow others to plant alfalfa, hay and corn on the farmable land, and rotate the cattle on other parts, for grazing.”

  Chase did the same for Jeffrey. “And that brought in more than enough to pay the mortgage and the taxes and the upkeep on the property?”

  “As well as a small salary for me.”

  “But…?” he prodded, sensing there was more.

  Merri climbed into the passenger seat. “Eventually, I realized I needed to build something of my own for me and the kids, and take a more active part in the running of the ranch.” She tugged her dress down over her knees. “Which is when I converted the barn on the south part of the property to a milking operation, hired one full-time hand to help me manage it and bought a dozen Jersey cows and a dozen Guernseys.”

  Chase did a double take. “You’re turning the Broken Arrow Ranch into a dairy farm?”

  “Uh, yeah.…I am.”

  His jaw tautened. “You never mentioned it in any of your letters.”

  That’s because I knew you wouldn’t approve. “Hmm. Didn’t I?”

  He made a face.

  “The cows are really cute,” Jessalyn interjected from her booster seat. “Some are brown and white and some are black and white....”

  “I like it when they moo,” Jeffrey declared.

  Chase continued gaping at Merri as if she were a complete and utter fool. She refused to let his skepticism get her down. “It’s a good thing,” she promised, sure about this decision even if she wasn’t so certain about others. Cheerfully, she predicted, “And it will be even better in a few years, when we get the dairy operation expanded to quadruple the size.”

  * * *

  MERRI HADN’T BEEN KIDDING, Chase noted thirty minutes later when all four of them had changed into “ranch clothes,” hopped in the pickup truck and headed for the south side of the Broken Arrow Ranch. Just as she had claimed, there were twenty-four cows pastured outside the big barn. All were big, robust, surprisingly handsome animals. Most were heading slowly for the barn door as the truck approached.

  “The cows like to come in all on their own!” Jessalyn announced.

  “But if they don’t, Mutt—the doggie—will help Slim get the cows inside the barn, so they can get hooked up,” Jeffrey added helpfully.

  “The cows know when it’s time to be milked, so they head for the barn,” Merri explained.

  Chase parked in the gravel area and everyone got out.

  A tall, thin cowboy in his mid-fifties came out of the barn, with a border collie at his heels. The gray-haired hired hand tipped his hat at Merri before glancing at Chase. “I expect you want to have a look around,” he drawled, with the respect due one of the original Armstrongs.

  Did he? Chase wondered.

  Finding out
what Merri had been doing to the place was his worst nightmare. He was stunned no one had mentioned it. But maybe they’d figured—rightly so—that it was going to be a sore subject with him.

  Chase tipped his hat back to Slim, a cowboy he recalled meeting at the barbecue in his honor. “May as well,” he grumbled.

  Clasping the children’s hands, Merri led the way inside the sparkling, clean barn.

  Chase was stunned to see twenty-four stalls, and plenty of stainless-steel, state-of-the-art milking equipment with hoses running to a big steel vat.

  Merri murmured with pride, “I joined a co-op dairy that supplies organic milk to a big grocery store chain. Every day a truck comes in and takes it to the processing plant, for ultrahigh-temperature processing and packaging.”

  “I don’t like the truck,” Jessalyn complained, covering her ears. “It’s too noisy.”

  “But we like watching the cows get milked,” Jeffrey said.

  As the bovines were ushered into the stalls, they were hooked up to the milking machines. For all the activity, the barn was surprisingly quiet and peaceful.

  Chase’s cell phone rang.

  He stepped outside to take the call, then walked back in to let Merri know the latest. “That was Liz Cartwright Anderson. She got us on Judge Roy’s docket for tomorrow afternoon at four. We’re the last case the judge is going to hear before the Thanksgiving break.”

  A fact, Chase thought happily, that put them one step closer to his ultimate goal: to have this family officially his.

  Chapter Three

  “You know what I think?” Judge Priscilla Roy said after listening to Chase and Merri’s joint request for guardianship. In her black robe, glasses perched on the edge of her nose, the dark-haired justice cut an imposing figure as she glared at Chase. “None of what is going on here today, or what happened yesterday in the hospital chapel, has anything to do with the kind of unconditional love and commitment needed for a successful marriage, never mind a stable family unit.”