Praise for

JOAN JOHNSTON

“Johnston warms your heart and tickles your fancy.”

—New York Daily News

“Skillful storyteller Johnston makes what would in lesser hands be melodrama, compellingly realistic.”

—Booklist

“Romance devotees will find Johnston lively and well-written, and her characters perfectly enchanting.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Joan Johnston continually gives us everything we want…a story that you wish would never end, and lots of tension and sensuality.”

—RT Book Reviews

“Joan Johnston [creates] unforgettable subplots and characters who make every fine thread weave into a touching tapestry.”

—Affaire de Coeur

“Johnston’s characters struggle against seriously deranged foes and face seemingly insurmountable obstacles to true love.”

—Booklist

“A guaranteed good read.”

—New York Times bestselling author Heather Graham

Joan Johnston
Hawk’s Way
Rebels

CONTENTS

THE TEMPORARY GROOM

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

THE VIRGIN GROOM

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

EPILOGUE

THE TEMPORARY GROOM

CHAPTER ONE

CHERRY WHITELAW was in trouble. Again. She simply couldn’t live up to the high expectations of her adoptive parents, Zach and Rebecca Whitelaw. She had been a Whitelaw for three years, ever since her fifteenth birthday, and it was getting harder and harder to face the looks of disappointment on her parents’ faces each time they learned of her latest escapade.

This time it was really serious. This was about the worst thing that could happen to a high school girl. Well, the second worst. At least she wasn’t pregnant.

Cherry had been caught spiking the punch at the senior prom this evening by the principal, Mr. Cornwell, and expelled on the spot. The worst of it was, she wasn’t even guilty! Not that anyone was going to believe her. Because most of the time she was.

Her best friend, Tessa Ramos, had brought the pint bottle of whiskey to the dance. Cherry had been trying to talk Tessa out of spiking the punch—had just taken the bottle from Tessa’s hand—when Mr. Cornwell caught her with it.

He had snatched it away with a look of dismay and said, “I’m ashamed of you, young lady. It’s bad enough when your behavior disrupts class. An irresponsible act like this has farther-reaching ramifications.”

“But, Mr. Cornwell, I was only—”

“You’re obviously incorrigible, Ms. Whitelaw.”

Cherry hated being called that. Incorrigible. Being incorrigible meant no one wanted her because she was too much trouble. Except Zach and Rebecca had. They had loved her no matter what she did. They would believe in her this time, too. But that didn’t change the fact she had let them down. Again.

“You’re expelled,” Mr. Cornwell had said, his rotund face nearly as red as Cherry’s hair, but not quite, because nothing could ever be quite that red. “You will leave this dance at once. I’ll be in touch with your parents tomorrow.”

No amount of argument about her innocence had done any good, because she had been unwilling to name her best friend as the real culprit. She might be a troublemaker, but she was no rat.

Mr. Cornwell’s pronouncement had been final. She was out. She wasn’t going to graduate with the rest of her class. She would have to come back for summer school.

Rebecca was going to cry when she found out. And Zach was going to get that grim-lipped look that meant he was really upset.

Cherry felt a little like crying herself. She had no idea why she was so often driven to wild behavior. She only knew she couldn’t seem to stop. And it wasn’t going to do any good to protest her innocence this time. She had been guilty too often in the past.

“Hey, Cherry! You gonna sit there mopin’ all night, or what?”

Cherry glanced at her prom date, Ray Estes. He lay sprawled on the grass beside her at the stock pond on the farthest edge of Hawk’s Pride, her father’s ranch, where she had retreated in defeat. Her full-length, pale green chiffon prom dress, which had made her feel like a fairy princess earlier in the evening, was stained with dirt and grass.

Ray’s tuxedo was missing the jacket, bow tie, and cummerbund, and his shirt was unbuttoned halfway to his waist. He was guzzling the fourth can of a six-pack of beer he had been slowly but surely consuming since they had arrived at the pond an hour ago.

Cherry sat beside him holding the fifth can, but it was still nearly full. Somehow she didn’t feel much like getting drunk. She had to face her parents sometime tonight, and that would only be adding insult to injury.

“C’mon, Cherry, give us a li’l kiss,” Ray said, dragging himself upright with difficulty and leaning toward her.

She braced a palm in the smooth center of his chest to keep him from falling onto her. “You’re drunk, Ray.”

Ray grinned. “Shhure am. How ’bout that kiss, Cher-ry?”

“No, Ray.”

“Aww, why not?”

“I got thrown out of school tonight, Ray. I don’t feel like kissing anybody.”

“Not even me?” Ray said.

Cherry laughed at the woeful, hangdog look on his face and shook her head. “Not even you.” Ray was good fun most of the time. He drank a little too much, and he drove a little too fast, and his grades hadn’t been too good. But she hadn’t been in a position to be too picky.

She had dreamed sometimes of what it might be like to be one of the “good girls” and have “nice boys” calling her up to ask for dates. It hadn’t happened. She was the kind of trouble nice boys stayed away from.

“C’mon, Cher-ry,” Ray said. “Gimme li’l kiss.”

He teetered forward, and the sheer weight of him forced her backward so she was lying flat on the ground. Cherry was five-eleven in her stocking feet and could run fast enough to make the girls’ track team—if she hadn’t always been in too much trouble to qualify. But Ray was four inches taller and forty pounds heavier. She turned her head away to avoid his slobbery, seeking lips, which landed on her cheeks and chin.

“I said no, Ray. Get off!” She shoved uselessly at his heavy body, a sense of panic growing inside her.

“Aww, Cher-ry,” he slurred drunkenly. “You know you want it.” His hand closed around her breast.

“Ray! No!” she cried. She grabbed his wrist and yanked it away and heard the chiffon rip as his grasping fingers held fast to the cloth. “Ray, please!” she pleaded.

Then she felt his hand on her bare flesh. “No, Ray. No!”

“Gonna have you, Cher-ry,” Ray muttered. “Always wanted to. Know you want it, too.”

Cherry suddenly realized she might be in even worse trouble than she’d thought.

BILLY STONECREEK was in trouble. Again. His former mother-in-law, Penelope Trask, was furious because he had gotten into a little fight in a bar in town and spent the night in jail—for the third time in a year.

He had a live-in housekeeper to stay with his daughters, so they were never alone. He figured he’d been a pretty damned good single parent to his six-year-old twins, Raejean and Annie, ever since their mother’s death a year ago. But you’d never know it to hear Penelope talk.

Hell, a young man of twenty-five who worked hard on his ranch from dawn to dusk all week deserved to sow a few wild oats at week’s end. His ears rang with the memory of their confrontation in his living room earlier that evening.

“You’re a drunken half-breed,” Penelope snapped, “not fit to raise my grandchildren. And if I have anything to say about it, you won’t have them for much longer!”

Billy felt a burning rage that Penelope should say such a thing while Raejean and Annie were standing right there listening. Especially since he hadn’t been the least bit drunk. He’d been looking for a fight, all right, and he’d found it in a bar, but that was all.

There was no hope his daughters hadn’t heard Penelope. Their Nintendo game continued on the living room TV, but both girls were staring wide-eyed at him. “Raejean. Annie. Go upstairs while I talk to Nana.”

“But, Daddy—” Raejean began. She was the twin who took control of every situation.

“Not a word,” he said in a firm voice. “Go.”

Annie’s dark brown eyes welled with tears. She was the twin with the soft heart.

He wanted to pick them both up and hug them, but he forced himself to point an authoritative finger toward the doorway. “Upstairs and get your baths and get ready for bed. Mrs. Motherwell will be up to help in a minute.” He had hired the elderly woman on the spot when he heard her name. She had proven equal to it.

Raejean shot him a reproachful look, took Annie’s hand, and stomped out of the room with Annie trailing behind her.

Once they were gone, Billy turned his attention back to his nemesis. “What is it this time, Penelope?”

“This time! What is it every time? You drove my Laura to kill herself, and now you’re neglecting my grandchildren. I’ve had it. I went to see a lawyer today. I’ve filed for custody of my granddaughters.”

A chill of foreboding crawled down Billy’s spine. “You’ve done what?”

“You heard me. I want custody of Raejean and Annie.”

“Those are my children you’re talking about.”

“They’ll have a better life with me than they will with a half-breed like you.”

“Being part Comanche isn’t a crime, Penelope. Lots of people in America are part something. Hell, you’re probably part Irish or English or French yourself.”

“Your kind has a reputation for not being able to hold their liquor. Obviously, it’s a problem for you, too. I don’t intend to let my grandchildren suffer for it.”

A flush rose on Billy’s high, sharp cheekbones. He refused to defend himself. It was none of Penelope’s business whether he drank or not. But he didn’t. He went looking for a fight when the pain built up inside, and he needed a release for it. But he chose men able to defend themselves, he fought clean, and he willingly paid the damages afterward.

He hated the idea of kowtowing to Penelope, but he didn’t want a court battle with her, either. She and her husband, Harvey Trask, were wealthy; he was not. In fact, the Trasks had given this ranch—an edge carved from the larger Trask ranching empire—as a wedding present to their daughter, Laura, thereby ensuring that the newlyweds would stay close to home.

He had resented their generosity at first, but he had grown to love the land, and now he was no more willing to give up the Stonecreek Ranch than he was to relinquish his children.

But his behavior over the past year couldn’t stand much scrutiny. He supposed the reason he had started those few barroom brawls wouldn’t matter to a judge. And he could never have revealed to anyone the personal pain that had led to such behavior. So he had no excuses to offer Penelope—or a family court judge, either.

“Look, Penelope, I’m sorry. What if I promise—”

“Don’t waste your breath. I never wanted my daughter to marry a man like you in the first place. My granddaughters deserve to be raised in a wholesome household where they won’t be exposed to your kind.”

“What kind is that?” Billy asked pointedly.

“The kind that doesn’t have any self-respect, and therefore can’t pass it on to their children.”

Billy felt his stomach roll. It was a toss-up whether he felt more humiliated or furious at her accusation. “I have plenty of self-respect.”

“Could have fooled me!” Penelope retorted.

“I’m not letting you take my kids away from me.”

“You can’t stop me.” She didn’t argue with him further, simply headed for the front door—she never used the back, as most people in this part of Texas did. “I’ll see you in court, Billy.”

Then she was gone.

Billy stood in the middle of the toy-strewn living room, furnished with the formal satin-covered couches and chairs Laura had chosen, feeling helpless. Moments later he was headed for the back door. He paused long enough to yell up the stairs, “I’m going out, Mrs. Motherwell. Good night, Raejean. Good night, Annie.”

“Good night, Daddy!” the two of them yelled back from the bathtub in unison.

Mrs. Motherwell appeared at the top of the stairs. “Don’t forget this is my last week, Mr. Stonecreek. You’ll need to find someone else starting Monday morning.”

“I know, Mrs. Motherwell,” Billy said with a sigh. He had Penelope to thank for that, too. She had filled Mrs. Motherwell’s head with stories about him being a dangerous savage. His granite-hewn features, his untrimmed black hair, his broad shoulders and immense height, and a pair of dark, brooding eyes did nothing to dispel the image. But he couldn’t help how he looked. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Motherwell. I’ll find someone to replace you.”

He was the one who was worried. How was he going to find someone as capable as Mrs. Motherwell in a week? It had taken him a month to find her.

He let the kitchen screen door slam and gunned the engine in his black pickup as he drove away. But he couldn’t escape his frenetic thoughts.

I’ll be damned if I let Penelope take my kids away from me. Who does she think she is? How dare she threaten to steal my children!

He knew his girls needed a mother. Sometimes he missed Laura so much it made his gut ache. But no other woman could ever take her place. He had hired a series of good housekeeper/nannies one after another—it was hard to get help to stay at his isolated ranch—and he and his girls had managed fine.

Or they would, if Penelope and Harvey Trask would leave them alone.

Unfortunately, Penelope blamed him for Laura’s death. She had been killed instantly in a car accident that had looked a whole lot like a suicide. Billy had tried telling Penelope that Laura hadn’t killed herself, but his mother-in-law hadn’t believed him. Penelope Trask had said she would see that he was punished for making Laura so miserable she had taken her own life. Now she was threatening to take his children from him.

He couldn’t bear to lose Raejean and Annie. They were the light of his life and all he had left of Laura. God, how he had loved her!

Billy pounded his fist on the steering wheel of his pickup. How could he have been so stupid as to give Penelope the ammunition she needed to shoot him down in court?

It was too late to do anything about his wild reputation. But he could change his behavior. He could stop brawling in bars. If only there were some way he could show the judge he had turned over a new leaf….

Billy didn’t drive in any particular direction, yet he eventually found himself at the stock pond he shared with Zach Whitelaw’s ranch. The light from the rising moon and stars made a silvery reflection on the center of the pond and revealed the shadows of several pin oaks that surrounded it. He had always found the sounds of the bullfrogs and the crickets and the lapping water soothing to his inner turmoil. He had gone there often to think in the year since Laura had died.

His truck headlights revealed someone else had discovered his sanctuary. He smiled wistfully when he realized a couple was lying together on the grass. He felt a stab of envy. He and Laura had spent their share of stolen moments on the banks of this stock pond when the land had belonged to her father.

He almost turned the truck around, because he wanted to be alone, but there was something about the movements of the couple on the ground that struck him as odd. It took him a moment to realize they weren’t struggling in the throes of passion. The woman was trying to fight the man off!

He hit the brakes, shoved open his truck door, and headed for them on the run. He hadn’t quite reached the girl when he heard her scream of outrage.

He grabbed hold of the boy by his shoulders and yanked him upright. The tall, heavyset kid came around swinging.

That was a mistake.

Billy ducked and came up underneath with a hard fist to the belly that dropped the kid to his knees. A second later the boy toppled face-forward with a groan.

Billy made a sound of disgust that the kid hadn’t put up more of a fight and hurried to help the girl. She had curled in on herself, her body rigid with tension. When he put a hand on her shoulder, she tried scrambling away.

“He’s not going to hurt you anymore,” he said in the calm, quiet voice he used when he was gentling horses. He turned her over so she could see she was safe from the boy, that he was there to help. Her torn bodice exposed half of a small, well-formed breast. He made himself look away, but his body tightened responsively. Her whole body began to tremble.

“Shh. It’s all right. I’m here now.”

She looked up at him with eyes full of pain.

“Are you hurt?” he asked, his hands doing a quick once-over for some sign of injury.

She slapped at him ineffectually with one hand while holding the torn chiffon against her nakedness with the other. “No. I’m fine. Just…just…”

Her eyes—he couldn’t tell what color they were in the dark—filled with tears and, despite her desperate attempts to blink the moisture away, one sparkling tear-drop spilled onto her cheek. It was then he realized the pain he had seen wasn’t physical, but came from inside.

He understood that kind of pain all too well.

“Hey,” he said gently. “It’s going to be all right.”

“Easy for you to say,” she snapped, rubbing at the tears and swiping them across her cheeks. “I—”

A car engine revved, and they both looked toward the sound in time to see a pair of headlights come on.

“Wait!” the girl cried, surging to her feet.

The dress slipped, and Billy got an unwelcome look at a single, luscious breast. He swore under his breath as his body hardened.

The girl obviously wasn’t used to long dresses, because the length of it caught under her knees and trapped her on the ground. By the time she made it to her feet, the car she had come in, and the boy she had come with, were gone.

He took one look at her face in the moonlight and saw a kind of desolation he hadn’t often seen before.

Except perhaps in his own face in the mirror.

It made his throat ache. It might have brought him to tears, if he had been the kind of man who could cry. He wasn’t. He thought maybe his Comanche heritage had something to do with it. Or maybe it was simply a lack of feeling in him. He didn’t know. He didn’t want to know.

As he watched, the girl sank to the ground and dropped her face into her hands. Her shoulders rocked with soundless, shuddering sobs.

He settled beside her, not speaking, not touching, merely a comforting presence, there if she needed him. Occasionally he heard a sniffling sound, but otherwise he was aware of the silence. And finally, the sounds he had come to hear. The bullfrogs. The crickets. The water lapping in the pond.

He didn’t know how long he had been sitting beside her when she finally spoke.

“Thank you,” she said.

Her voice was husky from crying, and rasped over him, raising the hairs on his neck. He looked at her again and saw liquid, shining eyes in a pretty face. He couldn’t keep his gaze from dropping to the flesh revealed by her tightened grip on the torn fabric. Hell, he was a man, not a saint.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

She shook her head, gave a halfhearted laugh, and said, “Sure.” The sarcasm in her voice made it plain she was anything but.

“Can I help?”

“I’d need a miracle to get me out of the mess I’m in.” She shrugged, a surprisingly sad gesture. “I can’t seem to stay out of trouble.”

He smiled sympathetically. I have the same problem. He thought the words, but he didn’t say them. He didn’t want to frighten her. “Things happen,” he said instead.

She reached out hesitantly to touch a recent cut above his eye. “Did Ray do this?”

He edged back from her touch. It felt too good. “No. That’s from—” Another fight. He didn’t finish that thought aloud, either. “Something else.”

He had gotten a whiff of her perfume. Something light and flowery. Something definitely female. It reminded him he hadn’t been with a woman since Laura’s death. And that he found the young woman sitting beside him infinitely desirable.

He tamped down his raging hormones. She needed his help. She didn’t need another male lusting after her.

She reached for an open can of beer sitting in the grass nearby and lifted it to her lips.

Before it got there, he took it from her. “Aren’t you a little young for this?”

“What difference does it make now? My life is ruined.”

He smiled indulgently. “Just because your boyfriend—”

“Ray’s not my boyfriend. And he’s the least of my problems.”

He raised a questioning brow. “Oh?”

He watched her grasp her full lower lip in her teeth—and wished he were doing it himself. He forced his gaze upward to meet with hers.

“I’m a disappointment to my parents,” she said in a whispery, haunted voice.

How could such a beautiful—he had been looking at her long enough to realize she was more than pretty—young woman be a disappointment to anybody? “Who are your parents?”

“I’m Cherry Whitelaw.”

She said it defiantly, defensively. And he knew why. She had been the talk of the neighborhood—the “juvenile delinquent” the Whitelaws had taken into their home four years ago, the most recently adopted child of their eight adopted children.

“If you’re trying to scare me off, it won’t work.” He grinned and said, “I’m Billy Stonecreek.”

The smile grew slowly on her face. He saw the moment when she relaxed and held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Stonecreek. I used to see you in church with your—” She cut herself off.

“It’s all right to mention my wife,” he said. But he knew why she had hesitated. Penelope’s tongue had been wagging, telling anyone who would listen how he had caused Laura to kill herself. Cherry’s lowered eyes made it obvious she had heard the stories. He didn’t know why he felt the urge to defend himself to her when he hadn’t to anyone else.

“I had nothing to do with Laura’s death. It was simply a tragic accident.” Then, before he could stop himself, “I miss her.”

Cherry laid a hand on his forearm, and he felt the muscles tense beneath her soothing touch. She waited for him to look at her before she spoke. “I’m sorry about your wife, Mr. Stonecreek. It must be awful to lose someone you love.”

“Call me Billy,” he said, unsure how to handle her sympathy.

“Then you have to call me Cherry,” she said with the beginnings of a smile. She held out her hand. “Deal?”

“Deal.” He took her hand and held it a moment too long. Long enough to realize he didn’t want to let go. He forced himself to sit back. He raised the beer can he had taken from her to his lips, but she took it from him before he could tip it up.

“I don’t think this will solve your problems, either,” she said with a cheeky grin.

He laughed. “You’re right.”

They smiled at each other.

Until Billy realized he wanted to kiss her about as bad as he had ever wanted anything in his life. His smile faded. He saw the growing recognition in her eyes and turned away. He was there to rescue the girl, not to ravish her.

He picked a stem of sweet grass and twirled it between his fingertips. “Would you like to talk about what you’ve done that’s going to disappoint your parents?”

She shrugged. “Hell. Why not?”

The profanity surprised him. Until he remembered she hadn’t been a Whitelaw for very long. “I’m listening.”

Her eyes remained focused on her tightly laced fingers. “I got expelled from high school tonight.”

He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “That’s pretty bad, all right. What did you do?”

“Nothing! Not that I’m innocent all that often, but this time I was. Just because I had a whiskey bottle in my hand doesn’t mean I was going to pour it in the punch at the prom.”

He raised a skeptical brow.

“I was keeping a friend of mine from pouring it in the punch,” she explained. “Not that anyone will believe me.”

“As alibis go, I’ve heard better,” he said.

“Anyway, I’ve been expelled and I won’t graduate with my class and I’ll have to go to summer school to finish. I’d rather run away from home than face Zach and Rebecca and tell them what I’ve done. In fact, the more I think about it, the better that idea sounds. I won’t go home. I’ll…I’ll…”

“Go where?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere.”

“Dressed like that?”

She looked down at herself and back up at him, her eyes brimming with tears. “My dress is ruined. Just like my life.”

Billy didn’t resist the urge to lift her into his lap, and for whatever reason, she didn’t resist his efforts to comfort her. She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him.

“I feel so lost and alone,” she said, her breath moist against his skin. “I don’t belong anywhere.”

Billy tightened his arms around her protectively, wishing there was something more he could do to help. He crooned to her in Comanche, telling her she was safe, that he would find a way to help her, that she wasn’t alone.

“What am I going to do?” she murmured in an anguished voice. “Where can I go?”

Billy swallowed over the knot in his throat. “You’re going to think I’m crazy,” he said. “But I’ve got an idea if you’d like to hear it.”

“What is it?” she asked.

“You could come and live with me.”

CHAPTER TWO

CHERRY HAD FELT SAFE and secure in Billy Stonecreek’s arms, that is, until he made his insane suggestion. She lifted her head from Billy’s shoulder and stared at him wide-eyed. “What did you say?”

“Don’t reject the idea before you hear me out.”

“I’m listening.” In fact, Cherry was fascinated.

He focused his dark-eyed gaze on her, pinning her in place. “The older lady who’s been taking care of my kids is quitting on Monday. How would you like to work for me? The job comes with room and board.” He smiled. “In fact, I’m including room and board because I can’t afford to pay much.”

“You’re offering me a job?”

“And a place to live. I could be at home evenings to watch the girls while you go to night school over the summer and earn your high school diploma. What do you say?”

Cherry edged herself off Billy’s lap, wondering how he had coaxed her into remaining there so long. Perversely, she missed the warmth of his embrace once it was gone. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around the yards of pale green chiffon.

“Cherry?”

Her first reaction was to say yes. His offer was the simple solution to all her problems. She wouldn’t have to go home. She wouldn’t have to face her parents with the truth.

But she hadn’t lived with Zach and Rebecca Whitelaw for four years and not learned how they felt about certain subjects. “My dad would never allow it.”

“A minute ago you were going to run away from home. How is this different?”

“You obviously don’t know Zach Whitelaw very well,” she said with a rueful twist of her lips. “If he knew I was working so close, he’d expect me to live at home.”

“Not if you were indispensible to me.”

“Would I be?” she asked, intrigued.

“I can’t manage the ranch and my six-year-old twin daughters all by myself. I’m up and working before dawn. Somebody has to make sure Annie and Raejean get dressed for school and feed them breakfast and be there when they get off the school bus in the afternoon.” Billy shrugged. “You need a place to stay. I need help in a hurry. It’s a match made in heaven.”

Cherry shook her head. “It wouldn’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Can I be blunt?”

Billy smiled, and her stomach did a queer flip-flop. “By all means,” he said.

“It’s bad enough that you’re single—”

“I wouldn’t need the help if I had a wife,” Billy interrupted.

Cherry frowned him into silence. “You’re a widower. I’m only eighteen. It’s a toss-up which of us has the worse reputation for getting into trouble. Can you imagine what people would say—about us—if I moved in with you?” Cherry’s lips curled in an impish grin. “Eyebrows would hit hairlines all over the county.”

Billy shook his head and laughed. “I hadn’t thought about what people would think. We’re two of a kind, all right.” His features sobered. “Just not the right kind.”

Cherry laid her hand on his arm in comfort. “I know what you’re feeling, Billy.”

“I doubt it.”

Cherry felt bereft as he pulled free. He was wrong. She understood exactly what he was feeling. The words spilled out before she could stop them.

“Nobody wants anything to do with you, because you’re different,” she said in a quiet voice that carried in the dark. “To prove it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, you break their rules. When they look down their noses at you, you spit in their eyes. And all the time, your heart is aching. Because you want them to like you. And respect you. But they don’t.”

Billy eyed her speculatively. “I guess you do understand.”

For a moment Cherry thought he was going to put his arm around her. But he didn’t.

She turned to stare at the pond, so he wouldn’t see how much she regretted his decision to keep his distance. “I’ve always hated being different,” she said. “I was always taller than everyone else, thanks to my giant of a father, Big Mike Murphy.” When she was a child, her father’s size had always made her feel safe. But he hadn’t kept her safe. He had let her be stolen away from him.

“And I don’t know another person with hair as godawful fire-engine red as mine. I have Big Mike to thank for that, too.” Cherry noticed Billy didn’t contradict her evaluation of her hair.

“And your mother?” Billy asked. “What did you get from her?”

“Nothing, so far as I can tell,” Cherry said curtly. “She walked out on Big Mike when I was five. That’s when he started drinking. Eventually someone reported to social services that he was leaving me alone at night. They took me away from him when I was eight. He fell from a high scaffolding at work the next week and was killed. I think he wanted to die. I was in and out of the system for six years before the Whitelaws took me in.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter now.”

“Doesn’t it?” Billy asked.

Cherry shrugged. “It’s in the past. You learn to protect yourself.”

“Yeah,” Billy said. “You do.”

Billy had inherited his six-foot-four height and dark brown eyes from his Scots father. His straight black hair and burnished skin came from his Comanche mother. They had been killed in a car wreck when he was ten. He had developed his rebellious streak in a series of foster homes that treated him like he was less than human because he wasn’t all white.

He opened his mouth to share his common experiences with Cherry and closed it again. It was really none of her business.

“Too bad you aren’t looking for a wife,” Cherry mused. “That would solve your problem. But I guess after what happened, you don’t want to get married again.”

“No, I don’t,” Billy said flatly.

“I certainly wasn’t volunteering for the job,” Cherry retorted. Everyone knew Billy Stonecreek had made his first wife so unhappy she had killed herself. At least, that was the story Penelope Trask had been spreading. On the other hand, Billy Stonecreek had been nothing but nice to her. She couldn’t help wondering whether Billy was really as villainous as his mother-in-law had painted him.

They sat in silence. Cherry wished there was some way she could have helped Billy. But she knew Zach Whitelaw too well to believe he would allow his daughter to move in with a single man—even if she was his housekeeper. Not that Zach could have stopped her if she wanted to do it. But knowing Zach, he would find a way to make sure Billy changed his mind about needing her. And she didn’t want to cause that kind of trouble for anybody.

“Having you come to work for me wouldn’t really solve my biggest problem, anyway,” Billy said, picking up the beer can again.

Cherry took it out of his hand, set it down, and asked, “What problem is that?”

He hesitated so long she wasn’t sure he was going to speak. At last he said, “My former mother-in-law is taking me to court to try and get custody of my daughters. Penelope says I’m not a fit parent. She’s determined to take Raejean and Annie away from me.”

“Oh, no!” It was Cherry’s worst nightmare come to life. She had suffered terribly when she had been taken from her father as a child. “You can’t let her do that! Kids belong with their parents.”

Cherry was passionate about the subject. She had often wondered where her birth mother was and why she had walked away and left Cherry and Big Mike behind. Cherry had died inside when the social worker came to take her away, and she realized she was never going to see Big Mike again. It was outrageous to think someone could go to court and wrench two little girls away from their natural father.

“You’ve got to stop Mrs. Trask!” Cherry said. “You can’t let her take your kids!”

“I’m not letting her do anything!” Billy cried in frustration. His hands clenched into fists. “But I’m not sure I can stop her. Over the past year I haven’t exactly been a model citizen. And I haven’t been able to keep a steady housekeeper. Especially once Penelope fills their ears with wild stories about me.”

Billy made an angry sound in his throat. “If Laura hadn’t died… Having a wife would certainly make my case as a responsible parent stronger in court.”

“Isn’t there somebody you could marry?”

“What woman would want a half-breed, with a ready-made family of half-breed kids?” Billy said bitterly.

Cherry gasped. “You talk like there’s something wrong with you because you’re part Comanche. I’m sure you have lots of redeeming qualities.”

Billy eyed her sideways. “Like what?”

“I don’t know. I’m sure there must be some.” She paused and asked, “Aren’t there?”

Billy snorted. “I’ve been in jail for fighting three times over the past year.”

Cherry met his gaze evenly and said, “Nobody says you have to fight.”

“True,” Billy conceded. “But sometimes…”

“Sometimes you feel like if you don’t hit something you’ll explode?”

Billy nodded. “Yeah.”

“I’ve felt that way sometimes myself.”

“You’re a girl,” Billy protested. “Girls don’t—”

“What makes you think girls don’t get angry?” Cherry interrupted.

“I guess I never really thought much about it. What do you do when you feel like that?”

“Cause mischief,” Cherry admitted with a grin. Her grin faded as she said, “Think, Billy. Isn’t there some woman you could ask to marry you?”

Billy shook his head. “I haven’t gone out much since Laura died. When I haven’t been working on the ranch, I’ve spent my time with Raejean and Annie. Besides, I don’t know too many women around here who’d think I was much of a catch.”

Cherry sat silently beside Billy. Her heart went out to his two daughters. She knew what was coming for them. She felt genuinely sorry for them. For the first time in a long time she regretted her past behavior, because it meant she couldn’t be a help to them.

“I wish we’d met sooner. And that I had less of a reputation for being a troublemaker,” Cherry said. “If things were different, I might volunteer to help you out. But I’m not the kind of person you’d want as a mother for your kids.”

Billy’s head jerked around, and he stared intently at her.

Cherry was a little frightened by the fierce look on his face. “Billy? What are you thinking?”

“Why not?” he muttered. “Why the hell not?”

“Why not what?”

“Why can’t you marry me?” Billy said.

Cherry clutched at her torn bodice as she surged to her feet. “You can’t be serious!”

Billy rose and grabbed her by the shoulders, which was all that kept her from running. “More serious than I’ve ever been in my life. My kids’ lives depend on me making the right choices now.”

“And you think marriage to me is the right choice?” Cherry asked incredulously. “We’re practically strangers! I barely know you. You don’t know me at all.”

“I know plenty about you. You understand what it feels like to be different. What it feels like to lose your parents. What it feels like to need a parent’s love. You’d be good for my kids. And you could really help me out.”

“Why me?”

“I’m desperate,” Billy said. “I thought you were, too.”

Cherry grimaced. Why else would a man choose her except because he was desperate? And why else would a woman accept such a proposal, unless she were desperate, too?

“Are you ready to go home and face your parents and tell them you got expelled and that you aren’t going to graduate?” Billy demanded.

“When you put it that way, I… No. But marriage? That seems like such a big step. Make that a huge step.”

“It doesn’t have to be a real marriage. It can be strictly a business arrangement. We can stay married long enough for you to finish the high school credits you need and maybe take some courses at the junior college. When you figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life, we could go our separate ways.”

“Couldn’t I just be your housekeeper?”

Billy shook his head. “You’ve said yourself why that wouldn’t work.”

“But marriage is so…permanent.”

“It would be if it were for real. Ours wouldn’t be.”

“Are you suggesting we tell people we’re married but not really go through with it?”

He considered a moment. “No, we’d have to get married, and as far as I’m concerned, the sooner the better.”

Cherry’s heart bounced around inside her like a frightened rabbit. She pressed a fistful of chiffon hard against her chest, as though she could hold her heart still, but it kept right on jumping. “You want to get married right away? This week?”

“As soon as we can. We could fly to Las Vegas tonight.”

“Fly?”

“I’ve got a pilot’s license. We can charter a small private plane for the trip. Would you mind?”

“I guess not,” Cherry said, overwhelmed by the speed at which things were moving.

“The more I think about it, the more I like the whole idea. Getting married would certainly spike Penelope’s guns.”

Cherry gnawed on her lower lip. “If you’re looking for someone who’d be an asset in court, maybe you ought to reconsider taking me as your wife. My reputation’s almost as bad as yours.”

“You’re a Whitelaw,” Billy said. “That means something around this part of Texas.”

“An adopted Whitelaw,” Cherry reminded him. “And I’m not so sure my parents wouldn’t change their minds if they had the chance.”

Billy smiled. “I think we can make this arrangement work for both of us. How about it, Cherry? Will you marry me?”

If Cherry had been anybody except who she was, she would have said no. Any rational person would have. It didn’t make sense to marry a virtual stranger, one who had reportedly made his previous wife miserable. But Cherry wasn’t thinking about Billy or even about herself. She was thinking about his two innocent little girls. If marrying Billy would give them a better chance of staying with their father, she really didn’t think she had any other choice.

“All right, Billy,” she said. “I’ll marry you.”

Billy gave a whoop of joy, swept her up into his arms, and whirled her in a dizzying circle, sending chiffon flying around her.

“Put me down, Billy,” she said, laughing.

He immediately set her on her feet. When she swayed dizzily, he reached out to steady her.

The feel of his strong, callused hands on her bare shoulders sent an unexpected quiver skittering down her spine. She knew she ought to step away, but Billy’s dark eyes held her spellbound.

“Okay now?” he asked, his voice rasping over her.

“I’m fine.” She shivered, belying her words.

“You must be getting chilly.” He slipped an arm around her shoulder that was warm and supportive…and possessive.

She shivered again as he began walking her toward his pickup. Only this time she realized it had nothing to do with the cold.

As Billy held open the pickup door she said as casually as she could, “This will be a marriage in name only, right?”

He closed the door behind her, slid over the hood, got into the cab, and started the pickup before he answered, “That’s right.”

She gave a gusty sigh of relief as the engine roared to life. “Good.”

“We don’t even have to sleep in the same bed,” Billy said as he headed back toward the main road. “You can have the room my housekeeper will be vacating. If I feel the urge for some feminine comfort, I can get what I need from a woman in town.”

“Wait a minute,” Cherry said. “I don’t think I’m going to want my husband satisfying his lustful urges in town.”

“I won’t really be your husband,” Billy reminded her.

“As far as my parents and neighbors and friends are concerned, you will be.”

Billy eyed her cautiously. “What do you suggest?”

“Couldn’t you just…not do it.”

“I’m a man, not a monk,” Billy said.

Cherry pursed her lips thoughtfully. “Then I suppose I’d rather you come to me than go to some other woman.”

“This is starting to sound like a real marriage,” Billy said suspiciously. “I was looking for a temporary solution to both our problems.”

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about me falling in love with you or anything,” Cherry reassured him. “I don’t believe in happily-ever-after.”

“You don’t?”

Cherry shook her head. “Except for the Whitelaws, I’ve never met any married couples who really loved each other. But I can see where it would be unfair to expect you to give up sex for who knows how long. Only, if you don’t mind, I’d rather we had a chance to get to know each other a little better before…you know…”

“Maybe this marriage thing isn’t such a good idea, after all,” Billy said. “You’re just a kid, and—”

“I may be only eighteen,” Cherry interrupted, “but I’ve lived a lifetime since my father died. You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve been in and out of a dozen foster homes. I’ve spent time in juvenile detention. I’ve survived the past four years in a house with seven other adopted brothers and sisters. I’ve come through it all with a pretty good idea of what I want from life. I’m plenty old enough to know exactly what I’m doing.”

“I doubt that,” Billy said. Maybe if he hadn’t been so panicked at the thought of losing Annie and Raejean, he would have taken more time to think the matter over. But marriage to Cherry Whitelaw would solve so many problems all at once, he accepted her statement at face value.

“All right, Cherry. We’ll do this your way. I won’t go looking for comfort in town, and you’ll provide for my needs at home.”

“After we get to know one another,” Cherry qualified.

“After we get to know one another,” Billy agreed.

He turned onto the main highway and headed for the airport. “Will your parents worry if you don’t show up at home tonight?”

“It’s prom night. I was supposed to be staying out all night with some friends of mine and have breakfast with them tomorrow. In fact, if you’ll stop by my friend’s house, I’ve got an overnight bag there with a change of clothes.”

“Good. That’ll leave us about twelve hours to get to Las Vegas and tie the knot before we have to face your parents.”

Cherry pictured that meeting in her mind. Good grief, she thought. The fur is going to fly.

CHAPTER THREE

THE WEDDING CHAPEL in Las Vegas was brightly lit, even at 3:00 a.m. To Cherry’s amazement, they weren’t the only couple getting married at such an ungodly hour. She and Billy had to wait ten minutes for an elderly couple to complete their vows before it was their turn. The longer they waited, the more second thoughts she had. What had she been thinking? Zach was going to be furious. Rebecca was going to cry.

The image she conjured of two identical cherubic six-year-old faces was all that kept her from running for a phone to call Zach and Rebecca to come get her. She tried to recall what Billy’s twins looked like from the last time she had seen them at church. All she could remember were large dark eyes—like Billy’s, she realized now—in small, round faces.

What qualities had they gotten from their mother? Cherry tried to remember how Laura Trask had looked the few times she had seen her. Did the twins have delicate noses like hers? Determined chins? Bowed lips? Had they remained petite like their mother, or become tall and raw-boned like their father?

“If you keep chewing on your lip like that, you’re going to gnaw it right off.”

Startled, Cherry let go of her lower lip and turned to find Billy behind her.

“Here,” he said, handing her a bouquet of gardenias. “I got them from a vendor out in front of the chapel. I thought you might like to carry some flowers.”

“Thank you, Billy.” Cherry took the bouquet with a hand that shook. “I guess I’m a little nervous.”

“Me, too,” he admitted.

Cherry wished he would smile. He didn’t.

“The bouquet was a lovely thought.” She raised it to her nose and sniffed. And sneezed. And sneezed again. “I must be—achoo!”

“Allergic,” Billy finished, the smile appearing as he retrieved the bouquet from her and set it on an empty folding chair. “Forget the flowers. There are blooms enough in your cheeks for me.”

“You mean the freckles,” Cherry said, covering her cheeks with her hands. “I know they’re awful, but—”

Billy took her hands in his and kissed her gently on each cheek. “They’re tasty bits of brown sugar. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that?”

Cherry froze as a memory of long ago came to mind. She was sitting on Big Mike’s lap at the supper table. He was alternately taking bites of vanilla ice cream and giving her ice-cold kisses across her nose and cheeks, making yummy sounds in his throat and saying, “Your freckles sure taste sweet, baby.”

Her throat tightened with emotion, and she looked up, half expecting to see Big Mike standing in front of her.

But it was Billy, his brow furrowed as his dark eyes took in the pallor beneath her freckles. “Are you all right? You look like you’re about to faint.”

Cherry stiffened knees that were threatening to buckle. “I’ve never fainted in my life. I don’t expect to start now.”

“Are you folks ready?” the minister asked.

“Last chance to back out,” Billy whispered to Cherry.

The sound tickled her ear, but she managed to stifle the inappropriate giggle that sought voice. This ridiculous wedding ceremony was serious business. “I’m not backing out. But if you’ve changed your mind—”

“I haven’t,” Billy interrupted her.

He tightened his grip on one of her hands and released the other, leading her down the aisle to the makeshift pulpit at the front of the room.

Throughout the ceremony, Cherry kept repeating two things over and over.

Those little girls need me. And, This is the last time I’ll be disappointing Zach and Rebecca. Once I’m married, I won’t be their responsibility anymore.

She was concentrating so hard on convincing herself she was doing the right thing that she had to be prompted to respond when the time came. “Cherry?”

She turned and found Billy’s eyes on her. Worried again. And I won’t be a burden to Billy Stonecreek, either, she added for good measure. “What is it, Billy?”

“Your turn to say I do.”

Cherry gave Billy a tremulous smile and said, “I do.” It was more of a croak, actually, but when Billy smiled back, she knew it was all right.

“Rings?” the minister asked.

“We don’t have any,” Billy replied.

The minister pulled open a drawer in a credenza behind him, and she heard a tinny clatter. To Cherry’s amazement, the drawer was full of fake gold rings.

“Help yourself,” the minister said.

Cherry watched Billy select a plain yellow band and try it on her finger. Too small. The next was too big. The third was also a little loose, but because she wanted the awkward moment over with she said, “This one’s fine, Billy.”

“That’ll be ten dollars extra,” the minister said.

She saw the annoyed look that crossed Billy’s face and pulled the ring off. “I don’t need a ring.”

Billy caught it before it could drop into the drawer and put it back on her finger. He caught her chin and lifted it so she was forced to look at him. “I’m sorry, Cherry. I should have thought of getting you a ring. This is so…”

Cheap? Tawdry? Vulgar? Cherry knew what he was thinking, but couldn’t bring herself to say it, either. “Don’t worry about it, Billy. It doesn’t matter.”

“You deserve better.”

“It’s not a real marriage. I don’t need a real ring,” Cherry said quietly so the minister wouldn’t overhear.

Billy let go of her chin. He opened his mouth as though to speak and closed it again. Finally he said, “I guess you’re right. This one will have to do. Shall we get this over with?”

They turned back to the minister, and he finished the ceremony. “You may kiss the bride,” the minister said at last.

It wasn’t a real wedding, so Cherry wasn’t expecting a real kiss. To her surprise, Billy put his hands on either side of her face and murmured, “The ring is phony, but at least this can be real.”

Cherry had done her share of kissing. Experimenting with sex was an age-old method of teenage rebellion. She thought she knew everything there was to know about kissing and sex. It was no big deal. Boys seemed to like it a lot, but she didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

Something odd happened when Billy Stonecreek’s lips feathered across hers. An unexpected curl of desire flitted across her belly and shot up to her breasts. Her hands clutched fistfuls of his Western shirt as his mouth settled firmly over hers. His tongue traced the seam of her closed lips, causing them to tingle. She opened her mouth, and his tongue slipped inside for a quick taste of her.

She made a sound in her throat somewhere between confusion and protest.

His hand slid around to capture her nape and keep her from escaping.

Cherry wasn’t going anywhere. She was enthralled by what Billy was doing with his lips and teeth and tongue. She had never felt anything remotely like it. Before she was ready, the kiss ended.

She stared, bemused, into Billy’s hooded eyes. His lips were still damp from hers, and she didn’t resist the impulse to reach out and touch.

His hand clamped around her wrist like a vise as her fingertips caressed his lips. “Don’t.” His voice was harsh, and his lips pressed flat in irritation.

Cherry realized her reaction, her naive curiosity, must have embarrassed him. The kiss had merely been a token of thanks from Billy. He didn’t want anything from her in return.

She had told him she didn’t want to be touched until they knew each other better. But she had touched him. She had set the ground rules, and then she hadn’t followed them.

It wasn’t a real marriage. She had to remember that.

There were papers to sign and collect before they could leave. The minister was in a hurry, because two more couples had arrived and were awaiting their turns. Minutes after the ceremony ended, she and Billy were back in the rental car they had picked up at the airport.

Billy finally broke the uncomfortable silence that had fallen between them. “I don’t know about you, but I could use a few hours of sleep before we fly back. We have the time. Your parents won’t start missing you until noon.”

“I must admit I feel exhausted,” Cherry said. But she wasn’t sure whether it was fatigue or a delayed reaction to their strange wedding. She had never wanted to get married, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t fantasized about having a grand wedding. She had imagined wearing a white satin gown with a train twenty feet long, having at least three bridesmaids, and hearing the wedding processional played on an immense pipe organ. This ceremony had fallen far short of the fantasy.

“Regrets?” Billy asked.

Cherry stared at him, surprised at his intuitiveness. “Were my thoughts that transparent?”

“I can’t imagine any woman wanting to get married the way we did. But drastic situations sometimes require drastic solutions. In this case I believe the end—we’re now legally husband and wife—justifies the means.”

Cherry hoped Zach would see the logic in such an argument.

The hotel Billy chose was outlined in pink and white neon and advertised a honeymoon suite in the center of a pink neon heart. “At least we’re sure they’ve got a honeymoon suite here,” Billy said with a cheeky grin.

Cherry laughed breathlessly. “Why would we need a honeymoon suite?”

“It’s probably going to have a bigger bed than the other rooms,” Billy said. “It’ll be more comfortable for someone my size.”

“Oh,” Cherry said.

“That almost sounded like disappointment,” Billy said. “I agreed to wait until you’re ready to make it a real marriage. Are you telling me you’re ready?”

“No, Billy. I’m not.”

He didn’t say anything.

“Are you disappointed?” Cherry asked.

“I guess grooms have fantasies about their wedding nights the way brides have fantasies about their weddings,” Billy conceded with a grin. “Yeah. I suppose I am. But I’ll survive.”

Cherry wondered if Billy was remembering his first wedding night. She knew she looked nothing like Laura Trask. She wasn’t the least bit petite. Her hair wasn’t golden blond, and she didn’t move with stately grace. She had a million freckles that speckled her milk-white skin and frizzy hair that changed color depending on the way the sun struck it. She had a small bosom that had no freckles at all and absolutely no intention of letting the groom find that out for himself tonight. No, this was not a night for fulfilling fantasies.

She followed Billy inside the hotel with the overnight bag she had picked up at her friend’s house, so they weren’t entirely without luggage. She pressed the ring tight against her fourth finger with her thumb so it wouldn’t slip off. She stood at Billy’s shoulder while he registered and got a key card for the door.

They took the elevator to the top floor and found the honeymoon suite at the end of the hall. Billy used the key card to open the door.

Before she could say anything, Billy picked her up and carried her over the threshold. She was wearing the jeans and T-shirt she had put on to replace the torn chiffon dress and she could feel the heat of him everywhere his body touched hers.

Her arm automatically clutched at his shoulder to help him support her weight, but she realized when she felt the corded muscles there, that he didn’t need any help. He carried her over to the bed and let her drop.

She bounced a couple of times and came to rest. “Good grief,” she said, staring at the heart-shaped bed. “How do they expect two people to sleep on something shaped like this?”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “I don’t think they expect you to sleep, if you know what I mean.” He dropped onto the bed beside her and stretched out on his back with his hands behind his head on one of the pillows. “It’s nowhere near as big as it looked in neon, either.”

Cherry scooted as far from him as she could, but although there was plenty of room for two pillows at the top of the bed, the bottom narrowed so their feet ended up nearly touching.

Billy toed off one cowboy boot, then used his stockinged foot to shove off the other boot. He reached for the phone beside the bed. “I’ll ask for an eight o’clock wake-up call,” he said. “That’ll give us time to fly back before noon.”

Cherry was wearing tennis shoes, and she reached down and tugged them off with her hands and dropped them on the floor. She lay back on the pillow with her legs as far on her side of the bed as she could get them, which was a few bare inches from Billy’s feet.

Billy reached over and turned out the lamp beside the bed. It should have been dark in the room, but the neon lights outside bathed the room in a romantic pink glow.

“Do you want me to close the curtains?” Billy asked.

“It’s kind of pretty.”

Which might make a difference if they wanted to watch each other while they made love, Cherry thought, but wasn’t going to matter much when they closed their eyes to sleep. But she noticed Billy didn’t get up to close the curtains.

“Good night, Cherry,” Billy said, turning on his side away from her. “Thanks again.”

“Good night, Billy,” Cherry said, turning on her side away from him. “You’re welcome.”

She lay there in uncomfortable silence for perhaps five minutes before she whispered, “Are you asleep, Billy?”

Cherry felt the bed dip as he turned back toward her.

“I thought you were tired,” he said.

“I am. But I’m too excited to sleep. It’s not every day a girl gets married.”

She stiffened when she felt one of his hands touch her shoulder and slide down to the small of her back.

“Don’t get skittish on me, woman. I’m just going to rub your back a little to help you relax.”

His thumb hit her somewhere in the center of her back, and his hand wrapped around her side.

Cherry gave a luxuriant sigh as he massaged her tense muscles.

“Feel better?”

“Yes.” She was impressed again by his strength. And his gentleness. And wondered how his hand would feel caressing other places on her body.

Cherry sought a subject they could discuss that would get her mind off the direction it seemed to be headed. “Could you tell me a little bit about your daughters?”

“Raejean and Annie are just finishing the first grade. Their teacher has had a devil of a time telling them apart.”

“Do they look that much alike?” Cherry asked.

Billy chuckled. “Sometimes they try to fool me. But it isn’t hard to tell them apart once you get to know them. Raejean carries herself differently, more confidently. She looks at you more directly and talks back more often. Annie is kinder, sweeter, more thoughtful. She follows Raejean’s lead. When the two of them team up, they can be a handful.”

“Have you had a lot of trouble with them?”

His hand paused for a moment, then resumed its disturbing massage. “A little. Just lately. I think they’re missing Laura as much as I am.”

He rubbed a little harder, as though he had admitted something he wished he hadn’t.

“Were you expecting twins when they were born?”

Cherry felt his hand tighten uncomfortably on her flesh. She hissed in a breath, and his hand soothed the hurt.

“The twins were a complete surprise. They came early, and for a while it was touch and go whether Laura and the girls would all make it. They did, but there were complications. The doctor said Laura couldn’t have any more children.”

“You wanted more?”

“I didn’t care one way or the other. But Laura did.”

Abruptly his hand left her back, and he rolled away from her. “Go to sleep, Cherry.”

Apparently their conversation was over, leaving her with a great deal of food for thought.

The twins missed their mother. Like he did.

Cherry could do something to replace the loss in the twins’ lives. She could be a mother to Billy’s little girls. Of more concern was the temptation she felt to ease Billy’s sorrow. There were dangers in such an undertaking. She had to remember this was a temporary marriage. It was safer to let Billy cope with his loss on his own.

On the other hand, Cherry never had chosen the safe path. As she closed her eyes again, she saw the four of them smiling at one another…one happy family.

BILLY STARED AT THE neon outside the window, willing himself to sleep. But he couldn’t stop thinking about his new wife.

The wedding kiss had surprised him. In the fluorescent light of the wedding chapel, Cherry Whitelaw had looked like anything but a radiant bride. Her blue eyes had been wide with fright and her skin pale beneath a mass of orange freckles. He’d had significant second thoughts about the marriage. And third and fourth thoughts, as well. All his thoughts came back to the same thing. She needed his help. And he needed hers.

He had been proud of her for getting through that awful ceremony—including the last-minute search for a ring that would fit—with so much dignity. That was why he had offered her the kiss, not because he had been wondering what her lips would taste like. When she had reached out to him afterward, he had stopped her because that wasn’t part of their deal, not because he had been shocked at the way his body had gone rock-hard at her touch. Just thinking about it caused the same reaction all over again.

Billy swore.

“Billy? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, Cherry. Go to sleep.”

He closed his eyes, determined to get some rest, but a picture of her breast half revealed by the torn chiffon bodice appeared behind his eyelids.

He opened his eyes and stared at the neon again. Who would have thought he would find a freckle-faced redhead so erotically exciting? Or that his new wife would be off-limits for heaven knew how long? Billy heaved a long-suffering sigh. It was going to be one hell of a marriage.

His eyes slid closed again as sleep claimed his exhausted body.

BILLY WAS HAVING a really spectacular dream. He had a handful of soft female breast, which just happened to belong to his new wife. Her eyes were closed in passion, and as he flicked his thumb across her nipple, he heard a moan that made his loins tighten. He lowered his head to take her nipple in his mouth. It was covered by a thin layer of cotton. He sucked on her through the damp cloth and felt her body arch toward him. Her hands threaded into his hair…and yanked on it—

Billy came awake with a jerk. “What the hell?”

Cherry was sitting bolt upright in bed with her hands crossed defensively under her breasts. A damp spot on her T-shirt revealed that he hadn’t been dreaming.

It shouldn’t have surprised him. His last thoughts before drifting to sleep had been about Cherry. No wonder his body had been drawn to hers during the night. He shoved a hand through hair that was standing on end and groaned. “God, Cherry, I’m sorry. I was dreaming.”

She eyed him suspiciously.

“I swear I didn’t know what I was doing.”

That made her look crestfallen.

“Not that it isn’t exactly what I’d like to be doing at this moment,” he said.

She gave a hitching breath that was almost a sob. “We agreed to wait.”

“Yeah, I know,” Billy said. “I don’t suppose you’ve changed your mind.”

She hesitated so long he thought maybe she had. Until she shook her head no.

Billy looked at the clock. It was only six. But he didn’t trust himself to lie back down beside her. “I can’t sleep anymore. How about if we head for the airport?”

“All right,” she said.

He started pulling on his boots and felt her hand on his shoulder. He froze.

She cleared her throat and said, “I liked what you were doing, Billy. It felt…good. I wanted you to know that. It’s just…”

He shoved his foot down into the boot and stood. He had to get away from her or he was going to turn around and lay her flat on the bed and do something he would be sorry for later. “I know,” he said. “We agreed to wait.”

She had a brave smile on her face. And looked every bit her youthful age.

What on earth had possessed him to marry her?

It was a silent flight from Las Vegas to the airport in Amarillo. And an even more silent truck ride to the Stonecreek Ranch. Billy pulled up to the back door of a large, two-story white clapboard house and killed the engine. The blue morning glories he had planted for Laura were soaking up the midday sun on a trellis along the eastern edge of the porch.

“We’re home,” Billy said. His throat tightened painfully. They were the same words he had spoken to Laura—how many years ago?—when they had moved into this house.

Suddenly he realized he couldn’t go back into Laura’s house right now with a new wife. It was still too full of Laura. He needed a little time to accept the fact that she really was gone forever.

“Look, why don’t you go inside and introduce yourself to Mrs. Motherwell, my housekeeper. I just realized I was supposed to pick up a load of feed in town this morning. I’ll be back in an hour or so.”

Cherry was staring at him as if he had grown a second head. “You want me to go in there without you?” she asked.

“Just tell Mrs. Motherwell you’ve come to replace her. I’ll explain everything to the kids when I get back.” When Cherry continued sitting there staring at him, he snapped, “Changed your mind already?”

His new wife looked sober and thoughtful. There were shadows of fatigue beneath her eyes. “No. I’m determined to see this through.” She gave him one last anxious look before she left the truck. “Don’t be gone long.”

“I won’t.”

Billy resisted the urge to gun the engine as he backed away from the house. Once he hit paved road he headed the truck toward town. He hadn’t gone two miles when he saw flashing red and blue lights behind him. He glanced down at the speedometer and swore. He swerved off the road and braked hard enough to raise a cloud of dust.

He was out of the truck and reaching for his wallet to get his driver’s license when he saw the highway patrolman had a gun in his hand that was pointed at him.

“Freeze, Stonecreek, or I’ll blow your head off.”

Billy froze. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”

“Put your hands up. You’re under arrest.”

“Arrest? For what?”

“Kidnapping.”

It took a full second for the charge to register. Kidnapping? Then he realized what must have happened and groaned. “Look, Officer, I can explain everything.”

“You have the right to remain silent,” the officer began.

Billy’s lips pressed flat. He had married Cherry Whitelaw in the hope of solving his problems. Instead he had jumped right out of the frying pan into the fire.

CHAPTER FOUR

CHERRY STARED at the back door of Billy’s house—now her home, too—trying to work up the courage to go inside, wondering, absurdly, if she should knock first.

She turned and stole a glance at Billy’s rugged profile as he drove away, pondering what it was about him she had found so beguiling. He had rescued her, listened to her troubles, and shared his in return. She had felt his desperation and responded to it. Now he was her husband. She twisted the cheap gold ring that confirmed it wasn’t all a dream, that she was, indeed, Mrs. Billy Stonecreek.

Good grief. What had she done?

Cherry had gone off half-cocked in the past, but the enormity of this escapade was finally sinking in. Surely it would have been better to face Zach and Rebecca and explain the truth of what had happened at the dance. How was she going to justify this latest lapse of common sense?

She felt a surge of anger at Billy for abandoning her at the door. It wouldn’t have taken long to introduce her to Mrs. Motherwell and explain the situation. So why hadn’t he done it?

Maybe because he’s having the same second thoughts as you are. Maybe in the cold light of day he’s thinking he made a bad bargain. Maybe he’s trying to figure out a way right now to get out of it.

If the back door hadn’t opened at that precise moment, Cherry would have turned and headed for Hawk’s Pride.

But it did. And Cherry found herself face-to-face with Penelope Trask.

“I saw you standing out here,” Mrs. Trask said. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“I, uh… Is Mrs. Motherwell here?”

“She packed her bags and left this morning.”

Cherry stood with her jaw agape, speechless for perhaps the first time in her life. Had Mrs. Trask already managed to gain legal custody of Billy’s children? Had their marriage been for naught? She wished Billy were here.

“Don’t I know you? Aren’t you one of those Whitelaw Bra—” Mrs. Trask cut herself off.

Cherry knew what she had been about to say. The eight adopted Whitelaw kids were known around this part of Texas as the Whitelaw Brats, just like Zach and his siblings before them, and Grandpa Garth and his siblings before that. Cherry had done her share to help earn the nickname. She was proud to be one of them.

She met the older woman’s disdainful look with defiance. “Yes, I’m a Whitelaw Brat. You have a problem with that?”

“None at all. But if you’re looking for your missing sister, she isn’t here. I have no idea what my no-account excuse for a son-in-law has done with her.” She started to close the door in Cherry’s face.

Cherry stuck her foot in the door. “Wait! What are you talking about?”

A flare of recognition lit Mrs. Trask’s eyes. “Oh, my God. You’re the girl, aren’t you? The one Billy kidnapped.” She stuck her head out the screen door and looked around. “Where is he? I have a few things to say to him.”

“Kidnapped?” Cherry gasped. “I wasn’t kidnapped!”

“Your parents reported you missing late last night.”

“Why would they think I was with Billy?”

“Your date wrapped his car around a telephone pole, and when he kept mumbling your name the police called your parents, thinking maybe you’d been thrown from the car. At the hospital, the boy told your father that he’d left you at the stock pond with Billy, after my son-in-law ran him off with his fists.

“Your father couldn’t find you at the stock pond, and when he came looking for you here in a rage, Mrs. Motherwell called me. Your father seemed bent on strangling someone before the night was out.”

Probably me, Cherry thought morosely.

“Of course I came right over,” Mrs. Trask said. “All I could tell your father was that I wouldn’t put it past my reckless son-in-law to kidnap an innocent young woman.”

“Mrs. Trask, I wasn’t kidnapped.”

“I suggest you go home and tell that to your father. He told the police Billy must have kidnapped you, because you’d never go off on your own like that.” Mrs. Trask smirked. “Of course, that was before he found out you’d been expelled from school earlier in the evening.”

Cherry groaned.

“You’re in an awful lot of trouble, young lady. Where have you been? And where’s Billy?”

Cherry put a hand to her throbbing temple. Zach and Rebecca must be frantic with worry. And disappointed beyond belief. She didn’t want to think about how angry they were going to be when they heard what she had done.

“May I please use your phone?” It was her phone now, so she shouldn’t have to ask. Except, this didn’t seem the right moment to announce that she and Billy had run off to Las Vegas to get married.

Mrs. Trask hesitated, then pushed the screen door open wide. “Come on in, if you must.”

As soon as Cherry’s eyes adjusted to the dim light in the kitchen, she saw Raejean and Annie standing together near the table.

They wore their straight black hair in adorable, beribboned pigtails, and stared at her with dark, serious brown eyes. Their noses were small and their chins dainty, like their mother, but they had high, sharp cheekbones that reminded her of Billy. They were tall for six-year-olds and dressed exactly alike in collared blouses tucked into denim coveralls and white tennis shoes.

“Hello, Raejean,” she said, addressing the child who had her arm wrapped comfortingly around the other’s shoulder.

The child’s eyes widened in surprise at being recognized. Then she said, “I’m not Raejean, I’m Annie.”

The other twin’s mouth dropped open, and she glanced at her sister. Then she turned to Cherry, pointed to her chest with her thumb, and said, “I’m Raejean.”

“I see,” Cherry said. They were both missing the exact same front tooth. No help there telling them apart. Billy had said Raejean was the confident one, so Cherry had assumed it was Raejean who was giving comfort to her sister. But maybe she had been wrong.

“I need to use your phone,” she said, moving toward where it hung on the kitchen wall.

Cherry felt the girls watching her while she dialed.

“We don’t need another housekeeper,” the twin who had identified herself as Annie said. “We’re going to stay at Nana’s house until Daddy gets home.”

Cherry felt her heart miss a beat. She turned to Mrs. Trask and said, “Billy went into town for supplies. He should be back any time now. There’s no need to take the girls anywhere.”

“I’ll be the best judge of that,” Mrs. Trask said. “Go upstairs, girls, and finish packing.”

The twins turned and ran. Cherry heard their footsteps pounding on the stairs as the ringing phone was answered by her sister, Jewel. Of her seven Whitelaw siblings, Jewel was the sister closest to her in age. Jewel had been adopted by Zach and Rebecca when she was five—the first of the current generation of Whitelaw Brats.

It had taken Cherry a while to straighten them all out, but now she could recite their names and ages with ease. Rolleen was 21, Jewel was 19, she was 18, Avery was 17, Jake was 16, Frannie was 13, Rabbit was 12, and Colt was 11.

Of course Rabbit’s name wasn’t really Rabbit, it was Louis, but nobody called him that. Jewel had given him the nickname Rabbit when he was little, because he ate so many carrots, and the name had stuck. Colt was the only one of them who had been adopted as a baby. The rest of them had all known at least one other parent before being abandoned, orphaned, or fostered out.

“Is anybody there?” Jewel asked breathlessly. “If this is the kidnapper, we’ll pay whatever you ask.”

“It’s me, Jewel.”

“Cherry! Where are you? Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. I’m at Billy Stonecreek’s ranch.”

“So he did kidnap you! I’ll send Daddy to get you right away.”

“No! I mean…” Cherry had turned her back to Mrs. Trask and kept her voice low thus far, but she figured there was no sense postponing the inevitable. “Billy didn’t kidnap me. Last night we flew to Las Vegas and got married.”

She was met with stunned silence on the other end of the line. Which was a good thing, because Mrs. Trask gave an outraged shriek that brought the two little girls back downstairs on the run.

“Nana! Nana! What’s wrong?”

“I have to go now, Jewel,” Cherry said. “Tell Zach and Rebecca I’m okay, and that I’ll come to see them soon and explain everything.”

“Cherry, don’t—”

Cherry hung up the phone in time to turn and greet the twins a second time. Again, she identified the twin taking the lead as Raejean, which meant the one standing slightly behind her was Annie. “Hello, Raejean. Hello, Annie.”

“I’m Annie,” Raejean contradicted.

Before Annie could misidentify herself as Raejean, Mrs. Trask snapped, “Don’t bother trying to tell them apart. They’re identical, you know.”

“But—” From Billy’s descriptions of them it was so obvious to her which twin was which. Couldn’t Mrs. Trask see the difference?

“What’s wrong, Nana?” Raejean asked. “Why did you scream?”

Mrs. Trask’s face looked more like a beet or a turnip than a human head, she was so flushed. It was clear she wasn’t sure exactly what to say.

“Your grandmother was just excited about some news she heard,” Cherry said.

“What news?” Annie asked.

“It’s a surprise I think your Daddy will want to tell you about himself when he gets home,” Cherry said.

“We’re not going to be here that long,” Mrs. Trask retorted. “The girls and I are leaving.”

“Not until Billy gets back,” Cherry said firmly. “I’m sure Raejean and Annie want to wait and say goodbye to their father.” Cherry turned to the girls and asked, “Don’t you?”

Raejean eyed her consideringly, but Annie piped up, “I want to wait for Daddy.”

Mrs. Trask made an angry sound in her throat. “I hope you’re happy now,” she said to Cherry. “My grandchildren have had a difficult enough time over the past year, without adding someone like you to the picture.”

Cherry reminded herself that Mrs. Trask was always going to be Raejean and Annie’s grandmother. Throwing barbs now, however satisfying it might be, would only cause problems later. Zach and Rebecca would have been astounded at her tact when she spoke.

“I’m sorry we surprised you like this, Mrs. Trask. I know Billy will want to explain everything to you himself. Won’t you consider waiting until he returns before you leave?”

“No.”

Of course, there were times when being blunt worked best. Cherry crossed to stand beside the twins. “I’m sorry you have to leave, Mrs. Trask. The girls and I will have Billy give you a call when he gets home.”

Cherry saw the moment when Mrs. Trask realized that she had been outmaneuvered. She wasn’t going to make a quick and easy escape with Billy’s children. Cherry was there to stand in her way.

Billy chose that moment to pull open the screen door and step into the kitchen.

Annie and Raejean gave shrieks of joy and raced into his wide open arms. He lifted them both, one in each arm, and gave them each a smacking kiss. “How are my girls?” he asked.

Raejean answered for both of them.

“Some man got mad at Mrs. Motherwell because she didn’t know where you were and Nana came and Mrs. Motherwell packed her bags and left and Nana said we should pack, too, and go live with her until you came back home, only this lady came a little while ago and said you were coming home really soon and we had to wait for you because you have a surprise for us. What’s our surprise, Daddy? Can we have it now?”

Cherry had watched Billy’s narrowed gaze flicker from his daughter to Mrs. Trask and back again as Raejean made her breathless recital. When Raejean got to the part about a surprise, his gaze shot to her, and she thought she saw both panic and resignation.

“What are you doing back here so soon?” Mrs. Trask said. “I was told you were going into town for sup plies.”

“I got stopped by the police long before I got there and arrested for kidnapping,” Billy said.

“Then why aren’t you in jail?” Mrs. Trask demanded.

Billy’s lips curled. “I showed them my marriage license.”

“Who got kidnapped, Daddy?” Annie asked.

“Nobody, sweetheart,” Billy replied. “It was all a big mistake.”

“Then, can we have our surprise now?” Annie asked.

He knelt down and set them back on their feet. Keeping an arm around each of them, he said, “The surprise is that you have a new mother.”

Annie’s brow furrowed. “A new mother?”

Raejean frowned. “Our mother is in heaven.”

“I know that,” Billy said in a sandpaper-rough voice that made Cherry’s throat swell with emotion. “I’ve married someone else who’s going to be your mother from now on.”

Raejean and Annie looked at each other, then turned as one to stare with shocked, suspicious eyes at Cherry.

Raejean’s head shot around to confront her father. “Her?”

Billy nodded.

Raejean jerked free and shouted, “I don’t want another mother! Make her go away!” Then she ran from the room.

Annie’s eyes had filled with tears and one spilled over as she stared at Raejean’s fleeing form. Cherry willed the softhearted child to accept her, but Annie paused only another moment before she turned and ran after her sister.

Cherry met Billy’s stricken gaze. She felt sick to her stomach. The two charming and innocent little girls she had married Billy to save from harm, didn’t want anything to do with her.

“You’re a fool, Billy,” Mrs. Trask said, grabbing her purse from the kitchen counter. “I don’t know what you hoped to accomplish with this charade, but it won’t work. I’m more convinced than ever that my grandchildren belong with me.” She gave Cherry a look down her nose. “I’ll see you both in court.”

She made a grand exit through the doorway that led to the front of the house. Cherry and Billy stood unmoving until they heard the front door slam behind her.

“She’s right,” Billy said. “I always intend to do the right thing, but somehow it turns out wrong.”

“This wasn’t wrong, Billy. If I hadn’t gotten here when I did, Mrs. Trask would have taken the children and been gone before you returned. At least Raejean and Annie are still here.”

“And angry and unhappy.”

“We can change that with time.”

“I hope so. It won’t help much to argue in court that I’ve got a wife to take care of my children, if my children hate her guts.”

“We have a more immediate problem,” Cherry said.

“What’s that?”

“Zach Whitelaw.”

“What about him?”

“He’s going to kill you on sight.”

Billy gave a relieved laugh. “Is that all? I thought it was something serious.”

“Don’t joke,” Cherry said. “This is serious. Three years ago a boy tried to force himself on Jewel at a Fourth of July picnic. I’ll never forget the look in Zach’s eyes when Jewel stood crying in his arms, her face bruised and her dress torn. He took a horsewhip to the boy and nearly flayed him alive. Both families kept it quiet, but you know how that sort of thing gets around. None of us girls has ever had any problems with boys since then.

“That’s why it surprised me when Ray… If Ray hadn’t been drunk, he would never have done what he did.”

“And we wouldn’t be where we are today,” Billy said. “I won’t let any man whip me, Cherry. If your father tries—”

“I’m only telling you all this so you’ll understand why I have to go home and explain all of this to him by myself. Once he understands I was willing and—”

Billy shook his head. “We go together, or you don’t go at all.”

“Zach’s going to be furious with me.”

“All the more reason for us to go together. You may have been his daughter yesterday, but you’re my wife today. No man is going to threaten my wife. Not even her father.”

Cherry stared wide-eyed at Billy. She supposed she should have told him that no matter how angry Zach got with her, he would never raise a hand to her. In the past she had been sent to her room without supper, or been forced to spend a day alone thinking about the wisdom of a course of action. But the Whitelaws had always used reason, rather than force, to teach their children right from wrong.

Billy wouldn’t have to defend her, but she reveled in the thought that he was willing to do so. Of more concern to her was the possibility that the two men might provoke one another to violence. She already knew that Billy liked to fight. Zach would be more than willing to give him one.

“I’ll let you come with me on one condition,” she said.

“What’s that?”

“We bring the girls with us.”

Billy frowned. “What purpose would that serve?”

“Zach won’t be able to fight with you—or yell at me—if he’s busy meeting his new grandchildren.”

“Raejean and Annie don’t even like you. What makes you think they’ll take to your father?”

“Trust me. Zach Whitelaw could sell snow in Alaska. He’ll have Raejean and Annie eating out of his hand in no time. Besides, we have no choice but to take them with us. Mrs. Motherwell is gone.”

“I forgot about that,” Billy said as he headed toward the door that led upstairs. “Damn. All right. Let me go get them. We might as well get this meeting over with.”

“Billy,” Cherry called after him. When he stopped and turned to her, she said, “We can still call the whole thing off.”

He walked the few steps back to her and lifted her chin with his finger. “Buck up, kid. You’re doing great.”

Cherry felt tears prickle her eyes and blinked to keep them from forming.

Billy leaned down and kissed her mouth. His touch was gentle, intended to comfort. “I’m sorry, Cherry. I shouldn’t have left you here alone and driven away. It’s not easy to admit it, but I was scared.”

Cherry searched his eyes. If he had once been afraid, the fear was gone now. If he had regrets, he wasn’t letting her see them. She wished she knew him better as a person. Could she rely on him? Would he be there for her when the going got rough?

When he pulled her into his arms and hugged her, she felt safe and secure. She knew that was an illusion. Her father had made her feel safe, too. But they had been torn from each other. It was better not to try and make more of this relationship than it was.

Before she could edge herself away from Billy, the screen door was flung open. Billy threw her aside to confront whatever danger threatened them.

Zach Whitelaw stood in the doorway.

CHAPTER FIVE

“DADDY, DON’T!” Cherry cried as Zach took a step toward Billy, his hands tightened into angry knots.

Zach froze, his eyes wide with shock.

It took Cherry a second to realize she had called him “Daddy” instead of “Zach,” something she had never done before. She felt confused, unsure why she had blurted it out like that, especially now, when she wasn’t going to be his daughter anymore, but someone else’s wife.

“Please don’t fight,” she said.

“Stay out of this, Cherry,” Billy said, his hands curling into fists as menacing as Zach’s.

“How did you get here so quickly?” Cherry said to her father. “I just got off the phone with Jewel.”

“The police called me when they picked up Billy. A phony marriage license isn’t going to save you from me,” he snarled at Billy.

“We really are married,” Cherry said, taking a step to put herself between the two men. Temporarily, it kept them from throwing punches.

Zach snorted. “In a Las Vegas ceremony? That’s no kind of wedding.”

“It’s legal,” Billy said coldly.

There was nothing Zach could say to counter that except, “Come home, Cherry. I know the situation last night must have upset you, but Rebecca and I want you to know we’re on your side. We believe there must be some reasonable explanation for what happened. We can fix this problem.”

“It’s too late for that. Billy and I are married. I’m staying with him.”

Zach glared at Billy. “You should be ashamed of yourself, taking advantage of a vulnerable child to—”

“She’s no child,” Billy said quietly. “She’s a woman. And my wife.” His hands slid around Cherry’s waist from behind, and he pulled her back against the length of his body.

Cherry saw the inference Zach drew from Billy’s words and actions that the two of them had done what husbands and wives do on their wedding night. By the time her father’s gaze skipped to her face, she bore a flush high on her cheekbones that seemed to confirm what he was thinking. There was no way she was going to admit the truth.

She saw the wounded look in Zach’s eyes before he hid it behind lowered lids.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you or Rebecca,” she forced past the lump in her throat.

“Why, Cherry?” he asked. “Why couldn’t you trust us to be on your side? I thought…”

They were good parents. They had done everything they could to make her feel loved and appreciated, safe and secure. But they expected her to believe parents could protect their children from the evils of the world. She knew from experience that simply wasn’t true. She could never trust them completely. She would never trust anybody that much again.

“I’m sorry, Zach.” She saw his gaze flicker at her reversion to the less familiar, less personal title. “Please tell Rebecca—”

Zach cut her off. “You explain this to your mother. I couldn’t find the words.” He turned and left as abruptly as he had come.

Cherry felt her nose burning, felt the tears threaten and fought them back. She had chosen to travel this road. She had no one to blame but herself for her predicament. Crying over spilled milk wasn’t going to accomplish anything.

“Thanks for sticking by me,” Billy said against her ear.

“I’m your wife.”

“Sometimes that doesn’t mean much when parents enter the picture,” Billy said bitterly.

Cherry turned in his embrace and put her arms around him to hug him, laying her cheek against his shoulder. “I’ll try to be a good wife, Billy.” She raised her face to his, only to find herself unexpectedly kissed.

There was as much desperation as there was hunger in Billy’s kiss. Something inside Cherry responded to both emotions, and she found herself kissing Billy back.

“Hey! What are you doing to my dad?”

Cherry pulled free of Billy’s grasp and turned to the child who had spoken. Behind her stood the other twin, her face less belligerent, more perplexed.

“Uh…” Cherry began. She had no idea where to go from there. She expected Billy to make some sort of explanation, but he gave her a helpless one-shouldered shrug. Cherry turned back to the twins and said to the one who had spoken, “Your dad and I were kissing, Raejean. That’s what married people do.”

“I’m Annie,” Raejean said.

“I’m Raejean,” Annie dutifully added.

“Hey, you two,” Billy said. “What’s the big idea trying to fool Cherry?”

Raejean’s chin jutted. “I don’t know why you’re so mad, Daddy. She isn’t fooled at all.” She turned to Cherry, her brow furrowed. “How do you do that, anyway? No one but Mommy and Daddy has ever been able to tell us apart.”

Cherry said, “There’s nothing magic about it. You’re as different from your sister as night from day.”

“We’re twins,” Raejean protested. “We’re exactly alike.”

“You look alike on the outside,” Cherry conceded, “but inside here—” Cherry touched her head. “And here—” She touched her heart. “You’re very different.”

“I’m glad you can tell us apart,” Annie said. “I don’t like fooling people.”

“I don’t care if you can tell us apart,” Raejean said. “I’m not going to like you.”

“Isn’t it a little soon to make up your mind about that?” Cherry asked. “You hardly know me.”

“I know you want to be my mother. I don’t want another mother. My mother’s in heaven!” Raejean turned and headed for the stairs. She hadn’t gone very far before she realized Annie hadn’t automatically followed her. She turned and said, “Come on, Annie.”

Annie hesitated briefly before she turned and followed her sister.

Cherry whirled on Billy the instant they were gone. “I can’t do this all by myself, Billy. You’re going to have to help.”

“You can’t blame them for being confused, Cherry. After all, the only woman they’ve ever seen me kissing is their mother.”

“Then maybe we shouldn’t let the girls see us kissing. Maybe you should keep your distance when they’re around.”

Billy thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. “I don’t want to do that for two reasons. Penelope would be sure to notice if we never touched each other. It would be a dead giveaway that there’s something fishy about our marriage.”

“And the second reason?”

“I don’t want my daughters to see me ignoring the woman they believe is my wife. It would give them the wrong impression of what marriage is all about.”

“I see.” What she saw was that Billy had all sorts of reasons for kissing and hugging her that had nothing whatsoever to do with actually loving her. But loving hadn’t been a part of their bargain. She had to remind herself of the rules of this game. Help each other out. Don’t get involved. Don’t start to care. That way lay heartache.

“All right, Billy,” Cherry said. “I’ll play along with you where the kissing and touching is concerned. So long as we both know it’s only an act, I suppose neither of us can be hurt. Now that we have that settled, I believe you need to get to town for those supplies, and I’d better get some lunch started.”

Cherry turned her back on Billy, but she hadn’t taken two steps toward the sink before his arms slid around her from behind again, circling her waist. Her treacherous body melted against him. She forced herself to stiffen in his embrace. “Don’t, Billy,” she said in a quiet voice.

“You’re my wife, Cherry.”

“In name only,” Cherry reminded him. “We can pretend for everybody else, but I think it’s best if we’re honest with each other. We aren’t in love, Billy. We never will be.”

Billy’s hands dropped away, but he didn’t move. She felt the heat of his body along the entire length of her back. Her eyes slid closed, and she held herself rigid to keep from leaning back into his fiery warmth.

“If we’re being honest,” Billy said in a husky voice, “I think you should know I’m more than a little attracted to you, Cherry. I have been since the moment I first laid eyes on you.” Billy took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. “That’s the truth.”

She lifted her eyes to meet his. “That’s lust, Billy. Not love.”

His dark eyes narrowed, and his hands dropped away from her shoulders. “There’s nothing wrong with desiring your wife in bed.”

“I’m not your wi—”

“Dammit, Cherry!”

When Billy took a step back and shoved his hands into his jeans pockets, Cherry had the distinct impression he did it to keep himself from reaching for her again.

“You are my wife,” he said through gritted teeth. “Not forever. Not even for very long. But we most definitely are married. I suggest you start thinking that way!”

Before she could contradict him, he was gone, the screen door slamming behind him.

BILLY COULDN’T REMEMBER a time when he had been more frustrated. Even when he had been arguing with Laura about whether or not she should try to get pregnant again when the doctor had advised her against it, he hadn’t felt so much like he was butting his head against a stone wall. Deep down, he knew Cherry was right. It would be better for both of them if he kept his distance from her.

He had made up his mind to try.

Of course, that was before he stepped into Cherry’s bedroom the morning after their wedding. He had expected her to be up and dressed, since he had helped her set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. the previous evening. Apparently, she had turned it off.

He found her sleeping beneath tousled sheets, one long, exquisite leg exposed all the way to her hip, one rosy nipple peeking at him, her lips slightly parted, her silky red curls spread across the pillow, waiting for a lover’s hands to gather them up.

He cleared his throat noisily, hoping that would be enough to wake her. All she did was roll over, rearranging the sheet, exposing an entire milky white breast.

He swallowed hard and averted his eyes. He sat down beside her, thinking maybe the dip in the mattress would make her aware of his presence.

She slept on.

His gaze returned to rest on her face. Close as he was, he could see the dark shadows under her eyes. She must not have slept very well. He could understand that. He hadn’t slept too well himself. He had resorted to a desperate act—marriage—to solve one problem and had created a host of others in the process. Not the least of which was the fact he wanted to have carnal knowledge of his new wife.

He debated whether he ought to kiss her awake. But he wasn’t Prince Charming. And Sleeping Beauty had never had such a freckled face. Nevertheless, his body responded to the mere thought of pressing his lips against hers, of tasting the hot, sweet wetness of her mouth.

Billy swore viciously.

And Cherry woke with a start.

It took her a second to realize how exposed she was, and she grabbed at the sheet as she sat up and drew her knees to her chest. Her blue eyes were wide and wary. “What are you doing in here?”

“I came to wake you up. You overslept.”

She glanced at the clock, then dropped her forehead to her knees and groaned. “I must have turned off the alarm.”

“I figured as much when you didn’t show up in the kitchen. I’ve already had my breakfast. I left some coffee perking for you. The kids’ll be up in a little while. You probably have time for a quick shower.”

Thinking about her naked in the shower had about the same effect as contemplating kissing her. Billy needed to leave, but he was too aware of what Cherry would see if he stood right now. So he went right on sitting where he was.

Unfortunately, she now had the sheet flattened against herself, and he could see the darker outline of her nipples beneath the soft cotton. He found that every bit as erotic as seeing her naked.

“Hell,” Billy muttered, shifting uncomfortably on the edge of the bed.

“What’s the matter?”

Billy’s lip curled wryly. “I’m not used to looking at a woman in bed without being able to touch.”

“Oh.” She clutched the sheet tighter, exposing the fact that her nipples had become hard nubs.

Billy bolted to his feet and saw her gaze lock on the bulge beneath his zipper. He froze where he was, his body aching, his mouth dry.

He watched her until she lifted her eyes to his face. Her pupils were enormous, her lips full, as though he had been kissing her. She was aroused, and he hadn’t even touched her.

“Tell me to go, Cherry.” He wanted to consume her in a hurry, like ice cream on a hot day. He wanted to take his time and sip at her slow and easy, like a cool mint julep on a lazy summer afternoon.

She licked her lips, and he felt his body harden like stone.

“The girls will be up soon,” Cherry reminded him. “I need to get dressed.”

Heaven help him, he had forgotten all about his daughters. He shoved a distracted hand through his hair and huffed out a breath of air. “I’ll be working on the range today. If you need anything…”

Cherry smiled. “Don’t worry about us, Billy. We’ll manage fine.”

“All right. So long.”

He was almost out the door when she called him back.

“Billy?”

He turned and found her standing beside the bed with the sheet draped around her in a way that revealed as much as it covered. “What?” he asked, his voice hoarse from the sudden rush of desire he felt.

“You didn’t kiss me goodbye.”

He shook his head. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, Cherry.”

Before he realized what she had in mind, she closed the few steps between them and lifted her face to him. “I thought a lot about our situation last night, when I couldn’t sleep,” she said earnestly. “And I realized that if we’re going to convince Mrs. Trask that this is a real marriage, we’re going to have to act as much like a happily married couple as possible.

“Zach always gives Rebecca a kiss goodbye in the morning.” She gave him a winsome smile. “So, pucker up, Mr. Stonecreek, and give me a kiss.”

She didn’t give him much of a choice. She raised herself on tiptoe and leaned forward and pressed her lips against his.

Billy gathered her in his arms and pulled her close as his mouth opened over hers, taking what he had denied himself only moments before. His hands slid down her naked back, shoving the sheet out of his way. Then he held her buttocks tight against his arousal with one hand while the other caught her nape and slid up to grasp a handful of her hair.

He took his time kissing her, his tongue thrusting hard and deep, and then slowing for several soft, probing forays, seeking the honey within. She made a moaning sound deep in her throat, and he gave an answering growl of passion.

When he let her go at last, she gave him a dazed look through half-closed lids, then grabbed at the sheet that had slid down to her waist and pulled it back up to cover herself. He grinned and said, “That was a good idea. I think we’ll keep it up.”

It took all the willpower he had to turn and walk out the bedroom door.

Cherry watched Billy go this time without calling him back. She was still quivering from his kiss. She forced her wobbly legs to take one step, and then another, as she headed for the bentwood rocker where she had thrown her robe. She slipped it on and let the sheet drop to the floor.

She was tying her terry-cloth robe closed when she heard a knock on the door. She hurried to open it and found Billy standing there with his hat on, his hip cocked, and his thumbs in his front pockets.

“Did you forget something?” she asked.

Not a thing, Billy realized. He remembered exactly how she had looked in bed. And you look as delicious in that robe as you did in bed. He couldn’t very well tell her he had come back just to look at her again. So he said, “I forgot to say good morning.” He smiled and tipped his hat. “Mornin’, ma’am.”

Cherry laughed.

And then, because he was looking for an excuse to spend more time with her, he said, “I wondered if you’d like to join me for a cup of coffee before I leave.”

“I should get dressed,” Cherry said, tightening the belt on her robe. “The girls will be up soon.”

“You’re right about that.” Billy searched for something else to say, because otherwise he would have no excuse to linger.

“By the way, I never got around to telling you, but you’ll need to go grocery shopping today. The ranch has an account at the store in town. I think Harvey Mills already knows we’re married—I doubt there’s anyone in the county who doesn’t know by now—but just in case, I’ll give him a call and tell him to put your name on the account. Feel free to get anything you think we’ll need.”

It was more than Cherry had heard Billy say at one time since she had met him at the pond. But the words had nothing to do with what he was saying with his eyes. His eyes were eating her alive. Her heart was pumping hard. Her breasts felt full. Her mouth felt dry.

She cleared her throat and said, “Shopping. Got it. Anything else?”

“Not unless you’d like that cup of coffee.”

Cherry slowly shook her head. She had to send him away or she was going to invite him into her room. “I need to shower and dress before the girls wake up. Have a nice day, Billy.”

“Yeah. I’ll do that.”

When he didn’t leave, she raised a brow and said, “Is there something else, Billy?”

“If you want, I can go with you later today to see your family…to explain things.”

Cherry felt a sense of relief. “Thanks, Billy. I’d like that.”

“Well. I guess I’d better get started.”

It took him another moment or two before he moved away from the door. She watched his sexy, loose-limbed amble until he was gone from sight, then scurried up the stairs to the shower.

However, when she reached the bathroom, it was locked. She would have to wait her turn. She leaned against the wall, a towel over her arm, one bare foot perched atop the other and waited. And waited. The door never opened.

She leaned her ear against the door, but there was no sound coming from inside. She knocked and said, “Is someone in there?”

No answer.

“Raejean? Annie?”

Nothing.

She walked down the hall to the girls’ bedroom. Their unmade twin beds were empty. She checked the other doors along the hall and found an office and Billy’s bedroom, but no sign of the children.

“Raejean!” she called loudly. “Annie! If you’re hiding somewhere up here, I want you to come out right now!”

Nothing.

She crossed back to the bathroom door and listened intently. She thought she heard whispers. She banged on the door. “I know you two are in there. I want you to come out right now.”

Nothing.

She grabbed the doorknob and yanked on it, then slammed her shoulder against the door as though to break it open. “Open up!”

Nothing.

Cherry leaned back against the wall and sighed heavily. She hadn’t counted on this sort of misbehavior when she had nobly volunteered to rescue Billy’s daughters from their grandmother’s clutches. Right now, Mrs. Trask was more than welcome to the two of them!

Cherry smiled. Actually, she had pulled the same trick on one of her foster parents. She had spent almost two days in the bathroom before hunger finally forced her out. Which gave her an idea.

“All right, fine, stay in there. But you’re going to get awfully hungry before the day is out. I’m going downstairs to make myself some blueberry pancakes with whipped cream on top and scrambled eggs and sausage and wash it all down with some hot chocolate with marshmallows.”

Loud, agitated whispers.

The bathroom door opened and one of the twins stuck her head out. “Whipped cream on pancakes?”

Cherry nodded.

An identical face appeared and asked, “Big marshmallows? Or little ones?”

“Which do you prefer?”

“Little ones. Mrs. Motherwell only bought the big ones.”

“Then we’ll cut them into little pieces,” Cherry suggested.

“All right.” Annie shot out of the bathroom before Raejean could stop her and took Cherry by the hand. “Let’s go.”

Cherry waited to see what Raejean would do. The twin obviously wasn’t happy to see rebellion in the ranks. She seemed unsure whether to stay where she was or abandon the fort. Her stomach growled and settled the matter. Raejean left the bathroom and headed down the hall toward the stairs, ignoring the hand Cherry held out to her.

Cherry realized as she followed Raejean down the stairs, Annie chattering excitedly beside her, that she might have won this battle, but the war had just begun.

CHAPTER SIX

BREAKFAST WAS A HUGE success. Cherry sat at the kitchen table giving herself a pat on the back for having pleased both girls so well. Two plates had been licked clean. Annie must have eaten almost as many additional marshmallows as the two of them had cut up together for her hot chocolate. Raejean had devoured the entire batch of whipped cream. The kitchen was a mess, but Cherry would have time to clean it once the twins were at school.

“Uh-oh,” Annie said.

“Daddy’s going to be really mad,” Raejean said.

Cherry followed the direction of the girls’ gazes out the kitchen window and saw the school bus at the end of the lane. It paused momentarily, honked, and when no one appeared, continued on its way.

“Oh, no!” Cherry raced to the back door, yanked it open and shouted to the bus driver. “Wait!”

He didn’t hear her, which was just as well, because when she turned back to the kitchen she realized the girls weren’t dressed and their hair wasn’t combed.

Billy hadn’t asked much of her—only that she feed his children breakfast and get them to school and be there when they got home in the afternoon. She couldn’t even manage that.

She looked at the clock. Seven-thirty in the morning and she was already a failure as a stepmother. Before despair could take hold, it dawned on her that elementary school surely couldn’t start this early. Maybe she could still get the girls there on time.

“When do classes start?” she asked Raejean.

“Eight o’clock sharp,” Raejean answered. “Mrs. Winslow gets really mad if we’re late.”

“You still have time to get there if we move like lightning,” Cherry said.

She hurried the girls upstairs, but the more urgency she felt, the slower they both seemed to move. She ended up accidentally yanking Annie’s hair as she shoved the hairbrush through a knot.

“Ouch!” Annie cried. “That hurt.”

Cherry was instantly contrite. She had too much experience of her own with substitute parents who were in too much of a hurry to be gentle with her. She went down on one knee in the bathroom beside Annie and said, “I’m sorry, Annie. I should have been more careful. I guess I’m worried that I won’t get you to school on time.”

“Yeah. And Daddy will be really mad,” Raejean reminded her through a mouthful of toothpaste.

“Spit and rinse,” Cherry ordered Raejean as she finished putting Annie’s hair into pigtails. “I’ll get to you next.”

For a moment Raejean seemed to consider putting up a fight, but she stood still while Cherry pulled the brush through her tangled hair.

“My mom always put ribbons in our hair,” Raejean said.

Cherry heard the wistful longing in the complaint, but there wasn’t time to fulfill any wishes this morning. “Tonight we’ll see what we can find and have them ready for tomorrow morning,” she promised.

It wasn’t until she had dressed herself and was ushering the girls out the back door that she realized she had no idea what they were going to use for transportation. There had to be some vehicle available, because Billy had suggested she go shopping during the day. But the only thing on four wheels she saw was a rusted-out pickup near the barn.

A set of hooks inside the back door held a key attached to a rabbit’s foot. She grabbed the key, shoved the girls out the door, and prayed the truck had an automatic transmission.

It didn’t.

“Don’t you know how to drive?” Annie asked, concern etched in her young brow.

“I can drive. I have the license to prove it.”

“Then why aren’t we moving?” Annie asked.

Cherry stared helplessly at the stick shift on the floor of the pickup. “I’m not sure how to get this thing into gear.” She tried moving the stick, and it made an ominous grinding sound.

“If you break Daddy’s truck, he’s going to be really mad,” Raejean said.

Cherry was getting the picture. If she didn’t figure out something soon, she was going to be dealing with a seriously annoyed teacher when she got the girls to school and a fierce, wild-eyed beast of a man when Billy got home.

She crossed her arms on the steering wheel and leaned her head down to think. She could call her sister Jewel to come rescue her, but that was so mortifying a prospect she immediately rejected it. She felt a small hand tapping her shoulder.

“I can show you how to do it,” Annie volunteered.

Cherry lifted her head and stared suspiciously at the six-year-old. “You know how to drive a stick shift?”

“Sure,” Annie said. “Daddy lets us do it all the time.”

Since there wasn’t anyone else to show her how, Cherry said, “All right. Go ahead and show me what to do.”

“Put your foot on that pedal down there first,” Annie said. “Turn the key, and then move this thing here.”

Cherry pushed down the clutch, turned on the ignition, and reached for the black gearshift knob. To her amazement the gearshift moved easily without making a sound. However, she ended up in third gear, didn’t give the truck enough gas, and let the clutch go too fast. The pickup stalled.

“You have to follow the numbers,” Raejean chided, pointing to the black gearshift knob. “See? One, two, three, four, and R.”

“R isn’t a number,” Cherry pointed out.

“R is for Reverse,” Annie piped up.

Maybe Billy did let them drive, Cherry thought. At least they knew more about a stick shift than she did. “All right. Here goes.”

It was touch and go at first, but she managed to get the truck into second gear, and they chugged down the lane headed for the highway. She stalled a couple of times and ground the gears more than once before she got the hang of it. But she felt proud of herself when she finally pulled into the school parking lot and killed the engine.

“We made it,” she said, glancing at her wristwatch. “With five minutes to spare.”

“You forgot our lunches,” Raejean said.

“What lunches?”

“Mrs. Motherwell always made us a sack lunch. We’re going to starve,” Annie said.

“Daddy’s going to be really mad,” Raejean said.

“Maybe you could buy your lunches today,” Cherry suggested.

“I guess we could,” Raejean conceded.

Annie and Raejean held out their hands for money.

Cherry realized she hadn’t brought her purse with her. She checked both her jeans pockets and came up empty. “Look, I’ll go home and make lunches for you and bring them back to school. How would that be?”

“Okay, I guess,” Raejean said.

“I don’t feel so good,” Annie said, her hand on her stomach.

“Probably all the excitement this morning,” Cherry said sympathetically. “You’ll feel better once you’re settled in class. Have a nice day, Raejean. Enjoy yourself, Annie.”

She watched the two girls make their way inside, Raejean skipping and Annie holding on to her stomach.

To be honest, her own stomach was churning. It had been a hectic morning. And it wasn’t over yet. She had to get home, make lunches and get back, then get the kitchen and the house cleaned up before the girls got home in the afternoon.

It was a lot of responsibility for someone whose biggest problem before today was whether she could figure out her calculus homework or get the formulas right in chemistry class. The entire responsibility for the house and two lively children now rested on her shoulders. It was an awesome burden.

She should have thought of that sooner. Now that she had made the commitment, she was determined to see it through. There were bound to be a few glitches at first. The important thing was to keep on trying until she succeeded.

Of course, she wasn’t going anywhere until she figured out how to get the pickup into Reverse. No matter how many times she put the gearshift where she thought R ought to be, she couldn’t get the truck to back up. When the final tardy bell rang, she was still sitting there.

She was going to have to call Jewel after all.

“Hey, Cherry, what’s the matter?”

Cherry looked up into the sapphire blue eyes of her eleven-year-old brother, Colt. A black curl had slipped from his ponytail and curled around his ear. He was wearing tight jeans instead of the frumpy ones currently in style, and a white T-shirt and cowboy boots reminiscent of James Dean. Colt truly was the rebel in the family. But he somehow convinced everybody that doing things his way was their idea.

Cherry glanced at the empty schoolyard and said, “You’re late, Colt.”

He grinned. “Yeah. Looks that way.”

“You don’t seem too concerned about it. Zach will be—” Cherry stopped herself when she realized she was about to echo Raejean and say “really mad.”

“Dad knows I’m late,” Colt said. “Things were a little crazy this morning because of you disappearing and all. You really did it this time, Cherry. Mom went ballistic when she heard what you did, and Dad hasn’t come down off the ceiling since he got back from the Stonecreek Ranch. Are you really married to Billy Stonecreek?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Neat. He really knows how to use his fists to defend himself.” Colt shrugged his book bag off and did some shadow boxing. He was tall for his age, his body lean, his movements graceful. “Billy’s been in three fights this year,” he said. “Do you think he’d show me a few punches?”

“Absolutely not! And where did you find out all this information about Billy?” Cherry asked.

“I heard Mom and Dad talking. They’re worried that Billy’s a bad influence on you. They said he’s gonna undo all the hard work they’ve done, and you’re gonna end up back in trouble again.”

Cherry felt her face heating. Not that she didn’t appreciate what Zach and Rebecca had done for her. But she had come a long way since the days when she had habitually cut school and been ready to fight the world.

“You’d better get inside,” she told Colt.

“It’s all right. Mom called and told them I’d be late,” Colt replied. “What are you doing here?”

“I drove Raejean and Annie Stonecreek to school.”

“Why didn’t they take the bus?”

“They missed the bus.”

Colt grinned. “Overslept, huh? You never were very good at getting up in the morning.”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I didn’t over-sleep. I merely lost track of the time.”

“Same difference,” Colt said. “So why aren’t you headed back home?”

“I can’t figure out how to get this damn truck into Reverse.”

Colt laughed. “It’s easy. Press the stick down and over.”

“Press down? You have to press down on the stick before you move it?”

“Sure.”

Cherry tried it, gave the truck a little gas, and felt it move backward. “Good grief,” she muttered. “Thanks, Colt. I owe you one.”

“Will you ask Billy if he’ll show me a few punches?”

“I’ll think about it,” she replied as she backed out of the parking lot. “Tell Rebecca I’ll come see her tonight,” she called out the window as she drove away.

It was the coward’s way out to have Colt relay her message. She should have called Rebecca and told her she was coming. But she didn’t want to be forced into explaining things to her mother over the phone, and she knew Rebecca must be anxious for some sort of explanation for what she had done. The truth was, she needed the rest of the day to think of one.

By the time she made it back to the ranch she was a pro at shifting gears. She parked the truck behind the house, stepped inside the kitchen, and realized it looked like a tornado had been through. What if Billy came back home for some reason and saw it looking like this?

But she didn’t want to stop and clean it right now and take a chance on being late with the girls’ lunches. The mess was even worse by the time she finished making sandwiches. She vowed to clean up the kitchen as soon as she returned. She was out the door half an hour later, sack lunches in hand.

When she arrived at the principal’s office, Cherry was surprised to be told that Annie still wasn’t feeling well. Her teacher had asked the office to call the house and have someone come and pick her up.

“I was concerned when I couldn’t reach anyone at the ranch,” the principal said, “so I called Mrs. Trask.”

“Oh, no,” Cherry groaned. “Call her back, please, and tell her it isn’t necessary to come. I’ll take Annie home.”

“I’ll try,” the principal said. “But she’s probably already on her way.”

Cherry’s only thought was to get Annie and leave as quickly as possible.

“I’m Cherry Whitelaw, Mrs. Winslow,” she said when she arrived at Annie’s classroom. Cherry flushed. “Except it’s Stonecreek now. My name, I mean. I’m here for Annie.”

“She’s lying on a cot at the back of the room, Mrs. Stonecreek. Raejean insisted on sitting with her.”

It felt strange to be called by her married name. Only she really was Mrs. Stonecreek, and responsible for the twins’ welfare. She sat on a chair beside the cot and brushed the bangs away from Annie’s forehead. “How are you, sweetheart?”

Annie moaned. “My stomach hurts.”

“She ate too many marshmallows,” Raejean said from her perch beside her sister.

“Marshmallows?” Mrs. Winslow asked.

“Annie had a few marshmallows with her hot chocolate this morning,” Cherry said.

“How many is a few?” Mrs. Winslow asked.

Cherry hadn’t counted. “Too many, I guess. Can you walk, Annie? Or do I need to carry you?”

Annie sat up, holding her stomach. “I don’t feel so good.”

Cherry picked her up in her arms.

“Where are you taking her?” Raejean demanded.

“Home,” Cherry said.

“I’m going, too,” Raejean said.

“There’s no reason for you to miss a day of school,” Cherry said reasonably. “I’ll take good care of Annie.”

“How do I know that?” Raejean demanded. “You’re practically a stranger!”

“Raejean,” Mrs. Winslow said. “Mrs. Stonecreek is right. There’s no reason for you to leave.”

“I’m going with Annie,” Raejean said to Mrs. Winslow, her face flushed. “I’m not staying here alone.”

“You won’t be alone,” Mrs. Winslow soothed. “You’ll—”

“I’m going with Annie!” Raejean cried.

“Raejean—” Cherry began.

“I’m going with Annie!” she screeched hysterically.

Cherry knew the dangers of giving in to a tantrum. But in her mind’s eye she saw Mrs. Trask arriving to find a scene like this and knew she was over a barrel. “All right, Raejean, you can come. I’m sorry for the trouble, Mrs. Winslow.”

She turned and headed for the door with Annie in her arms and Raejean a half step behind her. She was almost out the door when Mrs. Trask showed up.

“What’s the matter with my granddaughter? What have you done to her?” she demanded.

“Annie is fine, Mrs. Trask.” Cherry kept moving down the hall toward the front door of the school, still hoping to escape without a major confrontation.

“Annie’s sick because she ate too many marshmallows,” Raejean volunteered.

“Marshmallows?” Mrs. Trask said as though what she was really saying was “Poison?”

“Annie will be fine, Mrs. Trask.”

“I was afraid of something like this. You’re not responsible enough to be left in charge of two little girls.”

Cherry didn’t want to admit Mrs. Trask might be right. She had misjudged the situation this morning, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do better. She would learn. After all, nobody had practice being a parent before they actually became one.

“Thank you for coming, Mrs. Trask, but as you can see, I have the situation well in hand.”

“I’m coming home with you,” Mrs. Trask said.

“I don’t believe that’s necessary,” Cherry countered.

“I—”

“What’s going on here?”

Cherry stopped in her tracks.

It was Billy. He didn’t look really mad, as Raejean had promised. He looked frantic, his brow furrowed, his sweat-stained work shirt pulled out of his jeans and hanging open, revealing a hairy chest covered with a damp sheen of sweat. He was still wearing his buckskin work gloves, but he was missing his hat. He had obviously shoved an agitated hand through his dark hair more than once, leaving it awry. He looked virile and strong…and very worried.

“I stopped by the house for some tools and found you gone and a message on the answering machine that Annie wasn’t feeling well. Is she all right?”

“I’m sick, Daddy,” Annie cried.

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