Tina Leonard - My Baby, My Bride

He had a plan for dealing with Liberty Wentworth-who-should-be-Forrester-by-now. A taste of her own medicine was what she needed. If he could straighten her bent ways, then all the rest of the crooked line that had become his life would return to being straight-as-an-arrow predictable as the road to the Forrester homestead, on which he was now driving with his traitorous brother.

“Maybe,” Zach said, watching Duke glare out the windshield, “you should talk to the ladies. They’ll have insights into your female issues.”

Duke pinned him with the glare. “Zach, do not violate the bachelor code.”

“Is there one?”

“Hell, yes. Bachelors only commiserate with each other. They never, ever side with the enemy.”

“Since when are women the enemy? I like them,” Zach said. “I’ve got two dates this weekend.”

“I’ve got the Tulips Saloon Gang banded together against me with their dolly faces and their innocently spindly frames. I need backup, please, so don’t give me any more advice like that. It just doesn’t help.”

“Spindly?” Zach repeated with a laugh.

“Yes,” Duke said, “how can anyone put up a good fight against such frail and fragile creatures?”

Zach shook his head.

“And I want to know how much a part of their newest plot you are,” Duke said indignantly. “And don’t act like it’s news to you, because they’ve already told me about The Plot.”

His brother grinned. “We just think you might need a vacation, Duke. Of the honeymoon variety. Take some time off. Start a family.”

“Did I ask anyone’s advice?” Duke abruptly braked to a stop in front of the house, sending up clouds of dust. He turned to face his brother for dramatic impact so Zach would know he’d really stepped over the line this time. “I don’t want to start a family, thank you. And I like my job a lot. It’s never boring.” He thought about that for a moment. “In fact, it’s downright exciting, a cross between Peyton Place and Petticoat Junction.”

Zach slapped him on the back. “It was Pepper’s idea.”

Duke gestured toward the old house. “Pepper doesn’t even live here!”

“Actually, she does now,” Zach said, pointing to an upstairs window where their little sister waved at them with something that looked vaguely like a butterfly net.

“Did she come home to hunt insects?” Duke asked.

“I believe that was a Victoria’s Secret undergarment,” Zach said, amused. “Not that I’m surprised you didn’t know.”

“Why would she wave that out the window?”

Zach laughed. “Because she’s crazy and it was what she was holding at the time we pulled up. She’s unpacking her suitcase, dummy. How ’bout you go give her a proper brotherly greeting and act like you’re happy she’s back after all these years?”

“But selfishly, I’m not,” Duke said, following Zach, though he knew in his heart he was glad. “If the only reason she’s come home is to conspire and plot—”

“Duke, everybody conspires and plots with Helen and Pansy and the rest of them. Even you do. So let it go.”

Duke didn’t like that, but there was a bit of truth to the comment, so he did what he wanted to do, which was take the stairs three at a time and grab his sister in a bear hug. “I’m so glad you’re home,” he said. “You can cook my dinner.”

Pepper laughed and gave him a smart kick in the shin. “No deal. You are cooking mine. I’m the weary traveler.”

She looked anything but weary. “You were gone too long,” he told her.

“I was here for your wedding,” she said. “February wasn’t that long ago.”

He frowned at her. “I meant…you know what? You’re as bad as Zach. You just want to argue!”

She put her arm through his. “I like arguing with you. Your face gets all red. And you make such an easy target because you have so many opinions.”

He shook his head, liking how she linked her arm through his and led him down the stairs. Sometimes Liberty was soft with him like this, too, and he always melted for women who knew how to work him. Not that that was particularly a good thing. A man had to watch women who plotted against him. Even his dog knew he was a softie.

“Please tell me you didn’t return to run for my office.”

“I didn’t, although something was mentioned to me about it, I will admit,” Pepper said. “But I have bigger things in mind.”

“Great,” Duke said. “Tulips needs fresh blood.

Where are you going?”

“Into town,” she said, grabbing a gaily wrapped present off the entryway table.

“Hey, I’ll drive you,” he said. “Bye, Zach.

Thanks for the pep talk.”

Zach laughed, appreciating the sarcasm. “Any time.”

Molly, who had come along for the ride, leaped into the truck bed, a blur of golden beauty. “She loves you,” Pepper said.

“When it suits her,” Duke said, starting the engine. “Who’s the present for?”

“Someone special,” Pepper replied, with a teasing smile. “Drive and mind your own business.”

“Not as if I won’t know eventually. There are no secrets in this town.”

Pepper laughed. “The hell there aren’t. Tulips is charmingly secretive.”

He frowned. “I’ve always found it to be annoyingly busybody.”

“Duke,” Pepper said, “one day you’re going to have to accept where you live. And the people you live with.”

“I do. I’m the sheriff, aren’t I?”

“This is a woman’s town. You should feel lucky.

You get good food, good gossip and lots of drama.

All the ladies suck up to you.”

“Not anymore. Liberty ruined it,” he said.

“Now all the women treat me as if I contain a polar charge. They bounce away any time I get close.” He frowned. “It’s not fair. Zach has two dates this weekend, and all I want is one.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Duke said, not wanting to talk about it anymore. He wasn’t going to get the date he wanted, so that left him with the option of moping or getting over it, and he always preferred to get over whatever needed getting over. “But I’ve got a plan to straighten out Miss Liberty.”

“You do?”

He was pleased by the surprise in his sister’s tone. “Yes. She wants to play hard-to-get. I will be harder-to-get. And I may even date other women, if necessary.”

“To make her jealous?”

He scratched at his chin, not certain Liberty would be jealous. “Just to let her know she’s not the only girl around.”

“Oh. Okay.”

As they pulled up in front of the Tulips Saloon, a melodic sound tinkled through the truck, sounding very much like a wind-up lullaby. Duke listened for a moment, unable to place where the sound was coming from. “Your cell phone?”

Pepper hesitated a moment. “It sounded like a cell phone, didn’t it?” She smoothed the fancy pink-and-blue ribbon on the big box in her lap.

“You going to answer it?”

“I don’t think so. Not right now.”

The music stopped, so Duke shrugged. “Well, they’ll call again.”

“No doubt they will,” Pepper murmured. “Thanks for the ride.” She kissed his cheek and got out of the truck. He waited while she patted Molly, who then decided to follow Pepper into the saloon, much to his chagrin. The dog was completely faithless, a Pied Piper to whomever petted her.

A moment later, Pansy and Helen disappeared inside the doors of the saloon, also carrying wrapped presents. Then in his rearview mirror he saw Valentine pushing a white wicker pram on huge wheels and walking alongside a rangy cowboy—the kind who made the girls squirm and swoon at rodeos. He carried a large cake in his big arms. They, too, went into the Tulips Saloon.

“It isn’t Ladies Only Day,” Duke declared to no one but himself. He drummed the steering wheel, straightening when Holt the hairdresser also went inside. It appeared that there was a party, one to which he had not been invited, which gnawed at his already rough feelings. What in the hell was going on in there?