Christine Rimmer - A Bride for Jericho Bravo

Ash was not pacified. He pinned Marnie with an unforgiving glare. “You’re family. That means you’re welcome in this house. But you damn well better not pull any more stunts like this one tonight, or there is going to be big trouble between you and me.”

Marnie felt his harsh words like blows. They were true words. And that made them hurt all the more. She opened her mouth to say she was so sorry and she would never do anything like that again.

But Tessa spoke first, her gentle voice soothing. “Ash. Come on.” She turned to Marnie, her eyes moist with tears. “He worries about me. Please don’t take offense.”

Marnie let out a cry. “I don’t. Of course, I don’t. He’s absolutely right.”

Ash nodded. “You better believe I am.”

Jericho stepped in then. “Come on, Ash. Dial it back. She knows she did wrong.”

Ash shifted his furious gaze to his brother. “What? Now you’re defending her? What’s up with that?”

Marnie cleared her throat. “We, um, we came to an understanding, Jericho and me. He still thinks I’m weird—but not crazy or on drugs.”

Jericho explained, “She overheard us talking in the study.”

“Talking about what?” Tessa demanded.

Ash answered reluctantly, “Jericho was saying that maybe she needed professional help.”

Jericho snorted. “I wasn’t nearly that diplomatic about it.”

“Oh, no …” Tessa stared at her pityingly.

Marnie shrugged and looked down at the floor. Since Jericho had caught up with her on his bike, she’d done a lot of looking down. “I did overhear what Jericho said. And I was a little crazy. But I’m pulling it together, as of now.” She raised her head, straightened her spine, and made herself meet her brother-in-law’s still-angry gaze. “I’m past the nervous breakdown phase. I swear I am.”

Ash gave her a long once-over. Finally, he nodded. “Well, all right, then. Sorry for jumping down your throat.” He pulled Tessa closer and pressed a kiss to her temple.

She nudged him in the side. “You went a little overboard, you know?”

“Yeah,”Ash admitted. “Maybe. But I don’t like to see you freaked out, especially now, with the baby coming.”

Marnie wondered if she’d heard right. “Uh. The baby?”

Jericho let out a low chuckle.

Tessa sighed.

Ash’s brows drew together. “You didn’t tell her.”

Tessa sent him a weary glance. “I was waiting till she at least had a good night’s sleep. But so much for that.”

Marnie groaned. “That’s right. You didn’t have even one margarita, just to be sociable. And no wine. Only sparkling water. Am I oblivious or what?”

Tessa eased out of Ash’s protective embrace. “You have a lot on your mind.”

Jericho said, “Hey, Ash. Walk me out.”

Marnie sent him a grateful look. “Thanks, Jericho. For everything.”

“Later.” One corner of his mouth twitched in what could almost be called a smile as he turned again for the French doors.

When the men were gone and the sisters were alone, Marnie grabbed Tessa in a long, tight hug. “I can hardly believe it. A baby. My sister’s having a baby….” She took Tessa by the shoulders and held her away enough to look up into her sweet face. “When are you due?”

“Late October.”

“You’re going to be an amazing mother, you know that?”

Tessa’s cheeks flushed. It was good to see some color back in them. “I’m going to give it my best shot.”

“I’m so sorry I scared you. Never, ever again.”

Tessa’s eyes gleamed. “Well, at least if you could try and wait until after the baby’s born …”

“It’s a promise.” She caught both of Tessa’s hands. “You were always on my side—well, except when we were little. Then you tried to run my life.”

Tessa looked suddenly prim. It was a look she used to wear a lot when she was a kid, back when Marnie would constantly razz her, calling her Saint Teresa. “You were a wild child,” Tessa said. “You used to swear like a sailor on shore leave, remember? And you were always running away, freaking everybody out….”

Marnie felt her shoulders slump. “Looks like I’m up to my old tricks, huh? Only minus the wild part. Somewhere I lost track of that—of my wild side. Lately, I’m about as wild as a stale slice of white bread.”

Tessa pulled her close again, whispered, “You’re still wild at heart. You know you are.”

“Oh, yeah, right.”

“You are.”

Marnie couldn’t help asking, hopefully, “You think?”

“I know.” Outside, Jericho’s chopper roared to life. The sisters were quiet as the rumbling moved along the driveway and then faded away down the street. Then Tessa spoke again. “I’m so glad you and Jericho seem to have worked out your differences.”

“I hated him at first.”

“No kidding.”

“But you know, I can see now that he’s an okay guy after all. A really good guy, actually.”

“He’s got a lot of heart. And in the past few years, he’s turned his life around.”

Marnie wondered what exactly that meant.

But before she could ask Tessa about it, Ash came in. Marnie apologized again for everything.

Ash said he wanted to let bygones be bygones. “I’m glad you came to us. And I meant it when I said you’re welcome to stay as long as you want to.”

Marnie told them good night and went back to the guesthouse, where she drew a bath and sank gratefully into it, sighing in pleasure as she let the hot water ease all her tensions away.

Things could be worse, she was thinking. And then she laughed at her own sudden optimism. Her life, after all, was still a great big mess. But somehow, she felt better about it.

It wasn’t even forty-eight hours since the breakup, but she was already beginning to see that her relationship with Mark really hadn’t been that good for her. In the years they were together, she had slowly relinquished her life to him, until she lived in his shadow.

His friends became her friends. His world, hers. He had a big trust fund set up for him by his dad. And he also made a lot more money than she ever would. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, to just stop working, to let him support her. After all, her jobs never brought in much anyway.

Without Mark to pay the bills, she had almost nothing to call her own.

But there was a bright side. All of a sudden, she was nobody’s shadow. She’d stepped into the light. She could see her life clearly now. Too bad what she saw wasn’t all that great.

Mark had offered her money “to hold her over,” when he told her they were through. She had proudly refused him, which had seemed really noble at the time—but was actually kind of stupid, when you got right down to it. Bottom line, she was on her own with five hundred dollars in her checking account. She had two years of junior college and a hodgepodge of subsistence-level work experience to recommend her to a prospective employer.

But she could get crazy all over again if she started dwelling on her chances of finding a decent job with her minimal skills in a not-so-great economy. She closed her eyes and let her body float in the cooling bathwater and tried to turn her wayward mind to soothing things.

For some reason, her thoughts drifted to Jericho. She could see him now, behind the dark screen of her shuttered eyelids, in the hard glare of the Mercedes’ headlights, when he caught up with her on his bike.

He’d held out his arms to her.

It was the last thing she’d expected him to do.

But he had done it.

And somehow, that moment—when his big, tattooed arms closed around her—that was the turning point. That was when she knew: in time, she was going to be all right.