Christine Rimmer - James Bravo's Shotgun Bride

Addie thanked Walker profusely.

He said essentially what James had said. “We should have joined forces years ago for times like this.”

When she hung up, she handed James back his phone. “I think I’m running out of ways to thank you.”

He didn’t miss a beat. “You can thank me by eating the soup I’m going to go get for you now. They have chicken noodle or New England clam chowder.”

“No clams. Please.”

“Chicken noodle it is, then.”

She dug in her purse for her wallet. But he was already up and headed for the elevators.

When he returned with the soup, he also brought sandwiches. Two of them—one roast beef, one ham, both with chips.

She took the soup and tried to give him a ten. He waved it away. She should insist he take the money, but so far, insisting wasn’t getting her anywhere with him.

So fine, then. She ate every last drop of that soup and half of his ham sandwich, too. Unfortunately, once the food was gone, there was nothing else to do but sit there and try to read the magazines strewn about the waiting room tables, try not to watch the second hand crawling around the face of the clock on the far wall, try not to think too hard about what might be happening down the long hallway beyond the automatic double doors.

Carmen and Devin arrived at a little after nine. Addie ran to her sister. Carmen grabbed her and they hugged each other tight. Then Carmen took her by the shoulders and held her a little away. Carmen was taller and thinner than Addie and her hair was dark brown, her eyes a warm hazel.

“Any news?” her sister asked.

Addie pressed her lips together and shook her head. “We’re still waiting to hear. I’m hoping it won’t be too long now.”

Devin, tall and lean with light blond hair, said, “Levi’s tough as old boots. He’ll pull through and be driving us all crazy again in no time.”

Addie turned to her brother-in-law. “I know you’re right.” He hugged her, too. “I can’t even tell you how glad I am you’re both here.” She wrapped an arm around each of them and turned for the row of chairs several feet away where James, on his feet now, was waiting.

Carmen leaned close and whispered, “Isn’t that one of the Bravo brothers?”

Addie stifled a tired sigh. “It’s James.”

“The lawyer, right, second of Sondra’s two sons?”

Addie nodded. “He was, um, there when PawPaw had the heart attack. He’s been wonderful,” she whispered back grimly, reminded again of all the news she needed to share with her sister. “I can’t get him to leave.”

“I heard that,” James said wryly. “Carmen, Devin. How have you been?” He held out his big hand.

Devin took it first, and then Carmen. Carmen said how grateful she was for his help. She assured him he could go now.

He just shook his head. “I can’t go now. I wouldn’t feel right. At least not until Levi’s through surgery.”

Carmen shot Addie a look and then turned to him again. “You and our grandfather are...friends?”

“Well, we’ve kind of formed a bond, I think you might say.”

Now Carmen glanced at Devin, who shrugged, then back to James and finally at Addie. “Okay. What is going on?”

Addie groaned. “Got a month, I’ll tell you everything.”

“I’m here and I’m listening,” Carmen replied.

Addie hardly knew where to start.

James got up. “I could use some coffee. Anybody else?”

Carmen piped right up. “I’ll take some.” She elbowed her husband. “Dev will go with you.”

“Uh. I will?” When Carmen elbowed him again, Devin caught on. “Sure. Great idea.”

“Tea?” Addie asked James, and then got uncomfortable all over again thinking how easily she’d started to depend on him.

“You got it—and maybe Devin and I will hang around the cafeteria for a while.” He gave her a look—one thick, dark eyebrow raised.

And she took his meaning. “Go ahead. Tell him,” she said. “Tell him everything you know. Believe me, he won’t be surprised.”

“My God,” murmured Carmen. “What is going on?” For that, she got another bewildered shrug from her husband.

James asked, “You sure?”

Addie nodded. “He has to know eventually anyway.”

So the men left. And Carmen said, “Okay. Tell me everything.”

Addie told all—from how she’d agreed to have Brandon’s baby, to the fact that she was now pregnant with said baby, to Levi snooping in her trash and finding the test stick and then kidnapping James just the way he’d done to Devin eight years ago. Carmen sat there with her mouth hanging open, as Addie went on to describe finding James and Levi in the basement and the shotgun going off, blowing a hole in the ceiling while Levi had a heart attack.

Finally, when the totally out-there story was told, Carmen hugged her again and told her she loved her and could hardly believe she was going to be an auntie.

Then came the questions. “If Brandon’s the father, why did PawPaw kidnap James?”

“He won’t believe it’s Brandon. He claims he’s seen the way James and I look at each other and he just knows there’s been a lot more than looking going on.”

Carmen was silent. Too silent.

Addie was forced to demand, “What is all this silence about, Carm?”

“Well, now, honey. I did see the way you and James looked at each other just now...”

“What are you talking about? I swear to you, James Bravo has never done more than shake my hand—at least not until today, when he put his arm around me to comfort me, held my hair while I threw up and then made me sit down when I tried to get him to leave.”

“But that’s just it, see?”

“No, I don’t see.”

“He seems very devoted. And I saw the blood on his collar.”

“I told you, PawPaw knocked him out, tied him to a chair in the basement and put a shotgun to his head. Because you know PawPaw. He thinks we live in some Wild West romance novel where it’s perfectly okay to hold a man at gunpoint in order to convince him to ‘do the right thing.’” She said that with air quotes.

Carm snickered and then quickly switched to a more sober expression. “And yet, even after all the abuse PawPaw heaped on the poor guy, James drives you to Denver and holds your hair while you hurl? He knows you’re having another man’s baby, but he brings you food and tea and insists he has to stay with you to make sure that your crazy old grandpa makes it through surgery?”

“Carm, it’s not like that. It’s just that he’s a good guy.”

“Beyond stellar, apparently.”

“Really, I hardly know him. We...well, we talk now and then.”

A sideways look from Carmen. “You talk.”

“Yeah. He’s bought land that borders Red Hill and he’s building a house there. I go by there a lot, working with the horses, you know?”

“Right...”

“Quit looking at me like that. Sometimes I stop is all. We visit. We talk about life and stuff—in general, I mean. Nothing all that personal.” Well, okay. Once, James had told her about his ex-wife. But as a rule, they kept it casual. She added, “And now and then, he drops by the ranch house. We sit out under the stars and chat.”

“Chat,” Carmen repeated, as though the simple word held a bunch of other meanings that Addie wasn’t admitting to.

“Yeah.” Addie straightened her shoulders. “Chat. Just chat. And that’s it. That’s all. I’ve never gone out with him. It’s casual and it’s only conversation and you couldn’t even really call us friends.”

Carmen patted her hand. “I’m only saying I’m not surprised that PawPaw jumped to conclusions.”

Addie batted off her sister’s touch. “It is Brandon’s baby. I have never even kissed James Bravo.”