Judy Christenberry - The $10,000,000 Texas Wedding

Nope. He couldn’t think about that tonight. He wanted to sleep, to forget the past, to deny the future. He was back in Cactus. That was enough for now.

OLD HABITS WERE HARD to break.

Gabe was awake at seven. In Dallas, he normally hit the shower at six-thirty, so he supposed he’d actually, technically, broken his early-morning habit, but there was no reason to roll out of bed this morning.

And, damn it, the coffee wouldn’t be ready until eight.

With a groan, he padded into the kitchen and adjusted the timer until he heard it turn on. Then he headed for the shower. By the time he finished, the coffee would be ready.

He was leaning against the counter, downing his first cup of coffee, when he heard a car in the driveway. A smile settled in place when he saw the sheriff’s official car. Cal had come to see him.

Then it occurred to him that maybe there was a problem. The phone wasn’t connected, but he had a cell phone. His parents would have called if—

He hurried to the back door. “Come in, Cal. Is anything wrong?”

“Not a thing. Thought you might like a little breakfast,” he said, holding up a white paper bag.

A cinnamon aroma filled the air and caused Gabe’s stomach to growl. “How’d you guess?” he asked with a grin.

“Not hard to do. Any more coffee?”

“You bet. Have a seat while I pour you a cup.”

Soon the two men were seated, munching on sausage rolls, with two fat cinnamon rolls waiting.

“These are great,” Gabe said. “You must be the luckiest man in the world.”

“How’s that?” Cal asked, his eyes closed as he savored another bite.

“To have a wife like Jessica.”

Cal grinned. “You won’t hear me complaining. Wait until you meet my son. Then you’ll really know how lucky I am.”

“How old is he?”

“Almost a year old. He’s starting to learn to walk. Which is a good thing, because Tuck’s been bragging about his little girl for a month now. Did you know that girls learn to walk before boys? Can you believe that?”

The disgust in Cal’s voice tickled Gabe. He chuckled and it felt good. He hadn’t been that happy when he’d awakened, but a good friend could cheer up a guy.

“I think that’s so girls can get a head start running away from boys.”

“Yeah,” Cal replied, his face suddenly serious. “I’ve sure had some cases where I’ve wished the woman would run. Domestic violence is ugly.”

An alarming thought filled Gabe. “Katie never—I mean, her husband didn’t—”

“Not that I know of. But he didn’t appreciate her. That’s for sure.”

“Maybe she was a lousy wife,” Gabe muttered, picking up the cinnamon roll and sniffing it.

“I doubt it. Even if she was, she’d make up for a lot of sins, being able to make these.”

Gabe had just taken a big bite. He almost choked on it before he could speak. “You mean Katie made these?”

“Well, of course. I stopped by The Lemon Drop Shop on my way over here.”

Gabe swallowed the bite of cinnamon roll and cleared his throat. “I, uh, assumed Jessica made these.”

“Nope. She was sleeping in this morning since Rick has a cold. He wakes up a lot at night. She didn’t get much sleep.”

Gabe frowned. “What does Doc say?”

“It’s a cold,” Cal said with a shrug. “I’ve adjusted to the problems with children. You should have seen me the first month after we brought him home. Jessica called me an alarmist.”

Gabe’s brows soared. “You? You’re always the calm one.”

“Not when it comes to my kid. You’ll see when you have your own,” Cal assured him.

Gabe sipped his coffee, unable to agree. He figured he’d never have children because he never intended to marry. His romantic experience hadn’t led to much optimism in that area. But the look of bliss on Cal’s face made him want to have children.

When he’d thought he and Katie would share a future, he’d pictured their children, a little girl with Katie’s long blond hair, a pink bow in it, a rough-and-tumble boy, playing with a dog like Jericho. Life had looked perfect until Katie’s bomb exploded.

“Who did Katie date after me?”

His abrupt question got Cal’s attention. He frowned. “You mean ten years ago? When you moved to Dallas?”

“Yeah. Ten years ago.”

Cal stared at the opposite wall, thinking, and Gabe held his breath. He prayed it wasn’t one of his friends. He’d hate to try to beat up Spence or Tuck or Mac.

“No one.”

Gabe stared at Cal. “What do you mean, no one? There was someone. You must not remember.”

Cal laughed. “Right. A beautiful lady like Katie, staying in town, staying at home on Saturday night, and you think we didn’t notice? For a while, we figured you two had an understanding. That things had to be postponed because of her dad’s death. Everyone kind of left her alone.”

Frowning, Gabe thought back to what Katie had told him. “Maybe it was someone from out of town.”

“Oh, yeah. We never notice strangers in Cactus.”

“You’re being sarcastic,” Gabe protested.

“Why are you asking? Did you two have an understanding? I mean, it seemed kind of harsh to think you’d abandoned her when things got bad.”

Gabe heard the note of censure in his friend’s voice and it hurt. He said, “I didn’t abandon her. I asked her to marry me, move to Dallas with me.” Cal just stared at him, and he added, “I was focused on—on myself. I didn’t realize how hard things were for her.”

“We can all be selfish bastards at times. But that’s better than walking away from her, leaving her hoping.”

Gabe wasn’t sure about that. He was beginning to feel guilty about his behavior ten years ago. And it made him mad. She could have said something!

“So, when you asked her to marry you, she said…” Cal waited for him to fill in the blank.

“She said she’d fallen for someone else.” After a glimpse of the sympathy in Cal’s gaze, Gabe looked away. “I guess she lied.”

“Probably. It was a bad time for all of them. Maybe she couldn’t think about leaving her family.”

“I would have waited!” Gabe muttered. She hadn’t even given him a chance.

“For ten years?”

“Hell! They could have moved with us. We would’ve worked something out.”

Both men sat in silence, thinking about the events ten years ago. Finally Gabe acknowledged, “Okay, maybe that’s not realistic, but—”

“Maybe you should be having this conversation with Katie. You might be able to work something out that would take care of that pesky will.”

“No!” Gabe yelled, overreacting, he knew. “No,” he repeated more calmly. “Too much water under the bridge.” He thought about the husband she’d had, the years, the…hurt. Nope, he wasn’t willing to offer his heart again, to be carved up at will.

Cal shoved his chair back from the table. “So, what have you got planned for the day?”

“I’ve made a list of things I need to do. I suppose I’ll see how many I can accomplish.”

“Are you planning on staying?”

Gabe looked at Cal, a question in his gaze, as he said, “I’m thinking about it. If I have any chance of inheriting Gran’s estate, I have to live here a year.”

“We’d like having you around,” Cal said warmly, answering Gabe’s unasked question. “We sometimes rodeo on Saturdays. Think you can still ride?”

Gabe grinned. “Better than you, cowboy. If I’m going to stay, I might buy a couple of horses. Would Spence or Tuck have any to sell?”

“I reckon. They usually do. In fact, the last time I was over at Spence’s, he had a fine-looking gelding. I was thinking about him myself, but I’ve already got more than I can ride.”