Falling For The Rebound Bride

“Excuse me?”

“Why you’ve come home. Same reason I’m here now, I suppose. To stop the—” She waved her hands at her head, then folded her arms again. “The noise. The crowding.”

The impulse to probe nudged more insistently. He’d assumed she was only there to visit, like people did. Normal people, anyway. Or to attend Zach’s wedding, although that wasn’t for weeks yet. Now, though, questions niggled. Maybe there was more...?

And whatever that might be had nothing to do with him.

“Hadn’t really thought about it,” he muttered, ignoring what had to be a doubtful look in response. Shaking her head, Emily dug her phone out of her purse, only to heave a sigh and slug it back inside.

“No signal. Jeez, how do people even survive out here?”

“Same way they have for hundreds of years, I imagine.”

A soft grunt was her only reply. Thank God. Although Colin had to admit, as wearying as her poking and prying had been, the silence was far worse, providing a far-too-fertile breeding ground for his own twisted-up thoughts. Because despite the universe’s insistence that this is where he needed to be right now, he’d be lying to himself if he didn’t admit this felt an awful lot like starting over.

Or worse, failure.

A dog’s barking as they pulled into the Vista’s circular driveway shattered the silence, although Colin barely heard it over his pounding heart, the rush of blood between his ears. Beside him, Emily gathered her giant purse, then gave him what he suspected was a pitying look before grabbing the door’s handle.

“I don’t envy you right now,” she murmured, then shoved open the door and got out. By now her cousin and his brother were out on the oversize veranda. Even in the screwy light he could see confusion shudder across both their faces.

“You’ll never guess who I ran into in the airport,” she said, and Colin realized he had two choices: show himself, or turn right around and pretend this had all been a mistake. Except the flaw with plan B was that, for one thing, Emily’s luggage was still in the SUV. And for another, she’d rat on him.

So, on a weighty sigh, Colin pried himself from behind the wheel and faced his little brother, who immediately spit out a cussword that would’ve gotten a good smack upside the head from their mother. Two seconds later, Josh was pounding the hell out of Colin’s back, then grinning up at him like a damn fool.

“Holy hell, Col,” he said, his eyes wet, and Colin did his best to grin back.

“I know, right?” he said, feeling heat flood his cheeks before he glanced over to see Emily wrapped tightly in his new sister-in-law’s arms, bawling her eyes out.

Chapter Two (#ulink_346bdb66-123a-5642-bd05-c264d08cdbac)

“So how come you didn’t say anything?”

Standing at the sink in the ranch’s ginormous, Southwest-kitsch kitchen, Emily set the now-clean Dutch oven in the drainer, pushing out a sigh for Colin’s question. Not that she’d been able to eat much of the amazing pot roast, especially after embarrassing the hell out of herself earlier. But her cousin’s keeping dinner warm for her—well, them, as it happened—had been a very sweet gesture. Because that was Dee.

Wiping her damp hands across her butt, Emily turned, now unable to avoid the scowl she’d ignored—more or less—all through the late dinner. Even from six or so feet away, Colin’s size was impressive. At least he no longer looked—or smelled—as though he’d recently escaped from the jungle. And he’d shaved, which took the edge off the mountain man aura. Somewhat. But with his arms crossed over that impressive chest, not even his slightly curling, still-damp hair detracted from the massive mouth-drying solidity that was Colin Talbot. For sure, none of the brothers were exactly puny, but Colin was next door to intimidating. Toss in the glower, and...

Yeah.

“Your brother let you out of his clutches?”

The corner of Colin’s mouth twitched. “For the moment. The dog was acting like something was going on outside he thought Josh needed to check out.”

And Dee had gone to nurse her infant daughter—after Emily shooed her off, insisting on cleaning up after dinner. No buffers, in other words. And judging from that penetrating gaze, Colin was not-so-patiently waiting for her answer.

She shrugged, a lame attempt at playing it cool. “Maybe because your doing the prodigal son routine seemed like a far bigger deal than—”

“Your wedding getting called off?”

Weirdly, he sounded almost angry. Although whether it was because she hadn’t told him, or on her behalf, she had no idea. Not that either of those made any sense. Then again, maybe he was ticked off because of a dozen other things she wasn’t privy to. Nor was she likely to be. So Big Guy didn’t exactly have a lot of room to talk, did he?

And before those weird, light eyes melted her brain, Emily turned back around to wipe down the sink. “In the interest of journalistic integrity,” she said, scrubbing far harder than the stainless sink needed. “I was the one who called it off.”

“Because your fiancé cheated on you. Josh filled me in.”

The wrung-out sponge shoved behind the faucet, Emily faced him again, her arms tightly crossed over her ribs. “Seriously? You reconnect with your brother for the first time in a million years and you guys talk about me?”

“Hey. You were the one who totally lost it the minute we got here. Not me. Although for what it’s worth, I didn’t ask. Josh volunteered the information. And it was like a five-, six-second part of the conversation. Okay, ten at the most. But I thought you’d probably appreciate knowing that I know.” He paused. “Not that I plan on being in your way much. In fact, I’m heading over to the foreman’s cabin in a few.”

Their gazes tangled for a long moment before Josh and the dog suddenly reappeared, the panting, grinning Aussie shepherd mix trotting over to his bowl to noisily slosh water all over the tiled floor.

“Have no idea what Thor heard,” Josh said, striding to the sink to fill a glass of his own. Colin had a good three or four inches on his little brother, who still wasn’t “little” by anyone’s standards. The Talbots grew ’em solid, for sure. Josh’s mossy eyes darted from her to Colin, a quizzical frown briefly biting into his forehead. But whatever he was thinking he kept to himself, thank goodness. Instead he flicked the empty glass toward the sink, then set it back in the drain board before clapping Josh’s arm. “Well, come on—let’s get you set up. Haven’t been out there in weeks, have no idea what condition it’s in—”

“Considering some of the places I’ve slept?” Colin said with a tight smile. “I’m sure it’s fine. And I’m about to collapse. We can talk more tomorrow,” he said gently at his brother’s slightly let-down expression. “Although don’t be surprised if I sleep until dinnertime. But promise me you won’t tell Mom and Dad I’m here.”

“I won’t.”

“Swear.”

Chuckling, Josh pressed a hand to his heart. “To God. Good enough?”

With a nod, Colin walked to the back door where he’d dumped his stuff; a moment later, he was gone, and Emily turned to her cousin-in-law. Squinting. Josh actually winced.

“Sorry, it kinda slipped out. Then again...” He leaned back against the counter, his palms curled over the edge. “It’s not exactly a secret, is it?”

“No, but...” Emily glanced toward the door, where she could have sworn Colin’s presence still shimmered. Which only proved he hadn’t been the only wiped-out person in the house. “No,” she repeated, giving Josh a little smile, which she transferred to the dog when he came over to nudge her hand with his sopping-wet snout. Then she sniffed, blinking back another round of tears.

“You know you can stay as long as you want,” Josh said, adding, “I mean that,” when Emily lifted watery eyes to his. “You probably have no idea how much Dee talked about you, when she came back after her dad died. About how you saved her sanity after that business with her ex. How you stood by her when your folks...well...”

At that, Emily pushed out a tiny laugh. “Yeah, propriety’s kind of a biggie with them. Mom especially.” Meaning a knocked-up niece hadn’t been part of Margaret Weber’s game plan. Although that was small potatoes compared with her daughter’s society wedding getting the ax weeks before it was supposed to happen. Never mind that it would have been a total sham.

“In any case,” Josh continued, “after everything you did for Dee, anything we can do to return the favor—”

“Thanks. But...”

Her cousin’s husband grinned. “What?”

Emily sighed. In the rush of adrenaline that had followed in the wake of discovering Michael’s secret, her fight-or-flight impulse had kicked in, big-time. And since fighting had felt like an exercise in futility, she’d chosen flight...as far from Michael and her mother and all those gasps and clacking tongues in McLean, Virginia, as she could get. And where else but to the place that had been a balm to her soul the few times she’d been here as a kid? And where the only person who could effortlessly toggle between being a nonjudgmental sounding board and understanding when Emily needed space lived?

However, now that the adrenaline was subsiding, it occurred to her that this was a newly married couple...a newly married couple with two young children between them, who probably cherished their alone time when said children were asleep. So the last thing they probably wanted, or needed, was some emotionally volatile chick invading their space.

“You guys have to promise me,” she said to Josh’s bemused expression, “you’ll let me know the minute you feel I’m cramping your style.”

At that, Josh laughed out loud. “We live with a four-year-old and an infant. Cramped is our style. As it will be for many years to come, I expect. Although at least you can get your own glass of water if you wake up in the middle of the night. You can, right?”

Emily chuckled. “Not only that, I can even make my own breakfast.”

“Then there ya go.” Josh leaned over to give her shoulder a quick squeeze. “In case you missed it, we’re kinda big on family around here. So not another word, you hear?”