Hitched!

And he loved her. He dropped the halter and the lariat on the floor and took his trembling wife in his arms. “What the hell’s that boy done now—gone and got himself married?”

“He says so, but there’s something fishy about his story.”

He surprised her by saying, “I hope to hell it’s true.” At her astonished glance, he grinned and added, “Nothing like a little responsibility to make a man grow up fast. Ask me how I know?”

And he kissed her, just as he’d kissed her the first time.

MAXINE SAID, “She didn’t believe us.”

“Didn’t seem to.”

“Well, I tried.” She walked across the hotel room to look down on the bustling streets of Tijuana.

Rand had gotten the room so they’d have a place to make their calls in peace and quiet—not that it’d done much good. “It wasn’t you,” he said honestly. “You were great. In fact, you were so great that I’ve just realized I’m gonna have to watch you in the future. You managed to imply all kinds of stuff without telling a single lie.”

“Lying comes easier to some people than to others.” She kept her face turned toward the window. “Okay, we tried and it didn’t work. We may as well go to the airport and get out of here.”

“Uh-uh. Not yet.” He picked up the telephone handset. “We’ve got two more shots. Just stand by….”

“YOUR NEPHEW’S on the phone, Mr. Mayor.”

In the mayor’s office in Showdown, Texas, attorney Boone Taggart put down the stack of city ordinances he’d been studying and picked up the handset. “Randy, is that you?”

“Sure is, Uncle Boone.”

“Bad connection.” Boone switched the receiver to the other ear. “What’s up, lad?”

“What makes you think something’s up?”

“Experience. The last time I heard from you was about 1995 and you wanted me to smooth over one thing or another with your parents.”

“Okay, I stand corrected. I’ll level with you. I just got off the phone with Mom and I need help with her.”

“Meg’s okay, isn’t she?”

“She’s fine. Here’s the deal. I want to claim my inheritance from Great-grandpa.”

“You’ll never break that will,” Boone said. “Guaranteed.”

“I don’t want to break it—I want to comply with it.”

Boone, an expert at reading between the lines, put two and two together in a flash. “You called Meg to tell her you’re married. I’d have expected her to be pleased.”

“If she believed me, which I don’t think she did. Do me a favor and convince her, okay? I got married this morning in Mexico and…”

As the boy explained, Boone could hardly keep from chuckling. He didn’t blame Meg for being dubious and said so first chance he got, ending with, “If you want my help, bring your wife here and give us all a chance to meet her and decide for ourselves if you’ve fulfilled the conditions of that will. It’s the only way.”

A sigh. Then Rand said, “Yeah, I guess I’ll have to do that. You can’t blame me for hoping, though. Give my love to Aunt Kit, okay?”

“Will do.”

“I was sorry to hear about her cancer surgery.”

“That was three years ago.” Boone hated to be reminded of the toughest ordeal his wife—or he—had ever faced. “We had a happy ending, anyway.”

“That’s what Mom said. The kids okay?”

“Yeah, they are.” Travis was eighteen and had just entered his senior year at Showdown High School; Cherish was an adorable eleven-year-old and still Daddy’s girl.

“That’s good. Okay, Uncle Boone, I’ll be in touch soon.”

Boone doubted it. He really did. For some reason, Randy wanted the ranch he’d ignored for nearly ten years and was willing to hustle his own family to get it.

What the hell. Taggart family life had been way too tame since Thom T. had died.

THE TELEPHONE was ringing when Trey Smith finally got the door open to his ranch house in the San Fernando Valley. This was Rachel’s day to work at the free clinic and the kids were in school, so his footsteps made lonely echoes across the hardwood floors.

“Yeah,” he said into the phone, “I’m here.”

“Uncle Trey, it’s Rand.”

“Rand who?” Trey looked down at the mail on a small silver plate next to the phone, then began sifting idly through it.

“Ha, ha, very funny. Randy, your favorite nephew, who else?”

“Oh, that Rand. What’s up, kid?”

“Nothing much. I was hijacked to Mexico and I got married. You’re the next stop on the family gauntlet.”

“Married?” Trey straightened. “What took you so long?”

“That’s the spirit.” The kid sounded relieved. “Mom and Uncle Boone were less enthusiastic.”

“Any particular reason?”

“Who knows?” Rand sounded disgusted. “The deal is, I want to claim that inheritance Great-grandpa left me and I’ve only got something less than two weeks to do it in. I thought Mom or Uncle Boone could start the ball rolling, but they seem to have a problem with this marriage.”

“There’s an easy way out of that.”

“Name it!”

Ah, such eagerness. No wonder Meg and Boone weren’t buying the boy’s story. “Take your blushing bride on the grand family tour. Where are you calling from, by the way?”

“Mexico.”

“Oh, yeah, the hijacking.”

“How did you—?”