A Marriage Worth Waiting For

No it hadn’t changed; it would never change. Selena had loved the ranch, and she was still too often homesick for it. Conroe Ranch had been her first real home, the first place in her life where she’d felt accepted, cared about, and completely secure.

Morgan had given her that, and what child wouldn’t fall in love with everything—and everyone—connected to the place where she’d had such emotional abundance? And yet without her memories of Morgan and his goodness to her, along with a few others, Conroe Ranch would be just another massive piece of Texas, then and now.

He’d offered to keep his distance while she was there, but it was an empty offer. His essence permeated everything, so there’d be no avoiding him, not really. Perhaps it was because she’d stayed silent so long that he decided to press.

“Miss Em and Miss Minna can’t wait for you to get there. They made up your room yesterday, and they’ve been baking all day today.”

The mention of Em and Minna Peat, the old maid sisters who’d taken care of the Conroe ranch house since Morgan was a toddler, sent a wide sweep of emotion through her that made her eyes sting again.

The Peat sisters lived to cook and clean and spoil every visitor to Conroe Ranch, and they’d both spoiled her. Selena still sent cards at birthdays and gifts at Christmas to the sisters, and she received an occasional chatty letter from them that she always had to answer carefully.

Selena gave her head a weary shake. “Why did you tell them?” Feeling trapped and teary, she put her napkin beside her plate and started to get to her feet. Morgan’s hand flashed out to gently catch her wrist before she could.

“It’s time to come home, Selena.”

The soft burr in his low voice sent a persuasive warmth through her that threatened her precarious emotions even more. And it was all she could do to withstand the sweet tingles that shivered through her just because his big hand was tenderly shackling her wrist.

Her voice was a whisper. “You fight dirty.”

“I can. When I’m after something I want.”

His calm pronouncement was no earth-shattering surprise, and neither was the wild leap of her foolish heart. This wasn’t personal, at least not in the way she used to dream it might someday be. This wasn’t anything romantic on Morgan’s part, not in the slightest.

Taking her to Conroe Ranch was something he felt obligated to do because he felt a certain duty to her. His father had been married to her mother, and they’d lived under the same roof and worked together for years. It wouldn’t matter that they’d been estranged for far longer than the two years she’d been gone from the ranch. Not when Morgan felt a responsibility to her.

She was well aware that if news of the accident hadn’t brought her name back into his mind, apart from quarterly checks and at tax time, Morgan might have gone on for years more—perhaps for the rest of her life—without ever wanting to contact her or even thinking of contacting her.

Or thinking about her at all.

Selena knew all that because it was the brutal, unvarnished truth. She also knew, despite Morgan’s insistence that this was “doctor’s orders,” that she had a choice. She could either refuse to go, or she could give in and let him take her to the ranch.

Her heart shook with a crazy mix of terror and groundless hope at the idea of going with him, of being with him. It was because of that groundless hope that she realized what she needed to do. Perhaps she hadn’t been hurt enough before. Perhaps what she truly needed to forever inoculate herself against Morgan Conroe was to again put her heart in harm’s way for one final devastation. She’d got over the first one, so she’d surely know how to get over him a second time if she had to.

“I meant what I said about bunking someplace else while you’re there,” he said, and she tried not to let herself show her reaction as his callused thumb brushed impatiently against the tender underside of her wrist.

“N-no need,” she said, then gave her wrist a tug that prompted him to release her. She hoped he hadn’t noticed the small stutter. “I suppose you’d rather not wait until morning.”

“You’ve only got one bed.”

“What if I’m carsick again?”

“Then we’ll either come back here, stop as often as you need to, or find a motel for the night and try it again tomorrow.”

Selena stood up stiffly. “We’ll see how I feel after I pack my things,” she said, and turned away to start for the bedroom.

The hearty meal had perked her up significantly, so it wasn’t such an ordeal to pack. When she finished, Selena sat down in the armchair to rest for a few moments. She noticed the blow-dryer she’d left sitting nearby, so she reached for it to wrap up the cord and put it in her suitcase.

Once upon a golden time she and Morgan been friends, good friends. Once upon a golden time, she’d worshiped the ground he walked on. And once upon that same golden time, he hadn’t minded.

In her head, Selena knew that her once upon a time had burned away long ago. But in her heart, once upon a time was still a last magic wish that lingered on in a tantalizing mirage over a future yet to be seen.

Maybe it would take going back to Conroe Ranch and seeing it all from the perspective of two years away that would knock a little of the golden glow from that sweetly remembered time.

And perhaps it was because she was hurting and weary and in a deeply emotional and sentimental mood that she was going back. It could even be because it was an instinct to retreat to a place of remembered security when you were feeling weak and needy. Though she was certain she’d regret this, Selena couldn’t seem to muster the will to tell Morgan no and make it stick.

CHAPTER THREE

THE long drive to Conroe Ranch went well, mostly because Selena slept most of the way. It was almost midnight by the time they drove up to the big ranch house.

Because she’d insisted that Morgan not tell the Peat sisters they’d be coming tonight, there was no big welcome when he walked her into the house.

But the price of waiting until morning to inform the sisters, who lived in the east wing of the big house, was that Morgan insisted on carrying her upstairs to her room. Once he’d deposited her on the edge of the bed, he went back down to bring up her suitcases, then hovered to help her hang up the clothes that might wrinkle.

It was strange and a little touching to watch Morgan tipping a clothes hanger this way and that as he tried to get one of her blouses properly hung. If the blouse had been made of a heavier, less delicate fabric, he probably wouldn’t have taken that kind of awkward care.

He was intent on performing the minor task and so slow that she managed to get the few other things on hangers by the time he finished and held up the blouse for her approval.

“It looks good,” she said. “Thank you.”

Morgan reached for the ones she’d done, and carried them into the big, walk-in closet to hook on one of the rods. The rest could wait till morning, though he’d opened one of her suitcases on the low chest at the foot of her bed and the other on a luggage rack that must have been brought in when the sisters had made up the room.

“I’ve got a set of walkie-talkies downstairs,” he told her. “I’ll bring ’em up while you get ready for bed. Shall I get Em or Minna?”

Selena had sat down on the edge of the mattress to wait for him to leave because her strength was waning again and she was eager to get some sleep. “No, I’m all right.”

“Still dizzy?” His blue gaze flickered over her then searched her face.

“A little. It’s not unexpected.”

An odd kind of silence surged between them as they stared at each other, separated by little more than a yard of carpet. Selena caught an inkling of…something…in his somber gaze, something gentle and yet not quite gentle, something that gave her a warm quiver of pleasure deep down.

Morgan was the first to look away and that took her a little by surprise.

“I’ll get those radios,” he said, then strode out of the room into the hall, taking that breathless moment with him and leaving her with the idea that she’d imagined it as she listened to him walk down the hall and go down the stairs.

Selena stood and turned to pull down the bedspread and top sheet, then walked over to rummage through one of her suitcases to get out her things for bed.

The big house had never felt so full, and yet so…private. It was midnight and the Peat sisters must have been asleep for hours now. Without their chatter and beehive activity, the invisible tether between him and Selena had drawn tight. Suddenly he felt her everywhere, and that’s what gave the big house an almost tangible sense of fullness.

Morgan was a little shocked by that. He was even more shocked by what had come over him just now in Selly’s room.

One moment he’d been looking at her, seeing the weariness about her, then the next he’d noticed how long and thick her dark, glossy hair was. She wore it parted in the middle and kept it as straight as a board, but she wore it longer now, and it went halfway down her back.

Her eyes weren’t just blue anymore, they were the exact color of a warm spring sky, and recognizing that likeness made him feel as good as he’d ever felt at the welcome sight of spring skies. Her skin was pale these days. Partly because she’d been hurt and was feeling puny, but mostly because she wasn’t outdoors from dawn to dusk anymore.

Her boyish shape had filled out into what he considered womanhood in its prime. Had she been a filly with that much spectacular confirmation, he’d start her on a breeding program to pass on those spectacular qualities. He’d already be considering the right stud to match her to.

The crude analogy sent a fresh stroke of lust straight south. But he wasn’t some stud driven by biology and animal instinct, so he clamped down hard on the smoldering sensation.