LITMIR.BIZ

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her, his breath tight.

      “Is it time?” she asked.

      He hesitated. “Time?”

      “To do this thing.”

      Jace swallowed. “Sure. If you’re ready.”

      “Are you?”

      He’d been ready far longer than he’d realized, but he didn’t want to seem overeager and scare her off. “Better now than never.”

      She didn’t look certain, and he shrugged, wanting to give her as much space as possible. With the way she clearly felt about getting married, it could do no good to keep pushing her. They said you could lead a horse to water but not make it drink, and Sawyer was as untamed as the black Diablo mustangs in the canyons around Rancho Diablo.

      “I am ready,” she said. “As long as we agree that we’ll revisit this marriage after the babies are born.”

      “Revisit it? I’m fine with what we’re doing.” He didn’t like the sound of that at all. He’d heard those cold-footed-bride tales from his brothers, too—and a very merry chase some of their women had led them on.

      “I’m well aware that your interest in marriage is purely because of the children, and I understand that.” She looked at his sister. “Thank you for bringing the dress, Ash. I appreciate the effort you made to get it here, I really do. More than anything, I’m honored that your aunt Fiona was willing to share a favorite Callahan tradition with me.” She looked back at Jace. “But I don’t feel like a real Callahan bride, and I don’t think I ever will.”

      No sooner had the words left her mouth than the small waiting area suddenly filled with Callahans and Cashs, all loud and happy, and perplexed to see Sawyer wearing a hot pink dress and not a magic wedding gown. Storm carted in a bridal bouquet for his niece, kissing her before glaring at Jace.

      “It’s a happy day!” Fiona exclaimed. “The last Callahan bachelor getting hitched!” She beamed with delight. “Come on, dear. Ash and I will help you change.”

      Jace raised a brow, watching Sawyer sputter her way out of Fiona’s clutches. He smiled, seeing his family envelop his bride-to-be with their overwhelming presence. No one irritated him more than his relatives at times, but it was great to have them at his back.

      The cake was delivered by two uniformed men who looked a bit seedy to Jace.

      “You’re putting that there?” Fiona demanded, as they set the cake down in the foyer. “Do we look like we eat wedding cake in doorways?”

      They shrugged, and Jace had an uncomfortable feeling he’d seen them before. “Aren’t you going to take it out of the box?” he asked.

      The men left without saying a word.

      “That was odd,” Sawyer said.

      “Very odd.” Ash went to undo the white box. “That bakery came highly recommended, and I’m going to give them a piece of my mind about their delivery service.” She peeled the sides of the box down and gasped.

      Instead of a plastic bride and groom there was a butcher knife, splendidly tied with satin ribbon, sticking up out of the top of the beautiful cake.

      * * *

      THE WHOLE THING was a disaster as far as Jace was concerned. Married hurriedly by a satin-wearing pastor who wanted them gone as fast as possible once he saw the butcher knife in the wedding cake—and wed apparently in name only to his pregnant love—Jace found it wasn’t a happy-ever-after type of event.

      And they’d slept in separate beds after his late-night partying family finally went to bed.

      “Very sad state of affairs,” he told Sawyer as they drove back toward Rancho Diablo the next day.

      She didn’t spare him a glance as she looked out the window. “What’s a very sad state of affairs?”

      “You. Me. That stupid wedding.” He gulped, certain that dire consequences might lie in his future. “The whole thing was wrong.”

      “Wrong?”

      “Not traditional.” Not done right, not written in stone, the butcher knife notwithstanding.

      Traditional was the way he wanted his relationship with Sawyer to be.

      “Stop thinking about the cake. It was an accident, like your aunt said. The delivery drivers were new, they didn’t know not to put the knife in the same box as the cake, and it somehow got stuck in it. These things happen at weddings.”

      “I don’t think so.”

      “Anyway, it was delicious. You said so yourself. And the bakery gave Ash a 50 percent discount and told her that if she ever got married, they’d do a cake for her for free.”

      He wasn’t calmed by his bride’s attempt to soothe him. Jace was sure he’d seen those delivery guys somewhere, and trying to remember where nagged at him. The bakery had said they’d sent two men to deliver the cake, and the Callahans hadn’t thought to ask for ID or names in the shock of the moment. “You could have at least pretended to want to wear the wedding dress Ash went to the trouble to bring you,” he groused, thinking he should probably be happy Sawyer had at least said I do. That was something.

      Heck, he’d wanted some enthusiasm from his bride. Perhaps even a smile. He was so out of sorts he wasn’t even sure why he was complaining.

      “I can’t feel good about this marriage, Jace. So wearing the dress would be dishonest. I’m too aware that your family doesn’t trust me, though they put on a happy face today for you.”

      So that’s what was bugging doll face. He couldn’t contradict her, either. The Chacon Callahans as a rule had never really trusted Sawyer’s uncle Storm—and Sawyer was assuming that some familial distrust was reflected on her, as well.

      “We trusted you enough to hire you, let you bodyguard our children.”

      “But when Somer and I were at Rose’s father’s place and fired on each other, and someone conked her father over the head, everything changed. You can’t deny that.”

      He heard the note of sadness in Sawyer’s voice. “It was a big misunderstanding. Your cousin and you probably saved Rose that night. Maybe Sheriff Carstairs, too. Hell, even my brother Galen. He’s never been a fast runner, though he claims he is, and you and Somer firing at each other gave him the cover he needed to make it inside to Rose.”

      “I appreciate you trying to make me feel better. But I know in my heart that I was always on a probationary basis with all of you. Only Galen really trusted me. And once I became pregnant...” She glanced at him. “Jace, be honest. It had to have crossed a few of your brothers’ minds that maybe I’d become pregnant as part of a plot to get inside Rancho Diablo permanently.”

      “No one mentioned it.” He shrugged. “But you’re part of the Callahan family now, and no one’s sending up warning flares. In fact, you’re the only one who seems bothered by the past. And anyway, we wouldn’t have agreed to buy Storm’s place if we hadn’t decided he was on our side. We don’t do business—any kind of business—with folks who are trying to kill us.”

      She didn’t say anything else, conversation over for the moment. He hadn’t convinced her that the family accepted her. Only time could solve that problem.

      Maybe he could appeal to her feminine side. All the Callahan brides seemed to favor the frilly white fairy tale.

      “Look at it this way. Would Ash have taken the time and the trouble to bring you the mystical treasured gown to wear down the aisle if the family didn’t consider you one of us?”

      Jace wished Sawyer would look at him, but she didn’t, nor did she answer. He drove on, wondering if a difficult beginning could ever turn into a happy ending.

      Chapter Four

      “So

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